French by that door making their entry into this Province out of which at last they thrust the English Anno 1450. So desperate a thing is a frighted Coward This Country had once before been in possession of the English and that by a firmer title than the Sword William the Conqueror had conveyed it once over the Seas into England it continued an appendix of that Crown from the year 1067. unto that of 1204. At that time John called Sáns terre third Son unto King Henry the second having usurped the States of England and the English possessions in France upon Arthur heir of Britain and Son unto Geofrey his elder brother was warred on by Phillip Augustus King of France who sided with the said Arthur In the end Arthur was taken and not long after found dead in the ditches of the Castle of Roven Whether this violent death happened unto him by the practises of his Uncle as the French say or that the young Prince came to that unfortunate end in an attempt to escape as the English report is not yet determined For my part considering the other carriages and virulencies of that King I dare be of that opinion that the death of Arthur was not without his contrivement Certainly he that rebelled against his Father and practised the eternal imprisonment and ruine of his Brother would not much stick this being so speedy a way to settle his affairs at the murther of a Nephew Upon the first bruit of this murther Constance Mother to the young Prince complained unto the King and Parliament of France not the Court which now is in force consisting of men only of the long Robe but the Court of Pairrie or twelve Peers whereof himself was one as Duke of Normandy I see not how in justice Philip could do less than summon him an Homager being â—lain and an Homager accused To this summons John refused to yeild himself A counsel rather magnanimous than wise and such as had more in it of an English King than a French Subject Edward the third a prince of a finer mettal than this John obeyed the like warrant and performed a personal homage to Philip of Valoys and it is not reckoned among his disparagements He committed yet a further error or solaecisme in State not so much as sending any of his people to supply his place or plead his cause Upon this none appearance the Peers proceed to sentence Il fur par Arrest la dire Cour saith Du' Chesne condemne pour attaint et convainuc du crime de parricide de felonnie Parricide for the killing of his own Nephew and felony for committing an act so execrable on the person of a French vassal and in France Jhon de Sienes addeth a third cause which was contempt in disobeying the Kings commandement Upon this verdict the Court awarded Que toutes les terres qu' il avoit par deca de mourerient acquises confisques a la corronne c. A proceeding so fair and orderly that I should sooner accuse King John of indiscretion than the French of injustice when my estate or life is in danger I wish it may have no more sinister a trial The English thus outed of Normandy by the weakness of John recovered it again by the puissance of Henry But being held onely by the sword it was after thirty years recovered again as I have told you And now being passed over the Oyse I have at once freed the English and my self of Normandy here ending this Book but not that dayes journey The Second Book or FRANCE CHAP. I. France in what sense so called the bounds of it All old Gallia not possessed by the French Countries follow the name of the most predominant Nation The condition of the present French not different from that of the old Gaules That the Heavens have a constant power upon the same Climate though the Inhabitants be changed The quality of the French in private at the Church and at the Table Their Language Complements Discourse c. IVly the third which was the day we set out of St. Claire having passed through Pontoise and crossed the River we were entred into France France as it is understood in his limitted sense and as a part onely of the whole For when Meroveus the Grandchild of Pharamond first King of the Francones had taken an opportunity to pass the Rhene having also during the warres between the Romans and the Gothes taken Paris he resolved there to set up his rest and to make that the head City of his Empire The Country round about it which was of no large extent he commanded to be called Francia or Terra Francorum after the name of his Francks whom he governed In this bounded and restrained sense we now take it being confined with Normandy on the North Campagne on the East and on the West and South with the little Province of la Beausse It is also called and that more properly to distinguish it from the whole continent the Isle of France and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Isle I know not any thing more like it then the Isle of Elie the Eure on the West the Velle on the East the Oyse on the Northward and a vein riveret of the Seine towards the South are the Rivers which encircle it But the principall environings are made by the Seine and the Marne a river of Champagne which within the main Island make divers Ilets the waters winding up and down as desirous to recreate the earth with the pleasures of its lovely and delicious embraces This Isle this portion of Gaule properly and limitedly stiled France was the seate of the Franks at their first coming hither and hath still continued so The rest of Gallia is in effect rather subdued by the French than inhabited their valour in time having taken in those Countries which they never planted So that if we look apprehensively into Gaule we shall find the other Nations of it to have just cause to take up the complaint of the King of Portugal against Ferdinand of Castile for assuming to himself the title of Catholique King of Spain eius tam non exiguâ parte penes reges alios as Mariana relateth it Certain it is that the least part of old Gallia is in the hands of the French the Normans Britons Biscaines or Gascoynes the Gothes of Languedoc and Provence Burgundians and the ancient Gaules of Poictou retaining in it such fair and ample Provinces But it is the custome shall I say or fate of lesser and weaker Nations to loose their names unto the stronger as Wives do to their Husbands and the smaller Rivers to the greater Thus we see the little Province of Poland to have mastered and given name to the Pruteni Marovy and other Nations of Sarmatia Europaea as that of Moseo hath unto all the Provinces of Asiatica Thus hath Sweden conquered and denominated almost all the great Peninsula of Scandia where it is but
scarcity The place of their meeting is called l' hostelle de ville or the Guild Hall The present Provost Mr de Griâ—ux his habit as also that of the Eschevins and Counsellers half red half sky coloured the Citie Leveries with an Hood of the same This Provost is as much above the other in power as men which are loved commonly are above those which are feared This Provost the people willingly yea sometimes factiously obey as the Conservator of their Liberties the other they only dread as the Judges of their lives and the Tyrants of their estates To shew the power of this Provost both for and with the people against their Princes you may please to take notice of two instances for the people against Philip devalois Anno 1349. when the said King desiring an impost of one liure in five Crownes upon all wares sold in Paris for his better managing his warres against the English could obtain it but for one year onely and that not without especial Letters reservall that it should no way incommodate their priviledges which the people Anno 1357. when King John was prisoner in England and Charles the Daulphine afterwards the fifth of that name laboured his ransome among the Parisiens for then Steven Marcell attended by the vulgar Citizens not onely brake open the Daulphinâ—s Chamber but slew John de Confluns and Robert of Chermont two Marshalls of France before his face Nay to adde yet further insolencies to this he took his parti-coloured hood off his head putting it on the Daulphins and all that day wore the Daulphines hat being a brown black pour signal de sa Dictateur as the token of his Dictatorship And which is more than all this he sent the Daulphin cloath to make him a Cloak and Hood of the Cities Liverie and compelled him to avow the Massacre of his Servants above named as done by his command Horrible insolencies Quam miserum est eum haec impunè pacere potuisse as Tullie of Marc. Antonius The Arms of the Town as also of the Corporation of the Provost and Eschevins are Gules a Ship Argent a Cheife poudred with Flower de Luces Or. The seat or place of their Assemblies is called as we said Hostel de Ville or the Guild-hall It was built or rather finisht by Francis the first Anno 1533. and since beautified and repaired by Francis Miron once Provost des Merchands and afterwards privy Counsellor to the King It standeth on one side of the Greue which is the publike place of the Execution and is built quadrangular-wise all of free and polished stone evenly and orderly laid-together You ascend by thirty or forty steps fair and large before you come to the quadrate and thence by several stairs into the several rooms and chambers of it which are very neatly contrived and richly furnished The grand Chastelet is said to have been built by Julian the Apostata at such time as he was Governour of Gaul It was afterwards new built by Philip Augustus and since repaired by Lewis the twelfth In which time of repaitation the Provost of Paris kept his Court in the Palace of the Louure To sight it is not very graceful what it may be within I know not Certain it is that it looketh far more like a Prison for which use it also serveth than a Town Hall or seat of judgement In this part of Paris called la Ville or the Town is the Kings Arcenal or Magazin of War It carrieth not any great face of majesty on the outside neither indeed is it necessary Such places are most beautiful without when they are most terrible within It was begun by Henry the second finished by Charles the ninth and since augmented by Mr. Rhosme great Master of the Artillery It is said to contain an hundred field peices and their Carriage and also armour sufficient for ten thousand Horses and fifty thousand Foot In this part also of Paris is that excellent pile of building called the Place Royal built partly at the charges and partly at the encouragement of Henry the fourth It is built after the form of a Quadrangle every side of the square being in length seventy two fathoms the materials brick of divers colours which make it very pleasant though less durable It is cloystered round just after the fashion of the Royall Exchange in London the walks being paved under foot The houses of it are very fair and large every one having its garden and other out-lets In all they are thirty six nine on a side and seemed to be sufficiently capable of a great retinue The Ambassadour for the State of Venice lying in one of them It is scituate in that place whereas formerly the solemn tiltings were performed A place famous and fatal for the death of Henry the second who was here slain with the splinter of a Launce as he was running with the Earl of Mountgomery a Scottish man A sad and heavy accident To conclude this discourse of the Ville or Town of Paris I must wander a little out of it because the power and command of the provost saith that it must be so For his authority is not confined within the Town he hath seven Daughters on which he may exercise it Les sept filles de la Propaste de Paris as the French call them These seven Daughters are seven Bayliwicks comprehended within the Vicointe of Paris Viz. 1. Poissy 2. St. Germanenlay 3. Tornon 4. Teroiene Brie 5. Corbeil 6. Moutherrie and the 7. Gennesseen France Over these his jurisdiction is extended though not as Provost of Paris Here he commandeth and giveth judgement as Leiutenant Civil to the Duke of Mont-bâzon or the supreme Governour of Paris and the Isle of France for the time being yet this Leiutenancy being an Office perpetually annexed to the Provostship is the occasion that the Bayliwicks above named are called Les sept filles de la Provaste CHAP. VI. The Universitie of Paris and Founders of it Of the Colledges in general Marriage when permitted to the Rectors of them The small maintenance allowed to Schollars in the Universities of France The great Colledge at Tholoza Of the Colledge of the Sorbone in particular That and the House of Parliament the cheif bulwarks of the French liberty Of the policy nnd government of the Universtty The Rector and his precedency The disordered life of the Schollars there being An Apology for Oxford and Cambridge The priviledges of the Scholars Theer Degrees c. THis part of Paris which lieth beyond the furthermost branch of the Seine is called the University It is little inferior to the Town for bigness and less superior to it in sweetness or opulency whatsoever was said of the whole in general was intended to this part also as well as the others All the learning in it being not able to free it from those inconveniencies wherewith it is distressed It containeth in it onely six parish Churches the paucity whereof is
by the sweat of their brows is the Court fed and the Souldier paid and by their labours are the Princes maintained in idleness What impositions soever it pleaseth the King to put upon them it is almost a point of treason not onely to deny but to question Apud illos vere regnatur nefasque quantum regi liceat dubitare as one of them The Kings hand lieth hard upon them and hath almost thrust them into an Egyptian bondage the poor Paisant being constrained to make up daily his full tale of brick and yet have no straw allowed him Upon the sight of these miseries and poverties of this people Sir John Fortescue Chancellor of England in his book intituled De laudibus Regum Angliae concludeth them to be unfit men for Jurers or Judges should the custom of the Country admit of such a trial for having proved there unto the Prince he was Son unto Henry the sixth that the manner of trial according to the Common Law by twelve Jurats was more commendable than the practise of the Civil or Imperial Laws by the deposition onely of two Witnesses or the forced confession of the person arraigned the Prince seemed to marvel Cur ea lex Angliae quae tam frugi optabilis est non sit toti mundo communis to this he maketh answer by shewing the free condition of the English Subjects who alone are used at these Inditements men of a fair and large estate such as dwell nigh the place of the deed committed men that are of ingenuous education such as scorn to be suborned or corrupted and afraid of infamy Then he sheweth how in other places all things are contrary the Husbandman an absolute beggar easie to be bribed by reason of his poverty The Gentlemen living far asunder and so taking no notice of the fact The Paisant also neither fearing infamy nor loss of goods if he be found faulty because he hath them not In the end he concludeth thus Nec mireris igitur princeps si lex quae Anglia veritas inquiritur ab ea non pervagetur in alias nationes Ipsae namque ut Anglia nequeunt facere sufficientes consimilesque juratas The last part of the Latine savoureth somewhat of the Lawyer the word Jurata being there put to signifie a Jury To go over all those impositions which this miserable people are afflicted withal were almost as wretched as the payment of them I will therefore speak onely of the principal and here I meet in the first place with the gabel or imposition on Salt This gabelle de Sel this Impost on Salt was first begun by Philip the Long who took for it a Double which is half a Sol upon the pound After whom Philip de Valoys Anno 1328. doubled it Charles the seventh raised it unto three Doubles and Lewis the eleventh unto six since that time it hath been altered from so much upon the pound to a certain rate on the Maid which containeth some thirty bushels English the rates rising and falling at the Kings pleasure This one Commodity were very advantagious to the Exchequer were it all in the Kings hands but at this time a great part of it is morgaged It is thought to be worth unto the King three millions of Crowns yearly that onely of Paris and the Provosts seven Daughters being farmed at 1700000. Crowns the year The late Kings since Anno 1581. being intangled in warrs have been constrained to let it to others insomuch that about Anno 1599. the King lost above 800000. Crowns yearly and no longer then Anno 1621. the King taking up 600000. pounds of the Provost of the Merchants and the Eschevins gave unto them a Rent charge of 40000. pound yearly to be issuing out of the customs of Salt till their money were repaid them This gabel is indeed a Monopolie and that one of the unjustest and unmeasurablest in the world for no man in the Kingdom those Countries hereafter mentioned excepted can eat any Salt but he must buy it of the King and at his price which is most unconscionable that being sold at Paris and elsewhere for five liures which in the exempted places is sold for one Therefore that the Kings profits might not be diminished there is diligent watch and ward that no forrain Salt be brought into the Land upon pain of forfeiture and imprisonment A search that is made so strictly that we had much ado at Diepe to be pardoned the searching of our Trunks and Port-mantues and that not but upon our solemn protestations that we had none of that Commodity This Salt is of a brown colour being onely such as we in England call Bay Salt is imposed on the Subjects by the Kings Officers with great rigor For though they have some of their last provision in the house or perchance would be content through poverty to eat their meat without it yet will these cruel villains enforce them to take such a quantity of them howsoever they will have of them so much money But this tyranny is not general the Normans and Picards enduring most of it and the other Paisants the rest Much like unto this was the licence which the Popes and Bishops of old granted in matter of keeping Concubines for when such as had the charge of gathering the Popes rents happened upon a Priest which had no Concubine and for that cause made denial of the tribute the Collectors would return them this answer that notwithstanding this they should pay down the money because they might have had the keeping of a Wench if they would This gabel as it sitteth hard upon some so are there some also who are never troubled with it of this sort are the Princes in the general release and many of the Nobless in particular insomuch that it was proved unto King Lewis Anno 1614. that for every Gentleman which took of his Majesties Salt there were two thousand of the Commons There are also some entire Provinces which refuse to eat of this Salt as Britain Gascoine Poictou Queren Naintogne and the County of Boulonnois Of these the County of Boulonnois pretendeth a peculiar exemption as belonging immediately to the patrimony of our Lady Nostre-Dame of which we shall learn more when we are in Bovillon The Britains came united to the Crown by a fair marriage and had strength enough to make their own Capitulations when they first entered into the French subjection besides here are yet divers of the Ducal Family living in the Country who would much trouble the quiet of the Kingdom should the people be oppressed with this bondage and they take the protection of them Poictou and Queren have compounded for it with the former Kings and pay a certain rent yearly which is called the Equivalent Xaintogne is under the command of Rochell of whom it receiveth sufficient at a better rate And as for the Gascoynes the King dareth not impose it upon them for fear of rebellion They are a
stubborn and churlish people very impatient of a rigorous yoak and such as inherit a full measure of the Beiseains liberty and spirit from whom they are descended Le Droit de fonage the priviledge of levying of a certain peice of money upon every Chimney in an house that smoaked was in times not long since one of the Jura Regalia of the French Lords and the people paid it without grumbling yet when Edward the black Prince returned from his unhappy journey into Spain and for the paying of his Souldiers to whoÌ„ he was indebted laid this fonage upon the people being then English they all presently revolted to the French and brought great prejudice to our affairs in those quarters Next unto the Gabel of Salt we may place the Taille and the Taillon which are much of a nature with the Subsidies in England being granted by the people and the sum of that certain shall please to impose them Anciently the Tailles were onely levied by way of extraordinary subsidie and that upon four occasions which were the Knighting of the Kings Son the Marriage of his Daughters a Voyage of the Kings beyond Sea and his Ransome in case he were taken Prisoner Les Tailles ne sont point deves de devoyer ordicmer saith Rayneau ains ont este accorded durant la necessite des Affaires Semblement Afterward they were continually levied in times of warr and at length Charles the first made them ordinary neither is it extended equally all of it would amount to a very fair revenue For supposing this that the Kingdom of France contained two hundred millions of acres as it doth and that from every one there were raised to the King two Sols yeerly which is little in respect of the taxes imposed on them that income alone besides that which levied on goods personal would amount to two millions of pounds in a year But this payment also lyeth all on the Paisant The greater Towns the Officers of the Kings House the Officers of Warrs the Presidents Counsellors and Officers of the Court of Parliament the Nobility the Clergy and the Schollars of the Vniversity being freed from it That which they call the Taillon was intended for the ease of the Country though now it prove one of the greatest burdens unto it In former times the Kings Souldiers lay all upon the charge of the Villages the poor people being fain to find them diet lodging and all necessaries for themselves their horses and their harlots which they brought with them If they were not well pleased with their entertainment they used commonly to beat their Host abuse his family and rob him of that small provision which he had laid up for his Children and all this Cum privilegio Thus did they move from one Village to another and at the last returned unto them from whence they came Ita ut non sit ibi villula una expers calamitatis istius quae non semel aut bis in anno hac nefandâ pressurâ depiletur as Sir John Fâ—rtescue observed in his time To redress this mischeif King Henry the second Anno 1549. raised his Imposition called the Taillon issuing out of the lands and goods of the poor Country man whereby he was at the first somewhat eased but now all is again out of order the miserable Paisant being oppressed by the Souldier as much as ever and yet he still payeth both taxes the Taille and the Taillon The Pancarte comprehendeth in it divers particular imposts but especially the Sol upon the Liure that is the twentieth penny of all things bought or sold corn sallets and the like onely excepted Upon wine besides the Sol upon the Liure he hath his several customs at the entrance of it into any of his Cities passages by Land Sea or River To these Charles the ninth Anno 1561. added a tax of five Sols upon every Maid which is the third part of a Tun and yet when all this is done the poor Vintner payeth unto the King the eighth penny he takes for that wine which he selleth In this Pancart is also contained the bant passage which are the tols paid unto the King for passage of men and cattel over his bridges and his City gates as also for all such Commodities which they bring with them A good and round sum considering the largeness of the Kingdom the thorough-fare of Lyons being farmed yearly of the King for 100000. Crowns Hereunto belong also the Aides which are a taxe also of the Sol on the Liure upon all sorts of fruits provision wares and Merchandize granted first unto Charles Duke of Normandy when John his Father was prisoner in England and since made perpetual For such is the lamentable fate of that Country that their kindnesses are made duties and those moneys which they once grant out of love are alwayes after exacted of them and paid out of necessity The bedrolle of all these impositions and taxes is called the Paneart because it was hanged up in a frame like as the Officers Fees are in our Bishops Diocesan Courts the word Pan signifying a frame or pane of wainscot These impositions time and custom hath now made tolerable though at first day they seemed very burdensome and moved many Cities to murmuring some to rebellion Amongst others the City of Paris proud of her ancient liberties and immunities refused to admit of it This indignity so incensed Charles the sixth their King then young and in hot bloud that he seized into his hands all their priviledges took from their Provost des Merchants and the Eschevins as also the key of their gates and the chains of their streets and making through the whole Town such a face of mourning that one might justly have said Haec facies Troiae cum caperetur erat This happened in the year 1383. and was for five years together continued which time being expired and other Cities warned by that example the imposition was established and the priviledges restored For the better regulating of the profits arising from these imposts the French King erected a Court Le Cour des Aides It consisted at the first of the general of the Aides and of any four of the Lords of the Councel whom they would call to their assistance Afterwards Charles the fifth Anno 1380. or thereabouts settled it in Paris and caused it to be numbred as one of the Soveraign Courts Lewis the eleventh dissolved it and committed the managing of his Aids to his Household servants as loath to have any publike Officers take notice how he fleeced his people Anno 1464. it was restored again And finally Henry the second Anno 1551. added to it a second Chamber composed of two Presidens and eight Counsellors One of which Presidents Mr. Cavilayer is said to be the best moneyed man of all France There are also others of these Courts in the Country as one at Roven one at Montferrant in Averyne one at Bourdeaux and another at Montpellier
FRANCE PAINTED to the LIFE By a Learned and Impartial Hand Quid non Gallia parturit ingens LONDON Printed for William Leake at the Crown in Fleet-street betwixt the two Temple Gates 1656. TO THE READER HIstories are like Iewels not valued by their bulk but their beauty and lustre Real worth exceeds words yet this History is furnished with both t is rare for the matter method truth and use It needs no Apologie it s own furniture will sufficiently praise it especially amongst the Ingenuous and Learned here is a solid and pleasant relishment for any that desire forrain rarities The Pen-man managed his time with advantage And it may be said that a Judicious Reader may see France in this Book as well as by travel Nothing worthy observation hath escap'd the Author what hath was not worth his Pen. Thou hast as it came to hand without any adulteration a true Copy of his conceptions and labours without addition or diminution Take hereof a serious view thereby thou shalt inform thy judgement please thy fancy and be rendred able to discourse of the several places and passages therein mentioned equally with those who have in person surveyed them FRANCE Painted to the Life The First Book The beginning of our Journey the nature of the Sea a Farewell to England ON Thursday the 28th of June at the time when England had received the cheif beauty of France and the French had seen the cheif beauties of England we went to Sea in a Bark of Dover The Port we arrived at Diepe in Normandy the hour three in the afternoon the wind fair and high able had it continued in that point to have given us a waftage as speedy as our longing Two hours before night it came about to the Westward and the tide also not befriending us our passage became tedious and troublesome The next day being dedicate to the glory of God in memory of St. Peter we took the benifit of the ebb to assist us against the wind This brought us out of the sight of England and the floud ensuing compelled us to our anchor I had now leisure to see Gods wonders in the deep wonders indeed to us which had never before seen them but too much familiarity had made them none other than the Saylers play-fellows The waves striving by an inbred ambition which should be the highest which foremost precedency and super-eminency was equally desired and each enjoyed it in succession The wind more covetous in appearance to play with the water than disturbe it did onely rock the billow and seemed indeed to dandle the Ocean You would at another time have thought that the Seas had onely danced at the Winds whistle or that the Wind straining it self to a treble and the Seas by a disdiapason supplying the base had tuned a Coranto to our Ship For so orderly we rose and fell according to the time and note of the billow that her violent agitation might be thought to be nothing but a nimble Galliard filled with Capers The nimbleness of the waves and correspondency of our Bark unto them was not to all our company alike pleasing what in me moved onely a reverend and awful pleasure was to others an occasion of sickness their heads giddy their joynts enfeebled their stomacks loathing sustenance and with great pangs avoiding what they had taken In their mouthes nothing so frequent as that of Horace Illi robur aes triplex Circa pectus erat qui fragilem truci Commisit pelago ratem Hard was his heart as brass which first did venture In a weak Ship on the rough Seas to enter Whether it be that the noisom smels which arise from the saltness and tartness of that Region of waters poisoneth the brain or that the ungoverned and unequal motion of the Ship stirreth and unsettleth the stomack or both we may conjecture with the Philosphers rather than determine This I am sure of that the Cabbins and Deck were but as so many Hospitals or Pest-houses filled with diseased persons whilst I and the Marriners onely made good the hatches here did I see the scaly Nation of that Kingdom solace themselves in the brim of the waves rejoycing in the light and warmness of the day and yet spouting from their mouthes such quantity of waters as if they had purposed to quench that fire which gave it They danced about our vessel as if she had been a moving May-pole and that with such a delightful decorum that you never saw a Measure better troaden with less art And now I know not what wave bigger than the rest tossed up our Ship so high that I once more ken'd the coast of England an object which took such hold on my senses that I forgot the harmless company which sported below me to bestow on my dearest Mother this and for ought I could assure my self my last Farewell England adiew thy most unworthy Son Leaves thee and grieves to see what he hath done What he hath done in leaving thee the best Of Mothers and more glorious than the rest Thy sister Nations Had'st thou been unkind Yet might he trust thee safer than the Wind. Had'st thou been weak yet far more strength in thee Than in two inches of a sinking Tree Say thou wert cruel yet thy angry face Hath more love in it then the Seas embrace Suppose thee poor his zeal and love the less Thus to forsake his Mother in distress But thou art none of those No want in thee Onely a needless Curiositie Hath made him leap thy Ditch O let him have Thy blessing in his Voyage and hee 'l crave The Gods to thunder wrath on his neglect When he performs not thee all due respect That Nemesis on him her scourge would pluck When he forgets those breasts wich gave him suck That Nature would dissolve and turn him earth If thou bee'st not remembred in his Mirth May he be cast from Mankind if he shame To make profession of his Mothers name Rest then assur'd in this though some times he Conceal'd perhaps his Faith he will not thee CHAP. I. Normandy in general the Name and bounds of it The condition of the ancient Normans and of the present Ortelius Character of them examined In what they resemble the Inhabitants of Norfolk The Commodities of it and the Government THe next ebb brought us in sight of the sea-coast of Normandy a shoar so evenly composed and levelled that it seemeth the work of Art not Nature The Rock all the way of an equal height rising from the bottom to the top in a perpendicular and withal so smooth and polished that if you dare beleive it the work of Nature you must also think that Nature wrought it by the line and shewed an art in it above the imitation of an Artist This wall is the Northern bound of this Province the South part of it being confined with Le-Maine la Beausse l' Isle du France On the East it is divided from
the earth its Mother or that it purposed by making it self away into the ground to save the Plow-man his next years labour Thick it groweth and so perfectly void of weeds that no garden can be imagined to be kept cleaner by art than these fields are by nature Pasture ground it hath little and less meadow yet sufficient to nourish those few Cattel they have in it In all the way between Diepe and Pontois I saw but two flocks of Sheep and then not above forty in a flock Kine they have in some measure but not fat nor large without these there were no living for them The Noblest eat the flesh whiles the Farmer feeds on Butter and Cheese and that but sparingly But the miserable states of the Norman paissant we wiil deferre till another opportunity Swine also they have in pretty number and some Pullen in their backsides but of neither an excess The principal Rivers of it is Seine of which more hereafter and besides this I saw two rivulets Robee and Renelâ—e In matter of civil Government this Country is directed by the Court of Parliament established at Roven for matters Military it hath an Officer like the Lieutenants of our Shires in England the Governour they call him The present Governour Mounsieur Duc de Longueville to whom the charge of this province was committed by the present King Lewis the thirteenth Anno 1629. The Laws by which they are governed are the Civil or Imperial augmented by some customes of the French and others more particular which are the Norman One of the principallest is in matters of inheritance the French custom giving to all the Sons an equality in their estate which we in England call Gavel-kind The Norman dividing the estate into three parts and thereof allotting two unto the eldest brother and a third to be divided among the others A Law which the French account not just the younger brothers of England would think the contrary To conclude this general discourse of the Normans I dare say it is as happy a Country as most in Europe were it subject to the same Kings and governed by the same Laws which it gave unto England CHAP. II. Diepeâ— the Town strength and importance of it The policy of Henry the fourth not seconded by his Son The custom of the English Kings in placing Governours in their Forts The breaden God there and strength of their Religion Our passage from Diepe to Roven The Norman Inns Women and Manners The importunity of Servants in hosteries The saucy familiarity of the attendants Ad pileum vocare What it was amongst the Romans and jus pilearum in the Universities of England IVne the 30th at six of the clock in the morning we landed at Diepe one of the Haven Towns of Normandy seated on an arm of the Sea between two hils which imbrace it in the nature of a bag this secureth the Haven from the violence of the weather and is a great strength to the Town against the attempts of any forces which should assault it by Sea the Town lying within these Mountains a quarter of a mile up the channel The Town it self is not uncomely the streets large and well paved the houses of an indifferent height and built upright without any juttings out of one part over the other The Fortifications as they say for we were not permitted to see them are very good and modern without stones within earth On the top of the hill a Castle finely seated both to defend the Town and on occasions to command it The Garrison consisteth of sixty men in pay no more but when need requireth the Captain hath authority to arm the Inhabitants The present Governour is the Duke of Longueville who also is the Governour of the Province intrusted with both those charges by Lewis the thirteenth 1619. An action wherein he swarved somewhat from the ensample of his Father who never committed the military command of a Country which is the Office of a Governour and the custody of a Town of war or a Fortress unto one man The Duke of Biron might have as great a courtesie from that King as the most deserving of his subjects he had stuck close to him in all his adversities received many an honourable fear in his service and indeed was Fabius and Scipio both the sword and buckler of the French Empire In a word he might have said to this Henry what Silius in Tacitus did to Tiberius Suum militem in obsequio mansâ—sse cum alii ad sedetiones prolaberentur neque daraturum Tiberii imperium si iis quoque Legionibus cupido novandi fuisset yet when he became petitioner to the King for the Cittadel of Bourg seated on the confines of his Government of Burgogne the King denied it The reason was because Governours of Provinces which commanded in chief ought not to have the command of places and fortresses within their Government there was also another reason and more enforcing which was that the petitioner was suspected to hold intelligence with the Duke of Savoy whose Town it was The same Henry though he loved the Duke Espernon even to the envy of the Court yet even to him also used he the same caution Therefore when he had made him Governour of Xanictoigne and Angoulmois he put also into his hands the Towns of Mets and Boullogne places so remote from his seat of Government and so distant one from the other that they did rather distract his power than encrease it The Kings of England have been well and for a long time versed in this Maxime of State Let Kent be one of our ensamples and Hampshire the other In Kent at this time the Lieutenant or as the French would call him the Governour is the Earl of Montgomery yet is Dover Castle in the hands of the Duke of Buckingham and yet Quinborough in the custody of Sir Edward Hobby Of which the one commandeth the Sea and the other the Thames and the Medway In Hampshire the Lieutenant is the Earl of Southampton but the Government of the Town and Garrison of Portsmouth is intrusted to the Earl of Pembroke Neither is there any of the best Sconces or Block-houses on the shore side of the Country which is commanded by the Lieutenant But King Lewis now raigning in France minded not his Fathers actions when at the same time also he made his Confident M. Luines Governour of Picardy and of the Town and Cittadel of Amiens The time ensuing gave him an insight of that state-breach for when the Dukes of Espernon Vendosme Longueville Magenne and Nemours the Count of Soisons and others sided with the Queen Mother against the King the Duke of Longueville strengthened this Dieppe and had not peace suddenly followed would have made good maugre the Kings forces A town it is of great importance King Henry the fourth using it as his Asylum or City of Refuge when that League was hottest against him For had he been further distressed
Patients and yet from all parts he was much sought unto Hope of cure and a charitable opinion which they had of themselves had brought unto him divers distressed Damsels which I am confident had no interest in his miracle In the same Inn Alehouse I should say where we were to be harboured there had put in a whole covey of these Ladies Errant Pilgrims they called themselves and had come on foot two dayes journey to clear their eye-sight They had white vails hanging down their backs which in part covered their faces yet I perceived by a glimpse that some of them were past cure though my charity durst allow them Maids it was afraid to suppose them Virgins yet so far I dare assure them they should recover their sight that when they came home they should see their folly At that time what with too much watching on ship-board what with the tartness of the water and the violence of the wind working upon me almost forty hours together whilst I lay on the hatches mine eyes had gotten a rheum and redness My Hostess good woman perswaded me to this holy and blessed Wight but I durst not venture not that I had not as good a claim to my virginity as the best there but because I had learned what a greivous sentence was denounced on Ahaziah King of Israel for seeking help of Beelzebub the God of Ekron When I hap to be ill let mine amendment come in God's Name Mallem semper profanus esse quám sic religiosus as Minutius Felix of the Roman Sacrifices let my body still be troubled with a sore eye then have such a recovery be a perpetual eye-sore to my conscience Rather than go on pilgrimage to such a Saint let the Papists count me for an Heretick Besides how durst I imagine in him an ability of curing my bodily eyes who above seventy years had been troubled with a blindness in the eyes of his soul Thou Fool said our Saviour almost in the like case first cast out the beam of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brothers eye The next morning August the third I left my Pilgrims to try their fortunes and went on in our journey to Paris which that day we were to visit My eyes not permitting me to read and mine ears altogether strangers to the French chat drave my thoughts back to Roven and there nothing so much possessed me as the small honour done to Bedford in his Monument I had leisure enough to provide him a longer Epitaph and a short apology against the envy of that Courtier which perswaded Charles the eighth to deface the ruines of his Sepulcher Thus So did the Fox the coward'st of the Heard Kiâ—k the dead Lion and profane his Beard So did the Greeks about their vanquisht Hoast Drag Hector's Reliques and torment his Ghost So did the Parthian slaves deride the head Of the great Crassus now betray'd and dead To whose victorious Sword not long before They would have sacrific'd their lives or more So do the French assault dead Bedford's spright And trample on his ashes in despite But foolish Curio cease and do not blame So small an honour done unto his Name Why griev'st thou him a Sepulcher to have Who when he liv'd had made all France a Grave His Sword triump'd through all those Towns which lie In the Isle Main Aniou Guyen Normandy Thy Fathers felt it Oh thou worst of men If Man thou art do not endeavour then This Conqueror from his last Hold to thrust Whom all brave minds shall honour in the dust But be not troubled Bedford Thou shalt stand above the reach of malice Though the hand Of a French baseness may deface thy name And tear it from thy Marble Yet shall Fame Speak lowdly of thee and thy acts Thy praise A Pyramis unto it self shall raise Thy brave Atchievements in the time to come Shall be a Monument above a Tombe Thy name shall be thy Epitaph and he Which once reads Bedford shall imagine thee Beyond the power of Verses and shall say None could express thy Worth's a fuller way Rest thou then quiet in the shades of Night Nor vex thy self with Curio's weaker spright Whilst France remains and Histories are writ Bedford shall live and France shall Chronicle it Having offered this unworthy yet grateful sacrifice to the Manes of that brave Heroe I had the more leisure to behold Mante and the Vines about it being the first that ever I saw They are planted like our Hop-gardens and grow up by the help of Poles but not so high They are kept with little cost and yeild profit to an Husbandman sufficient to make him rich had he neither King nor Landlord The Wine which is pressed out of them is harsh and not pleasing as much differing in sweetness from the Wines of Paris or Orleans as their language doth in elegancy The rest of the Norman Wines which are not very frequent as growing onely on the frontiers towards France are of the same quality As for the Town of Mante it seemeth to have been of good strength before the use of great Ordinance having a wall a competent ditch and at every gate a Draw-bridge They are still sufficient to guard their pullen from the Fox and in the night time to secure their houses from forrain burglaries Once indeed they were able to make resistance to a King of France but the English were then within it At last on honourable terms it yeilded and was entred by Charles the seventh the second of August Anno 1449. The Town is for building and bigness somewhat above the better sort of Market Towns here in England The last Town of Normandy towards Paris is Pontoise a Town well fortified as being a borderer and one of the strongest bulwarks against France It hath in it two fair Abbeys of Maubuisson and St. Martin six Churches parochial whereof that of Nostre-dame in the suburbs is most beautiful The name it derives from a bridge built over the River of Oyse on which it is scituated and by which on that side it is well defended the bridge being strengthened with a strong gate and two draw-bridges It is commodiously scituate on the rising of an hill and is famous for the siege laid before it by Charles the seventh Anno 1442. but more fortunate unto him in the taking of it For having raised his armes upon the Duke of Yorkes coming to give him battel with 6000. men onely the French Army consisting of double the number he retired or fled rather unto St. Deuis But there hearing how scandalous his retreat was to the Parisians even ready to mutiny and that the Duke of Orleance and others of the Princes stirred with the ignominiousness of his flight began to practise against him he speedily returneth to pontoise and maketh himself Master of it by assault Certainly to that fright he owed the getting of the Town and all Normandy the
supplied by the multitude of religious houses which are in it These six Churches are called by the names St. Nicholas du' Chardomere 2. St. Estienne at this time in repairing 3. St. Severin 4. St. Bennoist 5. St. Andre and the 6. St. Cosme It hath also eight Gates 1. Porte de Nesse by the water side over against the Louure 2. Porte de Bucy 3. St. Germain 4. St. Michell 5. St. Jacques 6. St. Marcell 7. St. Victor and the 8. Porte de la Tornelle It was not accounted as a distinct member of Paris or as the third part of it until the year 1304. at which time the Scholars having lived formerly dispersed about the City began to settle themselves together in this place and so to become a peculiar Corporation The Vniversity was founded by Charles the great Anno 791. at the perswosion of Al'uine an Oxford man and the Scholar Venerable Bede who brought with him three of his condisciples to be the first Readers there Their names were Rabbanus Maurus John Duns surnamed Scotus Claudus who was also called Clement To these four doth the Vniversity of Paris owe its original and first rudiments Neither was this the first time that England had been the School-master unto France we lent them not onely their first Doctors in Divinity and Philosophy but from us also did they receive the mysteries of their Religion when they were Heathens Disciplina in Britannia reperta saith Julius Caesar Com. 6. atque inde in Galliam translata esse existimatur an authority not to be questioned by any but by a Caesar Learning thus new born at Paris continued not long in any full vigor for almost three hundred years it was fallen into a deadly trance and not here onely but almost through the greatest part of Europe Anno 1160 or thereabouts Peter Lambard Bishop of Paris the first Author of Scholastical Divinity and by his followers called the Master of the Sentences received it here in this by the favour and incouragement of Lewis the seventh In his own house were the Lectures first read and after as the number of Students did encrease in sundry other parts of the Town Colledges they had none till the year 1304. the Schollars sojourning in the houses of the Citizens accordingly as they could bargain for their entertainment But Anno 1304. Joan Queen of Navarre Wife to Philip the fair built that Colledge which then and ever since hath been called the Colledge of Navarre and it is at this day the fairest and largest of all the rest Non ibi consistunt exempla ubi caeperunt sed intenuem accepta tramitem laâ—issima evaganoi viam sibi faciunt as Velleius This good example ended not in twenty it self but invited diverse others of the French Kings and people to the erecting of convenient places of study so that in process of time Paris became enriched with fifty two Colledges so many it still hath though the odd fourty are little serviceable to Learning For in twelve onely of them is there any publike reading either in Divinity or Philosophy These twelve are the Colledges of 1. Harcourte 2. Caillve or the petit Sorbonne 3. Liseuer or Cerovium 4. Boncorrte 5. Montague 6. Les Marche 7. Navarre 8. De le Cardinal de Noyne 9. Le Plessis 10. De Beavis 11. La Sorbonne 12. De Clermont or the Colledge of the Jesuits There are also publike readings in the houses of the four Orders of Mendicant Friers Viz. the Carmelites the Augustines the Franciscans or Cordeliers and the Dominicans The other Colledges are destinate to other uses That of Arras is converted to an house of English Fugitives and there is another of them hard by the gate of Jacques employed for the reception of the Irish in others of them there is Lodging allotted out to Students who for ther instruction have resort to some of the twelve Colledges above mentioned In each of these Colledges there is a Rector most of whose places yeild them but small profit The greatest commodity which accreweth to them is raised from Chamber-rents their Preferments being much of a nature with that of a Principal of an Hall in Oxford or that of a Treasurer in an Inne of Chancery in London At the first erection of their Colledges they were all prohibited marriage though I see little reason for it There can hardly come any inconvenience or damage by it unto the Scholars under their charge by assuming of leases into their own hands for I think few of them have any to be so embezelled Anno 1520. or thereabouts it was permitted to such of them as were Doctors in Physick that they might marry the Cardinal of Toute-ville Legate in France giving to them that indulgence Afterwards in the year 1534. the Doctors of the Laws petitioned the Vniversity for the like priviledge which in fine was granted to them and confirmed by the Court of Parliament The Doctors of Divinity are the onely Academicals now barred from it and that not as Rectors but as Preists These Colledges for their building are very inelegant and generally little beholding to the curiosity of the Artificer So confused and so ill proportioned in respect of our Colledges in England as Exeter in Oxford was some twelve years since in comparison of the rest or as the two Temples in London now are in reference to Lincolns Inne The Revenues of them are sutable to the Fabricks as mean and curtailed I could not learn of any Colledge that hath greater allowances than that of the Sorbonne and how small a trifle that is we shall tell you presently But this is not the poverty of the Vniversity of Paris onely all France is troubled with the same want of encouragements in learning Neither are the Academies of Germany in any happier estate which occasioned Erasmus that great light of his times having been here in England and seen Cambridge to write thus to one of his Dutch acquaintance Vnum Collegium Cantabrigiense confidenter dicam superat vel decem nostra It holdeth good in the neatness and graces of the buildings in which sense he spake it but it had been more undeniable had he intended it of the Revenues Yet I was given to understand that at Tholoza there was amongst twenty Colledges one of an especial quality and so indeed it is if rightly considered There are said to be in it twenty Students places or Fellowships as we call them The Students at their entrance are to lay down in deposito six thousand F lorens or Liures to stay there onely six years in the mean time to enjoy the profits of the House at the 6 years end to have his 6000. Liures paid unto him by Successor Vendere jure potest emerat ille prius A pretty Market The Colledge of Sorbonni which indeed is the glory of this Vniversity Was built by one Robert de Sorbonne of the Chamber to Lewit the ninth of whom he was very well beloved It