THE HISTORY OF WILLIAM de CROY Surnamed the WISE Governor to the Emporour CHARLES V. BEING A PATTERN FOR THE Education of Princes CONTAINING The Memorable Transactions that happened during his Administration in most of the Courts of CHRISTENDOM from the Year 1506. to the Year 1521. In Six Books WRITTEN In French by Mr. VARILLAS Historiographer of France And now made English LONDON Printed for George Wells and Abel Swalle at the Sun and at the Vnicorn in S. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII THE AUTHOR'S ADVERTISEMENT SEeing the publick hath taken in good part both my boldness in offering to write the History of Charles the Ninth after The Historians are placed here according to the order of time they wrote in La Popilimore Masson Thuanus Aubigne Matthieu Tortora Davila Dupleix and Mezeray as also the Preface in the new manner that I prefixed to the beginning thereof perhaps it will not take it ill that I have made an essay upon a subject that hath not as yet been handled That I give it now the Pattern for the Education of Princes and that I add some illustrations upon the principal Manuscripts from which it hath been taken All that I have to do before I proceed further is to intimate to the Reader that he is not here to expect Regular Elogies but bare remarks which I make not so much as curious but as being necessary to the understanding of what comes after The Emperour Maximilian the first hath been the most singular Prince that wore a Crown in these last ages He was dumb until the age of ten years and as the skilfullest Physicians could not discover the cause of his distemper so neither could they find a remedy for it at the end of that time precisely his speech came to him and by the volubility of his tongue nature made amends for her slowness in allowing him the use of it He was the Son of the Emperour Frederick the Third and Leonora Infanta of Portugal and he had almost an equal share of the predominant inclinations of his Father and Mother Frederick loved money beyond what can be imagined and Leonora loved as well to spend it Maximilian was subject to both these failings and as no man ever more solicitously sought out ways to fill his coffers when they were empty so never any man was more impatient to empty them when they were full He only received that he might give away by handfuls and without distinction and resembled those pipes that never retain the water that comes into them as if they only received it to spill it as fast He had not one hundred Crowns when he went to marry the Heiress of Burgundy and he was so happy as to have no other rival but the abominable Adolph of Gueldres who was become the horrour of mankind through the inhumanity he had practised towards his own Father Maximilian was soon a Widower and fortune offered him the Heiress of Bretagne for a second Wife but his Father refused him money to defray the charges of his journey and no man would lend him a farthing had it not been for that Bretagne would have escaped from the French Monarchy and been annexed to the Low-Countries His prosperities were blended with some misfortunes Maximilian continued long the prisoner of the Flemings after they had set him at liberty they refused him the Guardianship of the Archdukes Philip his Son and Charles his Grandson and forced him thereupon to write Letters which are very far from the stile of his life which he himself wrote afterwards He strips himself of Majesty to demand from the Governours of the Archduke gratuities in ready money and hath so forgotten his quality that he would be vexed that one should think on 't It 's all one to him whether these Gratuities were made as a due or a present and that he might obtain them the sooner he consents to things misbecoming his dignity Nothing can be more generous than the Letters of Louis the Twelfth to Chievres all Europe was informed that his most Christian Majesty had made him Governour to the Archduke and the favour was so great that it could not sufficiently be acknowledged Nevertheless Louis seems to be apprehensive that Chievres may suspect that he hath not obliged him for nothing His Majesty writing to him thinks no more of that favour which had been the most approved of all his kindnesses and he is for having Chievres forget it as well as he He never desires any thing of him but with such cautions as leave him fully to his liberty nor does he neither apply himself directly to him upon the differences arisen betwixt the Provinces of Picardy and Champagne and the Walloons He makes him believe that he reserves him for better occasions and chuses rather to write to the Council of Bruxelles though he is not ignorant that Chievres is the head of it and that nothing can pass therein but what is approved by him He pretends to convince the most incredulous that he demands nothing of him but what the Flemings shall think reasonable and by that means he is sure to obtain what he desires and Chievres not to be suspected to have obliged him in granting it Louis follows not altogether the same Conduct in respect of the Archduke and always remembers that he is his feudatary Not but that in some rencounters he treats him as his equal because the Monarchy of Castile belonged to him already and that he was presumptive Heir of that of Arragon but on other occasions his Majesty labours indirectly to put him in mind that he is not considerable but because of the Territories which he holds of the Crown of France and that he may forfeit them in case of fellony The Catholick King Ferdinand of Arragon at first managed Chievres by all the ways that policy hath invented and prudence permits so long as he had any hopes of rendering him favourable unto him But so soon as the Low-Countries had declared for the Emperour Maximilian there was no more place for dissimulation or it appeared so useless that it was neglected Ferdinand proposed to himself to remove Chievres from his Grandson and some relations are so malicious as to add that it was none of his fault if revenge went not farther Chievres had timely enough notice to remedy it but he always confined his resentment within so narrow limits that his Majesty had ground to imagin that he had safely offended him Nor did he think neither that he ought to take greater liberty after that Doctor Adrian was raised up against him and he discontinued not to respect the Maternal Grandfather of the Archduke though he knew him to be the greatest and most formidable enemy that he had Henry the Eighth King of England neglected the Politicks of his Predecessors and took a way of his own that succeeded not with him The five last Kings from whom he held the Crown supposed that it was enough for them to keep in
evident a thing that it would have served to confound the Enemies of Chievres but the words of the Institution must exactly be stuck to and it was maintained that Chievres was guilty in not having exactly observed them Upon this these Cases of Conscience were proposed to several Divines of Spain Whether Chievres by disposing his Pupil to give the Order to such kind of Persons had not mortally sinned against God Whether there were not three different sorts of Injustice in the sin he had committed first in regard of his Divine Majesty who is jealous that the Ordinances authorised by his Church should be punctually observed secondly against the Order of the Golden Fleece of which the most important Statute was violated and lastly against the Nobles of Flanders accustomed to draw the chief proofs of their Nobility from those of their Ancestors who had had the honour to receive the Order of the Fleece Whether Chievres was not obliged to make restitution of the Salaries paid to those undeserving Knights and lastly whether he was not an accomplice in the false proofs of Nobility which they had produced before they were received into the Order The Divines decided all the Cases to the disadvantage of Chievres and their resolutions were immediately sent into Flanders to the Ambassador of the Catholick King who shewing them to the Archduke pressed him on the part of his maternal Grandfather that he would at least send the guilty person home to his house seated in the Province of Haynauld if the Services which he had rendred him protected him from being punished in a more exemplary manner The Archduke instead of having any respect to the Proposition of the Ambassador and the authority of the Casuists that back'd it defended his Governor upon the spot by two reasons first that if there had been any fault committed in the creation in question he was as much to be blamed as Chievres seeing they had examined the proofs together and that if they had been surprised in it the surprize was no less common to both Secondly that though Chievres were more guilty than he yet it followed not that he ought to be banished the Court and that a little mistake should make him forget the long and indefatigable pains of his Education The Catholick King who managed the whole Intrigue though he acted only by such instruments as seemed to have no concerns with him being unsuccessful in his first essay changed Battery and applied himself to Henry the Eighth King of England his Son-in-law He represented to him that the greatest interest of his English Majesty consisted in opposing by all means the Alliances betwixt the French and the Flemings That the wisest of his Predecessors had laid down that maxim as a fundamental in their Politicks That they found the advantage of it so long as they practised the same and that on the contrary they lost all for having neglected it That the late King Henry the Seventh had exactly observed it in the beginning and towards the middle of his Reign but that he had omitted it towards the end when old age and the extraordinary infirmities it had brought upon him had rendred him unable to apply himself long to business that nevertheless that was the Juncture when he ought to have eluded the Article of the last Will and Testament of Philip of Austria which entreated Louis XII King of France to take the care of the education of his eldest Son That his Majesty had opposed it with all his might because he foresaw the dangerous consequences thereof but that he could not prevail for want of the assistance of England That the most Christian King had placed Chievres about the Archduke and that Chievres being in that nature obliged to France strove to shew himself but too grateful That it was not enough for him to adjust all the affairs of the Archduke to the Interests of Louis his Benefactor so long as that Prince lived but that after his death he had continued the same conduct in regard of Francis the First his Successor That the Treaty of Marriage of the Archduke with Renée of France was an undeniable proof of it That there was no doubt to be made but that that Marriage would be accomplished and that by consequence France and the Low Countries would act joyntly so long as Chievres were about the Archduke That his Catholick Majesty had made it his business to oblige the Archduke to remove him and that there wanted only the Offices of the King of England for succeeding in it Henry the Eighth with extreme trouble understood that Francis the first for his first Essay had recovered the Dutchy of Milan He imputed the easiness of that young Prince's Success to his having employed all the Forces of France in Italy without being obliged to leave Troops for the Guard of his Frontiers of Picardie and Champaigne The last Negotiation of Chievres with his most Christian Majesty was in his Judgment the cause of it and the Marriage of the Archduke with the Sister-in-law of Francis the First was like so to secure him in his Conquest that neither Spain Germany nor Italy could snatch it out of his hands These four considerations inclined his Majesty of England to send to the Archduke and to represent to him by the Ambassador which he had at his Court that seeing he had more wit for his age than any Prince mentioned in History ever had had and that he was already capable of Reigning alone by himself it was not only useless but also disgraceful to him to retain at his Court such a man as Chievres who so long as he continued there would ecclipse his Reputation That Politicians who could not call to mind that ever they had seen or read of a Prince that at the age of fifteen years had more prudence readiness of wit address and experience than the eldest Monarchs of Europe had would never believe that the Judicious Councils taken in Flanders about the nicest matters of State came immediately from him That they would always imagine Chievres to be the Author of them that he suggested them found out proper expedients for putting them in execution and that being now satisfied with the glory which he had already acquired in Governing the Low-Countries during the non-age of the Archduke with so great wisdom that the Flemings had found no effects of the minority of their Prince he acted like a compleat Courtier in endeavouring to procure by times a high Reputation to his young Master by attributing to him all the projects and important resolutions that came from himself whereas if Chievres were consined to his House in Haynauld whereof he carried the name there to spend the rest of his days in quietness or if it were thought fitter to send him to the Emperors Court there to manage the German Princes for the future Election of his Pupil to the Empire Men would do Justice to the Archdukes merit and nothing would
time to examine the question whether he ought in conscience any longer to keep the places they treated about John d' Albert who was not a man to make use of the occasion of constraining him to it and who besides was not moved with the money which he saw not in ready Cash returned to Navarre and the Constable accompanied him thither whether it was that he knew him so well as to confide in him or that the love of his Country at that time prevailed with him over all other considerations of policy and convenience It is not known neither if that frankness stifled all the remains of aversion that John d' Albert might still conceive against the Constable or if that which is said of his Majesty of Navarre was true that he easily forgot injuries received when he was persuaded that those who had done them remembred them no more but it is certain that after his return into Navarre he lived in so good a correspondence with the Constable that he passed from one extremity to the other and that whereas till then he had been of the Faction of Grammont he entered into that of Beaumont which thereby recovered fresh strength The Queen his Wife detesting his inconstancy continued firm in the Party of Grammont but that made nothing the more for her interest seeing the Nobility of Navarre seeing the Royal Family divided took Parties also and the People thereby conceived a greater contempt of John d' Albert than they had had for the excess of his familiarity It is said that Caesar Borgia Duke of Valentinois Bastard Son of Pope Alexander the Sixth who had Towards the end of the Life of Valentinois married the Sister of John d' Albert having made his escape out of Ferdinands Prisons came at time into Navarre and made an accommodation betwixt his Brother-in-law and the Queen That he convinced John d' Albert that he had done wrong in abandoning the Faction of Grammont and engaged him in it again but if that be so the Duke found the less resistance in it that an unexpected accident wrought in that particular all that he could have promised himself from his Eloquence John d' Albert sent an Officer to the Constable with an Order from his Majesty and the Constable pretending that the Officer in the discharge of his Commission had not shewn him the respect which was due to the chief Commander of the Armies caused him to be cudgelled and detained Prisoner The action in it self was insupportable Nevertheless it is probable John d' Albert would have slighted the affront done him in the person of his Officer or at least that he would not have driven his resentment so far as it went if the Duke of Valentinois whose Crimes God Almighty would no longer bear with had not offered to chastise the insolence of the Constable and had not obtained permission to do so John d' Albert granted it more out of importunity than the desire of revenge and the Duke laid siege to the Castle of Viane which held for the Faction of Beaumont The Constable being resolved to raise it cost what it would advanced with his Forces within view of the Besiegers and the Duke before he had resolved whether he should go out to meet him or expect him within his Lines went out to view them He met with three Troopers who killed him and John d' Albert being informed of his death changed all of a sudden his inclination He hastened to his Army gave no quarter to those of Beaumont took their Towns and Castles hanged up or put to the Sword those that defended them burnt their Farm and Country houses destroyed their Woods and his anger transported him so far that in the Town of Lerin which he took by storm he ruined the stately burying-place of the Constables Ancestors The Forces of Ferdinand came so late to the assistance of those of Beaumont that the Constable after his overthrow found them in their march upon the rode as he fled to Arragon Seeing they were not strong enough to buoy up a forlorn cause he sent them back and confined himself with his Wife within the Town of Aranda where some months after both died of grief Louis of Beaumont their eldest Son went to the Court of Ferdinand to sollicite an assistance capable to restore him to the rights of his Family but he prevailed not until the year One thousand five hundred and twelve when a favourable Juncture of usurping Navarre was offered to Ferdinand The hatred which Pope Julius the Second bore against the French was grown to such a heighth that being neither able to endure them in Italy nor yet to drive them thence any other way than by the Arms of Ferdinand In the last Treaty of Julius the Second with Ferdinand his Holiness acquainted him that he might expect any thing from him provided he would enter into a League with the holy See against Louis the Twelfth of France Ferdinand made answer that he would consent to it on condition the Pope caused a secret Bull of Excommunication to be expeded against John d' Albert and his Queen as favourers of Louis the Twelfth the declared enemy of the Church and that his Holiness sent it to his Catholick Majesty to be made use of in time and place as he should judge most convenient The Bull as it is said was expeded and was kept so secret that no man ever saw either the Original or a Copy of it Ferdinand received it or pretended he had and raised a powerful Army the Command whereof he gave to Frederick de Toledo Duke of Alva under pretext of attacking Guyenne on the side of Bayonne whilst Henry the Eighth King of England his Son-in-law should make a descent in that Province at the mouth of the River of Garonne John d' Albert was so little apprehensive of being attacked that he had not so much as raised one Soldier though the Maxims of good Government allowed him not to remain disarmed amidst all his Neighbours in Arms. He suffered the Duke of Alva to advance within Eight Leagues of Pampelona and never took the alarm till the Catholick King having without any difficulty brought all his Forces into the Centre of Navarre and taken just measures with the Constables Son and with the remnant of the Faction of Beaumont sent a Herald to tell the Queen and King of Navarre that the King of France and all his Adherents were Excommunicated for having called and held a Council in the City of Pisa in Tuscany against the holy See. That the Pope had given their Dominions to him who could first possess them and that his Catholick Majesty had confederated with the King of England for his seizing of Guienne which lay equally convenient for both that the English Fleet was to approach thither on the one side at the same time when his Catholick Majesty entered it on the other and that to the end Ferdinand might not fail
causes of misunderstanding which the change of time and the malice of men might for the future raise to disturb their friendship They met in the Town of Montpellier in Languedock in the beginning of Autumn one thousand five hundred and nineteen and it is not doubted but that they would have concluded a Peace of long duration betwixt the two Monarchies if God who thought fit to chastise the French by the Spaniards and the Spaniards by the French had not broken up the Negotiation by the death of Gousfier The Spanish writers who here do double their calumnies against the memory of Chievres have not been sensible that they wronged themselves more than him They blame him in the first place for having accepted a French Town for the interview and for not having stood upon it that the Conferences should be held upon the Frontiers of the two Kingdoms But it is easie to answer them that a neutral place had been good if there had been open War betwixt the two Crowns But seeing at that time they were in Peace and that a rupture betwixt them was only to be feared for the future it was not the custom to use any caution for the place of the Assembly and though it had been the question was decided in the preceding Negotiation The same Plenipotentiaries met in the Town of Noyon in Picardie for the same reason that obliged Henry the Fourth of Castille to pass the River Bidasloa and Treat in Guyenne with Louis the Eleventh of France that is to say by reason of the pre eminence of the French Monarchy before that of Spain and nothing had supervened since that which exempted Gouffier and Chievres from that rule For Charles was only Emperoâ— Elect and not Crowned and though he had the Imperial Dignity hindering not but that he held the Counties of Flanders Artois and Charolois in Fee of the most Christian King the least thing he owed to his Lord superior was to send his Plenipotentiary into his Country The same writers in the second place accuse Chievres of having imprudently trusted himself in a Town of Languedock where he was not in full liberty to Negotiate as was necessary But they mention not that Chievres could not take more security than he did and that it was so far from being violated that the Bishop of Badajox and Doctor Carvajal who seconded him in the Negotiation of Montpellier never complained of it Lastly they find fault in the third place that Chievres put himself in danger of being stopt when the Conferences ended by the death of Gouffier and their blindness in that particular is the more ridiculous that they see not that the fault which they impute to Chievres reflects upon Charles the Fifth who twenty years after put himself into the hands of Francis the First by crossing over all France upon the word of that Prince upon no other motive but the appeasing of the tumult of Ghent What the same writers add that Chievres had been Arrested in Montpellier if he had not left it at the very instant that he heard of the death of Gouffier and escaped with all diligence to Roussillon is no truer than the rest For it appears by the Journal of the Conferences written by the Secretary Robertet who was present at them that Chievres stayed in Montpellier some days after the death of Gouffier that he paid his last duties to his friend That he did not break up the Conferences but because the power of concluding for France was committed solely to Gouffier who was dead and that before he departed he took leave of Poucher Bishop of Orleans Robertet and the rest of the French who were concerned in the Treaty of Montpellier as Subaltern Ministers He had one cause to regret the death of Gouffier which he had not foreseen and which all the advantages that Charles obtained afterwards over France were not able to repair Gouffier promised Chievres to procure for him from the most Christian King peaceable possession of the Estate of Gaston de Foix which Queen Germana had made over to him and the thing had infallibly been accomplished after the separation of the Plenipotentiaries and the signing of the Articles But these well-grounded hopes so totally evanished by the death of Gouffier that whatever Chievres could do afterward the Estate that Gaston had possessed was given to his three Cousin-germans by the Fathers side Lautrec Asparant and the Mareschal de Foix without any recompence made to the Heirs of Chievres The unsuccessfulness of the Negotiation of Montpellier obliged the Catholick King to use as great caution before he departed out of Spain as if the French had already declared War against him He appointed a whole Army for the Guard of the Pyrenees and hastened his Voyage for Germany that he might engage in his interests Henry the Eight his Uncle by touching at England He durst not leave a Grandee of Spain to govern the Country in his absence for the same reasons which diverted his Grandfather upon his death-bed from chusing one of them and seeing he had occasion to make use of Chievres in England and Germany whither he was going and that he had already as hath been said cast his eyes upon the Cardinal of Tortosa for discharging that office in conjunction with Ximenes he thought it his best to continue him both in gratitude and civility He had no regard in that particular to the Remonstrances which were made to him thereupon by the Castillians on the one hand and the Arragonese on the other when he assembled them with design to bid them farewel and the Agents whom he entertained at the Court of England having given him advice that Henry the Eight would be at Calais the first of June one thousand five hundred and twenty for an interview with Francis the First near the Town of Ardres he apprehended and not without reason that these two Monarchs might unite against him In that case England would have cast the balance to the side of France and upon the account only to take the King of England off of that he hastened his departure out of Spain He embarked in the Port of Corugna the twentieth of May and was so happy as to make his Voyage into England with so much expedition as was necessary to break the most Christian Kings measures with Wolsey Cardinal of York the Favourite of Henry A favourable Wind in six days time brought him in the very nick to Dover where he found the Court of England making ready to go over into France He conferred two whole days with Henry none being present but Chievres and the Cardinal of York the two chief Ministers of the two Princes and the effects of extraordinary civilities in interviews appeared as much in that rencounter as ever It seemed that the Catholick King had forgot that he was chosen Emperor so respectful he was to his English Majesty and his complaisance condescended so far as to call the Cardinal
pains but that was for Henry d' Albert his Cousin who could reward him but meanly and out of the Estate which he possessed in France the Lands of Navarre not being of a nature to be held by strangers Whereas if he advanced his conquests into Castille he would at least retain them until the Peace and in the mean time raise vast contributions from them which might render him the richest Subject in Christendom These selfish considerations of Asparaut were backt by the clamours of the young Officers of his Army who importuned him that he would be as good as his word to them when they were enrolled which was to let them have a brush with the Enemy They added that he had not so much as shew'd them the Castillians and that they were come into and had recovered Navarre without a view of them That if they stopt there they would leave no marks of their valour to posterity Whereas by entring into Castille if they found the people still in Rebellion there they would subdue them without trouble and if they found them again reduced under obedience to the Emperor they would still come to as good a Market since the two parties would be so weakened by fighting one against another that hardly could they make any resistance The most dangerous Counsels are most commonly followed in Armies where young men have the chief Authority Asparaut's Army was subject to that inconvenience and it was resolved there that the French should march out of Navarre That they should pass the River Ebre which separates that Kingdom from Castille That they should lay siege to the Town of Logrogno and that having taken it they should extend their conquests farther The design was rash Nevertheless the most expert in the Art confessed since that it would have succeeded if it had been as hastily put in execution as it was formed The Town of Logrogno though the Council of Spain lookt upon it as a key of Castille had been ungarisoned as well as the Towns of Navarre and not so much as a Soldier left therein They had also taken the Ammunition out of it and left there only the Provisions For at least half an Age the Inhabitants had had no necessity of carrying Arms and that long rest joynedto the fertility of their Country entertained them in a softness that would have obliged them to surrender upon the first summons if it had been made when there was no body to help them to defend the place But Asparaut by a second fault less to be repaired than the former made a stop three whole days to refresh his Army in the neighbourhood of the little Town of Arcos and thereby gave time to the Nobility of Spain who had continued loyal to the Emperor to provide for the security of Logrogno They put into it Pedro Velez Guevera a prudent and expert Captain with a strong Garison who at first made himself absolute Master of the place He turned out of it all useless mouths and caused them to be conducted farther in into Castille to places where they might be maintained at publick cost He received in the nick of time the Ammunition he stood in need of the Gentlemen of the Country having provided it at their own charges and the Governour thought it not enough to dispute every inch of ground with the Besiegers he besides drowned all the Fields about Logrogno by means of the Banks of the Ebre which he caused to be cut and so much the more confounded the French that at that time they were not skilful enough in that part of Mathematicks which teaches Besiegers how to defend themselves against waters Asparaut though he found upon his arrival matters in this state yet for all that undertook the siege and vigorously prosecuted the same But besides the prodigious resistance he met with there happened an impediment which he had not foreseen The Civil War ceased so suddenly in Castille and Arragon after the Battel of Villalar that the three Governours had time to send their own and the Rebels Army of which the Rear had only fought to the relief of Logrogno and the Emperor was informed that that important place was besieged at the same time when he had notice that an Army was marching to the relief of it He communicated the news of both to Chievres who was dissatisfied with Francis the First ever since his most Christian Majesty had refused to approve the donation which Queen Germana had made to him of the Inheritance of Foix and probably in that heat of resentment Chievres counselled the Emperor to make use of the imprudence of Asperaut in such a manner as would infallibly gain Spain the advantage over France The Letters which the Emperor had received from the three Governours contained a particular which they had inserted without any design And it was this that when Asparaut first approached to Logrogno a pair of Colours had been discovered in his Army with this Inscription To the glory of the King of France and the Lilies If the thing was true and if the Spaniards invented it not as the French pretended since the Colours must have been made by some capricious Captain of Foot without the knowledge of his General since it is certain and the writers of both Nations agree that Asparaut when he entred Navarre and Castille declared himself to be General of the Army of Henry d' Albert and not of the Army of Francis the First and that he executed the orders of the former of those two Kings and not of the latter Nevertheless Chievres took occasion from it to represent to his Master that that particular well managed would be enough to engage England in his interests He put his Imperial Majesty in mind that in the last conference which he had had with King Henry the Eight his Uncle where he had the honour to be present his Majesty of England had let fall a word that if the War broke out again betwixt France and Spain he would declare for that Monarchy of the two which should be first attacked That though the word perhaps drop'd from him as in course and without deliberation yet he ought to make his best of it and send an extraordinary Ambassador into England to demand the performance thereof and to exaggerate the ambition of Francis the First in the Court of England whilst the Imperial Agents should every where give it out that the French had not very long made use of the pretext of Henry d' Albert for entring hostilely into Spain and for favouring the Rebellion of the Emperors Subjects That they had taken off the Vizor when they passed the River of Ebre and had retaken the Flowers de Lice upon their entry into Castille That under their own Colours they besieged the Town of Logrogno and that so the juncture was come wherein the King of England had promised to declare himself That Spain was constantly attacked and that it challenged
as the ancient Patriarchs did in a continual Pilgrimage and so to distribute his cares time travels and presence that the Low-Countries Germany and Italy would have the better share oâ— them and Spain the least That there was no other way to ward so dangerous a blow than by insensibly bringing back the Catholick King into the course that Nature and the Law of Nations required of him and by convincing him by his own experience that the elder of his Grandsons deserved better to succeed to him than the younger and that so all that Charles had to do was to become more virtuous and better qualified than Ferdinand Chievres advised Charles in relation to the two other Crowns of Spain which were those of Navarre and Portugal that it would be convenient to continue the Project of the Catholick King for reuniting them to the â—est of the Spanish Monarchy by means of â—lliances but that there was but little appearance that that could be so soon accomplished seeing on the one hand Cathaâ—ine de Frix Queen of Navarre and â—ohn d' Albert her Son had such near Alliâ—nces with the Crown of France that â—ey would never dispose of their Children but with the consent and approbation of Louis the Twelfth And on the other hand Manuel King of Potugal had Five â—sty Sons by the Aunt of Charles his seâ—nd Wife and that by consequent the â—aughters of the same marriage could not â—pect to succeed so soon but that the â—gagement of the King of Navarre with tâ—e French might some time or other be â—…nare to him and that besides as the â—…sterity of Charlemain was extinct in the â—…ce of Eighteen years though it was so â—…merous that it consisted of thirty two â—…gorous Princes all married so that of Manuel might fail by a like or more unhappy Fate England was more important in all respects to Charles and his Governour advised him to look upon it at all times as a Kingdom able to do him great services and proportionably to hurt him for the Low-Countries in the condition they were then in needed not fear to succumb unless they had France for their Enemy and then they could not expect any assistance greater speedier more suitable to their necessity nor nearer at hand than that of the English That if the necessity of that assistance did not encrease after he came to the enjoyment of the Successions which he expected it would at least be as great seeing Spain would then become a Monarchy that might counterpoise France and none but England could be in a condition then to turn the balance to which side of the two it adhered That Charleâ— would always have the advantage of the French when he competed with them tâ— draw England over to his side since be sides the invincible antipathy betwixt the English and French Nation and the inveterate hatred fomented by so many Wars Henry the Eighth of England was marrieâ— to the last Infanta of Spain Sister to Charle his Mother and constantly favoured hâ— Father-in-law Ferdinand the Catholick against Louis the Twelfth In relation to Scotland it behoved Charles to reason from a quite opposite Maxime and that he must not expect upon any Juncture that could be offered to him to engage that King into his Interests The Alliance of that Nation with the French had without interruption continued seven hundred years from King to King and from Crown to Crown and though it had not been so old nor so strict yet it would be enough for the Scots that Spain courted the friendship of the English to make them declare against it for France though they had not as yet spoused any Party Italy came next in course into the thought of Chievres of which he only represented to the Archduke four principal Powers from whom the Inferiour were 〈◊〉 receive their influence to wit France â—pain the Holy See and the Republick of â—enice France held there the Dutchies of Genoa and Milan Spain the Kingdom of Naples â—…e Holy See ten Provinces besides the â—…ity of Rome and the Venetians the State â—hich is called Terra Firma The Italians â—…d no reason to fear that the Popes or â—enetians would trouble their repose because both had almost an equal interest to preserve it But if the French and Spaniards grew weary of Peace and took up Arms again they must infallibly have the same success which they already had that is to say that the Nation of the two which could get the Pope on their side would overcome and as the most Christian and the Catholick Kings did not conquer nor divide betwixt them the Kingdom of Naples but by the consent of Alexander the Sixth as the Spaniards had not driven the French from thence two years after but in pursuance of a secret Treaty concluded for that end betwixt the Great Captain and the same Alexander and as the Pope Julius the Second contributed most to hinder the most Christian King from recovering what he had lost by ruining the formidable Army of that Prince upon the side of the River of Garillan so the Spaniards in their turn would be driven out of the Kingdom of Naples whensoever it should be their misfortune to displease the same Julius or one of his Successours So that the Archduke in the sense of his Governour ought chiesly to apply himself to entertain his Holiness in the good disposition he was in in relation to Spain and if the matter was not difficult by reason that Julius hated Louis so much the more that formerly he loved him no more would it be in regard of succeeding Popes since on the one hand their State bordered immediately upon the Kingdoms of Naples and that they were next Neighbours whereas the Territories of divers Princes lay betwixt theirs and the Dutchy of Milan and that so the Court of Rome were not so much exposed to be surprised by an Invasion from the French as from the Spaniards and on the other hand it was not so much to be apprehended that the Spaniards would usurp all Italy if they retained the possession of Naples as it would be that France might reduce Italy into a Province if they added the Kingdom of Naples to the Dutchy of Milan because then they could march by Land into the Milanese having only the Alpes and Piemont to cross whereas the Spaniards could not go thither but by Sea and have a Voyage of five hundred Leagues to make The Republick of Venice according to Chievres was no less to be considered in matter of Politicks than the Court of Rome but for power it was not so much since the Holy See the Emperour France and Spain having entered into a League to ruine it Louis the Twelfth alone had defeated all its Forces at the Battel of Giaradadda and taken from it all it possessed in the Terra Firma It is true it afterward recovered part of that State but seeing it was not so easily regained as lost and that in all
at the appointed time there was a necessity he should march through Navarre with what Baggage and Artillery were needful for him to lay Siege to the City of Bourdeaux that the same passage was as necessary for his Armies marching back again to his own Territories and that for securing it in case he succeeded not in his enterprise as he expected their Majesties of Navarre must needs give him the places of Esteille Maye and St. John Pied de Port for Cautionary Towns that he promised upon his honour if they were freely granted him to restore them again faithfully so soon as his Forces were come back again into Castile and Arragon but if they were absolutely refused or not presently entrusted into his hands they must not take it ill if he endeavoured to put in execution the Bull of Excommunication which Pope Julius the Second had just then thundered out against their Majesties of Navarre as well as against Louis the Twelfth of France The Queen and King of Navarre gave Audience to the Herald in the Town of Tudelle where their Estates were assembled and made him answer That Navarre intended to observe an exact Neutrality betwixt the most Christian and Catholick Kings and as the Catholick King might have ground to complain of their Majesties of Navarre if they permitted the French to pass their Country for invading Arragon or Castile so would the most Christian King also have if they opened a passage through their States for the Spaniards to enter into Guienne The Duke of Alva who only waited for that answer marched streight to Pampelona and gave the signal to those of the Faction of Beaumont who made in one day an Insurrection in all the other Towns of Navarre in favours of the Spaniards the two and twentieth of July One thousand five hundred and twelve The Kings of Navarre hastened also to Pampelona but by another way where finding the Towns-people disposed to open the Gates to the Duke of Alva so soon as he appeared before their Walls they had no other course to take but to fly into the Territories which they had in France None accompanied them in their retreat but the chief of the Faction of Grammont because the others being assured that the Catholick King would receive them with open Arms stayed at home quietly in their houses What was very strange in so general a revolution there was not one Town that shewed their Loyalty to their Prince by enduring a Siege and the Duke of Alva had no more to do but to appear before them one after another to have the Keys delivered into his hands Ferdinand having conquered so important a Kingdom caused his Army to stay there for securing it and failed in his promise both alike to the Pope and to his Son-in-law Henry the Eighth of England suffered the English to lie hovering upon the Coast of Guyenne and did not send them word till the end of the Campagne that they should stay no longer for him and that if they pleased they might return home The End of the Second Book BOOK III. Containing the most memorable Affairs that pass'd in the Monarchy of Spain during the Year One thousand five hundred and fifteen and part of One thousand five hundred and sixteen THE Spanish Historians treating of the Invasion of Navarre put it off with a false Jest Their intention is to take their Readers off from observing too narrowly the manner how that Kingdom was united to their Monarchy by pleasantly amusing them whilst as tenderly as they can they touch so nice a point they say that John d' Albert being come to the most distant place from which he might still see his Capital City of Pampelona and turning about to take a full view of it sell a crying bitterly and that the Queen Catharine de Foix his Wife offended at so unseasonable an act of tenderness told him in a disdainful manner In the relation of the flight of John d' Albert. that he might very well cry like a woman for the loss of a Crown which he could not defend like a man. But these Authors have not taken notice That John d' Albert and his Queen departed not together from Pampelona That seeing the King was more hated there than she he was the first that consulted his own security by flying away about break of day and that the Queen followed not her Husband till two days after when he was already entered the Mountains of Aldude Ferdinand after the Conquest of Navarre had a greater desire than before to have Children by his second Wife He was not as yet superannuated and his failings were only imputed to the disorders of his youth The Physicians made no doubt but by their Art they might retrieve his former vigour for some time at least and taught the Queen Germana how to make a love Potion which in their opinion would prove infallible The Queen who would not venture upon any thing that she might be reproached with spoke of it to Ferdinand who bid her take the care of preparing it her self that it might be kept the more secret She only communicated it to her Ladies of Honour in whom she had greatest confidence and they presented it one Evening to Ferdinand when he was going to bed at Carrousillo a house of pleasure where he spent the spring of the year One thousand five hundred and thirteen Ferdinand drank up the Potion to the very dregs but whether the Dose was too strong for the weakness of his Constitution or that it was not carefully enough prepared it had a quite contrary effect to the intent of those that gave it Ferdinand fell immediately sick upon it and his Physicians who knew the cause of his distemper were at a stand as to the cure They caused him to be removed to Megorada where he was so long and so dangerously seized with all the symptomes that threatned an approaching end that Chievres thought it time seriously to mind the Succession to the Monarchy of Arragon and the possession of that of Castile He was persuaded that his Majesty would use his endeavours to disappoint the Archduke Charles and settle them upon the Infanto Ferdinand and since that was the chief thing which he had proposed to prevent he was of the opinion that the Archduke should send into Spain Adrian his Tutor who was as yet but Dean of Louvain The pretext of that Voyage was the Marriage which the People of the Low Countries desired for their own repose betwixt the Archduke and Renée of France second Daughter of Louis the Twelfth King of France but in reality the Dean had an Authentick Power and many blanks signed for taking possession of the two Monarchies in case the Catholick King should die and at least to preserve that of Castile for the Archduke supposing Arragon should be given by Testament to the younger Brother The dispatches were expeded with all imaginable secrecy but the Catholick King was too mistrustful
of the Children whom he had immediately begotten That he had his Air Countenance Shape Humours and even his Gate and that all Courtiers observed his Genius to be the very same but that nevertheless nothing of all that inclined him to prefer him before the Archduke That he had three such prevalent reasons for it as he was willing to make publick to the end unprejudiced Posterity might judge of his conduct The first was because his Catholick Majesty had always been crossed in the care that he would have taken of the Archduke and thence it was that that young Prince was not fit to govern the Spaniards That in spight of him they had set over him Chievres a Fleming who not only was unacquainted with the Spanish manners but besides had a fearful Antipathy to them That this Governour had made it his whole design to get so absolute a sway over the Genius of his Pupil that he was become all at once his Governour Chamberlain High Steward and Favourite That if the Archduke Reigned in Spain that Gentleman alone would make up his whole Council and the Spaniards would be governed by a stranger which never hapned since the usurpation of the Moors That their Laws and Customs would be changed their Priviledges abolished their Magistracies sold and the Commerce of the Indies transported to the Low Countries The second reason was taken from hence In the first Testament of King Ferdinand That if Castile and Arragon had stood in need of a resident King whilst these two Monarchies were divided they had much more need of one since their Union and there was no doubt to be made but that the absence of their Monarch would cause Revolutions amongst them seeing it was a certain truth that they never failed to suffer Commotions that shook the very Foundations when their Sovereigns were in the least absent Nevertheless nothing was more certain than that the Archduke would neither live always nor yet long at a time in Spain supposing he were their King That it would be unjust and indeed foolish to expect it That he possessed the Low Countries which lay too conveniently for France and England not to be usurped by one of those two Monarchies if their Master budged from thence and besides he was in Germany to succeed to the ten Hereditary Provinces of the House of Austria which would no less absolutely require his presence whereas the Infanto his Brother who was to have no more but the Monarchies of Castile and Arragon would live six months of the year in one and the other six months in the other In fine the third reason alledged That it would be a greater prejudice to the Archduke to leave him the Monarchies of Spain than to frustrate him of them seeing in the first case the Germans would be sure not to chuse him Emperour in place of his Paternal Grandfather and would ground his Exclusion upon their fear lest being otherwise so powerful he might attempt the changing of their Aristocratical State into an absolute Monarchy as it hapned to all those Nations who had chosen Sovereigns that were able to subject them whereas the Archduke having no more but the Low Countries and the ten Hereditary Provinces of the House of Austria though he was more powerful than any Prince of Germany considered separately yet he would not be near so strong as all of them together and by consequent durst not molest any of them for fear they might all League against him depose him and having divided the Empire among themselves dispossess him of his Hereditary States In the next place the Catholick King disposed of the Monarchies of Castile and Arragon by the chief Article of his Will in the same manner as if they had both equally belonged unto him He left them purely and simply to the Infanto Ferdinand his Grandson after the death of the Queen his Mother He supposed that the Distemper of that Princess would last as long as she lived and would have the Archduke to rest satisfied with the Succession of his Father of which he was fully in possession and that of his paternal Grand-father which he would not miss of as if it had been in the power of his Catholick Majesty to make a lawful compensation of inheritances that did not at all belong to him with these whereof he was but proprietor in part The Testament was not kept secret whether the Catholick King sought for an opportunity of revenging himself upon his elder Grandson and his Governor by the trouble it might give them or that he did not so much stand in awe of them as to conceal what he had done to their prejudice The Infanto Ferdinand his principal Servants the Councils of State of Castile and Arragon knew it and the news of it was soon brought into Flanders All the Archdukes comfort was that by the assistance of the French he might recover what was unjustly given away from him and Chievres had not leisure to make all the Reflections which so extraordinary a Case deserved because he was obliged to make it his business to break the most dangerous Conspiracy that ever was hatched against the favour of a man of his quality It is not known whether the Catholick King lookt upon him as the greatest Enemy that the Infanto Ferdinand could have or that he judged it absolutely necessary to turn him out not only of place but of life also to the end that his Majesties Will might be punctually accomplished But it is certain that no measures that could be taken were omitted to oblige the Arch-Duke to put away his Governor or for undoing the same Governor in case his Pupil were obstinate in keeping him about his Person The manner how this was set about deserves to be particularly mentioned were it for no other end but to observe the degrees by which the malice of Man advances to the greatest of Crimes when once it comes to deceive it self under a cloak and pretext of Devotion It was impossible to reach Chievres by the way of Law and Justice because his integrity that was known to all men secured him from any such attempt though after a frequent and most critical examination of all that had been acted in the Low-Countries wherein he was concerned notice was taken of the Ceremony which the Arch-Duke by the advice of his Governor had established in admitting new Knights into the Order of the Golden Fleece By the Laws of Institution of that Order approved by the Holy See it is provided that the Knights should be chosen out of the Noblest Families and it was pretended that Chievres had contravened this by proposing to the Arch-Duke in the last Chapter that was held for making of Knights some whose Nobility was not sufficiently made out In the constitutions of the Order of the Golden Fleece It could not be denied but that those Men were of greater merit than the others who had been excluded because it was so
of York Father though he was not ignorant that that Prelate was a Butchers Son. Chievres who had taught him the art of insinuating into the affections of men seconded him so well that if the Court of England could with honour not have gone over to Calais it would have immediately returned to London But matters being now too far advanced and the Court of France being already in the Frontiers of Picardie the Emperor was satisfied with the promise that the King of England his Uncle gave him not to conclude any thing to his disadvantage at Ardres whither he was going to confer with the most Christian King and afterwards to grant his Imperial Majesty a second interview wherein an Offensive and Defensive League betwixt Spain and England should be Negotiated The promise was fulfilled in its whole extent The Conferences of Ardres ended and no new engagement entered into by the English with France Henry received a second visit from the Emperor so soon as he had dispatched his affairs in Germany In the Treaties betwixt Charls the Fifth and Henry the Eight and Chievres so effectually perswaded his Majesty of England that it was his interest to have the French driven out of Italy that he promised in writing to contribute to it The fruit that Spain reaped from that was the conquest of the Dutchy of Milan But Chievres who lived not to see it lived long enough to see himself levelled at by the Castillians and Arragonese in the strangest manner that a Subject could be without falling It hath been already observed that the Spaniards could not endure that he should be President of their Council and their Treasurer and that it was chiefly to deprive him of those two Offices that they attempted to frustrate strangers of the Dignities and Benefices of Spain The Emperor had taken so little notice of it that they were offended thereat and seeing his Voyage into Germany in their opinion furnished a singular occasion of snatching from his Imperial Majesty by force what he would not grant them by fair means they engaged into a revolt for the space of two years by the following degrees The great men of the Country by their Emissaries and Agents disposed the Burghers and Country people of Castille first to complain in secret and then openly that their Laws were violated and no regard had to their priviledges That in less than three years time the Flemings had plundered Spain and transmitted into their Country so much robb'd and stoln money as amounted to the summ of six millions of Livres That no Office nor Benefice escaped them seeing if either the one or other were convenient for them they appropriated them and if they were not they procured grants of them for such of the Native Spaniards as offered them most mony That hitherto it had been suffered not only out of the reverence that they had for the Catholick King but also because they believed that his Majesty would condescend to the prayers and be moved with the Remonstrances of his most humble Subjects who begg'd him to deliver them from those Leeches But now that he was gone to Germany and had abandoned the Spaniards to the mercy of the same Flemings notwithstanding the infinite number of Petitions that had been presented to him to the contrary there was no other remedy for the evils which Spain actually suffered and for those wherewith it was threatned but that the Spaniards themselves should put in execution during the absence of their King what could not justly be denied them that is to say by their own Forces to recover their ancient Liberties The Burghers of the Towns of Andalusia moved at these discourses were the first that mutinied and in less than a fortnights time the revolt was propagated in the other Kingdoms of Spain They refused to receive the Orders of the Cardinal of Tortosa and the City of Segovia had the boldness to declare against them The Cardinal thinking to quiet the Sedition by dividing the power that had been given him with Native Spaniards shared it first with the Constable and afterwards with the Admiral of Castille But the Seditious who had now obtained part of what they demanded without drawing a Sword abused the easiness of the Cardinal and prest him with greater heat than before to be gone out of Spain and to carry with him all the Flemings who were there That instance was too audacious to be suffered and the Spaniards whom the Emperor had left to be Counsellors to the Cardinal thought it ought to be exemplarily punished and that the commission for doing it ought to be given to the boldest and severest Provost of Spain who was the Aclayde Ronchillo Upon that advice the Cardinal gave him Troops and commanded him to reduce the Segovians to their duty Ronchillo put it in execution the more punctually that the Order which he had received agreed best with his temper He marched streight to Segovia commanded the Burghers in a haughty manner to open the Gates to him threatned them with utmost extremity if they delayed a moment took the desire of some hours to deliberate in which they made to him as a premeditated refusal instantly began the Judiciary procedures prescribed by the Laws of Castille in such cases hastened the conclusion of them and had no sooner finished his verbal Processes but that he executed the Cardinals Orders more like a common Executioner than a Commissary He fell to burning demolishing oppressing killing and desolating in all the Territory of Segovia The Burghers of Toledo who waited only for a plausible pretext for an Insurrection took that of the Military executions which were practised in their neighbourhood and went out to put a stop to them with the greater licentiousness that as yet they had not a head their young Archbishop being gone with the Emperor They met Rouchillo when the Officers were in a negligent posture not apprehending that they had any to fight with but those whom they securely abused They defeat him returned back in triumph within their walls and that first advantage was enough to engage into a publick Rebellion the Towns of Burgos Vailladolid Salamanca Avila Zamorra Leon and Toro The Great men who had Estates in their Territories followed their example and the Cardinal of Tortosa who had chosen Vailladolid for the place of his ordinary residence and for the sitting of the Council that was left with him not being able to hinder the Town from confederating with the rest thought he could not with honour continue there He pretended to yield to the entreaties of Pedro Giron and John de Padilla who came to wait on him in name of the Inhabitants to assure him that he might stay in the house where he was That neither he nor his Servants should suffer any prejudice That they were perswaded of his innocence and that they had nothing to say against him but he gained a Priest who made his escape out of Vailladolid through a hole
the promise of England The Emperor who run no risk in following the counsel of Chievres sent the Count of Raeux to London with instructions drawn according to the reasons which we have now abridged The Count who was never before employed in any Negotiation succeeded in this which was his first Essay but not altogether because of his ability though it was already very conspicuous The King of England made no such account of the word which as was signified unto him he had past as to think himself obliged to keep it but he set before himself other considerations which were not in the Counts instructions He examined which of the two France or Spain he had most reason to be afraid of as affairs then stood and he found it to be France for though the Emperor was raised to a prodigious power and that there was none in the world comparable to it in extent yet it was not suspicious to England seeing the Emperor could not attack it by Land before he had conquered all France which could never be in the opinion of the English and as to the Sea England would be always superior to Spain Whereas if the French Monarchy having re-established its Authority in Italy by the recovery of the Dutchy of Milan should enlarge it self beyond the Pyrenees by conquering there the Country of the best Soldiers which lay along the River of Ebre it would not only not own the King of England for Arbitrator of the differences which it had with the Emperor but also might very well take the advantage of the first favourable occasion that should present and confine the English to their own Island by taking from them what they still retained in France Henry the Eighth concluded from that principle that it was his interest by all means to hinder the Spaniards from taking footing upon the Banks of the Ebre and upon that sole consideration signed a League Defensive and Offensive with the Emperor against the most Christian King which he would not have done as he many times declared afterward if Asparaut had stopt in Navarre or that if he would have continued his Conquests he had only carried them on along the Pyrenees without advancing at first into the very heart of Spain Before a fortnight was over the King of England found that his fear was vain and repented that he had declared so soon but the Count of Raeux having obtained what he desired was already gone from his Court when the news was brought to England that the French were driven out of Castille The Spaniards having joyned the Rebellious Troops as they called them to those whom they named Obedient made an Army of forty thousand men and marched in good order to the relief of Logrogno at the time when the number of the Besiegers was so diminished that it was no longer sufficient for guarding all the Avenues to the place The Enemy perceived it and took such good measures that they put into it four thousand Foot. Having done so with the rest of their Forces they cut off the Besiegers Provisions and forced them to raise the siege after they had made many unsuccessful assaults Asparaut repassed the Ebre and retreated in all haste to put himself under the cover of the Guns of Pampelona there being no Town nearer where he could lie safely and the Spaniards had almost suffered him to do it There happened amongst them upon their coming into Logrogno a debate which would have hindred them from recovering Navarre had it not been almost as soon ended as begun Their chief Officers agreed easily in a Council of War that the French must be close pursued in the Rear but at first they could not agree about the choice of him who should be their head after that they had passed the Ebre The Count of Haro who till then had commanded them pretended still to the command and alledged for his reason that he being declared General against the French his Commission could not expire till he had defeated them or sent them beyond the Pyrenees He added that that Commission was indeed no more but an Accessory of that which Chievres had procured him to pursue the Rebels by Arms and to resettle Spain in its former tranquillity He maintained that the French had first entred Navarre and then Castille through intelligence with the Rebels and from thence concluded that his command could not be taken from him without injustice until Navarre should be recovered or that the Emperor had given other orders The Duke of Najara on the contrary said that he was actually Viceroy of Navarre and that the Letters Patents which he had for it from the Emperor were not recalled That it was expresly mentioned in them that he should be General of all the Forces that acted in that Kingdom for his Imperial Majesty for what cause and upon what occasion soever they should be brought together and that there was no limitation made in that particular That the revolution which had since happened in Navarre could do no prejudice to his power and that in true policy it ought not to be considered but in the sence that Lawyers look upon Torrents which though for some time they overflow the Lands of private men yet do not deprive them of their possession nor so much as interrupt it when once it hath been lawfully established The Count of Haro had no ground to question the Letters Patents of the Duke of Najara but he alledged that the power thereby conferred had expired by the Dukes fault That he had abandoned his Vice-royalty upon the approach of the Enemy and that he had so absolutely lost it that there was not so much as one Village in all Navarre where his Authority was owned That that Kingdom having wholly changed its Master the business was to conquer it of new and by consequence to take such measures as no more concerned the Duke than as he had never been Viceroy The reason and inclination of those who gave their Votes seemed to give the cause to the Count Nevertheless he lost it and the Duke was preferred before him by an effect of Spanish prudence which hath hardly ever failed in the signal occasions of sacrificing justice to interest when the good of the Monarchy was thought to be concerned The Army which had relieved Logrogno and earnestly desired to recover Navarre was so wholly made up of Voluntiers that there was not so much as one Company of Foot or Troop of Horse that had any pay from the Emperor The Duke of Najara was the Grandee of Spain who had brought most Soldiers to the Camp and it was to be feared that these Soldiers who only came upon his account would return back with him if he withdrew as he must be obliged to do in honour if he obtained not the General command His Son had gathered together five or six thousand men from the Provinces bordering upon the Mountains and Don Gaspar de Butron his