The English PRINCESS OR THE Dutchess-Queen A RELATION OF ENGLISH and FRENCH ADVENTURES A NOVEL In Two PARTS LONDON Printed for Will. Cademan and Simon Neale at the Popes-Head in the Lower-Walk of the New-Exchange and at the Three Pidgeons in Redford-street in Covent-Garden 1678. THE English Princess OR THE Dutchess QUEEN The First PART THE Monarchy of England having been long in dispute betwixt the two Roses the Red of the House of Lancaster and the White of that of York fell at length to the peaceable inheritance of the former and never appeared in greater splendour than in the time of Henry the Eighth This Prince being of a most sharp and piercing wit by study and learning advanced daily more and more in knowledg and was no sooner at the age of eighteen Crowned King but that he seemed already to hold in his hands the Fate of all Europe All that was to be blamed in him was his love of pleasures which in progress of time got the Dominion over him and some kind of sickleness the blemish of several of his Family he had a delicate and well-proportioned body a countenance of singular beauty and shewed always such an Air of Majesty and Greatness as inspired both love and reverence in all that beheld him At his Assumption to the Crown when his heart was not as yet subjected to the pleasures of sense it was but a meer scruple of conscience that made him unwilling to marry Catharine of Spain his Brothers Widow to whom the late King his Father had betrothed him three years before his Death no engagements in love with any other Mistresses at that time being any ways the cause of his aversion But two of his chief Ministers who had been formerly private Pensioners of Isabel of Castile having represented to him the losses that he was likely to sustain by a mis-understanding with Spain easily cleared all his doubts so that at length he made use of the dispensation which with much difficulty had been obtained at Rome for his marriage and the League which at the same time King Ferdinand his Brother-in-law proposed to him with Pope Julius the Second the Emperour Maximilian and the Swisses against Louis the Twelfth King of France filled him with so high an opinion of himself that there hath been nothing more lovely than the first years of his marriage and Reign And indeed he gave himself so wholly to jollity and mirth amidst the great designs which he contrived that his Example being a pattern to his Court it became so compleatly gallant that the Ladies themselves thought it no offence to decency publickly to own their Votaries The Princess Mary his younger Sister as she excelled in Quality so she exceeded the rest in Beauty Margaret the eldest married to the King of Scotland had only the advantage of her in Birth for in Beauty her share was so great that there was never any Princess who deserved more to be loved The qualities of her mind and Character of her Parts will sufficiently appear in the sequel of this discourse and as to her body nothing was wanting that might render it perfect her complexion was fair her soft skin enriched with that delicate whiteness which the Climate of England bestows commonly on the Ladies of that Countrey and the round of her face inclining near to a perfect Oval Though her eyes were not the greatest yet they possessed all that could be desired in the loveliest eyes in the World They were quick with mildness and so full of love that with a single glance they darted into the coldest breasts all the flames that sparkled in themselves Her mouth was not inferiour to her eyes for being very little and shut with lips of a perpetual Vermilion in its natural frame it presented an object not to be parallel'd for Beauty and when again it opened whether to laugh or speak it always afforded thousands of new Charms What has been said of her pretty mouth may be likewise said of her fair hands which by their nimbleness and dexterity in the smallest actions seemed to embellish themselves but more might be spoken of the Soveraign Beauty of her Neck which when age had brought it to perfection became the master-piece of Nature Her Stature was none of the tallest but such as Ladies ought to have to please and delight and her gate address and presence promised so much that it is no wonder that the Charms of Nature accompanied with a tender and passionate heart gained her before the age of fifteen the Conquest of most of her Fathers Subjects Before she was compleat twelve years of age she was promised in marriage to Prince Charles of Austria heir to the Kingdom of Castile and since named Charles the Fifth For Lowis the Twelfth of France having frustrated that young Prince of the hopes of marrying the Princess Claudia his daughter by designing her for the Duke of Valois his presumptive heir notwithstanding the natural aversion that Anne of Brittanie his Queen had against him Henry the Seventh no sooner understood that the alliance of the house of Austria with France was unlikely to succeed but he began to think on means of contracting it with England Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester was therefore sent to Calais to negotiate in his name that marriage with the Deputies of Flanders who thereupon concluded a Treaty to the satisfaction of all Parties But the alteration of the King changed all these measures Henry the Eighth having in a manner against his will married the Aunt of the young Arch-Duke found not in that second Union with Spain all the advantages which his Father seemed to foresee and whether it was already an effect of repentance as some termed it or that he had in it the particular design which men had ground to suspect since he many times in discourse approved the ancient custom of his Kingdom of not giving in marriage the Daughters or Sisters of the Kings out of the Island for which he was so applauded by all that even those of his Council who were the least complaisant made it by little and little as he did a reason of State to forget the proposals of Calais So that now the Princess Mary being free from the engagement of the late King her Father and the great Men of England eying her as a blessing to be enjoyed by the most happy she found her self amidst a croud of lovers who in the peace and quiet of the Kingdom made it their whole business to disquiet themselves Amongst the most sparkling and assiduous pretenders Edward Gray Son to the Marquess of Dorset and Henry Bourchier Son to Thomas Earl of Essex appeared the chief Charles Son to Sir Charles Sommerset Lord High Chamberlain came next and Thomas Howard Son to Thomas Earl of Surrey Lord High Treasurer with William Talbot Son to George Earl of Shrewsbury Steward of the Kings Houshold put in amongst the rest These five Rivals being already very considerable by
walked about in that design with a wounded heart for the slight that the King had given him when the Earl of Keldare having had confused notice of what passed came towards him Though he saw him at a pretty distance yet he did not prepare to engage him but stopped to consider the fierce and threatning looks wherewith he advanced towards him Whereupon the Irish man drawing Brandon who was obliged to do the same encountered him And by a wound first in the shoulder made him see his own blood with a second pass he run him through the right arm and the third going quite through his body made him fall against the pales Never was there any quarrel sooner made and more quickly decided The noise of this Duel having called together those who in the delightful spring came to enjoy in that Park the first verdure of the fields and the servants of the wounded Earl being come in Brandon was instantly apprehended and the matter being afterward reported to Woolsey by the authority which that new Minister had already acquired he was made prisoner in a Tower of Richmont-house until that the Lord Mayor of London following the King on his way to Greenwich should receive his Orders concerning that affair The Princess Mary had no information of all this but from the Dutchess of Salisbury who in that confusion and in respect of the Prisoner who was to be carefully guarded was advised not to delay till next day the taking possession of her apartment with the Princess in whom it is not easie to be represented what Impression this news made The reflexions that she had made on the pretended resemblance betwixt Brandon and the two Ladies of Salisbury of the house of York and the secret apprehensions that she thereupon conceived which made her leave the Queen in her Walk pretending her self indisposed held her still in great perplexity She went to bed that she might not be obliged to see any body and there her mind being prepossessed with what she knew and imagining that it would suddenly come to the knowledg of others her thoughts presented to her nothing but dismal objects Insomuch that the disaster of Brandon surprising her in this condition all that she had before but confusedly thought on seemed to her manifest and clear With a great cry she let fall her head on the pillow and to compleat her sorrow she received a note from the King who had given orders to the Mayor of London to remove the Prisoner to the Tower acquainting her directly That he not doubting but that the punishment which Brandon deserved for killing the Earl of Kildare would put her in some disorder he prayed her to suspend the good opinion which she might have for that ungrateful person until that he should inform her of some strange things which he had learned Such general and ambiguous terms susceptible of any meaning that an affrightned mind could give them put the Princess Mary to the extremity of despair and that first night when Brandon went to the Tower of London was a sad and terrible night to her Judith Kiffen who thought it fit to watch with her alone that night and who being ignorant of the mysterious secret that caused her grief imputed to the love alone to which she was privy all the incoherent expressions that seemed to escape from her without judgment had more to do with her than she dreamt of The vexation of her mind was followed by an oppression of body She fell into a Fever but so dangerous as put every one in fear of her life and the Queen and Dutchess of Salisbury who could not be always denied access into her Chamber being next day the most solicitous about her to procure her ease her fortune was certainly good that at that time the violence of her distemper having deprived her of the use of speech put her out of condition of betraying her self The King in the mean-while whose thoughts were far different from hers and being ignorant of the secret causes of her fear proposing to himself in this conjuncture only his revenge both for the indifferency wherewith she entertained his Gallantry and the idle fear that her Lover thereupon conceived followed his game at Greenwich and continued it even longer than at first he intended that such as came from London to beg of him that he would change the orders given to the Lord Mayor against the Prisoner might not find him and that so he might have ground to say that he was ignorant of what had passed Insomuch that several messengers sent either by the Queen or the Dutchess of Salisbury to give him advice of the sickness of the Princess Mary sought him in the Fields and Woods in vain They were everywhere directed to find him in places where he was not but Gray Son to the Marquess of Dorset who of his own head had taken horse was more fortunate in his search The love that he had for the Princess Mary made him sufficiently understand what the best-informed could know of her distemper though it was given out that it had seized her before the business of Brandon happened and how jealous sover he was of the pretious testimony of affection which at that time she gave to his happy Rival yet his jealousie served only to prompt him with greater earnestness to attempt her relief Insomuch that he surmounted all the difficulties that had hindered the rest from finding the King and having passionately given him an account of the dangerous condition that the Princess was in he moved him instantly to return to Greenwich from whence next morning by the break of day he departed for London The insolence of Woolsey was at first sufficiently repressed by the dislike which the King testified of his procedure Having waved the discourses that they would have made to him concerning the wounds of the Earl of Kildare and having nothing in his mind but the sickness of his Sister and knowing better than Gray that her cure consisted in the safety of Brandon he asked presently how he was used and gave order to the Lord Terell to send him such of his servants as he might stand in need of So that fame which commonly is swifter than the Marches of Kings having carried this good news into the apartment of the Princess was without doubt the most acceptable harbinger that she could have of his Arrival But fear having wrought great disorders in her mind and after a new paroxysm of her Fever which did but begin to abate her mind being weakened as well as her body she could not show her self to him as she desired to appear The trembling tone of her voice proceeding rather from the tenderness of her heart than the force of her distemper gave but too sensible a proof of the hard tryal she had been put to and there was nothing more easie than for him to perceive that the life of Brandon was her sole care though she had not
that therefore he would not have him be troubled at the fopperies and idle talk of people That he should suffer his jealous Rivals to speak what their own jealousie would sufficiently hinder from being believed That it ought to suffice him that he knew the virtue of his Sister That he was willing he should love her and that he pretended that whatsoever was done with his approbation was above obloquy and censure In a word dear Brandon said he I will not that your virtue be the reason why you leave me My honour is concerned that I retain you and after all this what would be said of the King of England if it were known that a wise and discreet man could not live with him I shall not then comply with your desire your virtue has revenged you on my imprudence and my favours shall revenge me on your diffidence and though now you see some in my Court that create you trouble it is possible that shortly seeing none above you but my self you shall see nothing there but what may give you content At these words Brandon casting himself at his feet would have answered that he could never deserve the favours which he mentioned but the King embracing him no more of this said he we shall never make an end Delay your thanks for what I say until you have seen what I can do return to me with as sincere an heart as I desire you to do it and let nothing take up the cares of us both but my Sisters health I wish the time were come that I might give you her In this manner the illustrious Brandon escaped the shipwrack wherein most people thought him over-whelmed He grew greater after his disgrace than he had been before and the King to keep his word to him having repealed all the proceedings of the Mayor of London against him and given Woolsey a severe check for the violence he had used in that Rancounter condemned the Earl of Kildare in the charge of maintaining two Fregats in the Irish-Seas Of all the Rivals of Brandon there was none but the officious Gray exempted The generosity that he had shewed for an unfortunate enemy was of no small use to settle the good opinion which in the sequel he was held in But Bourchier Sommerset young Buckingham and the rest met with sharp Reprimands from the King and his Majesty having exprest himself with discontent against the scoffers and libellers which spared not so much as his own Palace men became more reserved and spake no more of the affairs of others In the mean while the Princess having been in great danger of her life gave shortly assured signs of a speedy cure Besides her young age and good constitution that which contributed much to it was the relation that Brandon gave her of the long discourse which he had had with the King the day that he was released Though he persisted in the design that the King had endeavoured to divert him from yet at that time he gave no signs of it On the contrary in the necessity of pleasing her he himself was willing to seem flattered with the things that he thought no more on but with grief and that complaisance working its effect the tranquillity of her mind recalled so effectually her bodily health that she recovered from her sickness more beautiful than before But as the King had only delayed his expedition to the War of France for her sake so he hastened his departure so soon as he knew her to be out of danger and used the more precipitancy because knowing better than any other the trouble that she and Brandon would have to bid adieu he would not have them have time to prepare for it nor to revive their passions Few arms have marched out with a more victorious air than that of England The King the Commanders Soldiers and every thing else seemed to go in triumph and there was no appearance as the affairs of Lowis the twelfth stood that he could be able to withstand them The League formed against him by the intrigues of Pope Julius the Second who had resolved at what rate soever to be revenged of him because that by his Ambassadours he had maintained the Council of Pisa where his life had been so severely examined raised him as many enemies as he had neighbours His allies had already felt the cruel effects of his misfortune And amongst others poor John D'albert lost the year before his Kingdom of Navar for Ferdinand of Arragon who desired nothing more than to joyn it to Spain failed not to lay hold on the specious pretext offered him by the Interdict of Rome and though that Pope a man of a froward and turbulent spirit upon his recovery from a great fit of sickness seemed to repent his bad designs yet he had engaged so many other potentates that he was now no more the Master of Peace All Italy was in arms The most part of the small Princes hoping to raise themselves to greatness in the disorder and running to the noise that had awakened them joyned themselves to the party of the League though they knew not why so that what secret attempts so ever Julius the Second made at that time to make an end of the War yet the loss of the Battel of Navar which drew after it all the Milanese that the French then sustained was nevertheless a chick of his hatching The sad news of this came to Paris at the same time that the English embarked for their passage and many cross accidents together befel the King of France during the joys that his Court could not refuse to the marriage of the Count of Guise with Anthonet of Bourbon Sister to the Count of Vendosme Not but that in the apprehension of the storm which he foresaw from England having already dealt with the King of Scotland to make a diversion and Pregent his Vice-admiral in the Mediterranean who had no more to do with the Genowese being ready to pass over the Channel with Primanget Commander of the British-Ships to ravage the Coasts of Ireland he had a great many good Troops on foot and Officers of extraordinary merit Lowis de Halewin Marquess of Pienne a man of consummated Valour who was their General had Rendezvouzed them at Hedin The Marquess de Potelin of a boyling hot Courage commanded the Cavalry and after him in several charges were the Count de la Plaisse a warlike man the Chevalier Bayard characterised without fear and without reproach The brave Aimard de prie Imbercourt Clairmont D'anjou Bussy D'amboise Bonnivet Bonne-val Fonterailles and a great many more all capable to command Armies not to reckon those who in respect of Birth were above them as the Counts of Guise and Vendosme and the Duke of Alencon whom the affairs of State obliged to remain with his Person But the loss of the Milanese put him in great Consternation and the King of England being Landed at Calais at the head
at the head of four thousand horse eight hundred foot and six pieces of Cannon passes the River Lis near to Derlet and lyes in wait for the Enemies at the passage of Hutin They retreated with great assurance marching in confusion as he had foreseen for being pursued by none after the false allarm which was purposely given them was over and missing none of their number but the young Count D'anton Son to the Seignior of Bouchage and some others that could not get out of Therowenne they dreamt not of any greater mischief when Brandon appearing of a sudden so sharply charged them that having no leisure to mount their great Horses again nor to put on their head-pieces they began to be in disorder The brave la Palisse notwithstanding of the stout resistance he made was already taken and the undaunted Chevalier Bayard having almost singlely defended the bridg of Hutin became companion in the bad fortune of Clairmont D'anjow and of Bussy D'amboise to whose assistance he came There remained none but the Duke of Longueville to head the subdued who being mounted on a stout charging-horse compleatly armed it seemed no easie matter for one man hand to hand to get the better of him and besides a considerable body of the French Army advanceing in order of Battel those that had been put to flight began to rally So that Brandon perceiving that the total rout of the Enemies depended on the overthrow of this Warriour and by the riches of his arms taking him for a French Prince he left la Palisse in the hands of some Gentlemen who kept him not long and with sword in hand set upon him whose resistance hindered his Victory The Duke of Longueville received him valiantly but at length after the interchanging of many blows Brandon with the danger of a wound which he received in the thigh dismounted the Duke who disjoynted his shoulder by the fall The French upon this turned back upon those that were coming to their aid and put their own men in as great disorder as the Enemy would have done and seeing in this Battel their horses heels had done them better service than the points of their swords it was called the Battel of Spurs But it had been far better for Brandon that the Duke of Longueville had escaped with the rest for the injury that he did him afterward was so great that all the Glory he obtained in overcoming him and all the praise that he gained thereby was not enough to make amends for it Time sensibly discovering to him that fortune by great evils can be repayed of her greatest favours After this there happened no more considerable action on either side Brandon's wound kept him a fortnight a-bed and the King of France though he had lost but very few men being unwilling to expose his Kingdom to the danger of a Battel thought it best to give Therowenne to the fortune of his Enemies Teligny after two months siege rendered it on composition Victuals and Ammunition failing him before his Courage and the King of England and the Emperour not agreeing betwixt themselves about the propriety of the place the one claiming it by right of Inheritance and the other by Conquest it was presently demolished In the mean time Lowis the Twelfth that he might put a stop to his bad success by employing a General in whose safety all his Subjects might be concerned caused the young Duke of Valois to advance to Blangy But neither the merit of that Prince nor the great Forces that daily joyned him hindered the progress of the King of England for whilst the Duke Longueville and the other Prisoners were on their way to London he lay down before the City of Tournay which having no hope of relief as lying in the midst of the Low-Countreys made no long resistance And having now reduced that place under his Obedience and beginning to have some jarring with the Emperour who in many things was chargeable to him and in others unfaithful he returned back into England Never was Prince better satisfied for besides his own Conquests of Therowenne and Tournay the Victory which the Earl of Surrey's Lieutenant had just then obtained over the Scots raised him to the highest pitch of fortune that he could almost pretend to and though his Fleet had received some ruffle in the Bay of Brest yet the death of the King of Scotland killed in the Battel of Floudon which he fought only for the interest of France though he was his Brother-in-law revenged him fully of that and of the damage which Pregent and Primanguet had done him on his Wastes Insomuch that he entred London in triumph where to reward those who had fought so valiantly for his Glory he made Brandon Duke of Suffolk gave the Title of Duke of Norfolk to the Earl of Surrey and to his Son the Admiral that of Surrey and Talbot Gray and Sommerset who had behaved themselves stoutly on all occasions were created the one Earl of Shrewsbury in the place of his Father who desired it the other Marquess of Dorset his Father being lately dead and the last Earl of Worcester But these are matters wide of my Subject and I should not remark them by the by but for avoiding confusion in the names of those who may have some share in the sequel of this History My business should be to relate the joy that the English Princess conceived upon the return of Brandon to which the title of Duke of Suffolk as from henceforth he must be named added but little for a real virtue once known needs no other Ornaments And the affectionate rebukes she gave him for having so often exposed himself to dangers would without doubt require a more exact description than I make were it not that the tenderness of these Lovers is sufficiently known and that their pains rather than pleasures are to be related since that amidst trouble and difficulties the greatness and power of Love appears more conspicuous After so fair beginnings they wanted not crosses and all that had befallen them before the War from the competition of Gray Bourchier and Sommerset from the Kings indifferency after the death of Cecile Blunt or from the aggression of the Earl of Kildare followed by an Imprisonment which the secret Quality of a Prince of York rendered the more dangerous All this I say bears no proportion with what they endured afterward Upon the return from the War of France all people imagining that Brandon who had acquired so much Glory there should espouse the Princess Mary when they saw him only made Duke of Suffolk and nothing else talked of they believed that his fortune was at a stand and that in that respect there had been more policy than friendship in the Conduct of the King There is but little certainty in the opinions of men all is but whimsey There was no more discourse therefore of his Intelligence with Mary of England nor of the services he rendered