he brought most of them to their Duty one after another Eudes being dead during these Transactions he Treated with Hugh de Puiset who was to inherit that Earldom and making him resign his Right provided he would give him his liberty put himself in possession of that place of great importance at that juncture Year of our Lord 1112 c. Some time after Hugh having re-fortisied le Puiset and committing a thousand Insolencies upon the Neighbouring Countries he besieged him in that place but the Champenois having the rest that were in League together for him failed not to come to relieve it Two great Battles were fought one to the Kings disadvantage the other to his advantage after that they talked of an Accommodation and Hugh obtained his Pardon Milon Vicount de Troyes whom the King had re-setled in Montlehery had withdrawn himself from the rest of the Leagued Party Crescy not being able to draw him in again surprized him by Treachery and after he had led him about to divers Castles bound and setter'd not knowing where to secure him so but the King would deliver him nor how to let him go but he would take his Revenge he caused him to be Strangled in the night and thrown out of a Window at the Castle of Gumet He would have had it believ'd that he had broken his Neck endeavouring to make his escape but the Crime was discover'd and the King with great diligence besieged the Castle of Gumet The wretched Murtherer being condemned to justifie himself by Duel in the Court of Amaulry de Montfort had not the courage to expose himself to that hazard and therefore finding himself Convicted he came and cast himself at the Kings Feet gave up his Lands to him and put on the Habit of a Monk as his Pennance Year of our Lord 1116 Hugh du Puiset being Revolted the third time the King again besieged that Castle razed it and then turned that Rebel out of all his Estate This unfortunate Man having in a Sally killed Anseau de Garlande Grand Seneschal and Favourite to the King and not daring to remain any longer in the Country went a while after to the Holy Land which in those times was the Refuge of Banish'd and Condemned People as it was likewise of true Penitents Year of our Lord 1116 Thomas de Marle Lord of Coucy had been Excommunicated and Degraded of his Nobility Anno 1114. by the Popes Legat in the Council of Beauvais for the Sacriledge and Robberies he committed upon the Churches and the People belonging to the Bishopricks of Reims Laon and Amiens That Sentence had inflamed his Rage to do yet worse even to the setting Fire to the City of Laon and the Noble Church of Nostre-Dame I believe it was that of Liesse to Massacre the Bishop Galderic and cut off that Finger whereon he wore the Episcopal Ring The King who flew about every where with incredible Celerity ran that way before this Robber had seized the Tower of Laon forced and razed his Castles of Crecy and Nogent and brought him to Reason Year of our Lord 1116 17. He quelled likewise another puny Tyrannet named Adam that ravaged all the Neighbourhood of Amiens He had gotten possession of the City Tower which was very strong and gave a great deal of trouble but the King having begirt it for two years gained it and razed it About Ten or Eleven years afterwards Thomas draws the King again upon him by the like Deportment so that he went and besieged his Castle of Coucy It hapned that making their approaches Rodolph Count de Vermandois met him wounded him and took him Prisoner He was carried to Laon where he died miserably of his Wounds Henry King of England was the Boute-feu and Support of all these Revolts Year of our Lord 1117 King Lewis in Retaliation had stirred up against him his Nephew William Son of the Deceased Duke Robert whom he admitted to do Hommage for the Dukedom of Year of our Lord 1117 Normandy and gave him the Castle and City of Gisors the first occasion of the Quarrel This Nephew being thus supported put his Uncle to so much trouble that he was fain to make a Peace with Lewis promising to leave all the Rebels to his Mercy Year of our Lord 1118 Archambaud Lord of Bourbon being dead Hemon his Brother surnamed Vaire-Vache under pretence of claiming his Share detained the whole Possession to the prejudice of the Son and Treated his Subjects especially the Clergy very Tyrannically The King assigns him to plead his Right before the Parliament Upon his refusal to appear he went in Person to compel him and besieged his Castle of Germigny Hemon dreading his Wroth came and craved his Pardon he received him to Mercy and took both him and his Nephew along with him to bring them to an agreement of all their Disputes The Quarrel between the Emperor and Pope concerning the right of Investitures being burst out anew with more heat then ever Pascal II. being Pope the Emperor Henry V. had seized both upon him and all his Cardinals and constrained him to allow him the priviledge of nominating two Bishopricks Afterwards that Pope being at liberty annull'd that Treaty in the Council of Latran and Excommunicated the Emperor Year of our Lord 1118 In this year 1118. Galasius was elected in the room of Pascal or Paschalis but he sought not the approbation of the Emperor who being displeased at that neglect or contempt caused one Maurice Burdin to be chosen a Limosin by Birth and Archbishop of Braga in Portugal to whom they gave the name of Gregory Year of our Lord 1119 Gelasius being then driven from Rome took his way into France to hold a Council there as he did in the City of Vienne but he died the same year in the Abby of Clugny Year of our Lord 1119 The Cardinals that had followed him elected Guy Archbishop of Vienne who took the name of Calixtus II. He was the Brother of Stephen Earl of Burgundy and Uncle of Adele or Alix Queen of France who was the Daughter of his Sister and of Humbert Earl of Morienne and this consideration did fortisie the Holy See with great Alliances against the Emperor Year of our Lord 1119 The whole Kingdom of France having taken his part he came from Vienne to Toulouze where he held a Council Thence he went to Reims where he called another in which divers Canons were made to take away Simony the Investiture of Benefices from Laicks Concubines from Priests and the selling of Sacraments The King was present the Emperor Henry would not be there and having refused to part with the right of Investitures was Excommunicated There was almost the same contest and difference betwixt the Popes and the Kings of France These pretending the Election and Provisions of the Popes were not sufficient without their consent So that it had begot great troubles in the Churches of Bourges Reims Beauvais and
nomination of Benefices nor lay his hand upon their Revenues He turned some out of their Sees and seized their Lands Stephen Bishop of Paris and Henry Archbishop of Sens adventur'd to Excommunicate him but the Pope Honorius annulled their Censures Year of our Lord 1130 Pope Innocent II. Successor to Honorius was no sooner elected but makes himself General of an Army to compel Roger Duke of Puglia to resign that Country to him which he pretended I know not wherefore to belong to the Holy See In the beginning he overcomes Roger and blocks him up in the Castle of Galeozzo but his Son William hastning thither disingages his Father cuts the Popes Army in pieces and takes him Prisoner Now although he set him immediately at liberty again nevertheless the report of his Captivity being carried to Rome caused them to elect another Pope who took the name of Anacletus Innocent not daring therefore return to Rome held a Council at Pisa where he Excommunicated Anacletus From thence he came into France where he called another at Clermont in Auvergne His Cause had some difficulties the King assembled the Prelats of his Kingdom at Estampes to know which Party they must take St. Bernard Abbot de Cleruaux strongly maintained Innocents after his example every one embraced it Nevertheless Girard Bishop of Angoulesmes advice to whom Anacletus had restored the Legation of Aquitain that had been taken from him had so much influence upon William Duke of Aquitain that he declared himself for this Anti-Pope and persisted a year and an half in that Schism vexing those Church-men extreamly who would needs side with Innocent Year of our Lord 1131 One day being the Fifth of October as the young King Philip was riding thorough some Street of the Suburbs of Paris a Hog thrusts himself betwixt his Horses Legs who flownced and curveted in such a manner as threw him on the Ground and then ran over his Body wherewith being much bruised he died the same night To Comfort the King for this loss and the great and sensible grief it was to him and in some measure repair it he was Counsell'd to let his other Son named as himself Lewis be Crowned He carried him to Reims where the Twenty fifth of the same Month he was Anointed and Crowned by Pope Innocent who then held a Council there against the Anti-Pope Peter Laon. It seems it was at this Coronation that they reduced the Pairs or Peers who were hereafter to be assistant at those Ceremonies to the number of Twelve Six Ecclesiasticks and Six of the Laity who were chosen from amongst all the Lords and Prelats of that Quality They did not however take away from the other Pairs their Prerogative of not being Judged by any but their Pairs in matters Feodal as well Civil as Criminal Of these Twelve Pairries are remaining only the six Ecclesiasticks five of the Lay ones having been re-united to the Crown by Confiscation Marriage or otherwise and the sixth which is that of Flanders torn from them by the Emperor Charles V. LEWIS the Gross the Father LEWIS the Young his Son called the Pious or Debonnair Aged about 20 years Year of our Lord 1132 THierry of Alsatia remaining Master and Possessor of the Earldom of Flanders was admitted to render Hommage to the King who received him because it would not have been in his power to drive him out and besides he was his Kinsman Geofrey Plantagenet was come to be Earl of Anjou Fulk his Father being returned to the Holy Land to take possession of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to which he was called by King Baldwin his Father-in-Law He pressed King Henry his Wives Father very earnestly to give him Places and Money for advancement of Succession which begot such a divorce between them that Gefroy besieged and burnt Beaumont and Henry had carried his Daughter back into England had she not been in Child-bed When she was up again she fell into Dispute with her Father and parted very much discontented from him which gave him so much jealousie and anguish that being taken ill of a slow Fever and a Loosness he died the First day of December having Reigned Thirty five years Year of our Lord 1136 c. His Succession no more then his Life was without great Troubles That Stephen Earl of Boulogne of whom we have spoken his Sister Adela's Son being in England seized on that Kingdom and maintain'd himself in it as long as he lived Not content with that he likewise disputed for Normandy and almost totally dispossessed Matilda and Gefroy her Husband The unhappy Province dividing it self in favour of both Parties was ravaged by both and the King of France favouring sometimes the one sometimes the other kept it still in a Flame William IX Duke of Guyenne touched with Compunction resolved to go in Pilgrimage to St. James's in Galicia Before he went he made his Will and Testament wherein he ordained that his eldest Daughter named Alianor should Marry the young King Lewis and should bring him all his Lordships in Dowry For his only Son was dead but he had yet another Daughter called Alix-Pernelle In his Journey he fell sick and died having confirmed his Will His Corps was conveyed to St. James's in Galicia and interred in the Church and yet the Legend-makers do not stick to say That he feigned only that he was dead and stealing away so privately that his own Secretary knew not of it he went and turned Hermit in a Grotto or Cave near Florence where he macerated his Body by terrible Pennance and that it was he who instituted the Order of the Guillermins Of the same Fabrick is the Tale they make of the Emperor Henry V. saying That to do the greater Pennance for his Faults he caused it to be reported that he was dead and retired to Anger 's where he ended his days serving the Hospital but before he died discovered himself to his Confessor and was known by Matilda his Wife who was again Married to Gefroy Earl of Anjou King Lewis was likewise fallen Sick of a Diarrhea which took him upon his return from his last Warlike Expedition in which he had razed the Castle of St. Bricson on the Loire the Lord thereof using to rob the Merchants William's last Will and Testament being brought to him he accepted of the Match bestowed a gallant Equipage upon his Son and ordered a Train of many Lords and above Five hundred Gentlemen with whom he went to Bourdeaux where Elienor Resided and there Espoused her in presence of the Lords of Gascongny Saintonge and Poitou then brought her to Poitiers towards the middle of July Year of our Lord 1137 In that City he heard of the Death of the King his Father which hapned at Paris the First day of August the Thirtieth of his Reign and the Fifty eighth of his Age. His Body was carried to the Church of St. Denis Before this Prince Violence reigned Majesty and Justice were
People pretended they had the better Title and had most commonly maintain'd themselves in possession of it alledging the Popes could not deprive them of a Right born with the Church its self and practised in the times of the Apostles Year of our Lord 1160 King Lewis relying upon the Judgment of the Gallican Church whom he Assembled for this purpose at Estampes adhered to Alexander All the West followed his Example excepting the Emperor Frederick who with his Almans and what Partisans he had in Italy fiercely rejected him because he was Install'd without his Approbation King Henry besides the Kingdom of England held the Dutchy of Normandy which had then a part of Bretagne holding of it the Country of Maine Anjou Touraine and the Province of Aquitain His Ambition upheld by this great increase Year of our Lord 1160 of Power made him revive afresh the Right his Wife had to the County of Toulouze For this end having made Alliance with Raimond Prince of Arragon and Earl of Barcelonna he raised a great Army of Aquitains and Routiers amongst whom was Malcolme King of Scotland enter'd upon Languedoc took Mâ—issac Cahors and some other places The jealousie Lewis had of his growing Greatness moving him at least as much as Year of our Lord 1160 61. the Prayers and Intreaties of Earl Raimond his Brother-in-Law caused him to march that way and cast himself into Toulouze but he had so few with him that it was in the power of Henry to have forced that City had not the scruple of falling upon his Soveraign deterr'd him from it After which they were reconcil'd but Henry would not let fall his claim and hold of the Earldom of Toulouze till he bestow'd his Daughter Jane Widow of William II. King of Sicily on Earl Raimond In these days the cursed Crew of Routiers and Cottereaux began to make themselves known by their Cruelties and Robberies we cannot tell certainly why they were so called but they were a kind of Soldiers and Adventurers coming from divers parts as from Arragon Navarre Biscay and Brabant who wandred over all Countries and would be hired by any one that offer'd to take them provided they might be allow'd all manner of Licence The Cottereaux were most of them Foot-Soldiers the Routiers served on Horseback In the mean while Pope Alexander fearing the Emperor after he had pull'd down the Pride of the Milannois might come to Rome did not judge himself a fit match and so retired into France where he remained above three years Year of our Lord 1161 This year he held a Council at Clermont in which he did not forbear to thunder against Victor Frederick and all their Adherents Year of our Lord 1161 The most Potent and most Factious Family in all France was the House of Champagne Lewis to divide them from the English and gain them to himself takes Alix for his third Wife who was youngest Sister to the four Brothers Champenois for Constance his second Wife was dead Anno 1159. and for the two Daughters of his first Bed he gave one to Henry the eldest of the four Brothers Earl of Troyes and the other to Thibauld the second Earl of Blois Year of our Lord 1162 Pope Alexander came to Torcy on the River Loire where the two Kings Lewis and Henry received him with extream submission Both of them alighted and each taking one of the Reins of his Horses Bridle conducted him to the House prepared for him Year of our Lord 1162 A second time the Emperor came into the County of Burgundy bringing his Victor with him and a second time some endeavoured to procure a Conference betwixt him and the King to determine that Difference which made the Schism by the Judgment of a Council They agreed upon the place of Interview to be at Avignon as being the Frontier of either Prince whither the King by Oath obliged himself to bring Alexander But that Pope refusing to go there saying he could be judged by none it broke off the Conference and put the King in very great danger For the Almans having reproached him that he kept not his word plotted to way-lay him and had taken him Prisoner had not the King of England caused his Army to advance to disengage him Thence follow'd a cruel War between the Emperor and Alexander which horribly tormented Italy and out of which the Emperor could not withdraw himself but by the means of a shameful submission craving Pardon of the Pope and suffering him to set his Foot upon his Throat Which hapned in Anno 1177. in the City of Venice Year of our Lord 1163 Anno 1163. Alexander assisted at the Council of Tours Assembled by his order and there he thunders once more against Victor and Frederick He caused some Decrees likewise to be made against the Hereticks who had spread themselves over all the Province of Languedoc There were especially of two sorts The one Ignorant and withall addicted to Lewdness and Villanies their Errors gross and filthy and these were a kind of Manicheans The others more Learned less irregular and very far from such filthiness held almost the same Doctrines as the Calvinists and were properly Henricians and Vaudois The People who could not distinâ—uish them gave them alike names that is to say called them Cathares Patarins Boulgres or Bulgares Adamites Cataphrygians Publicans Gazarens Lollards Turlupins and other such like Nick-names Year of our Lord 1163 Death of Odo III. Duke of Burgundy to whom succeeded Hugh III. his Son There being Peace between the two Kings Lewis employs himself in doing Justice and suppressing Disorders The Inhabitants of Vezelay having made a Corporation would have shaken off the Abbot who was their Lord protected by the Earl of Nevers He compell'd them and their Earl to ask Pardon and break their Corporation The same year he went in Person to â—ight the Earl of Clermont the Earl du Puy and the Vicount de Polignac Lords of Auvergne who denied to forbear plundering of Churches overthrew them and brought them Prisoners to Paris where having detained them a long while he releas'd them upon giving their Oaths and Hostages In like manner he punished the Earl of Chaalons with the loss of his County because he had pillag'd the Abby of Clugny and kill'd above five hundred some Monks some Servants However the Daughter of this Man re-entred upon her Patrimony Year of our Lord 1163 Thomas Becket Chancellor of England elected Archbishop of Canterbury Anno 1163. soon lost the good favour of King Henry for divers causes and particularly Year of our Lord 1164 for stickling too fiercely in maintaining the Priviledges of the Clergy Being banished the Kingdom he retired himself in France in the Abby of Pontigny of the Diocess of Sens whence he gave much trouble to his King and suffer'd not a little himself during six years Year of our Lord 1164 Death of Victor the Anti-Pope in whose stead the Cardinals of his Party elected Guy
most in those Countries under the protection of Roger Earl of Alby who much favoured them Year of our Lord 1178 During the Calm of this Peace Lewis who was extream feeble with Age using the same provident foresight as his Predecessors resolved to have his Son Philip Crowned but it hapning that this young Prince fell ill upon an afright for having lost his way in a Wood as he was Hunting this Ceremony was fain to be put off which was not performed till the year following In the mean time Peoples Devotion increasing towards the Reliques of St. Thomas of Canterbury from the example of King Henry who of his Persecutor was become his Adorer King Lewis passes into England prayed on his Tomb and left very rich Tokens of his Piety there behind Year of our Lord 1177 In sine Prince Philip was Anointed Crowned at Reims on All Saints day by William Archbishop of that City and Cardinal Brother to the Queen his Mother The Duke of Normandy and Philip Earl of Flanders both Pairs or Peers assisting at that Ceremony and holding the Crown upon his Head Year of our Lord 1180 Soon after Philip Earl of Flanders faithful and affectionate to King Lewis procured the Marriage of his Neece Isabella-Alix Daughter of his Sister and of William Earl of Hainault with the new King who was his God-son and treating her as his own Daughter because he had no Children he gives her in favour of this Marriage the County of Artois and the County all along the River of Lys. Year of our Lord 1180 Hardly was the joy of this Festival over when King Lewis died of the Palsy in the City of Paris the 18th or 20th of September Aged as many tell us near Seventy years but according to my Computation not above Sixty three or Sixty four whereof he had Reigned Forty three His Corps lies in St. Denis He was not very happy in his grand Designs and too effeminate or mild in Affairs that required vigour but as Pious Charitable Good Just Liberal and Valiant as any Prince in his Time He can be taxed but for two faults the one against Prudence for Divorcing his Wife the other against the Laws of Nature having supported the Rebellion of Henry's Children against their Father He had three Wives Alienor or Eleanor of Aquitain Constance of Spain and Alix or Alice of Champagne By the first he had two Daughters Mary and Alix who Married the two Brothers Henry Earl of Champagne and Thibauld Earl of Chartres and Blois By the second came Margaret Married first with Henry the young King of England and then with Bela III. King of Hungary By the third he had two Daughters Alix who was betroathed to Richard of England afterwards Married to William Earl of Pontieu Agnes Married to Comnenius the Son of Emanuel of Constantinople and a Son named Philip who Reigned Philip II. King XLI POPES ALEX. III. One year under this Reign LUCIUS III. Elected 29 Aug. 1181. S. Four years three Months URBAN III. Elected in Decemb. 1185. S. One year and near Eleven Months GREGORY VIII Elected in Octob. 1187. S. a little less then two Months CLEMENT III. Elected in January 1188. S. Three years three Months CELESTINE III. Elected in April 1191. S. Six years nine Months INNOCENT III. Elected in January 1198. S. Eighteen years six Months nine days HONORIUS III. Elected in July 1216. S. Ten years eight Months whereof seven during this Reign PHILIP II. Surnamed the Conqueror or Augustus King XLI Aged Fifteen years EVen in the Life-time of Lewis the Young Affairs began to be governed in the name of Philip and by the Administration and Care as I believe of Philip Earl of Flanders who was his Guardian his Governor and his God-father The Methods of Piety and Justice his Father and Grand-father had taken to Year of our Lord 1180 strengthen their Authority had much advanced them in their Design He was therefore Councel'd to pursue them Wherefore immediately undertaking the Protection of the Church he with a high hand went and reduced Ebles Lord of Charenton in Year of our Lord 1180 Berry Imbert Lord of Beaujeu in Lyonnois and Guy Earl of Chaalons upon Soane who oppress'd the Ecclesiasticks At the same time he began to let the Grandees of the Kingdom know how he could order and reduce them for he dissolv'd a powerful League which they had formed against him perhaps out of the jealousie they had conceiv'd of the greatness of the Earl of Flanders and forced the Earl of Sancerre who was the first that declar'd himself to fly to his Mercy Year of our Lord 1181 After the Death of his Father desiring to Sanctifie his new Reign he publish'd an Edict against such as utter those horrible Blasphemies composed or made up of the Name and Body or Members of the Son of God condemning them to pay a certain Pecuniary Mulct if they were People of Quality and to be thrown into the Water if they were meaner People Year of our Lord 1181 Prompted with the same Zeal he caused strict search to be made after all those that were accused of Heresie and sent them to the Fire expell'd all the Jews within his Territories and Confiscated their Estates suffering them to carry away only the Price of their Household-Goods His Piety appeared no less in the expulsion of Comedians Juglers and Jesters or Buffoons whom he turned out of his Court as People that serve only to flatter Vice encourage Sloath and fill idle Heads with vain Chimera's which perverts them and puts their Hearts into those irregular Motions and Passions as Wisdom and true Religion commands us so much to suppress and mortifie Princes were wont to bestow great Presents on those People and reward them with their richest Clothes But he being persuaded says Rigord his Historian That to give to Players was to Sacrifice to the Devil chose rather according to the Example of that Holy Emperor ☜ Henry I. to make a Vow he would henceforth employ his Money towards the maintenance of the Poor Anno 1183. he encompassed the Park du bois de Vincennes with a Wall and stock'd it with Deer which the King of England sent over to him The same year Henry the young King of England died in the Castle of Martel in Quercy Perhaps by the just Punishment of Heaven for having been so often as he was at this time in Rebellion against his Father Year of our Lord 1183 Every private or particular Lord having usurped a Right of making War upon one another after either had sent his defiance there followed Murthers and continual Spoils and Plunderings For which the Bishops and some of the wisest Lords of the Kingdom had endeavour'd to find a Remedy from the year 1044. having ordained the Truce or Peace of God for those Disputes and Contests betwixt particular Men during certain times in the year and certain days of the week with most severe Punishments
Power the advancement of Religion and the Service of God providing for the nourishment of the Poor the Marriage of decay'd Gentlewomen the maintenance of the Church and above all the ease of the People by the revocation of all Tolls and extraordinary Subsidies and Taxes which the malignity or necessity of former times had introduced and imposed The Titles of the Chamber of Accompts which have been shewed us by Mr. d'Heroval to whose care the History of our Kings of the Third Race is indebted for the greatest part of the new discoveries made known in these last times tells us amongst many other rare and curious things that this truly most Christian King spared nothing for the Conversion of Infidels that for this end he took up all the Jewish Children that were Fatherless or in want caused them to be bred up in the Christian Faith and allowed them two four six Silver Deniers a day for their Dyet or Keeping which was paid out of his own Demesnes and pass'd in Dowry to their Widdows and oftentimes to their Children that these were called the Baptized as those who embraced Christianity being of age were called the Converted That the Duke of Burgundy the King of England and some others practis'd the like in their Countreys which brought over a world of Jews from their obstinacy and that the Kings his successors did imitate him therein till the Reign of King John We have by the same means likewise learn'd that when St. Lewis made a journey any where there was always a Prelate which was ordinarily the Arch-Deacon of Paris and a Lord of some note that follow'd some days after the Court and made inquiry at all the Lodgings and in all the Countreys and Places they had pass'd what wrong or spoil they might have done to the Landlords or to their Lands and the just King made present reparation and satisfaction with his own Money without any complaint made by the party agrieved so far was it from suffering ☞ them to spend and squander away what they had in Fees and Charges to get Justice done to them Year of our Lord 1256 The City of Marscille did not give that obedience to Charles as he expected and desired wherefore he blocked them up with his Army and brought them to that low condition by Famine that they surrendred at discretion to this merciless Prince who caused many of the principal Citizens to be beheaded Year of our Lord 1256 Three sorts of People of Italy the Venetians the Genouese and the Pisans were become mighty powerful in the Levant Seas and for that reason were grown very jealous of Year of our Lord 1256 each other The two first having each of them their several quarters and their Magistrates in the City of Acon or Acre fell to quarrelling with each other upon some private pieque and went together by the ears to their mutual destruction which compleated the ruine of the Western Christians in the East Year of our Lord 1258 In an enter-view at Montpellier the two Kings Lewis of France and James of Arragon Treated the Marriage of Philip then Second Son to King Lewes but who in two years after became the eldest with Isabella younger Daughter of James to whom her Father gave in Dowry the Counties of Carcassone and Beziers Year of our Lord 1258 After this they agreed about their other differences in this manner St. Lewis yielded up to the Arragonian the Sovereignty which France had still held upon Catalonia Barcelona Rousillon Empurs Vrgel and Geronde from the time the French first conquer'd those Countreys of the Saracens And on the other hand the Arragonian yielded to him all the right he pretended whether by Marriage of his predecossors or otherwise by any Title whatsoever to the Counties de Razez Narbonne Nisines Alby Foix Cahors and other parts in Languedoc held in Under-Fief of the Crown of France as also the Rights he had in Provence to the Counties of Forcalquier and Arles and to the City of Marseilles Year of our Lord 1259 The English had still a very passionate desire to recover Normandy and the other Countreys they had lost in France and if Richard could have fixt himself well in Germany he and his Brother Henry might have attaqued France very shrewdly on both sides The pious King was not ignorant of it but he knew likewise that Henry was so dangerously engaged in a quarrel with his Barons that it would be easie to content him with a little and even to oblige him to an acknowledgment and therefore the business having been stated by the Popes Legats the King of England passes over into France together with his Wife his Brothers and his Children and being arriv'd at Paris confirmed the Treaty The substance of it was That he his Sons Brothers and Successors should for everrenounce all claim to Normandy Anjou Maine Touraine and Poitou and that the King gave a great sum of Money to Henry and released to him and his that part of Guyenne beyond the Garonne and on this side Limousin and Perigord upon condition to do Homage-Liege to the Kings of France and take place amongst his Pairs in quality of Duke of Guyenne Immediately upon this the King of England does this Homage and the eldest Son of France hapning to dye he was at his Funeral and helpt to bear his Corps upon his own Shoulders with the other Lords part of the way from Paris to St. Denis Year of our Lord 1260 In the year 1260. a new and strange heat of Zeal inspired many Christian people which was to whip themselves in publique with small Cords or with Thongs of Leather These whipsters were called the Devots and afterwards they were named the Flagellants This Phrensie begun in the City of Perugia in Tuscany by the example and Preaching of a Hermit named Râ—ynier spread it self even into Poland travell'd as far as Greece and in the end degenerated into Superstition and Heresies Year of our Lord 1261 In the month of July of the year 1261. a Lieutenant to Michael Paleologus VIII of that name Emperour of Greece who returned from making a War against Michael the Despote of Epirus made himself Master of Constantinople getting entrance by a hole under the Walls of the Town discover'd to him by some Traitors a thing of great importance which he effected the more easily because the Emperour Baldwin was abroad having carried his Naval force to besiege a little City upon the Black Sea or Pontus Euxinus Thus was it that Constantinople fell again into the hands of the Greeks from whom about two hundred years afterwards it fell under the Tyranny of the Turks The Latins had kept this fragment of the Eastern Empire about Seven and fifty years and as it had begun with a Baldwin it ended with a Prince of the same name The Venetians who had a great interest in this loss put a mighty strong Fleet to Sea wherewith they Commanded the whole
Nations when the accidental Quarrel of an English Mariner with a Mariner of Normandy upon the Coast of Guyenne where they had landed to take in fresh Water set them against one another First Ship and Ship endeavour'd to plunder or take what they could singly on each side then they brought Fleet against Fleet. The English had the worst their King Edward demanded restitution of such Merchants Goods as had been made Prize in these Scuffles Philip on the contrary Summons him to appear in his Court of Parliament as his Vassal Edward sent his Brother Edmund but Philip not satisfied with that caused him to be declared Contumacious and ordered his Lands should be seized Year of our Lord 1292. 1293. In Execution of this Decree the year following the Constable Rodolph de Nesle seized several Cities in Guyenne and even that of Bourdeaux which was the Capital Thus a Riot between Private Men blew their little Sparks of Contention into a flame of War which one may say proved very fatal to France since it gave way to the overthrowing of her ancient Laws and Liberties and the introducing and establishment of divers Charges and Subsidies on the People The increase and burthen whereof is ordinarily followed with Revolutions and Seditions as it fell out this year by a great Commotion hapning at Rouen but which had the same end and event as all the like Enterprizes generally come to that is to say the Hanging of the most froward and hottest and the Banishment or Ruine of the rest Year of our Lord 1294 The King of England vexed at the loss of those places in Guyenne sollicited all Princes against France particularly the Emperor Adolph with great Sums of Money and Guy de Dampierre Earl of Flanders with the hopes oâ— the Marriage of his Son Prince of Wales with Philippetta that Earls Daughter Adolph sent to defie the King in haughty language but they gave him no other answer but a Sheet of white Paper For which he shewed no other Resentment but by Threats and so turned his Arms against some German Rebels Year of our Lord 1294 As for Guy having been allured to Paris with his Wife and Daughter by Letters from the King fraught with Expressions of Kindness he was much amazed to find himself made a Prisoner there It is true that about a Twelve month after himself and his Wife were set at liberty but his Daughter they kept still to break the Measures of that Match too pernicious to the French Year of our Lord 1294 In the year 1294 the Cardinal Benedict Cajetan by intrigues or by deceit and fourbery obliged Pope Celestin to resign the Popedom and by the same Methods got himself to be elected he was named Boniface VIII His Ancesters were Originally Catalonians and had taken the name of Cajetan because they first dwelt near Cajeta before they transplanted themselves to the City of Anagnia where he was born Year of our Lord 1294 At his advancement to that Dignity he endeavours to mediate a Peace between all Christian Princes He could not procure it between France and England but he setled that between Arragon and France King Alphonso was dead and James his Brother succeeded him It was agreed that Charles Earl of Valois should renounce the Kingdom of Arragon wherein he had been invested by Pope Martin V. upon which Condition the Arragonian repudiating Isabella de Castille for being too nigh of Kin should Marry his Laughter set the three Sons of Charles the Lame and other Hostages at liberty and surrender Sicily and what he had Conquer'd in Abruzza but Frederic his younger Brother to whom Alphonso had by his last Testament will'd that Kingdom got himself to be named King by the Sicilians Since then that which we call the Kingdom of Sicilia was dismembred in two that beyond the Fare which was the Island and that on this side which they called the Kingdom of Naples They were again re-joyned in Anno 1503. and are to this day in the same hands Year of our Lord 1295 The Sons of Charles the Lame being set at liberty the eldest named Charles entred into the Order of the Friers Minors The following year he was by the Pope promoted to the Archbishoprick of Thoulouze which he accepted not of till after he had made his Vows The King of Englands heart was much set upon two things the one to Subject the Kingdom of Scotland and the other to recover the Tows in Guyenne He thought the first was pretty well advanc'd having obliged Baliol to render him Homage and to compass the second he prepared a mighty Fleet and had strengthned himself with Friends and Alliances But Philip to prevent his designs induced the King of Scotland already threatned by his Subjects who scorned to subject themselves to the English to break the Treaty he had made with Edward and Allie himself with France and for security of this new Bond of Alliance he promised to give the eldest Daughter of the Earl of Valois to his eldest Son whose name was Edward At the same time he caused the People of Wales also to rise who out of a wild and untamed humour for Liberty were easily heated and drawn into the Field The great devastations and spoil they made this time in Pembrook-shire and thereabout broke all the King of England's Measures He was forced to go in Person that way to stop their progress and lay aside the business of Guyenne till he had quell'd those hot and stubborn old Enemies as he did having overmaster'd almost all of them in four Months time About this time the Principality of Milan and Neighbouring Cities was fixed and perpetuated in the Family of the Vicounts to which Otho Vicount Archbishop of Milan contributed not a little Matthew his Brothers Son was created the first Year of our Lord 1295 Duke this year 1295. and took the Investiture of the Emperor Adolph who likewise gave him the Vicarship or Vicegerency of the Empire in Lombardy Year of our Lord 1295 In Pistoya a City in Tuscany as then powerful enough it hapned that the rich and numerous Family of the Cancellary were divided in two Factions the one of the White the other of the Black The first joyned themselves with the Guelphes the second with the Ghibelins and that fury and madness spread over all Italy and caused insinite Seditions and Murthers Year of our Lord 1295 Pope Boniface was Proud Haughty Imperious and Undertaking he thought all the Princes of the Earth must bow to his Commands but he found a Philip of France at the head of them a young Prince of no very patient Humour more Potent then any one of his Predecessors and who had a Council consiting of People that were Year of our Lord 1295 stout and impetuous So that Boniface who ardently pursued the Design he aimed at to oblige all Kings to the Holy War having sent to tell both him and the King of England that they must make
the King in case he would surrender them which being denied they acknowledged Edward to be King of France and gave him their Oaths of Fidelity then did he begin to take that Title upon him in all publick Acts and to put the Flowers-de-Lys in his Coat of Arms and in his Seals However I find that the year before he had by a Declaration forbid any to call Philip by the name of King of France but only Earl of Valois Year of our Lord 1339 Having shortly after passed over into England to recruit himself with Money there was nothing done in all this year but sacking or plundering and some skirmishes that were not decisive In the mean time the King by his Craft and Money together had found means to take the Emperour off from the English Interest Insomuch as he repeated his Title of Vicar of the Empire which he had sold at so dear a rate to him Year of our Lord 1340 But whatever skill they did make trial of in tampering with the Flemmings they could not be brought over again and their Earl not daring to return into that Countrey nor put any trust in Artevelle kept himself within l'Isle The Pope upon the Kings request had put their Countrey under Interdict and all their Priests obey'd very exactly which did at first cause a great consternation but the King of England sent some that were less scrupulous amongst them who opened the Churches and officiated boldly Year of our Lord 1340 The Duke of Normandy this was John the eldest Son of Philip after he had made strange havock in Hainault laid Siege to the Castle of Thin-l'Evesque on the Sambre because it did much incommode the City of Cambray The French and Flemmish Armies were there once more near each other but the Flemmish now withdrew themselves without blows the besieged observing their retreat set fire to the place and made their escape As soon as the King of England had recruited himself with Money and Men he came and landed a Second time at Scluse and overthrew the French Fleet that lay Year of our Lord 1340 upon that coast in wait thinking to hinder his attempt The discord between their Admirals there were two of them was the main cause of their defeat Year of our Lord 1340 This advantage having abated the edge of their courage King Philip retired and distributed his Army in the several Garrisons The King of England sent to defie him in single combat one to one or else a hundred on either side or both Armies in a pitch'd battle He was answer'd That a Lord accepts of no challenge from his Vassal Some days after he besieges Tournay which was reduc'd to great distress but the long and vigorous defence of the besieged saved the place by the Truce that was then made Year of our Lord 1340 Mean time the Flemmings were cut in pieces before St. Omers Robert d'Artois who Commanded them was not only in danger of losing his Life there but afterwards being pursued by the Populace who cry'd out he had betray'd them was forced much wounded as he was to make his escape to the King of England Year of our Lord 1340 The French Garrisons were drawn together in a Body to relieve Tournay Philip had made divers attempts for that purpose had lost all hopes of succeeding in it when on the suddain Edward condescends to a Truce whether by the mediation of the Widdow Jane Countess of Hainault who was his Sister and Mother of the Queen of England at that time retired to the Convent of Fontenelles or as Villain tells it because of the desertion of the Duke of Brabant whom the King had gained by his Money and besides being unwilling that City should fall into the English hands went away from them with all his Forces It was to last from the Twentieth of September to the Five and twentieth of June following and was again prolonged at an Assembly which shortly after was held at Arras upon the earnest desires of the Popes Legats Year of our Lord 1341 John II. Duke of Bretagne dying this year 1341. upon his return from Flanders whither he had attended the King that War which he so much apprehended broke out in his Countrey and kept it in a flame for two and twenty years space For John Earl of Montfort being very liberal of those Treasures he had in Limoges secur'd himself of the best Soldiers and of the Cities of Brest Nantes Rennes Hennebond and Avray Then foreseeing his Antagonist would have recourse to the King of France his Uncle he goes over into England where he contracted a secret Alliance with Edward and also did homage to him Year of our Lord 1341 During this progress Charles de Blois comes unto the King as to his Sovereign Lord. The Dutchy was a Fief of the Crown of France ever since the Dukes Peter de Mauclere and John le Roux his Son had acknowledged it to be held of the Crown and moreover it was a Pairrie Philip the Fair having grac'd it with that Title in Anno 1277. in recompence for that John II. had brought him Ten thousand Men to the Siege of Courâ—ray Besides both of the contenders had presented their Petitions to the King to be admitted to do homage which no doubt but either of them would have performed in any manner required and for this reason the King Year of our Lord 1341 referr'd it to the judgment of the Pairs who caused both parties to be summon'd to make out their Right and Titles The Duke of Bretagne appeared but finding by the very first words the King spake to him that not only his Cause but likewise his Person was in danger he makes his escape one fair night into Bretagne with three more himself disguised like a Merchant â—aving left all his Officers at Paris who put a good face upon it as if their Master were not sled but kept his Bed for some indisposition The better to cover his evasion he left a procuration with one of his people to act and carry on this Cause before the King and Pairs and produce what Deeds and Papers were necessary to maintain his Right His adversary had done the same but either of them notwithstanding without power of concluding on any thing but only for debating and putting their Arguments and Titles into a method to instruct the Judges Year of our Lord 1341 Upon these imperfect proceedings the Pairs received Charles de Blois to homage and threw out Montfords Petition Immediately Charles and his friends were putting themselves into a posture to execute the Decree the Duke of Normandy entred into Bretagne with an Army and having forced Chantoceaux besieged Nantes where Montford had shut up himself The Nantois terrified at the misfortune of Two hundred of their Burghers taken in a Salley obliged Montford to surrender himself to the Duke who sent him to Paris where he was confined to the great Tower of the Lovre Thus one
the Fortunate Islands a little Island which they named Madera because it was full of Wood or Materials fit for building From thence steering along the exteriour coasts of Africa they there discover'd several large Countries and in time sailed to the East-Indies which till then were unknown at least those parts towards the Sea Pope Martin and after him his Successors bestowed upon the Portugals all those Lands by them discover'd or to be discover'd from the Cape which lies at the end of Mount Atlas to the Indies When the King of England had sojourned some weeks at Paris he laid Siege to the City of Meaux the only place the Dauphin had left upon the Rivers of Seine and Year of our Lord 1420 Marne After a three Months brave defence the Besieged capitulated the ninth of May the Inhabitants had their lives and liberties but all the Soldiers were sent Prisoners to divers places where they let them cruelly perish for hunger The Bailiff named Lewis de Gas had his Head cut off in the Halles at Paris The City taken King Henry went into England to draw over a new supply of Men and Money So great was the fondness of the French for the Conquest of the Kingdom of Naples that Lewis Duke of Anjou forgetting those disasters of his Father and Grandfather and abandoning his own Country to the mercy of the English suffers himself to be cajolled by the promises of the Pope and Sforza who called him to dispossess Queen Jane a Princess lost in her Reputation by her continual Galantries Year of our Lord 1421 or Amours The Affairs of Lewis being in a pretty good posture in that Country Alphonso King of Arragon who held the Island of Sicilia undertakes the protection of Jane she having adopted him her Son Sforza does reconcile himself to her and in a word there was nothing left for the poor Angevin but the way to walk home again Year of our Lord 1421 One of the first seeds of division between the English and the Duke of Burgundy was about Jacqueline Countess of Hainault Holland Zealand and Friseland After the death of John Dauphin of France they had Married her to John Duke of Brabant Son of Anthony and Cousin German to Duke Philip but the young Gossip not being satisfied with her second Husband a Man of little merit prosecuted for a Divorce and consederated with some Captains to carry her away as it were by force into England where she Married Humphrey Duke of Gloucester Brother of King Henry This undertaking turned much to the contempt of Philip who besides observed that the English began to treat him with more pride and endeavour'd so to settle their affairs as they might have no further need of him Year of our Lord 1421 The War was very hot in every Province on this side the Loire particularly in Champagne Picardy and in the Countries of Perche Maine and Anjou The Duke of Clarence Brother to King Henry having got together eight or ten thousand Men went and besieged Bauge in Anjou John Earl of Bouchain a Scot and the Mareschal de la Fayette marched to its relief gave him battle and won it He was slain upon the place with two thousand of his Men the rest escaped through the Country of Mayne into Normandy This Earl of Bouchain had brought three or four thousand Men from his own Country to the Dauphins service in recompence he gave him the Constables Sword Year of our Lord 1421 The Field being clearly left to the French the Dauphin accompanied with his new Constable and the Duke of Alenson regained some places in the Countries of Perche and the Chartrain In the mean time Henry being come back from England with a great reinforcement and in a rage and fury for the defeat and death of his Brother did endeavour all that was possible to meet with the Dauphin He marched by Chartres and Chasteaudun lodged in the Suburbs of Orleans and not meeting him in the Field but a violent Dysentery that took off three thousand of his Men he falls upon the City of Dreux which being surrendred upon Composition he goes to rest himself at Paris and sends over his Queen who was great with Child to be deliver'd in England Year of our Lord 1421 Whilst he lay at the Siege of Dreux an honest Hermit unknown to him came and told him the great evils he brought upon Christendom by his unjust ambition who usurped the Kingdom of France against all manner of right and contrary to the will of God wherefore in his holy name he threatned him with a severe and suddain punishment if he desisted not from his Enterprise Henry took this exhortation either for an idle whimsey or a suggestion of the Dauphinois and was but the more confirmed in his design Year of our Lord 1422 But the blow soon followed the threatning for within some few Months after he was smitten in the Fundament with a strange and incurable Disease the acuteness of its pain made him go to Senlis to seek for cure The Queen his Wife was a while before this returned out of England having brought forth a Son to whom they gave the same name as his Fathers Both she and her Husband made their entry with great splendour into Paris and kept open Court at the Louvre upon the Feast of Pentecost each Crowned with their Royal Diadems but the People that went to see the Ceremony had cause to regret regret the liberalities of their ancient Kings and detest the niggardliness or pride of the English who gave them none of their good Cheer nor did vouchsafe to profer them one Glass of Wine The Dauphin in the mean time had besieged the City of Cosne on the Loire and the place had capitulated to surrender if they were not relieved by a prefixed day with an Army able to give them battle The Duke of Burgundy got a great number of Men to go thither the Dauphin being informed of his march did not think fit to stay for him but raised his Siege Year of our Lord 1422 The King of England though already indisposed was gotten into his Litter that he might be present at this memorable Action While he was at Melun his distemper encreased so much that he could proceed no further but made them bring him back to Vincennes where he died the eight and twentieth day of August He had only one Son who was named Henry he left him to the education of the Cardinal of Winchester his Uncle who bred him in England gave the Government of that Kingdom to the Duke of Gloucester and the Regency of the Kingdom of France to John Duke of Bedford to whom he recommended above all things to give content to the Duke of Burgundy never to make any Peace with the Dauphin unless Normandy were yielded to be left in full Soveraignty to the English and not to release those Prisoners that were taken at the Battle of Azincour till his Son were
on all hands crying out a la queue Many had their Brains beaten out in the Streets the rest escaped to the Bastille where they made composition All the little Neighbouring Forts were an Accessory to this Reduction In the Month of August following the King recalled the Parliament the Chambre des Comptes and the University thither The English had declared themselves Enemies to the Duke of Burgundy by all Acts of Hostility upon his Countreys and by underhand-dealings to stir his Subjects up to Rebellion in those days very much knit to and concerned for England as well by Commerce and Trade as out of a real hatred they had towards the French He would therefore needs revenge himself by taking of Calais which he esteemed no great difficulty and laid Siege to it with a numerous Army In the midst of this Enterprize the Flemmings finding it spin out to a great length fell into an imagination that they were betray'd and herding together in several small parcels on a suddain made up all their packs in great confusion leaving their Provisions and Artillery behind for want of Waggons to carry them off All that their Duke could possibly do for them was to cover them with his Cavalry leâ—t the English should have charged them and after that to follow them The Duke of Gloucester who had sent word that he was coming to give him Battle not finding him there entred into Flanders where he increased their former jealousie by his burning all those places he came near Year of our Lord 1437 It was impossible for Rene of Anjou to obtain his liberty of the Duke of Burgundy without paying him an extraordinary Ransom yielding up several places and consenting to a Marriage between his eldest Daughter whose name was Yoland as then but nine years old and Ferry eldest Son of Anthony Earl of Vaudemont the means whereby Lorrain returned to the Males of that House Year of our Lord 1437 In the interim they carried the King into Lyonnois and Dauphine to make Moneys in those Countries and the following year he went even to Languedoc for the same end Upon his return he laid Siege to Montereau Faut-yonne which submitted not till after a long resistance From thence he came to make his entrance into his good City of Year of our Lord 1437 Paris the fourth of November and then he might truly call himself King of France having replanted his Throne in the capital City of his Kingdom Year of our Lord 1438 These long and tedious Wars did necessarily produce great licentiousness and daily Robberies The Soldiers not being paid lived at discretion and the extream scarcity of all things rendred them most inhumane There were divers Bands commanded even by the Kings best Officers who under colour of seeking for subsistence ran from Province to Province rifling all they could lay lands on Those called Escorcheurs and then the Redondeurs committed strange disorders By these ravages the flight of the Husbandmen and Peasants who neither ploughed nor sowed and the continual Rains during two years 1437 and 38. ensued a great Famine and then a horrible Mortality over all France especially at Paris and its Neighbourhood That City was so depopulated the Wolves came and devoured Children even in the midst of the Street St. Anthoine They were forced that they might rid themselves of those Beasts greedy of humane Flesh to make Proclamation that any one should have twenty Solz a piece for every head of a Wolfe they brought to the Magistrate Pope Eugenius and the Council of Basil were imbroiled to that height that Eugenius declared the Council dissolved and called another to Ferrara and on the other hand the Prelats that were at Basil having summon'd him divers times to come thither began to think of deposing him with the greater confidence for that the Most Christian King seemed then to favour them having forbid the Prelats of the Gallican Church from going to Ferrara Year of our Lord 1438 This Discord in the end turned to a Schism he that might have extinguisht it hapning to die I mean the Emperor Sigismond who ended his days in Moravia the Eighth of November 1437. Albertus Duke of Austria his Son in Law succeeded him in the Kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia and the year following in the Empire by the suffrages of the Electors The Clergy of France ever since the translation of the Holy See to Avignon had suffered infinite oppressions by the Court of Rome And therefore the King having assembled them at Bourges to find out some way to reconcile the Pope to the Council who had each sent their Legats they embraced the opportunity which they could never have since the Council of Constance and made their remonstrances touching those insupportable abuses The King desiring to provide against it order'd them to apply the most convenient remedies To this end by advice of his Council they framed that so celebrated Reglement called the Pragmatique which preventing any the like Enterprizes of the Court of Rome might well be termed the Bulwark of the Gallican Church Year of our Lord 1439 Eugenius transferr'd his Council of Ferrara to Florence where they treated concerning the uniting the Greek to the Latine Church their Emperor John VI. assisting with a good number of his most illustrious Prelats But in the mean while those who were assembled at Basil though reduced to a small number and not well agreed amongst themselves deposed Eugenius and elected Ame VIII Duke of Savoy who had retired himself as was before related to the solitude of Ripaille France Germany and most part of the West paid their obedience to him during the life of Eugenius but after his death all of them almost turned to Nicholas V. Two years after Rene was delivered from captivity he went into his Kingdom of Naples where according to the example of his Predecessors his entrance was very happy but his exit very different Year of our Lord 1439 The Siege of Meaux by the Constable although long and full of difficulty succeeded happily for the French but that of Auranches in the Lower Normandy being ill managed by the same Person and the Duke of Alenson brought them nothing but shame the English having made them raise it and taken part of their Bagage and their Ammunition At the Sollicitation of the Dutchess of Burgundy and the Popes Legats a great Conference was held between Graueline and Calais the Deputies of France England and those of Burgundy meeting to treat about a Peace The English not receding from that Condition that Normandy and their other Conquests should be left to them in full Soveraignty they parted without doing any thing in it Year of our Lord 1440 The King by inclination was well enough disposed for the good of his Country and we observe that from this very time even to the Reign of Henry II. the Kings did often and willingly make use of this term The Publick Concerns of Our
the accustomed Ceremonies and Magnificence Being returned to Paris the Duke of Bretagne sent a complaint to him for having supported the Rebellion of his Subjects The Dame according to her Father's wonted Method in stead of returning him an answer Debauched his Ambassadors from his Service These were the Lord D'Vrfe whom she made Grand Escuyer and Poncet de la Riviere on whom she bestowed the Mayoralty of Bourdeaux Year of our Lord 1484 The Cardinal de Balue after his being set at Liberty went to Rome and as that Court is a Region of perpetual Intrigues he Succeeded so happily therein that in short time be got great Credit and some good Benefices He moreover prevailed with the Pope so far that after the Death of Lewis XI he sent him into France as Legat à Latere He made his entrance with so much arrogance that he made use of his faculties before ever he had the Kings consent or had presented them in Parliament to be examined whether they contained nothing contrary to the Rights of the Crown and the Liberties of the Gallican Church The Parliament offended at this bold undertaking forbid him to take upon him the Characters of his Legation or to exercise the power Notwithstanding the Kings Council after he had shewed his reasons and made his necessary Submissions gave order he should be received in that Quality with the usual Respect and Honour and that he should exercise his Functions Which he did for some days when hearing news of the Death of Sixtus he returned on his way to Rome with a Present only of a Thousand Crowns in Gold which the King gave him towards defraying the Expences of his Journey Year of our Lord 1484 The Council Establish'd by the Estates had neither Power nor Vertue the Dame de Beaujeu usurped all the Authority She turned out all those from the Kings Service as were not at her Dvotion and brought in d'Vrfe Riviere and Graville prime Chamberlain who watched and as it were beleaguer'd the young King These Folk wanting some brave daring Heroe to oppose the Duke of Orleans did likewise keep Rene the Duke of Lorrain at Court to whom they restored the Dutchy of Bar till such time as the King should be of Age to do him right for the County of Provence assigned him a Pension of 36 Thousand Livers per Annum and a company of an Hundred Lances During these disorders in France the Scene was wholly changed in England Henry Earl of Richmond after the Battel in the year 1471 where Henry VI. Lost his Crown and Liberty endeavouring to make his escape into France was by Tempest thrown upon the Coasts of Bretagne where the Duke Seized on him and detained him Prisoner in favour of Edward or rather to engage that King to protect him always against Lewis XI And indeed Edward never forsook him whatever advantage Lewis could propound to him and which was more paid him fifty Thousand Crowns yearly for his Pension When Edward Died he gave him his full Liberty and withal assisted him with Money and six Thousand Men wherewith he put to Sea having a Strong Faction in England whereof the Earl of Buckingham was Head Now it happened that a Storm having scattered his Ships the Confederacy was discover'd and Buckingham Beheaded with most of the great men who were concerned in it So that he returned and Landed in Normandy and from thence got back into Bretagne waiting for a better opportunity King Richard desiring to have him at what price soever profer'd Landays so much Money and such considerable assistance in time of need against the Breton Lords that this Perfidious and Mercinary Soul promised to deliver him up to his People The Earls Friends in England got a hint of this bargain and gave him Notice at the very nick of time when it was to be put in execution He immediately departs from Vannes under pretence of going to wait upon the Duke who was at Renes then striking into another Road made his escape with four more to Anger 's He was so closely pursued by Landays Men that he slipt thorough the passage but one hour before they came to the place The King was then at Langeais who received him very kindly And a great number of English Landing every Day in the Ports of France to joyn with him he gave him some broken Companies that were in Normandy with which he adventured over into England In fine having gained the Victory over Richard who was slain in the Field be ascended the Throne which he pretended did belong of Right to him as being the Eldest of the House of Lancaster He was indeed of that Family but at a remote distance as being but the Son of a Daughter of the Duke of Somerset's and of Edmond who was Son of Owen Tudor a Gentleman of Wales and Catherine of France who after the Death of King Henry V. her Husband was clandestinely Married to him Year of our Lord 1485 The Duke of Orleans the Duke of Bourbon likewise to whom the Constables Sword without any power was more an injury or burthen then an Honour made a new party against the Government The Duke of Bretagne Charles Earl of Angoulesme the Duke of Alenson and John de Chaalon Prince of Orenge who was Son of a Sister of the Duke of Bretagne entred into it Charles Earl of Dunois was the primum mobile The Duke of Orleans was the first that spoke and being retired to Beaugency demanded an Assembly of the Estates They immediately carried the King thither He besieged him in the place and forced him to an accomodation wherein it was agreed that the Earl of Dunois should retire to Ast in Piedmont After that they got the King to March against the Duke of Bourbon who finding him on a sudden in the midst of his Country accepted of such conditions as they would impose Year of our Lord 1485 The Soldiers they had Levied for these ends fell most of them into Bretagne The Duke of Orleans having sent all his thither for the Dukes Service the Dame sent the Kings thither also in behalf of the Lords Landays prompted as we may believe by his wicked Genius pursued the utter Destruction of the Lords with all his might and would not recede in the least from the Sentence he had obtained that they should lose both their Castles and their Heads He had raised a great Army for this purpose who had Ordersto Besiege Ancenis a place belonging to the Mareschal de Riux The Lords had taken the Field to prevent it The Armies being in sight of each other some good minded People made the Chief Commanders of the Dukes Army so Sensible how heighnous it would be in them to spill the Heart Blood of their own Friends and Kindred for the sake of the most profligate wretch in the whole World that they embraced each other mutually and agreed to joyn their Supplications to the Duke that he would be pleased
himself to the Regent at Lyons where she had called an Assembly of Notables to get them to confirm her Authority As for the King of England he at first expressed a great deal of joy for the Kings being taken and dispatched one to the Emperour to perswade him to enter into Guyeme assuring him that at the same time he would make an Irruption towards Normandy and proffered to send his Daughter that he might Marry her according to some Propositions that had passed between them But on the other side he sent to the Queen Regent of France to let her understand he was not unwilling to unite himself with France for the deliverance of their King And that which inclined him to it was not so much the neglect the Emperour shewed in leaving his Daughter and seeking the Daughter of the King of Portugal as the Impressions of the Cardinal Woolsey his grand Governour who was enraged for that the Emperour since he had overcome his difficulties cared no more for him nor wrote any more to him with his own hand nor Subscribed himself Your Son and Cousin as he had done before The Jealousie and the Evil Dispositions that Cardinal infused in his Masters mind against the Emperour were one of the first helps towards the saving of France For the King of England who had equipp'd a Fleet to land in Normandy dismissed it without demanding his Expences of the Regent and made a League with her to preserve the Crown of France entire so that the King could not dismember it to gain his freedom and he promised to assist him with men and to lend him moneys when ever need required The King had been now above two months in the Castle of Pisqueton and neither Lanoy nor the Council of Spain could yet resolve upon the place where they might safely keep him For the Kings Galleys were at Sea which hindred them from carrying him to Spain And if they kept him in those Countries it was to be feared their half mutinous Souldiers should seize upon him and let him escape They would willingly have had him to the Kingdom of Naples but having not many men they apprehended the Pope or the Venetians might attempt to rescue him on the way Amidst these Difficulties Lanoy found an expedient which was to make him consent or think it best to go into Spain To this purpose he endeavours to perswade him that if he did but discourse with the Emperour they would soon agree together and that in case they could not he would bring him back into Italy The King who ardently desired it believed it and not only commanded the French Galleys that were cruising to let him pass but likewise so ordered it that the Regent lent six to the Vice-Roy who pretending to Sail towards Naples transported him into Spain this was about the middle of the Month of June He was Year of our Lord 1525 lodged in the Castle of Madrid far from the Sea and the Frontiers with the Liberty of going forth to take the Air when ever he pleased but always surrounded with Guards and mounted upon a Mule He had thought that upon his arrival he should see the Emperour but notice was given him that it would not be convenient till they had first agreed upon all Articles and that those might be treated upon he gave leave to the Mareschal de Montmorency to return into France and permission to Margaret the Kings Sister to go into Spain In the mean while he a granted a Truce till the end of December for fear said he left some new difficulties should arise but in effect to Suspend any Enterprises of the Italian Potentates and their League which should have put Milan into very great danger had they bestirred themselves well in this juncture And truly this translation broke all those measures the Pope and the Venetians would have taken with the Regent and put them into an extream Consternation It did no less allarm Bourbon and Pescara having been done without Communicating of it to them They wrote very sharply to the Emperour concerning it and with Invectives against Lanoy whom they accused of cowardise and pride together for having said they by his timidity like to have made them lose the Battle of which notwithstanding he pretended to claim the whole honour Besides Bourbon apprehending with great reason lest the two Kings if they conferred together should agree to his prejudice did not so much look after the affairs of Milan as his own and had no patience till the Galleys that carried the King were returned that he might go aboard and hasten to find the Emperour The intentions of the Italian Princes in driving the French out of Milan was not to introduce the Spaniards there but to restore Francis Sforza and yet the Emperour carried himself as absolute Master and the unfortunate Sforza was to speak properly no more then the Treasurer who paid the Souldiers at the expence of his poor People Jeremy Moron who was his Chancellour and his principal Counsellour sought therefore to set his Master and his Countrey at Liberty the Pope and the Venetians proffered to contribute towards it all these together imagined they might make advantage of Pescara's discontent and propounded to make him King of Naples the opportunity being favorable whilst Lanoy was in Spain and all the Forces almost Disbanded The Pope who was Soveraign Lord of that Fief joynes in this business and approves of it Pescara pretended to give Ear but acted the Scrupulous and the man of Honour doubting whether he might serve the Soveraign Lord which was the Pope to the prejudice of the Lord the present Occupier which was the Emperour To resolve this they were fain to consult under feigned nams all the most eminent Lawyers of those times At last he seems to yeild and to treat a League with the Pope the Regent and the Venetians for this enterprise When he had found out the whole intrigue he discover'd it to the Emperour and confirmed his relation of it by the confession even of Moron who imprudently surrendred himself into his own Hands He afterwards redeemed his Life for twenty thousand Crowns Thereupon Pescara took an occasion to deprive the unhappy Sforza of his Dutchy he gained all his strongest places by a wile and then shut him up in the Castle of Milan with a circumvallation But he dyed at the beginning of December before he could reap the Fruit of his perfidiousness He was a man had neither Soul nor Heart of a quick and piercing Wit but Crafty Malicious and who instead of Honour was stored with nought but Arrogance The Regent laboured Incessantly for the Liberty of her Son Margaret Dutchess of Alenson being arrived in Spain in the month of September propounded the Marriage of the King with Eleonora Sister to the Emperour But that Princess had been promised to Bourbon who earnestly demanded her and thwarted the whole Treaty with his interests which were difficult to be adjusted So
causes him to be degraded after his publick Pennance 127 128 Lothaire King of Italy difference between him and Charles his Brother touching their shares after the death of their Father 134 Reconciliation with Charles his Brother 138 Changes his Imperial Purple for a Friers Frock ib. His Wife and Children ib. Lothaire II. of Lorraine 139 He repudiates Thietberge his Wife to Espouse Valdrade and that made a great deal of noise 140 The said Marriage annull'd and he Excommunicated by the Pope 141 Passes into Italy against the Saracens his death by Divine Punishment 142 His Children ib. Lothaire Son of the King of Italy 179 Lothaire King of France 183 His Marriage with Emma or Emina Daughter of Lothaire King of Italy 187 Enterprize upon Lorraine 188 Repels and chases the Germans out of France where they had made an irruption 189 Repasses into Lorraine Causes his Son Lewis to be Crowned and to Reign with him ib. His death 189 Lothaire Duke of Saxony elected Emperor 238 Lothaire II. Emperor his death 243 Louis of Aquitaine passes into Italy to the assistance of his Brother Pepin 104 Besieges and takes Narbonne and Tortosae 106 c. Louis or Lewis the Debonaire his coming to the Crown 120 Purges the Court of Scandal ib. His Coronation and of the Empress Hermengarde His continual exercises of Piety and Devotion 122 Concerns himself in the reformation of the Clergy and draws upon him the hatred of the Churchmen 122 Associates Lothaire his eldest Son in the Empire and shares for his other Children ib. Severely punishes the King of Italy his Nephew who had conspired against his Person and his Complices 122 123 Causes all his Bastard Brothers to be shaved ib. Reduces Bretagne to a Dutchy ib. Marries a second Wife after the death of Hermengarde ib. Marries all his Sons 124 Subdues the Bretons ib. Gives occasion of discontent to his Children who conspire against him and shut him up Prisoner in the Abby St. Medard of Soissons 125 c. Does publick Pennance and is degraded 126 c. Is re-established in his Royal Throne 128 Divides again his Estates of France Eastern and Western 129 His death his Wives his Children 130 Of his great care in regulating all that concerned the advantage and administration of the Church the discipline of the Clergy c. 170 Louis Son of Lewis the Debonaire is made King of Bavaria 122 Louis King of Bavaria embraces the Cause of his Father Lewis the Debonaire afterwards turns against him 126 Louis Emperor King of Italy 138 Louis the Germanick usurps Neustria upon his Brother Charles 139 Divides Lorraine with him 142 Troubled and disquieted by his Children 144 His death ib. Louis the Emperor and King of Italy despised by his Subjects 138 Makes a League with Lewis the Germanick against Charles the Bald. 139 Difference about Lorraine 143 Is despised of his Subjects ib. His death 144 Louis the Stammerer Emperor and King of Neustria or West France Aquitain and Burgundy 148 Is Crowned Emperor by Pope John ib. His death 149 Louis III. and Carloman his Brother Kings of West France Burgundy and Aquitain 148 c. Death of Lewis 152 Louis Son of Boson seizes upon Provence 156 c. Louis Son of Arnold Emperor of Germany and King of Lorraine 162 His death 163 Louis the Blind King of Provence 170 Louis IV. called Transmarine is recalled from England owned and Crowned King of France 175 6 Abandoned of all his Subjects in Neustria is constrained to save his life by a shameful flight 177 Makes a Peace and is reconciled to his Subjects 179 Seizes Richard Duke of Normandy ib. His precipitate revenge draws great difficulties upon him 178 Is carried Prisoner to Rouen ib. Is restored to liberty 179 Brouilleries in France 180 c. Is reconciled with Hugh le Blanc and they make Peace together 181 His death ib. Louis King of Aquitain chastises the Revolt of the Gascons 110 Associated to the Empire and declared Emperor by Charlemain his Father 111 Louis King of France called the idle or Lazy Marries a Princess of Aquitain named Blanch. 198 His death ib. Louis called the Gross Son of King Philip designed King takes up the Government of Affairs 226 Passes into England 227 Betrothed to Luciane Daughter of Guy de Rochefort 227 His pretended Marriage with Luciana broken by the Pope ib. Quarrels and brouilleries with his Subjects 234 Defeats the English in Battle about Gisors 35 Renewing of the War between those two Princes 236 Strongly opposes the Emperors Efforts who would needs be revenged because he had protected Pope Calixtus II. 236 c. Reduces the Count d'Auvergne to reason 238 Revenges the Parricide committed on the Person of the Earl of Flanders 239 Causes his Son Philip to be Crown'd ib. Becomes an Enemy to the Clergy his Subjects and is Excommunicated 239 c. His death his Wives his Children 241 Lewis the Young Crowned in the life time of his Father Lewis the Gross 240 Louis the Young he Marries Alienor Daughter of the Duke of Aquitaine ib. Establishes Justice and secures the publick safety 242 Is Excommunicated and his Kingdom put under an interdiction by the Pope 243 Receives Pope Eugenius into France 244 Takes the Cross and goes into the Holy Land ib. His return into France 245 Repudiates Queen Alienor and Marries the Daughter of Alphonso VII King of Castille 243 Goes to St. Jago in Gallicia out of Devotion 246 Difference with Henry King of England for the County of Touloze 248 He makes Alliance by Marriage with the House of Champagne 249 Suppresses the disorders of his Kingdom ib. Enters into War again with the King of England their Reconciliation ib. Takes the protection of the King of England's Children against their Father 250 Passes over into England and goes to visit the Tomb of St. Thomas of Canterbury ib. His death his Wives his Children 251 Louis VIII King of France his Birth 254 Parlies with the Emperor Federic II. 266 His Coronation at Reims 295 Enterview with Henry Son of the Emperor Federic 295 Crosses himself against the Albigenses and makes War upon them in Person 296 His death his Wife and his Children 296 297 St. Louis King of France his Coronation 298 Great disturbances in the State at the beginning of his Reign ib. c. He Vowes to make War against the Infidels 303 Voyage to the Holy Land 304 c. His Army entirely defeated and he made Prisoner of War by the Infidels 305 Is set at liberty with all the rest of the French Prisoners 306 Whether it be true he gave a Consecrated Wafer as a pawn for his Word 305 He visits the Holy Places in the Holy Land 307 His return into France ib. He entertains the King of England magnificently ib. Regulates his Kingdom by good Laws and exercises himself in good Works 308 Endeavours to accommodate Affairs between the Barons and their King Henry 309 Undertakes a new Crosade for relief of
228 c. Saint Amour William great quarrel with the Orders of the Friers Mendicants 307 Saintonge the subject of a great War 208 Saladin King of Egypt tears the holy City of Jerusalem out of the hands of the Christians 254 Saliens ancient People of the French 7 Salomon seizes on the Kingdom of Bretagne 140 His unhappy end 144 Sanc first of the Hereditary Dukes of Gascongne 137 Sanche Duke of Castille makes a Peace with the King of France 323 Saracens become Mahometans 59 Saracens of Africa become the Masters of Spain 77 Saracens pass from Spain into France and make some Conquests there 80 They enter into Languedoc and destroy all that Country 83 Wherefore called Moors 83 They over-run all Provence and lay it waste ib. Torment Italy 146 Savari de Mauleon General for the English in Guyenne 296 The Saxons revolt 52 Throw off the Yoak of the French Dominion 79 Divided into several People ib. Made Tributary to the French 91 Entirely subdued become Christians 108 Schism in the Church caused by the dispute concerning the Worshipping of Images 84 Sclavonians have a quarrel with the French Austrasians 55 Make inroads upon Turingia 56 Sergius II. elected Pope without permission of the Emperor 136 He was not the first who changed his name but Sergius IV. ib. St. Ademar Institutor of the Order of the Templers 290 Sicilia a Kingdom its beginning and extent 242 243 By what means Sicilia fell under the Dominion of the Kings of Arragon 310 Dismembred in two 326 Siege and taking of Angens 144 Sigebert King of Austrasia chastises the Avari out of Turingia 29 Marries Brunehaud 30 Unfortunate taking upon the City of Arles 31 War with Chilperic his Brother 31 Assassinated and slain 32 Sigebert Bishop 62 Sigeric King of the Visigoths 4 Sigismund King of Burgundy abjures Arianism and receives the Orthodox Faith 20 Causes his Son Sigeric to be Strangled his retreat into a Monastery 21 His unhappy end ib. Silingi a barbarous People 4 Silvester II. Pope Example of extream severity 209 Simon de Montfort does Cross himself to go into the Holy Land 260 Simon Count de Nesles Regent of the Kingdom in the absence of St. Lewis the King 312 Of Simony 18 Bishops of Bretagne accused and convicted of that Crime 136 Prelats in France who voluntarily renounced their Benefices for this cause 229 Simplicity too great in a Prince 167 Sobrarve a little Territory in the Kingdom of Arragon 125 Sorabes reduced to reason 121 Spencers Hugh Father and Son Favourites of the King of England 351 c. Their unhappy end 352 Stilicon Massacred 4 Succession of Males to the Crown by preference to the Females 346 Suedes embrace the Christian Religion 110 Suevi over-run and ravage Gaul and then pass into Spain 270 Swiss Their generous Conspiracy against the oppressions of the Lieutenants of the House of Austria 334 T. Tanchelin his errors Church of the Twelfth Age. Tancred Son of Rebert Guischard 224 Tancred causes great discord between the Kings of France and England 256 Tartars make their irruptions their Original 302 Tassilon Duke of Bavaria and his Son Theudon shaved and confined to a Monastery 103 Te Deum Sung by the Benedictins in time of Lent 231 Templers their Institution and Confirmation Church of the Twelfth Age. Are utterly exterminated and their Order abolished throughout all Christendom 333 Thassilon Duke of Bavaria gives an Oath of Fidelity to King Pepin 93 Theodad King of the Ostrogoths his death 23 Theodald Maire of the Neustrians Theodald Son of Grimoald his death 78 Theodebald King of Mets. 25 His death 26 Theodebert Son of Thierry makes War in Languedoc then named Septimania 24 Theodebert Son of Thierry succeeds to the Crown of his Father and makes War against Clotair his Uncle 24 25 Carries his Arms into Italy his death his Children 24 Theodebert Son of Chilperic his death 32 Theodebert King of Austrasia vanquished in Battle and exterminated with his whole Race 43 Theoderic King of the Visigoths joyns with the Romans against Attila his death 10 11 Theoderic King of the Ostrogoths establishes the Kingdom of Italy 14 Theoderic King of Italy passes into Gall and comes to relieve the Visigoths against the French and the Burgundians and becomes King of the Visigoths 16 His death 21 Theudis King of the Visigoths in Spain his death 25 Thibauld Earl of Chartres and Tours 216 Thibauld Earl of Chartres declares War against the King 235 Thibauld Earl of Champagne falls into the Kings disgrace and is severely handled 243 Thibauld Earl of Blois and Chartres 245 Thibauld Earl of Champagne his death 246 Thibauld Earl of Champagne 260 Thibauld Earl of Champagne difference about Alix Queen of Cyprus his Cousin 299 Thibauld Earl of Champagne becomes King of Navarre 301 Thibauld Earl of Champagne becomes Chief of a new Croisade His death ib. Thibaud King of Navarre 312 His death 315 Thierry King of Austrasia otherwise of Mets treacherously abandons Clodomir his Brother 20 c. Makes himself Master of Turingia 21 Chastises the Auvergnats who had revolted against him ib. His death ib. Thierry King of Neustria and of Burgundy 64 He is shaved and confined to the Monastery of St. Denis ib. Recalled and resetled in his Royal Throne 6 Fights unfortunately against Ebroin Maire of the Palace and falls into his hands His death his Wife and his Children 70 Thierry called de Chelles King of France 81 His death 83 Thierry Earl of Alsatia disputes the Earldom of Flanders and remains sole Master and Possessor 168 Thierry of Alsatia Earl of Flanders he passes into the Holy Land 243 Thierry first Earl of Holland 146 Thierry Earl of Alsatia and Flanders his death 249 Thibauld III. Earl of Blois 259 Thibauld Earl of Champagne 296 A Conspiracy against him 299 Tietgaud Archbishop of Triers deposed and Excommunicated 140 St. Thomas Aquinas his death 316 Thomas Prior of St. Victor assassinated in the Arms of a Bishop Church of the Twelfth Age. Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury undertakes the defence of the Church is assassinated in his Cathedral ib. Thuringia falls under the Dominion of the French 22 Title of King of Jerusalem annexed to that of Sicilia 319 Treason divinely punished 178 Translation of a Bishop from one See to another condemned 160 Trebisond Kingdom its beginning 263 Truce between the French and the Saracens of Spain broken 123 Truce or Peace of God established in France to prevent Factions Murthers and Robberies 253 Truce with the English and the Fleming 327 Truce with the English 299 Truce granted to the Flemings 330 Trincavel Son of the Earl of Beziers comes hostily upon the Kings Territories 301 Toloze County subject of a War 138 Subject of a great quarrel between the Kings of France and the Kings of England 248 Totila King of the Ostrogoths his death 26 Touars Guy Duke of Bretagne 263 Tournay erected to a Bishoprick Church of the Twelfth Age. Troubles and Factions in Normandy
whom as afterwards with Childeric II. his Son she had great Interest and Power This done Grimoald confidently sets up his Son upon the Throne there are proofs of some Royal Acts he did but this attempt lost him all the veneration the Austrasians had for the memory of Pepin and gave them such horror for their Mayre and his Son that having taken them in some Ambuscades laid for them they led Grimoald to Paris to King Clovis who caused him to be put to death or as others will have it confined him to perpetual imprisonment however there was Year of our Lord 652 no more heard of him It is not said what became of his Son nor whether the Austrasians elected another Mayre Perhaps Erchinoald executed that Office in all the three Kingdoms for since the Decease of Floacat the Burgundians had created none CLOVIS II. Solus Year of our Lord 653. c. In these Minorities there being no Authority great enough to curb the Grandees they audaciously undertook to do any thing what pleased them best and most commonly deciding their quarrels by the Sword they put all the Kingdom into a combustion The Authors of those times accuse Clovis with giving himself up to the Debauchery or pleasures of the Mouth and Women and make a mighty noise for his having plucked off an Arm from the Body of St. Denis to place it in his Oratory They say he immediately fell into a fit of Madness as if he had been smote from Heaven Year of our Lord 655 and attribute to this attempt which at the worst was but an indiscreet Zeal all the mischiefs that afflicted the Kingdom of Franee during the Reigns of his Successors The same year this King aged only 21 or 22 years but having his Brain much shaken Year of our Lord 655 with frequent Convulsions dries up at the Root and dies in the spring of his age He did not Reign Seventeen years if we leave out that whole year wherein Dagobert dyed as the Authors of these times usually do but if we account from the very day he succeeded him he was entring into the Eighteenth he was interred at St. Denis His Mayre Erchinoald had amongst his Domestiques a young English Maid named Batilda of a rare Beauty but whom he had bought out of the hands of Pyrats who had stollen her away amongst some other Captives for in those days they brought great numbers from those parts he bestowed her upon this young Prince for a Wife about the year 548 or 49. and of his Slave made her the Wife of his Year of our Lord 548 King It was given out that she was of the Blood of the Saxon Princes who Reigned in England By this Batilda Clovis had three Sons Clotaire Childeric and Thierry Clotaire was saluted King of Neustria and Burgundy under the Government of his Mother and Erchinoald and Childeric made King of Austrasia whither he was Conducted and left he and his Kingdom under the management of Vlfoad Mayre of that Kingdom Thierry had no share perhaps because he was but yet in his Cradle Clotaire III. King XIII POPES VITALIANUS Elected in August 655. S. Thirteen years three Months EBROIN Mayre CLOTAIRE III. King in Neustria and Burgundy aged at most but Five years CHILDERIC King of Australia aged Three or Four years Year of our Lord 655 THe Government of the Mayre Erchinoald ended with his Life which hapned in a few Months after the death of Clovis the II or as others say a short time before Some with probability enough make him the prime stock of the House of Alsatia whence is issued that of Lorrain of these days which for Nobility yields to none in Chistendom unless that of France The French bestowed that Office upon Ebroin a man active valiant and who being greatly in friendship with the most Holy Men of those times and Founder of some Churches was held a good Man and he lived in that Reputation many years Year of our Lord 655 c. Queen Batilda Governed with as much Goodness Prudence and Justice as any wiâ—e King could have done And indeed for Ten years together there hapned no Trouble in her Sons Reign Before her time the Gauls as well those Infants that lay in their Cradles as their Fathers paid a great Tribute by Poll which restrained many from Marrying or obliged them to expose their Children the good Queen discharged them from it and forbid those Jews that used to buy such poor innocent Children and send them into Forreign Countreys to deal any longer in so inhumane a Trade Nay she bought several that those Infidels had already purchased and likewise such as had been stollen away by Thieves and sold for that purpose but she exhorted them to put themselves into Monasteries which she very greatly desired might be well Peopled She had a very particular care for all that concerned the Church For some time past the Princes had taken Money for Spiritual Promotions and the Bishops sold by Retail what they bought in the Lump She forbad that Sacrilegious Traffick Year of our Lord 656. 57 c. Besides she enriched divers Monasteries with Possessions and precious Ornaments obtained immunities for them and exemptions from Tribute built two famous Monasteries one for Women at Chelles the other for Men at Corbie on the Somme and invited many Holy persons to Court but to tell truth she gave too much access to the Bishops either for the good of the Church or her own Reputation Year of our Lord 664 or 65. Amongst the rest there were two in very great credit and esteem Leger whom she had made Bishop of Autun and Sigebrand we cannot tell of what place This last extreamly proud of the Queens Favour which gave occasion of much jealousie and ill report amongst the envious did so highly distaste the great ones that they put him to death without any form of Process or Trial. After this attempt whether they apprehended the Resentments of that Princess or had slandered and bespattered her on purpose to make her uncapable to Govern they besought her so importunately to retire that she was obliged to condescend Even those whom she had most gratified with her Goodness were of the party Some of the Grandees conducted her to her Monastery of Chelles where of a Queen she became only a simple Nun and yet was more Illustrious in her Humility then she had been in her exalted Greatness She lived till the year 686. Year of our Lord 665. c. It is to be believed that Ebroin the Mayre had managed all this contrivance that he might be left sole Governour for when the Reyns were off his Pride his Avarice his Cruelty and Treachery began to appear bare-faced He seized the Goods he took away the Offices he hunted away the Greatest that were about the Court and forbid any others to come in there without his leave Above all he hated Leger the Bishop of Autun because he was a Creature of
fit we observe that at the Coronations of Kings they forgot not their own Interests nor failed to make them promise solemnly to maintain the Rights of the Church But we do not find them always so careful and zealous for the good of the People and the Prerogative of the Nobility Of those that appeared with most Splendor some were such as were noted for Intrigues and Factions and of them were a great number Ebbon of Reims Agobard of Lyons and Bernard de Vienne active in the degrading of Louis the Debonnaire Ebroin of Poictiers for disposing Aquitain to surrender themselves into the hands of that Emperor who would bestow it upon Charles his beloved Son Thietgaud de Colen and Gontier de Ments touching the marriage of Valdrade And Hincmar of Reims for his resisting the Pope and intermedling with all affairs both of Church and State wherein he acted with as much heat as judgment during the Reign of Charles the Bald. The others were illustrious for their Learning as the same Agobard Theodulfe and Jonas his Successor Rabanus Maurus of St. Bennets Order and Arch-Bishop of Mentz Hincmar of Reims who had been Abbot of St. Denis and the other Hincmar his Nephew Remy de Lyons Adon de Vienne Hilduin Abbot of St. Denis Loup Abbot of Ferrieres in Gastinois Henry Monk of St. Germain d'Auxerre Valafride Strabon Abbot of Richenoue Florus Master of the Church of Lyons that is a Divine and John Scot or Scotus surnamed Erigena This last was a great Philosopher and for the Beauty and Delicacy of his wit highly cherished by Charles the Bald even to the lying in his Chamber But in Theology he passed for one of a raving Brain whose sentiments were not right and sound As for Hincmar de Reims we have his works whereof every one may judge The other Hincmar his nephew very zealons for the Popes authority collected their Decretal Letters and was the first that durst put down the names of some Ancient Popes who till that time had none but which Isâ—dore Mercator had already gathered together Other Canonists followed his error till at length the more judicious found they were but fictitious Adon de Vienne composed a Matyrology which is yet in being Hilduin wrote the life of St. Denis the Areopagite by command of Louis the Debonnaire from the Memoires of Methodius Patriarch of Constantinople who to flatter the French endeavour'd to have two things believed which the Criticks pretend to condemn of false-hood The one that this Saint Denis had been Bishop of Paris the other that those Writings which go under his name were his own We have the Epistles of Loup de Ferrieres which give a great light in the affairs of those times And the Monk Henry wrote the Life of Saint Germain de Auxerre in more Elegant Verse then the roughness of that Age could promise I shall observe en passant that Latin Poetry began to rouze its self under Charles the Bald and amongst other Poets that flatter'd him there was one that made a Piece containing three hundred Hexameters in praise of the Bald where every word began with the Letter C. Some for their good lives deserved to be placed in the Catalogue of Saints as Anscher taken out of the Order of St. Bennet by Louis the Debonnaire to be the first Arch-Bishop of Hamburgh Established by that Emperor and to Preach to the Danes and Swedes the same Rabanus whom we have mentioned Two Audrâ—'s one of Sens the other of Mans Ayos de Bourges Prudence de Troyes Hildeman de Beauvais Foulquin and Hunfroy de Teroüanne Amant de Rodez and Bernard de Vienne This last had Adon above-named for Successor both in his Sanctity and his See But he had very few in that good Christian Maxim so often in his Mouth and ever in his Soul That the Riches and Goods of the Church are the Patrimony of the Poor and that a Clergy-man hath no right to them but for his necessities Nor did he keep any more Domestique Servants but one Priest and one Lay-man Proclaiming to all Prelats by this noble example That he who is great in himself hath no need of other Equipage or Train of Servants to make him appear so LOUIS IV. Surnamed TRANSMARINE King XXXII Aged XIX or XX Years POPES LEO VII in 936. S. 3 years 6 Months STEPHEN IX Elect. in 939. S. 3 years 4 Months MARTIN II. Elect. 943. S. 3 years 6 Months and one half AGAPET II. Elect. 946. S. 9 years 7 Months Louis IV. surnam'd Transmarine in France Otho I. in Germany Rodolph II. in Burgundy Transjurane HUGH and Lotaire his Son in Italy Year of our Lord 936 OF all the French Lords Hugh le Blanc Earl of Paris and Orleans Duke of France and Brother in Law to the late King had the greatest Authority in the Kingdom He durst not however take the Crown because Hebert Earl of Vermandois and Giselbert Duke of Lorraine two very potent Enemies would have broke his Measures He found it therefore more safe to make a King of the Blood of Charlemaine who should be wholy obliged to him for his Crown To this purpose he dispatched a Famous Deputation of Prelats and Lords whereof William Arch-Bishop of Sens was the Chief into England to beseech Ogina the Widdow of Charles the Simple to bring back her Son Louis whom the French desired to own for their King She granted their request but not without great opposition of King Aldestan her Brother He apprehended his Nephew might be destroy'd by some treachery as his Father had been and therefore would not be satisfied with only their Oaths but took Hostages besides Hugh and the other Lords came to receive their King at his Landing at Bullogne tender'd their Hommage on the Strand and thence conducted him to Laon where he was Anointed by Arnold Arch-Bishop of Reims the 20 th day of June Year of our Lord 936 Immediately after his Coronation Hugh who still retained the Administration of the Kingdom carried him into the Dutchy of Burgundy for his own ends for there were some pretences but how grounded we do not well know And Hugh le Noir appropriated it to himself as Heir of the Deceased Rodolph his Brother who had it from Richard his Father on whom Boson had bestowed it when he was made King of Burgundy Le Noir or the Black had therefore Seized on the City of Langres after the Decease of King Rodolph but the new King and Hugh thrust him cut again without striking one blow and engaged him to yeild up one half of the Dutchy to Hugh le Blanc or the White An. 937. King Rodolph died having Reigned 25 years in Burgundy Transjurane and only five in the Kingdom of Arles He left three Children Conrade who Succeeded him but whom Otho Seized upon and detained fourteen years Burchard Bishop of Lausanne and Adeleis a most Illustrious Princess who by her first marriage was Wife to Lotaire King of
years afterwards The Earl of Sens Raynard II. of that name called the Bad using much violence against Leoteric his Archbishop and all the Clergy within his Territory the Year of our Lord 1015 King besieged his City and took it deprived him of his Earldom and rejoyned it to his Demeasns The Burgundians having Rebell'd and divers Lords plundering and committing Robberies in the Province by means of their Castles and Fortified places the King Year of our Lord 1015 went thither and pulled down and destroy'd all those Nests and Dens of Thieves His eldest Son whose name was Hugh a Prince accomplish'd both in Mind and Body giving very great hopes though he were not yet Ten years old He caused him to be Crowned at Compiegne on the day of Pentecost in the year 1017. and afterwards his name was put to all Acts with that of his Fathers Year of our Lord 1017 ROBERT and HUGH his Son Year of our Lord 1018 THe Duke of Aquitain at his return from his third or fourth Pilgrimage to Rome those that made most were the most esteemed found his Country enriched with a new Treasure The Abbot of St. John's de Angery having lighted on the Scull of a Man in a Wall the Report was spread that it was the Head of St. John Baptist The People of France Lorrain and Germany who in those days ran with much Zeal after all sorts of Relicks flocked thither from all parts King Robert the Queen the Duke of Normandy and a great number of other Lords brought their Offerings thither The Kings was a Scollop-shell of Gold which weighed Thirty pounds an admirable Present in such times when Gold and Silver were fifty times more scarce then in our Age. The Danes or Normans beyond Seas having not quite forgotten their custom of Piracy did yet sometimes make Descents in England and on the Coasts of France They had Conquer'd a great part of England and at last made some Kings there This year they landed in Poitou being perhaps informed of the great Crowds of Pilgrims that came to see the Head of St. John and indeed they carried away a great many good Prisoners All the Country Armed to drive them thence The Duke of Aquitain going to attaque them twenty or thirty of his most considerable Gentlemen fell into Holes cover'd over with Branches and green Turfs which the Normans had digged about the Avenues to their Camp This accident disheartned the rest from going on however the Normans fearing a ruder onset dislodg'd in the night and got into their Vessels but they were forced to give them what Ransom they pleased to demand for the Prisoners they had gotten Gefroy Duke or Earl of Bretagne for in those times the Dukes took indifferently the Titles of Earls dying his eldest Son Alain III. of that name succeeded him in his Dukedom and Eudes his second had the Earldom of Pontieure in Partage Alain espoused the Princess Avoise Sister of Duke Richard and by that means Normandy and Bretagne hitherto great Enemies were united in Alliance and Amity Year of our Lord 1020 21 c. There was a War begun from the year 1017. between Richard Duke of Normandy and Eudes or Odon Earl of Champagne and Chartres because Eudes would not give up the City of Dreux granted him in Dowry with Matilda the Sister of Richard who was lately dead so that Richard had built the Castle of Tilleres from whence he made incursions on the Country of Dreux Eudes put himself in a posture to surprize the Garison having with him the Counts Valeran de Meulan and Hugh du Mans but he was soundly beaten and put to the rout Year of our Lord 1022 The War growing hotter he raised so many Enemies against the Norman Duke that that Prince fearing to be overwhelmed sent to Lagman or Lacime King of Sueden to assist him and also Olaus King of Norway who being landed in Bretagne and having forced and sacked the City of Dole marched towards the Chartrain Country All France upon remembrance of their former Desolations fell into an extream apprehension and dread and the King bestirr'd himself with so much activity to quench this Flame that he brought the two Princes to an Agreement and satisfied the Northern Kings who returned again after the Norwegian had received Baptism at Rouen having the name of Robert give him at the Sacred Font. The Emperor Henry and King Robert desiring cordially to take away all cause of difference between them agreed upon an Interview at the River Meuse Whilst the Courtiers on either side were making several Scruples about the Place the Manner and such like trivial Circumstances and Punctillios and the two Princes on the contrary had it in their thoughts to outvye each other in Civility Henry passes the River early in the morning and pleasantly surprizes Robert who the next day repays his Visit in the same manner Both Treated one the other Magnificently and offered each very rich Presents to the other but Robert took only a Book being the New-Testament and a Reliquary or Shrine wherein was a Tooth of the Martyr St. â—incent which was enriched with Precious Stones and Henry a pair of Ear-Pendants Year of our Lord 1024 This last being dead at Bamberg the German Princes elected Conrad Duke of Wormes who could not go to Rome to receive the Imperial Crown till the year 1027. At first the Italian Princes and Prelats hating the Teutonick Nation who Treated them Peremptorily ruling as it were with a Rod in hand refused to obey and sent into Year of our Lord 1025 France to profer King Robert the Kingdom of Italy for his Son Hugh Upon his refusal they Addressed themselves to William Duke of Aquitain very well known in Rome by his frequent Pilgrimages He hearkned to the Proposal understood their Methods sent some thither to found them throughly and after went himself When he was amongst them he found nothing of all they had promised every one demanding of him instead of giving to him they propounded no Conditions but such as were very ridiculous so that finding they had a design upon his Purse and feared his Power he laughed at them and left them The imperious and proud Humour of Queen Constance gave the King perpetual trouble and displeasures who used all means to soften her One day being offended and angry with a favourite of his named Hugh de Beauvais who upheld the Husbands Spirit against her undertakings she makes her complaint to Fulk Earl of Anjou her Cousin intreating to Revenge her The Count sent twelve of his own Country Gentlemen who taking their opportunity when this Favourite was Hunting with the King seized on him and cruelly cut off his Head in the Kings presence without any regard to his Intreaties Year of our Lord 1025 The King was forced to put up this Affront for fear of a greater mischief and withall to endure this Step-mother should Treat his Son King Hugh with the
Vassals judging him uncapable to succeed from the imbecillity of his understanding a defect very ordinary in the Carolovinian Race Henry left all his Three Sons under the Guardianship of Baldwin Earl of Flanders who had Married his Sister and likewise entrusted him with the Regency of the Kingdom Queen Anne his Widdow retired to Senlis where she was building a Church in Honour of the Martyr St. Vincent Her Solitude was not so Austere but she could listen to the Addresses of Rodolph Earl of Grespy who was of that neighborhood She made no difficulty to Marry him and this Second Flame had like to have kindled a Civil War not for the difference in their Qualities for the Grandees went almost equal with their Kings but because Rodolph was of Kin to the First Husband for which reason the Bishops Excommunicated that Lord but nothing could make him let go his hold of her save death which untied him from his Princess Ann. 1066. Being a Widow and destitute of support she returned to end her days in her own Countrey Philip I. King XXXVIII Aged Seven or Eight years POPES Vacancy of Three Months Alex. II. Elect 1 Octob. 1061. S. Eleven years and neer Seven Months Gregory VII Son of a Carpenter Elect in April 21. 1073. S. Twelve years One Month. Victor III. Elect in May 1086. S. about One year Four Months Vacancy Five Months Urban II. Elect in March 1088. S. Eleven years and Four Months Paschal II. Elect 12. August 1099. S. Eighteen years and Five Months Year of our Lord 1060 61 and 62. ALL quietly gave Obedience to the Regency of Baldwin the Gascons only refused to submit themselves apprehending said they lest by that Title he should destroy his Pupil to invade the Crown upon pretension that he was Married to the Daughter of King Henry He wisely dissembled this injury but two years after marched an Army towards the Pyreneans giving out it was to make War upon the Saracens in Spain and when he had passed the Garonne he stopp'd in the Rebels Countrey and brought them to their Duty without striking a blow Year of our Lord 1062 Guy Gefroy-William Duke of Aquitain believed that Gefroy Martel Earl of Anjou being dead without Children his Nephews Sons of his Sister had no right to Xaintongne He would therefore seize it and besieged Xaintes his Army was defeated by the two Brothers neer Chef-Boutonne but the following year he got another Army and took the Town from them Year of our Lord 1062 and 63. The two Brothers minded not the relieving it they were at mortal feud amongst themselves Foulk le Rechin the younger of the two gained the Lords of Touraine and Anjou who betraid his Brother Gefroy and unfortunately deliver'd him up with the City of Anger 's In the mean while the Duke of Aquitain having re-conquered Saintongne led his victorious into Spain where he forced the City of Barbastre at that time very rich and renowned The Zeal of Religion did often lead the Princes and Lords of Aquitain and Languedoc into Spain to succour the Christians against the Saracens and their assistance raised and very much supported the petty Spanish Kings Year of our Lord 1064 Edward King of England whose Christian Virtues have placed him in the number of Saints dying without Children left his Kingdom by Will and Testament to William the Bastard Duke of Normandy in consideration of the good Reception and Treatment he found in the House of Robert his Father when he was driven out Year of our Lord 1064 of his own Countrey as likewise because he was neer of Kin. But the English not affecting the Government of a Stranger gave the Crown to Harold Son of Godwin one of the great Lords of the Kingdom The Bastard on his side sought from all parts the assistance of his Friends and Allies to get himself into possession of his Right insomuch as having got by his large promises a powerful Army of Normans French Flemmings and others together he landed in England gave Battle to Harold the 14th of October who was slain in the Fight with his chief Commanders and left England to the discretion of the Conquerour A Revolution thought to be presaged by a terrible Comet which for Fifteen days blazed with three great Rays over-spreading almost all the Southern parts of the Heavens Before William past the Sea hapned the death of Conan Duke of Bretagne it was said he caused him to be poysonn'd because he claimed the Dutchy of Normandy as belonging to him by his Mother Daughter of Duke Robert Hoel who was Married to his Sister succeeded him Year of our Lord 1067. and the following The English ill-Treated by Williams Lieutenants and Officers Revolted the following years and called in the Danes to their aid but that only increased their misery and yoak for he took from them almost all their Lands and even their antient Laws introducing and imposing those of his own Countrey as he did that Language in all Courts of Justice and instruments of Law withal putting such Lords as follow'd him in possession of English Mens Estates the greatest part of them being punished or slain Thus ended the Reign of the English in that Island which hath notwithstanding retained their Name but in effect hath ever since been sway'd and is still by the Norman Blood their Kings and the greatest of the Countrey being descended and holding their Rights of this William the Bastard to whom was given the Surname of Conquerour Year of our Lord 1067 Baldwin Regent of the Kingdom of France and Earl of Flanders ended his days An. 1067. He had Two Sons Baldwin called of Monts who was Earl of Flanders and Robert who was Surnamed the Frison as being Lord of that Countrey of Friesland Year of our Lord 1069 It is observed that in the year 1069. Arnold Lord of Selne began to build the City of Ardres upon the ruines of his Castle of Selne A War did soon break out between Baldwins two Sons the Eldest thinking to devest the Younger was by him beaten and slain in the field of Battle leaving two Sons Arnold and Baldwin very young The Guardianship of these begot a bloody contest between Robert their Uncle and Richilda their Mother This Princess supported by Gefroy Crook-Back Duke of the lower Lorrain defeated Roberts Army and thrust him out of a part of his Countreys This happy success made her so haughty Year of our Lord 1068 towards her Subjects that the Flemmings Flammengant forsook her and she had none left but the Walloons and the Hennuyars The King would have made himself Judge and Arbitrator between both parties but Richilda coming to Paris with great Presents gained his Counsel and engaged him openly to take her quarrel Year of our Lord 1070 The King inflamed with the heat of Youth would needs go in person to make his first Essay in War and Arms. It proved not very successful for he was beaten and pursued Richilda taken and carried
they held as what they produced how situated or some particularities of their Castles or such Office they bore Some there were that chose such things as preserved the memory of their brave Feats of Arms or some singular Adventure which had hapued to them or theirs and others in fine would have such as betokened their inclination not to mention those that would needs have their Coats out of a meer fantastical Humour and without any design These glorious Marks and Badges belonged otherwhile only to the Nobility and was not the least illustrious part of the Succession of their Noble Families Now at this time every one hath them the meanest villains are the most curious herein they have not only brought the ✚ Rebus's of the little Citizens Merchants Cyphers Shop-keepers Signs and Artists tools and implements into their Coats under the shadow of Crowns Helmets and Supporters but likewise by a confidence not to be endured they have made choice of the most illustrious things and given occasion to observe that there are no better Coats then the Arms of a Villain or Plebeian Year of our Lord 1096 97 98 and 99. From the first Croisade William Rufus King of England taking the opportunity of his Brothey Roberts absenc had seized on the Dutchy of Normandy Swoln with this increase of Power he promised himself to invade France because he saw the Excommunicated King languishing in the Arms of his Concubine who besides had but one lawful Son of 15 or 16 years of age and was destitute both of Money and Friends Nevertheless this young Prince surpassing his age did by his Courage and Virtue defend himself so well three years together that Rufus was forced to leave him in Peace and retired again into England In that Countrey letting himself loose to all sorts of infamous pleasures tiranny Year of our Lord 1100 and execrable wickedness both towards God and Man he perished in a tragical manner being as he was Hunting shot with an Arrow either designedly aimed at ☞ him or by chance which pierced his very Heart Henry his younger Brother got into the Throne during the absence of Duke Robert who was still in the Holy-Land Notwithstanding the Popes Excommunications the King had renewed society with Bertrade by the consent even of Foulk her Husband being so infinitely enchanted with that Woman that he was often seen at her Feet there to receive all her Year of our Lord 1098 99 and 1100. Commands as if he had been a Slave Some of the Belgick Bishops honour'd the Kings Adultery with the name of Marriage and on their great Feasts according to ancient custom placed the Crown upon her Head to shew or signifie they did not hold her to be Excommunicated but the Popes Legats denied to communicate with him and conven'd a Council at Poitiers in July where he was Excommunicated once more William Duke of Aquitain who feared the like Treatment having committed the like fault for he entertained a Concubine and had forsaken his lawful Wife affronted and abused the Prelats greatly and perhaps his Sorrow and Repentance for it afterwards prompted him to go to the Holy Land as we have observed The King constant in his Affections solicited the Popes Favour so earnestly that he sent some Legats to re-view the Cause Year of our Lord 1101 They assembled a Council at Baugency The King and Bertrade promised to abstain from each other till the Popes Dispensation and thus the Council broke up Year of our Lord 1102 without giving any Judgment The King continued with the recommendation of the Bishops to endeavour the obtaining a Dispensation in the Court of Rome in the end he had it he was Absolved in the City of Paris and his Marriage confirmed so officacious is constancy even in things not commendable The opposition of the Bishops served only to authorize the use of Dispensations from Rome which since have been very common in all matters and occasions Young Lewis whom they named the Prince of the Kingdom and was designed King by his Father it is not specified in what year took the Government of Affairs Year of our Lord 1102 3. and the following PHILIP LEWIS Surnamed the Gross designed King aged 19 or 20 years In those times the Rights of the French were such that they could not legally arrest the Lords nor punish them with death unless it were for Treason but only deprive them of their Lands I mean those they held of the King they called them Honours This was it that gave them Licence to arme to oppress the weaker to rob and plunder and above all usurp the Goods of the Church Year of our Lord 1100 Lewis had to do first with Bouchard Lord of Montmorency against whom he embraced the Cause of the Monks of St. Denis whose Lands that Lord had pillaged and having appeared according to an assignation in the Kings Court of Justice refused to obey the Sentence or Judgment given against him therein He forced him by destroying and burning all his Villages and his Castle it self to submit to Reason In like manner he chastifed Droco or Dreux de Mouchy and Lionnet de Meun who tyrannized this over the Churches of Orleans the other over those of Beauvais Also he humbled Matthew Count of Beaumont upon Oise Son-in-law to Hugh Earl of Clermont in Beauvoisis who having half of the Lands of Luzarches in Dowry had seized upon all and had devested the good Man his Father-in-law Year of our Lord 1103 He durst or would not intermeddle with the quarrel between the two Norman Brothers Robert and Henry The First upon his return from the Holy Land demanded the Kingdom of England of his younger Brother who had usurped it after the death of William Rufus The business after three years Negotiation and War was determined in this manner Robert An. 1107. having lost a Battle at Tinchâ—bray in Normandy was made prisoner by his cruel Brother who deprived him of Sight by placing a burning Bason of Brass before his Eyes whereof he dyed in Prison Thus the whole Succession of William the Conquerer remained in Henry the youngest of his three Sons Year of our Lord 1103 In the year 1103. Lewis passed into England to King Henry I cannot tell upon what design Bertrade his Mother-in-law who could willingly have sent him out of the World sollicited Henry to make him away and this Artifice failing she caused poison to be given him at his return into France which put him in great hazard of his Life Year of our Lord 1104 The King to rid himself of the trouble brought upon him by the Family of Montlehery agreed upon a Marriage with Guy Troussel betwixt Philip his Son and bertrade to whom he gave the Earldom of Mantes on condition that Guy should deliver him the Castle of Montlehery which he did Year of our Lord 1104 At the same time or a little after Guy Lord of Rochefort Uncle of Troussel entirely possessing the Kings
others But the Popes durst not shock these Kings so rudely It was good Policy not to make so many Enemies at once to keep France in reserve as a Refuge against the Emperors and bring down the Germans first because they troubled them most The Peace between the two Kings Lewis and Henry was of no long duration The Friends of the late Duke Robert and William his Son declared for Lewis and the Earls of Anjou and of Flanders served him zealously as Thibald Earl of Champagne served Henry who was his Uncle Year of our Lord 1119 Baldwin Earl of Flanders being wounded upon an assault of the little Castle of Bures in Caux did so inflame his Wound with his Debauches that he died of it at Aumale Charles surnamed the Good Son of his Sister and Camut King of Denmark succeeded him in the Earldom of Flanders and maintain'd himself there courageously notwithstanding that Clemence of Burgundy Mother of Baldwin who was again Married to Godfrey Earl of Louvain endeavoured to make it fall into the hands of a Bastard of Flanders named William of Ypres who had Married her Neece After a world of Ravages Firings Sieges Surprizes and Plunderings of Places after two great Battles fought betwixt the two Kings one in the Plain of Bâ—eneville near Noyon on Andelle where the French had the worst the other near Breâ—euil where the success was doubtful Pope Calixtus as the common Father being come expressly Year of our Lord 1120 to Gisors brought them to agree by persuadin them to restore what places they had taken to each other Thus the Dutchy remained to Henry who gave it to his eldest Son William surnamed Adelin in wrong of William his Nephew This Peace did not put an end to his grief and troubles For a few weeks after he lost his three Sons and with them above Three hundred Gentlemen the flower of Year of our Lord 1120 his Nobility and his best Captains It was a strange misfortune They being Embarqued at Harfleur to go into England their Seamen who were drunk split the Ship as they were getting out of Harbor And at the same time his Nephew's Friends and Partisans stirred up new Disturbances in Normandy and re-engaged the King of France to uphold them Which renewed the Desolations of that Province In Anno 1119. died Alain surnamed Fergeant Duke of Bretagne Son of Hoel who departed this Life Anno 1084. His Son Conan surnamed the Gross or Ermengard succeeded him This Alain if we believe the Historian of Bretagne prescribed certain Forms and Rules for the doing Justice in his Country where before it was administred very confusedly For he Establisht a Seneschal at Renes to whom he would have all Persons to resort unless those of the County of Nantes who had one likewise and began to hold an Assembly or Parliament which judged of Appeals from the Seneschals of Rennes and Nantes for in Matters Criminal there lay no Appeal There were no certain and fixed Officers no more then any certain times for sitting They afterwards made a President in the absence of the Chancellor and a Master of Requests Year of our Lord 1123 The death of Hugh III. of that name Duke of Burgundy to whom succeeded Odon his eldest Son who Married Mary the Daughter of Thibauld Earl of Champagne Year of our Lord 1123 The War grew hotter in Normandy betwixt the French and King Henry and was ca ried on with various success But Henry found nothing more troublesome then his Domestick Officers and Servants who had framed a Conspiracy against his Life He could confide in no body he trembled at the approach of all that came near him he died a thousand times a day for fear they would Murther him and in the night shifted Beds five or six times and changed his Guards not thinking he was safe in any place believing there were none but Enemies about him Year of our Lord 1124 The Emperor reconciled himself with the Pope and laid down the Investitures But his Wrath still boiling in him would needs discharge it self upon France Year of our Lord 1124 He had Married Matilda Daughter of the English King for that reason as likewise for the Resentment he conceived because Lewis had protected Pope Calixtus he raised a very great Army to destroy and lay that City of Reims flat with the ground where Calixtus had held the Council against him Lewis on his side resolved to draw all the Forces of his whole Kingdom together even to the very Priests and Friers so that in a short time he had 200000 Men out of the Isle of France Champagne and Picardy only The Emperor having information of these prodigious Levics found it safer for him not to come into the Country of Messin but retire At his return Triumphant Lewis brings back the Martyrs Holy Standard called the Oriflamme and deposites it again in St. Denis whence he had taken it rendred Solemn Thanks to those Glorious Saints carried their Shrines upon his Shoulders which had been taken down and exposed on the high Altar during all the time of the War and made or confirmed several Grants to that Abby especially the Fair of Lendit out of the City for they had one already within Vpon this occasion we may observe the difference there was between the Forces of France and the Kings For when he made a War for himself he could have only the People of those Countries properly in his own possession and they served but unwillingly but when it was the Kingdoms Cause or Concern all the Forces of France were in action every Lord came in Person and brought all his Subjects along with him Year of our Lord 1125 The Emperor Henry being dead the Princes of Germany brought in Lotaire Duke of Saxony who likewise retaining the Kingdom of Burgundy as united to the Empire Renold Duke of Burgundy refused to acknowledge him For which he would have deprived him of his Earldom and have bestow'd it upon Bertold Duke of Zeringhen and this begot a bloody War between these two Houses who fought till the time of Frederick I. who Married Beatrix the Daughter of Renold This year 1126. the King received the Complaints made by the Bishop of Clermont Year of our Lord 1126 concerning the Usurpations and Tyrannies of Robert Earl d'Auvergne and going Year of our Lord 1126 thither in Person forced the Earl notwithstanding the Rocks and Castles of his High-Lands or Mountains to submit to Reason Five or six years after the repeated Violences of the same Earl engaged him to make a second Expedition and besiege Montferrand The Duke of Aquitain came to relieve his Vaslal but having from the height of a Mountain taken a view of the great Strength and Forces the King had with him he sent to offer him all Obedience and brought the Earl as far as Orleans to demand Pardon and submit to all that should be injoyned him Year of our Lord 1126 Death of
William VIII Duke of Aquitain Aged Fifty six years He left his Possessions to William IX his Son who was the last Duke of those Countries The Father had Married Emma only Daughter of William Earl of Arles and Toulouze and Brother of Raimond de Saint Gilles By her he pretended to the Earldom of Toulouze but Raimond de Saint Gilles said his Brother had sold it to him before he went to the Holy Land It caused a War between William Duke of Aquitain and Alphonsus Son of Raimond and afterwards again between Queen Elionor and the same Alphonso Year of our Lord 1127 Whilst Charles most justly surnamed the Good prudently governing Flanders relieving the Poor protecting the Clergy and doing Justice to all a Family in Bruges abounding in Riches and in numbers of Men but of Servile Race taking offence for that he had commanded them to open their Granaries in the time of Famine and withall being instigated by the Bastard William of Ypres plotted the Death of this Prince So that one Morning before day-light whilst he was at Prayers in St. Donats Church at Bruges these Villains Murther'd him at the foot of the Altar The horror of the Fact and intreaties of the Nobility of the Country made the King take Horse immediately to revenge this Parricide He besieged the wretched Authors in the Church and having taken them punished the two principal very severely For one after they had put out his Eyes and cut off his Nose was bound to a Wheel planted very high where they pierced him with an infinite number of Arrows and Darts thorough every part of his Body The other was hanged on a Gallows with a Dog tied on his Head whom they beat continually that he might tear his Head in pieces All the rest who fled into the Steeple were cast down from the top to the bottom and dasht against the Ground This done he adjudged the Earldom to William of Normandy Son to Duke Robert as being the nearest or next Heir without any regard to Baldwin Earl of Hainault and to William of Ypre who pretended a Right The last obstinately strugling to carry it by force the King handled him so roughly that he took from him the City of Ypre and all the Lands he held in Flanders Year of our Lord 1128 As little gained Stephen Brother to the Earl of Champagne who was Earl of Boulogne by his Wife though the King of England his Uncle supported him in this design not so much to advance him as out of hatred to the King of France and a fear of the growing greatness of his Nephew William The King finding that with the Assistance of the Earl of Hainaults and Godfrey of Namurs Forces he had besieged Ypres led his Army into that Country again gave them Chace and secured the Country to William However the Covetousness of this Prince vexing his new Subjects with Imposts he wanted not and selling of Offices the principal Cities revolted and invited in Thierry Earl of Alsatia whom they owned for their Prince and in truth he was of the Blood of their Counts by the Female side The King therefore made a third March towards those Quarters and advanced as sar as Artois to serve William but not finding things disposed so as he expected he came his ways back again William did not lose Courage for all this He gave Battle near Alost to Thierry and put him to the rout but pursuing his Victory he received a Wound in his Arm which being ill-dress'd caused his Death and after that all the Disturbances raised in Normandy by his Partisans wholly ceased In this Kings Reign there were four Brothers private Gentlemen of the Family of the Garlands Anseau William Stephen and Giselbert who had the greatest share in the favour of the King in his Council and Offices Anseau had that of Grand Seneschal or Dapifer which he held in Fief of the Earl of Anjou who was the Lord Suzerain for in those times Offices and Dignities were granted in Fief and even the Contributions or Offerings and other Revenues proceeding from the Charity and Devotion of the Faithful Stephen who was Archdeacon of Paris was provided with that of Chancellor and Giselbert with that of Butler Now Anseau being slain at the Siege of Puiset Anno 1118. the King bestowed his Office upon William and he being dead about the year 1120. Stephen desired it rather for himself then for his younger Brother Giselbert This was a Monster that never any Reason nor any Example could justisie a Soldering-Priest making profession to spill Human Blood And indeed all good People had him in horror but his Ambition and the flattery of Courtiers who lay the fairest Colours upon the fowlest Facts stopp'd his Ears that he might not hear the just Reproaches of his Brethren nor the checks of his Conscience His Pride ascended to that height to shock Queen Alix who had Spirit enough not to endure it and it was perhaps for that reason that he would surrender his Office to Amaulry de Montfort who was Married to his Neece the Daughter and Heiress of Anseau Year of our Lord 1128 c. The King not thinking that convenient he dared to take up Arms against him and made a League with the King of England Thibauld Earl of Champagne and other of his Masters Enemies plainly demonstrating thereby that in his former Services his ✚ aim was not the good of the Kingdom but his own Grandeur The King vigorously assaulted the Castle of Livry which they had fortified they shot at him and he was wounded in the Thigh with an Arrow The smart of his Wound redoubling his Anger he forced the Castle and razed it In fine he continued to make so hot a War upon them that Stephen was constrained to renounce the Office of Seneschal But the Party being strong he thought fit to leave him that of Chancellor Year of our Lord 1129 Great toil and labour more then number of years making Lewis old he found it fitting the better to secure the Kingdom to his Family to have his eldest Son Philip Crowned Which was performed in the City of Reims the 14th of April being Easter-day in presence of Henry King of England his Vassal LEWIS the Gross and PHILIP his Son HEnry likewise having no Children by his second Wife caused his Daughter Matilda Widow of the Emperor Henry to be acknowledged and accepted of as Heiress to his Crown and Dominions and Re-Married her to Gefroy surnamed Plantagenet Son and future Successor to Fulk Earl of Anjou The Party was good and besides he made it his choice thereby to divide this House of Anjou which had given him so much trouble from the King of France's Party and joyn it to his Interest King Lewis who had defended the Churches and protected the Clergy changed his Language towards the end of his Reign because they carried themselves too haughtily towards him and would not suffer he should meddle with the
trampled under foot the People Merchants Clergy Widows and Orphans were exposed to Rapine and Plunder The Lords and Gentlemen had all of them Castles from whence they fallied out to Rob upon the High-ways upon Rivers and the defenceless Countries As soon as he could ride on Horseback he buckled on his Armour running wherever the Oppressed cried out to him for help and sighting Personally as a private Soldier so that having brought many of these Tyrannets to Reason he began to settle things again in order and security He had by his Wife Alix Daughter of Humbert Earl of Savoy Seven Children yet living Six Sons and one Daughter The Sons were Lewis who Reigned Henry who was a Monk at Clerveaux then Bishop of Beauvais Hugh of whom we know nothing but his Name Robert who for his share had the Earldom of Dreux from whom sprung the Branch of the Earls of that name Peter who Married Isabella Daughter and Heiress of Renaud Lord of Courtenay whence came the Branch of Courtenay whereof there are yet some younger Brothers or Cadets Philip who was Archdeacon of Paris and being elected Bishop had so much modesty that he yielded it to Peter Lombard called the Master of Sentences whose Book hath served as a foundation of School-Divinity The Daughter was called Constance she was Married first to Eustace Earl of Boulogne by whom she had no Children her second Marriage was with Raymond V. Earl of Toulouze As for Scholastick Learning it is fit we observe that towards the end of the Reign of Lewis the Gross a Philosopher named John Rousselin and after him the famous Peter Abelard his Disciple both Bretons introduced in the Schools certain Notions and certain Expressions with a Sophistical manner of Arguing drawn from Philosophy and applied to Theology which hath intangled it with Questions subtil and dangerous and which savour more of the Metaphisicks then of the Holy Scripture The great Wits of those times having nothing better to apply themselves to there being none that taught the true Sciences nor good Literature fell all into these Ergotries Lewis called the Young King XL. POPES INNOCENT II. S. Six years under this Reign CELESTINE II. Elected in Sept. 1143. S. Five Months and an half LUCIUS II. Elected in March 1144. S. Eleven Months and an half ANASTASIUS IV. Elected in July 1153. S. One year and five Months ADRIAN IV. Elected in Dec. 1154. S. Four years and near eight Months ALEX. III. Elected in Sept. 1159. S. almost Twenty two years LEWIS called the Young during his Fathers Life time and the Pious King XL. Aged Nineteen or Twenty years Year of our Lord 1137 AFter Lewis the Young had taken possession of Guyenne he brought his new Spouse to Paris where he laboured with his Council to establish the publick Safety and that Justice which some petty Tyrants began to disturb afresh Ranfomming the Common People and Merchants The Cities to defend themselves from these Oppressions had framed Communities that is to say created Popular Magistrates with power to Assemble the Citizens and Arm them For this end they must have the Kings Letters Patents which he granted willingly with many fair Priviledges thereby to oppose them against the overgrown power of the Lords Some Citizens of Orleans making use of this power to the prejudice of the Regal Authority and running into Mutinies he repress'd them as he past that way and brought them to their Duty again Year of our Lord 1138 As he was Soveraign Lord of Normandy he was obliged to concern himself in the Dispute between Gefroy Plantagenet Husband to Matilda and Stephen Earl of Blois and Boulogne who disputed it between them At first he took part with Gefroy invested him in the Dutchy and received Hommage from him and in Recompence Gefroy gave him the Normand Vexin but when Stephen who was come over from England had got some advantage upon Gefroy Lewis changing his Party puts his Son Eustace into possession aged not above Fourteen or Fifteen years and gave his Sister Constance in Marriage to him The Schism in the Roman Church was extinguished by the Death of Anacletus and after by the Cession of Victor whom the Cardinals of Anacletus had elected Pope The Emperor Lotaire II. deceased in a thatched Cabbin the Third of December Anno 1138. After four Months Interregnum Conra d III. of that name was elected Year of our Lord 1139 Roger having made himself Master of the Dutchy of Puglia by the Death of Duke Reynold Feudatary to the Holy See bad taken Pope Innocent Prisoner who made War upon him without Mercy ever since he got into the Papacy Now having him in his own hands be obliged him partly by force partly by his good Vsage and Respect to confirm the Title of King of Sicily to him which Anacletus the Anti-Pope had already bestowed upon him Thus began the Kingdom of Sicily which besides the Island likewise comprehended Puglia and Calabria that is to say what we now call the Kingdom of Naples Thierry of Alsatia goes into the Holy Land with great numbers of the Nobility to the relief of Fulk King of Jerusalem his Wives Father and leaves the Administration of his Earldom of Flanders in the hands of Sibylla his Wife Stephen returned into England is vanquish'd and taken by Robert Earl of Gloucester Bastard Brother to Matilda William of Ipres a brave Soldier who had taken Sanctuary in that Country found a way to make this Robert Prisoner the sole Counsellor and Support of Matilda so that to get him again she releases Stephen but during the time he was under Restraint Gefroy recover'd a great part of Normandy Year of our Lord 1139 This year Alfonso I. Duke of Portugal having obtained a most famous Victory over five petty Moorish Kings or Generals was saluted and proclaimed King by his Army Five Year of our Lord 1139 years after he renders his Estates Tributary to the Holy Chair to pay down four Ounces of Gold annually Anno 1078. he puts it wholly under the protection of the Pope and encreases the Tribute unto two Marks of Gold upon which Condition Alexander II. confirmed the Title of King to him This Alfonso was the Son of one Henry who going into Spain about the year 1089. to seek his Fortunes Married Tresa Daughter of Alfonso VI. King of Castile and had for Dowry the Earldom of Portugal formerly gained by him from the Moors The most exact Genealogists assure us that this King Henry was of the French Blood being Son say they of another Henry who was Son of Robert Duke of Burgundy Son of King Robert Year of our Lord 1140 We do not find during these years any Stirs or Troubles in the King of Frances Territories unless it were some Contentions amongst the Divines Peter Abelard disputing with too much subtilty concerning the Trinity and other Misteries of Faith had given occasion to accuse him of Novelty and Error for which he was condemned by the
de Creme who named himself Paschal and was confirmed by Frederick But Alexander III. recalled by the Romans left France the year following and returned to Rome to put an end to that Schism Year of our Lord 1165 In the year 1165. Lewis had a Son born whom he believed Heaven had sent him in return of his Prayers For this reason he was surnamed Dieu-Donne i. e. Gift of God or God-Gift and after for his brave Acts the Conqueror which Paul Emilius has rendred by Interpretation Augustus and is followed in the same by all the Modern Historians Year of our Lord 1166 The Life of Conan the Little Duke of Bretagne which had been ever full of trouble ended Anno 1166. to make room for Gefroy of Normandy his Son-in-Law This Prince being yet but Fifteen years of Age remained together with his Datchy under the Guardianship of the King his father for some time after which being at liberty he begins a War against him because he would make him do Hommage for his Dukedom a Duty he required by vertue of a Treaty made by Charles the Simple with Rollo Duke of Normandy Year of our Lord 1168 Thierry of Alsatia Earl of Flanders dies at Gravelin Philip his Son governs after him Year of our Lord 1169 70. The Feud was renewed between the two Kings upon several occasions one was the Earl d'Auvergne whom Lewis as Soveraign Lord took into his protection and safeguard against Henry to whom the Earl was a Vassal holding of him in Aquitain the other the support he gave to Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury The War thereupon breaks forth and lasted for two years however it was carried on but slowly and so as the Respect either of them had for Pope Alexanders Mediation brought them to an Agreement for some time Year of our Lord 1170 These two Princes having Conferr'd together at Saint Germain en Laye concluded the Peace betwixt them and there the King of England's Sons rendred Hommage to Lewis for those Lands their Father assured to them by advance of Inheritance Henry of the Dutchy of Normandy the County of Anjou and the Office of Grand Seneschal joyned thereto from the time of Grisegonnelle as also the Earldoms du Maine and de Touraine and the second named Richard of the Dakedom of Aquitain as for the third which was Gefroy he had Bretagne by his Wife and ow'd Hommage to none but the Duke of Normandy The Kings Intercession obtained of Henry that Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury might return into England but he continuing to act with the same heat four Gentlemen of Henry's Court out of Complaisance as mean as detestable having plotted and contrived to deliver their King of him entred the Church at Canterbury where that Holy Prelat was reading Service it was on the Christmas Holy-days and Murther'd him at the foot of the Altar Year of our Lord 1171 Though the King disown'd this Murther and shewed an extream grief nevertheless Year of our Lord 1172 having given cause to commit it if perhaps he did not command it the Pope Year of our Lord 1173 made a mighty business of it from which he could not get clear without submitting to great Pennance and such Reparations and Satisfactions as was ordained by his Legats The Holy Archbishop revered as a Martyr was Canonized the following year and the frequent Miracles wrought on his Tomb attested his Holiness Year of our Lord 1173 Every year almost there was some Rupture then a Peace or Truce between the two Kings either concerning their own proper Interests or that of their Friends and Vassals Lewis had this advantage that being the Soveraign Lord he had a right of hearing the Complaints of Henry's Vassals and of making himself his Judge Year of our Lord 1173 He had stirred up many in Aquitain and Normandy but this year he Armed his own Children against him The eldest with Margaret his Wife being gone to Visit him and having staid some time in that Court had a fancy put into his Head that since he was Crowned he ought to Reign and to demand of his Father the enjoyment either of the Kingdom of England or the Dukedom of Normandy With this disposition and fretted for that his Father had taken some young People from about him who gave him such like ill Counsels he stole away one Night from him and came and cast himself into the Arms of the King Immediately all the young Nobility follows him Queen Alienor favours him his two Brothers Richard Duke of Aquitain and Gefroy of Brâ—tagne joyns with him and those whole Provinces follow their Motions The King of France takes them into his protection William King of Scotland declares for them and attaques England whither at the same time went some French Forces under the Command of Robert Earl of Leicester Year of our Lord 1174 It seemed therefore as if the unhappy Father must needs be overwhelm'd on a suddain but he overthrew all the Enemies Lewis having taken Verneuil au Perche durst not hold it and retreated before him The Earl of Leicester is defeated in England and all those that followed him either slain or taken then all the Kingdom reduced in less then Thirty days by old Henry who went thither presently after this defeat Year of our Lord 1175 The following year whilst he was doing Pennance at St. Thomas Becket's Tomb William King of Scotland his most capital Enemy loses a Battle against his Lieutenants and was taken Prisoner The Fleet of young Henry is dispersed and disabled by Tempest King Lewis who had carried Philip Earl of Flanders with him is rudely repulsed from Rouen so that finding Henry who was come over-Seas again to Relieve this City made ready to give him Battle he hearkens to a Truce for some Months Year of our Lord 1175 Whilst that lasted old Henry going into Poitou and subduing Richard the worst of his three Rebellious Sons who held that Country all the others returned to their Obedience and he enters upon a Treaty of Peace with Lewis who gave him Alix his Daughter for his Son Richard and put her into his hands to compleat the Marriage when she should be Age for it Year of our Lord 1177 The two Kings now grown old were weary of so many Wars and Disturbances Either of them had cause to fear the one the activity of his three most valiant Sons the other the weakness of his only Heir as yet too young so that they confirmed the Peace by new Oaths promised mutual friendship against all others and took up a resolution to go joyntly into Languedoc to extirpiate those Hereticks already mentioned by us But they thought it more convenient first to send the Popes Legat thither with three or four other Prelats to endeavour to reclaim them by Exhortations and Anathema's which converted and brought back a great many and kept the rest within bounds for some time These Hereticks were all called Albigensis because they propaged
Boulogne had served Philip very well since his Reconciliation and had likewise been very well recompenc'd by a great deal of good Land bestow'd upon him in that Country Nevertheless the King suspecting him of holding Correspondence with the King of England demands his strong Holds of him and upon his refusal to deliver them he attaques them and press'd upon him so briskly that he durst not defend them but went away to the Earl of Bar his Kinsman and from thence to Flanders Year of our Lord 1212 Although King John had been Excommunicate the precedent year by the Popes Legat he scoff'd at those Censures But he was hugely astonished when he understood that by a more terrible Sentence the Pope had absolv'd his Subjects of their Allegiance and expos'd his Kingdom as a Prey and that King Philip made great preparations to invade it having already a prodigious number of Vessels ready at the mouth of the Seine The Legat by secret Informations increases his fears and disturbs him to that height as he promises to make his Kingdom hold of the Holy See and to pay a thousand Mark of Silver as a yearly Tribute besides the Peter-Pence When the Legat had wire-drawn all he desired from him he tries to persuade Philip to wave his Enterprize but he was too far engag'd in Honour and Expence to break off so Year of our Lord 1213 All the Lords of the Kingdom in a Parliament held at Soissons the Morrow after Palm-Sunday had promis'd to assist him with their Lives and Fortunes There was only Ferrand Son of Sancho I. King of Portugal Earl of Flanders that refused to accompany him in this Expedition unless he would restore the Cities of Aire and St. Omer which he had gotten from him to have his consent that he might Marry the Heiress of Flanders who was the eldest Daughter of Baldwin V. The King thought that his approach might bring him back to his Duty when he should see him on those Coasts ready to Embarque Therefore when he was at Boulogne he sent him order to come and meet him at Graveline The Earl made them wait for him but he appeared not so that the King resolv'd before he took Shipping to put him in a Condition not to be able to hurt him Year of our Lord 1213 The Towns of Ipres Cassel and all the Country to Bruges submitted to his Sword His Naval Force consisting of One thousand seven hundred Sail having cast Anchor at Dam. While the greatest part were in the Road with scarce any Men comes the English Fleet Commanded by the Earls of Boulogne and Salisbury who took and sunk a great many and laid Siege to the place Philip decamping from before Ghent routs those they had sent on shoar and slew two or three thousand Nevertheless they keeping the Seas and his Vessels not being able to get out without falling into their hands he took out all their Furniture and caused them all to be burnt and the City of Dam afterwards Year of our Lord 1213 Then having wasted and plundred the Territory of Bruges squeezed great Sums of Money from those Citizens as likewise from the Inhabitants of Ghent and Ipres sack'd and dismantled L'Isle he left his Son Lewis and Gaucher Count de Saint Pol in that Country with a strong Body of Horse and Garisons in the Cities of Doway and Tournay only When he was retir'd out of Flanders the Earl Ferrand re-entred and soon Master'd Tournay and L'Isle which Lewis was beginning to repair as in revenge Lewis sack'd and burnt Courtray Philip for the second time goes into Flanders to secure his Conquests and presently Ferrand withdraws but as soon as Philip was gone Renauld Earl of Boulogne took the Field with some Forces he brought out of England But without doing any Exploit only after he scowred about the Country once or twice and attempted two or three Sieges in vain he forced Henry Earl of Louvain and Duke of Brabant who had Married one of the Kings Daughters to joyn with him On the other side King John landed at Rochel with a great Army and having patch'd up again with the Earls de la Marche d'Eu d'Angoulesme de Lezignan and other Poitevins who assisted him with their Forces crosses Poitou made himself Master of some places in Anjou and began to rebuild the Walls of Anger 's his Native City To hinder this Progress the King recall'd his Son out of Flanders and sets him in opposition This Prince takes his head Quarters at Chinon and was seconded with the Forces of Bretagne by Peter de Dreux who this year had Married the Heiress of that Dutchy It was Alix or Alice Daughter of the Dutchess Constance and Guy de Touars Year of our Lord 1213 In the mean while the English wrought diligently about the fortifying Anger 's and enclosed that part towards the River of Maine with a Wall His Soldiers made excursions to the very Suburbs of Nantes on the other side of the Loire surpriz'd Robert the eldest Son of the Earl of Dreux in an Ambuscade who was got over the Bridge to attaque them cut his Men in pieces and made him Prisoner Peter King of Arragon having gotten into his League and under his Protection the Earls of Toulouze de Foix and de Comenges the Vicount de Beziers and others whose Lands Montfort had usurp'd sâ—â—t his Heraulds to deâ—ie him Montfort had left a strong Garison in Muret to make waste in the Neighbourhood of Toulouze This King lays Siege to it in the Month of September His Army consisted of an Hundred thousand Men almost Montfort who was at Castlenaudry having hardly drawn together a thousand or twelve hundred got into the place From whence making a furious Sally upon the King who slighting so small a number set down to eat at the beginning of the Fight cut all his Army off threw him on the ground where his Throat was cut by a private Soldier took his Royal Standard which was carried in Triumph to Rome and cover'd the Field with dead Bodies without the loss of Year of our Lord 1213 above eight Men. The weighty blow of this Club made the Earl of Toulouze and the Inhabitants of that great City fall down at the Legats Feet they offer'd to submit to whatever Conditions he would impose but they could not get off with words it was resolv'd they should be plum'd of all Year of our Lord 1214 This year 1214. France was shrewdly attaqu'd by King John and on the Flanders side by the Emperor Otho and the Counts Ferrand of Flanders and Renauld de Boulogne but both in the one and the other part his Arms remained Victorious Prince Lewis having drawn his Forces together at Chinon march'd resolutely against King John who besieged the Castle de la Roche au Moine upon the Loire between Anger 's and Nantes Being within a days Journey of that place that King was frighted repasses the River in such great haste
assign a Council in a place of safety where every one might come Friend or Foe as well those of the Clergy as the Laity to judge whether he or the Emperor had broke the Peace and to consider of some means to restore it again Gelasius II. said the same thing and that he would acquiesce in the Judgment of his Brothers the Bishops whom God had Constituted Judges in his Church and without whom a Cause of that Nature could not be determined Innocent III. wrote word That he durst not decide any thing concerning the Marriage of King Philip II. without the determination of a General Council and that if he should do it he might run the hazard of his Order and of his Office very remarkable words for that they seem to insinuate that a Pope may be deposed not only for Heresie but likewise for abusing his Power In those times they were likewise obliged to govern the Church by Advice of the Cardinals whose Power was raised to such a height since the year One thousand that they were the Collaterals and Coadjutors of the Pope saith St. Bernard that their Priviledges or Rights were greater then those of the Patriarchs and the Primates and that they had the Power of giving Authentick Censures against the Popes themselves The assistance and ability of so many great Men chosen out of all the Western Churches as fill'd this sacred Colledge did not a little help the Popes in bearing the great burthen of Affairs and maintaining and encreasing their Authority in the remotest Countries But when they were once become great enough by their assistance they freed themselves from their dependance and now they only ask them their opinions and do not think themselves at all obliged to follow what they Advise or Councel As for the disposing of Benefices they had gotten the greatest into their own power as the Archbishopricks Bishopricks and Abbies by making themselves Masters of the Elections under pretence of judging those Differences that hapned betwixt opposite Parties and the lesser as the Dignitaries and Canons of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches by their recommendations to the Chapters in favour of those Clergy-Men that follow'd their Court. When having often obtained the thing desired they at length turned such Recommendation into an absolute Command by the instigation of Flatterers and interessed People and then that was follow'd with Reservations and after with Expectatives the abuse whereof went on increasing still notwithstanding the Pragmatick of St. Louis and the Remedies Philip le Bel or the Faire would have applied and lasted till the time of the great Schism when King Charles VI. and after him Charles VII set roundly upon it and brought back all Elections Collations and Presentations to the same method and order as had been Decreed by General Councils without any regard or respect to those pretences and claims the Court of Rome had taken up and exercised In the Fifth Age not only the Bishops but almost all the Church-men on this side the Mountains had taken up that pious Custom of going to Rome to visit the Sepulchres of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul as it were to pay their Hommage and testifie they held the same Faith which those Apostles had preached At the same time they paid their Respects to their Holy Fathers who in length of time converted this Voluntary Devotion into an indispensable Obligation in so much as they highly reproached such as omitted it Dispensations were utterly unknown in the first Ages and when they did begin to give them it was not to allow them to infringe the Canons but rather to absolve those that had infringed them After the Eleventh Age the use grew very frequent I observe four or five causes The continual Wars between private Persons as well as between Princes The multiplicity of Decrees which were so numerous it was difficult to avoid breaking some or other of them The corruption of Manners and the little regard they had for Ecclesiastical Orders or Rules insomuch as they obliged to obviate that scorn by granting Dispensations and they thought to hide or conceal the Transgression by permitting it The Popes however did not dispense in things against our Faith nor against good Manners but in those that were only forbidden or permitted by positive Law As for the Divine Law they did not directly dispense with that but by Interpretation and by Declaration As for the Exemptions of Monasteries we have observed in the Sixth Age how they began by the concessions of the Bishops and how all the Grandees affected to obtain them for such as they founded The first we find that were allowed them was only to free the Monks from Temporal Payments and Duties Afterwards they obtained some kind of Priviledges to be added amongst others That they should chuse their own Abbots That they should be Masters of their own Discipline and that the Bishops should Ordain Priests for them at their Request In fine they found out means to extend them to the Spiritual Jurisdiction and free themselves from any dependance upon Bishops to which three things were required the Bishops Consent the Authority of the Holy Chair and the Pragmatick Sanction of the King The number of these Exemptions encreasing day by day the Pope arrogates to himself the power of giving them and of submitting the Monasteries to the Holy See maugre the Bishops Diocesans He did the very same in relation to some Bishops and some Chapters substracting these from their Bishops and the Bishops from their Metropolitans Vertuous Men could not held their Tongues upon these Disorders their Writings mention it yet St. Bâ—ruard though a Monk and very ✚ zealous for the Holy Chair highly condemned them For to exempt the Abbots from the Jurisdiction of the Bishops what was it else said that great Saint but to command them to Felony and Rebellion and was it not as monstrous a deformity in the Body of the Church to unite an Abby or a Chapter immediately to the Holy Chair as in a Human Body to joyn and fasten a Finger to the Head These favours were not bestow'd gratis at Rome the Abbots and Monks stript their Monasteries to purchase this independance and made them oft-times Tributary to the Holy See of many Silver Marks which they paid yearly The Abbots notwithstanding these Exemptions were still obliged after their Election to render Obedience to their Bishops and by a Writing but the most part refused it so that the Council of Rheims was forc'd to make a Decree to compel them and yet they did over-much care to submit to it which Disobedience was so far carried into a common Right that Henry II. King of England made bitter complaints to Pope Innocent II. for that Hugh Archbishop of Rouen exacted this said Duty of the Abbots of Normandy The Pope perceiving with what heat the King wrote to him sent to the Archbishop that he should for a time forbear to ask that Right too
Monk as well as his own choice The Father might put his Children into the Monastery without acquainting the Mother and even against her will He had that power over them till they were Ten years of Age afterwards that Term was enlarged to Thirteen says Yves de Charâ—res and then to Fourteen as we find it in Gratian. When the Father had resolv'd and destined his Son to Monachism he offer'd him to God in the Church belonging to the Convent wrapped all over or sometimes only the Arm in the Altar Cloth and by that Devotion obliged him so fully that he could not gainsay it But Clement III. and Calistus III. changed that too unnatural Right and Power and declared That those Children ought not to be compell'd to Monastick Life unless they did by their own free choice oblige themselves when they had attained to years of Discretion The Dignity of Cardinals was in great lustre their Colledge was numerous and their Vertue and Birth most eminent France had as great a share at least in this Advantage as Italy Duchesne who has written their Lives very exactly hath noted in this Twelfth Age above Fifty that were Frenchmen the greatest part of them having been bred in Monasteries particularly in the Congregation of Clugny and Order de Cisteaux These last were almost all of them the intimate Friends or Disciples of St. Bernard Galon Disciple of Yves de Chartres Bishop of Beauvais then of Paris Guy Brother of Stephen Earl of Buâ—gundy Archbishop of Vienne and afterwards Soveraign Prelat by the name of Calistus II. Pontius de Melgueil Abbot of Clugny Stephen Son of Thierry Earl of Montbelliard William de Champagne successively Archbishop of Sens and of Rheims Uncle to King Philip Augustus and very powerful in the Government of the Kingdom Rodolph de Nesle Henry de Sully and Albert Brother of the Duke of Brabant were all of illustrious Birth and withall of extraordinary Vertue excepting Ponce or Pontius who was singular for the Disorders of his Life which were scandalous after his re-entry perforce into the Abby which he had once renounced that going to Rome whither he was cited by the Pope he was confin'd to a perpetual imprisonment where a Month after he died And nevertheless a certain Martyrologist quoted by Duchesne does call him Saint The end of Albert was also Tragical but the Cause being brave his Memory is the more glorious He had been Elected Bishop of Liege upon the Sollicitation of Henry Duke of Brabant his Brother The Emperor Henry VI. who hated both of them would not give his consent to this Election The Pope however confirms him and Albert comes to Rheims to be Consecrated which was then the Metropolis of Liege The Emperor took this for an outrageous affront and slighting and dispatches some German Cavaliers after him to take his Revenge These Ruffians having craftily insinuated themselves into a familiarity with the Bishop who then sojourned at Rheims found an opportunity one day to get him out of Town to take the Air and walk and Murther'd him with Nineteen Wounds then made their escape to Verdun and from thence into Germany to the Emperor Four hundred and twenty years after that is in the year 1612. the Arch-Duke Albertus of Austria and his spouse the Infanta Clara Eugenia obtained leave of the Most Christian King Lewis XIII to take his Corps up out of the Cathedral Church at Rheims where it had been deposited till that time and caused it to be convey'd to Brussels in great Pomp. Paul V. compleated his Crown of Honour by Canonizing him as a Martyr for the liberty of the Church which is the Spouse of Jesus Christ I observe Eight or ten other Cardinals who had no other Nobility but what their Vertue acquir'd as one Robert de Paris who with some others so pressed Pope Paschal that he had made him break the Treaty by which he had yielded up the Investitures to the Emperor Henry V. Foulcher de Chartres Matthew de Rheims and Alberic de Beauvais the first of whom had been Secretary to Godfrey de Buillon in his Expedition to the Holy Land the second Prior of St. Martins des Champs or in the Fields and the third a Monk of Clugny and Abbot of Vezelay Stephen de Chaalons Bernard de Rennes these two had likewise been Monks Rowland d'Auranches and Matthew d'Angers all which took their names from the places of their Nativity according to the Mode of Men of Learning who were of mean Extraction There were divers others besides whose Parents are unknown to us as one Yves a Canon of St. Victor raised by his Learning to that Dignity and one Martin who came from the Abby de Citeaux and was Bishop of Ostia a Prelat of an Apostolick Continence and Fragality It is related that he being sent as Legat into Denmark for the Conversion of those Infidels he came back so poor that he Travel'd on Foot as far as Florence herein much more like the humble Apostles of Jesus Christ then the other Legats of those times who comming very beggerlike into those Provinces whither the Popes sent them went thence again loaden with Spoil as from a Country Conquer'd by them and returned back to Rome with an Equipage sit for a King The Bishop of Florence seeing this good Man on foot made him a Present of a Horse not out of generosity but hopes to oblige him to be his Friend in a Process he had at Rome ready to be determined but when it came to Judgment and this good Man to deliver his opinion he Addresses himself to him and said freely he did not know he was to have been his Judge and therefore pray'd him to go to the Stable and take his Horse again that his Vote might be without partiality Neither did France want for Bishops whose Learning Merits Zeal and Piety acquir'd the Titles of Great Men and of Saints Not to mention again that Galon Guy of Burgundy William de Champagne and Albert de Brabant whom we lately ranged amongst the Cardinals France had amongst others seven great Archbishops Hildebert de Tours Peter de Bourges who was of the Family de la Chastre Odvard de Cambray Arnold Amaulry de Narbonne Henry de Rheims Rotrou de Rouen and Hugh de Vienne Arnold had been Abbot of Clerveaux and was the first Inquisitor to root out the Heresie of the Albigensis Rotrou was Son of the Earl of Warwick near of Kindred to the King of England as Henry was to the King of France Louis the Gross but both of them more eminent for their Christian Humility then high Birth Hugh endured rather to be expell'd from his See by the Emperor Frederic I. then to renounce Alexander III. whom he believed to be the true and Legitimate Pope I should never come to an end if I undertook to give an account of all the Bishops of this Age who deserve Immortality and Renown But can we forget Yves and
cannot say how long she survived after the year 1180. but there is yet to be seen in the Parochial Church of that place her Monument and her Effigies also in Stone which over-head is crowned with Flowers The People of that Country assure us That God by divers Miracles hath approved the Devotion they have towards her Lewis VIII King XLII POPE HONORIUS III. All along this Reign and beyond it LEWIS VIII Surnamed the Lyon and the Father of St. LEWIS King XLII Aged Thirty six years compleat Year of our Lord 1223 PHilip Augustus had not caused his Son to be Crowned in his Life-time whether he had a jealousie of him or thought his Family so well Establish'd that he had no need of such precaution to secure the Crown to him He was therefore Crowned at Rheims with his Wife Blanch de Castille the Tenth day of the Month of August The King of England did not assist at his Coronation as he ought to have done in Quality of Pair of France but sent Ambassadors to summon him according to the Oath he had made at London to surrender Normandy to him with all those other Countries that had been taken from King John his Father They receiv'd for Answer That they had been Consiscated by Judgment of the Pairs and that they pretended to have the remainder likewise which he held so far were they from giving back what he demanded Year of our Lord 1022 and 1223. As the People of Languedoc did easily return again to their Natural Lord Raimond Earl of Toulouze Amaury finding himself too weak to stay in those Countries came and resigned and yielded up all the Right and Title he had into the hands of the King who for Recompence made him High Constable It was then but an Employment lasting no longer then the War So that we sometimes find such Lords on whom it hath been conferr'd two or three several times Year of our Lord 1224 Raimond Earl of Toulouze having made his Address to Pope Honorius with all imaginable submission the Holy Father sent to his Legat to call a Council at Montpellier to reconcile him with the Church After which Raimond before an Assembly of the Clergy in Languedoc promis'd and sware entire Obedience to the Roman Church sufficient security to the Clergy for restitution and the enjoyment of their Goods and Profits and the extirpation of Hereticks throughout all his Country Upon this satisfaction the Pope received him to Mercy and owned him for Earl of Toulouze Year of our Lord 1224 But as the resistance and opposition of his Subjects hindred him from making good his Promises the Pope sent a Legat to the King it was Romain a Cardinal that had the Title of St. Angelo to persuade him to undertake that Expedition which he did the more readily because it suited with his zeal and with his Interests Year of our Lord 1224 The two Kings Lewis of France and Henry of Germany eldest Son to the Emperor Frederic had a Conference at Vaucouleurs where they Treated about several Difference between the two Crowns and made divers Propositions but came to no conclusion At his return from thence pursuant to a Resolution had been taken to drive the English wholly out of France Lewis enters Poitou gains a Battle there over Savary de Mauleon General of the English in Guyenne makes himself Master of the Cities of Niort and of St. John d'Angely and generally over all the Places even to the Garonne and receives the Homage of all the Lords of those parts Year of our Lord 1224 There was nothing left but Rochelle where Savary de Mauleon defended himself for a long time expecting Relief from England In fine being basely disappointed and deceived by the King of England's Ministers who sent him Chests full of old Iron in stead of Silver to satisfie the Garison he was forced to surrender the Town the 28th day of July and afterwards pretending whether true or false that he had been Treated in England as a Person whose Faith they suspected he quitted his old Master and went to the King of France After the taking of that important City the Kings to secure it the better to themselves had as it were outvied each other in gratifying it with many great Priviledges by which means it was raised to a high pitch of Renown for its Wealth and Liberty but through their ill management of those Advantages she hath utterly lost them all in these latter times Year of our Lord 1225 The rest of Guyenne had been gained by the French if Richard Brother to King Henry had not landed at Bordeaux with a great Army which raised up the drooping Spirits He took St. Macaire near Bordeaux by Storm but la Reoule gave him a great Repulse and being inform'd that the French Army was at the River Garonne he Ship'd himself again and left order with Aimery Vicount de Touars to procure a Truce There wandred a certain Person about Flanders near this time who said he was that Baldwin Earl of Flanders and Emperor of Constantinople that had been taken Prisoner by the King of Bulgaria He related how he made his escape out of Prison and put them in mind of several Tokens and Circumstances to know him by The Flemings who mightily loved Baldwin gave Credit to this Man and put him in possession of all Flanders Year of our Lord 1225 The Countess Jane Daughter of Baldwin finding her self at a loss for her Husband Ferrand was still a Prisoner at Paris had recourse to the King who sent word to this pretended Baldwin that he should come to him at Peronne He came boldly thither but disdaining or not being able to answer the Questions put to him which he must needs have known if he were not a Cheat the King commanded him to depart his Territories within three days and gave him a safe Conduct Being afterwards forsaken by all the World he endeavour'd to escape away in a disguise but he was taken in Burgundy and carried to the Countess who after ✚ she had made him undergo divers Tortures sent him to the Gibbet as an Impostor His Execution did not hinder malicious People from believing that the Daughter had chosen rather to hang her Father then to restore him to his Soveraignty Year of our Lord 1225 This same year the King being in Touraine the Legat went to him and obliged him to prolong the Truce with Aymery Vicount de Touars the only Nobleman that opposed the King yet in Poictou This Vicount shortly after came to Paris to render Hommage to the King in presence of the King of England's Ambassadors Year of our Lord 1226 The City of Avignon having refused the Army passage was besieged the 14th of June It defended it self obstinately Guy Count de Saint Pol one of the bravest of the Besiegers was slain there the Plague got amongst the Soldiers and the Earl of Champagne Male-content went away without leave The King nevertheless swore he would not
better to spoil and ruine the whole Countrey about Toulouze pull down the Houses root up the Vineyards and burn the Corn which so disheartned the Toulousains that both they and their Earl were forced to submit to what conditions he pleased Year of our Lord 1228 The Treaty was chalked out at Meaux and compleated at Paris the Earl and Deputies of Toulouze being present The Earl was deprived of all his Lands excepting some little fragments they for meer pity left him It was order'd they should all devolve to his Daughter Jane who should be Married to Alphonso the Kings Brother into whose custody she was put forthwith That the Earl should pay Seventeen thousand Marks of Silver part to the King some to the Monks de Cisteaux and the rest for a Foundation of Doctors in Divinity at Toulouze That the Walls of that City and of Thirty more should be demolish'd for performance whereof he should give Hostages and in the mean time remain prisoner That there should be an exact search after Heretiques at his charge and that for pennance he should go and make war five years against the Saracens These Articles Signed he and those of his company that had been Excommunicated were at Nostre-dames of Paris upon Good-Friday bare-footed in their Shirts to receive Absolution of the Popes Legat. That done the Earl returned prisoner to the Tower of the Louvre till he had given his Hostages About the Feast of Pentecost the King gave him the Order of Knighthood and sent him into his own Countrey The Legat went with him and setled the Inquisition which exercised great severities and was again the cause of many troubles and Massacres Year of our Lord 1228 The Male-contented could not disgest that the Government should be in the hands of two Strangers a Spanish Woman and an Italian Cardinal they therefore took up Arms again drew to their party Robert Earl of Dreux elder Brother to the Duke of Bretagne and Philip Earl of Boulogne the Kings paternal Uncle to whom they promised the Crown so that the King feared a second time to be involved by this conspiracy and had been surprized if the Earl of Champagne had not run seasonably to him with 300 * Horse-men to bring him off In Spring the Conspirators turned all their Force against the Earl of Champagne and Brie They demanded those Counties of him for Alix Queen of Cyprus Daughter of his Uncle Henry who died in the Levant and more then that called him Traytor and accused him of having poysonned the deceased King proffering to convict him by Duel a reproach that made him so black and loathsome amongst his Vassals that they joyned in League with his Enemies against him The Count finding so heavy a burthen on his Shoulders and his City of Troyes besieged implores the assistance of the Queen Regent who caused the King to march to his relief and commanded them if they had any thing to say against the Earl they should come and require justice upon him in her Court But they who would not acknowledge her Regency as if the Kingdom had been vacant elected in a private Assembly or Cabal the Lord de Coucy for King who was in great reputation for his Wisdom and Justice The Queen Regent having got intelligence gave immediate notice of it to Philip Earl of Boulogne whom they had made believe they would give the Crown to by this means she took him off from them then by divers politique contrivances made all their designs vanish but not their ill intentions Year of our Lord 1228 For a few days afterwards the Duke of Bretagne by their assistance and Councils took up Arms again and called the King of England to his aid who landed in Bretague with considerable Forces but when he saw the King conducted by the Queen Regent had taken the Castle de Belesme au Perche from the Duke which was held impregnable he Shipp'd himself again The Duke thus abandonned was constrained to betake himself to an agreement Year of our Lord 1229 The very next year he broke it but not without punishment the King having taken all his Holds and Places and gained all his Vassals and Friends shuts him up in his City of Nantes so that to get out of the Briars and make the best of a bad bargain he was forced to render him hommage of Allegiance for the Dutchy The Bretons who pretended they owed but ouly single Homage named him because of his so doing Mau-clerc as who should say Witless or wanting Judgment and Understanding Thibauld Earl of Champagne was ill rewarded for the good services he had done the Queen Regent She took in hand the cause of her Cousin Alix and condemned him to pay her Forty thousand Marks of Silver and sell to the King to raise that Money the Counties of Blois Chartres Sancerre and the Vicount of Chasteaudun Year of our Lord 1230 After all these disorders there was a calm and peace for four years which was only a little disturbed by some tumults caused by the remainders of the Albigensis and the hurly-burlies of the Scholars belonging to the University of Paris It was then the fairest Ornament of the Kingdom and the innumerable numbers of Scholars that flocked thither from all parts of Europe brought great riches to that City which in a manner made all the other Universities in Christendom submit to it Now some of them having been ill handled in some scuffle with the Citizens and not obtaining such satisfaction as they desired they all resolved to quit Paris not without having first published a great many Songs and Licentious Poems which fullied the reputation of the Queen Regent and Cardinal Romain the Popes Legat who swayed her The Duke of Bretagne and the King of England proffer'd to receive them into their Countries and to grant them great priviledges but the Kings Council fearing that capital City might be deprived of so great an advantage and benefit found means to allay their heats and keep them there Year of our Lord 1231. and the following The Inhabitants of Marseilles and the adjacent Countreys being revolted against Raimond Berenger Earl of Provence called in Raimond Earl of Toulouze to Command them because he was next Heir For we must know that Gilbert Earl of Provence and Nice had had two Daughters Faidide who Married Alphonso Great Great Great Grandfather of Raimond de Toulouze and Douce that had married Raimond Berenger Earl of Bacelonna from whom was descended the Earl of Provence now mentioned He therefore accepted of their Homage and acted as their Lord whence follow'd a War that lasted four years between those two Cousins This Earl of Provence having been harrass'd by divers Revolts and other misfortunes was at the end of his days made compleatly happy by the Marriage of four Daughters he had by his Wife Beatrix of Savoy a most Virtuous Princess For all four of them had the honour to be Married to Kings Margret who was
Royal Robes over her Religious Habit of that Order which she had taken some time before her death being besides and long before that time of the third Order of St. Francis according to the Devotion of those times Some modern Historians are much in doubt whether she were elder or younger then Berenguelle who was Married to Alphonso King of Leon. This had the Guardianship of her Brother Henry and that Prince being dead succeeded to the Kingdom of Castille but some have believed that it was by Usurpation upon Blanch her Sister who was then a great way off from that Countrey and they go upon this ground that amongst the Records they find Letters from nine Castillian Lords to Lewis VIII in which they own and acknowledge his Son for their King and say that Alphonso IX King of Castille had declared by his Will that in case his Son Henry died without any Heirs the Children of Blanch were to succeed by right of Inheritance but to tell the truth it does not follow from thence that Blanch was the eldest it is more probable that these discontented Lords grounded it upon this that Alphonso and Berenguelle being of kin within the degrees prohibited Pope Innocent III. had declared their Marriage to be null and the Children that should proceed from that conjunction incestuous Bastards and incapable to succeed So that upon their exclusion those of Blanch came to the succession of Alphonso IX their Grand-father and this is it that gave a Right to the Kings of France which they held a long time to the Kingdom of Castille Year of our Lord 1252 Some Months before the death of Blanch there arose a sharp contest between the Secular Doctors of Theology at Paris whereof William de St. Amour was as it were the Head and on the other part the Orders Mendicants of Preaching Friers and Friers Minors because those Monks as the others reproached them were so far from submitting to the Statutes and Discipline of the University that they aimed to make themselves the Masters The thing was obstinately debated five or six years together St. Amour got the better at Paris but the Dispute being transferr'd to Rome he was worsted and his Book was condemned not as Heretical but as scandalizing those good Fathers They had great credit in that Court and obtained great Priviledges with so much the more facility as their trampling on the Laws increased the power of the Donor and diminished that of the Bishops to whose prejudice they were granted About the beginning of this quarrel Robert de Sorbonne Doctor in Divinity and very highly esteemed by St. Lewis built the Colledge of the Poor Masters of SORBONNE under which Name the Vulgar are wont to comprehend all the Faculty of Theology of Paris In effect it is the most renowned of all those Colledges Year of our Lord 1253 In the year 1253. died Thibauld who was the Fifth of that Name as Earl of Champagne but only the First as King of Navarre His Successor in all his Estates was Thibauld II. or VI. aged Fourteen years under the Guardianship of his Mother Year of our Lord 1254 Conrad the Son of Frederic did not find himself strong enough in Germany to cope against William Earl of Holland pretended King of the Romans he was gone into Italy in the year 1251. and some time after having unhappily caused his Nephew Frederic to be strangled had seized upon his Treasure and upon his Kingdom of Sicilia But this year 1254. was himself poysonn'd by Mainfroy to whom not knowing he was the Author of his death he lest the Regency of the Kingdom and the Guardianship of his Son Conrad the Young vulgarly named Conradin aged but Three years Year of our Lord 1254 It was neer Six years since St. Lewis the King went out of France and Three years and a half that he had been in the Holy Land visiting the Holy Places with an incredible Devotion sortifying the Towns and reviving the courage and affairs of the Christians in those Countreys as much as possibly he could France destitute of any Pilot by the death of his Mother most earnestly desired his return He therefore took Shipping at the Port of Acon or Ptolemais on St. Year of our Lord 1254 Marks Eve and landed at Marseilles the Eleventh day of July Year of our Lord 1254 The King of England who was this year come into Gascongne desiring to avoid the long voyage by Sea obtained leave of the good King to cross thorough France and take Shiping at Boulogne He met the King at Chartres who from thence took him along to Paris where he Treated him Four days together with all the magnificence imaginable The joy and splendor was the greater because the four Sisters Daughters of the Earl of Provence the eldest Married to the King of France the Second to the King of England the Third to Richard his Brother and the Fourth to Charles Earl of Anjou met all there together William Earl of Holland and King of the Romans making War against the Friezelanders who were Rebels to him had lately been knocked on the Head by certain Peasants hid amongst the Reeds when his Horse was sunk into the Snow and Ice The following year being 1256. the Electors basely selling the Honour of the German Nation and their Votes to Foreign Princes gave the Empire some of them to Richard Brother to the King of England others to Alphonso X. King of Castille Richard went into Germany and sojourn'd there above two years having been Crowned at Aix la Chapelle in the year 1247. Alphonso was no way known to them but by his Money and both of them disputed their Right and Title before the Pope for divers years without eve coming to any agreement The Son of Bouchard d'Avesnes cast out by Guy Earl of Flanders and their Brothers of the Second Bed by the same Mother took Sanctuary with William Earl of Year of our Lord 1255 Holland who had vanquish'd Guy and taken him prisoner with one of his Brothers The Mother to be reveng'd had called in Charles Earl of Anjou and given him the enjoyment of Hainault and Valenciennes during his life He regained those Countreys easily enough from the Hollander because he found him fully enough employ'd against the Frisons where he was kill'd as we have related His Son Florent who succeeded him set the two Brothers at liberty for a great Ransom and St. Lewis obliged his Brother Charles to restore Hainault for a sum of Money as likewise the parties concern'd to stand to the award he had made in Anno 1246. Year of our Lord 1256 There being an universal calme thorough all his Kingdom he set himself upon the regulating it by good and wholsome Laws the banishing from it all violence and oppression the instructing others by his good examples and by all manner of Just and Holy Works undertaking the protection of the Weak the Widdows and Orphans procuring with all his
Gibbelins of Tuscany especially those of Florence and restored all the Guelphes to their Lands and Dwellings In the mean time the young Conradin had sent a Manifesto to all the Princes of Europe declaring himself to be the rightful Successor to the Kingdom of Sicily and imploring their assistance to recover that Succession of his Fathers Insomuch that with the aid of the antient friends of the House of Souaube or Scwaben and some Year of our Lord 1267 adventurers that sought their fortunes he gathered a huge Army and came into Italy about the end of October observing and giving ear rather to the importunities of the Gibbelines who pressed him to march on then the wise Counsels of his Mother who feared the unexperimented Youth of her Son scarce Sixteen years of age would be Ship-wrack'd against the fortune and courage of Charles He had brought with him out of Germany the young Frederic Son of Herman Marquiss of Baden who said likewise he was Duke of Austria being Son of a Daughter of Henry Brother to Frederic last Duke of those Countreys and withal he held himself certain of the assistance of Henry and Frederic Brothers of Alphonso X. King of Castille who upon his arrival in Italy were to declare in his favour Those Brothers having been driven out of Spain by the King Alphonso had retired themselves into Africk to the King of Tunis where they had acquir'd a great deal of reputation Money and Friends Henry having information of the progress of Charles in Italy was come to proffer him his Service with Eight hundred Horse and had lent him a considerable sum of Money In requital Charles had gotten him to be chosen Senator of Rome hut because he afterwards thwarted him in his designs of obtaining by the Pope the Kingdom of Sardinia that Spaniard was alienated from him and secretly conspired with Conradin so that he disposed the City of Rome to receive him driving thence or imprisoning all those that contradicted and when he saw him approaching near he set up his Flags and Arms upon the Gates and joyned openly with him Conradin having spent the Winter at Verona despising the Popes Thunders embarqued at the coast of Genoa on some Vessels belonging to Pisa Being landed in Tuscany he surprized and cut in pieces those Forces that Charles had left there and Year of our Lord 2268 at the same time Conrad being come from Antioch caused all Sicily to Revolt except only Messina and Palermo These prosperous beginnings betraid young Conradin and flattered him to bring him to his death while he was entring into the Kingdom of Sicily Charles quitted the Siege of Nocera and came to meet him resolved to decide the quarrel by a Battle it was fought the Five and twentieth day of August near the lake Fucin now Year of our Lord 1268 called the lake Celano the French gained it but not without much hazard and much blood Conradin Frederic Duke of Austria and Henry of Castille saved themselves by flight but being discover'd they were taken and brought back to the Conquerour After this Victory he took upon him again the dignity of Senator of Rome which he had been obliged to lay down and by the Pope was constituted Vicar of the Empire in Tuscany His Fame would have been beyond a parallel had he been but as merciful as valiant and had not exercised such mortal feverities upon his prisoners of War and such people as revolted from him Year of our Lord 1269 They were so great that being resolved to pass into Africk with St. Lewis the King not knowing what to do with Conradin and Frederic whom it was very dangerous to keep and more to set them free in a Kingdom full of Factions and Rebellion he caused their Process to be made by the Syndics of the Cities of that Kingdom Those Judges having condemned them to death as disturbers of the Churches quiet their Heads were cut off upon a Scaffold in the midst of the City of Naples the Twenty seventh day of October an execution which makes posterity tremble yet with horror but which seemed a retribution of the Divine Justice for those yet more horrible barbarities which Frederic the Grand-father of Conradin had used to all the Family of the Norman Princes Henry de Castille had his Life given him but was confin'd to a prison from whence he got not out till Five and twenty years after to return into Spain Almost at the same time this Conrad Prince of Antioch Son of one Frederic a bastard of the Emperour Frederic II. who was come from the East to the assistance Year of our Lord 1269 of Conradin and had contributed to make the Island of Sicily revolt being taken by some belonging to Charles was hanged and thus ended by the Hangmans hands that famous and glorious Race of the Prince of Scwaben of whom there have been so many Kings and Emperours I should have told you before that Conradin being upon the Scaffold after he had made bitter complaints of his misfortunes and the cruelty of his Enemies threw down his Glove in the Market-place as a token of the investiture of his Kingdoms to such of his kindred as would prosecute his quarrel a Cavalier having taken it up carried it to James King of Arragon who had Married a Daughter of Mainfroy's The abuses and the designs of the Court of Rome were grown to such a height and come to that pass that the King St. Lewis though very devout to the Holy See made this year a Pragmatique to stop the current of them in France especially touching the dispensation of Benefices This same year the Marriage of his Daughter Blanch was made with Ferdinand eldest Son to Alphonso X. King of Castille the Pope having given his Dispensation for the near consanguinity between the parties The Nuptials were celebrated at Year of our Lord 1269 Burgos Philip Brother to the Bride Edward Prince of England James King of Arragon the Bride-grooms Grand-father Alhumar King of Granada and divers other Princes and great Lords honoured the Solemnity with their Presence and it was expresly said in the Contract that if Ferdinand died before his Father her Children should represent him and succeed to the Crown The affairs of the Christians in the Levant being reduced to the last extremity by Bendocabar Sultan of Egypt the exhortations of the Pope and the zeal of St. Lewis stirred up those of the West to make one more great attempt to support them The King of Arragon and Edward eldest Son to the King of England promised to Second St. Lewis and his Brother Charles to go thither with all the force of Italy The number of Adventurers of the Cross consisted of Fifteen thousand Horse and Two hundred thousand Foot which were divided in two Armies to attaque the Saracens in two several places at once Year of our Lord 1270 The Arragonian and the English undertook to go and make War in the Holy Land the Arragonian
at Malan but broke out more fiercely at Bruges where the French Garrison being all knoc'd on the Head the Towns of Furne Bergh Bourbourgh Cassel followed and Guy Earl of Namur one of the Flemmings Sons laid Siege before the Cittadel of Courtray The King raised a great Army to chastise the Rebels and gave the Command of it to Robert d'Artois That Prince marched to relieve Courtray with Ten thousand Horse and Forty thousand Foot The Flemmings though they were but ill Arm'd had neither Nobility nor Cavalry durst resolutely wait his coming and gained the Victory with the slaughter of Twenty thousand French amongst which number was that Prince himself above Twenty great Lords with him and Peter Flota principal cause of those misfortunes This was on the 9th of June Year of our Lord 1302 To revenge this bloody affront the King takes the Field himself with above an Hundred thousand Men but the assurance of the Flemmings and the intelligence sent him by his Sister the Queen of England that if he hazarded a Battle he would be betraid to his own Men hindred him from proceeding any farther then Douay besides the Autumnal Rains rendred his march very difficult This War very troublesome in it self would have been much more so had the King of England medled in it as he ought to have done after he had engag'd the Flemmings Their troubles help'd to advance his Affairs after his having prolonged the Truce two or three times with the French he converted it at last to a final Year of our Lord 1303 Peace The Treaty was concluded at Paris the Twentieth day of May 1303. It was agreed that Philip should restore to him all what he had taken from him in Guyenne and should grant him a Patent for the investiture of that Dutchy John Baliol was set at full liberty but the Scots despised him as a Man of little courage who had twice bowed the knee before the King of England and would not own him for their lawsul King so that he remained in France where he ended his days as a private person It is not said what the fortune of his Son Edward was However although the English had wholly subdued Scotland it nevertheless hapned that some years afterwards Robert Son of Robert Bruce raised that Kingdom again which seemed to be extinguished and freed it from the bondage of England Year of our Lord 1303 Now the courage of the Flemmings being untameable their old Earl who grew weary of his imprisonment obtained a Truce by the means of Ame Earl of Savoy during which interval they permitted him leaving his Sons in hostage to go to his Towns in Flanders to endeavour to bring them back again to the obedience of the King The same year the King having had information that there was a dangerous Faction brooding in Languedoc and in Guyenne took a progress into those Countreys where he visited and highly caressed the chief Cities and Nobility At his return Guy de Luzignan Earl of Angoulesme and Lord of Cognac having no Children resigned his Lands to him to the great prejudice of three Sisters he had The King to make those Sisters some manner of reparation gave them I know not what Lands in Angoulmois Queen Jane his Wife Heiress of Navarre Champagne and Brie built and founded in the University of Paris that famous Colledge that bears the name of Navarre and Year of our Lord 1303 which even to this day has been the Cradle or rather Nursery of the most illustrious Nobility of France She died about the end of the same year The Earl Guy not having been able to gain any thing upon the Flemmings the King resolved to make them bend by force He got together the most numerous Army that had been levied of a long time of French Germans Spaniards and Italians and put himself at the head of them At the same time he had a Fleet at Sea commanded by the famous Roger de Lauria This Admiral gained a bloody Battle against Philip one of the Flemmings Sons who besieged Ziriczea that held for John Earl of Holland who by this means preserved Zealand and kept it The King soon after Year of our Lord 1304 gained another at Land near Mons the Eighteenth of August but not without great danger to his Person Above five and twenty thousand Flemmings were slain there For all these rebukes they would not stoop nor give over but having shut up shop in all their Cities and got an Army on foot of Sixty thousand fighting Men they came before l'Isle which he then held besieged demanding Peace or a Battle This Year of our Lord 1304 furious resolution obtained them a Peace upon condition that they should enjoy their Liberties Goods Priviledges and strong Holds that the Earl should be restored to his Earldom excepting those Lands on this side the River Lys which should remain to the King as likewise the Cities of l'Isle and Douay till the Earl should be more fully agreed with him and the Flemmings paid down the sum of 800000 Livres The prisoners set at liberty the Earl Guy went to visit his Countrey and his Children Being returned to Compeigne upon his faith as he had promised to finish the Treaty he died some few days after aged Fourscore years His eldest Son Robert de Betune succeeded him in his Earldom Year of our Lord 1303 The preceding year before he undertook this Expedition King Philip had consider'd how to pre-arm himself against the Bulls of Boniface and for that purpose had Year of our Lord 1303 convoked a second general Assembly of his Subjects at Paris The Earls Guy de St. Pol John de Dreux and William du Plessis Lord de Vezenobre did there accuse the Pope of Heresie and divers things so horrible that a Christian can hardly tell how to name much less to believe them Duplessis offer'd to prosecute him before the Council adhering to the Appeal heretofore brought by Nogaret and putting himself under the protection of the Council and the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul The King promised to procure the Convocation and in case Boniface should any way proceed against him formed his Appeal as Duplessis had done Moreover fearing his People too much oppressed with Imposts and dissatisfied with the Government of his Ministers should chance to fail him in his necessity he found it necessary to prevent all stirs and factions that might be set on foot in favour of the Pope to have Writings or Letters of all the Provinces Cities Corporations Churches Religious Houses Prelats and Lords of his Kingdom who approved of his Resolution and joyned therein with him Year of our Lord 1303 During these proceedings Nogaret was gone into Italy to seize upon the Person of Boniface under pretence of bringing him by fair means or by foul to the Council The Pope had retired himself to Anagnia the place of his Nativity where he thought himself in greater security then in Rome and there
on the highest part of the Gibbet with the other Thieves he was hanged His immense Riches sufficiently proved the Justice of this Sentence Afterwards those Receivers or Officers of the Treasury who were of his gang were laid hold on and several put to the Wrack they would confess nothing however so well those Caterpillars know how to wind up their bottoms desiring rather in the greatest extremity to lose their Lives then part with their Money They carried on this search even to his very friends and particularly Peter de Latilly Bishop of Chaalons and Chancellor of France He was accused of giving the Morsel that is to say of having poysonn'd the Bishop his Predecessor and also the late King He was put out of his Office and left a prisoner in tbe hands of the Arch-Bishop of Reims his Metropolitan The execrable Custom of Poysonning was grown very common in France and it grew so in my opinion because the Ministers of the deceased King had been so extream Violent and vindicative This Prelat accused of so Villanous a Crime was referr'd to the Judgment of the Bishops of his Province To that end there was a Council Assembled at Senlis in the Month of October of this year 1315. where the Archbishop of Reims was present with his Suffragans The Party accused upon his request and according to Law was first redintegrated to his Liberty and his Bishoprick and afterwards it having been proved that four Women had been Convicted and Punished for Poysonning his Predecessor he was absolved fully and wholly Year of our Lord 1315 The Gentry and Commonalty of the Country of Artois having divers causes of Complaint against their Countess Mahaut the King sent for her in presence of Ame the Great Earl of Savoy and obliged her to give him her Hand that he might take notice of it Year of our Lord 1315 This Ame the Great was one of the most considerable Princes of his time He acquir'd the Title of a Prince of the Empire which was granted him by the Emperor Henry VII in Anno 1310. He increased his Territory with the Lordships of Bresse and Baugey by his Marriage with Sibilla the only Daughter of Guy Lord de Baugey as likewise with a part of the little Country of Revermont by Purchase of the Duke of Burgundy who had it of Humbert Dauphin of Viennois and the Earldoms of Ast and Yvree the first whereof came to him by the Concession of the Emperor Henry VII the second by the voluntary subjection of the People His Wisdom made him reign in all the greatest Courts in Europe the Emperors King Philip's of France Edward King of England's and made him find the Art to be so much a Friend to all these Princes who were at great variance that he became the perpetual Mediator concerning those Differences which Interest and their Jealousie bred amongst them Year of our Lord 1316 The Truce with the Flemming being at an end about the very time of the Coronation the King assembled his Forces and whilst on the other side William Earl of Hayâ—ault ravaged the Country along the Scheld he besieged Courtray The unseasonable Weather did what the Flemming durst not undertake and forced him to raise the Siege but the infinite havock and spoil the Soldiers made caused a horrible Famine in Flanders About the end of the Month of May in the year 1316. King Lewis began to feel the effects of those Poysonnings grown so rife in France They had given him a Dose so violent by what hand was not known that it carried him off the Fifth day June An Accident which the Vulgar thought to be presag'd by a Comet which had Year of our Lord 1316 display'd its terrible Train in the Heavens the One and twentieth of the Month of December before He died at the Bois de Vincennes the Nineteenth Month of his Reign and the Eight and twentieth of his Age. He left Clemence his second Wife with Child being four Months gone By his first which was Margaret Daughter of Robert II. Duke of Burgundy he had had a Daughter named Jane to whom belonged the Kingdom of Navarre and the Counties of Brie and Champagne but the Kings Philip the Long and Charles the Fair found out pretences to detain them REGENCY without a KING for Five Months Year of our Lord 1316 WHen Lewis Hutin left this World Philip the Long Earl of Poitiers his Brother was at Lyons where in pursuance of his Orders he laboured to make them elect a Pope to supply the See that had been vacant for above three years He had employ'd himself with so much zeal that at length he got all the Cardinals to Lyons and had shut them up in Conclave in the Jacobins Convent They had been there together some days when the news was brought him of the death of Hutin this made him return to Paris with diligence after he had left the guard of the Conclave with the Earl de Fores. After the end of fourty days the Cardinals could come to no other agreement about the election of a Pope then to refer it to the single Vote of James Dossa a Cardinal Bishop of O Porto who without hesitation named himself to the great astonishment of the whole Conclave who notwithstanding let it pass so He took the name of John the Twenty second of that name He was of the Country of Quercy the Son of a poor Cobler but very Learned for those times The Succession of the Males to the Crown was established not by any Written Law but by the inviolable Custom of the French nevertheless because in all other Kingdoms and in great Fiefs the Daughters succeeded and that in France of a long time no occasion had been offer'd to exclude them The Friends and Parents of little Jane particularly Eudes Duke of Burgundy Brother of her deceased Mother were on the Watch pretending the Crown belonged to her in case the Fruit of Queen Clemences Womb should come to no Perfection In the mean time they named Philip the Kings Brother for Regent till the time of her delivery Philip V. King XLVII POPE JOHN XXII Elected the 7th day of August 1317. S. Eighteen years and Three Months whereof Five years under this Reign PHILIP V. Called the Long because he was Tall King of France XLVII and enjoying the Kingdom of Navarre Aged Twenty six years Year of our Lord 1316 THe Fifteenth of November the Queen brought a Son into the World whom they named John but he went out of it again eight days after He was buried in St. Denis and in the Funeral Pomp was declared King of France and Navarre Which hath given some occasion to some Modern Authors to increase the number of the Kings of France and to call him John I. Year of our Lord 1317 Then the Dispute touching the Crown was renewed with more heat then before Charles Earl of Valois seemed to favour little Jane and the Duke of Burgundy her Uncle claimed and
1325. The Council of England found it necessary that Queen Isabella who was Sister to Charles the Fair should pass over into France with Edward his eldest Son to Negociate the Peace She managed the business with a great deal of Skill and finished the Treaty contriving it so that her Son Edward was invested in the Dutchy of Guyenne and the Earldom of Pontieu for which he did Homage to the King The King of England had too near him the two Hugh Spensers Father and Son the last having been bred with him in an unbecoming familiarity had an absolute empire over him and made him do what ever he desired The English Lords having made some Conspiracy and taken up Arms against this Favourite he drew them to a Parly where he caused them also to be seized against the Publick Faith and afterwards chopt off the Heads of Two and Twenty Barons amongst whom was Thomas Earl of Lancaster Son of Prince Edmond who when living was Brother to King Edward Pursuring his design he kept Queen Isabella and the Earl of Kent the Kings Brother at distance from the Court and likewise did privately seek to destroy them whether for that they had been in the Conspiracy with the Lords or that he apprehended their Credid or Interest and this was the chief ground for their coming into France Year of our Lord 1325 King Charles received his Sister with all the tenderness of a good Brother kept her a great while in his Court Treating and Honouring her according to her Quality and promised her assistance both of Money and Men as much as he well could without breaking with the English to Chastise that insolent favourite who continued to take off all those Heads that stood in the way which his Ambition led him to Unhappy Flanders was hardly ever without Troubles The Flemmings had but little affection to their Earl because he was too much French by inclination and resided but little in that Country He had a long and bloody Contest with the Citizens of Bruges Robert de Cassel supported them because he would have had him been kill'd They made John Earl of Namur his Uncle Prisoner and a while after they also did detain himself But when the Pope had laid an Interdict upon the Country when those Mutineers had been beaten by the Ghentois and they found the King was sending Forces to his relief they were forced to bend the Knee and humble themselves before him He Chastised them by great Fines the loss of their fairest Priviledges and by the banishment of a great number of the hottest Spirits Year of our Lord 1325 It was above a year that Charles Earl of Valois languished with a Distemper which was very odd and yet more painful Who knows whether it were not the effect of some cruel Poyson The Physicians not knowing either how to find out the true cause of the Malady nor any Remedies the poor Prince falls into an imagination that it was a Divine Punishment for the too eager and severe pusute he had made against Enguerrand de Marigny They have not forgot to mention his Penitence and to enumerate the satisfactions he offer'd to his Memory but perhaps these proceeded from a Mind as sick and as much out of tune as his Body After all if God so severely Chastised a Prince for persecuting a publick Robber and bringing him to Justice by unjust Methods and with an ill intent what did not that Robber deserve who for so long a time had tormented Millions of innocent Souls Year of our Lord 1325 and 26. The Spensers dreading the Storm which threatned them from the Coast of France obliged Edward earnestly to re-demand his Wife and they made use of so many Arts and scattered so much Money in King Charles his Court and even in the Popes to make him bestir himself for them that at length Charles won by their Presents or frighted with the fears of a Rupture not only retracted those Promises he had made his Sister but likewise upon pain of Banishment forbid all Knights to assist her and Commanded her to go out of his Countries Year of our Lord 1326 One Roger de Mortimer a Gentleman of Normandy was very much in the favour and good opinion of this fair Princess the Spensers had taken occasion to raise some Jealousie in the King her Husband and detain this Roger in the Tower of London but having sound means to escape he was come over into France and perhaps this was none of the least Arguments for which King Charles who was an Enemy to that unclean Folly would endure her no longer and so abandon'd her Year of our Lord 1326 At her leaving the Court of France she retired disconsolate into the County of of Pontien then into Hainault where she was so happy that John Brother of William the Earl declared himself her Knight-Errant caused her to be well and kindly received in his Brothers Court and having mustred Three hundred Knights more he carried her back into England No sooner was the news of her being landed known but Henry Earl of Lancaster the Brother of Thomas came to her the Earls Barons and Knights flock'd thither from all parts She besieged the King and both the Spensers in Bristol Spenser the Father and the Earl of Arundel Son-in-Law to the younger Spenser were taken in the City and beheaded The King and Spenser the Son who were retired into the Castle and from thence thought to make their escape in a Bark were taken at Sea The Favourite according to his Sentence given by the Barons was drawn on a Hurdle thorough the Streets of Hereford then led to the top of a Ladder where the Executioner cut off those parts that had transgress'd and plucked out his Heart then threw it into the Fire and quarter'd his Body Year of our Lord 1326 As for the King the Lords made his Process degraded him of his Royalty and condemned him to perpetual Imprisonment to put his Son Edward III. in his stead Afterwards the Friends to this unfortunate Prince by practising several means to save him compleated his ruine It was resolved to dispatch him out of the World and that after a most cruel manner They thrust a red hot Iron up into his Fundament through a Pipe of Horn fearing the burning should be discovered His Wife in her turn was punished by her own Son in the same horrible manner of revenge Year of our Lord 1326 In the mean time young King Edward Married Philippa the second of the four Daughters which the Earl of Hainault had by Jane Daughter of Charles Earl of Valois Divers Bands of Gascon Adventurers whom they called the Bastards perhaps because their Chiefs were such ravaged Guyenne They went into Saintonge where they seized upon the City of Xaintes but perceiving that the Captains whom King Charles had sent thither were resolved to give them Battle they withdrew in the night having set Fire to the City Year of our
and misused him so strangely that he durst not go into any of them but Ghent The King as his Lord and of near Parentage took his part and entred Flanders with an Army of Twenty five thousand Men. The Flemmings had posted Sixteen thousand upon a Hill near Cassel to guard their Frontier He coming to encamp in a Valley beneath them they had the confidence to go and attaque him and appointed three Bodies at the same instant to make their way to his Tent to the King of Bohemia's and to that of the Earl of Hainault thinking to surprize them all three unawares His Person was in great danger but whilst the bravest of his Men stood as a Rampart and put a stop to the Enemy the rest Armed themselves and charged the Flemmings so stoutly that the three Princes defeated those three Parties not one Man of them escaping All Flanders quell'd by this great shock submitted to his Mercy He caused several hundreds to be Hanged Banished and Confiscated and the year after dismantled five or six of their Towns which allay'd their heat for some time but did not extinguish it The severest punishment for those that are corrupt Officers of the Treasury and indeed the most beneficial to the Publick is not the hanging of them but to pare their Rapacious Talons so close that they may not be in a capacity to deserve it Peter Remy Sieur de Montigny had succeeded to Marigny and la Guette in the management of the Treasury their sad example had not so great influence upon him as the passion to enrich himself as they had done So that by Sentence of Parliament where there were Eighteen Knights Five and twenty Lords and Princes and the King himself present he was Condemned to be Drawn and Hanged as a Traytor at the Gallows of Montfaucon which he had caused to be rebuilt His Confiscation amounted to Twelve hundred thousand Livers a prodigious Sum for those times Of the Six great Pairries of the Laity the Kings had appropriated four to themselves to substitute others in their place and erected many new to wit Beaumont le Roger in Anno 1328. for Robert d'Artois and Anno 1329. the Barony of Bourbon this with the Title of Dutchy that with the Title of Earldom Then afterwards in several years Alenson Evreux Clermont in Beauvoisis all for Princes of his Blood and upon Lands truly of much lower Dignity and Consideration then those of the former six Pairries but as much above those of this Age as the Princes of the Blood are above Private Gentlemen Edward Earl of Savoy was come into France to demand assistance of the King against the Dauphin de Viennois and the Earl of Geneva his perpetual Enemies Year of our Lord 1329 Dying at Paris and leaving only a Daughter John III. Duke of Bretagne Husband to this Princess made earnest sute to have the Succession but the Estates of Savoy wherein presided Bertrand Archbishop of Tarentaise declared That the Salique Law took place there and called Aymon Brother of the deceased to that Crown Year of our Lord 1329 Upon the first Summons they sent to Edward by two Lords who had express Commission according to the custom of Fiefs he promised to come and do Homage to the King of France The seizure of his Fiefs of Guyenne and Ponthieu was therefore deferr'd and he came to Amiens in great Equipage After he had there in vain demanded the restoring of what had been taken in Guyenne from his Father he did Homage But it was with his Tongue and in general words only intending to Advise first with his Barons what was to be done When he was returned into England he sent Letters to King Philip under his great Seal in which he declared That that Homage was Liege and that he owed it for the Dutchy of Guyenne and the Earldoms of Ponthieu and Monstereuil Year of our Lord 1328 The Troubles that hapned in England had hindred him from performing that Devoir sooner His Mother with her Mortimer had made him believe that his Uncle Edmund Earl of Kent had plotted to take away his Life Indeed thaâ— Earl endeavour'd to get King Edward II. out of prison who was his Brother and as he thought yet living Upon this Information young Edward causes him to be seized and condemned to death somewhat too lightly but afterwards Mortimer and the Queen his Mistress were Treated in the same manner For the young King weary of their scandalous deportment caused the Gallant to be hanged upon pretence of several Crimes and his Mother to be shut up in a Castle where they hastned her end a very just act had it been done by any other hand but that of a Son The discord between Pope John XXII and the Emperour Lewis of Bavaria grew to that extremity that Lewis being in Italy after the example of the Emperour Otho degraded John of the Papal Dignity and in his place substituted Michael de Corbiere a Frier Minor under the name of Nicholas V. Michael de Cesenna General of that Order and divers of his Monks supported him mightily by their Preachings and Writings These Monks and others of the Imperial party having spread many reproachful and bloody Invectives thorough all Christendom against Pope John XXII an Assembly of the Clergy was held at Paris where the Bishop in his Pontifical Habit attended by many other Prelats and Clergy-men declared to the People in the Church-Porch of Nostre-Dame the Attempts and Mistakes of Corbiere and pronounced Excommunicate both the said Corbiere the Emperour Lewis and Michael de Cesenna with their Adherents Two things ruined this Party the Emperours ill Conduct which forced him to go out of Italy and the disagreement between the Friers Minors many of whom having forsaken their General it weakned his Interest so much that in the end he was disowned by all of that Order So that Corbiere after many Adventures being caught and brought to Avignon in the year 1330. begged pardon of John XXII with a Rope about his Neck but he could not get off so they put him in prison where he died some Months afterwards Year of our Lord 1329 We must not confound this Assembly above-mentioned with another which was held in the same City and the same year 1329. upon complaint the Kings Judges made by the Mouth of Peter Cugnieres Kt. Counsellor and Advocate-General of the Parliament touching the Usurpations and Attempts of the Clergy upon the Secular Jurisdiction The business was discussed in a Council held at Vincennes then again in the Assembly of Parliament Cugnieres spake earnestly and to the good liking of all the Nobility who applauded him Peter Roger elected Archbishop of Sens afterwards made Pope and Bertrand Bishop of Autun who was a Cardinal having undertaken the defence of their Body replied very eloquently The Clergy was in great danger not only of being lopt off in part but quite rooted out of their Jurisdiction The King at
last by a Decree of the Twenty eighth of December maintained them in their possession protesting it was his hearty desire to augment the Rights and Priviledges of the Church rather then any way dimish or infringe them for which reason they gave him the Surname of the Good Catholick Notwithstanding after this shock the Authority of that Body hath been so much weakned especially by Appeals in all Cases that now they really believe they have more just cause of Complaints against the Secular Judges then the Seculars had in those times against them Year of our Lord 1330 France being in Peace King Philip following the foot-steps of his Predecessors had conceived a desire of undertaking an Expedition into the Holy-Land To this purpose upon his return from a Pilgrimage he made to Marseilles with a very small Attendance in performance of a Vow he had made to St. Lewis Bishop of Toulouze he visited the Pope in Avignon and discoursed in particular with him about his design Towards the end of the year he summon'd the Estates of his Kingdom and laid before them the passion he had for the Holy War By their advice he sent to demand permission of the Pope to levy the Tenths of all the Clergy in Christendom and many other things but so extraordinary that he could obtain no favourable Answer Year of our Lord 1331 The English could not well digest that Edward had so easily renounced to the Crown of France They ceased not from spurring him on opportunity seeming to present it self favourably because Scotland which France was wont to make a counterpoise to England was extreamly embroil'd For Edward the Son of John Baliol who for a long time led a private Life at his House in Normandy with a small Force had recover'd that Crown and driven out King David who was retired to the Court of France together with his Wife and Children After the death of Mahaut the Earldom of Artois sell Jane of Burgundy Wife of Philip the Long and according to the Articles of Marriage was given to Blancb her Daughter the Wife of Eudes Duke of Burgundy Robert d'Artois who could not yet forbear his pretentions to that Earldom renewed the Process and produced certain Grants under the great Seal which he said he had found by Miracle He believed the King being his Brother-in-Law and owing him so great obligation would not search too deep after the truth of it But the King because it concerned the interest of his Daughter who was much nearer to him then his Sister caused these Letters Patents to be examin'd so exactly that they were found to be false and a Gentlewoman of Artois that had counterfeited them was burnt alive for it they having accused her as being a Sorceress Robert enraged for the loss of his Process and of his Honour slew to reproaches against the King so much the more injurious as they were true and so exasperated his anger that he was pushed on to the utmost extremity against him They seized upon his Confessor whom they obliged by force or promises to bear Witness against him his Wiâ—e was laid hold on though she were the Kings own Sister and after some delay for want of appearing he was Banished by sound of Trumpet and Proclamation through all the Suburbs of Paris and his Estate was declared to be Confiscate He then knew there was no more quarter for him and would have taken Sanctuary at the Earl of Hainaults but the Kings wrath did not suffer him to be so near he excited the Duke of Brabant to make War upon the Hanuyer Robert not to be a Cause of the ruine of his Friend went out of those Countries and resolved to all the extremities whereunto dispair does usually hurry Men of courage he goes to the King of England and by force of blowing the Coals kindled the Flame that set all France on Fire Year of our Lord 1332 In the mean time the King of England strenghned himself with Alliances Moneys and all sorts of Ammunitions for some great Enterprize He had in his Party the Earl of Haynault the Emperor Lewis his Brother-in-Law several German Princes with the Cities of Flanders and to have the greater power in the Low-Countries and over the Princes along the Rhine he purchased at a dear rate the Quality of Vicar of the Empire The King was secure of the Earl of Flanders the Duke of Lorrain the Earl of Bar the Kings of Castille of Scotland and of Bohemia but especially of this last whom he had made fast by many several ties For besides that he had Married a Sister of his and his Son Charles born of that Wedlock had been bred in the Court of France he also Married his Daughter Bonne to John Duke of Normandy The Nuptials were compleated at Melun The Designs of the English being not yet formed gave Philip no apprehension so Year of our Lord 1332 that he was taking up the Cross for the Holy Land and with him three other Kings Charles of Bohemia Philip of Navarre and Peter of Arragon with a great number of Dukes Earls and Knights The Clergy took but small joy in it so mightily were they oppressed with extraordinary Exactions as if they had a design to ruine the Churches of France to go and restore those in Palestine Year of our Lord 1333 Upon the design of this War Philip endeavour'd to make Peace between all his Neighbour Princes he brought the Duke of Brabant to an agreement with the Earl of Flanders and the Earl of Savoy with the Dauphin de Viennois The difference betwixt the first was for the City of Malines It belonged to the Bishop of Liege and to the Earl of Guelders the Bishop had sold his part to the Earl of Flanders the Duke of Brabant claimed it saying he was the Lord of the Fief It was concluded it should remain to the Flemming unless the Duke would rather chuse to reimburse him 85000 Crowns With that was agreed the Marriage of three Daughters of the Brabanders with Lewis eldest Son of the Flemming William Earl of Holland and Renauld Earl of Guelders Year of our Lord 1333 Pope John XXII had publickly preached at Avignon That the Vision or Joyes of the Blessed Souls and the Pains or Torments of the Damned were imperfect till the final day of Judgment and endeavour'd to make this opinion pass current for the Doctrine of the Church The Faculty of Theology of Paris courageously opposed it He tried to get them to own it by two Nuncios whom he sent to them the one was the General of the Cordeliers the other a famous Jacobin Doctor The most Christian King did not judge the Pope to be infallible but order'd the question to be discuss'd by Thirty Doctors or the Faculty of Theology who confounded the Cordelier Nuncio whereupon a Decree was made and Sealed with their Thirty Seals which he sent to the Holy Father exhorting him to believe those who
would have guessed the business had been at an end but his Wife Margaret Daughter of Robert Earl of Flanders a wise and couragious Princess who made good use of her Head in Council and of her Sword upon occasion as well as the deepest Politician or the bravest Soldier of her time could have done upheld that ruined party and not only so but even raised it again by her heroick Virtue She retired to Brest fortify'd her places put her Son who was but four years old in a place of safety having sent him into England and pressed King Edward so earnestly for the assistance he had promised to her Husband that he sends it by Sea to her It came inde ed somewhat too late to preserve Rennes but early enough to save Hennebond whit her he was retired It was however too weak to maintain the cause the Enemies were Masters of the Field and took the Towns but Charles de Blois I cannot tell by what motive gave her some respite by a years Truce during which this Princess goes over into England to represent the state of her Affairs there Year of our Lord 1342 In the Month of April of this year 1342. hapned the death of Benedict XII This good Pope moreconcerned and affectionate for the exaltation of the Holy See then of his own Family left a vast Treasure to the Church and nothing at all to his kindred but good instructions for the saving of their Souls Peter Roger Native of the Village de Rose in Limosin and Arch-Bishop of Rouen succeeded him by the name of Clement VI. This Man behaved himself quite contrary he scrupled not at all to make use of his Wealth to enrich his Relations and restored the Nipotisine very prejudicial to to the Church Year of our Lord 1342 The Countess Margaret acted so successfully at the Court of England that she brought back a powerful supply commanded by Robert d'Artois The Naval Forces of the Genoese and Spaniards which were under the Command of Lewis of Spain Brother of Alphonso who was Constable set upon them smartly and might well have hindred their Landing if a sierce Wind had not obliged him at night to put out to Sea fearing his great Vessels should run aground their Ships being smaller got to Port near Vannes Robert d'Artois being landed besieged that City and carried it by Assault which he made upon them in the night presently after another very hot one which he had given them in the day time But after that the Captains of the contrary party knowing he had sent the greatest part of his Army to besiege Rennes and that himself staid in Vannes they came and besieged him and press'd so hard upon him by repeated Assaults that they regained the place Himself was hurt in the last attaque and with much ado saved himself by a postern and got to Hennebond from thence he went into England where he thought to find best Chyrurgeons he died of his wounds in London detested of all good and loyal Frenchmen and passionately regretted by Edward who promis'd him to revenge his death And in effect he landed soon afterwards in Bretagne where all at one time he besieged Vannes Rennes and Guincamp protesting he did not intend to break the Truce made with the French but only he would defend and protect the Lands of a Pupil he meant Montfort's Son to whom he had promised his Daughter in Marriage On the other hand the Duke of Normandy thought he did not infringe it if he assisted Charles de Blois his Cousin German Year of our Lord 1342 After divers exploits of War on either part the Duke hemm'd in Edward before Vannes both by Sea and Land Now as the English were reduced to hunger and the French extreamly incommoded with the Autumn Rains they were glad on both sides to get out of these straights by a Truce for two years which was concluded betwixt them only for Bretagne The Legats of the new Pope brought this about and withal got the promise of both Kings that they should send to Avignon to the Holy Father there to determine all their Disputes by a firm and lasting Peace Year of our Lord 1343 The Twenty eighth of January hapned the death of Robert the Wife King of Naples who left his Kingdom to Jane Daughter of his Son Charles and the Sixteenth of September that of Philip King of Navarre Charles his Son who since ws surnamed the Bad came to the Crown under the Guardianship of Queen Jane of France his Mother Year of our Lord 1343 The Duke of Normandy and the English Deputies met at Aviguon to Treat about a Peace and although they could not come to an agreement in any one thing yet nevertheless it was believed they would conclude a Peace at last because the Popes Mediation was pleasing to both Princes But here an unhappy accident falls in their way and not only stopt their proceedings towards a Peace but set them at farther distance then ever they were and overwhelmed France with a deluge of woes Year of our Lord 1344 Oliver de Clisson and Ten or Twelve Lords Bretons of the French party having accompanied Charles de Blois to a Turnament that was held at Paris the King caused them to be all made prisoners upon some suspition of their holding intelligence with the English and soon after beheaded without any Trial or Hearing of their Case to the great astenishment of all the World and indignation of the Nobility whose Blood till then had never been shed but in Battle and indeed this too severe King who revenged even his own mistrusts did so alienate the affection of his Grandees that they served him but very ill when he had need of them upon great occasions Year of our Lord 1344. and 45. The death of these Lords of Bretagne enraged the King of England he was almost like to have done the same to Henry Lord of Leon of Charles de Blois his party whom he held a prisoner but upon the humble intreaties of the Earl of Derby he gave him his Life and Liberty upon condition he should go and declare to King Philip that the Truce was infringed by this Murther and that he was now going to begin the War anew as he quickly did as well in Guyenne by the Earl of Derby assisted by the Gascon Lords under his obedience as in Bretagne by Montforts party till he could go himself and carry a War into the very heart of the Kingdom Year of our Lord 1344 The people of France had liberally granted to King Philip very notable Subsidies of Money for his Wars he raised them by much and which was worse he setled a new one upon Salt for which cause Edward by way of railery called him the Author of the Salique Law This impost which makes the Sun and Water to be sold so dear was the invention of the Jews mortal enemies to the name of Christians as the word or term Gabel denotes
all France was left exposed to the plundrings of the licentious Soldiers as well French as English Now at the very hour that Paris was reduced to the extreamest want and it was in the power of the Navarrois and only depended upon him alone to give the mortal blow to France his heart was changed in a moment without any apparent cause but an extraordinary favour of Heaven towards this Kingdom Insomuch as he made his agreement with the Dauphin and referr'd almost all his pretensions to his own free Will in despite of all the arguments and oppositions of his Brother who quitted him and retired to the English at Saint Sauveur le Vicomte Year of our Lord 1359 This Peace saved the City of Paris but did not ease the neighbouring Provinces * for those Garrisonn'd places that had held for the King of Navarre declared for the English that they might still have opportunities to plunder The Lord Auberticour a Hennuger ravaged Champagne by means of certain Castles he held upon the Marne and the Seine Broquard de Fennestranges a Knight of Lorrain drawn into the Service of France with Five hundred adventurers whom he had under his Pay delivered the Countrey of him having defeated and taken him prisoner in a great Fight near Nogent upon the River Seine but himself became a more severe scourge burning and laying all waste till the Dauphin could give him the Arrears due to his Soldiers During all these Wars with the English until Charles VIII had driven them out of France there were many of these Captains whereof some paid their Men out of their own pockets and then hired them out to those that would bid most and others maintained theirs with the plunder they took indifferently on either side These last were called Robbers those that Commanded them were meer Soldiers of Fortune when they were snapt they found no quarter Year of our Lord 1359 There were Propositions of Peace perpetually on foot between the two Crowns King John though he had all manner of liberty even for Hunting and all pastimes and gallantries was very weary of his imprisonment nevertheless he referr'd those conditions the English propounded for his Release to the Estates of his Kingdom They being assembled at Paris for this purpose it was in the Month of May found them so hard that all with one voice chose rather to have War and offer'd very great sums to carry it on but these could not be levied so soon The King of England netled with their Reply raised a formidable Army there were Eleven hundred Vessels and near an hundred thousand fighting Men landed at Calais with his four Sons who began to march although the Season was very far spent They let him keep the Field at his own pleasure the Towns were so well provided that he could not take one neither St. Omers nor Amiens nor Reims where he thought to have been Crowned King of France nor Chaalons Burgundy redeemed themselves from plundering for Two hundred thousand Florins and some Provisions for his Camp Nivernois compounded likewise Brie and Gastinois were ransacked About the latter end of Lent he came and encamped within Seven Leagues of Paris between Chartres and Montlehery and finding they made no one step towards the satisfying his demands he plants himself just before the City Gates with design to oblige the French to Speak or to Fight Year of our Lord 1360 After he had tarry'd there some time without being able to gain either the one or the other he turns back towards Beauss resolved to refresh his Men along the River Loire and in case of misfortune retreat into Bretagne Cardinal Simon de Langres the Popes Legat and the Dauphins Deputies always follow'd his Camp and sollicited him eternally for a Peace One day he being encamped in the Chartrain Countrey there arose a dreadful Storm with so much Lightning and Thunder and such a shower of great Hail that it grievously maim'd a great many of his Men and killed above a thousand of his Horses He took this prodigy as a warning and command from Heaven and turning himself towards our Lady's Church of Chartres which was to be seen about five or six Leagues off made a promise before the Almighty of concluding the Peace besides the Duke of Lancaster with other English Lords pressed him earnestly because his Army was much shatter'd and he had brought over almost all the force of England Year of our Lord 1360 The Deputies on either part met the First of May at the village called Brotigny within a mile of Chartres In this place Treating in the name of the two Kings eldest Sons they concluded upon all the Articles in eight days time On the one side they gave the English King besides what he had already all Poitou Saintongne Rochel and the Countrey of Aulnis Angoumois Perigord Limosin Quercy Agenois and la Bigorre in full Sovereigaty besides Calais the Counties of Oye Guisnes and Pontieu and three Millions in Gold for the Ransom payable at three several Terms of King John who should be brought to Calais and set at liberty after the restitution of those places force-mentioned and upon giving up as Hostages his Three youngest Sons his Brother Philip and other Princes of the Blood and besides all these Thirty more as well Earls as Illustrious Knights and two Deputies of each of the Nineteen Cities whose Names were expresly mention'd On the other hand the King of England renounced the Title of King of France and generally all his other pretensions Year of our Lord 1360 And till the two Kings could ratify the Treaty a Truce was agreed upon for a year In the Month of July King John was brought over to Calais where he was immediately visited by his Children and staid there till the Five and Twentieth of October when King Edward coming thither both of them swore to the agreement of Peace very solemnly That between the King of England and the Earl of Flanders and another between the King of Navarre and King John were made up in the same place and Year of our Lord 1360 this last sworn by the two Philips Brothers of those two Kings the Treaties were confirmed by the Holy Father under the penalty of Ecclesiastical censures against those as should first contravene King John being freed from Captivity the Four and twentieth of October which he had now undergone four years and one Month went to give Thanks to God at the Church of St. Denis in France There he received the King of Navarre into Favour who came and Saluted him The Thirteenth of December he made his entrance into Paris and the City testified their joy by a Present of Plate of a Thousand Marks Year of our Lord 1361 The extream necessity he was in for Money to pay his Ransom made his generous courage stoop to a weakness judged to be more prejudicial to the Honour of the Noble House of France then even the Treaty of Britigny it self
came about twice as many from such as held places in Normandy and Mayne which they sold to go and joyn with him The four bravest Captains he had about him were the above-named Caurelee Eustace d'Auberticour a Hennuyer John Chandois Seneschal of Poitou Thomas Piercy Seneschal of Rochel and Robert Knolles all English To the last of these four he gave the Command of his Forces To the force of Arms the Wise King joyned the power of Religion and Eloquence which can do all things on the hearts of the People He ordered Fasts and Processions to be made over all his Kingdom and sometimes he went himself bare-footed with the rest When at the same time the Preachers made out his Right and Title with the justice of his Cause and the injustice of the English Which had two ends the one to bring back again those French Provinces which had been yielded by the Treaty of Bretigny the other to make those that were under him willing to suffer the Contributions and all other inconveniencies of War The Archbishop of Toulouze alone by his Persuasions and Intrigues regained above fifty Cities or Castles in Guyenne amongst others that of Cabors The King of England would have practised the same methods on his part and sent an Amnesty or general Pardon to the Gascons with an Oath upon the Sacred Body of Jesus Christ to raise no more new Imposts but all this could not reclaim those minds that had bent themselves another way Divers incursions were made by the French into Guyenne and Poitou and by the English into the Neighbouring Countries and in one of them these last took Isabella de Valois the Widow Dutchess of Bourbon and Mother to the Queen of France at her Castle of Bellepeche in Bourbonnois She was afterwards exchanged for the Prince of Wales his Knight The Earls of Cambridge and Pembrook marched even to Anjou and there took the strong Castle de la Roche-sur-Yon from whence they scowred all the Country as they likewise did that of Berry having gained the City of St. Severe which is situate in Limosin upon that Frontier But on their side they suffer'd more loss by far then all this came to the most considerable being that of Chandois who was unfortunately slain in a Rencounter near the Bridge of Lensac in Poitou Besides the ordinary Troops which they called Companies the Lords and Gentlemen often came together and of their own accord drew themselves into a Body for some great Enterprize or else to make Incursion then after such a Riding so they then called it they returned back to their own homes again King Charles had undertaken to raise an Army that should land some Forces in England his Brother Philip was to Command it and they were to take Shipping at Harsleur When he was ready to go on board the Vessels the news was brought him that John Duke of Lancaster King Edwards third Son was landed at Calais and made inroads upon the French Country He was advised to quit his design and turn his force that way Lancaster seeing him in the Field posted himself upon the Hill de Tournehan between Ardres and Guisnes Philip encamps right against him as either to attaque or surround him but before he had been long there grew weary and disbanded his Men. Thus Lancaster had leisure and opportunity to over-run the Country of Caux even to Harfleur and at his return the Country of Pontieu where he took Prisoner Hugh de Chastillon Master of the Cross-bow-men who had seized upon that Country in the name of the King At the same time the Dukes of Guelders and Juliers moved by the Charms of English Sterling Coyn sent to defie the King who soon set up the Duke of Brabant and the Count de Saint Pol to coap with them as taking fire upon some particular Interest There hapned a furious Battle between both Parties at Baeswilder betwixt the Rhine and the Meuse which brought those Princes very low On the one side the Duke of Juliers was slain on the other the Duke of Brabant was taken Prisoner The Emperor his Brother released him and made up the Quarrel Year of our Lord 1369 The Estates being Assembled the Seventh of December granted to the King an Imposition of a Sol or Penny per Liver upon Salt of four Livers upon every Chimney in the Cities and thirty Sols in the Country as likewise upon the sale of Wine in the Country the 13th in Gross and the 4th upon Retail and upon entry at Paris fifteen Sols for every Pipe of French Wine and twenty four per Pipe for Burgundy Wine To which the Cities joyfully consented as knowing these Levies would be well managed and cease again with the War Year of our Lord 1369 The same year 1369. Hugh Aubriot Prevost des Merchands caused the Towers of the Bastille to be built near the Gate St. Antoine the same as we find them at this day Year of our Lord 1370 The first years War had not produced any very considerable event the two Kings prepared themselves with all their might to perform greater matters the second All the four Brothers of France having held Counsel together resolved that the Duke of Anjou and the Duke of Berry should attaque Guyenne that the former should enter about Toulouze in that part that lieth betwixt the two Seas the other about Berry in Limosin and that they should both joyn at Limeges to besiege the Prince of Wales there Year of our Lord 1370 To this effect they thought fit to recal du Guesclin out of Spain where King Henry had bestow'd upon him the Earldom of Molines and the Lands of Soria He came upon the Kings first commands and having joyned the Duke of Anjou took as he was upon his march the Towns of Moissac Tonneins Aiguillon and other Castles less considerable along the Garonne On his part the Duke of Berry made himself Master of Limoges more by his Intelligence with the Citizens and the Bishop who betrayed the Prince of Wales though his Gossip and very good Friend then by his Sword After this the two Brothers knowing that the Prince too Politick to suffer himself to be cooped up had taken the Field discharged their Soldiers Year of our Lord 1370 The King of England on his part had sent the Duke of Lancaster with some Companies of Men at Arms and Archers into Guyenne and given the Command of all his Army about Picardy to Robert Knolls It consisted of above Thirty thousand Men. His march struck a terror through all France even to the Loire for they sacaged Vermandois Champagne and la Brie burnt all round about Paris made the sound of their Trumpets eccho in the very Gates of the Louvre while neither the smoak of those Incendiaries nor the noise of their Martial Musick could move the wise King to hazard any thing nor let one Soldier go out to the Enemy Year of our Lord 1370 Du Guesclin
Earl of Buckingham and afterwards Duke of Gloucester He had also Four Daughters Isabella who Married the Earl of Bedford Jane who was Wife to the King of Spain Mary that was so to John de Montfort Duke of Bretagne and Margaret to the Earl of Pembrook This great multitude of Children was his strength during his life-time and the ruine of England after his death Year of our Lord 1377 The Wise King had not consented to suspension of Arms but to prepare himself the better Therefore he would hear of no more Propositions and making himself assured of the event o◠the War he began it anew with five Armies He sent one into Artois One into the Countreys of Berry Auvergne Bourbonnois and Lyonnois One into Guyenne One into Bretagne and kept the Fifth near himself as a reserve Year of our Lord 1377 to assist either of the other Four that might stand in need of it They were Commanded by the Dukes of Burgundy of Berry and of Anjou Oliver and the Constable all which behaved themselves so well that the English could not preserve any places of importance but Calais in Belgica Bourdeaux and Bayonne in Guyenne and Cherbourgh in Normandy which was sold to him by the Navarrois Year of our Lord 1378 The eldest Son of that King named Charles as himself was had a great desire to see the King of France his Uncle his Father was just then upon the point of concluding a bargain with the English very disadvantageous to France which was to give them some Lands and Places he held in Normandy and to take the Dutchy of Guyenne in exchange for the defence whereof they were to furnish him every year with Two thousand Men at Arms and as many Archers to be paid by them When his Son therefore went to see his Uncle he would needs take this opportunity to brew some Plot or Conspiracy in France and even to poison the King He had therefore placed about his Son the most crafty and most wicked Men he could pick out amongst others la Rue his Chamberlain and du Tertre his Secretary but was so unadvised withal as to send the Captains of his best places of Normandy His design was discover'd or perhaps prevented the King caused his Son and his Captains to be seized and la Rue and du Tertre to be put into the hands of Justice The Son whatever intercession could be made remained a prisoner Five years the Captains were not set free till the places they belonged to were surrendred to the King du Tertre and la Rue had their Heads cut off At the same time some Forces were sent into Normandy and took all his Holds to the number of Ten or Twelve excepting Cherbourgh which after a long Siege remained still in English hands and immediately dismantled them The Duke of Anjou pressed the English very home likewise in Guyenne The taking of Bergerac and the gaining of a Battle which was fought near the little City of Aymet where almost all the Chiefs and Barons of Gascongne remained prisoners made himself Master of all the Places above the two Rivers the Dordogne and the Garonne Three things weakned the English so much that they had neither the Sence nor Courage nor Forces and Strength to defend themselves One was the Minority of their King aged but Thirteen years the Second a great Plague which depopulated England and the Last the incursions of the Scots who had broken the Truce being incited to it by the King and upon condition of a hundred thousand Gold Florins with the Pay for Five hundred Men at Arms and as many Sergeants Year of our Lord 1377. and 78. The Pope ceased not to exhort the King of France to make Peace and pressed the Emperour Charles to make use of his intercession The Emperour whether out of affection for the Royal House of France or to take measures to secure the Empire to his Son Wenceslaus or for some other subject desired to visit that Court though he were very much tormented with the Gout The King sent two of the most illustrious Earls and two hundred Horse to meet him at Cambray where he kept his Christmass the Duke of Bourbon to Compiegne and two of his Brothers to Senlis himself went beyond the Suburbs of St. Denis to receive him and lodg'd him in his Palace All the time he was in France he entertained him with all the magnificence imaginable paid him all manner of Respects unless such as denote a Sovereignty and which hereafter might give a Title to some imaginary pretences For this reason when they received him into any City they did not ring their Bells nor bring their Canopy of State such as made Speeches did not forget to tell him it was by order of their Sovereign and at his entrance into Paris the King affected to be mounted upon a White Horse and ordered a Black one for the Emperour He came in thither the Fourth day of January and went out thence the Sixteenth returning by the way of Champagne Year of our Lord 1379 During his abode in the Court of France he gratify'd the Dauphin with the Title of Vicar irrevocable of the Empire by Letters Patents Sealed with a Seal of Gold and by others he likewise gave him the same Office for Danphiné with the Castles of Pipet and Chamaux which till then he was possessed of in the City of Vienne Since that we do not read that the Emperours have concerned themselves any more in the ✚ Year of our Lord 1378 Affairs of that Kingdom of Arles nor touching Daupiné which have remained in compleat Sovereignty under the Kings of France who indeed even long before did not acknowledge the Emperour Gregory XI had scarcely been Fourteen Months at Rome when either of Melancholy or otherwise he fell ill of a detention of Urine whereof he died the Seventh of March having declared in his agony that he foresaw grievous troubles and that he did heartily repent his having rather given credit to deceitful Revelations then followed the certain light of true knowledge and good understanding There were in all in the Roman Church three and twenty Cardinals six whereof remained still at Avignon and one was gone upon a Legation Of the Sixteen that were in Rome there were Twelve of them French-men and four Italians all of them foreseeing that the Roman Populace would force them to elect a Pope of the Italian Nation agreed amongst themselves that they would elect one feignedly only to avoid the fury of the People and another in good earnest whom when they were gone thence they would own for the true Pope During this Convention the heat and violence of the People growing more terrible then they Year of our Lord 1378 could have imagined they named the Cardinal Bartholomew Boutillo a Native of Naples Arch-Bishop of Barry in that Kingdom who immediately took himself to be lawful Pope and assumed the Name of Vrban VI. The Cardinals in the
into Africk with the Count de Harcour the Lord de la Tremonille and other Lords and Gentlemen to the number of Eight hundred and a much greater number of Adventurers of divers Countries with whom he signaliz'd his Courage and Conduct against the Moors of Barbary The King of Armenia Minor sprung from the Blood of Luzignan flying from the cruelty of the Turks who had conquer'd his Kingdom and kept his Wife and Children in Captivity came for relief and assistance to the French Court where the King gave him Honourable Entertainment during all the rest of his days He enjoy'd it to the year 1404. then died at Paris and was interred at the Celestines Year of our Lord 1383. and 84. As to the Affairs of Naples Charles de Duras and his Captains behaved themselves so well that cutting off all Provisions from Lewis of Anjou and either following or flanking him so as to prevent his Fighting them they reduced him to the extreamest want of all necessaries even of Cloaths insomuch as this Prince who had carried away all the Kings Treasure had no more left him then a Coat of painted Cloth to wear and one Silver Bowl to drink in He had sent Peter de Craon an Angevin Lord into France to bring him Money and Succours this faithless Friend made no haste to return amusing himself at Venice with the divertisement of some Courtisans After the unfortunate Prince had waited a long time without any tidings of him he sunk under his grief and died the Tenth day of October in this year 1384. or Year of our Lord 1384 as some others will have it the One and twentieth day of September the year following The Earl of Savoy died in the month of March either of the Plague or by drinking Water out of a Fountain that had been poyson'd His Son Ame VII Surnamed Le Rouge succeeded him We must observe that this Amè VI. was the Institutor of the Order of the Collar which was composed of Love-knots together with the Symbolical Letters of the House of Savoy and had at the end a kind of a Ring or wreathed Coronet Duke Charles III. being at Chamberry Anno 1518. changed the name of this Order to that of the Annunciado to honour the Holy Virgin in that mystery which is the most agreeable to her adding Fifteen White Roses to the Fifteen Love-knots in remembrance of her Fifteen Joyes and filled the Pendant with Figures of the Annunciation Year of our Lord 1385 The unhappy remnants of the Duke of Anjou's Army perish'd by Famine and Want excepting such as dispersing by small parties retired into France begging their lively-hood and receiving more injuries and opprobrious words in their Travels then they got bits of Bread The Angevin party was not for all this quite extinct in that Kingdom it subsisted yet in the hearts of some Lords of that Countrey whereof Thomas de St. Severin was the Chief and who afterwards served very well upon occasion For this time the Kingdom rested quietly under Charles de Duraz. The Truce with the English being expired the King who began to take cognizance of his Affairs held a grand Council to deliberate whether they ought to continue it It was the interest of the Duke of Burgundy because of his Low-Countreys to have a Peace with the English but to counterpoise his Power and to flatter Year of our Lord 1385 the young Kings heat they resolved on a War and even to carry it into their own Countrey To this purpose they fitted up a great Fleet at Sluce and they sent to the Scots to oblige them to a rupture of the Truce on their side Year of our Lord 1385 By the methods the Kings Uncles Governed it appeared plainly they had a mind to suck the Peoples Blood to the very last drop The Clergy that they might secure something for their subsistance held an Assembly where they decreed that their Revenues should be divided into three parts the one to be for the maintenance of the Churches the other for Ecclesiastical Persons and the Third for the King without any mention of the Poor Pursuant to the recommendation of the late King Charles the Wise the young Kings Uncles sought a Wife for him in Germany the opinions in Council were different and divided the Duke of Burgundy carried it for Isabella Daughter of Stephen Duke of Bavaria Count Palatine of the Rhine The King Married her at Amiens the .... of July In the preceding month of April the Nuptials between John the Duke of Burgundy's Son and Marguerite Daughter of Albert Duke of Bavaria Earl of Hainault Holland and Zealand were consummate Year of our Lord 1385. and 86. The great design upon England being laid aside after a vast expence that something might come of it John de Vienne Admiral went with Threescore Sail to Scotland and there landed to attaque the English on that side He made an irruption into their Countrey and took some Castles but the savage humour of the Scots could not comply with the free liberty of the French Besides Love had invaded the Admirals Heart and Head which made him courta Lady of the Kings Parentage whereat that wh ole Court not being acquainted with those Gallantreys took such offence that he found it the best way to make his escape with all diligence Year of our Lord 1385 The obstinate Ghentois would not yet bend they had two new Leaders Francion and Atreman who hardned them against all apprehensions of punishment This obliged the King to make a third step into Flanders They had no Port could receive any English Succours but Damm the king having taken that by force and afterwards burning all the Houses round about their City the Rebels in the end began to hearken to Propositions for an accommodation being inclined by the more pacifique humour of Atreman one of their new Chiefs in despite of all the practises of John du Bois and returned to the obedience of the King and the Duke of Burgundy their Lord. This Prince quite wearied with this tedious War which ruined all his Countrey gave them a general Amnesty for all things that were past and the confirmation of all their priviledges upon condition they would renounce all Leagues and that the first that should violate the Peace might forfeit his Life and all his Goods The Treaty was Signed the Eighteenth of December A Truce was renewed likewise between France and England for some Months Charles de Duraz not being satisfied with having invaded the Kingdom of Naples went also into Hungary and usurped that upon Mary one of the Daughters of Lewis the Great his Benefactor who died Anno 1381. and Wife to Sigismund Brother of the â—mperour Wenceslaus whom he detamed in captivity with the Widow Queen his Mother After so many Treacheries and cruel Ingratitudes Heaven suffer'd him to be murther'd himself by the order of Nicholas Gato one of the Palatines of that Kingdom who was very
honour Those were the four heads of her Accusation but which they proved very ill as being unable to make out any thing clearly against her but only that she cloathed her self in the habit of a Man and had taken up Arms which they imputed a Crime because said they that change of habit stained the modsty of her Sex and flatly contradicted the express command of God against it Peter Cauchon Bishop of Beauvais in whose Bishoprick she was taken the Vicar to the Inquisition some Doctors in Divinity and Canon Law were her Judges the Chapter of Rouen during the vacancy of the See lending them place After divers captious interrogatories they condemned her to perpetual imprisonment the bread of sorrow and bitter water of affliction but the English not being satisfied with moderate injustice pressed them so earnestly that some days afterwards they said she had relapsed in putting on the Habit of a Man again Excommunicated her and delivered her over to the Secular Power who burnt her alive the Thirtieth day of May in the Market place of Rouen Being on the Pile of Faggots she foretold the English that the hand of God was lifted up to strike them and that his Justice would not only drive them out of France but pursue them even into England and make them suffer the same calamities and mischiefs they had inflicted on the French It is related that her heart was found entire amongst the ashes and that a milk white Dove was observed to fly out of the midst of the flames a token of her innocency and her purity Year of our Lord 1431 Charles Duke of Lorrain died in the year 1430. without any Male Children There was a debate for the succession between Antony Earl of Vaudemont his Brother who pretended that Dutchy was Masculine and Rene d'Anjou already Duke of Bar who had Married Isabella who was but the third Daughter of Duke Charles but the two elder had renounced the Dutchy The Burgundian in hatred to the House of Anjou the capital Enemy to his and the Duke of Savoy his Allie assisted Antony and fortune was kind to him in the Battle that was fought between Bullegueville and Neufchastel in Lorrain For Rene's Army was totally routed Lord Bazan a great Soldier slain and Rene taken and led away to Dijon to the Duke of Burgundy who detained him till the year 1437. Year of our Lord 1431 After the death of the Pucelle the English Affairs went still worse and worse To remedy this they brought their young King to Paris and Crowned him with a double Crown in Nostre-Dame the Twenty seventh of November and withal the better to retain the Duke of Burgundy who was ready to start from them they confirmed the donation of the Countries of Brie and Champagne to him Year of our Lord 1431 The Lord de la Trimouille made ill use still of his favour and interest against the Constable and the rest of the Lords One day he being with the King at the Castle of Chinon they by confederacy brought two hundred Men in thither who took him in his Bed gave him a wound in the Belly and led him Prisoner to the Castle of Montresor The Queen her self consented to it and therefore soon appeased the King and that his fancy which never could be satisfied without some particular favourite might not be left unfurnished she helped Charles of Anjou Earl of Mayne to gain the Kings good will and more then ordinary kindness La Trimou I le was not set free till he deliver'd up the City of Touars which he had usurped and the King in an Assembly of the Estates at Tours owned all that had been done in respect to him Year of our Lord 1431 By vertue of what had been ordained at Pavia by the Council and the Pope the Council of Basle began this year upon the Three and twentieth of July under Engenius IV. who newly succeeded to Martin V. There was never any good correspondence between him and the Fathers of this holy Assembly For if on their part the Fathers at the very first gave him to understand that they would put some curb to his Authority by stoutly maintaining that ancient rule That the Council is above the Pope he on his part made them know that his greatest desire was to dismiss or dissolve them But as he could not so suddenly do it because the Emperor upheld them he was obliged to confirm the Council after two years of Controversies Year of our Lord 1431 32 33 and the following The War was carried in all the Provinces of France with various success but very feebly Do not wonder to see it languish in this manner for seven or eight years together the weakness of both Parties was the cause thereof they wanting Money could set no great Armies on foot Add to this the weakness of the two Kings Henry of England for his minotity and Charles of France for the easiness of his mind still held in leading-strings by his Favourites and Mistresses Year of our Lord 1431 The Twenty fourth of November in the year 1431. Lewis of Anjou King of Naples died at Cosenza in Calabria without any Issue The Second of February the year following Queen Joan or Jane ended her life also and left Rene the Brother of Lewis to inherit her Kingdom The Pope confirmed this Institution but as Rene was yet a Prisoner to the Duke of Burgundy Alphonso King of Arragon had full leisure to seize upon the Kingdom In this Jane ended the first Branch of Anjou which had produced above thirty other Sprigs furnished Hungary and Poland with Kings and lasted near two hundred years Year of our Lord 1434 Ame VIII Duke of Savoy wearied with the noise and perplexity of Soveraignty had made his retreat to the delicious Hermitage built by himself at Ripailles and taken on the habit of a Hermit with two more Gentlemen his Confidents having resigned his Estates to Charles his Son Earl of Geneva whom he had Married some years before to Anne Daughter of Janus King of Cyprus Year of our Lord 1435 Amongst an infinite number of petty Combats hapning within these two or three years I do not meet with any that was considerable but that of Gerbroy a little City near Beauvais Saintraille and la Hyre had undertaken to fortifie it and the English to hinder them These although three times more in number were beaten the Earl of Arundel their Achilles mortally wounded with a Culverin Shot in his Heel and eight hundred of their Men left dead upon the place Year of our Lord 1434 and 35. The earnest intreaties of the Council and the Pope to the Duke of Burgundy did at length incline his good nature to shew his just resentment and to take pitty of the miseries of France His Treaty had been first begun and rough drawn by Ame Duke of Savoy who in the year 1423. had mediated a Truce between the King and him for the Dutchies of
Duke of Bretagne ended his days at the Castle de la Tousche near Nantes He left his Dutchy very much enriched and improved by a long Peace and mightily Peopled by that War which Year of our Lord 1443 made its Neighbouring Countries desolate particularly Normandy From that single Province there went above thirty thousand Families to inhabite in Bretagne and a great part of them at Rennes which mightily enlarged it and gave occasion to inclose with Walls that quarter of the Town which is named the Basse-ville He had three Sons Francis Peter and Giles whereof the two eldest were Dukes of that Country successively The foregoing year the English laid Siege to Diepe The Dauphin being returned out of Guyenne went thither in quality of Lieutenant-General for the King and chaced them shamefully thence But the Earl of Sommerset landing at Cherbourgh with six thousand fighting Men pierced as far as Anjou and Bretagne defeated the Mareschal de Loheac and the Lord de Rueil then returned loaden with spoil back to Rouen Year of our Lord 1443 Year of our Lord 1440 or 42. In the year 1440 or 1442. is placed the Invention or at least the first use of Printing which would be as excellent as it is wonderful were it not that like Fame whose clearest Trumpet it is it vends as many ill things as it does good ones The City of Leyden in Holland attributes the honour to it self in behalf of Laurent Johnson one of her Burghers Mentz for a Gentleman named Gutemberg Some allow it to one John Mentel of the same City Those deceive themselves that say it came from China for although it be true that they printed there a long time before yet was it not with Letters separate and movable as are ours theirs were graved on plates Year of our Lord 1444 The two Kings loved their pleasures enough to make them have but little love for War The King of England was the first that made mention of an accommodation the Deputies met at Tours where not being able to agree a final Peace they made a Truce of eighteen Months the Twentieth day of May and the Marriage of Marguerit Daughter of Rene of Anjou with the King of England to whom she was conducted by the Duke of Suffolk By consent of both Kings it was thought good to throw the French and English Forces upon the Countries of the Empire which were fat and but poorly defended The apparent pretences were to assist the House of Austria against the Swisse to revenge some incursions the Count de Montbelliard had made upon the Territories of France to affright the Council of Basil that they might put an end to the Schism and to take part with Rene of Anjou Duke of Lorrdin in his contest with the City of Metz for their having assisted Anthony Earl of Vaudemont his Enemy but the real design or cause was to discharge the Kingdom of those troublesom Sons of Mars the Soldiers Year of our Lord 1444 The Dauphin leading these Men there were near 20000 Horse parted from Troyes in the Month of July took Montbelliard and from thence went into Alsatia between Basil and Strasbourg Basil fortifi'd it self and called the Swisse in to their aid He sought four thousand near that place who rather tired then overcome died all upon the place but sold their lives at double the number There were but sixteen escaped others say but only one single man who being returned home to his Canton lost his Head as a deserter The Dauphin judging by this that he should gain nought from them but by losing too much himself and withall being gorged with spoil and observing the heavy German Body began to move he retired for fear of being over-matched and went to joyn with his Fathers Army that lay before Mets. He besieged that Town in favour of Rene Duke of Lorrain The Citizens seeing the Country wasted and ruined for seven or eight Months together bought their redemption at the rate of three hundred thousand Florins of which the King had two hundred thousand and the other hundred thousand they give Rene acquittance for who owed it to them The Army paid with this Money were all disbanded excepting fifteen hundred Men at Arms as many Coustilliers these were Foot that accompanied the Horse and three thousand Archers This was the establishment of what they called Companies d'Ordnnonance Year of our Lord 1444 and 45. He caused them to be quarter'd and cloathed and fed in the Towns but the Vulgar who look no further then the present and will never consider what may happen hereafter minded nothing but how to ease themselves of this burthen and granted a Tax in Money for the subsistence of these Gents-darmes not considering that when once this Tax was setled it would not be in their power to say either how long it should last or how much or little it should be increased or diminished Year of our Lord 1444 The Tenth of November was fought the bloody Battle of Varnes between the Turks and young Ladislaus King of Hungary He had solemnly sworn a Peace with them having unhappily broken it by the Popes instigation who dispenced him of his Oath he most unfortunately lost his Life and all his Army a wound that bleeds yet to this very day The Counties of Valentinois and Diois were united this year to Dauphine Lewis de Poitiers who possessed them had in Anno 1419. given them by his Will to Charles V. who was then Dauphin upon a condition to furnish fifty thousand Crowns to pay off his Debts and Legacies and in case he failed so to do he then gave the succession to Ame Duke of Savoy The Dauphin not having done it Ame was got into possession and had setled a Governor there But this year upon a Treaty at Bayonne agreed the third of April Lewis the Son of Ame gave up all the right he had in favour of the Dauphin Lewis who in retaliation quitted to him the absolute Siegneury and Homage of Foucigny Year of our Lord 1445 and the following During the quiet and soft minutes of the Truce the King enjoy'd the sweet pleasures of his Gardens and languished amidst his Amours and Mistresses Ease and prosperity had plunged him into daliance and effeminate softness His greatest inclination was Agnes Soreau a Gentlewoman of Touraine a very agreeable and generous Lady but who setting her self up as equal with the greatest Princesses became the envy of the Court and a scandal to all France Year of our Lord 1445 The King of England lived much more reserved He was a devout Prince fearing God and of a gentle disposition but having no great Spirit or parts and loving nothing but his Wife he suffer'd her to possess him wholly This Princess bold and undertaking beyond the nature of her Sex would needs take the Helm and make her self absolute To this end she gives some sinister impressions to her Husband concerning his Uncle Humphry Earl of Gloucester
would leave it to them two He failed not to take his advantage of these inconsiderate words He would not have his Brother be so near a Neighbour to the Burgundian his Interest was to place him at the other end of the Kingdom to break off their Communication That young Prince Weak Year of our Lord 1468. and 69. and Inconstant of mind was Governed by Oder-Daydie Lord of Lescun a Gascon and vain who would needs be a Prophet in his own Country by his means he was persuaded to renounce Champagne and accept of Guienne with the City of Rochel This change was the loss of that young Prince The Cardinal de la Ballue in whose hands the Treaty of Peronne had been Sworn with much regret suffered it to be altered whether out of love to Monsieur or that he would have had the King still in some perplexity This good Prelat and William de Hoeraucoux holding Intelligence with the Burgundian wrote to Monsieur to dissuade him and represented many things to him for his advantage but contrary to the Kings intentions Their Letters having been intercepted and they Seized they ingenuously confessed their practices The King sent the information to his Brother who suffering to be overcome by his Carasses accepted of Guyenne and came to meet him at Tours The Bishop was shut up in an Iron Cage a punishment he well deserved since he was the first inventor of it The Cardinal was convey'd to the Bastille where he remained twelve years the Pope demanding him as liable only to his Justice and the King pressing the Pope to let him have Judges assigned him within the Kingdom to hear his cause Year of our Lord 1469 The good correspondence between the two Brothers seemed to be perfected and the King to gain or wean Monsieurs Heart from the Countries on this side allured him with a great Match in Spain Henry King of Castille had a Daughter named Jeane but whom the Castillians held for a Bastard because he was esteemed impotent in so much as they had constrained him to declare the Infanta Isabella who was his Sister his Heiress The King sent the Cardinal of Arras to demand this Isabella for Monsieur But the Lords of the Country having stollen her away and married her to Ferdinand Infant of Arragon he seeks to have Jane which Henry agreed to A Matter for a long War if Charles had lived The first day of August the King being at his Castle of Amboise instituted an Order of Knighthood in honour of St. Michael and limited the number of Knights to 36 yet was it never filled up in all his Reign The French particularly Honoured St. Michael as the Tutelary Angel of that Monarchy And a better could not be pitched upon to tread down the Pride of the English who carr'd Dragons in their Ensigns then that Prince of they Celestial Militia who is painted with a Dragon under his feet And indeed it had been reported that he was seen at the head of our Army 's sighting against them for the French He imagined by means or vertue of this Collar that he should have drawn all the Grandees of the Kingdom within his clutclies when he held this Chapter And therefore the Duke of Bretagne refused it and the Duke of Burgundy doing yet worse received the Order of the Garter and wore it to his Death The Breton had in his service one Peter Landays his Treasurer a man of Low Birth but very knowing and able to countermine all the Artisices of Lewis XI It was he that led him to all these evasions and emboldned his Master to withstand all his devices and his threats Thus what ever endeavours he could use though he were on his Frontiers with an Army he could never disunite him from the Burgundian but only obliged him by a Treaty made at Saumur to renounce all offensive Leagues against the Kingdom Year of our Lord 1470 In the year 1470. John the Natural Son of Lewis Duke of Orleance left this world aged 70 years having divers years before left the Court because of his almost continual pain of the Gout which the hardships in the Wars had brought upon him This Prince valued in all things says Comines having made himself as able a Counsellor as he was a Captain was one of the principal instruments God made use of to drive the English out of France Therefore the Princes of his Family gave him the County of Dunois King Charles that of Longue-ville the Office of Great Chamberlain and the Lieutenancy General of his Army's and strong Forts A power of so great extent that it hath been communicated to none but himself in the third Race Year of our Lord 1470 The renunciation which the King caused the Breton to make had most respect to Edward of York King of England and Brother in Law to the Burgundian of whom it was hourly reported that he was coming to Land at Calais He was wholly prevented by the Earl of Warwick who in revenge of some injuries received from him set himself to carry on the interests of the House of Lancaster and had even Debauched the Duke of Clarence his Brother He had the foregoing year defeated his Army and afterwards took him Prisoner Then Edward having escaped beat him in his turn So that he was forced to save himself in France about the end of the Month of May this year From thence returning into England with the Succours the King leâ—t him he changed the Scene a second time For all slocked to him according to the Genius of that Country which loves change and Year of our Lord 1471 Edward wholly forfaken fled into Flanders to the Duke of Burgundy his Brother in Law Then King Henry who was in the Tower of London was set at Liberty and Warwick and Clarence took upon them the Government of the Kingdom Though the King still resented in his Heart the affront received at Peronne nevertheless being of a fearful Spirit and the length of any enterprize putting him out of patience if the success were not as swift as his desires he would have lived in peace if the Constable and those that were about him had not excited his resentment to draw him to a rupture They feared and the Constable most of all that a Peace making them appear useless the King might think of retrenching their great allowances and his stirring mind if it were not employ'd abroad might put him upon great alterations at home in his Court. Besides these motives there was also an Intrigue of the Bretons and the Constables in favour of Monsieur As they desired to strengthen him against the King they had inspired him with a desire of marrying the only Daughter of the Burgundian And because they knew the Father would not easily consent to it they believed they should sooner bring it about by force then by friendship and therefore they resolved to engage the King to make a War upon him The Bias they took
his Councel to hearken to an accommodation The procedure of the Burgundian who had made them expect too long and which was worse the double persidious dealing of the Constable and the approaching Winter they having no one place to shelter themselves in gave them a plausible pretence to do so In few days the Deputies for the two Kings agreed upon conditions It was a Merchandized Truce for nine years the Burgundian and the Breton to be comprized if they would 73000 Crowns of Gold ready Money for the English and the Marriage of his Daughter with the Dauphin for whose maintenance King Lewis would allot the Revenue of Guyenne for nine years or 50000 Crowns ayear which should be carried to the Tower of London to the King of England Year of our Lord 1475 When the Duke had notice of what was treating he came in great hast he being the Sixteenth of his Company to find Edward He spake loud he thundred and braved him But neither his fury nor his reproaches having done good he turned short home again The Truce agreed whilst the Kings were to sign the Treaty the King of England came with his Army to lodge within half a League of Amiens The King sent him 300 Waggons laden with the best Wines and gave order they should permit as many English as desired to come into Amiens and that nothing should be spared to make them welcome Which lasted three or four days It was afterwards resolved the two Kings should have an enterview on a Bridge which was erected at Pequigny upon the Somme with a Barriere grated betwixt them And there they ratified the Peace the 29 th of August That done the King of England with all the Lords of his Retinue repassed the Sea very well satisfied with the good Wines and the sine French Gold there having been 16000 Crowns distributed in Pensions amongst such as had most Credit with their King The Burgundian shewed himself a little refractory till in the Month of October he accepted of a Truce In the mean time his Choler discharged it self upon the young Rene Duke of Lorrain whom he stripp'd of his Dukedom all but Nancy which defended it self above two Months Then the Constable who thought to have plaid upon all the three Princes promising to each of them his Town of St. Quentins found himself exposed as the Butt for all three to Shoot at and unhappily for him his Wife who was Sister to the Queen hapned to Die This Lord so powerful who wanted neither for Servants nor Money nor strong Holds wanted both Courage and Brain all of a sudden and fearing all the World durst not Trust any one In fine he retired into the Burgundians Country whom he guessed the most exorable and who in effect gave him security to go thither He was no sooner gone out of St. Quentin but the King Seized it and gave notice of it to the Burgundian Summoning him to deliver up that Infidel in Exchange of that place conformably to an Article of the Truce between them The Burgundian was then before Nancy which was necessary for him to keep Lorrain in awe and to joyn the Low-Country to the Dutchy and County of Burgundy For fear therefore lest the King should disturb him in that Conquest he caused the Constable to be Seized at Mons whence he was transferr'd to Peronne and ordered his People to deliver him but not till a certain day remote enough in which time he believed he should take Nancy and then promised himself by that space he might revoke his order But the place defended it self so well that he could not master it within the said time and nevertheless his people delivered up the Constable with his Letters sealed Writings and other pieces to convict him Year of our Lord 1475 They gave him not leasure to bethink himself he was led to the Bastille the 2 d of December examined by some Commissary's condemned to Death by the Parliament and Executed in the Greve the 19 th of the same Month. A Lesson Written in Letters of Blood for such as would make themselves a Terror to their Princes Year of our Lord 1475 After the City of Perpignan had endured a year and a halfs Siege and a Famine to the very Eating of Leather it Surrendred to the French about the end of this year and thus the Country of Roussillon remained once more in the French hands Year of our Lord 1476 The eighth of January following was Published an Edict of the Kings which enjoyned all the Bishops to go to their Diocesses on pain of a Seizure of their Temporals to prepare themselves for a Council which he said was necessary He likewise Ordained that all such as came from Rome should be obliged to shew the Papers they brought All this to frighten the Legat the Popes Nephew it was John de la Rovere who would undertake too much Lorrain being Conquer'd the Burgundian cast his thoughts upon many other Provinces King Rene made him hope for Provence he disposed of the Estates of Savoy almost as much as of his own the Dutchess adhering to him fearing lest he should bring the Uncles of her Pupil to invade that Dutchy From thence he went into Italy where he had an Alliance with the Duke of Milan and a great ascendant by Fame over all the petty Princes of that Country But before this he would needs compel the Swissers to stoop to his Laws where he went so much resolv'd hating them besides already that he refused their most humble Submissions and the offers they made to enter into his alliance and to renounce all others even that with the King An Invasion they had made upon the Lands of James of Savoy Count de Romont served him for a pretence to Attack them the quarrel between them and that Count proceeded from a very small occasion which was for a Cart Load of Sheep Skins he had taken from them Against this Rock it was then that his querellous Ambition went to make Shipwrack and dash it self in pieces They were as yet but Peasants and very little known but who had all the Strength and Force of a Natural Valour never yet softned by the Luxury of their Neighbours Year of our Lord 1477 To tell it in few words the 5 th of April he lost his Infantry and his rich Equipage at Granson the 20 th of June all his Forces even to the number of 18000 Men before Morat and in fine the 5 th of January being the Eve of Twelfth-day his own life and the Grandeur of his House before Nancy Year of our Lord 1476 After the Battel of Morat Duke Rene who was come thither with the Swisse and the Germans and by his Valour had contributed much to the Victory went and retook his City of Nancy The Burgundian after that unfortunate day finding all his Allies abandon'd him and his Subjects began to despise him was fallen sick with Spite and rage from which not being
Salusses Gonsales being encamped on a Moorish ground called otherwhile Palus Minturniae within a League of their Bridge put them to a full stop and made them pass their Winter in very cold and untenentable Lodgings The inconveniencies of the Season almost ruined their Army and the sharkings of the Commissaries to whom the ruin of Armies is profitable compleated it The best of their Officers died of Sickness and on the contrary the Enemies encreased their numbers by the additions of the Vrsini The Marquiss understanding they had passed the Gariglian to come and attack him he retreated to Cajeta Year of our Lord 1504 Gonsales besieged him immediately the Marquiss finding a Horrible Famine would sooner be with him then any relief made his capitulation the first Day of the year 1504. It imported that the Soldiers might go free away either by Sea or Land and that all Prisoners should be deliver'd up without Ransom Gonsales interpreting this in his own Sence and Mode excluded such as belonged to the Kingdom of Naples Lewis d'Ars would not be comprehended in this Treaty but retreated with Trumpets sounding and Colours flying quite through all Italy The cause of these Misfortunes was laid at the Doors of the Financiers John Heroet Intendant of the Finances was condemned to Banishment with so much the greater Justice as being in the King's Favour he nevertheless had a greater Love for Money which is the real and only true Soveraign of those people then for the Honour of so good a Master The three Armies which Lewis had sent against Spain put him only to expences without any Progress The Naval one scowred the Coast of Castille and Valentia then retired to Marseille and for the two Land ones that which was commanded by Alain d'Albret and the Mareschal de Gie only saluted the Walls of Fontarabia then disbanded thorough the Contests of the two Chiefs and perhaps out of the little affection the Lord d'Albret had for the King's Service by reason of the Differences formerly between them in Bretagne when they courted the Dutchess Anne such as remained went to joyn the third which besieged Salses These having batter'd the Place forty Days together King Ferdinand arrives with thirty thousand Men which made them raise their Siege After this there was a Truce between the two Kings as to their Countries of France and Spain by the mediation of Frederic Ferdinand made him believe that he was ready to restore the Kingdom to him if Lewis would consent and propounded to bestow his Sister in Marriage upon Alphonso she was Widdow of Ferdinand the Young King of Naples Year of our Lord 1504 The Kings discontent and trouble for so much ill success for the loss of his reputation and for his not being able to detect and unravel all these Spanish Fourbes and Intrigues were so great as cast him into a fit of Sickness which brought him to extremity The Queen believing him dead thought of retiring her self into Bretagne and sent away her Equipage The Mareschal de Gie having stopt it incurr'd her indignation she could never forgive this in him who was born her Subject and prosecuted him Criminally with that heat that the King was forced to send his Process to the Parliament of Toulouze as the most severe in the Kingdom where notwithstanding they could find no Colour to condemn him to any other Punishment but to be banished from Court The Spaniard using still the same Artisices had sent his Ambassadors into France together with those of the Arch-Duke his Son to Treat of a Peace But as they offer'd nothing that was satisfactory they were dismissed and the King made an Alliance with the Emperor and with the Arch-Duke By this Treaty they confirmed the Marriage of his eldest Daughter or of the Second in case the Elder died with Prince Charles which he caused to be signed by Francis de Valois his presumptive Successor to the Crown and other Princes of the Blood and Grandees of the Kingdom The Emperor gave him the investiture of the Dutchy of Milan for him and for his Children as well Males if he had any as his two Daughters provided he paid 120000 Florins payable in two Six Months a pair of Gold Spurs every Christmas-day and an assistance of five hundred Lances when the Emperor should go to take the Imperial Crown at Rome Year of our Lord 1504 About this time hapned the death of Frederic King of Naples who was now fully undeceived of the fraudulent hopes given him by Ferdinand and shortly after towards the end of the Year hapned that of Isabella Wife of Ferdinand a great and generous Princess and indeed the Spaniards lift her above all other Heroines Year of our Lord 1505 Her death changed the Interests of all Princes The Power of the Arch-Duke being augmented by the Kingdom of Castille and the Alliance of Henry King of England whose eldest Son Arthur had married his Sister Catharine began to create some fears in Lewis some confidence in Maximilian and some kind of jealousy in Ferdinand himself who perceived that his Son-in-law would not leave the Administration of Castille to him as Isabella had ordained by her Testament By these motives the King and he made Peace which they fastned with some Ties Ferdinand married Germain Daughter of John de Foix Vicount of Narbonne and of Mary the King's Sister who gave him his share of the Kingdom of Naples in Dowry upon condition it should all fall to her Husband if she died the first but should return to the King if she survived and brought no Children Year of our Lord 1505 Those banished from Naples and the Gentlemen of the Angevin Faction were restored to their own the Queen Widdow of Frederic went out of France and retired to Alphonso Duke of Ferara her Relation Year of our Lord 1506 This hindred not Philip from passing into Spain with his Wife The Castillans soon flocked to this Young Prince Handsome Liberal and who had married their Soveraign Ferdinand was forced to give way to him and to go out of Castille never to return so long as Philip lived Very happy yet that he left him the Indies and the Kingdom of Naples whither he made haste because Gonsales would have put it into the Hands of Philip finding he could not usurp it for himself as he could heartily have desired Year of our Lord 1506 The Great Lords of France and other most notable Persons having considered the Inconveniencies that would flow from the Marriage of the King 's Eldest Daughter with Charles of Austria assembled of their own proper mouvement as they said in the City of Tours where the King was and intreated him to give her to Francis Duke of Valois his presumptive Heir which he granted them forthwith and they contracted the two Parties the eight and twentieth day of May. A fresh Affront which Maximilian might add in his Red-Book where he wrote down all those Injuries the French had done him Like
that the Oldest were sometimes the most passionate would essay whether amongst the youthfull there might not be found one more Temperate And for this consideration elected John de Medicis Son of Laurence who was but thirty six years of Age. He took the Name of Leo X. There were two Opinions in the Kings Council the one to make an Accommodation with the Venetians the other to regain the Emperor Stephen Poncher Bishop of Paris was of the first such as would be complaisant to the Queen stood for the second This Princess passionately desired to marry Renee her second Daughter to the Arch-Duke Charles and this Advice had carried it if she would at that very time have given her up to Maximilians Hands to breed her and had not obstinately resolved to keep her near her self till she were marriageable Ferdinand on the other side fearing lest the Venetians should renew and joyn in friendship again with France endeavoured to reconcile them with Maximilian and propounded to get Veronna to be restored again to them but the Emperor demanded prodigious Summs of Money and very crabbed Conditions So that the Venetians not being able to come to an Agreement on reasonable Terms with him condescended to a League with the Kings Year of our Lord 1513 By means of their Assistance and during the Truce he had with Ferdinand he believed he might recover the Dutchy of Milan He gave Commission for this to la Trimoville the most renowed of his Captains together with sixteen thousand Foot one thousand Men at Arms and two thousand light-Horse to whom the Venetian Army commanded by Alviane newly deliver'd by the French were to joyn in case of need At his arrival though he had not much more then the half of his Men it spread so great a Terror thorow Italy that all the Places in Milanois surrendred to him excepting Coma and Novarre in the last of which Duke Francis Sforza put himself with five thousand Swisse At the same time the Fleet which consisted of nine Galleys and some Ships having appeared on the Coast of Genoa the Fiesques and the Adornes drew near to Genoa with four thousand Men and having beaten some Soldiery whit which Duke Janu Fregoso thought to hinder their Passage from the Mountains chaced away that Duke and restored that Seigneury to the Obedience of the King having caused Antonio Adorno to be created Duke to administer in his Name Year of our Lord 1513 The injoyment of this Conquest lasted not so long as the time they had imploy'd in acquiring it La Trimoville had besieged Sforza in Novarre and made a Breach but he durst not make his Assault because the said Breach was hardly large enough and there was another Body of Swisse coming to relieve the besieged There were two Opinions that divided the Officers la Trimoville thought it best to go and meet the Swisse John Jacques Trivulcio on the contrary to avoid fighting and wait for the French Troops that were marching to re inforce them The plurality of Votes made them resolve to pursue the first and for that purpose Trivulcio with the Van-Guard should go and take his Lodgment upon that Road whilst la Trimoville should remain yet some time longer before Novarre with the Rear-Guard to expel the Swisse if they endeavour'd to make any Sallies But having some Lands of his own in the Place they had assigned him to take his Lodgment and besides being proud and haughty his Pride and Avarice made him turn another way and take his Lodgment near la Riota in a Boggy Ground and cut up and down with deep Trenches so that the Horse could be of no Service nor be able to help the Foot Year of our Lord 1513 The Swifse that were in Novarre therefore marching forth in the Night which could not have been imagin'd and having joyned the others came with much fury to charge the French Army at the first birth of Day Their Charge was received with the like courage Fifteen hundred of their Men were slain and as many wounded nevertheless they gained the Victory and hew'd all the German Infantry in pieces together with the Gascons La Trimoville wounded in the Leg retreated with all his Cavalry to Vercel and from thence to Susa The burthen of the War fell afterwards upon the Venetians they maintained it well enough but all those Cities that had given themselves up to the French returned and submitted themselves to the mercy of Sforza and were chastized for their defection by great Fines which served him to pay the Swisse The Adornes who had not yet held the Government of Genoa above one and twenty Days having not wherewith to support themselves after such a revolution made their best advantage of it They assembled the People and having declared that they would not maintain an ambitious Government to the great hazard of their Country withdrew themselves out of the City most of the People and Senate conducting them forth with Tears and Wishes for their return By the interest of Cardonna General of Ferdinand's Army and upon the Popes recommendations Octavian Fregosa was â—etled in that Principallity and not Janus who was formerly expell'd Hitherto Maximilian although he had abandoned the King had not yet formally declared himself When he found the opportunity so fair he enters into open hostility against him and then was France in more eminent danger then it had of a long time been For on the one side the Swisse extremely puff'd up by the Victory at Novarre entred by the Dutchy of Burgundy and he with the King of England fell upon them in Picardy Year of our Lord 1513 The Swisse besieged Dijon with five and twenty hundred Men to whom the Emperor had joyned the Nobless of the Franche-Comte and some German Horse commanded by Vlric Duke of Wirtemberg La Trimoville having defended it six Year of our Lord 1513 Weeks judged it better to turn this Torrent another way which after the taking this Place would have overflowed all even to Paris than to render it more violent by thus putting it to a stop He enters upon a Treaty with them and manag'd it so wisely as to send them back into their own Country obliging himself that the King should pay them six hundred thousand Crowns and should renounce the Council of Pisa and the Dutchy of Milan He had no express Order to make these conditions but thought he might be allowed to do it for the saving of all France and thereupon gave them up six Hostages two Lords and four Citizens The King refusing to ratifie this Treaty their Heads were in great danger Only the fear the Swisse had of losing the great Summs of Money he proffer'd them saved the Lives of those innocent Persons Year of our Lord 1513 At the same time about mid July the Emperor and the King of England had besieged Terovenne with above fifty thousand Men. The French Army happily enough threw a Convoy of Provisions and Ammunitions into
the Fossez but at their return not standing well upon their Guard they were Charged and put to the rout The Battle was fought the eighteenth of August near Guinegaste it was named The Battle of Spurrs because in this Fight the French made more use of them then of their Swords The more Valiant notwithstanding shewed great Personal courage which they paid for the Duke of Longueville and the Chevalier Bayard were hemm'd in and carried away by the English Terovenne capitulated fifteen Days after The two Princes not being able to agree who should have it commanded it to be dismantled against the express Terms of the Capitulation and burnt it all excepting only the Churches Tournay fearing the like Fate surrendred in good time to the Kings of England who built a Citadel to bridle them About the same Time James IV. King of Scotland the only Ally the King had left him having marched into England to make a Diversion was beaten by the English Army and slain upon the Spot the seventeenth of September Year of our Lord 1513 The King's Spirit bore him up bravely against all these Adversities but he had a Domestick trouble greater then those of all his Enemies This was his own Wife who moved with the Scruples common to her Sex could not endure he should be at variance with the Pope and should maintain a Council against him She still making a noise in his Ears upon these two Points he was oft-times forced to keep Peace within Doors to lay down his Arms when his Affairs were most promising and in a fair way of bringing Julius quickly to reason In fine being quite tyred and overcome by her Importunities and the remonstrances of his Subjects whom she stirred up on all Hands he renounced his Council of Pisa and adhered to the Latran Council by his Procurators who caused his Mandate to be read in the eight Session the fourteenth of December Year of our Lord 1513 the Pope then Presiding He likewise promised to appear concerning the Business of the Pragmatick but because of those Enemies who encompassed him round on all Hands he demanded a competent Time which was granted him The Cardinals de Sancta Croce and Sanseverin went to Rome to cast themselves at the Feet of Pope Leo and presenting themselves in the Council in the Habits of simple Priests craving pardon on their Knees acknowledging they had justly been degraded by Pope Julius and detesting the Assembly of Pisa as Schismatick were restored to their Dignities and took their Places in the Sacred Colledg After these submissions the Pope seemed in appearance to be satisfied with the King but did not omit underhand to incite the Emperor to make War upon him that he might be so much embroil'd as not to have leasure to return into Italy Year of our Lord 1514 Queen Anne survived but few Days after this reconciliation which she had so infinitely desired She died the ninth of January at the Castle of Blois Her Husband loved her so entirely that his Heart bowed under this Asslication he put on Black for Mourning shut himself up for several Days in his Closset and turned all the Fidlers Comedians Jugglers and Buffoons out of the Court. Having no Children he with great tenderness bred up Francis Duke of Valois whom the Laws of the Kingdom appointed necessary Successor Queen Anne out of a hatred she had ever conceived for Louisa Mother of this Prince had hindred his Marriage with her Daughter Claude The King would have it consummate the eighteenth day of May at Saint Germains en laye Himself had as then no thoughts of re-marrying but the Duke of Longueville who was Prisoner in England and endeavoured to make a Peace between the two Crowns having talked of a Marriage between the King and Mary the Sister of King Henry the good Prince hearkned willingly to it out of the desire he had to settle his People in Peace and the King of England inclined thereto as perceiving the Fourberies of Ferdinand his Father in Law who had disappointed him three several times Year of our Lord 1514 The Peace and Marriage were made in London on the same Day being the second of August The King of England was to hold Tournay and Lewis obliged himself to pay him six hundred thousand Crowns at two payments as well for the Expences of his War as for the Arrears of the Pension that had been promis'd by the Treaty of Pequigny and confirmed by that of Estaples in 1492. In this Summ they had deducted his Wives Portion which was four hundred thousand Crowns The Marriage was compleated at Abbiville the tenth Day of October Year of our Lord 1514 The young Duke of Valois who was all fire and flame for the fair Ladies did not want some Sparks for this new Queen and Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk who loved her before this Marriage and followed the Court of France in Quality of Ambassador from England had not extinguished his first Flames But the remonstrances of Arthur de Gouffier Boisy having made the Duke of Valois consider whose Governor he had been that he was going to play a ticklish Game and had reason to apprehend the like from the Duke of Suffolk the wean'd himself of his Folly and caused every Motion of that Duke to be narrowly observed The good King's Grave was not far distant from his Nuptial Bed As he was raising a Potent Army to re-pass the Alpes making himself secure of Fortunes favour since he had gained the King of England his most dreadful Enemy a fit Year of our Lord 1515 of Vomiting seized upon him in his Hostel des Tournelles at Paris and brought him so low that he died of it the first day of January Anno 1515. He was fifty three years of Age and had Reigned seventeen His Humour was open gay and easie he loved to hear the Truth and that of things even concerning himself without shewing any Anger unless it reflected on the Honor of some Ladies of whom there were not many Stories to relate the Queens severe Chastity and his great and manly Soul above those triflings and vain divertisements that begets so much Corruption having made them keep themselves mightily reserved He pleased himself in reading of good Books and cherish'd and advanced Learned Men but more those that were able to instruct and do him Service then such as could only flatter and please the Ear with their soft difcourses Never Prince loved his People so much nor was so much beloved as he As he spared them as much as he could himself so he took care they should not be a Prey to the Grandees and Sons of War He had so well regulated the last that often times the Provinces would request it as a Favour and Advantage that he would send them Companies of his Men at Arms. He was more then once observed to have Tears in his Eyes when he was forced to lay some little Subsidy upon them and upon
to Table and made both him and all his Prisoners Some days before Emard de Prie with five or six thousand Men was gone to Genoa to attack Alexandria and some other Towns on this side the Po. Octavian Fregosa had at the same time treated with the King who left to him the Signeury of Genoa to be not a Duke but only Governour in his Name These tydings brought to Lyons the King parted from thence the fifteenth day Year of our Lord 1515 of August accompanied by seven Princes of the Blood and an infinite number of Great Lords having before-hand left the Regency to Louise de Savoy his Mother who was stiled Madame As he was going forth arrives an Ambassador from England to let him know from his Master that he ought not to pass into Italy for fear of disturbing the Peace of Christendom which only served to discover the inconstancy of that Prince and the jealousy he had left a young King should out-strip him in the Race of Honour who had lived a much longer time King Ferdinand's Menaces signified as little as the King of Englands Remonstrances He was but too well pleased that the first Efforts and Attempts of this new Conqueror were to fall upon Italy and not upon Spain And therefore as soon as he was certain of his March that way he disbanded the greatest part of his Forces and little cared for that League he was entred into for the defence of Milan This Shock or Surprize of Prospera Colomna's being very considerable because Year of our Lord 1515 it was the first essay of the whole Enterprize greatly changed the disposition of the Minds of the Emperor the Pope and even the Swisse who after having burnt Chivas and Verceil retired to Novarre whilst the King was assembling his Troops at Turin He immediately set forwards to follow them without delay being informed how they began to disagree and judg'd he had a fair opportunity either to vanquish them during their disunion or to treat the more advantageously with them And indeed some of their Chiefs began to give ear to the Propositions that were made by him but knowing he was come to Verceil they dislodg'd from Novarre and retired to Galerate He followed the same Pace and got into all their Towns without striking one Blow Being thus repulsed and at variance with each other they set a Treaty on Foot by the mediation of Charles Duke of Savoy their ancient Allie He obtained them all the satisfaction they could hope for that is to say great Summs of Money as well for their Pensions as to make good the Treaty of Dijon and a very fair settlement in France for Duke Sforza in recompence for his Dutchy of Milan But thereupon arrives a re-inforcement of ten thousand Men from their own Country who desiring to have their share in the Honor and Spoil as well as their Compagnons whom they found very rich broke off all and led them back to Milan This did not however take away all hopes they might be pacified by adding an over-plus Summ to stop the Months of the most Troublesom and Active but one Day when all seemed to be at an end and the King was ready to send Money for performance of the Articles the Cardinal of Sion whilst they were all met to make the final Conclusion begins to Harangue them with so much earnestness that he made them take up their Arms to come and Charge the French who were lodged at Marignan within a League of Milan and expected no less then such a sudden Onset Therefore the thirteenth of October about four in the Afternoon they came and Charged the French Van-guard with impetuosity who having been forewarn'd received them much better then they imagined they could not however hinder them from gaining the enclosure of their Camp and some Pieces of Canon But the King hastning to that part with the Flower of his Nobility and Gentdarmerie prevented them from piercing any further Never was there a more furious scuffle not heavier Blows the Fight lasted four hours in the Night nought but their over weariness made Truce between them till break of Day but did not part them many of both Parties lying down by each other all the Night The King with his Armor on rested himself upon the Carriage of a Gun where the great Thirst his toyl had brought upon him made him relish even a little Water mixed with Dirt and Blood brought to him by a courteous Soldier in his Morion Year of our Lord 1515 He did not waste all the Night in reposing himself but the greatest Part in placing his Guns his Musquetiers and Gascon Cross-bow Men. The Day appearing the Swisse returned to the Assault with more vigour then the Night before but the Cannon broke their Battallions the Bullets and Arrows made a great Slaughter then the Horse sallied and ran over them some of their Companies were driven into a Wood who were all cut in Pieces About nine in the Morning the rest thinking themselves vanquisht because they had not been able to Vanquish and withal observing Alvaine approach with the choice of his Venetian Cavalry began to make their retreat towards Milan none endeavouring to pursue them excepting Alvaine who thinking to Charge them in the Rear soon found by their fierce resistance that they dreaded their Italian Lances but little This was all the Share he had in this Battle whatever the Authors of that Nation are pleased to relate The French kept the Camp cover'd with ten thousand dead Swisse and three or four thousand of their own Men but of the bravest and for the most part Gentlemen Francis de Bourbon Brother to the Constable the Prince of Talmont only Son of Lewis de la Trimoville Bussy d'Amboise Nephew to the Cardinal of that Name the Count de Sancerre and eight or ten other Lords of Note were slain there Claude Duke of Guise who commanded the Lansquenets in the absence of Charles Duke of Gueldres his Maternal Uncle was trod under Foot a German Gentleman his Esquire saved his Life at the expence of his own by covering him with his own Body and receiving the Blows they made at his Master This ill Success begot new discords between the Swisse those that would have agreed with the King demanded Money of Sforza that they might be gone they knew well enough he had none and thereupon they returned by way of Coma which the King had left open for them The rest follow'd them the next day but left fifteen hundred of their Men with Sforza to maintain the Castle together with five hundred Italians he had there promising in a short time to come back to his assistance as likewise on his side the Cardinal of Sion going to the Emperor for the same purpose vow'd to return again speedily So that upon this assurance he shut himself into the Castle with one John Gonzague Jerome Moron and some Milanese Gentlemen The City surrendred the next day
to the King but he judged it was not convenient for his Majesty to enter into it 〈…〉 had the Castle likewise which he ordered should be Besieged by the 〈…〉 and Peter de Navarre As soon as he came first into Italy the Pope had feignedly begun to Treat with him After the Battle of Marignan he was in so great haste thorough fear that he treated without disguise not waiting the Resolutions of the Swisse Diet nor the Emperors who earnestly conjured him not to do so Amongst other Articles the King took into his protection his Person the Ecclesiastical Estate Julian and Laurence de Medicis and the Estate of Florence obliged himself that from that Time forward the Milanese should be furnished with Salt from Cervia consented free Passage should be allowed for the Vice-Roy of Naples Forces to retire promised not to assist or protect any of his Feudataries against him Reciprocally the Pope was to withdraw the Soldiers he had sent to the Emperor against the Venetians and surrender Piacenza and Parma to the King and Modena and Reggio to the Duke of Ferrara The Constable not relying solely upon the Success of those Mines with the which Peter de Navarre had vaunted to take the Castle of Milan in a Month made use of Money which does its effect more certainly then Gun-Powder and corrupted some Captains so that they began to Mutiny The Swisse Cantons assembled at that time at Zuric were just sending away a powerful Relief to Sforza and the Pope who had not yet concluded his Treaty would not have failed to joyn his Troops and those of Naples but Moron who was all the Councel the unfortunate Sforza had persuaded him to make a Composition with the King He yielded him all his Rights to the Dutchy conditionally he should have a certain Summ of ready Money to pay his Debts thirty thousand Ducats Pension to be paid him in France or given him in Benefices with a Cardinals Cap and several other Conditions for his Servants and such as had been of his Party The Treaty signed he came out of the Castle and was conducted into France by some Lords little bemoaned for being fallen from that high Degree of Soveraignty because the exravagancy of his Mind and his more then brutish Vices had rendred him unworthy of it The Castle being surrendred nothing more opposed the Conqueror Hugh de Cardonna with Ferdinand's Army retired to the Kingdom of Naples and the Pope dissembling his displeasure for the restitution of those Places he had been obliged to make went to Bologna to confer with the King face to face He arrived there the nineteenth of December and the King two days after On the Morrow he rendred him Obedience his Chancellor Antony du Prat pronounced the Words bare-headed and on his Knees the King standing by cover'd Year of our Lord 1515 confirmed them by bowing his Head and Shoulders After that they lock'd themselves up for three Days together in the Palace There it was that the young King for vain hopes and by the Advice and Counsel of his Chancellor condescended to abolish the Pragmatick and to make the Concordat Whereby the Pope conceded to the King the right of nominating to Bishopricks and Abbeys in all the Territories of the Kingdom of France and Dauphine and the King granted to the Pope the Annates of those great Benefices upon the foot of their currant Revenue which were augmented above the one half since the discovery of the Indies The Holy Father very free of other Folks Money made him a Present of two Tenths upon the Clergy and the Title of Emperour of the East But the King refused the last At the same Time the renewed Alliance with the Swisse was concluded notwithstanding the Contrivances of the English It was upon these Conditions That they should serve France with and against all excepting the Pope the Emperor and the Empire That they should surrender the Valleys of Milanois That the King should pay them six hundred thousand Crowns and should continue to them their Pensions Five of the Cantons did at that time refuse to Sign to this Year of our Lord 1515 When the King had taken Care for the security of Milan where he left the Constable with seven hundred Men at Arms and ten thousand Foot Soldiers he parted from Bologna the fifteenth of December and by great Journeys came to his Mother and his Wife who staid for him at Lyons Year of our Lord 1516 His happy Progress and his new Alliances kindled the greater jealousy in the Emperor King Ferdinand and the King of England his Son in law in so much as they 〈…〉 common Consent to make a War upon him both in Italy and France at the 〈◊〉 time To which the King of England was inclined with the more heat and â—â—erness as being incensed for that the King hindred him from governing the young King and the Kingdom of Scotland by such People as were dependant on him But as they were taking their Measures for this Design it hapned that King Ferdinand as he was going to Seville died in the little Village of Madrigalet the two and twentieth of February of a Dropsy occasioned by a Beverage which Germain his Wife had given him to enable him to get Children Guichardin making his Elogy says there was nothing to be reproved in him but his not observing or keeping his Word and that as for the Avarice they reproach him with it was manifest at his Death he was not stained with it because he left but very little Money in his Coffers He adds that this Calumny proceeded from the corrupt judgment of Men who more applaud the Prodigality of a Prince which oppresses and grinds his Subjects then the good Husbandry of One that thriftily manages their Substance as a good and careful Father of his Family ought to do He left the Government of Arragon to his Bastard Son Bishop of Saragossa and that of Castille to Francis Ximenes Cardinal Bishop of Toledo His Daughter Jane was Distracted still and shut up in a Castle where she clambred along the Walls and crawled up the Tapistry Hangings like a Cat. Four Months after on the six and twentieth of June John d'Albret who might have made some stirrs in the Kingdom of Navarre whence Ferdinand had turn'd him out ended his Days in a Village in Bearn Catharine de Foix his Wife survived him but eight Months Their Son Henry aged but fourteen years inherited the Title of that Kingdom of which he had nothing left him but the little Parcel on this side of the Pyreneans Year of our Lord 1516 The Death of Ferdinand gave King Francis the opportunity and desire of marching his Armies into the Kingdom of Naples which in this juncture was half revolted He imagined that Charles having need of him for a Passage that he might go and take Possession of the Spanish Dominions and withal being under the apprehension of some trouble in the Succession to
into their Hands and retired to Mantoua The Emperor continued the Truce for five Years with the Venetians for twenty thousand Crowns they were to pay him each Year and the King desiring to fasten and secure the Confederation with the Pope by some fresh Ties gave up into his Hands again the writing whereby he had obliged himself to surrender Reggio and Modena to the Duke of Ferrara Christendom enjoy'd a most Vniversal Calm when She was troubled with two of the most horrible Scourges or Plagues that did ever torment Her Selim the Turkish Sultan having conquer'd Syria laid Ismael Sophy's Power in the Dust extinguish'd the domination of the Mamalucs in Egypt by the utter defeat and death of Campson the last Egyptian Sultan vaunted that in quality of Successor to Constantine the Great he should soon bring all Europe under his Empire and at the same Time the Bowels of the Church began to be torn and rent by a Schisme that hitherto no Remedies have been able to take away The first Evil gave occasion for the birth of the second Pope Leo desiring to oppose all the Forces of Christendom against the furious Progress of the Turks had sent his Legates to all the Christian Princes and formed a great Project to attack the Insidels both by Sea and Land Now to excite the Peoples Devotion and get their Alms Year of our Lord 1517. 18 19. and the following and Benevolence for so good a Work he sent some according to the usual Custom in such Cases practic'd to preach Indulgences in every Province This Commission according to the allotments made of a long time amongst the four Orders Mendicants belonged to the Augustins in Germany Nevertheless Albert Archbishop of Mentz either of his own Head or by Order from Rome allots and gives it to the Jacobins The Augustins finding themselves wronged in their Interest which is the great Spring even of the most Religious Societies Camplain make a Noise and fly to Revenge Amongst Year of our Lord 1517 these there was a Monk named Martin Luther of Islebe in the County of Mansfield Doctor and Rcader in Theologie in the Vniversity of Witemberg a bold Spirit Impetuous and Eloquent John Stampis their General commanded him to preach against these Questors They furnished him but with too much Matter for they made Traffick and Merchandize of those sacred Treasures of the Church they kept their Courts or Shops rather in Taverns and consumed great part of what they gained or collected in Year of our Lord 1517 Debauches and it was certainly known besides that the Pope intended to apply considerable Summs to his own proper use Perhaps it would have been better done to prevent these Disorders only to have reremoved the occasion of his clamor but the thing seemed not worth while to trouble their Heads about it In the mean time the Quarrel grew high and was heated by Declamations Theses and Books on either side Frederic Duke of Saxony whose Wisdom and Vertue was exemplary in Germany maintained him and even animated him as well for the Honor of his new Vniversity of Witemberg which this Monk had brought in reputation as in hatred to the Archbishop of Ments with whom he had other disputes He at first began with proposing of Doubts then being hard beset and too roughly handled he engaged to maintain and make them good in the very Sence they condemned them in They had neither the Discretion to stop his Mouth or seize upon him but threatning him before he was in their Power he takes shelter and then keeping no more Decorum he throws off his Mask and not only declaimed against the Pope and against the Corruptions of the Court of Rome but likewise opposed the Church of Rome in many Points of Her Doctrine And truly the extream ignorance of the Clergy many of them scarce able to read the scandalous Lives of the Pastors most of them Concubinaries Drunkards and Vsurers and their extreme negligence gave him a fair advantage to persuade the People that the Religion they taught was corrupt since their Lives and Examples were so bad At the same Time or as others say a Year before to wit in Anno 1516. Ulric Zuinglius Curate at Zuric began to expose his Doctrine in that Swisse Canton and since almost every Year new Evangelists have arisen in such Swarms that it would be difficult to number them Year of our Lord 1518 Every Day brought forth some occasion of difference between the King and Charles of Austria the Lords de Chevres and de Boisy met at Montpellier to determine them but the Death of de Boisy made that great Work be left imperfect William his Brother Lord de Bonnivet much less wise then he held the same Rank in the Kings Favor who made him Admiral of France Year of our Lord 1518 About the same Time John Jacques Trivulcio lost it and died for Grief at the Burrough of Chastres under Montlehery Lautree his antagonist had given the King an ill impression of him upon his being made a Burgher amongst the Swisse and his Brother and others of his Kindred puting themselves into the Venetians Service There had been some Seeds of division sowed between the King of France and the King of England their Counsels before things grew to a greater height thought sit to unite them by a new Alliance The Admiral therefore going to London made a Treaty to this effect That the King of England should give his Daughter as then but four years of age to the Daufin not yet compleatly one year old That there should be a defensive League between the two Crowns and that Tournay should be restored to the King of France who should pay two hundred and sixty thousand Crowns for the Expences the English had been at there and three hundred thousand more in twelve years time besides that he should acknowledge to have received other three hundred thousand for the Dowry of the little Princess The King not having the Money ready gave six Lords in Hostage and by this means got Tournay It was likewise agreed that the two Kings should have an entre-view at their convenient time between Boulogn and Calais In Maximilian's Councel it was judged more proper for the Grandeur of the House of Austria to give the Empire to the Arch-Duke Charles his Grandson then to Ferdinand his younger Brother to whom for the same reason King Ferdinand his Grand-father would not leave his Kingdom of Arragon who bred him in his own Court. And therefore Maximilian treated with the Electors to get them to design him King of the Romans but before he had accomplished that affair he died at Lints in Austria aged sixty three years the two and twentieth day Year of our Lord 1519 of January in Anno 1519. After his Death King Francis and Charles declared themselves Aspirers or Competitors for the Imperial Crown without shewing however the lest picque against one another Of the Capetine Race none but Charles
Earl of Valois had hitherto desired it The Swisse denied Francis their Intercession with the Electors the Pope pretended to favor him but he was not either for one or other Year of our Lord 1519 of these two Princes because they were too Potent and if he recommended Francis it was to get the Suffrages from Charles and by this Intrigue to turn their Eyes and Thoughts toward some other German Prince The Electors for the same reason were in suspence a good while at the beginning the Palatine Triers and Brandenburgh seemed to be for Francis and the latter promised to gain the Archbishop of Ments his Brother likewise But when he had singer'd his Money and it came to give their Votes Ments pleaded stoutly for Charles and Brandenburgh seconded him Triers kept his Word The reputation of his Victories in Italy spake advantageously for the King and the War the Turks threatned Germany withal ought to have made him more considerable then Charles who had as yet done nothing and promised but little more But he was not of the German Nation besides the more he seemed to merit the more they feared he would reduce the German Princes to a low condition as his Predecessors had reduced those of France and if there were apprehensions of oppression on either Hand it did not appear so visibly on Charles's side nor seem to be so neer in likelihood from him who was five years younger then the other and of no very promising Genius In fine upon all these considerations and with three hundred thousand Crowns brought even a year before into Germany and not distributed but to good purpose Charles carried it and was elected at Francfort the twentieth of June being at that instant in Spain whither he was gone almost two years before Though King Francis set a good face upon it yet this refusal went to his Heart and he could not but imagine that Charles being Master of so many great Estates would revenge the Injuries done to his Grand-father and those of the House of Burgundy For this reason he applied himself with more care to gain the friendship of the Pope and the King of England but the Pope followed Fortune and invested Charles with the Kingdom of Naples notwithstanding the constitution of his Predecessors which forbid that the said Kingdom and the Empire should be in the same Hand Year of our Lord 1520 The election of Charles of Austria hastned the enterview of the King and Henry of England This was done in the Month of June between Ardres and Guines The two Kings equally Pompous and Vain made their magnificence appear to the highest profusion Francis expended more there then the Emperor did at his Coronation and put his Nobless to great inconveniences who ever imitate their Princes but more readily in their Excess then in their Wisdom This enter-view was called the Camp of Cloath of Gold After they had saluted each other on Horse-back they went into a Pavilion erected expresly with two or three Ministers of State belonging to either King and there talked a few Moments about their Affairs That done they left the care thereof to them and spent ten or twelve days together in Feastings and Turnaments at Nights Francis returned to Ardres and Henry to Guines Before they parted they confirmed their Treaty by solemn Oath upon the the Holy Communion which they received together But soon after Francis who too credulous built already on the Amity of the English might plainly perceive what stress he was to lay upon so jealous and so inconstant a Foundation Charles V. coming from Spain by Sea to the Low-Countries that from thence he might go to Aix to take the Crown passed first over into England and saw Henry with less splendor and perhaps more Fruit then he For the King of England promis'd him that in case any Difference hapned between him and Francis he would be Arbitrator and declare himself Enemy to him that would not stand to his Award or Judgment His Intention was not to joyn with either the one or the other but to keep himself in the midst and be sought to by them both giving them to understand that he could make the Ballance sway to that side he turned to As he seemed to point out to King Francis at their late enter-view at Ardres where over his Tent Door he had caused the Figure of an Archer to be placed with these Words He that accompanies or joyns with him is Master This was the Method he used all his Life The two and twentieth of October Charles was crowned at Aix la Chapelle and assigned a Diet at Wormes for the Month of January following In the mean time not staying for the Judgment of of the Assembly being at Colen he condemned Year of our Lord 1520 Year of our Lord 1520 Luther's Books to the Fire as Heretical but this so hasty proceeding he made more Friends and Defenders then Enemies In revenge Luther without respect either for Pope or Emperor was so confident as to burn the Book of the Decretals which he asserted to be contrary to the Word of God in several Passages he had extracted from them Year of our Lord 1520. 21. The Spaniards grew angry that their King had left them to go into Germany andbesides they could not endure the Government of the Flemmish for after the Death of that memorable Cardinal Ximene he left the Administration of Affairs to the Lord de Chevres They complained that those Strangers heaped up all their fairest Pieces of Gold and that they took into their Hands or sold the greatest Offices and the richest Benefices amongst others the Archbishoprick of Toledo wherewith the Lord de Chevres had provided his Brother Some Grandees of that Country who thought to do their business in the absence of a Prince whom they esteemed of little Courage kindled the Fire and made a League which they called la Sancta Junta Toledo and the greatest Cities came into it and the Chief Officers that commanded their Forces were John de Padillia and Antonio d'Acugno Bishop of Zamora They had a Design of giving the Kingdom of Arragon to Ferdinand Son of that Frederic that died in France and to make him come in with some Colour would marry him to Jane the Frantick Mother of Charles V. whom they siezed upon but whether he doubted the event or stood upon the Honor of keeping his Faith he rejected the proposition and would not stir out of the Castle where Charles V. had left him In the mean while the Vice-Rois of Castille and Arragon with the rest of the King's Servants having armed themselves against the Rebels lopp'd off by little and little the Branches of that Party and then fell'd it almost quite down by the defeat of their united Forces and the deaths of Padillia and the Bishop both slain in that Battle Now whilst the Vice-Rois had drained the Garrisons of most of the Places in Navarre to defend
themselves against the revolted it had been easie for King Francis to have regained that Kingdom but he did not dream of it till the Spring following and then he sent an Army thither commanded by Andrew de Foix Lord de L'Esparre Brother of Lautree who recover'd it all in few days He met Year of our Lord 1521 no resistance but at the Castle of Pampelonna who stood out till he battered them and then surrendred upon Composition Innigo de Loyola d'Ognez a young Gentleman of Guipuscoa who had put himself into the Castle with some other Volunteers was wounded upon the Walls with a Splinter by a Cannon Shot which broke his Thigh and made him Lame all his Life After which being retired to his own House he was touched with a most fervent Zeal and Devotion and was afterwards Institutor and Head of the great and famous Company or Society of Jesus which hath extended it self into all the Parts of the World L'Esparre instead of satisfying himself with Navarre and putting it in a good Posture entred upon Castille and besieged Logrogne The Vice-Rois who returned from subduing the Rebels and who nevertheless would not have thought of assaulting him if he had not first fallen upon their Country marched Year of our Lord 1521 directly to him to fight him Now his Lieutenant General Saincte Colombe having cashier'd part of his Men that he might put half by his false Musters into his Pocket he found himself too weak and retired near Pampelonna And there he committed a second Fault greater then the first for without staying for a re-inforcement of six thousand Men who were coming to him out of France he rashly gave them Battle and was beaten for his Pains and so grievously wounded in the face that he remained blind Pampelonna and all the rest of the Kingdom was lost in as short a time as it had been reconquer'd The Emperors Councel to prevent the Revolts of the Nobility of the Country affectionate to their Natural King caused all the Castles to be demolished and dismantled all the Towns excepting Pampelonna du Pont de la Reine and d'Estella Year of our Lord 1521 This War did not contravene to the Treaty of Noyon since the six Months were expir'd but there were otherguess Subjects of hatred between Charles and Francis For this last complained that Charles did not pay him the hundred thousand Crowns as he had promis'd by the Treaty of Noyon for the maintenance of his Daughter and by consequence that he had no mind to compleat the Marriage That his Agents had spoken ill of him in the Diets and in the Courts of the Princes of Germany That he had debauched Philbert de Chaalon Prince of Orange from him and that he cabaled in Italy to put the Dutchy of Milan in disturbance Charles on the contrary was angry that he had taken under his Protection William Duke of Gueldres a sworn Enemy to his House and to the Low-Countries and said that he unjustly detained from him the Dutchy of Burgundy Francis was the more forward to undertake because he levied Subsidies as he pleased whereas Charles could get no Money without a great deal of trouble the Kingdoms of Spain and the Low-Countries having yet in those Times all their Liberties and Priviledges entire but then he was a much better Manager and made but very few idle Expences In such a disposition were they towards each other that nothing could be able to prevent them from coming to Daggers-drawing but a third Party The King of England kept himself Neutral enough and designed only to be Arbitrator The Pope did not do the same for he first Treated a private League with the King wherein he obliged himself to assist him for the regaining the Kingdom of Naples for his second Son upon condition he should bestow a part thereof upon a Nephew of the Holy FAthers and that the other Part during the Minority of the young Prince should be governed by a Legate from the Holy See Year of our Lord 1521 This was to speak properly to keep it all for himself Then three Months after he changed his Mind and turns to the Emperor's side Some believed he did this as burning with a desire of regaining Parma and Piacenza which Julius II. had possessed himself of though unjustly Others said it was that he was angry they did not receive his Bulls at Milan with submission enough nay that sometimes they rejected them with scorn Whatever it were he entred into a League with the Emperor for the mutual defence of their Countries to re-establish Francis Sforza in the Dutchy of Milan and to recover the Dutchy of Ferrara for the benefit of the Holy See to which it appertained The Lord de Chevres who was then at the Diet of Wormes having heard of this Treaty which was made without his knowledg died of grief repeating these Words often Ah! what a World of Mischiefs His Brother the Archbishop of Toledo whom he had taken along with him went out of this World sometime before him The King being at Remorentine in Berry upon Twelfth day as he was sporting and in jest attacked the Count de Sainct Pol's House with Snow-Balls who with his Companions were defending it with the same Artillery it infortunately hapned that a Fire-brand thrown by some hot-brained fellow hit him on the Head and grievously wounded him for which they were forced to cut off his Hair Now he having a very large high Fore-head and besides the Swiss and Italians wearing short Locks and long Beards he found this Fashion more pleasing to his Fancy and follow'd it His example made all France coppy this Mode who held it till the Reign of Lewis XIII when by little and little they shortned their Beards and let their Locks grow till at last they left neither Hair on the Cheeks nor on the Chin and Nature not being able to furnish them with a stock so thick and long as they fancied would be most becoming they have thought it best shave their Heads and wear Perruques of Womens more delicate and longer Hair for Ornament Year of our Lord 1520. 21. Now here begins the event of the Melancholly Prognosticks of the Lord de Chevres Robert de la Mark Lord of Sedan and Duke of Bouillon having suffer'd disgrace in the Court of France because of the many Robberies committed by his Gentsdarmes went to the Emperors whither he was enticed by the Bishop of Liege his Brother a man very powerful there Now it hapned that the Emperors Councel received an Appeal from a Judgment which the Pairs of his Dutchy of Bouillon had given in a certain Cause between the Lords de Simay and Year of our Lord 1521 d'Emery Robert being turbulent and impetuous took this for an Affront to his honour and would revenge it He came therefore to the King at Remorentin who was under cure of his Wound and his Wife having before-hand prepared the way reconciled himself to him
which they called la Bicoque three Miles from Milan where there is a very spacious House and Gardens round about it enclosed with deep Ditches and Fields parted in divers places with Water Channels which are derived and brought thither according to the Custom of that Country to water their Grounds Prosper Colomna who thought the Victory secure stood his ground waiting their coming Lautrec assaulted them on three Sides himself on one Hand his Brother on the other and the Swisse in the place of most Difficulty and to gain their Cannon The two first did no great Matters as for the Swisse they attack'd with fury but the height of the Fossez stopping them the Artillery made them fall in heaps and the Arquebusiers who were placed amongst the Wheat taking them in Flank they were well paid for their rashness by the death of three thousand of theirs so that they were constrained to retire and having rejoyned the French they together returned very orderly to their Quarters at Monce The next Day their Blood being cool'd and Lautrec having passed the Addo near Tressa they even took their walk homewards thorow the Territory of Bergamo so disheartned and baffled in Courage for having met with such unconquerable resistance that for divers Years they did nothing worthy of their ancient Valor but indeed became more pliable and much more manageable then before For Lautrec having put things in Order at Cremona he retired into France to sollicite for a supply of ten thousand Men which the Admiral Bonnivet was to transport to those Countries Year of our Lord 1522 As soon as he was gone Prosper besieged Cremona and Lescun who was in the Place believing it could be no prejudice to his Honor if he made such Composition as should secure the King's Affairs without hazarding ought capitulated to leave the Place within forty Days which expir'd the six and twentieth of June with Arms Colors flying and his Artillery if within that time there did not come an Army that should pass over the River Po by force or should take some considerable Place in the Dutchy of Milan He likewise promised that all the others held by the King in Milanois should be evacuated excepting the Castles of Cremona of Novara and of Milan The time being come he got some few days more to be added having purposely started new Difficulties about the evacuation of some Castles which being setled he executed the Treaty and came back into France Before he departed he had the further displeasure of being informed how Prosper Colomna with his Army had made himself Master of Genoa and made Antony Adorna Duke the City was surprized during a conference of capitulation which is a very dangerous time and opportunity This last Blow taking away all hopes from the King of being in a capacity to gain any thing in Milanois this year he recalled those Forces he was sending and who were already got into Astesan Though the miscarriage indeed proceeded from his own Negligence in not sending Supplies till too late amusing himself in Hunting Dancing and amongst the Ladies nevertheless John de Beaulne Samblancay Surintendant of the Finances suffer'd for it Madame enrag'd that he should dare to justify before the King that she had diverted the three hundred thousand Crowns designed for Lautrec resolved to ruine him The Chancellor Duprat Minister of her revenge and who besides had some jealousy of the Credit of that grave old Man whom the King called his Father ordered a Commission to try him who condemn'd him to be hanged In the mean time they made use of all Ways and Means to get in Money Then did they begin to alienate the Sacred Demeasnes of the King they continued to sell Offices of Judicature to create great Numbers of new ones without which the Monarchy had been upheld eleven hundred years together to raise the Tallies and to lay several new Imposts Publick report accused the Chancellor for advising all these things which bred so much disorder who to flatter the Covetous humor of a Woman and the ostentation of a Young King furnished them with expedients and confidence to overthrow all the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom whereof by his Office he was Guardian and Defender Year of our Lord 1522 The King had no less to do in Guyenne and in Picardy The Emperor going into Spain thorow England had prevail'd with Henry to take his part against Francis Arriving in Castillia he soon suppressed the remainders of the Santa Junta punishing some few of the Seditious pardoning the rest and rewarding such as deserved it Particularly Ferdinand of Arragon who had refused to be Head of the League He did him great Honour and Married him to Germaine de Foix Widdow of his Grand-Father King Ferdinand who was extraordinary Rich but almost past the Age of Child-bearing With the Forces that were remainders of this insurrection and some others he made up an Army which besieged Fontarabria and the King of England Landed another at Calais having first sent a Herald to defy the King at Lyons This being commanded by his Brother in Law the Duke of Suffolk joyned with the Count de Bures Governor of the Low-Countries who had one of twelve thousand men but both these made no progress and the English were diminished one half in five Weeks time after they took the Field Year of our Lord 1522 Whilst the Christian Princes were thus engaged to their mutual destruction Solyman the Turkish Sultan who Succeeded his Father Selim II. two years since was now lodg'd upon the Ramparts of Christendom For the preceding year he took the City of Belgrade in Hungary and this year he wrested Rhodes out of the hands of the Knights of St. John's It was believed Pope Adrian might have saved it if upon his Arrival in Italy he would have sent thither the fifteen hundred Foot he brought along with him instead of ordering them to March as he did into Milan For they might have got in by the help of the Venetian Fleet then on those Seas and by the favour of those Winds which wasted in several other Vessels It were difficult to name a Siege more Famous then this same either for the dreadful numbers of the besiegers for the brave resistance of the besieged or the many and furious Assaults There were above fifty Mines and twice as many Countermines about this place It was batter'd with above six-score thousand Canon Shot so that most of it was blown up into the Air or beaten down to dust The Turkish Army consisted of two hundred thousand Men of whom above fifty thousand were Slain and as many perished by Sickness The fifth Month of the Siege the Knights having no more Gun-Powder left no Pioneers Year of our Lord 1522 nor 〈◊〉 hardly any men for defence some lying by of their Wounds or of Sickness others dropping down with over-Working and Toyling they accepted of the Capitulation proffered them by Solyman which was to go
Lord 1524 Bonnivet Subsisted near upon two months in his Post near Biagras But when the Enemy had surprized Vercel upon him which cut off his Provisions and forc'd Biagras he was constrained to retire towards Turin Charles de Bourbon Chief of their Army followed him in the Rear Bonnivet having a Wound in his Arm got away before for fear of falling into his hands and hastening forwards in a Litter left the charge and care of the retreat to Bayard and to Vendenesse Brother of La Palice They acquitted themselves generously but both of them were Slain by Musquet Shot It is said that Bayard finding himself so wounded in the Reynes that he could sit no longer on Horseback caused his men to set him on the ground with his Face turned towards the Enemies and that Bourbon finding him in this posture and condition and telling him that he very much bemoaned and pittied him he answer'd That it was rather himself was to be pittied for having taken up Arms against France which had given him Birth and had so tenderly bred him That ☞ he should remember that of all those that had born Arms against their Country their ends had been Tragical and their memory Shameful The rest of the Army being not pursued retired towards the Alpes the Swiss returned to their own Country by the Valley d'Aoste the French by Turin Near Suse they met Claude Duke of Longueville with four hundred men at Arms and heard they were making new Levies of Swiss to come and joyn them And thus it was that King Francis never sending his Supplies in time and always in small Parties was at vast expences and did not do his business throughly After the departure of the French Forces the Confederates easily regained those places they yet held the Castle of Novara Surrendred to Sforza Loda to the Duke of Vrbin and Alexandria to Ferdinand d'Avalos Marquiss of Pescara It is observed that in this War of Italy they began to make use of such great and ponderous Musquets that two men were fain to carry them one after the other they loaded them with round Pibbles and fired them lying upon a Rest These were the Ruin and Destruction of the Men at Arms who before this feared nothing but the Canon Notwithstanding all this ill Success Madame did so well manage and prepare the Kings mind in favour of Bonnivet that he laid all the blame upon the blind Baggage Fortune and received him into as great Favour as he had been before Thus this Favorite governing him almost absolutely inclined and perswaded him to raise a huge Army and to go in Person to carry on this War imagining that if he succeeded the Honour would be attributed to his Councils if not then the Kings disgrace would wipe out the Stains of his former Misfortunes Clement the VII in the beginning of his Pope-ship had sent Legates to the Emperour the King and the King of England to bring them to a Peace or at least to a Truce The King would have a Truce for two years the Emperor a Peace for ever the King of England neither a Peace nor a Truce because Thomas Woolsey Cardinal Bishop of York had put it into his head that by the correspondence and means of Charles de Bourbon he might be able to make good the pretensions of his Ancestors to the Kingdom of France With this prospect he made a new Treaty with the Emperor wherein it was said That Bourbon entring into France with his Forces of Italy the King of England should furnish him with one hundred thousand Crowns a month from the first of July to the last day of December unless he rather chose to land there himself there with a good Army In which case the Governours of the Low-Countries should furnish him with what Artillery was necessary and four thousand Foot That at the same time the Emperor with his Spanish Forces should make an Irruption into Guyenne That the Pope and the Princes of Italy should be invited to contribute towards the expences That Bourbon should be restored to all his Lands and that he should have the Kingdom of Arles but that he should own the English to be King of France He absolutely refused this last condition as the Pope and the Venetians to contribute any thing As to the remainder the Treaty held good For immediately Bourbon having drawn together all the Forces the Emperor had in Italy entred into Provence with thirteen hundred Foot and three thousand Horse His design was not to Stop there he intended after he had taken La Tour or the Tower of the Port of Toulon the City of Aix and some others to Year of our Lord 1524 go directly to Lyons from thence into Berry imagining the Nobility of his own Countries would flock to him and increase his Army that the People very much oppressed with new Impositions would cast themselves into his Arms and that by thus taking off the payment of Taxes and Subsidies he should deprive the King of the chief and true Sinews of War But the Emperors Council who aimed at their Masters ends not at Bourbons obliged him in despite of his former project to besiege Marseilles He there found a strong Garrison and men well resolv'd his Attaques did not advance much in six weeks time In the interim the King had leasure to set his Army on Foot which he had not designed to raise till the following Spring and to send part of them into Provence under the Conduct of La Palice He seized upon Avignon Scoffing at the Enemy who had neglected this City and from thence when he heard the King was Marching with the other part of the Army he advanced to Salon de Craux Bourbons was ruin'd by the length of the Siege and the want of pay for the English had paid him but for one month and the Emperor could not Supply him with those German Recruits he had promised him wherefore having notice that the King was parting from Avignon to come and Assault him he re-imbarqued part of his Cannon and retired in great haste The least success carried King Francis much further then either prudence or the uncertainty of events could warrant Being informed that Milan was wholly destitute of Forces and withal knowing that the Estates of Castille had refused money to the Emperor that the Confederate Estates of Italy would not aid him and that the King of England had raised no Souldiers although it were now the month of October he resolved to follow Bourbon by long Marches and perswaded himself that if he could but either reach him or get before him nothing could be able to hinder him from regaining that Dutchy The most knowing of his Officers approved not this resolution They considered it was upon the coming in of Winter for mid October was past that they left France exposed to the Incursions of the English the Flemmings and the Spaniards and the concealed Practises of Bourbon Many did likewise
think it an ill Omen to this undertaking that he was clad in Mourning for his Wife who died the twenty eighth of July But he stop't all their mouths by saying openly that they did not please him by speaking against it and knowing that his Mother was hastning from Avignon to disswade him he avoided meeting her but left her the Regency of the Kingdom The advantage both of the one and the other Army consisted in their diligence it was who should be the nimbler The King arrived at Vercel at the same time the Enemies got to Alba whence they got in two days to Parma having marched six and thirty miles in one day They had resolved to keep Milan and were Encamped at Binasque But upon the approach of his Van-Guard they abandoned that City to retire towards Loda His old Commanders were of opinion he should not leave off pursuing them for they were put to their last Shifts and shewed themselves half conquered throwing away their Arms as they marched and if these were but dispers'd there had not one place been left them but Pavia and Cremona with the Castle of Milan which wanting Provisions would have Surrendred in a short time Bonnivets advice was contrary and carried it The King left La Trimouille with six thousand men in Milan to Besiege the Castle and went to lay Siege before Pavia the 27 th day of October The Revolution of these Affairs in Milan appeared much greater then they were at Rome Pope Clement began to treat a new Confederation with the King in Secret and in the mean time propounded a Truce to both the Princes The Emperor who was then in Spain having heard his Envoy to whom the Regent had given passage through Provence and Languedoc did not reject it for he saw the King of England instead of lending him money demanded that again which he had advanced and the Venetians fearing the encrease of his Power or the Kings Forces denyed to renew their Alliance with him But the King flatly refused it as if it must have robb'd him of an assured Conquest He thought himself already so certain of Milan that he made a Detachment of ten thousand Foot and six hundred men at Arms with some Horse of his own Army under the Conduct of John Stuard Duke of Albany to go and Conquer the Kingdom of Naples and soon after he sent again four thousand more to Savonna commanded by the Marquiss de Salusses to make War upon those of Genoa Year of our Lord 1524 There is great likely-hood though the Italians deny it that it was upon the Sollicitation of Pope Clement not that he would have had Francis hold that Kingdom and the Milanois together for that were to have placed the Holy See between two Barrs but because he hoped to procure some great matters for himself by the help of the French Forces Perhaps the King fancied that Lanoy who was the Vice-Roy would quit all other Interests to preserve that and that he would draw all his men out of Milan to follow the Duke of Albany but he not only did not fear that so small an Army could take a Kingdom where there were so many strong places but he ceased from all apprehensions concerning Pavia and refused to hear any more of a Truce At two months end the Siege was found to be no more advanc'd then the first day The Garrison was strong the attaques feeble and languishing there was often want of Powder and always want of Order In the mean time Charles de Bourbon returned from Germany with a Supply of ten thousand Foot and a thousand Horse from the Frenche-Compte and joyned Lanoy's Army neer Loda These made up together seventeen thousand Foot seven hundred men at Arms and as many light Horse besides the Francontois With these they resolved to try all manner of ways to put some relief into Pavia which however was in no danger yet unless it were from their own Garrison who were ready to Mutiny for want of Pay Year of our Lord 1525 There was between Pavia and Milan almost in the mid-way a little place called Castle Saint Angelo which would have cut off their Provision had they left it behind them Bonnivet having confided so Important a place to an Italian he wanting either courage or sidelity quitted the Town as soon as they began to Batter it and retreated into the Castle which he Surrendred the same night After the taking of so Important a Post the wisest Captains were of opinion the King should raise the Siege and retire to Birasque They remonstrated to him that the Army of the Enemy being not paid would disperse within fifteen days that his own was a third part weaker then they made him believe that two thousand men who were coming to him by Savona were cut off by the way that the three thousand Italians of John de Medicis Disbanded themselves since their Commander in Chief being wounded upon an Assault was carried out of the Camp that six thousand Grisons had left him upon pretence of going back to defend their own Country where James de Medequin a Milanese Captain of the Castle de Muz had purposely and perhaps by their own Agreement surprized Chiavenna which is as it were the Key All these Arguments and Reasons were too weak to draw him from thence Bonnivets obstinacy and the shame he fancied it would be to quit his design after he had with so many Magnificent Speeches proclaimed that he would take the place or die before it obliged him to stay there and as we may say bound him Hands and Feet to deliver him up to his ill fortune There was not above two hundred paces distance betwixt the two Armies The Enemies could keep theirs together no longer for want of pay and withal they observed there was nothing but confusion in the Kings and that the flatteries of the Favorites sway'd more then the Councils of the oldest Captains this made them take the resolution to go and present the King Battle who was lodged in the Castle of Mirabel in the midst of Pavia Park and if he refused it to enter into the Town draw forth the Garrison that could hold out no longer and leave a new one in their room The night of the 23 d. or 24 th of February they drew near the Park Wall and having thrown down about threescore fadom of it marched directly to Mirabel this being a little before the break of day Although the Kings Guns were planted in a place of advantage yet could they do but little Execution during the obscurity but when it grew light they began to thunder upon their Rear insomch as it broke their Ranks and made them run into a Hollow way The King observing this disorder from his Camp which lay high was transported with joy at the same instant word was brought him that the Squadrons of the Duke of Alenson and Philip de Chabot-Brion had defeated a great body of Spaniards and
taken four Pieces of Canon Then believing they were half routed he imprudently went out of his Camp where they durst never have set upon him and goes on to charge them Year of our Lord 1525 He fell upon them with so much Impetuosity that at the very first he broke in amongst their Horse and with his own hand slew Fernand Castriot Marquess of Saint Angelo but the Arquebusiers they had mixed with their Horse put his to a Stop Then comes Bourbon and Lanoy who rallied their own and gave a furious charge The Duke of Alenson who cover'd the Swisse with four hundred men at Arms betook himself to flight and retired to Lyons where some days after he died with grief and shame The Swisse lying open made but a poor Fight and then withdrew the Lansquenets or German Foot who were but three or four thousand Fought to the last moment and were all cut in pieces All the Storm fell then upon the King His Horse being kill'd under him he defended himself on Foot some time without being known But meeting and knowing Pomperan he surrendred himself to him The Baggage and Cannon were taken eight thousand of his men killed upon the place amongst others Lewis de la Trimouille the Mareschal de la Palice Francis Earl of Lambesc Brother to the Duke of Lorrain Aubigny Sanseverin and Bonnivet this last too late as it was said for the good of France and divers other Lords of Note Together with the King were taken the Mareschal de Lescun René Bastard of Savoy these two died of their Wounds Henry d'Albret King of Navarre Francis de Bourbon Earl of Saint Pol the Mareschal de Montmorency Florenges Brion Lorges Rochepot Montejam Montpesat Langey Curton and a great number besides Upon the noise of this event the Garrison that was in Milan forsook it immediately and all the Dutchy fell to the Imperialists The next day after the battle Lanoy fearing the Souldiers might Seize upon the Kings Person to secure their Pay conveyed him to the Castle of Pisqueton and Committed the Guard of him to Captain Alarcon One cannot well conceive the divers effects the news of this great event produced all over Europe It caused infinite joy in the Court of Spain jealousie in that of England an universal affliction to France together with a marvellous consternation which was not much less amongst the Italians who with all their great wisdom and politiques saw themselves exposed as a prey to the Conquerour The French besides the particular sorrow every one resented for the loss of some Kindred or dear Friend did likewise participate in the common Calamity and apprehended lest France having none to defend her now they had lost their King the Flower of their Nobility and best Souldiers should be Invaded by the Emperours Forces Bourbons and the King of Englands The Venetians very wise in Adversity did endeavour their utmost with the Pope to form a League against this Torrent They were of opinion to raise ten thousand Swisse immediately to joyn a good body of Horse with them to exhort the King of England for his own interest to come into a League with them and to inform and instruct Madame in all these points who would not fail to contribute her utmost Cares The Pope consented to all and had given order for a Courier to go into England but the Spaniards having gotten the wind of it gave him such great assurance he should have whatever conditions he desired of the Emperour that as he was very irresolute and besides feared to be put to expences and never knew how to time his business he recalled his Courier changed his mind and made a League with the Emperour The Treaty made he obliged the Duke of Albany whom till then he had amused in Tuscany to Disband all the Italian Troops he had and Ship all the French at Cornet Port to send them back to their own Country lending him some Galleys for that very purpose those the Regent had sent not being sufficient to Transport them The Emperor having received the News of Pavia with great Moderation in so much as he would not suffer them to make Bonfires saying there was greater reason to Mourn for such Victories over Christian Princes then rejoyce it gave some reason to hope that he would make the same use of the advantage he had over his Prisoner in moderation towards him And indeed when he propounded to his Council after what manner he should Treate him His Confessor pleaded that he ought to release him generously and without conditions because it would be a most Christian-like Act worthy of a great Emperour famous to all Posterity which would make the King really his inferior and become ever obliged to him and would tye him more Strictly then any Treaty they could make with him But Fredric Duke d'Alva and after him all the rest of the Council being of opinion Year of our Lord 1525 he was not to be set free till they had so weakned him that he should be hereafter unable to give them any further trouble and that the abatement of his Power would be the re-establishment of the ancient Empire over Europe the Emperour declared that he was of their mind He therefore sent the Lord de Beaurien into Italy to propose to the King who was yet in the Castle of Pisqueton the conditions he desired for his release That he should renounce to the Kingdom of Naples and the Dutchy of Milan That he should surrender up to him the Dutchy of Burgundy which was the Patrimony of his Ancestors That he should give Provence Dauâ—iné and Lyounois to the Duke of Bourbon to be joyned with his other Lands and make them an independant Kingdom That he should Satisfie the King of Englands demands To which Francis replyed That a perpetual Imprisonment would be less severe to him then those conditions That they were not in his Power because they shock'd the Fundamental Laws of France to which he was Subjected but that he offer'd to take in Marriage Eleonora the Emperours Sister to hold Burgundy in Dower and Hereditary for the Children that should be Born of that Marriage to restore the Duke of Burbon to all his Lands and to give him his Sister Margaret Widow of the Duke of Alenson to satisfie the English in Money to pay a Ransom such as King John had paid and to lend him a Land Army and a Fleet whenever he would go into Italy to receive the Imperial Crown If the Regent mother to the King was troubled with grief she was much more so with Fear She apprehended to lose the Regency which Paris and the Parliament very ill satisfied with her conduct would have put into the hands of Charles de Bourbon Duke of Vendosme But that Prince either out of discretion or fear which in this circumstance made it vertue and merit seeing his Family already too hateful in the Kings Eyes refused to take it upon him He went
that Margaret was forced to return without effecting any thing leaving however Francis de Tournon then Bishop of Embrun Gabriel de Gramont Bishop of Tarbes who were since Cardinals and John de Selve First President of Parliament to continue the Negociation This Princess had scattered so much money in those Countries that she gained some of the Emperours Council and most of the Kings Guards with whom she Year of our Lord 1525 had formed a contrivance for his escape The Emperour having some hint of it and at the same time received the news of Moron's design in which the Regent had some hand caused him to be more closely confined then before The King conceived so much grief for this hard usage and for that in the six months time he had now been in Spain he could not once come to see him that he fell very Sick Then the Emperour fearing he might lose his advantages together with his Prisoner made his Interest his Civility and gave him a visit It was very short but full of tender Expressions Consolations and hopes of sudden Liberty So that the King took courage and comfort and by little and little recovered his health When this danger was over the Emperour was not over hasty to perform those Promises he had made Twice was he upon the point of Marrying his Sister Eleonora to Charles de Bourbon Notwithstanding he was advised to keep her still in reserve to make an Alliance with the King if it were needful and indeed he was obliged to do so when he left feared it For having information of a great League and very great Forces raising by all t he Potentates of Italy the King of England and the Regent he considered the Marquiss of Pescare was dead Milan ready to revolt his Forces dissipated or in Mutiny no Commanders for his Service in those Countries and that therefore the Confederates might turn him out of all there before he could put things in order These Motives made him condescend to a Peace and to set his Prisoner at Liberty but in such a manner as according to common opinion was neither just nor Honourable nor Advantagious The Envoyéz of France who had full power from the Regent as she had from Year of our Lord 1526 the King her Son having had several Conferences at Madrid with the Emperours Council in which they on either part disputed the Rights of the two Princes especially that of the Emperour to the Dutchy of Burgundy concluded the Treaty the Thirteenth of February which was That the King should marry Eleonora with two Hundred Thousand Crowns for her Dowry and should marry the Daughter of that Princess to the Dauphin when she came to Age That he should be conducted to Fontarabia and set at Liberty the Tenth of March and that his two Sons or at least the Eldest or in lieu of the Second twelve Lords should enter into Hostage for security of what he promised Which was amongst other things to pay the Emperor Twenty Hundred Thousand Crowns in Gold for the Ransome of his Person To yield to him the Dutchy of Burgundy with the Cities of Noyers and Chastel-Chinon the County of Charolois the Vicounty d'Aussonne and the Prevosté of Saint Lawrence in all entire Soveraignty Moreover the homage of the Counties of Artois and Flanders and his pretensions to the Estates of Naples Milan Genoa Ast Tournay L'isle and Hesdin To get Henry d'Albret to renounce the Kingdom of Navarre and if he could not oblige him to it not to assist him To restore within Forty dayes the Duke of Bourbon and all those that had follow'd him to their Lands As likewise to give Philibert de Chaalon his Liberty and his Principality of Orenge and to Michael Antony his Marquisate of Saluces To afford no assistance to the Duke of Guelders and to procure that his Cities upon his death should return to the Emperor To pay the Arreares of the King of England's Pension which amounted to Five Hundred Thousand Crowns To lend the Emperor when he should go to take the Imperial Crown in Italy twelve Galleys and four great Vessels and to pay him Two Hundred Thousand Crowns instead of the Land Army he had promised him Moreover the King engaged upon his Faith that if he could not procure the full execution of all these Articles he would voluntarily return to his Prison and disengage his Promises at the price of his own Person Whatever promises he made the wisest Spaniards nay even those of the Emperors own Council unless such as had a particular hand in the contrivance and management of this Treaty never believed that he intended to perform it and presaged that their Prince after all would reap no other benefit but the reproaches of all Christian Princes and an immortal War with France And indeed his Chancellor Gatinare absolutely refused to Sign it and protested he would not so much abuse that Office the Emperor had bestowed upon him to the prejudice even of the Emperor himself When after his refusal the Emperor had signed the Treaty with his own Hand he visited the King at Madrid and from that day till the time of his departure they shewed to each other all the marks and tokens of a sincere and cordial affection Year of our Lord 1526 They went in the same Coach to Visit the Infanta Eleonora whom Francis betroathed that very day Eat together discoursed in private of their Affairs and were often in publick observed to laugh and discourse familiarly The Eighteenth of March Lanoy and Alarcon with Fifty Horse brought the King near Fontarabia to the brink of the River which parts France from Spain The same day Lautrec Governor of Guyenne brought the Kings two Sons the Eldest being scarce eight Years old to the hither Shoar A great Boat lay at Anchor in the middle of the River At the same time the Spaniards put the King into a small Bark and the French the Kings Sons into another and at the same time they exchanged them making them pass over the great Boat whence they received them into their little Barks on the further side So soon as the King was got to Land on this side he mounted a Turkish Horse and spurr'd away if he had feared some surprize to Saint John de Luz where he found his Mother and his Sister At his getting out of his Prison which had confin'd him Thirteen Months he fell into the Captivity of a fair Lady Anne de Pisse-leu whom his Mother brought purposely thither to divert him after his tedious Melancholy He afterwards honoured her with the Title of Dutchess d'Estampes As soon as he was in France he began highly to complain of the Inhumanity of the Emperor and say That promises made under Imprisonment are Null That a Vassal is Criminal who forces his Lord to give him his Oath That the Laws of the Land would not permit him to dismember any part of it He spake thus to the Ambassadors that were
Wife Sister of King Lewis who had likewise Married his named Mary and upon certain Contracts made by his Predecessors with the Kings Mathias and Ladislaus prevailed to be Crowned King by part of the Hungarians and John de Zapols Vaivod of Transilvania Earl of Scepus was elected by the other Cabal This being the weaker had recourse to the protection of the Turk which occasioned a long series of misfortunes and desolations in Hungary equally plagued and rent in pieces by the Barbarians and those that said they were their Kings Amidst the uncertainties of the Emperors Affairs concerning Milan he had proffer'd a Ten Months Truce to the Confederates whilst they were trotting backwards and forwards to Rome Venice and France about this same he received news that his Fleet was safely arrived in Italy and that Fourteen Thousand Lansquenets which George Baron of Fronsberg had raised at his expence this was the third time he had done him the like Service were entred into Milan By this means his Affairs being in a good posture he spake no more of an Accommodation Year of our Lord 1527 The Pope had broken the Treaty made with the Vice-Roy of Naples and the Confederates to make a diversion Assaulted that Kingdom by Sea and Land The Count de Vaudemont who had his pretensions to it as being descended from Rene Duke of Lorrain who had the Rights and Title of the House of Anjou commanded the Sea Forces and Rance de Cere the Land Army for the King The Popes irresolution and covetousness ruined all their Progress in that Country for it hindred the providing of those things that were necessary for their subsistence and on the other hand the King failed in furnishing almost every thing that he had promised Thus the Land Army wasted for want of provisions and all the Fleet gained upon the Coast was soon lost again Upon this the Pope had Information that Charles de Bourbon was marching towards Rome he was so terrified that he made a Truce of Eight Months with Lanoy Vice-Roy of Naples without knowing whether Bourbon who depended not upon Lanoy would accept of it He had made account that the Army of the League which was in Milan would hold him still in play or if he should march out that the others would follow him every where but that Prince not knowing how to satisfie the grievous out-cries and complaints of the People whom he had eaten to the very bones nor the Mutinies of the Soldiers who were every moment ready to fall upon him in this extremity and dispair of all things resolved to go forth and seek out a Subsistence for them He therefore passed the Po the Twenty Ninth of January leaving Antonio de Leve at Milan with Eight Thousand Men for the defence of the Dutchy There were some believed his design was to seize upon the Kingdom of Naples that to this end he held correspondence with the King that by private Agents he was reconciled to him and that from France they were to furnish him with a certain Sum every Month to maintain his Army but that the said Money not coming and their heat and insolence increasing daily he was constrain'd to promise them the plunder of Florence or Rome There is great probability it was a thing of meer necessity and that the Duke of Vrbin contributed more then a little towards it having an aking Tooth to be revenged of the Pope who still gave the Title of Dutchess of Vrbin to his Niece Catharine and the Florentines who detained from him Montfeltra and some other Lands which Pope Leo X. had taken from him and engaged to them Indeed it was said that Duke had promised Bourbon not to oppose his March if he went that way and Guichardin assures us that if the Pope would but have restored Montfeltra to him it would have obliged that Duke to serve him after another-guess manner then he did Now Bourbon having sojourned forty days in the Neighbourhood of Piacenza was encouraged say some by the Duke of Ferrara who turned two Months before to the Emperors Party to March directly to Florence or to Rome The Pope was so fickle and so easie to believe what he desired that although he knew he was entred into Romagnia nevertheless he dismissed his Forces and relied upon the assurances Lanoy perhaps deceived himself by Bourbon gave him that the said Prince would go no farther He soon found the contrary for Bourbon being entred into Tuscany and not daring to attack Florence by reason all the Confederates Forces were about it resolved to go and fall upon Rome Upon the noise of his March the Pope leaves all things intirely to the Conduct of Rance de Cere who not having time to raise good and able men pickt up Five or Six Thousand amongst the Estafiers or Lacqueys and Grooms belonging to the Cardinals such rescals as were much more likely to affright then defend a City Wherefore the Fifth of May Bourbon who had encamped himself in a Meadow near Rome sent to demand passage thorow the City and receiving no other answer but a denial the next morning he went head-long and made an Assault at Year of our Lord 1527 a breach which was in the Wall of the Burrough Saint Peter He was twice beaten off the third time a Musket shot laid him dead on the Earth but his Soldiers after two hours dispute forced the Burrough About Evening they pass'd the Bridge over the Tiber and entred into the City mad with revenge and the desire of plunder The Pope instead of retiring into some place of Safety as he might have done shuts himself up in his Castle Saint Angelo with Thirteen of his Cardinals Whatever can be imagined of Barbarity Impieties Sacriledge Cruel and Horrid acts excepting Fire were committed upon the sacking of this great City It lasted two whole Months during which time the Spaniards who say they are such good and sound Catholicks did much out-do the Germans who openly professed they were of Luthers Sect and sworn Enemies of the Papacy Although the King of England had been one of the warmest Promoters of the League against the Emperor nevertheless because it was not concluded in his Island as he desired it might he had not hitherto contributed any thing towards it but remained neuter Now Cardinal Woolsey having suffer'd himself to be enticed by King Francis under whose protection he hoped to shelter himself against the general hatred of the English in case his Master should happen to die propounded a Marriage between the King or his second Son and his Masters Daughter and contrived to conclude on which of the two she should be bestowed there should be an Inter-view betwixt Boulogne and Calais Upon this assurance a new Confederation was made between them towards the latter end of April Wherein it was agreed That the King of England should renounce all claim to the Crown of France upon the payment to him of Fifty Thousand Crowns
Transactions between them from the time of Lewis XII he accused him of having ever broke the Peace failed in his word disturbed Italy and Germany and unjustly dispossest the Duke of Savoy He concluded by saying That of three things the King must chuse one Either to take the Dutchy of Milan for his third Son upon certain conditions whereof one was that he should restore the Duke of Savoy to his Lands or to accept of a Single combat between them Personally with what ever Weapons he pleased upon some Bridge in an Island or a Boat upon condition that the Victor should employ his Forces according to the appointment of his Holiness to reduce the Heretiques and oppose the Infidels Or to resolve upon a War that should be so Bloody as to ruin one of the two The King slighted these proud boasts but replied to the Accusations by an Apologetique Letter which he addressed to the Pope and Cardinals and which in very modest terms but very Pithy and Energetical cleerly satisfied every point the Emperor had touched upon and retorted all the blame upon himself In the interim divers overtures were made between the Pope the Emperor and the Ambassadors to prevent these two Princes from coming to an absolute rupture The Admiral de Brion had conquer'd all Piedmont to the Douere and found himself in a posture and condition to have conquer'd all the rest for they were terrified and Antonio de Leva who had taken the field and joyned the Duke at Vercel had not as yet got all his Forces ready Notwithstanding the King upon what Vely wrote to him that the Emperor this was before his Harangue had given him notice by Gravelle he would give up Milan to his second Son sent the Cardinal of Lorraine into Italy to conclude that business which he presumed was in much forwardness The Cardinal left order in the name of the King that Brion should not pass the Douere and also promised Antonio de Leva that he should not pass the Sesia and though he was informed by Veley whom he met at Sienna whither he followed the Emperor of what had fallen out since at Rome he forbore not being a confident man and one that thought nothing difficult to speak again of it to the Emperor and to put him in mind of his former promise The Emperor owned that he had given his word for it but that the King having continued to prosecute his War against the Duke of Savoy he was no longer obliged to perform it After this reply the Cardinal sent the King word he ought to provide well for his own defence Nevertheless the Pope who ardently desired to reconcile the two Kings would not give over but represented to each of them the Strength of the other much greater then indeed they were thereby to incline them to a Peace Wherefore the King not willing to begin the Rupture commanded Brion to undertake nothing but withdraw his Forces into Daufiné after he had well provided and Garrisoned the Places unless Antonio de Leva did pass over the Sesia On the contrary the Emperor not only prepared himself for War but likewise endeavoured to stir up all the World against Francis He dispatched an Year of our Lord 1536 Envoy into England to desire the Amity of King Henry and protest that all his resentment was buried in Queen Catherines Grave who died this year in the Month of January And although Henry had answered but very coldly he notwithstanding promised himself and grounded his hopes upon the inconstancy of his humour that if he once saw France invaded he would not forbear attempting somewhat upon the score of his ancient pretensions He had likewise made use of all sorts of Calumnies and false reports concerning the Germans to render the King very Odious He made them believe they were mortally hated in France that they were persecuted that they burnt them alive and that the King not only endeavoured to kindle Discords amongst them that so whilst they were grappling and pulling one another by the Ears Solyman his faithful allie might Invade the Empire of Germany But that he likewise maintained Rascals hired on purpose to set Fire on their Borroughs and Towns In effect this year there were a sort of People not known by whom nor for what they were set on who burnt several as well in France as Germany and especially the City of Troyes William du Bellay-Langey a man of Quality and a good Souldier but whose Eloquence did much greater service then his Valour composed an excellent Treatise in Latin and High-Dutch which was scattered over all those Countries and as well by that means as by the testimony of Dutch Merchants who affirmed they had been kindly used in France he disabused them but not without much ado After the Emperor at the head of two great Armies had made Solyman first retire and then forced Barbarossa to fly he breathed nothing but War His Flatterers who corrupt the minds of the wisest Princes by their excessive praise promised him no less then the Empire of all Europe the Poets and Panegyrists assured him of it and the Diviners and Astrologers no less confident or impudent in their Lying Prognosticks had so boldly foretold it should certainly come to pass that it had made Impression in feeble minds and Credulous Spirits Amongst whom the Marquess de Salusses was one who thinking to prevent destiny that the Emperor might seem to be obliged to him for doing that Voluntarily which he fancied necessity must at last bring him to went over secretly into his service But being as Treacherous as Shallow-brain'd he remained yet a while amongst the French to ruin their Affairs Some have said that the hopes they gave him that the Emperor would adjudge the Marquissat of Montferrat to be his which was Litispendente between him the Duke of Savoy and the Duke of Mantoua tempted him to that Infamous baseness The Duke of Savoy expected that the Emperor would employ his Forces to restore him and he already began to think his Affairs seemed to mend For John de Medequin Marquess de Merignan and Antonio de Leva besieged Turin and the King had sent to his Generals to abandon all their Conquests in those Countries excepting Turin Fossan and Cony It was ordered in a Council of War that Fossan should be Fortified The Marquess de Salusses who had the charge of it far from hastning the work retarded it all he could He diverted the Pioneers Provisions Powder and Ball Then when he perceived his Treason began to be discover'd he retired to his Castle of Ravel fathering his retreat upon the disobedience of the French Officers From thence he gave Intelligence of the poor condition of the place to Antonio de Leva who leaving Ten Thousand Foot and some Horse before Turin under the Command of James de Scaleng came and laid Siege to it and yet the purchase came not so cheap as he imagin'd for after he had
suffer she should be carried into England The Inhabitants of Rochel of Marennes and of the Islands were revolted upon the endeavouring to settle the Gabel in those Countries The King at his return from Languedoc passed that way to suppress that Commotion About the end of December he entred with his Forces into Rochel and caused great numbers of the Seditious Islanders to be brought before him bound and chained After he had put them into an extream Consternation he suffer'd himself to be overcome with Compassion and from a Scaffold where he was Surrounded by the Grandees of his Court he heard the most humble Request they made him by their Advocate and which they seconded with doleful Cries for Mercy and after he Year of our Lord 1543 had laid open their faults in a discourse equally Tender Majestick and Eloquent he absolutely forgave them caused all the Prisoners to be set at Liberty and all the Soldiers to be sent out of the City He would likewise that day needs be guarded and served at his Table by the Bourgeois His incomprehensible goodness ✚ cloathed them with shame and confusion and left in their Hearts and Memories a mortal regret for having ever offended him This was to chastise them indeed after a most Noble and Royal manner The Princes and Emperor of Germany had so often demanded a Council that in the Year 1536. Pope Paul III. had Indicted one at Mantoua for the Two and Twentieth of May the following Year From that time he had Prorogued it to 1538. then to 1539. at Vicenza but had yet suspended the Celebration for as long time as he should find fit In the Year 1542. he was obliged by the vehement pursuit of the Emperor who pressed him because he was so earnestly pressed by the Princes of the Empire to assigne one in the City of Trent which he did by his Bull of the One and Twentieth of May. He believed this Consideration might serve to bring the two Kings to a Peace but the War growing still hotter betwixt them there came so few Bishops to Trent that Year of our Lord 1543 he was this year 1543. forced to recal the Legates he had sent thither and refer the Celebration of the Council to a more pacifick opportunity In France and Spain they were making greater preparations for War than ever The Spaniards furnished the Emperor with above four Millions of Gold John King of Portugal who was Marrying his Daughter Mary to Philip his only Son gave him very great Sums and the King of England promised him no less This inconstant Prince who could never long agree even with himself being offended for that Francis would not renounce his obedience to the Pope and for intermedling too far about the Affairs of Scotland had made a new League Year of our Lord 1543 with the Emperor who did not in the least scruple to have a Prince in Alliance with him though he were under the blackest censures of the Church a mortal Enemy to the Holy-See and one that had used his Aunt so outrageously That he might be able to withstand so dreadful a Storm the King laid an impost upon the walled Cities for the Maintenance of Fifty Thousand men which ended not with the War as he had promised nor was revoked till under the Reign of Francis II. The Emperor going into Germany went by Sea to Italy whither he also carried Ten Thousand Spaniards in some large Ships and Galleys He could not upon the Popes earnest request refuse to confer with him They met as Bussetta between Parma and Piacenza The Holy Father endeavoured to perswade him to give up those two Cities to the Holy-See and invest his Grandson Octavius Farnese with the Dutchy of Milan since the Italian Potentates would never consent that he should retain it for himself The Emperor gave him only general words and cut the Conference off very short for fear of giving jealousie to the King of England who was subject enough to misinterpretations That Muley-Assan whom he had restored to the Kingdom of Tunis being hardly beset on all hands by the Turks who had taken from him divers of his places came to Genoa to kiss his hand and crave some Assistance Whilest he was absent one of his Sons named Amida usurped the Kingdom The unfortunate Father having given him Battle with some Forces scraped together was vanquished and taken with two more of his Sons by the Rebel who put out his Eyes reproaching him for having served his own Brothers so Afterwards this Parricide being driven out of his Kingdom by the Governour of Goletta where nevertheless he got the Mastery again some while after Muley-Assan made his escape out of Prison and took refuge amongst the Spaniards Year of our Lord 1544 In the Spring time the King gave Command to Antony become Duke of Vendosme by the Death of his Father Charles to revictual Terouane Then himself lead his greatest Forces towards the Low-Countries where he thought to make a considerable Progress while the Duke of Gueldres held the Emperors in play So that about the end of May though he were indisposed he put himself in the head of his Army which was joyned with the Troops of Antony Duke of Vendosme He roved for some Weeks all about the Country of Artois and having often changed his Mind sometimes to Fortifie L'Illiers and Saint Venant another while to besiege Avenes he fixed at last upon the Fortifying Landrecy on the other side of the Sambre After he had given the necessary Orders he came to encamp at Maroles then to refresh and repose himself at Reims where he had caused the Ladies to come to divert him Whilst he was at Maroles the Daufin employed part of the Army for the taking the Castle of Emery which is on an Island in the Sambre and the Town of Maubeuge but a while after he forsook them The Duke of Orleans likewise entred into Luxembourg regained all the Country which had been taken after his going away and amongst other the Capital City which gives it the Name The King was there in Person visited the Place and notwithstanding its vast Circumference and odd Situation would have it Fortified Such as were knowing in the Trade were against the doing of it but because it was like to be a work of great profit to him that should have the ordering of it there was an Engenier ☞ that advised it and undertooke it In the mean while the Emperor having passed out of Italy into Germany came at first to attack the Duke of Cleve and by the taking his City of Duren which he sacked and perhaps by the Assistance of his own People whom he had corrupted frighted him and all the rest of the Country so terribly that he came and craved his Pardon and promised to quit his Alliance with the French and the Title of Duke of Guelders satisfying himself with that of Administrator Which was so suddenly done that the Duke had not time
but one narrow Channel to go in It was not thought sit either to fortifie the Island nor to fall upon them in a place of such advantage but to Land on their Coasts in sight of King Henry who was come down to Portsmouth to see what passed and send forth his Men of War They made two or three Landings with a great deal of Noise but Annebaut perceiving they would not come forth and his Provisions being spent he turned his Prow towards France and arrived there about the end of July The Mareschal de Biez advanced little against Boulogne though the King himself to push the business forward were come with Charles Duke of Orleans his second Son to the Abbey of Forrest-Moustier which is within ten Leagues of it between Abbeville and Monstrevil The Wound which Francis Duke d'Aumale received in a Salley made by the Enemies is a thing very remarkable He returned from the Engagement with the Iron head of a Lance and a piece of the Wooden Truncheon sticking in his head which entered at the Angle betwixt his right Eye and his Nose and came out behind between the Nape of his Neck and his Ear. The Chyrurgeon whose name was Ambrose Paré was forced to draw it out with a strong hand and Instrument and yet he most happily recover'd In the mean time Contagious distempers got into the Kings Army and the Duke of Orleans a Prince of great hopes dyed the eight of September at Forrest-Moustier whether of Venom or of some Poison that was thought to have been given him by some Creatures of his Brothers For they could not endure the King should cherish him so much as he did and be angry that the Daufin notwithstanding his command to the contrary kept correspondence with the Conestable Montmorency whose return they desired because their Master earnestly longed for it The death of this Prince broke all the bonds of Concord if there were any between the King and the Emperor The Envoyez carrying the News of it to the latter and asking how he intended to dispose of the Dutchy of Milan he plainly told them that he to whom he had promised it being no more he thought himself disengaged of his promise He declared his intention with so much the greater confidence as finding his Affairs against the Protestants in a very good posture some of whom as Maurice one of the Dukes of Saxony had taken his Party Frederic the Elector Palatin had Submitted Year of our Lord 1546 John Frederic Duke of Saxony and Philip Landgrave of Hesse who had declared War against him did not well agree together in-so-much as their vast Army which at first was Seventy Thousand Foot and Fifteen thousand Horse were almost dwindled to nothing and that his own encreased daily by the Supplyes sent him from the Pope and the Princes of Italy and those Forces he drew out of the Low-Countries his Hereditary Lands and from the Catholick Princes A Peace was equally desired by King Francis and by the King of England The first was not in very good health his Army wasted by Sickness and he apprehended those great Forces which Charles V. raised to quell the Protestant Princes of Germany might fall upon him Henry had neither Men nor Money and feared that a Forreign War might favour such as had a mind to rise at home Upon these considerations they named their Deputies about the end of April who meeting at a place between Ardres and Guines after six weeks debate concluded the Peace upon the eight day of June by which the King of England promised to restore Boulogne within eight years and the King was obliged to give him eight hundred thousand Crowns of Gold to be paid by one hundred thousand each year The residue of this same King Francis employed in visiting and furnishing his Frontiers fearing lest the Emperor should attempt something upon him as no doubt he would had the Protestants Submitted so early as he expected Francis was advised to assist them to keep the War out of his own Kingdom and maintain it in his Enemies He might do it with honour they were his Allies he might in Conscience do it since the Emperor by his Manifesto's declared he designed nothing against their Belief but their Rebellion Nevertheless the Scrupulous Counsel of the Cardinal de Tournon diverted him and even to let them know they were to hope for nothing from him engaged him to express his wrath against such as were Professors of their Religion by kindling the Flames of persecution throughout all his Dominions Great numbers of those miserable Creatures were Burnt many redeemed themselves from Fire and Faggots by Singing Palinodia and the more Sagacious by a timely Flight Year of our Lord 1547 The eight and twentieth of February in the year 1547. Henry King of England aged fifty seven years ended the Thrid of his Life which his incontinency had horribly knotted and entangled by the Multiplicity of his Marriages and the terrible change he made in the Anglicane Church He had six Wives Catherine of Arragon Anne Bullen Jane Seymour Anne of Cleve Catherine Howard and Catherine Parre He was divorced from the first and the fourth saw the third die in Child-Bed and caused the second and the fifth to be Beheaded for the crimes of Adultery the sixth survived him and Married Thomas Seymour Admiral of England By the first he left a Daughter named Mary by the second another named Elizabeth and by Jane a Son named Edward as then nine years of Age who came to the Crown immediately after him The rumour of the Emperors Armes gave astonishment to all Christendom the Pope himself Trembled for fear lest having Subdued Germany he should pass into Italy When Francis had therefore well considered the consequences of the ruin of the Protestants he changed his mind and made a League with them obliged himself to receive the Eldest Son of the Duke of Saxony into France and in particular permit him the exercise of his Religion promised to send an Hundred Thousand Crowns to his Father and as much to the Landgrave of Hesse till such time as he could assist them with Forces In the mean while his trouble for the death of King Henry encreasing his inveterate distemper changed a lingring Feavour that was upon him into a continued one and stopt him at the Castle of Rambouillet where he finished his life the last day of March by an end worthy of a most generous Prince and a most Christian King He earnestly recommended to his Son the diminishing of the Tallage which he had raised too much not to recall Montmorency to continue the Cardinal de Tournon to whom he willed a Hundred Thousand Crowns and Annebaut in the Administration told him that the Sons ought to imitate the Vertues of their Fathers and not their Vices that the French being the best people in the world deserved so much the more to be well Treated as they refused their King nothing in his
of great advantage to him Upon this followed a sharp Fight which was on the thirteenth of August between the Villages of Marque and Fauquemberg where the conduct and courage of the Duke of Guise who was engaged in it did signalize it self above all the other Chiefs The Emperor having the worst of it was advised to sound a retreat Some pieces of his Canon and Two Thousand of his Men remained in the Field of Battel However the King for want of Provisions raised the Siege and after he had sent once more to defie the Emperor discharged a part of his Army and returned to Paris giving what Souldiers were left to the Duke of Vendosmes Charge This Prince had no little task to cover the Frontiers for the Enemy who were thought to be gone into Winter Quarters took the Field again and made a shew of Besieging Dourlens then Abbeville ransacked the Country as far as Saint Riquier from thence went up along the River of Autie and feigning to have their Eye upon Monstreville set themselves upon fortifying the Village of Mesnil which lies in a Marsh upon the little River of Canche a little beneath old Hesdin which they had demolished the year before The Duke of Savoy would have it called Hesdin-Fert adding to the name of the place the Devise of his House to make known that he was the Founder of it This Campagne ended the exploits of the Emperor He was too much wasted and weakned by continual defluxions to be any longer capable of undergoing those fatigues and make head against a youthful King whom he always found on Horseback Besides the mis-understanding that was between him and his Brother gave him much more trouble then his distemper and corporal pain This younger Brother besides that he was not contented with his share but demanded some augmentation was in great wrath that he had mow'd the Grass under the Feet of his Son Maximilian King of Bohemia in the design he had to get Mary Queen of England for the Emperor had pretended to aid him and in the mean time got her for his own Son Philip. This wrangling went so far that Maximilian's Nephew had like to have made War upon him He sought the Alliance of the German Princes for this very purpose and hearkned to the Kings Envoyez who proffer'd him his However the mediation of their common friends appeased that Domestique Quarrel The same night the Battel of Renty was fought came news to the Camp of the Battel at Mercian in Siennois which much allayes the Emperors trouble and grief and the joy of the French Now before we speak of this Event we must in gross relate the success of that War At the beginning the Duke of Florence who equally feared the Imperialists and the French and would prevent the ruine of his Year of our Lord 1554 Country had sought to find a Medium to compose the difference which was out that Sienne should remain free in its dependance on the Empire and amity with France But the Pope whose Interest he made use of did not act cordially The Holy Fathers aim was to bring that Estate under the power of the Emperor because he made him or at least left him room to believe and hope that he would invest Fabian Son of his Brother Baldwine with it therefore of his own head he added one condition to those of the Duke of Florence which she well knew the Siennois would never accept which was that a Cardinal to be named by him should be put into the City to serve as Chief for that Republique with a Garrison of Twelve Hundred Men. The Emperor on his part was not sorry this Negotiation broke off that he might have an employment for Peter de Toledo and remove him from being Vice-Roy of Naples where his ill Conduct had caused most dangerous Tumults about the business of the Inquisition This Lord had not been a Month in Tuscany but he died Garsias his Son took the Command of the Imperial Army Duke Cosmo having refused it Paul de Termes Commanded then in that Country for the King The Imperialists having Twenty Thousand Foot in that Mountainous Region gained most of the places as well along the Sea-shore as the Valley of Chiana but they got nothing but Blows at Montalcini Thereupon they had notice the Turks Fleet was at Sea and that on the other hand Brissac had gained great advantages in Piedmont this news obliged them to send back the best part of their Forces to the Kingdom of Naples and into Milanois Cosmo was much astonished he saw himself forsaken by the Imperialists after he had broken with the King It was believed he would then willingly have complied had they known how to press him in that juncture but they gave him time to recover himself of his first fears and resolve to stand it out come what would In which he was the more confirmed for that the great Turkish Fleet Commanded by Dragut and joyned with the French Galleys of whom the Baron de la Garde was General having made a descent upon the Coasts and in the Island of Elbe took only some little places and durst not attaque either Piombino which is on the Terra-firma nor the Fortress of Porto-Ferrario which he had built in the Island From thence that Armada passed to Corsica carrying thither Termes and the greatest part of the French Commanders and Nobility who quitted Sienna imagining there was no further danger These passages hap'ned in the Year 1553. but in 1554. the King sent thither Peter Strozzi newly made Mareschal upon the Death of Annebaut to Command his Forces in the place of Paul de Termes This employment was procured him by the Queen to whom he was related but by obliging her Cousin she ruined the Kings Affairs For as Strozzi was a mortal Enemy to the Medicis Cosmo fancied he had expresly made choise of him to renew the intrigues for the liberty of the Florentines and to encourage them to shake off their Yoke so that being exasperated to the highest degree he observed no measures but openly declared against the French and against Sienna The Cardinal of Ferrare who had the intendance General of the Government for the King at Sienna took likewise some umbrage and Jealousie at this Mareschals Arrival who notwithstanding endeavour'd to condescend to him in all things insomuch that from that Minute he grew very careless neglected to carry on those practices and negotiations France then had as well at Rome as with the other Princes of Italy and let slip all those means and opportunities wherewith they might have kept things still in very good order and condition Cosmo had chosen for General of his Forces John Jacques Medequin Marquiss of Marignan who embraced this opportunity to make the World believe he was of the House of the Medicis though he were but the Son of a Maltostier or Tax-gatherer Having invested Sienna by the taking of several small places round about
likewise to Marry the King who was in his One and twentieth year His Mother with vast and Chimerical designs rowling in her Head had some thoughts thereby to acquire the Kingdoms of Scotland and England of getting for him Mary Stuard his Brothers Widdow Then finding Affairs did not succeed well with her she next made her Address to gain Queen Elizabeth for him and propounded a League with her in Order to a Conquest of the Low-Countries This Negotiation lasted near two years at the end whereof Elizabeth having made answer That the King was too great and too little That is to say too great a King to go and dwell in England and too young for her who was Eight Year of our Lord 1570 and Thirty years old the Queen cast her Eyes upon another Elizabeth daughter of the Emperor Maximilian II. a good and virtuous Princess but whose Innocency for she was scarce 16 and whose Simplicity could create no jealousie in her The Match had been propounded the foregoing Year The Marriage being contracted by Proxy he sent his two Brothers and with them the Duke of Lorraine the Duke of Guise and of Aumale to receive his Spouse at Sedan and himself went to Mezieres where the Archbishop of Trier put her into his Hands The next day being the Six and Twentieth of November the Nuptials were Celebrated in the same place At his return from thence being at Chantilly he gave Audience to the Ambassadors of the Protestant German Princes who came to Congratulate with him for the Peace he had granted his Subjects and to exhort him to maintain it shewing him plainly by many reasons and examples the Errour and mistake of those who aver that the Calm of Peace and a diversity of Religions are incompatible and cannot be maintained or made to live quietly together in the same Kingdom With this year ended in Spain the War with the Moors after it had lasted above three years The obstinate remainders of the Moors mixed with some Jews were revolted and had created a King then he being Slain another The Marquises de Montdjeu and de loz Velez Commanded in the beginning of this War John of Austria Bastard Son of Charles V. and then the Duke of Sesse continued it and afterwards Lewis Duke d' Arcos finished it This last was the Chief of the House of Ponce de Leon. Year of our Lord 1570. and 71. The Queen Mother had the Alliance with England much in her Head or at least she feigned so the better to lull and blind the Huguenots and hinder Queen Elizabeth from lending them Assistance She therefore makes a fresh overture of Marriage between that Princess and her Second Son the Duke of Anjou Now whatever intention she had she neither spared cajolleries nor addresses nor advantageous offers to the Queen nor caresses and presents to her Ministers to win their Hearts They proceeded even to the Treating about the Conditions there was but one they could not agree upon that the Duke might have the exercise of the Catholick Religion in England at least in his own Chamber This difficulty put the business to a stop till the Massacre on Saint Bartholomews which broke it absolutely off In these years 1570. and 71. was that memorable War between the Turks and the Venetians for the Island of Cyprus Selin who succeeded Solyman his Father having a design to build some Mosques and some Hervan-Sarays or Hospitals his Muâ—ty had told him that he might not do it but with the Spoils conquer'd from some Christians Consulting then which way he should bend his Force the desire he had to possess a Country that produced excellent Wine after which he was very Liquorish made him determine to Conquer the Island of Cyprus which bears of the best in the World His pretence to break with the Venetians who were in Possession was that they allowed those Pirates to harbour in their Ports who plyed and robbed upon the Coasts of Asia and Syria and that their Governors did not shew him that respect they ought He likewise added as some kind of Title which those Barbarians however do but little regard that the Kingdom of Cyprus was a Dependance on that of Egypt which his Predecessors had Conquer'd from the Mamalukes The Bashaw Mustapha who Commanded Selim's Army Landed on the Island with Fifty Thousand Men in the month of July and laid Siege to Nicosia a Mediteranean City Seated at the Foot of the Mountains and very well Fortified The Venetians set out an Hundred nimble Galleys and Eleven great ones but the Plague having destroyed above one half of their People that manned them and the Bashaw Piali General of the Turkish Galleys being in those Seas they durst not go near the Island So that after a Siege of Eight and Forty dayes the City was taken and Nicholas Dandolo who Commanded was Slain at the taking of a Fort. Mustapha ordered his head to be cut off and planted upon the top of a Pike within sight of Famagusta In the mean time Marc Antonio Colonna and Doria this General of the King of Spain Galleys the other of the Popes had joyned the Venetian Armada and lay Year of our Lord 1571 upon the Coasts of Caramania together making up above Two Hundred Galleys and great Vessels but Doria failed them at need and upon the News of the loss of Nicosia carried back his Fleet to the Kingdom of Naples In the following Spring Famagusta the Capital of Cyprus and the best Port in the Island was assaulted Marc Antonio Bragadin defended it with extraordinary Valour and did not Surrender it till the utmost extremity Mustapha enraged at his too long and too great resistance satisfied his Faith and cruelly caused him to be flea'd alive after they had cut off his Nose and Ears Bragadin appeared more invincible yet under his Torments than in his Fighting and Triumphed over the Treachery and Cruelty of his more than brutish Enemy by his generous Sufferings At the instant pursuits of Pope Pius V. at length a League was concluded between him the King of Spain and the Venetians their Vessels or Fleet together made up Two Hundred Twenty Five Galleys Sottili Six Galleasses and Twenty Five great Ships Whil'st the Chiefs were contending with each other about Place and Authority Famagusta was lost Don John of Austria Bastard Son of the Emperor Charles V. Commanded the Forces of Spain Marc Antonio Colonna the Popes and Sebastian Venier those belonging to the Venetians Don Juan was declared Generalissimo and in his absence Colonna was tohave the same Authority Venier having craftily engaged Don Juan to enter the Gulf of Lepanto otherwise called the Gulf of Corinth a famous Battel ensued the most Memorable that ever the Christians Fought upon the Sea It was within the Streight between those little Islands named the Echinades and the main land some Threescore Miles off the Promontory Actium so Famous by that Battel which decided the Roman Empire betwixt Octavius Caesar
made his Party by it self as well because he was disgusted that the said King had to his prejudice given his Lieutenancy to the Vicount de Turenne as because he being in himself a serious and honest Gentleman avoided all libertinage and had a horror for their frauds and impious practises In the King of Navarres Court nothing was to be seen but Intrigues Amours and Enterprises to say all in a word Queen Margaret was the Soul of it The King month November and December her Brother who had taken a spleen against her wrote to her Husband that there were ill Reports spread of her and the Vicount de Turenne but that Prince considering the necessity of his Affairs above all things else shewed the Letter to them both and spared neither caresses nor intreaties to keep the Vicount with him who pretended he must by all means retire Now this Woman enraged to the greatest extremity had no other thought but of revenge to this effect making use of the same means she had so often seen practised by her Mother she instructed the Ladies about her to take all the brave ones about her Husband in their amorous toils and they did spread the Nets so cunningly that himself was ensnared by the beauties of Fosseuse who did but too well practise the Lessons taught by her Mistress These were the real Fire-brands of the sixth Troubles and for that reason it was called The Louers Wars Year of our Lord 1580 The Kings Envoys coming to re-demand the places of security these Gossips scoff at them peek their Gallants with Honour call it folly and cowardize to surrender what they had acquired at the price of their Blood and so heat them that they resolve not only to keep them still but also to take others To this end the King of Navarre having broken some pieces of Gold sends two halves the one to Chastillon the other to Lesdiguieres who Commanded for that Party in Languedoc and Daufine with an Order to begin the War whenever he sent them the other two halves and at the same time sends Men of Credit into divers Provinces for the execution of above threescore several Enterprises It seems this Resolution had not been communicated to the Prince of Conde nevertheless it so fell out that he acted at the same time as if it had been by agreement with the rest of the Party He passionately desired to enter into possession of the Government of Picardy it had been promised him by two Treaties and he was daily put in hopes of it In fine his patience was tired he would do himself right and formed private Intelligence and designs upon seven or eight of the best places in that Province That which he attempted upon la Fere succeeded by the assistance of month April c. Liramont de Mouy and some other Gentlemen all the others miscarried As little success had the Partisans of the King of Navarre unless upon Montaigu in Poitou and upon Cabors This City belonging to his Wives Estate for she was appenaged with the Counties of Quercy and Agenois refusing to own him he was resolved to do himself right though he knew Vesins was within the place with two thousand Soldiers he was not afraid to assault it and to make use of his Petard a new sort of Artillery which then began to be employ'd When by this invention he had made a Gate fly open he found Vesins ready to oppose him who received him very bravely This Lord was kill'd upon the first charge his death however did not so daunt his Men but they defended themselves yet four days more from Street to Street At last all were forced and the City horribly sacked and overflowed with the Blood of its Inhabitants in revenge of that of the Huguenots which they shed in the Massacres of St. Bartholomew The other Efforts of that Party manifestly discover'd their weakness which proved to be greater then could have been imagin'd For the disarmed Provinces as Normandy the Isle of France Champagne and others refused to contribute towards this War the Rochellers not thinking it very just remained quiet by the advice even of the Wise la None Chastillon could not stir up above three Cities in Year of our Lord 1580 Languedoc which were Lunel Aigues-Mortes and Sous-Mieres and if Nismes did enter the Lists it was only because the Catholicks did Harass them It is true that Captain Merle took Mandes but it was rather upon his own private account then the Parties for he had all the Plunder and the Party got nothing by it but hatred for his horrible Robberies On all hands the Huguenots had the disadvantage the Mareschal de Biron put the King of Navarres whole Forces to a full stop then drove them into their Holds He defeated three thousand of his Men in a Combat near Monterabel in which the two Sons of the Marquiss du Trans of near Relation to that King and yet both Catholicks were slain and beat back the rest to the very Gates of Nerac It is said he fired some Volees of Cannon against the Walls from the top whereof Queen Margaret beheld the Skirmish whereat that Princess was so much offended she would never pardon him The Count de Lude in the mean while took Montaigu in Poitou the defence whereof was truly much greater then the goodness of the place The Duke of Mayne cleared almost all Daufine which brought Lesdiguieres so low that another such Campagne would have beat him out of the Country and the Mareschal de Matignon reduced the Town of la Fere in Picardy of which the Prince had designed to make a second Rochel After he had been six weeks before the place he granted them very good Composition month September the Twelfth day of September The Kings two Favourites Arques and the young la Valete who was afterwards named Joyeuse Espernon and a many Lords were come to the Siege in great Equipage and Provisions were brought from all Quarters in abundance from whence it was called The Velvet Siege The Duke of Aumale Governor of Picardy and the Duke of Guise arrived there towards the latter end and would have wrested the Honour from Matignon for which he stored up so great Resentment that ever after upon all occasions he studied to thwart them and break their Measures Nothing gave the King more apprehension then the going abroad of the Prince of Conde who had left la Fere about the end of March to sollicite the aid of Protestant Princes In England he saw Queen Elizabeth at Antwerp the Prince of Orange in Germany Casimir and some other Princes yet could obtain no assistance but from Year of our Lord 1580 Casimir upon condition of certain places he promised to give him for security Upon this assurance he returns by Swisserland and Geneva amidst a World of dangers being taken and stript in the Territories of Savoy by some Bandits who knew not who he was Lesdiguieres generously furnish'd him with Money and
Bouchard and even Chastelleraud it self open'd their Gates to him From thence he advanced as far as Argenton in Berry to aid the City which held for the King against the Castle that stood for the League Which gave so much jealousie to la Chastre that he declared for the League and made the City of Bourges declare with him The happy progress of this Prince and his Proximity gave the King some reason Year of our Lord 1589 to court his assistance in his extream necessity the Duke of Nevers who apprehended month April this medley of Huguenots and Catholicks might bring Religion into danger dissuaded him with all his might and there were withal great obstructions on either hand On the Kings part the fear of farther offending the Court of Rome and scandalizing the Catholicks the Conscience of so soon violating an Oath twice reiterated before the Estates and the shame of being forced to call into his assistance him whom he had so roughly persecuted On the King of Navarres part the just suspicion lest they should sacrifice him to appease the fury of the League for this King that invited him was himself one of the principal Authors of the bloody St. Bartholomew and the constraint of stooping to the Favourites who sported with the lives of those that did not bow the knee before them Notwithstanding Du Plessis Mornay and some others by their prudent management removed all these Obstacles and accommodated every thing between these two Kings upon condition the Treaty should not be divulged till the King should think it fit It contained an agreement of a Truce for a year during which time the King of Navarre should aid him with all his Forces and should give him up all such places as he should take from the common Enemy Reciprocally the King should give him the Pont de Ce upon the Loire and one place in every Bailiwick as a retreat for his sick Men. When the Legat had discover'd this new Confederation he employ'd all his power and interest to incline the Duke of Mayenne to an Accommodation even so far as to offer him Conditions much beyond the power of his Commission The King finding he did but only lose time that in the Dukes Army they gave him no better Title then the Tyrant the Massacrer and dethroned Henry and that the Duke was at Chasteaudun within three days Journey of Tours he caused the Truce to be proclaimed though with a great deal of repugnance There were at Rome some Envoys on his behalf to sollicite for his Absolution and others in behalf of the League to oppose it The thing was found to be much more difficult to obtain of the Pope then he had imagined In that Court the Blood of a Cardinal is not so lightly valued and Pope Sixtus who gloried in trampling upon Crowned Heads would be sure not to let slip this opportunity of magnifying his own power He demanded before any further proceedings that they should set the Cardinal de Bourbon and the Archbishop of Lyons at liberty Charles d'Angennes Bishop of Mans had made him believe the King would grant him this but when in stead of a compliance that Prelat entertain'd him with excuses and ragione di stato and at the same time they were informed by Letters from the Legat of the Kings Confederation with the Head of the Huguenots the Pope le ts fly a Monitory the Fifth of May by which he demanded and commanded to set the Cardinal and the Arch-Bishop Year of our Lord 1589 at liberty within ten days after publication and to give certain notice month May and June thereof within thirty by an authentick Act In default whereof he declared he had incurr'd the Censures Ecclesiastical especially those which are contained in the Bull in Coena Domini of which he could not be absolv'd but by the Pope himself unless at the point of death and upon giving security to make satisfaction cited him to appear personally at Rome within sixty days allowing him twenty days for each Admonition and disanulling all Indulgences Faculties and Priviledges to the contrary granted by the Holy See either to him or to any of his Predecessors This Monitory was published in Rome and affixed upon the Church doors of St. Peters and St. John de Latran the Three and twentieth of May and the Month of June following in the Cathedral of Chartres in that of Meaux and some other Churches in France but the King still pretended cause of ignorance He notwithstanding had well enough foreseen this thing and the apprehension he had of it hastned him to satisfie the King of Navarre by giving him a passage upon the Loire Du Plessis Mornay by his Address brought it so about as in lieu of Pont de Ce a very ill-favoured place he gave him the City of Saumur whereof his Master gave him the Government This security being granted the two Kings met about the Thirtieth of April about the hour of One in the Afternoon at Plessis Les Tours in the Park he of Navarre was come to the Bridge de la Motte which is a Rivolet a quarter of a league beyond Tours and had brought part of his Forces which were quarter'd about two leagues beyond that but would venture no farther Nevertheless d'Aumont and Chastillon having informed him that such mistrust displeased the King pressed him so home that they prevailed with him to pass the River of Cher and come into the Park His old Captains trembled both for anger and for fear lest the King said they in a season wherein treachery may be so advantageous to free himself out of that Labyrinth whereinto another had drawn him should have agreed for his Absolution at the price of this Princes Life and destined his Head a present to the Pope to accompany the Admirals The same day to dispel their fears he returned to his lodgment but the next day by six in the morning and without giving them notice he repasses the River with only one Page and came to the King as he was rising The two Princes spent all that morning and the next in consulting of their Affairs Their resolution in gross was to attaque Paris the principal head of the League and that which gave motion to all the rest They reckon they should for this purpose have the Forces of the Huguenot Party and great numbers of the Nobility a powerful assistance which the King expected from England and a levy of twelve thousand Swiss whom Sancy was gone to raise in the Protestant Cantons After they had remained together two days Year of our Lord 1589 the King of Navarre went to Chinon to bring forward the rest of those Troops he month April had left there In the Provinces the two Parties had had divers Rencounters Sautour a Royalist besieging Mere upon Seine Hautefort who qualified himself Lieutenant General for the Union in Brie and Champagne charged him kill'd or caused most of his Men to drown themselves
his correspondence and interests had been with the Spaniard his whole Council held that byass the inclinations of his Wife Anne of Denmark who had much influence over him were turned towards them and it was not to be doubted but that the Catholicks who were numerous in England and even all the people because of the advantage of Trade much more considerable from Spain then France would use all their endeavours to oblige him to Treat with King Philip. It was therefore thought fit to send Rosny on the Embassy month May. for it was believed that he being of the Protestant Religion his mediation would be the more acceptable and that they would look upon him as a Minister who knew the Kings greatest secrets besides that his words would have the greater influence upon King James's Counsellors because he had the Purse wherewith to guild his Arguments and make them the more efficacious He had order to demand of that Prince first the continuation of his Amity and Alliances with the King afterwards to sound whether he would incline to assist the United Provinces against the Spaniards If he did not do it frankly to proceed warily and not discover the private designs of the King against the House of Austria but if he did find him disposed to lay open the Methods whereby to destroy that grandeur and reduce it within the limits of Spain only and their Hereditary Countries in Germany For this purpose to make a League month May. wherein should enter the Kings of Denmark and Sweden who should first attaque the Low-Countries and then the Indies to be shared amongst the Confederates and to set up at the same time a potent Caball in Germany to take the Imperial Crown from him He was also commanded if he found the overtures favourable to desire that King to put a stop to the English Piracies who since the Peace of Vervins under colour of a War with Spain had taken for above Three Millions belonging to the French As likewise to demand that the French who Traded in England might enjoy the same Privileges and Franchises as the English enjoy'd in France by the Treaty made between King Charles IX and Queen Elizabeth Anno 1572. month June His whole Negociation is to be seen at length in his Memoirs and how he brought back a Treaty into France made the Five and twentieth of June by which the Prince promised in his own Name and Rosny in the Name of the King of which he made great use though he had no express Commission for it to renew and strengthen the Ancient and never interrupted Alliances between France and Scotland and those between the late Queen Elizabeth and King Henry IV. That a League should be concluded between the two Kings for the Defence of their respective Kingdoms Persons and Subjects and of their Allies Especially of the United Provinces whom they should forthwith assist with Powerful Succours which should be raised in England but pay'd by the King of France the one half in Deduction for what he might be indebted to the English That if either the one or the other were Attaqued by the Spaniard his Allie should assist him with a Land Army or a Fleet of Ships at the choice of him who should be so Assaulted which should consist at the least of Six Thousand fighting Men That if both should at the same time be Assailed or should Year of our Lord 1603 become Assailants each on his part should make War upon the Common Enemy Henry with Twenty thousand Men whom he should send into the Low-Countries and a considerable number of Galleys and other Vessels into the Mediterraneum And James with a Body of Six thousand Men by Land and two strong Fleets which he should send the one upon the Coasts of Spain the other towards the Indies Before this Treaty the King had been greatly afflicted with a Retention of Urine caused as was said by an Excrescence stopping up that Channel The Danger was so eminent that believing he should die he had begun to dispose of the Government during the Minority of his Son When he was Cured he applied himself as before to his Buildings and in procuring Money to be more plentiful and of a quicker Circulation in his Kingdom thereby to make his Subsidies flow in both more abundantly and more readily Trade appearing to him to be one of the most certain means and wayes month June leading to that end it was the Ardent desire of his Heart to make it grow and flourish having the foregoing year erected a Chamber or Council for that end composed of Officers belonging to his Parliament the Chamber des Comptes and the Cour des Aides And because he was not Potent enough at Sea and by that way the Expence was great and the Profit a long time and very uncertain in its coming he thought to succeed better and sooner by Home-Manufactures Therefore he set up of divers sorts Tapestries of the richest Fabrick in the Faux-Bourg Sainct Marceau by means of divers excellent Artists whom he invited thither from Flanders Guilt-Leather Hangings in the Faux-Bourg Sainct Honorē and Sainct Jacques Mills to work and cleave Iron with ease and to cut the same into several pieces which were Built on the River of Estampes Gaases and thinn Linnen Cloath at Mantes upon the Seine Pot-works for coarse and fine Earthen Wares of all sorts at Paris Nevers and Brisambourg in Saintonge Glass-houses for Chrystaline in imitation of the Venetians at Paris and Nevers There had been formerly some at Sainct Germains en Laye in the Reign of Henry II. but the Wars had extinguisht the Furnaces Cloath and Serges Stuffs and Silks in divers Parts of the Kingdom and several other things The Manufacture of Silks was that which took most with the generality and promised the greatest Profit The use of it first began in the East even with the beginning of the Persian Monarchy The Romans having penetrated those Countries by their Conquests could easily have brought away the Art and Use of it but despised it fearing to render themselves effeminate by those softer Garments much fitter for tender amorous Youths and Women than the more rough and martial Men. Afterwards their Courage growing indeed effeminate they suffer'd it to be introduced in the lesser Asia and in Greece about the time of the Empire of Justinian Then towards the year 1130. it made a step into Sicilia and Calabria by means of Roger King of Cicilia who upon his return from an Expedition to the Holy-Land having taken Athens Corinth and Thebes transported all such as wrought in Silk to Panormus Of them the Sicilians learned to breed up those Worms that make the Silk to Spin and Weave it and afterwards brought the Art into Italy and Spain From Italy it came first into the hottest Parts of France as Provence the Comtat of Avignon and Languedoc Francis I. setled it in Touraine thinking to make great Profit by it Nevertheless it was
not common in France for a long time for King Henry II. was the first who wore Silk Stockings at his Sister's Wedding month June Yet till those Troubles hapned which turned the whole Kingdom upside-down under the Reigns of Charles IX and Henry III. the Courtiers did not use much Silk but after that the very Citizens began to wear it frequently For 't is a most certain Observation that Pride and Luxury does never spread so much as during Publick Calamities For which I can guess at no other reason but that it is a Curse from Heaven which ever comes hand in hand with the Plague of Civil War Now King Henry IV. believing this Manufacture might in like manner be set up at Paris treated with certain Undertakers who Built several places in the Tuilleries the Castle of Madrid and at Fontainebleau to breed Silk-Worms they sending every year into Spain for the Eggs and gave order for the planting great Numbers of white Mullberry-Trees and raising Nurseries of them in all the adjacent Parishes the Leaves of those Trees serving as Pasture for those precious Worms or Catterpillers Year of our Lord 1603 In the year 1599. he had by Edict Prohibited all Foreign Manufactures as well of Silk as Gold Silver pure or mixt at the request of the Merchants of Tours who pretended to make quantities sufficient to furnish the whole Kingdom But as those kind of Establishments accommodate only the Undertakers and incommode all others it was soon found that this Project ruined the City of Lyons which may justly be called the Golden Gate of France destroy'd their Fairs and withal diminished the Customs by one half These Considerations tendred to the King as he was never obstinate to prefer his absolute Authority to evident Reason and Demonstration he made no scruple to revoke it In the Month of June Ferdinand de Velasco Constable of Castille passed thorow France on his way to England to finish that Treaty of Peace with King James which Taxis the Ambassador in Ordinary from Spain had begun I shall here observe that he concluded it about the middle of June in the following year to the great regret of the King of France who knew by this what he was to hope for from King James a Prince heedless and timorous a Philosopher in words yet having nothing but the meen of a Soldier And who withal was not yet so well setled in England as to venture or dare to shock any one of his Neighbours month May June July c. Divers things caused great inquietudes in the King There were some which troubled his Divertisements and others that tended to the disturbance of his Kingdom The Jealousies the Queen his Wife had of his Amours the Malice of his Mistresses especially the Marchioness de Verneuil the heats of the Count de Soissons which many times broke out upon Points of Honor for the most part rather imaginary then real and the Insolency's of the Duke d'Espernon were of the first sort The procedure of the zealous Catholicks who sought by oblique Methods to engage him to ruin the Huguenots as on the opposite the Discontents of the Huguenots who endeavour'd to Cantonize that they might not be taken unprovided were of the second We shall Discourse of the two first Points hereafter As for the Count de Soissons being already much offended for that Rosny had refused to allow him a certain Impost upon Linnen-Cloath which he begg'd of the King the false Reports made to him by the Marchioness of Verneuil push'd him on to such an extremity of resentment that he talked of nothing but to be revenged by the Death of Rosny and although the King did openly enough take part with this last he could never allay the Count's Passion but by obliging Rosny to disown by a Publick Writing what he was accused to have spoken of the Count and offer to fight any Man that durst maintain the contrary The Brave Grillon had suffer'd himself to be persuaded to lay down his Command of Mestre de Camp in the Regiment of Guards the Duke of Espernon Collonel of the French Infantry took it to be his Right to Nominate the King would retrench that Right and had destin'd it for Crequy Son-in-Law to Lesdiguieres Espernon after having made all his efforts by Intrigues and by Remonstrances to maintain his pretended Right retired Male-content to Angoulesme Nevertheless being informed the King threatned to follow him he was advised to submit to his Pleasure When the King saw he acquiesced obediently he did him Justice for he order'd Crequy to wait upon him in that Country to make Oath to him and to take his Attach on his Provisions However he reserved the disposal of that Office and the like in all other the old Bodies but would have them be subject to the same Devoirs towards their Collonel That when two Companies hapned to be vacant in the Regiment he would fill up one by Nomination of the Collonel who should not be installed nor take place but from the day they had given their Oaths to that Officer and taken his Attache That as for the like Officers in other Regiments the Collonel should Nominate and he choose Captains out of those so named and as to the Lieutenants Ensign-Collonels Sergeant-Majors and their Ayds Prevosts Mareschaux de Logis and other Officers he should dispose of such by his sole Authority Which raised his Power above that of Princes and almost in a condition to make Head against the King himself month June In the Council his Ministers animated with Zeal against the Huguenots and too much persuaded of the Spanish Grandeur endeavour'd to divide the King from the Protestants to reduce him to an entire submission to the Pope to bring in the Jesuits and to unite him with Spain and Rome thereby to extirpate Calvinisme from all his Territories Taxis Ambassadour from the Catholick King offer'd Year of our Lord 1603 him all the Forces of Spain for that purpose representing that the Huguenots were the greatest Enemies to his Person and often had sollicited King Philip to help them to dethrone him He was indeed but too well informed that the Chiefs of the Huguenots as Bouillon la Trimouille his Brother in Law Du Plessis-Mornay Lesdiguieres and some Gentlemen that were his Domesticks but had quitted him when he went to Mass and almost all the Protestant Ministers had no more that Love for him which otherwhile they had shown but sighed after some other Protector He could not how-ever resolve to treat those as Enemies who had so tenderly nursed and bred him up and had Sacrificed every thing for his sake and he consider'd withal that if he could have forgot their eminent Services he must thereby have alienated from him all the Protestant Princes and have remained alone exposed to the Mercy of the same Power and Persons that had formed the League which was what they desired He chose therefore rather to restrain the hatred
the King took a turn into France and how Don Pedro de Toledo who was then going to Germany came at the same time with design as was believed to found month Septemb. the Kings intentions and to take him off from espousing the interests of the States We there find likewise the great jealousies the States conceived upon the Conferences he had with the King the Intrigues and Artifices of Prince Maurice to break this Treaty the different Factions that were formed in that Country for and against it Then the rupture of the said Treaty by the States upon the Spaniards persisting to have the free exercise of the Catholick Religion re-established in all their Territories and that they should lay down the whole Trade and Navigation to the Indies and in fine upon this rupture the retreat of the Ambassadors of Spain who took their leaves of the States the last day of September and returned to Bruxels Those of France and Great Britain particularly the first did not for all this leave off their Mediation but propounded to both parties to make a long Truce at least since they could not agree upon the Articles for a perpetual Peace Prince Maurice opposed it openly because his employment must be at an end with the War He had subject enough to declaim against the artifice of the Spaniard and to entertain the peoples fears and jealousies and talked the more confident and high as having all the Sons of War on his side and the Province of Zealand besides four or five good places in his disposition and the desires of the Protestant Princes who apprehended lest during such a Truce the power of the Austrian House should fall upon their Backs But the Kings honour was too much concerned after he had taken so much pains and his interest likewise to disarm Flanders which he designed to seize upon not to bring this business to a conclusion He pursued it therefore so Year of our Lord 1609 warmly by intreaties and menaces to the States that their Deputies met again month January February March and April at Antwerp on the five and twentieth of March with those of Spain and made a Truce for twelve years which was proclaimed in that City the fourteenth day of April Year of our Lord 1069 It imported amongst other things That the Arch-Dukes treated with them in quality and as holding them for free Provinces upon whom they had no manner of pretence That there should be a Cessation from all Acts of Hostility but that in Forraign Countries it should not commence till a year after That Traffick should be free both by Sea and Land which however the King of Spain limited to the Countries he held in Europe not meaning the States should Trade into those others without his express Licence That either should hold such places as were then in their possession That such whose Estates had been seized or confiscate by reason of the War or their Heirs should have the enjoyment of them during the Truce and should re-enter upon them without any other form of Justice That the Subjects belonging to the States should have in the Kings and Arch-Dukes Countries the same liberty in Religion as had been granted to the Subjects of the King of Great Britain by the last Treaty of Peace Reciprocally the States promised that there should be no alteration made in those Villages of Brabant which depended upon them where hitherto there had been no other exercise of Religion but the Catholick for which the Ambassadors gave their Guaranty in writing The President Janin being returned to the Hague after the Publication exhorted the States in behalf of the King to grant to their Catholick Subjects the free exercise of their Religion but all that he could obtain was that they should be no more prosecuted nor troubled if they did it in their own houses and for their private Families only If the power of Spain received a great shock by this Treaty that which they procured themselves by the expulsion of the Moors was no less After the eversion of the Kingdom of Granada great numbers of Mahometans and Jews were remaining in those Countries who had settled and spread themselves in the Kingdoms of Valencia Chastille and Andalouzia they were baptized and professed Christianity for which reason they were called new Christians but yet did secretly exercise the impieties of their fore-Fathers They were reck'ned to be above twelve hundred thousand of both sexes King Philip informed that for divers years they had sought for and courted the protection of the King of France the Vnited-Provinces the King of England nay even the Turks and the King of Morocco and suffering himself to be perswaded that upon a certain Good-Friday they intended to cut the Throats of all the old Christians in those Countries where they inhabited resolved to thrust them out of his Territories not permitting them to carry away any thing excepting some Merchandize of the Country seizing and detaining their Gold and Silver their Jewels and moveables only he allowed the fourth part to the Nobility in recompence of the damage they sustained by such their banishment for they improved and made the Lands yield more by one third to the Gentry then the Spanish Tenants could do Year of our Lord 1609 and 1610 till March. This Edict was Executed with the utmost severity even against those that were Priests Friers Officers of the Kings and Allied to the most ancient Christian Families they haled and tore them from the very Altars Cloysters Tribunals of Justice the Husbands from the Arms of their dearest Wives the Wives from the Bosoms of their Husbands the Fathers or Mothers from their tenderest Children These wretches part of them transported into Africa part getting into France and Italy did most of them perish after divers manners some were drowned by those very Marriners who pretended to transport them others Massacred by the Arabes many being first stript and then turned away by those from whom they expected shelter died of hunger being in execration to the Christians as Infidels and to the Infidels as Christians so that of this huge Multitude hardly could the fourth part make shift to save themselves Spain will for a long time feel the smart of this more then barbarous inhumanity for the cruel expulsion of so many Myriads of Men together with the continual recruits they are ever sending to the Indies and their natural lazy temper has made of that Country otherwhile the most peopled and the most cultivated in Europe a vast and barren solitude Some Christian Pirates were retired to Tunis and Algier and had there gotten so many of their own stamp together that they held the Streight of Gibraltar as it were shut up and dar'd even attaque whole Fleets The Maloüins not able to endure these Robberies fitted out some Vessels to set upon them Captain Beaulieu their Commander having consider'd of the means to destroy the Year of our Lord 1608 whole force
the French and the Venetians joyned together 262 Returns from the hands of the Latins into that of the Greeks 309 Constantius Count and Patrician in Gall. 3 Crimes how punished amongst the ancient French Divers means to purge themselves thereof 49 Crimes they justified themselves by Combat Croisades and beyond-Sea Expeditions advantageous to Popes and Kings but disadvantageous to the great Lords and the People 224 First Croisade and their happy Exploits 224 25 Croisade preached over all Christendom 223 Croisade for the recovery of the Holy Land 260 Croisade against the Albigeois 264 Croisades affirming the Popes Authority 262 Croisade new of French Lords for the Holy Land 301 Croisade new by St. Lewis for succouring the Christians in the Levant 312 Croisades during the Thirteenth Age. 336 Cunibert Bishop of Colen 56 D. Dagobert Son of Clotaire the miraculous protection of his Person 45 Builds the Abby of St. Denis ib. His Father gives him the Kingdom of Austrasia 46 His Marriage quarrel between the Father and the Son ib. Dagobert I. of that name King of Neustria Austrasia and Burgundy 54 He gives part of Aquitain to his Brother Aribert 54 Too much licence in his Marriage ib. Remains sole King after the death of his Brother Aribert 55 Establishes his Son Sigebert King of Austrasia 56 Disposes of Neustria and Burgundy in favour of his Son Clovis ib. Subdues the Gascons and brings them to reason 57 His death ib. Dagobert Son of Sigebert King of Austrasia shaved and banish'd 60 Is recalled and acknowledged King of Austrasia 66 His death 68 Dagobert II. King of France 77 The Danes and Normands infest the Coasts of France 106 Continue their Piracies 211 St. Denis Areopagite his Corps found intire in the Monastery of St. Denis in France 233 Devotion and Piety admirable in our ancient Kings of France 73 St. Didier Bishop of Lyons suffers Martyrdom 43 Didier King of the Lombards conceives the design of abating the power of the Popes and making himself Master of Italy excites Troubles and Schisms in the Church of Rome 98 Causes of particular enmity between him and Charlemain 98 Is dispossest of his Estate 99 His death ib. Didier is elected King of the Romans after the death of Astolphus Anno 755. Differences between Hugh de Vermandois and Artold for the Archbishoprick of Reims 180 Difference between King Lotair and the Children of Hugh the Great 184 Dispensations their beginning 182 Dissentry horrible in France 34 Divorce of a Marriage the cause of great Troubles 243 Dol in Bretagne made a Metropolitan 134 Brought again under that of Tours 274 Dominion Example of an enraged passion for Dominion 296 Dominicans their Institution and Establishment 339 Dreux Bishop of Mets. 127 Drogo or Dreux Son of Pepin 72 Drogon Duke of Bretagne his death 184 Dutchy of Lorrain given to Godfrey Earl of Verdin Bouillon and Verdun 209 Dutchies of two sorts in France 183 Duel proposed to the King by his Subjects 235 E. Ebles Count of Auvergne and Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine 170 Ebles Baron de Roucy a famous Warrier humbled and brought to reason 227 Ebon Bishop of Reims deposed and degraded 128 Ebroin Maire of the Palace perfidious and wicked 62 69 Is shaved and confined to the Monastery of Luxieu 64 Quits the Monastery to take up Arms. 67 His retreat into Austrasia he there supposes a false Clovis in the place of King Thierry whom he feigns to be dead 67 Causes St. Leger to attaqu'd in his City of Autun puts his Eyes out and shuts him up in a Monastery ib. Is received Maire of Thierries Palace 68 Great Tyranny his death 69 Eclipse of the Sun 213 Ecclesiasticks go to Rome to visit the Holy Places 269 Edmund Brother of Edward King of England his death 326 Edward eldest Son of the King of England goes to make War in the Holy Land 312 Edward Son and Successor of Henry King of England 315 At his return from the Holy Land passes thorough France ib. Passes by Sea and comes to the City of Amiens 319 His Voyage to Burdeaux by France 322 Employs himself to accommodate the differences betwixt the Kingdoms of Arragon and Sicilia 323 A Riot between some particular People makes him break the Peace with France 324 325 Makes a powerful League against France 326 Attaques the Scots and brings them under his Laws 327 Marries with Margaret of France 330 Makes Peace with the King of France 331 His death 334 Edward Son of King Edward Marries Isabella of France 327 Edward II. King of England 332 His Contest with Charles the Fair King of France 351 Odious to his People by reason of his Favourites his unfortunate end 352 Ega Maire of the Palace of Neustria his death 58 Election and the Investiture of the Popes in the power of the Emperor Otho 186 Election of Popes 3â—6 Elections to Benefices 285 Emma Queen of France 168 Emma or Emina Wife of King Lothaire 198 Empire Rome when it ended 13 Empire troubled about the Election of an Emperor after the death of Henry VI. 259 Empire of Greece difference between Michael and Baldwin determined 318 Empire ruined by its dis-union Engelberge Wife of the Emperor Lew's of Italy 156 Enguerrand de Marigny his unhappy end 336 Enterprise of the Pope upon the Bishops of France 203 Enterview of the three Kings of France of Germany and of Burgundy 170 Enterview between Lewis Transmarine and Otho of Lorraine 180 Enterview of the Emperor Henry and King Robert 211 Enterview and Enterparlance of the Emperor Henry III. and Henry King of France 217 Enterview of the King of France Lewis the Young and the Emperor Federic 247 Enterview of the Kings of France and Arragon 308 Enterview of the two Kings of France and England in the City of Amiens 319 Enterview of the Kings of France and Castille at Bayonne 323 Enterview of the King of France and the Emperor at Vaucouleurs 328 Eon de L'Estoille His ignorance passes for a great Prophet is apprehended his death 291 Erchinoald Maire of the Palace 61 Era or manner of accompting of the times by the Mahometans 47 Estate of the Gallican Church after the Conversion of Lewis or Clovis the Great 50 The Fourth Age. 4 During the Fifth and Sixth Ages 17 The Seventh 73 The Eighth 112 The Ninth 170 The Tenth 205 The Eleventh Age or Century 228 Eudes Duke of Aquitaine 80 Makes a League with the Sarecens of Spain and draws them into France 81 c. His death 82 Eudes Count of Paris and Duke of France succeeds in the Estates of Hugh the Great his Brother 155 Is raised to his Dignity and declared King of West France 156 Defeats and cuts the Normans in pieces 157 Quarrel betwixt him and Charles the Simple 159 His death 160 Eudes first Earl of Champagne 203 Eudes Count de Pontieure 211 Eudes Son of King Robert Earl of Champagne disputes the Crown with Henry his Brother 214 Reduced to reason 215 Undertakes
upon the Kingdom of Burgundy and upon the Loire to his own confusion his death 217 Eudes or Otho Duke of Aquitain and Gascongne 221 Rebellion of his Subjects his death Eudes Earl of Corbeil 234 Eudes Duke of Burgundy 347 Eudon Earl of Pontieure seizes the Dutchy of Bretagne to the prejudice of Hoel 245 Eugenius II. elected Pope 124 Comes into France 127 Exarchat of Ravenna and its dependances 92 King Pepin makes a donation of it to the Apostle St. Peter and St. Paul not to the Emperor Constantine ib. Excommunications rendred despisable 270 Their force 290 Exemptions and Immunitles granted to Monasteries 271 Exemptions of Bishops were granted by the Diocesan but with the Consent of his Brethren ib. Exemptions of Monasteries by whom granted and the reasons 268 Expeditions beyond Seas 244 F. Faction strange 150 c. Famine great 〈◊〉 France 59 Famine horrible and cruel 213 Faramond or Pharamond first King of France 6 His death 7 Fastrade Queen of France her Marriage her death 105 c. Favourites of Princes cause of great troubles and uproars 333 Federic II. King of Sicilia is elected Emperor and repasses into Germany 265 Renews the Alliance between France and Germany 266 Federic II. cause of a Schism 272 Federic I. of the name called the Barbarossa Emperor 246 Federic I. Emperor his ambition put a stop by Pope Adrian uphold Victor against Alexander III. Pope 289 Upholds Calistus III. ib. Is unfortunate ib. Asks pardon of his Holines at Venice ib. Goes to the Holy Land 303 Shares his Empire amongst his Children his death 306 Federic Grandson of the Emperor of that name Duke of Austrasia 306 Federic Duke of Austria joyns with Couradin in the War of Sicily his unhappy end 311 Federic of Arragon takes the name of King of Sicily 325 Ferdinand of Castille called la Cerde his death 317 Ferrand of Portugal Earl of Flanders 266 Feast of Fools 293 Feasts or Festivals and of their Celebration 52 53 Feasts of Christmas and Easter Celebrated by the Kings of France with great solemnity 93 Fiefs and their Original 35 St. Filibert imprisoned 68 Financiers prosecuted 344 Financiers and Maloistiers call'd in question and punished 350 Flagellants 309 Flanders made a County 104 Given to William Duke of Normandy Son of Robert 238 Subject of a great feud ib. Divided 330 Revolts and is lost as to France ib. In trouble 351 Flochat Quarrel betwixt him and the Duke of Transjurains 59 Florence Republick in Troubles by reason of the Factions which torment it 330 Flota Peter a Man violent and covetous 329 Formosa Pope cause of a horrible scandal to the Roman Church 161 Forces Difference there was otherwhile betwixt those belonging to the King and those of the Kingdoâ—â— 238 Fulk Archbishop of Reims is assassinated and the Murtherer eaten up of Lice 162 Fulk le Roux or the Red Earl of Anjou his death 164 Fulk le Bon or the Good Earl of Anjou 164 His death 180 Fulk Earl of Anjou a Capital Enemy of the Bretons his death 184 Fulk le Rechin takes Beltrade for his third Wife 223 Fulk King of Jerusalem his death 243 Fulk Archbishop of Reims menaces his King to withdraw his Subjects 266 France and its first establishment in Gall. 20 Divided into Oosterich or Eastern part and Westrich or Western part 20 France the Western part without a Chief 155 Dismember'd in divers parts ib. France united preserves it self against the Authority of the Popes 287 Franciscans and Dominicans of their jealousies against each others and their Enterprises on the Functions of Ordinary Pastors 303 Their Quarrel with St. Amour Vide Quarrel Franciscans Religious their Institution and Establishment 339 French and their Original 2 Their incursions into Gall. ib. The French Nation divided into diverse People 3 Occupy a part of Germania Secunda 6 Their first Kings and of their inauguration ib. Chaced byond the Rhine by the Romans 7 French their Conversion to the Christian Religion 15 They snare the Lands of Gall amongst them to the Loire 17 Their Manners and Customs ib. Cross themselves and make an Expedition for the recovery of the Holy Land Their Conquests 260 c. Fredegonda causes Sigebert to be assassinated and her Husband Chilperic 32 c. She likewise causes Pretextat Archbishop of Rouen to be assassinated 38 Her death 41 Friers Minors or Cordeliers their institution 264 Friers Preachers or Jacobins their institution ib. Friers Preachers and Frier Minors and of their Enterprizes upon the Rights of the Ordinaries 339 Frisons and Neustrians attaque the Austrasians 79 G. Gaifre Duke of Aquitain his obstinacy not to acknowledge King Pepin chastized 93 c. His death 94 Ganelon and his fable 140 Gascogne divided into Dutchy and County its extent 121 Gascogne and Aquitania Secunda ransack'd and desolated by the Normands 142 Gascogne The House of Gascogne resolved into that of Poitiers or Aquitaine 209 Gascons make irruptions upon the French 35 Make themselves Masters of a part of the Novempopulania or Aquitania Tertia 42 Subdued by the French 56 Punish'd for their insolence 121 Reduced under a Duke of their own Nation 143 Brought to reason 209 Gaveston Favourite of the King of England 334 Gaul its situation 1 Conquer'd by Caesar ib. Divided by the Romans into divers Provinces and Governments ib. Its Towns and Cities 1 2 Of their Revolts 2 Part of it conquer'd by the Visigoths another part by the Burgundians and the remainder by the French 3 4 c. Gautier de Bevierre crosses himself for the Holy Land 260 Gauzzelin Abbot of St. Germain des Prez 145 Gedoin Abbot of St. Victor 276 Geffroy Plantagenest Earl of Anjou Marries the King of Englands Daughter 239 Quarrels with his Father in Law 240 Dispossessed in part of his Dutchy of Normandy ib. Geffroy Martel Earl of Anjou 216 Besieges and takes the City of Tours An Act of Piety ib. Geoffrey Martel quits the World and shuts himself up in a Monastery 217 Geoffrey the Bearded 217 Geoffrey Martel ib. Gefrey Brother of Henry King of England is made Earl of Nantes His death 247 Geffrey of Bretagne takes up Arms against the King of England his Father 250 Geffroy Duke of Normandy and Bretagne 249 His death 254 Gelasius is elected Pope 236 Is driven from Rome by the Emperor Henry V. and comes into France ib. Gelasius II. acknowledges the power of Councils 289 General of an Army The divisions betwixt Generals of Armies of a pernicious Consequence 40 Generosity admirable 165 Genseric King of the Vandals sacks the City of Rome 11 Gerfroy Grise-gonnelle Earl of Anjou his death 188 Gerfroy Duke or Earl of Bretagne his death 211 St. Gerard. 205 Gerard Bishop of Angoulesme acknowledges Anaclet for Pope 274 Subject of that acknowledgment ib. His death 275 Gerberge Queen of France endeavours to release her Husband of his Imprisonment 179 Governs the State under the King of Lotaire her Son 184 Gerbert elected Archbishop of Rheims very skilful in
the Mathematicks 203 Deposed 204 Gibellins in Italy 348 Giles Bishop of Rheims degraded of his Bishoprick and banished to Strasburgh 40 Gillon is elected King of France in the place of Childeric 12 Revolt of the French against him 13 Godfrey King of Denmark undertakes against the French 109 Descends into Frisia and pillages the Country ib. Godfrey of Buillon Head of the first Croisade to the Holy Land elected King of Jerusalem his glorious Exploits 224 c. His death Gondebaud King of Burgundy 15 Conquers the two Narbonnensi 16 The Armor between the Seine and the Loire unite with the French 15 Gondebaud calling himself Son of Clotaire comes from Constantinople into France to reap the Succession of his Father his unhappy end 35 38 Gondebaud a Monk employs himself for the deliverance of the Emperor Lewis the Debonnaire 126 Gondemar King of Burgundy 21 Gondioche King of the Burgundians his death and his Kingdom divided amongst his four Sons 13 Gontran King of Orleans and of Burgundy takes too much licence in his Marriage 29 Leagues himself with Chilperic against Sigebert their Brother 32 Adopts his Nephew Childebert and places him in his Throne 33 Seizes upon the Kingdom of Paris and a part of Neustria 37 Takes Fredegonda into his protection ib. Gontran King of Orleans makes War against the Visigoths in Languedoc 39 Effects of the inconstancy of the mind 40 His death ib. Gotelen Duke of Lorraine 221 Goths and their Country divided into Ostrogoths and Visigoths 2 Gregory II. Pope opposes the Emperor Leo stoutly in defence of Images 84 Gregory III. Excommunicates the Emperor Leo. Gregory VII menaces Philip King of France to Excommunicate him if he do not reform himself 221 Gregory VIII Antipope 272 Gregory IX Pope in contest with the Emperor Violent proceeding His death 301 Gregory X. Pope 315 Griffon Son of Charles Martel by his Brothers shut up in Chasteauneuf in Ardenne 84 Is set at liberty by Pepin his Brother 87 Grimoald Maire of the Palace of Austrasia 58 Causes the young King Dagobert to be shaved and sets his Son upon the Royal Throne 60 Grimoald Son of Pepin Espouses the Daughter of the King of Frisia 77 Assassinated and slain 78 Guelphes and Gibbelins two Factions in Italy 303 Girard de la Guette a Financier of Paris advanced to the Gallows 350 Guy Duke of Spoleta Emperour of Italy 156 Chaced out of Lombardy 160 His death ib. Guy of Burgundy dispoiled of those Lands he held in Normandy 2 6 Guy-Geofrey-William Duke of Aquitaine Re-conquers Saintonge then passes into Spain against the Saracens 220 His death 222 Guy Earl of Auvergne deprived of his Earldom 265 Guy Count de Saint Pol. 298 Guy Earl of Flanders vanquish'd and made Prisoner 308 Guy de Dampiere Earl of Flanders 322 Is held Prisoner at Paris with his Wife and Children 325 Guy Earl of Flanders is restored to his County Guy Brother to the Daufin of Vienne a Templer burnt alive 336 Guyemans a faithful Friend of King Childeric's 12 H. Hatred mortal between William of Normandy and Arnold Earl of Flanders 127 Hatred mortal of the Flemmings against the French its beginning 257 Hebert Count of Vermandois His death 162 Hebert Count of Meaux and of Troyes his death 178 Henry Duke of Friuly falls into the Country of the Huns. 105 Henry Duke of Saxony comes to the relief of Paris his death 155 Henry the Bird-Catcher King of Germany 165 His death 170 Henry II. called the Lame Emperour 208 Henry Duke of Burgundy his death 209 Henry Son of King Robert is Crowned and Associated by his Father 212 213 Henry King of France surmounts his Enemies 214 Chastises the Felony of the Sons of the Earl of Champagne his Nephews 216 Expedition of small effect in Normandy 217 He assists the Duke of Normandy against his rebel Subjects ib. Coldness between his Majesty and the Earl of Anjou ib. Divers Emparlances with the Emperor Henry III. 218 Second Expedition into Normandy unsucsessful Causes his eldest Son Philip to be Crowned 218 His death his Wife his Children 218 219 Henry IV. Emperor in contention with the Popes 209 Seized by his Son Henry his death ib. Henry V. Emperor in contention with the Popes Pascal II. and Galasius for the nomination to Bishopricks 223 Is Excommunicated ib. Reconciled to the Pope 234 Arms powerfully against France to his confusion ib. Henry King of England in contention with the King of France 234 235 Is obliged to make Peace with him 236 Renewing of the Quarrel ib. Loses his three Sons at Sea 237 Conspiracy of his Domestick Officers against his Person ib. Declares his Daughter Matilda Heiress of all his Estates In contention with his Son in Law the Earl of Anjou his death 240 Henry Duke of Normandy Espouses Alienor 246 Gets into possession of the Kingdom of England ib. Henry King of England becomes very powerful undertakes against Languedoc for the County of Tholoze 247 Makes War again upon the King of France 249 Arms his own Children against him ib. Accused of the Murther of the Archbishop of Canterbury 250 In debate with the King of France 254 Takes up the Croisade for the recovery of the Holy Land His death 255 Henry the Young takes up Arms against the King of England his Father 252 His death 253 Henry VI. Emperor 256 His death 259 Henry Earl of Champagne Generalissimo of the Christians in the Holy Land 257 His death 259 Henry IV. deprived of the Empire by his Son 272 His ill conduct ib. Henry V. Emperour the cause of a Schism 272 Forces the Pope to agree to what he pleases 273 Renounces the Investitures ib. His death ib. Henry VI. Emperour is Excommunicated 275 Henry pretended King of the Romans his death 304 Henry of Castille takes up Arms against Charles of Anjou King of Sicilia 311 Henry III. King of England comes into France and treats with the King for Normandy and other the Lands his Predecessors had been possessed of 310 Feud with the Barons of his Kingdom ib. His death 315 Henry the Fat King of Navarre 315 His death 317 Henry Count of Luxemburg is elected Emperor 334 Passes into Italy his death 335 Hermengarde Empress her death 123 Hermenegilde takes up Arms against the King of Spain her death 38 Peter the Hermit a Gentleman of Picardy 223 Hildebrand Popes Legat in France 229 Hildegarde Queen of France 102 Hilduin Bishop of Liege unsaithful to his Prince 205 Hinomar Bishop of Laon deposed and persecuted 142 Reabilitated 161 Hinomar Archbishop of Reims 139 His death 153 Hoel Son of the Duke of Bretagne Assassinated 184 Hoel Duke of Bretagne 221 Disputes the Dutchy of Bretagne against Eudes de Pontieure 244 Abandoned by the Nantois 247 Honorius II. Pope his death 239 Hugh Son of Valdrade 151 Hugh Bastard of Valdrade ib. Hugh the Great Tutor to Charles the Simple 155 Hugh King of Italy comes into France 168 Hated of his Subjects 170 Hugh le Blanc Earl of
Paris and Orleans and Duke of France 175 Hugh le Noir or the Black 176 Hugh the Great otherwise le Blanc i. e. the White makes a League with Hebet Earl of Vermandois against their King 176 His death his Children Hugh Capet Son of Hugh the Great 183 Earl of Paris and Orleans ib. Is made Duke of France 184 Elected and Crowned King of France 201 Why he would never put the Crown on his Head after his first Coronation 202 Of the State of the Kingdom of France at that time ib. He assocates his Son Robert to Reign with him 202 Sends his Son Charles and his Wife Prisoners 203 Re-unites the County of Paris and the Dutchy of France to the Crown ib. His death his Wives his Children 204 Hugh de Beauvais Favourite of King Robert 212 Hugh Son of King Robert Associated and Crowned by his Father His death 211 212 Hugh Earl of Vermandois chief of the second House of that name 218 Hugh Duke of Burgundy after the death of Duke Robert his Grandfather 221 Hugh de Saint Pol. 225 Hugh the Grand Brother to King Philip of France chief of the first and second Croisade his death 224 225 Hugh de Crecy 235 c. Hugh III. Duke of Burgundy his death 237 Hugh Count de la Marche is constrained to render Homage to the Earl of Poitou 303 Hugh Abbot of Clugny receives the Ornaments of a Bishop 284 Humbert with the White Hands Earl of Maurienne and of Savoy chief of the Royal House of Savoy 215 Humond Father of Gaifre resumes the Title of Duke of Aquitaine to his confusion 302 Huns make War upon the French 312 Huns Avari in Civil War I. James the Great of Arragon and the finding his Corps about the beginning of the Ninth Age. 114 James King of Arragon 312 James King of Majoraca and Minorca 320 Jane Countess of Flanders 304 Jane of Burgundy 324 Jane Queen of France Heiress of Navarre builds and founds the Colledge of Navarre at Paris 331 Her death ib. Jane of Burgundy 345 Jerusalem Kingdom its end 254 Images and the manner of Worshipping them in France 172 Imbert de Beaujeau commands the Kings Army against the Albigensis 238 Imposts excessive stir up the People to Rebellion makes them lose the respect and love they owe to their Prince 330 Indulgence general otherwise called Jubilee its institution 328 Ingonde Daughter of King Sigebert Espouses Hermenigilde Son of the King of Spain Leuvigilde 38 Her death ib. Ingratitude of Wenilon or Ganelon Archbishop of Sens. 138 Innocency justified by Combat 46 Innocent II. Pope makes War against the Duke of Puglia and is made Prisoner 240 Thwarted by an Antipope he takes refuge in France ib. He Excommunicates the King of France and puts his Kingdom under Interdiction 243 Innocent III. Pope puts the Kingdom under Interdiction 264 He Excommunicates Raimond Earl of Toloze 266 Owns the Authority of the Council and that a Pope may be deposed ib. Innocent IV. Pope takes refuge in France 303 Inquisition established in Saxony 108 Who first exercised it 264 Intendants of Justice or Law 117 Interdict pronounced against England 264 Interdict pronounced against France 259 Interest every thing yields to it amongst the great ones 302 Investitures of Benefices 236 Jourdain de l'Isle in Aquitain hanged on a Gibbet at Paris 351 Irene Empress chaced by Nicephorus 107 Isaac Angelo Emperor of the East deprived of the Empire of sight and of liberty 261 Isabella Widow of John King of England 302 Isabella of Tholoza her death 316 Isabella of France Married to Thibauld King of Navarre Her death ib. Isabella of France 327 Isabella Queen of England passes into France 351 Sent away from Court she retires again into France ib. At her return into England she revenges her self of her Husband by a most horrible treatment Afterwards chastised her self in her turn 352 Isemburge of Denmark Wife of King Philip Augustus repudiated by her Husband 277 c. Italy become a Kingdom 13 In trouble 134 Is horribly rent by the Guelfs and the Gibbelins 303 Italians inconstant 168 Judicael in Bretagne 157 Judith Daughter of Charles the Bald stolen by the Earl of Flanders 140 Judith second Wife of Lewis the Debonaire 129 Suspected and even accused of impurity 130 Ives Bishop of Chastres a great defender of the Discipline of the Canons 223 Justice exercised by such as made profession of bearing Arms under the Kings of the first Race 48 Punishment of Crimes and divers means to purge themselves of several Crimes 48 49 Justification by cold Water by hot Water and by Fire ib. L. St. Lambert Bishop of Liege Divine punishment of his Murtherer 72 Lambert Earl of Nantes 134 Lambert Son of Guy Crowned Emperor in Italy 160 Landry Maire of the Palace 41 Language natural of the first Frenchmen 50 Lasciviousness of a Prince cause of great evils 30 c. Latilli Peter Bishop of Chalons and Chancellor of France put out of his Office and imprisoned 344 Launoy John Viceroy of Navarre 323 Lauria Roger Admiral 320 Legats sent into France 230 Leger Saint Bishop of Autun Persecuted and confined in the Monastery of Luxeu 65 Re-established in his Episcopal See ib. His Eyes put out the Soles of his Feet cut away and his Lips then shut up in a Monastery 67 68 His death ib. Leo IV. Pope his death 138 Leo Emperor disputes the Worship of Images and will have them taken out of the Churches 84 Leo elected Pope 105 Ill treated at Rome has recourse to Charlemain and comes to him 105 c. Makes another Voyage into France 108 Leo Pope acts of severity his death 121 Leo VIII elected Pope in the place of John the XII 185 His death 186 Leo IX Pope comes into France and holds a Council at Reims 217 Is made Prisoner by the Normands of Italy 218 Leo Isauric Excommunicated 266 Letters of Exemption false counterfeited by certain Monks 290 Leudesia Maire of the Palace 67 Levies of Moneys of three sorts 111 Leutard an Heretick his unhappy end 228 Levigildus King of Spain causes his Son Hermenigilde to be strangled 38 His death ib. Lezignan Guy 257 Liturgy or Mass according to the Church of Rome brought into France 102 Locusts in a prodigious quantity 144 Lombards pass into Italy and establish a Kingdom 29 Descend into Provence and the Kingdom of Burgundy to their own confusion 30 Will have no more Kings and commit the Government to thirty Dukes 31 Restore Kingly Government 36 Lombards reduced to reason 186 Lorraine parted in two 143 Given to the Kings of Germany 149 The Soveraignty of that Kingdom remains in Lothaire King of France 188 Lothaire eldest Son of Lewis the Debonaire is made King of Italy and associated in the Empire 122 Lothaire King of Italy His Marriage with Hermengarde 123 Is Crowned Emperor by the Pope ib. Lothaire King of Italy seizes on the Empire of his Father and shuts him up in St. Medard at Soissons then
Rapes The Emperors Daughter taken away 136 Rebellion of the Sorabes 121 Of the Gascons ib. Of the Bretons 124 Rebellion of Children against their Father punished 144 Rebellion of the Earl of Poitou and Duke of Aquitain 184 Rebellion punished 211 Rebellion of the Aquitains against their Duke 216 Rebellion of the Children of the King of England 250 Reconciliation of the two Brothers Lewis and Charles and their Nephew Lotaire 140 Reformation of Monasteries and Religious Houses 205 Regency of a Woman causes great troubles in the Kingdom 298 Regency of the Kingdom without a King 345 Reliques of St. Denis and his Companions 45 Reliques of Saints carried for Ensigns of War 216 Remistang hanged 94 Remond Count of Tolouse 224 Renauld de Dampmartin 259 Renauld Earl of Boulogne suspected of Intelligence with the English refuses to obey the King 266 Reputation of Isemburge of Denmark by King Philip Augustus 257 Of Havoise of Glocester by King John without Land 261 Retreat of many great Persons into the Monasteries 112 Revolt of Verdun 15 Of Auvergne against their King Thierry 22 Revolt of the Saxons chastised 46 Revolt of the Visigoths in Septimania 65 Revolt of the Turingians the Frisons the Saxons and the Almans who shook off the Yoak of the French 71 The same the Aquitanians and the Gascons ib. Revolt of the Frisons 72 Revolt of Aquitaine 95 Of the Saxons 98 Revolt of the Gascons chastised 107 Of the Duke of Benevent 108 Revolt of Panonia inferior 123 Revolt in Aquitaine 158 Revolt of the Neustrians against their King 177 Of the Normans against their young Duke Richard 178 Revolt in Lombardy 186 Revolt of a Son against his Father 227 Revolt and rising of the Flemings against their Count. 299 Revolt of the Romans against Pope Eugenius 244 Revolt of the Marseillois against the Earl of Provence attended with a long War 300 Revolt and general conspiracy of all Sicilia against the French 319 Reims otherwhile Metropolis of Liege Church of the Twelfth Age. Richard Duke of Normandy 178 Taken away by King Lewis the Transmarine is industriously saved both he and his Dutchess 178 Richard Duke of Normandy in War with the Earl of Chartres 187 Richard without Fear Duke of Normandy his death 204 Richard I. Duke of Normandy his death 208 Richard II. called the Good Duke of Normandy his death 212 Richard III. Duke of Normandy 212 His death 213 Richard Duke of Aquitaine betrothed to Alix of France 250 Richard Duke of Aquitaine takes Arms against the King of England his Father ib. Richard Earl of Poitou refuses his Homage to the King for his County of Poitou 254 Richard Earl of Poitou He quarrels for the County of Tolose and strives to invade it by force of Arms. 255 Falls out with the King of England his Father ib. Richard King of England before Earl of Poitou 256 He accompanies the King of France in his Expedition to the Holy Land ib. Great mis-understanding happens betwixt these two Princes ib. His admirable progress in his Voyage 257 Quits the Holy Land to return to his own Kingdom and is taken Prisoner in Germany ib. Had great Wars with the French 258 His death 259 Richard Brother of Henry King of England lands at Bourdeaux with a potent Army 296 Richard pretended King of the Romans 309 His death 315 Richilda Wife of Charles the Bald is Crowned by the Pope 145 Richilda Countess of Flanders 221 Robert the Strong or the Valiant the Stock of the Capetine Race 140 His death his Children 142 Robert elected and Crowned King of France to the prejudice of Charles the Simple 165 His death ib. Robert Earl of Troyes and of Chaalons 184 Robert I. Duke of Burgundy Chief of the first Race of the Dukes of Burgundy 214 His death 215 Robert called the Frison Earl of Flanders his death 221 Robert King of France 202 He Marries Lutgarde for his first Wife and for his second Bertha Sister of Rodolph the idle King of Burgundy 202 209 Excommunicated by the Pope because of his second Marriage 209 Recovers by the Sword the Dutchy of Burgundy which Otho-Guilliame had usurped ib. Marries for his third Wife Constance Blanche 210 Addicts himself wholly to works of Piety ib. Causes his Son Hugh to be Crown'd 211 Re-joyns the County of Sens to his Domaine ib. Admirable patience 212 Act of Bounty or Goodness more then Royal. ib. He refuses the Kingdom of Italy for his Son ib. Causes his Son Henry to be Crowned after the death of his Son Hugh ib. Institutes by his Authority a Bishop at Langres 213 His death and his Children ib. Robert becomes Duke of Normandy by a fratricide 212 Assists King Henry against his Enemies 215 Constrains the Bretons to do him Homage ib. His death ib. Robert Guischard a Normand Conquers Calabria 218 Robert called of Jerusalem Earl of Flanders 222 Robert Duke of Normandy ib. One of the Chiefs of the first Croisade 224 At his return from the Holy Land he demands the Kingdom of England of Henry his Brother who had seized it during his absence his death 227 Robert Earl of Flanders his death 235 Robert Earl of Auvergne tyrannizes the Bishop of Clairmont is reduced to reason by the King 238 Robert Son of King Lewis the Gross chief of the House of Dreux 241 Robert Earl of Dreux 299 Robert Earl of Glocester 243 Robert Earl of Artois chief of the Branch of that name 297 Accompanies King Lewis in his Voyage to the Holy Land 304 His death 305 Robert II. Earl of Flanders 312 Robert Earl of Clairmont in Beauvaisis Original of the Branch of Bourbon 313 Robert Earl of Artois 315 Commands an Army for the King in Navarre 318 Robert Earl of Artois makes War in Flanders 327 Robert Earl of Flanders 335 Robert de Bethune Earl of Flanders breaks the Truce 348 Rochefort Guy makes War upon his King 234 Rochel taken from the English 296 Rodolph or Ralph King of Burgundy Transjurane and Arles his death 214 Rodolf his Election to the Empire confirm'd 316 Rodolf Rufus elected Emperor Rodolfe Emperor his death 324 Roger Duke of the Normands of Italy passes from thence into Sicilia against the Saracens and makes himself Master of all the Island 221 Roger Earl of Foix. 315 Roger Duke of Pouille or Puglia Crossed by the Pope who makes War upon him 239 The first King of Sicilia 241 Roger I. King of Sicilia his death 246 Roger de Lauria a famous Captain 331 Roger de Mortimer 352 Roger Earl of Alby favours the Albigensis 278 Rollo Rol or Rodolf Chief of the Normands makes himself Master of part of Lyonnois 164 First Duke of Normandy his Conversion to Christianity and his Marriage ib. His death ib. Romain Cardinal Legat Favourite of Queen Blaâ—ch of Castille 140 Rome rebelleth against the Pope 272 Rotrou du Perche 224 Rousselin his Heresies 276 Routiers a sort of Soldiers 248 Routiers Bandits and Robbers favour the Hereticks 249 S. Sacramentaries Hereticks
of Bretagne though promised in Marriage to the Arch-Duke Maximilian she afterwards espouses the King of France 515 Anne Queen of France Wife of Lewis XII her death 554 Anne of Bolen Marries the King of England Henry VIII 591 Beheaded 605 d'Annebaut Mareschal of France 607 d'Annebaut Admiral goes to seek out the English upon their own Coasts 619 Anthony Duke of Brabant 420 Anthony Duke of Lorraine his death and his Children 618 Anthony de Bourbon King of Navarre 642 d'Aramon Ambassador of France to the Great Solyman Sultan of the Turks 629 Archambaud de Grailli Captal de Buch gets into possession of the County of Foix by the Sword 418 d'Armagnac the Count shamefully treated by the Count de Foix. 394 Passes into Lombardy against the Vicount John Galeas 413 Renders himself absolute in the Government of the Kingdom 433 Is held Prisoner at Paris 435 Those of his Faction pillaged and ill treated is restored to his Goods and Offices 494 His death ib. c. d'Armagnac James Duke of Nemours Beheaded 500 d'Armagnac the Bastard 484 Arming a dreadful Navy prepared against England without Success 409 Army Naval against the English 619 Arnaud de Corbie Connestable 428 d'Arras the Cardinal Commands the Kings Army 495 d'Ars Lewis a brave Soldier 541 Artewelle James dextrous undertaking and politick 362 His unhappy end 365 Assembly of the Clergy upon the complaint of the Kings Judges 358 Another at Paris for the defence of Pope John XXII 359 Assembly of the Estates general of France 379 Assembly of the Notables at Paris 428 Assembly of the Notables at Orleans 434 Assembly of the Grandees of the Kingdom at Tours 483 Assembly of the Estates general at Tours against Monsieur the Kings only Brother and against the Duke of Bretagne 489 Assembly of the three Estates upon the Subject of the deliverance of the Children of France Prisoners in Spain 587 Assembly of Ausburgh 593 Avarice of the Captains and Chief Commanders of the Army 's 565 d'Auberticourt Captain Ravages Picardy 379 d'Aubigni 518 c. Commands the Army of King Lewis XII in the Conquest of the Kingdom of Navarre 536 Avignon rendred to the Pope 367 d'Aumale Duke commanded to punish the Seditious in Guienne 627 Austria Erected to an Arch-Dutchy 513 B BAjazeth defeates the Christians in Hungary 417 Is himself defeated and taken Prisoner by Tamberland ib. c. John Baillet Treasurer of France Massacred 377 Balue the Cardinal Legate in France insolent arrogance 491 Betrayes King Lewis XI ib. Is held Prisoner Banquiers and Datary of the Court of Rome great abuses 629 Bar de Philip goes into Hungary against the Turks 418 His death 433 Barbazan a great Captain 453 Barbarossa falls upon the Island of Corfu and destroys the open Country 606 Comes upon the Coasts of Provence 615 Battle famous of Mont-castle in Flanders 358 Battle of Caen. 366 371 Battle of Poitiers between the French and the English glorious to the latter 374 Battle of Brignais 381 Battle of Azincourt 432 Battle of Varnes in Hungary 460 Battle of Fourmigni 463 Battle of Montleherry betwixt King Lewis XI and the Count de Charolois 485 Battle of Granson between the Burgundians and the Swiss 499 Battle of Montguion in Burgundy 501 Battle of Fornoue 522 Battle of Seminare in Calabria between the French and the Spaniards 538 Battle of Aignadel 545 Battle of Orange in Bretagne 513 Battle of Cerignoles in Puglia between the French and the Spaniards 538 Battle of Ravenna 550 Battle of Novarre 553 Battle of Guinegaste ib. Battle of Saint Quintins otherwise of Saint Laurence fatal to France 647 Battle of Mulberg where the Protestant Princes of Germany were vanquished 625 Battle of Cerizolles to the advantage of the French 616 Battle of Marcian to the disadvantage of the French 639 Bavaria Lewis Emperour treats the Pope ill his ill Conduct 359 Robert of Bavaria and Count Palatine is elected Palatine 418 Beauvais Besieged by the Duke of Burgundy and generously defended by the Women as well as by the Men. 494 Belgrade gained by the Turks 572 Bennet XII Pope 361 His Death 364 Bennet XIII Pope of Avignon 424 His Death 432 Betford or Bedford Duke Regent of the Kingdom of France 440 Blois Charles de vanquished in the Battle of Auvray loses the Day the Dutchy and his Life 385 Boniface IX elected Pope of Avignon 414 Caesar Borgia Duke of Valentinois Marries Charlote d'Albret 533 His unhappy End 541 Bourbon James Earl de la Marche 381 Bourgogne Dutchy united inseparably to the Crown ib. The said re-union annulled in favour of Philip the Hardy to whom the said Dutchy was given 382 The E. of Buckingham Lands at Calais with a Potent Army and Marches into Bretagne 402 John II. Duke of Bretagne without Children provides for the Preservation of the Dutchy 361 Bretagne in great Trouble after the Death of Duke John II. 363 c. Subjected to the Obedience of the King 392 In Troubles 511 United to the Crown 594 Bretons disjoyn from the French and recall their Duke refugiated in England 397 Contend with each other about the Marriage of their Princess Anne 514 Brunswick Duke Henry elected Emperour 418 Bull of Pope Julius exposing the Kingdom of Navarre as a Prey to the first Occupier 544 Bull Golden Bull. 373 Bureau de la Riuiere favorite of Charles VI. Bures Governor for the King beyond the Alpes 572 Bussy d'Amboise slain in the Battle of Marignan 559 C CAen the Castle taken and retaken in one Night 373 Calais besieged in vain upon the English 456 Calvin his Birth and the establishment of his Sect. 597 Cambray taken by Intelligence with the Emperour 551 Captains and Generals of Armies The Checks they receive is many times caused by the malice of those who are of the King's Councils 450 Cardinals in great Numbers in France 625 Cartels or Challenges of Defiance between the Kings of England and France to the Emperour 588 Castille falls under the Dominion of Philip Archduke of Austria 542 Chairadin Barbarossa ravages the Coasts of Naples and Sicilia 600 Is beaten by Sea and Land by the Emperour Charles V. ib. Charles of Bohemia elected Emperour 367 Charles King of Navarre being discontented retires from Court 372 Charles IV. Emperour Crowned in Rome 373 Charles V. Surnamed the Wise King of France 384 Makes a memorable Ordonance for the Majority of Kings at Fourteen years 393 His Death and his Elogy 398 His Wife and his Children 399 Charles the Wicked King of Navarre his unhappy end 410 Charles the Noble King of Navarre ib. Charles VI. King of France 400 His Death 441 Charles VII King of France his Coronation 447 A strange Accident which hapned to him ibid. His Death and his Children 467 468. Charles VIII King of France his Marriage with Margaret of Burgundy 504 Declared Major at Fourteen years his Coronation 508 His Triumphant Entry into Rome 520 His Death 525 Of Saint Charlemaine 529 Charles the Fifth formerly Charles
of Austria Emperour comes from Spain into the Low-Countries is Crowned at Aix la Chapelle 564 His Cession and Renunciation of the Empire and his retreat into a Convent 645 Charlotta Queen of Cyprus her Death 512 Charles Bastard Brother to the King of Navarre 589 Charles Duke of Savoy not well looked upon by the King Francis I. 599 Besieges the City of Geneva without Success ib. His Death 636 Charles Duke of Lorraine Son of Francis is brought to the Court of France 646 Count Charolois out of favour with Lewis XI 481 482 483. Joyns with the other Princes and discontented Party and takes the Field 484 c. Makes an Alliance with the English by marrying his Sister Margaret 486 Goes against the Liegeois and chastises the insolence of those of Dinant 488 Chastillon made Prisoner by the English 388 389 Chaumont Governor of the Milanois chaces the Venetians from the Territories of Ferrara 547 Chastisement of Robels after a most noble and royal manner 612 613 Cherifs and the beginning of their Reign 551 Christiern III. King of Denmark 607 Christopher Columbus discovers the New World 516 517 Claude of France Marries Francis I. then Duke of Valois 555 Clement V. Pope 441 Clement VI. Pope 364 His Death 372 Clement VII his Election to the prejudice of Vrban VI. the Cause of a Schism in the Church 396 His Death Coligny Admiral of France 645 Combat of Birds in the Air the one against the other 513 Combat or Battle of Renty between the Emperour Charles V. and Henry II. 638 Combat Naval 642 Combat bloody betwixt Birds of all sorts of Species 426 Comets of an extraordinary magnitude 494 Comines quits the Duke of Burgundy ib. Is taken Prisoner 511 Cominges County United to the Church 458 County otherwhile preferred to that of Dutchy 434 Council of Trent assigned by Pope Paul III. who sends his Legates thither 613 Councel of Eighteen Persons established 485 Councel a Prince that will have sincere Advice ought to hide his own Sentiments 545 Constantinople taken by force by the Turks 465 Michael Corbier a Monk Antipope 359 Courtray Pillaged Burnt and Sacked by the French 406 Creation of a Chamber in each Parliament 357 Croisade in England against the Clementines 407 Crosses appear in the Air and on their Clothes 536 de Crouy Count de Reux ravages the Frontiers of Picardy 606 D Oliver DAin Barber to Lewis XI punished with Death 508 Dampierre Admiral his Death 433 Daufin of France Commands an Army in Roussillon 612 Daufine United and incorporated to the Crown of France 369 David King of Scotland driven from his Kingdom 360 His Death 391 Diepe Escalado'd by the French 455 Difference and Quarrel between the Pope and the Emperour 359 Difference between France and Austria 516 Difference quarrel between the French and the Arragonians for the Limits of the Partage of the Kingdom of Naples 537 Difference and quarrel raised at Venice between the French and Spaniards for Precedency 652 And Doria General of the French Galleys 587 Quits the King's Service and goes into the Emperour's 588 589 Chaces the French out of Genoa 590 Dragut a famous Corsaire or Pyrate gives chace to Andr. Doria's Galleys 634 Joyns the Galleys of France on the Coasts of Tuscany 639 Charles Prince of Duras 368 Most dexterously ruines the Duke of Anjou's Army and remains quietly in Possession of the Kingdom of Sicilia 408 Is Crowned King of Sicilia and Besieges Queen Jane in Naples Usurps Hungary his Death 409 E EClipses 616 Edict of Chasteau-Brian for a search after the Religionaries 631 Edward III. King of England Marries the Daughter of the Earl of Hainault 357 Renounces to the Crown of France ib. 380 Renders Homage to the King of France 358 Declares War against him 361 Recommences War with France 365 Lands in the Lower Normandy comes and defies King Philip de Valois to Fight him under the Walls of Paris and from thence retires to his County of Ponthieu 366 Defeats the French in the Battle of Crecy ibid. Besieges and takes Calais 367 Lands at Calais with a dreadful Army 379 Makes a Peace with France and with Flanders 380 Is defied by the King of France who denounces War against him 388 His Death and his Children 394 Edward Earl of Savoy his Death 358 Edward Son of John Baliol King of Scotland 360 Edward Duke of York Crowned King of England 467 Edward of York King of England utterly forsaken by the English flies into Flanders to the Duke of Burgundy 492 Returns into England and recovers the Throne 493 Lands at Calais 496 Accommodation with France 497 His Death 509 Eleonor Queen of France procures an Enterview between the Emperour and the King 608 Elizabeth Queen of England 651 Openly embraces the Protestant Religion ib. Emmanuel Emperour of Greece comes into France 419 Emmanuel Philibert Duke of Savoy Commands the Imperial Army in the Low-Countries 635 Empire of the East its end 465 C. d'Enguien gives Battle to the Imperialists and gloriously gains the Victory 616 Enterprise of the French upon Genoa very shameful 522 Enterview of the Kings of France and England Charles and Richard 413 Enterview of the King of France and Castille 482 Enterview of the Kings of Fr. Engl. 497 Enterview of the Kings of France and of Arragon 544 Eugenius IV. Pope 454 d'Eureux John in Bretagne 394 Expedition of the French and the Venetians against the Turks without Success 536 F FAction very pernicious in Paris 377 Famine and Plague 393 Federic utterly dispoiled of his Kingdom of Naples takes refuge in France 536 His Death 542 Felix lays down his Papacy in favour of Pope Nicholas 461 Ferdinand otherwise Ferrand Bastard of Alphonso of Arragon King of Naples 518 His Death ib. Ferdinand and Isabella conquer the Kingdom of Granada 516 League themselves with the Venetians and the Pope against the French 521 Surnamed in Raillery John Gipon makes Inroads upon the French 525 Usurps Navarre 551 Shares the Conquests of the Kingdom of Naples with the King of France 536 Drives out the French and makes himself Master of all 538 c. Makes a Peace with King Lewis XII 542 Receives from the Pope the investiture of the Kingdom of Naples 554 His Death 560 Ferdinand Son of Alphonso King of Naples abandons his Kingdom 520 Restored by means of the Italian Confederate Princes 521 His Death 525 Ferdinand Brother of Charles V. elected King of Hungary 584 Elected King of the Romans 593 Emperour 652 Ferdinand King of Hungary defeated of his Armies by the Turks 606 Flemmings abandon the French and acknowledge Edward of England for their King 362 Flanders over-run and ravaged by the English 397 In great Troubles split into divers Factions 403 Florence troubled by the two Factions of the Passy and the Medecis 501 Cast off the yoak of the Medicis and return to their popular State 586 Reduced under the Dominion of the Medicis 562 De Foix Gaston General of the King's
Armies beyond the Alpes his noble Exploits and glorious Death 550 Francis I. King of France heretofore Duke of Valois 556 Seeks the Alliance and Amity of his Neighbour Princes 527 Passes the Mountains for recovering the Milanois his happy Progress 558 c. Renews the Alliance with Charles of Austria 562 Birth of a Daufin ib. Renews the Alliance also with the English 563 Aspires to the Empire after the Death of Maximilian ib. Is hurt with Jeasting and Sporting 566 Sends an Army into Italy 569 Spaniards enter upon Guienne the English into Picardy 572 575 Drives the Imperialists out of Provence pursues them into Italy and lays Siege to Pavia 578 Is made Prisoner of War before Pavia and transferr'd to Spain 579 Is set at Liberty 582 Unites Bretagne to the Crown 594 Makes an Alliance with Solyman against the Emperour and the Venetians 606 Gives passage thorow France to the Emperour Charles V. to go into Flanders and does him all the Honour imaginable 608 Demands reparation of him for the Murther of two of his Ambassadors declares War against him and does attaque him in five several places 612 Carries his greatest Forces towards the Low-Countries and makes a considerable Progress there 614 Attaques the English in his own Country 619 Joyns in league with the Protestant Princes of Germany 620 His Death his Elogie his Wives and his Children 620 621 G GAbelle taken off from Guienne 640 Galeas John his Death 518 Gaunt Revolt and rising the Gantois 465 Gaston Phebus Earl of Foix makes the King his Heir 373 His Death 413 Gaucourt Lewis Prisoner of War 448 Governor of Daufiné beats the Duke of Savoy and the Prince of Savoy 452 Gentdarmerie reduced all into Companies d'Ordonance 457 Genoa puts its self under the Obedience of the King of France 416 Falls under the Dominion of Fregosa 460 Revolts against the King of France who brings them to reason 543 Is surprized by the Italians 572 Brought again to obey the King 587 Restored to Liberty 590 Geneva Revolt drives out their Bishop and changes their Government and Religion 599 Besieged in vain by the Duke of Savoy ib. Genoese relieved by the French against the Barbarians of Tunis 412 Revolt against France 551 Restored to obedience of the King 552 Gentlemen Pensioners of the King 501 Gonsalvo Ferdinand Great Captain 523 Federic de Gonzague first Duke of Mantoua 580 Ferdinand de Gonzague Governor of Milan 623 Gravelle Chancellour of the Empire 600 Gregory XI Pope restored to the See of Rome 394 His Death 396 Gregory XII Pope of Rome 422 Grignan Governor of Provence 618 The M. du Guast Governor of the Milanese for the Emperour 604 Defeated in Battle makes his Escape to Milan 616 Causes two Ambassadors of France to be killed 612 Guerin Kings Attorney in the Parliament of Provence 629 Gueschin Bertrand defeats the Navarrois 384 Made Prisoner in the Battle of Auroy 385 Brings from Spain the Bastard Henry de Castille against King Peter the Cruel his Brother 387 After is vanquish'd and taken Prisoner ibid. Is recalled from Spain by K. Charles 390 Is made Connestable of France his happy Progress 391 Secures all Bretagne for the King of France 392 His Death 397 c. Guienne is all regained by the French from the English 463 Gueldres Adolf Chief of the Gantois Forces 500 501 Guise the Duke Commands the King's Army in Italy 643 c. Guise Claude Duke at the Battle of Marignan 558 The C. de Guise Governor of Champagne repels the Germans 575 The D. of Guise refreshes with Men and Ammunition the City of Peronne 604 de Gyac 437 Beheaded 450 H. HAbits and their Reformation 386 Hangest de Hugueville 427 Harcourt Geffrey calls the English into Normandy 374 Harcourt Lewis Count Beheaded ib. Harfleur taken by Assault and Sacked by the English 418 Henry of Castille rises against King Henry his Brother to his Confusion 386 Denies his Brother in his turn and seizes on the Crown 387 Defeated again in Battle retires into France ib. He returns into Spain and remains King of Castille by the Death of his Brother 388 Henry of Castille defeats the English in a Sea Fight 391 Henry IV. King of England his Death 431 Henry V. King of England he Besieges and takes Rouen and Masters all Normandy 435 c. Marries Catherine of France 439 His Entry and his Coronation in Paris 440. ib. His Death ib. Henry VI. is Proclaimed and Crowned King of France 454 Marries the Daughter of Renee of Anjou 459 Causes Humphrey Earl of Glocester to be put to Death 460 Is vanquish'd by the Duke of York saves himself in Scotland 467 Is set at Liberty 492 Henry VII King of England His Death 547 Henry VIII King of England sees King Francis I. and they make a League betwixt them 594 Causes his Marriage with Catherine of Arragon to be dissolved and Espouses Anne of Boulen 595 Withdraws himself wholly from the obedience of the Pope and declares himself Head of the Church of England 596 Sollicites the French in vain to break with the Pope 597 His Cruelties draw the hatred of his Subjects upon him 611 Henry II. King of France 622 Seeks the Preservation of the Alliance with the Turks 625 Visits the Provinces of his Kingdom 626 Rupture between his Majesty and Pope Julius III. 630 c. Sollicites Solyman to break the Truce in Hungary ib. Quarrels openly with the Emperor 631 Makes a League with the Princes of Germany 632 Makes divers Edicts to procure and raise Money even on the Churches 632 Seizes upon Lorrain and gets the Cities of Mets Toul and Verdun ib. Takes divers places in Luxemburgh 633 Design against Naples miscarries 634 Great arming to small purpose 636 Ravages Brabant Hainault Cambresis the Country of Namur and Artois 638 Makes Peace with the Spaniard 651 Pursues the Religionaries most curelly 653 His Death and his Children 654 Heresies which appeared during the Fourteenth Age. 445 And infected France in the Fifteenth 527 Hesdin forced demolished and razed by the Imperialists 637 Hesse Landgrave takes the quarrel of the Dukes of Wittemburgh Hungary attaqued and desolated by the Turks 597 Humbert Daufin of Viennois makes a Donation of his Seignory of Daufiné to the King of France 369 Humieres Governor for the King beyond the Mountains 606 John Huss burnt alive 435 I JAcqueline Countess of Hainault Holland Zealand and Frizeland is carried away by the English 440 La Jacquerie 378 La Jaille beaten in Artois 642 Jane Queen of Sicily causes her Husband to be Strangled 368 Jane of Burgundy Queen of France her Death 369 Jane or Joan Queen of Naples dethroned by Charles de Duraz. 404 Her Death ibid. Jane or Joan II. Queen of Naples 431 Jane or Joan the Pucelle Chaces the English from before Orleans 451 Carries the King to Reims to be Crowned 451 Her other Exploits 452 c. She is taken Prisoner of War at the Siege of Compiegne by the English her Death
Year 800 beginning the Year on the First day of January but Year of our Lord 800 801 if we account Christmass Day the first of the New Year as the French Authors of those Times are wont to do After the Ceremony the Pope adored the New Emperour that is to say Kneeled down before him and acknowledged him for his Soveraign and caused his Portraiture to be exposed in publique that so all the Romans might pay him the same respect If we give credit to some of the Annalists of those Times he did not seek for this honour and the Pope surprized him when he besought him to accept of this Title And indeed it was so far from bringing him any advantage that it made him now hold that only by the Election of the Romans which he before held by the power of his Sword By this means the West had an Emperour again but one that had no connexion now with that in the East as formerly it had Year of our Lord 801 As the New Emperour was returning into France being at Spoleta there was a furious Earth-quake accompanied with horrible Noise which shook the Country thereabouts Neither was France and Germany free from it But Italy felt it most a great number of Cities being thrown down and destroy'd and this Prodigy was followed with Furious Tempests and afterwards with divers Contagious Maladies This Year Charles made no Military Expedition but his Son Lewis made himself Famous by the taking of Barcelona Year of our Lord 801 When the petty Saracen Princes upon the Frontiers of Spain feared they should be oppressed by the King of Cordoüa who was Generalissimo of Spain they made an Alliance with the French but the danger once past they fell again to their wonted Treachery Zad Prince of Barcelona studying some Treason against the French was nevertheless so imprudent thinking the better to conceal his Design as to come to King Lewis at Narbonna who caused him to be seized The Saracens Elected one Hamar of his Kindred in his room resolved to defend themselves to the uttermost Whilst this hapned the Gascons revolted because Lewis had set up at Fesensac a Count they were not pleased with After he had severely chastiz'd them he undertakes the Siege of Barcelona The King of Cordoüa takes the Field to Relieve it but being informed there was a Body of an Army to hinder his passage he bends his Forces against the Asturians The besieged after a Twelve-months resistance surrendred themselves up to Lewis who came himself to hasten forwards the Attaques he settled a Count in it named Bera who is said to be the Stock of the Earls of Barcelonna All the Princes of the Earth either feared or loved Charlemaine Alphonso King of Galicia and the Asturia's writing or sending Ambassadours to him would be called no other but his Man his Vassal The Scottish Kings always stiled him their Lord and termed themselves his Subjects and his Servants The Chiefs of the Saracens of Spain and Africa reverenced him and besought his Alliance The Haughty Aaron King of Persia who despised all other Princes in the World desired no Friendship but his He this Year sent him Jewels and Silks and Spices and one of the largest Elephants Withal understanding that he had a great devotion for the Holy Land and the City of Jerusalem he gave him the Propriety of them reserving to himself only the Title of his Lieutenant in that Country And two Years after interposed so earnestly in his behalf with Nicephorus that he engaged that Emperour to conclude a Treaty of Peace with him very advantagious to France Year of our Lord 802 During this great Torrent of good Fortune it had been easy for Charlemaine to conquer all the remainder of Italy and their Islands the Grecians having only a very wicked Woman in their Imperial Throne it was Irene the Widow of Leo who had caused the Eyes of her own Son Constantine to be put out But to stop his progress had the policy to amuse him with the hopes of marrying her which would have put the Empire of the East into his hands This Negotiation was well advanced and Charle's Ambassadours were at Constantinople to conclude it when she was driven thence by Nicephorus who made himself Emperour Nicephorus having chaced away Irene proposed to the Ambassadours of France who were come to Treat with her to make an agreement with Charles about Year of our Lord 802 Sharing the Empire He agreed therefore that he should bear the Title of Emperour as well as himself and that all Italy should be his to the Rivers of Ofantus and the Vilturnia with Bavaria Hungary Austria Dalmatia and Sâ—lâ—vonia the Gauls and Spaines For as to Germany it had never been in subjection to the Romans But Great Brittain or England had been a Member and by consequence ought to hold of Charlemaine Year of our Lord 802. and 803. Grimoald Duke of Benevent had revolted under the favour and with the support of the Greeks The French gain'd from him the City of Nocera but soon after he retook it with Vinigisa Count of Spoleta who lay sick in the place But when the agreement was made betwixt the two Empires he sent him back again very civilly and made his peace with the French Year of our Lord 804 The Saxons now revolted for the last time especially those beyond the Elbe incited by Godfrey who was King of Denmark and very potent at Sea Charles being come thither with all his Forces aud having pitched his Camp near the River Elbe that King advanced as far as Sliestorp upon the Borders of his Kingdom and the Country of Saxony to confer with the Emperour but some kind of Jealousie made him on the sudden turn back again and so the Saxon Holsatians finding themselves abandoned redeemed themselves from utter destruction by turning all Christians But he transported one part of them into Flanders and another into the Helvetian Country whence it is said the Swisse are descended a People who are very free in their own Country and yet serve in all others He bestowed the Lands they inhabited beyond the Ebre upon the Abrodite Sclavonians and he established a Councel in Saxony in manner of an Inquisition who had power to punish Mutineers especially such as returned again to their Idolatry This sort of Inquisition lasted in Westphalia to the 15 th Age. Thus ended the long and obstinate Rebellion of the Saxons who partly by consent partly by force submitted to the Yoak of Jesus Christ and the Dominion of France Year of our Lord 804 In the Month of October of the same Year Pope Leo's Ambassadours came to him at Aix la Chapelle to let him know their Master desired to see and entertain him with some of the Miraculous Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was affirmed to have been found at Mantoüa The King sent his Eldest Son Charles as far as Saint Maurice in Chablais to
it sacked all Picardy Artois Champagne and the Country of Messin often frighted Paris covered the Seine the Marne and the Loire with the Ashes of those Cities they consumed by Fire near those Streams and beat the French every where excepting at Chartres from whence they were repulsed by the protection of the Holy Virgin and the courage of Bishop Gosseaume and at Tonnere where one of their Parties was defeated by Richard Duke of Burgundy The foregoing year Lambert was killed by treachery as he was taking his pleasure in hunting by Hugo Earl of Milan The Western Empire remained vacant till the year 915. When Berenger was again Crowned by Pope John X. We may here place the Birth of the Kingdom of Arragon because about this time Sancho Abacca I. having extended his Kingdom of Navarre or Territory of Pampeluna towards Huesca and conquered all the rest of the Province of Arragon besides the Earldom of the same name which held already of him took the Title of King of Pampelune and Arragon Year of our Lord 911 In An. 911. hapned the Death of two Kings Rodolph of Burgundy beyond the Jour and Louis King of Germany The first left Rodolph II. his Son for Successor The second being only 19 or 20 years of age had only two Daughters Placidia or Plesance and Matilda who for Husbands had Conrard Duke of Franconia and Henry the Bird-Catcher Duke of Saxony and Son of Duke Otho The Lords of Lewis's Kingdom intending to bestow the Crown upon this Otho he excused himself upon the Score of his great Age and generously advised them to Elect Conrad Duke of Franconia though he had been his Enemy Charles the Simple in France Conrad in Germany Louis in Provence Rodolph II. in Trans-jurane Berenger in Italy Year of our Lord 911 Rollo the great Captain did by little and little make himself familiar and friendly with Franco Arch-Bishop of Rouen Upon his intreaties he had twice or thrice granted a Truce The design of that vertuous Prelat was to convert him Rollo's was to attain the Soveraignty and of the head of those Pirats become a Legal Prince The French Lords had much ado to suffer such a Stranger to be setled thus in the best Country of the Kingdom But the People so long and often tormented by their plundrings and continued disturbance cried out to them to put a period to their miseries Besides Robert Earl of Paris who aspired to the Monarchy desired he might remain in that Station to have his assistance in time of need For these reasons Charles made a Truce with him during which he propounded to him to give him in propriety and with the Title of a Dutchy that part of Neustria between the Sea the River of Seine and the Epte which falls into the Seine with his Daughter Gisele in marriage if he would be converted and embrace Christianity Upon these conditions Rollo was Catechised and received holy Baptism upon Easter-Eve An. 912. Earl Robert was his God-Father and named him After this Year of our Lord 912 he went and did homage to the King for the Lands he gave him and then wedded the Princess his Daughter but she lived only a short time with him and brought him no Children Thus this Province which the Romans called Lugdunensis Secunda was dismembred from the propriety of the Kings of France But not from their Soveraignty and according to the name of it's new Inhabitants took that of Normandy As this was granted to them because they knew not how to drive them out so for the same reason they were released of the Homage and dependance of Bretagne because they were indeed Masters of it and pillag'd it when ever they pleased And withal by this means it was reduced to the Soveraignty of the Crown by subjecting it under a Duke that held it of the King Year of our Lord 913 The year following Rollo failed not to demand Homage of the Bretons with his Sword in hand Duke Alain Rebre ' or the Great had been dead six years and left his Children very young Those that govern'd them rather then let them derogate from their Soveraignty carried them out of the Country with some of the greatest Nobility And since that we find no meution of them in History Count Porhouet named Mathued who had married a Daughter of Alain's the Grand went into England with his Wife Berenger Earl of Rennes and Alain de Dol having defended themselves the best they could were at last constrained to bow the Knee before the Normans and shake hands with them There were besides in divers other parts of France especially in Bretagne Anjou and the Country of Maine and the Islands in the River Loire numbers of these people but in time following the example of Rollo they took Habitations and Naturalized themselves French but not without first doing a vast deal of mischief and for a long while after the settlement of these drew in fresh swarms from Denmark and Sweden who were no less ravenous and cruel though not so formidable as the first Year of our Lord 913. and 14. All the Grandees of Germany were not satisfied with the Election of Conrard Arnold Duke of Bavaria Proud for having vanquished the Hungarians in his Dutchy rose up against him with design to make himself King and not being able to compass it pretended to stickle that Charles might have it Year of our Lord 915 That King had it ever in his thoughts to Sieze again upon the Kingdom of Lorrian Now meeting this fit juncture and the assistance of Reiner Count of Ardennâ— who was very potent in those Countries he enters into Lorrain and makes himself Master of part of that Kingdom whereof he made him Governor with the Quality of a Duke Year of our Lord 916 Duke Rollo had repudiated Pope Daughter of the Earl of Bayeux to marry the Daughter of Charles the Bald that Princess being dead he takes his former wife again by whom he had two Children William and Gerlote or Gerloc Henry Duke of Saxony rebels against Conrad gains a Battel over Everard his Year of our Lord 916 Lieutenant and gives chase to Conrad himself whilst on the other side the Hungarians over-run even to Alsace burning the City of Basle and can have no stop put to them but by Sums of Money which Conrad is forced to give them Year of our Lord 917 An. 917. Died Rollo first Duke of Normandy for ever renowned for that severe justice and exact policy he establisht within his Dominions Where the very mention of his name is able to this day to stop the Progress of Villians and bring those that are such before the judgment Seat Some put off his death to the year 924. his Son William afterwards surnamed Long-Sword Succeeded him And because he was but yet a Minor Robert Earl of Paris God-Father to his Father undertook his Tuition Year of our Lord 918 The following year hapned the Death of
to St. Omers But as he was retreating towards Monstreuil Eustace Earl of Boulogne who had a great Body of Reserves took Robert and carried him to St Omers He that Commanded the place surrendred it to deliver Richilda for which the King was enraged that he sacked and burnt the City Year of our Lord 1071 The same year Richilda though still assisted by the French lost another Battle in which Eustace Earl of Boulogne being made prisoner his Brother Chancellor of France and Bishop of Paris to obtain his freedom obliged the King to intermedle no more in that dispute Nay which was more he made him Marry Bertha the Daughter of Florent I. Earl of Holland and Gertrude of Saxony who had taken Robert for her second Husband By this means he was engaged to maintain the Cause for his Father-in-law who by his assistance defeated Richilda's Army the Fourth time and so remained Master Year of our Lord 1071 of Flanders Roger Brother of Robert Guischard Duke of the Normans in Puglia was by his Brother sent into Sicilia which was possessed by the Saracens he conquerd d the City of Panormus and Messina which opened him a way to become Master of the whole Island Year of our Lord 1073. and 4. After the death of Baldwin the Regent King Philip being arrived to the age of Adolescency ran into many disorders and vexations with his Subjects Whereupon Pope Gregory VII who sought but the occasion to constitute himself the Judge and Reformer of Princes wrote to William Duke of Aquitain that together with the Lords he should make him some Remonstrances and Declare that if he did not amend he would Excommunicate both him and all the Subjects that obey'd him and would place the Excommunication upon St. Peters Altar to re-aggravate it every day Year of our Lord 1076 The death of Robert I. Duke of Burgundy his Son being deceased before him had left two Sons Hugh and Otho the first of these succeeded his Grandfather Year of our Lord 1077 After William the Conquerour had entirely subdued England suppressed the Rebellion of his Son Robert and quelled the Manceaux he went into Bretagne to reduce them to his Obedience and laid Siege to Dol. The Duke or Earl Hoel implored the Kings help who marching in person to his assistance made them raise their Siege A Peace immediately follow'd but was broken almost as soon again upon another Year of our Lord 1076 score which was for that the Conquerour in the Kings Presence having given the Dutchy of Normandy to his Son Robert before he went to invade England Robert would take possession of it the Father hindred him and the King justified the Son in his demands This was the subject of a new War The Father besieges his rebellious Son in the Castle of Gerbroy near Beauvais In a Sally the Son wounds him and turned him off from his Saddle with his Lance but Year of our Lord 1077. 78. and the following coming to know who it was by his voice he helped him up again with Tears in his eyes and the Father at length overcome by the sentiments of nature and the intreaty of his Wife and Barons gave him his pardon and quitted the Dutchy to him then returned into England Gozelon Duke of the Lower Lorrain who in favour of Baldwin Earl of Monts Year of our Lord 1077. and 78. the Son of Richilda had fought and defeated Robert the Frison being a while after this Victory assassinated in Antwerp the Emperour detained the Dutchy of the lower Lorrain and gave only the Marquisate of Antwerp to Godfrey Duke of Bouillon the Son of Adde Sister of Gozelon and Eustace Earl of Boulongne but Twelve years after for his great Services he gave him the said Lorrain Year of our Lord 1080 The Lords of Touraine and of Maine extreamly pressing Foulk Rechin by force of Arms to set Gefroy his Brother at liberty this barbarous Man rather then release him chose sooner to give the County of Gastinois to King Philp that he might maintain him in his unjustice Some time after his own Son named Gefroy likewise and surnamed Martel moved Year of our Lord 1080 with the miseries of his Uncle forced his Father to set him free but whether it were the Melancholy he had contracted or some Drink they had given him he could never relish the sweetness of his liberty The famous Robert Guischard Prince of the Normans in Puglia after he had gained Year of our Lord 1085 two Naval Victories one over the Venetians and the other over the Greeks died this year 1085. He had two Sons Boemond and Roger the eldest being then upon the coasts of Dalmatia with a Navy his younger Brother seized on the Dutchies of Pouille and Calabria for which the Brothers were contending till the time of the first Croisado or Holy War when the French Lords passing that way to the Holy Land brought them to an agreement Their Uncle Roger held Sicily with the Title only of Earl Year of our Lord 1085 Upon complaints about the vexations and ill Treatment Duke Robert shewed to his Norman Subjects his Father the Conquerour comes over out of England to chastise him but his paternal tenderness did easily admit of a reconciliation The death of Guy-Gefroy-William his Son William VIII aged but 25 years succeeded him Year of our Lord 1086 King Philip a very voluptuous Prince being disgusted with Berthe his Wise made use of the pretence of Parentage which was between them and having proved it according to the course then in use caused his Marriage to be dissolved by authority of the Church though he had a Son by her named Lewis about Five years old and a Daughter named Constance He banished his Divorced Wife to Monstreuil upon the Sea-side where she lived a long time poorly enough Year of our Lord 1087 This Divorce according to Rule and a judicial Sentence being made he demanded the Daughter of Roger Earl of Sicilia named Emma who was conducted as far as the coasts of Provence however he did not Marry her the reason is not given Year of our Lord 1088 William the Conquerour become crazy was under a strict regiment of Dyet at Rouen to pull down his over-grown fatness which did much incommode him The King rallied at him and asked when he would be up again after his Lying in the Duke sent him word that at his Uprising he would go and visit him with 10000 Lances instead of Candles and indeed as soon as he could he got on Horseback he destroy'd all the French Vexin and forced and burnt Mantes But he over-heated himself so much in the assaulting of that place that it set his own Blood and Body on fire and brought a fit of Sickness so that he returned to Rouen where he dyed in a few days By his Will he gave the Kingdom of England to William called Rufus who was bat his Second Son Normandy to Robert who was
it governed almost all Europe both in Spirituals and Temporals We must not omit how Robert Native of the Village d'Arbresel in the Diocess of Rennes founded the Order of Fontevralt whose Monasteries are double of Men and Women living according to the Rule and wearing the Habit of St. Bennet This Robert was at first Archdeacon of Rennes then had a particular Mission from Pope Vrban II. to Preach to the People Finding he was every where followed by an infinite multitude of either Sex he built Cells for them in the Woods of Fontevrault three Leagues from Saumur on the Confines of Poitou and then shutting up the Women apart this was perhaps after the good Advice of Gefroy de Vendosme he made a large Monastery which produced many others in each of them the Abbess Commands and she of Fontevrault is the General of the whole Order About the year 1048. began a famous Dispute between the Benedictine Monks of St. Denis in France and those of St. Himmeran of Ratisbonne these having given out a report that they had the Body of St. Denis the Areopagite and that it was bestow'd upon them by King Arnold They held a famous Assembly at St. Denis upon it where the Contenders of either side having fasted and pray'd the Shrine of this Saint was opened and there his Corps was found intire excepting one Arm which Pope Stephanus III. had carried to Rome Those of Ratisbonne would not yield for all this but always maintained their Supposition The great Zeal People then had for Reliques prompted such as hold nothing so Sacred as Money to go for some to Jerusalem and the East to steal Reliques where-ever they could come at them and oftentimes likewise to suppose and bring Counterfeit ones to make Merchandize and the great Lords gave dear Prices for them not only out of Devotion but also to enrich their Towns and Castles by the affluence of those People that came to behold them Lewis the Gross King XXXIX POPES PASCAL II. Nine years six Months during this Reign GELASIUS II. Elected in January 1118. S. One year CALISTUS II. Elected in Feb. 1119. S. Ten years ten Months HONORIUS II. Elected in Decem. 1124. S. Five years one Month and an half INNOCENT II. Elected in Feb. 1130. S. Thirteen years seven Months whereof Seven years seven Months during this Reign LEWIS the GROSS King XXXIX Aged about Twenty seven years Year of our Lord 1108 THis Prince no less Massive of Body then his Father but brave active vigilant exposing himself boldly to all Labours and all Dangers had undertaken to suppress the Pilferings and Licentiousness of the Lords They had made several Leagues against him and at that time there was one whereof Guy Earl of Rochefort was the chief Promoter and this perhaps had hindred him from being Crowned in his Fathers life time The fear of this League obliged him to hasten his Coronation so that five days after the Death of Philip he was Anointed and Crowned at Orleans by Giselbert Archbishop of Sens assisted by all his Suffragants He would not have it performed at Reims because Rodolph who was chosen Archbishop by the Clergy and confirmed by the Pope had not his approbation for which reason he disturbed him in the enjoyment and Rodolph thereupon had put the City under an Interdiction Year of our Lord 1109 The War raised by Guy de Rochefort and his Friends lasted still The new King besieged Chevreuse and other little Castles which the other party defended well Mean time Guy died and Hugh surnamed de Crescy his second Son succeeded to the Animosity of his Father Hugh Lord Puiset in Beauce mighty famous for his Robberies was of the League Eudes Ea. I of Corbeil Grandson to Earl Bouchard having refused to joyn with the Male-contents Crescy though his Brother by the Mother made him Prisoner and shut him up in the Castle of la Ferte-Baudouin The King set him free soon after taking the place partly by Intelligence Year of our Lord 1109. 1110 c. At the same time the King had War with Henry King of England and Duke of Normandy The Subject was that that Prince did not keep the Promise he made upon his doing Hommage for Normandy to pull down the Castle of Gisors built on this side the Epte a River which served as a Boundary between the Territories of the French and the Normans The Difference put to Discussion between the Deputies of the one and other side and the Parties not able to agree the Fact King Lewis offer'd to prove it by Combat Body to Body Some idle Jesters said the two Kings had best fight upon the Bridge which shook and was ready to fall Henry having refused this Challenge they came to a Battle the English lost it and their broken Remains sled to Meulan Robert Earl of Flanders pursuing them too rashly was wounded to Death His Son Baldwin surnamed a la Hache succeeded him Under the favour of this War the Male-contents drew Philip the Kings Brother to their Party The power and greatness of Amaury de Montfort his Uncle by the Mother the credit of his Mother Queen Bertrade and of Foulk Earl of Anjou afterwards King of Jerusalem his Brother heightned his courage He had two strong Holds Mantes and Montlebery the King besieged Mantes and forced it to surrender For that of Montlehery the better to keep it they would have given it to Hugh de Crescy with a Daughter of Amaury's in Marriage but the King prevented it and restored it to Milon Vicount de Troyes who had some right to it He after this attaqu'd le Puiset in favour of Thibauld Earl of Chartres who was mightily molested by Hugh Lord of that Castle and took the place together with the Lord whom he kept under a good strong Guard in Castle-Landon This War begot another Thibauld would build a Fort on the limits of the Country of Puiset the King obstructing him he maintain'd he had promised him leave to do it and therefore did him wrong which he offer'd to prove by Combat proposing his Chamberlain for Champion in his own stead he being yet too young The King on his part appointed his Grand Seneschal Anseau de Garlande but the Champions could find no Court or Judge in the Kingdom who would secure them the field of Battle Perhaps the King might underhand obstruct it The Earl therefore declares War against the King with the Assistance of Henry King of England his Mothers Brother and the Duke of Bretagne for according to the Customs of those times the Lords thought they might do it when they apprehended there was a denial of Justice With him joyned the Lords Hugh de Crescy Guy de Rochefort returned from the Holy Land Lancelin de Dammartin Payen de Mont-Jeay Rodolph de Beaugency Milon Vicount de Troyes and Eudes Earl of Corbeil To tell it in gross the King received a great deal of trouble and made them suffer so much too that
prudence He won a Battle at his passage over the Meander but reaped little benefit for after that not standing upon his Guard he received a notable check in a narrow Pass through the Mountains At last he arriv'd at Antioch whereof Raimond Uncle to the Queen his Wife then held the Principality Year of our Lord 1148 This Raimond did all he could to oblige him to employ his Forces for the enlarging the limits of his Principality The King refusing it because he would continue his march towards Jerusalem he resolved to be reveng'd and to this purpose persuades the Queen to demand to be Divorc'd from him as being of Consanguinity within the third or fourth Degree This Princess being Fickle and Amorous and having but a mean Esteem for her Husband was easily over-sway'd by her Uncle The King could find no other remedy to avoid this scandal then by taking her away in the night time out of Antiocb and sending her before him to Jerusalem Now the Emperor Conrad after he had been at Constantinople to refresh himself was come to Jerusalem to pay his Devotions The King and he holding a Council together with the Lords in that Holy City resolved to besiege Damascus This Enterprize had no better success then all the rest by reason of the horrid treachery of the Christians of those Countries So these two Princes detesting their wickedness which outvied the Malice and abominable Vices of the very Infidels thought of nothing but their return again The Emperor having made Alliance with the Greeks against Roger King of Sicily was by them brought back into Italy Soon after the King being Embarqu'd in his Year of our Lord 1149 Fleet met the Navy belonging to those Traitors who lay in wait for him Whilst they were engaged or as some Authors tell us were carrying him away Prisoner by good fortune arrives the Fleet of Roger King of Sicily their capital Enemy commanded by his Lieutenant who made them quit their Prize having burnt taken and sunk a great many of their Vessels Alfonso Earl of Tonlouze Third Son of Raimond de Saint Gilles had also made that Voyage about the same time as the King but went all the way by Sea and landed at the Port of Ptolemais He got not far into the Country before he died having been basely Poyson'd though it could not be known who had committed the Execrable Deed. His Son Raimond was his Successor During the time of this Expedition St. Bernard was wholly employ'd in Languedoc in opposing one Henry a certain Monk that had cast off his Frock a Disciple of Peter de Bruys who Preached with much applause but with little integrity of Life as it was said of him almost the same Opinions as the Zuinglians and the Calvinists Preached in these latter Ages Year of our Lord 1148 A certain Wealthy Citizen of Lyons named Valdo did likewise about Ten or twelve years after this Preach the same things in Lyonnois and the neighbouring Provinces They called such as were Followers of Henry and Peter de Bruys Henricians and Petro-Bruysians and those Valdo Poor of Lyons or Vandois There were some Remnants of these last in the Valleys of Dauphine and Savoy when Luther began to appear Year of our Lord 1148 In the year 1148. hapned the death of Conan the Gross Duke of Bretagne Eudon Earl of Pontieure who was Married to Berthe his Daughter seized on the Dutchy to the prejudice of Hoel whom the Duke Conan had disowned for his Son From hence broke forth a War between these two Princes which two or three years afterwards was complicated with another much longer which lasted Thirteen or fourteen years at times between the same Eudon and Conan III. surnamed the Little his own Son who would needs enjoy the Dukedom because it came by his Mothers side This bad Son having recourse to Henry King of England for assistance used his Father roughly and also compell'd the Nantois who took Hoels part to forsake him we do not know what became of him at last The ill success of the Foreign Expedition which had made so many Widows and Orphans ruin'd so many good Families and unpeopled so many Countries bread Year of our Lord 1149 50. grievous Murmurings and Reproaches against the Reputation of St. Bernard who seemed to promise them a quite contrary Event So that when the Pope would two years after have had him Preach up another Croisado and obliged him to go Personally to the Holy-Land to draw the greater numbers after him the Monks of Cisteaux broke all those Measures fearing a second misfortune which might have proved greater then the first Year of our Lord 1150 The King at his return to France finding the War continued still between King Stephen and Matilda joyned his Army with Eustace Son of Stephen to besiege the Castle d'Arques Gefroy the Husband of Matilda and his Son Henry to whom the year before he had resigned the Dutchy marched to the Relief The two Armies being within sight the Lords on either side undertook an Accommodation and manag'd it so that the King who without doubt found himself to be the weaker agreed to receive Prince Henry upon Hommage who by this means was the Twelfth Duke of Normandy Towards the end of the year Gefroy ended his days at the Castle du Loir leaving three Sons Henry Gefray and William He ordained that forthwith Henry should Year of our Lord 1150 quietly enjoy the Mothers Estates to wit England and Normandy That Gefroy should have the Paternal that is Anjou Touraine and Maine with the Castles of Loudun Chinon and Mirebeau and William the Earldom of Mortaing Year of our Lord 1151 Not long after died Enstace Earl of Boulogne his Death was a means to restore Englands Peace for as much as Stephen his Father seeing himself Childless was over-persuaded it was not though till two years after to consent that when he died the Kingdom should return to Henry This Prince as English Authors tell us would have resumed the County of Toulouze in right of his Wife but Earl Raimond gained so much upon him by Marrying his Sister Constance the Widow of Earl Eustace newly dead that he confirmed to him the possession thereof The following year 1152. hapned the death of Thibauld Count Palatine of Champagne Year of our Lord 1152 surnamed the Liberal the Father of the Council and Guardian of the Poor and Orphans a Man of great Justice who notwithstanding was almost in continual War with the Kings He had four Sons and five Daughters The Sons were Henry Earl of Troyes or Champagne Thibauld Earl of Blois and Chartres Stephen Earl of Sancerre Henry Archbishop of Sens afterwards of Reims This year also died the Emperor Conrad to whom for want of Male Issue by Election succeeded Frederick I. surnamed Barbarossa Duke of Alman or Sâ—wabe his Sister Son If I do not mistake it was under this Frederick that the French began to give the Germans the name
against the Infringers even to the killing them in the very Churches which served as a Sanctuary to all other the most enormous Criminals William the Conqueror had Establish'd this Law in England and in Normandy Anno 1080. Raimond Berenger Earl of Barcelonna in his Country Anno 1060. the Council of Clermont had confirmed it Anno 1096. and that of Rome Anno 1102. Now as these Truces were but ill observed and Languedoc and a part of Guyenne principally upon occasion of that War betwixt the King of Arragon and Raimond Earl of Toulouze were most miserably tormented with Factions Murthers and Robberies a certain Carpenter named Durand who seemed a plain simple Fellow Year of our Lord 1183 found the Remedy against these Calamities and a Means to enrich himself He asserted that God had appeared to him in the City du Puy in Auvergne commanding him to proclaim Peace and for proof of his Mission had given him a certain Image of the Virgin which he shewed So that upon his Veracity the Grandees the Prelats and the Gentry being Assembled at Puy on the day of the Feast of the Assumption agreed amongst themselves by Oath upon the Holy Evangelists to lay down all Animosities and the remembrance of former Injuries and made a Holy League to reconcile Mens Spirits and entertain Love and Peace which they named the Peace of God Those who were of it wore the Stamp of this Image of our Lady in Pewter upon their Breasts and Capuches or Hoods of white Linnen on their Heads which this Carpenter sold to them Which had such power over their Minds and had made such Impression that a Man with those Badges was not only in security but likewise in Veneration amongst his most mortal Enemies Year of our Lord 1184 Whether the three Princes of Champagne Brothers to the Queen Mother had gotten the upper hand at Court and put the King out of conceit with the Earl of Flanders or for some other cause the King summon'd him to surrender up Vermandois which Louis the VII had given him only as was pretended for a certain time The Earl being very Potent would maintain the possession passed the Somme with a great Army and came as far as Senlis But upon tidings of the Kings march he turns back the way he came and went and besieged Corbie from whence he decamped again immediately for the same cause The King not being able to overtake him besieges Boves the two Armies drew near to engage Some Mediators put a stop to their impetuous haste and made up the Peace The Earl yielded all Vermandois excepting Peronne and Saint Quentin which they let him enjoy during Life Year of our Lord 1184 To this Agreement the King called all the Bishops Abbots Earls and Barons that served in his Army with their Vnder-Vassals And such was then the Rights of the French The Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Prior of the Hospital of St. John's deputed on the behalf of the Christians from the Holy-Land brought the Keys of the Holy City to King Philip imploring his assistance and representing to him the extream danger it was reduced unto Whereupon having held a great Assembly of Prelats and Lords at Paris he enjoyned them to Preach the Cross or Croisade and to publish it every where and in the mean time sent at his own Expence a considerable Relief of Horse and Foot into that Country The Complaints of the Clergy of Burgundy whom Duke Odo had plundred and the Year of our Lord 1184 Lord de Vergy whose Castle that Prince besieged ingaged the King to march that way and besiege Chastillâ—n on the Seine the strongest Bulwark belonging to that Rebel Who finding his Fort taken by Assault came humbly to submit to his Commands promised to pay 30000 Livers for Reparation to the Clergy and gave up four Castles which however were soon after put into his possession again without doubt because they had some need of him Year of our Lord 1183 84. In Berry there were several Bands of Robbers that wasted the Country they were named Cottereaux and were believed to be tainte â—ith the Heresie that spread in Languedoc because they aimed chiefly to do mâ—schief to the Churchmen the Berriers getting together with the help of some Men sent them by the King cut them in pieces killing seven thousand upon the place The vast Multitudes of eople that flocked to Paris the Kings Train encreasing with his Authority made the Streets so dirty and 〈◊〉 that there was no going in them The King sent therefore for the Citizens and their Provost and enjoyned them to remedy it which they did by Pav ng it with Stone at their own expences I find about this time that one Girard de Poissi who managed the Exchequer brought in thither of his own proper Moneys or Fund Eleven thousand Mark in Silver It is to Year of our Lord 1185 be imagin'd that he had gotten them by the King but however we may say that this Example ✚ will be singular and that we shall never meet a Chequer-man will follow his Example What ever can be done that sort of People will sooner go to the Gibet then be brought to make Restitution Year of our Lord 1185 Margaret of France Widow of Henry the Young King of England is Re-Married to Bela III. King of Hungary Gesroy Duke of Bretagne and Brother of that Henry being come to wait on the King who tenderly lov'd him died of a Distemper at Champeaux and was Interr'd at Nostre-Dames in Paris He had one Daughter named Alienor and one Son only aged but three years The Bretons would give him the name of Artur in memory of that famous King whom the Romancers make to be the Author of the Knights of the Year of our Lord 1185 round Table and many high feats of Arms. He remained under the Guardianship of his Mother and the Protection of the King in despite of all the Efforts of Henry and Richard his Son who made several Attempts to seize upon his Person that they might get Bretagne into their possession The Widow Constance afterwards Married Guy Lord de Thouars The memory of Gefroy is still very famous amongst the Bretons because of that Law he made in his Parliament or Estates General which was called the Assize of Count Gefroy Whereby it was ordained that in the Families of Barons and Knights the Estates should not be shared or equally divided as heretofore but that the eldest should reap the whole Succession and bestow such part upon the younger as himself and the rest of his Kindred should think fit This hath since been thus proportion'd the Thirds amongst all the younger Children during Life to the Males and Inheritance to the Female In time the rest of the Gentry not to yield in Quality to the Barons would needs be comprehended herein likewise Towards the end of the year 1186. a War was raised between King Philip and Henry of England for
Jerusalem he purchas'd it of Guy de Luzignan giving him in exchange for it the Kingdom of Cyprus which the House of Luzignan held till the year 1473. as we shall observe in its due place We find frequently enough in History the apparitions of Meteors in the Air representing Battles Firing and as it were engaging one another but this year a most wonderful thing some were seen to descend upon Earth near the City of Nogent in Perche and fought in the Fields to the great terror of the Inhabitants of that Countrey Year of our Lord 1192 In the mean time Philip being returned into France remembred very well that Philip d'Alsace Earl of Flanders had promised upon his Marriage with Queen Elizabeth his Niece Daughter of the Earl of Hainault to give him after his death the County of Artois He consider'd likewise that to the Queen belonged some part of the inheritance of the said Uncle To this end therefore he goes very well attended into Flanders and forced him to give up all the Countrey of Artois with the hommage of the Counties of Boulogne Ghisnes and St. Pol which till then had ever held of the Earls of Flanders and extended as far as Neuf-Fosse This was the first leaven of that mortal hatred and obstinate feud and wars between the Flemming and French Year of our Lord 1192 Now the misunderstanding that was between Richard and the Duke of Burgundy the perpetual jealousie that King lay under lest Philip in his absence should seize upon his Lands and withal the indisposition of his Body which had been twice or thrice sorely shaken with Sickness during his stay in that Countrey would not let him remain any longer in the East Of a sudden he grew so impatient to return that he sacrificed all the fruits of his heroick Valour to that longing and pressing desire For on condition of a three years truce he renders to Saladin all those Places he had Taken or Fortified in this last Expedition Year of our Lord 1192 Some few days before Hugh Duke of Burgundy died of a fit of Sickness to whom Odo or Eudes III. his Son succeeded Year of our Lord 1192 After Richard had left what Forces he had yet remaining and such places as the Eastern Christians had still in Syria with Henry Earl of Champagne his Nephew he embarqued the 10th of October with little attendance and because he durst not pass thorough the territories of the King of France his declared Enemy he went and landed near Aquilea to pass thorough Germany But the Lords of those Countreys especially Leopoldus Duke of Austria whom he had highly offended at the Siege of Acre or Acon caused him to be so narrowly watched that notwithstanding he went disguised and travelled thorough unfrequented Roads he fell into the hands of that Duke He delivered him basely up to the Emperour Henry who kept him prisoner Fourteen Months When Philip heard of his Captivity he dispatched Messengers into Germany to negotiate with the Emperour to detain him as long as possibly he could Some Months after he sends to declare a War against him incites under hand his Brother John a Prince without Honour or Faith to seize upon the Kingdom of England and he at the same time falling into Normandy takes Gisors and some places in Vexin Some reckon this last event in Anno 1292. and by consequence before the imprisonment of Richard However it were in the month of February Anno 1193. he took the Town of Evreux which he gave to John keeping the Castle himself and went to besiege Rouen but lost his labour there Year of our Lord 1193 Queen Elizabeth his Wife had been dead about two years he demanded in Marriage the Princess Isemburge Sister of Canut King of Denmark a beautiful and chaste Princess but one that had some secret defect And indeed the first night of the Nuptials they being Married at Amiens in the beginning of the month of August he took such an aversion that he would never touch her He kept her notwithstanding some time and afterwards growing weary of that unnecessary Expence he so contrived it that the Arch-Bishop of Reims the Popes Legat with some French Bishops gave sentence of Divorce or Separation He did it upon the testimony of some Lords whom he produc'd who asserted they were of kindred within the Fifth and Sixth Degree In effect Isemburge and Philip had both of them for Great Great Great Great Grand-Father Jaroslas or Jarisclod King of Russia This Jaroslas was Father of Ann who was the Wife of King Henry I. and of Jaroslas II. whose Son was Vlodimer that had a Daughter named Isemburge wife of King Canut IV. This Canut begot Voldemar and from Voldemar came Canut V. and our Isemburge Year of our Lord 1194 Richad having in fine got himself out of Captivity in despite of all the obstacles Philip had made use of endeavour'd to revenge himself by force of Arms but having drained himself of Moneys to pay his Ransom his Exploits did not answer his Resentments During two years the two Kings reciprocally destroy'd eithers Countreys with Fire and Sword demolished a great many places and then made a Peace about the end of the year 1195. restoring on either side what they had taken from each other unless it were the Vexin which remained to Philip. Year of our Lord 1194. and 95. It hapned in this War that as Philip was passing by Blois the English who had laid themselves in Ambuscade took all his Baggage amongst which as the Grand Seignor does to this day he made them carry all the Titles or Papers belonging to the Crown Thus they were all destroy'd or lost to the great damage of the Kings affairs and the French History He caused Copies to be collected where ever they could meet with them to compleat and furnish the Treasury of his Charters or Paper-Office In the Month of March of the year 1196. the great overflow or inundations of Waters Year of our Lord 1196 especially the Seine were so terrible and frightful that Paris and the Isle of France seared a second Deluge We take notice of it because it was the greatest of any whereof the Histories of France make mention Year of our Lord 1196 The Peace betwixt the two Kings lasted hardly six Months Philip commences the War against Richard for two reasons One because he had built a Fort in the Island d'Andely on the Seine And the other because he had taken the Castle of Vierzon in Berry from the Lord to whom it belonged who claimed Justice of the King their Sovereign Lord. Year of our Lord 1197 The next year Baldwin XI Earl of Flanders grudging in his heart that Philip had taken from him the half of his Succession left by his Uncle Leagued himself with Richard against him as did likewise Renauld Son of the Count of Dammartin notwithstanding Philip had assisted him in getting the Heiress and the Earldom of Boulogue Year of our
Lord 1197 Amongst all the events of this War which amounted only to Burnings and Plunderings is to be observed what hapned to Philip de Dreux Bishop of Beauvais Cousin german to the King This Bishop being taken in the War Armed and Fighting by some of Richard's Soldiers was detained a long time in an uneasie prison The Pope would interpose his recommendation to Richard for his deliverance and in his Letters he call'd this Bishop His most dear Son But Richard having sent word back in what posture and manner he was taken and having sent his coat of Maille all Bloody with order to him that carry'd it to ask him Behold Holy Father whether this be the Coat of your Son The Pope had nothing to reply but that the Treatment they shewed to that Prelat was just since he had quitted the Militia of Jesus Christ to follow that of the World Death of the Emperour Henry As he had manifested himself as rude an enemy to the Popes as his Predecessors and besides was very odious for his cruelties Innocent III. strongly opposed the Election of Philip his Brother excommunicating all his Adherents and stood up for Otho Son of the Duke of Saxouy and a Sister of Richards who was Crowned at Aix la Chapelle so that there was a Schism in that Empire which had often occasioned one in the Church The King of England the Earl of Flanders and the Arch-Bishop of Colen supported Otho and King Philip on Year of our Lord 1197 the contrary made a League with his Rival The same year died in the City of Acre or Acon the generous Henry Earl of Champagne Titular King of Jerusalem his Nephew Thibauld or Theobald III. of that Name Earl of Blois inherited those Lands he had in France in prejudice of his Year of our Lord 1197 Uncles two Daughters The eldest was named Alix and was Queen of Cyprus and by her was born a Daughter of the same Name whom we shall find making War against Thibauld IV. The Second was called Philippa who was Married to Erard de Brienne Year of our Lord 1198 These bloody and obstinate Wars the particulars whereof cannot be brought within the compass of an Abridgement caused much mischief in France but the greatest was that Philip grew extreamly covetous and became too greedy in heaping up Treasure under pretence of the necessity of raising and maintaining great numbers of standing Forces which are truly very proper to make Conquests and new Acquisitions but some times become oppressive to the Subjects and destructive to the Laws of the Land As he was the First of the Kings of France that kept Men in pay and would have Soldiers always ready to employ them in what he pleased he set himself likewise upon making great exactions upon the People ransoming or taxing the Churches and recalling the Jews who were the introducers of Usury and Imposts But however he was very frugal and retrencht himself as much as possible knowing and considering ☜ that a King who hath great designs ought not to consume the substance of his Subjects in vain and pompous expences Year of our Lord 1199 At the end of two years War the Pope by his intercession procured a Five years truce between the two Kings during which Richard as covetous of Money as he was proud having intelligence that a Gentleman of Limosin had found a vast Treasure and carried it into the Castle of Chalus he went presently and besieged him he was wounded there with a Cross-bow and his debauchery having envenom'd his wound he died of it the Eleventh day of April in this year 1199. He had introduc'd the use of Cross-bows in France before that time Sword-men were so generous and brave that they would not owe their Victory but to their Lances or Swords they abhorr'd those treacherous weapons wherewith a coward sheltred or conceal'd may kill a valiant Man at a distance and thorough a hole Year of our Lord 1199 He had no Children therefore the Kingdom of England and the Dutchy of Normandy belonged of right to young Arthur Duke of Bretagne as being the Son of Gefroy his Brother elder then John without Land but John having seized the Money gained Richards Forces and stept into the Throne In the mean while the Earl of Flanders with his Allies regained the Cities of Aire and St. Omers It hapned that the Kings party took his Brother Philip Earl of Namur and Peter Bishop Elect of Cambray The King refusing to release this last the Popes Legat puts the Kingdom of France under a prohibition so that after three Months time he was constrained to set him free Year of our Lord 1200 The day of the Ascension in the year 1200. Peace was concluded at a solemn Conference between the two Kings between Vernon and Andeley It was warranted by Twelve Barons on either part who made oath to take up Arms against him that should break it and moreover confirmed by the Marriage of Blanche Daughter of Alfonso VIII King of Castille and Alienor Sister to King John with Lewis the eldest Son of Philip to whom King John in favour of this Alliance yielded up all the Lands and Places which the French had taken from him Each had a care to secure his Partisans John was oblig'd to receive his Nephew Arthur into favour who did hommage to him for his Dutchy of Bretagne but yet remained with Philip. Reciprocally Philip pardon'd Renauld Earl of Boulogne and some while after Treated the Marriage between his Son of his own name whom he had by his Queen Agnes and that Earls Daughter Since the repudiation of 1semburge of Denmark King Philip had kept her in a Convent at Soissons and at three years end that is Anno 1196 he had espoused Mary-Agnes Daughter of Bertold Duke of Merania and Dalmatia Pope Celestine III. upon the complaints of King Canut Brother of the Divorc'd Lady had Commissioned in the year 1198. two Legats to take cognisance of this Affair who had assembled a grand Council at Paris of the Bishops and Abbots of the Kingdom but all those Prelats being partly terrify'd and some corrupted durst give no Sentence and the Legats were suspected to favour the Cause of Agnes Afterwards the Holy Father more importunately desired to do justice had sent two more One of them in the month of Decemb in the year 1199. having called the Prelats of France to Dijon notwithstanding the Appeal interjected by Philip to the Pope pronounced Sentence of prohibiton upon all the Kingdom in presence and by consent of all the Bishops and nevertheless that he might have leasure enough to get away into some place of safety he was willing it should not be publish'd till twenty days after Christmass He had reason to fear Philips anger In effect it burst out with furty against all his Subjects against the Ecclesiasticks first whom he believ'd to be all accomplices in this injury for he drove the Bishops from their Sees cast the
Widow had Thessaly for his Year of our Lord 1204 share with the Title of a Kingdom upon which condition he gave up the Island of Candia to the Venetians The Grecian Princes preserved Asia to themselves where they established divers Sovereignties Theodorus Lascaris attired himself with Imperial Robes at Nicea in Bithynia and had the largest Dominion for extent Of the Family of the Comnenes Michael had part of Epirus David Heraclea Ponticus and Paphlagonia and Alexis his Brother the City of Trebisond on the Pontus-Euxinus There was the Empire of Trebisond formed which still remained separate and distinct from that of Constantinople till the Turks devoured both the one and the other Baldwin enjoy'd not the Empire two years for going to besiege Adrianople Joannitz or Calojan King of Bulgaria coming to assist the Greeks drew him into an Ambuscade made him prisoner and having carried him into Bulgaria cut off his Arms Year of our Lord 1205 and Legs and cast him into a Precipice where he languisht for three days It was thus given out but many are of opinion that he escaped from that imprisonment However it were his Brother Henry succeeded him in the Empire He left two Daughters the eldest Married Ferrand Brother of Sancho King of Portugal who by this means was Earl of Flanders the youngest had Children by Bouchard d'Auesnes Year of our Lord 1205 King John not attributing his misfortunes to his crime his cowardize or sloth but to the ill-will of his English Subjects particularly the Clergy who had not assisted him in his necessities sets himself upon molesting and vexing them by all Year of our Lord 1206 manner of exactions Guy de Touars who Govern'd Bretagne being Husband to the Dutchess Constance had turned to Philips party and assisted him not a little in his late Conquests He had likewise brought over to him the Vicount Touars his Brother but this year both of them were at variance with him Guy would Cantonnize himself in Bretagne the King begirts him in Nantes and compels him to return again to his Service how-ever the Vicount remained for the English Interest That King having Levied vast sums of Money and a powerful Army in England comes and Lands at Rochel the Vicount Savary de Maulcon and some other Lords joyn with him Philip finding himself too weak contents himself only with providing and strengthening his Towns in Poitou with all speed and then retires to Paris John marches into Anjou takes Anger 's dismantles it and presently after remembring that it was his Ancestors native City causes the Walls to be rebuilt At the same time there were some Bretons who seizing upon the Promontary de Garplic built a Fort there to favour the approaches of the English upon those Shallows These were all the Effects of the great Prowess of King John for being soon tir'd he caused a Truce to be propounded by the interposition of the Pope who threatned Excommunication in case of refusal Philip agrees it for two years against the opinion of the French Lords who proffer'd him all assistance and engaged not to forsake him although the Pope should proceed against him by censures Year of our Lord 1208 The two contenders for the German Empire Otho and Philip had agreed An. 1207. in such sort that Otho who had the approbation of the Pope but was the weaker should leave the Empire to Philip whom if he hapned to die without Children Otho should succeed him and in the interim Marry his Daughter Now this year Philip being Murthered in his Sick Bed by Otho Palatine of Vitelspack the Empire fell to his Competitor who the following year went into Italy and was Crowned at Rome Immediately after he had a quarrel with the Pope about some Enterprize upon the Lands belonging to the Church and those belonging to Frederick King of Sicily Feodary to the Holy See for which he was Excommunicated An. 1210. Innocent III. was then Pope a Prelat of great courage rare merit and who being in the strength of his age was stirring in every place and concern'd himself in every thing driving all things to the height where he met with a weak or divided party England made an unhappy Experiment King John being absolutely resolv'd not to accept of Cardinal Stephen Lanctbon for Arch-Bishop of Canterbury whom the White Friers had Elected to the Popes liking but without the Kings consent and the Pope standing stifly up to maintain and justify this Election the contest grew so hot that the Pope sends to three of the English Bishops a Sentence of Interdiction to be laid upon the whole Kingdom John was so enrag'd that he confiscated the Estates of all the Clergy and resolv'd utterly to abolish Episcopacy in the Nation Commanding them immediately to depart and to secure himself against any personal effects of the Excommunication wherewith he was threatned he took Hostages of the Towns and Nobility The Pope not being able to reduce the Hereticks of Languedoc who had almost gained the whole Province fals upon Raimond Earl of Toulouze because he was their chief promoter and encourager and had caused one of his Legats to be massacred it was Peter de C hastean-neuf a Monk de Cisteaux or White Fryer and the First that exercised the Inquisition He Excommunicated that Earl Absolv'd his Subjects of their Oath of Fidelity and gave his Lands to the first Occupier but without prejudice to the right of the King of France his Sovereignty Such an apprehension seized on the Earl that being come to Milon the Popes Legat at Valence he intirely submitted gave up eight places of strength to the Roman Church to perpetuity as a pawn of his Conversion and the following year to obtain Absolution suffred himself to be scourged with Rods at the Gate of St. Giles's Church where Peter de Chasteau-neuf lay buried and thence dragg'd to that Friers Tomb by the Legat who put the Stole about his Neck in presence of Twenty Arch-Bishops and an infinite multitude of People After which he likewise crossed himself or put on the badge of the Cross and joyned the next year with those that took his and the Towns of his Allies Year of our Lord 1208 It was not his penitence that humbled him to undergo so horrible a shame it was the fear he had of a dreadful storm just ready to break and fall upon his Head For the Pope having turned that sorvent Zeal which animated the People so much to go in defence of tho Holy-Land had this very year order'd a Croisade to be Preached against the Albigenses and many Lords Prelats and great numbers of common People had listed themselves in this Militia the King himself set out Fifteen thousand Men that were to be maintain'd at his own charge These bore the Cross upon their Breast to distinguish them from such as went to the Holy-Land who wore that badge upon their Shoulder Amongst these Heretiques there were some whom they called the Poor
Island so named Apulia Calabria and some other neighbouring Countreys which Roger held in Italy Now although William Duke of Aquitain had suffer'd himself to be brought back to the Obedience of Innocent II. in the year 1135. yet Gerard nevertheless stood up obstinately for Anaclet to the end of his days but some while after he was found dead in his Bed horribly black and blew and swoln About three years after viz. in An. 1138. Anaclet died also his Relations placed another Cardinal in his stead to whom they gave the name of Victor In fine Innocent found it better to buy his peace of them then to leave these Divisions smothering and smoaking any longer and when they were agreed Victor laid down the Tiara and cast himself at his Feet Notwithstanding Roger held out still some time not owning him for Pope because he would not own him for a King till having taken him prisoner in War An. 1193. he came fairly to an agreement with him and got the Title of King confirmed to him Frederick I. being come to the Empire young haughty and ambitious as he was undertook to recover its dignity to which the easiness of Pope Anastasius seemed to chaulk out a way but Pope Adrian IV. who succeeded Anastasius resolv'd to obviate his designs and keep him under as his dependant Hence proceeded a mortal enmity betwixt them which however came not to an open rupture but made Frederick more plainly sensible that it was necessary to have a Pope at his Devotion Adrian being dead An. 1159. it hapned that all the Cardinals excepting three elected Cardinal Rowland who took the name of Alexander III. but whilst he was shewing some kind of unwillingness to accept the Popedom those three that were not for him Elected immediately the Cardinal Octavian who was named Victor The Emperour having notice of it favour'd him first underhand thereby to frighten Alexander and bring him to his bent then openly when he found he could not lead the other as he pleased So he causes his Election to be authorised by the Council of Pisa which he had call'd by his own authority after the example of former Emperours and employ'd all his Interest to perswade other Princes to adhere to him The Kings of France and of England who had been at war having now agreed assembled their Bishops Abbots and Barons the one at Beauvais and the other at Newmarket to discuss the right of the two concurrents the Legats both of the one and other side having been heard Alexander was approved by all and Victor Excommunicated This hapned in the year 1161. The good Title and Right of the former was this year confirmed by a great number of miracles as many Authors write and yet there is one affirms likewise that God wrought some in favour of Victor after his decease In the mean time this last being most powerful in Rome Alexander seeks his refuge in France and remained there three years at the end whereof his Affairs going in a better method in Italy the Clergy and People call him back to Rome An. 1164. To defray the Expences of his journey he was sorced to impose a Year of our Lord 1164 Collection on the Gallican Church Year of our Lord 1164 The same year Victor his Rival died in the City of Luca. Some Prelats of his Faction being assembled at the same place gave the Popedom to one of those two Cardinals that had elected him which was Guy de Crema He lived five years and deceased An. 1170. Those of his party substituted another I cannot tell what Abbot not known but by his debauches they call'd him Calistus III. and Frederick supported him as he had done the two others At the same time there were great stirs in England King Henry stickling to preserve certain pretended Rights which he called Customs of the Kingdom and Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury not to suffer them as being contrary to Ecclesiastical liberty It would be thought strange in these days if a Bishop should hold his Head up so high against his Prince for the like cause but then the best of Men were perswaded that such Liberties were the pillars of Religion The contest lasted seven or eight years and ended not but by the death of the Archbishop who was murther'd in his Cathedral in the year 1170. and the Kings penitence which was so great and so publick that the Church was edified more by such an example then it had been scandaliz'd by his offence The Emperor Frederick was not more fortunate then the two Henrys so that being shatter'd by the Popes Thunder-bolts and more severely yet by his ill fortune driven out of Italy and apprehending the sudden Revolt of Germany he could find no other way to save himself but to ask pardon of the Holy Father and prostrate himself at his Feet to gain his Absolution which was done at Venice in An. 1177. His Anti-Pope Calistus did as much the following year throwing himself at the Feet of the same Alexander Afterwards Frederick had again some Disputes with the Popes Lucius Vrban and Clement III. of that name but he was reconcil'd to Clement and lived well enough with the See of Rome to the time of his death Henry VI. his Son was Crowned by Celestine III. in the year 1191. He undertook nothing directly against the Popes but yet he suffer'd himself to be Excommunicated for detaining Richard King of England prisoner and for not restoring the Money he had extorted from that Prince to purchase his liberty He died without Absolution Anno 1197. Let us now speak of Heresies About the end of the Twelfth age the opinions of one named Rousselin had made a great deal of noise He said the three Divine Persons were three separate or distinct things as three several Angels were but in such sort nevertheless that all three had but one and the same Power and one and the same Will and that if custom would permit it one might say that they were three Gods or otherwise it would follow that the Father and the Holy Ghost had been incarnate These Sophistical impieties were condemned in a Council held at Soissons notwithstanding the Author did not refrain Teaching in private and perhaps he might have made a greater progress if there had not been some watchful persons amongst the rest Yves de Chartres who broke his measures I cannot tell whether it were the same against whom St. Anselme when he was but Abbot du Bec. wrote his Treatise of the Incarnation of the Word which he sent to Pope Vrban II. to examine An. 1094. About the year 1125. one Tanchelin the most profligate of all Mankind infected Brabant and the neighbouring Countreys with his Errors he asserted that the Ministry of Bishops and Priests was a cheat and that the Communion of the Holy Eucharist availed nothing to our Salvation He drew people after him by the magnificence of his Feasts and the pomp of his dress
which comes from the Hebrew Year of our Lord 1345 The Earl of Derby after the having refreshed himself at Bourdeaux with the Forces he had brought from England took the Field to fall upon the Provinces on this side the Dordogne The Earl de Laille and the Gascon Lords who had thrown themselves into Bregerac thinking to obstruct his passage over that River were constrained to abandon that Town to him and to let him over-run all the Upper Gascongny where he conquer'd several small places When he was returned to Bourdeaux the Earl de Laille took his opportunity having sent for the Lords of that Countrey he being as it were Vice-Roy and laid Sieg to Auberoâ—ke but not with the like success The Earl of Derby coming to its relief with only aâ—thousand Men defeated his Army which consisted of Tenthousand and took him prisoner with eight or ten Earls and Vicounts more After which he with much ease besieged and took the Cities de la Reole Angoulesine and divers others John Earl of Montfort had been set at liberty by virtue of the Truce upon condition that he should not depart the Court notwithstanding he goes and puts himself at the head of his Forces in Bretagne he besieged Kemper but was so far from taking it that himself had like to be taken Going from thence he sacked and burnt Dinant then over burthen'd with grief and anger for the slow progress in his Affairs he died about the end of September leaving the management of his pretensions to his Wife and his Son who was yet very young He had the same name as his Father and afterwards gained the Surname of Valiant Year of our Lord 1345 The famous Artevelle had made a promise to King Edward to procure that his Son the Prince of Wales should be owned for Earl of Flanders by the great Cities to the exclusion of their natural Lord. Upon this assurance Edward carries his Son to Scluse the Deputies of the Cities went to wait on him he treated them very magnificently but they would not hear of disinheriting their Earl Artevelle's enemies did not fail to make use of this occasion to stir up the peoples hatred against him When he was returned to Ghent having been so ill advised as to remain some days at Scluse after the other Deputies the People fell upon him and murther'd him The King of England retir'd in a fury for the death of his good friend however the Cities of Flanders having sent their Deputies to him he accepted their satisfaction and the offer they made him to bestow the Daughter of their Earl upon the Prince of Wales There was great reason to put some stop to the Earl of Derby's progress in Guyenne the Duke of Normandy goes to Toulouze in the beginning of January with an hundred thousand Men bearing Arms. All this formidable multitude did no more in three Months besides the taking of two or three little paltry Towns in Angenois and the City of Angoulesme whence they fell down upon Tonneius and after that came and hesieged Aiguillon seated on the confluence of the Rivers d'Olt and de Garonne well munition'd and well fortify'd those times In all this age we do not find a more memorable Siege either for the Attaques or the Defence They made three Assaults each day for a whole week together then they came to their Artillery and their Engins both by Sea and Land Philip the Son of Eudes Duke of Burgundy and Earl of Boulogne by his Wife who was Daughter and Heyress of Earl William was wounded upon a Salley whereof he died At last the Battle of Cressy being lost drew away the Duke of Normandy from this Siege which till then he obstaintely continued Year of our Lord 1346 The Second day of June Edward with a Fleet of Two hundred Sail wherein he had Four thousand Men at Arms Ten thousand Archers and as many Foot as well Irish as Welshmen puts to Sea with his eldest Son with intent to land in Guyenne He did not relye so much upon his Forces as upon the secret discontents of the French Nobility and the intelligence he held with many of the Grandees He had with him Gefroy Brother of the Earl of Harcoâ—r a Lord very powerful in Normandy who having lost the favour of King Philip in his indignation and finding no certain security there went into England The winds having turned Edward two several times out of his road towards Guyenne this Gefroy inslamed with revenge perswaded him that Heaven would have him steer his course for Normandy a fat and plentiful Countrey that had not felt a War for two ages so that he went and landed at the Port de la Hogue St. Vaast in Constantin near St. Sauveur which were Lands belonging to Gefrâ—y resolved to cross thorough France to go and joyn the Flemmings Year of our Lord 1346 His Army marched divided by day in three Bodies which joyned together at night Gefroy undertook the Office of Field Marshal The Cities of Valongnes Carentan St. Lo and Harfleur were his first prey Rodolph Earl of â—u and of Guisnes Constable of France and the Count de Tancarville whom the King had sent to Caen encreased his Spoil and Fame by taking them prisoners with the defeat of Twenty thousand Men the Burghers braver in words then deeds having fortaken them in the midst of the Fight Going from thence he continued his march by the Bishopricks of Lisieux and Evreux saccaged and burnt all along the Seine even to Paris but approached not nigh Rouen and came and encamped at Pâ—issy from thence he sent a defiance to Philâ—p to fight him under the Walls of the Louvre but after he had staid there five days fearing to be enclosed betwixt the Rivers of Seine and Oyse he caused the Bridges to be repaired and passed into Beatvaisis with design to retire into his County of Ponthieu marking his road all the way with long traces of Fire and Blood Year of our Lord 1346 Philip foaming with rage to behold with his own eyes from his capital City suh Flames in the very heart of his Kingdom goes forth to pursue him in great haste that he might fight him before he could pass the Somme Edward not being able to find any passage over the River was so happy as to have a prisoner that shewed him the Foord of Blanquetague below Abbevilie Gondemar du Fay a Norman Lord could not hinder him with Twelve thousand Men from passing at low Water and was put to the rout The same Evening Edward went and encamped at Cressy and the next day Philip lodged at Abbevilie which is within three Leagues of it on this side he had not less then an hundred thousand Men with which he might have hemm'd them in and reduced them to a Famine in a few days but he believieng that having over-taken them was conquering them he marches the next day out of Abbeville and gives him battle the
people admitted left it to the Chevalier that Commanded the Watch and his Archers Though the Truce was not expir'd there was still some enterprize upon one another The English seized upon Guisnes having corrupted the Governour with Money Edward excused it pleasantly saying The Truces were Merchandise and that he did no more then follow the example of King Philip who would have bought Year of our Lord 1351 Calais The Traytor that had sold Guisnes was taken and drawn in pieces by four wild Horses Guy de Nesle Mareschal of France was defeated and taken with Arnold d'Endreghen and several people of note in a rencounter in Guyenne Year of our Lord 1350 and 51. In Bretagne the two parties of Blois and Montfort though they had only two Women in the head of them were perpetually engaging and fighting it out desperately In those days challenges between Cavaliers and the chief Commanders of parties that were enemies was very common but more frequent between a certain number appointed on each side then singly hand to hand and indeed they called them Battles The most remarkable in these years was that of Thirty Bretons against as many English Richard Brembo was the chief of these and the Lord de Beaumanoir of the others The victory fell to the Bretons and the greatest Honour to their Chief The following year 1351. Charles de Blois who had been four years a prisoner in England was released upon ransom giving two of his Sons for hostage till the payment of it and till he had discharged that debt he forbore to take up Arms. The Lords that had been taken prisoners in their attempt upon Calais having been discharged carried on the War with the Mareschal de Beaujeu about the Countrey of St. Omers having upon a time surprized the Lombard that had betraid them they Year of our Lord 1351 caused him to be quartered alive The Earl of Flanders had deny'd to assist at the Kings Coronation because they refused to restore his three Cities to him nevertheless he came to Paris to pay homage for his Lands and renew the Treaty of Confederation Year of our Lord 1352 The Sixth of December hapned the death of Pope Clement VI. Cardinal Stephen d'Albert a Limosin by birth and Bishop of Clermont succeeded him the Eighteenth of the same Month and took the name of Innocent VI. Year of our Lord 1353 King Charles of Navarre his return into the Kingdom brought with it a long train of war and calamities He had all the good qualities that a wicked Soul renders pernicious Wit Eloquence Craft Resolution and Liberality Though he had this year 1353. married Jane one of the Kings Daughters he gave not over from pursuing his pretensions to the Counties of Brie and Champagne and also Angoulesme Charles d'Espagne to whom the King had given this last disswaded him from proffering satisfaction The Navarrois discontented retires to his County of Evreux and understanding that the Constable was in his Castle de l'Aigle he undertakes a thing as base as it was bold He carries with him a hundred Horse men Year of our Lord 1354 scales the Castle it was on the Sixth of January and makes them stab him in his Bed That done he had the insolence to own the fact to justifie himself by Letters to the King and Council and all the good Cities of the Kingdom to raise Forces fortifie his Towns and sollicite all the neighbouring Princes to a League against France Year of our Lord 1354 The King dissembles him and flatters him to draw him to Paris but he will not come till they grant him conditions very advantagious of Lands for the value of Brie and Champagne the independance of his Earldom of Evreux from all others but the King full and free Absolution for those that had murthered the Constable and besides all this a very considerable sum of Money and the Kings Second Son in Hostage Year of our Lord 1354 Upon these Securities he appears in the Parliament of Paris the third day of March The King sitting on his Throne attended by the Pairs the Legat and divers Prelats The criminal having crav'd his pardon in a studied Speech intermixed with complaints and excuses the Constable had order to arrest him only for forms sake and lead him out to the next room while they debated then straightway he was released upon the request of the two Queens the Widdows of Charles the Fair and of Philip de Valois The Legat made him a grave Remonstrance and after all the King declared him Absolv'd Some few days after he retired into Normandy but went immediately without leave of the King and made a journey to Avignon He went ierreting up and down till the English should take the Field whereupon the King enters again into Normandy and seized his Lands but that Prince returning from Navarre by Sea having brought Forces that sacaged all the Countrey and besides it being Year of our Lord 1355 feared the English would soon Land it was thought sitter to make use of kindness Charles the Kings eldest Son soothed him so finely that he was pacified and least in appearance and came with him to Paris The Emperour Charles IV. goes to be Crowned at Rome or rather to be cover'd with shame having made that infamous Contract with the Pope that he would not sojourn so much as one whole day in that City which brought both Year of our Lord 1355 himself and the Empire into the most despicable condition The year following upon the Eleventh of January he made that famous Constitution called the Golden Bull of which the Politicians judge very variously Upon a Shrove-Tuesday night the English by Scalado took the Castle of Nantes and the very same night Guy de Rochefort took it again and hew'd them all in pieces as a reward for their having broken the Truce Gaston Phebus Count de Foix who Married the Sister of the King of Navarre was sent prisoner to the Chastellet at Paris because he refused to hold his Lands of the Year of our Lord 1355 King perhaps it might be those holden of the English But in a Month after he was set at liberty upon condition he should go into Guyenne and command the Kings Army against the Prince of Wales For the Truce was no sooner at an end but that young Prince invested in the Duchy of Guyenne by his Father began to make himself known by ravaging and burnings He made incursions even as far as Beziers and Narbonne without meeting any opposition from the French Commanders the Earl of Foix James de Bourbon Constable Year of our Lord 1355 and John de Clermont who were stronger then his party but too much divided by jealousies amongst themselves His Father at the same time landed at Calais and ran over all the Boulonois and Artois even to Hesdin where he broke through the Park yet could not force the Castle but having intelligence that King John was coming directly to
was almost the only Man who was capable of revenging him for all these Affronts to this end the second day of October he puts the Sword of High Year of our Lord 1370 Constable into his hands which Moreau de Fiennes too much broken with age and toil could bear no longer but gave him few Soldiers that he might only observe the Enemy and not fight them Du Guesclin who had another aim encreased the numbers at his own expence having sold all his Jewels and rich Household Furniture he had gotten in Spain to buy up more Soldiers After he had followed and annoyed the Enemy for some time he had an opportunity to be t up one of their Quarters near the Pont Valain in the Country of Mayne By this means having broke the ice he put them to a rout then defeated them piece after piece till even Knolles himself had much ado to escape Year of our Lord 1371 From thence he turned up into Berry and drove out the English who fled into Poitou cleared Touraine and Anjou and did the like in Limosin and in Rovergne Year of our Lord 1371 He also rendred a most important piece of Service to France having brought the King of Navarre to an Enterview with King Charles In the present posture of Affairs that Prince might have done a great deal of mischief by introducing the English into Constentin where he held Cherbourgh with some other places and into the County of Evreux which was all his own But he being as irresolute as malicious he neither knew how to keep his Faith nor break it to his own advantage Though he had made a Truce the preceding year he still deferr'd the concluding of the Peace by his Artifice In fine he suffers himself to be led to it when he had least need and was contented with the City of Mâ—ntpellier which was put into his possession Upon which Consideration he renounced the English Interest at that time when it would have been more advantage not to do it Year of our Lord 1371 In the year 1367. Pope Vrban V. had made a Voyage to Rome in appearance to give some Orders for the Affairs of Italy but indeed out of anger for that the Army going into Spain had oppressed and extorted a great deal from him After he had staid there two years and an half he returned to Avignon where in short time he died the 19th of December The Cardinals placed in the Holy Chair Peter Roger who was Son to William Earl of Beaufort in Valee and Jane Sister of Pope Clement VI. In the Month of May of this same year David King of Scotland Son of Robert Bruce died without Children Thus that Crown passed into the House of the Stewarts by one Robert who was his Sisters Son He ratifi'd the Truce with the English and prolonged it for thirteen years The Maritine Cities of Flanders being all filled with Merchants had no other Interest to mind but Trade Wherefore neither considering that of their Earl nor Year of our Lord 1371 the Kings they made a League with the English thereby to secure their Commerce which appeared more advantageous from that side then from the French Within a while after the new Constable had re-conquer'd Perigord and Limosin from the English the Prince of Wales though he could not stir but in a Litter draws his Men together at Cognac and went to besiege Limoges His Hurons or Miners of which he had great numbers having thrown down a great part of the Wall into the Ditches the Town was taken by Storm He was so enraged against the Inhabitants that he took cruel Vengeance even upon the very Women and Children above four thousand of them dying by the edge of the Sword This was his last exploit in War afterwards he retired very much indisposed into England where yet he languished three years When he was gone the Affairs of the English ran every day into decay the greatest part of the Lords and Commanders in Guyenne whom his Valour and Bounty tied to his Court going over to the French Year of our Lord 1372 He had left the care of his Affairs to the Duke of Lancaster who stay'd no long time in Guyenne but went over into England to be present in a great Council which was held about the concerns on this side the Water At his departure he Married the Daughter of Peter the Cruel and stiled himself King of Castille his Brother the Earl of Cambridge likewise took the youngest Sister to his Bed Year of our Lord 1372 This was to declare a Mortal War against King Henry who besides being engaged to the Crown of France resolved as well for his own security as out of gratitude to Year of our Lord 1372 serve it with all his power He knew the English were sending an Army into Poitou Commanded by the Earl of Pembrooke he put out a Fleet of forty great Ships to Sea well stored with Canon and Fire-Arms who lay in wait for the Earl of Pembrooke at the chops of the Rochel Channel The Fight lasted two days the Eves-eve and the Eve of St. Johns Feast the Rochellâ—rs looking on in cold blood not to be persuaded by their Governor to go out to the aid of the English who in the end were overcome and all either taken or sunk The Victors carried away the Earl of Pembrooke with the rest of the Prisoners into Spain all laden with Chains This was the Custom both of the Spaniards and Germans towards their Enemies the French and English treated theirs with more generosity and civility ☜ This disaster was the utter ruine of the English Party The Constable besieged Year of our Lord 1372 and took all places with ease After he had help'd the Duke of Berry in reducing St. Severe which was believed to be impregnable he came to take possession of the great City of Poitiers that opened her Arms to him The Commanders that kept the Field were all amazed at it but much more astonished upon the defeat of the Captal de Buch who marching to relieve the City of Soubise situate at the mouth of the Charente sound himself surrounded and taken by the Spaniards whose Fleet hover'd about that Coast No Ransom nor Exchange could persuade the King to set him at liberty a second time he was shut up in a Tower belonging to the Temple at Paris where he died four years after Year of our Lord 1372 The Rochellers could never agree with the English humour scarce compatible with any Nation whatsoever they studied how to withdraw themselves from their Government and for this purpose it was that the Spaniards kept so nigh to favour their design The Castle only hindred them the Mayor bethought himself of a Wyle Having given the Captain a Dinner he presented him certain Letters Sealed with King Edwards Signet out of which he read That they were ordered to make a Muster of the Garison in the Castle and the City Militia There
was nothing of all this in the Letter but the Captain who could not read believed it and drew out the Garison The Mayor had laid an Ambuscade amongst some Ruinous Buildings which cut off his passage and hindred his return Ten or twelve Forelorn Wretches that were left in the Castle Capitulated After this the crafty Rochellers before they would open their Gates to the French made their Treaty with the King and obtained to have the Castle demolished or if we will believe their Memoirs an Amnesty for having demolish'd it before the Treaty Besides this they got so many Priviledges and great Advantages as tended as much towards the putting this City at liberty as for the exchanging their Master After the Constable who represented the King had taken their Oaths of Fidelity he pursued the Conquest of Poitou and Saintonge Most part of the Lords were retired to Touars he laid Siege to it and forc'd them to Capitulate That they should put themselves their Lands and that place under Obedience of the King unless the King of England or one of his Sons did come with an Army strong enough to sight the Besiegers by Michaelmass-day This sort of Composition was practised as long as there was the least faith left amongst Men. It ever included a Cessation of Arms during which the Besiegers taking Hostages of the Besieged raised their Camp and left them all manner of liberty excepting only the admitting more Soldiers into the Garison or to furnish or provide it with Stores Year of our Lord 1372 When King Edward heard of this Capitulation Honour and Necessity rowzing and bringing to his mind the remembrance of his Victories he puts to Sea himself with four hundred Vessels that he might not lose so fine a Country and so many brave Men. But the Winds refused to be serviceable to him upon this occasion they tossed him about for six weeks together and would not afford one favourable gale but what blew him towards his own Ports of England The time being expired the Lords performed the Capitulation after which the Cities of Saintes Angoulesme Saint John d'Angely and generally all the Country even to Bourg and Blaye returned to the Obedience of their Ancient and Natural Soveraign Year of our Lord 1372 John de Montfort Duke of Bretagne looked with fear upon the Prosperity of the French his ancient Enemies and with regret upon the decay of the King of England his Father-in-Law and his Protector but he was not Master in his Dutchy the People would have no more War the haughty humour of the English was not compatible with their Liberty and the Barons dazled with the lustre of de Guesclin and de Clissons Fortune had their Eyes turned upon the Employments and Pensions of the Court of France Thus the Duke was under great constraint If he admitted any English to land upon those Coasts the Common People fell upon them if he quarter'd them in his Garisons the Lords rose up Having placed some in Brest Conquet Kemperle and Henneband they besought the King to send them some Forces to drive them thence and put the Cities into his hands as they did Vennes Renes and divers others The Revenge he would have taken by laying Siege to St. Mahé did but hasten his loss and the Constables march with the Duke of Bourbon Some English Soldiers that he had sent for to strengthen himself withall had the whole Country against them and were all cut in pieces so that although he had some good places left he durst not shut himself in any of them but passed over to England to cry out for help Whilst he was gone the Constable secured them all excepting three Brest Becherel and Derval this last belonged to Knolles he laid Siege to all these at the same time as likewise to la Roche-sur-yon in Anjou This last being farthest off from all Assistance surrendred Brest Becherel and Derval promised to do as much if within a certain prefixed time there appeared not an Army sufficient and that would hold Battle to make the French raise their Siege As for Brest and Derval they saved themselves by this means The Earl of Salisbury was then at Sea to guard the English Coasts against the Spanish Navy Commanded by Evans of Wales whose Father King Edward had put to death to get that Principality Hearing what danger Brest was in he landed in Bretagne encamped and entrench'd himself near that place then sent his Heraulds to the Constable to proclaim that he was come to raise the Siege and expected him there The Constable did not think sit to attaque him in so well fortisied a Post Thus that place was deliver'd At their departure thence Knolles who had defended it threw himself into Derval not thinking himself obliged to stand to the Treaty made by that Garison which cost the Lives of their Hostages and by way of Reprizal the Lives of some Gentlemen whom Knolles had taken Prisoners As for Becherel it held out a whole year at the end whereof no Army appearing on the day prefixed to relieve it it fell into the hands of the French The King of England did not fail of his Guaranty to the Duke of Bretagne he raised an Army of above Thirty thousand Men whom he gave to the Duke of Lancaster to restore that Prince who had the confidence to send defiance to the King of France his Sovereign they landed at Calais the twentieth of July marched thorough and pillaged Artois Picardy Champagne Fores Beaujolois Auvergne and Limosin and descended into Guyenne instead of going into Bretagne as Montfort hoped and expected It was the constant resolution of this wise King not to hazard any great Battle against the English but he ordered his Forces should be lodged every night in some Town should follow the enemy by day and never cease from galling and disturbing them falling upon all straglers and sitting so near their skirts as to keep all Provisions and Forage from them by which means he defeated their great Armies by little and little and made them moulder away to nothing These having been observed and pursued by the Duke of Burgundy as far as Beaujolis and from thence to the Dordogne by the Constable were not only prevented from undertaking any thing considerable but were so much weakned and diminished that scarce six thousand of them got into Bourdeaux Year of our Lord 1373 During this irruption the Duke of Anjou Governour of Languedoc made another much more advantageous into the upper Guyenne He conquer'd several places of little or no name at present but in these days of great importance Two great Judgments a Famine and a * Plague tormented France Italy and England this year 1373. There likewise Reigned especially in the Low Countreys a phrantick passion or phrensie unknown in the foregoing ages Such as were tainted with it being for the most part the scum of the people stript themselves stark naked placed a Garland of
to be carried in Bennets Artifice and his Money had gained some of the Grandees who contrived this for him Year of our Lord 1398 The Earl of Perigord Archambauld Taleyrand tormenting the Countrey with the help of the English to whom he had ally'd himself and especially the City of Perigueux which belonged to the King was forced in his Castle of Montagnac brought to the Parliament and condemned to death The King gave him pardon for his life but bestowed his forfeited Estate upon the Duke of Orleans Archambauld de Grailly Captal de Buch having a Right to the Earldom of Foix as having married the Sister of Earl Matthew dead without Children got into possession of it by the Sword The King would not endure this because he was a Vassal Year of our Lord 1399 to the English and from Father to Son very affectionate to that party He therefore sent the Mareschal de Sancerre who pursued him so close that he was compell'd to desire a Cessation during which he came to the King and submitted himself to the judgment of the Parliament giving up in the mean time his two Sons in Hostage The Parliament declared in his favour conditionally he would relinquish the English and the King put him in possession This was in the year 1400. Year of our Lord 1399 Constantinople was invested by the Turks and in the greatest danger Pera which is as the Suburbs to it and from whence they fetched all their Provisions was very likely to be taken It belonged to the Seignory of Genoa the Mareschal de Boucicaut going thither with only Twelve hundred Men secured it and by consequence the City After he had disengaged all the parts round about and made the Turks retire whom he worsted in several Rencounters his Pay and Soldiers failing him he came into France to sollicite for a greater reinforcement bringing the Emperour along with him leaving the Lord de Chasteaumoran in Constantinople to defend it The discords in the Court of England caused by the ill Government of Richard and the ambition of his Uncles ended in a most Tragical Catastrophe Henry Earl of Derby became Duke of Lancaster by the death of his Father puts King Richard prisoner in the Tower of London Deposed him by the Authority and Consent of Parliament who degraded and condemned him to a perpetual imprisonment Then he took the Crown the Eighteenth day of October and was anointed with a Holy Oyl which some English say was brought by the Virgin Mary to St. Thomas of Canterbury whilst he took refuge in France This Ampoulle or Bottle that contains the Oyl is of Lapis and on the top stands a Golden Eagle enriched with Pearls and Diamonds Notwithstanding this Unction some while afterwards he gives way to the out-cries of the People who demanded that the unfortunate King might be strangled The London Citizens held Richard in execration because he had deliver'd up Brest and Cherbourg to the French The Duke of Bretagne who enjoy'd some repose after the many traverses which Year of our Lord 1399 had disturbed him from his Infancy died the First day of November in the Castle of Nantes He left his Children to the custody not of his Wife Jean of Navarre but of the Duke of Burgundy and Oliver de Clisson who alone were able to trouble them He had three John Arthur and Giles In the Month of November of this year 1399. a Comet was seen of an extraordinary brightness and darting its train towards the West It appeared only for one weeks time and was by Prognosticators held as a sign of those great Revolutions Year of our Lord 1399 that hapned all Chistendom over especially in the Kingdom of Naples and the Empire Lewis of Anjou had peaceably enough enjoy'd the better part of the Kingdom of Year of our Lord 1399 Sicilia when Thomas de Sanseverin Duke de Venousia offended for that he did not conclude upon the Marriage of his Brother Charles Earl of Mayne with his Daughter made him odious to the Neopolitans and introduced Lancelot and his Mother into the City where he was Crowned King and invested by the Pope of Rome So that Lewis having only some Castles left returned into France to crave assistance The Electors could no longer endure the Vices and brutish drunkenness of Year of our Lord 1400 Wenceslaus they degraded him and in his stead elected Henry Duke of Brunswic a generous Prince and great Captain and this Henry being basely assassinated upon his return from the Diet by the Count of Waldeck they substituted Robert Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine who was of the Electoral Colledge The Duke of Milan fearing left he might dispossess him shout up all the passages and hindred him from going to take the Imperial Crown at Rome and Sigismund King of Bohemia having procured himself to be chosen Guardian to Wenceslaus his Brother under this Title made many of the German Princes of his party who adhered to the House of Luxemburgh or rather made this a colourable pretence to avoid the owning any Sovereign Year of our Lord 1400 This year 1400. the Court of France received Emanuel II. Emperour of Greece who came to give the King thanks for his assistance and to crave more help of him He met with all manner of good Entertainment but nothing else unless it were an annual Pension for his subsistence He remained almost two years in France at the and whereof news being brought of the defeat and taking of Bajazeth by Themir-Lanc the King lent him the Lord of Chasteaumorand with two hundred Men at Arms and gave him a sum of Moneyto re-conduct him to Constantinople There was not any thing of advantage presented it self which the Duke of Orleans did not embrace with passion he undertook the quarrel of degraded Wenceslaus Year of our Lord 1401 and raised a good force to restore him but being informed of the ruine of his whole party he came back again The desire to Rule and ambition for Government grew hotter every day betwixt him and the Duke of Burgundy Twice had they displaced each other from that advantageous Post and besides the Burgundian resented it highly that the Duke of Orleans would have the Duke of Bretagne to be thrust out of all who was his Wives Cousin-german and his own surest friend The frequent punctillo's between their Wives exasperated them more than their own true interests the Duke of Burgundy's being the elder Heiress of a vast Estate and sprung from very Noble Blood despising the other who in truth had been much beneath her had she not been considered as Wife of the Kings only Brother Year of our Lord 1401. and 2. The Duke of Orleans had then the upper hand and was seized of the management of Affairs the Burgundian could not quit his part both the one and the other got their friends together and Paris was surrounded with Soldiers The Orleannois had called in the Duke of Guelders with Five hundred
relished that he should upon any occasion assume the Authority to bestow the Order of Knighthood upon a Gentleman He resolved to erect the Earldom of Savoy to a Dutchy for Ame VIII and divers Authors tell us he had made choice of the City of Lyons for that purpose Year of our Lord 1416 but the Kings Officers let him know it would not be suffered wherefore he performed the Ceremony at the Castle of Montluel in Bresse out of the Territories of the Kingdom However the Letters Patents for the said Erection are dated from Chamberry the Nineteenth of February It is fit we observe that ever since the time of the Carlian Race the Title of Count or Earl was as eminent as that of Duke and it seems the Grandees liked it better since we find some who having Dutchies yet took the names only of Counts Such in France was the Count of Toulouze who held the Dutchies of Septimania and Narbonne and the Earl of Savoy did the same though he had the Dutchies of Chablais and Aouste which he did not omit amongst his Titles But as Men who in length of time change their humours and fancies had an imagination that there was something greater in the Title of Duke Ame VIII Earl of Savoy was willing to have that Title given to the Earldom he bore the name of Year of our Lord 1416 France met with nothing but misfortune upon misfortune the defeat of the Constable before Harfleur which he besieged then of the Naval Forces upon that Coast the continual Incursions of the Burgundian Troops the death of the Duke of Berry who was the only Person that could have allayed these Disorders the King of Englands second landing this was at Tonques with the loss of divers places in Normandy taken by his Forces Besides all this the earnest endeavours of both Parties to make an Alliance with him but the Burgundian with most industry and forwardness enraged that they had thrust him out of the Government and the Earl of Hainault his Cousin to get a support for the Dauphin John his Son in Law whom the Orleans Faction would deprive of his Birthright to prefer and advance Charles Earl of Pontieu his younger Brother Year of our Lord 1416 The new Governor rendred himself daily more odious by Exactions without measure equality or justice laid upon the Clergy as well as the Laity for which reason the Parisians heartily desired the Burgundians return and indeed there was a Plot discovered to have let in his Forces The chief Conspirators paid down their Heads for it the rest were imprisoned all who were suspected banished even Members of the Parliament and University the Burghers Arms seized upon their Chains taken away and the Butchers Company abolished Year of our Lord 1417 The passion for Government did so far transport the Burgundian that he Conferr'd with the King of England at Calais and renewed the Truce for his Countries only which was in some manner an obligation not to assist the King at all From thence retiring to Valenciennes he had confidence with Duke William Earl of Hainault and the new Dauphin his Son in Law They sware mutual assistance against all their Enemies So the Dauphin declared himself against the Armagnacs and promised the Duke he would never return to Court till he carried him along with him It was therefore resolv'd that the Earl of Hainault should go thither to treat of those Affairs but should leave the Dauphin at Compeigne Not being able to obtain the recalling of the Burgundian he threatned to carry back the Dauphin home with him whereupon they intended to detain him till he had given up the Dauphin but having private notice he craftily made his escape But they secur'd themselves of the Dauphin another but a more wicked way by giving him Poyson of which he died the eighteenth of April Charles his Brother a sworn Enemy to the House of Burgundy succeeded to the Title of Dauphin and of Duke de Touraine and which is more to a right of inheriting the Crown to the great satisfaction and joy of the Duke of Anjou his Father in Law who was mightily suspected to have had some hand in the removal of the two eldest out of the World that his Son in Law might Reign Year of our Lord 1417 But his joy was not long lived dying in the following Month of August He left three Sons Lewis Rene and Charles the two first had successively the Titles of King of Sicilia Charles was Earl of Maine The Kings Person the Dauphin and the City of Paris were in the hands of the Constable d'Armagnac the Queen only was some kind of counterpoise to his Power They living with much freedom and licence in her Family it was easie for the Constable Year of our Lord 1417 to fill the Kings head with jealousies against this Princess so that he commanded one named Bouredon to be taken thence and thrown into the River as a Party concerned in those Intrigues and afterwards sent away the Queen his Wife as it were a Prisoner to Tours She could never be brought to forgive him this injury nor even the Dauphin her own Son it being by his consent although he were not then above the age of Sixteen years The Queens confinement the lamentable death of the two Dauphins the displacing of a great many Officers the plundering of all the open Country by the unpaid Soldiers the depredations of the Armagnac's who robbed the very Shrines in the Churches furnished the Burgundian with specious Pretences to publish his Manifesto's and to send to all the chief Cities to desire they would be assisting towards the restoring the King to his liberty The most part of those in Champagne and Picardy with the Isle of France received him with open Arms because he put down all Subsidies However all was nothing unless he could get into Paris he marched round about it approaching or going farther off for two Months together according to the Advice he had from his Friends that were in the place Whilst he was besieging Corbeil he goes away in haste to Tours with some Troops of Horse and having had a Conference with the Queen at Marmoustier whither she was come purposely under a pretence of taking the Air he brought her with him to Troyes From that time she claimed the Regency Year of our Lord 1417 In so favourable a juncture the King of England failed not to push on his Affairs Caen Bayeux Coutance Carenian Lisieux Falaise Argentan Alenson and in fine the greatest part of Normandy surrendred themselves up to him without scarce a blow given excepting Cherbourgh which defended it self three Months and yet the Constable chose rather to see the Kingdom lost then his Authority and the Burgundian consented rather to have it dismembred by the English then governed by his Enemy In Germany there were several Companies of Vagabonds began to strowle about having no Riligon no Law no Country or Habitation their Faces
Nicholas d'Outrecour was forced to retract from sixty Articles which he had framed upon divers Heads of Philosophy and Divinity owning them to be false and Heretical and the Books wherein they were contained were ordered to be torn and thrown into the Fire The year 1369. a Frier Minor named Denis Soulechat had taught some errors concerning the renouncing of Temporal Goods and about Charity and the perfection of Love which being condemned by the Faculty of Divinity he appealed to the Pope who confirmed their Judgment and sent him back to Paris to retract them in the presence of John de Dormans Cardinal Bishop of Beauvais The great Plague which reigned over the whole Earth about the middle of this Age begot a Spiritual one which was the Sect of Flagellants which taking birth in Hungary spread it self in short time over Poland Germany France and England They carried a Cross in their Hands and wore a Capouch on their Heads were naked to their Wast scourged themselves twice a day and once in the night with knotted Cords stuck with sharp pointed Rowels prostrating themselves upon the ground in form of a Cross crying out for Mercy Each Band had their Chief These Pious beginnings degenerated into Heresie by their own pride and their herding with the Begards Rascals and all sorts of idle People They affirmed that their Blood was united in such manner to the Blood of Christ that it had the same vertue and that after thirty days scourging all their Sins were remitted both as to the guilt and punishment so that they did not care for the Sacraments This phrensy lasted a great while in the subsequent Age and neither the Censures of the Church nor the Writings of Learned Doctors nor the Edicts of their Princes could purge the Brain of these melancholy Zealots There started up another sort of Hereticks that were more pleasant but more infamous withall in Dauphine and Savoy they were called Turlupins These lived without any shame like the Cynick Philosophers prayed not but with their hearts and believed that Men who were perfect ought to have a liberty of Spirit not subject to any Law That Opinion which Pope John XXII endeavoured to set up touching the state of the Soul till the day of Judgment had it seems been very common in the foregoing Ages but the World had examined and consider'd it better so that for a long while it had passed for an error The University therefore corrected the Holy Father in that point and he not only desisted from it himself but likewise gave a publick Act of his Retraction whether upon King Philip de Valois his threats who sent a Message to him in these very words That if he did not retract he would have him burnt or rather his being better satisfied in the Point The grand Assemblies being formidable to all such as govern by absolute Authority rather then by Law there were very few Councils in this Age. I have told you to what end that of Vienne was held Anno 1311. some will have it a General one because Pope Clement V. presided there and it consisted of a great number of Bishops and Prelats In the year 1318. Robert de Courtenay Archbishop of Reims convened one at Seulis where his eleven Suffragants were in Person or by their Proxies They there pronounced Excommunication against all those that were Usurpers or Detainers of the Churches Goods The Eighteenth of June of the year 1326. the Archbishops of Arles Aix and Embrun assembled the Prelats of their Provinces in the Abby of St. Ruf near Avignon to labour for the reformation of Manners the establishment of Discipline the preservation of Ecclesiastical Immunities and the Hierarchial Authority over the Regulars Anno 1337. there was another at the same place and from the same Provinces which treated about the same things Pope Bennet XII presided there That of Lavaur in the year 1368. composed of three Provinces Narbona Toulouze and Ausch and convened by the Authority of Pope Vrban V. had for their chief aim the reformation of Manners We must not omit that in the year 1377. King Charles V. used his intercession to Pope Gregory XI to order it so that the Bishoprick of Paris might be no longer subject to the Metropolis of Sens and that it might be honoured with the Pall like the other Bishopricks in France His Holiness excused himself as to the first point as a thing too prejudicial to the Church of Sens whereof Clement VI. his Uncle had been Archbishop and where himself had held one of the highest Dignities but for the second he willingly granted it However we do not find that the Bishops of Paris ever thought of making use of it Charles VII King LIII POPES MARTIN V. Eight years five Months under this Reign EUGENIUS IV. Elected the 15th of March 1431. S. sixteen years NICOLAUS V. Elected the 12th of March 1447. S. eight years wanting twelve days CALIXTUS III. Elected in April 1455. S. three years three Months PIUS II. Aeneas Silvius Elected the 19th of August 1458. S. six years whereof four under this Reign CHARLES VII Called the Vctorious King LIII Aged Twenty years eight Months Year of our Lord 1422 THE Dauphin was at the Castle of Espailly near du Puy in Auvergne when he received the news of the death of his Father The first day he put himself into Mourning the second he Cloathed himself in Scarlet and after he had heard Mass in the same Chappel made them set up the Banner of France upon sight whereof all those Lords that were then present with Pennons of their Arms cried out Vive le Roy The English and the Burgundian held the best Provinces of France they had Normandy entirely and all that is between the Scheld even to the Loire and the Saosne excepting some few places which Charles had yet here and there As for his part he had only all that lies beyond the Loire excepting Guyenne but then he had all the Princes of the Blood on his side the Burgundian excepted the best Captains and the bravest Adventurers or Volunteers as the Bastard of Orleans Taneguy du Chastel James and John de Harcour Lewis de Culan Lewis de Gaucour the Mareschals de la Fayete de Rieux de Severac de Boussac Poton de la Hire Stephen de Vignoles-Saintrailles Ambrose de Lore William de Barbasan called the Knight without reproach and a great many others and indeed he purchased them at a dear rate for he was constrained to engage his Castles and the best part of his Demeasnes in pawn for them Now because during his first years he commonly resided in Berry his Enemies nick-named him in raillery the King of Bourges Year of our Lord 1422 In the beginning of November he was Crowned at Poitiers whither he had transfer'd his Parliament The accident that hapned to him at Rochel some days before was a kind of presage that he should fall into extream dangers but yet
of all these was Lonvet the President of Provence who had an ambition to govern in despite of all the Grandees He chose rather to be the ruine of his Master whom he had strangely fetter'd then to be thrust away from him so that Year of our Lord 1425 he found means by his contrivances to animate him against the Constable but the Constable made his Party so good that the King found himself abandoned of all the Grandees and all his places refused obedience to him excepting Selles and Vierzon Then he saw it was high time to discharge Louvet and all the rest Taneguy generously sacrificing his fortune to serve his King begged leave to be gone as his Reward Louvet upon his retreat as his Master-piece of Court-craft put the Lord de Gyac in his place The Constable had no little ado to reconcile himself to the King who fled before him that he might not see him At length he suffers him to approach that he might get assistance of the Breton Who being in the end satisfied by the expulsion of his Enemies came to him at Saumur rendred him Homage and gave him his Contract and the Contracts of all the Lords within his Dutchy under Hand and Seal commanding them to go upon his Service They did him but little good but they might Year of our Lord 1425 have done him a great deal of hurt The Seventh of September Charles the Noble King of Navarre ended his Life Blanch his only Daughter Married to John the Brother of Alphonso King of Arragon was his Heiress Year of our Lord 1424 and 25. As on the one hand these Broils prejudiced the Affairs of King Charles on the other hand the Quarrel which hapned between the Duke of Burgundy and the Duke of Gloucester about Jacqueline Countess of Hainault and the Duke of Brabant her lawful Husband did much retard nay set back those of the English forasmuch as it diverted the Forces of those two Princes who would undoubtedly have wholly subdued France had they joyned them to the Duke of Bedfords Jacqueline would not endure that the Duke of Brabant whom she affirmed was nothing to her should enjoy her Lands and the Duke of Gloucester who had Married her did serve and assist her in that Quarrel The Duke of Bedford desiring not to distaste the Duke of Burgundy endeavour'd to patch up some agreement between the Parties the Duke of Brabant submitted but Gloucester regarded it not but still pursued the right of his pretended Wife with Sword in hand Year of our Lord 1424 and 25. He and the Burgundian pickered by Letters and went on so far as to defie each other to a Personal Combat agreeing upon the time the place and the Weapons The Duke of Bedford having assembled the chiefest of the French and English Lords brought that Challenge to nothing and declared that there was no just or legal cause for Combat And to testifie to the Burgundian that he had no hand in the Enterprizes of his Brother he desired they might see one another at Dourlens as they did upon the Eve of St. Peters day This did not hinder them from making a brisk War in Holland where the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Burgundy tried their Forces but at two years end the Pope having declared that the Marriage of Jacqueline with the Duke of Gloucester was of no value that Prince desisted from his prosecution and Married a Damlet whom he entertain'd Year of our Lord 1425 The English had taken and fortified the City of Pontorson nigh Auranches from whence they perpetually molested Bretagne the Constable laid siege to it and regained it in a short time He was not so happy at Saincte James de Beuveron which they had repaired His Soldiers having forsaken him for want of their pay he made a shameful retreat and left all his Artillery and Equipage to the Enemy Pontorson was afterwards besieged by the English and having surrender'd the Duke of Bedford came to the Frontiers of Bretagne with a great Army upon which the Duke was so astonished that he renounced the Alliance he had made with France returned to that with England and promised to do Homage to King Henry The shocks great Captains meet with does often times proceed from the malice Year of our Lord 1426 and envy of those that are of the Kings Council whose care and province it is to provide for the subsistance and payment of the Armies The Constable knew that Gyac was the cause of his disaster because in stead of sending him Money he stop'd the current from running that way and diverted it to his own use and entertained his Prince in solitude and private pleasures that he alone might enjoy his Person and his Favours For this reason in the Month of January following he went with a strong hand to surprize him in his Bed at Issoudun and after some slight formalities of Justice caused his Head to be cut off or as others relate drowned him Year of our Lord 1426 Another Gentleman named le Camus de Beaulieu undertook to supply the place of Gyâ—c and tread in his footsteps some while after People were amazed to see the Constable rid himself of him as he had done of the other The Mareschal de Bouslac by his order slew him in the open Street and almost in the Kings sight in the City of Poitiers He remembred too well what the Favourites had contrived at Montereau and against the Duke his Brother wherefore he would suffer none to be near the King of whom he was not well assured he therefore places the Lord de la Trimouille at Court whom he judged to have sentiments contrary to the two former his House owing all their good fortunes and rise to the Dukes of Burgundy But this Man soon blinded with his new fortune as well as those whose post he now had taken he kept the Princes as much at distance as he possibly could so that even the Constable himself retired into Bretagne This proceeded to a kind of a War which divided the Court and retarded all the Kings Affairs for seven or eight Months Year of our Lord 1426 and 27. It would be endless to take notice of all the Sieges Fights and Enterprizes in these Wars both Foreign and Domestick There was not a City or Burrough but had Garrisons Forts and Castles were built in all convenient places upon Hills on Rivers in narrow ways and in the open Fields Every Lord had his Soldiers or to speak more properly his Bands of Robbers who maintained themselves by feeding on the poor Country People I shall therefore mention only the most remarkable Events in this place that the French raised the Siege of Montargis in the year 1426. and the year after recovered the City of Manse which had been taken by the English during the divisions of the Court. The Siege of Orleance was yet much more memorable and more important The Year of our Lord 1428 Earl of
the last Will of King Edward and the Opinion of the Great Officers who are ever of the same mind as their Soveraign Jane was designed and appointed to be Queen and after the Death of Edward proclaimed and received in the Tower of London and Mary being the weaker retired into the County of Norsolk But as the people of Ranks and Degrees in the Kingdom were displeased at the great wrong done hereby to the Lawful Heirs and the Spanish Gold and Catholique Party stirred them mightily against it a world of the Nobility and Soldiery flocked from all quarters to Mary So that when the Duke of Northumberland Year of our Lord 1553 Marched with some Forces to go and take her and disperse those Assemblies it hap'ned that the same Officers and Counsellors of State who had allotted the Crown to Jane took and held her Prisoner after which most of those that were with the Duke forsook him and some that staid seized upon his person and carried him to London Year of our Lord 1553 and 1554. Some time after Mary came thither and made her entrance into the Tower the possession whereof was then necessary to such as were to be owned Kings of England When She was once absolute Mistress She cemented her Throne with the Blood of Jane her Husbands her Fathers and almost all her Kindred and after that She spilt much more to restore the Catholick Religion which brought the Estate into such Convulsions as had like to prove mortal and all for an advantage of a short duration The more She establisht and fixed her Authority the more Philip Prince of Spain pressed the consummation of his Marriage with her Though She had very great imperfections both of Body and Mind being infirm ugly and old nevertheless he had conceived some love not for her Person but for her Kingdom On the contrary the King turned every Stone in private and laid every rub in his way to prevent him from attaining his ends but Philips Party acting more bare-fac'd and with the charming Power of Money proved stronger then all those private obstacles the King could contrive against it So that he was betrothed by Proxie the Ninth of June and himself passing over into that Country with Six Thousand Souldiers Married her the Five and Twentieth of July a day he expresly designed as being the Feast of Saint James the Patron of Spain He staid in England till the Month of April of the following year and was Spectator of the Tragick Actions of his Wife to revenge her self for the Conspiracies were hatched hourly against her some upon the score of her Religion others in hatred of her Marriage All this year till the Month of June there had been as it were a tacite suspension of Arms between the King and the Emperor during which Cardinal Pool near of kindred to Mary whom the Pope was sending to England as his Legate to re-establish the Catholique Religion had undertaken to Treat the Peace He had got both their words that they would reciprocally lay aside many of their pretensions but when the Bell was to be sounded each of them stood up stiffer and at a greater distance then ever before The Emperor would willingly have accepted of a Truce and it would have been very advantageous to him by giving the Low-Countries time to settle and if we may so say to soulder themselves with England but for the same reasons it was not so to the King and moreover his Honour nor Interest would allow him to suffer the Siennois to be excluded as the Emperor did absolutely require Besides he had Information that the Emperor was very much indisposed both in Body and Mind that the Gout had deprived him of the use of one Arm and contracted the Sinews of one Leg that the same cause that made him impotent in his Members joyned to the bad success of his Affairs and perhaps complicated with some relicts of his Mothers Frenzy had so invaded his Brain that he could seldom sleep and did nothing else almost by day and night but take Clocks and Watches asunder and put them together again his Chamber being full of them Upon these reports which were for the most part true the King thought he should have an easie bargain of it and took a resolution of carrying the War into his Country He therefore set on Foot an Army of Fifty Thousand Men and divided them into three Bodies Commanded one by the Constable another by the Duke of Vendosme and the third by the Mareschal de Saint André the two last having taken some Forts of little concern joyned with the Constable before Marienburgh which had surrendred to him Some years before Marienburgh was but a little Village where Queen Mary made her Rendezvous for hunting The Situation seemed so pleasant and so convenient to her that She built a new Town there The King having it in his hands went on to fortifie it and to make the Road more secure from thence to the little City of Maubert-Fontaine which is the nearest towards France he likewise fortified the Villa ge of Rocroy Year of our Lord 1554 After he had well provided for Marienburgh he went and joyned the Duke of Nevers who had pierced through all the Ardennes he met him near Givets these are two Burroughs so named just opposite to each other upon the Banks of the Meuse From thence he went to Besiege Bovines whilst the Duke Besieged Dinan Bovines was sacked for having dared to withstand an assault of an Army Royal Dinan capitulated and they put Two Thousand Men in there to preserve it from the violence of the skulking Souldiers but in the night the Germans angry they were robb'd of their Pillage scaled the Walls broke open the Gates and put both the Garrison and Inhabitants to the edge of the Sword Perhaps they were not overmuch concerned at it because they had returned a brutish and most insolent Answer when they were Summoned on behalf of the King Then the Emperor finding himself much better in health takes the Field the King desiring to engage him in Battel assaults forces and razes a great number of Towns and Castles Maubege Bavay famous for its Antiquity Mariemont a Castle of pleasure of Queen Maries and the little City of Bins with the magnificent Castle which She had built He caused these two last places to be burnt to be reveng'd for their having set fire to his Royal House of Folembray There was a personal hatred betwixt these two for certain slighting and spiteful words and I know not what kind of Songs which had been made on either side After he had thus over-run and ravaged Brabant Hainault Cambresis and the Country of Namur he entred upon Artois and Besieged the Castle of Renty which did great injury to the Country of Boulonnois The Emperor came to relieve it and to put some into the place with the more ease would have seized upon a Wood the situation whereof must have been
each other Philip on the River of Antie and Henry along the Somme They lay there almost three Months without having any other Ren-contre besides one Skirmish because they were then upon propositions for an Accommodation The Popes Nuncios made the first mention of it the Constable and the Mareschal de Saint André whose favour was in a languishing condition at Court got Philip to give some Ear to it making use for that purpose of the interest of the Duke of Savoy who could no way be restored to his Estates but by a Peace Christierne Dutchess of Lorrain equally obliged to either King as Aunt to the first and nearly Allied to the second having newly given her Daughter Claudia to the Duke his Son promoted it with much industry and went with all the Messages to and fro so that at length she brought it to a Conference between their Deputies where her self and her Son assisted as Mediators Which proved a great reputation and honour to them both in all the Courts of Christendom Two Months before which was in October the Constable was freed from his imprisonment upon his parole and came to wait upon the King at Amiens who received him with inexpressible demonstrations of affection even to the making him lye in his own Bed It is said that this Lord having had notice the Kings affection towards him declined very much recover'd it again by the Credit of the Dutchess of Valentinois he seeking her Alliance and treating of a Match between his Son Danville with Antoinetta Daughter of Robert de la Mark and Frances de Brezé who was the Daughter of that Dutchess He had already agreed with the Spaniards on all the Articles of Peace but fearing lest he might alone be charged with the reproach of a Treaty so disadvantageous he contrived it so that the King upon the winding of it up should joyn with him the Cardinal Lorrain Mareschal de Saint André John de Morvillier Bishop of Orleans and Claude de l'Aubespine Secretary of State The Conference began in the Abbey of Cercamp the fifteenth of October and from that time the two Kings dismissed their Forces The difficulty concerning Calais was the greatest Remora Queen Mary would by all means have it again the King would needs keep it Thereupon that Princess hap'ned to dye without Year of our Lord 1558 any Children of a Dropsie caused by her infinite grief for the loss of that place and the little esteem her Husband had for her The fifteenth of November was the day of her decease and the sixteenth that of the Cardinal Pool her dear Cousin who had taken great pains to restore the Catholick Religion in England About this time the two Princes made a Truce for two Months then their Deputies parted Elizabeth succeeded Mary pursuant to the Will of Henry VIII Philip did yet for some time carry on the interest of Elizabeth then abandoned them lest they should prejudice his own He had likewise some design of Marrying her or at least to get her for his Uncle Ferdinand's second Son but the King who had great reason to hinder that Alliance and not suffer Elizabeth to take that Crown which he believed did belong to his Sons the Dausins Wife so ordered it that the Pope received the Envoy sent by that Princess to him but ill and treated her as illegitimate This injury made her determine openly to embrace the Religion of the Protestants who made no doubts concerning her and to repeal all Acts made by Mary and corroborate and revive those of Edward and put them in force Year of our Lord 1559 The Deputies from the two Crowns met again towards the end of January at Cateau in Cambresis where in few days they came to a final agreement on all the Articles Elizabeth fearing to be left alone sent her Deputies thither also By the Treaty between France and Spain that of Crespy and the preceding were confirmed The two Kings mutually restored all they had taken from each other for eight years past The King restored the Duke of Savoy to all his Lands and Estates yet still reserved the right he had but whilst that could be examined by Commissioners on either part which was to be done within three years time he kept by way of pawn or Security Turin Pignerol Quiers Chivas and Villeneuve of Ast Moreover he quitted all those he held in Tuscany to the Duke of Florence and those in Corsica to the Genoese gave his Sister Margaret in Marriage to the Duke of Savoy with Three Hundred Thousand Crowns in Gold and his Daughter Isabella to King Philip with Four Hundred Thousand The people who always desire Peace at what price soever testified a great deal of joy The Constable and the Mareschal de Saint André stood in need of it to recover their former favour which was in the wain but the Guisian party the sage Politiques the whole Nobility highly blamed it as a manifest juggle or Cheat whereby France was looser of one hundred ninety and eight strong places for three only which were given them these were Han le Catelet and Saint Quentin When Queen Elizabeth found the Treaty went forward and the Deputies for King Philip who pretended to mannage her concerns but acted very coldly obtained nothing for her advantage or interest She would needs Treat upon her own single account She got little more by it It was agreed that the King should either render up Calais to her and the re-conquer'd Country or if he liked it better pay her the Sum of Five Hundred Thousand Crowns which being referred to his own choice there was no doubt but he would keep that place which is the Key of his Kingdom During the Treaty the Spaniards God knows for what design exhorted the King very zealously to exterminate the new Sectaries and hinted that there were many of them even in his Court its self and of great quality amongst others Dandelot about whom they found some Books of that sort when they took him at Saint Quentin Upon which the King sent for him and asked him what he thought of the Mass Dandelot made him a very criminal reply which enraged him so greatly that he was almost in the mind to have kill'd him He commanded him to be made a Prisoner and put Blaise de Montluc into his Office a creature of the Duke of Guises The Constable his Uncle had very much ado to get him out of Prison and restore him It was suspected to be the Effect of a certain Conference held between the Cardinal de Lorrain and the Cardinal de Granvelle that by this Stratagem the first had a design to weaken the Constable by ruining his Nephews or to render Year of our Lord 1559 him suspected of Heresie if he protected them and that the other had a design of Setting the great Families of France to Daggers-drawing and of stirring up a Faction by making the Religionaries grow desperate believing they would joyn in a body
When he had consider'd therefore that it was a foolish enterprize to take Paris for Corbeil he decamped the 12th day of December and took his March towards Normandy to joyn with the English who were at Havre and receive some English Money to pay his Germans ready to Mutiny The Triumviri followed him so close that at his seventh or eighth halt the two Armies found themselves engaged to give Battel near the City of Dreux the twentieth of December In the beginning the Huguenots had some advantage they defeated the main Battel of the Catholicks took part of their Cannon and even the Constable being wounded with a Pistol Bullet in the Face but they afterwards falling upon the Baggage and their gross of Reserve which consisted of twelve hundred Reistres disbanding likewise to get their share the Catholicks had their full revenge The Duke of Guise in appearance commanded only his Company of Gentdarmes and a Body made up of some friends of his who were Voluntiers and yet his desert and quality made his advice and counsel pass for Orders The Mareschal de Saint André led the Van-Guard the Duke who stood on a rising Ground and reserv'd himself for the Crowning of that Day beholding the Enemies scatter'd and scarce keeping any order detached some parties from that Body to charge the Infantry who were defrauded of their Cavalry then Marching himself turned upon their Horse and put them to the rout The Prince of Condé who never gave Ground was taken Prisoner by Danville the Constables second Son the Reisters trotted away into a Neighbouring Wood the Admiral joyned them with Four Hundred Horse whom he had rallied and with these was resolved if the Germans had but had so much courage to have begun the Charge afresh the next day They Counted Eight Thousand dead upon the place as many almost of the one party as of the other The Field of Battel remained to the Duke of Guise who did not judge it fitting to pursue the Admiral but left him to make his retreat towards Orleans whither they caused the Constable immediately to be carried fearing he might be rescued from them In the Fight the Mareschal de Saint André being by a great Body of Horse made Prisoner of War while he pursued the Victory too eagerly was kill'd with a Pistol-shot by a Cavalier named Bobigny-Meziere Son of a Register belonging to Paris whom he had used too ruggedly in some Ren-contre The Duke of Guise rendred all imaginable honour to the Prince of Condé they supped and lay together with so many demonstrations of amity that one would have guessed they had laid aside and forgotten all their quarrels to live together like Cousin-Germains as they were in intire confidence as they had before done under the Reign of Henry II. When the main Battel of the Royal Army was first defeated there were some run-aways that rode Whip and Spur even to Paris Proclaiming that all was lost Of these was d'Ossun who had acquir'd the name of brave in the Wars of Italy and indeed the rage he fell into afterwards when he found his mistake had so betray'd his courage as to blemish the Lustre of all his former Actions himself condemned himself to death and underwent the execution of his own Sentence by an obstinate resolution never to eat or drink more Upon the first news the Dutchess of Guise who had a numerous Court about her found her self abandoned in a moment and as for the Queen without being overmuch moved or concerned She only said well we must then pray to God in French began highly to caress those that were friends to the Prince and the Novel Opinions But next day the contrary being certified by a Cloud of Eye-Witnesses Letters from the principal Officers the crowd about the Dutchess of Guise was greater Year of our Lord 1562 then ever the Huguenot Cabal play'd the Diver the Catholick one took the upper-hand and clapp'd their wings and crowed the Queen ordered Bon-fires to be made though with some reluctance and gave with all the apparent willingness she could counterfeit the command of the Army to the Duke of Guise on whom the Army themselves had already conferr'd it Year of our Lord 1563. January In like manner the Princes Army intreated the Admiral to accept of the Office of General When he had refreshed himself for some days at Paray he descended into Vendosmois and crossing the Loire at Baugency lodged his Men in the Countries of Soulogne and in Berry where he knew the Duke of Guise would have Lodged his in order to the Siege of Orleans which was resolved upon Having left his Brother Dandelot in the City with Two Thousand Soldiers as many Inhabitants well arm'd and a great number of Nobility he repassed the Loire at Gergeau and takes his way towards Normandy In that Country he ransomed divers little Towns for Sums to entertain his Men received the Money from England and Muster'd his Forces Being invited by the Huguenots of Caen he besieged the Castle wherein was the Duke of Elboeuf Brother of the Duke of Guise and N. de Bailleul Renouard whom he had taken at discretion had not the important news from Orleans obliged him to return that way Year of our Lord 1563. February and March The Duke of Guise had laid Siege to it the sixth day of February 1563. The Queen was at Bangency and had shut up the Prinâ—e whom she still lugg'd along with her in the Castle of Onzain Already the Suburbs were lost with â—ight hundred of the besieged already the Bridge-Tower was gained and the Huguenots in such consternation they could expect no help but some sudden blow from Heaven or from Hell when a Gentleman named John Poltrot Meré prompted by a fatal and detestable Zeal for the defence of his Religion watching his opportunity when the Duke of Guise who had been to meet his Wife returned to the Siege mounted upon a Mule and slenderly attended shot him with a Pistol into the shoulder whereof he died six days after In so much reputation even amongst his Enemies as to be allowed the most generous Prince of his time and the best head in Christendom endued with all the heroick vertues and scarce tainted with any vice either as Prince or Courtier The Murtherer after he had rid hard all night thinking he was far enough from thence found himself by day-break at the Bridg d'Olivet his Horse being tyred he went into a House to repose himself where the same Morning he was taken by one of that Dukes Secretaries Interrogated what were the Motives who the Instigators made him commit that Crime he said as to the first his zeal for Religion had push'd him on to destroy him whom he judg'd to be their Persecutor touching the other point he varied much accusing sometimes one sometimes another but in all his Answers and Confessions and at his very death he taxed the Admiral That Lord to little purpose purged
Rochellers and a Hundred Thousand Angelots with some Cannon and many Thousand weight of Powder sent them by Queen Elizabeth upon the instance of the Cardinal de Chastillon Year of our Lord 1568 But their Piracy made them a greater and a more lasting fund the Prince inciting both by honour and profit some of the ablest Citizens of Rochel they equipped a small Fleet of Nine Vessels and some Frigats who went out to make prize of the trading Ships belonging to Bretagne Normandy and Flanders having the Ports of England to friend whether they might with security shelter â—hemselves and the Prey they gained which shewed that Queen did by consequence approve the Huguenots taking Armes and engaged in their cause against the King Both Parties had sent to have Men raised in Germany the one in the Countries of the Catholick Princes the others inthe Protestants those for the King were soonest ready Which were Five Thousand Five Hundred Horse Commanded by divers Captains of whom Frederic Marquis of Baden the Rhinegrave Philip and Christopher de Bassompierre were the principal The Princes Levies were conducted by Wolfang de Bavaria Duke of Duke-Ponts The Duke of Aumale with Six Thousand Men and the Duke of Nemours who was gone to joyn him with the Catholick Forces of Lyonnois and the Countries adjacent had orders to stay in Lorrain to hinder his passage Year of our Lord 1569. March The Sharpest Frosts being over the King's Army Commanded by the Duke of Anjou and that of the Princes we shall call it so since all Orders were given in the names of the Princes took the Field again The Royal one was newly reinforced with Three Thousand Men brought by the Count of Tendes from Daufiné that belonging to the Princes was Marching to meet the Troops of the Vicounts conducted by Piles The Duke of Anjou who from Conflans in Limosin had passed Vienne to come Vertueil knowing they marched to Cognac for that purpose and that as soon as they had joyned with those they would return towards the Loire to wait the Succours of the Duke of Deux-ponts resolved to get the Start of them and pass over the Charente The Huguenots held the Bridges of Jarnac and Chasteau-neuf and their Forces were lodged much at large in the Country along the River side The Duke not able to gain Jarnac at first brush went to Chasteau-neuf There were but Fifty Men in it who immediately surrendred Armand de Gontaud Biron repaires the Bridge with such diligence that half the Kings Army were got over by break of day which was the Thirteenth of March. The Admiral having notice sent Orders to his Foot and Baggage to file off before towards the Burrough of Bassac whilst the Horse could draw together from their distant quarters The sluggish delay of some Troops who were not on Horse-back till about Nine a Clock engaged them to the Combat La Noüe who closed up the Rear-Guard with Four Hundred Horse was rudely handled at the first Charge Dandelot did second him but yet at the second which was much fiercer he was beaten off his Horse and taken In the mean while the Royalists having made themselves Masters of Bassac the Admiral sent word to the Prince who was retreating with his Van-Guard that he wanted his presence and the Prince who never â—an from danger came back upon a round Trot. He fell stoutly upon the first he met but when all the Kings Army was come up he was surrounded His Horse being wounded falling under him he presented his Gantlet to a Couple of Gentlemen Argence and Sainct Jean who gave him their Faith Having set him down at the Foot of a Bush his Leg being broken with a kick of a Horse comes Montesquiou upon a hand Gallop Captain of the Duke of Anjou's Guards who had left his Master to do this worthy exploit and kills him with his Pistol This act which in the midst of the Scuffle would have appeared brave being done in cold blood was looked upon by good Men as an execrable parricide and worthy the punishment due to such as attempt any of the Royal blood The Duke of Anjou neither blamed nor owned it but suffer'd the Princes Corps to be carried whether by chance or in derision upon a she Ass to Jarnac He afterwards gave it to the Prince of Bearn his Nephew who caused it to be Interred in the Sepulchre of his Ancestors at Vendosme After his death the Royalists gave the Huguenots chace till Night approached but there being none but the Cavalry engaged the Slaughter was not so considerable as the Victory There fell not above Six Hundred of the Princes Party amongst whom were above an Hundred Gentlemen and Twelve or Fifteen Lords The number of Prisoners did far exceed the Slain The Royalists lost about two or three Hundred of theirs whereof seven or eight were Persons of Note The Admiral and his Brother with the Horse of that Battalion he Commanded directed their Course toward Sainct Jean d'Angeli and got thither the same day Year of our Lord 1569 The Infantry without sustaining any damage soon passed over the River at Jarnac and breaking down the Bridge from thence retired to Cognac To the same place came the other Commanders with the broken Remnants of the Horse that were left of the Van and the Rear-Guards The Queen of Navarre a Princess endowed with Courage above her Sex came thither likewise with great speed bringing the Prince of Bearn her Son with her as also the Eldest Son of the Deceased Prince of Condé both were named Henry Her generous exhortations and the presence of those two Princes did somewhat revive their shaken resolutions and drooping Courage month March Two dayes after this Queen and the Chiefs going to Saintes Coligny and his Brother came to them and there it was resolved they should refresh themselves and wait the success of the Sieges of Cognac and Engoulesme wherewith the Duke of Anjou had threatned them The noise of this Battel of Jarnac was much greater than the advantage The King arose at Mid-night to have the Te Deum Sung gave notice of it to all the Neighbouring Princes and sent the Colours they had taken from the Huguenots to his Holiness as if they had fought his Battels The Duke of Anjou though Conqueror met with such as knew how to deal with him he attaqu'd Cognac in vain where they had Seven Thousand Men in Garrison and the Intelligence he thought would have prevailed in Engoulesme failed his purposes So that he withdrew into Perigord to maintain his Forces and this was about Mid April Blaise de Montluc and Francis d'Escars had besieged Mucidan he sent Brissac thither who redoubled the Assaults but was unfortunately Slain there As the Lord de Pampadour his Friend had been some dayes before The Place Surrendred upon Composition which was but ill observed for the death of those two brave Lords had so enraged the Catholick Soldiers that violating the Faith
that to take away those Jealousies and Suspicions the King had of him and which might have produced most dangerous effects the Queen Mother began her Practices to obtain the Crown of Poland for him which she undertook by the Advice and Intrigues of Montluc Bishop of Valence For although Sigismund Augustus their King was yet Living it was time to think of another he being very Infirm and having no Children When by many oblique turnings and windings they had Convey'd this News to the Huguenots Ears they were wrapt with Joy and assumed a much greater Confidence Then the Queen of Navarre entirely satisfied and assured came to Court to make up the Match for her Son Pope Pius V. to prevent this Marriage Year of our Lord 1572 which he looked upon to be very prejudicial to the Catholick Religion sent a Legate who perswaded and disposed the King of Portugal to demand this Princess in Wedlock and from thence passed into France to make that Proposition to the King and to exhort him to enter into the League against the Turks The Portuguese put a just value upon this Alliance and proceeding generously made known to the King that he desired no other Dowry but only that he would renounce that with the Turks The King made answer that he was engaged elsewhere for the Marriage of his Sister He excused himself likewise to the Legate upon all those other things the Holy Father demanded but conjured him to assure his Holiness of his filial obedience and gently squeezing his Hands added these words O that I might be permitted to explain my self more At the same time Jane Queen of Navarre over-perswaded by the Admiral who was but too much so himself came to Court It was then at Blois The ✚ King and Queen strove to give her a more then ordinary Reception After some debates concerning the Place and the Ceremonies of the Marriage and that Jane had consented it should be perform'd at Paris in a certain form not much differing from that of the Roman Church the Articles were Signed the Eleventh day of April There wanted nothing but the dispensation from Rome because of their near Parentage to compleat the Nuptials Amidst these Transactions Ludovic returns to Court he was more hugg'd and soothed then ever The King promised him he would send the Admiral into the Low-Countries with a powerful Army there was a division made of those Provinces how they should be shared between France and the House of Nassaw they drew together Six Thousand Soldiers with a great Train of Artillery for that month May and June Enterprise they sent Strossy and the Baron de la Garde upon the Coasts of Bretagne to hinder any Supplies that might come from Spain to the Duke of Alva they dispatched the Mareschal de Montmorency into England to Treat about an Alliance with Queen Elizabeth Schomberg into Germany to exhort the Protestant Princes and Francis de Noüailles Bishop of Dags as Ambassador to Constantinople to stir up the Turks to fall upon the Coasts of Spain The Cardinal de Lorraine and the Cardinal de Pellevé were already gone towards Rome upon pretence of being there at the Election of a new Pope for Pius V. died the first day of May. In his Life time he refused the dispensation for the Marriage of the Prince of Navarre with Madam Margaret Gregory XIII his Successor less rigid or better inform'd easily agreed to it The Wedding day was therefore assigned upon the first of June but upon some difficulty started by the Cardinal de Bourbon it was put off to the Eighteenth of August In the mean time the Queen of Navarre having over-heated her self by hurrying about to get all things ready hapned to die not without suspicion of being poyson'd by a certain pair of scented Gloves she bought at a Perfumers who was a Milanese and one of a very ill-favoured Reputation Though the Admiral held himself secure upon the faith and word of the King he could not however resolve to expose himself in Paris to the Mercy of that populace furiously exasperated against him and in the midst of his most mortal Enemies But here the last bait was made use of and proved so taking he could notwithstand it The King dismisses Prince Ludovic whom till then he had detained in Court gives him a good round Sum of Money and two Officers of great Note i. e. la Noüe and Genlis who were in great Credit with the Admiral to go and try whether by Intelligence they could secure some places of the Low-Countries Ludovic Surprised Mons la Noüe Valenciennes whilst many other Cities in Holland and Zealand took part and stood up for the Prince of Orange He judging this to be certainly an open War between the two Crowns did no longer hesitate but came to the King and into Paris where hitherto he durst not trust himself That which assured him more yet was a permission allowed Genlis to Levy Four Thousand Men to go to the Relief of Mons. However they no sooner entred into Haynault but they were defeated and their Leader taken by the treachery of the French themselves month July The Admirals example drew all the other Lords into the Net The King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé Arrived at Paris the Twentieth day of July bringing a great Train of Noblemen with them as well of such who desired to appear at the Nuptials of the first as others who had been assistant at the Prince of Conde's with Mary of Cleves which was Celebrated in the Castle of Blandy near Year of our Lord 1572 Melun This Mary was one of the three Daughters of Francis de Cleves Duke of Nevers and Sister to the Dutchesses of Nevers and Guise The exceeding Caresses they made them were so extravagant and so visible that if God had not blinded both their Eyes and their understandings they might easily have perceived those Knives they were every hour whetting to cut their Throats The Rochellers sent Messenger after Messenger to advise the Admiral he were best to withdraw himself out of that Gulf of Paris that it was a tempting of God too far by confiding in a King who was violent and passionate even to the height of fury and an Italian Woman who had endeavour'd the destruction of all that was great in the Kingdom But he replied that he would sooner resolve to be dragg'd thorow the dirt and mire of Paris then by his leaving it give any the least occasion for a fourth Civil War It was upon the same foot of Resolution that he stood up so obstinately for the Surrender of the Four Places of Security above three Weeks before the Term was expired There was only Rochel that refused to obey under pretence of their Priviledges The Mareschal de Montmorency much clearer sighted then the Admiral feigned himself sick and disordered with his England Voyage and obtained leave to retire to his House at Chantilly The King of Navarre was betroathed the
enough to defend themselves but it was very rough and cruel at Meaux Troyes Orleans Nevers Lyons Toulouze Bourdeaux and at Rouen causing above Five and Twenty Thousand Men to Perish in the Red Sea of their own Blood At Thoulouze they hanged Five Councellors of Parliament in Scarlet Robes upon an Elm in the Palace Yard Matignon and the Vicount d'Ortez did generously refuse to stain their Hands with the Blood of their own Country-men the first preserved those of Alencon the other those of Bayonne The horrour of the Massacre brought back a great many to the Roman Church but the danger once over most of them fell off again These and some others who timely fore-saw the threatning Storm saved themselves in divers places Sancâ—rre Rochel Montauban and the Sevenes proved places of refuge to a great number The very Morning of Saint Bartholomews day the King had with his own Mouth told the King of Navarre and Prince of Condé that he pardon'd them provided they changed their Conduct and Religion Afterwards the whole Court labour'd for their Conversion the Example and Conferences of Rosiere a Minister of Orleans afforded a very specious colour and pretence for the King of Navarre month October to be Converted His Sister Catherine the Dowager of Condé and the Princess Year of our Lord 1572 did likewise abjure it The Prince would by no means hear of it the King being tyred with his over-long resistance sent for him and being quite transported with passion told him in three words Death Mass or the Bastile This Thunder-clap beat down his haughty Spirit and compell'd him to follow the Examples of the rest They were all absolved of the Crime of Heresie by the Cardinal de Bourbon and that they might not be able to Retract they were obliged to write themselves to his Holiness The Court of Rome and the Council of Spain were filled with unexpressible Joy upon the Tydings of the Saint Bartholomew the Pope went in Procession to Saint Lewis Church to render thanks to God for that so happy Success and a Panegyrical act thereof was represented before King Philip under the Title of The Triumphs of the Church Militant Both the one and the other of them believed this bloody Butchery would have brought the Protestant Party very low and that their fall would make their own power rise to the desired pitch Indeed if the King had but had an Army in readiness he might with ease have made an end of the Huguenots but he believed these Massacres had so quell'd them that it was to no purpose to maintain one for that Besides he must have been obliged to give the Command of it to his Brother the Duke of Anjou and his growing too great was the only thing he had to fear Whilst the Queen Mother by the Advice of Birague and de Rais her Confidents who apprehended a War as being â—itter to mannage Intrigues then draw a Sword amuses her self by Wyles and Artifices to subdue the remainders of the Huguenots those that had escaped the Blood-Hounds resumed their Courage Rochel labours to Fortiâ—ie it self Montauban encouraged by the fortunate Success of the Vesins who with Five and Twenty Horse defeated two Hundred and took Montluc's great Standard shut up their Gates against the Kings Soldiers their Chiefs seized upon several little Places in Quercy and Fifteen or Twenty Castles in Roüergne Lauraguez Albigeois and Foix Millaud and Nismes in Languedoc took the bit in their Teeths some small Towns in the Mountains of Vivarets and the Sevenes Barricado themselves and Anthony de Pleix Gremian Seizes upon the City of Sousmieres Against so many Heads as sprung up afresh on every side the Kings Council took the Sword again in hand and raised three Armies With one of them la Chastre had order to besiege Sancerre with the second Danville undertook to reduce the Rebel Cities in Languedoc and the third Commanded by the Marquiss de Villars Admiral of France to subdue those in Guyenne As for Rochel they thought fit before they made use of Force to make use of Mildness and Craft as fearing lest their dispair should cast them into the Arms of the English They sent first therefore Biron to be their Governour whom they guessed would be acceptable to them then when they had refused him they forced Francis de la Noüe with Arguments of Knives and Daggers to go thither and reduce them They did not receive him in quality of the Kings Servant but as General to Command their Army which the King was content with upon condition that if he could not incline them to make a Peace he should forsake them upon his first Summons Thus began the Fourth Civil War again The Huguenots escaped from the Butchery had scatter'd their fears amongst all the other Protestants The City of Strasbourg doubled their Guards the Swiss made great Levies and secured all their Avenues the German Princes and the Queen of England formed new Leagues together the Council therefore found it necessary to allay their Suspicions and palliate the Cruelty and Heynousness of the Fact To this end they dispatched Ambassadors to them with relations well contrived and forged and artificial propositions they renew'd the Treaty for Conquest of the Low-Countries with the Prince of Orange they endeavour'd to soothe and sweeten Queen Elizabeth desiring her to be God-mother to the Kings Daughter which she accepted and they began a third time to propound a Match between her and the Duke of Alanson which many attributed to the Queens vain Imaginations who being informed by certain Fortune-tellers that all her Sons should Reign by consequence if it were in France they must all die after one another struggled to alter the course of Fate by seeking other Kingdoms for them in Forraign Parts and proceeded so far therein as to desire the Kingdom of Tunis of the Turk for this last Year of our Lord 1572 The Eight day of November a new Phenomena began to be observed in the Heavens which seemed to be a Star because it was very Bright was fixed to one certain place like the real Stars appeared at the same height and held the same motion It made the Figure of a Lozenge with those of the Thigh aâ—d Breast of the Constellation named Cassiopea At first it equal'd in magnitude the Planet Jupiter but diminished by little and little and at Eighteen Months end quite disappeared The Huguenots interpreted this wonder to their advantage and one of their Poets dared to say it was the Asterism of the Apotheose of the Admiral As soon as it began to appear in France a new Disease broke forth indeed a very strange and odd kind of Malady for at every Tenth Year it still doubled its violence causing most horrible Contorsions and Dislocating every Joynt till the year 1606. that it began to be less frequent and less cruel and tormenting then before It was called the Billious Evil or Colick of Poitou because it reigned
League the Politique Catholicks were likewise joyned with them Toré and the Vicount de Turenne managed the intrigues and all of them together demanded an Assembly of the general Estates The Queen Mother that she might amuse them had assigned an Assembly of the Notables at Compiegne to deliberate whether it would be expedient to call them and when they saw they could not make their Party strong enough at Court they resolved to retire to Sedan where the Duke of Bouillon had promis'd to give them reception month March and April The Huguenots had promised themselves so great advantage by the Duke of Alencon that they had resolved to take up Arms over all the Kingdom at the latter end of the Carnaval Rochel it self was born along with this Torrent and had for that purpose elected la Noue for their General This Man the Night between Shrove-Tuesday and Ash-Wednesday surprized Mesle and Lusignan by Escalado as Giron de Bâ—ssay who brought Twelve hundred Men from Bearn took Fontenay and the Lord de la Case in Saintonge Royan Talmont and four or five other little Places In Daupfiné Montbrun seized upon Lorial and Liwron the which he repaired In Normandy Coulombieres and some Gentlemen of the Country upon the hopes of greater Troubles at Court and of having the Duke of Alencon shortly with them seized upon Saint Lo Montgommery who being hated in France and unwelcom in England kept himself close and under shelter of the Islands of Jersey and Guernsey sided with them took Carentan and Valognes and set all the Country thereabouts under Contribution Year of our Lord 1574 At the same time being the Tenth of March that la Noâ—e had made the Huguenots resolve to take up Arms it was likewise resolv'd that John de Chaumont Guitry should draw near Saint Germains en Laye with as many Horse as he could get privately together to receive and bring with him the Duke of Alencon and the two Princes But it hap'ned by whose fault it is not known that Guitry anticipated the Assignation by at least Ten days so that the Duke of Alencon being fearful and irresolute could not determine with himself to forsake the Court so suddenly and la Mole his Favorite judging so great a design could not be long conceal'd went and discover'd it to the Queen Mother About Midnight behold an Alarm over all the Court The King sends for the Duke of Alencon and the King of Navarre the first tells all not caring what became of those he had employ'd The other taxed neither him nor any Friend They give out there is a Design upon the King's Person The Men of the long Robe especially and the Women hurry to Paris all Night and the Queen her self to render the Princes more odious flyes in great disorder However the King went not till the next day and lodged himself at the Bois de Vincennes whither he carried the Duke of Alencon and the King of Navarre not yet as Prisoners but carefully observed Thus the Huguenots fell very short in their accounts and besides in a Month after they set out Three Armies to destroy them in the Provinces of Normandy Poitou and Languedoc Matignon Commanded the first the Duke of Montpensier the second the Prince Daufin his Son the third Montpensier went and cool'd his heels before Fontenay but Matignon invested Montgommery in Saint Lo's from whence making his escape he pursued and besieged him in Donfront so straitly that he constrain'd him to Surrender giving him assurance for the lives of his Men but nothing more then ambiguous and random Promises for his own This fell out four or five days before the Death of the King From thence Matignon returned to the Siege of Saint Lo carrying him thither to persuade Coulombieres who was within to Surrender but the other reproached him of Cowardize and put himself courageously in the breach and his two Sons on either side of him not above Fourteen or Fifteen years of Age both having Javelins in their hands to Sacrifice said he all his Blood for the Truth of the Gospel He died there with his Sword in hand but Fortune or Pity saved the lives of his two Sons Guitry afterwards making his Courage submit to his Prudence gave up Carentan and Lorges Son of Montgommery was detained Prisoner but escaped by the favour of one of the Catholick Commanders As to Languedoc the Queen Mother who was more bent against Danville than against the Huguenots themselves had contrived to ridd her self of that Lord by the means of James de Crussol Duke d'Vzez his Capital Enemy before the War began in those Countries Some intercepted Letters giving him notice thereof he designed to make himself Master of the Province but proceeded so slowly that he could only seize upon Montpellier Lunel Beaucaire and Pezenas He was not the less noted for it at Court Martinengue shewed an Order to all the Province whereby the King dismissed him of his Government and forbid the People to own him or the Soldiers to obey him In the Spring time when the Humors overflow the King's Distemper which had been as it were laid asleep during the Winter awaked and made the Queen sufficiently understand it was high time to seize upon and secure all those that might oppose or disturb her Regency particularly the Mareschals de Montmorency and de Cosseé To this end she order'd a Commission to be given to Christopher de Thou first President and to Peter Hennequin a President likewise to inform themselves diligently about the Conspiracy of St. Germains thereby to involve them La Mole a Favorite to the Duke of Alencon and the Count de Coconas an Italian whom he had lately introduced to the Acquaintance and Confidence of that Prince were arrested The first denied all the other flatter'd with the vain hopes of getting his Pardon and a great Reward besides told a great deal more than indeed he knew The Duke of Alencon and the King of Navarre were also examined The first answered like a Criminal stuttering and trembling the other more like an Accuser than one accused with such reproaches as put the Queen Mother out of Countenance At la Mole 's was found an Image of Wax which one Cosmo Rugiero a Florentine and famous Quack had made for him to Charm a young Damsel with whom he was in Love The Queen Mother would needs have it be believed that it was Year of our Lord 1574 made on purpose to bewitch the King he still denied it stiffly but notwithstanding he was Beheaded and Coconas with him It was said that two Princesses who were in love with them caused their Heads to be stoln and Embalmed them to preserve them as long as they could Another of their Complices was broken upon the Wheel and Rugier sent to the Galleys The Queen Mother very credulous in Matters of Divination and Sorcerers released him some time after to make use of him in his Art The Mareschals de Montmorency and de
some respect for the King Of the Catholicks as well as Huguenots which were about him there were two sorts some who pressed for his change in Religion Year of our Lord 1590 others who hindred it And of these likewise there were such who solicited it and yet would not have it others that opposed it and yet would have it so The Zealous Huguenots whereof Plessis had greatest Authority not having yet been able to obtain an Edict of him in favour of their Religion and finding he inclined by little and little towards the Catholick resolved they would strengthen themselves with Forreign Aid And in this Prospect engaged him to demand some both in England and Germany so to beset and keep him closer united with the Protestant Princes He met likewise from abroad with another great cause of discontent Pope Sixtus V. had conceived a very high esteem for him an extream contempt for the League and a private hatred for the Spanish Government which was much more dreadful to him then all the Hereticks He had heaped up five Millions of Gold in the Castle St. Angelo the Spaniards importuned him to open his Chests for relief of the Catholick Party but he refused absolutely and that with words as sharp as their demands were arrogant Thereupon he happen'd to die the Seven and twentieth of the Month of August His Successor Vrban VII who proved to be of the same mind lived but thirty days and 't was suspected the Spaniards shortned the lives both of the one and other Gregory XIV who was elected in the place of Vrban being a Milanese by Birth and perhaps apprehending as he was very timorous that they might soon dispatch him after his Predecessors espoused the passions of his King and publickly engaged himself by promising assistance of Men and Money to the month December League Year of our Lord 1591. January The beginning of the year 1591. was made memorable by two Enterprizes one of the Chevalier d'Aumales upon the City of St. Denis the other the Kings upon Paris they both miscarried The Chevalier was by night gotten into St. Denis by means of some People who having passed the Fosse upon the Ice screwed open the Gate and let down the Draw-bridge When he was come into the midst of the Town Dominique de Vic who was newly made Governor goes forth into the Streets with ten or twelve Horse making a huge noise as if great Company were with him He puts the Assailants to a full stop then feeling their Pulses a little afterwards charged them so smartly that he beat back two hundred Men who were soremost upon the Body that came behind Then all betook them to flight The Chevalier with fifteen or sixteen of his lay dead in the Street not without some suspicion of being kill'd by his own Party This was in the night between the second and third of January the Eve of St. Genevieue not very favourable to the Parisians As to the Enterprise upon Paris the Twentieth of the same Month sixty of the most resolute Captains disguised like Peasants and leading Horses loaden with Meal for the City began to grow in want had order to seize upon the Gate St. Honore Year of our Lord 1590. January The Politiques who had notice to be in a Body at the Court of Guard would have joyned them five hundred Cuirassiers and two hundred Arquebusiers concealed in the Fauxbourg would have followed and these again would have been back'd by twelve hundred Men then the Swiss should have marched with several Waggons loaden with Pontons Ladders and Hurdles to scale it in several parts At the same time the King stood at the entrance of the Fauxbourg to give Orders but finding the Gate St. Honore filled up with Earth he judged his Design had taken wind and retired The City of Paris being hourly threatned with the like dangers the Duke of Mayenne was forced to bring in a Garison of Spaniards However to avoid reproach he would not order it of himself but refer'd the business to the Parliament who concluded after great Debate and Contentions it should be so By vertue of their Decree he put four thousand into Paris and five hundred in Meaux a sufficient number to make good his Command but not so many as to make them Masters there month February The inconvenience of the Season which was very sharp could not hinder the King from besieging the City of Chartres The Garison was but two hundred Soldiers but there were three thousand Citizens who believing they did maintain the Cause of God and of the Virgin made the Siege much longer and much more difficult then was expected He was twice or thrice of the mind to raise it Chiverny who was concerned for the recovery of that place because he had the Government of the Chartrain and all his Estate lay thereabouts was the only Man that obliged him not month April to give over This obstinacy of his proved happy in the end for the Town surrendred the Eighteenth day of April The Duke of Mayenne could not make a diversion by attaquing Chafteau-Thierry the taking whereof was very easie the Governor who was the Son of Pinard Secretary of State defended himself so ill that he was accused of Treason His Father and himself were hugely put to it and got out of the Briars rather by the intercession of Friends then any justification of themselves The length of the Siege of Chartres as doubtful at five weeks end as the first day emboldned the Tiers Party to hold up their Heads The young Cardinal de Bourbon a vain and ambitious Prince was Head and Author of it He thought the good Catholicks tired with the tedious delays the King made for his being instructed would confer the Crown on him as being the nearest Prince of the Blood and in this imagination had made a Cabal and sent to Rome to treat with the Pope concerning that matter At the same time his Brother the Count de Soissons was contriving another which would have mightily perplexed the King and made him forfeit his Credit amongst Huguenots The Countess of Guiche offended because the King did not now respect Year of our Lord 1591. April her as he had to be reveng'd of him re-kindled the love that Count once had for Madam Catharine his Sister and so well managed the intrigue that their Wedding was ready to be consummate but the King having discover'd the designs of either that of the Cardinal de Bourbon by means of the Cardinal de Lenoncour who revealed all his secrets that of the Princess by the treachery of a disgraced Chambermaid took such effectual order as removed all his apprehensions The Negociations for Peace began anew after the taking of Chartres Whilst Villeroy was setting them on foot there was an Assembly of the Heads of the League who all met either in Person or by their Deputies in the City of Reims to settle their concerns and the methods for making Peace or
This young Prince had for this purpose made choice of the day called the Assumption of our Lady about noon when the City Gates were shut as is usual all the Dinner time Having corrupted one part of his Guards and deluded the other he was let down from the top of a Tower by a Rope brought to him in the belly of a Lute to which a Stick was tied cross that he might sit securely thereon in his descent to the Strand He found Horses laid ready for him on the farther side of the River and spur'd away to St. Avertin a League off from Tours where Maison-forte Son of la Chatre attended with fifty Horse and convoy'd him to Selles and some days afterwards to Bourges It was believed the Ladies about Queen Louisa who were then at Chenonceaux had greatly contributed towards this escape and Rouvroy in love with one of them was suspected to have granted her this one favour upon promise of another The Parliament would have put him to infinite trouble had not Souvray Governor of Tours befriended him mightily in his justification before the King As the King was much alarmed dreading the great name of Guise and the growing fortune of a young Prince who was said to resemble his Father in all things so the League was over-joy'd they made Bonfires every where and the Pope gave publick Thanks to God for his deliverance But the jealousie the Duke of Mayenne conceived caused the fears of the one and the promising hopes of the other quickly to vanish He apprehended his Nephew would easily acquire the same good will and fondness of the People they had shewn to his Father therefore did not reckon him a new Reinforcement but a new Trouble and Competitor nevertheless he sent la Feuillade to congratulate his escape and carry him some Money desiring they might Year of our Lord 1591 meet to communicate together of their common Affairs month September The Prince of Conty and the Vicount de la Guierche both Lieutenant Generals in Poitou the Prince for the King and the other for the League fought to extremity La Guierche met with divers shocks whereof the greatest was at the taking of Montmorillon where he lost his Cannon and all his Inâ—â—ntry he had left them there having shamefully raised the Siege of Belac a Month after he himself unfortunately perished for running to the rescue of his Castle of la Guierche nigh Loches in Touraine which was surprized by a Gentleman named Salerne the Lords d'Abin and de la Roche-Posay who had notice of his march got five hundred Gentlemen together and with those charged him so briskly that all his people fled and as he thought to save himself in the Ferry-boat on the Creuse so many men jumpt in after him that they sunk in the River and were all drowned Bretagne was not only vexed by the French but by Strangers too The Duke of Mercoeur had brought in the Spaniards and given them the Port of Blavet for a retreat where in a short time they so well fortified themselves that it was very apparent they intended to settle there The King had likewise order'd Three thousand English to go into that Country sent over to him by Queen Elizabeth besides those that were landed at Diepe for the Siege of Rouen The Prince de Dombes with this re-inforcement went and besieged Lambale when it was at the point of Surrendring the Besieged re-assumed Courage and the Besiegers lost theirs all of a sudden upon the death of the prudent la Noüe He being got on the top of a Ladder to see what they were doing within the place was wounded in the Head of which he died Bemoaned equally almost by Friend and Enemy a very great Soldier and which was more a very honest Gentleman His Son inherited his good qualities He had been Prisoner four years in the Low-Countries and being upon his deliverance now come to rejoyce with his Father found the last Duty he could ever pay him was to attend him to his Grave Both Parties were now expecting their Foreign Supplies the Duke of Mayenne went to Verdun to receive some Forces from the Pope they were in bad condition their Foot ruined with the Dysentery and their Horse strangely harassed and partly dismounted Those from Germany who came to the King almost at the same time were not so there were Eleven thousand Foot and five hundred Reisters these Levies being made at the Expences of the Queen of England and the free Towns of Germany under the favour of George Marquiss of Brandenbourg Casimir Prince Palatine with some other Princes and by the Negociation of the Vicount de Turenne The King going to meet them with Two thousand Horse order'd them to be Muster'd in the Plain of Vandy on Michaelmas-day and from thence went directly with the news of this conjuction to the Dukes of Lorrain Mayenne and Montemarcian who durst not Year of our Lord 1591 stir out of the Gates of Verdun The latter being withal in great disorder upon the month September news he received from Italy of the sickness of Pope Gregory his Uncle who died the Fifteenth of October month November Whilst the King was in those parts he would needs secure himself of Sedan The Dukes of Lorrain Montpensier and Nevers sought to gain the Heiress for their Sons the first by force the other two by friendship but besides that the difference in Religion was an obstruction to all the three he thought it would make them too powerful on that Frontier And therefore chose rather to bestow her on the Vicount de Turenne whose Estate was far distant from thence and to whom he should thereby acquit himself of those great obligations he owed him He therefore honoured him with the Staff of Mareschal a of France that he might not appear too unequal to match her then went himself into Sedan to conclude the Marriage The Mareschal the night before that of his Nuptials surprized Stenay by Escalado from whence he afterwards made a brisk War against the Duke of Lorrain The Marriage Consummate the King took his way to Noyon and from thence at the instance of the Queen of England who apprehended lest the Spaniards should settle themselves upon the Coasts of Normandy he sent the Mareschal de Biron to lay Siege to Rouen The Duke of Aiguillon Son of the Duke of Mayenne Governor of that Province for the League was but lately gone thence and had left the absolute Government to the Marquiss de Villars This Lord had about him Philip Desportes Abbot de Tyron a no less crafty Courtier then delicious Poet who had disposed him to admit of Propositions for an Accommodation in hopes the King would let him enjoy the Fruits of his Benefices in that Country Now those that had obtained the grant of them from the King caused his demands to be rejected with disdain In revenge whereof he prevailed with Villars to break the Treaty and possessed him
day the Three and twentieth of April gives three Assaults The Besieged sustained two not without great loss Bidossan was kill'd in the second After this it was time to yield but Campagnoles by an excess of bravour would needs stand a third His Soldiers did not second his Resolution they gave ground and threw away their Arms to save themselves some here some there Such as could get into the Sanctuary of the Churches or avoid the first fury saved their Lives all the rest to the number of above seven hundred were put to the Sword It had been no great difficulty for the King to have made the Spaniards perish for want in Calais had he been assured the English would have served him faithfully but as he had not too much reason to confide in them he returned to the Siege of la Fere having first re-inforced the Garisons of Ardres Monstreuil and Boulogne La month April Fere might have held out much longer by the ordinary rules had it not been for the Consideration of Colas the King of Spain had given Order to Osorio not to stay till the utmost extremity for fear he should be obliged to deliver that Man up to the King so that although he had nothing to fear for at least a Months time he made Year of our Lord 1596 his Capitulation the Fifteenth of May to which Colas Signed Count de la Fere. month May. But in the interim the Archduke marching out of Calais the Third day of May to compleat his Exploits attaqued Ardres a little place but very strong and very considerable for that it covers Calais The Count de Belin and Montluc had shut themselves in to defend it and there were Fifteen hundred fighting Men nevertheless the horrible Slaughters of Dourlens and Calais had so much terrified those Soldiers that they trembled even while they defended themselves It hapned likewise by misfortune that Montluc in whom they had some confidence was slain by a Cannon-ball and afterwards the Basse-Ville was gained and most of those in it knock'd on the Head in heaps just at the entrance into the Upper-Town by reason those that stood there to guard it being more affrighted then the others had let down the Port-cullice and exposed them to the fury of the Besiegers Afterwards Rosne begins to thunder upon the Bastion with his great Artillery which begot so horrible and universal a dread amongst the Soldiers that they even leaped over the Walls or ran and hid their Heads in Cellars Belin himself most extreamly affrighted demanded Composition and surrendred the place the One and twentieth of May. Which having done maugre the Governor named Isambert du Bois-Annebout and without taking advice of the other Captains he ran great hazard of his Life at Court This was the sixth place the Spaniards conquer'd in one year from the French not so much by their own as the Valour of Rosne and about a hundred desperate Frenchmen more who knowing themselves utterly excluded from all pardon and favour endeavour'd to make the King regret them and the Spaniard consider them Now it fortun'd happily for France that the Archduke at his return to Flanders besieging Hulst in the Country of Waes Rosne was there kill'd in an Assault which hapned in the Month of August month August So many losses on the neck of one another the Frontier laid open in four or five places the Sea shut up the robberles of the Soldiers the surcharge of Tailles and Imposts caused an incredible consternation in the minds of the People awakened the Factions of the League and favour'd the Contrivances of the Grandees These well foreseeing that the too sudden establishment of the Regal Power would be the month June ruine of their own suborned the Duke of Montpensier a young and easie Prince to propound to the King That it would do well to give the Governments in propriety to those that held them thereby to engage them to contribute with all their might to the defence of a State in which they really had a share One may well imagine that this Expedient did not over-much please the King nevertheless he treated this Year of our Lord 1596 Prince in such a manner as seeming angry rather with those who had engaged him month June to deliver this Message then with him he put him first into a confusion and then furnish'd him with Reasons enough even to confound them likewise if ever they made mention again of the like to him The Huguenots gave him no less disquiet then did the Grandees of his Kingdom he could not grant them the Edict they craved without offending the Pope and they month July and Aug. to secure themselves deliberated to chuse them a Protector and establish an Order amongst them which realy would have formed as it were another State in the heart of the Kingdom After his Conversion they look'd upon him as a Prince whose interest was to destroy them they interpreted all the Excuses he made for not yet being able to satisfie them as studied Artifice and the remembrance of things past gave them just apprehensions for the time to come And indeed they forsook him in the midst of the Storm and held more Synods and Assemblies in these three last years then in the thirty five precedent The King was labouring at that time to re-unite all the Protestants his Allies in one League against the House of Austria these discontents of the Huguenots cast great coldness and suspicion upon their Spirits so that the German Princes did all excuse month September and October themselves excepting the Count Palatine and the Duke of Wirtemberg who notwithstanding gave him only good words Bouillon and Sancy had much ado to engage the Queen of England who at length made it Offensive and Defensive The King and she obliging themselves reciprocally to send four thousand Men into eithers Country if they were assaulted and to make no Peace or Truce with the Spaniard but by mutual consent The Hollanders entred into it likewise with great willingness and alacrity by a Treaty made the last day of October and promised to march into the Field upon the Frontiers of Artois or Picardy with Ten thousand Foot and fifteen hundred Horse The Kings Army was so tired with the Siege of la Fere that he was fain to send them to refresh themselves in the Provinces reserving only some Troops with which the Mareschal de Biron made three several irruptions into Artois He made horrible devastation in that Country by Fire and Sword as well in revenge of the cruel spoil month June July c. the Archduke had made in Boulonois after the taking of Ardres as to teach him hereafter to make a fairer War In the Month of July a Comet was discover'd in the Heavens whose light appeared sometimes pale and faint otherwhile more clear and lively it had a long Train that did extend towards the East and South Another Prodigy appeared in France at the
Lieutenant for the King in those Countries and with the knowledge as they said of the Dukes of Montpensier de la Trimouille and de Bouillon where they propounded to make a Tiers or third Party under the name of Bons Francois and under the Protection of the Queen of England as if the King had not had Strength enough to defend them or had been wanting in Care or Courage But the news they received that the Siege of Amiens went on more successfully then they had guessed stifled this Proposition and dissolved the Assembly Nothing less was expected from the Duke of Mercoeur but that the Truce which was to hold but till the end of March being expired he would make a great Effort to Master the whole Province nevertheless the Kings Agents had so much influence upon him that he prolonged it to the latter end of July Wherein he seemed not well to understand his interest and gave others a just occasion to reproach him with what he had often told the Duke of Mayenne That opportunities had never failed Year of our Lord 1597 him but he had often missed his opportunities month May. As for the Duke of Savoy Lesdiguieres not only made Head against him but carried the War even into his own Country He entred Morienne with Six thousand Men gave chace to Don Salines General of the Dukes Horse took St. John de Morienne St. Michael Aiguebella and divers Castles The Duke on his part Armed powerfully to drive him from his Territories and there hapned many Rencounters between them where the Valour of that Prince and the Experience of Lesdiguieres turned the balance of success sometimes one way sometimes the other till Winter came and parted the two Armies The Princes of Italy took France to be so much lost by the loss of Amiens that the Duke of Florence had the confidence to think of seizing some small fragment for his share During the greatest heat of the League Bausset fearing lest the Spaniards who had an Eye upon Marseilles should seize upon the Island and Castle d'If whereof he was Governor had intreated that Duke to send some Forces to assist him in the keeping them The Duke slipt not the opportunity he sends him Five hundred Men however Bausset still kept the Castle of If and quarter'd them without upon the Island Now one day when his Son whom he had left in his place was gone to Marseilles they seized upon this Castle partly by craft partly by force and drove out all the French They pretended in the beginning to amuse the Marseillois that they would only hold it for the King and defend it against all his Enemies but when the Duke of Guise had built a Fort in the Island of Ratouneau which lies near that of If thereby to cover Marseilles and counter-mine them they openly declared their intention John de Medicis Brother of the Duke of Florence coming thither with five Galleys built another Fort in the Island of Pommegue distant about a Mile from the other two took the Frigats the Marseillois had freighted with Provisions to Victual the Fort of Ratonneau and even told du Vair who was sent to him that those Islands belonged to his Brother the Duke In effect had not the face of the Kings Affairs been changed he would have explained his Pretensions and have urged that the Dutchess his Wife had a right to this Island as being of the House of Lorrain who believed they had so to all Provence The Huguenots after the Kings Conversion made as it were a Band apart and minded their own Interest singly as being now disjoyned from his They had employ'd themselves in no other thing for two years past but holding of Assemblies Politique composed of three Deputies of each Province i. e. a Gentleman a Minister and an Elder They met first at Saumur then at Loudun afterwards at Vendosme Year of our Lord 1597 month July then again at Saumur and lastly at Chastelleraud From all these Places they sent Deputies to the King to beseech him he would convert the Truce which Henry III. had granted them into an irrevocable Peace and he amused them still with fair words delays and many difficulties of his own creating Now when they plainly perceived that the more he setled his own Affairs the less he granted to them that besides he was perfectly well with his Holiness and heaped his favours and caresses on the Leaguers they imagined the coming of the Legat into France was upon some design to prejudice them and that he was just upon making his Agreement with Spain to destroy them utterly These apprehensions and the suggestions of la Trimouille and the Mareschal de Bouillon had made them like to have run to their Arms three or four times nevertheless the more moderate and the more saint-hearted amongst them who conjectured that when Amiens was taken they must lie at the Kings Mercy could not be persuaded to it on the contrary joyning to their Arguments some other means they used at the same time to gain the Deputies in those Assemblies they prevailed so far as to possess the others with Patience and to make them wait for the Edict he promised them Few of them however came to him at the Siege of Amiens the apprehensions some malicious People buzz'd in their Pates Of a Sainct Bartholomew in the Field and the little esteem they guess'd the Court had for them kept them at home As to the rest all that seemed to be most contrary to the Kings Service did on this occasion most promote it for Biron surpassed himself although he had no real affection for him his own Honour call'd him to Action The Leaguers were desirous now to become the Sword and Restorers of the State as they had been the Bucklers of Religion and the Queen of England though much dissatisfied sent him four thousand Men. month June July and August In the Town were Five hundred Garison Soldiers and above threescore Cannon mounted on the Ramparts by this means the Besieged were daily at handy blows with the French destroy'd their Works and their Batteries stopt them upon every turn and sometimes made them even give ground so that it was three Months ' ere they got to the Fosse Amongst a many Sallies they made three very great ones in the last of which were slain Five hundred French and thirty of their Officers The use of Mines which had been but little practised in France during the Civil War was revived in this Siege each did instantly attaque the other by these Subterraneous Fires and oft-times such were going to spring one Mine who found another bursting out under his Feet which blew him into the Air or buried him quick in the Earth The perpetual Combats by night and day much diminished the Besieged sickness had cast a greater number yet upon their Beds and their Medicaments which were Year of our Lord 1597 stale and spoiled in stead of healing
Accompts and a Treasurer of France and in the manner these did proceed none could have just cause of Complaint But when he had named others and it appeared by their management the Council had a design either to destroy or much lessen that Fond which was the clearest subsistence of many Families in Paris the interessed who Year of our Lord 1605 were numerous had recourse to the Prevost des Marchands he being as it were their Guardian This was Francis Miron a man of Courage and Probity and who had no other interest but his Duty and the Honor of his Office He took up the Business with some heat spake very resolutely in the Town-Hall and wrote to the King who was then at Fontainebleau Those of the Council who had a Pique against him for his great resolution too stiff in their opinion imputed as a Crime that he should mention Nero in some Discourse of his and insisted much with the King to have him apprehended The Bourgeois were ready to take up Arms in defence of their Magistrate although he protested he would rather chuse to die than be an occasion of the least disorder It was a great happiness for the City of Paris to have so good and so wise a King as Henry who having in other occasions thorowly tried the Fidelity and Candour of Miron and it being withal his Method to give People time to calm and cool themselves and repent of their rashness he would not push things on to extremity which must have engaged him to severe Chastisements So that the Tenants referring themselves wholly to this good natur'd Landlord and Miron having explained himself with all the Respect and Humility due from a Loyal Subject to his Soveraign he stopt all further proceeding touching their Rents As to the rest Paris does owe this acknowledgment to the honor of Miron that in his Office of Lientenant Civil and of Prevost des Marchands they never had a Magistrate so exact in settling of the City Government their Markets and what else was necessary or that so warmly espoused the Peoples interest or took more pains and care about the Revenue and Rights belonging to them to clear their Debts keep up that Splendour becoming the Capital City of the Kingdom as also to beautifie and furnish it with things that were at once an Ornament and of Publick Advantage The several Streets enlarged many new Paved and made shelving to convey away the Dirt and Water Eight or Nine stately Conduits or Fountains still casting forth their plentiful Streams the River improved with Wharffs Keys and watering places divers little Bridges in places convenient a new Gate at the Tournelle that of the Temple repair'd and open'd after it 's having been shut up above Forty years will be lasting marks and tokens of it to all Posterity But there was nothing so noble as the Front of the Town-Hall which seemed to have been left imperfect for Two and seventy years space to give this Magistrate an opportunity of making it the Monument of his Fame and to exercise his Generosity by employing all the Profits of his Offices to put it into that condition wherein we behold it to this very day As to the Assembly of the Clergy that Body having recovered much force and vigour the Complaints and Demands they had to make to the King were very great Hierosme de Villars Archbishop of Vienne presented the Assemblies Papers to him and was the Mouth of the whole Assembly He made a long discourse upon those vexations the Church suffer'd on all hands the infamous Trade of Benefices Simoniacal Bargains Pensions paid to Lay-men and frequent Appeals as gross abuses He said the cause of all those Disorders was the refusal they had hitherto met with for Publishing the Council of Trent That it was strange the Kingdoms of the Earth which are but as the baser Elements of the Terrestrial Globe should substract and withdraw themselves from the benign Influence of the Church which is the Coelestial World That the things which pass away on the wings of Time should hinder the Fruits of an Eternal duration That they should make Divine Reason stoop and truckle to Humane Policies and if we may so express it subject God in a manner to the Wills of Men. As to the Reception of the Council of Trent the King would not be Positive That it could not quadrare with the Reasons of State and the Liberties of the Gallican Church On the contrary he declared that he desired it as much as they and was very sorry it met with so great Difficulties That he would spare neither his Life nor Crown for the Honour and Exaltation of the Church And as concerning Simonies c. they must lay the blame upon those that practis'd it not upon him for he made no Trade of Bishopricks like the Favorites of his Predecessors but bestow'd them gratis and upon Persons of Merit He afterwards at leisure made distinct replies to all their Papers and amongst other things granted them by an Edict the liberty of redeeming such things as formerly belonged to them and had been sold for little or nothing without due Year of our Lord 1605 form or the Solemnities thereto requisite They were not satisfied with this but must have another to empower them to redeem in what manner soever they had been sold Yet the Parliament put in this Modification or Proviso That it should not extend to the prejudice of any who had been in Possession Forty years upon a legal Title There hapned this year Three Eclipses two of the Moon The first upon the Four and twentieth of March the second the Seventeenth of September and one of the Sun the Second day of October It began about One of the Clock afternoon and for two whole hours caused such a darkness that it seemed as it were Night the disk of that great Luminary being totally obscured by the Moon which appeared black and edged with a circle of light quite round month Decemb. The Astrologers after their wonted manner Predicted it would have most terrible Effects If the Fougade in England had not failed they would have made the world believe that this Phenomena did Prognosticate it Some English Catholicks accustomed to contrive Conspiracies during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth being much incensed against King James for that though at his first coming he had given them fair hopes of enjoying greater liberty than ever in their Religion yet did now keep as severe a hand over them as any before Plotted to destroy both him and all the most eminent of the Kingdom by a Blow the very thoughts whereof begets a horror Robert Catesby and Thomas Percy were the principal Authors These knowing the Parliament was to Sit at Westminster hired the Neighbouring Houses and then some Cellars under the very place of their Meeting filled them with Barrels of Gun-Powder which they cover'd with Coals and Faggots and intended to set Fire thereto when the Houses of
an Affront to all Crowned Heads and a violation of the Security due to every Ambassadour month Decemb. Going to the King to redemand himb he was at first but ill received Sometimes he talked high as representing a great Monarch then chang'd his tone into a softer note as knowing his Secretary ran the hazard of being put upon the Rack The King without appearing overmuch concern'd shewed him what Crime his Secretary had committed and made him sensible that such who debauched and Year of our Lord 1606 corrupted his Subjects to commit Treason against his State were those that violated the Rights of People not he who only secur'd a man that had so visibly abused it The Ambassador having no reply to make to so just a reproach fell upon great Complaints and instanced that the King sent Men and Money to maintain the Hollanders and had attempted to stir up the Morisco's in Spain whereof there was proof said he in the Confessions of divers Criminals that had suffer'd Death in those Countries To the first point the King made the same answer he had formerly given upon the same Subject To the second he said it was an Artifice of the Council of Spain who by the extremity of Tortures had forced those Suppositions from the mouths of some unhappy wretches Executed for other Crimes or had thrust them into their forged Wills and Testaments thereby to have matter to recriminate with some appearance of Truth After divers Replications on either part the King assured the Ambassador that his Secretary should have no wrong done to him and that he would send him the whole result of the Process to see whether he would own it or not month Decemb. During all this Month the Entertainment of the Politicians in their Conversations and the subject of their Writings was to discuss to what Latitude this Security of Ambassadors and their Servants did extend and in what cases they ought to be subjected to the justice of that Country wherein they did reside In the mean while the two Prisoners were interrogated the Secretary confessed all and when they had clearly Convicted him and gotten sufficient proof from him to Convict Merargues the King forbad the Parliament to proceed any further with him and some few days after sent him back to the Ambassador with a Copy of the whole Process But as for Merargues they went thorow with him for an Arrest or Sentence of the Nineteenth of the Month made him lose his Head in Greve and Condemned his Body to be cut in four Quarters which they set up over the four principal Gates of Paris and sent his Head to Marseilles to be there planted upon one of their Gates month February Amidst the Divertisements of the Court to whom the Birth of a second Son of France administred new cause of Festivity the King was seriously minded to restore the Duke of Bouillon upon his entire and not conditioned submission It was nigh upon four years he had been out of the Kingdom and by his Apologies Negociations and the intercession of divers Princes of his Religion had contended with the King not as to his Duty which he said he was ever ready to pay but his Innocency and Honor which he was obliged to maintain In effect they could not Convict him of any Conspiracy not even of the last though there was some reason to suspect him guilty of all The King knew he had stopt his ears at the instant Sollicitations of the Spaniards He remembred the eminent Services he had rendred him in his most pressing Necessities and he desired he might do him more yet hereafter in the shock he intended to give the House of Austria On the other hand he well knew that this Mareschal so long as he was absent from Court would ever keep the Huguenot Party in suspition and it somewhat concerned his Honor to make all Europe see they being well informed of this Affair that it was not without good ground he had so used him Now the only way to satisfie together both his Reputation and his Clemency was to engage him to come and crave his Pardon and Surrender his City of Sedan into his hands which he would needs have in his Power at least for some days that the whole world might understand the Mareschal held both his Life and Fortune from his Bounty The Mareschal did at length resolve to acknowledge he had failed he named his faults however Imprudence and Precipitation rather than Infidelity And though he expressed an impatient desire to wait upon the King yet he excused his coming till all those Clouds and Foggs of Crimes wherewith he had been charged were utterly dispersed it being as shameful for a Master to make use of any Servant while under such ill-favour'd Circumstances as for the Servant to have been wanting in his Fidelity due to so great a Monarch He apprehended no hurt from the King but only from the Counsels of Sully for as he believed him his Capital Enemy he imagined he would persuade the King to keep Sedan and that the apparent Benefit of the State would excuse and cover the Venial Sin of breaking his word Year of our Lord 1606 Him whom we have hitherto named Rosny shall be henceforward called the month February Duke of Sully because at the beginning of this year the King honour'd him with the Title of Duke and Pair which he annexed to the Lands of Sully purchased by this Lord since his favour The Letters Patents were sealed the Nineteenth of February and verified the last day of the Month in Parliament whither the new Duke went to be received accompanied as one who had both the King's Treasury and favour to befriend him and invite them The Business was brought to that pass that the King finding himself in Honor absolutely engaged to have Sedan and the Mareschal obstinately bent not to be dis-seized nothing remained but force that could determine the Controversie In the Council Villeroy and Sully were of different Sentiments concerning this Enterprize Sully openly persuaded the King to go in Person to Sedan Villeroy endeavour'd to hinder it but by more private ways To this end he made the difficulties appear very great the Consequences worse the place impregnable the Mareschal's Correspondence both without and within the Kingdom very dangerous He represented how all the Huguenot Party was ready to rise all Germany ready to take up Arms all England to put to Sea to support it that he had numerous Levies in Swisserland and the Low-Countries who would begin their March upon the first beat of Drum But the King slighted all these Apparitions as vain and airy Fantosmes and if month April they had been real Bodies he ought to have hastned to prevent them When he was gotten to Donchery which is within a League of Sedan with his Forces and had himself taken a view of the place the Mareschal who had still kept his Negociation on foot demanded to confer with Villeroy before
of France Wife of Lewis XII 554 Takes the Duke of Suffolk for her second Husband 568 Mary Queen Widdow of Hungary Governess of the Low-Countries 601 Mary Princess of Scotland 613 Mary Queen of Scots great Troubles in Scotland for her concern 618 Brought into France 624 Mary Queen of England declares War against France 646 William de la Mark called the Wildboard of Ardenne Beheaded 504 Marseilles Besieged by the Imperialists without Success 577 Martin V. Pope transfers the Council of Siena to Basil 448 Prince Maurice 631 Maximilian Emperour Besieges Terouene 502 Maximilian is Elected and Crowned King of the Romans 510 His Death 563 Maximilian King of Bohemia in contest with Charles V. his Uncle 638 Meaux Besieged and taken by the English 440 Medicis Peter chaced and banished from Florence 520 Medicis Laurence invested in the Dutchy of Vrbin 561 The Medicis restablished in Florence 591 Laurence de Medicis Assassinates and kills the Duke of Florence his unhappy end 606 Cosmo de Medicis Duke of Florence ib. Declares himself against the French and against Siena 640 Melfe the Prince of Melfe or Malsy 616 Mercier Sieur de Novain Favorite of King Charles VI. 411 Milan conquer'd by King Lewis XII and by the Venetians 534 The investiture granted to Lewis XII by the Emperour 542 Abandoned by the French 550 c. Regained by the French and as soon lost for them 552 Falls under the Dominion of the Emperour 578 Mines the way to fill them with Powder to blow up a Wall 539 Pic Mirandulus his Death 520 Moncado Vice-roy of Sicilia slain in Fight 589 Moncins Governor of Guyenne Massacred by the Bourdelois 627 John de Montaigu Favorite of Charles VI. 411 Montargis surprized by the English 453 Montecuculi drawn by four Horses for Poisoning the Daufin 603 John de Montfort remains sole Duke of Bretagne by the death of Charles de Blois 385 Defeats in Battle Charles de Blois abandons Bretagne and retires to England 367 Returns into Bretagne 393 Montmorency a Town not inconsiderable burnt 379 Montpelliers Mutinies of the People because of the Imposts 397 John de Montaigue Surintendant punished with Death 425 Montpensier the Duke made a Prisoner of War 647 Moscovy 502 Muley-Assan King of Tunis dispoiled of his Kingdom by his Son who puts out his Eyes 456 Mutinies and Popular Commotions because of the Imposts and excessive Subsidies 402 403 c. N NAples Kingdom conquer'd by the French and soon after retaken from them 521 Strange Revolution against the French who are driven out of that Kingdom 538 C. of Nassau Prisoner of War 512 The C. of Nassau Ambassador in France 557 Enters into Champagne and Besieges Mouson 567 Makes an irruption upon Picardy Louis of Navarre 603 Navarre Usurped by Ferdinand of Arragon 551 Reconquer'd by the French but soon lost again 565 The D. of Nemours General of the Army for the King in the Kingdom of Naples 537 Slain in the Battle of Cerignoles 538 I. Earl of Nevers goes to the Assistance of the King of Hungary against the Turks 417 Nice Besieged in vain by Barbarossa 615 Nicholas I. Antipope 359 Nicholas the Pope is owned in France 461 The Duke of Normandy Commands a very Potent Army with small Success 365 Normandy over-run and ravaged by the English 374 United inseparably to the Crown 381 Falls under the Power of the English 437 Is wholly regained from the English 463 Is put under the Power of a new Duke 487 Brought to the Obedience of the King 488 O OBservance strickt of the Order of Saint Francis 443 Officers maintain'd in their Offices 489 The mutation of Officers a Cause of great trouble ib. Oliver de Blois attempts upon the Person of the Duke of Bretagne 436 He and his Brothers Condemned to Death 437 Oliver Francis Chancellour of France 623 Orange Prince 510 Orange Prince Prisoner of War 513 Is made Lieutenant for the King in Bretagne ib. General of an Army without Power 586 Order of the Star Instituted or rather renewed abandoned to the Chevalier du Guet 372 Order of the Garter Instituted 371 Order of the Collar its Institution 408 Order of Saint Maurice Instituted 526 Orleans Besieged by the English succour'd and deliver'd by the Pucelle Joane 450 Orleans Charles Duke set at Liberty 458 Orleans John Bastard Earl of Dunois and great Chamberlain his Death 492 Orleans Charles Duke his death 483 Orleans Louis Duke Espouses the Princess Jane of France 503 Orleans Louis Duke Chief of the Council 508 Makes a League and a new Party against the State with the Duke of Bourbon and others 510 Absents far from Court retires into Bretagne forms a new Party against the Government and raises Forces ib. Is made Prisoner of War 513 Commands the French Ships in Italy 519 c. Duke of Orleans second Son of France Commands an Army in Luxemburg his Exploits 612 c. His Death 619 Regal Ornaments 441 Ottranto taken by Assault by the Turks 503 Retaken by the Christians ib. P PAlavicini Manf. 569 De la Palisse Mareschal of France 567 His Death 579 Ambrose Paré Chyrurgeon 619 Paris enlarged and fortified 375 Is oppressed and suffers strangely during the Contest and War between the Houses of Orleans and of Burgundy 426 c. Reduced to obedience of King Charles VII 464 Blocked up by the Princes 486 In great Astonishment 604 Parisians Enterprize upon the City of Meaux to their Confusion 378 Stick to the King of Navarre ib. Divided into Factions Insolence insupportable 377 c. Mutiny because of Imposts take up Arms Arm themselves with Iron Mallets for that reason named Mallotins 403. c. Chastized severely 406 Arm and range themselves under Colonels and Captains 488 Parliaments of Bourdeaux and Burgundy their Institution 506 Parliament of Paris made Semestre 640 Parliament of Bretagne Established ib. Parma Subject of a War between the Pope and the King of France 629 630 c. Pavia Besieged by the King of France 577 c. Taken by Assault and Sacked by the French 585 Paul III. Pope 597 Mediator of a Peace between the Emperour and the King and confers with them 607 608 His Death 628 Paul IV. Pope 642 Makes a League offensive and defensive with the King against the Spaniard 644 Strips the Caraffes his Nephews of all their Offices and chaces them out of Rome 653 Paulin a brave Captain 618 Pembrook E. Lands in Bretagne over-runs Anjou and Poitou 388 Vanquish'd in a Naval Fight by the Spaniards and taken Prisoner 391 The C. de Perigord Archambauld Talegrand Condemned to Death 418 Perpignan surprized by the Spaniard or King of Arragon Philip de Valois King of France 357 Sends to the Navarrins their lawful King and Queen 358 The English declare War against him 361 His advantage over his Enemy 362 Makes a Truce with Edward ib. Becomes hated of the Nobility 365 Is Defeated 366 His Death 370 Philip King of Navarre his Death 365 Philip of Navarre calls the
at the end of his dayes 730 His death 729 Description of his Person ib. His inclinations ib. Was a great Swearer 730 His Children ib. Vices Predominant during his Reign ib. Caused his Daughter to be named by Elizabeth Queen of England Chastel John wounds the King in the Mouth or the nether Lip 842 Is Condemned 843 Chastelleraud place of the Assembly of the Huguenots 871 Cemitery or Burial Place allowed the Huguenots at Paris 743 Clement VIII gives some Convents to the Recolts Church 16 th Age. Coligny the Admiral charged with the Death of the Duke of Guise 687 Joyns with the Germans 699 Is Condemned to Death and his Head proscrib'd 707 Takes several places going to Bearn 702 Comes to Court and is highly favoured 715 Is Massacred 719 Company or Society of Jesuites restored in France 907 Condé Princess loved by Henry III. 739 The King would vacate her Marriage and have her for his own Wife ib. Her death 739 Princess of Condé makes the King in Love with her 936 Is carried away by her Husband into Flanders 937 Confederation between Queen Elizabeth of England and the Huguenots of France 683 Conference between Henry King of Navarre and the Duke of Espernon 760 Confusion or amazement of those that were present at the Murther of Henry IV. 942 Councel of France betray'd 911 Courtiers Italians ruine the Kingdom of France 774 Courtiers adore not the Prince but during his Grandeur Cracovia in Uproar upon the departure of Henry III. 732 Croquants a Faction in the time of Henry IV. 840 Curates of Paris assembled to acknowledge Henry IV. 838 Curton dis-engages Florat Seneschal of Auvergne 705 D DAcier Commands a Body of an Army 703 Is made Prisoner 712 Dacier Attorney General preserves the City of Touloze for Henry III. 788 Dandelot Brother to the Admiral de Coligny imbued with the Opinions of Calvin 666 His resolution 696 Is with the Prince at Rosoy 697 Passes the River after the Battle of Paris 697 Makes up a small Army 704 Falls into Poitou 705 Declaration of the Duke of Guise against King Henry III. 769 Declarations of Henry III. against the leagued 788 Decree of the Clergy assembled at Mante declaring the Pope's Bulls against Henry IV. to be Null 850 Deputies of the pretended Reformed Churches have Permission to hold an Assembly at Mante 835 Dispair often-times more advantageous than good Fortune it self 794. 835 Desportes Abbot of Tyron a greater Courtier than a Poet though an excellent Poet for those times 818 Diego d'Ibarra Ambassadour of Spain 821 Demands the Crown for the Infanta ib. Diepe remains faithful to Henry III. 788 Acknowledges Henry IV. 801 The Difference between the Pope and the Venetians 925 Dijon sees Casimir pass by with his Germans 742 Given to the Chiefs of the League 771 Is seized by the Duke of Mayenne 787 Would return to their Obedience under the King and is hindred by the Duke of Mayenne 841 Its Reduction 844 Declaration denouncing a War against King Philip. 843 Directors and Confessors animate the People 775 Disciples of Luther Church 16th Age. Dixmude taken by the Duke of Alenson 762 Rendred to the States of the Low-Countries 763 Doctors of Paris enter into a Conference with Henry IV. 832 Dominique de Gourgues a Gascon revenges the French Massacred in Florida by the Spaniards 701 Doria General of the Spanish Galleys 713 Brings back his Vessels to Naples and forsakes the Christians 714 Doway its Seminary filled with Catholiques too Zealous 758 Dourlens taken by Orleans cause of the death of the Guises 782 Is granted to the League ib. Dourlens will needs be comprized in the Edict of the Reduction of Amiens Under King Henry IV. 839 Drougne a River where was fought the Battle of Coutras 778 Dunkirk in the hands of the Spaniards 758 Taken by the Duke of Alenson 762 Duel famous between Philipin Bastard of Savoy and the Lord de Crequy 876 Duplessis Mornay agrees Henry III. and Henry of Navarre afterwards King of France 791 D'uumvirs of Marseilles 851 E EBion his Errors renewed in the Sixteenth Age. Vide Ch. 16 th Age. Eclipses Three in one year 919 Edict to put Persons that were irreproachable into Offices of Judicature 665 Edict in favour of the Huguenots at the instance of the Queen Regent under Charles IX 675 It was the first that they ever obtained ibid. Edict against Duels 705 Edict Prohibiting foreign Manufactures 905 Edict which gives to Calvinisme the Name of Pretended Reformed Religion Edict against Duels and Bankrupts 934 Edward Prince of Portugal 752 Egmont Count his death 699 d'Elboeuf Duke Prisoner at Loches 790 Elector Frederic of Saxony vanquished and destituted of his Dutchy 937 Eleonor de Roye Wife of the Prince of Condé 658 Eleonor Daughter of William Duke of Cleves 937 Wife of Albert Federic Duke of Prussia ibid. Elgade a City of the Azores taken by Don Antonio Prior of Crato pretending himself to be King of Portugal 760 Taken by the Spaniards ib. Elizabeth de la Paix Wife of the King of Spain and Daughter of France is Poisoned 700 Elizabeth Queen of England assists the Huguenots 662 France declares War against her 689 Takes the Low-Countries under her Protection 762 Courted by the Duke of Alenson 754 Will take no Husband and the reason wherefore ib. Sends the Order of the Garter to the King 768 Puts Mary Stuart to Death 776 Sends assistance to Henry IV. 818 Sends Succours to the Siege of Amiens 860 Receives the Mareschal Biron very well 883 Her Death and her Praise 902 903 Elizabeth Daughter of Henry IV. 943 Is married to Philip IV. King of Spain ib. Emmanuel King of Portugal from whom by Daughters are issued the Dukes of Braganza 752 d'Entragues Espouses Mary Toucher Mistriss to Charles IX 876 Her Daughter beloved by Henry IV. ib. Is Condemned to be Beheaded but receives her Pardon 914 Ernest Archduke proposed to the Estates assembled at Paris to be King of France marrying the Infanta of Spain 831 Ernest of the House of Brandenburg pursues the right of his Nephew upon Cleves 939 Eseovedo Secretary of Don Juan of Austria is Poignarded 752 Espernon Duke Favorite of Henry III. designs against the Duke of Anjou 764 Makes a Party to seize upon the Duke of Guise 770 Being in the highest degree of favour advises the ruin of the Guises 775 Hinders the League from making any great Progress in Normandy 781 Was in the Coach with Henry IV. when he was Murthered 942 The Queen confides much in him 943 Causes her to be declared Queen Regent ibid. d'Espinay the Princess in the absence of her Husband defends Tournay during two Months 758 Essars d'Amoiselle beloved by Henry IV. 934 Estampes taken by Henry IV. 800 Estates assembled at Blois under Henry III. 804 Estates General of the Vnited Provinces treat with the Duke of Anjou 751 Are in Combustion The Duke of Anjou having endeavour'd to make himself Master of Antwerp they notwithstanding sends him Provisions
Fol. * Of the Hatchet * Firebrand * Archimbald or Archibald Emperor Joh. Comnenius Son of Alexis in Aug. Reigned Twenty four years nine Months and Henry V. still * Or Athelln * Or Lotharius Emperor Joh. Comn and Lotaire II. Reigned 13 years * Or Alienor * St. Jago or St. Jacques 1136. * Or Willermins Emperor Jo. Comnenus and Conrad III. elected in May after the death of Lotaire II. Reigned near Thirteen years * Or Eleanor * Or Theobald Emperor Manuel the Son of John elected in April Reigned Thirty eight years and Conrad III. * Teutonici * Eleanor Emperor Manuel and Frederick Barbarossa in Feb. Reigned Thirty six years * Old Soldiers experienc'd * Given by God or God's Gift * Jeffery or Geofrey * Alice * Or Theobald Emperor Alexis II. Son of Manuel in Octob. Reigned Two years and Frederic I. * Gods Heart Gods Foot c. * Histriones Emperor Andronic who strangled Alexis Reigned Three years and Frederic I. Emperor Isaac Angelus having kill'd Andronicus R. Nine years nine Months and Frederic * Eleanor * Artus or Arthur Emperor Isaac Angelus and Henry VI. Son of â—rederic I. Reigned seven years about the end of 1190. * Acre or Acon in Latine Ptolemais * Or Isaacius * Vulgarly Fontain-bleau * Or Ingeburge some name her Botile Emp. Alexis Angelus and Otho IV. Duke of Saxony R. 21 years Philip his competitor * Garde-noble or Wardship * Or put on the badge of the Cross * Havoise * Suabe or Scwaben Emp. Baldwin and Otho Emp. Henry the Brother of Baldwin and Otho He was elected at the age of 35 years * Moines de Cisleaux * Or Reynold * Or Ferdinand * Garde-noble * A Liver is twenty pence * Twenty pence the same as a Liver * Villany and Bocace * Chambrier They put down Vacante Cancellariae or Dapifero Buticulario â—ullo * Whence the Hospitals in French are called Ladreries Church of the Eleventh Age. Schismes Church Church Church Church Heresies Church Church * The chief Citizens of Toulouze and Avignon had Towers or Turrets to their Houses * Or Mother-Church * Catharos in Greek signifies Pure * Albigensis and Vaudensis * Credo quod redemptor meus vivit c. Power of the Popes Church * Collectors Church Church Church Church Church Church Church * Augustins Church Church * Cumque sator rerum privasset semine Clerum Ad Satana vitum successit turba nepotum Church Councils Church Church * Carmes Church Cardinals Church Church * Margeur * Our Lady-day in Harvest They were called Militer 1228. Emp. Baldwin II. Reigned 35 years And Frederic II. * Some say she was Sister to Alphonso VIII * Of the Peerage * Each Liver Parisis is â— about 2 s. 6 d. sterling * Tartars of Procop. or Crim. Tartars along the Volga c * Or Fifteenscore * Pastorels * That is St. Lewis * Vide the Letters of Innocent III. Printed at Colen Emp. Baldwin II and Richard and Alphonso competitors * Perusia or Perouse * Lord Governour Emp. Michael VIII and Richard and Alphonso * See hereafter in Anno 1269. * Or Fifteenscore * Valiant Stout Adventurous Bold Courageous c. * Bold Resolute Valiant c. Emperor Michael VIII and Rodolph I. the Stock of the House of Austria Reigned Eighteen years * Prochytâ— Island Emperor Androâ—ious Son of Michael Reigned Fifty years and Râ—lâ—lph Sicilia on this side the Fare is the Kingdom of Naples * The Annunciation Emperor or Andron and Adolphus of Nassau Reigning Six years and an half is slain in a Battle * Gaeta oâ— Gaetan * Or Walter Emperor Andron and Albert elected in Anno 1298. Reigned Ten years * Or de Bailâ—eul if a Frenchman by Descent * Or Ottoman * Or Melfe Emp. Androni and Albert. * Or De Got de Agatis He was the Son of Berraud Lord of Villandraud neer Bâ—urdeaux Emp. Andronic and Henry VIII R. Five years * Or both Sexes of that Order Vacancy of the Western Empire One year Emp. Androni and Lewis of Bavaria R. 33 years Frederic of Austria his Competitor * Or Holy Expeditions Councils Those that were held against the Heretiques * Or Cabal * Or Almeric Such as were 〈◊〉 for the Discipline and upon other occasions * Or Gualter or Walter Religious Orders * The Minors are called Cordeliers because they wear a Cord for their Girdle And the Preachers Jacobins because their first Convent was in the street of St. James in Paris * Or Almeric * Or a Soot and Gray called Minime in French * Saccati * The Vale of Scholars * Non a sanctis fabricatus sed a solo summo Deo * Our Lady of Mercy * Servants of St. Mary the Mother of Christ Devotions * A Hat is Vn Chapeau whence the word Chaplet for Beads * This is tâ—at they call the Holy Baulme Learned Men. * Devovet absentes simulacraque cerea fingit c. 1315. * These are the words of the great Chronicle of St. Denis 1315. * Or Sheriff * This is the greatest of Punishments to such Rascals * Those of Ghent were then true to their Prince * Hostel Princes Houses are called Inns as Audley Inn. It was more then Fifteen Millions is now * Peerage * Who was his Ki sman Beâ—eaded faith Mezeray * Vide Before touching Scotland Emperor Andâ—oâ—iâ—â—s the Young Reigâ—â—l eight years and an half and Lewis of Bavaria * This opinion had been common enough in the former Ages * Vide a few pages before Emp. John V. Paleologus Son of Andronicus a Minor and Lewis of Bavaria * The setting up of Nephews and Nicces * De Lot * Or Crecy * Frotssard makes them Fourscore thousand * Or Ralph Emp. John Cantacuzene an Usurper upon John Paleologus the Minor R. 8 years And Charles IV. of Luâ—emburgh * Or Joane * Some say he paid them not * Or the Green Earl Emp. John Paleologus John Canâ—acuzenus and Charles IV. * Du Guesclin fought another time in a Ring with Brembo one to one and slew him John Paleologus having deposed Cantacuzena and Charles IV. * To the King of England * Make a Speech or Harangue to them * A thing much used in this age * Or James the Good man * The Market * Marché The Isle of France Beausse Normandy Picardy c. * T is Armate * Or Joane the same Name in effect Emp. John Paleologus and Charles IV. * In those days Princesses Suckled their own Children * Of Haynault * Cheuachee admits of many interpretations but this is most proper in this place * King Charles had also given him the Earldom of Longueville * Or Steward * That was their name in those days * The Term then used Qui tint Journée Mal des Ardents mentioned before * Boutillo a mock Pope * Or Haucut Emp. John Paleologâ—s and Wenceslaus Son of
others who named themselves the Humbled The First made profession of an Evangelical poverty the Second undertook to Preach wherever they came To contradict or countermine these two Religious Orders were instituted viz. The Friers Mineurs or Cordeliers and the Preaching Friers or Jacobins The First Foundation of that was laid in Italy by St. Francis d'Assise of the other in Languedoc by St. Dominique of the Noble Family of the Guzmans in Spain and Cannon of Osma who came into this Province with a Bishop to Convert the Albigenses Year of our Lord 1208 King Philip would have been himself in this Expedition or would have sent his Son for these Sectaries had committed some Hostilities in his Territory acknowledging his Enemy King John had he not feared a Landing of the English in Bretagne under favour of the Fort du Garplie He went not therefore beyond the Loire but Commanded the Nobility that held of him to arm themselves and take that Fort as in truth they did this year The Bishops of Orleans and Auxerre who had been sent thither with their Vassals upon this Expedition being return'd again without leave pretending not to be oblig'd to march with the Army but when the King was there in Person the King commanded their Regalia to be seized that is to say what they held in Fief of him not their Tithes Offerings and other dues necessarily belonging to People of that Function They made complaint by their Envoys to Pope Innocent III. then went themselves The Pope having examined the matter found they had failed and transgressed against the Customs and Laws of the Kingdom so that they were fain to pay a Mulct to the King to re-enter upon their Temporals Year of our Lord 1209 The number of these New-Crossed Soldiers were not less then 500000 Men not all Combatans as I believe amongst whom there were five or six Bishops the Duke of Burgundy the Earls of Nevers St. Poll and de Montfort The general Rendezvous was at Lyons about the Feast of St. John Thence going into Languedoc they assault the City of Beziers one of the strongest held by the Albigenses forced it and put all to the edge of the Sword there being slain above threescore thousand Persons Those in Carcassonne terrified with this horrible Slaughter surrendred upon Discretion thinking themselves very happy to escape naked or only in their Shirts Year of our Lord 1209 The Lords in this Army having called a Council elected Simon Earl of Montfort chief Commander in this War and to govern the Conquests they had and should make upon those Hereticks That done the Earl of Nevers returned with a great Party of those Soldiers and soon after the Duke of Burgundy with another so that Simon was left ill attended yet he maintained himself by a more then Heroick Valour and Conquer'd Mire-pâ—ix Pamiers and Alby In so much as in a little time he made himself Master of the Albigois the Counties of Beziers and Carcassonne and above an hundred Castles Year of our Lord 1209 In these times the School at Paris flourish'd more then ever They gave it the name of University because all sorts of Sciences were universally taught there although in effect the desire to Study or Learn and the affluence of Scholars were much greater then their Doctrine A certain Priest of the Diocess of Chartres named Almaric beginning to Preach up some Novelties had been forced to recant for which he died of grief Several after his Death following his Opinions were discover'd and condemn'd to the Fire he Excommunicated by the Council of Paris his Body taken out of the Grave and his Ashes cast on the Dunghil And because they believ'd the Books of Aristotles Metaphysicks lately brought them from Constantinople had fill'd their heads with these Heretical Subtilties the same Council prohibited either the keeping or reading them upon pain of Excommunication Year of our Lord 1209 Guy Count d'Auvergne for the violence and injustice he committed against the Clergy particularly the Bishop of Clermont whom he had imprison'd was deprived of his County by King Philip and could never be restor'd again Year of our Lord 1210 The Emperor Otho grew stubborn in the defence of the Rights of the Empire and prepared to go into Italy wholly to subdue it with a mighty Army which he raised with the Money his Nephew King John had sent him upon condition that from thence he should fall upon France Thereupon he was thunder-struck with Excommunication by Pope Innocent and a little after a great part of the German Princes elected Roger-Frederick II. Son of the Emperor Henry VI. about the Age of Seventeen years and who in his Fathers Life-time had already been named King of the Romans The Pope consented to this Election and the following year Frederic who was then in his Kingdom of Sicily passed into Germany Every other while there came new Bands of Soldiers of the Cross to the Earl de Montfort even from Flanders and Germany but slipt away again within six weeks or two Months With these Recruits he carried all the Places and Castles not only of the Hereticks but likewise of other Lords The King of Arragon of whom divers in those Countries held their Lands in Under-Fiefs because of some Lordships he was possessed of wrote to the Pope about it and the Earl of Toulouze went even to Rome to make his Complaints where his Holiness receiv'd him well enough and promis'd him Justice Year of our Lord 1210 But at his return they propounded an Agreement with Montfort if he would let him have all he had already taken He could never consent to it and Milon the Popes Legat Excommunicated him in the Council of Avignon because he levied certain new Tolls upon his Lands The King of Arragon came in Person to another Council which was held at St. Gilles to endeavour to accommodate Affairs and restore the Earl of Foix and the Vicount de Bearn who were dispossess'd as favourers of Hereticks but he could not obtain any thing Year of our Lord 1211 The Toulouzain after so many mean and ruinous Submissions takes the Bit in his Teeth and puts himself in a posture to defend his own Then is he openly Excommunicated and his Lands exposed to any that could Conquer them Montfort besieges Toulouze but the grand Recruits that were come with him stealing away in a little time he is forced to raise the Siege The Earls of Toulouze and de Foix with their Confederates pursue him and besiege him in Chasteauneuf a thing incredible above 50000 Men could not overpower or force three hundred are beaten and shamefully retreat Year of our Lord 1211 The young Princes Frederick II. and Lewis eldest Son of King Philip delegated by his Father Confer at Vaucouleurs upon the Frontiers of Champagne to renew the Alliance between France and the Empire and to unite themselves more closely against Otho and against King John his Uncle two irreconcilable Enemies Renauld Earl of
rigorously for fear of greater inconveniency The need the Pop s had of the Credit of the Order of St. Bennet during their Quarrels with the Emperors inclined them as I believe to bestow upon the principal Abbots of those Congregations the Ornaments which had belonged only to the Bishops Those were the Miter the Surplice the Gloves and the Sandals some have since added the Crosier But such as loved the Hierarchy detested this abuse and those Abbots that were but somewhat humbly Religious did not often make use of those Tokens of Honour believing that what is the Mark of Jurisdiction in a Bishop is a stain of Ambition in a Monk Peter de Blois wrote to his Brother an Abbot in the Kingdom of Naples to whom the Pope had made a Present of these Pontifical Ornaments that he should send them back again or rid himself of his Abby Pope Vrban II. beholding the happy Peter Abbot of Caves bare-headed in a Council sent a Miter to him to cover it This holy Man having received it with great Respect would not however put it on but kept it still upon his Knees But Hugh Abbot of Clugny did not refuse those Ornaments from that Popes hands who gave them to him and all his Successors Calistus II. desiring to gratifie that Abby because he had been Elected and Consecrated there gave likewise the Title of Cardinal to the Abbot Ponce de Melgueil to enjoy it both he and all the Abbots of that House The Popes Originally had Right to confirm only the Elections of the Metropolitans of the Roman Diocess The sending the Pall to those of the Galican Church chalkt out the way to usurp it upon them also In the beginning St. Boniface Archbishop of Mentz engaged them to seek that Honour to bring them by that means to the greater dependance then when they were accustomed to deck themselves with those Ornaments which in their opinions distinguisht them much from Bishops the Popes obliged them to receive them always from him as a thing very necessary and forbid them all Exercise of their Function till they had received them Bishops could not change or take another Bishoprick unless they were turned out of their own by the Barbarians or upon some very urgent necessity and that by Sentence of the Metropolitan and Bishops of the Province the Popes notwithstanding permitted it without restraining them to all those Forms Which was introduced in this Twelfth Age not all at once but by little and little as it were sounding the Foord The ancient form of Elections was yet preserved as the Soul of the Hierarchy that is to say they were made by the Clergy and by the People afterwards they were examined by the Metropolitans assisted with the Counsel of his Suffragans If he judged them good he approved them and if he found any default he annul'd it and sent them back to proceed to a new one that is to be understood if they had not knowingly and designedly elected one that was unwerthy or lay under some Canonical impediment For in such case the Metropolitan and his Suffragans elected one themselves The Bishops were not obliged to be Personally present at such Elections and Judgments but sent some Clergy-men who represented their Persons The Consecration of Bishops in France was performed by the Metropolitan and his Suffragans the Pope or his Legat having no right to it but if the Metropolitan refused to Consecrate the Elect the Electors appealed to the Pope who sometimes did Consecrate them himself When the Metropolitans were suspended from their Episcopal Functions the Legats as representing the Holy Father pretended that that lame belonged to them The Elections and the Right the Metropolitans had to Consecrate the Bishops were not directly overthrown during this Age but suffer'd great breaches and diminution For the new Right founded upon the supposed Epistles of the first Popes having perverted all the Canons and reduced all Elections to the litigious forms of Proceedings as there most commonly hapned divers Contests between the opposite Parties electing or difficulties in the Judgment given by the Metropolitans one of the two Cabals seldom failed of making an Appeal to Rome which was an inextricable labyrinth of perplext Proceedings and if there were any omission of formality in the Election the Pope declared it null and reserved to himself alone the right of providing the Bishop and of Consecrating the Person whom he chose Though it were forbidden to take any thing for that notwithstanding the Officers of the Court of Rome exacted furiously under pretence of their Salaries and Paper and Ink afterwards the Popes themselves who had so highly condemned all Exactions converted to their own proper benefit those abuses which they could not hinder I find that the Bishop of Manse gave for his Ordination Seven hundred Mark of Silver In time they setled this Exaction at a years Revenue moderately Taxed which they and their Cardinals shared amongst them The power of the French Bishop was likewise great proportionably For besides that they were the most considerable Member of the State and had most power in the great Parliaments or General Assemblies the Kings rested much upon their Counsels submitted to their Remonstrances and were Crowned by their hands upon every Solemn Feast in the year So that when any King was Excommunicate as was Philip I. the Bishops refused to do this Office and held in a manner as in suspence not the Royalty but the Respect of his People By the Popes example they sometimes made use of Interdicts often of Excommunications which by being so often employ'd upon trivial occasions became so odious that the Secular Judges appearing against them caused those to be apprehended that carried them tormented them in their Estates and the Estates oâ— their Relations and vexed even such as obey'd those Fulminations or who refused to hold Communication with such as were Excommunicated And therefore in the year 1274. the Council of Lyons one of the most famous that hath been held in France Ordained in presence of King Philip the Hardy or Bold and the Emperors of the East and West That those that did so hereafter should be cut off from the Communion of the Church and if they persisted two Months in their Contumacy should not be absolv'd but by the Holy Chair Which was allow'd in France provided those Excommunications were just and did intrench upon the Rights of the Crown Now for as much as it depended upon his Officers to judge herein they eluded them most commonly and seized upon the Temporals as well of those that pronounced it as those that submitted and even caused their Houses to be pulled down The reason why they fore-armed themselves so strongly against these Censures was because that in those times so soon as a Man was Excommunicate he forfeited the benefit of his Goods Honours and Dignities that any one had a right to pillage him that they denied him the Sacraments and Burial and
all his Forces with him Year of our Lord 1289 Don Sancho King of Castille desired earnestly to have a Peace with King Philip and for that reason he would have given him up the two Sons of Alphonso de Cerda and to this intent had endeavoured to get them out of the hands of the Arragonian who kept them Now the Arragonian having denied so to do he Treated with Philip obliging himself to give the Kingdom of Murcia to the eldest of those two Brothers and some other Lands to the second The Arragonian hearing of this Treaty made haste to set them at liberty that so they might be obliged to him and continue still Enemies to Sancho In effect they were so ill advised as to refuse to stand to the Agreement which Philip their Cousin German had made for them and immediately took up Arms against the Castillan Year of our Lord 1290 Philips displeasure for being thus cantradicted by these two Brothers was craftily manag'd by the Castillan so that those two Kings had Interview at Bayonne and there made a Treaty by which Philip according the Advice of some interessed Counsellors totally abondoned his unhappy Cousins and withall yielded up and gave to Don Sancho all the rights he might have to the Crown of Castille This year Alexander III. King of Scotland dying without Children there arose a long and bloody Quarrel for the Succession between two Lords each of them pretending to be the next Heir Both of them being of the Blood Royal by their Mothers who were the Daughters of Scotland Their names were Robert Bruce and John de Baliol. This last was Originally of Normandy History does not mention of what part for there are divers places have the name of Baliol. These two Competitors having referr'd their Difference to Edward King of England he gives Judgment in favour of Baliol whether he believed his Title to be the better or whether it were because he made himself his Vassal as the Scots reproach him and had promis'd to hold his Crown of him Year of our Lord 1291 Alfir Sultan of Egypt had in the year 1288. wrested all the Cities of Tripoly Syria Lidon and Tyre with some other strong Holds out of the hands of the Christians They had nothing more left in all those Countreys but the Sea-Port Town of Ptolemais which made a Truce with the Sultan The French the Pisans the Genoese and the Venetians had each of them their distinct Quarters and Magistrates The Pope the King of Cyprus the Earl of Tripoly the Patriach of Jerusalem and the Templars contended for the Soveraignty Amidst these Divisions there was nothing but Murthers Robberies and Plunderings both within and without the City Besides all this they were so imprudent as to suffer some numbers of new Recruits that were come to them as Adventurers of the Cross to break the Truce The Sultan Mebee-Arafe who succeeded to Alfir demanded Reparation but as it was not in their power to deliver up the Violators he besieged the City and after Forty days continual attaques gained it by Storm putting to the Sword all that were within excepting only such as could save themselves on Ship-board Such was the end of the Christians Conquests in Syria and their Expeditions into the Holy Land For although the Popes have since caused the Croisado's to be preach'd for the recovery of it and several Princes and great Persons have made ✚ â—ow to go thither for the same purpose Nevertheless since the loss of Ptolemais none of them have gone thither but only some Pilgrims Year of our Lord 1291 Charles the Lame was in the end forced that he might free his Children and release those Gentlemen he had given in Hostage and who were all sent into Arragon to persuade his Cousin Charles Earl of Valois to renounce the Kingdom of Arragon upon which Condition King Alphonso engaged himself to go with his Forces into the Holy Land and in his pasiage through Sicilia to do his utmost to induce his Brother James Usurper of that Island to restore it to Charles the Lame Who in the mean while gave his Daughter Clemence in Marriage to Charles de Valois and for a Portion the Counties of Anjon and Maine Year of our Lord 1291 Otheline Earl of Burgundy ready to be trod under foot by Robert Duke of Burgundy who would have the Earldom to hold of the Dutchy and do him Homage cast himself head-long into the protection of King Philip bringing to him his eldest Daughter named Jane that he might Marry her to one of his Sons and in favour of this Alliance he from that time gave him up his Earldom reserving only to himself the Revenue during his Life This Jane was afterwards Married to Philip the Long the Kings eldest Son who was then but in his Cradle and her Sister Blanch to the second who was called Charles the Fair. Year of our Lord 1291 The excessive Usury of the Italian Bankers suckt all the Substance of the poor People The King had need of Money he was glad oâ— such an opportunity and pretence to do Justice to get some from them He therefore caused them all to be seized upon May-day night This was a sweet Knot or Nose-gay of May-Flowers but since under the same pretence they laid hold of many honest Merchants likewise and raised great Fines or Taxes upon them as well as upon the Blood-sucking Leeches this inquiry which in it self was just and necessary was converted into a most odious Robbery Year of our Lord 1291 It is believed that this year the holy Virgins little House at Nazareth where the Incarnation of the Word was declared to her was by Angels transferr'd to the top of a little Mountain in Dalmatia on the other side of the Adriatique-Sea That from thence three years afterwards it was brought to the hither-side in a Wood that belonged to a Widow named Loretta and that it was removed at two other times into two several places in the last whereof the Angels left it There is a Magnificent Church built there and a pretty good Town and both are called by the name of Loretta Year of our Lord 1291 The Emperor Rodolph ended his days in the Burrough of Geâ—inesheim near Spire the last day of September having Reigned Eighteen years He laid the foundation of the prodigious Grandeur of the House of Austria but undermined that of the Empire in Italy by neglecting to go thither and selling the Soveraignty to divers Cities of Tuscany in the year 1286. especially to that of Luca and Florence who bought it of him with their Money Year of our Lord 1292 In his room Adolph Earl of Nassau was elected the 6th of January and Crowned at Francfort a brave and generous Prince who would have maintained that Title better then any of his Ancestors had he but had as much Riches as Vertue The Peace between France and England had lasted to this time to the great satisfaction of both
Gate and there stops to hinder the Port-cullis from barring up their way Upon the Signal given which was agreed to be the firing off a Pistol these Soldiers fall upon the Court of Guard and charge them nimbly A gross of Two hundred Foot conceal'd within a Chappel about two hundred paces off then another of a thousand more and after these another Body of Horse who waited a quarter of a League from thence ran with all speed to second them There were not above seven or eight of the Guard that made resistance the rest betaking themselves to flight put all the City into fear and confusion well might the Allarm-Bell ring out few People put themselves into a posture of defence The Spaniards in the mean time seized upon the Church Gates the Markets and Ramparts The Count de Sainct Pol as much affrighted as the People in stead of intrenching himself at some Gate mounted on Horseback and escaped to Corbie crying out he was going to fetch some Troops quartred within half a League of that place Hernand Master of the Town gave it over to the Spoil the Inhabitants were stript to their very Shirts and set at Ransom excepting some that were of the Confederacy or such as had been of the most Zealous Leaguers The King was in his Bed when he received this so surprizing news he rose immediately and sent for several Friends that they might comfort him The most undaunted took France to be now in great danger when they saw Paris was become a Frontier at one end the Duke of Mercoeur at the other the Duke of Savoy in the midst the Reliques of the old Factions endeavouring to joyn again in a Body and the new Cabals shewing their Heads There was but one Remedy and that was to regain Amiens with expedition but the Enterprize appeared very difficult and this was certain that if it failed the affront would more then double the present disaster So that the most part of the chief Officers dissuaded it and there were even some would needs have their Protestations registred in Parliament The Duke of Mayenne was almost the only Man of a contrary opinion who so encouraged the King that he Year of our Lord 1597 gave a small Body of four thousand Men to the Mareschal de Biron to invest it towards month March Artois and to hold the Enemies still in play and then resolved to go himself and secure the Cities on the Frontier and give Order for all things to be prepared for the Siege The troublesom reliques of a Distemper which his Divertisements had brought upon him the precedent year sent him back from the Frontiers to Paris and kept him there almost three weeks in his Chamber We cannot forbear to mention that during this time the anguish of his Malady joyning with the misfortune of his Affairs did almost stagger and overcome his constancy and forced from his heart such Sighs and such Complaints as were rather conformable to the ill state of his Condition month April then any way becoming the grandeur of his Courage He went to his Parliament likewise and demanded Assistance in terms which were it seems beneath his Dignity However his Presence was not useless at Paris to hasten the Levies of Men and Money The Provinces on this side the Loire undertook to maintain six Regiments of Foot for him great numbers of the Nobility flocked thither after him and because there were some yet very loath to leave their own homes and many Malecontent the Parliament to oblige them to come forth made a Decree which set a Mark of Infamy upon all those that did not get on Horseback upon this urgent occasion For the Money Maximilian de Betune Rosny provided it he was become sole Sur-Intendant des Finances Sancy and Schomberg not being able to comply with him had quitted that and taken up the employment of the Sword again They raised a considerable Fund by voluntary Loans and the creation of divers Offices those in best condition at Paris Taxed themselves very liberally as well out of fear of falling into the miseries of War again as because the Re-imbursements were assigned upon the melioration of the Gabels which was a good Security There were four Counsellors created in each Parliament as many Maistres des Comptes in the Chamber of Paris two Treasurers of France in every Court of Audit two Esleus in all the Elections a Trienval aux Tresoriers de L'Espargne one at the Parties Casuelles and so of all the Accomptables This latter way being extreamly chargable to the Kings Finances by consequent to the People there were some Counsellors of Parliament more worthy of ancient Rome then of a Country where the love to publick good does ordinarily pass but for Year of our Lord 1597 a Whimsey who propounded that all the Officers of the Kingdom should contribute month April generously offering to Tax themselves that so the Country might be deliver'd at ☞ their Expences but the greater number were not the most generous and Interest had the Ascendant over Honour From the end of March Biron was scowring about the Country towards Dourlens with some Horse to prevent the Spaniards from conveying Ammunitions into Amiens And though he were fewer in numbers then those of Amiens he notwithstanding began the Circumvalation beyond the Somme It was forty thousand fathom in circumference flanked with seven strong Pentagones and with a Bridge upon the River month April and May. above the Village called Longpre All the Month of April was spent in marching of Men thither that of May in making their Lodgments in their Quarters so that the approaches began not till about the beginning of June month June It was near this time the King arrived there with his whole Court and even his Mistress He had lodged her near himself but was quickly forced to remove that scandal from the sight of his Soldiers not only by their mutterings which came even to his Ears but likewise upon the reproaches of the Mareschal de Biron who considered not that there is nothing more dangerous then to shock the Pleasures of ones Soveraign or to take any advantage to make him know his own weakness Upon the first rumour of the loss of Amiens the remainders of the Spanish Faction would have made some stir in Paris where King Philip still maintain'd a little private Council to encourage his Partisans The most Zealous therefore held some meetings to consider whether they might do him any Service in this juncture of Affairs but one of them having discover'd a Consult of theirs in a Cabaret there were some of them truss'd up in the Greve and the ignominious death of those quite broke off that dangerous Correspondence and untied the whole knot of them month May. In this juncture the greatest part of the Lords despairing of the settlement of France or glad of an opportunity to pretend so an Assembly was held in Bretagne of the Nobility in presence even of Brissac