years by the Kings of England her Predecessors and at last recovered by the Duke of Guise in the Reign of Henry the Second But because the Hugonots were not Masters of that place she demanded that in the mean time they should consign to her Havre de Grace a Fortress and Port of less consequence upon the coast of Normandy and that they should receive her Garrisons into Diepe and Rouen These conditions seemed to many intolerable and not to be consented unto through any necessity whatsoever knowing the infamy and publick hate they should undergo if they made themselves instruments to dismember the Kingdom of such important places and bring into them the most cruel implacable enemies of the French Nation But the Ministers who in all deliberations were of great Authority and in a manner reverenced as Oracles alledged that no consideration was to be had of worldly things where there was question of the heavenly Doctrine and propagation of GOD's Word Wherefore all other things were to be contemned so as Religion might be protected and Liberty of Conscience established The Prince of Conde and the Admiral being desirous to continue their Commands and necessitated by their own private affairs to pursue the enterprise were of the same opinion so that their Authority overcoming all opposition after many consultations it was at last concluded to satisfie Queen Elizabeth and by all means to accept the conditions proposed To which effect they presently dispatched Monsieur de Briquemaut and the new Vidame of Chartres with Letters of credit from the Prince and the Confederates to confirm the agreement in England Andelot and the Prince of Portian with such a sum oâ— money as they could get together went to sollicit the levies of the Germans the Count de la Roch-foucaut went to Angoulesme the Count de Montgomery retired into Normandy Monsieur de Soâ—bize to Lyons the Prince the Admiral Genlis and Bouchavenes stayed to defend Orleans and the places adjacent But many of the Commissioners for the confederacy which was treated with England not being able to endure such dishonourable conditions began to forsake them amongst which Monsieur de Pienne went over to the Kings Army and the Sieur de Morvilliers chosen by the Prince to be Governour of Rouen that he might not be forced to admit an English Garrison into a Town of such consequence leaving that charge retired into Picardy to his own house Whilst by these means the Hugonots endeavoured to provide themselves with Forces the Catholicks designed to make an attempt upon Orleans as the chief sourse and seat of all the War But in regard it was exceedingly well provided for Defence and furnished with Munition of all kinds they knew it was an enterprise of great difficulty Wherefore first to cut off from it the hopes of succours they resolved to take in the places round about that so they might afterwards with more facility straighten it with a siege or being deprived of succours assault it by force For which purpose they raised their Camp the 11 of Iuly and the Duke of Guise leading the Van and the King of Navarre the Battalia whilst every one of both sides expected to see them setled before Orleans they leaving that Town on the left hand and passing sixteen leagues farther on a suddain assailed Blois which though it were full of people beautified with one of the noblest Castles for a Kings house in the whole Kingdom and situated upon the same side of the River of Loire yet it was not so fortified that it could hope to make any long resistance against the Kings Army Wherefore after the Souldiers which were in guard saw the Cannon planted being terrified with the danger they passed the River upon the Bridge and throwing away their Arms sought to save themselves by flight which though the Duke of Guise knew who with the Van-guard was nearest to the wall yet being more intent to take the Town than to pursue those that ran away whilst the Citizens dispatched their Deputies to capitulate he sent a party of foot to make an assault who finding the breach forsaken that was made by a few Cannon shot took the place without resistance which by the fury of the Souldiers their Commanders not forbidding them was miserably sackt From Blois the Army marched towards Tours a much more noble populous and ancient City wherein the name of the Hugonots first took vigour and force but the people who for a few days at the bginning of the Siege made shew that they would stand resolutely upon their defence when they perceived the Trenches were made and the Artillery planted of their own accord cast out the Commanders and rendered the place saving their goods and persons which conditions were intirely observed In the mean while the Mareshal de St. Andre with the Rear of the Army went another way to besiege Poictiers a City likewise famous for antiquity great and spacious where the â—atholicks thought they should find a strong resistance But it fell out to be a work of much less difficulty than they imagined For the Mareshal having battered it two days together with his Artillery and made an assault upon the Town rather to try the resolution of the Defendants than with any hope to gain it the Captain of the Castle who till then had shew'd himself more violent than any other of the Hugonot party suddenly changing his mind began to play from within with his Cannon upon those who stood ready to receive the Assault by which unexpected accident the Defendants losing their courage not knowing in such a tumult what way to take for their safety as men astonished left the entry of the breach free to the Assailants who not finding any resistance entered furiously into the Town which by the example of Blois was in the heat of the fight sackt and many of the peole put to the sword The Catholicks having thus in a few days taken those Towns which from Poictiou and Touraine backed and succoured Orleans and stopt the passage for supplies from Guyenne Gasâ—oigne and other places beyond the River it remained that turning backwards and passing to the other side they should take in Bourges so to cut off those aids that might come from Auvergne Lyonoise and other Provinces joyning to Daulphine Bourges anciently called Avaricum is one of the greatest and most populous Cities in France a residence for Students of all sorts but especially famous for the Civil Law This Town being within twenty leagues of Orleans and by reason of the Traffick of Wooll as also through the great concourse of Scholars much replenished with strangers was at the beginning possest by the Hugonots and afterwards as an important passage for the Commerce of those Provinces that being nearest depended upon it diligently guarded and fortified so that now foreseeing a Siege Monsieur d' Yvoy Brother to Genlis was entered thereinto with two Thousand French foot and four Troops of horse
very divers Some thought it most expedient first of all to make an attempt upon Orleans and to cut off at one blow the head of the Hugonot Faction For the chief of that party being suppressed who were in the Town and the Magazine destroyed all the rest would be overcome with ease and facility But the King of Navarre and the Queen more intent to cast out the English than any thing else thought that Rouen once taken and the aids of England cut off from the Hugonots Orleans would be more easily reduced which for the present they thought very difficult and a work of much time by which the English would have the commodity to confirm their possession and perhaps make themselves Masters of all the Province of Normandy where the Duke of Aumale had so inconsiderable a force that he was not able to make head against them This opinion at last through the Queens inclination prevailed and it was resolved without any delay to go upon that design The situation and commodities of Rouen are admirable For the River Seine upon which it stands rising out of the Mountains in Burgundy and distending it self through the plains of the Isle of France after it joyns with the Matrona commonly called Marne and by the confluence of many other little streams is made deep and Navigable passeth through the midst of the City of Paris and then running with an impetuous torrent quite through Normandy falls with an exceeding wide channel into the Ocean which ebbing and flowing and continually filling and feeding the River with salt water affords spacious room for Vessels of any burthen to ride On the right hand of the mouth where the River at last falls into the Sea over against England stands Havre de Grace a secure large Port which with modern Fortifications being reduced into the form of a Town by King Francis the First serves for a defence against the incursions of the English But in the mid-way between Havre de Grace and Paris near to the place whither the salt waters flow mingled with the fresh about twenty two leagues from the Sea stands the City of Rouen upon the River grown noble rich abundant and populous by the commerce of all Northern Nations From one side of the fortress of Havre de Grace upon the right hand a tongue of land advancing many miles into the Sea makes as it were a spacious Peninsula which the common people call the Country of Caux and in the extreamest point and promontory thereof is Diepe placed directly opposite to the mouth of the Thames a most famous River in England These places which lie so fitly to damage France and to be supplyed by their Fleets the English had made themselves Masters of For though at Diepe and at Rouen French Governours were chosen by the Council of the Confederates yet the Garisons kept there by Queen Elizabeth being very strong they could so curb them that all the rest was absolutely at their dispose The Resolution being taken to besiege Rouen the King and the Queen marching together with the Army in fourteen days arrived at Darnetel at which place less than two leagues distant from the City the whole Camp lodged the 25 day of September The chief Commanders of the Army considering that the body of the City is defended on the one side by the River beyond which there is nothing but the Fauxburg S. Sever and on the other side by S. Catherines Mount upon the top of which is placed an ancient Monastery reduced into the form of a Modern Fortress they thought it best to make themselves Masters of the Mount it appearing very difficult to make any attempt or assault upon the Town it self if they did not first gain the Fort without which flanked and commanded the entrances on all parts Upon this deliberation Sebastien de Luxemburg Signeur de Martigues made Colonel General of the Foot in the place of Randan advanced the night of the 27 of September and sate down under St. Catherines Mount in the great High-way that goes towards Paris which being hollow almost like a Trench covered them in great part from the shot of the Fort. The Count of Montgomery who commanded in the Town in chief with 2000 English and 1200 French Foot four Troops of Horse and more than 100 Gentlemen of quality besides the Citizens having foreseen that the enemy must of necessity first take the out-works besides the old fortifications on the top of the Mount had raised half way up the Hill a Half-moon of earth which having the Fort behind and fronting upon the campaigne might not only hinder the ascent but also flank the walls of the Town and force the Catholick Army to spend much time and lose many men in the taking of it Nor was the effect contrary to what he intended For though Monsieur de Martigues leaving the direct way and ascending in a crooked line advanced by help of the spade between the Fort and the Half-moon to gain the top of the Hill yet the work proceeded with much difficulty and great slaughter of the Souldiers who the more the Foot advanced with their gabions and trenches were so much the more exposed to the Cannon planted upon the Fort to the annoyance of the Musquet shot to the fury of the fireworks and other inventions with which they within very resolutely defended themselves To these main difficulties was added the quality of the weather which being in the beginning of Autumn as it always falls out in those parts was very rainy so as the waters continually falling from the top of the Hill into that low place where the Army lay it was no small inconvenience unto them Likewise the great Sallies the Hugonots made night and day were not of little moment For though they were valiantly sustained so that the success thereof was not very doubtful yet they kept the whole Army in motion and in work Nor were their Horse less diligent than the Foot in their Trenches insomuch as many times the Siege was interrupted and hindered Considering these so great impediments it would have proved a tedious painful business if the negligence or arrogance of the defendants had not rendered it very short and easie For Iean de Hemery Signeur de Villers who afterwards married a Sister of Henry Davila's that wrote this History being upon the guard in the Trenches with his Regiment observed that about noon there was very little stirring in the Fort and that they appeared not in such numbers upon the Ravelins as at other times of the day Wherefore having sent for a Norman Souldier called Captain Lewis who two days before was taken prisoner in a Sally they made out of the Fort he asked him as by way of discourse What was the reason that at certain hours so few of the Hugonots were to be seen upon the Rampart The Souldier not concealing the truth without looking farther what the consequence thereof would be told him that
getting secretly on horse-back with their Wives and Children accompanied only with two hundred Horse that they might go the faster and not be so easily discovered they marched in great diligence towards Rochel end left Captain Bois behind with so many Horse more to hinder as much as was possible the advancing of the Enemy if he offered to follow them that so they might have time to save themselves and by good fortune through the extraordinary drought of the Summer the waters were so exceeding low that they might foord the Loire a great rapid River without any danger at Rouen which otherwise all the Bridges being possessed by the Kings Forces they could not possibly have passed Captain Bois had not the like success who being followed by Martinengo and overtaken near the River his men were without much dispute absolutely broken and defeated and he flying to a certain Castle not far off was constrained to yield himself at discretion to Martinengo who sent him prisoner to the Court But the Prince and the Admiral who had foorded the River long before without any impediment marching an incredible pace arrived without being overtaken in a few days at Rochel a place in all considerations most proper to make the principal seat for their party their place of Arms and their Arsenal for the War for the Princes having lost those great strong Towns Orleans and Rouen which lay so convenient to found and maintain the Faction it was necessary for them to provide some other place which being situated in a rich fertile Country had the commodity likewise of a Haven nor could they chuse any more advantagious for them then Rochel for possessing that Port and the Neighbouring Islands that were fruitful and populous they might at pleasure receive succours out of Germany Flanders England Scotland Britany and Normandy all Countries full of their partisans and settle themselves in a Town very hardly to be taken from them so that in the streights they were then in there was not much doubt to be made of the place whither they should retire Wherefore being received with great joy by the Bourgers of Rochel and by many of their chief Ministers who were retired thither before for their safety they began to dispatch Curriers and Letters into all parts summoning their Friends and Adherents to come in to them without delay as well to secure their own persons from the treacheries of their Enemies as to unite themselves and form such a body of an Army that they might be able to resist those Forces which they knew were intended against them There was no need of many invitations for at the report only of the flight and danger of the Prince of Conde all those of the same Faction began to rise and that they might be ready as soon as they were called upon presently took Arms even those very persons which at the conclusion of the Peace were so violent for it now as that Nation is of an unconstant voluble disposition being weary of lying idle a few months already desired a War and were more ardent than the rest to imbrace it So the sign being given within a few days they assembled all their Forces together at Rochel Those of Poicâ—ou under the conduct of Messieurs d' Ivoy and Blosset those of Perigorâ— under Soubise and de Puviaut those of Cabors under Piles and Clairemont those of Normandy under the Count of Montgomery and Colombiere and those of Britany under the Vidame of Chartres and Lavardine Andelot and la Noue having in their passage over the Loire had divers skirmishes with the Duke of Montpensier and Monsieur de Martigues though in three or four encounters they lost many of their men yet they arrived safe with a good number of Horse at the same place At length the Queen of Navarre either doubting no less than the rest her own safety or desirous to animate and strengthen her party and to advance the fortune of the Prince her Son now fifteen years of age having raised a considerable number of Horse and Foot in Bearn came her self in person to the general rendezvous at Rochel Only Odetto late Cardinal of Chastillon who lived at Beauvais and was encompassed with the Kings Forces not thinking it possible to make such a long journey in safety to join with the rest went disguised in a Mariners habit to the Sea-side and from thence passed with much danger into England where being received with great respect by the Queen he afterwards did very good service to his party remaining in that Court as Agent for the Hugonots But the Hugonot Lords having in a short time raised a great Army about Rochel according to their old custom before they would do any thing to justifie their reasons and give a fair pretence for their proceedings published a Manifest in which after a long Narration made of all the injuries done in divers places and at several times to those of the Reformed Religion setting forth at large the great danger they were continually in whilst they continued unarmed to be abused and oppressed concluded at last That they had taken Arms only for the defence of their Liberties Lives and Religion which under God they professed without any other end or design desiring still to live as Subjects in obedience to his Majesty so they might be secured for their Lives and Consciences At the same time Queen Iane published certain Letters directed to the most Christian King the Duke of Anjou and the Cardinal of Bourbon in which repeating the same things the Hugonots had set forth in their Manifest she declared That she could do no less than join with the Prince of Conde and the rest of the same Religion with her self as well for the maintenance of that Doctrine in which she only believed as to secure her self from the treacherous designs which the Cardinal of Lorain on the one side and the Spaniards on the other had continually upon her life and her Sons and upon the miserable relicks of the Kingdom of Navarre which reasons though they were set forth with great flourishes of Rhetorick yet it appeared plainly she either invented or added to them and that nothing moved her more than the exceeding desire she had that Calvin's Religion flourishing and increasing her Son should become the Head of that Faction as the Prince of Conde then was and as her Husband the King of Navarre had been formerly But the most Christian King and the Queen his Mother seeing in a moment all the Hugonot Commanders not only retired into a place of security and advantage but an Army raised on a sudden and a War begun which with so many arts and dissimulations they had sought to avoid plainly perceived the secrets of the Cabinet Council were revealed nor could any body be suspected thereof save only the High Chancellour who besides his not consenting to what was resolved upon concerning the Prince and the Admiral it was known his
whom they thought privy to their designs Only the Prince of Conde and Monsieur de Tore escaped fleeing first to those places which belonged to the Prince in Picardy and from thence without delay unto the Hans Towns of Germany which adhered to the Protestant party The Duke of Alancon and the King of Navarre either trusâ—ed to their nearness of Blood or to shift off the fault of this conspiracy from themselves and lay it as the custom is upon the weakest confessed freely that they had been sollicited to depart from Court and become Heads of the Hugonots and Male-contents and that sometimes they had lent an ear to those motions rather to discover the intents of those Seducers than out of any desire to adhere unto them and that they waited an opportunity to discover the whole plot unto the King as soon as they were fully informed of it and that in the mean time the Duke had given some hint of it though but obscurely to his Mother which might serve to prove the sincerity of their intentions upon the ground of these confessions which contained many particulars the accomplices of meaner quality being kept close and strictly examined la Mole about whom were found certain Images of the King in Wax encompassed with inchantments charms and other fooleries the Count de Coconas convicted of many crimes and divers others were condemned to die the Mareshals of Momorancy and Cosse to the great satisfaction of the Parisians were put into the Bastile and for the Princes it sufficed only by a Declaration to manifest unto the World that it was never their intention to alienate themselves from the Kings obedience nor to offend his Person in any manner whatsoever much less to make themselves Heads and Protectors of the factious and seditious party of the Kingdom but that it had been falsly and cunningly divulged by men of turbulent malicious Spirits to stir up and seduce the people under that pretence a thing utterly disallowed and detested by them who desired that such rebellious and seditious persons might be brought to condign punishment that by their sufferings the fuel might be taken from that fire with which they had endeavoured to inflame the Kingdom After which Declaration they were nevertheless not restored unto their former condition but on the one side were used as Kinsmen and on the other with diligent guards were kept as Prisoners Those that make a sinister interpretation of all the actions of Princes say That the Duke of Alancon had no other end but to make himself King after the death of his Brother which he saw drew near and that the counsels of the Mareshals and his other adherents aimed at that very mark but that the Queen-Mother who loved the King of Poland much better and under his Reign promised her self the absolute Government made the business seem different from the truth and caused the King to imprison the Princes and the Mareshals to secure the Kingdom to the true Successour which was the King of Poland whose Reign was abhorred by all those that were Enemies to the House of Guise 〈◊〉 had any dependance upon the Hugonots These matters whatsoever they were or from what cause soever derived happened in the beginning of the Year 1574. a Year destined to renew the old wounds of France for toward the latter end of March and all the month of April following the Hugonots already up in Arms by reason of the late designs and suspecting themselves to be discovered the fomenters of that Conspiracy breaking again the bridle of all respect attempted every where to surprise Forts Castles and Cities and as if the business at St. Germains had succeeded just according to their own desires they ran hastily without stop to the taking up of Arms in all Provinces and that with so much the greater boldness and security because they were freed from the general fear they were wont to have of the valour and celerity of the King of Poland whom they had to their exceeding loss found to be so resolute and powerful an Enemy The first commotion was begun by Monsieur de la Noue who staying in Poictou gathered Forces suddenly and possessed himself of Lusignan Fontenay and Mesle and with the help of the Rochellers raised and disordered the whole Country shewing manifestly by that action that neither his desire of peace nor his promise made to the King had caused him to leave Rochel when it was besieged but trouble for the affront he had received from the Ministers and fear lest the Citizens should confer the chief Command upon the Count Montgomery The signal of War being as it were given by this Insurrection it was followed by many others in Daulphine Province Gascogne and Languedoc every private Captain and every Gentleman among the Hugonots endeavouring with his own Forces to seise upon some strong place from whence robbing and pillaging all the Country cutting off passages laying taxes upon the people and plundering the rich houses they in a few days brought the whole Kingdom of France into great confusion But a more dangerous fire was kindled on the Sea-coasts of Normandy for the Count Montgomery after he was hindred by the Kings Fleet from relieving Rochel being returned into England and recruited landed in the Country which they call le Pays de Constantine belonging to the Province of Normandy but bordering upon Bretagne where being welcomed by the Hugonots and the discontented party of that place in a few days he made himself Master of Danfront Carentane St. Lo and Valognes and seditious people running to him from all parts as to a Head of great Authority it was beginning to be doubted that Queen Elizabeth invited by this opportunity though she made shew not at all to favour or assist the Count had resolved once again to set foot in that Province just over against her Kingdom which in times past had long been in possession of the Kings of England her Predecessors At the so freqâ—ent news of these tumults and insurrections the King who by nature was very cholerick brake forth into such terrible rage and fury that his sickness became daily more violent and dangerous wherefore neither having strength of body nor ability of mind to undergo so weighty a business often changing and varying his resolutions by that uncertainty gave them that were up in Arms far greater opportunity to increase their Forces which as soon as he perceived his disease which could find no remedy still continuing he resolved to refer the whole business to the counsel and authority of his Mother ever giving order and directions to take sharp severe courses which could hardly be done because the condition of the present affairs would not permit that Armies and Governments should be trusted in the hands of any but persons of great maturity and long experience who by reason of their age and gravity were averse from bloody violent resolutions wherefore the Queen being brought into great
promises to observe at the time of his Consecration and Coronation with protestation not to do any thing against that which shall be ordained and setled by the States Thirdly To restore unto the Provinces of this Kingdom and to those other States which are under it those ancient Rights Pre-eminences Liberties and Priviledges which were in the time of Clovis the first most Christian King or yet better and more profitable if any such can be found under the said protection In case there be any impediment opposition or rebellion against that which is aforesaid be it from whom it will or proceed it from whence soever it may those that enter into this Covenant shall be bound and obliged to imploy their Lives and Fortunes to punish chastise and prosecute those that shall attempt to disturb or hinder it and shall never cease their endeavours till the aforesaid things be really done and perfected In case any of the Confederates their Friends Vassals or Dependents be oppressed molested or questioned for this cause be it by whom it will they shall be bound to imploy their persons goods and estates to take revenge upon those that shall have so molested them either by the way of justice or force without any exception of persons whatsoever If it shall come to pass that any man after having united himself by Oath unto this Confederacy should desire to depart from it or separate himself upon any excuse or pretence which God forbid such Violaters of their own Consciences shall be punished both in bodies and goods by all means that can be thought of as Enemies to God Rebels and Disturbers of the Publick Peace neither shall such revenge be ever imputed unto the aforesaid Associates nor they liable to be questioned for it either in publick or in private The said Associates shall likewise swear to yield ready obedience and faithful service unto that Head which shall be deputed to follow and obey him and to lend all help counsel and assistance as well for the entire conservation and maintenance of this League as for the ruine of all that shall oppose it without partiality or exceptions of persons and those that shall fail or depart from it shall be punished by the authority of the Head and according to his Orders to which every Confederate shall be obliged to submit himself All the Catholicks of several Cities Towns and Villages shall be secretly advertised and warned by the particular Governours of places to enter into this League and to concur in the providing of men arms and other necessaries every one according to his condition and ability All the Confederates shall be prohibited to stir up any discord or enter into any dispute among themselves without leave of the Head to whose arbitrement all dissentions shall be referred as also the determining all differences as well in matters of goods as good name and all of them shall be obliged to swear in this manner and form following I swear by GOD the Creator laying my hand upon the holy Gospel and under pain of Excommunication and Eternal Damnation that I enter into this holy Catholick League according to the form of that Writing which hath now been read unto me and that I do faithfully and sincerely enter into it with a will either to command or to obey and serve as I shall be appointed and I promise upon my life and honour to continue in it unto the last drop of my blood and not to depart from it or transgress it for any command pretence excuse or occasion which by any means whatsoever can be represented to me The Copies of this League framed with so much art by the Guises that making a shew to obey and maintain the King took from him all his obedience and authority to confer it upon the head of their Union were very carefully and with much cunning dispersed by the hands of discreet wary men and such as were deeply engaged to them so that by little and little it began to spread in every place the cause or original not at all appearing whereby making very great but hidden proceedings because custom had already disposed mens minds to a desire of novelties they easily and in a short time drew all those into one body whom either for zeal of Religion dependance of interest desire of change or hatred of the Hugonot Princes they thought fit to bind together in that League and Confederacy But it being necessary to provide moneys for the nourishment and maintenance of that United Body and to find out some protection of great power and authority to shelter and defend it from the Kings forces the Lords of Guise turning their eyes out of the Kingdom thought that both for their Religion and themselves it was as lawful for them to make use of the help and favour of foreign Princes as it had been for the Hugonots to require the assistance of the Queen of England and the Princes of Germany and therefore they began secretly to treat at Rome for protection and in Spain for men and money nor did they find in any place any averseness to their desires for the Pope being displeased at and affraid of the Peace concluded with the Hugonots willingly gave ear to those things which might conveniently oppose their establishment and the Catholick King grown jealous that the designs of the Duke of Alancon would at last break out upon Flanders and that the King to quench the fire of his own house would be content to kindle it in his Neighbours willingly concurred to foment those in France who laboured to renew the War hoping that the discords in that Kingdom might one day give him an opportunity of some grand design and in the mean time preserve the peace and quietness of all his own Nicholas Cardinal de Pelle-ve bred up in the house of Guise treated the interests of this Union at Rome which by Gregory the Thirteenth a man of great candour and goodness but of a facile nature was hearkened unto with much readiness it pretending nothing but Faith Religion Charity Zeal to the publick good correction and reformation of abuses though in effect it contained private passions mingled with particular interests which not being unknown to the Court of Rome many discoursing of so new and high a design ascribed the cause of it to a desire the Guises had to govern the Kings will who excluding their help and counsel shewed that he would rule as it pleased himself others drawing the business another way attributed it to their care of conserving their own greatness which they had with so much sweat and labour been so long a building up Nor did there want those who passing yet further perchance through the malice they bore to that party taxed the Heads thereof to aim at vaster ends which whether true or false were after published to be the deposing of the King himself as a dissolute incapable mean-spirited man and in time to settle the Crown in
enable himself to move towards the Loire and meet the German Army To him were joined the Prince of Conde the Viscount de Turenne the Duke de la Tremouille the Count de Montgomery and the Marquess de Gallerande the Baron de Salignac and a good number of Horse and Foot under many Gentlemen of note and old experienced Commanders so that his Army was not so numerous as resolute and valiant About this time by the means of his ordinary Confidents he had sollicited Charles Count of Soissons and Francis Prince of Conty Brother to the Prince of Conde who till then had persevered in the Catholick Faith and continued near the Kings person in the Court urging to them that the business now in hand did no longer concern Religion but the defence of their Family and the inheritance and succession of the Crown to which not only He was called but successively the whole House of Bourbon and that it was therefore fit in that common cause and reciprocal interest they should all unite themselves to make the greater resistance against those who went about to exclude and ruine them and that they should take example by their Enemies among which the Duke of Mercaeur and his Brothers though they were the Kings Brothers-in-law and had from him received so much honour and so many benefits yet because they were of the House of Lorain kept united with the Duke of Guise and the rest of their Family and stood out against their own Sister and Brother in-law That if it were lawful for them to do so for the execution of new unjust designs much more was it lawful for them of the House of Bâ—urbon to unite themselves all together for the defence of their most just ancient Prerogatives which were due unto them by the legal universal consent of the French Nation That they need not fear they should suffer any violence in their Consciences for he that laboured for the liberty of others would never take it away from those that were so near himself but that they should take example by so many Catholick Lords and Gentlemen which followed the fortune of his party By which reasons these two Princes being moved as also because they saw themselves kept under and little valued at the Court resolved to go over to his party and determined that the Prince of Coâ—ty should join with the Army of the Reiters as soon as they were come into France and that the Count de Soissons should go to the Hugonot Camp in Xaintonge which that he might securely do the King of Navarre gave order to the Sieurs de Colombiere and Sancâ—e Marye du Mont who had raised some Forces in Normandy in favour of his party that they should conduct him to the passage of the Loyre whither he had sent the Viscount of Turenne with eight hundred Horse to meet him and it fell out so luckily that the Count and the Norman Forces went close by the Duke of Ioyeuse his Army without receiving any damage at all and united themselves with very great joy to the Army of the King of Navarre who highly incensed at the inhumanity used to his two Regiments which were cut in pieces in Poictou being wary yet resolved to take revenge advanced still forward while the Duke of Ioyeuse as it were assured of the Victory came on carelesly to meet him In the mean time the German Army was upon the point of marching towards Lorain for the Protestant Princes-Ambassadors being returned home with the angry answer of the King of France the King of Denmark Christian Duke of Saxony the Marquess of Brandenbourgh Prince Casimir the Protestant Cantons of Swisserland with other Lords of the same Religion at the importunity of the King of Navarre's Agents but much more at the exhortations of Theodore Beza gave resolute order for the raising of that Army toward which besides the money gathered publickly in the Protestant Churches and put into the hands of Prince Casimir there were also sixty thousand Ducats added by the Queen of England With this money and the consent and endeavour of all the Protestant Lords in Germany it was easie to raise an Army in that populous warlike Nation so that in the beginning of Iuly there met in Alsatia under the conduct of Prince Casimir upon whom that charge had been conferred by the rest twelve thousand Reiters four thousand German Foot and sixteen thousand Swisses for the other four thousand went into Dauphine apart Fabian Baron d' Onaw born in Prussia commanded as Prince Casimir's Lieutenant-General a man of private condition but risen to high esteem by the favour of the King of Denmark and of the Count Palatine and accounted a man of very great boldness and courage but of neither wisdom nor experience proportionable to an employment of so great weight and though in the beginning of August Guilliaume de la Marke Duke of Bouillon came up with two thousand Foot and three hundred French Horse and by Commission from the King of Navarre was to have been General of that Army and though at his arrival he displayed the white Cornet a mark due to the Supreme Commander yet retaining only the name he left the command wholly to the Baron d' Onaw both for his age and because he was of the Nation as also out of respect to Prince Casimir With the Duke of Bouillon were Robert Count de la Mark his Brother the Sieurs de Guitry de Monluet de la Nocle and many other French Gentlemen to whom the Sieurs de Mouy and Cormons with many other of their Adherents came from Geneva with two hundred Horse and eight hundred Foot and every day the Army increased with the number of those who ran thither from Dauphine and the other Confines of France so that before it moved out of Alsatia it amounted to the number of Forty thousand fighting men Before this Army marched there came an Edict from the Emperour Rodolphus Secundus sent to the Baron d' Onaw which contained That he having without his License and without the Letters Patents of the Empire caused that Army to be raised to invade the Kingdom of France should presently disband it and desist from the Enterprise under pain of banishment out of the Empire both to himself and those that should follow him To which threatning the Baron d' Onaw answered in writing That the Enterprise being neither his nor against the Empire nor against the Kingdom of France but for the relief of the oppressed Confederates of the Protestant Princes and the German Nation having ever had that liberty to enter themselves into pay under whom they pleased so that it were not against the Emperour nor his Jurisdiction he neither thought himself obliged to desist nor to disband the Army but that without offence to the Emperour he would continue the business begun by Commission from his Princes Thus the Emperour making no reply nor proceeding to any other
the valley making it so fenny deep and dirty that there is no passing to the City along the Plain but only upon the two Hills and by another way which made by art leads along the foot of the Hill on the left hand and with many turnings and windings comes to the Gate of the Town So that only two ways lead to the City one upon the top the other at the bottom of the Hill on the left hand and the way which is upon the top of the Hill on the right hand leads straight to Pollet which Bourg is divided from the City by the interposition of the Haven and the Current of the small River Bethune The Country from one Hill to the other is all moorish and rotten by the standing of the waters and there is no passage but only by a very narrow way interrupted by many Bridges because the River divides it self into many streams Upon the Hill on the left side which is no less steep and craggy than the other stands the Castle of Arques little more than a league from the Town a place excellently fortified both by Art and Nature which commands a great Bourg of the same name that lies under it just upon the way which at the foot of the mountain leads to Diepe along the bank of the River The right-hand Hill which is much more woody than the other doth not run on equally united in one ridge as that on the left hand doth but about a league from Pollet is parted by a great Valley which extends it self as far as over against Arques and in it upon the right-hand is Martinglise a great commodious Village and on the left an Hospital of St. Lazarus which the French commonly call a Maladery The King having with his Commanders diligently surveyed every one of these places resolved to quarter with all his Army at Arques believing that if the Duke of Mayenne followed him he would not pass along the Hill on the right side which leads only to Pollet thorow the Valley and the Wood but would keep the straight way that goes to the walls of Diepe Wherefore the whole Army working speedily and likewise those few peasants which could be got together he enclosed the Castle and Bourg with a good Trench of about eight foot wide and as much in depth making Works on the inside with all the earth and distinguished it with Redoubts and Ravelines about sixty paces distant from each other and then having placed his Cannon to the best advantage he himself lodged in the Castle with all the French Foot and the Mareschal de Byron in the Bourg with the Regiments of the Swisses shutting up in that manner both the ways which lead towards the Town as well that at the top as the other at the bottom of the Hill The Horse quartered in that space which reaches from the Trenches as far as Diepe lay ready behind the Army to move where need should require there being left room enough in fitting places of the Trench to sally out conveniently fifty Horse in front a sufficient Body for any action they should undertake Many Ships were appointed at Diepe to fetch Victual for the Army from England and the Coasts of Normandy from Caen St. Lo and Carantan places which held for the King which succeeded marvellously well for some winds brought in Barks from England others those that came from Normandy supplying with interchangeable assistance the necessities of the Souldiers who in that convenient season of the year had also many miles of a most fertile Country in their power by the fruits whereof both Horse and Foot were plentifully furnished In the mean time the Duke of Mayenne having received the Marquess du Ponâ— who was come with the Army of Lorain to assist the League and likewise the Duke of Nemours who had brought up the Forces of Lyonoise Monsieur de Balagny Governour of Cambray and finally the German Horse and Foot which had been levyed by his order with the help of Spain that he might preserve his reputation and fulfil the infinite hopes he had to conquer and drive the King out of the Kingdom was moved from Paris upon the first day of September and with six thousand Swisses four thousand German Foot twelve thousand Muskettiers between French and Lorainers and with four thousand and five hundred Horse received Poissy Mante and Vernon which yielded to him and having in two days taken Gournay which would have made resistance marched on diligently towards Rouen whence finding the King departed he took along with him the Duke of Aumale and so increasing his Forces which augmented every hour continued on his Voyage with the same speed towards Diepe but he took a different way from what the King and his Commanders thought he would for leaving that by the hill on the left hand which goes to Diepe by the way of Arques and upon which he knew the Army was prepared to make opposition being excellently quartered in places of advantage he marched on by the hill on the right hand with a design to come to Pollet and making himself Master of it to block up and command the mouth of the Haven that the King being deprived of the use of Shipping and cut off from his passage to the Sea might not only want the assistance he hoped to receive from England but also be reduced to extream necessity of victual thinking he should this way very easily conquer and make an end of the War But the King to whom the Sieur de Baqueville who had the care of discovering the motion of the Enemy had brought word in time that the Duke of Mayenne had taken the way toward the hill on the right hand perceiving his aim and desiring to prevent it left the Mareschal de Byron at Arques with the Swisses besides a thousand Muskettiers and six hundred Horse not only that he might hinder the passage of the Enemy on that side as had been the first intention but also that passing cross the Valley he might advance to the foot of the right hand hill and there draw a line about the Maladerie and then make another great trench toward the bottom to shut up the Duke's passage on that side also by a double impediment to the end that he might not be able to get over to the left hand hill which if he could do he might either assault the Army in their works or else putting himself between might streighten it and separate it from the Town Care being thus taken for matters without the King with the rest of the Cavalry and the remainder of the French Muskettiers went presently thorow the City to Pollet where with continual labour day and night the Lords and Commanders taking no less pains than the common Souldiers and inhabitants of the place he environed the whole Bourg with a deep trench which ending in the form of a sput made a sharp angle in the point whereof a great Mill
Blavet and having easily taken it began with infinite celerity to build a Fort by the Sea side which might command and hinder the entry of Ships that should come unto that Port and bestirred himself in such manner that he would have brought to perfection the service he had in design if the Duke of Mercoeurs Army still increasing which was advanced to Vannes seven leagues from Blavet he had not been constrained though the Fort were not yet quite finished to retreat into the places of his own party Nevertheless having left a strong Guard in the Fort with six pieces of Cannon and having put Eight hundred Foot into Annebont he hoped that those places might be able to hinder the entring and setling of the Enemy The Spanish Fleet arrived at Blavet with Six and thirty sail of Ships and four Gallions and with so prosperous a gale that notwithstanding the shot from Fort Dombes redoubled with infinite fury by the defendents it entered the Port without receiving much harm and landed Four thousand and five hundred Foot commanded by Don Iuan de l' Aquila who to free the Port from all impediments set himself without delay to take in Fort Dombes Which not being brought to perfection and having no hopes of relief from any place yielded it self the fifth day of the siege and was presently demolished by the Spaniards After which enterprise being joined with the Duke de Mercoeur they recovered Annebont and the other neighbouring places with the same facility and at last under favour of the Fleet began to fortifie Blavet securing it no less with two Forts Royal built at the entry of the Haven for conveniency of bringing in relief by Sea then they strengthned it with Moats Bastions and all other kinds of Military Fortifications on the Land-side But the King and the Prince of Dombes knowing that they could not resist the power of the Duke and the Spaniards with the Forces they had in that Province sought for assistance from England which lying over against it hath conveniency of giving relief to that coast no less than Spain And having obtained Six thousand Foot from the Queen they expected their Landing at St. Lo the farthest Port of Lower Normandy With the like variety and as great danger did the War rage on the other side of the Kingdom For Dauphine and Provence Provinces bordering upon the Duke of Savoy and spred in length to the very foot of the Alps wavered with various fortune in the management of Arms. The Duke of Savoy from the very beginning of the War had applied the greatness of his mind to divers and those not ill-grounded hopes For the affairs of Piedmont being secured by his seizing upon the Marquesate and lying conveniently for the affairs of Dauphine by the near adjoining of Savoy he hoped by fomenting the League in some sort to enlarge his confines On the other side being interessed in Provence by the Towns he holds there he had an eye set upon getting the whole whereof already he possessed a part So that he held intelligence in both Provinces and with Money and Arms endeavoured to advantage the course of his designs Nor did his hopes stay there but seeing the Kingdom in so great distraction â—nd ready to break the Salique Law and to cut off the Legitimate Succession of the Royal Family in the King of Navarre there arose a certain conceit in him that the States might perhaps incline to make choice of him as being born of a Daughter of France which he thought would prove so much the more easie to him by how much more his name was famous in Arms and by how much greater merit he should acquire with the Catholick party and in the opinion of the Pope the principal mover in respect of Religion in the determination of the affairs of France Nor did he forget whatsoever event these designs should have that the opportunity of present affairs gave him an occasion of subduing the inhabitants of Geneva now that the King of France being busied by himself could not afford them any present relief With this height of hopes which increased his courage having sent his Agents to treat with the Duke of Mayenne and having contracted a reciprocal intelligence with him he had raised a great Body of Horse and Foot and had sent forth Count Francesco Martinengo General of his Army into Provence and his Brother Don Amadeo of Savoy against Geneva and by means of the Governours of his Garisons he gave help and assistance to the Forces of the League in Dauphine Nor was the beginning unlike the greatness of his design For the Sieur de Vins and the Countess de Seaux a Lady of more than manly spirit who both held for the League in Provence finding themselves inferiour in strength to Monsieur de la Valette the Kings Lieutenant not only willingly received supplies and assistance from the Duke but began also to treat of giving him the Dominion of that Province and to put themselves under his protection and superiority Which being treated and concluded by the Duke he went in person to his Army carrying with him some addition of Horse and Foot which by Commission from Spain he had obtained from the Governour of Milan At his arrival the Kings party inferiour in strength going down the wind though Les Diguieres being come out of Dauphine into that Province did labour marvellously with his wonted valour and celerity which were singular the affairs of the League grew up to such a height that his Arms already gave the Law to the whole Country Wherefore the Duke being come into the City of Aix where the Parliament of Provence doth reside and being received with those pomps and solemnities which are wont to be given to Sovereign Princes though he imitating the Duke of Mayenne refused to use the Cloth of State he was in the Parliament declared Head of the War and of the Civil Government in that Province to preserve it in the Union of the Catholicks and under the obedience and Royal State of the Crown of France This business displeased the Duke of Mayenne no less than it did the King thinking not only that the Duke of Savoy sought after and usurped that Authority which the general consent had conferred upon him but also that he had an aim to dismember Provence and with the help of Nizza and his other Towns by little and little to make himself Master of it where he wrote sharp resenting Letters not only to the Parliament but also to the Sieur de Vins and to the Countess shewing them the fault they committed in separating themselves from the rest of the Union and in putting themselves in danger to alienate so great and so important a portion of the Crown These Letters wrought a very great effect in the Sieur de Vins an old dependent upon the House of Lorain and he began to shew himself more backward in complying with the
put it to a day judging the Italian Forces to be yet raw and the Duke of Lorain's not well assured and therefore no way be compared to his Wherefore being departed from Attigny upon the first of October he quartered that night with his Van-guard at Grandpre upon which day Monsieur d' Amblise who commanded part of the Lorain Forces having marched from Montfaulcon joyned with the Army of the League The next day aâ—â—ut noon the King arrived with his Army within sight of Verdun spreading his â—â—uadrons largely imbattelled along the Plain On the other side they of the League who were encamped without the City drew themselves up in Battalia under the Walls the Italians having the right Wing the Duke of Lorain the Battel and the Duke of Mayenne's French the lâ—ft yet the Duke himself commanding and ordering the whole Camp as he pleased At the first arrival there began so great and so hot a skirmish between the two Armies that many of the Commanders themselves thought it would be a Battel for the Sieurs de Praslin de la Curee d' Arges and the Baron d' Giury with the Kings Light-horse in sour Divisions advanced to the very face of the Enemy to skirmish being seconded on the right hand and on the left by the Count de Brienne and the Sieur de Marivaut with Two hundred Cuirassiers and on the other side Cavalier Avolio Ottavio Cesis and Ascanio della Cornia were likewise advanced with the Popes Light-horse and the Sieur d' Amblise seconded them with a Body of Lorain Lances But though the skirmish was very fierce in the beginning the Sieur de Praslins Horse being killed under him and the Sieur de la Curee thrown to the ground with the shock of a Lance the Italians behaving themselves very gallantly every where yet were the Dukes of Lorain and Mayenne resolved not to fight because the Catholick Kings Forces that were come out of Italy following their wonted Counsels had denied to follow them and were marched streight to joyn with the Duke of Parma and the Popes Swisses were not above Three thousand Wherefore not thinking themselves strong enough to deal with the Kings Army in so open a place as is the Plain that lies before Verdun the skirmish by their order cooled by little and little and they drawing back their men under the Walls yet without shew of fear the King took up his Quarters and entrenched himself within sight of the Town and of their Army All sorts of provisions came in plentifully to the Camp of the League and the City furnished them with many conveniences not onely for victual but for lodging under cover whereas the King in the midst of an enemies Country and the weather being very rainy suffered both for want of victual and conveniency nor could his Soldiers accustomed to another kind of Discipline endure the hardship and incommodities of lying in the field in so contrary a season To other things was added a most cruel storm that night with thunders whirlwinds and infinite rain which spoiling all the Soldiers Huts and overflowing all the Plain put the whole Army in wonderful confusion Wherefore next day the King after he had stood firm in Battalia for many hours and none of the enemies appearing in the field faced about with his Army and marched back to quarter again at Grandpre There the Germans were like to have mutinied not being paid the money that had been promised them Wherefore the King who could now do no less than perform his promises to the Queen of England that he might receive the other Two hundred thousand Ducats having made provision at Sedan with the Jewels and credit of the Princess Charlotte of a certain sum of money to quiet his Germans took without delay the way towards Normandy to besiege at last the City of Rouen The Duke of Mayenne contrary to whose expectation the Popes forces had so long delaid their coming and who had also seen the King of Spain's march streight towards Lorain without making any stay presently dispatched the Count de Brâ—ssac to the Duke of Parma to protest unto him that if he entred not into the Kingdom or sent not such Supplies as should be sufficient to oppose the King the affairs of the League and the state of Religion would be very much endangered and that he should not be able to hinder many from making their peace as seeing the slowness and ill counsels of the Confederates they daily threatned The Duke made this protestation more at large to Diego d' Ivarra who was there present shewing him the wonderful ill effect which the delays and secret practices of the Spaniards did produce for if all the Catholick Kings expences and forces which he had granted severally to this man and to that in Bretagne Provence Savoy and Languedoc haâ— been put into one Body and all imployed to the root of the business and to the Spring-head of affairs the victory over the King would thence have ensued and also the suppression of their Enemies in all places but whilst the division of the League was endeavoured whilst his counsels were not believed and whilst the Duke of Parma would not advance the King had found opportunity to receive his Foreign Forces and now being grown powerful he over-ran all France at his pleasure to the admiration and grief of all good men But these Protestations and Reasons not availing with Diego d' Ivarra who had received another impression and was otherwise inclined and the cause from whence this hardness proceeded being clearly seen by the relation of President Ieannin the Dukes of Lorain and Mayenne not being able any other way to hinder it agreed together though secretly in this general to keep close and united together and not to suffer that any should be admitted to the Crown not only who was a stranger but who was not of their own Family and that if they were constrained to yield to any other persons a Prince of the Blood of the Catholick Religion should be chosen and never to consent either to the alienation or division of the Kingdom With this firm resolution confirmed also by a Writing which they signed the Duke of Mayenne set himself in order to prosecute the War and being departed from Verdun with the Popes Army and his own and with the Supplies he had obtained from the Duke of Lorain who gave way that the Count de Vaudemont the Count de Chaligny and the Sieur de Bassompierre should follow him he took the way toward Champagne that he might not go too far from the Confines till he heard the determinations of Flanders When the Duke was arrived at Retel in Champagne the Duke of Guise came up to him accompanied with Six hundred Horse all Gentlemen who upon the same of his being at liberty were come in to him and though at his arrival their greetings and outward actions shewed kindness and confidence in one another
Third sirnamed The Hardy and Robert the younger Count of Cleremont From Philip came the eldest Line which enjoyed the Crown more than three hundred years with the sirname of Valois from Robert descended the House of Bourbon so called as it is a custom among the French from that State of which they bare the Title and enjoyed a long time as their own Inheritance Now whilst the House of Valois possessed the Crown the House of Bourbon held by consequence the rank of first Prince of the Blood and enjoyed all those priviledges which we said before by Law and Custom belonged to that quality This Family great not only through nearness to the Crown but also in large possessions abundance of treasure reputation in war and fruitfulness of off-spring producing likewise frequently men of a liberal nature and popular civility easily exceeded the limits of a private life and with the sinews of its own strength together with the favour of the people established it self in an excessive state of greatness which begetting jealousie and envy in the Kings who were displeased at so great an eminence and authority bred many occasions of hate and suspition which sometimes also brake forth into open war For Lewis the Eleventh King of France made war upon Iohn Duke of Bourbon in the war intituled For the Commonwealth and Lewis the Twelfth though before he came to the Crown tried the success of Arms with Peter of Bourbon and so what by open defiance what through secret malice the Kings of France grew daily more and more jealous of the Authority of the Princes of Bourbon At the length Francis the First came to the Crown who in the beginning of his Reign led by the ardour and facility of youth began with great demonstration of affection to confer honour upon the chief Princes of the Blood it seeming a thing suitable to that magnificence he shewed towards all men and to the greatness of his mind that those Lords most nearly allied to him should be most exalted both for the honour of the Royal Line and for his own particular reputation And having observed in Charles of Bourbon who was the first Prince of the Blood a generous courage and a genius fit for any employment he promoted him to be High Constable of France and resolved that all the weighty affairs and principal charges of the Kingdom should pass only thorow his own hands and those that were nearest of relation to himself But when he came to age more mature the fervour of youth being past and finding by being conversant in affairs the reasons by which his Predecessors guided their counsels with how much greater earnestness he strove formerly to raise the House of Bourbon with so much the more anxiety of mind he laboured now to abase their excessive greatness Nor did fortune fail to present an occasion wonderfully proper for the execution of his design For there being a Process at that time between Louyse the Kings Mother and Charles of Bourbon for the same Dutâ—hy which he then held the King thought with himself that if he caused Judgment to be given in favour of his Mother and deprived the House of Bourbon of their fundamental revenues the Duke would easily fall from that power and dignity which was chiefly upheld by so splendid a fortune But Charles having by the preceeding of his business discovered the deceitful practices of the Chancellor Antonio del Prato by the Kings instigation against him disdain of the injury and fear of ruine which was inevitably prepared so much prevailed over him that joyning secretly with the Emperour Charles the Fifth and Henry the Eighth of England he began to conspire against the Kingdom and the very person of the King Which being discovered he was constrained to flee and afterwards bare Arms against him and continuing that course it so fell out that he was last of all General to Caesar in the Battel at Pavia where after a bloody slaughter in the the French Army the King invironed by divers Squadrons of Foot was at length taken prisoner For these facts Charles being declared Rebel and all his estate confiscate and having within a short time after at the taking of Rome lost his life also the House of Bourbon fell from that envied greatness which had caused such jealousie in the King This was not sufficient to stop the persecution now begun for although Charles were unhappily dead without children and though the others of the family did in no way partake of his counsels notwithstanding the King more swayed with revenge of the injuries past than the force of reason all the Lords of that House more through hate of their name than any delinquency in their persons were utterly deprived of all favour at Court and wholly removed from the management of affairs And although this rigour was in time somewhat lessened and the Kings mind so far mitigated as to forget things past and to lay by the ill opinion he had conceived of them notwithstanding he continued studiously to endeavour to cut off all means whereby those Princes might return to their former honour and that power to which they were formerly with so much favour advanced This secret intention of the Kings was very well observed by Charles Duke of Vendosme the chief of that House Wherefore forcing himself with moderation of mind to overcome the suspition and jealousies that so oppressed his family he refused during the Kings imprisonment to pretend to the Regency which of right belonged to him and after the King was delivered having retired himself to the quiet of his own domestick affairs sought not to be recalled to any part in that Government in which he knew himself so much suspected The rest of the same House following his example to shew how much they were strangers to the wicked counsels of Bourbon by being such ready Executors though to their own diminution and prejudice of the Kings inclinations voluntarily withdrew themselves from all business that might breed any suspition of them and standing retired little troubled themselves with the charges and commands at Court among which despising the little ones they already perceived it was impossible for them to attain to those dignities which they knew belonged to the greatness of their birth The House of Bourbon thus suppressed and removed from the affairs there sprang up under Francis the First two great families which within a short time got the whole business of the State into their own hands Momorancy and Guise neither of them any way allied to the House Royal but both the one and the other of very eminent Nobility That of Momorancy keeps a venerable record of the eminency of their Ancestors for they do not only shew a right descent from one of those Barons that accompanied the first King Pharamond in the Salique Expedition but prove also they were the first among the French Nation that received Baptism and the Christian Faith
entertain their Religion To confirm them in which opinion as much as she could with outward testimonies she would often hear their Preachers argue and discourse in her own Chamber confer with great confidence and professions of affection with the Prince of Conde and the Admiral and was often in discourse with the Dutchess of Montpensier whom making her believe whatsoever she pleased with her excellent dissimulation she used as a means to entertain with hopes many other the principal of them And to lead them on with open demonstrations to a belief of her private protestations and practices she wrote obscure letters of ambiguous sense to the Pope one while demanding a Council such in every point as the Calvinists desired then licence to call a National one sometimes desiring that the Communion might be administred under both Species otherwhile requiring a dispensation for Priests to marry now solliciting that Divine Service might be said in the vulgar tongue then proposing other such like things wished for and preached by the Hugonots in which she knew so well how to dissemble by the help of Monsieur de l' Isle Ambassador at Rome that putting the Pope in doubt and the Catholick party and so necessitating them to proceed warily lest they should finally alienate her wholly from the Roman Religion at the same time she won the Hugonots making them believe that she was altogether inclined to favour them that of bitter enemies they became her greatest friends and confidents Nor were the vulgar only deluded by these artificial dissimulations but the Admiral also who was by nature so wary and of such a subtile wit gave such credit to them that he was induced to give the Queen a full accompt of the number of the forces and designs of his Faction of the adherents they had both within and without the Kingdom and every other particular She seeming desirous to be informed at large before she declared her self and promising openly to take that party when they were once so established and provided with force as she should not need to fear the power of the Catholicks or the Triumvirat Thus with a sudden and in apparence incredible change the King of Navarre went over to the Catholick party and Queen Catherine though dissemblingly took upon her the protection of the Hugonots Which change to them that knew not the true secret reasons of it appeared strange and extravagant and therefore many did then attribute it to lightness in the one and womanish inconstancy in the other and many that have written since ascribe the fault also to the same causes not penetrating into the hidden foundations upon which the engines of this counsel were moved The End of the Second BOOK THE HISTORY OF THE Civil Wars of France By HENRICO CATERINO DAVILA. The THIRD BOOK The ARGUMENT THe Third Book relates the Deliberation of the King of Navarre to drive the Prince of Conde already become formidable out of Paris for this purpose he sends for the other Catholick Lords to Court The Duke of Guise makes a Iourney thither and passing by Vassy lights upon an Assembly of Hugonots at their devotions thereupon follows accidentally a bloody conflict to revenge themselves of which the Hugonots rise in all parts of the Kingdom The Prince of Conde leaves Paris The Queen together with the King because she would not be constrained to declare her self for either party retires to Fountain-bleau On the other side the Princes of each Faction endeavour to possess themselves of the persons of the King and Queen The Catholicks prevent the Hugonots and lead them both to Paris The Prince of Conde having lost his opportunity takes other resolutions possesses himself of Orleans and prepares for the War The Catholick Lords under the Kings Name likewise raise an Army Many Writings are published on each side Both Armies go into the Field The Queen-Mother avoids the War and labours for a Peace To this end she comes to a parley with the Prince but without success notwithstanding she continues to treat of an Agreement which at length is concluded The Prince by the perswasion of the rest repents himself thereof and again takes arms purposeth to assail the Kings Camp by night but fails of his design Forces come to the King out of Germany and many thousands of Swisses thereupon the Prince is forced to retire unto the Walls of Orleans where not being able to keep the Army together he divides it He sends for succours into Germany and England consents to give Havre de Grace to the English and to receive their Garisons in Deipe and Rouen to obtain aids of them The Queen is offended and grievously afflicted therewith and for that cause joyning with the Catholick party causeth the Hugonots to be declar'd Rebels The Kings Army takes Blois Tours Poictiers and Bourges besiegeth Rouen and takes it The King of Navarre is kill'd there Succours come to the Prince out of Germany with which being reinforced he makes haste to assault Paris The King and the Queen arrive there with the Army wherefore after many attempts he is necessitated to depart Both Armies go into Normandy and there follows the Battel of Dreux in which the Prince of Conde is taken prisoner on the one side and the Constable on the other The Duke of Guise being victorious layeth siege to Orleans and is ready to take it but is treacherously slain by Poltrot After his death follows the general Peace and the Kings Army recovers Havre de Grace from the English The King cometh out of his minority The Queen useth divers arts to work the discontented Princes to her will and to compass her ends together with the King makes a general visitation of the Kingdom cometh to a parley at Avignon with the Popes Ministers and at Bayonne with the Queen of Spain It is agreed between the most Christian and Catholick King to aid each other in the suppression of seditions The Queen of Navarre cometh to the Court The King maketh a reconciliation between the Families of Chastillon and Guise but within few days after they return to their former enmities The Queen of Navarre in distaste leaves the Court and plots new mischiefs Divers Marriages are celebrated but the civil dissentions nevertheless continue AFfairs of the State being thus on the sudden put into another posture there were none so short-sighted who did not clearly perceive that the animosity of the Factions would finally shew it self in a War and that there wanted nothing to make this cloud break into a storm but the conjuncture of some fit occasion Which as if all things had concurred to hasten the calamity of France did forthwith arise from a marvellous opportunity The King of Navarre after he had declared himself of the Catholick party stayed as by chance in Paris which City as it is placed in the middle of France so in frequency of people riches dignity and power far surpasseth all others in the Kingdom Wherefore believing
was the foundation of the Kings party it being besides very indecent that wherâ— his Majesty remained in Person any other Religion should be exercised but that which he himself professed These reasons laid together they resolved the Edict of Ianuary in all things else remaining in force to forbid the Hugonots to keep any Assemblies in the City of Paris or the Precincts thereof or in any other place where the Court resided where none could live that were not conformable to the Rites of the Catholick Religion observed in the Roman Church After the publication of this Decree followed other Provisions in pursuance of the Civil and Military affairs And the Cardinal of Bourbon who loved not to engage himself in troublesome businesses having in these times of difficulty surrendred up the Government of Paris they conferred it upon the Mareshal of Brissac that they might be sure to have in the power of one they trusted the most potent City in all France which alone gave more assistance to that party it favoured than half the rest of the Kingdom could They appointed other Commanders in divers other parts to withstand the attempts of the Hugonots amongst which the principal were Claude Duke of Aumale in the Province of Normady Louis de Bourbon Duke of Monpensier in Touraine and in Gascoigne Blaise Sieur de Monluc a man famous for wit and valour and much more for experience in the War But having already a great power on foot those who commanded in chief resolved to go directly towards Orleans where the Prince of Conde and the Admiral gathered their Forces and not to give them longer time for the provisions that they made but to endeavour to suppress them before they encreased in strength or reputation The Kings Army consisted of four thousand Horse the chief Gentry in the Kingdom and six thousand French Foot all chosen men and old Souldiers and the Swisses were expected who being hired by the King were already advanced to the confines of Burgundy With this number of men and a convenient train of Artillery the Army moved towards Orleans commanded by the King of Navarre with the Title of the Kings Lieutenant-General but with the consent and authority of the Duke of Guise and the Constable who for their experience and age had the chief credit in directing businesses of weight or consequence On the other side the Prince of Conde and the Admiral by whose advice all things were governed having already assembled such a force as was able to encounter with the Kings Army resolved to issue out of Orleans and to take the field likewise judging it the best way to uphold their reputation which in all but especially in Civil Wars is always of great moment to maintain and encrease a Faction there being an infinite number of men that follow the rumour of fame and prosperity of fortune Being marched forth into the field with three thousand Horse and seven thousand Foot they quartered themselves in a place naturally strong some four leagues distant from the City just upon the great Road that so they might cut off the Catholicks passage to the Town and with greater facility have provisions brought them in from the Country about But whilst the Armies thus approached one another the Queen was greatly troubled in mind to see things at last break out into a War in which she doubted she should certainly remain a prey whosoever obtained the Victory believing that she could no more trust her self to one party than be secure of the other For though the Catholick Lords made shew of paying her a great respect and seemed to promise she should continue her wonted authority of Regent she feared not without good ground that the contrary party once suppressed and the obstacle taken away that contained them within the bounds of reason they would make but little accompt of a Pâ—pil King or a woman that was a stranger and prefer their own greatness before all other respects And for the Prince of Conde who besides his restless disposition and vast thoughts that wholly swayed him thought himself also injured and betrayed by her she could by no means depend upon his support Besides the exaltation of the Hugonots she knew would absolutely subvert the State and kindle such a lasting fire that the miserable Country of France would never be able fully to recover the quiet it formerly enjoyed Wherefore desiring a peace and that things should remain in machination and as they call them Brigues of the Court without breaking out into the violence of Arms she endeavoured to promote propositions of accommodation by means of the Bishop of Valence who at last after many difficulties concluded a parley between her and the Prince of Conde in a place equally distant from both Armies that by discoursing together they might find a means to secure and satisfie both parties To which purpose the Queen being come to the Catholick Camp accompanied with the King of Navarre and Monsieur d' Anville the Constables Son she advanced as far as Toury a place about ten leagues from Orleans whither came the Prince of Conde with the Admiral and the Cardinal his Brother who called himself Count de Beauvais of which place he held the Bishoprick though he had changed his Religion Where meeting altogether in an open Campaigne which on every side extended as far as they could discern the Prince and the Queen withdrew themselves from the company and discoursed very long together but what passed between them was unknown only it is certain that they parted without concluding any thing and each of them retired to their own company in great haste This meeting satisfied those who doubted it that the Queen only dissembling with the Hugonots for her own ends would not in any wise forsake the Catholicks For she was there in such a place that she might have gone away with the Prince if she had pleas'd who perhaps came to the parley principally through such a hope Now the Prince being returned to his Army as if he had received courage from the Treaty he had with the Queen or else to encrease the jealousies which the Catholicks generally had of her proposed much higher Conditions than formerly and so exorbitant that they moved a disdain even in the King himself though yet in such an age that he referred all things to the arbitrement of his Council For he demanded That the Guises and the Constable should depart out of the Kingdom That the Hugonots might return again to live in the Cities and have Churches publickly appointed them That all the Edicts should be nullified that were made since the Duke of Guise returned to the Court That he might hold the Towns he was possessed of till the King was out of his minority and command in them as free absolute Lord That the Popes Legat should be commanded to leave the Kingdom that the Hugonots might be capable of all charges and publick Magistracies
That the Emperour the Catholick King the Queen of England the Republick of Venice the Duke of Savoy and the Commonalty of the Swisses should give security That neither the Duke of Guise nor the Constable should return into the Kingdom or raise any Army until such time as the King came to the age of two and twenty years Every man being incensed with these Conditions the Governours of the Kingdom resolved to send Monsieur de Fresne one of the Kings Secretaries to Estampes in the mid-way between Orleans and Paris who with a publick Proclamation should warn the Prince of Conde the Admiral Andelot and the rest of their Adherents within ten days after to lay down their Arms to deliver up the Towns they possessed and to retire privately to their own houses which if they did they should obtain pardon and remission for all that was past but if they refused to obey this his Majesties express Command it being an immediate Act of Treason and Rebellion they should be deprived of their estates and dignities and proceeded against as Rebels Which being published accordingly it was so far from working any thing upon the Hugonots that on the contrary either through desperation or disdain become more resolute they united themselves by a publick Contract in a perpetual Confederacy to deliver as they said the King the Queen and the Kingdom from the violence of their oppressors and to cause obedience to be rendered to his Majesties Edicts through all his Dominions They declared the Prince of Conde Head of this Confederacy and with their wonted liberty published in print a long Narration of the causes and end of this their Union The Queen for all this still employed her thoughts how to compass an agreement For besides the hopes she had to effect it nothing was more advantageous to her then gaining of time and by delaying the War to keep things from coming to an issue till her Son was out of his Minority which they pretended was at fourteen years of age She began already to endeavour by her usual arts to regain the Constable and the Guises and having given evident proof of her resolution to persevere in the Catholick Religion and continue constant to that party since when she was even in the Hugonots Camp she returned notwithstanding back to them again she had in great part removed and purged her self of those jealousies which they were wont to have of her inclinations insomuch as besides that they left her a more absolute power in the Government they sought by complying to make her approve of their proceedings Wherefore having more hope than ever to find some means of accommodation she began to deal with the Catholick Lords under the pretence of Justice and detestation of a Civil War that to shame the Hugonots and for their own honour they should be content to depart first from the Court as they were the first to come thither She laid before them how greatly it would commend their sincerity by one action only to extinguish that horrible flame which was now kindling in every part of the Kingdom to consume all things both sacred or prophane That they would merit much more of their Country by this so pious a resolution than by all their former exploits put together though never so glorious and beneficial For this would bring safety whereas those added only greatness and reputation She told them further that to absent themselves from the Court was but a ceremony of a few months for if nothing happened before to make it necessary to call them back again when the King came to age which would be shortly he would soon sâ—nd for them and in the mean while this short time of absence might be employed to their honour and advantage For every one retiring to their several Governments with which they were intrusted they might with industry keep the Provinces in peace and purge those that most needed it of the pestiferous humours that infected them whereas staying at the Court they served for nothing else but to foment and stir up a War She assured them she would never change resolution in matters of Religion or the Kings Education that never any thing of importance should be determined without their privity that the present Insurrections once quieted she would take care that with the first possible opportunity they should be recalled and that in all times they should find her gratitude answerable to so great a benefit if really they resolved to perform what she proposed With which kind of practises she so far prevailed that at the last the Duke of Guise the Constable and the Mareshal de St. Andre were contented to depart first from the Court and the Army provided that the Prince of Conde came presently without Arms to render himself to the Queens obedience and to follow such orders as she should think most expedient for the welfare of the Kingdom which though every one of them thought a very hard condition yet such was the general applause that resulted from thence to their own augmentation and glory and so firm the belief that the Prince would never be perswaded to return to the Court unarmed as a private person that they were induced to consent to it believing withal perhaps that there could not want pretences and interpretations speedily to licence their return and so much the rather because the King of Navarre being then so exasperated that they thought him irreconcileable with his Brother remaining still an assistant in the Government they were in a manner secure that the form of things would not be changed and that they should have the same power in their absence as if they were present But the Queen having gotten this promise from them and keeping it very secretly to her self forthwith sent the Bishop of Valence and Rubertette one of the Secretaries of State to the Prince of Conde who having given them this answer That if the Catholick Lords departed first he would not only lay down his Arms and return into obedience to the Queen but also for the more security forthwith leave the Kingdom and often reiterating and making large professions of the same though with an assured opinion that those Lords would neither for their reputation nor safety be willing first to lay down their Arms and depart The Bishop and Rubertette praising his readiness desiring he would write what he had said to the Queen shewing that whereas for the present he was held for the Author of these scandals and of the War by this free offer he would silence his enemies and confound the Faction of the Guises justifying to all the World the candour of his intentions and counsels The Prince perswaded by the fair apparence of the proposition and with hope to add to his force a shew of reason which is always of very great moment among the people was content to write to the Queen That when the Catholick Lords were retired to their houses
learn what was said she began to make her excuses to their Ministers but had a long private conference to that purpose with the Venetian Ambassador who being less interessed and more moderate than the rest was likeliest to credit her reasons wherefore beginning with the original of things she related to him at large every particular circumstance That King Francis the Second her eldest Son being very young when he came to the Crown and of a disposition rather to be governed than to exercise the charge of a King was forced of necessity to confer upon her the Supream Power in managing the affairs that it might neither fall upon the Princes of Bourbon not only the chief pretenders to the Crown but infected with Heresie and inclined to favour it nor yet upon the Guises men full of ambition and high pretences who nevertheless were so far Masters of the Kings will in regard of his Marriage with their Neece that she was constrained to admit them to a great part in the administration of the Government and in many things to yield to them for fear they might to the prejudice of the publick and her own private disgrace have cast her out of the Court and perhaps out of the Kingdom also That she had nevertheless ever endeavoured so to carry matters that the Kingdom might remain in quiet and enjoy the blessing of peace under a pious religious King and tender of the preservation of his people if the violence of the Prince of Conde and the malitious subtilty of the Admiral had not disturbed the course of things by turning not only against the Guises with whom they professed an open enmity but even against her self contriving through hate by wicked practises to deprive her of her life That the conspiracy of Amboise being discovered when all the Council concurred to proceed with extream severity she used her uttermost endeavour that a moderate way might be taken to quiet those troubles forgetting through desire of the common good her own private injuries and dangers That the Prince having continued to raise Insurrections in the Cities and Provinces and to plot even against the King himself at length fell into her hands at which times she ever proposed ways very far from cruelty or revenge saving the King of Navarre and divers others that were privy to the Princes counsels which was manifestly to be known when the Kings infirmity began to be mortal for the Princes of Guise pressing very earnestly that the sentence of death might be put in execution against those of Bourbon she resolutely opposed it approving rather gentle means than violent sharp remedies That she being afterwards left with the King a young Child not obeyed and her other Children yet as it were in the Cradle and her self a stranger with very few Confidents but an abundance of persons of interest about her though she had more need than ever to guard her self from those who plotted some one way some another the ruine or division of the Kingdom and her death and her Childrens yet overcome by so great and so streight a necessity to preserve the peace maintain the Crown and her Childrens Patrimony and to gain time till â—he King came of age she many times suffered the Princes fury and the insolencies of the Hugonots but that the impatience of the great ones with their discords and enmities the ambition of the Princes of Lorain and the contumacy of the Hugonots had at length raised a War to avoid which God was witness with her how much she had done and suffered that seeing the Kingdom through the infection of Heresie in a general combustion and the English and Germans called in to invade it she resolved to try whether by a resolute War she could extinguish and eradicate this evil and not be wanting in any thing that might be justified by Religion she had resolved to put it to a Battel which her Letters written to the Constable that were certainly amongst his Papers for she knew he kept them would still testifie That in the Battel the Constable was taken prisoner and the Mareshal of St. Andre killed and though the Victory inclined to the Kings Party with the taking of the Prince of Conde yet the Admiral remained still with a considerable Force to which was added the succours sent from England and a fresh powerful supply that came out of Germany That since this hapned that accident to the Duke of Guise whereby the Kings Party were deprived of a Head because for heâ— to command the Army was neither agreeable to her Sex or profession and there was not any body else fit to be trusted with so great a charge whence being led by the perswasions of many and particularly by the advice the Duke of Guise gave her just at his death to which she gave so much the more credit because at that time men use to forget private interests and speak truth succeeded a Peace by granting to the Hugonots a Liberty of Conscience though for no other end but to stay those enormous outrages desolations plundrings rapines sacriledges violences and tyrannies that destroyed the whole Kingdom hoping time would spend that humour which she was very well assured proceeded rather from private enmities and desire of â—ule than from love of Religion That she knew divers Princes very much blamed her for this Treaty by the same token there wanted not those who raised doubts concerning her belief but that she being satisfied in her own Conscience having placed her hopes in God expected from him her Justification That it could not be denied but the peace had rid the Kingdom of the Reiters who cruelly wasted the Country and driven the English out of Havre de Grace who were neasted there and given the poor people time to breathe from so many troubles and calamities by which they were ruined and devoured That the Peace brought one great advantage by taking from the Hugonots all manner of pretence to rebel That many things were done and suffered for no other purpose but to reduce the great ones to reason and to mitigate the fury of heresie trying divers means to arrive at this just holy end and to maintain the union of the Kingdom so profitable to Christianity and establish Peace so beloved of mankind but no remedies or agreement prevailing the Hugonots at length came to the taking of Arms That she had used all possible endeavour speedily to assemble the Kings Forces that the Enemy might not have time to receive supplies from abroad That she had very much pressed a Battel as it followed at St. Denis but with so little success that it was notoriously known things were afterward in a far worse condition than ever That since she had procured of the King to make the Duke of Anjou General of the Army to be assured no private inâ—erests should hinder the publick good That she hoped on Christmas-Eve last there would have been an absolute decision of the differences and
and retire with the reliques of their Army into the Mountains of Gascogne and Languedoc The Duke lays Siege to St. Jean and takes it but with the lessening of his Army and loss of time he goes sick to Angiers and thence to St. Germains The Princes join with the Count Montgomery in Gascogne they pass the Winter in the Mountains and at the Spring-time draw into the plains pass the Rhosne and inlarge themselves in Provence and Daulphine They march toward Noyers and la Charite with an intent to come near Paris The King sends an Army against them under the command of the Mareshal de Cosse a slow man and not desirous to ruine the Hugonots They meet in Burgogne but the Princes shun the Battel a Treaty of agreement is begun and in the end concluded at the Court The Princes and the Admiral retire to Rochel the King endeavours to beget an assurance in them and for that cause offers to give his Sister the Lady Margaret in Marriage to the Prince of Navarre and to make War with the Spaniard in Flanders the Match is concluded and they come all to Court The Queen of Navarre is poisoned after her death the Marriage is celebrated amidst the triumphs whereof the Admiral is shot in the Arm The King resolves to prosecute and free himself of the Hugonots upon St. Bartholomews-Eve at night the Admiral and all the rest of them are Massacred in Paris and many other Cities of the Kingdom The King attempts to surprize Rochel and Montauban but neither design takes effect many Treaties pass to bring the Rochellers to subjection but they resolving to defend themselves the Duke of Anjou draws his Army together and besiegeth them with all his Forces They hold out many months till the Duke of Anjou being Elected King of Poland condescends to grant them very good conditions with which they in appearance return unto the Kings Obedience The King of Poland departs The Duke of Alancon his next Brother pretends to succeed him in all his Dignities is repulsed whereat being discontented he applies his mind to new designs The King of Navarre the Prince of Conde the House of Momorancy and the Hugonots unite themselves with him and plot a Conspiracy which being discovered the Duke de Alencon the King of Navarre and many others are imprisoned the Prince of Conde escapes into Germany The King falling into a dangerous sickness commits the troubles of the Kingdom unto his Mothers care Armies are raised in Poictou Languedoc and Normandy where the Count de Montgomery coming out of England lands and takes many places Monsieur de Matignon goes against defeats besieges and takes him he is brought to Paris condemned and executed King Charles having declared his Mother Regent yields under the burthen of his disease and departs this Life in the flower of his Age. THE Duke of Anjou's resolution to dissolve his Army for a time and draw into Garisons put the Hugonots affairs into a very hard condition for having such a multitude of men and so little means to nourish and maintain them which way soever they turned their thoughts they met with exceeding great difficulties To pass the River of Loire as many advised and to endeavour the subduing of the largest and most spacious Provinces of the Kingdom and even Paris it self the Seat and Basis of the Catholick party though it represented hopes by cutting the sinews of the contrary Faction to end the War victoriously and though visibly it administred occasion to rob and plunder the only end of the Germans and the only way to keep them together yet in effect it appeared a design full of danger and uncertainty for putting themselves without money ammunition good store of Cannon order for Victuals and which imported most without any Town or strong place whither they might upon any occasion retreat and defend themselves into the middle of an Enemies Country they saw plainly that any the least sinister incounter or light impediment that crossed their attempts was enough absolutely to ruine and destroy them nor were the hopes of gain or success such as could counterpoize this danger for the principal Towns were strongly guarded and the Kings Army being rather divided than dissolved was easily to be re-united upon any occasion and capable to drive them into great streights if rashly they engaged themselves amongst the Enemies Forces without conveniency to retire or provide against necessities which would be likely daily to grow upon them On the other side to spend their time in besieging those Towns which in Aquitaine and beyond the Loire held yet for the Catholick party and by taking them to gain the absolute Dominion of that Country whereof they already possessed the greatest part and from which they expected the chief support for their Army had two weighty oppositions the first That in besieging the strong places one by one which were so well provided of all things necessary for their defence would occasion the loss of much time and greatly waste the Army a thing well foreseen by the Catholicks and one of their chiefest aims the other That by staying there they should destroy that Country with taxes and contributions from which they had their subsistence so that they should neither be able to raise money enough to pay the Souldiers nor to get such booty as would satisfie their greediness and impatience But it being necessary of two evils to chuse as it is usual the least the Princes and the Admiral at length resolved to attempt those which were nearest so to make an absolute conquest of all that Country beyond the Loire and establish their party securely in that Canton as I may so say of France hoping to have such supplies of money out of England and by the prizes taken by the Fleet since the death of la Tour commanded by Monsier de Sore as would suffice to supply the Army for some time in which interim an occasion might perchance arise of a more fortunate and more happy progress With this deliberation having taken the rich Monastery of Branthome and to make them more ready and obedient granted the pillage thereof to the Germans in which manner they used divers other lesser places the Admiral with the Army went to Chastel-rault in which Town he had many days before held secret intelligence with some of the inhabitants nor was the enterprize at all difficult for the Conspirators having raised a tumult and made themselves masters of one of the gates let in the Hugonots which unexpected accident struck such a terrour in the Governour who held it for the King that he fled away to Poictiers without making any resistance and the Town without dispute remained absolutely in the Admirals power who received it as he did all the rest in the name of the Prince of Navarre by whose authority as first Prince of the Blood all matters were dispatched and governed Chastel-rault being taken the Admiral advanced to besiege Lusignan
cost pains nor danger but using all military force and industry to storm it yet the Citizens and Souldiers and even the very women as well as men defended it with admirable valour and constancy sustaining for a long time the force and power of a whole Kingdom and holding out against hunger and famine no less than against the assaults and batteries of the Enemy Amongst the various events of this Siege Monsieur de la Noue had opportunity to regain the Kings favour and get leave to live privately at his own house for while the Council of the Citizens treated of yielding to that force which they saw they could not much longer resist he being fallen into a contestation with some of the Ministers whose authority was infinite over the minds of the common people and who without any regard to reason exhorted them still to constancy one of them named la Place was so bold and inconsiderate that after having basely abused him and many times called him Traitor he insolently offered with his hand to strike him in the face which injury though he seemed to pass by for quietness sake and though the Minister was kept in prison many days for a mad man yet inwardly it troubled him very much and moreover foreseeing that at the arrival of the Count Montgomery who was expected with supplies from England the chief command would be taken from him and conferred upon the Count with whom by reason of an ancient emulation he had no very good correspondence he resolved within himself to leave the Town and the next day sallying out of the works as he often used to skirmish with the Enemy he went over with some few in his company to the Duke of Anjou's camp making that pass for the fulfilling of his promise to the King which upon new considerations he resolved to do either for revenge of the affront he had received or for the securing of his own safety which he saw exposed to the calumnies and practices of the Ministers But whatsoever the motive was his example was followed by a great many Gentlemen and Officers yet all that shaked not the perseverance of the Citizens nor abated the courage of the Souldiers supporting with gallant resolution the furious bloody assaults which night and day were made against them on every side and enduring with constancy of mind the great scarcity of victual and the perpetual duty which they were forced to undergo without intermission For towards the Sea were raised two Forts one at the point called de Coreille the other over against it in the place which they call Port-neuf which being mann'd with a thousand Souldiers were kept by Captain Cossein and Captain Gas each with fifteen pieces of Cannon and between them a great Carack was fastened at anchor which furnished with Culverins shot into the mouth of the Haven and hindred the entrance into it so that by continual industry it was blocked up on that side and on the other toward the Land all the Princes and Lords of the Army had divided the work among them in such manner that the Trenches and Redoubts touched one another every where not did they cease to redouble their assaults every hour and yet the resistance of those within equalled the courage and industry of those that were without The valour and constancy of the Defendants was much increased by the intelligence which they secretly received from their friends which were in the Camp for not only among the private Souldiers but also among those that commanded there were some that did not desire the destruction of Rochel nor the extirpation of the Hugonot Faction and Byron who commanded the Artillery following his former intentions did with great dexterity as many were of opinion delay the progress of the Batteries and strengthened the resolution of the besieged But for all these arts their most constant Citizens and most valiant Souldiers were already consumed the hopes of relief from England and Germany were vanished of themselves for the Protestant Princes perswaded by Gaspar Count of Schombergh who was sent to them by the King had resolved not to interpose in the commotions of France there being now no Prince of the Blood who with his authority and supplies of money might maintain the War and the Queen of England to whom the King had sent Alberto Gondi for the same cause had refused to send them either men or shipping and the Count de Montgomery being departed to relieve the besieged with a good number of ships but ill mann'd and armed though with much ado he got a ship of Ammunition to enter the Haven yet being chased by the Kings Fleet and despairing to do any more good in the business he made out to Sea laid aside all thoughts of raising the siege or relieving the City now brought to extremity and only as a Pyrate annoyed the coasts of Britagne and Normandy Their victuals were likewise quite spent and their ammunition almost all wasted and on the other side though the Duke of Anjou in a siege of so many months had lost the Duke of Aumale killed in the Trenches with a Cannon-shot an infinite number of Gentlemen and Officers and above twenty thousand Souldiers killed and dead of the sickness and the Duke of Anjou himself whilst he was viewing the works wounded though but lightly in the neck in the side and in the left hand by a Harquebuze a croc charged with tarling had more need of rest than continual action yet neither the fierceness nor frequency of the assaults were at all allayed but there arriving daily new forces at the Camp among which six thousand Swisses newly entered into pay the siege grew rather streighter and the service hotter than at first so that the City was reduced to an impossibility of holding out longer and would at last have been taken by force and utterly ruined by the King if a new far-fetcht occasion had not saved it and prevented its so imminent destruction There had been a treaty many months before of electing the Duke of Anjou to be King of Poland the hope whereof being begun in the life of Sigismund Augustus King of that Kingdom with this proposition That the Duke taking Anne the Kings Sister to Wife should by the States of those Provinces be declared Successour to the Crown after his death it was much increased for though Ernest Arch-Duke of Austria Son to the Emperour and Sigismond King of Sweden were both Competitors in the same design yet neither of them seemed comparable for valour and glory to the Duke of Anjou whose name by reason of his many victories flew through all parts of Europe with a most clear same of singular vertue and renown The King of France applyed his mind wholly to that end and much more the Queen-Mother for the infinite love she bore to that Son and therefore they neither spared money promises pains nor industry necessary to effect that business which being brought very
Power which being voluntarily given him at the first he afterwards confirmed upon himself by his own courage and renowned Victories For all these reasons the King refusing him the Title and Power of his Lieutenant-General his Mother began to entertain him with other hopes of procuring for him some free State as they had done for his Brother propounding to him a marriage with the Queen of England or the command of the States of Flanders which had shaken off their obedience to the Catholick King the Treaties concerning both which were begun more out of a design to feed him with hopes and to keep him in good correspondence united with his Brother than out of any grounded reason or belief that either of them could be effected But his hasty impatient nature gave no leisure to her politick delays for as soon as the Hugonots and Male-contents knew that he was spitefully enraged at this repulse and that his mind was ready to attempt new designs with a common consent they offered him the command of all their party telling him that he might by that means create unto himself a more free and absolute Power than that which his Brother had injuriously refused him The King of Navarre consented to this deliberation having from the beginning sought some opportunity to advance his own fortune and to free himself from that imprisonment rather than subjection which he lived in under the King and Queen his Brother and Mother-in-law besides disagreeing and displeased with his Wife he hoped by those tumults and changes to remedy all those inconveniencies and open some way to his own greatness or at least to his liberty which by nature he was very much inclined to The Prince of Conde consented to it likewise being well assured to have great Authority among the Hugonots if they by any means could rise again whereas by reason of his Fathers memory he was much depressed among the Catholicks but above all the rest this design was approved by the three Mareshals de Cosse Momorancy and d' Anville the Heads of the Male-contents knowing that they should sway and moderate the will of the Duke d' Alancon who unable to govern of himself would doubtless give them the same power the Admiral had in the minority of the Princes of Bourbon After many contrivances and consultations the web of the business was laid by them in this manner That the Duke of Alancon should suddenly and privately depart the Court and that for his more secure retreat some Troops of Hugonot Cavalry which were drawing together should secretly go to meet him That the Mareshals of Momorancy and Cosse should go along to advise and counsel him in his actions That the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde should get secretly away within two days after and follow them the same way That the Mareshal d' Anville Governour of Languedoc should go into that Province a while before and draw cunningly to himself the absolute power of those places gather as many of the Nobility as he could and endeavour the same in Guienne and the parts adjacent by means of his Nephew the Viscount de Turenne and of his Brother-in-law the Duke of Vantadour to the end that the Princes departing from the Court might have a secure place to retire unto and also Forces to defend themselves to these grave solid resolutions were joined also light youthful follies by some Servants of the Duke d' Alancon proposing by witchcrafts and inchantments to take away the Kings life who already was in great danger by reason of his sickness and he being dead and the King of Poland far off to settle the Duke d' Alancon in the Crown with these various designs the taking up of Arms was again endeavoured The Mareshal d' Anville went into Languedoc with the Kings consent under colour of visiting his Government and there began craftily to sound the minds of the Gentry and of the Governours of places but as a man of great wariness and discretion doubting his plots might be discovered he sent Chartier his Secretary unto the King and Queen-Mother shewing that he treated with the Hugonots of Nismes Montpelier and other places to reduce them to his Majesties obedience and that if men of trust might be sent to treat he hoped with honourable conditions to bring them unto an absolute subjection with which hopes the King being moved presâ—ntly dispatched Monsieur de S. Sulpice and Secretary Villeroy to treat jointly with d' Anville about the reducing of the Hugonots but he having by this artifice gotten a liberty of treating with the Hugonots without being suspected at Court when he heard the Kings Commissioners were arrived at Avignon he sent the same Chartier to let them know that matters not being yet ripe it would be best for them to stay there a while and defer their coming to him till he had setled a surer foundation for that business So holding the Commissioners in hand and in the mean time treating in every place he went by little and little opening his way to an absolute Authority in Languedoc and the same did the Viscount de Turenne and the Duke de Vantadour in other places But while the rest not managing their business so cunningly as d' Anville spread these designs abroad by discovering them to the Hugonots thorow all the Provinces of the Kingdom and that Coconas and la Mole passing yet further conspired the Kings death and the usurpation of the Kingdom the Duke of Alancon inconstant in his resolutions and of a mind very unfit for so great an enterprise imprudently gave some suspicion of it to his Mother and while by her wonted arts she sounds the depths of those secret treaties and searcheth the bottom of those designs the Hugonots impatient of delay perfected the discovery of the plot for the Duke having given them notice that he with the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde intended to leave the Court and retire into the places of their party there to declare himself Protector of the Reformed Religion and of the Male-contents of the Kingdom they not staying for a more mature advice nor a more fitting opportunity appeared unexpectedly upon Shrove-tuesday to the number of about two hundred Horse running up and down armed under the command of the Sieur de Guitry near unto St. Germains where the Court then was to secure the passage of the Princes who were secretly to leave the Court at the news whereof the Duke of Alancon and his Counsellors frighted and dismayed because their designs were not yet ripe and not thinking that small number of Hugonots sufficient to execute their deliberations were so different and unresolved in their opinions that they stirred not at all and the King and Queen now certain of what they before suspected retiring with all speed to Paris imprisoned the Duke d' Alancon the King of Navarre and all his Counsellors and dependents as also the Mareshals of Cosse and Momorancy with many others
a while before was chosen High Chancellor in the place of Michael de l' Hospital already dead had passed the Patents for these matters and registred them in the Parliament the King recommending the Peace of his Kingdom to his Council and his little Daughter the only Child which he had by the Queen his Wife and Charles his Bastard Son who was yet a Child unto the care of his Mother with grave and pious discourses having dismissed all those that were present he held his Mother still fast by the hand and ended the course of his troublesom Reign upon the Thirtieth day of May before he was full Five and Twenty years of age leaving his Kingdom after the revolution of so many Wars in no less danger and confusion than he had found it in Fourteen years before when he came a Child unto the Crown The End of the Fifth BOOK THE HISTORY OF THE Civil Wars of France By HENRICO CATERINO DAVILA. The SIXTH BOOK The ARGUMENT THe Sixth Book contains the Arts used by the Queen Regent to hold matters in suspence till the coming of the King Henry the Third out of Poland He departs secretly from that Kingdom and passing through Italy comes to Turin The Queen sends thither to inform him of the affairs of France and thither also comes the Mareshal d' Anville The King denies to resolve upon any thing till he have conferred with his Mother he restores those places to the Duke of Savoy which for security had till then been kept from him He passes at Pont Beauvoysin is met by the Duke of Alancon and the King of Navarre by him they are set at liberty He meets the Queen his Mother and they enter the City of Lyons The Kings designs and ends to which he intends to direct the course of his Government are particularly set down he desires Peace and to procure it resolves to make War coldly He treats of Marriage and resolves to take to Wife Louyse of Lorain Daughter to the Count de Vaudemont He is Crowned at Rheims and there marrieth her He labours to get his Brother elected King of Poland but he is put beside it The War continues in the mean time and Mombrun Head of the Hugonots in Daulphine is defeated taken and executed The King alters the manner of Government to lessen the Authority of the Great Ones The Duke of Alancon deprived of the hopes of Poland and not being able to obtain the Title of Lieutenant-General flees from Court and becomes Head of the Politicks and Hugonots All the other Lords of that party put themselves under him and the Prince of Conde sends him great Supplies out of Germany which passing through Champaigne are routed and dispersed by the Duke of Guise The Queen-Mother goes to confer with the Duke of Alancon and concludes a Truce in the mean time the King of Navarre leaves the Court flees into Guienne and declares himself Hugonot The Prince of Conde advanceth with the German Army and at Moulins joins with the Duke of Alancon The Queen returns and concludes a Peace but with such exorbitant Conditions that all the Catholicks are offended at it The Duke of Guise and his Brothers lay hold of the occasion declare themselves Heads of the Catholick party and make a League to oppose the Establishment of the Hugonots the grounds and progress of that League are related The King of Navarre thereupon pretending that the Catholicks began first by the means of the Prince of Conde takes up Arms. The King assembles the States General in the City of Blois to settle things in order but after several attempts and contrivances they break up without concluding any thing The King desires Peace but seeing the Hugonots inclined to War raises two Armies against them The Duke of Alancon with one of them takes la Charite Isoire and other places the Duke of Mayenne with the other takes Thone-Charente and Marans From War they come to a Treaty of Agreement Peace is concluded and the Queen-Mother goes to confer with the King of Navarre to make it the stronger The King intent upon the design of his hidden thoughts imploys his time wholly in Religious Exercises assumes all Offices to himself and disposes of them to his Favourites among whom the Dukes of Joyeuse and Espernon are especially exalted by him He Institutes a new Order of Knighthood called du S. Esprit The Queen-Mother goes from the King of Navarre and visits a great part of the Kingdom The Duke of Alancon to obtain Queen Elizabeth in Marriage goes over into England is much honoured but notwithstanding publick demonstrations nothing is determined The Hugonots renew the War the Prince of Conde takes la Fere in Picardy and the King of Navarre possesseth himself of Cahors and other places The King dispatcheth several Armies against them by which la Fere is recovered but little done in other places The Duke of Alancon being returned into France interposes and settles the Peace again He goes into Flanders to command the States that had cast off their Obedience to the Crown of Spain does little good there returns into France and dies THE death of Charles the Ninth happening just at that time when the remedies used by him to purge the humours of his Kingdom were in the height of their operation He left not only all parts of France in great disorder and confusion but also the state of the Crown in exceeding danger and uncertainty by the subversion or at least weakning of all the foundations of the Government For besides the lawful Successour so far distant in a strange Country who if he had been present might by assisting at the Helm in a time of so great peril have steered and moderated the doubtful troublesom course of the Commonwealth all the Instruments of Rule and Power were also either very much weakned or utterly perverted and even those means which usually maintain and preserve others were universally bent to the distraction and ruine of that Kingdom The Duke of Alancon and the King of Navarre nearest of the Blood Royal and by that prerogative chief of the Council of State were held as guilty of a most hainous crime and straitly guarded as prisoners The Prince of Conde though very young yet of an ancient reputation by the same of his Ancestors not only absent and fled from Court but protected by the favour of the Protestant Princes and ready by foreign Forces to bring in new Inundations The Hugonots up in Arms in every Province and manifestly intent by all means possible to surprise and possess the chiefest Cities and Fortresses Many of the greatest Lords some secretly some openly were alienated and divers of those who had most experience in affairs most authority with the people and most reputation in war were already if I may use that word Cantonized in their several Provinces and Governments the Treasury empty or rather destroyed the Gentry wearied and impoverished the Militia wasted and consumed the people
Armand Sieur de Byron his Lieutenant who no less famous for wisdom than valour had already shewed himself very favourable to the Hugonots Matters of War being settled and balanced in this manner the King began to think of Marriage for the hopes of the Family depending upon him and the Duke of Alancon both without Children it was necessary to provide for the succession of the Kingdom Before he went into Poland he was not a little taken with Louyse the Daughter of Nicolas Count of Vaudemont and Niece to the Duke of Lorain being besides the beauty of her person infinitely pleased with the modesty of her disposition and discreet behaviour but the fear of augmenting the greatness of the House of Lorain and of bringing the Cardinal into the management of affairs whose genius was wont to rule the wills and sway the affections of his Predecessors did much disswade him from that thought and recalling to mind the late occurrences under the Reigns of Francis the Second and Charles the Ninth and the great pretentions and authority of the Cardinal he could not bend his mind to suffer by that means a new increase of that Power the abatement whereof he had with so much labour and so long patience propounded to himself For which considerations turning his thoughts another way he purposed to demand Elizabeth Sister to Iohn King of Sweden a Princess for wit and beauty not inferiour to any and Secretary Pinart was presently sent to treat about the match But in the mean time while the King stayed at Avignon the Cardinal of Lorain whose power and wisdom he so much feared chancing to die of a Burning Feaver he suddenly changed his determination recalling Pinart from his treaty and being swayed by affection which in all but especially in great minds prevails above all other respects he took to Wife Louyse de Vaudemont who in the beginning of the next year was brought to Rheimes by the Duke and Dutchess of Lorain The Kings third consideration was how to settle his Brother the Duke of Alancon who being of a seditious spirit and fickle turbulent nature was not likely to be more quiet in the Reign of the present King whom he already hated and envied than he had been in the late Reign of Charles who had not given him such causes of hatred and emulation Two Propositions came into his mind for that purpose one was to procure Elizabeth Queen of England in Marriage for him but that had been often treated of and always waved by her resolution not to marry the other to resign the Crown of Poland to him but that could not be done but by the consent and election of that people the which they believing themselves injured and deprived by the King in his so secret departure from them was very hard to be obtained But not being to be discouraged by difficulty from making trial what might be done he chose two Ambassadours to treat about the business Guy Sieur de Pibrac a man of great learning and experience one of his intimate Counsellors and Roger Sieur de Bellegarde substituting in the command of the Army Alberto Gonai Count of Retz who because he was an Italian brought up and raised by King Charles and the Queen-Mother was infinitely trusted by him and made partaker of many of his most hidden secret intentions With these designs but with a shew of feasts and triumphs began the year 1575. For the King being departed from Avignon to be consecrated with the accustomed Ceremonies was come to Rheimes where the holy Oyl is kept in a Viol commonly called the Sancte Ampoule destined by ancient Veneration for the anointing of the Kings of France The Ceremonies were performed with solemn State by Lewis Cardinal of Lorain the Duke of Guises Brother and the next day after the King married the Princess Louyse all the sadness of former troubles dissolving it self into delightful thoughts dances tournaments and all manner of pomp and jollity then having visited the Church of St. Maclou where the Kings with a fast of nine days and other pennances use to receive that famous Gift of Healing the Kings Evil with nothing but a touch the King in the end of March came into the City of Paris In the beginning of April the Deputies of the Prince of Conde the Mareshal d' Anville and of the associated Provinces were come thither by his permission to treat of Peace to whom were joined the Ambassadors of the Queen of England and of the Cantons of Swisserland to exhort and perswade the King to grant those conditions to the Hugonots which they thought necessary for their security but their demands were so exorbitant though the King were of himself inclined to embrace Peace yet could he not bend his mind to hearken to them and the Catholick party with bitter murmurings spoke openly against the insolence and impertinence of their propositions wherefore after a long ambiguous Negotiation the Deputies took leave returning to relate the Kings pleasure to those that sent them and left Arenes one of their number at the Court to keep the business iâ— agitation and not utterly to cut off the treaty of Peace which was so much desired on both sides About this time though it were contrary to the Kings intent the War was not at all less active than it was before for mens minds being inflamed of themselves by the fire of each faction much blood was daily spilt in several encounters and it happened that Mombrun grown proud by the success of many Victories thinking to have his wonted fortune in a sudden disorderly charge which he gave the Forces of Monsieur de Gordes the Kings Lieutenant in Daulphine was not only repulsed but also so streightened between a River and a Hill by the multitude of the Catholicks that all his men being defeated and scattered he was first wounded and after taken prisoner so that being brought to Grenoble he was by publick decree of the Parliament condemned to death and the sentence executed without delay he not only bearing the punishment of those infinite troubles which he had brought upon that Province but also of his boldness in daring to plunder the Kings own Carriages and Servants From this battel wherein Mombrun was defeated escaped Francis de Bonne Sieur de Lesdiquiers a man of great wisdom and no less boldness and vivacity who in process of time being made Head of the Hugonot Faction in Daulphine advanced himself by his prudence and courage so far above his own private condition that in the end he came with incredible reputation to be made High-Constable of the Kingdome Nor was the state of affairs any quieter in the other Provinces for the Mareschal d' Anville having called a meeting at Nismes and another afterward at Montpellier had declared himself Head of the Politicks and joining in confederacy with the Hugonots had openly attempted those places which held of the Kings party In the
side desiring that the King of Navarre should be repressed but not utterly suppressed because he would not cast the Scale so much on that side and make the Faction of the Guises Superior which had no other counterpoise so proper as his party he sent Armand Mareschal de Byron to the end that by his old inclinations he might proceed very warily in opposing it And being necessitated to employ some one of the Lorain Princes by reason of the power of the House of Guise to which it was requisite to bear a convenient respect and because he would not utterly alienate those of the Catholick League he made choice of Charles Duke of Mayenne for Dauphine as well because he esteemed him to be of a more setled nature then his Brother as out of a belief the business of those parts was very easie and of but small consequence Nor did the effect differ from the Kings expectation for Monsieur d' Matignon having besieged la Fere from whence the Prince of Conde was already departed and gone into England he within a small time recovered it though not without some blood The Duke of Mayenne having taken la Mure and put the Hugonots of that Province in a very great terror did not onely reduce the Gentry and Commons to obedience but also the Sieur des Diguieres himself And the Mareschal de Byron having about Nerac defeated some Companies of Gens d' armes and taken many weak places in Guienne at last his horse falling under him and his thigh being hurt in two places he drew his Army into Quarters without any further progress So that the King of Navarre not being able to keep the Field nor undertake any design by reason of the opposition of the King's Army yet shewing much more courage than strength maintained himself still in Armes with actions of small importance In this interim the Duke of Alancon being returned out of England full of hopes by the Queens promises but without any certainty of the future Match and preparing for the journey of Flanders interposed between the King his Brother and the King of Navarre his Brother-in-law to settle businesses in the former Concord fearing that if the War should break forth in good earnest in France he should not then be able to draw those helps from thence which he expected for the accomplishment of his design wherefore being gone personally to Libourne and la Freche Towns in the County of Foix whither also came the King of Navarre and on the Kings part the Duke of Montpensier the Mareschal de Cosse and Pompone Sieur de Bellieure he wrought so far that he brought the business to a good conclusion for the King by nature was inclined to it and the King of Navarre besides the smallness of his Forces and the ill success of his late enterprises had no hopes at all of any assistance from abroad the Prince of Conde who went into England and thence into the Low-Countries and after into Germany found all their mindes intent upon the business of Flanders weary of the instability of the French Hugonots and unsatisfied at the taking up of Arms without any lawful occasion whilst the King living in peace observed punctually the Conditions of the Agreement wherefore having no hope of aid and not daring to set up his rest within the Kingdom the former Articles were willingly accepted by him and the Edict of the late Peace confirmed as also the Conference held at Nerac with the Queen and in this manner Armes were laid down again and all things were composed in a peaceful way The Civil broils being quieted two different enterprises kept all France in action That of the Duke of Alancon who with the tacite permission of his Brother prepared himself to go into the Low-Countries against the Catholick Kings Forces under the Command of Alessandro Fernese Prince of Parma And that of the Queen-mother by occasion of the Kingdom of Portugal For the King Sebastian being dead in the War of Affrica and after him King Henry Cardinal without sons among many others who pretended to that Crown the Queen-mother as heir of the House of Bologne and descended in a right line from Robert the son of Alfonso the third and the Countess Matilda his first and lawful Wife pretended also to that succession alleadging that all the Kings who had reigned since Alfonso being descended from Beatrice which could not be the lawful Wife but the Concubine of Alfonso Matilda being yet alive were illegitimate and because by reason of her being so far distant and many other respects she thought her self not so powerful in Forces as some of the other Competitors she pretended that the business was to be decided by the way of Justice without coming to force of Arms. But the King of Spain out of a confidence of his power and nearness having in the mean time usurped that Kingdom with an Army and causing himself by the Governors thereof to be proclaimed the lawful Successor the Queen joyning Counsels with Anthonio Prior of Crato who pretended to the same Kingdom but had been put beside it by the Spaniards set forth a mighty Navy under the command of Filippo Strozzi against King Pâ—ilip to relieve the Tercera's Islands in the Ocean Sea belonging to that Kingdom which were yet held by Anthonio and to make new acquisitions if they could land upon the Coasts near the City of Lisbon The death of Strozzi the dispersing of that Navy and other things that happened in that business I leave to those Authors that shall write the History of Portugal it not being necessary to enlarge this Narration and make it more prolix by the addition of forraign matters that little or nothing concern the knowledge of the French affairs The same silence and for the same reason I observe in the business of Flanders whither the Duke of Alancon having with the Kings tacite consent levied a very great Army went the following year being 1581 to relieve the City of Cambray and after he had succoured it and reduced it into his power passed on with greater Force into the Low-Countries to receive the Title and Possession of those States which having withdrawn themselves from obedience to the Catholick King had put themselves under him with certain limited conditions Nor did the King of Spain and the Pope fail by means of their Ambassadors to complain of the King of France as well for what concerned the Duke of Alancon as because Antonio of Portugal was received into France and by the Queen-mothers attempts abetted in his pretensions to that Kingdom But he answered the Ambassadors and by means of his Agents at Rome and in Spain excused himself to both That Antonio had been received by his Mother and assisted as her Vassal she her self pretending to the Crown of Portugal That the Fleet which had been set forth was made ready at her own charges without his knowledge or consent and though it should be
the King should prohibit any other Religion in his Kingdom except the Roman Catholick That he should banish all the Heretick Preachers out of his Confines That he should ordain that Hugonots should be punished with confiscation of their Estates during life That he should with all speed denounce a War against them wherein such men should be made Commanders as the League could confide in That he should abolish those Courts instituted in the Parliaments and established in favour of the Hugonots and should not permit that any should be capable of any Place or publick Office till he had first made profession of his Faith conformable to the Roman Religion That the Duke of Guise Mayenne Aumale Mercure and Elbeuf besides their ordinary Government should keep the Cities of Chalons Thoul Verdun St. Desire Reims Soissons Dijon Beaume Rue in Picardy Dinan and Coneg in Bretagne That a certain number of Harquebuzers on horseback should be paid to be Guards for the Cardinals of Bourbon and Guise and for the Dukes of Guise Mercure Mayenne Aumale and Elbeuf That the Duke of Guise should have a hundred thousand Crowns paid unto him to build a Cittadel in Verdun and that two Regiments of Infantry should be paid which belonged to the League under the commands of Sacramoro Birago and St. Paul That two hundred thousand Crowns should be disbursed to pay the German Forces raised by the League with which they should presently be sent away and that they should be forgiven and remitted one hundred and ten thousand Ducats which they had taken of the Kings Revenue and spent for the advancement of the Union By which Capitulations it appeared plainly to those that had any knowledge of the affairs that passed that not compassion of the people to ease them of their Grievances had contracted the League but the care the Great Ones had of their own security and their desire to see the party of their Enemies suppressed and extinguished though the respect and colour of Religion was always strictly joined with them for that number of Cities and strong places obtained for the security of the Guises shewed plainly they had discovered the Kings secret intentions and seeing that the Hugonots had their places of security which hindred their destruction they thought to obtain the like for their Party to the end that it might be no less difficult to abase and suppress them than it proved to be to bring the King of Navarre and the rest of his party into subjection and the War which they made to be resolved on against the Hugonots though it were chiefly procured to root out the Divisions in Religion did nevertheless contain also at the same time the ruine of the Princes of Bourbon and of their friends and adherents The Agreement being concluded and established the Duke of Guise with the Cardinal his Brother and with the Cardinal of Bourbon went to the King to S. More near Paris and the Conditions being confirmed the Duke of Guise after many demonstrations of confidence returned to his Governments Whilst the Peace was negotiating between the King and the League the King of Navarre was brought into a great perplexity foreseeing the certainty of that Accommodation and that all the Forces of the Catholicks would be united together against him to suppress and destroy his Party He had from the first by means of the Sieurs de Clervant and Chassincourt his Agents at the Court proffered his Forces to assist the King exhorting him to join himself sincerely with him and to try the fidelity and readiness of the Hugonots and in the end had protested that he could not stand lingring on that manner to expect that thunderbolt of ruine which he foresaw was provided against him But the King by Letters under his own hand and by many very effectual perswasions used to his Agents had exhorted him to continue quiet and not to make a greater disturbance assuring him that he would never consent to any thing that should violate that Peace or that could cause his ruine and indeed such was the Kings intention at the first but after necessity had brought him to seek for Peace with the Confederates the King of Navarre who was no unskilful Judge of businesses easily perceived that all that storm would fall upon his Person and upon his Party wherefore desiring to make his cause plausible and his reasons known for the furthering hiâ— other designs he published a Declaration at Bergerac upon the tenth of Iune wherein bitterly complaining that he was called a relapsed Heretick a Persecutor of the Church a Disturber of the State and a Capital Enemy of the Catholicks to exclude him by those names from the succession of the Kingdom he shewed he was constrained to satisfie the world and particularly the Princes of Christendom but above all the King his Soveraign and the people of France that these were calumnies thrown upon him by his Enemies who out of an ambition to exalt themselves had under pretence of taking Arms against him and the rest of the Reformed Religion prosecuted the way of bringing the State to miserable confusion having in effect taken Arms against the King himself and against the Crown and contrary to the order of nature and the Laws of the Kingdom of France declared one to be first Prince of the Blood and Successor to the Crown arrogating that authority to themselves which belonged to the States General of the Kingdom That he could be no ways accounted a Relapser having never changed his opinion for although out of a just fear which may fall into the brest of the stoutest man and being forced by manifest violence he had sent an Ambassador to the Pope yet as soon as ever he recovered his liberty he had also declared that he had not changed his Religion neither could he be called an Heretick holding by the example of many others opinions not yet decided and having ever offered as he did likewise at the present to submit himself to the instructions of learned men and to the determination of a Council lawfully assembled that he was falsely slandered to have perscuted the Catholicks having always cherished many of them not only keeping them near his own Person but making use of them in the principal Offices of his Estate and Family and that he had left the Clergy-men in his own State and in every other place where he commanded in the peaceable enjoyment of their Revenues and exercise of the Roman Religion That if at several times he had taken Arms he had done it without intention to disturb the State and always in a defensive way which Nature teacheth every body to do having seen how inhumanely they were handled who had imbraced the Reformed Religion That to oppose the persecutions which were continually made ready against him and not to treat a League against the King he had sent into England Denmark and Germany with no other aim but to draw from thence some
and oppressions of War by so much the sooner would they extort an universal consent to the necessity of Peace and make the authors of those discords odious and detestable rendring disfavoured unto all the formerly so much favoured endeavours of the League wherein his inclination agreeing with the splendour and subtilty of his design it was impossible by any reasons in the World to alter that determination But whilst the King is infinite busie and the Courtiers most ardently studious in ordering these affairs a most powerful Army was preparing in Germany for the relief of the Hugonots for the King of Navarre having long foreseen that the King would easily be brought to an agreement with the League to his disadvantage and having learned by former experience that all the hopes of his party consisting in the aid of the Germans which the union of the Protestant Princes was wont to afford unto the Hugonots had sent the Sieur de Pardaillan thither a wise man and by long travel versed in their several customs who treating confidently and particularly with every Prince and every Hans-town might shew them the danger of their common Religion aggravate the hatred of the Guises to the Protestant party and exhort them to continue the assistance formerly lent unto the Hugonots against the persecutions of their Enemies which business being excellently managed by Pardaillan had not only stirred up the minds of those Princes in favour of the Hugonots but had also much raised the hopes of the King of Navarre so that having turned his thoughts that way at the beginning of the War he had dispatched the Sieur de Clervant into Germany to ripen the fruits of that seed which had before been opportunely sown by Pardaillon And because both the Princes and people of those parts very great honourers of that Religion which they hold to be the true one and also of an easie mind and flexible nature to the urgency of entreaties and efficacy of reasons might more easily be moved to consent unto it Theodore Beza a most eloquent Preacher of the Hugonots went to the same effect from Geneva into Germany and Swisserland who by his authority and discourses stirred up every one of the chief men to imbrace the enterprise in favour of those who were of the same or at least a very little different Religion The Queen of England endeavoured the same not onely by countenancing it and by words but also by her actions for keeping in prison Mary Queen of Scotland Cousin to the Guises who was obstinately linked to their faction she desired that the League and the House of Loraine should be utterly suppressed or at least so busied in France that she might have free power to dispose of her life and of the affairs of Scotland and England Wherefore she not onely assisted the King of Navarre with her authority which was very great in Germany but had also deposited a good sum of Money to be laid out in raising of Soldiers there To the Negotiation of Clevant to the exhortation of Beza and to the money of England the Duke of Bouillon added also his assistance who holding Sedan a very strong place and other Towns and Castles about the Confines of France and Germany that were of the Hugonots Religion and in their Counsels united to the King of Navarre was a fit instrument for the expedition and Levyes of the German Soldiers for the Palatine of the Rhine the Duke of Wittenbergh and the Protestant Cantons of the Swisses consenting and the King of Denmark concurring but above all the Count de Mombelliard a Lord bordering upon Bourgongne labouring in the business there began to be raised the most powerful Army that ever had come out of that Country to relieve the Hugonots But because the Princes knew they had no occasion at all to offend the King of France and to enter in a hostile manner into his Country they resolved before the Army which was preparing against the next spring to send this year for a colour a numerous Embassy to complain in the Names of them all of the breach of that Peace and violation of that Faith which had been given unto the Hugonots with whom they were interessed and united in Religion and to demand of the King a cessation of Armes and a confirmation of those Edicts so often granted to his Subjects for the Liberty of Conscience foreseeing well that if the King consented to their demands the Hugonots would be relieved without further noise of Armes and if he should persist and deny them they might thereby make a fair pretence for the War and take an occasion not altogether unreasonable to raise those Forces they intended This determination of the Germans did very much disquiet the King of France being not onely displeased that others should presume to meddle with the affairs of his Kingdom but also terrified with the fear of forrain forces who with perillous commotions used to destroy Provinces ruine the People disturb all things both Divine and Humane and to put the state of the Crown into extreme danger But as a Prince accustomed to govern himself by the subtilty of his wit to whom though oftentimes very unsuccessfully probable appearances of cunning inventions did alwayes represent themselves he began to think with himself that from that evil he might draw another good and might use the coming of the Germans for the speedy execution of his designs for seeing the King of Navarre reduced to such a weakness that though he made fearless resistance he was yet brought to the last extremity of his fortune and being himself every day more out of hope to have issue since by a continued incurable Gonorrhea and by infinite other proofs he knew himself unable to get children he thought it best to unite himself by all means streightly and sincerely with the King of Navarre as the lawful Successor of the Crown to draw him to the Court near unto his own Person to make him partaker in matter of Government and by his means to make use of that forreign Army for the utter suppression of the Guises and the factions of the League which being unexpectedly overwhelmed between his Forces and the approaching storme of the German Soldiers could not possibly be able to make resistance but would presently be quite extinguished and dissipated Two things amongst the rest were principal hinderances of this intention one the King of Navarr's Religion being resolved for the satisfaction of his own Conscience and to avoid the scandal that would arrive from thence not to reconcile himself unto him unless he would first return into the bosome of the Church the other was that of his Sister Queen Margaret Wife to the King of Navarre who having given her self over to a licentious life for fear of her Husbands anger was fled from him but being taken by his order and the Commission of the King her Brother she was put as a prisoner into the Castle of
manner of proceeding with him was kindled with so great indignation that contrary to his wonted câ—stom and first design he answered the Ambassadors of himself with so much sharpness and resentment that instantly they were wonderfully dashed and the next day after without other audience with small honor and as little satisfaction they were dismissed The discourse of the Ambassadors in substance contained a long complaint That the King to satisfie the unjust desire and perverse ambition of the Pope and of certain Princes and Communalties of his Kingdom had broken his word with those of the Reformed Religion and taken away that Liberty of Conscience which he had formerly granted and established by so many Decrees That therefore the Princes of Germany who were interessed and united in the same Religion intreated him to put an end to the War and disturbance of Armes granting both Temporal and Spiritual peace to all his Subjects whereby he might escape the just wrath of God due to such as break their word and might also give them occasion to preserve their ancient friendship with the Crown notwithstanding which they were streightly obliged to provide for the safety of those who without fault of theirs being in distress did implore the aid of those Princes that agreed with them in the confession of the same Faith On the other side the King's Answer contained That having been called and chosen by God to the just profession of his Crown he had also authority not depending upon any body to establish Laws publish Decrees grant Licenses and make fitting Provisions according to the qualities of times and the need of his Subjects and therefore might also revoke change alter and retract them at his pleasure as he was best directed by his Divine Majesty wherefore he did give the lie to whosoever went about to tax him to be a breaker of his word if for the interest of his Subjects and good of his Kingdom he had revoked a liberty granted conditionally and but for a time and that as he had formerly done so he would raign freely for the future marvelling that any should presume to interpose and meddle in the Government of his People and in the Authority of his Person That this was his last resolution neither was it needful for them to stay any longer to hear any other particulars from him The Ambassadors urging to have that Answer given them in writing he angerly refused to do it and giving order that they should be conducted to lodge at Poissy went the next day after being the ninth of September to the City of Paris There notwithstanding the resolute answer given to the Protestant Princes already divulged every where and the progress of the War against the Hugonots already kindled in so many places the mindes of the common people were more then ever enflamed against his person and proceedings which were publickly inveighed against in Pulpits and particularly slandered in private meetings for it being already spread abroad by the Preachers and Heads of the League and rooted in the minds of the Parisians that the King favoured the King of Navarre and the Hugonot party and sought by under-hand means at the sute of his Minions to bring him to the succession of the Crown and to establish them in the free profession of their Faith the hatred conceived upon this occasion was afterwards increased by the frequency of Taxes and Impositions and the continued exalting of the Duke d' Espernon and the other Favourites who not only were highly suspected but extremely hated by the greatest part of the Citizens Wherefore besides the suggestions of the Duke of Guise who kept the Sieur de Meneville perpetually in the City for that purpose the chief of the people being in favour of the League kindled of themselves to conspire both against the Actions and Person of the King had framed a Counsel of such as were most interessed consisting of sixteen persons because the chief Wards or as they call them the Quarters of the City were so many which was to rule and moderate the progress of that business and the mindes of the common people La Chapelle Martel Iehan le Clerc Sieur de Bussy President Nully and Charles Hotman were from the beginning as Heads and Presidents of this Councel and all Trades were brought into it by means of certain men chosen by them one of each profession who being admitted to this Councel made their relations and received their orders concerning whatsoever was resolved by the Sixteen as well for the defence of the City as the service of the League and to oppose themselves against the designs of the King and his Favourites The meetings of this Councel was at first in the Colledge of Fortet commonly called the Cradle of the League afterward they assembled themselves in the Covent of the Dominicans or Jacobines and at last for fear of being suspected and discovered they met not any more together in any certain determinate place but sometimes in one private house sometimes in another with wonderful secrecy But nevertheless all these things were known unto the King by the relation of Nicholas Poulain who as we have said before moved either by hope of reward or by the sting of conscience made the King acquainted with every particular by means of Monsieur d' O and the High-Chancellor for as a chief instrument in the Union of the Parisians he knew the most hidden counsels that were plotted in that Congregation But they of the League not yet finding that their practises were discovered and being fomented and swelled with promises by the Duke of Guise and Don Bernardino Mendozza the Spanish Lieger at Paris their boldness passed so far that besides having possessed the whole scope of the City listed secretly those men that were fit to bear Armes and made great provisions to arm them they had also begun to communicate with other principal Cities of the Kingdom to raise and unite them in the same Conspiracy which being by inveterate use and custome grown to an unbounded liberty they began already to think not onely of seising upon strong Towns and Fortresses but went so far as to dare conspire against the Kings own Person that they might be able afterwards to order the affairs of the Kingdom at their pleasure and as the League should think fit It happened that this counsel of the League being held one day in the Jesuites Colledge a Proposition was made by the Confederates in the name of the Spanish Ambassador to surprise the Town of Boulogne a Fortress in Picardy seated upon the Shore of the Ocean Sea then under the Government of the Duke of Espennon and in his name kept by the Sieur de Bernay with the Authority of Governor The Proposers alledged that the Catholick King being about to set forth a mighty Fleet to go for England was content that using his Forces in favour of that League they should land in France
with reason that their common Enemies being the same and the same interests pleading for them both he would labour with that candour and that efficacy which the exigency of the matter required To these reasons the Queen answered That as his Conversion was easie so neither could it want just pretences for if the King should make a League with him while he was disobedient to the Catholick Church and openly excommunicated besides the infamy which his name would incur by mingling in a conjunction not only abhorred and never so much as in thought consented to by any other of the most Christian Kings but also immediately contrary to the Vow and Oath taken solemnly at his Consecration he should moreover give colour to the complaints and justifie the practices of the League and which was of very great consideration he should stir up all other Catholick Princes of the World against him That upon their agreement would presently ensue the revolt of the City of Paris already in an uproar with but seeing that they treated with him and the rebellion of many other chief Cities as also the alienation of all the Catholick Nobility and the greater part of the Kingdom that this was the way to facilitate the King of Spain's assistance of the League who would presently be forced to turn those preparations into France which were made against England That at the first news of it the Pope of an angry hasty nature would run precipitately to Excommunications and Interdictions would presently dispatch great Supplies in favour of the League and stir up all the Italian Princes to unite themselves with him for the defence of Religion That the Duke of Lorain would not consent the marriage of his Daughter should be consummate whilst he was an alien from the Church nor would the States endure he should be declared the lawful Successor of the Crown whilst he held the Faith of the Hugonots In conclusion that his perseverance was accompanied with all manner of difficulties and impediments but his conversion did wonderfully facilitate and lay open the way to all his hopes neither doubtful not uncertain but well grounded and secure The King of Navarre excused himself sometimes with the indecency of changing sometimes with his Conscience sometimes discovering his fear of being brought into the net again but in his excuses the perplexity of his mind and the force of the Queens reasons appeared whereupon new time was taken and another Conference appointed within two or three days wherein to facilitate the business the Duke of Nevers was admitted on the Queens side and the Viscount de Turenne on the King of of Navarre's but they contrary to expectation did rather increase the difficulties than open the way to any resolution for the Duke of Nevers desiring to shew his Eloquence and Learning as he was wont to do wrought greater doubts in the mind of the King of Navarre to whom the Italian arts were suspected and the Viscount a man no less wise and cunning than stout and valiant though he shewed a great inclination to favour the Queens reasons yet the common opinion was that for fear of being abandoned with the Duke of Momorancy so they called the Mareschal d' Anville after the death of his Brother and of losing those great hopes which he had of power and command in the Hugonot party neither desired Peace nor the King of Navarre's Conversion and that therefore he secretly disswaded him from it wherefore neither in this third Conference could they conclude any thing but at the very time the King of Navarre had warning given him to take heed of the artifices of the King and Queen who at the same instant while they treated with him did assure the Popes Nuncio the Duke of Guise and the people of Paris that whatsoever was done was in favour of the League and that the end would justifie that this Treaty included such a design as would at last break forth for the good of Religion whereby his jealousie increasing not thinking it safe to trust either the Kings inconstancy or the Queens too much cunning he resolved in the end to follow the fortune of the Hugonots and not to trust the Court neither would he come to the Conference any more himself in person but continued to send the Viscount of Turenne who treating very dexterously with the Queen would never come to any conclusion at all With these Negotiations began the year 1587 upon the first day whereof the King celebrating the Ceremonies of the Knights of the St. Esprit in Paris swore solemnly not to suffer any other Religion than the Roman Catholick This Oath of his as it was sudden and inconsiderate so both then and many times after it was blamed as absurd and contrary to his own designs for to treat of an Agreement with the King of Navarre and vow the extirpation of the Hugonots did immediately contradict one another But neither they that spake of it then nor they that looking upon things afar off reprehended it did so afterwards when they knew either the Kings intention or the contents of what was secretly treated with the King of Navarre for Monsieur de Rambouillet being come post from Pâ—ictou and arrived already at Court upon the 27 of December with Letters from the Queen and with a Relation of all that had passed with the King of Navarre whereby the King was certified that it was impossible to conclude any thing he standing averse from changing his Religion and proposing an Agreement without speaking any thing about matters of Faith the King to take away that hope from the King of Navarre and to make him consent to be converted or if he would not change his mind being resolved or rather necessitated to join with the League to oppose the German Army made this Protestation very opportunely whereby he at once beat down all the complaints and calumnies of the Heads of the League and appeased in great part at least for a time the minds of the Parisians who as the commotions of the people are wont varied their thoughts and inclinations with the breath of every the slightest accident whereupon he was afterward able to stir to gather an Army and turn against the foreign Forces without being molested by the Parisians though the wonted Incendiaries did not fail to strive to raise them more than once The Kings inclination was clearly seen in this That when the course of affairs did necessarily force him to treat of any thing in favour of the Hugonots he consented to it very slowly ambiguously and after long consideration But if the business were to favour or unite himself to the Catholick party he concurred in that with so much readiness and resolution that his motion to the benefit to the benefit of the Catholick Faith plainly appeared to be natural but the other produced by necessity and violently constrained And as for the King of Navarre the news of the Kings Proteâ—â—ation being
speedily come unto his ear and he complaining that the proceedings were contrary to what was treated with him the Duke of Nevers answered him opportunely That if he called to mind all the late Treaties he should not find that ever the King had offered to tolerate or embrace the Hugonot Religion but that indeed he had tried all possible means to make him forsake it and turn to the Catholick in which the King was so fully resolved to live and die that no accident how averse soever it might be could ever be able to draw him from it However it were this is certain that the Queen having by Monsieur de Rambouillet given the King account of the King of Navarre's last resolution received Commission at his return to change her discourse in that Treaty and in stead of the propounded League between them to tâ—y if she could procure a Truce for some few months to gain time to make preparations against the Army of the Germans But neither did this take effect for though the Viscount of Turenne came often to the Queen and that the Duke of Nevers and the Mareschal de Byron went often to the King of Navarre yet they concluded nothing but a suspension of Arms for so few days that the King did not care to ratifie it and the King of Navarre not willing to retard the coming of the Germans broke off the Treaty and went away to Rochel as also the Queen with the same speed beyond her age or the season of the year returned to Paris where all the late Treaties being repeated and discussed chiefly by the counsel of Monsieur de Villeroy it was concluded necessary for the King to unite himself to the Heads of the League betimes and with their Forces together to oppose the German Army so that the King of Navarre might not by any means possible be able to join with them since they saw his mind could not be brought by any composition to an agreement with the King and that the firmness of his resolution could not be broken by any largeness of conditions wherefore nothing remained but to follow the old way trodden by so many other Kings till some other occasion should make an overture of new resolutions and to resist the violence of the Hugonot Army that the Kingdom might not be left a prey to the fury of strangers that the Royal Majesty might not utterly be abased and made contemptible and that he might not be ruined while he was unarmed and an Enemy to or at least distrustful of both the Factions Monsieur de Villeroy argued that â—ase and want of Arms had taken away the splendour and reputation from the Kings person That the Taxes and Impositions excessively increased had rendered it odious and that therefore taking Arms again himself with a mighty Army shewing his wonted valour and greatness of courage and putting an end to the calamities of War by an absolute Victory he might recover his former Majesty make the shadows of so many contrived powers of his Subjects vanish with the Sun-shine of his greatness and strike fear and terrour into those who thought to force him to consent to their own wills He shewed that this was the true way to dissipate and frustrate the strength of the League for that when he should once command his own Armies the Nobility and Souldiery would much more willingly follow his Standard than the Ensigns of the Lords of Guise and that every one would rather draw water from the fountain if they might than from the brook He also alledged that by his Declaration in favour of the Catholicks which his actions would shew to be sincere he might assure himself of the Popish and Spanish Forces since neither of them would ever dare to stir against him when the pretence of Religion was taken away and that it was already known how the Pope forced by the truth and evidence of reason had answered Cardinal Pelle-ve urging him for assistance in favour of the League that he knew not how to take Arms against a lawful Catholick and religious King unless first they could make it plainly appear that he favoured the establishment of the Hugonots and the King of Spain not having the courage to declare himself openly had gathered his Forces together under pretence of making War with England waiting for an opportunity to turn against him but not otherwise than the cloak of Religion might give him occasion Moreover he affirmed that all other counsels were but politick subtilties and inventions new ways difficult knots impossible Chimaera's and deceitful shadows That this only was the great high-way and beaten road that led to victory and repose after which lightning the weight of their loads and burdens he might give breath and quiet to the common people and get the love and affection of all his Subjects In sum he concluded with his wonted Maxim That the King could no way more easily destroy the League than by carrying himself plainly and sincerely as the other Kings his glorious Predecessors had done for by taking away the foundation of pretences and complaints the fabrick of all those plotted designs would fall to ruine of it self These reasons or rather evident necessity made the King resolve to unite himself with the League and to oppose the Army of the Germans and therefore he presently dispatched Myron the Physician to the Duke of Guise to let him know that he had endeavoured by the Queen his Mothers late Interview to draw the business out in length and to procure a suspension of Arms with the King of Navarre thereby to divert the entry of the Germans and make them fall asunder by delays as he had prosperously done so many other times without indangering the whole sum of affairs but having found the King of Navarre's propositions were very hard and the time of the coming of the Germans still drawing on he was resolved to oppose them by force That he would dispatch the Sieur de Sancy to the Cantons of the Swisses to make strong Levies That he was preparing an Army commanded by the Duke of Ioyeuse to be sent against the King of Navarre to the end that being kept in play he might not be able to pass the Loyre and come to join with the Germans That he would make another ready to march where need should require but that the Germans being first to come into Lorain and then into Champagne and Bourgongne Provinces governed by him and the Duke of Mayenne his Brother it was also necessary that they should take Arms and calling in all their friends and dependents should make up a Body of an Army able to wait upon and distress that of the Hugonots in their entry Myron the Physician found the Duke of Guise at Moucon near Sedan where with the Forces he had by slight inconsiderable enterprises he endeavoured to streighten that place expecting that Perseval and the others that went out of Rocroy being corrupted by money and his
Mareschal d' Aumonâ— and the Duke of Longueville having assembled the Kings adherents went the same way and were not far from meeting one another all the Deputies being also in arms some for one side some for the other and so great was the terrour and the assurance that there was a bloody conflict in the Castle that many who fled away for fear carried the news abroad and the report came to Paris that all the Court were cutting one another in pieces among themselves the event not being yet known The King having put on his arms went out of his private lodgings doubtful that the Duke Guise endeavoured by that means to prevent him and all his followers that had wherewithal did the same and so being armed they expected with more assurance to turn their assistance whither most need required On the other side the Duke of Guise who sate talking with the Queen-Mother neither moved his place nor countenance but thinking it to be what indeed it was said so often to the Queen and perceiving that some of his Gentlemen seeing the advantage of their party expected some token from him to proceed further he kept his look still firm upon the ground turning toward the fire and gave no sign at all of his intentions either not assenting to the business or desiring they should go on but without his fault or order In the mean time the Sieur de Grillon having commanded the Souldiers of the Guard to stand to their arms made the quarrel be parted the fire being easily extinguished because there was no fuel added to it by the Heads of the two parties and so in the space of little more than an hour the whole uproar was appeased and setled in the former quietness an accident that had a terrible beginning and a ridiculous end but shewed evident marks of the most ardent hatred kindled morâ— than ever between the Factions But things were now brought to their full maturity for the Duke of Guise having sufficiently tryed the Deputies both in general and particular and being grown more secure and bold by these late tryals began to get the business introduced of his being made Lieutenant-General at the request and with the authority of the States which was the last aim of his present hopes and the King losing his power and reputation every day more and more and seeing that billow which he had so often avoided now coming to break upon him his long patience was at length turned into fury so that the course of so many contrivances could no longer be withheld from breaking forth to their appointed end The King had from the beginning intended to put the Duke of Guise to death with all his chief adherents and dependents being thereunto incited by the sense of past injuries and the apprehension of future dangers he was only withheld by the respect he bore to the Catholick Religion and his fear lest the Pope who besides his being of a fierce resolute nature he saw was infinitely inclined to favour the League should make use of Spiritual weapons against him and stir up all the Princes of Christendom to do him mischief whom by reason of the divisions of his Kingdom they knew to be in a weak and dangerous condition But because he was assured that the Catholick King and the Duke of Savoy would most certainly be against him and that the Queen of England the Swisses and Protestants of Germany would be for him and that the other Princes were so far off that they could do him but little harm he turned his mind wholly towards the Princes of Italy among which the Pope was chief by reason of the authority of the Apostolick See and of the Spiritual Arms that were in his power and then the Venetian Senate as well for the eminent opinion of their wisdom as for the supplies of money which he might hope for from them in time of need and finally the Grand Duke of Thuscany from whom he remembred King Charles the Ninth had in the heat of War received considerable assistance both of men and money To win the Pope and make him his Friend besides a most propense inclination which he had shewed to cause the Council of Trent to be received by the States and the great respect which upon all occasions he had shown to the Ecclesiastical Order he had also sent Iehan Marquiss of Pisani his Ambassador to Rome a man â—f long experience and of a dexterous mature wit who his Wife being a Roman of the Family of Savella was wonderfully versed in that Court and acceptable to the Pope himself and to the whole Consistory of Cardinals by whose means he laboured not only to keep Sixtus favourable unto him by all the demonstrations of duty and confidence but also to dive into the affections of his Nephews and Favourites by all those ways which his sagacity could invent And because he conjectured that the relations of the Cardinal Legat as one who was upon the place and was both by the Pope and the whole world esteemed a man of singular wisdom would have great power which way soever they should incline he used all his endeavours to make him his Friend and Confident which was not very hard to do as well because the Cardinal being a Venetian by birth was naturally inclined to the good and greatness of the Crown and because his particular genius abhorred the new turbulent Counsels of the League Wherefore the King trusting him with many secrets and seeming to depend much upon his advice and authority he had by his means not only obtained absolution for the Prince of Conty and Count of Soissons to the prejudice of the League but also having made him acquainted with many hidden things which were managed under the name of Religion had perswaded him to withdraw his hand from favouring the Duke of Guise for the prudence of the Cardinal being there present had sounded to the bottom of those things which always came to Rome covered with the specious title of Religion whereupon by his relations opportunely introduced the Popes mind was brought into so much doubt and suspence that he often told the Spanish Ambassadors and the Agents of the League he could not see clearly into the affairs of France It was more easie to gain the Venetian Senate for besides the many acts of friendship shewed by that Republick to Charles the Ninth in the greatest exigencies of his Kingdom and besides the real welcoms wherewith the present King had been received in the City of Venice which had produced a reciprocal and confident friendship between them the proceedings also of the Senate were very much averse from the Disturbers of quietness and from Conspirers of new designs and their own interests made them to desire the peace and union of the Kingdom of France under the obedience of the natural King to the end that being united in strength it might counterpoise the excessive greatness of other Christian Potentates
upon the mindes of such as were discontented and that th e Duke of Mayenne would give to all very large conditions But if the King was tormented with these doubts and involved in these cares the mindes of particular men were no less troubled and perplexed for the Hugonots doubted that the King would make more account of attaining to the Crown than of persevering in their Religion and therefore feared he would easily reconcile himself to the Church and the Catholicks seeing him environed by du Plessis Mornay des Amours a Minister and the Sieur de la Noue and many others who were firm Calvinists and calling to mind past experiences believed he would not forsake that Religion and those men with whom he had lived long and sustained the difficulties of his adverse fortune and many of each Religion were drawn and byassed by diverse several interests The affairs of the Army being so uncertain and distracted the Catholicks who were the greater part gathered themselves together the night before the third of August to consult what resolution they should take Here their opinions were different for many thought best to follow and uphold the Crown by all means in the King of Navarre that they might not wrong the justness of his Cause and violate the Salique Laws but conserve the Kingdom in the lawful Succession They said that by doing otherwise it was necessary either to divide the Kingdom among so many Petty-Kings as there were armed Princes and Pretenders or else submit themselves to the rule and arbitrement of strangers That this was the true way to foment discord and make the Civil Wars perpetual to the destruction of the publick and of every particular man and to expose their common Country to new dangers fatal accidents and most cruel slaughters That the hand of God was plainly seen which favouring the justice of his Cause had in an opportune conjuncture armed him with Forces reconciled him with his good Subjects and put him miraculously in a condition to be able to attain to and defend his Crown That it was a pious thing to follow the Motives and Disposals of Heaven and to leave the care of future matters to Divine Providence That by the Laws of God Princes were to be born withal and not to be despoiled of their Rights and Inheritance for any particular defect That the King of Navarre was an ingenuous Prince full of clemency modesty and sincerity That in him there was no cause to fear a violent or tyrannical power but to hope for a good and lawful Government and liberty of Life and Conscience which he till then had granted to every one That finally it was a thing unworthy of the French Name and Nobility to adhere to Rebels who had impiously imbrued their hands in the bowels of their Prince and with manifest wrong and violence endeavoured to deprive and despoil the Blood Royal of the lawful Succession of the Crown But on the contrary That it was an action worthy the name of Cavaliers which they professed to vindicate their just blood unjustly shed by his Subjects and to maintain the true and lawful Heirs of the Crown in the possession of the Kingdom The Authors of this opinion were the Sieur de Rambouillet the Baron de Giury and especially the Duke of Longueville But many others argued on the contrary side That they ought to observe Divine before Humane Laws and that the health of the Soul was alwayes to precede transitory worldly things that the respect of Religion in the Succession of Kings was antient For that depends upon the Law of Nature and this upon the Particular Constitutions and Positive Rights of Nations That the example of England was very near and remarkable where the Princes alteration of Religion had caused the destruction of the Catholicks and the alienation of the whole Kingdom from the Apostolick See That the miseries of Wars and the calamities they bring along with them might be ended in a short time but the danger of losing their Faith and Souls extended it self to their Children and Grand-children and to their whole posterity for ever which would receive an eternal loss and prejudice by their present connivence That it was true Princes were to be born withal though wicked and of a different Religion buâ— that was meant by such as were already placed and established in the Throne not of such as were to be received and established anew That the King of Navarre had by many means with a thousand intreaties and redoubled reasons been perswaded by the States-General and by the earnest desire of the late King to change his Religion and yet could never be drawn from Calvinism And if he would not leave it in his extream necessity it was not to be hoped that he would do it in the prosperity of fortune That what was said of his nature and qualities were very true but that he was so exceedingly affected to his Religion that he would think he did well in forcing mens Consciences And though he had not a tyrannical mind yet one of a different nature might perchance succeed him That at that present it was fit to foresee the future and not to alienate a most Christian Kingdom from its obedience to the Pope and from the Fellowship of the Church of God This Argument was held by Monsieur d' O the Sieur de Manuy his Brother Monsieur d'Entraguos Dompiere rhe Field-Marshal and the greater number of the Assembly Between these two contrary opinions arose a third as it were in the middle of the balance held by the Mareschal de Biron the Duke of Luxembourgh the Duke of Espernon and the wisest among them That the King of Navarre should be declared King of France and that they should serve and uphold him in that quality but upon assurance that he would change his Religion and embrace and maintain the Roman Catholick Faith And this motion was drawn from the Will and Prudence of their dead King who at his death had declared him lawful Successor but had also at the same time admonished him that he should never be King in peace if he embraced not the Roman Religion This resolution was in a manner generally followed and charge was given to those that had proposed it to let the King understand with all modesty what they had determined The Duke of Luxembourg accompanied with the rest carried the Message and told him That the Princes Lords and Officers of the Crown together with the Catholick Nobility that was in the Army which were the greatest and best part of the Kingdom were ready to acknowledge him King of France to serve and maintain him against every one since God and Nature had called him to the Crown by a lawful Succession But withal they besought him that for the general contentment and reasonable satisfaction of all his Subjects for the good peace and tranquillity of his Kingdom for the honor of his own Person and for
the Sieur de la Noue they hastened their march in such manner that upon the Six and twentieth day they quartered within six leagues of the Duke of Mayenne's Army Wherefore the Duke that he might not be encompassed and because he was out of hope of doing any good at Diepe raised his Camp upon the Eight and twentieth day in the morning and drew toward Picardy to meet the Forces which by order from the Catholick King were coming out of Flanders with the Sieur de la Motte to his assistance The next day the Duke of Longueville and Mareschal d' Aumont joined with the King who having left the Mareschal de Byron at Diepe went forth with six hundred Horse and two thousand Foot to meet them and following the Army of the League the same way took Eu and the Castle of Gamaches before he passed the River Somme opportunely making use of the occasion while the Duke whose Army diminished continually by the running away of his men being intent upon his way marched still close and in order and went further from them so that without receiving the least harm the King came to Amiens the chief City of Picardy where he was entertained with very great pomp being met without the Gates by all the Citizens who presented unto him a Canopy of State to be carried over him as the custom is to do unto the King but he refused it giving great testimony of his prudence and moderation by an act of so great modesty Whilst he stays at Amiens to put the Army again in order and settle the affairs of that City four thousand English and a thousand Scots sent by Queen Elizabeth arrived at Diepe Wherefore the King to whom prosperous fortune began on all sides to shew her face being returned with his whole Army received them to the great contentment of every one for they had not only brought an exceeding quantity of victuals but also a certain sum of money which without delay or shewing the least sign of covetousness was presently all distributed to his Souldiers by which readiness though the sum was not great every body was equally pleased and satisfied The English having rested themselves and those that born the toils in the service at Diepe being refreshed after their sufferings in the best manner that possibly might be the King desirous not to lose time now that the Duke of Mayenne and his Army were far off resolved to assault the Suburbs of Paris not so much out of any grounded hope that by the benefit of some unexpected accident he should be able to take the City in the terrour and tumult of the people which by him and all his Commanders was thought impossible as by the pillage of those Suburbs full of the riches of many years to supply the evident necessity of his Army in which the Gentry no less than the private Souldiers were reduced to very great scarcity of money and not only the furniture of their horses but even their arms and wearing clothes spoiled and broken with ill weather and perpetual service With this design he departed from Diepe upon the Nineteenth of October having in his Army Twenty thousand Foot Three thousand Horse and Fourteen great Pieces and with convenient marches took the direct way to Paris The Grand Prior and the Baron de Guiry who succeeded in the place of Baqueville scoured the way before them with the Light-horse The Count de Soissons and the Mareschal d' Aumont led the Vanguard In the Battel was the King with the Mareschal de Byron and Monsieur de la Noue the Duke of Longueville led the Reer With this order as soon as the Army was come to Pont de l' Arche the Duke of Montpensier having passed the Seine with Three hundred Horse went towards Normandy to go to Caen and look to the affairs of that Province where the Forces of the League were very powerful Upon the last of October the King quartered with his Army a league from the Fauxbourgs of Paris where the tumult of the people and the trouble of the Dutchesses was very great seeing the Duke of Mayenne far off and the King come unexpectedly to assault the City at a time when they were perswaded he had enough to do to defend himself and that he was so weak he must needs be either presently suppressed or beaten out of the Kingdom for the Duke of Mayenne crying up the greatness of his Forces to the people when he went to the assault of Diepe had written to Paris that within few days he would either bring the King up prisoner or force him to flee shamefully into England Now businesses proving so contrary the City unprovided of Souldiers and seeing they could not hope for any relief was full of fear and trouble especially there being no Head of Authority who might keep the people in order and provide what should be needful For though Don Bernardino Mendozza the Spanish Ambassador laboured with all his power to comfort them with grave Speeches and with his presence in every place yet there was no man in whom the Parisians could much confide either for experience in arms or for alliance to that Family But at night Monsieur de Rhosne arrived opportunely who being at Estampes which Town he had taken a few days before marched fourteen leagues without any stay and came into the City though with but a few Horse in the beginning of the night At his arrival the Council of the League recovering courage resolved That the Suburbs should be defended to which end the people taking arms and all both great and little and even the very Fryars running armed they were in the best order that might be distributed in those Works which had been cast up three months before at the time when it was besieged by Henry the Third The King before peep of day upon the first of November being All Saints day divided his Foot into three Tertiaes one of which was led by the Mareschal de Byron the Baron his Son and the Sieur de Guitry to assault the Fauxbourg of St. Victoire and St. Marceau the second led by the Mareschal d' Aumont Monsieur d' Anville and Colonel de Rieux against the Fauxbourg of St. Iaques and St. Michael and the third commanded by the Sieurs de Chastillion and de la Noue assaulted the Fauxbourg of St. Germain The Cavalry being likewise distinguished into three Divisions one led by the King another by Count Soissons and the third by the Duke of Longueville stood all ready in the Field each Body as a reserve to its Squadron of Foot in case of any unexpected accident which might happen The assault began when it was broad day light and lasted very fierce for the space of an hour but the Works being beaten down in many places and there being no equality between the inexpertness of the people and the valour of the Kings Souldiers the Defendents were at
Pietro Gaetano and the Spanish one of Alfonso Idiaques to stay in France and absolutely to obey the Duke with whom he also left Four hundred Horse and One hundred Walloon Carabines which Supplies added to the German Tertia of Collalto paid by the King and to the other French forces he thought a sufficient Body to uphold the affairs of the League especially in a time when the King having divided his Army for want of Money and because of the past misfortunes was manifestly declining The End of the Eleventh BOOK THE HISTORY OF THE Civil Wars of France By HENRICO CATERINO DAVILA. The TWELFTH BOOK The ARGUMENT THe Twelfth Book relates the various Turbulencies in several parts of the Kingdom the progress of the Duke of Mercoeur in Bretagne and of the Duke of Savoy in Provence and Dauphine The King takes Corby he is troubled in mind by reason of the contrary importunities of the Catholicks and Hugonots of his own party He sends the Viscount de Turenne into England and Germany who raises a great Army to bring it into France the Spring following The Duke of Mayenne also is no less troubled than the King The Parisians attempt to surprise St. Denis but effect it not and the Chevalier d' Aumale is killed there The King on the other side attempts to surprize Paris and that design likewise proves vain Pope Sixtus Quintus being dead Gregory the Fourteenth succeeds who declares himself favourable to the affairs of the League and dispatches his Nephew the Duke of Montemarciano into France with strong Supplies The King in the mean time besieges and takes the City of Chartres The Duke of Mayenne not having strength to relieve that place marches towards Champagne takes Chasteau-Thierry and goes to Rheins to confer with the Duke of Lorain Marsilio Landriano the Popes Nuncio arrives there he publishes a Monitory against those that follow the King from whence divers alterations do arise The young Cardinal of Bourbon tries to form a third party of Catholicks to bring himself to the Crown the King advertised of it applies divers remedies to that important accident The Duke of Mayenne makes an attempt upon Mante which takes not effect The King besieges Noyon and after many encounters it not being relieved he takes it The Popish and Spanish Forces pass the Mountains they assist the Duke of Savoy and there happen several encounters The Duke of Guise escapes from his imprisonment at Tours The King and the Duke of Mayenne advance the King to receive the Duke to oppose the Viscount de Turenne and the Germans in Lorain The Armies draw near to one another at Verdun The King having received the Viscount with the Supplies retires The Council of Sixteen make an Insurrection in the City of Paris and cause the first President of the Parliament and other Counsellors to be executed The Duke of Mayenne hastes thither brings the City into obedience and punishes the Delinquents The King marches into Normandy lays siege to the City of Rouen defended by Monsieur de Villars and a great number of choice Souldiers and Commanders the various accidents of that siege are related The Duke of Parma with the Spanish Army marches to relieve that place The King with part of his Army goes to meet him they encounter one another and fight at Aumale the King is wounded his men routed and he has much ado to save himself Villars sallying out of Rouen enters the Trenches and gains the Artillery The Duke of Parma advances but finding the City secured by that sally resolves to retire and watch his opportunity The King returns to Rouen and renews the siege The Duke of Parma also returns to bring relief and the King his Forces being wasted rises from the siege and marches to the Banks of the River Seine MEns minds were no less inflamed nor the revolutions of the War less bloody in the other parts of the Kingdom than they were in those places where the chief Armies lay for the affections of Religion mingled in their hearts with particular interests and with the already inveterate animosities of the Factions every one forward of himself as in his own cause and as in a controversie that concerned him did with all his power apply thoughts to the exercise of Arms. Wherefore the War was made both by the Heads and Governours of the two parties and by private persons of their own voluntary accord with the same contention thorow every Province but with various successes and different fortune on both sides The principal and most dangerous commotions were in Bretagne a great and rich Province well peopled full of Gentry considerable for the greatness of its Cities and convenient for the benefit of the Ocean Sea along the coasts whereof it extends it self towards the North. Henry of Bourbon Prince of Dombes Son to the Duke of Montpensier a youth of exceeding high courage was for the King and had the name of Governour for him but there were so few Towns under his obedience that if it had not been for the help of lower Normandy which confining with that Province held of the Kings party and was governed by the Duke his Father he would either have been driven out of the Province or easily suppressed by the greater forces of the League On the other side Emanuel of Lorain Duke of Mercoeur governed the party of the Vnion who had not only from the beginning been as Governour of the Province in possession of the best Cities and strongest holds but also pretending that the Dutchy of Bretagne it self belonged to his Wife Mary of Luxembourg Countess of Ponthieure he had a wonderful great dependence of all those who rather desired a Prince of their own than the union with the Crown of France which was not very pleasing to them and longing above measure to establish himself in that possession with the opportunity of present affairs he had negotiated secretly in Spain by the means of Loreno Tarnabuoni a Gentleman of his who was sent by Sea unto that Court and had obtained that the Catholick King should send and pay Four thousand Foot for his assistance upon condition that Blavet should be consigned to him for his security a place as then not considerable but which with the benefit of a very large Port fortified and improved by the Spaniards came by little and little to be of exceeding great consequence not only to the affairs of that Province but also of the whole Kingdom Which as soon as it was known to the Prince of Dombes though his Forces were but weak so that till then he had only exercised himself in actions of small importance to keep the Kings name alive in that Province yet now helping with art in so great need he turned himself to oppose the entrance of strangers And having routed Three hundred of the Duke of Mercoeurs Light-horse which were going to join themselves with his Army he assaulted Annebont suddenly a place near
mischief for the most part comes by forsaking old friendships and confederacies to give ones self up wholly to the will and discretion of new ones He considered that not having changed his Religion at that time when being more strong and victorious he might have done it with his reputation now that he was declined in strength it might seem he did it timerously by force the need he had at that very present of the assistance of the Protestant Princes of Germany and of the Queen of England represented it self unto him so that he was necessitated to think of not making them distrustful of them But on the other side he knew moreover that if he lost the Catholicks he should no longer have strength to resist and that except the Name of King of France he should return unto the same condition wherein he found himself so straightned before he went from Rochell In this uncertainty of mind he knew but two remedies one to give full satisfaction to the Great Ones of his Army to the end that they not stirring all the rest might stay likewise the other to keep his men in perpetual exercise that idleness and rest might not suggest those thoughts unto them For this cause knowing how great authority the Duke of Nevers had in the Catholick party and how conspicuous his actions were as a Prince that had always given testimony of Conscience and Religion he conferred upon him the Government of Champagne a great and principal Province and which he had long before desired And to the Baron de Byron for the eminent reputation of his Father and for his own merit and valour besides the Office of Field-Mareschal he promised the dignity of High-Admiral and using terms of infinite kindness to all the rest shewed himself gracious and liberal always disposing places and honours to those Catholick Lords who for birth desert or ancient devotion towards the Church were proper to keep those loyal who were like to fall away because of the delay of his promises And that he might not give way to idleness and to those thoughts that take birth from thence he recalled the Duke of Espernon to his Army not only with a desire to reconcile him unto himself but also to make use of him and likewise of the Duke of Nevers who at that time besieged Provins the Duke of Longueville the Count de St. Paul his Brother and many other Catholick Lords intending when he had drawn them together to set himself upon some enterprise which with the advancement of his own affairs might keep every one of them honourably imployed After this resolution succeeded that of gathering Forces that he might be able not only to oppose the progress of the Spaniards in Bretagne and the attempts of the Duke of Savoy in Provence but also so to re-inforce his Army that if the Duke of Parma should return and join with the Duke of Lorain he might be equal to resist them in the Field Nor being to address himself for supplies of money and to obtain a numerous leavy of men to any others than the Queen of England and the Protestant Princes of Germany since he saw both she and they were slack and cold alike he determined to send a person of eminent vertue quality and authority unto them who conferring with every Prince in particular and afterwards casting up the whole and treating with all in general might be able to procure that fruit which the urgent necessity of his affairs required First he thought upon the Mareschal de Byron a man of renowned fame and prudence equal to so great an exigent but then judging him much more necessary for the conduct of his Army because the Order Discipline and Foundation of all enterprises rested chiefly upon him he resolved to send Henry de la Tour Viscount de Turenne a man not only by ancient Conversation and by having run the same fortune with him long known to be most faithful but also for his wisdom and singular eloquence sufficient to manage a business of so great importance and moreover for Valour and Military Discipline fit to lead and conduct those Supplies that should be granted and so much the rather because he being a Hugonot would be so much the more acceptable and proper to negotiate with Princes of the same Religion since Monsieur de Beauvis who till the death of the late King had been Ambassador to Queen Elizabeth being a Catholick was not very well received and the Count de Schombergh who had already been a long time in Germany was likewise in respect of his Religion grown suspected to the Duke of Saxony and to Prince Casimir the Guardian of his young Nephew the Palatine of the Rhine but much more to the Marquiss of Brandenburgh who was jealous that he under colour of negotiating the Kings affairs endeavoured to discover their intents and found their designs to make them known unto the party of the League The Viscount went presently into England where things were not so well disposed in favour of the King but that the Queen thought to make her advantage of his present exigency and upon occasion of the necessity he was in to induce him to restore Calais unto her or else to give some other Fortress of no less importance into her hands a thing not only desired by all the Kings that had possessed that Crown but impatiently longed for by all the people of England But because the business was to be cunningly treated of nor did the Queen want prudence or dexterity to manage it she first made known that the Merchants of her Kingdom demanded to have a secure Port upon the Coasts of France where their ships might put in and secure their persons and goods when they had occasion Then she urged the reasons she had to desire it from a King that was her Friend and Confederate and whom she always called by the name of Brother since she had made the same demands to King Charles and to King Henry his last Predecessors by reason of the Duke of Guise's unjust Usurpation of the Town of Calais due unto her Crown by the possession of so many Ages But because the Viscount with no less industry did not openly deny to satisfie her but avoided and deferred it with several excuses sometimes alledging the hatred that would thereby result unto the King not yet established if he should think to alienate any place That the revolt of the Catholicks who were already more than moderately offended and disgusted would follow upon it sometimes telling the Queen her self that she ought not to make that demand at that present lest she should shew a desire to put the King upon a necessity of consenting unto it and in the urgency of his occasions put as they say the noose about his neck she seemed to desist and reserving the pressing of that point till the time that the promises were to be fulfilled which would be a more proper and a
King put Monsieur de Sourdis in the Government to gratifie the High Chancellor upon whom he or as his Detractors said his Wife depended At the same time while the King was busied at the siege of Chartres the Duke of Mayenne being departed from Soissons with all his Forces and come to the Bois de Vincennes stood doubtful a good while whether he should venture the Army he had to relieve that place but those Forces that were sent for from many places not arriving time enough and knowing himself so much weaker that his advancing would have endangered the Army without hope of giving any relief to the besieged turned toward the way of Champagne where he had appointed the meeting of the Princes of Lorain and to keep up his reputation sate down before Chasteau-Thierry a great place well peopled and pleasantly seated but whereof no long defence was to be hoped for either in regard of the Walls of the Town or of the strength of the Castle The Governor was the Viscount de Comblesy Son to Secretary Pinart who besides his Wife and Children had also his Father and Mother and a great many Women shut up with him in the Castle who being all affrighted made a great stir and confusion though the defendants were sufficient to make it good for some dayes To this was added that the Father and the Son had brought into the Castle all their Plate Money and Housholdstuff which amounted to a great value and were above measure sollicitous for fear if the place should be sacked they might fall into the Enemies hands On the other side the Dukes Army had a desire not only to pillage the Town which was full of inhabitants but much more to plunder the Castle wherein the report was that there were inestimable riches by which hopes the Soldiers being encouraged and especially the strangers at their first arrival they bravely possessed themselves of the Suburbs frighting and confounding the heartless defendants with their resolution As soon as the Suburbs were taken the Cannons were planted without delay which having beaten down a good piece of the Wall the assault was given and though it was happily sustained till the evening yet it left the besieged without hopes of being longer able to defend the Town wherefore presently quitting it they retired the same night into the Castle At that the tumult increased and louder grew the cries of the Women who with their Prayers and importunities were the cause that Pinart sent a Trumpet for his old Colleague the Sieur de Villeroy who was in the Duke of Mayennes Camp to treat with him about some composition and yet having conferred together for two long hours they came not to any conclusion Wherefore no sooner was Villeroy gone out of the Castle but instantly the Cannon began to play the noise of which troubling not only the Ladies but even Pinart himself and also many others not accustomed to the trade of Arms the Sieur de Villeroy was sent for again the next morning who was met by Madam de Pinart with the other Ladies that were of her company kneeling upon the ground and beseeching him with tears to free them by a composition from falling into the power of the Soldiers and especially of strangers This sight moved even Villeroy himself who returning to the Duke of Mayenne laboured to perswade him that it was much better to receive the Castle upon a Capitulation and to get a good sum of money from it for the maintenance of the War than to enrich strangers and shed French blood to satisfie their greediness To which the Duke of Mayenne averse from cruelty and plunder easily consenting though the Army grumbled very much at it yet the agreement was concluded the Castle compounding for Twenty thousand Crowns great store of Victual which the Town was to provide the place with the Artillery and Ammunition remaining freely at the Dukes disposing But Pinart thinking himself free from the calamities of the siege fell presently into other troubles For being accused of treachery and that not out of cowardise but perfidiousness he had delivered up that place without any necessity he was therefore censured guilty by the Parliament of Chalons and being absent condemned as a Rebel and afterward bought out the Kings pardon and the confiscation of his Estate with Thirty thousand Ducats The taking of Chasteau-Thierry though not equal to that of Chartres either for the quality of the place or for the consequences that it drew along with it did yet give some reputation to the Arms of the League whereupon the Duke of Mayenne augmented in hopes and courage went to the meeting at Rheims where a common consultation was to be held of the way that should be taken to advance the common interests and to oppose the progress of the King who after the taking of Chartres had by policy and force gotten Louviers also a place in Normandy near Rouen which for its situation and fortification was esteemed of very great importance But though the War proceeded fortunately for the King other things were not so prosperous but new troublesome accidents arose within his own party for the Catholick Lords and Gentlemen seeing that the time of his conversion was deferred without end and that all the promises and all the appointments of assembling the States and calling the Prelates together to give him those instructions propounded by himself and talked of every hour proved vain and without any effect at all began already to stagger in their resolutions to think of retiring to murmur among themselves and to shew their discontent which was increased beyond measure by a Declaration of the Kings who after the taking of Chartres being come to Mante had called his Council with many of the most conspicuous persons that followed him and had given them to understand how the Queen of England and the Princes of Germany his Confederates of whose Arms and assistance he had such urgent need that without them he had no hope of being able to sustain his Crown did press him daily that giving peace to mens Consciences he would permit Liberty of Religion and a peaceable indifferent way of living to his Subjects to unite them with perfect charity in the same body and that the German Army being now upon the point of coming he thought it good to prevent those requests which would then be made unto him with arms in their hands in a time of extream necessity and to grant something now to those of the Reformed Religion that he might not be forced then to yield much more unto them That he did not intend to grant them more than what King Henry his glorious and most Catholick Predecessor had done but simply to renew the last Edict of Pacification which had after been broken and revoked not by the Kings will but by the violences of the League and that he thought fit to tell his Reasons there in Council to the end that
those who followed him at that present to uphold the Rights of the Royal Family Now whilst Perron and Balbani the one within the other without the Kingdom did labour to plant the root of this third party the Cardinal staying at Tours as Head and President of the King's Council that resided there did by himself and by the means of Touchard try to work upon the minds of many and particularly of Gilles de Souvray Governor of that City a man of exceeding great Piety and no less Prudence and who in the Court had alwayes been wonderfully famed for goodness and knowledge But these designs which being communicated to many could not be kept secret were come to the ear of Philip Cardinal oâ— Lenon-court an old dependant upon the House of Navar who likewise following the Kings party resided in Tours and was one of the Council and there being no very good correspondence between him and the Cardinal of Bourbon he was the first that gave the King notice of it representing confusedly unto him what he had been able to find out concerning those designs that were contriving The King knowing the emulation that was between the Cardinals did not absolutely credit Lenon-court's relation and yet he remained a little perplexed in mind and began to stand at watch that he might come to more certainty of the business which Fortune brought him as it were of her self in such a way as a mans own imagination could not have thought for Balbani who was already come into Italy having in his journey met with Des Portes the Duke of Mayenne's Secretary who was likewise going to Rome about the present affairs made friendship with him as they use to do that are interessed in the same Nation after which either inconsiderately or that he might begin to scatter some seeds of it in the League he imparted the business to him for which the Cardinal sent him to the Pope and shewed him the Commissions which for his information he had given him distinctly comprised in writing Des Portes a subtil man and a wary manager of things knew how to behave himself and to flatter Balbani in such manner that he not onely sounded the depth of the business and what adherents the Cardinal had but withal got a copy of his Instructions out of his hands whereof he sending several duplicates in his Letters to the D. of Mayenne it so fell out that one of them was intercepted by the Garrison of Auxerre and came to the Kings hands with full information of the whole Plot. For the clearing and confirmation of this intelligence gotten by the Letters of Des Portes it happened that Iaques du Quesnay a Norman Gentleman who was bred Page to the Duke of Longueville as he was one night on the far side of his Lord's bed where he was unseen by reason of the Curtains the custom of France being to entertain great persons while they are undressing by chance heard a long discourse of du Perron to the same purpose which he thinking nothing related to Iehan d' Espinay his Kinsman but he being a Hugonot and of a discreet understanding delayed not long to discover all to Monsieur de Chaseron under whom he served in the War by whom afterwards the King was distinctly informed in every particular When the King knew what was plotting against him he was extremely afflicted and troubled in mind and having told the business to the High-Chancellor and Monsieur de la Noue desired to have their advice in it The High-Chancellor intent upon the King's Conversion or because he so thought it best said it was in the Kings own power to remove those obstacles and dispel those Clouds for by turning Catholick he might at once take away the foundation of all those contrivers and open a most secure way to Peace and Union That to think of any other remedy was not onely vain but destructive for by alienating the Cardinal of Bourbon and other Princes of the Blood who sided with him he should cut off one of his own Arms and weaken his party in such manner that he would no longer be in a condition to resist his Enemies and on the other side by dissembling the knowledge of their machinations they would have conveniency to perfect the design drawing with them a great part of the Catholicks discontented at the so long delay of his conversion Whereupon to shun those two inevitable dangers it was necessary at last to give satisfaction to all his servants while the state of Affairs permitted him to do it with his honor for when the Catholick party should fall from him it would be no longer time to convert nor to give them satisfaction thinking to lure them again as they do Hawks when they are loose from the fist that therefore he should rouze up his courage and with a Royal resolution cut off the Roots of those evils that were creeping about so dangerously Monsieur de la Noue said That he would speak the more freely because his Majesty and all the World knew he had said from the very beginning That if the King did not turn Catholick he should never be King of France but that now it was neither time nor conjuncture to make that determination That the King knew how great a power of his Enemies was like shortly to come upon him the Pope and the Catholick King having made wonderful great preparations to assist the League that to oppose those Forces he had no other prop but the Supplies of the Queen of England and of the Princes of Germany who were drawing a great Army together under the Viscount of Turenne to uphold them in so great need which Provisions and Supplies would all vanish in a moment if he at that present should change his Religion for not onely they being offended would forsake him but all the Hugonots of the Kingdom that followed him would fall away whereby at the arrival of the Enemies Forces he would be found alone unprovided abandoned without any means to resist and left to the discretion of his Enemies That the exigency of Affairs would not give way to the counsel of preventing the future with a present ruine That the Forces of Italy were already set forward the Duke of Parma already was gathering an Army nor did the straitness of time permit the thought of things that were far off but perswade the use of present remedies That the Cardinal of Bourbons design had no very firm foundation and though it should succeed yet it required a great length of time That at the present not very resolute and powerful remedies were to be applied but such as might mitigate and defer the disease till means might be had to purge it away That it was needful to separate those Lords into several places to have an eye upon their actions to seek to pacifie them and keep them in till the event were seen of the coming of the forreign Forces
to defend their posts the Duke of Aumale was constrained though still fighting to retire in which Retreat with the loss of sixty of his men and the death of Sieur de Longchamp a Soldier of great experience and of Francisco Guevarra a Captain of Spanish Light-horse he was followed to the very Walls of Han not having been able to give any relief at all to the besieged But the Duke of Mayenne being advertised of the siege of Noyon had diligently sent for the Sieur de Rosne with the Forces that were in Champagne and for the Prince of Ascoli sent by the Duke of Parma with Eight hundred Horse and Three thousand Foot and being joyned with them at la Fere came up to Han upon the tenth of August and having quartered his Army upon the way towards Noyon but with the River between he thought his presence would give sufficient courage to the defendents But the King having setled his quarters in the most convenient places and having made his approaches so far had begun already to batter the Abbey that stood without the Fauxbourg which was obstinately defended by the besieged to keep the Enemy as far as possible they could from the wall The King having caused five Pieces of Cannon to be planted against this Abby had so beaten it down that being assaulted by the Foot upon the eighth day they took it killing thirty of the Defendents and taking above fifty others of them which did so much the more weaken the Garrison that of it self was too weak to defend the circuit of the Town But it was necessary to suspâ—nd the progress of the siege by reason of the Duke of Mayennes coming for his strength being 10000 Foot and 2000 Horse lit was thought that not being able to relieve the place any other way rather than lose it he would joyn battel with the King Yet the opinions in his Camp were very different for the Prince of Ascoli thought not the loss of that place of so great concernment that to divert it it was fit to incurr the uncertainty of a Battel with the hazard of those onely Forces that were in being to resist the Enemy and considered that the Popes and Catholick King 's supplies which had already passed the Mountains being expected it would be a very strange rashness to put that now in the power of Fortune which within a few dayes might be made more certain and more secure The Duke of Aumale on the other side thoroughly vext at his late misfortune and longing to piece it up again argued that the loss of that place was of great moment to the affairs of the Province for that in those quarters there remained no other important Town of their party but that their reputation was of much greater importance which would be much diminished if being come up to the very face of the Enemy with Forces in number not inferior to theirs they should let that place be taken from them without stirring or disputing it with the Sword The Duke of Mayenne assented to the more secure advice partly because he was of a nature not much inclined to dangerous resolutions partly because with the Prince of Ascoli and the Spaniards he did more by intreaty than command and he saw them very resolute in not consenting by any means to the hazard of a Battel But the King desirous to find out what the enemy intended having no quicker way to make himself certain of it caused the Mareschal de Biron to pass the River with the greater part of his Horse to see if the Duke would move to fight or keep fast in his quarters But assoon as the Mareschal was advanced within sight of Han and of the Army of the League which was encamped in the midst of the great high way he found the Country clear and free nor did any stir out of their quarters to skirmish in the plain field which having come to pass not one day alone but three together successively the King apprehending that the Duke thought to defend Noyon with nothing but the reputation of his being near it took heart and caused the Courtine of St Eloy to be battered upon the fifteenth day and having beaten down the Works on each side on the sixteenth day in the morning being resolved to give the assault he made his Cavalry pass over the River as he was wont to do that they might be in readiness if the enemy should stir and having drawn his Foot into their divisions gave the Baron de Biron order to advance and assault the Town Monsieur de Ville having as long as possibly he could expected relief in vain and seeing himself now in such a condition that he was not able to resist that fierce assault which was preparing against him caused a sign to be given that he would parley and in a few hours concluded to surrender if within two dayes the Duke of Mayenne did not either fight or put at least Five hundred men into the Town which being agreed upon and Hostages given on both sides he dispatched a Gentleman to the D. of Mayenne to let him know the Agreement who having consulted again with his Commanders and concluded as they before had determined drew off to the Walls of Han the same evening and the Sieur de Ville sincerely performing the Agreement delivered up Noyon upon the Eighteenth day into the hands of Monsieur d' Esâ—ree for the King After the taking of Noyon mens minds on both sides were â—aken up with the expectation of the Forraign Forces which with equal fortune delayed to appear for the Germans who to the number of 8000 Foot and 4000 Horse had been raised by the Viscount de Turenne by the help of the Protestant Princes moved with great difficulty for want of money and expected that for the drawing together and maintenance of them a great sum should be furnished from England which the Queen being to raise upon her people who had promised to pay it upon certain conditions matters were not so soon ordered nor did the conditions prove of mutual satisfaction for the English continuing desirous to recover footing in France and particularly in Normandy a Province in former times long possessed by them had promised the Queen Three hundred thousand Ducats to be spent in the affairs of France provided she got some convenient Sea-port to be given her not onely for security of their Money but also for a landing-place of Commerce and that they might have more commodiously traffick in the Kingdom of France which being at first demanded and now again under pretence of the earnest importunity of her Subjects effectually urged by the Queen no less than liberty of Conscience for the Hugonots kept the King in a great deal of trouble not being willing to deprive himself of Diepe the place where he had tried and sustained the first encounters of his fortune much less of Calais upon which the English had too strong
taken they made themselves terrible to the Province in which Monsieur de la Valette with a small force could not equal their power so that Count Francesco Martinengo after the taking of many Towns and Castles did without much opposition over-run that part that extends it self along the Sea-shore But having at last laid siege to Vinon whilst he battered it with exceeding great fury Monsieur de la Valette being resolved to shew more courage than he had strength and rather to trust the affairs of the Province to the arbitrement of fortune than to waste himself with retreating continually in all places advanced that way with Seven hundred Horse and not more than One thousand and two hundred Foot and having divided his men into four Battalions whereof one was put in the Reer for a reserve and re-inforcement to the rest commanded by the Viscount de Governet he marched streight without other advantage to assault the Enemy who being risen from the siege and having past a Rivulet that was between them came resolutely to meet him Nor was the conflict unlike the valour of the Commanders for it was obstinately fought on both sides with equel courage for the space of many hours till the Viscount entring fresh into the Battel with the last Squadron of Horse reserved for their utmost hope in so great need the Savoyards already wearied with long fighting began to give ground to the Enemy who was fresh and eager whereupon la Valette's other Squadrons also recovering vigour charged them so home that they made them return full speed over the water and had pursued them with a great execution if the mutual losses they received had not perswaded them to end the business which while it was in the greatest heat the Souldiers that were in Vinon sallying gallantly out of their works assaulted them that guarded the Savoyards Artillery and having routed them nailed some great Pieces fired a great deal of Ammunition and did them many other mischiefs This defeat curb'd the Dukes proceedings and did for some time secure the King's affairs in Provence Nor was the War less hot in the Territories of Geneva for the Sieur de Sancy who being retired to Basil to obtain some number of Swisses in that Canton having had intelligence that a hundred thousand Ducats were on the way from Milan to make Levies in Germany and that they were conducted by a few men without any considerable Convoy he laid an ambush for them in the Forrest of Basil with so good success that he took the Money and being come with it to Geneva had in a few dayes hired a Regiment of Swisses of the Canton of Berne where there being also arrived three hundred Horse raised in the State of Venice by Monsieur de Metz the Kings Ambassador to that Republick and commanded by Count Mutio Porto and Pausania Brazzoduro Vicentines and Captain Nicolo Nasi a Florentine he had in a short time recovered the territory of Geneva and was advanced to assault the places that were held by the Savoyards during the siege of one of which named Boringes some Companies of Neapolitans and Milaneses belonging to the Catholick King and that were there to assist the Duke of Savoy marched up to disturb them but being fiercely charged by the Italian Cavalry desirous to make themselves remarkable in gallant actions they were routed and dispersed and Boringes surrendred it self to the discretion of the Enemy In this interim Don Amadeo having rallied his Forces advanced to stop the Enemies incursions and being come near unto their Army they sent back their great Cannon to Geneva and encamped themselves in an advantagious place keeping the top of an Hill with the Body of their Army and with their Van-guard a Wood that was at the bottom of it There Don Amadeo having discovered how the enemy was quartered commanded forth his Van-guard to make themselves Masters of the Wood where they of the Kings party making small resistance retired little less than routed to the rest of the Army which stood in Battalâ—a upon the wayes of the Hill But the Italian Cavalry going down into the plain field violently charged and repulsed the enemies Van guard with the death of many so that they also retired in like manner half defeated to their main Body But the Duke of Savoy knowing that in the strength of narrow places which â—ill the whole Territories of Geneva his men could make but small progress with the hazard of receiving much damage while these Forces imployed themselves with those of Geneva commanded Don Amadeo to retire and onely to defend his own till the Supplies should either be dissolved or be sent for away to other places Nor was he deceived in his hopes for the Sieur de Giutry who commanded the French forces and the Italian Cavalry seeing the Savoyards retreated to defend their own resolved to go and assist the Mareschal d' Aâ—mont in Bourbonois where he had much ado to resist the Duke of Nemours a Prince that with his fierceness and courage kept all those places which confined upon his Forces in very great terror But the progress of the War was also weak on that side for the Mareschal having attempted to besiege Autun a Town which because it was strong and well manned molested all the Country round about after many assaults and divers attempts he was by the Duke of Nemours forced to retire with no ordinary loss About the same time that the Duke of Mayenne was troubled in the business of the Parisians there was a Battel in the Country of Cahors where the Marquiss de Villars who governed the party of the League and the Duke of Vantadour who held for the King encountred one another with much Gentry on both sides and with a very great number of Foot in which action after a valiant fight of two long hours at last they of the Kings party had the better and having slain six hundred of the Enemy among which were many Gentlemen of great renown remained Masters of the Field and of the carriages and afterwards took Gadenet an exceeding strong place and many other lesser Towns in which businesses the courage of the Sieur de Temines and Captain Vivans appeared most clearly the greatest merit of the victory and the progress of so fair atchievements being attributed to their valor While they labor thus with various success in the other parts of the Kingdom the King marched with his whole Army toward Normandy being resolved to besiege Rouen as well because of the promises wherewith he had engaged himself to the Queen of England either to give her some jurisdiction in that City or to assign her some other place upon the Sea side as out of a design to reduce all that large and exceeding rich Province to his party for except Rouen and Havre-de-Grace there was no place of moment that held not for him and by reducing it to his devotion besides the very considerable profit
any respect might discompose all things and put them in confusion But the D. of Mayenne endeavoured with dexterity to excuse the Bishop of Senlis his words ascribing them to excess of zeal or too much fervour of mind intimating that sometimes he went beyond himself and shewing that when he was made sensible of reason and what was fit he would of himself correct that which being drawn by his first violence he had so licentiously spoken unawares The Ambassadors took heart again at the encouragement of the Duke of Mayenne of Cardinal Pelleve and some others but truely it remained evident that it was not out of ambition or for any interests as many would have had it thought but because his conscience so perswaded him that the Bishop of Senlis in all the course of those commotions had so profusely favoured the party of the Vnion and spoken so sharply and with such continued Liberty against the person of the present King and the memory of him that was dead However it were certain it is his words helped to abate the credit of the Spaniards and his example moved many of those who followed the League not for their own interest but in respect of Religion And yet the Spaniards not losing heart by reason of the Duke of Mayenne's dissimulation and of the hopes they had in many of the Deputies demanded publick audience in the assembly of the States and having obtained it upon the Six and twentieth day Iuan Baptista Tassis was the first that spoke who with a short but very cunning speech made the proposition of the Infanta and after him Inigo de Mendozza with a long disputation divided into seven heads explained the rights that she pretended to the succession of the Crown both of them concluding that it was not to put that in controversie which was to be acknowledged from the voluntary election of the State but to inform and satisfie them that he alledged those reasons to the end that with prudent advice the free disposal of the assembly might go along with right and conform it self to Justice the Infanta being willing to acknowledge that from them by way of election which duely belonged to her by rightful succession This proposition was no less deeply resented by the major part of the Deputies than it had been by the Bishop of Senlis many disdain'd that the dominion of Strangers should be proposed to them as to men who were either slaves to the will of others or ignorant of their own interests others laught to see this proposition made without preparations of Arms men and moneys as both need and the reputation of the business required others condemned the Spaniards of little discretion in having had the boldness to declare their design without having prepossessed their minds and disposed them towards it by the powerful preparative of private interest and there wanted not of those who disputed also about the right and said that though women should be declared to have right to the inheritance of the Crown it probably belonged not to her but to the Kings of England who were first descended from daughters of France and with whom there had been so many and so tedious Wars to reject that pretention and to uphold the Salique Law and the legitimate succession of the Males But they that were most of all displeased at it though secretly were the Princes of the House of Lorain who pretended to the election themselves and the Duke of Mayenne though he more cunningly dissembled it shewing in appearance that he would not dissent from the King of Spain â—s will nor from what he had agreed upon with the Ambassadors at Soissons yet he underhand stirred up the Deputies to reject that proposition as dishonorable to the Nation dangerous in point of servitude hurtful to themselves and to the liberty of those that should come after them and not grounded upon any present security but all vainly supported by the uncertainty of future promises There was no doubt but the Deputies would unanimously refuse that proposition yet not to exasperate the Spaniards and to give matters time to ripen they answered after many complements that their desire should be taken into consideration to the end an answer might be given as soon as was possible which while it was expected the Duke of Mayenne to find out a way to exclude that business began to treat with the Ambassadors what Husband the Infanta should have when the Sates had elected her Queen and urged them to declare what Commissions they had from the Catholick King concerning that Their answer was altogether like the rest of the treaty for they made no scruple to declare that the King thought of matching her to Ernest Archduke of Austria the Emperors Brother whom he had also appointed to succeed the Duke of Parma in his Country of Flanders This answer was presently excluded for all replyed with joynt consent That they would not have a King of a different Language and Nation and that the Ears of Frenchmen could never endure to hear it and though the Duke of Mayenne for divers respects feigned to approve of the Archduke the rest notwithstanding declared freely they would none of him which as soon as the Spaniards knew seeing the Infanta's election would go but in a desperate course if some considerable prop were not added to uphold it they said they had Commission in case the States approved not of the Archduke to propose that the Catholick King would marry the Infanta to a French Prince who should be nominated and elected by him within six months This Proposition displeased not all of them in general because there were many pretenders among which were the Duke of Guise the Duke of Nemours and the Cardinal of Lorain but the Duke of Mayenne publickly commending the proposition endeavored to sound whether they inclined to any one of his Sons and being sufficiently certified they were not like to consent unto it because they would not put the Dominion of the Kingdom into his hands being certain the Infanta should be barely a Wife not a Mistriss he began to draw the contrary way much more than he had done before and applyed himself to foment the Conference which had never been intermitted at Surenne between the Catholicks of both parties The King who had notice of all that was in agitation sought every way by means of the Conference to hinder each resolution of the States but his Deputies could not do much in it by reason of the important opposition of Religion nay rather his own Catholicks were discontented themselves that his Conversion so much desired and so often promised was deferred more and more every day The Princes of the Blood threatned openly and now thought in good earnest of taking some resolution because they saw the election of a King of another Family was so closely treated of And every one even of himself fell easily into an opinion that by going
â—ot taken in good part he thinking they desired his abode in the City that they might confer the charge of the Army and of managing the wâ—r upon the Duke of Guise indeed he was something moved by the perswasions of his Mother Madam de Nemours she telling him that the sum of all things consisted now in the conservation of Paris and that she had discovered some practises that past between the Politicks of the City and the new Governor but neither was that able to disswade him from his departure for it diminished his reputation and prejudiced the course of affairs too much to stand with his hands at his girdle and let himself be straightned to the last necessities without seeking any remedy and he considered that if the King being Master of Pontoyse and Meaux and by consequence also Master of the Rivers and having Dreux Orleans and Chartres in his power should have a mind to besiege Paris he should be locked up in the City and not be able to do any thing to relieve it and having notice that the King had made a Levy of Six thousand Switzers which were ready to enter into the Kingdom and knowing that the Queen of England was sending new supplies of Men and Ammunition he thought it necessary to draw the Forces of the Confederates together to make opposition in the Spring-time if the King should take the Field with a great Army which could not be done unless he himself in person were active in the business not judging the Duke of Guise or the Duke of Aumale either for authority or experience sufficient to raise or command the Army in which charge the secret intentions of men now more suspected by him than ever would not suffer him to trust any other person Moved by these reasons and not being able to perswade himself that the Count de Brissac would forsake him and change that Faith which he his Father and his Grandfather had ever constantly kept he at last departed and took his Lady and his Son with him leaving his Mother his Sister the Cardinal-Legat and the Spanish Ambassadors at Paris But he was no sooner gone when the Governour finding himself alone and little valuing all the rest that were in the City thought that occasion for the raising of his fortune again was not to be lost wherefore having drawn Iehan Viller the Prevost des Marchands and the two chief Eschevins which were Guilliaume du Ver Sieur de Neret and Martin l' Anglois Sieur de Beauripaire unto his party he went on to deal with the first President and the other Counsellors of the Parliament These were displeased with the Duke of Mayenne because in many occasions and particularly in the last of changing the Governour he had as they said used them sharply and ingratefully and openly derided and abused them and much more were they disgusted at the Spaniards by reason of the Proposition of the Infanta against whose election they had shewed themselves openly but that which imported most of all was That the Presidents and Counsellors of the Parliament as men distrusted and disaffected were ill used by the Catholick Kings Ambassadors and by the Garison of Italians Walloons and Spaniards which depended on them so that they not only heard proud threats and opprobrious speeches against themselves to their very faces with often mentioning the name of Brisson but their Servants and Caterers were abused in the Markets by the Souldiers even to the violent taking away from them whatsoever they bought for which they having often complained to the Duke of Mayenne had not gotten any remedy but only perswasions to be patient but at last from this long sufferance they turned to fury which wakening mens minds as it was wont had made them see how near they were to the hated servitude of strangers and how much better it was to secure their own fortune with the stronger party and free themselves at last from anguish and trouble wherefore it was not hard to draw them to the opinion of the rest and bring them to consent to submit the City to the Kings obedience Things being thus setled within and the Governour thinking himself to be in such a condition as to dispose of the people his own way began to treat with the King by means of the Count de la Rochepâ—t with whom he had an exceeding near affinity and friendship and being come from the beginnings of a Treaty to agree upon the conditions the Count de Schomberg Monsieur de Bellieure and the President de Thou were employed in the business who within a few days concluded what was to be done as well to satisfie the Count de Brissac as to gain the City without tumult or bloodshed and finally the Count himself having conferred in the Field with the Sieur de St. Luc who had married one of his Sisters under pretence of treating about her Portion about which they had been long in suit it was jointly agreed upon That in the City of Paris the Fauxbourgs thereof and ten mile round about there should be no publick exercise permitted save of the Roman Catholick Religion according to all the Edicts of former Kings That the King should give a general pardon to all of what state or condition soever that had in word or deed upheld and fomented the League stirr'd up the people to sedition spoken evil of his person written or printed against him thrown down or despised his Royal Arms or the Arms of the Kings his Predecessors or that were guilty in any kind whatsoever of the past seditions excepting those that had traiterously conspired against his Person or that were accessary to the murther of the late King That the goods and persons of the Citizens should be free from violence and plunder all the Priviledges Prerogatives and Immunities confirmed and kept in the same degree they were wont to be in the times of former Kings That all Places Offices and Benefices into which the Duke of Mayenne had put men when they were vacant by death as well within the Parliament as without should be confirmed unto the same persons but with an obligation to take new Patents from the King That all the present Magistrates of the City should be confirmed if they would submit themselves to the Kings obedience That every Citizen that would not stay in the City might have free liberty to depart and without further leave carry away his goods That the Cardinal-Legat Cardinal Pellevé and all the Prelats with their Servants might with their goods and furniture freely stay or go how and when they thought it seasonable That the Princesses and Ladies that were in the City might stay or go in like manner with full liberty and security That the Spanish Ambassadors with their attendants goods and families might also have Pass-ports and Safe-conducts from the King to go securely whither they pleased That the Souldiers of the Garison French and strangers of any Nation soever
might march out of the City armed in rank and file their Drums beating Colours flying and light Match to go whither they thought good That two hundred thousand Crowns should be paid to the Count de Brissac in recompence of his expences and losses and that he should have twenty thousand Franks of an annual pension the Charge of Marshal of Frâ—nce conferred upon him by the Duke of Mayenne should be confirmed and the perpetual Government of Corbie and Mante granted to him which things with many other of less moment being agreed upon both sides applyed themselves to the execution of them The King at this time was at Chartres where he had caused himself to be Crowned and Anointed or as they call it Sacré about which there had been many difficulties which nevertheless by the authority of the Council were seasonably removed for he that he might take away the doubts of scrupulous minds desiring to his Conversion to add this Ceremony which is wont to be used to all Kings some objected that the Consecration by an ancient custom could not be but at the City of Reimes nor by the hands of any other than the Archbishop of that Church but having diligently over-looked the History of former times the learned found that many Kings had been Consecrated in other places and since that City was not in the Kings power reason consented not that he should therefore remain without that due Ceremony which they thought necessary for his perfect Establishment This difficulty being removed there succeeded another how the King could be Anointed without the Oyl of St. Ampoule which was kept in the Cathedral of that City and which as fame reports was brought down by an Angel from Heaven purposely for the Consecration of King Cloüis and the other Kings of France his Successors but neither of this was there any other necessity save bare tradition whereupon it was determined that neither the City nor the Oyl being in the Kings power the Oyl should be brought that is kept in the City of Tours in the Monastery of the Friers of St. Martin of which there is a report confirmed by the authority of many Writers that it was likewise brought from Heaven to anoint that Saint when falling from the top of a Ladder all his bones were broken and shattered in pieces wherefore Monsieur de Souvray Governour of Tours having caused that Vial to be brought out in Procession by those Monks that had it in keeping and having placed it under a rich Canopy of State set round pompously with lights in the top of a Chariot made expresly for that purpose and guarded by four Troops of Horse he himself going before it all the journey brought it along with him to the City of Chartres and with that Oyl they Anointed the King at his Consecration causing it afterward to be carried back to its place with the same Ceremony and Veneration There arose also a Competition among the Prelates Which of them should perform the Act of Consecration for the Archbishop of Bourges pretended that Function belonged unto him as Primate and on the other side Nicholas de Thou Bishop of Chartres alledged That the Ceremony being to be Celebrated in his Church it could not be taken away from him The Council sentenced in favour of the Bishop of the Diocess and so upon the Twenty seventh of February the King was consecrated with great Solemnity and Pomp both Ecclesiastical and Military the twelve Peers of France being present at the Ceremony six Ecclesiastical and six Secular which were the Bishop of Chartres Nantes Mans Maillezays Orleans and Angiers representing those of Reimes Langues Laon Beauvais Noyon and Chalons and for the Secular Peers the Prince of Conty for the Duke of Bourgogne the Duke of Soissons for the Duke of Guienne the Duke of Montpensier for the Duke of Normandy the Duke of Luxemburgh in stead of the Earl of Flanders the Duke of Retz in stead of the Count de Toulouse and the Duke of Vantadour in stead of the Count de Champagne the Archbishop of Bourges did the Office of Grand Aumosnier the Mareshal de Matignon of High Constable the Duke of Longueville that of High Chamberlain the Count de St. Paul that of Grand Maistre and the High Chancellor Chiverny holding the Seals in his Right Hand sate on one side of the Cloth of State The King according to the custom of the Kings of France upon the day of this Solemnity received the Communion in both kinds took the Oath which all the Kings of France are wont to take to maintain the Catholick Faith and the authority of the Holy Church and at his coming out of the Church touched those that had the Kings Evil to the number of three hundred from the Church he went unto the Feast where according to the custom sate the twelve Peers that had been present at the Ceremony the Princess Katharine Sister to the King with the other great Ladies that were at Court and the Ambassadors of the Queen of England and the Republick of Venice After Dinner the King went to Vespers where he received the Order of the St. Esprit renewing his Oath for the conservation of the Faith and the persecution of Heresie which Ceremonies as they filled the hearts of his own party with great joy and gladness so did they the more move the inclination of the others to acknowledge and obey him In the mean time the Treaties in Paris were ripening for the reducing of that City being managed with great dexterity and secresie by the Governour the Prevost des Marchands and President le Maistre but thwarted more than ever by the violent perswasions of the Preachers who ceased not to cry from their Pulpits that the Kings Conversion was feigned and dissembled and no body could acknowledge him with a good Conscience The business was likewise crossed by the practices and boldness of the Sixteen who since the accident of President Brisson having remained with small credit and less power being now fomented by the Legat and the Spaniards and no less by the Dutchesses of Nemours and Montpensier who had turned their Sails according to the Wind they began to rise again meeting frequently often stirring up commotions and proceeding audaciously against those that were suspected to be of the Kings party but the Governour making use of his authority and also of the Duke of Mayenne's Name laboured to dissipate and suppress them under colour that he would have no Conventicles nor armed insurrections in a time of so great suspition and finally having accorded with the Parliament they caused publick Proclamation to be made That upon pain of death and confiscation of goods none should go to any Meeting except in the Town-House and in the presence of above five Magistrates Upon the foundation of this Decree the Governour sharply using force did within a few days destroy and take away the opposition of the Sixteen insomuch
having been privy to the death of the Prince her Husband and the sentence that had been given against her by Judges that were not competent nor capable to sentence her they demanded that she having till then been kept in prison at S. Iehan d' Angely the King disanulling the first sentence would be pleased to grant that the Parliament of Paris a natural and competent Judge might hear her cause and having discussed the proofs give sentence upon it to which Petition the King answered That if the Princesses Kinsmen would oblige themselves to put her into the power of the Parliament of Paris he would disanul and make void the sentence that had been given and would refer the case to the aforesaid Parliament into whose power the Princess was to be delivered within the space of four months This served for a colour and excuse to take away suspicion from the Hugonots to deprive them of power to detain the person of the Princess and of her Son And the King sent the Marquiss de Pisani to S. Iehan who though the Hugonots murmured at it brought them both away to Paris where the Princess having declared that she would live for the time to come in the Catholick Religion was absolved by the Parliament of that imputation that had been layed against her the Prince of Conde remaining not only in the King's power but instructed and bred up in the Catholick Religion The Duke of Montmorancy came likewise to the City of Dijon and there took possession of his Office of Constable the Hugonots being thus deprived of those props wherewith they had designed to uphold themselves The Pope was by these lively effects very much confirmed of the King's sincerity who already was wholly averse from them and wholly intent to secure the State of Religion within his obedience He shewed the same inclination by the strict orders and particular Commissions which he had given to restore the use of the Mass in all those places from whence it had been taken and he laboured continually in seeking means to restore the estates of the Clergy possessed by others which by reason of the difficulty of the matter proved very hard and troublesome for the Lords and Gentlemen who in reward of their services had obtained them and had already possessed them a great while could hardly be brought to leave them without equivalent recompences which by reason of the number of the pretenders and the narrowness of affairs in a time of so great distraction it was not possible to satisfie yet the King with infinite patience and dexterity studied how to compose things so that if he could not altogether he did at least in part satisfie the Clergy though of necessity many of the principal of them could not be absolutely contented but discreet persons commended both the King's inclinations and dexterous manner of finding a way to compose interests that were so oppositely diverse and repugnant These things brought by fame unto the Court of Rome did opportunely promote the King's interests but much more were they helped on by the contrary circumstances which troubled the mind of the Pope and of that Court for Schism was in a manner totally setled the Parliament continued diligently to hinder that none should go suâ— for Benefices at Rome and whosoever procured any by such sutes did not certainly obtain the possession of them the King by some one of the great Council did still dispatch Spiritual Oeconomies to the Bishopricks and other cures of Souls that were vacant the name of the Apostolick See seemed to be utterly forgotten and the King's Forces prospering it was doubted he would demand Absolution no more the Duke of Nevers having sâ—id publickly at his departure that they should not look to have any more Ambassadors sent to Rome wherefore though the Treaty was set on foot again by means of Cardinal Gondi and that d' Ossat continued to treat with Sannesio and with Cardinal Aldobrandino yet the Pope fearing the mischief that was imminent and considering the example of other States that had withdrawn themselves from the obedience of the Apostolick See was wonderful anxious by reason of the danger of this division To this was added the Kings confederacy contracted with the States of Holland and the League which was still in treaty with England whereupon it was doubted that so near confederacy being made with Hereticks Religion would in some part be injured by it That which the more incited the Pope was the sharp War made by the Turk in Hungary for being constrained to think of the progress of the common Enemy on that side he desired to appease the tumults of France that he might turn all his Forces for the maintenance and benefit of the Commonweal of Christians for all these reasons being resolved within himself to condescend to the Kings benediction to which he thought himself obliged in Conscience he began to think of softning the Catholick King and therefore besides satisfying him in all his demands he resolved to send his Nephew Giovan Francesco Aldobrandino into Spain under colour of treating of the affairs of Hungary but withal to negotiate the absolution of France to which he laboured to bring the King of Spain gently by shewing that he depended much upon his consent In the mean time by the means of Monsieur d' Ossat he secretly let the King know that things were already ripe and that if he sent new Ministers to treat the absolution perchance might be concluded The King desirous to reconcile himself fully to the Church thought at first to send a gallant Embassy but being informed of the Popes intention who desired that the business should pass privately and with terms of very great submission he determined to send only Iaques Davy Sieur du Perron who should treat of matters together with d' Ossat being also desirous in case the business should not take effect that the manner of treating might not make it the more eminent and remarkable These men seasonably making use of the conjuncture of present affairs managed the Kings intentions modestly and dexterously shewing no less the prosperousness of his enterprizes which at last had gained him the whole Kingdom than his Piety and most ardent affection towards Religion from whence proceeded his infinite patience hardened to bear so many repulses as had been given him by the Pope But those that were well versed in the affairs of the World gave loose reins to their discourse concerning those very things which much troubled the Pope and said freely through the Court that in the end the Kings patience would turn into fury and that having subdued his Enemies and made himself a peaceable Master of his Estate it was to be doubted he would care but little to reconcile himself to the Pope or rather it was to be feared that with a dangerous Schism in the Church of God he would attempt to revenge so many past injuries and persecutions and upon these
Alvaro Osorio notice that he should keep some little Boats ready to come forth of the Town as soon as the sign was given him and to draw near the Banks of the Fen to receive the relief which he would attempt to bring unto that place which intelligence being happily got into the Town and the appointment made he marched from Doway with Six hundred horse and came by night to Chasteler where he caused the Gates to be kept lock'd to the end that the French might not know any thing of his design And having that day provided that every one of his men should carry a Bag of Meal behind him and a bundle of Match about his neck for they had also great want of that in la Fere he set forth when it began to grow dark and having past the River Somme went upon the way of St. Quentin and leaving that Town upon the right hand marched with so much diligence that upon the sixteenth day of March in the morning he came neâ—r the quarters of the Kings Cavalry who being advertised by the Sentinels shootings took the Alarm and got speedily to horse believing that some relief of the enemy was near but a thick mist which by chance rose by break of day was so favourable to Basti's designs that the Kings Corpes de Gardes betaking themselves to their arms on all sides could not discover which way the Enemy came and while they warily endeavoured to know and make discovery Basti without meeting any body passing between the quarter of the Reiters and that of the Duke of Bouillon came to the bank of the Fen near the current of the River aâ—d having found Osorio ready with his Boats to receive the relief he made the Meal and Match be unladed with great celerity faced about and with the same speed seeing the French and German Cavalry who at last having notice of his arrival had placed themselves upon the Road of St. Quentin to hinder his retreat he took a contrary way and falling into that which leads to Guise came back fortunately to Cambray without meeting any opposition This relief in which industry and fortune were equal sharers gained Basti a wonderful reputation yet gave but little help to the besieged the Meal that was brought lasting them but a little while by reason of their great number and the King who from day to day had new Forces came up to him streightned the siege more closely and stopt up all the wayes which being cut off and fortified with Banks and Trenches and kept with strong guards of Horse left no hope at all of thinking of new relief But the siege being prolonged by the constancy of the Defendants the King was perswaded by the reasons of some of his Engineers to stop the course of the River which caused the Fen on the lower side thinking to make it swell and rise in such manner that the Defendants should be constrained either to yield or drown This work was begun with an exceeding great â—umber of Pioneers drawn together from all the neighbouring places but though they wrought at it with great art and no less assiduity yet the rains of the season which from time to time increased the current of the River which ordinarily was quiet and gentle hindred the progress by breaking down the Banks often carrying away the Piles and in one hour frustrating the labours of many dayes and yet the King being himself present at the work it was at last brought to perfection But it was no sooner finished when it appeared how deceitful the fancies of Engineers prove oftentimes for the Town being much higher than the Fen a thing foreseen from the beginning by many and constantly oppugned by the authors of the design the water rose not above a foot or two in the Town and was so long making that increase that the inhabitants had conveniency to remove their things into higher places without receiving any damage though the water falling within two dayes by having broke through the lowest part of the Fen in many places the Town remained full of dirt and mud by the exhalation whereof the Air being corrupted caused dangerous diseases in the Town so that the besieged being endamaged onely by accident and after the space of many days the labors and endeavors of the Kings Army proved fruitless in their principal intent There yet remained the wonted hope of Famine which after so many moneths siege encreased exceedingly and was already become irrepairable nor did any thing make the Defendants hold out but hope of relief The Cardinal was intent with his utmost endeavors upon giving it to them for having in great part quieted those that had mutined and conveniently paid his men he had set the Army in a readiness to attempt the effecting of it but none of his Commanders among which the principal were the Duke of Arescot the Marquiss of Ranâ—y and Francisco de Mendozza the Admiral of Aragon counselled him to adventure his Camp upon that enterprize and the reason was in a readiness for not onely the King in the space of many moneths had had full conveniency to fortifie his own quarters extraordinarily but that which imported more he had put strong Garrisons and many Horse into S. Quentin Monstrueil Boulogne and all the other Towns that stand round la Fere in such manner that if the Spanish Camp should pass beyond them to raise the siege they remaining at their backs would cut off the wayes and take away the concourse of Provisions so that if the enterprize of making the King dislodge should require many dayes as it was certainly to be doubted the Army would be put in danger of some hard encounter To this was added that the King having after the publication of the Agreement received the Duke of Mayenne with great demonstrations of honor being come with his attendants to wait upon him in the Camp before la Fere and the Constable Montmorancy the Duke of Montpensier and the greater part of the Lords of all the Kingdom being come unto the Army he had under his Colours Eighteen thousand Foot and little less than Five thousand Horse an Army so potent especially by reason of the valour of the Cavalry that it was necessary to proceed with great circumspection in advancing so far into that Province against so great Forces and in the midst of so many of the Enemies Towns The Cardinal likewise was not ignorant that the States of Holland desirous that the War should continue in Franâ—e had set forth a fleet of many Ships to land men at Boulogne in relief of the King of France and that the Queen of England though the King consented not to all her demands had yet to uphold the common interests sent out a Navie to his assistance with Eight thousand Foot aboard it which it was believed were to land in the same place wherefore the Commanders doubted that these Forces uniting together it would not onely be vain
to attempt to relieve la Fere but also very dangerous to make their retreat These causes fully debated in the Counsel made the Cardinal take a resolution to try to do it by way of diversion for by encamping before some Place of importance belonging to the King either he should constrain him to rise from la Fere with his whole Army to succor the place so straightned or if persisting in the siege he should not care to relieve it he might easily get another place as good as la Fere. But there arose no less difficulties in chosing the place that should be pitched upon for Guise Han Guines and the other such like places that were nearest to Flanders were not to be compared unto la Fere and S. Quentin Monstrueil and Boulogne were so well fortified and mann'd that it was impossible to think of attaining them so that between the ambiguity of these considerations the Cardinal would have been long unresolved if Monsieur du Rosne had not secretly perswaded him to a new enterprize not foreseen by any other body Monsieur du Rosne was by long experience versed in all the King of France his Fortresses and the example of things past made him remember how easily Calais might be taken for by how much more the strength of it by situation and art made it in appearance be counted impregnable so much less carefull were the defendants to guard it with that diligence wherewith places of such high importance ought to be kept wherefore while that Town was under the Dominion of the Kings of England the smallness of the Garrison they kept in it had invited Francis Duke of Guise to besiege it in the year 1557 which also had so happy an event that contrary to the Common expectation he made himself Master of it only by that defect which coming often into du Rosne's mind he as being curious and full of industry had got certain information that Monsieur de Bidassan Governor of the place at that present had not above Six hundred Foot in it a Garrison no way sufficient to make it good either private interest or the general error of men having perswaded him to trust more to the strength of his Works than to the number and valour of the defendants some add that the King of France having sent the Sieur de la Noue and de la Valliere to view the condition of all the places standing upon the Frontiers of Picardy they not making their visitation with that secrecy which ought to go along with such businesses had with the same French lightness discoursed very freely of the weak estate of those Frontiers and the strength of Calais so magnified by fame being objected to them they inconsiderately answered that whosoever should assault that Fortress in the place and manner that was fitting the taking of it would be but twelve dayes business which words being told du Rosne by one that he had imployed as a Spie excited him to search out the place and manner which these discoverers had intimated Thus being fallen into a thought that he might obtain the Town famous for its fortification by reason of its standing upon the Sea and the quality of the Haven opportune for the affairs of Flanders and England he with his reasons made the Cardinal Arch-Duke incline unto it and so much the rather because all other enterprizes were thwarted with exceeding great difficulties But having determined between themselves to apply their mindes to this attempt without making any outward shew of it they made all the other Commanders believe they would assault Montrevil a place standing upon the straight way that leads to la Fere and less considerable than either St. Quentin or Boulogne and with this pretence having caused great provision to be made of Victual and Carriages to bring them to Doway Arras and the other confining places the Cardinal having appointed Valentiennes for the general Rendezvous of his Forces went thither personally upon the thirtieth of March where having mustred his Army in which were Six thousand Spanish Foot Six thousand Walloons Two thousand Italians and Four thousand Germans Twelve hundred men at Arms and Cuirassiers and little less than Two thousand Light-horse he divided his Forces into many parts and made them march several wayes to hold the Enemies in the greater suspence He sent Ambrogio Landriano towards Montrevil with part of the Light-horse and with the Marquiss of Trevico's Tertia with the rest of the Light-horse Basti marched into the Territory of Cambray Agostino Messia with a Tertia of Spaniards and two of Walloons went towards St Paul and the Count de Bossa with the Flemish Troops took towards Arras and Bethune which outward shews while they held those of their own side in suspence no less than the French Monsieur du Rosne with the Spanish Tertia's of Ludovico Valasco and Alonso Mendozza and Four hundred Horse went out of Valentiennes upon the fourth of April in the evening and marched all the night to St. Omer where having joyned with Colonel la Berlotte and the Count de Buquoy who stayed there for them with two Tertia's of Walloons he took along with him three pieces of Cannon and four of smaller Artillery and advanced speedily towards Calais where he arrived so much the more unexpectedly because being a place out of the way standing in the utmost point of a tongue of Land which advances it self a great way into the Sea neither the Spaniards nor the French had ever thought of defending or besieging it Calais stands upon the shore of the Ocean Sea in the furthest parts of a Promontory not above Thirty Leagues from England and hath a very large Haven which sheltred on each side with great high banks of sand which they commonly call les Dunes is made secure and commodious for a very great number of Ships The Town is invironed almost quite round with low grounds where the Sea overflows and drowns the Plain for many miles and being shut up within four banks by a very large moat it is of a square form having at three of the angles besides many great Towers and Ravelines along the Courtine as many Royal Bastions of modern structure with their Cavaliers within them and at the fourth angle which reaches from the West unto the North stands the Castle built likewise of a square form but with great Towers of the old fashion that flank it round about The moats are very large and deep for they receive the water on both sides and the Town which is little less than a League in circuit is all fortified round with thick Ramparts though by reason of the carelessness of the Governors in many places by length of time grown defective and in some decayed and fallen down On the outside along the Haven there is a great Suburb full of Inhabitants in regard of Traffick and the conveniency of Marriners and on that side a great Current of
a loss very inconsiderable for the taking of a place accounted impregnable and one of the principal ones of all France in so few days but it had always been alike ill-defended by the carelesness of those within the effects being no way correspondent to the same of the place But the so easie and so sudden loss of Calais did not only much perplex the King but also put him in a necessity of agreeing with the Queen of England and the States of Holland for la Fere being not yet given up he thought it very hard to rise from that siege and lose the expences and labours of so many months to the no small decrease of his reputation and on the other side if he did not speedily receive Supplies from both places he was not able to draw another body of an Army together wherewith he might resist the victorious force of the Enemy so that all other places in the Province would be given over with little hope that they should defend themselves more constantly than Calais had done a place excellently fortified by art and nature Being moved with this consideration and judging that the authority of the Duke of Bouillon would be very prevalent to work upon the Queen whose determination he was certain would be followed by the Hollanders he dispatched him into England with resolute orders to the end that concluding a reciprocal Confederacy the Fleet might set sail with all speed to land men in the Port of Boulogne But the difficulties were great and the Queen had no inclination to it partly because she intended to make use of the Kings necessity to get a Port in his Kingdom for which end before Calais was lost she had been backward to relieve it that she might constrain the French to put it into her hand partly because seeing the King reconciled to the Catholick Religion she thought it was in the King of Spain's power to conclude a Peace whensoever he would resolve no longer to molest the Kingdom of France and therefore she difficultly inclined to put her self to new expences which it was in the will of her Enemies to frustrate and make ineffectual wherefore having stifly denied for many days to hearken to any Treaty of new Obligations she only profferred to give those assistâ—nces for the time to come which she could without such great inconvenience to her self as she had done in times past and because the French pressed very earnestly to have the Earl of Essex come to Picardy with the Fleet the English answered That it was for the most part composed of ships and men that were Voluntiers who had put themselves together under the conduct of the Earl to make prize upon the Coasts of Spain from which design the Queen had not power to take them off having granted them licence for that purpose and that nevertheless they would be of great advantage to the King of France his affairs for the damage the Kingdom of Spain would receive thereby would divert the Catholick Kings Forces from the War of Picardy But these hopes and remedies were very far off and the Duke of Bouillon offering to consideration the interests of their common Religion if the prosperity of the Spaniards should still increase excited both the principal Ministâ—rs and the Queen her self to imploy her uâ—most Forces in so urgent and so near an occurrence and he moved much with his authority eloquence and reasons but most of all by being of the same Religion for he seemed to be principally zealous for the common interests and for the conservation of the Hugonot party in France to the end the King might not be constrained to come to such an Agreement with the Spaniards as might be prejudicial to the States of Holland to the quiet of England and to the Liberty of Conscience in his own Kingdom and yet the business went on so slowly and with such weighty difficulties that though the Confederacy with England was at last concluded differing little from the other contracted with King Charles the Ninth and without obligation to consign any Place for shame made the English to desist from that demand and though the Duke of Bouillon went with an Ambassador from the Queen into Holland where the same Confederacy was established yet the time was so far spent that the affairs of Picardy were no way relieved by it and the Eâ—â—l of Essex his Fleet having scowâ—ed the Coasts of Spain was dissolved without having done any thing considerable While this League was treated of in England the Cardinal Archduke not depending upon any body but himself after he had spent ten days in making up the breaches at Calais Guines and Han having surrendred at the bare summons of a Trumpet he determined to set upon Arâ—res a place of a good circuit excellently fortified and standing but three leagues from Calais by the taking whereof he thought he should absolutely secure what he had gotten and though the situation of it seemed very difficult because standing on the top of an Hill it as a Cavalier commands all the Plain below it which extends it self a little more than Cannon-shot and from the Plain there are Mountains and Woods as unfit to encamp in as opportune for the Ambushes of an Enemy yet the Cardinal encouraged by his prosperous successes sided with the opinion of Monsieur du Rosne who hoped to carry it before the King could be disintangled from la Fere and able to relieve it There were in Ardres the Marquiss de Belin Lieutenant of the Province Monsieur d' Annebourg Governour of the Town and the Sieur de Monluc who was come in to re-inforce it and they had with them little less than Two thousand Foot an Hundred and fifty Horse and convenient provisions of Artillery Ammunition and other things necessary for defence And because the Siege had been foreseen by the Commanders they had laboured with all possible diligence not only to better the Fortification of the Town but also to repair those of the Suburbs that stands towards Boulogne for that being the side on which Batteries might most easily be raised they determined by defending the Suburb to keep the Enemy as far as was possible from the Wall The Author of this counsel was the Governour of the Town a Souldier not only of much valour but also of great experience whose design was to defend the ground span by span to give the King so much time that la Fere falling he might come to succour that place before the last extremities but the Marquiss de Belin was of another mind and thought it a pernicious counsel to lose men in defending useless places and such as were not tenable wherefore he would have had them only engage themselves in maintaing those Posts which for their quality might be long made good and yet all the other Commanders being of opinion that the holding of the Suburb would be a benefit of great importance the Governours advice carried it
prisoner with Montecucoli still fighting valiantly Belgiojoso advanced with the Reer and for some time gallantly withstood the fury of the Conquerours but the other Bodies being routed and he himself wounded with two Pistol-shots in the Arm was at last constrained to save himself by flight leaving the Field free to the Mareschal de Byron and free power to go where he would so that he would have done more harm to the Country and perchance have made greater progress if the Rains of Autumn which that year fell much before the usual time had not put a hindrance to his incursions About this time there happened an accident at Court which as it gave private men an example of that moderation wherewith they ought to curb their passions so did it advertise Princes how far they ought to bear those terms of necessity in their Subjects to which Honour constrains them for a Controversie in words arising in the Kings Ante-chamber between the Sieur de Coqueinvillier one of his Gentlemen-Waiters but a man of approved Valour and Monsieur de Bonivet a Cavalier of ancient Nobility and great note Coqueinvillier forgetting the place where he was struck Bonivet a Box on the Ear who restraining his own fury in respect of the place they went both out of the Court and being separated by their Friends into several places Bonivet sent to challenge his Enemy that he might be revenged of the affront he had received but he acknowledging his errour in having wronged him in a place where it was not lawful for him to draw his Sword to right himself refused to meet him in the field and offered to ask him pardon which all men knew was not for want of courage whereof he had given proofs in other Duels but out of remorse of Conscience yet Bonivet notwithstanding the common opinion reiterated his challenge oftentimes which not only was answered with the same moderation but Coqueinvillier kept within doors for some time to avoid the occasion of fighting and yet the other urging him with injurious Letters and Messages and not accepting the offer he made to refer himself to his discretion he was at last constrained to meet him in a private place hand to hand where having made his former proffers and protested that he acknowledged himself much to blame he was constrained by Bonivet's fierceness to draw his Sword wherewith having wounded him with a thrust in the first bout retiring back he would have ended the business at the first blood but Bonivet furiously insulting and making many thrusts at him he being so hard pressed ran him thorow the body and laid him dead upon the ground The news being come to the Kings ear who knew all that had passed very well and bearing not only with the necessity that had forced Coqueinvillier to fight but for his Valours sake forgiving also the offence he had committed in striking in the Court said publickly That since one of them was lost it was not good to lose the other too and granting him his pardon he commanded the Magistrates not to proceed against him In the mean time the Deputies were met together at Rouen whither the King came upon the eighteenth of October accompanied with the Cardinal-Legat the Duke of Montpensier Governour of that Province the High Constable Montmorancy the Dukes of Nemours and Espernon the Prince of Iainville the Mareschals of Retz and Matignon the Admiral d' Anville the Cardinals of Giury and Gondy and a select number of the principal Lords of the Kingdom and being received with a very solemn pomp he spoke to the Assembly the fourth day of November showing them how much need the affairs of the Kingdom had of a Reformation and the urgency of Supplies to maintain the War upon the Confines Which things after they were more at large unfolded by the High Chancellor every one set himself with great desire to think upon those remedies which they judged might prove convenient But the infirmities of that Body afflicted with so long distempers were such as could not be so easily cured and every one perceived how necessary a general Peace was to introduce and establish a wholsom permanent Reformation since that amidst the necessities of War new disorders still spring up nor can the strictness of Reformation be observed where Military exigencies continually extort licentious dispensations Nor was there any body who thought not that the proper means to obtain peace was to have a great strength for the War to the end that recovering their reputation and the places that were lost the two Crowns might agree in peace with equal honour But as the remedy was known so was the means of attaining it very difficult for the whole Kingdom was so exhausted and weakned that the people could confer but little to the Kings assistance who to maintain the Armies in Dauphine and Bretagne and to raise a greater one in Picardy was forced to think of great preparations of Men Money and Ammunition which was gotten out of England and Holland at a very great charge and though it was hoped that some Provinces which had not been so much divided might with good order taken afford some considerable supply yet that required length of time which the Exigency and the War would not allow But nevertheless not being able to forbear doing all that was possible every one applied himself heartily as well to reform as to make preparations With the consultation of these affairs ended the year 1596. And though the Assembly continued in the beginning of the year following yet the Reformation was but very weak for the matter was not disposed to receive it and the times were unseasonable for the rigours of a resolute course only the expence of the Kings Houshold was lessened some supernumerary Offices were taken away and the Pensions of particular men were restrained but not in such manner that the Treasury was much eased by it The provisions made for the King were something more considerable for the payment of the debtâ— of the Crown were suspended for the two next years but without prejudice to the Creditors an increase was granted in the peoples name upon the Gabelle of Salt one of the chief Revenues of the Crown all Usurpers of Confiscations were by a severe Edict constrained not only to restore the Land but the profits so usurped from which business there resulted no small benefit And finally many of the Treasurers and of the Clergy voluntarily obliged themselves to contribute a certain sum of money though no very great one But the King having ended the Assembly at Rouen and being come into the quarters about Paris to take Physick for some private indisposition to the end that being freed from it he might more freely apply himself with the first season to the toil of Arms a new important accident gave beginning to Actions of War before the time Hernando Telles Portocarrero a man who in a very small stature of body contained
began now to be troubled with the Bloody Flux and the Plague in such manner that the Treasurers putting him in mind that all means of paying his Foot was utterly gone the King resolved to disband his Army and to apply himself heartily to the Treaty of Peace which now being high in reputation and honour and having satisfied himself and the expectation of his people he desired more boldly and openly than before This reciprocal desire of both Kings facilitated the Treaty of Peace but the Duke of Savoy's interests kept all things in difficulty For though the War these two last years had been various and with hot encounters and bloody assaults rather disadvantageous than otherwise and though Monsieur de Lesdiguieres having taken St. Iehan de Morienne and all that valley in the Alps was gone down into Piedmont to the ruine and spoiling of the Country yet he being resolved to retain the Marquesate of Saluzzo either crossed the Peace or cared not to have it concluded But yet the meeting at Vervins held whither Monsieur de Bellieure and President Sillery came from the King of France and President Riccardotto Iuan Boptista Tassis and Ludovicâ— Verichen Auditor of Brabanza for the King of Spain The French Deputies were brought by the Popes Nuncio and the Spanish by the General of the Cordeliers and the Cardinal-Legat came to the same place by whose Authority all difficulties of precedency being removed they entred upon the Treaty of the business but not before the beginning of the month of February in the year 1598 a year destined by Divine Providence to close up the grievous wounds of forty years past Great was the desire of Peace on both sides and great likewise the Authority of the Legat with each party nor were the demands very different For the Spaniards proffered without difficulty to restore Ardres Dourlans la Cappelle Castelet and Montaulin in Piccardy and the Port of Blauet in Bretagne and desired only to retain Calais as long as the War with the Hollanders lasted and to give the King of France an equivalent exchange in the mean time And the French stood to have Calais restored freely they likewise demanded Cambray and renewed some old pretensions upon the Confines of Flanders The Spaniards shewed that all old pretensions were terminated in the Peace concluded between the two Crowns at Chasteau Cambresis in the year 1559 and that Cambray was not of the King of France his Jurisdiction but a City of the Archbishops usurped a few years before by the Duke of Alancon's Forces and that therefore being a free Town the King could not pretend any right unto it but that the Master of the Low-Countries had the ancient protection of it and yet not a direct Dominion but one established by reason Upon these Answers the French easily gave off their old pretensions and the demand of Cambray and with as much facility did the Spaniards lay aside the demand of retaining Calais Whereupon all the difficulty was reduced to this point That the King of France would have had Blauet in the condition it then was with all the Artillery Shot and Ammunition of War and the Spaniards stood totally to demolish the Fort they had built and to carry away the Artillery and other things which they had brought thither of their own but this difficulty also was easily taken away for the Treaty being managed with great sincerity the French satisfied themselves knowing that the Spaniard had reason on their side All other matters were of small importance so that nothing remained save to treat about the interests of their adherents for the King of France desired there might be an Agreement made with the Queen of England and the States of Holland and the King of Spain would have had the Duke of Savoy and the Duke of Mercoeur comprehended in the Peace About this there arose a sharp contention for the French having said that they would not include the Duke of Mercoeur as being the Kings Subject the Spaniards answered That also the States of Holland were the King of Spâ—iâ—s Subjects and here mutually upbraiding one another that they fomented Rebels they grew extreamly angry and broke forth into words of indignation and yet the Cardinal-Legat interposing they agreed to make their Princes acquainted with the business and expect their resolute orders But within a few days these difficulties were removed for the King having left the Constable with reasonable Forces in Picardy was gone personally to Angiers to draw his Army together and march with all his Forces into Bretagne Wherefore the Duke of Mercoeur seeing his designs ruined and not being willing to hold out till the last necessities which he was not able to resist condescended to the Agreement by which marrying his onlâ— Daughter to Caesar the Kings Bastard Son and receiving other recompences of Pensions and moneys he delivered up that part of Bretagne that was in his possession unto the Kings obedience whereupon the occasion ceased for which the Catholick King endeavoured to include him in the Peace Nor was there any need to contend long for the Queen of England and the States of Holland for those Princes after they had done all that was possible to hinder the Treaty of Peace shewing themselves ill satisfied with the King because in the League of the year before he had promised not to agree without them declared that they would not be comprehended as Adherents and that they would have no Peace with the King of Spain There remained only the point concerning the Duke of Savoy which was like to have interrupted the whole agreement when it was brought to perfection for the Marquiss de Lullin the Dukes Ambassadour being introduced into the Conference said That President Sillery one of the Deputies there present had from the year before treated an accommodation with the Duke and that the King was then contented he should hold the Marquesate of Saluzzo in fee from the Crown The President answered That it was true the King was so contented but at a time when the state of his affairs perswaded him by all means to divide the Duke from the King of Spain and that to that condition the Marquiss knew well there were others joined which he would not mention lest he should set discord among Friends by which words he meant to infer that the Duke to retain the Marquesate had proffered to make War against the State of Milan Many contentions there were about it and the whole Treaty seemed to be discomposed but the General of the Cordeliers going to the King and Iuan Baptista Tassis to the Archduke they returned within a few days and concluded that the Duke and the King should retain what they possessed at that present and that the difference about the Marquesate should be referred to the Pope who was to give judgment within the space of one year and then what each held of the others would mutually be
General to Prince Casimire leads the Army 313. His excuse to the Emperor commanding him to disband ib. his Acts 324. disbands his Army 328 Battel between the Armies 37. at Brisac 140. at St. Denis 117 Bellegarde usurps the Marquisate of Saluzza 238 Birth of Henry IV. in the Territory of Pau 10. in the Viscounty of Bearn a free State Decemb. 13. 1554. ib. Bishop of Monsâ— sent on purpose by the King to demand absolution for the Cardinal of Guise's death 385 Bishop of Paris gives way that the Church-Plate should be turned into money for relief of the Poor 460 Bishops to judge â—f Heresie 50 Blois taken and pillaged by the Kings Army 70 Jean Bodin contradicts the Prelates in the General Assembly 229 Body of Henry III. laid in the great Church of Campeign 416 Francis de Bonne made Head of the Hugonots and after Constable of the Kingdom 212 Bourges rendred upâ—â— Condition 71 Brigues in French signifies Factions 64 C. CAhors taken and sacked by the Hugonots 241 Calais recovered from the English and besieged by the Spanish Army 702. A description of its situation 703. agrees to surrender if not relieved within six days but de Martelet getting in with 300 Foot they refuse the Castle stormed Governor killed and all put to the Sword 705 John Calvin a Picard preacheth and publisheth in Print 128 Principles differing from the Roman-Catholick Religion which had their foundaetion in Geneva at first hearkned to out of curiosity but at last produce great mischief 19. Henry II. severe against the Calvinists of whose death they boast much 20 Cambray its Siege 685 c. yields to the Spaniard 690 Cardinal Alessandrino Legat from Pope Pius Quintus refuses a rich Iewel presented to him by the Kings own hand 177 Cardinal Alessandro de Medici who was after Pope Leo XI appointed Legat into France 675. received with great demonstrations of Honour by Monsieur des Digâ—ieres a Hugonot His solemn entry into Paris 710. setling Religion he begins to promote a Treaty between France and Spain 711 Cardinal of Bourbon Vncle to the King of Navarre desired for the Head of the Catholicks 252. His pretensions to the succession of the Crown 253. put into the Castle of Amboise 374 declared King of France by the League and called Charles X. 417 Cardinal of Chastillon changing his Religion calls himself Count of Beauvais 64. the Lye passes between the Constable and him 115. flies disguised like a Mariner into England and remains with the Queen as Agent for the Hugonots Page 130 Cardinal of Guise made Prisoner 370. is slain and his body and the Duke of Guise's two Brothers burn'd in Quick-lime and their bones buried in an unknown place 373 Cardinal Gondi and the Legat meet the Marquis of Pisani upon a Treaty but nothing concluded 465. he and the Archbishop of Lyons chose by the Council of Paris to treat with the King 466. he and the Marquis of Pisani chosen to go to Rome by Henry IV. 557. sends his Secretary to excuse himself to the Pope 561. notice that he should not enter into the Ecclesiastical State by the Pope 163. is permitted by the Pope to come to Rome but not to speak a word of the affairs of France 644. return'd to Paris commands they should use the Prayers were wont to be made for the King and to acknowledge Henry IV. lawful King 653 Cardinal Henrico Gaetano a man partial to Spain declared Legat to the League in France 431. the Popes Commissions to him 432. his request to Colonel Alphonso Corso and his answer 433. overcoming many difficulties arrives at Paris 434. Grants the Duke of Mayenne 300000 Crowns brought for enlargement of the Cardinal of Bourbon 439 meets with the Mareshal de Byron they treat of divers things without any conclusion 453 Cardinal of Sancti Quattro succeeds Gregory XIV by name of Innocent IX 530 Cardinal Hippoliâ—o d'Esâ—é Legat in France 51 Cardinal Hippolito Aldebrandino aged 56 succeeds Pope Innocent IX by the name of Clement VIII 555 Cardinal of Lenon-Court gives the King notice of the Cardinal of Vendosme's designs 499 Cardinal Sega Legat in France hath prudent instructions from the Pope by Monseignor Agucchi touching the affairs thereof 564. executes not his Orders ib. his Declaration and Exhortation 577. his Proposition 584. opposes an offer of the Catholick Lords but to no purpose 500 persuaded by the Archbishop of Lyons he secretly consents to it 597. sets forth a Writing to keep the League on 〈◊〉 630 Goes out of the Kingdom 637 Cardinal of Tournon called a second time to Court 13 Cardinal of Vendosme raises a third party of Catâ—olicks to make himself Head and so come to the Crown 498. sâ—ndâ— Scipio Balbani to treat with the Pope and communicate his design 499. Cardinal Lenon-Court gives the King notice of his designs ib Catharine de Medicis Wife to Henry II. dyed in the 70th year of her age thirty whereof she spent in the regency and management of greatest affairs and troubles of France 374 Catholicks besiege la Charité which being stoutly defended they give it over 156 raise the Siege before Chastel-rault 157. take all the Hugonots Baggage and Cannon and 200 Colours 163. King of Navarre proceeds against them 217. desire the Cardinal of Bourbon for their Head 259 War again between them and the Hugonots 288. recover the Castle of Angâ—ers taken suddenly by the Hugonots 290 besiege Maran 295. Lâ—se a Battel are all killed and taken Prisoners except a very few that save themselves by flight 322. assemble themselves to consult about a future King 408. resolve to declare the King of Navarre King of France upon assurance of changing his Religion 409. swear Fidelity to the King by a Writing sign'd and establish'd 410. complain of Henry IV. continuing in Calvinism 405. they of Henry IV. party displeased that the Peace should be treated by du Plessis a Hugonot renew a third party 555 Causes that moved the Guises to frame the League 224. vid. 325 Cause of distaste between Duke d'Espernon and Secretary Villeroy 348. of Hatred between the Prince and King of Navarre 407 that moved the Duke of Mayenne to hope to be chosen King 565 Ceremonies used at the Conversion of Henry IV. 613 Chancellor Birago made Cardinal and Philip Huralt chose in his place 235 Chancellor Chiverney put out of his place 357 recall'd to his Office by Henry IV. 466. his opinion 467 Chancellor Olivier call'd a second time to Court 13. dyes Chancellor de l'Hospital succeeds him 29. put out of his Office upon the Kings jealousie 130. and conferred upon Monsieur de Morvilliers ib. Charles IX marries Izabella Daughter of Maximilian the Emperor 171 Charlotte de la Marc Heir to the Dutchy of Bouillon married to Henry de la Tour Viscount de Turenne 511 Chartres voluntarily sets open its Gates 402. its Description and Siege 494 496 Chastel-rault besieged 156. Siege raised 157 Jaques Clement his birth age and
after Victory made his Commanders sup with him at Rosny familiarly speaking to every one and praising the meanest Soldier 450. besieges and takes Melum 454. his Answer to Villeroy persuading him to turn Catholick 455. dismisses him not resolved to grant a Cessation of Arms 457. assaults the Fauxbourgs of Paris sits on his Horses back Forty four hours at the Siege of St. Denis 465. recalls the Chancellor Chiverny to his Office 466. rises from the Siege of Paris and marches to Chelles to hinder the relief 471. sends a Trumpet to the Duke of Mayenne challenging him to Battel 470. deceived by the Duke of Parma ibid. withdraws and marches towards St. Denis 474. in the midst of night gives a Scalado to the walls of Paris c. 475. coming to St Denis without victuals or money sâ—parates his Army oppressed with diseases 476. batters Clermont and takes it on the third day ibid. assaults the Spanish Army and his Horse had cut the Rear-guard in pieces if Georgio Basti had not disingaged them with his Lanciers 480. assaults Corby and takes it 485. his remedies to conserve the affections and obedience of his Party 486. recalls the Duke of Espernon and other Catholiâ—k Lords to his Army ibid. his design upon Paris discovered a second time 491. Chartres surrenders to him 496. declares in Council the necessity of giving the Hugonots some satisfaction confirms an Edict of Henry III. granting them Liberty of Conscience 498. besieges Noyen 605. surrendred to him 507. gives the Germans the Pillage of Attigny offers Battel to the Duke of Mayenne in the Plain of Verdun 512. summons Rouen and refused c. 524. raises the Siege 540. his Saying of Guiry gives distaste to others 539. returns 545. escapes a great danger 546. prayes the Republick of Venice by their Ambassador to treat with the Pope about his reconciliation 559. weeps for the death of Marshal de Biron 560. desires the Duke of Thuscany also to use â—is endeavors with him and the Cardinals ibid chooses Cardinal Gondi and Marquis of Pisani to go to Rome 557. sends his Forces to recover Espernay 559. desires a Reconciliation with the Catholick Church by way of agreement not pardon 562. his Manifesto at Chartres 588. proposes his Conversion to see how it would be relished 605. besiegeth Dreux to give reputation to his Party 607. sends for Prelates and Divines and being instructed at Maule publishes he will go to Masse at St. Denis 612. sends the Duke of Nevers and four Prelates Ambassadors of Obedience to the Pope 617. goes to Mantua 621. desires to be Crowned 634. besieges Laon and surrendred 646 650. sends the Lorrain Forces to make Incursions into the County of Bourgogne 655 causes open War to be proclaimed against Spain 664. besieges the Castles of Dijon 667. half disarmed succors the Marshal de Byron 669 routs the Spaniards in Franche Comte 671. is absolved of his Heresie 675. agrees with the Duke of Mayenne 694. lays Siege to la Fere 696. complains to the Pope of the Spaniards 798. his design about Somme answers not the intention 700. goes Pâ—st to Mont-le-hery to meet the Legat 710. ratifies all his Procurators had done 711. calls a Congregation at Rouen of the Officers of his Crown to settle his Kingdom and Supplies for War 712. breaks off a course of Physick and goes to relieve Amiens excuses the murmurings about it 718. follows the Archduke going from Amiens and his praise of the Spanish Infantry Page 730 King Pharamond chosen first King of the French at the River Sala and the Salique Law established 3 L. LAdy Marguerite being asked If she would have the King of Navarre for her Husband answered nothing being urged by the King bowed her head 180 Lagny taken by the Duke of Parma before the face of the Kings Army 474. recovered by the Baron de Guiry 478 The Popes Legate propounds a Truce to the Duke of Mayenne but he refuses it 388. makes grievous complaints to the King 390. is suspected by the Pope to side with the King 393. as soon as Peace was concluded with the Hugonots departs from Court to go out of the Kingdom ibid. moves the Duke of Mayenne again to an Accommodation but he refuses ib. League its form 222. composed of the disaffected to the Government and Zealots in Religion 251. set forward by Mendozzâ— the Spanish Ambassador 260. the Heads publish a Declaration 261. set the Parisians to frame a Council of Sixteen 300. consult to take the King returning from Hunting to take the Bastille Arcenal Paris and the Louvre cut in pieces the Minions and his Adherents and himself Prisoner 302. first assault the Germans in Lorrain 316. Forty of their chiefest persons châ—se for the Council of the Union 385. take Vendosme by agreement with the Governor 397. great slaughter of them at the Siege of Senlis 400. declare Cardinal of Bourbon King and call him Charles X. 417. takes a disgust at the Duke of Mayenne which is fomented by the Spaniards 487. besiege Caudebec with no good advice 544 c. A League concluded between Henry IV. and the Queen of England almost the same that was made with Charles IX 706 Learned Men fight for their Factions with their Pens as Soldiers with their Swords 434 Lewis Duke of Oâ—leans in the time of Charles VIII takes up Arms to maintain the Right of Government in whom it belonged 18 Ligneroles killed by the Kings command for shewing he knew what he desired to be kept secret 173 Livery made to Wards 90 Lord Peregrine Bertue Lord Willoughby Fahter to the valiant Earl of Lindsey who was slain at the Battel of Edgehill being General of the Kings Army was General of the Forces sent into France to Henry IV. by Queen Elizabeth 423 Lowyse de Vaudemont Neece to the Duke of Lorrain married to Henry III. 212 Low-Countries withdrawn from the King of Spain's Dominions seek first Protection from the King of France then put themselves under the Duke of Alâ—nzon 239. send Ambassadors to the King of France intreating him to take the Protection and Dominion of their States 259 Ludovico de Gonzaga Duke of Mantua marries Henrietta de Cleve Sister to the Duke of Nevers 99 Lyons the first that rebelled and last that returned to obedience 629 M. MAdam de Monpensier persuades the Duke of Guise her Brother to make himself Head of the Holy Union 384. she and others exhort him to make himself be declared King of France 413 Management of Affairs under Francis II. committed to his Mother Duke of Guise and Cardinal of Lorrain by his Wifes persuasion 12 Manifesto of the Hugonots 130. of the King 588 Marks of Iustice is having the Authority to dispose of the chief Ecclesiastical and Temporal Dignities 437 Marquis de Villars made Admiral in the place of Coligny 161. besieges Quillebeuf 558. is forced to rise from it 559. submits Rouen to the King 638 Marquis of Pisani meets the Legat about a Treaty but
and do Penance for the Cardinals death 402. resolves to send assistance to the League against the King 431. his Commissions to Cardinal Gaetano Legat in France 432. his Breve published at Paris and the Contents thereof 434 grows jealous Gaetano inclines to favour the Spanish designs 453. his death 4â—8 Pope Urban VII lives but Twelve dayes and is succeeded by Gregory XIV a Milanese ib. who resolves to send men and money to assist the League 493. chooses Mastilio Landriano Legat to France assigns Fifteen thousand Crowns per mensem for the League ibid. sends Twelve hundred Horse and Six thousand Foot into France under command of Monte-Martiano 503. dyes 530 Preheminences of the Royal Family are Inheritance and Administration 4 Princes of the Blood ib. Prince of Condé set at liberty 28. practises to possess Lyons but without success 32. committed to Prison excepts against his Tryal and appeals to the King but not accepted 37. Sentence pronounced against him 38. set at liberty and declared void 44. his Manifesto 61. Coins the Plate belonging to the Churches 63. his demands in favour of himself and the Hugonots 65. returns to his Army 67. going to besiege Paris amuses himself before Corbiel whereby he fails of his design 78. taken Prisoner by the Duke of Guise 83. sups and lies in the same Bed with the Duke his bitter Enemy 84. offers the King a great number of Hugonots to make War with Spain 109. incenseth the King with a Letter of Protestation 128. sells the Goods of the Church for the Hugonots 137. is shot in the head at the Battel of Brisac and dyes 140. his Body is carried in Triumph upon a â—ack-horse by the Catholicks and after restored to the Pâ—ince of Navarre his Nephew 141. his Son a Child and the Prince of Nâ—varre made Heads of the Hugonots 142. is kept in the Kings Chamber duâ—â—â—g the Massacre and after kept Prisoner 183. he and his Brother turn Catholicks 186. made Head of the Hugonots 206. brings a great Army out of Germany and declares the Duke of Alanzon Head of the Hugonots 215. offended at his power seek to make Peace with him 219. is declared Lieutenant General of the Hugonots 226. will not acknowledge the Assembly at Blois to be the States General nor treat with their Commissioners 230. excommunicated by Sixtus Quintus and declared incapable of Succession to the Crown 284. poisoned at St. Jehan de Angely by his own Servants 235 Princess of Condé dexterously refer'd by the King to the Parliament of Paris about imputation of her being guilty of her Husbands death and is clear'd by them she promising first to turn Catholick and instruct her Son in the same Religion 672 Prince of Navarre marries the Kings Sister by dispensation from the Pope 177. assumes the Title of King 179 Prince of Orange formerly declared Rebel is restored to his Estate 220 Q. QUeen Blanch Mother to St. Lewis taking upon her the Government in her Sons minority the Barons take Arms to maintain the Right in whom it belong'd 1â— Queen Catherine joins with the Prince of Conâ—â— and the Admiral in opposition to the Triumvirate 53. feigns an inclination to the Hugonot Religion ibid. forced to declare for the Catholicks and at the same time maintains hopes in the Hugonots 60 Queen Elizabeth of England offers Conditions to the Hugonots 6. imprisons Mary Queen of Scots 296. grants assistance to Henry IV. by Viscount de Turenne 487 Queen Margaret Wife to the King of Navarre her licentious Life causes the King and Queen-mother to resolve to break the match and give him Christien Daughter of the Duke of Lorrain to Wife who afterwards married Ferdinand de Medicis Grand Duke of Tuscany 397 Mary Queen of Scots Cousin to the Guises imprisoned by Elizabeth Queen of England 296 Queen-mother and Prince of Condé parley 64. persuades the Duke of Guise Constable and Mareschal de St. André to leave the Court hath it promised under their hands they will whereupon the Catholick Lords leave the Camp 65 66 is threatned in a Letter to be killed 107. with the King she visits the Admiral and under pretence of defending him set strict Guards upon his House 181. sends three Armies into several parts of the Kingdom to suppress Insurrections 198. favours Lugi d'Avila the Authors Brother 274. she is resolved to break the match between the King of Nâ—varre and Queen Margaret by reason of her licentious Life and give him Christien Daughter to the Duke of Lorrain to Wife 397. treats an Accommodation with the Hugonots ibid. an Interview between her and the King of Navarre but nothing concluded 305. A Saying of hers 335. becomes pale and afrighted at the Duke of Guises waiting upon her dissuades the King from his thoughts against him 338. is strongly guarded for fear of him 339. goes to him in her Sâ—dan being denied passage in her Coach confers with him but brings back nothing but complaints and exorbitant demands 344. goes with him to the King at Chartres 354. dyes on Twe fth-Eve in the 50th year of her age 30 whereof she spent in the Regency and management of greatest affairs and troubles of the Kingdom of France Page 374 Queen of Navarre causes Churches to be ruined and expels the Priests 94. goes with all the Hugonots to the Prince of Condé and the Admiral at Rochel 129. her Letters and their Manifesto 130. Coins money with her own Figure on one side and her Sons on the other 143. is poisoned with a pair of Gloves 178 An ancient Question Whether the Assembly of the States or the King be Superior 228 R. REformed Religion began to spread in France in the time of Francis I. 20 Reiters are German Horse 260.327 those of the League fight till they are all destroyed 448 Religion a veil of private Interests 46 Remedies used by Henry IV. to conserve the affections and obedience of his Party 486 Renard Procurer of Chasteler with others put to death for crying Bread or Peace 464 Renaudie a man of a desperate fortune Head of the Hugonot Conspiracy 21 Republick of Venice acknowledges Henry IV. King of France and Mosenigo their Ambassador to Henry III. passes a Compliment with him in publick 427 Rhenus a Vial of Oyl kept there wherewith the first Christian King Louis was Consecrated 47. a meeting there dissolved without any determination 503 River Vare divides Italy from France 565 Rochel revolts to the Hugonots which serves them ever after for a Sanctuary 122. its strong situation 190. yielded to the King 192. they break the Truce 205. permit Catholicks to say Mass at the intercession of the King of Navarre 226 Rouen taken by the Catholicks and sack't 75. disliking their Gâ—vernor de Tavennes they make an Insurrection 504. A Relation of its Siege 523 524 c. Royal Races 5 S. SAla the River where the Salique Law was established 3 Salii Priests ibid. Savii de Terra Firma are Magistrates of Venice so called
putting him out of his office confers it upon Monsieur de Mâ—rvilliâ—rs The King setteth forth an Edict against the Hugonots by which all the former are revoked New preparations for War The Hugonotâ— set out a Fleeâ— to fetch in provisions Whilst the Duke of Anjou batters Loudun on the one side the Prince of Coâ—de coming to relieve it lodgeth in the suburbs on the other and being both resolved to fight they are hindred by the coldness of the season 1569. Through their past sufferings a great mortality seiseth upon the Armies 1569. The Hugonots being in a streight the Prince of Câ—nde sells the goods of the Churcâ— The Monastery of St. Michael in â—remo destroyed by the Rochelleâ—s Anno 1569. Andelot mingles with the Enemy in such manner that lifâ—ing up the Duke of Monsalez Beaver he discharges a Pistol in his faâ—e In the Battel of â—rissâ—c the Prince of Conde is shot in the head of which he dies the 16 of Marcâ— 1569 The body of the Prince of Conde was carried in triumph upon a Pack-horse by the Catholicks and afterwards restored to his Nephew the Prince of Navarre Andelot after the loss of the Battel dieth of grief The Prince of Navarre and Henry Son to the Prince of Câ—nde are approved of and received for Heads of the Hugonot Faction The Prince of Navarre was fifteen years of age and the Prince of Condâ— a child Money coyned by the Queen of Navarre with her owâ— figure on the one side and her Sonâ— on the other The care of the Aâ—my committed to the Admiral Wolfâ—ngus of Bavaria with an Army of 14000 men comes to the aid of the Hugonots The Duke of Dâ—ux-ponts enters into Fâ—ance wasting and spoiling the Country The Duke of Deux-ponâ—s dies of eâ—ceâ—â— of drinking before he joiâ—â— with the Priâ—â—eâ— Count Mansfield succeâ—ds him in the charge of the Army The Pope the great Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Alva send supplies to the King The Armies front each other and the Admiral sets upon Sâ—rozzi's quarter who through his too much forwardness is taken prisoner The Hugonots for want of provision are forced to rise from before the Catholicks The Duke dismisseth the Nobility of his Army sends the rest into Garison and goeth himself to Loches The Hugonots resolve to take in as many places as they can by intelligence possess themselves of Chastel-rault and Lusignan with the Castle there Poictiers after Paris a City of the greatest circuit of any in France A great mortality in the Hugonot Army The Admiral sickneth yet desisteth not from the siege of Poctierâ— After many assaults bravely sustained the Admiral quits the siege and goes to relieve Chastâ—l-rault The Duke of Guise who had sustained the siege gets great reputation The Catholicks besiege la Charite which being stoutly defended they give it over Fab. del Monte Head of the Tuscan forces killed before Chastel-rault The Catholicks raise the siege from before Chastel-rault Henry Duke of Guise admitted to the Cabinet-Council The Kings decree Against the Admiral The Marquess de Villars made Admiral in thâ— place of Coligny The Armies join Battel The Admiral wounded flees with the Princes In the Battel of Mâ—nâ—oniouâ— the Catholicks took all the Baggage Cannon and Ammunition of the Hugonots and 200 colours The Count St. Fiore sends to Rome 26 Ensignâ— taken by his Souldiers The Duke of Anjou recovers many places from the Hugonots Monsieur de Piles defends S. Iean d'Angely 46 days and after yields it upon honourable conditions 1570. In the beginning of the year the King disbands part of his Army which advice in the end proves very hurtful The Hugonots not being opposed do great outrages and rise with considerable forces By reason of a conspiracy discovered against the Queen of England the Hugonots despair of help from from thence whereupon a Treaty is begun but not concluded The Admiral being sick is carried along with the Army in a Litter The Duke of Anjou being sick the Army is commanded by the Mareshal de Câ—sse who inclining to Calvin's Doctrine makes no progress against the Hugonots Through suspition of the Mareshal de Câ—ssâ— and d' Anville the Treaty is renewed The Peace is concluded and published but full of jealousies Charles the IX marrieth Isabella the daughter of Maximilian the Emperour Anno 1570. 1571. The Kings answer to the Duke of Guise The Duke of Guise resolves to marry Katherine de Cleves The Duke of Savoy grows suspicious of the Admiral for having against his will married Madam d' Antramont a Savoyard Ligneroles killed by the Kings command for shewing that he knew that which the King desired keep secret The Admiral after so many wars with the King prostrates himself at his feet and is graciously received 1572. The King dissembles so with the Hugonots that he is suspected by stranger Princes Cardinal Alessandrino Legat to Pius Quintus refuseth a rich jewel presented to him by the Kings own hand Gregory the 13 succeeding Pius Quinâ—us granteth a Dispensationâ— for the marriage between the Prince of Navarre and the Kings Sister The Admiral causeth the Hugonots to surprise the City of Mons in Heinault in Flanders to force the King to a War with Spain he is displeased but dissembles it The Lords â—f the House of Lorain and the Admiral are seemingly made friends before the King The War against the Spaniards breaks out against the Kings will The Queen of Navarre is poisoned with a pair of gloves The Prince of Navarre assumes the title of King The Admiral prefers himself before Iulius Caesar and Alexander the Great The Lady Marguerite being asked if she would have the King of Navarre for her Husband answered not but being urged by the King bowed her head The King takes order with the Duke of Guise to have the designs put in execution Maurevell shoots the Admiral in the left elbow and saves himself by flight The King and the Queen-Mother visit the Admiral and under pretence of defending him set strict guards upon his house The Duke of Guise besets the Aâ—mirals house The Admiral is slain thrown out at the window and dragged into a stable All the chief Hugonots in the Louvre are killed At the ringing of the Bell the Hugonotâ— are massacred and amongst them Denis Lambin The King of Navarâ—e and the Prince of C nde are kept in the Kings chamber during the massacre and after are kept prisoners Ten thousand Hugonots killed in Paâ—â—â— whereof five hundred 〈◊〉 Barons and men of 〈…〉 to the Admirals â—ody The like Commissions against the Hugonots sent through the whole Kingdom Where executed and where not It is reported that 40000 Hugonots were killed in the Massacre The Admirals Statue burned and his Palace razed The King of Navarre turns Catholick Words of the King to the Prince of Conde The Prince and his Brothers turns Catholicks Monsieur de la Noue sent Governour by the King to Rochel turns General to the Hugonots Sanserre taken
the Riveâ— Saone at a Foâ—d and the Spaniards that lay to defend the Pass for want of Ammunition were forced to leave it and retire The Spaniar's are routed and dispersed Don Alonso Idiaquer taken prisoner The Princess of Conde being dexterously referred by the King unto the Parliament of Paris concerning an imputation laid upon her of being privy to her husbands death is cleared thereof by the Parliament having promised first to turn Catholick and that her Son should be instructed in the same Râ—ligion The Pope almost assured of the Kings sincerity inclines towards him and shews himself averse from others The Pope sends his Nephew G ovan Francesâ—o Aldobrandino into Spain to â—reat of the affairs of Hungaâ—y and also of the Kings absolution Monsignor Seâ—â—fino tells the Pope that Clâ—ment the Seventh lost England and Clemâ—nt the Eighth would lose France The Pope that he might have the more free and secure opinion of the Colledge of Cardinals resolves to hear them privately one by one The Pope in the Consistory declares that two thirds of the Cardinals had voted the absolution of Henry the IV. and that therefore he was resolved to treat with his Procurators about it Upon the 16 of Sept. 1595. the Pope in the Porch of St. Peters doth with solemn Ceremony absolve Hen. IV. from censures and he is received into the bosom of the Church The conditions established at Rome to be observed by the King of France The Kings Procurators kneeling at the Gate of St. Peters Church do with a loud voice abjure the Heresie of the Kings false belief Cardinal Alessandro Medici who after was Pope Leâ— the XI is appointed Legat into France By the death of the Archduke Eâ—nest the Government of the Low-countries is given to the Count de Fuentes Count Charles of Mansfelt goes to serve the Emperour in the War of Hungary The Sieur de Gomeron Governour of Han agrees with the Spaniards and receives their Garison into the Town but not into the Castle Gomeron having left the Sieur d' Orvilliers in the Castle of Han goes into Flanders where he is kept prisoner by the Conde de Fuentes The Duke of Lâ—ngueville Governour of Picardy killed by a musketshâ—t The Conde de Fuentes goes into Picardy and besieges Castelet with a design afterward to besiege Cambray * The open space without the Câ—stle from the edge of the Counterscarp Orvilliers having agreed with the French brings a strong party into the Castle The French go out of the Castle of Han and attack the Spaniards that holâ— the Town * The Freâ—ch sayes Harancâ—nes Many Prisoners are left with the Sieur d' Orvilliers that he might exchange his Brother-in-Law the Sieur de Gomeron The Count dâ— Fuentes upon hopes given him by Madam de Gomeron comes before Han but his design of taking it not succeeding he causes Gomeron to be beheaded in sight of the French The Count 〈◊〉 Fuentes besieges Doâ—â—lans There being no commander of authority in Dourlans and all desiring to command there grows a confusion among the Defendants Monsieur de la Motte Camp-Master-General of the Spanish Army is slain Monsieur du Rosne is chosen in his place The Duke of Bouillon intending to relieve Dourlans causâ—s the Commanders to resolve that his opinion should be executed The Count de Fuentes having left Harnando Telles at the siege draws off to meet and hinder the relief The Admiral Villars fighting gallantly is slain The Marquiss de Belin and the Monsieur de Longchamp are taken prisoners by the Spaniards While the Armies fight in the Field the besieged sally into the Trench but are repulsed The Spaniards assault Dourlans and take it and to revenge the slaughter of Han put all to the Sword without regard A great number of the French Gentry are slain there and the Town sacked The Conde de Fuenâ—es gives the Government of Dourlans to Portocarrero and applies himself to the enterprise of Cambray The Duke of Nevers having called a Councel of War resolves not to ingage himself in Cambray but sends his Son the Duke of Rhetelois who afterwards was Duke of Mantua with a good relief The Duke of Rhâ—telois having overcome many impediments and fought with two Squadrons of the Enemy enters with relief into Cambray The manner of Count de Fuentes besieging Cambray The Sieur de Vic with great difficulty enters with men into Cambray The Sieur de Baâ—agny in necâ—ssity coins copper-money The Citizens rising in an uproar make themselves Masters of a gate and send their Deputies to capitulate with the Count de Fuentes The Citizens open the gates and receive their Deputies with the Capitulations and the Spaniards are brought into Cambray The Count de Fuentes having put the Government of Cambray into the Archbishops hands leaves Picardy and goes to Bruxels The Mareschal d' Aumonâ— is killed with a Musket shot While the Duke of Nemours who upheld the League in Dâ—uphine goes to Tuâ—in and Milan to get supplies Colonel Disemieux his Lieutenant delivers up the Fortresses unto the Duke of Montmorancy whereupon he seeing himself deprived of all retreat in despair falls sick and dies The Duke of Ioyeuse who formerly turned Capuchin for his wifes death now upon occasion of his brothers death leaves the Cloister and takes arms for the League Difficulties that interposed themselves in the setling of the Accommodation with the Duke of Mayenne The King being come to Fol-ambray consults long about matters concerning the Agreement with the Duke of Mayenne The Duke of Mayenne and the Princes and Princesses his Adherents are declared innocint of the death of Henry the Third The substance of the agreement with the Duke of Mayenne Difficulties and oppositions in the Parliament of Paris about receiving the Decree of the Agreement with the Duke of Mayenne The Duke of Aumale incensed by having been declared Rebel keeps united with the Spaniards The Duke of Mercoeur Brother to the Q. Dowager persists in his proposition of keeping Bretâ—gne to himself The death of Lodovi Gonzago Duke of Nevers Upon the 8th of Novembeâ— the King lays siege to la Fere a place strong both by art and nature The Archduke Albert Cardinal of Austria goes to be Governour in Flanders 1596. 1596. The City of Marseilles in the County of Provence is govern'd by the election of a Consul and Lieutenant Carlo Doria by order from the Catholick King goes with ten gallies to Marseilles to foment the Consul and Lieutenant of that City The King of France makes complaint unto the Pope concerning the attempts of the Spaniards The Duke of Guise plots to get into Marseilles by means of Captain Liberta of Corsica who guarded a Port there Afâ—er a short fight the Duke of Guise makes himself master of the Ci y and Forts of Marseilles and drives Carlo Dorias Gallies out of the Haven Nicolo Basti under favor of a thick mist passes through the Kings quarters carries relief to the besieged of la Fere
the other of Foot under the conduct of Andelot and the third mingled both with Horse and Foot which he commanded himself he marched with great silence and expedition to assault the Enemies Camp about midnight But fortune frustrated his design for though the way were plain through a free open Country yet the guides that led the first Squadron either through treachery or amazedness or else through ignorance losing their way they so wandred up and down that the next morning at break of day he found that he was advanced but little more than a league from the place whence he set out over night and still two great leagues from the Kings Camp Notwithstanding necessity compelling to attempt the greatest difficulties the Commanders resolved to pursue their design and the same order to perform that in the day which they could not effect in the night But Monsieur d' Anville who with the light horse quartered in the front of the Kings Army having presently advertisement by his Scouts of their coming had by shooting off two pieces of Cannon given notice thereof to the Camp that lay behind him Whereupon the Souldiers and Gentlemen running from all parts to their colours he going before to make good the high-way that they might have time to put the Army in order having divided his Horse into divers little Squadrons began to skirmish fiercely with the first Troops of the Hugonots By reason whereof they being forced to march slowlier and closer together often making halts through the heat of the skirmish and not to disoâ—der themselves in the face of the Enemy the King of Navarre had more commodity of time to get his men together and to order them for a Battel So the Princes Army still advancing and the King of Navarre ranging his men in a Battalia upon the plain but with the Camp behind them at the last about noon both Armies faced one another that there was nothing between them but a little plain without any manner of impediment But though the Ordnance plaid fiercely on both sides yet no body advancing to begin the battel it was perceived the Commanders were not of opinion to fight For the Prince who thought to have surprised the Catholicks on a sudden before they could either get together or put themselves in order seeing them all together and drawn out in excellent order for the Battel and not believing that his men who were but newly raised would be able to stand against the Kings Foot that were all choice old Souldiers had more mind to retreat than to fight And the King of Navarre who knew that within a few days his forces would be increased would not in absence of the other Catholick Lords expose himself without any provocation to the hazard of a Battel Wherefore after they had stood still facing one another at least three hours the Prince retiring more than a league backwards quartered with his Army at Lorges a little Village in Beausse and the King of Navarre drew off his men but in much better order to the place where they encamped before The same evening arrived from Chasteadune at the Army the Constable and the Duke of Guise being sent for in great haste and causing all the Guards to be doubled they commanded quite thorow the Quarters at every hundred paces great piles of wood to be made which being set on fire if the enemy came to assault them by night the Souldiers might the better see what they were to do and the Canoneers how to point their Ordnance Which orders being known to the Prince of Conde and finding that the enemy was not to be surprized after he had stayed three days at Lorges the second day of Iuly in the morning he rose with all his Army and went to take Baugency a great walled Town and with the pillage thereof to refresh his Souldiers which were in great want of money and not over-abounding with victuals Nor was the enterprise of any great difficulty for the wall being battered with four peeces of Cannon brought thither for that purpose and an assault given in another part by the Regiment of Provensals at a certain breach they made by sapping it was taken the same day and sackt with great slaughter of the inhabitants Whilst the Hugonots assaulted Baugency there arrived at the Kings Army ten Cornets of German Horse led by the Rhinegrave and six thousand Swisses under the conduct of Ierosme Freulich a man for experience and valour of great esteem among his own Nation With which Forces the Catholick Lords designed without any delay to set upon the Enemies Army But the Prince of Conde being advertised of the arrival of those foreign supplies having slighted Baugency that the Catholicks might make no use of it in great haste retired to Orleans absolutely quitting the field without making any other attempt In Orleans it was no longer possible to keep the Army together partly through want of money to give the Souldiers their pay without which being shut up in the Town they could not possibly live partly because the Nobility that followed the War as Voluntiers having spent what they brought with them could no longer subsist Wherefore having called a Council the chief of the Hugonots determined to turn this necessity to their best advantage For not being able to resist the Kings Army with the Forces they then had nor to remain shut up within those walls they took a resolution to separate themselves into divers places and to defend those Towns and fortresses which they held in other parts of the Kingdom in this manner subsisting as well as they might until they could have such aids from their friends and confederates that they might again meet the Enemy in the field Their chief hopes of Succours were from the Protestant Princes of Germany so they call those who separated from the Catholick Church do follow the opinions of Luther and from Elizabeth Queen of England not only an adherent to the same Religion but also desirous through the ancient Maxims of that Nation to have some footing in the Kingdom of France The Princes of Germany had already freely promised them their aid and there wanted nothing but only to send Commanders and Money to conduct and pay the Souldiers But the Queen of England proposed harder and more difficult conditions without which she denied to afford them any Succours For she offered to imbrace the protection of the Confederates and to send into France an Army of eight thousand Foot with a great train of Artillery at her own charge and to maintain it there till the War were fully ended that at the same time with her Fleet mann'd with Land-forces she would invade the Coasts of Normandy and Brittany to divert and divide the Kings Forces but upon these terms That the Confederates should promise in recompence to cause Calais to be restored to her a strong place situated upon the narrow Sea in Picardy held many