was natural to see a Prince of Twenty six years to be amorous but it was a prodigy against nature that at that age he should have such a covetous heart as nothing could satisfie Nevertheless being in himself at the bottom very good the Remonstrances of St. Amand Bishop of Tongres somewhat allay'd the heat of his Covetousness He took Nantilda his first Wife again and lived with her the rest of his days Year of our Lord 631 Mean time he had a Son by Ragnetrude the same year that he Married her He sent to pray his Brother Aribert to come and hold it at the Font. Both of them met at Orleance for that Ceremony and the Child was Baptized by the Bishop St. Amand and named Sigebert Year of our Lord 631 Aribert was no sooner returned to Thoulouse but he died and his Son Chilperic who was yet in his Cradle survived him but a few days It was suspected that Dagobert had contributed to the death of that Innocent to regain Aquitain by seizure as he presently did DAGOBERT I. Sole King It is certain this King had a singular Devotion for St. Denis and his fellow-Martyrs and that he Erected a Church in honour of him to which he joyned a rich Abby But the subject or cause which we related elsewhere passes amongst the Criticks but for a Fable I cannot tell whether it be a truth that he unfurnished several other Churches of their most precious Ornaments to enrich this same Year of our Lord 631 It hapned this year that some French Merchants who Traded with the Sclavonians were Robbed King Samon having refused to repair this Wrong Dagobert would needs right himself by the Sword The King of the Lombards and the Duke of the Almains the first of which was Allied and the other Subject to France attaqued them joyntly on the one hand whilst the Austrasian French assaulted them on the other The first got the advantage and slew a great many of them but the Austrasians who were discontented with Dagobert because he had preferred his Residence in Neustria before that of Austrasia behaved themselves very cowardly For having besieged the Castle of Vagastburgh wherein the bravest of the Enemies had put themselves they raised it the third day and retreated in great disorder After this the Sclavonians were emboldned to make Incursions in Turingia and other Countries belonging to the French And Debvan or Dervan Duke of the Sorabes they were a People of Sclavonia who inhabited Mâ—snia drew himself off from the Obedience of the French to put himself under Samon There had been of a long standing a Colony of Bulgarians who had taken up their Quarters in Panonia where they were Allied or become Tributaries to the Avares who possessed the greatest part of that Province with that of Dacia It is disputed whether the ancient Bulgaria was in Sarmatia Asiatica along the River Year of our Lord 631 Volga otherwise called Rha or else in the European on the borders of the Euxine Now the Bulgarians being entred into a War with the Avares were vanquished and so trodden under foot that there were left but nine thousand who were forced to forsake the Country with their Wives and Children These Wretches having besought Dagobert to give them an abiding in some Corner of his Dominions he sent orders to the Bavarois to receive them and to quarter them separately in Villages and Burroughs till the Estates of the Kingdom had ordained how to dispose of them The Estates found the best Expedient would be to cut the Throats of them all in one Night and that was put in execution but too punctually One of their Chiefs having got some wind of it made his escape with seven hundred of them into Sclavonia that Country is yet called the March of Wenden between the Rivers Save and Drave Year of our Lord 631 The Visigoths in Spain made and un made their Kings as they pleased This year 631. the Government of Suintila who had Reigned ten years being uneasie and displeasing to them they cast their Eyes upon Sisenand who implored the Assistance of Dagobert promising him in Recompence the great Golden vasa or Vessel weighing 500 pounds and enriched with Jewels which Aetius had bestowed upon Torismond for helping him against Attila Sisenand being instated in his Throne by the assistance of the French could not refuse this Vessel to the Ambassadors but the Visigoths Way-laid them and took it away again from them by force Dagobert was offended and threatned the business was canvassed and in the conclusion he was contented with two hundred thousand pieces of Silver As he was raising great Forces to stop the Incursions which King Samon with his Sclavonians made into Turingia the Saxons came and profer'd to repel them at their own Peril and Charge if they would forgive them the Tribute of Five hundred Beeves which they owed to France The profer was accepted and they were relied upon to make good their Promise but either they wanted strength or perhaps faith to perform it and secure Turingia as was expected Thus it continued still exposed to the insolency of those Barbarians The Neustrians were too remote to defend them the Austrasians should have done it and they had strength more then enough to have accomplished it but being ill affected they did not much trouble themselves about it It was necessary therefore to regain their hearts and affections to give them a King that should reside amongst them DAGOBERT in Neustria and Burgundy SIGEBERT his Son in Austrasia Year of our Lord 633 Wherefore Dagobert having Assembled the Prelates and the Lords of this Kingdom at Mets he by their Advice and with their Consent makes his Son Sigebert King of Austrasia furnished him with a Royal Treasure that is to say rich Moveables Precious Vasa's or Vessels and Silver Coyn and left the Conduct of his Education of his Court and his State to Cunibert Bishop of Colen and to the Duke Adalgise Then the Austrasians counting themselves restored to their Liberty because they had a King stood up for their Honour and valiantly repulsed the Sclavonians Year of our Lord 634 The following year he had a Son born by Queen Nantilda who was named Clovis Nantilda considering that if her Husband should come to die without setling the Succession this Son would have no share solicited him so earnestly that he sent for the Lords of Austrasia and made them understand that he meant and intended that Neustria and Burgundy should belong to the Infant that was newly born but that all the Cities of Aquitain of Provence and of Neustria which had been joyned to the Kingdom of Austrasia should so remain united excepting the Dutchy of Dentelen which Theodebert the Young had taken from King Clotaire Year of our Lord 635 The Gascons who had possessed one part of the Novem-populania or third Aquitain had again began their Robberies after the death of Caribert There were sent twelve Dukes with the
King Lewis Aged above 45 years went Year of our Lord 951 from Loan where her Son kept her as a Prisoner and married Hebert of Vermandois Count de Troyes Son of that Traytor Hebert who made her Husband die in Prison She thus satisfied her revenge to the prejudice of her honour or perhaps made that only a cover for her incontinence LOUIS Transmarine in France Otho in Germany Lorrain Conrad in Burgundy Arles Berenger II. and Adelbert his Son in Italy Year of our Lord 950 Adeleida the Widdow of Lotaire was Beautiful and Charming she had the City of Pavia in Dowre and besides great riches and possessions much credit and many Friends as well in that Country as on this side the Mountains being the Daughter of Rodolph II. and Sister to Conrad Kings of Burgundy For these reasons Berenger sought to gain her for his Son but she couragiously rejected the proposition Upon her obstinate refusal he besieges her in Pavia took her and sent her Prisoner to the strong Castle of Garda whence the Lake hath borrowed its name She notwithstanding made her escape by the help of a Priest reduced after she was got out to live upon such Alms as the Priest begg'd for her Then retired to the Marquiss Athon her Kinsman who undertook to protect her in his Fortress of Canossa Year of our Lord 950 Presently Berenger besieges it with all his Forces The second year of the siege and the end of their provisions drew near when that Queen sent to implore the aid of King Otho and to offer him with her self the Kingdom of Italy The Love of Honour more then Love to that Lady drew this Prince thither He Year of our Lord 951 delivered her Married her because he could not otherwise enjoy her and carried her into Germany leaving his Army with Conrad Duke of Lorrain to finish that War Year of our Lord 952 This Conrad prosecuted the War so briskly against Berenger and his Son that both of them laying down their Arms came to a Conference with him and thorough his persuasions went both of them into Germany to King Otho who having treated them magnificently and taken their Oaths and made them do hommage restored to them all that Kingdom excepting only Veronnois and Friuli which he bestow'd upon his Brother Henry Duke of Bavaria The contest about the Arch-Bishoprick of Reims and some other particular Lordships had brought King Lewis and Hugh le Blanc again to Daggers-drawing But Hugh in fine whatever motive prompted him desired to confer with Queen Gerberge his wives Sister who came to meet him And afterwards treating with the King personally in Soissons he made Peace about the end of March in this year 953. Year of our Lord 953 This re-union perhaps pleased King Otho but little but he found himself not in a condition to disturb it He was too much troubled with the Civil-War made against him by his own Son Luitolf incited by Conrad Duke of Lorrain who made him jealous of a Son as yet in the Cradle which his Father had by Adeleida his second wife Otho thrust Conrad out of his Dutchy and at length brought his Son to his duty not without much hazard fighting and labour Year of our Lord 954 But Conrad obstinately rebellious turned every stone to be revenged He made a League with Berenger King of Italy as ingrateful as perfidious against Otho and drew the Hungarians in twice first into Lorrain An. 954. whence they over-run even to Champagne and Burgundy and having done a world of mischief were beaten back into Italy the second into Bavaria where a most dreadful multitude got in Year of our Lord 955 together Yet Otho fought them and cut them all off after Conrad had been killed in the scuffle This was in Anno 595. Year of our Lord 954 During these troubles in the year 954. King Lewis died by a strange accident As he was going from Laon to Reims spurring to ride after a Wolfe which he met in his way his Horse stumbled and threw him so rudely on the ground that he was bruised all over These bruises turned into a kind of Leprosy which caused his death the 15 th of October in the City of Reims whither he would be carried and where he lies buried in the Church of St. Remy His Reignwas 18 years three Months and his Age 38 or 39 years Of five Sons which he had by Gerberge there were but two remaining Lotaire and Charles whereof Lotaire the eldest was about 14 or 15 years old and Charles but 15 or 16 Months The small Age of this last the poverty of the Kings who had scarce any other Towns in propriety but Reims and Laon and perhaps the interest of Hugh le Blanc were the reasons why he did not share the Kingdom with his elder as had been ever almost the Custom in the first and second Race or Line Since this time it was never equally divided amongst the Brothers the eldest alone hath had the Title of King and the cadets or younger have only had some Lands in appennage and under an entire Subjection And even of these the Kingly power being increased hath taken the Reversion for want of Heirs-males which hath not a little contributed to restore the Grandeur of the Monarchy LOTAIRE King XXXIII POPES AGAPET II. above a year in this Reign JOHN XII who was the first that changed his name introduced An. 955. S. 9 years within some Months is deposed BENEDICT V. put in by the Romans An. 964. S. some Months JOHN XIII nominated by the Empp. Otho in 964. S. almost 7 years DOMNUS Elect in 972. S. 3 Months BENEDICT VI. in 972. S. one year 3 Months BENEDICTUS VII in 974. S. 9 years and some Months JOHN XIV Elect. in July 849. S. one year one Month. Lotaire in France Otho in Germany Lorrain Conrad in Burgundy Arles Berenger and Adelbert his Son in Italy THE greatest part of the power being in the hands of Hugh he might have taken the Crown had he not feared the Forces of King Otho maternal Uncle to the Sons of the deceased King and the jealousy of the other French Lords For these reasons Queen Gerberge his wives Sister being come to him to take his Counsel he chose rather to preserve his Authority by protecting a Widdow and a Minor then by oppressing them Having therefore carried Lotaire to Reims he caused him to be Crowned the 12 th of November by the Arch-Bishop Artold Upon this occasion the young King gave the Dukedoms of Burgundy and Aquitain to Hugh le Blanc and to Hugh Capet his eldest Son who being satisfied and the Duke of Normandy likewise for their sakes it was not difficult to calm the other Lords who were less considerable These Dukes in my opinion were of two sorts in those times the one held the Cities and Lands and were become Hereditary the other were general commands over a whole Kingdom as well
way of appealing to the Councils and notwithstanding goes on and reduces Sussex and all the Southern parts excepting Windsor and Dover The Ambassadors pleaded his Cause earnestly at Rome they shewed that John was justly degraded for his Tyrannies and because he had been condemned to death for the Murther of his Nephew Arthur by the Pairs of France and made it out that the Kingdom since he was Excluded belonged to his Neece the Wife of Prince Lewis Whilst they disputed their Masters Rights he successfully employs his Sword in Conquering Essex Suffolk and Norfolk Having reduc'd them he returns to besiege Dover his Father reproaching him for having imprudently left that place behind him The Pope offended at his Progress confirmed the Sentence of Excommunication against him and although Philip protested he gave him neither Assistance nor Advice prosering even if the Church did so ordain to Confiscate his Lands nevertheless he commanded the Bishop of Sens to denounce him Excommunicate likewise and to put France under an Interdiction but the Prelats assembled at Melun declared they would not submit to that Sentence till they were more fully informed of the Popes Intentions Mean while King John who wandred about the Country hating all his Subjects hapned to dye by Poyson which as it was believ'd a Monk had given him He left three Sons very young Henry Richard and Edmond The hatred of the Englishmen towards him expired with his Life and their Affection for his Son Henry revived being their Natural Lord and one whose Innocence and Tender Age called for their Compassion so that the young Kings Affairs began to prosper and Lewis's to decline He perceiving the English forsook him one after another and his own People afrighted with the thundring Excommunications from Rome inclined to make a Truce with Henry for some Months Year of our Lord 1216 During this Suspension he returns into France to Consult with the King his Father but he fearing to exasperate the Pope refuses to see his Son and would not Confer with him but by the interposition of others Lewis upon his return into England found his Enemies Party were the stronger his Army was afterwards defeated near Lincoln and he besieged in London after that rout Wherefore to free himself from farther danger and retire with Bag and Baggage he was forc'd to Treat with Henry promising amongst other Conditions to surrender all the places he held in England to submit his Pretensions to the Judgment of the Church to use his utmost endeavour to oblige his Father to restore all what he had taken from King John in France and if he could not prevail to do it then himself when he came to the Crown Which was to promise more then he would or could perform Year of our Lord 1216 Henry Emperor of Constantinople and Brother to Baldwin who had been so likewise died Anno 1216. having Reigned Eleven years Peter de Courtenay Earl of Auxerre who Married his Sister Yolant went this year from France to take that Crown Passing thorough Italy he was Crowned at Rome with his Wife took Shipping eight days after and arriv'd in Greece but as he was crossing Thessalie having Pass-ports from Theodorus Comnenus he was made Prisoner by that perfidious Man who slew most part of those Lords that went with them and having detained him three or four years caused him cruelly to be Murthered Yolant a Heroick Woman govern'd the Empire two years after his death in which time the Lords sent to profer the Empire to Philip Earl of Nevers his eldest Son but he refused to accept it and yielded up willingly that perilous Honour to Robert his younger Brother Year of our Lord 1217 When young King Henry was fully setled in his Throne his Council sent Ambassadors into France to challenge Lewis of his Promise and re-demand the Dutchy of Normandy and other Countries taken from his Father They were answer'd with the Confiscation that had been ordered by the Judgment of his Pairs Year of our Lord 1217 18. Whilst the Eari of Montfort in vain besieged the City of Beaucaire Count Raimond brought some Forces from Arragon whither he was retir'd with which he regained several of his places and especially Toulouze which he presently fortifi'd with Intrenchments and Pallisado's Montfort went and laid Siege to it but after he had held it besieged seven whole Months he was slain in a Sally He had three Sons Year of our Lord 1218 Amaulry who succeeded him in the Rights of his Conquests Guy who was Married to Petronella Heiress to the Count of Bigorre as being Daughter of Estiennete the Daughter and Heiress of Count Centulle and Simon Earl of Leicester in England by the Grandmother Year of our Lord 1219 Amaulry was not strong enough to maintain his Conquests the King assisted him first with Six hundred Men then with Ten thousand Foot who not being yet enough to compass that business Prince Lewis upon the Popes earnest Request undertakes that Expedition the second time He happily succeeded in the taking of Marmanda on the Garonne and some other places in Angenois but not in the Siege of Toulouze because his Father recalled him fearing the Troubles that were begun in Bretagne might be created by the English on purpose to set France in a greater flame Year of our Lord 1218 19 and 20. The business was that the Earls Salomon and Conan whom Duke Peter had unjustly thrown out of their Estates being retir'd into the Forests ravaged and wasted his Country with some Bandits they had got together and at the same time the Barons revolted against him because he would arrogate to himself the Guardianship or Wardnoble of Gentlemens Orphan-Sons till they had attained to Twenty years of Age. They had Combined in a League and with Amaulry Lord de Craon very potent in Friends and Alliance who had declared War against him about a certain Castle that Duke had usurped from him This Quarrel complicated with several Interests lasted above two years and ended not but by a great Battle fought near Chastean-briand where the Duke much the weaker in numbers of Men gained the Year of our Lord 1220 Victory and made Amaulry Prisoner The Barons were not brought so low by this bloody loss but they continued the War for some Months but that was only to obtain the better Conditions Year of our Lord 1220 21 and 22. The Truce with the English being prolong'd France enjoy'd a Calm for three or four years during which Philip employ'd himself about the Walling Enlarging Fortifying building Bridges making Causeys and the like conveniencies in all the Cities that were of his Demeasns or belonging to the Crown which Expences though for the publick good was out of his own proper Fund not raised or exacted upon his Subjects but paying very justly for all those Grounds and Houses belonging to private Persons which were necessary for him to have towards carrying on these Publick Works Year of our Lord 1222
other Captains As for him having fought very valiantly and not giving over till the very last extremity he then escaped into Arragon then came to France where he was received by Lewis Duke of Anjou Governor for the King in Languedoc Year of our Lord 1367 and 68. The Prince of Wales gained mighty reputation amongst the Sons of Mars for having Re-conquer'd Spain in one single Battle but little Honour amongst the better sort for having restor'd a Tyrant and yet much less satisfaction or profit For after the Tyrant had held him some Months in Castille upon the promise of quickly sending him wherewith to pay his Men a Sickness got into his Army and he was forc'd to return again very ill satissied and withall very much indisposed in his Body Year of our Lord 1368 After his departure the Tyrants rage redoubled by all sorts of terrible revenge The Castillians finding they were treated more inhumanely then ever recalled Henry The Duke of Anjou and the Earl of Foix did frankly give him all the assistance they could and du Gueselin and Bernard de Bearn newly set free upon Ransom raised Men for him In few words Henry besieged Toledo the Tyrant attended with Three thousand Horse came to relieve it When he was gotten near Montiel a Village situate upon the Hills which parts the Kingdom of Valentia from New Castille Henry meets him the Battle was fought the Fourteenth of March 1369. the Tyrants Forces ran away Year of our Lord 1369 and he saved himself in the Castle of Montiel There finding himself cooped up without any hopes of escaping he adventures to come to Guesclin in his Tent imagining by force of Presents to persuade him to let him slip away Henry comes just at the same time thither either by chance or otherwise they fell to words then laid hold upon each other and tumbled on the ground The Tyrant in the end was brought undermost and kill'd The manner is not well agreed upon nor whether it were done fairly this hapned the Three and twentieth of March 1369. Thus the Kingdom of Castille remained to Henry and those descended from him who hold it to this day The Widow of the Duke of Burgundy Daughter of the Earl of Flanders and the richest Heiress in Christendom was earnestly Courted both by France and England The Father designed her â—or Edmond one of the King of Englands Sons but the Grandmother Margaret French both by Birth and Inclination opposed that Match with all her power and had a design to fortifie the House of France She therefore pressed her Son with exceeding heat even to the threatning to cut off her Breasts which had given him suck This touched him to the heart he bestowed his Daughter upon Philip the Hardy Duke of Burgundy but the Nuptials were not compleated till a year afterwards The Prince of Wales had brought nothing out of Spain but great Melancholy a Mortal Indisposition and no Money to pay off his Army He therefore lays an unusual but very small Impost upon Guyenne The Lords his Vassals discontented with him particularly the Lord d'Albret advises the Tenants to make Complaint to them Having received their Complaint they carry it to the Prince and made him some Remonstrances thereon He rejects them in a very offensive manner Whereupon they had recourse to the King of France lately their lawful Soveraign The King entertains them five or six Months in the same disposition and humour waiting a proper juncture to declare his mind He was in the mean time putting every thing in order to that purpose making sure of the Gascon Lords and German Princes with his Money whereof either of them were very greedy drew the Soldiery to his service with the same Bait by the help of Guesclin in whom they reposed great Confidence and made up a Stock of Money by the imposition of Subsidies which the Estates assembled at Paris did freely grant him and which they raised with so much order and evenness that the People were not at all oppress'd Year of our Lord 1369 When he had warily taken all his Measures and knew withal that the Prince of Wales grew daily more Hydropick he granted his Letters of Appeal to the Gascons the five principal of them being the Sire d'Albert and the Earls of Armagnac Perigard Cominges and Carmaing This was signified to the Prince personally by a Knight and a Clerk but far from consenting to this Appeal he haughtily reply'd That he would make his appearance in the same manner as he had done at the Battle of Poitiers and caused them to be taken upon their way back and kept Prisoners charging them with the having rob'd their Host Year of our Lord 1369 At the same time Charles amused King Edward with some Complaints which he sent to him as if he would have brought things to a Negotiation The King of England returned words for words not thinking the effects were so near or that the French durst undertake any thing whilst the Duke of Berry and the other Hostages were in England He thought himself absolute Soveraign in Guyenne by the Treaty of Bretigny but as on his side he had not disbanded the Soldiers and moreover had committed divers Hostilities the King pretended that Treaty was nul and dissolved and that therefore that Prince remained still a Vassal to the Crown Upon this foot it was that he sent to declare a War against him and afterwards his Parliament being assembled upon the Ascension-Eve he sitting in his Seat of Justice made a Decree by which for Rebellion Contempt and Disobedience they declared forfeit and confiscated all those Lands the King of England held in France If Edwards astonishment were great to sind a Prince who was not a Man of his hands thus dare denounce War against him who had won so many Battles his displeasure was no less when he saw this Defiance brought him not by a Person of Quality as the custom was but by a simple Valet or Servant When he understood that the Lord de Chastillon and the Count de Saint Pol had seized upon Abbeville and the rest of the places in the County of Pontieu which were unprovided That the Barons of Gascongue even before the declaration of War had defeated his Seneschal of Rovergne That the Dukes of Berry and Anjou had attaqued Guyenne one towards Auvergne the other towards Toulouze That his Son the Prince of Wales being swoln every day more and more could not act but by his Council and that several Captains and Companies took Service under the French In the interim till he could raise greater Forces he sent him Five hundred Lances and One thousand Cross-bow-men under the Command of Edmond Earl of Cambridge afterwards Duke of York his fourth Son and the Earl of Pembrook his Son-in-Law who went on shoar at St. Malo's and cross'd over Bretagne on the other hand Hue de Caurelee brought him Two thousand Men of those he had in Spain and then
King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé from joyning with him whilst they were at Court but they came on with more boldness when they were in the Camp Henry de la Tour Vicount de Turenne at that time a Catholick and already very knowing and subtle though but young was the contriver of their Association Being all hot headed rash young Men many Designs were propounded as strange as bold The King having had some hint gave order to Pinard Secretary of State to enjoyn the Duke not to leave the Camp upon pain of Incurring his Indignation The Duke sending him back without any answer because he would not produce his Order the Kings Council took such an Alarm that the King apprehending some dangerous surprize wrote to the Duke of Anjou to hasten the taking of Rochel because he had need of his Forces about his Person This was the cause he made so many Assaults unseasonably and lost so many Men. Now as both the one and the other were in an extream Perplexity Arrives the News from Poland which open'd them a way to go off with Honour The Bishop of Valence had gained the Affections of the Polanders by means of Balagny his naâ—ural Son before the death of King Sigismond the last Prince of the House of Jagellons When he was dead which hapned the Seventh of July in the year 1572. he parted from Paris the Seventeenth day of August following and went thither himself The Queen Mother and the Duke of Anjou apprehended nothing Year of our Lord 1573 more then the success of this Election wherefore at the same time they pretended to employ all the Kings power for it they obstructed it underhand by private Methods Nevertheless the Bishop having more regard to the Kings Command and his own Honor then to a Womans fancies managed the business so well that it succeeded The Duke of Anjou was Elected King but as the Heads of two of those four Factions that were amongst them were Calvinists they obliged the French Ambassadors to promise them several Conditions in favour of that Religion particularly that they should leave all those Cities at Liberty which were Besieged Upon the News of this Election and the Arrival of the Polish Ambassadours who came to fetch their new King the Duke of Anjou made them give some fresh Assaults and then renewed the propositions for accommodation The Rochellers refused to hearken to any thing unless all the other Cities of their Party were comprehended and they were fain to yeild to them in this point unless for month June Sancerre whose Surrender was hourly expected The Articles were all resolved upon the Five and Twentieth of June the Ratification was brought back some dayes after with an Edict of Pacification which was more restrictive by much then the preceeding ones for it allowed only Liberty of Conscience but no publick exercise excepting in the Cities of Rochel Nismes and Montauban It was not in their Power to obtain the same advantage for Sancerre the King under colour it belonged to a particular Lord whose right he could not infringe refused to grant them any more but the Liberty of Marriages and Christnings So that although for four Months past the scarcity of Provisions grew daily to a most-horrible Extremity yet they resolved to perish rather then not enjoy the same Conditions which the rest had They fed upon the most unclean Creatures and upon such Herbs as Beasts themselves refuse to tast as also Parchment and Leather and to say all in a word they surprized a Father and a Mother feeding upon their own Daughter that had been starved to death Whilst they were in this most lamentable State and yet would not think of a Surrender the Ambassadours from Poland who Arrived in the beginning of August got composition for them but they had no other advantages for their Religion then what was general So that the Cruel and Voluntary death of Two Thousand of those unhappy Wretches served only to Signalize to all future Ages their too long and fatal obstinacy In the Treaty of Rochel it was Stipulated that the Rochellers should intreat the Duke of Anjou to come into their City but that he should not enter So that after the most eminent had been with him to request it he dismissed his Army and went on Board his Galleys visited the adjacent Islands thence Sailed to Nantes and so returned to Court being every where received in quality of a King Thus ended that Famous Siege where the King lost Twelve Thousand Men and a great many Persons of Note the most remarkable being Claude Duke of Aumale who was Slain with a Cannon Shot The Polish Ambassadours who were Twelve in number and for their Chief had the Bishop of Posna Arrived at Mets the Five and Twentieth of July made their Solemn entrance into Paris on the Third day of September and the Tenth month July c. read the Decree of Election in the Palace-Hall The King was there upon a Scaffold Array'd in his Royal Robes and accompanied by all the Princes and Grandees of his Court The Decree being taken out of a Silver Box Sealed with an Hundred and Ten Seals of the Prelates Palatines and Castellans of the Kingdom was open'd and read aloud by one of the Ambassadors The King having given them very many civil thanks rose from his Seat and went to embrace the King of Poland his Brother the other Princes and Noblemen then present went afterwards to Congratulate him and pay their Respects He kissed the Duke of Alâ—ncon and the King of Navarre and treated the others with more or less Ceremony according to their quality I shall say nothing of the Feastings and Balets wherewith the Queen Mother entertained them those are the Abortives of Luxury and Prodigality the remembrance of which ought to last no longer then the smell of the meat and noise ☜ of the Violins The King of Poland made his entrance into Paris by the Gate Sainct Amoine with a Suitable Magnificence It was looked upon as an ill Omen that his Heraulds mistook in their blasoning the Arms of his New Kingdom Year of our Lord 1573 These Ceremonies ended King Charles who had taken up a strong Resolution he would Reign himself and withdraw that Authority he had imprudently committed to his Mother hastned his departure with great impatience every hour seeming a tedious year but the more he pressed the more delays the other still sought out It was not the delights only of the Court his Mothers tenderness the almost Royal Authority his Command had placed him in as Generalissimo of the Army's and the hope of succeeding to the Crown which ever seemed near at hand because the King had no Child that detained him in France the violent Love he had for the Princess of Condé was a stronger tye then all these The Duke of Guise who had Married the Sister soothed and served him though to no purpose in his passion and by that means had
Nine years JOHN I. The 23 August 423. S. Two years nine Months and a half BONIFACE II. The 15 th Oct. S. One year JOHN II. In Decemb. 431. S. Three years four Months AGAPETUS In July 534. S. One year SILUERIUS In June 536. S. Four years VIGILIUS In 540 S. 15 years Thierry King of Meâ—z or of Austrasia aged between 28 and 30 years Clodomir of Orleans aged 16 or 17 years Childebert of Paris aged 13 or 14 years Clotaire of Soissons aged about 12 years Year of our Lord 511 THese four Brothers divided the Kingdom betwixt them and drew their shares by Lot Thierry had all Austrasia and the Countreys beyond the Rhine the other Three had Neustria they were all equally Kings and without dependence upon one another yet nevertheless all these parts together made but up the body of one Kingdom The Historians count their Succession by the Kings of Paris because that City hath since been the Capital of all France Year of our Lord 512. c. Five or six years successively these Princes lived in quiet the three Sons of Clotilda being yet young and perhaps the two last under the Government of their Mother it seems a little after the death of their Father the Visigoths regained from them the Countrey of Rouergne and some other Lands in the neighborhood of Languedoc France then began to be divided into Oosterrich or the Eastern part called by corruption Austria and Austrasia and into Westrich or Western part and by corruption Neustria Austrasia comprehended all that is between the Meuse and the Rhine and even on this side the Meuse Rheims Chalons Cambray and Laon. Besides antient France and all those people subdued beyond the Rhine as the Bavarois the Almains and a part of the Turingians depended upon it Neustria extended from this side the Meuse unto the Loire Aquitain was not comprised under the name of France nor Burgundy not even after it was conquer'd nor Bretagne Armorick at least the lower because it was an independent Estate Year of our Lord 516 Gondebaud King of Burgundy dyed in the year 516. He had compiled or written a Law called by his Name the Law Gombete which was long in use amongst the Burgundians as the Salique was amongst the French He had two Sons Sigismond and Gondemar The first succeeded him in all his Dominions and having been Converted many years before by the Instructions of Avitus Bishop of Vienne he abjured Arrianisme at his first coming to the Crown and brought all his People over with him to the Orthodox Faith A Danish Captain named Cochiliac exercising Piracy had made a Descent on the Year of our Lord 518. towards 519. Lands belonging to Thierry 's Kingdom near the mouth of the Rhine when he would have gotten on Ship-board again with his Plunder comes the Prince Theodebert eldest Son of Thierry who assaults him kills him and having stained both Land and Sea with the Blood of those Pirats regained all what they had seized and stollen Sigismond bad at his first Marriage espoused Ostrogotha Daughter to King Theodorick of Italy by whom he had a Son named Sigeric After the death of that Queen he took one of his Servants into his Bed who having conceived a Step-mothers hatred against the young Prince made him seem criminal in his Fathers Eyes by her frequent calumnies who caused him to be strangled with a Napkin as he was sleeping but immediately he was so struck with Remorse that he retired himself for a time to weep for this Year of our Lord 522 crime into the Monastery of d'Agaune which he himself had built or much enlarged in Honour of St. Maurice and his Companions The Divine Justice as may be well believed stirred up the French Kings to chastise him though he had married his Daughter Sister to Sigeric with King Thierry the other three Brothers forbore not to conspire his ruine being incited thereto by Year of our Lord 523 their Mother Clotilda who yet cherished in her bosome the desire to revenge her Fathers death If at least we may suspect such a thing from so pious a Princess In few days they made themselves Masters of a great part of Burgundy either by the gaining of some Battle or the defection even of the Burgundians Sigismond fearing to be delivered up by his own Subjects disguises himself like a Monk and retires to the top of an inaccessible Mountain he had not long been there but some of those he thought his most faithful Servants went and found him and advised him to quit that place as not safe and betake himself to St. Maurice's Church the most Sacred Asylum of all those Provinces when he was come almost to the Gate of that Monastery the Traitors delivered him into the hands of the French Clodomir carries him away with his Wife and Children and shuts them in a Castle not far from Orleans As for Gondemar having saved himself by flight he awhile afterwards gathers Year of our Lord 524 up his Brothers Wrecks and puts himself in possession of the Throne Clodomir could not endure it and Leagued himself with Thierry his elder Brother to compleat his overthrow Before he set forth he was resolved to rid himself of Sigismond St. Avy Abbot of Micy endeavoured in vain to prevent him by his Pious Arguments adding In the Name of God the threats of a Reprisal on his Head and his Family but he Treated him in Ridicule and caused Sigismond to be cruelly Massacred with his Wife and Children and their Bodies to be thrown into a Well The prophetick threatnings of the Holy Abbot soon had their effect It was impossible but Thierry must in his Soul have a just Resentment for the death of Sigismond his Father-in-law so that when he beheld Clodomir far engaged in the medley which was in a Battle they fought against Gondemar near Autun he forsook him and suffer'd him to perish The Burgundians knowing him by his long Royal Locks cut off his Head and fixed it on a Lance but that spectacle instead of terrifying the French inflamed their Courage and Fury they revenged his death by a horrible slaughter of the Burgundians and conquer'd a part of that Kingdom to wit that which lay nearest the Kingdom of Orleans Clodomir was aged some Thirty years he left three Sons then but Children Theobald Gontair and Clodoaldo whom Clotilda their Grand-mother took care to breed hoping that when they came to be of age their Uncles would restore their Fathers Kingdom to them Clotaire his younger Brother presently married his Widow she was named Gondiocha so little the Princes of this First Race had any consideration for their Blood being as bruitish in their Amours as in their Revenge THIERRY in Austrasia at Mets. CHILDEBERT in Neustria at Paris CLOTAIRE in Neustria at Soissons The Kingdom of Burgundy was not shared amongst these Brothers till some years afterwards and Thierry had no part of it Theoderic King of the Ostrogoths
our Lord 790 This very Year was begun as some do hold that indissoluble Alliance between France and Scotland Charles having sent four Thousand Men in assistance of King Achaius who made him a present say the Scottish Authors of Claudius Clement and Alcuinus an Anglo-Saxon two learned Men for that Age. It is added that they came to Paris and erected some publick Schools Beginning of that Famous Vniversity the Mother of all those that are in Europe Year of our Lord 791 France having at this time no other Affairs Charles thought it was time to take his Revenge of the Huns but so as it proved a blessing to them by their being subdued to embrace the Christian Faith They had say some Autâ—ors seven Ringues or Vast Enclosures lock'd within one another and wonderfully Pallisadoed and strengthned with Rampires into which they made their retreat with their Spoil which they had practised above two hundred Years Charles having passed the River Emms which divides Bavaria from their Country went forwards with his Forces who marched along the two sides of the Danube attended with a Fleet which sailed on the same River and at the same time another Body of Eastern French-men entred upon them from Bohemia Upon his arrival they all fled and left two of their Ringues to him and afterwards he made his way and ravaged as far as the River Rab. Had it not been for a great mortality which almost destroy'd all his Horses he would have push'd his Conquest further We must observe That the Country of those Avari which lay on the East of Bavaria was by the French because of their Situation Eastward in respect of them called Oosterich whence comes the name of Austria Year of our Lord 792 An eminent danger wherein he found himself the following Year prevented his return thither as he had projected The French Austrasian Lords offended at the lofty behaviour of the Queen Fastrade conspired to be freed from her to ridd themselves of their King her Husband and to set up one of his Bastards named Pepin in his stead who had a handsome face but crooked and as malicious as it was possible The plott was discover'd by a poor Priest who being accidentally in the corner of a Church where they met for this purpose over-heard them discoursing of the design Charles by Sentence of the Estates caused several to be beheaded some their Eyes to be put out others hanged and his Bastard to be shaved and thrust into the Abby of Prom which is in the Bishoprick of Triers Year of our Lord 793 This Year Liderick de Harlebec Great Forester of Flanders was made Earl of it but not hereditary though from him are descended the Earls of that Country Year of our Lord 793 The same Year a Tumult was raised in the Dutchy of Benevent contrived perhaps by Grimoald and the rest of the Lombards which proved so dangerous that Lewis King of Aquitaine went into Italy with his Forces to assist his Brother Pepin Year of our Lord 793 Whilst Charles was at Ratisbon and had laid a Bridge over the Danube to go and subdue the Avari A Design was propounded to him which would have proved of great benefit in that War and for ever after to all Europe Which was to make a Communication between the River Rhine and the Danube and by consequence between the Ocean and the Black-Sea by cutting a Channel from the River Almuâ—s which discharges it self into the Danube to the River Redits which falls by Bamberg into the Meine which does afterwards run into the Rhine near Ments To which end he caused a world of men to work but the continual Rains that hapned filling up his Trenches and over-flowing and washing away his Banks ruined that brave and useful Undertaking Besides he was diverted by two accounts of ill tydings one the revolt of the Saxons who having kept themselves quiet seven or eight years now threw off again both the Yoake of Obedience and of Religion The other that the Forces Commanded by his Counts in the Marea of Spain were defeated by the Saracens Year of our Lord 794 Felix Bishop of Vrgel had in his answers to Elipand Bishop of Toledo published a most dangerous heresy That Jesus Christ as Man was but the Adopted Son of God the Father And although about two Years before the King having sent for him obliged him to recant and to go to Rome to abjure his Errour nevertheless he began anew to dogmatize Wherefore he caused a Councel of French Bishops to assemble at Francfort as also several Bishops of Germany and Lombardy who all condemned that Error in presence of the Pope's Legat They also rejected the Second Councel of Nice which had ordained the adoration of Images and pronounced that it did not deserve the title of Oecumenique Whilst the King was at Francfort died Queen Fastrada his third Wife Year of our Lord 794 From thence he went and fell with all his Forces upon the Saxons Country his Army being divided in two whereof he Commanded one part himself and his Eldest Son the other struck so great a Terror thorough all those Provinces that instead of running to their Arms they came running to him to begg for Mercy and this good Prince sparing the blood of those obstinate People contented himself with the taking away of one third of all such as were capable of bearing Arms and transporting them to the Sea-Coast of Flanders Year of our Lord 796 Upon his Return he passed away his Winter in the Country of Juliers where having discovered some hot Baths he built a fair Palace and a Church to the honour of the Virgin Mary For which reason that place was called Aix la Chapelle These Baths had in former times been accommodated and adorned with handsome Structures by some great Lord or Roman Governor whose Name was Granus it is not well known in what time from whence in Latin it takes the name Aquis Granum But I should have told you that before this Year was expired the Saxons had once more play'd the enraged Devils cutting in pieces an Army of the Abodrites in the Passage to the Elbe as they were marching by the King's Command upon an Expedition against the Avari Viltzan who Commanded them was slain which put the King into so great Wrath that he gave up all Saxony to the mercy of the Sword and at this time there were slain at the least Thirty thousand of those People bearing Arms. Pope Adrian his intimate Friend being dead Leo was Elected by the Senators and the Principal of the Clergy at Rome He sent him an Ambassadour to give Year of our Lord 796 him notice of his Election and to carry the Keys of St. Peter's Church with the City Banner and other honourable Presents to him desiring him to send one of his Princes thither to receive the Oaths of Fidelity of the Romans a certain proof that the King in quality of Patrician held
with a powerful Army ruined all the Countries of the most Factious and Stubborn and gave quarter only to those that besought his Pardon From thence finding he was so far on his way he pushes on to Pampeluna where he made some stay to assure himself of the fidelity of the Inhabitants of that Country which was very uncertain Before he Filed off his men thorow the passages of those Mountains he would needs be precautioned against the Robberies of those Gascon Mountaineers some of them being already in Ambuscade by seizing on their Women and Children and hanging one of their Spies who came on purpose to observe them and give his Companions notice of their motion Year of our Lord 810 Being returned into Aquitain he mightily laboured to reform that Kingdom and especially the Ecclesiastical Order which was so much deformed the Prelates and Priests being all turned Sword-men that there were no footsteps of any Discipline remaining He not only restored it by his exemplary devout life and by his good Rules and Orders but also by the great care he took to repair or build Monasteries which were as the Seminaries of good Church-men The Author who wrote his life reckons no less then Five and Twenty or Thirty Year of our Lord 810 Pepin not able any longer to endure the double dealing of Maurice and John Dukes of the Venetians who favoured the Greeks and desiring to restore Obelier and Beat who were expelled goes out of Chiassi which is the Port of Ravenna with his Fleet and enters the Lake of Venice In the beginning he took all the little Towns which were upon the Shore then turned towards the Island of Malamauca the Dukes Seat which he found quite forsaken Maurice and John his Son having withdrawn themselves into that of Rialto and Oliuolo The Venetian Authors relate that commanding his men to Attaque those Islands with floats of Boards or Timber and the Army of the Dukes defending them it hapned that wanting knowledge of the Channels and Depths his Fleet received a notable repulse That a great number of the French were slain and stifled in the Mud and that he himself who staid in the Island Malamauca with the least part of his Forces Retreated to Ravenna carrying Obelier and Valentine who had very unluckily engaged him in this enterprise along with him In this Island of Rialto was soon after built a Palace for the Duke and in that of Oliuolo another for the Bishop and in time they joyned all those little Islands near one another by Bridges so that all these together have made the City of Venice so renowned for its wonderful situation and more for the wisdom of its conduct In the mean time Godfrey with a Fleet of Two Hundred Sail lands in Frisia pillaged the Country and exacted Tribute He bragg'd also that he would give the Emperor Battel who was encamped near the place where the Rivers Alare and Veser joyn together but instead of coming forwards he retreats back into his own Country where he was killed by a certain Son of his in revenge for having repudiated his Mother Heming his Brothers Son who succeeded him Treated a Peace with the French Year of our Lord 810 France had not their revenge for the affront received in the Gulph of Venice because Pepin a Son worthy of his Father dyed at the age of 33 Years the 29 th of his Raign in Italy He left only one Bastard-Son named Bernard who succeeded him in that Kingdom a young Prince not above Twelve or Thirteen Years old at most About the end of the following Year Charles the Eldest Son of the Emperor dyed likewise who left no Children But the preceding Spring his Father concluded a Peace with the Dane and sent Three Armies one against the Sclavonick Year of our Lord 811 Hedinons beyond the Elbe the second into Pannonia to make head against the Sclavonians for they molested the Huns very much who were Subjects to the Year of our Lord 812 French and the third against the Bretons who renouncing that obedience they had sworn to him had chosen themselves a King named Coenulph Machon The Year of our Lord 812 two first returned home loaden with Spoil and the last with the honour of having vanquished the Bretons and their new King Year of our Lord 812 Charlemain being already broken with Age and Labour the loss of his two Sons made him more inclinable to have a Peace with the Saracens in Spain with the Greeks and with the Danes Which was the more easie to be compassed for that Mahumed King of the Saracens in Spain being in War with Abdella his Brother was the year following forced to let him have a share in the Kingdom in Greece Year of our Lord 812 the Emperor Nicephorus was slain in a Battel against the Bulgarians and Heming King of Denmark being dead there was a Civil-War about the Succession between Sigifroy and Amulon or Hamildon this Nephew to Hericold and the other to Godfrey They fought a bloody Battel where both of them were slain together with Ten or Eleven Thousand men but Amulon's Party remaining Victorious Secured the Kingdom to Heriold and Rainfroy his Brothers Amidst the Multitude of Affairs which Charlemain had in all the three several parts of the World he did not forget what concerned Religion Upon the intreaty of Biorn King of Sweeden he sent some Priests thither to instruct those People in the knowledge of the Gospel Ebon a Man of a holy life established a Bishoprick there in the City of Lincopen Year of our Lord 813 Finding himself grow weaker day by day he caused his Son Lewis to come to the Parliament of Aix where he had called together the Bishops Abbots Dukes and Counts he asked them all one by one whether they would be pleased that he should give him the Title of Emperor To which all having replied yes he declared him his Partner in the Empire commanded him to go and take the Crown which was upon the Altar and put it himself upon his own head In the same Parliament he likewise declared Bernard the Son of his Son Pepin King of Italy whither he had already sent him under the Conduct of Vala or Galon Son of Bernard his paternal Uncle The death of this mighty Prince was preceded with all sorts of prodigies both in the Heavens and upon the Earth enough to astonish even those that have but little faith in such presages and give least Credit to them Whilst he was studiously employed in the Reading and the Correcting some Copies or Manuscripts of the holy Bible in his Palace at Aix a Feaver seized him and carried him out of this World the 28 th of January the Two and Seventieth year of his Age at the beginning of the 14 th of his Empire and the 48 th of his Raign His Will and Year of our Lord 814 Testament which is yet to be seen is one of the greatest Tokens of his
a League with the Saracen King who gave him Powerful assistance with which help he so tormented the Governors of places that some quitted them and others went and joyned with him There was none but Bernard Earl of Barcelonna that persevered in the fidelity he owed the Emperor Year of our Lord 827 The next year Aizo got a very great re-inforcement of the Saracens and the Emperor on his part gave Pepin an Army to chastise him and to re-settle his affairs in those Countries But the Infidels ransacked the Counties of Gironna and Barcelonna at their pleasure before the French Forces were in condition The negligence of their Commanders was the cause of this delay which was most severely punished at the general Assembly of Aix with the loss of their imployment And whatever other favour they held of the Emperor This done to repair their fault he gave a great Army to his Son Lotaire who advanced as far as Lyons but having conferred with his Brother Pepin he went no farther because the Saracens had made no new attempt This was the last Trial the French made for those Marches For the following year there being a division bred in the Royal Family whereof Bernard Earl of Barcelonna was the pretence the Saracens and Spaniards too made great advantages of the same So that France could preserve only the Lower Marches to wit the Counties of Barcelonna Ampuries Roussillon Cerdagne Vrgel Paillars Ossonna and Ribagorce The People of the higher Marches seeing themselves abandoned by the Year of our Lord 828 French bethought themselves of making a King and chose Eneco or Inniguo Earl of Bigorre surnamed Arista by corruption from Ariscat a word which in that Country Language signifies the bold the resolute By whose valour and the eredit he had amongst the Gascons and the Inhabitants of the Pyreneans they promised themselves assistance sufficient enough to make Head against the Saracens As indeed he regained Pampelonna and some other Cities from those Infidels Year of our Lord 829 Or 830. 'T is here therefore we must assign the beginning Of the Kingdom of Navarre and not 70 years earlier by one Garcia Ximenes For all the Six Kings whom they place before this Inniguo Arista are fabulous as well as the pretended Kingdom of Sobrarue where they tell us they Reigned Now Sobrarue is a little Country between the Ancient Earldom of Arragon and that of Ribagorce which is within the precincts of the Kingdom of Arragon not of Navarre and hath but six Leagues of extent and some Burroughs in a Valley with the Abbey of Penna Inniguo Arista had for Son and Successor Ximene or Semenon d'Innigo and he had one Innigo de Semenon and Garcia both Kings D'Innigo II. was Son of Garcia II. who had two Sons which were Successively Kings viz. Fortunius Garcia and Sance Abarca the first of that name After him the Succession of their Kings of Navarre is clear and indisputable The Bulgarians ransacked Pannonia Superiora as they listed Balderic Duke of Friuli never stirring to repel them But his cowardly neglect was punished as it Year of our Lord 829 deserved He was devested of all his Honours and his Dutchy was divided into four Counties The Emperor desperately fond of his Wife and of his Son Charles bestowed Rhetia and part of the Kingdom of Burgundy upon that Child his other Brothers present But Trembling with jealosie and wrath Year of our Lord 829 Louis Emperor Lotaire Emperor and King of Italy Pepin King of Aquitaine Louis King of Bavaria Charles King of Rhetia aged 6 years Then all the reâ—t of the Party that had been for King Bernard the Relations Year of our Lord 829 and Friends oâ— those whom the Emperor had put to Death those whom he had Banished and sent away and afterwards recalled Leagued themselves together and taking this opportunity of the discontent of these young Princes Heated and Animated the People with divers rumours and reflections The Emperor fore-saw the Tempest well enough by the gathering of these clouds His Wife as well to have the Absolute Government of her Husbands weak Spirit as out of affection increased his Apprehensions and perswaded him to put an entire confidence in Bernard Earl of Barcelonna whom she loved with the Office of Chamberlain that she might ever have him near her Year of our Lord 830 Bernards Pride and his too great familiarity with the Empress bred envy and jealousy which caused several other Lords to joyn with the contrary Party All the discontented therefore address themselves to Pepin And in the ill humour he had conceived against his Mother-in-Law easily made him believe that Bernard was her Gallant and that she had bewitched her Husband and therefore it was a becoming Duty in the Son to revenge those injuries Practised against his Father and to restore him to his Honour and Witts again He believes them and takes the Field The Emperor being informed that he approached permits Bernard to retire sends his Wife to a Monastery at Laon and comes to Compeigne The Conspirators Seize the Empress she promises them to perswade her Husband to suffer himself to be shaved or deposed and upon this assurance they grant her the liberty to speak with him in Private They having conferred together made an agreement that the Empress should wear the Vail for a time but that he should demand some longer time to consider and resolve them Mean time his Son Lotaire arrives from Italy who confirmed all that had been done shutts up his Father in the Abbey of St. Mard at Soissons and appointed some Monks to instruct and advise him to put on the habit Some time after the Empress was brought to her Husband and upon the Peoples clamours confined to the Monastery of St. Radegonde of Poitiers Year of our Lord 830 In this Miserable condition the Debonnaire passed the Spring and Summer-season his Courage so sunk that he would have consented to turn Monk if the very Monks themselves who designed to take advantage of the opportunity and by some methods bring the Affairs of Court into their management by his means had not dissuaded him and found a way for his escape out of that Captivity One Gondeband amongst others stickled much in his service and went in his behalf to his two Sons Pepin and Lewis to entice them to embrace their Fathers Case to which they were already much inclined out of the jealousy of the growing power of their elder Brother and his undertaking to govern all things according to his own fancy The Power of these two Brothers serving as a Counter-poise to that of Lotaire there needed a general Assembly to settle the Government The contrary Faction would have it in Neustria where they were the stronger to degrade him or at least to dissolve his Marriage with Judith because she was of Kin to him But yet he had Friends or craft enough to have the meeting held at Nimiguen There making his
Party the strongest by the help and addition of the Eastern French he obliged his Son Lotaire to come and submit to him in his Tent and give up the principals of the Confederates into his hands All the Lawyers and his Sons themselves Judged them worthy of Death He Pardoned them notwithstanding and did only command the Laity to be shorn and the Church-men to be shut up in Monasteries When he was got back to Aix he recalled his Wife and her Brothers who Year of our Lord 830 had been shaved at the beginning of the Commotion but he would not admit her till she had cleared her self according to the usual manner of every thing laid to her charge In the Easter-Holy-days he was so merciful that in Honour of him who with his own Blood had Redeemed all Mankind and obtained Pardon for Sinners He released and recalled likewise all those whom he had caused to be shorne and restored them to their Estates and Lands but he sent his three Sons into their own Kingdoms Bernard was admitted to purge himself by combat and there appearing no accuser to oppose him he purged himself by Oath Year of our Lord 832 After these broils neither of his three Sons shewed him a perfect obedience Pepin and Louis though he had enlarged their shares did not leave vexing him And Lotaire their elder did under-hand contrive all their practices Pepin being sent for to a general Assembly at Automne came not till they were broke up which made his Father keep him with him At the same time almost Louis was making ready to come and visit him with too great an Attendance But the Father going forth to meet him made him retire and pursued him as far as Augsburgh From thence he summoned him to be present at the Assembly of Franefort to which he obey'd Year of our Lord 832 When he had done with one another began anew He had intelligence that Pepin was again Arming himself he went therefore as far as the Palace of Iogontiac in Limosin where he Assembled the Estates of Aquitain The rebellious Son was forced to appear there And his Case having been discussed he was kept Prisoner As they were conveying him to Triers he escaped and assoon as his Father was out of Aquitain he got in again with the same evil Spirit In fine having been Summoned to appear at the general Assembly of Saint Martins he not obeying his Father punished his Rebellion by taking the Kingdom of Aquitain from him Year of our Lord 832 It was said that Gombaud the Monk enraged because Pepin hindred him from Governing the Emperor in recompence of his good Services stirred up his Fathers wrath against him and Judith with her Artifices compleating the Project pushed the young Prince on to these extreams that she might have his spoil for her own Son Charles as in effect the Emperor did bestow it on him and caused him to be acknowledged by the Lords of the Country to the great displeasure of the other two Sons who feared the like Treatment Year of our Lord 833 They therefore conspired all those afresh against him and the two youngest leave the management of it all to Lotaire who brings Pope Gregory along with him the better to Authorize him They take the Field with a numerous Army The Father on his side gets his Forces together at Wormes for they were arrived nigh Basle The Ambassadors he sent to his Sons and the Pope finding they urged the Pope to Excommunicate him declared before his face that if he came for that purpose he might return Excommunicated himself since he trangressed the Holy-Canons The two Armies remained encamped between Basle and Strasburgh Five or Six days during which time the Emperor and the Pope had some conference about a Peace But under the pretence of Treating his men were debauched and persuaded to forsake him and went to the service of his Sons In so much that himself was likewise compell'd to go over to them having before Stipulated that his Wife nor his Son Charles should either of them forfeit Life or Limbs They immediately confin'd young Charles to the Monastery of Prom but did not shave him and banished the Mother to Tortona in Italy maintaining that her Marriage was Null because she was of Kin to their Father within the degree prohibited which was truth And that in those days was accounted a crime so great by the Church that they punished it with the utmost rigour Add that the Prelats were mightily offended with her for that she had caused Frederic Bishop of Vtrecht a man reputed to be of Holy-life to be Massacred because he had dared to reprove the Emperor publickly as he was eating at his own Table The Debonnaire being thus detained Pepin returned to Aquitaine and Louis to Bavaria Lotaire assigned a general Assembly at Compiegne to be on the first of October leaving his Father under a strong Guard in the Monastery of Saint Medard Year of our Lord 833 of Soissons During the Assembly the French beginning to be touched with compassion towards their ancient Emperor some Lords with some of the Bishops who feared they should be punished if ever he were again restored contrived wholly to exclude him by degrading and condemning him to do publick Pennance Ebon Arch-Bishop of Reims his Foster-brother and his School fellow but Son of a Slave was the principal Author and Promoter of this Counsel The Ceremony of this Degradation was as follows The Bishops having remonstrated his Scandalous faults to him he sent for his Son Lotaire and his Princes and made his reconciliation with him Then they led him into St. Medards Church where prostrated before the Altar upon a Sack-cloth he confessed he had been the cause of great mischiefs and troubles to France and the Bishops exhorting him to name his Crimes openly he repeated them according to a writing they had given him containing amongst other things that he had committed Sacriledge Parricide and Homicide in that he had violated the Solemn Oath made to his Father in the Church and Presence of the Bishops consented to the Death of his Nephew and done violence to his Relations That he had broken the agreement made betwixt his Children for the Peace of the Kingdom and compelled his Subjects to take new Oathes which was Perjury from whence proceeded all manner of mischiefs in the Government That after so many disorders and infinite damages and losses to his People he had again brought them together to destroy each other For which he desired pardon of God Then he presented a Paper to the Bishops who laid it upon the Altar After this they took off his Military Girdle which was laid there likewise And lastly they disrobed him of his secular Habit and cloathed him with a Penitential one which was never to be quitted when once they had put it on The People that is say to the Soldiery who would dave trampled him under foot before he was depes'd now pittied
and a few days after put him to death The two Cousins having shared the Soveraignty soon quarrell'd each other and came to blows near Rennes Vrfand with a Thousand men only charged Pasquitan who had Twelve times as many and got the advantage The other Lords of the Country after the example of these two set up likewise Year of our Lord 875 for Soveraigns amongst others Alain Earl of Broerec that is to say the Territory of Vennes and that of Porhoet and Salomon Count of Rennes Son of the Sister to a King of the same name On the other hand the Normans wasted all the Country so that Bretagne thus torn lost the name of a Kingdom And took that of a County and then a Dutchy In those days these two Titles were confounded Soon after Vrfand fell sick to extremity Pasquitan having notice of it gets his Forces together Vrfand whose courage could not fail but with his Life was carried in a Litter to the head of his men his presence gave them the victory but hastned his death a little A great deal of honour which cost him but a Moments Breath Year of our Lord 875 His Rival did not long survive him sickness deprived him of that which death had bestowed on him His Succession remained in dispute between Alain his Brother and Judicael Son of the Daughter to Herispoux They found it better to share it by agreement then by the Sword and at length it fell to Alain by the Death of Judicael who was slain in a fight against the Normans Louis Emperor of Italy Dies without Male Children in the Month of August An. 875 the 20 th of his Empire who had been mightily disturbed by Factions of the Grandees his State and incursions of the Saracens His Tomb is to be seen at Milan in St. Ambrose Church His Wife was named Engelberge according to some the Daughter of Ethico who was Son of another Ethico Duke of Suevia or Germany by whom he had but one Daughter only named Hermengarde who An. 876. was Ravished by Boson Brother to the Queen Richilde and with the consent of Everard Berenger Son of the Duke of Friuli who had her in keeping Louis the Germanick Charles the Bald. Year of our Lord 875 It was now betwixt the Germanick and the Bald who should first Seize upon Italy The Bald making great diligence got thither before Charles and Carloman two of the Germanicks Sons who went two several ways whilst their Brother Louis fell upon France to make a diversion For the two first the Bald amused them with very fair words and sent them back handsomely and as for the third the Prelats made such pathetical remonstrances to him that he took pitty of the poor people and returned without committing many acts of Hostility The Popes interest was to have an Emperor of a great name one that could lend him powerful assistance as Pepin and Charlemaine had done but yet not abide in Italy where he must have lain too heavy upon his shoulders wherefore he would have no Italian Lord because they were both weak and resided upon the place and besides being to chuse out of the Carlovinian Line he could not so well comply with the roughness of those that Governed in Germany He therefore pitched upon Charles the Bald and incited him by a sumptuous Embassy to come to Rome to receive the Imperial Diadem as if it had been absolutely in his disposal Year of our Lord 875 He set it on his Head upon Christmass Day with great Solemnity After which the new Emperor bestowed the Dutchy of Spoleta upon Gay the Son of Lambert and that of Friuli on Berenger the Son of Everard At his return he received also the Crown of Lombardy at Pavia and a Confirmation of the Imperial one at an Assembly of Counts and Prelats in the said City Year of our Lord 875 the Pope assisting in Person And the following year there being yet several Lords in Italy who refused to acknowledge him the Pope held another Council in Rome to Confirm him a second time adding Excommunications against the refractory Year of our Lord 875 Year of our Lord 876 The Western Empire could be but a vain or empty Title and at most had nothing belonging to it but the Exarchate of Ravenna and the Pentapolis for his power was not Year of our Lord 877 absolute in the City of Rome and the Kingdom of Lombardy belonged nor held any wise of it Nevertheless the Bald esteeming himself wholly obliged to the Pope and of ☜ his Soveraign being become his Subject even so far condescending as to take it for an honour to bear the Title of his Counsellor of State endeavoured in recompence with all his might to extend his Authority over the liberties of the Gallican Church In a Council held at Pontigon he supported as much as he could the Popes Legats who brought Letters of Primacy to Ansegise Arch-Bishop of Sens saying the Pope had Commissioned him to assist at that Council and to cause his Orders to be put in execution and in effect he made him take his Seat immediately next the Legats But the French Prelats encourag'd by Hincmar who thought he better deserved that honour then Ansegise could never be induced neither by Prayers nor threatnings to give consent to that Novelty At the eight Session the Bald brought in the Empress his wife so fond was he of her with the Crown upon her Head to preside there with him of which the Bishops were so ashamed that they did not so much as rise up to receive her Though the Germanick were Seventy years old and much discomposed in his Family by the discord amongst his Sons he had nevertheless so great a resentment for that Charles the Bald did him no justice in the matter of the Empire and Territories of Italy that he gathered all his Forces to make a powerful irruption upon Neustria Being come to Francfort Death broke the thrid of his life and his undertakings the 28 th of August the Seventieth of his Age and the 59 since his first Coronation This Prince was well read in the Learning of those times He was all his life long Active Warlike and Liberal one that cared not for money but to bestow it and had a greater esteem for Steel then Gold a great Zealot in Justice and Religion an equitable distributer of commands and employments in Fine approaching more then any Prince of his Line to the noble virtues and qualities of Charlemaine By Emne his sole wife a Spaniard by Nation much applauded by the Authors of those days for her Wisdom and Piety he had three Sons Carloman Charles and Louis Year of our Lord 876 Upon the News of his death the Bald of a defender which he was just before became an aggressor and resolved to strip those young Princes his Nephews before they could be aware Louis nearest Neighbour to this danger sent Ambassadors to him to put him in mind
Italy betwixt them Year of our Lord 888 THus the Succession of the Carlovinian House was divided into five Dominions without counting the Lords who set up almost for Soveraigns 1. Italy which was joyned with the Title of the Empire 2. Germany which then also comprehended the Kingdom of Bavaria 3. France which had the Kingdoms of Neustria Aquitain and part of Burgundy 4. Burgundy Cis-jurane named ordinarily the Kingdom of Arles or Provence under which were likewise the Lyonnois and Daufine 5. and Burgundy Trans-jurane or beyond the Jour as the other on the contrary We need not doubt but these new Kings gave part of the Quarry to the Lords of their Party and consented to every thing to get only their Oaths and Homage nor can we imagine but these Lords did the like towards their Vassals and these again to the lesser Nobility From hence arose so many Lordships both small and great of which the Bishops themselves such as were of good Families and had but courage enough did not forget to take their shares Year of our Lord 889 Now Eudes to show himself worthy the choice they had made of him went out against the Normans who ravaged Burgundy He set upon them on St. John Baptists Day nigh Mountfaucon slew nineteen thousand and pursued the remainder to the very Frontiers shewing himself personally brave on all occasions Another party of them who were in Champagne descended by the Marne as far as Paris and there loading the Barks upon Waggons carried and put them into the River again below the City then falling down to the Sea and so running along the Coasts plund'red the Country of Constentine Year of our Lord 889 Alain and Judicael who were contending for their shares in Bretagne agreed together to sight the Normans their common Enemy Judicael alone rashly presents them Battel and so doing lost both his Life and honour But Alain having gotten all his Forces together fought them so fortunately that of fifteen thousand hardly did four hundred escape The Bretons attribute this success to a vow he made to bestow the Tythe of the Spoil he should gain upon St. Peter's at Rome Such Devotion towards the Holy-Chair was very ordinary in those Ages Divers Princes devoted their Estates and became Tributaries to St. Peter Which did not a little contribute to imprint that persuasion the Popes then had in their minds that they had a right both to give and to take away Crowns After these losses the Normans having but few men left in France two of their Chiefs Godfrey and Sigefroy went and shipped a new levy of a hundred thousand men raised in Denmark Sweden and Norway that their reputation might not be wholly blasted They entred the Meuse with fourscore and ten thousand leaving the remainder to guard their Vessels King Arnold's Lieutenants assaulting them indiscreetly were defeated with the loss of an infinite number of the Nobility Year of our Lord 890 But Arnold himself picqued at so bloody an affront passes the Rhine with the whole Force of Germany seeks them in their very Camp which was close by the Meuse and forced them with so much fury that he left not so much as one of them alive The dead Bodies made a Bridge quite cross the River and the Flood was swoln with the Blood of those Barbarians If any wonder whence there could come such vast numbers we must know First that all the rascally and pilfering French and the like of other Countries joyned with them That besides those Countries were then extremely populous and all those Inhabitants greedy of Plunder listed and embarqued themselves to come and rob such rich and fertile Nations In fine there came so many who were either destroyed or else Inhabited in France that those large Territories of the North are unpeopled to this very day Thus in these last Ages Spain which once swarmed with men has made her self become a Desart through the covetous humour in her Subjects who all transport themselves into that new World where are the Mines of Gold and Silver they so long for Year of our Lord 891. and 892. All the Neustrian Lords did not own Eudes for their King Aymar Earl of Poitiers whom he would have dispossessed of his Estate to give it to his Brother Robert Ranulfe II. Duke of Aquitain and some others in those parts had taken up Arms against him Year of our Lord 892 Now whilst he was employed in Poitou in the War a confederacy was contrived between Herebert and Pepin Brothers sprung from Bernard King of Italy the one Earl of Vermandois the other of Senlis and Baudouin or Baldwin Earl of Flanders Fulk Arch-Bishop of Reims and many others who having been to fetch Charles the Simple out of England whither his Mother had carried him caused Year of our Lord 893 him to be Crowned at Rheims the 27 th of January in the year 893. It was by the assistance of Fulk that he immediately wrote Apologetick Letters to Arnold Guy and Rodolph exhorting them to help the Pupil against the Usurper Which at first made some impression upon Arnold in favour of Charles but soon after either in terest or inconstancy turned him on Eudes side Some have said that that Guy of Spoleta whom we have mentioned had likewise been Crowned at Langres three years before So that there were three Kings chosen and Crowned in West-France But Guy had absolutely quitted it for Italy and seemed to pretend no more to it CHARLES Called The SIMPLE King XXX POPES STEPHEN VII Near Three years THEODORE II. Elect. 901. S. 20 dayes JOHN IX also Elected in 901. S. 3. Years 15 days BENNEDICT IV. Elect. 905. S. about 2. Years LEO V. Elected in 907. S. 40 days after which Christopher dethroned him S. 7 Months SERGIUS III. an 908. having dethroned Christopher S. about 3 years ANASTASIUS III. Elected an 910. S. 2 years 2 Months JOHN X. Elected in 912. S. 15 years whereof 12 under this Reign Arnold King of Germany Bavaria and Lorraine Eudes and Charles Competitors for West-France Guy Emperour and King of Italy Rodolph in Burgundy and LOVIS in Arles Year of our Lord 893 FOr two whole years the parties for Charles and Eudes made War with various success Eudes being returned from Guyenne drove Charles out of Neustria but shortly after he got in again by the assistance of the Lords of his party Eudes made him work enough and had no less to do himself being forced to guard himself as well from his own party as from his Enemies Count Gautier Son of Adelme his paternal Uncle and Count of Laon drew his Sword upon him in open Parliament and had afterwards the confidence to take shelter in the City of Laon but Eudes followed him so close that not giving him time to put himself into a posture of defence he took the Town and caused his Head to be cut off Year of our Lord 892. and 3. Arnold was sometimes on his side
Lotaire I. Emperor another in Germany by Lewis his Brother named the Germanick and a third in West-France by Charles the Bald. All three ended their Reigns with a Louis that of Italy by Louis II. great Grand-Son of Lotaire that of Germany by Louis Son of Arnold and that of France by this Lewis the Faineant The Princes of this Race at their Coronation received the Sacred Unction They were almost ever on Horse-back and in the Field and had their wives with Year of our Lord 987 them Charles Martel and Pepin when they were at rest and peace held their residence at Paris and thereabout Charlemain at Aix-la-Chapelle the Debonnaire in the same place or at Thionville Charles the Bald at Soissons and at Compiegne Eudes at Paris Charles the Simple at Reims Lewis Transmarine at Laon. If we consider the causes of the ruine of this Race or Line we shall meet with five or six principal ones 1. The division of the main Body of the Estate into divers Kingdoms which was necessarily followed by Discords and Civil-Warrs between the Brothers 2. The irregular Love the Debonnaire had for his too dear Son Charles the Bald. 3. The imbecillity of most part of these Princes there not having been amongst all of them above five or six who were furnished with Sence and Courage together 4. The ravages and inroads of the Normans who ransacked France for Four-score years together and favoured the attempts of the great Lords 5. The multitude of Bastard Children which Charlemaine had who plaid the Soveraigns in those Countries allotted them for their subsistance 6. And if we will believe the Clergy the Curse of God which fell upon those Princes because they gave the Churches goods to their Lay-officers and their Soldiers of Fortune 7. One may add that this Tree bearing no more good Fruit God would pluck it up to plant another in its place infinitely more fair and more fertile whose duration shall be extended to the end of time and it's renown and glory to the ends of all the Earth End of the Second Race or Line THE THIRD RACE OR LINE Of the KINGS of FRANCE Called the Capetine Race or of the Capets First Part. Hugh Capet King XXXV POPES JOHN XV. S. Eight years and an half during this Reign GREGORY V. Elected in June 996. S. Two years eight months whereof some months under this Reign HUGH CAPET Aged Forty four or Forty five years Year of our Lord 987 THere was none of the Carolovinian Race remaining but Charles Duke of Lorrain This Prince was absent of little Merit and very ill in the minds of the French Hugh Capet on the contrary was in the heart of the Kingdom Powerful and Esteemed He held the Dutchy of Burgundy by Henry his Brother that of Normandy by Duke Richard his Nephew and that of France with the Counties of Paris and Orleance in his own hands Besides he had a Party made so that having Assembled the Lords in the City of Noyon he prevailed to be Elected and Proclaimed King about the end of the month of May. From thence he went to Reims to receive the Unction and the Crown from the hands of the Archbishop Adalberon who invested him the Third of July Not one of all those that were present at Noyon and at that Ceremony claiming for Charles but on the contrary all giving their Oaths in Writing as well as by Word of Mouth to his Enemy One might say that this poor Prince had destituted or deprived himself by rendring himself a Stranger and that this Estate could not suffer or admit a Head that was Vassal to another King Hugh might also make use of the Testament which King Lewis made in his favour but his best Right and Title was the general consent of the French People Year of our Lord 987 c. After his being first Crowned he never put the Crown more upon his Head during his whole life time because it having been predicted to him by Divine Revelation That his Race should hold the Kingdom for seven Generations he thought to prolong that Honour one Degree more by not wearing himself the Regal Ornaments that so he might not be reckoned one of the seven He did not know the number seven in Sacred Language signifies an extent to all Ages You must observe that from about the time of Charles the Simple under the name of the Kingdom of France were comprehended that of Neustria that of Aquitain and that of Burgundy at least that part of it which lies on this side the Saon and therefore when those Kings would be Crowned they were fain to call together the Lords of all these three For this reason perhaps it was that the first Capetine Kings having joyned them all under one Title took likewise upon them the Quality of Emperors unless we should say they did so not to seem inferior to the German Kings but either by some Treaty or upon some other Condition to us unknown they quitted it and contented themselves with that of King Year of our Lord 987 The same year Geofrey called Grise-Gonelle Earl of Anjou ended his days His Son Fulk surnamed Nerra was his Successor Hugh Capet six months after his Coronation desiring to have an Assistant obtained in an Assembly of French Lords which was held at Orleance that his Son named Robert should be Associated in the Throne with him He was Crowned in the same Year of our Lord 988 City the first day of January in the year 988. HUGH CAPET and ROBERT his Son Aged about Sixteen years IT is to be presumed that Prince Charles did not omit to present himself to have or demand the Crown but being come too late he was rejected by the French so that he betook himself to Arms to resume his pretended Right Amongst all the Lords of the Kingdom there were only Arnold Earl of Flanders and Hebert Earl of Champagne his Wives Father that assisted him but the first died this year having been ill handled by Capet and Hebert durst not proceed to act any farther for his Son-in-Law but under-hand Mean time the young King Robert Married Lutgarde the Widow of the Earl of Year of our Lord 988 Flanders though she were already very aged and he not yet above Seventeen years old Duke Charles had a Bastard Brother named Arnold who was a Clerk in the Church of Loan by his means he seized upon that City and upon the Archbishop Ancelin-Auberon This Ancelin was a very subtil Man but without Faith who to regain his liberty pretended to be come wholly his Friend and wrought so upon his Mind that he made him the first of his Council Year of our Lord 988 The new King knowing that Charles was in Laon came presently to besiege him reâ—olved to take it by Famine In the length of the Siege his Men not standing carefully upon their Guard Charles made a stout Sally put them to the rout burnt their Lodgments and forced
some Method to bring Hugh in again to that See but considering that a small number could not undo what had been done by a greater and that they had notice from the Pope to clear their doubts that he had Excommunicated him in a Council held at Rome Anno 949. they broke up without proceeding any farther That of Reims in 975. wherein presided Stephen Deacon to Bennet V. Pope and Adolberon of Reims Excommunicated Thibauld who had usurped the See of Amiens In 983. that of Mount St. Mary in the Diocess of Reims where Adalberon presided confirmed the Decree made by that Bishop to put Monks into the Monastery of Mouson in the stead of those Canons that were there In the foregoing Age in many places the Canons were more desired The Humour was changed in this Gerbert solliciting with heat to have Arnold de Reims his Process made a Council was called in that same City Anno 992. where his Credit and the vehement Eloquence of Arnold d'Orleans carrying it against the Remonstrances of Abbon Abbot of Fleury and the Sentiment of Seguin de Sens who was President Arnold was deposed and Gerbert instaled in his See The Pope believing it intrenched upon his Authority if he suffer'd them to undertake this without his Order sent a Legat into France the year ensuing who first called together some Bishops at Monson then a greater number at Reims where Seguin representing the Person of the Pope it was said that Gerbert should be deposed and Arnold restored but this last being a Prisoner at Orleans Gerbert disputed it and stood his ground yet for some time and appealed to the Pope who grew more stubborn and stiff in favour of Arnold and forced the King by the threatnings of a terrible Excommunication to release him and suffer him to enjoy his Bishoprick Robert King XXXVI POPES GREGORY V. About two years under this Reign SILVESTER II. Elected in March 999. S. Four years and two Months JOHN XVIII Elected in May 1003. S. Five Months JOHN XIX Elected in Novem. 1003. S. Five years ten Months SERGIUS IV. Elected in Aug. 1009. S. Two years eight Months and an half BENEDICT VIII Elected in 1012. S. near Twelve years JOHN XX. Elected in March 1024. S. Nine years eight Months ROBERT King XXXVI Aged Twenty four or Twenty five years THis King compleat both in Body and Mind of a handsom Stature a sweet and grave Air a composed and sage Humour having been nurtur'd to Piety and good Learning by Gerbert became very knowing for that Age much more Religious and Zealous in the Service of God and as Just Charitable and Debonnaire towards his People as any Prince that ever wore a Crown And indeed God favour'd his Reign with the choicest Blessing he is wont to bestow upon those Kings who are according to his own Heart I mean with a long and happy Peace which he enjoy'd near Thirty years after some slight and petty Wars Year of our Lord 996 This year 996. died Richard I. Duke of Normandy who was past his Seventieth year He left his Dukedom to his Son Richard II. surnamed the Good Year of our Lord 997 98. William Earl of Poitou and Duke of Aquitain having War with Boson II. Earl of Perigord and de la Marche Robert was obliged to assist him as his Kindred and Vassal They both laid Siege to the Castle of Belac but their Army wanting Provisions because they were too numerous could not subsist till the taking of the Place The Chronicles of those times who are all very succinct do not give an account of the end of that War no more then of many other things Eudes Earl of Brie and Champagne prompted with great desire to have a passage Year of our Lord 999 over the Seine as he had already over the Marne thereby to go commodiously from Brie to his County of Chartres cast his Eyes upon Melun and with Money gained the Vicount or Castellaine belonging to Earl Bouchard who deliver'd it up to him Bouchard had been the favourite of Hugh Capet who had given him that Earldom and he was yet at this time Count Palatine for King Robert Wherefore this King took in hand his defence sent Richard II. Duke of Normandy his Cousin and good Friend and with him besieged the place The Battery with their Engines having made a Breach the Garrison surrendred upon Composition the Castellaine and his Wife were both Hanged on the top of a Hill near the place They did not punish Gentlemen with Death for Rebellion or Felony unless they committed Treason but in that case they hanged them in some eminent Place that Crime degrading them of all Nobility Year of our Lord 999 Poland was honoured with the Title of a Kingdom by the Emperor Otho III. who going to Gnesne to Visit the Sepulchre of St. Adalbert Martyr gave the Regal Ornaments to Duke Boleslaus The following year Hungary had the same Advantage and Honour but would receive it from the hands of the Pope to whom Prince Stephen the Son of Geisa who first embraced Christianity sent to demand the Royal Crown Year of our Lord 1000 Towards the end of January in the year 1002. the Emperor Otho aged but Twenty nine years died in the City of Rome or in Paterna not leaving any Children It was believed to be of Poyson the cursed practise thereof being much in use as I have observed in this Age thorough all the West Henry II. of that name called the Cripple Duke of Bavaria and Earl of Bamberg succeeded him by an Election of the German Princes but did not bear the Title of Emperor at least not in Italy till he had been Crowned by the Pope which was Twelve years afterwards Year of our Lord 1002 The degrees of Parentage wherein Marriage was prohibited having been extended to the Seventh besides the obstructions from Spiritual Alliance or Gossipship caused much Broil especially amongst Princes and Grandees who commonly are of Kin to one another even within that degree For so soon as a Husband or a Wife were disgusted with each other or that any one had a mind to trouble them they needed but to Article and make Oath they were of Kin within the degrees forbidden and produce Witnesses upon it to the number of nine as I believe which were not wanting or difficult to get and thereupon the Diocesan Bishop or an Assembly of Bishops if there were any greater difficulty pronounced Judgment Year of our Lord 1003 Now Queen Lutgard the first Wife of Robert being dead he was advised by Maxims of Policy to Wed Bertha Sister to Rodolph the Lazy King of Burgundy Widow of Eudes I Earl of Chartres and Mother of Eudes II. as yet but young She being of Kin in the fourth Degree and besides he having held a Child with her at the Font he thought he might prevent the inconveniency of nullity of Marriage by the Authority of the Gallican Church he called therefore his
they held as what they produced how situated or some particularities of their Castles or such Office they bore Some there were that chose such things as preserved the memory of their brave Feats of Arms or some singular Adventure which had hapued to them or theirs and others in fine would have such as betokened their inclination not to mention those that would needs have their Coats out of a meer fantastical Humour and without any design These glorious Marks and Badges belonged otherwhile only to the Nobility and was not the least illustrious part of the Succession of their Noble Families Now at this time every one hath them the meanest villains are the most curious herein they have not only brought the ✚ Rebus's of the little Citizens Merchants Cyphers Shop-keepers Signs and Artists tools and implements into their Coats under the shadow of Crowns Helmets and Supporters but likewise by a confidence not to be endured they have made choice of the most illustrious things and given occasion to observe that there are no better Coats then the Arms of a Villain or Plebeian Year of our Lord 1096 97 98 and 99. From the first Croisade William Rufus King of England taking the opportunity of his Brothey Roberts absenc had seized on the Dutchy of Normandy Swoln with this increase of Power he promised himself to invade France because he saw the Excommunicated King languishing in the Arms of his Concubine who besides had but one lawful Son of 15 or 16 years of age and was destitute both of Money and Friends Nevertheless this young Prince surpassing his age did by his Courage and Virtue defend himself so well three years together that Rufus was forced to leave him in Peace and retired again into England In that Countrey letting himself loose to all sorts of infamous pleasures tiranny Year of our Lord 1100 and execrable wickedness both towards God and Man he perished in a tragical manner being as he was Hunting shot with an Arrow either designedly aimed at ☞ him or by chance which pierced his very Heart Henry his younger Brother got into the Throne during the absence of Duke Robert who was still in the Holy-Land Notwithstanding the Popes Excommunications the King had renewed society with Bertrade by the consent even of Foulk her Husband being so infinitely enchanted with that Woman that he was often seen at her Feet there to receive all her Year of our Lord 1098 99 and 1100. Commands as if he had been a Slave Some of the Belgick Bishops honour'd the Kings Adultery with the name of Marriage and on their great Feasts according to ancient custom placed the Crown upon her Head to shew or signifie they did not hold her to be Excommunicated but the Popes Legats denied to communicate with him and conven'd a Council at Poitiers in July where he was Excommunicated once more William Duke of Aquitain who feared the like Treatment having committed the like fault for he entertained a Concubine and had forsaken his lawful Wife affronted and abused the Prelats greatly and perhaps his Sorrow and Repentance for it afterwards prompted him to go to the Holy Land as we have observed The King constant in his Affections solicited the Popes Favour so earnestly that he sent some Legats to re-view the Cause Year of our Lord 1101 They assembled a Council at Baugency The King and Bertrade promised to abstain from each other till the Popes Dispensation and thus the Council broke up Year of our Lord 1102 without giving any Judgment The King continued with the recommendation of the Bishops to endeavour the obtaining a Dispensation in the Court of Rome in the end he had it he was Absolved in the City of Paris and his Marriage confirmed so officacious is constancy even in things not commendable The opposition of the Bishops served only to authorize the use of Dispensations from Rome which since have been very common in all matters and occasions Young Lewis whom they named the Prince of the Kingdom and was designed King by his Father it is not specified in what year took the Government of Affairs Year of our Lord 1102 3. and the following PHILIP LEWIS Surnamed the Gross designed King aged 19 or 20 years In those times the Rights of the French were such that they could not legally arrest the Lords nor punish them with death unless it were for Treason but only deprive them of their Lands I mean those they held of the King they called them Honours This was it that gave them Licence to arme to oppress the weaker to rob and plunder and above all usurp the Goods of the Church Year of our Lord 1100 Lewis had to do first with Bouchard Lord of Montmorency against whom he embraced the Cause of the Monks of St. Denis whose Lands that Lord had pillaged and having appeared according to an assignation in the Kings Court of Justice refused to obey the Sentence or Judgment given against him therein He forced him by destroying and burning all his Villages and his Castle it self to submit to Reason In like manner he chastifed Droco or Dreux de Mouchy and Lionnet de Meun who tyrannized this over the Churches of Orleans the other over those of Beauvais Also he humbled Matthew Count of Beaumont upon Oise Son-in-law to Hugh Earl of Clermont in Beauvoisis who having half of the Lands of Luzarches in Dowry had seized upon all and had devested the good Man his Father-in-law Year of our Lord 1103 He durst or would not intermeddle with the quarrel between the two Norman Brothers Robert and Henry The First upon his return from the Holy Land demanded the Kingdom of England of his younger Brother who had usurped it after the death of William Rufus The business after three years Negotiation and War was determined in this manner Robert An. 1107. having lost a Battle at Tinchâ—bray in Normandy was made prisoner by his cruel Brother who deprived him of Sight by placing a burning Bason of Brass before his Eyes whereof he dyed in Prison Thus the whole Succession of William the Conquerer remained in Henry the youngest of his three Sons Year of our Lord 1103 In the year 1103. Lewis passed into England to King Henry I cannot tell upon what design Bertrade his Mother-in-law who could willingly have sent him out of the World sollicited Henry to make him away and this Artifice failing she caused poison to be given him at his return into France which put him in great hazard of his Life Year of our Lord 1104 The King to rid himself of the trouble brought upon him by the Family of Montlehery agreed upon a Marriage with Guy Troussel betwixt Philip his Son and bertrade to whom he gave the Earldom of Mantes on condition that Guy should deliver him the Castle of Montlehery which he did Year of our Lord 1104 At the same time or a little after Guy Lord of Rochefort Uncle of Troussel entirely possessing the Kings
people admitted left it to the Chevalier that Commanded the Watch and his Archers Though the Truce was not expir'd there was still some enterprize upon one another The English seized upon Guisnes having corrupted the Governour with Money Edward excused it pleasantly saying The Truces were Merchandise and that he did no more then follow the example of King Philip who would have bought Year of our Lord 1351 Calais The Traytor that had sold Guisnes was taken and drawn in pieces by four wild Horses Guy de Nesle Mareschal of France was defeated and taken with Arnold d'Endreghen and several people of note in a rencounter in Guyenne Year of our Lord 1350 and 51. In Bretagne the two parties of Blois and Montfort though they had only two Women in the head of them were perpetually engaging and fighting it out desperately In those days challenges between Cavaliers and the chief Commanders of parties that were enemies was very common but more frequent between a certain number appointed on each side then singly hand to hand and indeed they called them Battles The most remarkable in these years was that of Thirty Bretons against as many English Richard Brembo was the chief of these and the Lord de Beaumanoir of the others The victory fell to the Bretons and the greatest Honour to their Chief The following year 1351. Charles de Blois who had been four years a prisoner in England was released upon ransom giving two of his Sons for hostage till the payment of it and till he had discharged that debt he forbore to take up Arms. The Lords that had been taken prisoners in their attempt upon Calais having been discharged carried on the War with the Mareschal de Beaujeu about the Countrey of St. Omers having upon a time surprized the Lombard that had betraid them they Year of our Lord 1351 caused him to be quartered alive The Earl of Flanders had deny'd to assist at the Kings Coronation because they refused to restore his three Cities to him nevertheless he came to Paris to pay homage for his Lands and renew the Treaty of Confederation Year of our Lord 1352 The Sixth of December hapned the death of Pope Clement VI. Cardinal Stephen d'Albert a Limosin by birth and Bishop of Clermont succeeded him the Eighteenth of the same Month and took the name of Innocent VI. Year of our Lord 1353 King Charles of Navarre his return into the Kingdom brought with it a long train of war and calamities He had all the good qualities that a wicked Soul renders pernicious Wit Eloquence Craft Resolution and Liberality Though he had this year 1353. married Jane one of the Kings Daughters he gave not over from pursuing his pretensions to the Counties of Brie and Champagne and also Angoulesme Charles d'Espagne to whom the King had given this last disswaded him from proffering satisfaction The Navarrois discontented retires to his County of Evreux and understanding that the Constable was in his Castle de l'Aigle he undertakes a thing as base as it was bold He carries with him a hundred Horse men Year of our Lord 1354 scales the Castle it was on the Sixth of January and makes them stab him in his Bed That done he had the insolence to own the fact to justifie himself by Letters to the King and Council and all the good Cities of the Kingdom to raise Forces fortifie his Towns and sollicite all the neighbouring Princes to a League against France Year of our Lord 1354 The King dissembles him and flatters him to draw him to Paris but he will not come till they grant him conditions very advantagious of Lands for the value of Brie and Champagne the independance of his Earldom of Evreux from all others but the King full and free Absolution for those that had murthered the Constable and besides all this a very considerable sum of Money and the Kings Second Son in Hostage Year of our Lord 1354 Upon these Securities he appears in the Parliament of Paris the third day of March The King sitting on his Throne attended by the Pairs the Legat and divers Prelats The criminal having crav'd his pardon in a studied Speech intermixed with complaints and excuses the Constable had order to arrest him only for forms sake and lead him out to the next room while they debated then straightway he was released upon the request of the two Queens the Widdows of Charles the Fair and of Philip de Valois The Legat made him a grave Remonstrance and after all the King declared him Absolv'd Some few days after he retired into Normandy but went immediately without leave of the King and made a journey to Avignon He went ierreting up and down till the English should take the Field whereupon the King enters again into Normandy and seized his Lands but that Prince returning from Navarre by Sea having brought Forces that sacaged all the Countrey and besides it being Year of our Lord 1355 feared the English would soon Land it was thought sitter to make use of kindness Charles the Kings eldest Son soothed him so finely that he was pacified and least in appearance and came with him to Paris The Emperour Charles IV. goes to be Crowned at Rome or rather to be cover'd with shame having made that infamous Contract with the Pope that he would not sojourn so much as one whole day in that City which brought both Year of our Lord 1355 himself and the Empire into the most despicable condition The year following upon the Eleventh of January he made that famous Constitution called the Golden Bull of which the Politicians judge very variously Upon a Shrove-Tuesday night the English by Scalado took the Castle of Nantes and the very same night Guy de Rochefort took it again and hew'd them all in pieces as a reward for their having broken the Truce Gaston Phebus Count de Foix who Married the Sister of the King of Navarre was sent prisoner to the Chastellet at Paris because he refused to hold his Lands of the Year of our Lord 1355 King perhaps it might be those holden of the English But in a Month after he was set at liberty upon condition he should go into Guyenne and command the Kings Army against the Prince of Wales For the Truce was no sooner at an end but that young Prince invested in the Duchy of Guyenne by his Father began to make himself known by ravaging and burnings He made incursions even as far as Beziers and Narbonne without meeting any opposition from the French Commanders the Earl of Foix James de Bourbon Constable Year of our Lord 1355 and John de Clermont who were stronger then his party but too much divided by jealousies amongst themselves His Father at the same time landed at Calais and ran over all the Boulonois and Artois even to Hesdin where he broke through the Park yet could not force the Castle but having intelligence that King John was coming directly to
Bourdeaux and carried away the King and his Son along with him tg ether with a prodigious number of prisoners Charles the Dauphin Lieutenant then Regent Aged some XXI years Year of our Lord 1356 THere being no Authority left in the Kingdom and the King before his departure having not setled any thing in order all was in a most horrible confusion The Dauphin at the first took only the quality of Lieutenant upon him he believed it belonged to the general Estates to provide for the Government of the Kingdom and the redemption of the King and therefore having called them together at Paris the Fifteenth of October he propounded these two things to them But that hapned then which ever happens in such great disorders where the people have been evilly treated in their prosperity Instead of assistance he met with nothing but complaints and sharp rebukes They would deliberate of nothing in the presence of his Commissioners they demanded to have the Chancellor set aside this was Peter de la Forest Archbishop of Rouen Simon de Bucy First President and six or seven Officers more that had mis-mannaged the Treasury They would have him set the King of Navarre at liberty and would have him be governed and guided by a Council they chose for him upon which conditions they promised to maintain Thirty thousand Men but which should receive their pay from their own hands In the mean time they set up a Council for the Government of the Kingdom whereof Robert le Coq Bishop of Laon was the Chief and Commissioned People that were at their own Devotion to manage the Treasury The Dauphin not being able to perswade them to condescend to any other method nor bias their resolutions made use of some wile to break up that Assembly and upon divers pretences obliged the Deputies of the several Cities to return Afterwards he dispatched others to all the Bailywicks and Seneschals Courts to demand a subsistence of them severally hoping that none in particular would dare to refuse him what when altogether they had boldly denied During this confusion every one imagined now was the proper time to recover their Rights and Priviledges The Nobility began to make Alliance with the Cities The Dauphin found out the way to prevent that union and draw them to himself The Cities on the other hand grew jealous of the Gentry so that to preserve themselves from being pillaged by the Soldiery who had all manner of Licence allowed them they began to fortifie especially at Paris where they chained their Streets repaired their Walls made good their Ditches and enclosed all that quarter of the Street St. Anthoine and St. Pol which before was but the Suburbs Stephen Marcel Prevost des Merchands and Ronsac the Sheriff had full power over the People and govern'd them at their own pleasure Year of our Lord 1356 The unfortunate Gefroy de Harcourt had sold his Lands in Normandy to the English to enjoy it after his decease disinheriting Lewis his Nephew because he would not take up ARms against his own Countrey He had some Forces at St. Sauveur le Vicomte from whence they made their incursions to the Suburbs of Caen and even to Evreux The Estates assembled at Paris had sent four Captains thither to make head against him he marching into the Fields to meet them near the City of Coutances was there defeated and slain had he been taken alive they would have made him pay down his Head upon a Scaffold he chose rather to dye with his Sword in hand The Duke of Lancaster and Philip of Navarre who made War in Normandy with Philip d'Evreux not being able to pass over the Loire to assist the Prince of Wales amidst the danger he was in before the Battle of Poitiers were fallen down into Bretagne The Duke laid Siege to Rennes the Third of December in this year 1356. but Year of our Lord 1356 the place was so well defended that he could make nothing of it in Ten Months time After the example of their Sovereign who had studied more the enlarging of his ☜ power then the publique good every one took care now of his particular interest and overturned all that lay in his way to attain his own ends The Deputies whom the Dauphin had sent into all the Provinces brought nothing back but grievances the only Countrey of Languedoc because they had been less oppressed by Taxes then the rest testified a publique sorrow for the captivity of their Prince and proffer'd to maintain Five thousand Horse for his Service the others refused every thing but what should be ordained by the Estates Year of our Lord 1356 The Dauphin had Commanded some new Money to be Coined but being gone to Metz to confer with the Emperour Charles IV. his Cousin who stood up mightily for the interests of the House of France the Duke of Anjou whom he had left at Paris was compell'd by Stephen Marcel to forbid the carrying it on Year of our Lord 1357 Wanting some publique Authority to get himself to be declared Regent he had summoned the Estates upon the Fifth of February to meet at Paris at the Cordeliers but could obtain no more from them then he had done the former time They forced the Chancellor la Forest to lay down the Seals turned out all the principal Officers of the Treasury caused all their Goods to be seized and inventoried and upon the warm Remonstrances of Robert le Coq Bishop of Laon removed all the Great Officers of the Kingdom even those of the Parliament excepting Sixteen The Dauphin not finding what he reckon'd on Adjourn'd the Assembly till Fifteen days after Easter Whether it were the inconveniency of that time of the year or the greediness and covetous humor of the Gascons each one of them demanding as much reward as if he alone had gained the Battle and taken the King which hindred the English from removing him out of Bourdeaux he passed all the Winter there but Served and Treated as if he had been in his own Courr Year of our Lord 1357 About the beginning of April they transferr'd him into England where he was entertained with as much Honour and Respect as if he had gone over only to pay a kind visit to King Edward They made him a publique entrance at London he was mounted upon a White Horse a mark of Sovereignty and the Prince of Wales on his left hand upon a little Hackney They lodged him in the Savoy palace the King the Queen and the Grandees visited him and gave him all sort of liberty In the mean time the Popes instant mediation obtained a Truce for two years between both Crowns in which John de Montfort and Philip d'Evreux were not comprehended The Duke of Lancaster had sworn not to rise from before Rennes till he had gotten in and planted his Banners upon their Ramparts whist his Army was in apprehension Year of our Lord 1357 of a second Winter and the
all France was left exposed to the plundrings of the licentious Soldiers as well French as English Now at the very hour that Paris was reduced to the extreamest want and it was in the power of the Navarrois and only depended upon him alone to give the mortal blow to France his heart was changed in a moment without any apparent cause but an extraordinary favour of Heaven towards this Kingdom Insomuch as he made his agreement with the Dauphin and referr'd almost all his pretensions to his own free Will in despite of all the arguments and oppositions of his Brother who quitted him and retired to the English at Saint Sauveur le Vicomte Year of our Lord 1359 This Peace saved the City of Paris but did not ease the neighbouring Provinces * for those Garrisonn'd places that had held for the King of Navarre declared for the English that they might still have opportunities to plunder The Lord Auberticour a Hennuger ravaged Champagne by means of certain Castles he held upon the Marne and the Seine Broquard de Fennestranges a Knight of Lorrain drawn into the Service of France with Five hundred adventurers whom he had under his Pay delivered the Countrey of him having defeated and taken him prisoner in a great Fight near Nogent upon the River Seine but himself became a more severe scourge burning and laying all waste till the Dauphin could give him the Arrears due to his Soldiers During all these Wars with the English until Charles VIII had driven them out of France there were many of these Captains whereof some paid their Men out of their own pockets and then hired them out to those that would bid most and others maintained theirs with the plunder they took indifferently on either side These last were called Robbers those that Commanded them were meer Soldiers of Fortune when they were snapt they found no quarter Year of our Lord 1359 There were Propositions of Peace perpetually on foot between the two Crowns King John though he had all manner of liberty even for Hunting and all pastimes and gallantries was very weary of his imprisonment nevertheless he referr'd those conditions the English propounded for his Release to the Estates of his Kingdom They being assembled at Paris for this purpose it was in the Month of May found them so hard that all with one voice chose rather to have War and offer'd very great sums to carry it on but these could not be levied so soon The King of England netled with their Reply raised a formidable Army there were Eleven hundred Vessels and near an hundred thousand fighting Men landed at Calais with his four Sons who began to march although the Season was very far spent They let him keep the Field at his own pleasure the Towns were so well provided that he could not take one neither St. Omers nor Amiens nor Reims where he thought to have been Crowned King of France nor Chaalons Burgundy redeemed themselves from plundering for Two hundred thousand Florins and some Provisions for his Camp Nivernois compounded likewise Brie and Gastinois were ransacked About the latter end of Lent he came and encamped within Seven Leagues of Paris between Chartres and Montlehery and finding they made no one step towards the satisfying his demands he plants himself just before the City Gates with design to oblige the French to Speak or to Fight Year of our Lord 1360 After he had tarry'd there some time without being able to gain either the one or the other he turns back towards Beauss resolved to refresh his Men along the River Loire and in case of misfortune retreat into Bretagne Cardinal Simon de Langres the Popes Legat and the Dauphins Deputies always follow'd his Camp and sollicited him eternally for a Peace One day he being encamped in the Chartrain Countrey there arose a dreadful Storm with so much Lightning and Thunder and such a shower of great Hail that it grievously maim'd a great many of his Men and killed above a thousand of his Horses He took this prodigy as a warning and command from Heaven and turning himself towards our Lady's Church of Chartres which was to be seen about five or six Leagues off made a promise before the Almighty of concluding the Peace besides the Duke of Lancaster with other English Lords pressed him earnestly because his Army was much shatter'd and he had brought over almost all the force of England Year of our Lord 1360 The Deputies on either part met the First of May at the village called Brotigny within a mile of Chartres In this place Treating in the name of the two Kings eldest Sons they concluded upon all the Articles in eight days time On the one side they gave the English King besides what he had already all Poitou Saintongne Rochel and the Countrey of Aulnis Angoumois Perigord Limosin Quercy Agenois and la Bigorre in full Sovereigaty besides Calais the Counties of Oye Guisnes and Pontieu and three Millions in Gold for the Ransom payable at three several Terms of King John who should be brought to Calais and set at liberty after the restitution of those places force-mentioned and upon giving up as Hostages his Three youngest Sons his Brother Philip and other Princes of the Blood and besides all these Thirty more as well Earls as Illustrious Knights and two Deputies of each of the Nineteen Cities whose Names were expresly mention'd On the other hand the King of England renounced the Title of King of France and generally all his other pretensions Year of our Lord 1360 And till the two Kings could ratify the Treaty a Truce was agreed upon for a year In the Month of July King John was brought over to Calais where he was immediately visited by his Children and staid there till the Five and Twentieth of October when King Edward coming thither both of them swore to the agreement of Peace very solemnly That between the King of England and the Earl of Flanders and another between the King of Navarre and King John were made up in the same place and Year of our Lord 1360 this last sworn by the two Philips Brothers of those two Kings the Treaties were confirmed by the Holy Father under the penalty of Ecclesiastical censures against those as should first contravene King John being freed from Captivity the Four and twentieth of October which he had now undergone four years and one Month went to give Thanks to God at the Church of St. Denis in France There he received the King of Navarre into Favour who came and Saluted him The Thirteenth of December he made his entrance into Paris and the City testified their joy by a Present of Plate of a Thousand Marks Year of our Lord 1361 The extream necessity he was in for Money to pay his Ransom made his generous courage stoop to a weakness judged to be more prejudicial to the Honour of the Noble House of France then even the Treaty of Britigny it self
was nothing of all this in the Letter but the Captain who could not read believed it and drew out the Garison The Mayor had laid an Ambuscade amongst some Ruinous Buildings which cut off his passage and hindred his return Ten or twelve Forelorn Wretches that were left in the Castle Capitulated After this the crafty Rochellers before they would open their Gates to the French made their Treaty with the King and obtained to have the Castle demolished or if we will believe their Memoirs an Amnesty for having demolish'd it before the Treaty Besides this they got so many Priviledges and great Advantages as tended as much towards the putting this City at liberty as for the exchanging their Master After the Constable who represented the King had taken their Oaths of Fidelity he pursued the Conquest of Poitou and Saintonge Most part of the Lords were retired to Touars he laid Siege to it and forc'd them to Capitulate That they should put themselves their Lands and that place under Obedience of the King unless the King of England or one of his Sons did come with an Army strong enough to sight the Besiegers by Michaelmass-day This sort of Composition was practised as long as there was the least faith left amongst Men. It ever included a Cessation of Arms during which the Besiegers taking Hostages of the Besieged raised their Camp and left them all manner of liberty excepting only the admitting more Soldiers into the Garison or to furnish or provide it with Stores Year of our Lord 1372 When King Edward heard of this Capitulation Honour and Necessity rowzing and bringing to his mind the remembrance of his Victories he puts to Sea himself with four hundred Vessels that he might not lose so fine a Country and so many brave Men. But the Winds refused to be serviceable to him upon this occasion they tossed him about for six weeks together and would not afford one favourable gale but what blew him towards his own Ports of England The time being expired the Lords performed the Capitulation after which the Cities of Saintes Angoulesme Saint John d'Angely and generally all the Country even to Bourg and Blaye returned to the Obedience of their Ancient and Natural Soveraign Year of our Lord 1372 John de Montfort Duke of Bretagne looked with fear upon the Prosperity of the French his ancient Enemies and with regret upon the decay of the King of England his Father-in-Law and his Protector but he was not Master in his Dutchy the People would have no more War the haughty humour of the English was not compatible with their Liberty and the Barons dazled with the lustre of de Guesclin and de Clissons Fortune had their Eyes turned upon the Employments and Pensions of the Court of France Thus the Duke was under great constraint If he admitted any English to land upon those Coasts the Common People fell upon them if he quarter'd them in his Garisons the Lords rose up Having placed some in Brest Conquet Kemperle and Henneband they besought the King to send them some Forces to drive them thence and put the Cities into his hands as they did Vennes Renes and divers others The Revenge he would have taken by laying Siege to St. Mahé did but hasten his loss and the Constables march with the Duke of Bourbon Some English Soldiers that he had sent for to strengthen himself withall had the whole Country against them and were all cut in pieces so that although he had some good places left he durst not shut himself in any of them but passed over to England to cry out for help Whilst he was gone the Constable secured them all excepting three Brest Becherel and Derval this last belonged to Knolles he laid Siege to all these at the same time as likewise to la Roche-sur-yon in Anjou This last being farthest off from all Assistance surrendred Brest Becherel and Derval promised to do as much if within a certain prefixed time there appeared not an Army sufficient and that would hold Battle to make the French raise their Siege As for Brest and Derval they saved themselves by this means The Earl of Salisbury was then at Sea to guard the English Coasts against the Spanish Navy Commanded by Evans of Wales whose Father King Edward had put to death to get that Principality Hearing what danger Brest was in he landed in Bretagne encamped and entrench'd himself near that place then sent his Heraulds to the Constable to proclaim that he was come to raise the Siege and expected him there The Constable did not think sit to attaque him in so well fortisied a Post Thus that place was deliver'd At their departure thence Knolles who had defended it threw himself into Derval not thinking himself obliged to stand to the Treaty made by that Garison which cost the Lives of their Hostages and by way of Reprizal the Lives of some Gentlemen whom Knolles had taken Prisoners As for Becherel it held out a whole year at the end whereof no Army appearing on the day prefixed to relieve it it fell into the hands of the French The King of England did not fail of his Guaranty to the Duke of Bretagne he raised an Army of above Thirty thousand Men whom he gave to the Duke of Lancaster to restore that Prince who had the confidence to send defiance to the King of France his Sovereign they landed at Calais the twentieth of July marched thorough and pillaged Artois Picardy Champagne Fores Beaujolois Auvergne and Limosin and descended into Guyenne instead of going into Bretagne as Montfort hoped and expected It was the constant resolution of this wise King not to hazard any great Battle against the English but he ordered his Forces should be lodged every night in some Town should follow the enemy by day and never cease from galling and disturbing them falling upon all straglers and sitting so near their skirts as to keep all Provisions and Forage from them by which means he defeated their great Armies by little and little and made them moulder away to nothing These having been observed and pursued by the Duke of Burgundy as far as Beaujolis and from thence to the Dordogne by the Constable were not only prevented from undertaking any thing considerable but were so much weakned and diminished that scarce six thousand of them got into Bourdeaux Year of our Lord 1373 During this irruption the Duke of Anjou Governour of Languedoc made another much more advantageous into the upper Guyenne He conquer'd several places of little or no name at present but in these days of great importance Two great Judgments a Famine and a * Plague tormented France Italy and England this year 1373. There likewise Reigned especially in the Low Countreys a phrantick passion or phrensie unknown in the foregoing ages Such as were tainted with it being for the most part the scum of the people stript themselves stark naked placed a Garland of
at one another the Burgundian breaks off the Treaty and thinks of nothing now but to accommodate Affairs with the Dauphin They conferred therefore in the open Field near Povilly le Fort within two Leagues of Melun between the two Armies each of them attended by half a score Horsemen and there they made a Treaty in which they sware to love and assist each other like Brothers submitting themselves in case of any failure to the Soveraign Judgment of the Holy See After which they agreed to meet upon the Bridge de Year of our Lord 1419 Montereau Faut-yonne the Eighteenth of August each accompanied with ten Men armed to determine all their disputes in a most amicable manner The Servants belonging to the deceased Lewis Duke of Orleans particularly Taneguy du Chastel and John Louvet President of Provence procured these Interviews for no other end but to find an opportunity to revenge the death of their late Master upon him that was the Author of it They durst not attempt it at Pouilly but they put things in better order at Montereau by the contrivance of certain Barriers which being made in appearance for the mutual safety of them both served as a snare or trap to that unfortunate Prince The day being come the Dauphin arrives at Montereau the Duke made him wait almost fifteen days His friends forewarning and advice his own pressentiment all humane prudence and reasonning forbid his going thither the power of his ill destiny dragg'd him along by the horrid treachery of a second Dalila I mean the Lady de Gyac his Mistress or perhaps it was the hand of Divine Justice for the Blood of his own Cousin and so many thousands of Men as had been spilt in that Quarrel To allure him the better they delivered up to him the Castle of Montereau but wholly unfurnish'd of Provisions or Artillery From thence he descended to the Bridge with his ten Men and placed a guard at the end While he was kneeling before the Dauphin Taneguy du Chastel and some others leaping over the Barriers Massacred him by several wounds his People making but a slight defence only Nouailles Brother of Captal de Buch who was kill'd with him We must believe this act was done without the Dauphins order for he was not above Seventeen years of age and Heaven would never have permitted a Prince designed to wear the Year of our Lord 1419 Crown of France should have perpetrated so horrible and base a piece of treachery However it were the event made it appear how much those wounds did blemish his Honour and not only proved hurtful to him but almost mortal to the whole Kingdom For Philip the only Son of the deceased although a very good Prince highly undertakes to revenge his Fathers death and wanted not for means to do it All that were friends to that House all those that were discontented came and tendred their service to him compassion and horror for this Murther renewed and heated the affections even of such as were grown coldest the Parisians sent to assure him of their Services and he to gain the love of the People obtained a Truce of the English to the exclusion of the Dauphins People who were come to Rouen to desire the same thing for which they made great profers From this time the French the English and the Burgundians began to mix and live together as if they had all been but one Nation but the difference of their humours and interests would suffer no long unity amongst them Year of our Lord 1419 On the other hand the Dauphin gathered up all his Friends in the Provinces of Poitou Orleannois Berry Auvergne Lyonnois Dauphine Provence and above all thought to secure himself of Languedoc He took away that Government from the Earl of Foix and gave it to Charles Count de Clermont eldest Son of the Duke of Bourbon From these Provinces it was that he drew his Succours that maintained him Besides the Kings of Castille and of Scotland with the Duke of Milan suppli'd him in his necessities with some of their Forces Year of our Lord 1420 According to what had been agreed upon the King of England and Philp Duke of Burgundy met at Troyes where the King and Queen were and there the Peace was Treated together with the Marriage of Catharine of France with King Henry Which was first sworn to by all the Lords there present and then by all the good Cities that were of their party The Marriage was compleated the Second day of June This Treaty amongst other things contained That King Charles named and owned Henry for his Heir to the Crown of France That however Henry should not take the Title of King of France during the life of Charles but that he should have the quality of Regent and the government of Affairs That the two Kingdoms of France and England should be united and held by the same hand viz. by Henry and his Heirs but that they should not depend upon one another and should be governed according to their Laws That all Priviledges and Rights should be preserved to all Estates and to every particular Person That no Treaty of Accommodation should be made with the Dauphin without the consent of both the Kings the Duke of Burgundy and the three Estates of both the Kingdoms The two Kings afterwards with the Burgundian having taken Sens and Montereau journyed towards Paris Melun made the King of England know how much all France might cost him he was four Months before it and not able to force it Famine only did what his Sword could not The Besieged surrendred upon composition but contrary to the faith given they were all detained Prisoners At their departure from thence the two Kings made their entrance into Paris the first Sunday of Advent and the next day the two Queens The Duke of Burgundy having tender'd his complaint before them and their Councils in the Hostel St. Pol the Dauphin was summon'd to the Table de Marbre with the usual formalities and afterwards as attainted and convict of Murther was declared unworthy of all Succession namely of that to the Crown of France and banished the Kingdom to perpetuity From this Sentence given by incompetent Judges against all Right and contrary to the Laws of the Kingdom he appealed to God and his Sword and transferr'd the Parliament and University to Poitiers at which place the most illustrious Members of those two Companies did not fail to appear Thus almost every thing was double in the Kingdom there were two Kings two Regents two Parliaments two Constables two Chancellors two Admirals and so of most of the great Officers not to mention the multitude of Mareschals of France whereof each Party made seven or eight Year of our Lord 1420 This year 1420. the Portugal Navigators defray'd and encouraged by Henry Duke of Visen Son of John King of Portugal sailing at large in the Ocean found in their midway between Lisbonne and
Burgundy and the Earldom of Nevers on the one part and Bourbonnois Beaujolois Lyonnois and Forez on the other Then it proceeded a little further at Nevers in the interview of Charles Duke of Bourbon and the Burgundian whose Sister Charles had Married These two Princes having accommodated those Affairs that were between them concerning the Homage for some Lands which the Duke of Bourbon refused to render him and for which they had made a rude War for some time began to fall into discourse of the Affairs of the whole Kingdom and agreed together that there should be a Conference held at Arras to find out the best means for procuring Peace between the two Crowns and between the King and the Burgundian Year of our Lord 1435 According to this Resolution there was held at Arras the greatest and the most noble Assembly that ever this Age had heard of All the Princes of Christendom had their Ambassadors there the Pope and the Council each their Legats The Harbingers took up Stabling for ten thousand Horse This was opened the Sixth day of the Month of August Year of our Lord 1435 The Duke was obliged in honour not to Treat without the English provided they would be satisfied with reasonable Conditions They were profer'd Normandy and Guyenne if they would do Homage for them but when he found they would relinquish nothing of their Pretensions he disengaged himself from them and made a separate Treaty the Popes Legat having absolved him of that saith he had given them The Popes did often practise this believing it a part of the power which our Lord Jesus Christ had given to bind and unbind Here is the Summary of the chiefest Articles The King by his Ambassadors disown'd that he had consented to the Murther of Duke John wickedly perpetrated and by wicked Counsel for which he was sorry with all his heart Promised he would do justice and cause such as were guilty to be prosecuted whom the Duke should name to him That if they could not be taken he would banish them from the Kingdom for ever and never admit them upon any Treaty He obliged himself to build for the Soul of the deceased Duke the Lord de Novailles and of all those that died since in that quarrel a Chappelat Montereau on the place where the Body of that Duke lay interred to set up a Cross on the Bridge to found a Monastery or Chartreuse where should be twelve Friers and a high Mass that should be sung every year in the Church at Dijon To pay fifty thousand Gold Crowns at 24 Carats c. for the Goods and Equipage taken when the Duke was Murther'd Moreover he relinquished and acquitted him of all Homage due for any Lands he held of the Crown and his Service and Personal Assistance during his life Gave him to perpetuity for him and his Heirs Males and Females the Countries of Mascon and Auxerre the Lordship of St. Jengon the Bailliwick of St. Laurence the Castlewick or Chastelleny of Bar upon the Seine and as security for four hundred thousand Crowns payable at two certain terms the Chastellenies of Peronne Roye and Montdidier and the Cities of the Somme that is St. Quentin Corbie Amiens Abeville and others As also the County of Pontieu on either side the Somme and the enjoyment of the County of Boulogne for him and the Heirs Male of his Body with all the Rights of Tailles Gabelles and Imposts all profits of Courts of Justice of the Regalia and all others arising from all those Countries That the Burgundians should not be obliged to quit the St. Andrews Cross even when they were in the Kings Army That in case of any contravention of the Subjects both of the one and other of these Princes should be absolved from their Oaths of Fidelity and should take up Arms against the Infringer That the King should tender his submissions for the compleating of this Treaty into the hands of the Legats from the Pope and the Council upon pain of Excommunication Reagravation Interdiction of his Lands and all other to which the Censures of the Church can extend That to the same purpose he should give the Seals of the Princes of his Blood the Grandees of the State the most noted Prelats and the greatest and chiefest Cities Year of our Lord 1435 And to make this Reconciliation the more firm and durable there was added the promise to bestow Catharine the Kings Daughter upon Charles Earl of Charolois the Dukes Son both as yet very young Four years after they sent this Princess to the Duke of Burgundy to compleat the Marriage Year of our Lord 1435 Besides this weighty blow which amazed the English much they received another which was the death of the Duke of Bedford Regent in France after whom they never had any but Men that were very violent hare-brain'd without either prudence or conduct The French in the mean time time took Diepe by Escalado and the kind usage they shewed to the Inhabitants brought them all the places of the Country of Caux Year of our Lord 1435 At the same time which was about the last day of September died the Queen Mother Isabella de Baviere in the Hostel de Saint Pol at Paris where she lived in a mean condition since the time of her Husbands death justly hated by the French and ingratefully despised by the English Some have written that to save the expences of her Funeral they conveyed her Corps in a small Boat to St. Denis attended only by four People Her death is attributed to an inward grief occasioned by the outrageous railleries of such as delighted to tell her face that King Charles was not the Son of her Husband Year of our Lord 1435 and 36 One of the greatest faults they committed after they had refused the offers made them at Arras was their not treating the Duke of Burgundy well their giving him reproachful language and not suffering him to be Neuter as he desired but to fall on his People wherever they met them endeavouring to surprize his places and harrasing him so perpetually that at length they constrained him to become their utter Enemy The Parisians comparing the pride and wretchedness of these Strangers with the courtesie and magnificence of their Natural Kings could no longer endure them or if any thing did yet with-hold them it was some remainders of that affection they preserved for the Duke of Burgundy But this knot being broken they now sought nothing but the opportunity to free themselves from their Bondage Year of our Lord 1436 The English having therefore been beaten at St. Denis by the Constable the honest Citizens of Paris took that opportunity to treat about their surrender to him Having obtained an Act of Oblivion and the confirmation of their Priviledges in such form as they desired they introduced him by the Gate called St. James This was on the Friday after Easter When he was entred the People fell upon the English
Kingdom This year he held a great Assembly of Notables and Deputies of the Lords of the Estates at Orleans where it was resolved that a Peace should be endeavoured without which all designs for reformation would be useless and indeed impossible and that in the mean while the Souldiery should be all reduced into Companies established and well regulated every Gentdarm to three Horses who should be paid every Month. Before this they had seven or eight and a great number of Roguy-boys who devoured all the Country where-ever they passed Year of our Lord 1440 This reform could not be pleasing to the Grandees nor Captains who grew fat by eating up the People whose misery was their happiness They interrupted it by a dangerous Commotion which was named La Praguerie The Dukes of Alenson Bourbon Vendosme the Bastard of Orleans and divers others had a hand in it They complained that the King allowed no share in his Government but to three or four private Persons and thereupon entred into a League against his Ministers La Trimouille who was in disgrace joyned also with them that so he might by any means whatever be brought into play again at Court Year of our Lord 1440 The Conspiracy being made the Duke of Alenson hies to Niort to debauch the Dauphin who was his Godson aged but Sixteen years but Married already to Marguerit Daughter of James I. King of Scotland and turned away the Count de Perdriac his Governor and all those the King had placed about him The King ran immediately to quench this new lighted Fire after he had well provided his Frontiers against any attempts of the English he takes the Field accompanied with his Constable the Earls de la Marche and Dunois whom he had drawn off from that League with eight hundred Men at Arms and three thousand others He pursued the Leagued so smartly into Poitou and from Poitou into Bourbonnois taking all the places where they thought to stand at Bay and make Head that they were forced to give up his Son to him and come and beg his pardon on their knees Year of our Lord 1440 A marvellous change Charles Duke of Orleans who was detained Prisoner in England for five and twenty years was delivered from captivity by that hand from which he had the least hopes in the world to expect it It was by Philip Duke of Burgundy who desiring to put a final end to the mortal quarrel between his Family and that of Orleans by a principle of goodness as generous as it was politique contrived the deliverance of this Prince and helped him to pay his Ransom which was three hundred thousand Crowns These two Princes by a sincere and cordial Reconciliation quenched the mortal Enmities their Fathers had begot Philip received Charles with great honour in his Year of our Lord 1440 City of Graveline the Twentieth of November gave him his Order of the Fleece and accepted the Order of the Porcupine from him Moreover Charles Married his Niece Daughter of his Sister and of Adolph first Duke of Cleves In fine each strove to shew the other all the marks and tokens of the most sincere and perfect amity Amongst the Mareschals of France there was one Giles Lord de Raiz of an illustrious House and very valiant but a great squanderer of Wealth whose mind was so depraved that he addicted himself to all sorts of Vice and Sins both against God and Nature entertaining Sorcerers and Enchanters to find out Treasures and corrupting young Boys and Girls whom he afterwards Murther'd that he might have their Blood to compound his Charm and Spells This being a publick Scandal he was put into the hands of Justice the Bishop of Nantes made his Process the Seneschal of Renes Judge-General of that Country assistant the Cause being of a mixt nature He was condemned to be burnt alive in the Field of Nantes The Duke was present at his Execution but mitigating the Sentence he permitted them first to strangle him and then to bury his Body not much consumed by the Flames I think I do remember in his Process that there was some Crime of State against the Duke who was glad he had this occasion to revenge that offence in punishing those hainous offences against Almighty God Year of our Lord 1441 The King had laid Siege before Pontoise which charge the Parisians were to defray The City having been re-victualled three or four times by Talbot the honour of the English Commanders his heart seemed to fail and he withdrew to Poissy but observing this retreat despicable he courageously returns commanded a general assault and by his presence so animated his People that he carried it by main strength That done he went to clear all the Country of Poitou and Angoulmois of those Robbers that infested them and to effect this he turned all the pilfering Captains out of their places and put honest Men in their steads Returning thence he came to keep his Court at Limoges during the Feast of Pentecost where he received the Duke of Orleans and his Wife and gave him 160000 Franc's towards the payment of his Ransom and six thousand Livers Pension From thence he went to Gascongne saved Tartas which had Capitulated to surrender to the English if they were not relieved by a prefix'd day He presented himself Year of our Lord 1442 before the place on the Eve of St. John's day with so considerable an Army that the Enemy durst not appear St. Sever was forced Dacqs compounded so did Marmande and la Reole But so soon as the King had but turned his back the English by correspondence regained Dacqs and St. Sever. The King spent the Winter at Montauban Year of our Lord 1442 which was so sharp that all the Rivers in that Country were frozen up and kept the Soldiers in their quarters not able to stir abroad Year of our Lord 1442 Whilst he was there he secured himself of the succession to the Earldom of Cominges Matthew de Foix had for his fourth Wife Married Jean who was the Countess of it As she was very aged and had no Children by him he kept her Prisoner in a Castle to compel her to make a donation of all she had to him The King having received the good old Womans complaint fails not to take this advantage for himself and at the same price delivers her and brings her into his Court. Year of our Lord 1443 Dying shortly after in Poitiers the Earl of Armagnac who had at his second Marriage wedded a Daughter of hers by another Husband seized upon her Lands He did not hold them long the Dauphin Lewis going into that Country ensnared him with fair words and clapt him in Prison as also his Wife and his Children The Earl of Foix by his intercession got him out again but not without much trouble and a surrender of all the Lands he had usurped Year of our Lord 1443 The Eight and twentieth of the Month of August John V.
all Normandy regained by the French or to speak more properly helped to recover it self in one year and six days The King desiring the remembrance should be preserved and that eternal thanks should be rendred to God ordained general Processions should be made in the Month of September of the same year and annually hereafter upon same day that Cherbourgh surrendred Year of our Lord 1450 After the King had given Order for all the Affairs of this great Province leaving only six hundred Lances and their Archers he turned towards Guyenne and this same year open'd the passage over the Dordogne by the taking of Bergerac which was besieged and mastered by John Earl of Pontieure and Vicount of Limoges He was one of the four Sons of Marguerite de Clisson who was restored to the Estate belonging to his Family by Duke Francis pursuant to the Treaty made at Nantes in Anno 1448. As the loss of the Battle at Fourmigny made the English lose all Normandy the defeat of the Bourdelois made them lose all the rest of Guyenne Amanjeu d'Albret Lord d'Orval going to scowre about the Neighbourhood of Bourdeaux with seven hundred Horse only there came forth ten or twelve thousand Horse and Foot English and Bourdelois who ran confusedly upon him as to a certain Victory D'Orval knowing whom he had to deal with charges them briskly puts them to the rout strewed the ways and Fields with a thousand of those giddy-brain'd Fellows and carried away a great many more to Basas Year of our Lord 1452 The following Summer the King who was still at Tours having drawn together a great many Men resolved to compleat the Conquest of Guyenne much crest-faln at that shock The Count de Dunois is Lieutenant General the Count de Pontieure Foix and Armagnac attaqu'd it at the four corners the English were beaten and gave ground every where so that having no more then Fronsac Bourdeaux and Bayonne the Count de Dunois having besieged Fronsac they capitulated to surrender those three places if upon St. John Baptists-day there appeared not in the Field and near Fronsac an Army able to give them Battle Which not having been able to do they executed the Agreement excepting only as to Bayonne whom they abused with the flattering hopes that the King of England was preparing to come and relieve it Personally The French Generals made their triumphant entry into Bourdeanx the Nineteenth day of June Year of our Lord 1451 In vain did the English struggle obstinately to keep Bayonne after some assaults the apprehension of being taken by Storm obliged them also to capitulate on Friday the Twentieth of August The Governor John de Beaumont with all the Garrison were made Prisoners of War and it cost the Inhabitants forty thousand Crowns of Gold to be spared The favour of Heaven was so benign towards the French or the Peoples fancies so strong that upon that same Friday they beheld a white Cross in the Air over Bayonne which seemed to instruct them that God would have them to forsake the red Cross of England and take up that of France This place being reduced the English had nothing left them in all France but only Calais and the County of Guisnes If we search into the causes of this so suddain and wonderful a revolution we shall find it was the neglect of the English in not well providing and strengthning their places their wont of good Commanders the hatred the People had for their scornful and imperious way of Government On the other hand the union and hearty zeal of the Nobles and all the French Militia the good order and discipline in their Armies the huge stores and provision of Canons and all sorts of Warlike Engines Pioneers and Ammunitions and the new method of approaching and attaquing of Towns by Works and Trenches but above all the Civil War that Richard Duke of York had kindled amongst the English Year of our Lord 1451 and 52. That Duke knew how to make such use of the disgust that Nation had taken against the Government of Queen Marguerite who was a French-woman as to raise himself amidst their discontents up to the Throne which he pretended was due to him rather then to Henry For he descended but only by the Female side from Lionel of Clarence who was second Son of King Edward III. and Henry came but from the third Son who was John Duke of Lancaster his Paternal Great Grandfather Year of our Lord 1452 These Divisions were calmed for a while upon the intreaties of the Lord de L'Esparre deputed from the City of Bourdeaux and the Lords of the Country of Bourdelois who taking distaste at some new Impost that was laid upon them offer'd to restore that Country to the English Talbot the bravest of that Nation and the most zealous for its honour being therefore landed in Medoc with four thousand Men was brought into Bourdeaux by the Citizens the Twenty fourth day of October and about the latter end of the year having received a like reinforcement from England he made himself Master of Castillon Cadillac Libourne Fronsac and some other small places besides The Bourdelois had taken their opportunity when the King was just going to engage in a great War against the Duke of Savoy who apparently must have been upheld by the Dauphin and by conseqence had correspondence in the very heart of the Kingdom Year of our Lord 1452 The Kings quarrel to that Duke was because he had agreed the Marriage of his Daughter Charlotte and the Dauphin without his consent This was the true motive of the War but that he might have some apparent cause he had taken into his protection certain Lords belonging to the Estates of Savoy who having joyned in a League against their Princes chief Minister named John de Compeis were for ever banished by a Sentence given at Pont de Beauvoisis The King advanced even to Fores to restore them but being informed the English were landed at Bourdeaux the Duke being come to wait upon him at Feurs he suffer'd himself to be overcome by his most humble submissions and agreed to a Peace Year of our Lord 1453 The following year he marched to Lusignan in Poitou thence to St. Jean d'Angely for the recovery of Bourdelois His Army besieged Castillon Talbot coming to its relief with six thousand Men was beaten and slain together with his Son His defeat caused the surrender of the City the utter ruine of the English Party and after that the regaining of Bourdeaux For they perceiving Fronsac Libourne Langon Cadillac and all the other Towns about them were reduced the King quartered at Lermont all Relief and even all Provisions failing them surrendred upon composition which the King would never have granted them if a great mortality had not swept away his Men. However the better to curb and keep this City which the interest of Traffick and reciprocal Marriages inclined to be for the English he banished forty
Lords and Citizens who were most to be suspected and bridled them with two strong Castles which he order'd to be built there Year of our Lord 1452 The University being one of the greatest Bodies and one of the most necessary to all Christendom the Cardinal d'Estouteville the Popes Legat making use of his faculty but by the Kings express Order employ'd himself in purging it of some abuses that had much disfigur'd them and made many good Reglements which are yet kept in their Archives Year of our Lord 1452 53 54 55 56 and 57. Never since the Slege of Calais had the Duke of Burgundy much concern'd himself in the War against the English but yet he was not free from crosses in his own Countries Those of Bruges being up in Arms Anno 1437. let him into their City as if they had intended to give him satisfaction then fell upon his Men killing above an hundred of them amongst the rest the Lord de L'Isle-Adam Himself ran a great hazard and escaped with much difficulty by breaking open one of the City Gates with Hammers After this fury they betook themselves to rove all about the Country Their rage began to cool when they found the rest of the Towns did not approve of their rash actions and that the Duke was coming to besiege them with a vast Army They craved his pardon which they obtained not but upon rude Conditions It cost them two hundred thousand Gold Crowns the loss of many of their Priviledges and the Lives of a dozen or fifteen of the most Factions The Ghentois gave him much more trouble by their frequent disturbances The most dangerous was that in Anno 1452. a Gabel or Impost was the cause of it He would needs settle it in Flanders and make it certain and fixt imposing 24 Gross Money of that Country upon every Sack of Salt They resolved to run all the hazards and extremities imaginable rather then suffer an Impost upon Water and the Sun which are free and universal Gifts bestow'd by Nature They relied upon the protection of the King and indeed he wrote earnestly and in high terms in their behalf to the Duke of Burgundy but having received an answer in terms that were yet higher he thought it not prudence to embarque himself in a Civil War being as yet not come to an end of the War against the English his Foreign Enemy The losses which the Ghentois met with in five or six great Fights did but heat their savage hearts the more but the Battle of Ripelmond and afterwards that of Gavre where they lost twenty thousand Men brought them so low they were forced to come to composition Two thousand Men bare Head and bare Foot with all their Counsellors Sheriffs and Officers only in their Shirts went out a League to meet the Duke and his Son to implore their Mercy The Gate through which they marched out to fight him at Riplemond was stopt up for ever They were condemned to pay four hundred thousand Ridders of Gold to bring their Banners that he might dispose of them as he pleased and to suffer a change of their Usages and Priviledges Year of our Lord 1453 Upon a Tuesday the Nine and twentieth of May Constantinople the Trunk of the Grecian Empire from which the Turks had lopp'd off all the Branches was taken perforce by Mahomet II. not more then three and twenty years of age Constantine her last Emperor perished there crowded to death by the multitude at one of the Gates of the City Such was The End of the Eastern Empire the which to reckon from the dedication of Constantinople upon the Nineteenth of May in the year Three hundred and thirty had lasted Eleven hundred twenty three years We shall henceforwards place the Turkish Sultans in the room of those Emperors Year of our Lord 1454 and 55. The Count d'Armagnac was not grown the wiser by his first chastisement he would play Rex hindring him that had provisionally the Archbishoprick of Ausch from taking possession and obstinately persever'd to keep his own Sister for his Wife maugre the Censures of the Church The King being therefore moved at the importunity of the Pope to wipe off this scandal from the Kingdom sent some Forces thither with five or six of his chief Commanders some whereof seized on the Country of Rovergne others on the Valley d'Aure and another Party on the County of Armagnac The City of Leytoure environed with a triple Wall and its Castle situate upon a steep Rock did not hold out long so that the Count sled out of the Country and retired safely to some Lands he had upon the Frontiers of Arragon Year of our Lord 1455 It concerned the honour both of the Kingdom and the King of France to justifie the memory of the Pucelle The King therefore ordered her Parents to Petition the Holy See to appoint some Judges that might review the Process Upon their request Calistus III. ordered Commissioners who were the Archbishop of Reims and the Bishops of Paris and Coutances who being met at Rouen looked into and examined the Proceedings heard divers Witnesses and thereupon fully justified that Heroick Virgin caused the former Process to be torn and burnt by which they had condemned her Their Sentence was proclaimed in Rouen at St. Ouins Churchyard and the old Market and likewise in many other Cities of the Kingdom There was no need of taking any course against her false Judges the greater part of them being perish'd either by suddain or such a shameful death as seemed to shew the hand of God upon them Year of our Lord 1455 During these years began those divisions which did not a little contribut to the losing of Navarre Blanch the Heiress of that Kingdom had a Son named Charles by John King of Arragon her Husband This Princess dying in Anno 1441. John took in second Wedlock Isabella of Portugal and retained the enjoyment of Navarre which in effect belonged to Charles as then about One and thirty years of age This dispute Armed the Son against the Father the Kingdom was divided The House of Gramont which was considerable took part with the Father that of Beaumont which was not inferior joyned with the Son The Mother in Law who could have wished the Son out of the World blew the coals and exasperated the Fathers anger From thence grew irreconcilable Enmity and cruel Wars Prince Charles having given Battle to his Father lost it and was taken Prisoner A while after he was set at liberty upon an Accomodation Year of our Lord 1456 The Dauphins ill Conduct and those insupportable Exactions he laid upon Dauphine particularly the Clergy did so irritate the King his Father that he commanded Anthony de Chabanes Earl of Dammartin to go and Arrest him Dammartin having been cruelly offended as we have related would have executed this Order severely had not the Dauphin been informed and made his escape in post-haste into the Principality of
Anno 1436. being Aged but 14 years and then Anno 1451. Charlotte Daughter of Lewis Duke of Savoy The first he loved not much by reason of some secret imperfection neither had he any Children by her She died in the year 1445. He would have visited the Second as little had it not been for the desire of having an Heir he had three Sons by her of which Charles only Survived him who Reigned divers even suspecting that this had been suppos'd and three Daughters Lowise Anne and Jane Lowise died young Anne was wife to Peter de Bourbon Lord of Beaujeu and as for Jane the Father constrained Lewis Duke of Orleance to Espouse her and to Consummate the Marriage whereof he made his secret Protestations CHARLES VIII Called The AFFABLE AND THE COURTEOUS King LV. Aged XIII Years II. Months POPES SIXTUS IV. one year under this Reign INOCENT VIII Elected the 29th of August 1484. S. Eleven years wanting one Month. ALEXANDER VI. Elected the 25th of August 1493. S. II. years and some days whe reof five years under this Reign Year of our Lord 1483 THe Deceased King had by his last Will left the Government to the Dame de Beaujeu his Daughter without mentioning the Regency because his Son was entring into his fourteenth year Two Princes of the Blood Lewis Duke of Orleans and John II. Duke of Bourbon disputed it with her and maintained that King Charles ought to be counted a Minor seeing the weakness of his Complexion and his not being well Educated his Father haing always kept him shut up in the Castle of Amboise bred amongst inferior Servants Lewis pretended to it as first Prince of the Blood but himself was not yet come to Majority and the Duke of Bourbon as having married the Kings Aunt and esteeming himself more worthy and proper for it then a Woman who in France were not thought capable to Govern since they were not held fit to Reign The three Competitors not able to agree whose right it was referred the contest to the General Estates and the Kings Coronation to the following year Year of our Lord 1483 In the interim a Council of fifteeen was chosen whereofso m were put in by one Prince some by another but they were all such as belonged to the former Court and bred up to ill Maxims who having learned nought but what was indeed Evil could produce nothing that was really good Year of our Lord 1484 In the Month of January the Estates Assembled at Tours The King attended by the Princes of his Blood and all that were Eminent in the Kingdom went thither William de Rochefort his Chancellor open'd it the fourteenth of the Month in the great Hall belonging to the Arch-Bishop It was there ordained that the King since he had attained the Age of fourteen should be reputed Major That he should preside in the Council the Duke of Orleans in his absence and in case he failed the Duke of Bourbon That the Dame de Beaujeu should have the Government of the young King for whom a Council of Twelve persons should be chosen consisting of Princes of the Blood and others of the most considerable in the Nation In the mean time the Constables Sword was given to the Duke of Bourbon Governments and Pensions bestowed upon the Duke of Orleans and the rest of the Princes Never had they so fair an opportunity to rectify abuses and raise up strong Bulwarks against all oppression But the President of the Estates many Ecclesiasticks the Deputies of the City of Paris and some others suffered themselves to be deluded Sailed and Steered by the Court-gale and Compass and betray'd the publick cause They could not however hinder them from annulling most of the Acts made by Lewis XI from exclaiming against his excessive gifts from setting a Brand-mark upon the memory of those that had been the Executors of his injustice nor from discharging the People of a great part of their Taxes and Soldiers Quarter'd upon them Year of our Lord 1482 This meeting of the Estates being over the Attorney General of the Parliament upon certain Accusations made process against two of the most Rascally Insolent Ministers of the late Kings These were Oliver le Diable Barber to Lewis XI and John Doyac This Oliver had changed his Surname very suitable to his behaviour into that of Daim and bare the Title of Earl of Meulanc Doyac was a Fellow of the same stamp and yet his Master had made him Governor of Auvergne The first was trussed up on the Gallows the second lost his Ears and was Whip'd first at Paris then at Montferrand in Auvergne the place of his Nativity There were perhaps others more Guilty but there were none more odious and besides they had spoken ill of the Princes Doyac having secur'd his money regained his Credit upon the Expedition into Italy having been very serviceable in contriving to convey the great Guns over the Hills Year of our Lord 1484 Francis II. Duke of Bretagne had one about him of the very same Mettal as impudent and much more wicked yet then these but withal more crafty and able Peter Landais a Taylors Son of the Suburbs of Vitre He governed his Prince above fifteen years and had raised up People of his own Quality and some of his Kindred to places of Trust amongst others the Guibez Sons of his Sister for which cause the Lords did much envy him But this was only whisper'd from one to another all the time the Duke was in Health and Vigour but when his Senses began to grow weak and fail him it proceeded to Intrigues and then to Factions to ruin him Especially when he went about to support himself by Crimes and had cruelly suffered the Chancellor John Chauvelin and James de Lespenay Bishop of Renes to be starved in Prison It happened therefore that in the time they were holding the Estates at Tours the Lords of the Country assumed the confidence to try to force him away from the Duke but having missed their enterprize he let loose all the Authority of his Prince against them and reduced them to the troublesome necessity of defending themselves The Duke of Orleans who was then at Tours having a design in his Head of acquiring Bretagne by marrying the Dukes Eldest Daughter goes Year of our Lord 1484 down into that Country to proffer this Fellow his assistance persuading himself that by obliging him in this manner he might help him to that great Match The Lords would willingly have taken shelter under the Protection of this young Prince in whom appeared many signs of Probity and Honour But Landais having Year of our Lord 1484 fore-stalled them they made their Addresses to the Dame de Beaujeu his Enemy who presently espoused their cause This fire lying hid for some years under its ashes did at last break forth to the ruin of Bretagne Year of our Lord 1484 The 5 th day of June King Charles was Crowned at Reims with
the accustomed Ceremonies and Magnificence Being returned to Paris the Duke of Bretagne sent a complaint to him for having supported the Rebellion of his Subjects The Dame according to her Father's wonted Method in stead of returning him an answer Debauched his Ambassadors from his Service These were the Lord D'Vrfe whom she made Grand Escuyer and Poncet de la Riviere on whom she bestowed the Mayoralty of Bourdeaux Year of our Lord 1484 The Cardinal de Balue after his being set at Liberty went to Rome and as that Court is a Region of perpetual Intrigues he Succeeded so happily therein that in short time be got great Credit and some good Benefices He moreover prevailed with the Pope so far that after the Death of Lewis XI he sent him into France as Legat à Latere He made his entrance with so much arrogance that he made use of his faculties before ever he had the Kings consent or had presented them in Parliament to be examined whether they contained nothing contrary to the Rights of the Crown and the Liberties of the Gallican Church The Parliament offended at this bold undertaking forbid him to take upon him the Characters of his Legation or to exercise the power Notwithstanding the Kings Council after he had shewed his reasons and made his necessary Submissions gave order he should be received in that Quality with the usual Respect and Honour and that he should exercise his Functions Which he did for some days when hearing news of the Death of Sixtus he returned on his way to Rome with a Present only of a Thousand Crowns in Gold which the King gave him towards defraying the Expences of his Journey Year of our Lord 1484 The Council Establish'd by the Estates had neither Power nor Vertue the Dame de Beaujeu usurped all the Authority She turned out all those from the Kings Service as were not at her Dvotion and brought in d'Vrfe Riviere and Graville prime Chamberlain who watched and as it were beleaguer'd the young King These Folk wanting some brave daring Heroe to oppose the Duke of Orleans did likewise keep Rene the Duke of Lorrain at Court to whom they restored the Dutchy of Bar till such time as the King should be of Age to do him right for the County of Provence assigned him a Pension of 36 Thousand Livers per Annum and a company of an Hundred Lances During these disorders in France the Scene was wholly changed in England Henry Earl of Richmond after the Battel in the year 1471 where Henry VI. Lost his Crown and Liberty endeavouring to make his escape into France was by Tempest thrown upon the Coasts of Bretagne where the Duke Seized on him and detained him Prisoner in favour of Edward or rather to engage that King to protect him always against Lewis XI And indeed Edward never forsook him whatever advantage Lewis could propound to him and which was more paid him fifty Thousand Crowns yearly for his Pension When Edward Died he gave him his full Liberty and withal assisted him with Money and six Thousand Men wherewith he put to Sea having a Strong Faction in England whereof the Earl of Buckingham was Head Now it happened that a Storm having scattered his Ships the Confederacy was discover'd and Buckingham Beheaded with most of the great men who were concerned in it So that he returned and Landed in Normandy and from thence got back into Bretagne waiting for a better opportunity King Richard desiring to have him at what price soever profer'd Landays so much Money and such considerable assistance in time of need against the Breton Lords that this Perfidious and Mercinary Soul promised to deliver him up to his People The Earls Friends in England got a hint of this bargain and gave him Notice at the very nick of time when it was to be put in execution He immediately departs from Vannes under pretence of going to wait upon the Duke who was at Renes then striking into another Road made his escape with four more to Anger 's He was so closely pursued by Landays Men that he slipt thorough the passage but one hour before they came to the place The King was then at Langeais who received him very kindly And a great number of English Landing every Day in the Ports of France to joyn with him he gave him some broken Companies that were in Normandy with which he adventured over into England In fine having gained the Victory over Richard who was slain in the Field be ascended the Throne which he pretended did belong of Right to him as being the Eldest of the House of Lancaster He was indeed of that Family but at a remote distance as being but the Son of a Daughter of the Duke of Somerset's and of Edmond who was Son of Owen Tudor a Gentleman of Wales and Catherine of France who after the Death of King Henry V. her Husband was clandestinely Married to him Year of our Lord 1485 The Duke of Orleans the Duke of Bourbon likewise to whom the Constables Sword without any power was more an injury or burthen then an Honour made a new party against the Government The Duke of Bretagne Charles Earl of Angoulesme the Duke of Alenson and John de Chaalon Prince of Orenge who was Son of a Sister of the Duke of Bretagne entred into it Charles Earl of Dunois was the primum mobile The Duke of Orleans was the first that spoke and being retired to Beaugency demanded an Assembly of the Estates They immediately carried the King thither He besieged him in the place and forced him to an accomodation wherein it was agreed that the Earl of Dunois should retire to Ast in Piedmont After that they got the King to March against the Duke of Bourbon who finding him on a sudden in the midst of his Country accepted of such conditions as they would impose Year of our Lord 1485 The Soldiers they had Levied for these ends fell most of them into Bretagne The Duke of Orleans having sent all his thither for the Dukes Service the Dame sent the Kings thither also in behalf of the Lords Landays prompted as we may believe by his wicked Genius pursued the utter Destruction of the Lords with all his might and would not recede in the least from the Sentence he had obtained that they should lose both their Castles and their Heads He had raised a great Army for this purpose who had Ordersto Besiege Ancenis a place belonging to the Mareschal de Riux The Lords had taken the Field to prevent it The Armies being in sight of each other some good minded People made the Chief Commanders of the Dukes Army so Sensible how heighnous it would be in them to spill the Heart Blood of their own Friends and Kindred for the sake of the most profligate wretch in the whole World that they embraced each other mutually and agreed to joyn their Supplications to the Duke that he would be pleased
themselves against the revolted it had been easie for King Francis to have regained that Kingdom but he did not dream of it till the Spring following and then he sent an Army thither commanded by Andrew de Foix Lord de L'Esparre Brother of Lautree who recover'd it all in few days He met Year of our Lord 1521 no resistance but at the Castle of Pampelonna who stood out till he battered them and then surrendred upon Composition Innigo de Loyola d'Ognez a young Gentleman of Guipuscoa who had put himself into the Castle with some other Volunteers was wounded upon the Walls with a Splinter by a Cannon Shot which broke his Thigh and made him Lame all his Life After which being retired to his own House he was touched with a most fervent Zeal and Devotion and was afterwards Institutor and Head of the great and famous Company or Society of Jesus which hath extended it self into all the Parts of the World L'Esparre instead of satisfying himself with Navarre and putting it in a good Posture entred upon Castille and besieged Logrogne The Vice-Rois who returned from subduing the Rebels and who nevertheless would not have thought of assaulting him if he had not first fallen upon their Country marched Year of our Lord 1521 directly to him to fight him Now his Lieutenant General Saincte Colombe having cashier'd part of his Men that he might put half by his false Musters into his Pocket he found himself too weak and retired near Pampelonna And there he committed a second Fault greater then the first for without staying for a re-inforcement of six thousand Men who were coming to him out of France he rashly gave them Battle and was beaten for his Pains and so grievously wounded in the face that he remained blind Pampelonna and all the rest of the Kingdom was lost in as short a time as it had been reconquer'd The Emperors Councel to prevent the Revolts of the Nobility of the Country affectionate to their Natural King caused all the Castles to be demolished and dismantled all the Towns excepting Pampelonna du Pont de la Reine and d'Estella Year of our Lord 1521 This War did not contravene to the Treaty of Noyon since the six Months were expir'd but there were otherguess Subjects of hatred between Charles and Francis For this last complained that Charles did not pay him the hundred thousand Crowns as he had promis'd by the Treaty of Noyon for the maintenance of his Daughter and by consequence that he had no mind to compleat the Marriage That his Agents had spoken ill of him in the Diets and in the Courts of the Princes of Germany That he had debauched Philbert de Chaalon Prince of Orange from him and that he cabaled in Italy to put the Dutchy of Milan in disturbance Charles on the contrary was angry that he had taken under his Protection William Duke of Gueldres a sworn Enemy to his House and to the Low-Countries and said that he unjustly detained from him the Dutchy of Burgundy Francis was the more forward to undertake because he levied Subsidies as he pleased whereas Charles could get no Money without a great deal of trouble the Kingdoms of Spain and the Low-Countries having yet in those Times all their Liberties and Priviledges entire but then he was a much better Manager and made but very few idle Expences In such a disposition were they towards each other that nothing could be able to prevent them from coming to Daggers-drawing but a third Party The King of England kept himself Neutral enough and designed only to be Arbitrator The Pope did not do the same for he first Treated a private League with the King wherein he obliged himself to assist him for the regaining the Kingdom of Naples for his second Son upon condition he should bestow a part thereof upon a Nephew of the Holy FAthers and that the other Part during the Minority of the young Prince should be governed by a Legate from the Holy See Year of our Lord 1521 This was to speak properly to keep it all for himself Then three Months after he changed his Mind and turns to the Emperor's side Some believed he did this as burning with a desire of regaining Parma and Piacenza which Julius II. had possessed himself of though unjustly Others said it was that he was angry they did not receive his Bulls at Milan with submission enough nay that sometimes they rejected them with scorn Whatever it were he entred into a League with the Emperor for the mutual defence of their Countries to re-establish Francis Sforza in the Dutchy of Milan and to recover the Dutchy of Ferrara for the benefit of the Holy See to which it appertained The Lord de Chevres who was then at the Diet of Wormes having heard of this Treaty which was made without his knowledg died of grief repeating these Words often Ah! what a World of Mischiefs His Brother the Archbishop of Toledo whom he had taken along with him went out of this World sometime before him The King being at Remorentine in Berry upon Twelfth day as he was sporting and in jest attacked the Count de Sainct Pol's House with Snow-Balls who with his Companions were defending it with the same Artillery it infortunately hapned that a Fire-brand thrown by some hot-brained fellow hit him on the Head and grievously wounded him for which they were forced to cut off his Hair Now he having a very large high Fore-head and besides the Swiss and Italians wearing short Locks and long Beards he found this Fashion more pleasing to his Fancy and follow'd it His example made all France coppy this Mode who held it till the Reign of Lewis XIII when by little and little they shortned their Beards and let their Locks grow till at last they left neither Hair on the Cheeks nor on the Chin and Nature not being able to furnish them with a stock so thick and long as they fancied would be most becoming they have thought it best shave their Heads and wear Perruques of Womens more delicate and longer Hair for Ornament Year of our Lord 1520. 21. Now here begins the event of the Melancholly Prognosticks of the Lord de Chevres Robert de la Mark Lord of Sedan and Duke of Bouillon having suffer'd disgrace in the Court of France because of the many Robberies committed by his Gentsdarmes went to the Emperors whither he was enticed by the Bishop of Liege his Brother a man very powerful there Now it hapned that the Emperors Councel received an Appeal from a Judgment which the Pairs of his Dutchy of Bouillon had given in a certain Cause between the Lords de Simay and Year of our Lord 1521 d'Emery Robert being turbulent and impetuous took this for an Affront to his honour and would revenge it He came therefore to the King at Remorentin who was under cure of his Wound and his Wife having before-hand prepared the way reconciled himself to him
which they called la Bicoque three Miles from Milan where there is a very spacious House and Gardens round about it enclosed with deep Ditches and Fields parted in divers places with Water Channels which are derived and brought thither according to the Custom of that Country to water their Grounds Prosper Colomna who thought the Victory secure stood his ground waiting their coming Lautrec assaulted them on three Sides himself on one Hand his Brother on the other and the Swisse in the place of most Difficulty and to gain their Cannon The two first did no great Matters as for the Swisse they attack'd with fury but the height of the Fossez stopping them the Artillery made them fall in heaps and the Arquebusiers who were placed amongst the Wheat taking them in Flank they were well paid for their rashness by the death of three thousand of theirs so that they were constrained to retire and having rejoyned the French they together returned very orderly to their Quarters at Monce The next Day their Blood being cool'd and Lautrec having passed the Addo near Tressa they even took their walk homewards thorow the Territory of Bergamo so disheartned and baffled in Courage for having met with such unconquerable resistance that for divers Years they did nothing worthy of their ancient Valor but indeed became more pliable and much more manageable then before For Lautrec having put things in Order at Cremona he retired into France to sollicite for a supply of ten thousand Men which the Admiral Bonnivet was to transport to those Countries Year of our Lord 1522 As soon as he was gone Prosper besieged Cremona and Lescun who was in the Place believing it could be no prejudice to his Honor if he made such Composition as should secure the King's Affairs without hazarding ought capitulated to leave the Place within forty Days which expir'd the six and twentieth of June with Arms Colors flying and his Artillery if within that time there did not come an Army that should pass over the River Po by force or should take some considerable Place in the Dutchy of Milan He likewise promised that all the others held by the King in Milanois should be evacuated excepting the Castles of Cremona of Novara and of Milan The time being come he got some few days more to be added having purposely started new Difficulties about the evacuation of some Castles which being setled he executed the Treaty and came back into France Before he departed he had the further displeasure of being informed how Prosper Colomna with his Army had made himself Master of Genoa and made Antony Adorna Duke the City was surprized during a conference of capitulation which is a very dangerous time and opportunity This last Blow taking away all hopes from the King of being in a capacity to gain any thing in Milanois this year he recalled those Forces he was sending and who were already got into Astesan Though the miscarriage indeed proceeded from his own Negligence in not sending Supplies till too late amusing himself in Hunting Dancing and amongst the Ladies nevertheless John de Beaulne Samblancay Surintendant of the Finances suffer'd for it Madame enrag'd that he should dare to justify before the King that she had diverted the three hundred thousand Crowns designed for Lautrec resolved to ruine him The Chancellor Duprat Minister of her revenge and who besides had some jealousy of the Credit of that grave old Man whom the King called his Father ordered a Commission to try him who condemn'd him to be hanged In the mean time they made use of all Ways and Means to get in Money Then did they begin to alienate the Sacred Demeasnes of the King they continued to sell Offices of Judicature to create great Numbers of new ones without which the Monarchy had been upheld eleven hundred years together to raise the Tallies and to lay several new Imposts Publick report accused the Chancellor for advising all these things which bred so much disorder who to flatter the Covetous humor of a Woman and the ostentation of a Young King furnished them with expedients and confidence to overthrow all the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom whereof by his Office he was Guardian and Defender Year of our Lord 1522 The King had no less to do in Guyenne and in Picardy The Emperor going into Spain thorow England had prevail'd with Henry to take his part against Francis Arriving in Castillia he soon suppressed the remainders of the Santa Junta punishing some few of the Seditious pardoning the rest and rewarding such as deserved it Particularly Ferdinand of Arragon who had refused to be Head of the League He did him great Honour and Married him to Germaine de Foix Widdow of his Grand-Father King Ferdinand who was extraordinary Rich but almost past the Age of Child-bearing With the Forces that were remainders of this insurrection and some others he made up an Army which besieged Fontarabria and the King of England Landed another at Calais having first sent a Herald to defy the King at Lyons This being commanded by his Brother in Law the Duke of Suffolk joyned with the Count de Bures Governor of the Low-Countries who had one of twelve thousand men but both these made no progress and the English were diminished one half in five Weeks time after they took the Field Year of our Lord 1522 Whilst the Christian Princes were thus engaged to their mutual destruction Solyman the Turkish Sultan who Succeeded his Father Selim II. two years since was now lodg'd upon the Ramparts of Christendom For the preceding year he took the City of Belgrade in Hungary and this year he wrested Rhodes out of the hands of the Knights of St. John's It was believed Pope Adrian might have saved it if upon his Arrival in Italy he would have sent thither the fifteen hundred Foot he brought along with him instead of ordering them to March as he did into Milan For they might have got in by the help of the Venetian Fleet then on those Seas and by the favour of those Winds which wasted in several other Vessels It were difficult to name a Siege more Famous then this same either for the dreadful numbers of the besiegers for the brave resistance of the besieged or the many and furious Assaults There were above fifty Mines and twice as many Countermines about this place It was batter'd with above six-score thousand Canon Shot so that most of it was blown up into the Air or beaten down to dust The Turkish Army consisted of two hundred thousand Men of whom above fifty thousand were Slain and as many perished by Sickness The fifth Month of the Siege the Knights having no more Gun-Powder left no Pioneers Year of our Lord 1522 nor 〈◊〉 hardly any men for defence some lying by of their Wounds or of Sickness others dropping down with over-Working and Toyling they accepted of the Capitulation proffered them by Solyman which was to go
forth with Bag and Baggage and all their Galleys and Vessels that were in Port. He made his entrance upon Christmass-Day Year of our Lord 1523 The Grand Master Peter de Villiers-l'Isle-Adam to whose conduct and Heroick Vertue the greatest Honour of this Generous defence was due setting Sail with his Knights and four thousand of the Inhabitants as well of that as of the Islands depending on it retired to Candia where he Winter'd From thence he went to Sicilia and three months after to Rome the Pope giving those Knights his City of Viterbo for their Retreat Six Years after in Anno 1530. they placed themselves in the Island of Malta The Emperor bestowed it upon them to cover his Kingdom of Silicia and they accepted it with the consent of all other Christian Princes in whose Territories their Order had any Lands or Possessions Year of our Lord 1523 The loss of Rhodes being partly occasioned by Pope Adrian's Fault it concerned him in Honour to repair it Therefore upon that consideration and to make his name glorious he employ'd all his cares to procure a Peace or at least a Truce betwixt all Christian Princes that so they might make War upon the Insidels with their united Force Francis would yield to nothing but a Truce and that a very short one this did not sute with the Popes designs So that not being able to overcome him by his Exhortations nor by the threats of the English nor upon the consideration that he made himself odious to all Christendom he would needs bring him to it by Force and thus of a Common Father he became a Partial and open Enemy Prompted with this Spirit he acted so powerfully with the Venetians that he broke them off from his Alliance and made a League with them the Emperor and the King of England to thrust him out of Italy The King had therefore all the great powers of Christendom against him nevertheless his passion to recover Milan did so over-rule his mind that he was resolved to go thither in Person at the Head of his best Men had not the Conspiracy of the Duke of Bourbon which he happended to discover kept him back And though this did strangely embarass him yet he sent Bonnivet thither with an Army For divers years past Madame had sought all opportunities of doing some displeasure to Charles de Bourbon and the Chancellor and Admiral employed themselves most willingly to gratifie both her passion and their own For Bonnivet Year of our Lord 1523 imagin'd if he could ruin him he should have the Connestables Sword and the other had a secret grudge against him for having denied his Family some Favour in Auvergne It did not satisfie Madame that she had deprived him of the Chief Functions of his Office and hindred his Marriage with Renee the Kings Sister she had process against him likewise in Parliament to strip him of the Dutchy of Bourbon and the other great Estate of Susanna his Wife who Died without Children in the year 1521. The Succession whereof as she pretended did belong to her as the next Heiress Indeed she was Daughter of Margaret and Philip who was Lord of Bresse and afterwards Duke of Savoy and that Margaret who was Daughter of Charles I. Duke of Bourbon and Sister to Peter who had the same Dutchy after John II. his Brother and was Father of this Susanna above mentioned As for Charles de Bourbon he was Son of Gilbert Earl of Montpensier who was Son of Lewis Uncle of Duke Peter and by consequence he was farther removed than she But besides that he made it appear by very ancient Titles by Solemn Judgments and Decrees and by many Examples that the Lordship of Bourbon was a Feif Masculin he shewed likewise how in his Contract of Marriage with Susanna he was acknowledged the right Heir of that House and as for the other Estate there was a mutual donation between him and his Wife by vertue whereof he enjoy'd it 'T is true that Susanna was then in minority and not authorized by the Judge but she was authorized sufficiently by the presence of King Lewis XII the Cardinal d'Amboise and four or five and twenty Princes Bishops and Eminent Lords He believed his cause would have been very good in any other times and against any other Party But as soon as they Commenced this process he imagin'd it was before resolved and concluded and that he must Infallibly be cast before Judges who were all Creatures of Madame's or of the Chancellor And this last Affront which reduced him to extream inconveniences blinded him so with rage and revenge that without any consideration of what he was and what he might come to be he casts himself into the Emperor's Arms having Treated with him by the assistance of the Lord de Beaurien Son of Adrian de Crovy Count de Rieux The King of England came into this Treaty It imported That all three were to share France betwixt them That Bourbon should have the Ancient Kingdom of Arles with the Title of King and as a Seal to this Alliance the Emperor should give him his Sister Eleonor who was the Widdow of Emanuel King of Portugal Bourbon had a particular pretension of his own Head to Provence because Year of our Lord 1523 Rene Duke of Lorrain had yielded up the right he had to Anne of France the Mother of Susanna and Anne by her Will and Testament had given it to him Now while the King was at St. Peter le Monstier on the Confines of Nivernois and Bourbonnois two Normand Gentlemen Matignon and d'Argouges Houshold-Servants belonging to the Connestable discovered all their Masters correspondence to him He would needs be satisfied from his own Mouth saw him in the City of Moulins and told him his whole mind The Connestable owned that he had been Sollicited by the Count de Rieux but stiffly denied that he had given any ear to it They would perhaps have laid hands on him if they durst But indeed the attempt would have been dangerous in the midst of his own Country for he was mightily beloved by the People and the Nobility and the King had but four thousand Foot with him and five hundred Horse so he only commanded him to follow the Court. The Connestable taking his Litter under pretence of some indisposition went easy Journeys At la Palice he had news that a Decree was made the of August which put his Estate under Sequestration thereupon he dispatches Huraut Bishop of Autun his Confident to the King to beseech him to stopt he execution of it and to assure him that this favour would bind him for ever to his Service but he was informed they had stopp'd the Bishop six Leagues from that place Then flying from the King's indignation he retired to his Castle of Chantelle where all his richest Goods were And there having intelligence that four thousand men were coming to besiege him he went forth by Torch-light When he had Rode a
himself to the Regent at Lyons where she had called an Assembly of Notables to get them to confirm her Authority As for the King of England he at first expressed a great deal of joy for the Kings being taken and dispatched one to the Emperour to perswade him to enter into Guyeme assuring him that at the same time he would make an Irruption towards Normandy and proffered to send his Daughter that he might Marry her according to some Propositions that had passed between them But on the other side he sent to the Queen Regent of France to let her understand he was not unwilling to unite himself with France for the deliverance of their King And that which inclined him to it was not so much the neglect the Emperour shewed in leaving his Daughter and seeking the Daughter of the King of Portugal as the Impressions of the Cardinal Woolsey his grand Governour who was enraged for that the Emperour since he had overcome his difficulties cared no more for him nor wrote any more to him with his own hand nor Subscribed himself Your Son and Cousin as he had done before The Jealousie and the Evil Dispositions that Cardinal infused in his Masters mind against the Emperour were one of the first helps towards the saving of France For the King of England who had equipp'd a Fleet to land in Normandy dismissed it without demanding his Expences of the Regent and made a League with her to preserve the Crown of France entire so that the King could not dismember it to gain his freedom and he promised to assist him with men and to lend him moneys when ever need required The King had been now above two months in the Castle of Pisqueton and neither Lanoy nor the Council of Spain could yet resolve upon the place where they might safely keep him For the Kings Galleys were at Sea which hindred them from carrying him to Spain And if they kept him in those Countries it was to be feared their half mutinous Souldiers should seize upon him and let him escape They would willingly have had him to the Kingdom of Naples but having not many men they apprehended the Pope or the Venetians might attempt to rescue him on the way Amidst these Difficulties Lanoy found an expedient which was to make him consent or think it best to go into Spain To this purpose he endeavours to perswade him that if he did but discourse with the Emperour they would soon agree together and that in case they could not he would bring him back into Italy The King who ardently desired it believed it and not only commanded the French Galleys that were cruising to let him pass but likewise so ordered it that the Regent lent six to the Vice-Roy who pretending to Sail towards Naples transported him into Spain this was about the middle of the Month of June He was Year of our Lord 1525 lodged in the Castle of Madrid far from the Sea and the Frontiers with the Liberty of going forth to take the Air when ever he pleased but always surrounded with Guards and mounted upon a Mule He had thought that upon his arrival he should see the Emperour but notice was given him that it would not be convenient till they had first agreed upon all Articles and that those might be treated upon he gave leave to the Mareschal de Montmorency to return into France and permission to Margaret the Kings Sister to go into Spain In the mean while he a granted a Truce till the end of December for fear said he left some new difficulties should arise but in effect to Suspend any Enterprises of the Italian Potentates and their League which should have put Milan into very great danger had they bestirred themselves well in this juncture And truly this translation broke all those measures the Pope and the Venetians would have taken with the Regent and put them into an extream Consternation It did no less allarm Bourbon and Pescara having been done without Communicating of it to them They wrote very sharply to the Emperour concerning it and with Invectives against Lanoy whom they accused of cowardise and pride together for having said they by his timidity like to have made them lose the Battle of which notwithstanding he pretended to claim the whole honour Besides Bourbon apprehending with great reason lest the two Kings if they conferred together should agree to his prejudice did not so much look after the affairs of Milan as his own and had no patience till the Galleys that carried the King were returned that he might go aboard and hasten to find the Emperour The intentions of the Italian Princes in driving the French out of Milan was not to introduce the Spaniards there but to restore Francis Sforza and yet the Emperour carried himself as absolute Master and the unfortunate Sforza was to speak properly no more then the Treasurer who paid the Souldiers at the expence of his poor People Jeremy Moron who was his Chancellour and his principal Counsellour sought therefore to set his Master and his Countrey at Liberty the Pope and the Venetians proffered to contribute towards it all these together imagined they might make advantage of Pescara's discontent and propounded to make him King of Naples the opportunity being favorable whilst Lanoy was in Spain and all the Forces almost Disbanded The Pope who was Soveraign Lord of that Fief joynes in this business and approves of it Pescara pretended to give Ear but acted the Scrupulous and the man of Honour doubting whether he might serve the Soveraign Lord which was the Pope to the prejudice of the Lord the present Occupier which was the Emperour To resolve this they were fain to consult under feigned nams all the most eminent Lawyers of those times At last he seems to yeild and to treat a League with the Pope the Regent and the Venetians for this enterprise When he had found out the whole intrigue he discover'd it to the Emperour and confirmed his relation of it by the confession even of Moron who imprudently surrendred himself into his own Hands He afterwards redeemed his Life for twenty thousand Crowns Thereupon Pescara took an occasion to deprive the unhappy Sforza of his Dutchy he gained all his strongest places by a wile and then shut him up in the Castle of Milan with a circumvallation But he dyed at the beginning of December before he could reap the Fruit of his perfidiousness He was a man had neither Soul nor Heart of a quick and piercing Wit but Crafty Malicious and who instead of Honour was stored with nought but Arrogance The Regent laboured Incessantly for the Liberty of her Son Margaret Dutchess of Alenson being arrived in Spain in the month of September propounded the Marriage of the King with Eleonora Sister to the Emperour But that Princess had been promised to Bourbon who earnestly demanded her and thwarted the whole Treaty with his interests which were difficult to be adjusted So
was upon the Easter Monday The Victory fell intirely to the French they Slew two Thousand of the Enemies upon the Place took their Artillery their Baggage great quantity of Ammunitions four Thousand Prisoners without the loss of any more then two Hundred men in all The Lord de Boutieres who returned into Piedmont upon the rumour there would be a Battle Termes Montlue and de Thais had the greatest share in the honor of that day The first Commanding the Van-guard the second the Light-horse the third the Forlorn-hope and the last the French Bands that is to say the Infantry The nobless of the Court whom a desire of honour had brought thither in post hast shewed that day very great feats of Valour The next day some were Knighted in the Field of Battle amongst others Gilbert Coiffier la Bussiere a Gentleman of Auvergne who having bravely Fought in the first Ranks received this honour from the hands of the Count d'Enghien as likewise from Boutieres and de Thais Which I mention that we may know the Customs of those times and observe that Knight-hood might be Confer'd upon the same man by several Persons one after another The Marquess wounded in the Knee escaped to Milan with Four Hundred Horse only Amongst his Equipage were found several Chariots full of Shackels and Padlocks designed to have chained the French withal so certainly did his pride make him confident of Victory The fruits of this days success were the City of Carignan and all the Marquisate of Montferrat excepting Casal Milan had followed it had the King but sent Supplies of Men and Money but so far was it from this that he recalled Two and Twenty Ensignes of Foot who made up Twelve Thousand Men of whom he stood in need for the defence of the Kingdom being informed that the Emperor who had made a League with the English was drawing a vast Army together near the Rhine and that both were to fall upon France at the same time And indeed the Kingdom found it self this year in great danger these two potent Princes had divided it betwixt them and had projected to joyn their Armies before Paris to saccage that great City and from thence ravage all to the Loire They would have made up together Fourscore Thousand Foot and two and twenty Thousand Horse It is certain that if the Emperor had come directly to Paris he had found Francis all in disorder for having promised himself Year of our Lord 1544 that Luxembourgh would make a long resistance he had not much hast'ned the coming of the Swiss But the good Fortune of France had so disposed things that being tempted by the facility he found in his March of taking Luxembourg which Francis d'Angliure d'Estauges Surrendred very lightly then afterwards the Castle of Commercy the City was burnt Ligny and Brienne he fixed upon the Siege of Saint Disier the three and twentieth of June Saint Disier contrary to the expectation of all men resisted six Weeks by the Valour of that la Lande who had before so generously defended Landrecy That brave Captain was there slain upon the Rampart the Count de Sancerre whom the King had joyned with him took the Command as Chief He finding himself at the end of his Ammunition obtained a suspension of Armes for Twelve dayes which being expired and no Assistance coming he Surrendred the Place From thence the Emperor sent notice to the King of England that he was Marching towards Paris and Summon'd him to be there according to Agreement But the King of England by his Example having resolved also to Conquer some Places sent him for answer that he would advance as soon as he had taken Boulogne by the Sea Coast and Monstreuil He was then before Boulogne with twenty Thousand men and the Duke of Norfolk his Lieutenant before Monstreuil with ten Thousand English and twelve Thousand Flemmings whom the Counts of Bures and de Roeux had brought thither The Emperor not being able to make him remove from thence desired at least he would allow him his Army being much weakned to save his honour by a Truce To which he consented but for his own part refused to hear of such a thing He had a mind to let them see that of himself he was able to make Conquests in France In the mean while the Emperor descended along the Marne and entred so far into Champagne that the Forces of the Daufin watching him close and cutting off his Provisions and Forrage on all Sides he found himself in very great danger of Perishing with his whole Army There were at that time two Parties at Court one for the Daufin the other for the Duke of Orleans This last saved him Anne de Pisselieu the Kings Mistress opposite to Diana de Poitiers who was for the Daufin loved the Duke of Orleans mightily and studied his Interest to the prejudice of his Brothers that he might be her support when the King chanced to fail her This Woman too Credulous looking on the Emperor as already Father in Law to that Prince revealed all the Secrets of the Kings Council to him and it was she who brought it so to pass by means of Nicholas de Bossu Longueval that he made himself Master of Espernay and of Chasteau-Thierry where he met with Provisions in abundance without which all had been lost Fear had like to have depopulated all Paris when it was known that he was in Chasteau-Thierry and that his flying Parties came as far as Meaux some fled to Rouen others to Orleans all the Roads were throng'd with Carts loaden with House-hold Goods Women and Children and that which encreased the disorder was a many Herds of Rascals that Robb'd these poor People The King sent Claude Duke of Guise to Paris to encourage them and himself came thither soon after But the Emperor instead of approaching it took to the left and went to Soissonâ— Being lodged in the Abby called Saint John de Vignes which is in the Suburbs the propositions for a Peace were set on Foot A Jacobin Monk of the Noble House of the Guzmans in Spain mentioned it first to the Kings Confessor The Daufins Party would have none those for the Duke of Orleans pusht it on with extraordinary importunity the King sided with the Latter The Deputies being therefore Assembled at Crespy in Luonnois concluded it the eighteenth of the Month of September The Principal Articles were that the Emperor within two years should at his own choice either give his Daughter or the Daughter of Ferdinand to the Duke of Orleans and for Dowry the Dutchy of Milan or else the Low-Countries and the Counties of Burgundy and of Charolois That if he gave Milan he should keep the Castles of Milan and Cremona till a Child were born of that Marriage That the King should renounce to the Kingdom of Naples and to Milan in case the Emperor gave the Low-Countries to the Duke of Orleans That he should restore the
in peace telling him That he had not lâ—v'd four score years without learning to die a quarter of an hour At his Funeral Pomp Year of our Lord 1567 they carried his Effigies which is an honour done to none but to Kings and to the Sons of France The Queen very glad to be ridd of him who alone did in a manner limit her power within bounds of reason would not fill up that Office of Constable but that she might retain the general Command of the Armies in her own hands gave it to her Son the Duke of Anjou who was not yet fourteen years of age and placed trusty people about him to dispose both of his person and that great Command as she directed The fifth day after the Battel the Huguenots fearing they might be overwhelmed by those of Paris took their March towards Montereau to meet John Casimir Son of Lewis Elector and Count Palatine who brought them an Army from Germany The Royal Army did not pursue them but kept within Paris there being since the death of the Constable no General as yet appointed The Queen Mother had by Lansac and Bochetel Bishop of Rennes her Ambassadors declared to the Protestant Princes of that Country that in this War Religion was not at all concerned since the Huguenots were allowed all manner of liberty but the Regal Authority which they directly opposed so that the Electors William Duke of Saxony and Charles Marquiss of Brandenburg had denyed the Prince to make any Levies in their Territories but had allowed it to the King The Palatine being also prepossest had for a while kept back those Forces his Son was to command but being afterwards otherwise informed by an Envoyé who accompanied Lansac to the Court of France and who upon his return saw the Prince of Condé he exhorted his Son to go on with his March Year of our Lord 1567. September and October They sojourned at Montereau fifteen days to wait for the Troops which their Chiefs were raising in several Provinces as the King had likewise ordered his part to encrease his Army Those that were raised for them in Poitou Angoumois and Saintonge had for Commanders Francis de la Rochefoucant Claude de Vaudré-Mouy Giron de Luzignan Bessey and Francis de la Nouë whose wisdom and probity was held in admiration amongst the very Catholicks In their favour the City of Rochel by means of Truchard their new Maire and perhaps by the connivance of Guy Chabot Jarnac who was Governor for the King entred into their party whereof it hath been as it were the strongest Tower and Asylum for sixty years together In their March la Nouë being detached to get Orleans for them managed the Business so well that with the help of the Inhabitants who were of the Religion he made himself Master of it the eight and twentieth of September and forced out the Governor who had cantoned himself at the Porte-Baniere From Orleans they Marched towards Montereau and forced Ponts Sur-Yonne The Admiral having joyned them there with a gross of Cavalry would try the City of Sens but he there found the young Duke of Guise who having season'd his courage in the War of Hungary endeavour'd to let him see that he should find in him an Enemy as brave and more dangerous then his Father Those of Languedoc were employ'd by James Crussol d'Acier in taking the Castles of Nismes and Montpellier they having the Towns already by means of the Inhabitants Those of the Countries of Foix Albigeois and Lauraguais conducted by the Vicount those were seven Gentlemen bearing that Title having joyned him assisted him in the taking some places about Avignon and in Daufiné From thence they went to Orleans where by their Arrival they freed the Princess of Condé and the Wives of the other Chief Commanders from the great fear and trouble they were in who having but few Soldiers were every hour under some apprehension of being taken with the Town it self As for the Forces of Auvergne Forez and Beaujolois led by Poncenas and Verbelay they received a check in the Country of Forez from Terride la Valette and Monsalez who were bringing some Levies out of Guyenne to the King but however they made a shift to get clear Poncenas upon another occasion in the night was kill'd by his own Men. The Duke of Newers who had an Army of twelve or thirteen thousand Men six thousand being Swiss and the rest made up in Piedmont and Italy took as he was on his way the City of Mascon whereof la Loüe was Governor but as he was passing thorough his own Dutchy of Nivernois he met with some Huguenot Horse of the Garrison of the little Town of Antrain he charged them and pursuing them in their retreat was wounded in the knee with a Pistol-shot which made him lame all his life after and much exasperated against the Huguenots Year of our Lord 1568 The Huguenot Army at their departure from Montereau took their March thorough Champagne by Chaalons passed the Meuse and went into Lorrain They were five or six dayes in great pain that Prince Casimir appeared not and no less afterwards when upon his first Arrival he demand d an Hundred Thousand Crowns the Prince had promised to pay him when he could joyn him At this time hapned what had never till then been known the Princes Soldiers even to the very Snap-sack boys freely disbursed to make up part of the said Sum and thus one Army paid the other which consisted of six Thousand five Hundred Horse and about three Thousand Foot Year of our Lord 1580 With this considerable Re-inforcement the Confederates returned into France They took the Garrisons of Joinville and Chaumont passed the Marne and crossing the Bishoprick of Autun came to the head of the Seine the Forces under the month January Duke of Nevers not being able to hinder their passage over it From thence they steer'd their Course by Auxerre Chastillon and Montargis whence they extended into la Beausse The Prince having been at Orleans to receive those Troops were brought him from Guyenne marched Twenty Leagues in one day to lay Siege to Chartres He thought when he should have taken this Town he might promise to himself it being one of the Granaries of Paris that he might return to Block up that City its self so deep the Imagination was imprinted in him that he should never attain the ends he designed but by mating that great City by Famine and other inconveniences attending War The enterprize proved more difficult than he expected Antony de Lignieres was got into Chartres with a Strong Garrison and had put all things in good Order If nevertheless he had at first which he did not till the latter end turned the River another way which wrought their Mills the Besieged would soon have wanted bread During this Siege the Conferences for a Peace were again set on foot the Cardinal de Chastillon going to Longjumeau treated a
Rochellers and a Hundred Thousand Angelots with some Cannon and many Thousand weight of Powder sent them by Queen Elizabeth upon the instance of the Cardinal de Chastillon Year of our Lord 1568 But their Piracy made them a greater and a more lasting fund the Prince inciting both by honour and profit some of the ablest Citizens of Rochel they equipped a small Fleet of Nine Vessels and some Frigats who went out to make prize of the trading Ships belonging to Bretagne Normandy and Flanders having the Ports of England to friend whether they might with security shelter â—hemselves and the Prey they gained which shewed that Queen did by consequence approve the Huguenots taking Armes and engaged in their cause against the King Both Parties had sent to have Men raised in Germany the one in the Countries of the Catholick Princes the others inthe Protestants those for the King were soonest ready Which were Five Thousand Five Hundred Horse Commanded by divers Captains of whom Frederic Marquis of Baden the Rhinegrave Philip and Christopher de Bassompierre were the principal The Princes Levies were conducted by Wolfang de Bavaria Duke of Duke-Ponts The Duke of Aumale with Six Thousand Men and the Duke of Nemours who was gone to joyn him with the Catholick Forces of Lyonnois and the Countries adjacent had orders to stay in Lorrain to hinder his passage Year of our Lord 1569. March The Sharpest Frosts being over the King's Army Commanded by the Duke of Anjou and that of the Princes we shall call it so since all Orders were given in the names of the Princes took the Field again The Royal one was newly reinforced with Three Thousand Men brought by the Count of Tendes from Daufiné that belonging to the Princes was Marching to meet the Troops of the Vicounts conducted by Piles The Duke of Anjou who from Conflans in Limosin had passed Vienne to come Vertueil knowing they marched to Cognac for that purpose and that as soon as they had joyned with those they would return towards the Loire to wait the Succours of the Duke of Deux-ponts resolved to get the Start of them and pass over the Charente The Huguenots held the Bridges of Jarnac and Chasteau-neuf and their Forces were lodged much at large in the Country along the River side The Duke not able to gain Jarnac at first brush went to Chasteau-neuf There were but Fifty Men in it who immediately surrendred Armand de Gontaud Biron repaires the Bridge with such diligence that half the Kings Army were got over by break of day which was the Thirteenth of March. The Admiral having notice sent Orders to his Foot and Baggage to file off before towards the Burrough of Bassac whilst the Horse could draw together from their distant quarters The sluggish delay of some Troops who were not on Horse-back till about Nine a Clock engaged them to the Combat La Noüe who closed up the Rear-Guard with Four Hundred Horse was rudely handled at the first Charge Dandelot did second him but yet at the second which was much fiercer he was beaten off his Horse and taken In the mean while the Royalists having made themselves Masters of Bassac the Admiral sent word to the Prince who was retreating with his Van-Guard that he wanted his presence and the Prince who never â—an from danger came back upon a round Trot. He fell stoutly upon the first he met but when all the Kings Army was come up he was surrounded His Horse being wounded falling under him he presented his Gantlet to a Couple of Gentlemen Argence and Sainct Jean who gave him their Faith Having set him down at the Foot of a Bush his Leg being broken with a kick of a Horse comes Montesquiou upon a hand Gallop Captain of the Duke of Anjou's Guards who had left his Master to do this worthy exploit and kills him with his Pistol This act which in the midst of the Scuffle would have appeared brave being done in cold blood was looked upon by good Men as an execrable parricide and worthy the punishment due to such as attempt any of the Royal blood The Duke of Anjou neither blamed nor owned it but suffer'd the Princes Corps to be carried whether by chance or in derision upon a she Ass to Jarnac He afterwards gave it to the Prince of Bearn his Nephew who caused it to be Interred in the Sepulchre of his Ancestors at Vendosme After his death the Royalists gave the Huguenots chace till Night approached but there being none but the Cavalry engaged the Slaughter was not so considerable as the Victory There fell not above Six Hundred of the Princes Party amongst whom were above an Hundred Gentlemen and Twelve or Fifteen Lords The number of Prisoners did far exceed the Slain The Royalists lost about two or three Hundred of theirs whereof seven or eight were Persons of Note The Admiral and his Brother with the Horse of that Battalion he Commanded directed their Course toward Sainct Jean d'Angeli and got thither the same day Year of our Lord 1569 The Infantry without sustaining any damage soon passed over the River at Jarnac and breaking down the Bridge from thence retired to Cognac To the same place came the other Commanders with the broken Remnants of the Horse that were left of the Van and the Rear-Guards The Queen of Navarre a Princess endowed with Courage above her Sex came thither likewise with great speed bringing the Prince of Bearn her Son with her as also the Eldest Son of the Deceased Prince of Condé both were named Henry Her generous exhortations and the presence of those two Princes did somewhat revive their shaken resolutions and drooping Courage month March Two dayes after this Queen and the Chiefs going to Saintes Coligny and his Brother came to them and there it was resolved they should refresh themselves and wait the success of the Sieges of Cognac and Engoulesme wherewith the Duke of Anjou had threatned them The noise of this Battel of Jarnac was much greater than the advantage The King arose at Mid-night to have the Te Deum Sung gave notice of it to all the Neighbouring Princes and sent the Colours they had taken from the Huguenots to his Holiness as if they had fought his Battels The Duke of Anjou though Conqueror met with such as knew how to deal with him he attaqu'd Cognac in vain where they had Seven Thousand Men in Garrison and the Intelligence he thought would have prevailed in Engoulesme failed his purposes So that he withdrew into Perigord to maintain his Forces and this was about Mid April Blaise de Montluc and Francis d'Escars had besieged Mucidan he sent Brissac thither who redoubled the Assaults but was unfortunately Slain there As the Lord de Pampadour his Friend had been some dayes before The Place Surrendred upon Composition which was but ill observed for the death of those two brave Lords had so enraged the Catholick Soldiers that violating the Faith
made his Party by it self as well because he was disgusted that the said King had to his prejudice given his Lieutenancy to the Vicount de Turenne as because he being in himself a serious and honest Gentleman avoided all libertinage and had a horror for their frauds and impious practises In the King of Navarres Court nothing was to be seen but Intrigues Amours and Enterprises to say all in a word Queen Margaret was the Soul of it The King month November and December her Brother who had taken a spleen against her wrote to her Husband that there were ill Reports spread of her and the Vicount de Turenne but that Prince considering the necessity of his Affairs above all things else shewed the Letter to them both and spared neither caresses nor intreaties to keep the Vicount with him who pretended he must by all means retire Now this Woman enraged to the greatest extremity had no other thought but of revenge to this effect making use of the same means she had so often seen practised by her Mother she instructed the Ladies about her to take all the brave ones about her Husband in their amorous toils and they did spread the Nets so cunningly that himself was ensnared by the beauties of Fosseuse who did but too well practise the Lessons taught by her Mistress These were the real Fire-brands of the sixth Troubles and for that reason it was called The Louers Wars Year of our Lord 1580 The Kings Envoys coming to re-demand the places of security these Gossips scoff at them peek their Gallants with Honour call it folly and cowardize to surrender what they had acquired at the price of their Blood and so heat them that they resolve not only to keep them still but also to take others To this end the King of Navarre having broken some pieces of Gold sends two halves the one to Chastillon the other to Lesdiguieres who Commanded for that Party in Languedoc and Daufine with an Order to begin the War whenever he sent them the other two halves and at the same time sends Men of Credit into divers Provinces for the execution of above threescore several Enterprises It seems this Resolution had not been communicated to the Prince of Conde nevertheless it so fell out that he acted at the same time as if it had been by agreement with the rest of the Party He passionately desired to enter into possession of the Government of Picardy it had been promised him by two Treaties and he was daily put in hopes of it In fine his patience was tired he would do himself right and formed private Intelligence and designs upon seven or eight of the best places in that Province That which he attempted upon la Fere succeeded by the assistance of month April c. Liramont de Mouy and some other Gentlemen all the others miscarried As little success had the Partisans of the King of Navarre unless upon Montaigu in Poitou and upon Cabors This City belonging to his Wives Estate for she was appenaged with the Counties of Quercy and Agenois refusing to own him he was resolved to do himself right though he knew Vesins was within the place with two thousand Soldiers he was not afraid to assault it and to make use of his Petard a new sort of Artillery which then began to be employ'd When by this invention he had made a Gate fly open he found Vesins ready to oppose him who received him very bravely This Lord was kill'd upon the first charge his death however did not so daunt his Men but they defended themselves yet four days more from Street to Street At last all were forced and the City horribly sacked and overflowed with the Blood of its Inhabitants in revenge of that of the Huguenots which they shed in the Massacres of St. Bartholomew The other Efforts of that Party manifestly discover'd their weakness which proved to be greater then could have been imagin'd For the disarmed Provinces as Normandy the Isle of France Champagne and others refused to contribute towards this War the Rochellers not thinking it very just remained quiet by the advice even of the Wise la None Chastillon could not stir up above three Cities in Year of our Lord 1580 Languedoc which were Lunel Aigues-Mortes and Sous-Mieres and if Nismes did enter the Lists it was only because the Catholicks did Harass them It is true that Captain Merle took Mandes but it was rather upon his own private account then the Parties for he had all the Plunder and the Party got nothing by it but hatred for his horrible Robberies On all hands the Huguenots had the disadvantage the Mareschal de Biron put the King of Navarres whole Forces to a full stop then drove them into their Holds He defeated three thousand of his Men in a Combat near Monterabel in which the two Sons of the Marquiss du Trans of near Relation to that King and yet both Catholicks were slain and beat back the rest to the very Gates of Nerac It is said he fired some Volees of Cannon against the Walls from the top whereof Queen Margaret beheld the Skirmish whereat that Princess was so much offended she would never pardon him The Count de Lude in the mean while took Montaigu in Poitou the defence whereof was truly much greater then the goodness of the place The Duke of Mayne cleared almost all Daufine which brought Lesdiguieres so low that another such Campagne would have beat him out of the Country and the Mareschal de Matignon reduced the Town of la Fere in Picardy of which the Prince had designed to make a second Rochel After he had been six weeks before the place he granted them very good Composition month September the Twelfth day of September The Kings two Favourites Arques and the young la Valete who was afterwards named Joyeuse Espernon and a many Lords were come to the Siege in great Equipage and Provisions were brought from all Quarters in abundance from whence it was called The Velvet Siege The Duke of Aumale Governor of Picardy and the Duke of Guise arrived there towards the latter end and would have wrested the Honour from Matignon for which he stored up so great Resentment that ever after upon all occasions he studied to thwart them and break their Measures Nothing gave the King more apprehension then the going abroad of the Prince of Conde who had left la Fere about the end of March to sollicite the aid of Protestant Princes In England he saw Queen Elizabeth at Antwerp the Prince of Orange in Germany Casimir and some other Princes yet could obtain no assistance but from Year of our Lord 1580 Casimir upon condition of certain places he promised to give him for security Upon this assurance he returns by Swisserland and Geneva amidst a World of dangers being taken and stript in the Territories of Savoy by some Bandits who knew not who he was Lesdiguieres generously furnish'd him with Money and
their Sluces so that his unfortunate Army was constrained to expose themselves to a march through that great Tract of Water not without loss of above three hundred Men. In fine after they had trudg'd near thirty leagues with incredible difficulties though it was but seven leagues distant by the direct road they arrived at Dendremond which served them as the second Plank after their Shipwrack Year of our Lord 1583. February c. The Queen Mother the Queen of England and the King himself for the honour of the French Nation mediated and interposed to allay the fury of the Flemmings and palliate the fault of the young Prince So much was effected by their Negociations that the States fearing he should give up to the Spaniard those places he yet held agreed with him by a Provisional Treaty That he should have ninety thousand Florins to pay his Army provided he would retire to Dunkirk and remain there whilst they endeavour'd an Accommodation and in the mean time surrender Dendremond and Dixmude month April and May They thought with the assistance of his Forces to raise the Siege of Eiendhoue but Biron who commanded them being ill seconded and withall unprovided of every thing was not in a condition to perform it but had enough to do to struggle for two whole Months together with his necessities Nevertheless the Duke of Parma durst not attaque him in his Camp near Rosendale Mean while the Disorders increased daily in those Provinces thorough the contrariety of Sentiments and diversity of the Interests of the States Deputies who agreed in nothing but their outcries against the French Therefore after the Duke of Anjou had for two Months languished in his melancholy abode of Dunkirk expecting their ultimate Resolution in vain he Embarqued the Eight and twentieth of June to come to Calais month June month July Two days after his departure the Ghentois blinded by their obstinate hatred against the French and the Catholick Religion shut up Birons passage whereby he might have gone to the relief of Dunkirk so that it surrendred upon Composition and after that Neuport Furnes Dixmude St. Vinochs Bergh and Meenen fell into the hands of the Spaniards These losses redoubled their out-cries and mutinies in Ghent and Antwerp in so much as the Prince of Orangé not finding himself any longer secure in Antwerp prudently retired into Zealand with all his Family the Two and twentieth of July having first assigned the States General to meet at Middeburgh A Month after Biron went likewise out of the Country with his Troops and led month July and Aug. them to the Duke of Anjou who was in Cambresis He made signs as if he would have raised more but this was only to have some pretenoe not to come to Court though the King had sent for him His last act had cover'd his face with so much shame and confusion that he avoided the sight of all Mankind wandring from place to place like one berest of his sences and was not able to admit his own Mother into his presence who went on purpose to seek him out Thus did he waste the last six Months Year of our Lord 1583 of this year the King taking little thought for him as knowing the only remedy for these Escapades is the neglect of them But himself troubled with Hypocondriacal Vapours which affect the Brain render the Mind feeble and inconstant possess it with fantastical and airy Visions had suffer'd himself to be led away with a humour of Devotion as little serious as unbecomming his Dignity A Cloister was his most usual Retreat Processions and Fraternities his most frequent Exercise and Pilgrimages his greatest Expeditions From these Devotions he would often in an instant leap into his pleasures afresh and had even found out the art to blend them together During the Carnaval he went by day about the Streets in Masquerade and at night into the Houses where a thousand youthful frolicks were acted then in Lent he went in Procession with the Penitents This year he erected a Fraternity at Paris named Penitents of the Annunciation because he began it on that day They marched by two and two in three Divisions of blew black and white cover'd with a Sack or Frock of those colours having a Vizord on their Faces and a Whip in their Hands or at their Girdle The Cardinal de Guise carried the Cross all the Grandees of the Court even the Chancellor and Keeper of the Seals were of them but not one of the Parliament would be present lest they should seem to countenance and authorise this Forreign Novelty The People were too well acquainted with the disorderly and licentious lives of the Courtiers to be moved with these superficial shews of Devotion and moreover those loads of Oppression laid upon them by the Minions in new Imposts creation of Offices and violent Taxes which were raised a thing unusual in this Kingdom without any Verification of the Soveraign Courts whetted the most slanderous Tongues and Satyrical Pens both against them and against their Master Joyeuse and Espernon level'd at the Duke of Anjou whose grandeur was an obstruction to their vast designs and the Guises were agreed with them on this point Espernon shock'd the Guises and was shock'd by them upon all occasions but Joyeuse would hold in with those Princes because he had Married a Wife of that Family or rather because he desired to make himself Head of the League and gain the support of so strong a Party The Queen Mother had a mortal hatred both for the Guises and for the Year of our Lord 1583 the Minions but she declining in her power found her self under the necessity of making use both of the one and other to ascend again She trod the same path to her dying day yet she endeavour'd to preserve the Duke of Anjou whom either of them sought to ruine and studies to bring him once more to the management of Affairs for her own ends though she were resolved not to let him hold it long Such was the disposition of all Parties then The King himself had put the first thoughts of dividing his Kingdom betwixt them into the heads of his brace of Favourites as if they had been his own Children Joyeuse had conceived a design to get Languedoc and to joyn the Comtat of Avignon to it and to this effect was resolved by the Authority of the King to oblige his Holiness to Excommunicate the Mareschal de Montmorency as a protector and favourer of Hereticks and to give him the Comtat in exchange for the Marquisate of Salusses Now that he might not refuse him this he had contrived an intrigue to seize upon it by means of William Patris Bishop of Grace Favourite of the Cardinal d'Armagnac the Popes Legat in those Countries but the Mine being discovered Patris was assassinated by order from Rome Joyeuse did not give over the pursuing of his point and finding he could get nothing but ambiguous answers
of Balagny and had no less contempt then hatred for him after the check he received before Senlis Rhosne well acquainted with their discontent and having great intelligence in the City advised Fuentes to besiege it and that the French might not be able to bring relief in a Body to take in Dourlens first There were but few within the place notwithstanding Fifteen hundred Horse and Foot did make a shift to get in and at the same time the Count de Sainct Pol the Mareschal de Bouillon and the Admiral de Villars joyned together to succour it They had above four thousand Men and the Duke of Nevers was not above a days march distant with twelve hundred more but as there was no unity amongst those Chiefs and they disdained to obey that Duke they hastned to relieve the place before he joyned with them Fuentes encouraged by Rosne went to meet them at first the Mareschal made a very stout Charge but having the worst he falls to a retreat and the Admiral who staid behind to make another Charge engaged so far amongst the Enemies that they surrounded and took him Prisoner with fifteen or twenty Gentlemen of note and all his Foot were cut in pieces The Spaniards killed him and Sesseval in cold Blood for they are not wont to pardon any who having once been under their Pay shall take up Arms against them The King gave the Office of Admiral to Damville the Constables Brother and the Government of Havre to the Chevalier d'Oyse Brother of the deceased but restored the City of Rouen to perfect liberty having ordered the Fort St. Catharine to be demolished As the jealousie between Bouillon and Villars occasioned this loss that between the Duke of Nevers and Bouillon caused a more bloody one While Nevers excused himself Year of our Lord 1595 from undertaking the Command because they had reduced things into so ill-favoured month July a condition that he could reap no honour by medling with it and on the contrary Bouillon did all he could to thrust it upon him thinking thereby to shelter his Reputation under anothers name and amidst his fears and suspicions marched giddily about the place without attempting any thing it hapned eight days after the Battle that the Besieged who fought very well yet defended themselves but ill for want of Ingeniers unfortunately suffer'd the Enemies to force in upon them The Spaniards gained the Castle by a general assault upon a Bastion and made great slaughter of the Garison that was within it From thence they descended into the Town where finding no resistance they massacred all as well the defenceless Women and the Children as the Armed Men the raging Soldiers running thorough every Street and crying This is the Revenge for Ham. They gave no quarter but to seven or eight whereof Haraucour Governor of the City was one The Pavement was strewed with the Bodies of above three hundred Gentlemen who were gotten in and two thousand Persons more It is incredible how great the Spaniards joy was to find by this experiment it was possible for them to beat the French by fine force who till now were ever wont to beat them so but that which raised their hearts and spirits more yet was that at the very same time they had news from the Low-Countries that Mondragon who commanded their Army there in the absence of Fuentes had forced Prince Maurice to raise his Siege from before Groll in the Country of Overissel and having afterwards encamped near him boasted that he would hinder him from undertaking any thing all the rest of the Campagne So after they had setled Hernand Teillo Protocarerro Governor in Dourlens hover'd some days upon the Frontiers of Picardy and put a fresh Convoy into la Fere they marched towards Cambray full of the confidence of their taking it For consolation of these losses the King was informed his Affairs advanced very successfully at Rome After the Duke of Nevers was gone thence dissatisfied Pope Clement having notice that in France they had renewed the Proposition for making a Patriarch there relaxed somewhat of his severity and finding of late the King did not much sollicite him he began to apply himself to the King He wrote to the Cardinal de Gondy to renew that Negociation sent the Jesuit Possevinus to Lyons to confer about it with the Constable and with Bellievre and order'd the Cardinals Year of our Lord 1595 Protectors of the Chartreux Capucins and Minimes to command those Orders to month July mention and name the King in their Prayers which they had not hitherto done The Huguenots and even the Politicks were of opinion they ought to make him postulant in his turn and run after what he had rejected nevertheless considering the great Consequences the King resolved to send some Deputies of Rome and give them an express Procuration to Treat about the Conditions of his Absolution and to receive it in his name For this purpose he made choice of James David Du Perron and joyned Arnold d'Ossat with him as then but a simple Priest yet a Man of rare prudence and great merit who had before Negociated a long time in that Court It was said of the latter he had the talent to insinuate into the most Refractory and charm them to listen to him of the other that he left no room for reply if they would but hear him with attention so great was the rapidity and force of his Reason that he did not only persuade but he compel'd The multiplicity of Affairs that interven'd in the Kings Council having obstructed Du Perrons dispatch four Months together the Spanish Faction had a fair opportunity to make the Pope believe they scoffed at him and when this Agent did come contrary to their hopes they practis'd all their subtilties and laid what stress they could upon the ill success at Dourlens to hinder both him and d'Ossat from being admitted to Audience Then when they had been received which was about mid July and the Pope having taken advice of the Cardinals in private had declared month July in Consistory that two thirds of the Votes were for allowing Absolution to the King they were reduced to the starting of new difficulties about the manner endeavouring sometime to persuade it ought to be given at the Tribunal of the Inquisition then to crowd in some Expressions that wounded the King and at another time to propound some Formalities which should submit both him and his Kingdom to the Soveraignty of the Pope The Court of Rome was easily induced to lay hold of this last the bare prospect did so please them as they employ'd all their Arts and Engines to persuade the Kings month July and Aug. Agents to deposite his Crown in the hands of his Holiness who after the Absolution pronounced would have placed it upon one of their Heads again They got over this difficulty happily enough but three more rubs were thrown in their way the one that the
Gate and there stops to hinder the Port-cullis from barring up their way Upon the Signal given which was agreed to be the firing off a Pistol these Soldiers fall upon the Court of Guard and charge them nimbly A gross of Two hundred Foot conceal'd within a Chappel about two hundred paces off then another of a thousand more and after these another Body of Horse who waited a quarter of a League from thence ran with all speed to second them There were not above seven or eight of the Guard that made resistance the rest betaking themselves to flight put all the City into fear and confusion well might the Allarm-Bell ring out few People put themselves into a posture of defence The Spaniards in the mean time seized upon the Church Gates the Markets and Ramparts The Count de Sainct Pol as much affrighted as the People in stead of intrenching himself at some Gate mounted on Horseback and escaped to Corbie crying out he was going to fetch some Troops quartred within half a League of that place Hernand Master of the Town gave it over to the Spoil the Inhabitants were stript to their very Shirts and set at Ransom excepting some that were of the Confederacy or such as had been of the most Zealous Leaguers The King was in his Bed when he received this so surprizing news he rose immediately and sent for several Friends that they might comfort him The most undaunted took France to be now in great danger when they saw Paris was become a Frontier at one end the Duke of Mercoeur at the other the Duke of Savoy in the midst the Reliques of the old Factions endeavouring to joyn again in a Body and the new Cabals shewing their Heads There was but one Remedy and that was to regain Amiens with expedition but the Enterprize appeared very difficult and this was certain that if it failed the affront would more then double the present disaster So that the most part of the chief Officers dissuaded it and there were even some would needs have their Protestations registred in Parliament The Duke of Mayenne was almost the only Man of a contrary opinion who so encouraged the King that he Year of our Lord 1597 gave a small Body of four thousand Men to the Mareschal de Biron to invest it towards month March Artois and to hold the Enemies still in play and then resolved to go himself and secure the Cities on the Frontier and give Order for all things to be prepared for the Siege The troublesom reliques of a Distemper which his Divertisements had brought upon him the precedent year sent him back from the Frontiers to Paris and kept him there almost three weeks in his Chamber We cannot forbear to mention that during this time the anguish of his Malady joyning with the misfortune of his Affairs did almost stagger and overcome his constancy and forced from his heart such Sighs and such Complaints as were rather conformable to the ill state of his Condition month April then any way becoming the grandeur of his Courage He went to his Parliament likewise and demanded Assistance in terms which were it seems beneath his Dignity However his Presence was not useless at Paris to hasten the Levies of Men and Money The Provinces on this side the Loire undertook to maintain six Regiments of Foot for him great numbers of the Nobility flocked thither after him and because there were some yet very loath to leave their own homes and many Malecontent the Parliament to oblige them to come forth made a Decree which set a Mark of Infamy upon all those that did not get on Horseback upon this urgent occasion For the Money Maximilian de Betune Rosny provided it he was become sole Sur-Intendant des Finances Sancy and Schomberg not being able to comply with him had quitted that and taken up the employment of the Sword again They raised a considerable Fund by voluntary Loans and the creation of divers Offices those in best condition at Paris Taxed themselves very liberally as well out of fear of falling into the miseries of War again as because the Re-imbursements were assigned upon the melioration of the Gabels which was a good Security There were four Counsellors created in each Parliament as many Maistres des Comptes in the Chamber of Paris two Treasurers of France in every Court of Audit two Esleus in all the Elections a Trienval aux Tresoriers de L'Espargne one at the Parties Casuelles and so of all the Accomptables This latter way being extreamly chargable to the Kings Finances by consequent to the People there were some Counsellors of Parliament more worthy of ancient Rome then of a Country where the love to publick good does ordinarily pass but for Year of our Lord 1597 a Whimsey who propounded that all the Officers of the Kingdom should contribute month April generously offering to Tax themselves that so the Country might be deliver'd at ☞ their Expences but the greater number were not the most generous and Interest had the Ascendant over Honour From the end of March Biron was scowring about the Country towards Dourlens with some Horse to prevent the Spaniards from conveying Ammunitions into Amiens And though he were fewer in numbers then those of Amiens he notwithstanding began the Circumvalation beyond the Somme It was forty thousand fathom in circumference flanked with seven strong Pentagones and with a Bridge upon the River month April and May. above the Village called Longpre All the Month of April was spent in marching of Men thither that of May in making their Lodgments in their Quarters so that the approaches began not till about the beginning of June month June It was near this time the King arrived there with his whole Court and even his Mistress He had lodged her near himself but was quickly forced to remove that scandal from the sight of his Soldiers not only by their mutterings which came even to his Ears but likewise upon the reproaches of the Mareschal de Biron who considered not that there is nothing more dangerous then to shock the Pleasures of ones Soveraign or to take any advantage to make him know his own weakness Upon the first rumour of the loss of Amiens the remainders of the Spanish Faction would have made some stir in Paris where King Philip still maintain'd a little private Council to encourage his Partisans The most Zealous therefore held some meetings to consider whether they might do him any Service in this juncture of Affairs but one of them having discover'd a Consult of theirs in a Cabaret there were some of them truss'd up in the Greve and the ignominious death of those quite broke off that dangerous Correspondence and untied the whole knot of them month May. In this juncture the greatest part of the Lords despairing of the settlement of France or glad of an opportunity to pretend so an Assembly was held in Bretagne of the Nobility in presence even of Brissac
his Eyes sunk inwards his Head little and no doubt ill furnished with Brains his extravagant Designs his giddy Conduct and the foolish Passion he had for gaming losing in one year above Five hundred thousand Crowns were infallible marks of it The King bestowed the Government of Burgundy on the Daufin and the Lieutenancy on Bellegarde during his Minority The Death of Biron put out all the remaining Sparkles of the Conspiracy if any were yet alive his Friends and Relations bemoaned his Death but durst not murmur his Confederates knowing he had said nothing against them and being certain they had not written any thing for amongst his Papers they found no Letters but his own reassured themselves and that more especially because the King made as if he had no knowledge of their Practises the King of Spain nor Duke of Savoy dared not make any attempt now whose Ambassadors were not the last that Congratulated the King for his having detected this Conspiracy He let them understand he very well knew their evil Disposition towards him but yet assured them he would not break the Peace but he denied to grant Passage by this Bridge de Gresin to their Milan Forces before he had thorowly inform'd himself of all this grand Affair Their Design as they gave out was to pass into Flanders nevertheless he suspected they were brought thither only to favour the Enterprize of the Mareschal de Biron and apprehended when he was first taken lest they should have exasperated his Confederates by despair Upon this consideration and to keep Burgundy in obedience he had sent thither the Mareschal de Lavardin with some Forces So that those who held the Castles of Dijon and Aussonne after they had used threatnings four or five days talked no more but of submitting when they perceived him in a condition to force them The Fidelity no less than the Courage of this Lord was well known to the King upon many Trials therefore for some time past he had taken delight in bestowing the Noblest employments upon him to eclipse the glory of Biron month July Edme de Malain Baron de Lux Lieutenant in the Government of this Province acquainted with the utmost Practises of the Conspiracy was so wise and fortunate as not to lose himself He trusted to the Mercy of the King came to him and disclosed all Wherefore he Pardon'd him without any reservation passed his Oblivion in the Parliament of Paris and in the Parliament of Burgundy and left him in his Command Year of our Lord 1602 The Baron de Fontenelles of the House of Beaumanoir and René de Marcc-Monibarot month August and Septemb. Governor of Renes were apprehended as Confederates with Biron The Grand Council having a Commission to try the first condemned him to be Drawn on a Hurdle to the Greve and there to be Broken alive upon the Wheel and sent two or three of his People to the Gallows The Cruelties this Gentleman had committed in Bretagne during the Leagne and the obstinacy he had shewed for that Party did not a little help to aggravate his Punishment On the contrary the Services which Montbarot had done the King in that same Province did much contribute towards his justification The Count d'Auvergne remained but Two Months in the Bastille after the Death of Biron the King set him at Liberty and also received him into his Favour He had a Powerful Intercessor month October in his Sister the Marchioness of Verneüil and moreover he owned all he knew The Mareschal de Bouillon thought it more safe to be at large and to justifie himself at distance He consider'd that Rosny jealous of the too great credit he had amongst the Huguenots did him ill offices at Court and he had reason had he been never so innocent to apprehend the Indignation of the King because at Poitiers that Prince having told him of his Practices he retorted again too confidently and in such a manner as is justly accounted Criminal towards a Soveraign Thus far from coming upon the King's Commands he went and presented himself at the Cambre my-Partie of Castres offering to justifie himself there for he pretended they were his Natural Judges because his Vicounty of Turenne is within the Jurisdiction of the Parliament of Toulouze whereof the Chamber of Castres is a Member How-ever it were he drew from them an Act of Comparition for which the King was very angry with them Passing by Montpellier he engaged the Reformed Churches of Languedoc to write in favour of him to the King then finding no place of Security in France he went to Geneva and from thence into Germany where having perswaded the Protestant month October Princes of his Innocency and craved the intercession of Queen Elizabeth he gave his Enemies more cause to animate the King against him Towards the end of this year the King discover'd how the Prince of Joinwille month December had suffer'd himself to be circumvented by the Spaniards and negociated some Contract or Colligation with them by means of Philip d'Anglure Guyonvelle a Lord Franc-Comtois He caused him therefore to be apprehended but when he found there was more of Puerility and Wantonness than Malice in his Transactions he would not put the young Prince in Prison he only put him into the Custody of the Duke of Guise his eldest Brother that he might teach him more Wit Amidst so many Inquietudes and Alarms the Court tasted some little joy at the reception they made for the Swiss and Grison Ambassadors who came to Paris to Swear their renewed Alliance with the Crown They were in number Forty two Sagner Advoyé of Berne was their Orator They arrived at Paris the Fourteenth of October and stay'd there Thirteen days The manner of their Reception their Lodging the Feasts that were made for them the Ceremonies they used at their Swearing the Alliance in the Church of Nostre-Dame which was performed the Two and twentieth of October the Presents which the King bestow'd on each of them were just the very same things as we have seen these latter years upon the like occasion and are withal more proper to fill up a Ceremonial than a History But it is remarkable that at the Treat was given them in the Archbishoprick after they had taken the Oaths the King who had dined apart came into the Hall where they were sitting accompanied by the Cardinals de Joyeuse and de Gondy and some other Lords and presenting himself at the end of the Table without sitting nor yet suffering any of them to rise drank to the health of his Comperes or Gossips and obliged the two Cardinals to do the like The Ambassadours received this Honor bare-headed and Pledged him in the same manner About four or five days afterwards they took leave of him having obtained Three things which they earnestly desired The First for the whole Body of the Cantons viz. A Confirmation of the Privileges that had been granted to them in France Of
Accompts and a Treasurer of France and in the manner these did proceed none could have just cause of Complaint But when he had named others and it appeared by their management the Council had a design either to destroy or much lessen that Fond which was the clearest subsistence of many Families in Paris the interessed who Year of our Lord 1605 were numerous had recourse to the Prevost des Marchands he being as it were their Guardian This was Francis Miron a man of Courage and Probity and who had no other interest but his Duty and the Honor of his Office He took up the Business with some heat spake very resolutely in the Town-Hall and wrote to the King who was then at Fontainebleau Those of the Council who had a Pique against him for his great resolution too stiff in their opinion imputed as a Crime that he should mention Nero in some Discourse of his and insisted much with the King to have him apprehended The Bourgeois were ready to take up Arms in defence of their Magistrate although he protested he would rather chuse to die than be an occasion of the least disorder It was a great happiness for the City of Paris to have so good and so wise a King as Henry who having in other occasions thorowly tried the Fidelity and Candour of Miron and it being withal his Method to give People time to calm and cool themselves and repent of their rashness he would not push things on to extremity which must have engaged him to severe Chastisements So that the Tenants referring themselves wholly to this good natur'd Landlord and Miron having explained himself with all the Respect and Humility due from a Loyal Subject to his Soveraign he stopt all further proceeding touching their Rents As to the rest Paris does owe this acknowledgment to the honor of Miron that in his Office of Lientenant Civil and of Prevost des Marchands they never had a Magistrate so exact in settling of the City Government their Markets and what else was necessary or that so warmly espoused the Peoples interest or took more pains and care about the Revenue and Rights belonging to them to clear their Debts keep up that Splendour becoming the Capital City of the Kingdom as also to beautifie and furnish it with things that were at once an Ornament and of Publick Advantage The several Streets enlarged many new Paved and made shelving to convey away the Dirt and Water Eight or Nine stately Conduits or Fountains still casting forth their plentiful Streams the River improved with Wharffs Keys and watering places divers little Bridges in places convenient a new Gate at the Tournelle that of the Temple repair'd and open'd after it 's having been shut up above Forty years will be lasting marks and tokens of it to all Posterity But there was nothing so noble as the Front of the Town-Hall which seemed to have been left imperfect for Two and seventy years space to give this Magistrate an opportunity of making it the Monument of his Fame and to exercise his Generosity by employing all the Profits of his Offices to put it into that condition wherein we behold it to this very day As to the Assembly of the Clergy that Body having recovered much force and vigour the Complaints and Demands they had to make to the King were very great Hierosme de Villars Archbishop of Vienne presented the Assemblies Papers to him and was the Mouth of the whole Assembly He made a long discourse upon those vexations the Church suffer'd on all hands the infamous Trade of Benefices Simoniacal Bargains Pensions paid to Lay-men and frequent Appeals as gross abuses He said the cause of all those Disorders was the refusal they had hitherto met with for Publishing the Council of Trent That it was strange the Kingdoms of the Earth which are but as the baser Elements of the Terrestrial Globe should substract and withdraw themselves from the benign Influence of the Church which is the Coelestial World That the things which pass away on the wings of Time should hinder the Fruits of an Eternal duration That they should make Divine Reason stoop and truckle to Humane Policies and if we may so express it subject God in a manner to the Wills of Men. As to the Reception of the Council of Trent the King would not be Positive That it could not quadrare with the Reasons of State and the Liberties of the Gallican Church On the contrary he declared that he desired it as much as they and was very sorry it met with so great Difficulties That he would spare neither his Life nor Crown for the Honour and Exaltation of the Church And as concerning Simonies c. they must lay the blame upon those that practis'd it not upon him for he made no Trade of Bishopricks like the Favorites of his Predecessors but bestow'd them gratis and upon Persons of Merit He afterwards at leisure made distinct replies to all their Papers and amongst other things granted them by an Edict the liberty of redeeming such things as formerly belonged to them and had been sold for little or nothing without due Year of our Lord 1605 form or the Solemnities thereto requisite They were not satisfied with this but must have another to empower them to redeem in what manner soever they had been sold Yet the Parliament put in this Modification or Proviso That it should not extend to the prejudice of any who had been in Possession Forty years upon a legal Title There hapned this year Three Eclipses two of the Moon The first upon the Four and twentieth of March the second the Seventeenth of September and one of the Sun the Second day of October It began about One of the Clock afternoon and for two whole hours caused such a darkness that it seemed as it were Night the disk of that great Luminary being totally obscured by the Moon which appeared black and edged with a circle of light quite round month Decemb. The Astrologers after their wonted manner Predicted it would have most terrible Effects If the Fougade in England had not failed they would have made the world believe that this Phenomena did Prognosticate it Some English Catholicks accustomed to contrive Conspiracies during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth being much incensed against King James for that though at his first coming he had given them fair hopes of enjoying greater liberty than ever in their Religion yet did now keep as severe a hand over them as any before Plotted to destroy both him and all the most eminent of the Kingdom by a Blow the very thoughts whereof begets a horror Robert Catesby and Thomas Percy were the principal Authors These knowing the Parliament was to Sit at Westminster hired the Neighbouring Houses and then some Cellars under the very place of their Meeting filled them with Barrels of Gun-Powder which they cover'd with Coals and Faggots and intended to set Fire thereto when the Houses of
was drawn up and signed by the Witnesses then present The Ceremony being over and the Gates open'd the Count de Castro Ambassador of Spain came to congratulate the Senate upon their reconciliation with the Holy Father and the Cardinal went to celebrate Mass pontifically in the Patriarchal Church where were present the Senate and the Count de Castro the people flocking thither from all parts with incredible joy Those Bishops that had not submitted to the Censures received absolution likewise but whilst they were in dispute about the Conditions with those whom the Pope had preposed for this Affair they wholly abstained from Celebrating and thus in effect submitted to the interdict after all The Senate honoured such as had written in their defence with good Pensions and took them into their protection but their whole power and care was not enough to secure Fra Paolo from the malice of some Assassines who having watched him a long time surprized him one day as he was returning to his Monastery and wounded him in several places with a Stiletto but such care was taken in the cure that he recovered Afterwards he hung up the Stiletto before an Altar in the Church belonging to his Convent with this inscription Dei Filio liberatori not so much perhaps to Consecrate his acknowledgment to God as to immortalize the horror of that Assassinate and stir up the publick hatred against those who were believed to be the Authors I come now to the Truce between the Vnited Provinces and the King of Spain The two parties were extremely fatigated with a War of above forty years continuance they had both of them diversly resented the inconveniencies and did dread the Event the Spaniards had expended infinite Sums of Money and lost more Men then those Countries were worth They saw no probability of reducing them by force and apprehended withal that if they should chance to get too much advantage over them they might cast themselves into the Arms of the French for protection which would have drawn after them the other Provinces that were yet left them But the greatest of their fears was lest they should utterly ruine their Trade to the Indies and hinder the Arrival of their Flota's Year of our Lord 1606 which are their main subsistence Besides their Council imagined that as the War had served only to exasperate and harden those People the more and taught them better how to defend themselves a Peace would soften them by little and little recover their wonted communication and perhaps incline them to respect their ancient Soveraign at least the Catholick party who made up near a fourth part of those revolted Provinces Withal the Arch-Duke Albert most ardently desired the Peace thereby to enjoy Flanders quietly and be able to employ his Money and Friends to gain the Imperial Throne which he expected would soon be vacant by the death of Rodolphus On the other hand the Provinces finding themselves overwhelmed with debts almost forsaken by the English and under the apprehension of being so too by the French who grew weary of contributing so much towards the expences of a War without reaping any apparent profit Many of their Merchants imagined that a Peace would bring them Mines of Gold and some being greatly allarm'd at the progress of Marquiss Spinola who amongst other places had taken Grol and Rhimbergue took the freedom to say That since they could not subsist of themselves in a separate body of State it were better they should rejoyn themselves to their natural Lord then to put themselves under another who would lie more heavy upon them as being so near a Neighbour A certain Flemming named Caminga one of the first of those who were otherwhile called Gueux having one night held such like discourse was the next day found dead in his Bed at Embden Their dispositions being such on either part the Arch-Dukes first sounded the Foord by Valrave de Wittenhorst and John Jevart who in the Month of May month Decemb. of the year 1606 first conferred with some particular Members of the States then towards the end of the same year were heard in the Assembly of the States themselves This first time having represented the long and cruel miseries of War and praised the mild and good intentions of the Arch-Dukes they propounded the re-union of those Provinces with the rest under the obedience of Year of our Lord 1607 their ancient Prince The States were not over-much pleased with the discourse and sent them back with an Answer directly contrary to their demand viz. That by the Decree made at Utrecht Anno 1579. the King of Spain had lost his right of Soveraignty over those Provinces and that they had been Vnited in one Body and declared a free State and Republick the which had been confirmed by a prescription of more then five and twenty years and by several Princes and States with whom they had made Year of our Lord 1607 divers Treaties and Confederations The Arch-Dukes as is believed made this Essay only in point of honour for their Deputies sent immediately to let the States know That the intention of their Princes was not to gain or take advantage of the United-Provinces but to leave them in the condition they then were in and to Treat upon that foot This proposition did not displease the States and on their side the Arch-Dukes month February and March to shew they acted sincerely employ'd in this Negociation Father John Neyen or Ney General of the Cordeliers but who was a natural Flemming and had been bred up in the Protestant Religion till the age of two and twenty years His Father was one Martin Ney otherwhile very well known too and employed by the Father of Prince Maurice As to the rest his behaviour appeared to have so much of integrity that notwithstanding his change of Religion and Habit the Hollanders had a great deal of confidence in him He brought them very obliging Letters from the Arch-Dukes who offer'd amongst other things to take away all suspicion of any surprize to depute none for this Treaty but Originaries of the Low-Countries to hold the Conferences in such place as it should please the States to chuse to agree to a Truce of eight Months and to get the conditions ratified by the King of Spain The States accepted of the Truce to begin on the fourth of May the Letters of the ratification were deliver'd on either part and publication thereof made The difficulty was for the ratification from Spain Lewis Verreiken Secretary of State to the Arch-Dukes brought it the fourteenth of July to the Hague but as it was only in paper subscribed Io el Rey and sealed only with the little Seal moreover as it gave the Arch-Dukes the Title of Lords of the Low-Countreys and they had omitted this Clause That they should treat with those Provinces as holding them for a free Country The States found it imperfect as well in form as in substance month