the eldest was the most happy being joyned this year to Lewis King of France a Prince that Year of our Lord 1235 was much greater by his Virtues then his Crown The same year the Earl of Champagee it is not said for what cause fell again into Rebellion for which he was punished with the loss of his Cities of Montereau-Faut-Yonne Bray and Nogent upon the Seine These losses did not make him much wiser he persisted still in his foolish passion for the Queen who had ruin'd him and retired to his Castle of Provins to write Verses and Songs for entertainment of his amorous Dotage Year of our Lord 1235. and 36. Nevertheless he was soon diverted by the death of Sancho VIII called the Strong King of Navarre who dying without any Males left the Kingdom to him as the next Heir and Son of his Daughter Blanch. So he went and took possession and transported a great number of Husbandmen from his Landes in Brie and Champagne who improved and made that Countrey very fertile and populous The Countrey of Artois was erected to an Earldom Pairrie in favour of Robert the Kings Brother on whom his Father had bestow'd it by his Will Some place this erection in the time of Philip Augustus However it were I think we may be confident it is the first of that nature At the sollicitation of Pope Gregory who had as well a quarrel to the Emperour Frederick's Forces his Enemy declar'd they being in possession of the remainder of Year of our Lord 1237. and 38. the Kingdom of Jerusalem as to the Saracens there was a great Crusado of French Lords over whom the new King of Navarre was made Chief But these Adventurers had no better success then all the rest for the ill conduct of these new Soldiers of the Cross and their Divisions brought the whole Army almost to ruine and most part of the Officers and Commanders were slain there or taken prisoners Year of our Lord 1238 Peter Duke of Burgundy died in his return from this Expedition his only Son John Surnamed Rufus succeeded him The affairs of Constantinople were no whit better the Emperour Baldwin comes into France to beg assistance against the Greeks and for a great sum of Money sold the Crown of Thorns wherewith our Saviour was Crowned the Spung and the Lance which pierced his Side to St. Lewis the King who put them into his Treasury of Reliques in the Holy Chappel which he had purposely built in his own Palace It was now about three years that all the Doctors both Seculars and Regulars of the Sacred Faculty of Divnity at Paris which was then almost the only School for that Science and as it were the perpetual Council of the Gallican Church had resolv'd the question and were all agreed upon this judgment in a famous Assembly and after mature deliberation and discussion that oue and the same Ecclesiastical person could in Conscience hold but one Benefice at one time This year 1238. William III. Bishop of Paris held another Assembly of the same Faculty in the Chapter of the Jacobins where it was unanimously concluded That one could not without forfeiture of Eternal Happiness possess two Benefices at the same time provided one of them were of the value only of Fifteen Liures parisis per annum There were none but Philip Chancellour of the Vniversity and Arnold afterwards Bishop of Amiens who were obstinately resolv'd to hold their own The First when he lay on his Death-bed being earnestly desired and pressed home by the Bishop William to discharge himself of that burthen which would sink him down to Hell replied That he would try whether that were true How few are to be seen in these days that do not chuse to run the same hazard or are not troubled that they cannot have the opportunity of such ✚ a Trial But it does not appear so great a risque to them since the Popes give Dispensations Year of our Lord 1239 The quarrels between Pope Gregory IX and the Emperour Frederic growing hot to all extremity of Outrages on either side Gregory sent to St. Lewis King of France to proffer him the Empire for his Brother Robert Earl of Artois The Lords assembled by the King upon a proposition so important did not approve that violent proceeding and said it was sufficient for Robert that he was Brother to a King who was more excellent in Dignity and Nobility then any Emperour whatever The Albigensis could not submit themselves to the Orders of the Inquisition Trincavel Son of the Vicount de Beziers and five or six Lords of the Countrey putting themselves at the head of them they seized upon Carcassonne and some Year of our Lord 1239 other places and ran into some parts belonging to the King in hostile manner He presently sent some Forces thither Commanded by John Earl of Beaumont who drove them out from Carcassonne and besieged them in Mont-real where after they had held some time they made their capitulation by means of the Earls of Foix and Toulouze Year of our Lord 1239 The old de la Montagne so they named the Prince of the Assassins a People that occupied the mountainous Canton of Syria had dispatched two of his Murtherers into France to kill the King but soon after I cannot say by what motive he repented and countermanded them by some others who before they could find them out advertised the King to have a care of himself This old de la Montagne bred up great numbers of young Youths in pleasant aud delicious Palaces and the hopes of an Eternal Felicity in the other World if they obey'd his Commands blindfold and to make them the more capable and fit to execute his bloody Will in all Countreys he made them learn all Languages Year of our Lord 1239 The interests of the Pope and the Emperour were not at all compatible together and therefore Frederick and Honorius and then Gregory IX who succeeded Honorius fell necessarily into discords and afterwards into mortal hatred Gregory le ts fly the Thunder-bolts of the Church against Frederick and his Legat having called the Prelats of France together at Meaux order'd several of them to go to Rome to hold a Council where they pretended to degrade that Emperour He complained to the King desired him not to permit his Bishops to go out of France and his desire not taking effect he caused them to be way-laid and watch'd at Sea and having taken them distributed them in divers prisons Then in his turn he for a while slighted the Kings intercession for their release which thing made some alteration in that good correspondence that for some time had continued between France and the Empire In the year 1240. The King having assembled the flower of the Barons and the Year of our Lord 1240 Knights of his Kingdom at Saumur gave the Girdle of Knighthood to his Brother Alphonso whose Marriage had a little before been compleated with Jane
Nations when the accidental Quarrel of an English Mariner with a Mariner of Normandy upon the Coast of Guyenne where they had landed to take in fresh Water set them against one another First Ship and Ship endeavour'd to plunder or take what they could singly on each side then they brought Fleet against Fleet. The English had the worst their King Edward demanded restitution of such Merchants Goods as had been made Prize in these Scuffles Philip on the contrary Summons him to appear in his Court of Parliament as his Vassal Edward sent his Brother Edmund but Philip not satisfied with that caused him to be declared Contumacious and ordered his Lands should be seized Year of our Lord 1292. 1293. In Execution of this Decree the year following the Constable Rodolph de Nesle seized several Cities in Guyenne and even that of Bourdeaux which was the Capital Thus a Riot between Private Men blew their little Sparks of Contention into a flame of War which one may say proved very fatal to France since it gave way to the overthrowing of her ancient Laws and Liberties and the introducing and establishment of divers Charges and Subsidies on the People The increase and burthen whereof is ordinarily followed with Revolutions and Seditions as it fell out this year by a great Commotion hapning at Rouen but which had the same end and event as all the like Enterprizes generally come to that is to say the Hanging of the most froward and hottest and the Banishment or Ruine of the rest Year of our Lord 1294 The King of England vexed at the loss of those places in Guyenne sollicited all Princes against France particularly the Emperor Adolph with great Sums of Money and Guy de Dampierre Earl of Flanders with the hopes oâ— the Marriage of his Son Prince of Wales with Philippetta that Earls Daughter Adolph sent to defie the King in haughty language but they gave him no other answer but a Sheet of white Paper For which he shewed no other Resentment but by Threats and so turned his Arms against some German Rebels Year of our Lord 1294 As for Guy having been allured to Paris with his Wife and Daughter by Letters from the King fraught with Expressions of Kindness he was much amazed to find himself made a Prisoner there It is true that about a Twelve month after himself and his Wife were set at liberty but his Daughter they kept still to break the Measures of that Match too pernicious to the French Year of our Lord 1294 In the year 1294 the Cardinal Benedict Cajetan by intrigues or by deceit and fourbery obliged Pope Celestin to resign the Popedom and by the same Methods got himself to be elected he was named Boniface VIII His Ancesters were Originally Catalonians and had taken the name of Cajetan because they first dwelt near Cajeta before they transplanted themselves to the City of Anagnia where he was born Year of our Lord 1294 At his advancement to that Dignity he endeavours to mediate a Peace between all Christian Princes He could not procure it between France and England but he setled that between Arragon and France King Alphonso was dead and James his Brother succeeded him It was agreed that Charles Earl of Valois should renounce the Kingdom of Arragon wherein he had been invested by Pope Martin V. upon which Condition the Arragonian repudiating Isabella de Castille for being too nigh of Kin should Marry his Laughter set the three Sons of Charles the Lame and other Hostages at liberty and surrender Sicily and what he had Conquer'd in Abruzza but Frederic his younger Brother to whom Alphonso had by his last Testament will'd that Kingdom got himself to be named King by the Sicilians Since then that which we call the Kingdom of Sicilia was dismembred in two that beyond the Fare which was the Island and that on this side which they called the Kingdom of Naples They were again re-joyned in Anno 1503. and are to this day in the same hands Year of our Lord 1295 The Sons of Charles the Lame being set at liberty the eldest named Charles entred into the Order of the Friers Minors The following year he was by the Pope promoted to the Archbishoprick of Thoulouze which he accepted not of till after he had made his Vows The King of Englands heart was much set upon two things the one to Subject the Kingdom of Scotland and the other to recover the Tows in Guyenne He thought the first was pretty well advanc'd having obliged Baliol to render him Homage and to compass the second he prepared a mighty Fleet and had strengthned himself with Friends and Alliances But Philip to prevent his designs induced the King of Scotland already threatned by his Subjects who scorned to subject themselves to the English to break the Treaty he had made with Edward and Allie himself with France and for security of this new Bond of Alliance he promised to give the eldest Daughter of the Earl of Valois to his eldest Son whose name was Edward At the same time he caused the People of Wales also to rise who out of a wild and untamed humour for Liberty were easily heated and drawn into the Field The great devastations and spoil they made this time in Pembrook-shire and thereabout broke all the King of England's Measures He was forced to go in Person that way to stop their progress and lay aside the business of Guyenne till he had quell'd those hot and stubborn old Enemies as he did having overmaster'd almost all of them in four Months time About this time the Principality of Milan and Neighbouring Cities was fixed and perpetuated in the Family of the Vicounts to which Otho Vicount Archbishop of Milan contributed not a little Matthew his Brothers Son was created the first Year of our Lord 1295 Duke this year 1295. and took the Investiture of the Emperor Adolph who likewise gave him the Vicarship or Vicegerency of the Empire in Lombardy Year of our Lord 1295 In Pistoya a City in Tuscany as then powerful enough it hapned that the rich and numerous Family of the Cancellary were divided in two Factions the one of the White the other of the Black The first joyned themselves with the Guelphes the second with the Ghibelins and that fury and madness spread over all Italy and caused insinite Seditions and Murthers Year of our Lord 1295 Pope Boniface was Proud Haughty Imperious and Undertaking he thought all the Princes of the Earth must bow to his Commands but he found a Philip of France at the head of them a young Prince of no very patient Humour more Potent then any one of his Predecessors and who had a Council consiting of People that were Year of our Lord 1295 stout and impetuous So that Boniface who ardently pursued the Design he aimed at to oblige all Kings to the Holy War having sent to tell both him and the King of England that they must make
Service From the beginning he made it appear that the French could beat the English who had always beaten them in the preceding Reigns The Navarrois and Montfort not having been comprehended in the Treaty of Bretigny their people continued the War and the English Forces and the French took part with them John de Grailly Captal de Buchs who was come to the aid of the Navarrois took the Command of all their Forces The French Officers being met to Fight him found him near the place called Cocherel and de la Croix St. Leufroy between Evreux and Vernon Bertrand de Gueselin on whom he had conferr'd the Command upon refusal of the young Count d'Auxerre behaved himself so well with his companions that Captals Men were beaten out of their advantageous Post and he taken prisoner The King thinking to get him on his side released him a while after but he was rather desirous to retaliate his defeat then that obligation Year of our Lord 1364 During these Occurrences Philip of Navarre hapning to dye Lewis his young Brother got the Forces of that Party together and fell upon Bourbonnois and the lower Auvergne where he rifled several Castles Nay some of his Men surprized la Charite upon the Loire a place very important for the passage it gave from thence he made a cruel War upon the Countries on this side whilst on the other hand the Count Montbeliard was fallen upon Burgundy to serve the House of Navarre who pretended that Dutchy appertained to them But Philip of France to whom King Charles had confirmed the Grant was order'd to go and defend his Country and to quit la Beausse from whence he had resolved to expel the Robbers and had already cleared four or five small Castles by turning them out of their Kennels He carried the War therefore into Montbeliard and compell'd the Earl to go out of Burgundy Then laid his Siege before la Charite Lewis d'Evreux not finding himself strong enough to make him raise it retreated with his Forces to Cherbourgh in Normandy The Besieged surrendred upon Composition which the Duke agreed to by the Kings order that he might be able to send help to Charles de Blois his Cousin who was engaged with John de Montfort for the Dutchy of Bretagne Year of our Lord 1394 The Battle d'Auvray decided the Controversy between these Contenders John de Montfort had besieged that place with the assistance of the English led by John Chandois that Kings Lieutenant in Guyenne Charles de Blois undertakes to relieve it back'd by the French Forces commanded by the Count d'Auxerre and Bertrand du Gueselin The Armies came to an engagement the Nine and twentieth of September the Feast-day of St. Michael The Fight was obstinate and bloody to extremity in the conclusion Charles lost the day the Dutchy and his Life For the Lords of Bretagne had agreed amongst themselves that to put a period to that tedious Quarrel they would certainly kill that Chief of the two that was vanquished Year of our Lord 1364 The Children of Charles de Blois were still Prisonners in England and his Widow had more of Pride then Wisdom and good Conduct The Duke of Anjou her Son-in-Law would willingly have assisted her with all his power but the Council of France did not think it fit to drive that business too far least Montfort should turn Homager to the English They therefore made a Peace with him by the Treaty at Guerrande The Dutchy was left to him upon condition of paying his Devoirs to the King of France The Title of Dutchess to the Widow of Charles during her life and for all her Posterity the right of being restored upon want of Heirs descended from Montfort Moreover she had the County of Pontieure and divers other Lands with Forty thousand Livers of Rent for her self alone to be raised upon the whole Dutchy Year of our Lord 1365 Although the Holy War had been interrupted by the death of King John nevertheless Peter King of Cyprus having collected some assistance of Moneys from the Christian Princes and gathered up here and there some numbers of Adventurers together with the Knights of St. John went and landed in Egypt where he valiantly forced a part of the great City of Alexandria and might have brought it all under his power if those that went with him having more regard to their Plunder then their Honour had not returned on board their Vessels with the Spoil Year of our Lord 1365 and 66. With the like Valour and more Perseverance Ame VI. Earl of Savoy carried his Forces against Amurat Sultan of the Turks and the King of Bulgaria who would needs dispossess John Paleologus his near Kinsman of the Grecian Empire the Bulgarian holding him already a Prisoner Ame having taken the City of Calipolis in the Thracian Chersonese by Storm from the Turks entred Bulgaria and upon the taking of divers places forced that King to release the Emperor into whose hands he also put the City of Calipolis but the Greeks lost it again immediately afterwards so much was their Valour declined as well as their Empire The Emperor Charles IV. had much more fancy to design vast Undertakings then Understanding or Means to put them in execution He pleased himself with the empty pride and vain-glory of pompous Ceremonies because he could not attain to those things that were truly real and solid And as his small Revenues and his great Expences still kept him in a necessitous Condition when he began any Year of our Lord 1365 considerable Enterprize it was but only with intent to have Money given him This year 1365. he visited the Pope in Avignon to make a League with the Holy Father and the other Princes of Italy against Barnaby Viscount of Milan He was at Mass Celebrated by the Pope himself on the day of Pentecost in his Imperial Habit and then went and was Crowned King of Arles in the City of the same name Then returned again to Avignon where he obtained permission of the Pope to levy the Tenths upon all the Clergy of Germany and Bohemia for the Expences of that War which he never made Year of our Lord 1365 Gueselin who had been taken at the Battle of Auvray was set free upon Ransom and Oliver de Clisson who was of Montforts Party allured to the Kings service In the Month of December Montfort came to Paris and did Homage first for his Dutchy but only by word of Mouth and without any Oath then for the County of Montfort ungirt and on his Knees and both his hands joyned together between the hands of the King his Soveraign Lord. This year we met again with some Troops of those revolted Peasants of the Jaquerie Year of our Lord 1365 who being re-inforc'd and joyned with some Companies of Plunderers went even into Alsatia from whence they were hunted out and most of them destroy'd by the Emperor Charles IV. and the other Princes of Germany The
of the little River Arouane which glides betwixt that of Yonne and Loing and falls into the Loing close by Moret Clotaire lost the Battle and almost Thirty thousand Men and saved himself by speedy posting to Paris But he durst not stay there long for the Victors being advanced as far as Essonne he retired into the Forrest of Arelaune In fine he was constrained left he should lose all to yield up to them the greatest part of his Kingdom to Thierry all that was between the Loire and the Seine as far as the Sea and to Theoderet the Dutchy of Dentelen which was between the Oise and the Seine or perhaps between the Somme and the Oise Year of our Lord 600 601. During the controversie between the Cousins the Gascons took occasion to come and plant themselves in the Countrey of Oleron of Bearn and of Soule The two Brother Kings thought it to better purpose having vanquish'd them to make them become Tributaries then to drive them quite away and gave them a Duke to Govern them he was called Genialis But as they are a stirring People during the Civil Wars of the French they gained all Aquitania Tertia which because of them is named Gascongne Year of our Lord 601 Brunehaud had all the power in the Court of young King Thierry having made him taste the pleasure of Women and Love betimes to keep him from medling with business of State by charms of voluptuousness and out of fear leâ—t a lawful Wife if he should take one should induce him to retrench her Authority by gaining the Affections of her Grand-Son from her This year he had a Son by one of his Mistresses which they named Sigebert Though Brunehaud were a Great-Grand-Mother she was not exempted from Love nor from inspiring it in others by the opportunities she had of bestowing the greatest Favours but this she did most commonly at the expence of the richest whom she fleeced by her Calumnies and her assassinations The precedent year she Year of our Lord 602 had taken away the Life of Egila Patrician of Burgundy to enrich her self with his Year of our Lord 603 spoil She loved amongst others a young Lord named Protades of Roman extraction that is to say Gaulois and had already made him Duke des Transjurains this was not enough she must raise him to the Office of Mayer of the Palace But Bertoald who then executed it must first be put out of the way To this end she sent him to gather up the Imposts in Neustria newly taken from Clotair and as yet not well subjected Landry Mayer of the Palace soon chases him pursues him even to Orleans and Besieges him King Thierry being informed thereof Mounts on Horseback the Battle was fought at the passage over the River of Estampes most part of Landry's Men were cut off but Bertoald was slain there as Brunehaud had wished and she gave that Employment to her Protades Year of our Lord 603 At the same time King Theodebert had taken the Field to run upon Clotaire but the two Kings being there present Theodebert grants him a Peace desiring to preserve him for a time of need against his Brother Thierry who likewise and perhaps upon the same consideration did in a while after make his accommodation with Clotaire Year of our Lord 604 The Old One had not forgot the Outrage she had received by Theodebert or rather the Austrasian Lords she infinitely desired Thierry might make himself Master of that Kingdom that she might execute her Revenge She made him believe therefore that Theodebert was not his Brother but that he was the Son of a Gardiner Was it that she would have it meant he had been Supposed or Changed or that the Queen Faileube had committed Adultery with some person of that condition Upon all occasions she and her Favourite thundered it in the Ears of Thierry and laid hold of every little subject of Pique to exasperate the Spirit of that young ambitious and violent Prince Insomuch as that in fine he took up Arms to deprive his own Brother both of his Crown and Life One day as the two Armys were encamped near each other the Leudes or Vaslals of the Kings detesting this impious War endeavoured an accommodation Protades opposing it those that belonged to Thierry gathered together and notwithstanding the Intreaty and Commands of that Prince Year of our Lord 605 to the contrary went and â—lew him in his Tent where he was playing at Chess Year of our Lord 605 6. In time Brunehaud found means to sacrifice all those that had procured his Death to the Manes of her beloved Friend But notwithstanding instead of one Gallant she chose many and those the handsomest of her Court The scandal was so great that St. Didier Bishop of Lions was obliged by his Pastoral Office and Duty to make some publique Remonstrances of it to her They wrought no effect upon a Soul so plunged in the Mire of her Lust but they acquired the Crown of Martyrdom for this Holy Prelate This Second Jesabel having first caused him to be degraded and banished by an Assembly of Bishops devoted to her passion then two years after stoned to death by her Satellites Some remorse of Conscience having touched Thierry he would needs take a lawful Wife and caused Hermenberg the Daughter of Bertric King of the Visigoths to come out of Spain that he might Marry her But Brunehaud by her Witchcrafts as it was said hindred him from consummating the Nuptials and even perswaded him to send her back and most unjustly detain all that she had brought with her for him The disorders of this Court were at such a height that it was to ruine ones self not to approve of it Nevertheless the H. Abbot Colomban who feared nought but God alone spared not to conjure King Thierry to put an end to his Debauches Year of our Lord 608 by a legitimate Marriage and refused to give Blessing to his Bastards boldly assuring him that God would never suffer the Sons of Sin to Reign This Christian liberty thwarted too much the Interests and Pleasures of Brunehaud she ceased not from irritating the King her Son against the Saint till he had caused him to be plucked out of his Monastery with violence and turned out of his Kingdom At that time when she her self was driven from the Court of Austrasia she had left one of her Servants there bought with the price of Money named Bilechild a Virgin of much Wisdom and more Beauty Theodebert having Married her the kindness that Prince had for her begot the aversion of Brunehaud It hapned that this year she dyed by some ill beverage It was not known from what hand it was directed whether that old jealous Woman or her Husbands who was grown weary of her and would have another as indeed he Married Theodechild one of the same quality and condition But her death was imputed to Brunehaud as well as the War that
the Emperor Constance nor the endeavours of Paul Bishop of Constantinople who had undertaken to obtain the Reception of that condemned Opinion and had joyned all those to his Party that adhered to the Doctrines of Severus of Eutyches and of Manes And indeed we find that in the year 649. he sent the Articles of the Council of Rome to Clovis II. and desired him and also King Childebert to depute some of their Bishops to Rome that they might accompany and countenance the Legation he intended to send to the Emperor upon that Subject Dagobert II. King XVIII POPES CONSTANTINE Three years in this Reign GREG. II. Elected March 714. S. sixteen years nine Months and an half of which one year in this Reign DAGOBERT II. Called the Young Aged Eleven or twelve years PEPIN Mayre in Neustria and Soveraign in Austrasia CHildebert being out of the World Pepin made choice of Dagobert his eldest Son to wear the Bauble and instaled him in the Royal Throne by the Counsel and Approbation of the Estates Where having caused him to preside after he had received the Gifts or Presents from the French after he had recommended the care of the Rights of the Church of Widdows and Pupils renewed the Decree against Rapine and give Command to the Army to Year of our Lord 711 hold themselves in readiness at a time appointed to March where Affairs required he sent him back to one of the Royal Houses to be Bred and Entertained with great Respect in outward appearance but without any Power or Function The first year of his Reign Pepin undertook a fourth Expedition against the Year of our Lord 712 Almans who were this time so battered that they could not stir again for many years After many Wars having not been able wholly to bring under him Ratbod Duke of the Frisons he not only came to an Agreement but likewise allied himself with him by Marrying his Son Grimoald to that Kings Daughter The Sarrazins who were Masters of Africa did not let slip the fair occasion that presented to invade Spain The Children of King Vitiza had been Excluded the Kingdom by Roderick whose Fathers Eyes Vitiza had caused to be put out and had retired themselves to Julian Governor of the Visigoths in the Province of Tingi who was himself likewise much offended for that this new King having Debauched his Daughter would own her but for his Concubine These three Lords having joyned their Resentments addressed themselves to Maza Lieutenant in Africa under Valit or Vlit Caliph or chief Soveraign of the Sarrazins He gave them some Forces over whom Roderick getting the better he again sent others commanded by Tarac this was he that gave the name to Gibal-Tar to the Mountain Calphe where he built a Fort whence likewise the Straights-mouth hath its denomination At length there hapned a great Battle betwixt him and Roderick where that King was overcome and slain with all the flower of the Visigoths Within two years all Spain was subjected to the Tyranny of the Sarrazins the remainders of the Visigoths fled part of them into the Mountains of Asturia and Galicia part into France from whence they by degrees came all to Prince Pelagus Son of Fafila and Grandson of King Chindasuint who yet preserved to himself a petty Principality amidst the Mountains of Asturia which in process of time and by assistance of the French increased so much that it consumed the Sarrazins in the end While Pepin was at Jupile he fell into a long and troublesome Distemper His Son Grimoald going to Visit him passing by Liege to make some Prayers for him on St. Lamberts Tomb this was in the Month of April he was Assassinated by a Rascal named Rangaire a Frison for which reason an Author hath pretended that it was Year of our Lord 713 714 April done by the command of Rotbod his Father-in-Law Pepin being Recovered severely revenged the Death of his Son upon all the Accomplices he could lay hold on This was the dearest to him of all his Sons he had likewise a great regard for his Bastard named Theodoald and obliged the Neustrian Lords to elect him for their Mayre Some months after he relapsed more grievously then before in so much as he died Year of our Lord 714. 714 in December of it the 16th of December having held the Government of all France from the Battle of Tertry which was in 687. even to his Death with great success and with much greater Vertue of which the most eminent and which gained him most the favour of Heaven was his Zeal for the propagation of the Faith not having spared any thing to plant it in Germania Secunda and beyond the Rhine where all the Inhabitants were at that time Idolaters Besides Drogon and Grimoald he had two more Sons Charles Martel and Childebrand It is unknown by what Woman he had the last but a very exact Historian hath proved that this Robert le Fort the Strong who was the Paternal Great great Grandfather of King Hugh Capet was descended from him by the Male Line Now be it that Pepin left the Mayrie of Austrasia to Arnold who was the Son of Drogon as that of Neustria to Theodoald or changing his mind a little before he died had bestowed it upon Charles for all the three Kingdoms or perhaps only the name of Prince of the French which seems to be above that of Mayre Plectrude his Widow seized upon the whole Government and got Charles by a wile into her hands keeping him Prisoner at Colen where she made her usual abode Year of our Lord 715 But the Neustrians already tired with the Domination of the Austrasians were yet more impatient of being ruled by a Woman They therefore Armed themselves and put their King Dagobert in the head of their Forces to prevent her from coming under the name of Theodoald a Child and a Bastard to usurp the Government of their Country The Army that brought Theodoald being near Compeigne the Neustrians went to meet them and put them to the rout All the Austrasians could do was to save Theodoald After this Victory they chose Ragenfroy or Rainfroy for their Mayre being one of the most considerable and most valiant Lords amongst them who to perplex the Austrasians the more made a League with Ratbod Duke of the Frisons and led King Dagobert to ransack Austrasia even to the Meuse Year of our Lord 715 It then hapned that the Austrasians being in a great consternation Charles happily made his escape out of Prison and having gotten his Friends together was received with incredible joy by all his People About the end of the same year died Dagobert King of Neustria after he had Year of our Lord 715 been a property to the Mayres for four or five years He left one Son named Thierry who was yet in his Cradle and who had afterwards the surname of Chelles because he was brought up there Immediately upon this
needs then have been very aged but it appears rather that she was Sister to Odillon Duke of Bavaria and Widow of some Lord of that Countrey as yet very beautiful since Martel would take the trouble of bringing her unless it were some affection he had for the Neece whom indeed he was Married unto some while after After divers Wars against the People beyond the Rhine of which we have no particulars Year of our Lord 730 hapned that against Aquitain Duke Eudes had broken the Treaty made with Charles and made a League with the Sarrazin Munuza giving him for pledge of this Union his Daughter Lampagia one of the most beautiful Princesses of those times This Munuza was Governour of the Spanish Countreys on this side the Hebrus but was revolted from Iscam who was Caliph Charles who was ever on Horseback having had intelligence that Eudes moved falls immediately into Aquitain and having sacked it all as far as the Garonne severely chastised him for his breach But he was not quit for all this for at the same time as Charles went out Abdiracman or Abderame Lieutenant-General of the Caliph Iscam in Spain being entred Year of our Lord 731 in another way after he had vanquished and taken Munuza prisoner in Cerdagne with his new Spouse traversed Aquitania Tertia perhaps not without fighting the Gascons who held it and forced and sacked the City of Burdeaux In this manner it was that Eudes drew the Sarracens into France which hath given occasion to some to write that they were called in Now he durst not wait for them beyond the Rivers but was retreated on this side the Dordogne and there being reconciled with Martel he assembled his Forces staying for him to come and joyn him with his French Men. Abderame would not allow him the time but pressing still forwards passed the River to attaque him in his Camp Year of our Lord 732 The Duke stood his ground and fought him as bravely as could be but in the end was overcome with inestimable loss of People However some small portions of this great wrack were left him with which he made his Retreat and came and joyned Martel's Army which had passed the Loire and were Encamped some say near Tours upon the River of Cher others a little on this side of Poitiers Abderame following his blow after he had sacked the City of Poitiers marched Year of our Lord 732 directly to Tours to plunder the Sepulchre of St. Martin in his way he meets with Martel who puts him to a full stop The two Armys having looked with threatning countenance upon each other seven days beginning first with several skirmishes at length came to a general Battle which was given upon a Saturday in the month of October The Saracens being light and nimble charged with much briskness but being ill Armed broke themselves against the great Battallions of the French who were sheltred under their Bucklers There were great numbers slain but not 375000 as hath been said for in their whole Army there were but 80 or 100000 Men. Abderame himself the General perished there The night parted the fray and favoured the Infidels who not daring to abide another days Engagement Retreated by long Marches into Septimania the French perceived very late that their Camp was forsaken but fearing some stratagem and withal being busie in getting together and sharing the Plunder which was very rich they did not endeavour to pursue them Year of our Lord 733 This great Victory secured Christendom which would have become a prey to the Barbarians if they had gained France which was its only Bulwark but it seems Charles did not make good use of this great advantage no more then of all those others that Heaven bestowed upon him when he gained his ends he set himself upon persecuting every thing that cast but the least shaddow upon his Grandeur even the very Prelats whom he banished and imprisoned taking away not only the Treasures and Revenues of the Churches to pay his Captains but likewise bestowing on them Abby's and Bishopricks for their reward so that there were many without Pastors and Monasteries were filled more with Soldiers then with Monks The Churches of Lyons of Vienne of Auxerre were destitute of their Bishops and dispoiled of their Goods which he had given to his Martial Officers as if they had been a Prize taken from the Enemy Upon his return from Aquitain he banished Eucher bishop of Orleans with some of his Kindred First to Colen then into the Countrey of Hesbain because he defended the Rights and Possessions of the Church with too much courage Five years before he had also banished Rigobert Bishoy of Reims who had refused him his Gates when he marched against Rainfroy Year of our Lord 733 The Kingdom of Burgundy did not as yet own his Commands perhaps Arnold the Son of Grimoald whom some believe was their Duke thought to hold the Sovereignty When he had conquered the Saracens he marches directly to them and brings all the Countrey into subjection Year of our Lord 734 With the like expedition he vanquished the Frisons killed their Duke Popon who succeeded Ratbod in a great Battle subjugated afterwards the Ostergow and the Westergow these are two Countreys in West Frisia pulled down all their Temples their Sacred Groves and their Idols and covered all the Land with slaughter and destruction and the rubbish of their Ruines Year of our Lord 735 The year following a new War was kindled betwixt him and the Duke of Aquitain this Duke having been compelled to make a very disadvantageons Treaty with Charles to procure assistance against the Saracens as soon as the danger was over scorned to keep his word Therefore Martel marches a third time into his Countrey and having followed him at the very heels with his drawn Sword from place to place without being able to catch him returned home loaden with spoil The same year Death ended the misfortunes of that Duke but not those of Aquitain He had two Sons Hunoud and Hatton some add Remistang who to others appears rather to be his Wives Brother He bestowed upon Hatton the County of Poitiers for his Portion Hunoud had all the rest of the First and Second Aquitain of which he took possession as if it had been an Hereditary and Independant Estate Charles who would have no other partaker soon returned again with his Army and marching quite thorough to the Garonne seized upon Blaye and some other places so that Hunoud was constrained to submit to his Will and receive the Dutchy from him as he had before from his Father giving his Oath both to him and to his Son Pepin Year of our Lord 737 His Celerity and his Valour did let nothing escape the same year he beat the Aquitain Forces and went and setled the Governours that had disturbed the City of Lyons and a part of Burgundy and proceeding forward made sure of Provence and put Governours into Arles and
and perhaps at his request he set their youngest Year of our Lord 747 Brother Griffon at liberty Treated him Honourably in his Court and gave him some Counties for his allowance The ambition of this young Prince not being tamed by a Prison could Year of our Lord 748 not be so by kindness he made his escape and went and stirred up the Saxons in his quarrel Pepin followed him close the Sorabe Sclavonians who were divided from the Turingians by the River of Sal the Abrodites and other Sclavonians who were spread all along the Frontiers of France brought him 10000 Fighting Men. Insomuch as the Saxons Nordsqaues overwhelmed with his numbers submitted to his pleasure and received Baptisme Griffon with the other Saxons was Encamped and Intrenched on the other side of the River Ovacre fear seized upon them they deserted their Post in the night time and their Countrey remained exposed to the mercy of the French so that not finding himself any longer in safety there he leaves them to make their Peace and retired to Bavaria where he seized on that Dutchy usurping it from the young Tasillon aged but 6 or 7 years who was the Son of his Sister Chiltrude and Odillon This Countrey no more then that of Saxony could not protect him from the pursuit of Pepin who joyning Gold and his Favours with his Sword and Threats soon unhinged his Party The Bavarois made their agreement Landfroy Duke of the Almans and Suidgard Earl of Hirsberg did the same and he finding himself alone was compelled to follow their Dance and come to his Brother He receiv'd him most kindly and assigned him the City of Mans and Twelve Counties in Neustria but the very self same year he made a third escape and cast himself into the Arms of Year of our Lord 749 Gaifre Duke of Aquitain Pepin having gained the better over all his enemies had no more left him to do Year of our Lord 750 but to sit down in the Throne a thing his Father durst not undertake He saw all the power in his own hands with the Treasures of the Kingdom and the Affections of the French and there was no other Prince of the Merovignian Race remaining but one young stupid and witless Man He therefore assembled a Parliament which being wholly Devoted to him were very willing to confer the Title of King on him but he was glad that he might be disengaged from his Oath of Fidelity to consult with the Pope who had great authority over the Galican Church and whose Answers passed for Oracles though not for Laws He who sate then in the Holy Chair was Zachary a most intimate friend of Pepins who wanted his assistance against the Lombards and who could well apprehend that what was desired of him was a most favourable prejudgment for the Popes Year of our Lord 750 against the Emperours Besides it seemed reasonable and just that France after so many Idols and Shadows should now have a King in reality and therefore he could not but answer favourably to the point that Pepin propounded and consulted him about and his Reply was certainly of great weight It is in this sence according to my opinion that we must understand some Authors of those times who tells us that Boniface set him upon the Throne by the Command of Zachary Otherwise we should say the French did not truly understand their own Right and that this Pope attributed to himself what did not belong to him Upon this Answer the French having called another Parliament at Soissons degraded Year of our Lord 751 Childeric and elected Pepin There is some likelyhood that this was done in the general Assembly which was held in the month of March The Bishops were there in great numbers Boniface Arch-Bishop of Ments being in the head of them who declared to them the validity of the Popes Answer and indeed this King and his Successors as if they had some obligation to the Clergy for their Royalty gave them a great share in the Government By the same Decree Childeric was shaved and made a Monk at Sitieu There are some affirm that from thence he was removed to the Monastery of St. Himeran at Ratisbonne and his Wife being vailed to that of Conchiliac But others believe he was not Married though he were of an age ripe enough for it Thus endeth the First Race of the Kings of France who if we reckon from the year 418. to the year 751. had Reigned 333 years and had 21 Kings only accounting those of Paris but Thirty six if we take in all those that had the Title as well in Austrasia where there was but one that resided at Mets as in Neustria while sometimes three of them at the same time had their Seats at Orleans at Soissons and at Paris The first Four of these Kings were Idolaters and all the rest Christians But their Baptisme did not quite purge away their Barbarity they were Savage and Bloody till Clotaire II. Those that followed were more Benigne Merciful and Religious excepting Childeric II. But all being either shallow-Brain'd or Minors they fell necessarily under the Government of others End of the First Race The Second Race OF KINGS Which have Reigned in FRANCE And are Named CARLIANS OR Carolovinians THIS Second Race is commonly called the Carlian or Carolovinian Race We know not whether it took that denomination from Charles Martel or Charles the Great After it had been raised to a great height by the Vertue of its Five first Princes to wit the two Pepins Charles Martel Charlemain and Lewis the Godly and had extended their Empire much beyond the Bounds of the First It began to decline under the Children of that Lewis and in the end was reduced to so narrow a compass all the Lords having made themselves Masters in their Governments that their last Kings had nothing left which was properly their own but the Cities of Laon and that of Reims It is observed That they had much resemblance with the First Race in that they had a very fair beginning and an unhappy end That Charles of Lorraine their last Male was deprived of the Crown as Childeric had been and that they had several stupid and senceless Princes amongst them But this held one Advantage above the other That they Reign to this day in all Europe by the Males in the House of France and by the Women in that of the other greatest Princes Insomuch that the Carlovinian Blood is held for the most Noble in all the Earth whereas there is not any remaining of that of Meroveus PEPIN named the Breif OR The Little King XXII Aged XXXVI or XXXVIII Years POPES ZACHARY One Year during this Reign STEPHANUS II. in 752. S. 2. Years 3. days STEPHANUS III. The same Year S. 5. Years 20 Days PAUL I. Elect in May 717. S. Ten Years one Month. CONSTANTINE and PHILIP False Popes in 767. STEPHANUS IV. In August 768. S. 3. Years 5 Months
prisoner But soon after having made his escape out of their hands he takes Shipping and Lands in Provence whence he was conducted to Lyons From that place always defrayed in his expences by the Bishops of France he came to Troyes where he held a Council the King came likewise thither and by his hands was Crowned Emperor the seventh of September Year of our Lord 878 In this Council the Pope Excommunicated Hugh Bastard Son to King Lotaire II. and Valdrade who pretended to be Legitimate and had collected together some herds of Robbers to regain the Kingdom of Lorrain He likewise restored Hincmar Bishop of Laon permitted him to say Mass though he were blind and bestowed one half of the revenue of the Bishoprick upon him Year of our Lord 879 After the Popes departure the Stammerer going towards Lorraine conferred about Marsenne upon the Meuse with Louis King of Germany They made a Treaty by which they divided Lorrain betwixt them as it had been betwixt their Fathers and the Stammerer promised him part in Italy Neither the obedience nor affection of the Lords was firm towards him they gave little heed to his Orders and it hapned that having taken up Arms to suppress Bernard Marquiss of Gothia whose Government he had given to Bernard Earl of Auvergne he fell sick in his passage by Autun in Burgundy not without suspicion he was poysoned wherefore he sent for his Son Louis whom he put into the hands and keeping of Bernard Earl of Auvergne Thierry his great Chamberlain the Abbot Hugh and some other Lords This Hugh or Hugues was very powerful towards the latter part of the Reign of Charles the Bald under Louis the Stammerer and likewise under his Children The Stammerer being with much difficulty brought to Compeigne gave up his Soul upon Holy Friday the 19 th of April He was buried at the same place in the Abbey-Church of St. Cornille his Age was 30 or 35 years of which he had Reigned only Year of our Lord 879 one and seven Months Before his death he sent the Crown and other Regal ornaments to his Son Louis by the Bishop of Beauvais and an Earl with order to have him annointed King as soon as possible He was in his youth married to Anâ—â—arde by whom he had had two Sons this Louis of whom we speak and Carloman but as she 〈◊〉 of mean extraction the King his Father without whose consent he married her obliged him to put her away For this reason it is that some Historians say that these two Princes are Bastards After this divorce he took another named Adelaid or Alive Daughter of some English Prince and Sister to Wilfrid Abbot of Flavâ—gny in the Dutchy of Burgundy She was with child when he died and brought a Posthumus Son into the World Born the 17 th of September following He was named Charles the Year of our Lord 879 Simple The Western Empire remained vacant two whole years and Italy in an extreme confusion thorough the discords of the Lords and the spoil and ravages of the Saracens to whom the Pope was fain to pay Tribute We may in this Reign place the Original of the Earls of Anjou from a Lord named Ingelger the Son of a Breton named Torquat or Tortulfe on whom Charles the Bald had bestowed some Lands in Gastinois and Perretta Daughter of Hugo Labbe in marriage This Ingelger was the Father of Fulke le Roux who being made Earl of Anjou by Charles the Simple valiantly defended that Country against the Normans LOUIS III. AND CARLOMAN King XXVII At the Age of Adolescency POPES JOHN VIII 3 Years and half in this Reign MARTIN Elected in January 883. S. one Year and 20 days ADRIAN III. Elect. in January 884. S. One Year 3. Months whereof Six Months in this Reign LOVIS III. And Carloman his Brother Kings of West-France Burgundy and Aquitain CARLOMAN King of Bavaria Louis the Young King of Germany or East-France Charles the Fatt of Germany properly so called   Lorrain to both Year of our Lord 879 TO the very end of this Race we shall find nothing but factions the Kings being but their May-games and even their Creatures Thierry and the rest to whom the Stammerer had recommended his Son sent to the other Lords to meet at the general Assembly at Meaux And they reconciled the quarrels between Thierry and Boson Gauzzelin one of the Princes or great Lords of Neustria Abbot of St. German des Prez forgot not the injuries he had received by the preceding Government and having made his Party with some Bishops and Lords proposed that to heal the distempers of France they ought to bring it all under one head and for that purpose call in Louis of Germany with whom he had contrived and held intelligence as having formerly been taken Prisoner by him at the Battel of Andernac promising to bring him in and make the French accept and own his Title to the prejudice of the Bastard Sons of Louis the Stammerer For thus he called them The greatest Friends to these two Princes could no other way divert this Storm but by yielding up to the German King that part of Lorrain which the Bald and the Stammerer had possessed And ever since that Kingdom though disputed and divers times resumed by the Kings of West France yet remained at last with the Germans or Kings of East France Year of our Lord 880 Louis would not have been satisfied with less than the whole Monarchy had not his affairs pressed him to return home in hast For being informed at Mâ—ts of the sickness of Carloman his eldest Brother who was Seized with the Palsie he posted to Bavaria to prevent him from giving the Kingdom to Arnold his Bastard Son Now Carloman died soon after and was Interred at Ottinghen in Bavaria in St. Maximilian's Monastery founded by him He had no Legitimate Children but two natural ones Arnold to whom he could leave only the Dutchy of Carinthia King Louis having even in his life time received the Oaths of his Subjects and Gisele who An. 890. married Zuendipold King of Moravia whom for that reason some have called Carloman's Son Louis III. and Carloman as beforesaid Louis and Charles the Fatt as abovesaid Year of our Lord 880 In the mean while Gauzelin and Conrard fearing to be oppressed by the other Neustrian Lords applied themselves to Lewitgarde the wife of Lewis of Germany a very ambitious Princess who sollicited her Husband so earnestly that she over-persuaded him to return once more into France with much greater strength then he at first carried Year of our Lord 880 Upon the rumour of this second Irruption the Lords caused not only Louis eldest Son of the Stammerer but also Carloman his Brother to be both Crowned in the Abbey of Ferrieres in Gastinois Year of our Lord 880 Some while after these two Brothers being at Amiens divided their Fathers Kingdom betwixt them Lewis had Neustria and Carloman the
Vassals judging him uncapable to succeed from the imbecillity of his understanding a defect very ordinary in the Carolovinian Race Henry left all his Three Sons under the Guardianship of Baldwin Earl of Flanders who had Married his Sister and likewise entrusted him with the Regency of the Kingdom Queen Anne his Widdow retired to Senlis where she was building a Church in Honour of the Martyr St. Vincent Her Solitude was not so Austere but she could listen to the Addresses of Rodolph Earl of Grespy who was of that neighborhood She made no difficulty to Marry him and this Second Flame had like to have kindled a Civil War not for the difference in their Qualities for the Grandees went almost equal with their Kings but because Rodolph was of Kin to the First Husband for which reason the Bishops Excommunicated that Lord but nothing could make him let go his hold of her save death which untied him from his Princess Ann. 1066. Being a Widow and destitute of support she returned to end her days in her own Countrey Philip I. King XXXVIII Aged Seven or Eight years POPES Vacancy of Three Months Alex. II. Elect 1 Octob. 1061. S. Eleven years and neer Seven Months Gregory VII Son of a Carpenter Elect in April 21. 1073. S. Twelve years One Month. Victor III. Elect in May 1086. S. about One year Four Months Vacancy Five Months Urban II. Elect in March 1088. S. Eleven years and Four Months Paschal II. Elect 12. August 1099. S. Eighteen years and Five Months Year of our Lord 1060 61 and 62. ALL quietly gave Obedience to the Regency of Baldwin the Gascons only refused to submit themselves apprehending said they lest by that Title he should destroy his Pupil to invade the Crown upon pretension that he was Married to the Daughter of King Henry He wisely dissembled this injury but two years after marched an Army towards the Pyreneans giving out it was to make War upon the Saracens in Spain and when he had passed the Garonne he stopp'd in the Rebels Countrey and brought them to their Duty without striking a blow Year of our Lord 1062 Guy Gefroy-William Duke of Aquitain believed that Gefroy Martel Earl of Anjou being dead without Children his Nephews Sons of his Sister had no right to Xaintongne He would therefore seize it and besieged Xaintes his Army was defeated by the two Brothers neer Chef-Boutonne but the following year he got another Army and took the Town from them Year of our Lord 1062 and 63. The two Brothers minded not the relieving it they were at mortal feud amongst themselves Foulk le Rechin the younger of the two gained the Lords of Touraine and Anjou who betraid his Brother Gefroy and unfortunately deliver'd him up with the City of Anger 's In the mean while the Duke of Aquitain having re-conquered Saintongne led his victorious into Spain where he forced the City of Barbastre at that time very rich and renowned The Zeal of Religion did often lead the Princes and Lords of Aquitain and Languedoc into Spain to succour the Christians against the Saracens and their assistance raised and very much supported the petty Spanish Kings Year of our Lord 1064 Edward King of England whose Christian Virtues have placed him in the number of Saints dying without Children left his Kingdom by Will and Testament to William the Bastard Duke of Normandy in consideration of the good Reception and Treatment he found in the House of Robert his Father when he was driven out Year of our Lord 1064 of his own Countrey as likewise because he was neer of Kin. But the English not affecting the Government of a Stranger gave the Crown to Harold Son of Godwin one of the great Lords of the Kingdom The Bastard on his side sought from all parts the assistance of his Friends and Allies to get himself into possession of his Right insomuch as having got by his large promises a powerful Army of Normans French Flemmings and others together he landed in England gave Battle to Harold the 14th of October who was slain in the Fight with his chief Commanders and left England to the discretion of the Conquerour A Revolution thought to be presaged by a terrible Comet which for Fifteen days blazed with three great Rays over-spreading almost all the Southern parts of the Heavens Before William past the Sea hapned the death of Conan Duke of Bretagne it was said he caused him to be poysonn'd because he claimed the Dutchy of Normandy as belonging to him by his Mother Daughter of Duke Robert Hoel who was Married to his Sister succeeded him Year of our Lord 1067. and the following The English ill-Treated by Williams Lieutenants and Officers Revolted the following years and called in the Danes to their aid but that only increased their misery and yoak for he took from them almost all their Lands and even their antient Laws introducing and imposing those of his own Countrey as he did that Language in all Courts of Justice and instruments of Law withal putting such Lords as follow'd him in possession of English Mens Estates the greatest part of them being punished or slain Thus ended the Reign of the English in that Island which hath notwithstanding retained their Name but in effect hath ever since been sway'd and is still by the Norman Blood their Kings and the greatest of the Countrey being descended and holding their Rights of this William the Bastard to whom was given the Surname of Conquerour Year of our Lord 1067 Baldwin Regent of the Kingdom of France and Earl of Flanders ended his days An. 1067. He had Two Sons Baldwin called of Monts who was Earl of Flanders and Robert who was Surnamed the Frison as being Lord of that Countrey of Friesland Year of our Lord 1069 It is observed that in the year 1069. Arnold Lord of Selne began to build the City of Ardres upon the ruines of his Castle of Selne A War did soon break out between Baldwins two Sons the Eldest thinking to devest the Younger was by him beaten and slain in the field of Battle leaving two Sons Arnold and Baldwin very young The Guardianship of these begot a bloody contest between Robert their Uncle and Richilda their Mother This Princess supported by Gefroy Crook-Back Duke of the lower Lorrain defeated Roberts Army and thrust him out of a part of his Countreys This happy success made her so haughty Year of our Lord 1068 towards her Subjects that the Flemmings Flammengant forsook her and she had none left but the Walloons and the Hennuyars The King would have made himself Judge and Arbitrator between both parties but Richilda coming to Paris with great Presents gained his Counsel and engaged him openly to take her quarrel Year of our Lord 1070 The King inflamed with the heat of Youth would needs go in person to make his first Essay in War and Arms. It proved not very successful for he was beaten and pursued Richilda taken and carried
de Creme who named himself Paschal and was confirmed by Frederick But Alexander III. recalled by the Romans left France the year following and returned to Rome to put an end to that Schism Year of our Lord 1165 In the year 1165. Lewis had a Son born whom he believed Heaven had sent him in return of his Prayers For this reason he was surnamed Dieu-Donne i. e. Gift of God or God-Gift and after for his brave Acts the Conqueror which Paul Emilius has rendred by Interpretation Augustus and is followed in the same by all the Modern Historians Year of our Lord 1166 The Life of Conan the Little Duke of Bretagne which had been ever full of trouble ended Anno 1166. to make room for Gefroy of Normandy his Son-in-Law This Prince being yet but Fifteen years of Age remained together with his Datchy under the Guardianship of the King his father for some time after which being at liberty he begins a War against him because he would make him do Hommage for his Dukedom a Duty he required by vertue of a Treaty made by Charles the Simple with Rollo Duke of Normandy Year of our Lord 1168 Thierry of Alsatia Earl of Flanders dies at Gravelin Philip his Son governs after him Year of our Lord 1169 70. The Feud was renewed between the two Kings upon several occasions one was the Earl d'Auvergne whom Lewis as Soveraign Lord took into his protection and safeguard against Henry to whom the Earl was a Vassal holding of him in Aquitain the other the support he gave to Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury The War thereupon breaks forth and lasted for two years however it was carried on but slowly and so as the Respect either of them had for Pope Alexanders Mediation brought them to an Agreement for some time Year of our Lord 1170 These two Princes having Conferr'd together at Saint Germain en Laye concluded the Peace betwixt them and there the King of England's Sons rendred Hommage to Lewis for those Lands their Father assured to them by advance of Inheritance Henry of the Dutchy of Normandy the County of Anjou and the Office of Grand Seneschal joyned thereto from the time of Grisegonnelle as also the Earldoms du Maine and de Touraine and the second named Richard of the Dakedom of Aquitain as for the third which was Gefroy he had Bretagne by his Wife and ow'd Hommage to none but the Duke of Normandy The Kings Intercession obtained of Henry that Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury might return into England but he continuing to act with the same heat four Gentlemen of Henry's Court out of Complaisance as mean as detestable having plotted and contrived to deliver their King of him entred the Church at Canterbury where that Holy Prelat was reading Service it was on the Christmas Holy-days and Murther'd him at the foot of the Altar Year of our Lord 1171 Though the King disown'd this Murther and shewed an extream grief nevertheless Year of our Lord 1172 having given cause to commit it if perhaps he did not command it the Pope Year of our Lord 1173 made a mighty business of it from which he could not get clear without submitting to great Pennance and such Reparations and Satisfactions as was ordained by his Legats The Holy Archbishop revered as a Martyr was Canonized the following year and the frequent Miracles wrought on his Tomb attested his Holiness Year of our Lord 1173 Every year almost there was some Rupture then a Peace or Truce between the two Kings either concerning their own proper Interests or that of their Friends and Vassals Lewis had this advantage that being the Soveraign Lord he had a right of hearing the Complaints of Henry's Vassals and of making himself his Judge Year of our Lord 1173 He had stirred up many in Aquitain and Normandy but this year he Armed his own Children against him The eldest with Margaret his Wife being gone to Visit him and having staid some time in that Court had a fancy put into his Head that since he was Crowned he ought to Reign and to demand of his Father the enjoyment either of the Kingdom of England or the Dukedom of Normandy With this disposition and fretted for that his Father had taken some young People from about him who gave him such like ill Counsels he stole away one Night from him and came and cast himself into the Arms of the King Immediately all the young Nobility follows him Queen Alienor favours him his two Brothers Richard Duke of Aquitain and Gefroy of Brâ—tagne joyns with him and those whole Provinces follow their Motions The King of France takes them into his protection William King of Scotland declares for them and attaques England whither at the same time went some French Forces under the Command of Robert Earl of Leicester Year of our Lord 1174 It seemed therefore as if the unhappy Father must needs be overwhelm'd on a suddain but he overthrew all the Enemies Lewis having taken Verneuil au Perche durst not hold it and retreated before him The Earl of Leicester is defeated in England and all those that followed him either slain or taken then all the Kingdom reduced in less then Thirty days by old Henry who went thither presently after this defeat Year of our Lord 1175 The following year whilst he was doing Pennance at St. Thomas Becket's Tomb William King of Scotland his most capital Enemy loses a Battle against his Lieutenants and was taken Prisoner The Fleet of young Henry is dispersed and disabled by Tempest King Lewis who had carried Philip Earl of Flanders with him is rudely repulsed from Rouen so that finding Henry who was come over-Seas again to Relieve this City made ready to give him Battle he hearkens to a Truce for some Months Year of our Lord 1175 Whilst that lasted old Henry going into Poitou and subduing Richard the worst of his three Rebellious Sons who held that Country all the others returned to their Obedience and he enters upon a Treaty of Peace with Lewis who gave him Alix his Daughter for his Son Richard and put her into his hands to compleat the Marriage when she should be Age for it Year of our Lord 1177 The two Kings now grown old were weary of so many Wars and Disturbances Either of them had cause to fear the one the activity of his three most valiant Sons the other the weakness of his only Heir as yet too young so that they confirmed the Peace by new Oaths promised mutual friendship against all others and took up a resolution to go joyntly into Languedoc to extirpiate those Hereticks already mentioned by us But they thought it more convenient first to send the Popes Legat thither with three or four other Prelats to endeavour to reclaim them by Exhortations and Anathema's which converted and brought back a great many and kept the rest within bounds for some time These Hereticks were all called Albigensis because they propaged
against the Infringers even to the killing them in the very Churches which served as a Sanctuary to all other the most enormous Criminals William the Conqueror had Establish'd this Law in England and in Normandy Anno 1080. Raimond Berenger Earl of Barcelonna in his Country Anno 1060. the Council of Clermont had confirmed it Anno 1096. and that of Rome Anno 1102. Now as these Truces were but ill observed and Languedoc and a part of Guyenne principally upon occasion of that War betwixt the King of Arragon and Raimond Earl of Toulouze were most miserably tormented with Factions Murthers and Robberies a certain Carpenter named Durand who seemed a plain simple Fellow Year of our Lord 1183 found the Remedy against these Calamities and a Means to enrich himself He asserted that God had appeared to him in the City du Puy in Auvergne commanding him to proclaim Peace and for proof of his Mission had given him a certain Image of the Virgin which he shewed So that upon his Veracity the Grandees the Prelats and the Gentry being Assembled at Puy on the day of the Feast of the Assumption agreed amongst themselves by Oath upon the Holy Evangelists to lay down all Animosities and the remembrance of former Injuries and made a Holy League to reconcile Mens Spirits and entertain Love and Peace which they named the Peace of God Those who were of it wore the Stamp of this Image of our Lady in Pewter upon their Breasts and Capuches or Hoods of white Linnen on their Heads which this Carpenter sold to them Which had such power over their Minds and had made such Impression that a Man with those Badges was not only in security but likewise in Veneration amongst his most mortal Enemies Year of our Lord 1184 Whether the three Princes of Champagne Brothers to the Queen Mother had gotten the upper hand at Court and put the King out of conceit with the Earl of Flanders or for some other cause the King summon'd him to surrender up Vermandois which Louis the VII had given him only as was pretended for a certain time The Earl being very Potent would maintain the possession passed the Somme with a great Army and came as far as Senlis But upon tidings of the Kings march he turns back the way he came and went and besieged Corbie from whence he decamped again immediately for the same cause The King not being able to overtake him besieges Boves the two Armies drew near to engage Some Mediators put a stop to their impetuous haste and made up the Peace The Earl yielded all Vermandois excepting Peronne and Saint Quentin which they let him enjoy during Life Year of our Lord 1184 To this Agreement the King called all the Bishops Abbots Earls and Barons that served in his Army with their Vnder-Vassals And such was then the Rights of the French The Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Prior of the Hospital of St. John's deputed on the behalf of the Christians from the Holy-Land brought the Keys of the Holy City to King Philip imploring his assistance and representing to him the extream danger it was reduced unto Whereupon having held a great Assembly of Prelats and Lords at Paris he enjoyned them to Preach the Cross or Croisade and to publish it every where and in the mean time sent at his own Expence a considerable Relief of Horse and Foot into that Country The Complaints of the Clergy of Burgundy whom Duke Odo had plundred and the Year of our Lord 1184 Lord de Vergy whose Castle that Prince besieged ingaged the King to march that way and besiege Chastillâ—n on the Seine the strongest Bulwark belonging to that Rebel Who finding his Fort taken by Assault came humbly to submit to his Commands promised to pay 30000 Livers for Reparation to the Clergy and gave up four Castles which however were soon after put into his possession again without doubt because they had some need of him Year of our Lord 1183 84. In Berry there were several Bands of Robbers that wasted the Country they were named Cottereaux and were believed to be tainte â—ith the Heresie that spread in Languedoc because they aimed chiefly to do mâ—schief to the Churchmen the Berriers getting together with the help of some Men sent them by the King cut them in pieces killing seven thousand upon the place The vast Multitudes of eople that flocked to Paris the Kings Train encreasing with his Authority made the Streets so dirty and 〈◊〉 that there was no going in them The King sent therefore for the Citizens and their Provost and enjoyned them to remedy it which they did by Pav ng it with Stone at their own expences I find about this time that one Girard de Poissi who managed the Exchequer brought in thither of his own proper Moneys or Fund Eleven thousand Mark in Silver It is to Year of our Lord 1185 be imagin'd that he had gotten them by the King but however we may say that this Example ✚ will be singular and that we shall never meet a Chequer-man will follow his Example What ever can be done that sort of People will sooner go to the Gibet then be brought to make Restitution Year of our Lord 1185 Margaret of France Widow of Henry the Young King of England is Re-Married to Bela III. King of Hungary Gesroy Duke of Bretagne and Brother of that Henry being come to wait on the King who tenderly lov'd him died of a Distemper at Champeaux and was Interr'd at Nostre-Dames in Paris He had one Daughter named Alienor and one Son only aged but three years The Bretons would give him the name of Artur in memory of that famous King whom the Romancers make to be the Author of the Knights of the Year of our Lord 1185 round Table and many high feats of Arms. He remained under the Guardianship of his Mother and the Protection of the King in despite of all the Efforts of Henry and Richard his Son who made several Attempts to seize upon his Person that they might get Bretagne into their possession The Widow Constance afterwards Married Guy Lord de Thouars The memory of Gefroy is still very famous amongst the Bretons because of that Law he made in his Parliament or Estates General which was called the Assize of Count Gefroy Whereby it was ordained that in the Families of Barons and Knights the Estates should not be shared or equally divided as heretofore but that the eldest should reap the whole Succession and bestow such part upon the younger as himself and the rest of his Kindred should think fit This hath since been thus proportion'd the Thirds amongst all the younger Children during Life to the Males and Inheritance to the Female In time the rest of the Gentry not to yield in Quality to the Barons would needs be comprehended herein likewise Towards the end of the year 1186. a War was raised between King Philip and Henry of England for
falsely maintained who had Married Anno 1186. Henry Son of the Emperor Frederic This young Prince was raised to the Empire this year 1190. The Emperor his Father having drowned himself while he was bathing in the little River of Serre between Antioch and Nicea as he was leading great succours into the Holy Land Now Constance pretended to succeed his Nephew but Tancred his Bastard Brother had excluded him and seized on the Kingdom It was he that received the two Kings at Messina where they landed in the Month of Year of our Lord 1190 March and sojourn'd there above six Months During their stay Richard had great Contests with Tancred concerning the Articles of his Sister Jane's Dowry Widow of King William He was often like to come to blows about it and had thoughts of forcing the Town of Messina In sine Philips Mediation procur'd him 60000 Ounces of Gold from Tancred whereof he had a third for his pains Year of our Lord 1190 Now Tancred whether it were true or whether by a Diabolical Artisice shew'd Richard some Letters which he affirmed to have been written to him by Philip wherein that King profer'd him all his Forces to attaque Richard and seize upon him in the night if he would at the same time fall upon him likewise Richard believed the Letters to be real and made a great stir about it Thus the two Kings were mightily exasperated against each other Richard for the design contrived against his Life Philip for the reproach against his Honour Year of our Lord 1191 Towards the end of the Winten Richard makes known to Philip that he cannot Wed his Sister for certain Reasons which he will not discover perhaps it was because old Henry his Father had kept her too long and declares to him he had betrothed Berengaria Daughter of Garcias King of Navar and that his Mother Alienor was bringing her thither to Consummate the Marriage Philip was not Transported but wisely suppressing his Anger left him to his liberty of quitting his Sister provided he would surrender those Lands he had given him for her Dowry and would at the first conveniency go along with him to the Holy-Land Also he consented to a Truce for those Countries during all the time they should remain abroad Richard accepted of the Truce willingly but refused to go so soon These were the chief causes that changed the mutual affectionof these young Kings into a cruel hatred Year of our Lord 1191 James d'Avesnes with some Flemish Forces and the remainders of the Emperor Frederic's had already besieged the City of Acre it was otherwhile called Ptolemais very considerable for its Port and its strong Walls King Philip parted from Messina in the beginning of March and landed near this place took his Quarters about the Town raised his Batteries and made a wide breach Year of our Lord 1191 In the mean time Richard putting to Sea was driven by Tempest on the Coasts of the Island of Cyprus It was then in the possession of one Isaac a Grecian Prince who having abused and pillag'd his weather-beaten Soldiers whereas he ought to have relieved them provoked his just wrath in so much that he seizes on that Kingdom and carried away an immense quantity of rich Plunder together with the said Isaac and his Wife both of them bound in Chains of Gold Year of our Lord 1191 He got not to Acre till two Months after Philip and far from promoting the taking thereof he retarded it by the continual disagreement between them The Siege lasted five Months in all and caused a great many Princes and brave Men to perish there In the end the City surrendred upon Composition importing that the Besieged should obtain of Saladine the release of all the Christian Prisoners in his hands and the true Cross which he had taken in Jerusalem for which their Lims and Lives were to be Security till performed at the Mercy and discretion of the Conquerors They were therefore together with all the Spoil equally shared betwixt the two Kings and as Saladine would not perform the first of these two Conditions and the second was not in his power because the true Cross was not to be found Richard too passionate and cholerick put seven thousand of them to the edge of the Sword who were his Prisoners and reserved not above two or three hundred of the Principal In this Siege were slain a great number of People of quality Rotrou Earl of Perche Thibauld Earl of Blois Great Seneschal and Uncle to the King and Alberic Clement Lord du Mez his Mareschal Son of another Clement who had executed the same Office Our Kings of France in those times had but one and these Clements were the first who raised or improved this Office by their favour and extended it to the Soldiery whereas before them it had nothing to do but with such as belonged to the Kings Stables Year of our Lord 1191 The contagious distempers destroy'd yet more of their Men then the Sword Philip d'Alsace Earl of Flanders ended his days in the Month of June He had no Children but only one Sister whom he had Married to Baldwin Earl of Haynault from whom were sprung two Elizabeth who was Married to King Philip and a Son of the same Name as the Father Year of our Lord 1191 King Philip being likewise seized with a long fit of Sickness which was suspected to proceed from some ill morsel because his Nails and Hair fell off resolved to return into France but to remove the jealousie Richard might conceive at his departure he made Oath he would not in the least meddle with his Lands till forty days after he were certain of his being returned into France He likewise left with him near Six hundred Horse and Ten thousand Foot with their m inainance for their three years under the Conduct of Hugh III. Duke of Burgundy After that having taken leave of his Lords he puts to Sea and being Convoy'd by three Gallies only which the Genoese furnished him withal landed in Puglia When he had somewhat recover'd his Health he sets forward on his journey with a small number of followers visited the Sepulchre of the Apostles at Rome and Year of our Lord 1191 having received the Popes Blessing parted from thence and arrived in France in the Month of December He pass'd his Christmass Holy-days at Fontaine Eblaud and from thence came to his dear City of Paris After his departure all the Forces put themselves under the Command of Richard who did so many prodigious acts of valour that they surpass the belief as well as the ordinary strength of Mankind In a word he had regained the Holy-City if Year of our Lord 1191. and 92. the jealousie of Hugh Duke of Burgundy had not obstructed his progress And indeed he had a design in his Head of forming a great Kingdom in those Countries and that none might dispute the Title with him of King of
Military or even from Marriage that it might be the more humble and perfect S. Leo the Pope had only advised it his Successors made it a Law and the Councils of Toledo reduced it into practise towards their very Kings witness Vamba one of the most illustrious and most renowned of their Monarchs who being ordained Pennance while he was in the agonies of death not with his consent for he was deprived of all understanding but according to the custome of those times was yet obliged upon his recovery to renounce his Kingly Office Observe if you please that these Councils of Spain furnished the Popes with great advantages and presidents to bring other Sovereigns under their Command and Disposal For the Visigoth Kings being elective the Bishops had a great share in their Election and their Councils were as so many Assemblies where the Grandees and the Kings themselves were present There they corrected all the disorders of the Crown and imposed Laws upon them under the penalty of Anathema or Deposition if they infringed them The Bishops of France undertook the same thing by deposing Louis the Debonnaire and though it were a perfect Faction that Prince however did not resume the Crown but by the authority of another Assembly of Bishops Foulk Arch-Bishop of Rheims threatned Charles the Simple he would withdraw his Subjects from their Obedience if he made any Alliance with the Normans who were then Barbarians and Unbelievers Now the Popes believed it as an Article of Faith that their power was much greater then that of all the Bishops and that it had no other limitation then was express'd in the Canons of the Councils and the Decrees of the Apostolique See which never had forbid them to Depose Kings because it cannot be imagined the thoughts of such a thing could ever enter into their brains Gregory II. in Anno 730. having thundered his Anathema against Leo Isaurian suspended at least the payment of all Tribute and Obedience of his Subjects or perhaps wholly Absolved them as some pretended Moreover taking upon them as they did the Authority of creating Kings which was allowed by the ambition of such as desired that Title they imagined they might well take away the Crown from those that were unworthy since they could bestow one upon such as did deserve it There were besides all this many occasions which served not a little to confirm this opinion Amongst others the Prohibition of contracting Marriage between Kindred even to the Seventh Degree and betwixt Allies to the fourth and fifth The cognisance they took of all great Causes not only amongst the Ecclesiasticks but Temporal Princes and the Croisado's For as to the first they could easily find enough of Parentage or Alliance to dissolve a Princes Marriage and by this means made themselves formidable And for the second they were not less considerable for the power they had to judge of all Causes because all Parties have naturally a fear and a respect for their Judges and they having by this incredible affluence of Business an opportunity to employ great numbers of People it drew to their Court all those that had an ambition to be made use of by them or such as had the curiosity to be fashion'd or instructed in that most famous School of the whole Universe In effect all the greatest Wits of Europe flock'd thither to gain Employments and as we have still an Affection for those by whom we are advanced when they went from thence after they had done their Business or made their Fortune they proclaimed the Grandeur of the Popes in every Country with an ardent desire to set up their Maxims The Crusado's or Holy War made them likewise very powerful For in all the Expeditions to the Holy-Land they enjoyned Princes to list themselves they held the Soveraign Command of those Armies by their Legats and in a manner made themselves Lords of all those Adventurers not only because they exacted obedience from them but which was more because they took them under their Protection till their return which was as it were an Order of State to stop all Proceedings both Civil and Criminal In other Crusado's which were undertaken against Schismaticks and Hereticks they made it a Law That whoever were convicted of those Crimes should forfeit all their Goods Honours and Dignities In pursuance whereof they deprived those that were guilty or caused them to be deprived by Councils assembled by their Legats then gave the Spoil to such as had served well in those Expeditions without consulting the Soveraign Lords of whom they held those Estates because they durst not refuse Investiture to those whom so holy a Power had provided in that manner for But their greatest Power or Force consisted in that of the Clergy and Religious Orders Those great Bodies being in those times very firmly united for the maintenance of his Franchises and Liberties which they positively believed to be Jure Divino looking upon the Pope as a Chief Head and Potentate that would never fail them at need Indeed his absolute Authority lay heavily upon the Bishops Shoulders but when it pressed too hard they had recourse to that of the Prince as Protector of the Goods and Liberties of the Clergy Reciprocally they made use of the Power of the Pope to shield them from the Attempts of their Princes and governing themselves thus between the Power of both they endeavoured to moderate and qualifie the one by the other However they had cause to complain that the Popes took from them a good part of that Authority belonging to them as Successors to the Apostles as by drawing immediately to their Tribunal the Cognisance of all Causes not leaving them any thing almost to judge of Primarily or Originally By obliging them to give them their Oaths according to a certain Form to which Gregory VII had added some Terms which amounted to Fealty and Hommage By imposing the necessity for their going to Rome By arrogating to themselves the Right of Consecrating Metropolitans By granting Dispensations for not observing the holy Canons as if the whole Ecclesiastical Discipline depended only upon their absolute Authority By allowing Exemptions to Inferiors to withdraw them from their Obedience to their Superiors They complained moreover of their having reserved to themselves alone the power of receiving Caodjutories and that of dissolving the Spiritual Marriages of Bishops that is of separating them or putting them away from their Churches by Cession or Translation or Deposition and their taking upon themselves the disposing of most Benefices Let us say something more particular upon the chiefest of these points The differences between particular People were handled only in the Court of Rome in the Twelfth Age however when the Cause was very important or concerned the whole Church or a whole Kingdom they referr'd it to the Judgment of a Council Thus Gregory VII when the Quarrel betwixt him and the Emperor Henry V. came to be renew'd promised he would
November the pious King parted from Damiata and marched against the Saracens who had drawn all their Forces about the City of Massoura He encamped on an arm of the Nilus formerly called Canopus and in those times the Raschit which was not foordable whilst this was doing their Sultan named Melidin hapned to dye and till his Son could come they gave the Command to the most valiant of his Emirs or Satrapes who was Farchardin Year of our Lord 1250 In sine the French having passed over the Raschit gained in two several days two Battles against the Insidels wherein St. Lewis animated with a Sampson-like Spirit and Zeal did prodigious acts of Valour but in the first which was fought in February his Brother Robert was slain pursuing too inconsiderately the flying enemy thorough the City of Massoura Year of our Lord 1250 The Christians Army being Encamped near to Pharamia to refresh themselves Melec-Sala the Son of Meledin arrives with another Army which he had obtained of the several Sultans of his Religion wherewith he so beset the Christians stopping up all passages by which they were to receive Provisions that hunger and the distemper now call'd the Scurvy or Scorbut reduc'd them to a miserable condition In this extremity it was resolv'd to lead them back to Damiata but it proved too late the Army was utterly defeated in their march and the King taken prisoner with his other two Brothers Alphonso and Charles and almost all the Officers there were but very few of his who escaped from captivity or death This misfortune hapned the 5th day of April To this grief of the good King 's the Barbarian Conquerours added an outrage which touched him yet more sensibly than either the loss of his Army or his Liberty They scourged a Crucifix before him defiled it with spitting upon it and dragg'd it thorough the Mire However the Sultan Melec-Sala took a particular care of his person so that he restor'd him to his health again He also agreed a ten years Truce with him but thereupon being murther'd by his Emirs the King was likewise in great danger of perishing in the same storm of rage notwithstanding him whom they elected for Sultan he was named Turquemir preserved him and confirm'd the Treaty By those Articles they gave both him and all the Christian Captives their liberty with leave to carry away with them all their equipage they agreed to a Truce for Ten years and left them all they held beside in the Holy Land upon condition they Year of our Lord 1250 surrendred Damiata and should set free the Saracen Slaves and give them 400000. Liures ready Money It is remarkable that this generous King not enduring they should set a price upon his Person would needs have that sum to be the ransom for the rest and the City of Damiata for his and having notice that upon payment of the said Moneys the Saracens had mis-told and taken less then was agreed by a great deal he sent them the remainder immediately It is a Fable that he should give a consecrated Host to those Barbarians for security of his Word He would have exposed himself a thousand times to death rather then have deliver'd uphis God to those impious enemies It is true indeed that they afterwards coined Moneys with a Pix stamped upon it and the Sacred Host over it and that the same Figures were wrought in some pieces of their Tapistries and to this day there are the Figures of some Chalices Graved or Carved about the Walls of Damascus or Damas perhaps they meant to let the World know by these means and preserve the memory of it to future ages what Victories they had obtained against the Christians and how they had led their God in Triumph Year of our Lord 1250 The Sum paid and Damiata restored the King and Princes were deliver'd and embarquing upon some Galleys belonging to Genoua landed at the Port of Acon but for the rest of the prisoners such as were sick being in great numbers were knock'd at head and the remainders constrain'd to pay a new Ransom or to renounce It hath been said that the Barbarians put out the Eyes of Three hundred Gentlemen and that in memory of those Noble Martyrs that St. Lewis some years afterwards Founded the Hospital des Quinze-vingsts at Paris but this is no whit mentioned in the Grant or Writings for this Foundation and I find far before this time that a Norman Duke built one of the very same sort at Rouen only it was for maintenance but of One hundred blind People Of above 30000 Fighting Men who follow'd him in this Expedition there were hardly Six thousand remaining too scanty a number for any Enterprize Notwithstanding upon the Christians carnest intreaties who belonged to those Countreys and because he knew those Barbarians would break the Truce as soon as ever he were gone he resolv'd to stay some time and in the interim sent his Brothers Alphonso and Charles home into France Year of our Lord 1250 Whilst the Emperour Frederic was again drawing his Sword to be revenged on the Pope he died at Firenzuole the 13th of December perhaps stifled or poison'd by Mainfroy one of his Bastard Sons He left the Empire and Germany to his eldest Son Conrad to Frederic his Grandson issue of his eldest Son Henry the Dukedom of Austria and to the above-named Mainfroy the Principality of Tarentum But all that Race was extinct in a few years for having say some opposed the Holy See Year of our Lord 1251 When Pope Innocent had heard of the death of Frederic he went from Lyons where he had staid Six years and a half to return again to Rome Year of our Lord 1251 Upon the news of the pious Kings imprisonment a certain Apostate Monk by name Master Hungary pretending and affirming he had a particular Mission from God went picking up all the young Countrey fellows over the whole Kingdom to go said they and deliver their Prince and the Holy Land These new Brothers of the Cross were called Pastoureaux i. e. Shepherds or Graziers The Bandits Robbers Heretiques and all manner of wicked rascally people listed themselves in this crew who took the liberty to commit all manner of disorders especially against the Clergy and against the Jews The Inhabitants of Berry with the Nobility fell upon them and routed them some of them were hanged afterwards this rabble was dispers'd and vanish'd to nothing Year of our Lord 1252 Queen Blanch afflicted for the absence of the good King her dear Son and for the sickness of her other Son Alphonso who seemed incurable ended her days at Melun the Six and twentieth of November aged above Sixty and five years Her Son having sounded the Monastery of Maubuisson of the Order des Cisteaux for her She was conveyed thither in great pomp upon the Shoulders of the chief Nobility of the Court sitting in a Golden Chair her Face bare being cloathed in her
Gibbelins of Tuscany especially those of Florence and restored all the Guelphes to their Lands and Dwellings In the mean time the young Conradin had sent a Manifesto to all the Princes of Europe declaring himself to be the rightful Successor to the Kingdom of Sicily and imploring their assistance to recover that Succession of his Fathers Insomuch that with the aid of the antient friends of the House of Souaube or Scwaben and some Year of our Lord 1267 adventurers that sought their fortunes he gathered a huge Army and came into Italy about the end of October observing and giving ear rather to the importunities of the Gibbelines who pressed him to march on then the wise Counsels of his Mother who feared the unexperimented Youth of her Son scarce Sixteen years of age would be Ship-wrack'd against the fortune and courage of Charles He had brought with him out of Germany the young Frederic Son of Herman Marquiss of Baden who said likewise he was Duke of Austria being Son of a Daughter of Henry Brother to Frederic last Duke of those Countreys and withal he held himself certain of the assistance of Henry and Frederic Brothers of Alphonso X. King of Castille who upon his arrival in Italy were to declare in his favour Those Brothers having been driven out of Spain by the King Alphonso had retired themselves into Africk to the King of Tunis where they had acquir'd a great deal of reputation Money and Friends Henry having information of the progress of Charles in Italy was come to proffer him his Service with Eight hundred Horse and had lent him a considerable sum of Money In requital Charles had gotten him to be chosen Senator of Rome hut because he afterwards thwarted him in his designs of obtaining by the Pope the Kingdom of Sardinia that Spaniard was alienated from him and secretly conspired with Conradin so that he disposed the City of Rome to receive him driving thence or imprisoning all those that contradicted and when he saw him approaching near he set up his Flags and Arms upon the Gates and joyned openly with him Conradin having spent the Winter at Verona despising the Popes Thunders embarqued at the coast of Genoa on some Vessels belonging to Pisa Being landed in Tuscany he surprized and cut in pieces those Forces that Charles had left there and Year of our Lord 2268 at the same time Conrad being come from Antioch caused all Sicily to Revolt except only Messina and Palermo These prosperous beginnings betraid young Conradin and flattered him to bring him to his death while he was entring into the Kingdom of Sicily Charles quitted the Siege of Nocera and came to meet him resolved to decide the quarrel by a Battle it was fought the Five and twentieth day of August near the lake Fucin now Year of our Lord 1268 called the lake Celano the French gained it but not without much hazard and much blood Conradin Frederic Duke of Austria and Henry of Castille saved themselves by flight but being discover'd they were taken and brought back to the Conquerour After this Victory he took upon him again the dignity of Senator of Rome which he had been obliged to lay down and by the Pope was constituted Vicar of the Empire in Tuscany His Fame would have been beyond a parallel had he been but as merciful as valiant and had not exercised such mortal feverities upon his prisoners of War and such people as revolted from him Year of our Lord 1269 They were so great that being resolved to pass into Africk with St. Lewis the King not knowing what to do with Conradin and Frederic whom it was very dangerous to keep and more to set them free in a Kingdom full of Factions and Rebellion he caused their Process to be made by the Syndics of the Cities of that Kingdom Those Judges having condemned them to death as disturbers of the Churches quiet their Heads were cut off upon a Scaffold in the midst of the City of Naples the Twenty seventh day of October an execution which makes posterity tremble yet with horror but which seemed a retribution of the Divine Justice for those yet more horrible barbarities which Frederic the Grand-father of Conradin had used to all the Family of the Norman Princes Henry de Castille had his Life given him but was confin'd to a prison from whence he got not out till Five and twenty years after to return into Spain Almost at the same time this Conrad Prince of Antioch Son of one Frederic a bastard of the Emperour Frederic II. who was come from the East to the assistance Year of our Lord 1269 of Conradin and had contributed to make the Island of Sicily revolt being taken by some belonging to Charles was hanged and thus ended by the Hangmans hands that famous and glorious Race of the Prince of Scwaben of whom there have been so many Kings and Emperours I should have told you before that Conradin being upon the Scaffold after he had made bitter complaints of his misfortunes and the cruelty of his Enemies threw down his Glove in the Market-place as a token of the investiture of his Kingdoms to such of his kindred as would prosecute his quarrel a Cavalier having taken it up carried it to James King of Arragon who had Married a Daughter of Mainfroy's The abuses and the designs of the Court of Rome were grown to such a height and come to that pass that the King St. Lewis though very devout to the Holy See made this year a Pragmatique to stop the current of them in France especially touching the dispensation of Benefices This same year the Marriage of his Daughter Blanch was made with Ferdinand eldest Son to Alphonso X. King of Castille the Pope having given his Dispensation for the near consanguinity between the parties The Nuptials were celebrated at Year of our Lord 1269 Burgos Philip Brother to the Bride Edward Prince of England James King of Arragon the Bride-grooms Grand-father Alhumar King of Granada and divers other Princes and great Lords honoured the Solemnity with their Presence and it was expresly said in the Contract that if Ferdinand died before his Father her Children should represent him and succeed to the Crown The affairs of the Christians in the Levant being reduced to the last extremity by Bendocabar Sultan of Egypt the exhortations of the Pope and the zeal of St. Lewis stirred up those of the West to make one more great attempt to support them The King of Arragon and Edward eldest Son to the King of England promised to Second St. Lewis and his Brother Charles to go thither with all the force of Italy The number of Adventurers of the Cross consisted of Fifteen thousand Horse and Two hundred thousand Foot which were divided in two Armies to attaque the Saracens in two several places at once Year of our Lord 1270 The Arragonian and the English undertook to go and make War in the Holy Land the Arragonian
came to the Crown Three hundred years after by King Henry the Fourth surnamed the Great The Daughters were named Isabella Blanch Margaret and Agnes Isabella was Married to Thibauld the II. King of Navarre and died without Off-spring Blanch a little before this Voyage to Africk Married Ferdinand called De la Cerde eldest Son of Alphonso X. King of Castille and had two Sons who were unjustly deprived of the Kingdom by their Grandfather because their Father had preceded him and Representation had no place Margaret was Affianced to Henry Duke of Brabant and Limbourg then that Prince turning Monk Married to John his Brother and Successor They had no Children Agnes Espoused Robert Duke of Burgundy and brought him many Philip III. King XLIV POPES A Vacancy GREGORY X. Elected the 1st of September 1271. S. Four years four Months ten days INNOCENT V. Elected in January 1276. S. Seven Months JOHN XXI Elected in July 1276. S. Eight Months NICHOLAS III. Elected in November 1277. S. Two years nine Months Vacancy of Two Months Martin IV. Elected Feb. 21. 1281. S. Four years one Month seven days HONORIUS IV. Elected in April 1285. S. Two years one Month whereof six Months in this Reign PHILIP III. Surnamed the Hardy King XLIV Aged Twenty five years four Months Year of our Lord 1270 THE Christian Army wholly disconsolate for the death of their King and ready to sink under their Toils and Dangers resumed courage and received refreshments upon the arrival of Charles King of Sicily who with his Naval Forces landed at the very time the King his Brother was giving up the Ghost Being come ashoar he came and paid him his last Duty and caused his Flesh to be all taken from his Bones as it was then the Custom when any died in Foreign Countries He carried the said Flesh to Sicily with him and buried it in the Abby of Montreal near Palermo and King Philip kept the Bones which he deposited in St. Denis in France The Funeral being over they continued the Siege Charles having the Command of the whole Army because Philip being fallen Sick could not act At the end of three Months the taking of the place being most infallibly certain though not till the Winter was over King Philip's impatience who much desired to Year of our Lord 1270 go and take possession of his Kingdom and yet more the interest of his Uncle Charles who cared for nothing but to get Money and oblige the King of Tunis to pay him Tribute were the Motives that made them give Ear to Propositions of Peace with that Barbarian King Year of our Lord 1270 They allowed him a Truce for Ten years provided he would defray the whole Expences of that Expedition and that he would pay to Charles as much Tribute as he paid to the Pope Annualy That he would deliver up all the Christians he then held in Slavery That he would grant free liberty of Trade and exemption of Imposts to all their Merchants and would permit them to dwell in Tunis and have the Exercise of the Christian Religion At the end of the Siege Prince Edward of England arrived there with his Forces hoping that after the taking of that place the two Kings would go into the Holy-Land as they had promised but they thought it fitter to return to their own homes and left him to pursue his Voyage Year of our Lord 1270 Heaven seemed to be angry at their return all manner of misfortunes followed them Part of the Vessels wherein Philip was Embarked arrived happily enough at the Port of Trapani or Trapos in Sicily but the others that had King Charles and his on board were overtaken with a moit furious Tempest which destroy'd most of them with the loss of Four thousand Men all their Equipage and the Treasure that was in them Besides all this Thibauld King of Navarre being taken Sick ended his days at Trapani about the end of December his Brother Henry the Fat succeeded him Isabella of Arragon Queen of France being great with Child hurt her self by a fall from her Horse and died in the City of Cosenza Alphonso Brother of St. Lewis was taken off with a Pestilential Fever at Siena and his Wife Isabella de Toulouze died in the same place about twelve days after him So that King Philip cloathed in Mourning Weeds for the Death of his Father his Wife and his nearest Relations after so much Expence and Toil brought nothing back into France but empty Chests and Coffins full of the Bones of the dead Year of our Lord 1271 He staid in Sicily about two Months departed towards the end of February crossed Italy and arrived at Paris in the beginning of Summer He was Crowned at Rheims the Fifteenth day of August or as others say the thirteenth by the Bishop of Soissons the Archbishops See being vacant Of the ancient Pairs of the Laity there was none assisted at this time but the Duke of Burgundy and the Earl of Flanders Robert Earl of Artois bore the Sword of Charlemaine they name it Joyeuse At their going thence he intreated the King to go and visit his Country and received him in his City of Aâ—ras with such Welcom and Expressions of Joy as hitherto had not been heard of in France This King passing thorough Rome paid his Devotions on the Tomb of the Apostles At Viterbo finding the Cardinals had been there Assembled for two years together without coming to any agreement concerning the Election of a â—ope he exhorted them to make some end that the Church might be no longer without a Head His good Advice did not take effect till Eight Months afterwards upon their electing of Thibauld de Piacenza Archdeacon of Liege who went Legat into Syria with Prince Edward he took the name of Gregory X. Year of our Lord 1271 The Earldom of Toulouze was vacant by the decease of Jane the Daughter of Raimond and Wise of Alphonso Philip put himself into possession pursuant to the Terms of the Treaty made with Raimond in the year 1228. but it was King John that annexed it to the Crown Year of our Lord 1271 This year died Richard pretended King of the Romans The year after his Brother Henry III. King of England followed him and his Son Edward I. of that name who was in the Holy Land succeeded Year of our Lord 1272 Year of our Lord 1272 In a Bloody Quarrel the Earl of Armagnac had against Gerard Lord of Casaubon his Vassal it hapned that Roger Earl de Foix whom the Earl of Armagnac had called to his aid pursued Gerard and besieged him in a Castle belonging to the King whither he was fled and had put himself under his Protection The King angry for the little Respect these Earls had for him marched into those Countries with an Army capable of striking a terrour to the very heart of Spain He besieged Roger in his Castle de Foix and being resolved to level a Mountain wich hindred his approach
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
Forces belonging to the Navarrois continued their Incursions in Normandy Year of our Lord 1365 it was believed they might be drawn from thence by a Diversion towards Navarre A League was therefore made with the King of Arragon his Capital Enemy who immediately fell with an Army into that Kingdom The Navarrois had the more apprehension because he knew that France was necessarily obliged to joyn with that Prince the King of England having made a League with Peter King of Castille an Eternal Enemy to the Arragonians Wherefore Captal de Buch and the rest of his Friends applied themselves with so much zeal that they made his peace with the King By this Treaty he renounced all his rights to Champagne and to Burgundy upon condition he should have the Lordship of Montpellier in Languedoc which was given him The Habits of Men of Quality and honest People dwelling in Cities was a long Gown and a Hood almost of the same fashion as the Monks sometimes they threw these back upon their Shoulders and made use of a Cap or Bonnet for their Heads Now luxury and folly had shortned their long Robe so much that their Thighs and the whole motions of their Bodies from their Reins was plainly Year of our Lord 1365 seen They had likewise brought in use a certain sort of Shoes the Toes whereof were turned up with a long neck they named them Poulenes and at their Heels a kind of Spurs The King by his Edicts banished these ridiculous Modes after the example of his Holiness who but a while before had by his Bulls condemned the dissoluteness of Apparel both in the one and the other Sex France could not rid her self of those droves of Robbers that knawed her to the Year of our Lord 1365 very bones The English tolerated them that they might have their help upon occasion and there were not Forces enough besides to suppress them Gueselin found out a way to carry them all off into Spain upon this occasion Alphonso XI King of Castille had had by his lawful Wife a Son named Peter who succeeded him and by a Mistress five Natural Sons the eldest of whom was called Henry and was Earl of Tristemare This Peter was rightly surnamed the Cruel and the Wicked for he shewed himself more a friend to the Alcoran then to the Gospel having alliance and amity with the Moorish Kings He overturned all the Laws and committed all the Injustice and Cruelties that Tyrants can commit He lived in publick Adultery with Mary de Padilla and had in Anno 1361. caused his Wife Blanch to be poyson'd who was Daughter to Peter Duke of Bourbon and Sister to the Queen of France a Princess as vertuous as fair after she had endured all the outrages imaginable for ten years together He put the Lady to death that had been his Fathers Mistress and shed the blood of the greatest in his Kingdom almost every day nor did he spare his own Brothers having Murthered Frederic one of the five who was Grand Master of St. James and often attempted against the lives of the other four Henry being thereâ—ore prompted by a just Resentment for the death of his Brother and his Mother and besides authoriz'd by the Law of Nature which allowed him to defend his life rose up against him with the greatest part of the Nation Leagued himself with the Arragonian and made War upon him for some time Year of our Lord 1365 His Cause in the beginning had not so much success as justice he was overmatch'd and worsted by the Tyrant and took shelter in France The King gave him protection the more willingly because it offer'd a fair occasion to employ his Soldiery It was thought fit for the better countenance of it to let John de Bourbon Count de la Marche Cousin German to the late Queen Blanch have the chief Command in appearance but for their true Conductor Bertrand du Gueselin who was delivered out of the hands of Chandois the Pope the King and Don Henry having paid down his Ransom Year of our Lord 1366 With these Forces and great numbers of the Nobility Volunteers even out of those Countries under the obedience of the English the Count de la Marche and Gueselin carried Henry back into Spain The Pope fearing this Army might approach near Avignon sent them Two hundred thousand Livers with Indulgences The King of Arragon gave them passage and the Dutchy of Borgiae to Gueselin and before they entred upon Castille they regained all those places Peter had taken from him and put them honestly again into his hands Upon the arrival and sight of Henry all the Nobles of Castille excepting one single Knight abandoned the Tyrant They all cry'd out Long live King Henry and open'd their Gates to him in a word he was Crowned at Burgos about the end of March. That done he liberally rewarded with Estates in Lands all such as had follow'd him and thinking himself secure upon the Tyrants flight he discharged the most part of his Forces who would have lain too heavy on his new Subjects reserving only Fifteen hundred Lances with Gueselin and Bernard Bastard of the Count de Foix. Year of our Lord 1366 The Tyrant made his escape first towards Portugal but the King of that Country having refused to allow him any retreat there he got into Galicia and from thence by Sea to Bayonne to implore the assistance of the Prince of Wales The jealousie that Prince had for the fame of du Gueselin made him give an ear to his supplications he promised to restore him and to act Personnally in the Employment To this end he retains the Gascon Lords and the same Companies that had served du Gueselin who were disbanded by Henry but the Arragonian keeping the passages shut and well guarded they could not get to him but with a great deal of difficulty Year of our Lord 1367 There was no other way but by Navarre King Charles the Bad having made a League with either Party found himself perplexed In the end he leans towards the Tyrant and gives him passage and three hundred Lances Whilst he was wavering betwixt both Parties and endeavoured to delude them both he was made Prisoner by Oliver de Mauny who held the Castle of Borgia upon that Frontier It was imagin'd he had contriv'd it so himself to keep his Faith with Henry but Oliver treated him as a real Prisoner and got a good Ransom from him When Henry knew that his Enemies had taken the City of Navarrette he came to meet them and instead of stopping their passage and hindring their having Provisions brought to them which he might easily have done being above three times more numerous then they he gave them Battle This was the Fourth of April between Nagera and Navarrette but he lost it through the Cowardize of his Brother Teilo who betook himself to flight upon the first Charge Gueselin was made Prisoner with the Mareschal d'Endreghen and some
kept the Field some time but being less crafty he fell into an Ambuscade near Alexandria and was wounded to death after which his whole Army was dispersed and dwindled to nothing Year of our Lord 1392 The great desire the two Kings Charles and Richard had to joyn their Forces against the Turks brought the Duke of Lancaster to a Conference with King Charles at Amiens but the Propositions were so high on the English side that the result at last was only a Truce for a year The more the authority of the Constable and his three dependants was confirmed the more grievous was their power to the People The King's Uncles fretted and grew enrag'd the Clergy betraid by some of the Chief of their own Body were on the brink of losing their immunities had not the University from whom they were also taking away all their Priviledges bestirr'd themselves and put a stop to all School-Exercises and Preaching When they observed that all Foreigners went away from Paris and that such an Interdiction made a great noise all over Europe even those that had undertaken the ruine of that Body would needs have the honour of procuring them an Audience of the King who did them justice upon their Complaints The Support and Priviledges the Kings ever since the time of Lewis the Gross had granted to this famous University the Mother of all the rest that are in Europe the infinite numbers of Students that came thither from the remotest Countreys the strict adherence of the whole Clergy to them to whom they were a Nursery and Seminary and the Authority their Faculty of Divinty had acquired to judge of Doctrine and Matters thereto relating had rendred them so considerable that in times of confusion they were called to consult in all Affairs of Importance if not they took upon them to make Remonstrances and knew how to oblige others to follow them Year of our Lord 1392 Peter de Craon was notoriously guilty of the loss of Lewis Duke of Anjou his Lord the Duke of Berry had threatned to have him hang'd for it yet he was no less regarded at Court where the splendor of Birth and Riches easily covers baseness and crimes It hapned that he fell into disgrace with the Duke of Orleans he fancied the Constable had done him that ill Office he resolved upon revenge and one Evening the Thirteenth of June as he was coming from the King Assassinates him in St. Catherines street being assisted by Twenty Russians whom he had gotten together in his House He alterwards easily escaped out of Paris the Gates having been always left open ever since the Constable had caused them to be taken down upon his return from Flanders These wounds did not prove the death of the Constable but they were the ruine of Craon Three of the Murtherers being discover'd and taken were beheaded his Goods confiscated and given to the Duke of Orleans his House turned into a Churchyard for St. John's in Greve and his stately Seats in the Countrey demolished He could save nothing but his Person by flying to the Duke of Bretagne who kept him carefully conceal'd Some years after the King granted his Pardon upon the request of the Duke of Orleans When the Constable began to recover of his wounds both those that were his friends and such as were no way concerned called earnestly upon the King to punish this attempt There was upon this Command sent to the Duke to deliver up the Assassin he denies him to be in that Countrey the Ministers exasperate the King and perswade him to march towards Bretagne to destroy the Duke In vain did his Unclâ—s urge that this was but a private quarrel which ought to be legally determined by the ordinary ways and methods of Justice and that it was against the common Rights of Mankind to fall upon the Duke of Bretagne before he was proved Guilty or Condemned they could not alter that Resolution Year of our Lord 1392 Marching in the Sun-shine and great heats of weather in August his Brain already much weakned with the debauchery of his youth was discomposed with black and noxious vapours Two unexpected but frightful objects heightned and hastned his phrensy One day as he was going out of Manse passing thorough a Wood there came forth a tall black fellow all weather-beaten and ragged who laid hold of his Horses Bridle bawling out Stop King Whither goest thou thou art betray'd then vanish'd Soon after a Page who carried a Lance sleeping on horseback let it fall upon a Helmet which another carried before him At this shrill noise and the sight of the posture of the Lance the Apparition or Fantasme and its threatnings came fresh into his mind his Fancy was disturbed he imagines they were going to deliver him up to his enemy and believed all those that were about him to be Traitors This puts him into a violent fit of Fury he runs strikes kills without Rime or Reason till he fell into a Swoon They carry him bound in a Chariot back to Manse Witchcrafts and Poysonings were so frequent in those days that it was believed his malady proceeded from some such Cause The third day he recover'd his Sences and by little and little his Strength which was attributed to the publick Prayers made for him but not the full vigor of his understanding In this disorder his Uncle resumed the Government conducted him back to Paris seized upon the three Citizen Favourites who having undergone three Months imprisonment with the continual fear of being led to execution as was threatned were set at liberty by the Kings Command who ordered the greatest part of their Goods to be restored but declared them for ever incapable of holding any Office-Royal The Constable was so fortunate as to make his escape to his own Countrey in Bretagne where he most bravely defended himself against the Duke by the assistance of the Duke of Orleans and the rest of his friends The Princes gave his Office to Philip of Artois Earl of Eu. All Offices being as then but Commissions which were revocable Year of our Lord 1390 Vrban the Pope of Rome died in the Month of October Anno 1389. Boniface IX succeeded him this Pope shewed himself to be very much inclined to re-unite the Church dispatched a Frier to Clement to consult of some method to bring it about Clement puts him in prison but the University exclaimed so that he released him Clament was therefore compell'd to feign that he had a desire to put an end to that Schism But when the University had declared it was impossible to be effected without the renunciation of both Competitors he and the Duke of Berry who took his part highly broke off the Proposition But they could never stop the mouth of that Mother of all Learning and Piety from crying out against that scandal which so afflicted the whole Church Year of our Lord 1393 The 29th of January at the Nuptials of a Lady
for a farther tye toma ke this agreement sure they stipulated the Marriage of a Daughter of the Burgundians with Philip Count de Vertus the Second of the Three Brothers Year of our Lord 1409 The Peace concluded the King returned to Paris and the Burgundian to the Low-Countreys From whence coming again about the month of July he took the whole Government upon him and to give some satisfaction to the People whose affection he had gained in shewing his dislike against Taxes he caused the Council to call the Financiers to Examination and Account The most of them got off for Money but it cost John de Montaigu his Life who had been Sur Indtendant He was a man of mean birth Son of a Citizen of Paris whom the Kings favour without any great desert of his had raised to the Office of Grand Maistre of his House and his Brothers one to the Arch-Bishoprick of Sens the other to that of Paris His immense Riches which never are acquired without crime did blind this little fellow and drew the eyes of all great Men upon him insomuch as he bad married his Son to a Daughter of the Constable d'Albret and his Daughters to the greatest Lords of the Kingdom Though he had been very serviceable in negotiating the Treaty of Chartres nevertheless the Duke of Burgundy and the King of Navarre conspired his destruction because he had given the advice to carry the King to Tours They caused him to be accused of divers hainous crimes taking their opportunity when the King who loved him was in one of his Fits of Folly he was Arrested by Peter des Essards Provost of Paris examined by Commissioners of Parliament and cruelly tormented on the Rack His sufferings could not draw one word from him however his Head was chopt off at the Halles At his death he freely of his own accord confessed his depredation of the Kings Treasure which in it self contains all the greatest crimes The Trunk of his Body was hanged on a Gibbet his Head planted upon a high Pole Afterwards the Vicount de Lionnois had interest enough to re-abilitate his memory and having caused the Body to be taken from Montfaucon with an honourable convoy or attendance of Priests and Torches carried it to the Celestines Church at Marcoussy which he had founded Year of our Lord 1409 At this examination of the Officers it was ordered that all the Receivers should Account before the Earls de la Marche de Vendosme and de St. Pol and that till the had so done nothing should be allowed without Receipts and Vouchers The Treasurers were likewise all put out and the management thereof was given to some Citizens who were esteemed rich and less interessed Thus the Princes strove to gain the affection of that Queen of Cities For the same reason they renewed all their former Priviledges and the Provostship of Marchants of which they had till now only given them the keeping and they also granted them but to such only as were Natives the priviledge of holding Fiefs with the same Franchise as any Gentleman The Kings sorrow was very great when upon his recovery he heard of the death of Montaigu whom he had tenderly loved But there being no way to recall things past he would consider of what was to come Having therefore assembled the Grandees of the Kingdom he told them that he desired when he was at any time ill the Queen should take cognisance of Affairs and upon her default the Dauphin Duke of Guyenne whom he discharged from being under the conduct of his Mother but would that he should Govern with the Councils of the Dukes of Berry and of Burgundy This last usurped all the Authority Year of our Lord 1409 Whilst the Mareschal de Boucicaut was gone to Milan to receive that State under the Kings Protection and Government for John Galeazo chose this rather then that of the Marquis de Montferrat and Facin Can de l'Escale who had halfe subdued it the Marquiss to prevent him in it had caused the Genoese to rise up in Arms by means of the Gibbeline party They massacred all the French within their City forced the Cittadel and called him in to be their Lord but soon after they threw him out as they had done Boucicaut Year of our Lord 1409 Maugre the fulminations of the two Anti-Popes Maugre the Councils each of them had called Gregory in the Patriarchat of Aquilea and Benedict at Perpignan that Assembly which the Cardinals of both parties had summoned was open'd at Pisa the Five and twentieth of March. The Anti-Popes having been cited to appear there and all the Forms observed the Substraction was first order'd then they declared Schismatiques and Hereticks and Faculty given to the Cardinals to elect another Their Suffrages agreed in favour of Cardinal Peter Philargi called of Candia because a Native of that place He was named Alexander V. During the Schism Ladislaus King of Naples had seized upon Rome and the Lands of the Church which was the cause why the Council and the new Pope Alexander more willingly invested Lewis of Anjou with that Kingdom and gave him the Command Year of our Lord 1409 of Lieutenant-General of the Church In the beginning he had good success regained all the places that Ladislaus had usurped and drove him out of Rome but the end was not alike Year of our Lord 1410 The Eighteenth of May or according to others the First of June the Emperour Robert dyed at Oppenheim in Bavaria The Electors divided into two parties whereof one elected Sigismund de Luximbourgh King of Hungary the other his Cousin Josse Marquis of Moravia This last dying soon after all the Suffrages joyned for Sigismund Alexander V. had been a Cordelier Frier upon this consideration he granted a Year of our Lord 1410 new Priviledge to the Four Orders of Mendicants to Administer all the Sacraments in the Parishes and receive the Tythes iâ— they were bestow'd on them The University of Paris much offended at this Novelty retrenched all these Orders from their Body unless they would renounce this Bull. The Jacobins c ..... and Carmelites who found themselves feeble obey'd this Decree The Cordeliers and the Augustins remaining refractory were deprived of the Pulpit and Confessional of which the Jacobins made advantage as the Cordeliers had done upon their being in disgrace Pope John XXIII revoked all these Priviledges and reduced all things to the same condition they were in before We find amongst Historians that in these times there were many bloody Battles fought betwixt Birds of all sorts even amongst the smallest as Sparrows and amongst the domestique ones which proceeded from certain minute Bodies spread in the Air which pricked and irritated them in such measure as provoked and Year of our Lord 1410 pushed them on to discharge their anger upon one another This year 1410. in the Countrey of Hainault the Storks were observed to League with the Hernes and Pyes
tawny speaking in a particular Canting Language of their own and using a Slight of Hand in Picking Pockets while they pretended to tell Fortunes They were called Tartars and Zigens These were the same in my own opinion as those the French at present call Bohemians and the English Gypsy's Year of our Lord 1417 We find in the Acts of the Council of Constance how the memory of Wicklef was Anathematiz'd and John Huss who treading his steps had sowed new Doctrines in Bohemia was burnt alive Anno 1415. notwithstanding he had a safe Conduct of the Emperor and how Jerome of Pragne his Associate but more cautious then he chose rather to be condemned absent then present In the same Council Bennet having been declared Contumacious and intruded into the Papacy the Cardinals of all Parties joyning together elected Otho Colomna who took the name of Martin as being promoted on the Eve of that Saints day Year of our Lord 1418 He immediately employs his Care and Paternal Authority to endeavour the making a Peace in France To this end he sent two Cardinal Legats upon whose sollicitation an Assembly was held at Montereau Faut-yonne where the Deputies on either side agreed upon the Seventeenth of May that all hatred being laid aside the Dauphin and Duke of Burgundy should have the Government of the State during the Kings Life But the Constable the Chancellor and those that had the greatest share in the management of Affairs fearing they should be pack'd away or apprehending the Burgundian's Resentment formally opposed it and the Chancellor did absolutely refuse to Seal the Treaty he who was said to have Sealed so many Instruments to the Peoples ruine and for his own private Interest Paris being sick of the War this was an excellent Theme to be preached to the People and stir up their hatred against them and also to rowze the Burgundian Faction who had still remained quiet had not the Populace been drawn to side with them upon this ill management In fine those of his Party holding themselves assured of his Affection introduced into their City Philip de Villiers L'Isle Adauâ— Governor of Pontoise by St. Germains Gate He entred by night upon the Twenty eight of May with Eight hundred Horse crying out Peace and Burgundy The People did not stir till they were come into Year of our Lord 1418 the Streets of St. Denis and St. Honore then they came out on all hands and joyned with them Tanneguy du Chastel Provost of Paris hearing the noise ran and took the Dauphin out of his Bed and wrapping him up in his Night-Gown convey'd him to the Bastille and from thence to Melun The King who was in his Hostel remained in the power of the Burgundians From thence spreading themselves over the whole Town they fell upon the Houses of the Armagnac's and searched from the very tops of the Garrets to the bottoms of the Cellers Some plundered the Household Stuff and carried away the Money but were most eager to seize upon their Persons and those were least unhappy that were coop'd up in private places till they had paid their Ransoms Most of them were haled to Prisons whither a great many fled voluntarily to avoid other mischiefs The Chancellor was taken the very same day and imprisoned in the Palace The next day the Constable was dragged to the same place He had concealed himself in a Masons House but Proclamation being made to discover all the Armagnac's upon pain of death his Hoste produced him Year of our Lord 1418 The Banished being return'd from divers parts with indignation and revenge in their Hearts made the most cruel Mutiny that ever was heard of this was upon the Two and twentieth of June They began with the Palace whence they drew forth the Constable and Chancellor Murther'd them and exposed their Bodies upon the Table de Marbre From thence they went to the Prisons Massacred the Bishops of Senlis and de Coutances in the Petit Chastelet and made the rest leap from the tops of the Towers receiving them below upon the points of their Swords and Javelines There was no part of the City which was not stained with the Blood they spilt Near two thousand Men were killed whose Carcasses were drawn into the Fields with deep Incisions made upon their Backs in form of a Bend or Scarfe which was the Signal that Party had marked themselves withal for distinction Such as were found with them were held to be worse then Hereticks the Priests denied them Burial and Baptism to their Children Whether it were Policy or not the Duke of Burgundy would not come to Paris till a month after L'Isle Adam had made himself Master of it The Queen and he made their entrance the fourteenth day of July as Triumphantly as if they were returned Year of our Lord 1418 from the Conquest of some new Empire There was nothing heard in the Streets but the soft Musick of Voices and Instrumens and yet their presence did not stop the bloody hands of Murtherers Whoever had Money or an Enemy an Office or a Benefice was an Armagnac The vilest and the most wicked had made themselves the Chiefs of that Blood-thirsty Militia The very Hangman was one of them and he had so much impudence as to shake the Duke by the Hand who knew not what he was The One and twentieth of August they made another great Commotion that infamous Villain being their Captain in which they killed above two hundred Persons and amongst others even some of those that dwelt in the Dukes Hostel and perhaps they would have carried it home to himself had he not been provided against that Scum of the Rabble He bethought himself of a wyle which was to send six thousand of that common Herd to besiege Montleberry and when they were gone he ordered the Hangmans Head to be chopt off and several of the most deserving to be Hanged or cast into the River Year of our Lord 1418 It seemed that Heaven would revenge those horrible Murthers with its severest Rod About the Month of June Paris began to be infected with the Plague which raged extreamly to the end of October carried off above forty thousand most of them being the meanest of the People and such as had dipt their Hands in Blood After the Dauphin was gone from Paris his Partisans made War in his Name Those Frenchmen that were disinteressed and impartial found themselves much perplexed between the Kings Commands whom the Burgundian made to speak as pleased himself and the Commands of the Presumptive Heir to the Crown which side soever they could take they were sure to be treated as Rebels and Traitors Year of our Lord 1418 The Duke of Bretagne labour'd so much that he made up the breach a second time All the Articles were agreed upon at St. Maurdes Fossez but those that had influence over the Dauphin kept him from Ratifying them so that there was only a Truce for three weeks After he
two Factions one for the Pope and Ferdinand King of Naples the other for the Duke of Milan with the Venetian and the Florentines At Florence there were two Potent Families that of the Passi most ancient and that of Medecis richest The latter as then Governed and the two Brothers Julian and Laurence were the Heads Year of our Lord 1478 The Passi under the secret protection of the Pope conspired to assassinate them at Church upon Sunday 26th of April Julian was Murthered Laurence saved himself in the Sacrary The Populace being raised ran upon the Passi and exterminated all of them The Conspirators who had gotten themselves into the Palace to Seize it were shut in there and Hanged up at the Windows amongst others the Arch-Bishop of Pisa and they imprisoned a young Cardinal Nephew to the Pope who was found to be Innocent Now the Pope upon pretence of revenging the Honour of the Ecclesiasticks commenced a rude War on the Florentines both with the Fulminations of the Church and with material Arms and Forces The King endeavoured an Accommodation but being unable to effect it he took part with the Florentines and sent Philip de Comines to them who only brought some Succours from Savoy and Milan He had no mind to employ his Forces in so Forraign an Expedition but to frighten the Pope he spoke of calling a Council and continuing the Pragmatick For this purpose he convened all the Prelats and the Deputies of the Universities of the Kingdom at Orleans and dispatched a Noble Embassy to the Pope Guy d'Arpajou Vicount de Lautrec was the principal to demand of him that he should off the Excommunication he had thundred against the Florentines and that they should severely punish all the Complices of that Conspiracy The Scandalous Chronicle has noted That in this year in a Monastery of Benedictines in Avergne it was that of Issoire there was found a Monk both Male and Female who made use of either Sex particularly of the Femininr as appeared by proving great with Child Year of our Lord 1479 The second Truce expired Chaumont got first into the Field and scowred all the Franche-Comte even to the City of Dole Which having been taken by the Teachery of the German Forces who entring therein to relieve it introduced the French was sacked and destroyed and remained some years Buried under its own Rubbish At the same time Maximilian with his Army besieged Terouenne The Kings which was commanded by Desquerdes going to its Relief the Besiegers raised their Siege to encounter them The Shock was given near the Village of Guinegaste Desquerdes at first made the Flemmings give ground but pushing it too far the Counts of Nassaw and de Romont rallied some Companies and put the French to a Rout The Field remained to Maximillian though much more cover'd with the dead Bodies of his own Men than of Enemies and this day regained him some Reputation in his Affairs Year of our Lord 1479 At Sea the Normand Captains took 80 Vessels laden with Wheat which the Flemmings were bringing from Prussia and all their Fleet of Herrings an inestemable damage to that Country In these times arose the power of the great Czar of Russia or Muscovy Russia had heretofore many Princes But they were as Slaves to the Cham of those Tartars who Inhabit the other side of the Volga Duke John shook off that Yoke of Slavery and besides Conquered divers Cities in Russia Alba who obeyed the Duke of Lithuania and reduced to his Command the Great and Famous City Novogorod Capital of Russia then that of Mosco which takes it's Name from the River on which it is Scituate and gives it to all this State Year of our Lord 1479 When the good King Rene was Dead which hap'ned the 10 th of July in the year 1479. The King not openly permitted Charles II. Count de Mayne to put himself into possession of Provence according to the Testament we have before mentioned but likewise interposed his Authority with the Provensals to Enthronize him in that County being perhaps well assured of what hap'ned two years after Year of our Lord 1480 As all things went according to his wishes it hap'ned that being at a Village near Chinon during the Month of March he was on a Sudden deprived of his Speech and all manner of Knowledge At two days end he recover'd both the one and the other But his Body remained so Weak and Languishing that he could never regain his perfect Strength The Legat Nephew to the Pope took his time upon occasion of this Malady to intecede for the Cardinal de la Ballue who on his part did so cunningly feign a Retention of Urine that the King believing he would not live long and making conscience to let him die in Prison set him at Liberty towards the end of November upon condition he should leave the Kingdom which he did and retired to Rome Revenge jealousie and distrust which are the Signs of a weak and ill temper'd Soul encreased upon his Spirits whilst he decreased in Strength He was afraid that if they thought him uncapable to act they would usurp the Government the Duke of Bourbon being the only Prince almost that had the Qualities requisite for such a Pretension he fell into so much hatred against him that he caused his Lands to be Seized and sought out some colourable occasion to ruin him At the same time whether he could not confide in his natural Subjects or for some other reason he disbanded the Franc's Archers and in their stead raised Companies of Strangers especially Swissers Year of our Lord 1480 In this condition he was glad to make Truce with Maximilian for Seven Months to Commence in August The following year it was prolonged a Twelve-month more Year of our Lord 1481 Year of our Lord 1480 The Sultan or Grand Seigneur Mahomet II. caused the Island of Rhodes to be Besieged by the Visier Messite one of his Captains and sent almost 〈◊〉 the same time the Bassa Gedue Acmet to make a Descent on the Coast of Calabria The first after he had lost ten Thousand Men and spent three Months time shamefully raised the Siege but the other took Otranto by Assault the 27th Day of August and struck a Terror through all Italy Charles Duke of Burgundy whose thoughts had only been for War desiring to imitate the Roman Discipline had begun to keep and to exercise his Men in Camps The King after his example caused one to be made in a Plain near the Pont de Larche retrenched and closed up with Waggons He gave the command of it to Desquerdes and put in 10000 Foot Pikemen and Halberdiers for experience had taught him in the Warrs with the Swiss and Liegois that those were the best Weapons or Arms for the Infantry 2500 Pioneers and 1500 Lances After these Soldiers had remained there a Month only he disbanded them and took off as I believe the 1500 thousand Livers
to Establish a Council made up of the Princes of his own House together with the Lords of the Country for the Administration of his Affairs Landays having intelligence of this was possessed with such fury that he caused a Patent to be drawn in the Dukes name which declared all the Commanders of his Army which had entred into that capitulation with the Rebels Criminals de Lesae Majestatis and their Estates consiscate The Chancellor his name was Francis Christian refused to Seal it notwithstanding the Dukes reiterated order But on the contrary being Summoned by the Lords to bring Landays to Justice he took several informations upon which a Decree was made to take the Body of Landays Year of our Lord 1485 The Lords of the Dukes Council held private correspondence to ruin this Fellow One day therefore the People of Nantes excited by some Emissary's and their own hatred towards him got in throngs into the Castle crying out for Jusstice upon Landays and at the same time the Chancellor was compell'd by the Lords to wait upon the Duke and beseech him to give leave that he might be arrested and brought to his Trial. The Duke to avoid greater danger took the miserable wretch by the Hand who had secur'd himself in his Chamber and delivered him up to the Chancellor expresly commanding him they should not touch his Life for he granted him pardon for whatever Crime they might convict him of But as that Prince was weak they had no regard to his injunction They made quick dispatch with Landays the Gibbet was the last step his Ambitious Pride raised him to Being found guilty of Concussions Depredations Murthers and other Crimes he was Hanged at Nantes the 18 th Day of July Year of our Lord 1486 The following year Maximilian was Elected King of the Romans at Francfort the one and Twentieth of February and Crowned at Aix la Chapelle with Charlemains Crown the 12 th of April He had surprized the City of Terouenne for which cause the Mareschal D'Esquerdes made a rude War upon him He pressed him so hard that he was forced to write to all those Cities in the Kingdom as had obliged themselves for Guaranty of the Treaty he had made with the King complaining of this injustice done him by that Lord and the Dame de Beaujeu in the name of the King The Letter was brought by one of his Heralds whom the King being then at Beauvais caused to be Guarded in his Journey It was Read in the Town-Hall of Paris but he received no other answer then what it pleased those about the King to dictate He was as little successful in the Cavalcade he made thinking to surprize Guise which Garrison did infinitely molest the Country of Hainault Having furnished Terouenne with provisions he came into Cambresis But the Mareschals Desquerdes and Guy still pursuing him and Poverty pinching him yet more then his Enemies he durst not undertake any thing Every thing failing him his Germans Disbanded and he retired to Melines where he caused his Son to be kept and Educated Year of our Lord 1486 One cannot conceive a greater grief then what the Duke of Bretagne felt for the loss of his Landays nevertheless he was forced to contain himself and grant an Abolition or Indemnity to all the Lords for fear of intailing a Cruel and Bloody War upon his Country but all that precaution would not serve turn The time was come to put a Period to that Estate and I know not what fatallity hurried them to it by unavoidable accidents The Dame de Beaujeu being informed that the Duke of Orleans was forging some design against her made him to be commanded to come to Court he came upon the second Summons he received but the next Day being the 5 th of January he went into the Country upon pretence of Hawking and took his flight into Bretagne The good reception he met with from the Duke the power he gave him there and the strict knot of Friendship he tied with Guibe one of the Nephews of the Deceased Landays who commanded the greater part of the Dukes Gendarmerie gave both suspition and fear to the Breton Lords The Kings Council knowing their apprehensions offer'd them all assistance imaginable to help them drive out both the Duke of Orleans and the rest of the French from their Country of Bretagne The wisest amongst them were not for Engaging so great a power in their quarrel as would sooner or later swallow up all if called in But the rest imagining they could easily Limit and Curb them by Articles of Agreement This opinion carried it they made a League with the King upon these conditions That he should bring into the Country no more then four hundred Lances and four thousand Year of our Lord 1486 Foot That he should recall them as soon as ever the Duke of Orleans and his partisans should quit the Country That he should neither take nor Besiege any place without the consent of the Mareschal de Rieux nor should lay any claim or pretence to the Dutchy Whatever was in the Treaty expressed yet the Kings Council were persuaded that Bretagne appertained to him by vertue of a Cession which the Heirs of Pontieure had made to Lewis XI Nay even some Bretons who loved to swim in deep and large Waters and hoped to find fairer fortunes in the Court of France confirmed them in this opinion And it was for this design they led the King to the Borders of that Country Year of our Lord 1486 Whilst he was at Amboise he had private notice that the Count de Dunois was returned from Ast notwithstanding his commands to the contrary had got to Partenay in Poiton which he Fortified that being there he was making a League for the Duke of Orleans and that he had drawn in the Earl of Angoulesme the Duke of Lorrain the Lords de Ponts and de Albret He cajoled these two last with the hopes that they should marry the Duke of Bretagne's eldest Daughter and the Duke of Lorrain was tyred with the put off's they had so long used towards him concerning the Succession of the House of Anjou Year of our Lord 1487. in January Those friends the Duke of Orleans had left at Court plotted together to carry away the King who would have warranted them and as they said had intreated them to do it being quite wearied and distasted with the imperious Government of his Sister This would have ended the Quarrel to the Dukes advantage but the contrivance having taken Air by a Valet the Bishops of Periguex and Montauban these were Gefroy de Pampadour and George d'Amboise Comines and some others who had the management of it were Arrested Comines having been a Prisoner near three years of which time he was shut up eight whole Months in an Iron Cage was condemned by Sentence of the Court of Parliament to lose the fourth part of his Estate and to remain a Prisoner for ten years
Instrument of Oblivion or Abolition the Twentieth of June The Mareschal de Rieux declaring openly for him received some of his men into Ancenis and took upon him the command of the Army as for Rohan and Quintin his Brother they adhered to the Royalists The Lord de Laval was not suffered to remain Neuter as he would fain have done they forced him to deliver up Vitre to the King Dole was taken and sacked The Duke of Bretagne's affairs had a good aspect for those two or three Months that the King was at Paris Rieux regained Vannes d'Albret brought him a Thousand Horse and the King of England sent him some Foot In retaliation the Kings Army commanded by la Trimoville taking the Field in the Month of April took Chasteau-Briand and razed it gained Ancenis then Besieged Fougeres a Rich place and of great importance which surrendred and after that St Aubin du Cormier The French and Bretons Forces Leagued together joyned in one Body to go to the relief of Fougeres contrary to the wise Counsel of the Mareschal de Rieux Being on their March they were informed the place had Capitulated and Saint Aubin du Cormier likewise The Kings Army commanded by la Trimoville apprehending they would go and retake St. Aubin marched up to them The Battel was fought near the Burrough of Orange between Renes and St. Aubin the 28 th Year of our Lord 1488 of July La Trimoville obtained the Victory the Duke of Orleans and the Prince of Orange who alighted and fought for the Bretons were made Prisoners six Thousand of their Men being slain Year of our Lord 1488 The Dame de Beaujeu did soon after set the Prince of Orange at Liberty he having Married her Husbands Sister and made him Lieutenant for the King in Bretagne But she kept the Duke of Orleans with great care in the Castle of Lusignan and afterwards in the great Tower at Bourges Some days before this Battel there had been another fought in the Air Great Flocks of Jays and multitudes of Pies grappled so furiously with their Bekes and Claws against each other that a Vast deal of ground was quite coverd with their Dead Carcasses The fidelity of the Breton Lords was sorely shaken by this rude Shock The Vicount de Rohan encouraged to declare the pretensions he had to the Dutchy as being the Son of Mary Sister and as he alledged partly Heiress of Duke Francis I. caused Dinan and St. Malo's to fall into the Kings hands this last place was plundred But Renes very couragiously told the Herald that came to Summon them That they would sooner chuse to be nothing then to be unfaithful The Duke thus ill handled by the blind Baggage Fortune was advised to endeavour an accommodation with the King To effect this he sent the Count de Dunois and wrote to him with that submission not usual from the Dukes of Bretagne The King had great pretension to that Dutchy and demanded the Noble Guardianship of the Daughters they agreed upon Arbitrators to judge the right of it But in the mean while he consented to a Peace with the Duke upon condition he should not marry them without his leave that he should renounce all Foreign Leagues and Alliances and should let him keep those places he had Conquer'd in that Country The Treaty was agreed in the Castle of Vergy in Anjou where the King was at that time and Signed at Coiron by the Duke Soon after the Duke grown very old overwhelmed with Sorrow and hurt with a fall from his Horse died at Nantes the 9 th day of September having Reigned two and Thirty years By his Will he appointed the Mareschal de Rieux Guardian to his Daughters with whom he joyned Odet-Daydie Earl of Cominges his Gossip and Intimate Friend and allotted Frances de Dinan Dame of Chasteau-Briand to be their Governess They were two Anne and Isabeau the latter Died about two years after At this time they retired to the City named Guerrande Year of our Lord 1488 The Duke of Lorrain after the Death of the Breton reconciled himself to the Court upon hopes of obtaining some assistance towards recovery of the Kingdom of Naples Opportunity presented it self very fairly most of the Barons of that Country being revolted against King Ferdinand by reason of his Tyrannies and invited Rene to come and take possession of that Crown His Holyness Pope Innocent VIII did favour him whose Galleys with Julian de la Rovere Cardinal of St. Peters waited for him a long time in the Port of Genoa and the French Nobless shewed a great deal of eagerness to follow him But those that Governed the King thwarted this Prince as much as they possibly could as envying him the Glory of this Conquest So that making too long delay the Pope makes an agreement with Ferdinand and such as had faln off cast themselves upon his Mercy which did but ill Succeed with them for he made them all Prisoners and Alphonso his Son coming to the Crown commanded their Throats to be cut The Prince of Salerno wiser then the rest would not trust to it but retired to Venice resolving to seek out some abler Protector The Lorrianer withdrew into his own Country greatly confounded and ashamed and much sunk in his Reputation The Bretons being somewhat at their ease on the French-side were embroiled amongst themselves about the Marriage of their Dutchess Anne The Mareschal was obstinately bent to have her married to the Lord d'Albret to whom the Father had promised it in Writing But Montauban her Chancellor and the Earl de Cominges thought it too inconsiderable a Match and too weak to restore the Affairs of that Dutchy being ruined himself the King having Seized on all his Towns in Gascongny and besides the Princess had no manner of inclination for him So that as soon as ever she had attained the Age of puberty she made her protestations against that promise which were declared to him personally The Count de Dunois opposed it as much as they but for another end He aimed to have her Married to the Duke of Orleans whereas the rest designed her for the Arch-Duke Maximillian Their Disputes grew so high it had like to have come to blows The Dutchess got out of the Mareschals hands being assisted by her Chancellor and the Count de Dunois The Mareschal way-laid her thinking to stop the journey but his respect made him desist and leave her her presence having disarmed him Fearing to be Besieged in Redon by the French she would needs retire to Nantes the Lord d'Albret and the Mareschal refused to admit her but only with her Family-attendance upon this refusal she goes to Renes where the Inhabitants made her a Solemn reception Thus there were two Parties Cantonized the one at Renes with the Dutchess the other at Nantes with the Mareschal who was her Guardian and Authorized by the Orders of the defunct Duke During these Garboils the King seizes upon the
and put himself under his Protection At his departure thence he was so rash as to send a Challenge of Desiance to the Emperor in the Diet at Wormes and afterwards Florenges his Son with three thousand Men besieged Vireton in Luxembourgh Immediately the King of England undertaking to be Mediator sends to Francis whom he took to be the chief Promoter of this Challenge to intreat him not to commence a War Francis takes his Advice and commands Florenges away from Vireton but the Emperor did not take this for satisfaction he would not have it said that a Man whose Ancestors had been Domestick Servants to the House of Burgundy should have braved him impunitively He raised a great Army the command whereof he gave to Henry Count of Nassaw who took four or five little Places from Robert and caused some Soldiers of the Garrisons to be hanged on the Battlements After this the Emperor being in some measure satisfied granted him a Truce of forty Days At the same time the Lord de Liques a Hennuyer seized upon the City of Saint Amand in Tournesis under pretence of some Dispute he had with Lewis Cardinal of Bourbon who was the Abbot He afterwards besieged Mortain which he said belonged to him The Captain who was in it gave it up upon Condition to have his Life and Goods spared but the Emperors Men ransacked the Garrison Then the Governor of Flanders laid siege to Tourney The King could interpret these Undertakings for no other then a Declaration of War however the Emperor would not own them as yet having the like Design upon many other Frontier Places which he intended to execute without mentioning a Word and besides he dreaded the King of England who would needs be Mediator and therefore wished both the one and the other to send their Deputies to him at Calais there to make known their difference giving them plainly to understand that he would declare himself an open Enemy to him that should refuse They were therefore obliged either of them being affraid to have him their Enemy to send Ambassadors to him Those from the King were James de Chabanes la Palisse Mareschal of France the Chancellor du Prat and John de Selve first President of Parliament who went to attend Henry at Calais At first those on behalf of the Emperor demanded no less then the Dutchy of Burgundy and that the King should acquit him of all Homage as well for that Country as for the Counties of Flanders and Artois because the subjection as Vassal said they did injury to the Imperial Majesty Year of our Lord 1521 During this Conference of Calais the Count de Nassaw with the Emperors Army passed the Meuse and besieged Mouzon The Soldiers that were in it frighted to see themselves exposed and laid open to a Battery that was on the Hill compell'd their Commanders to demand composition There were two of them who were so imprudent as to go both together to Nassaw to make it and by this over-sight they had no Terms but what were very disadvantagious The Chevalier Bayard behaved himself much more generously against the Attacks of the same General for he not only defended himself like a brave Soldier but made such a Division by counterfeit Letters between Nassaw and Sickingben who commanded that part of the Imperial Army on this side the Meuse that he made them raise their Siege It appears to me if I have rightly observed that in this Siege the Enemies made use of that sort of Artifice or Engines since called Bombes which are great Granados long or round loaden with Gun-Powder and shot out of a Morter-piece that they may fall in some certain place where they work a double Mischief both by the weight of their fall and the great violence of the Powder which is set on fire by a Fusee so disposed that in a Moment it causes the Bombe to burst after it's fall and breaks and tears all that is either above it nor neer hand about it In this Retreat Nassaw having fired all in his way putting Men Women and Children to the Sword especially in the City of Aubenton gave the first beginning to Burnings and Massacrings of Innocents The King having drawn his Forces together had his revenge for this Affront of the Emperors he regained Mouzon burnt and dismantled Bapaume reduced Landrecy and Bouchain Then with his whole Army passed the Scheld over a Bridge made for the purpose to seek out the Emperor who with his own was come to Valenciennes but he staid not for him retiring from thence under the favor of a very thick Fogg Year of our Lord 1521 Upon this occasion the King to content his Mother began to discontent the Constable Charles de Bourbon for he gave the command of the Van-Guard to the Duke of Alenson first Prince of the Blood and who had married his Sister but a Man of shallow understanding and uncertain Courage Which is more he slighted the good Advice he gave him to fall upon the Emperor's Army in their Retreat when no doubt he might have put them into great disorder In his whole life he never met again with so fair an opportunity though he sought it every where it seemed as if Fortune displeased that he would not lay hold of her Favor then had sworn to avoid and fly from him and never make him the like happy proffer again The Grave Tacite and Haughty Humor of Charles de Bourbon did not sute well with the King 's which was Pleasant Free and Open And withal Madame mortally offended that he disdained the Love she had for him push'd on her Resentments all the ways imaginable till in the end she had her revenge upon him at the expence of her Son and the whole Kingdom of France An old Tradition but which hath more the countenance of Falshood then of Truth says that this Princess desiring to marry the Constable had perswaded the King this Match would be greatly to his advantage for since he could have no Children by her the rich Succession of that House of Bourbon would by consequence revert to him according to some agreement or pact made with Lewis XI That the King was allured by this advantage and having one day spoken of his Mother to the Constable that Prince who had an Aversion to her made some reply that reflected on her Honor at which the King was so offended that he gave him a Box on the Ear. The Admiral Bonnivet having feigned a March towards Pampelonna turned short by Saint John de Luz and besieged Fontarabia which surrendred after the first Assault the eighteenth of October The Deputies from the King and the Emperor were still at Calais with the King of England labouring to adjust their Differences and take away all such stumbling Blocks as might occasion the like hereafter They were agreed upon every thing having covenanted that the Emperor should raise the Siege of Tournay and recal his Troops out of
little while he stole away from his own People who followed Francis de Montagnac Tenzane thinking it had been their Master and made his escape attended only by one Esquire named Pomperan to the Franche-Compte From thence he passed into Germany then thorow the Valley of Trent to Mantua and from that place to Genoa to conferr about the Affairs of the War with Charles de Lanoy Vice-Roy of Naples who had the general Command of the Armies after the Death of Prosper Colomna which happened about the end of this year 1523. In France Conspiracies with Strangers against the State never do any mischief when once they are discovered this bred a great deal of astonishment but produced Year of our Lord 1523 no present evil This great Prince so Wealthy so greatly Allied and so much esteemed by the Sons of War was but a single banished man when out of France No body followed him excepting his domestick Servants and five or six of his particular Friends So that the Emperor who at his first Arrival had given him his choice either to stay there to command his Army or to go into Spain to compleat his Marriage when he perceived that his revolt effected nothing feared he should have only a proscribed Person for his Brother in Law and perswaded him it were better he should stay in Italy We need not doubt but he had formed divers designs in several Provinces of France but no Commotions appearing the King either out of Policy or good nature did not make strict inquiry who were his Accomplices There were not above seven or eight taken into Custody amongst others St. Vallier la Vauguyon and Emard de Prie. St. Vallier was Tried and Condemned to lose his Head but being in the Greve the place of Execution on the Scaffold instead of the mortal stroke he received his pardon It was said that the King sent it not to him till he had robb'd his Daughter Diana as then but Fourteen years of Age of the most precious Jewel she had a very easie exchange for those that value Honour less then Life or make it consist in the Sun-shine of a Favour rather envied then innocent It was now almost a year that the Lord de Lude had bravely defended Fontarabia against the Spaniards Assaults He was so distressed by Famine that it was time to throw in Provisions the Mareschal de Chastillon who was ordered to do it Died by the way La Palice happily performed it and having drawn out the Lord de Lude and the Garrison who had suffered great Fatigues he put in all Fresh-men and for Governor Frauget a Captain of Fifty men at Arms. About the end of the Spring an Army of twenty four thousand Spaniards came and fell into Guyenne by two or three several ways and afterwards joyned Year of our Lord 1523 all in one Body before Bayonne to besiege it The City being weak their fears were great however Lautrec getting in amongst them revived their Hearts and cheered them so that they drew off after three days battering it However they did not lose their labour for bending all their Force against Fontarabia Frauget tamely surrendred it upon their first Assault for punishment whereof he was degraded of his Nobility on a Scaffold in the City of Lyons Cowardize not being worthy of death but of Infamy Neither the Emperor nor the King of England did use that diligence they ought in so great a design as that of tearing all France in pieces The Emperor did not furnish Bourbon with those Forces he had promis'd to seize upon the Dutchy of Burgundy but only twelve thousand Foot who having no Horse were easily beaten off from the Frontiers of Champagne by the Earl of Guise who was Governour there The English did not land till the Month of September the Duke of Norfolk being their General Their Army and that of the Count de Bure made up together neer forty thousand men Lewis de la Tremouille to whom the King had committed the Guard of that Frontier having but few men could only Garrison the Towns They left Terouanne which they had design'd to attaque on the left hand and taking their March between that City and Monstrevil came before Hesdin Knowing the Valiant Pontdormy was got into it they went farther on pass'd the Somme at Bray took Roye and Montdidier and brought a terror even upon Paris which was again revived by the coming in of Charles Duke of Vendosme with some Horse After all they withdrew again upon the first frosty weather yet not all above one third of the English leaving their bones there to pay their Charges When they were entring Picardy Bonnivet pass'd the Mountains The Emperor the Pope and the Venetians had declar'd against the King as we have said nevertheless this great League having but few Forces Bonnivet soon Conquer'd all the Milanois to the Tesin Prosper Colomne did not imagin that the King having so many Irons in the Fire in France should have thoughts of sending an Army into Italy He was much amazed when they inform'd him that Bonnivet was come over the Hills He appeared at the River Tesin with those few men he had to obstruct his getting over But it being Foordable in many place by reason of the great Drowths he soon had notice that the French were on the other side and retreated with his handful of men It was said that if Bonnivet had used that diligence which was requisite he might have overtaken and cut them all in pieces Or at least if he had not amused himself three or four days at Pavia he had made himself Master of Milan This delay gave Prosper time to provide So that Bonnivet lost his time in Besieging it Winter came the Plague crept into his Army and that of the Confederates encreased He was therefore fain to give ground in his turn and retire to Biagras six Leagues on this side of Milan He chose that Post because he might safely wait there for a new re-inforcement having the whole Country behind at his own disposal During these Transactions Pope Adrian died the fourteenth of September and the Cardinal Julius de Medicis cousin German of Leo X. and Son of Julian but born out of Wedlock was elected by the contrivance and other devices and ways usual in the Conclaves He took the name of Clement VII This year began the Chastisement of those who professed the new Reformation Preathed by Luther The Protestants reckon for first Martyrs for so they call them one John le Clerc native of Meaux a Wool-comber and two Augustin Monks of the Country of Brabant le Clerc was Whipt and Brandmarkt on the Shoulder with a Flower de Luce at Meaux for having said that the Pope was Antichrist and was afterwards Burnt at Mets for having beaten down some Images The two Monks suffer'd the like death at Bruxels Luther Sung their Triumphs much gladder to be their Panegyrist than their fellow Sufferer Year of our
from the good of the Subjects and who Establisht this Maxime so false and so contrary to Natural Liberty Qu'il nest point de terre Sans Seigneur i. e. That there is no Land without its Lord. The Office of Chancellour was given to Antony du Bourg who was likewise a Native of Auvergne and President in Parliament As to the Emperor he having foreseen that Clouds and Storms were gathering together from all Quarters against him by the King the King of England the Princes of Italy and those of Germany that he might have some pretence to Arm himself Powerfully he gave out that he was going to make War upon the Famous Year of our Lord 1535 Chairadin Surnamed Barbarossa who Infested all the Coasts of his Kingdoms of Naples and Sicilia That Pyrate was a Native of Metelin he had a Brother named Horue their Father a Christian Renegade and Poor From their Youth these two Bothers had used Piracy having but one Brigantine between them both then Increasing in Vessels in Men and Money they passed into Mauritania where engaging themselves in a War that was made betwixt two Brothers for the Kingdom of Algiers under pretence of Assisting the one they made themselves Masters of both the City and Country Horue being the Eldest bore the Title of King and Conquered Circella and Bugia likewise and Dispossessed the King of Tremisen but in the conclusion he was Vanquished and Slain in the Rout by the People of that Country joyned with the Spaniards with whom that King was allied Chairadin Barbarossa his Brother Succeeded him and became very formidable in the Levant Seas in-so-much that Sultan Solyman gave him the Command of his Naval Forces There were two Brothers at Tunis Sons of King Mahomet who disputed for the Crown Araxide and Muley-Assan this last although the younger had taken the Scepter by his Fathers appointment the other to avoid his Cruelty fled to Constantinople and Implored the Protection of the Grand Seignor Barbarossa taking advantage of this occasion appears before Tunis pretending he had brought him back to restore him though indeed he left him in Prison at Constantinople By this wile he so deceived the People that he was received into the City and drove Muley-Assan thence This man had recourse to the protection of Charles V. who undertook to re-establish him Charles landed therefore in Africk with an Army of above Fifty Thousand Men took the Fort of Goletta which he kept for himself setled Muley-Assan in Tunis beat Barbarossa at Land gave him chace by Sea and delivered Twenty Thousand Christian Slaves then upon the fourteenth of August he Weighed Anchor and set Sail for Sicily where in few days he Arrived Having so journed there neer three Months he passed to Naples about the end of November Year of our Lord 1536 From thence he wrote to his Brother-in-Law the Duke of Savoy to comfort him for the losses he had sustained by the French and of his eldest Son Lewis who died in Spain These words were but a weak support against those evils which encreased upon him every day For the Bernois having declared War in January 1536. drove out the Bishop of Lausanne Seized upon that City the Country of Vund Gex Genevois and Chablais as far as the Drance the Valesans on their side Invaded the rest of Chablais from that River all above Those of Friburgh got Possession of the County of Romont and the French Army Marched at the same time to enter into Piedmont John de Medequin Captain of the Castle of Muz afterwards Marquess of Marignan and some other of the Emperors Commanders whom the Duke had sent to Guard the Pass of Suze came there too late Antonio de Leva having visited Turin and found it was not yet Tenable was not of opinion that the Duke should venture to wait for the French there He went out therefore on the twenty seventh of March with his Wife and his Son and having Embarqued his richest Goods and Artillery â—n the Po retired to Vercel Turin Surrendred the third of April Whilst the Emperor was yet in Sicily he had News of the death of Duke Francis Sforza which hap'ned in the Month of October not leaving any Children by his Wife who was the Daughter of Elizabeth his Sister and Christierne II. King of Denmark Now the Dutchy of Milan being under the Power of the Emperor knowing the great Passion the King had for so excellent a Dutchy he made use of it as a Lure to amuse and lead him in a Slip if we may so express it all the rest of his Life Gravelle his Chancellour had told Vely the Kings Ambassadour that his Master would not dispose of that Dutchy till he had received Information from him how he intended to demean himself in these three particulars the first was in the War against the Turk the second the reduction of all the Christian Princes to the Catholick Religion and the third the setling of a Firm Peace throughout all Christendom He added that the Emperors desire was rather to bestow that Dutchy upon the Kings third then upon his second Son and demanded that the second might accompany him to the Siege of Algiers These two last Conditions did not please the King Upon the other three Heads he made such Replies as ought to have Satisfied the Emperor He demanded the Dutchy for Henry Duke of Orleans his second Son and offer'd to give four hundred thousand Crowns of Gold for the Investiture On this Foot he Year of our Lord 1536 sent to Vely that he should press the Emperors Resolution But that Prince gave only general Words and in the mean time put his Affairs in good Order for he made the Marriage between his Bastard and Alexander de Medicis who was one likewise and Confirmed him in the Government of Florence He made a new Confederation with the Venetians induced thereto by the Fame of his Victories in Africa and by the perswasions of the Duke of Vrbin General of their Armies He sent to his Sister Mary Widow Queen of Hungary to whom he had given the Government of the Low-Countries after the death of Margaret Widow of Savoy his Aunt as likewise to those with whom he had left that of Spain to make the greatest Levys of Men and Moneys they possibly could and himself on his part labour'd to get store of Money in Sicily and Naples and to encrease those Forces he brought out of Africa Now with promising hopes he led on Vely and the Kings Envoys even to Rome In the Month of April he made his Triumphant entrance and Sojourned there thirteen days There it was they Discovered his ill intentions and inclinations towards the King for after the Pope and he had conferred together about their Affairs he prayed him to Assemble his Cardinals and before them with Hat in hand he made a long harangue full of Invectives Complaints and Menaces against King Francis and would needs give them an account of all
When he had consider'd therefore that it was a foolish enterprize to take Paris for Corbeil he decamped the 12th day of December and took his March towards Normandy to joyn with the English who were at Havre and receive some English Money to pay his Germans ready to Mutiny The Triumviri followed him so close that at his seventh or eighth halt the two Armies found themselves engaged to give Battel near the City of Dreux the twentieth of December In the beginning the Huguenots had some advantage they defeated the main Battel of the Catholicks took part of their Cannon and even the Constable being wounded with a Pistol Bullet in the Face but they afterwards falling upon the Baggage and their gross of Reserve which consisted of twelve hundred Reistres disbanding likewise to get their share the Catholicks had their full revenge The Duke of Guise in appearance commanded only his Company of Gentdarmes and a Body made up of some friends of his who were Voluntiers and yet his desert and quality made his advice and counsel pass for Orders The Mareschal de Saint André led the Van-Guard the Duke who stood on a rising Ground and reserv'd himself for the Crowning of that Day beholding the Enemies scatter'd and scarce keeping any order detached some parties from that Body to charge the Infantry who were defrauded of their Cavalry then Marching himself turned upon their Horse and put them to the rout The Prince of Condé who never gave Ground was taken Prisoner by Danville the Constables second Son the Reisters trotted away into a Neighbouring Wood the Admiral joyned them with Four Hundred Horse whom he had rallied and with these was resolved if the Germans had but had so much courage to have begun the Charge afresh the next day They Counted Eight Thousand dead upon the place as many almost of the one party as of the other The Field of Battel remained to the Duke of Guise who did not judge it fitting to pursue the Admiral but left him to make his retreat towards Orleans whither they caused the Constable immediately to be carried fearing he might be rescued from them In the Fight the Mareschal de Saint André being by a great Body of Horse made Prisoner of War while he pursued the Victory too eagerly was kill'd with a Pistol-shot by a Cavalier named Bobigny-Meziere Son of a Register belonging to Paris whom he had used too ruggedly in some Ren-contre The Duke of Guise rendred all imaginable honour to the Prince of Condé they supped and lay together with so many demonstrations of amity that one would have guessed they had laid aside and forgotten all their quarrels to live together like Cousin-Germains as they were in intire confidence as they had before done under the Reign of Henry II. When the main Battel of the Royal Army was first defeated there were some run-aways that rode Whip and Spur even to Paris Proclaiming that all was lost Of these was d'Ossun who had acquir'd the name of brave in the Wars of Italy and indeed the rage he fell into afterwards when he found his mistake had so betray'd his courage as to blemish the Lustre of all his former Actions himself condemned himself to death and underwent the execution of his own Sentence by an obstinate resolution never to eat or drink more Upon the first news the Dutchess of Guise who had a numerous Court about her found her self abandoned in a moment and as for the Queen without being overmuch moved or concerned She only said well we must then pray to God in French began highly to caress those that were friends to the Prince and the Novel Opinions But next day the contrary being certified by a Cloud of Eye-Witnesses Letters from the principal Officers the crowd about the Dutchess of Guise was greater Year of our Lord 1562 then ever the Huguenot Cabal play'd the Diver the Catholick one took the upper-hand and clapp'd their wings and crowed the Queen ordered Bon-fires to be made though with some reluctance and gave with all the apparent willingness she could counterfeit the command of the Army to the Duke of Guise on whom the Army themselves had already conferr'd it Year of our Lord 1563. January In like manner the Princes Army intreated the Admiral to accept of the Office of General When he had refreshed himself for some days at Paray he descended into Vendosmois and crossing the Loire at Baugency lodged his Men in the Countries of Soulogne and in Berry where he knew the Duke of Guise would have Lodged his in order to the Siege of Orleans which was resolved upon Having left his Brother Dandelot in the City with Two Thousand Soldiers as many Inhabitants well arm'd and a great number of Nobility he repassed the Loire at Gergeau and takes his way towards Normandy In that Country he ransomed divers little Towns for Sums to entertain his Men received the Money from England and Muster'd his Forces Being invited by the Huguenots of Caen he besieged the Castle wherein was the Duke of Elboeuf Brother of the Duke of Guise and N. de Bailleul Renouard whom he had taken at discretion had not the important news from Orleans obliged him to return that way Year of our Lord 1563. February and March The Duke of Guise had laid Siege to it the sixth day of February 1563. The Queen was at Bangency and had shut up the Prinâ—e whom she still lugg'd along with her in the Castle of Onzain Already the Suburbs were lost with â—ight hundred of the besieged already the Bridge-Tower was gained and the Huguenots in such consternation they could expect no help but some sudden blow from Heaven or from Hell when a Gentleman named John Poltrot Meré prompted by a fatal and detestable Zeal for the defence of his Religion watching his opportunity when the Duke of Guise who had been to meet his Wife returned to the Siege mounted upon a Mule and slenderly attended shot him with a Pistol into the shoulder whereof he died six days after In so much reputation even amongst his Enemies as to be allowed the most generous Prince of his time and the best head in Christendom endued with all the heroick vertues and scarce tainted with any vice either as Prince or Courtier The Murtherer after he had rid hard all night thinking he was far enough from thence found himself by day-break at the Bridg d'Olivet his Horse being tyred he went into a House to repose himself where the same Morning he was taken by one of that Dukes Secretaries Interrogated what were the Motives who the Instigators made him commit that Crime he said as to the first his zeal for Religion had push'd him on to destroy him whom he judg'd to be their Persecutor touching the other point he varied much accusing sometimes one sometimes another but in all his Answers and Confessions and at his very death he taxed the Admiral That Lord to little purpose purged
that of Prince did secure him of all the Nobility and the best places upon his first arrival Laverdin had promised him to seize upon Mans and Chartres by the assistance of Roquelaure Lieutenant of his Company d'Ordonnance Fervaques was to have done the same at Cherbourg but both of them failed of their Enterprizes month March The Princes Army having cross'd the Bourbonnois joyned the Duke of Alensons near Moulins the Eleventh day of March and both of them mustered in the Plain Year of our Lord 1576. March de Souzé where the Prince having made an excellent harangue to the Duke of Alenson with that Eloquence which is natural to the Princes of that House resigned the Command of the whole Army to him It consisted of above Thirty thousand of the best Men that one should see notwithstanding with these great Forces no great matter was undertaken For the marvellous dexterities of the Queen which the Huguenots termed Enchantments the extravagant and changeable humour and designs of the Duke d'Alenson and the usual rough temper of the Reistres made them halt at every step Withal great discords were crept in among their Chiefs for the Consistorial Huguenots would not conside in the Duke of Alensons Council wholly composed of People both interressed and persidious The Duke had taken some jealousie upon the King of Navarre's going away the Prince of Conde was no less troubled that he was not the Chief Commander of that Army which had been the fruits of his own labour and care And Damville who had formed his Tetracby in Languedoc apprehended to see his Authority swallowed up by the Princes and which was more the Money he had for his own purposes collected in Languedoc and which his Wife had with much care and covotousness locked up as prisoners of the better sort in her own Coffers All joyn'd together they might have had whatever they desired the Duke of Alenson might have obtained a good part of the Kingdom for Appenage and the Princes such Governments and Pensions as they would the Huguenots a firm and solid Peace ☜ and inviolable securities but a way was found out to divide them with baits of particular Interests which however cannot be attained with so much advantage by any other method as a strickt union of the whole party in all its members The most easy to be taken off was the Duke of Alenson as appeared at the Conference they had at Moulins concerning a Peace However nothing was there concluded but only the sending of some Propositions to the King by John de Laffin Beauvais and William Dauvet Darenes After the Council had examined them with great deliberation but without any fruit the Queen-Mother returned a second time to her Strayed Son so she called him who was in the Abbey of Beaulieu near Loches in Touraine taking along with her the Mareschal de Montmorency in whom that Prince had a great deal of confidence and a great Troop of very fine Women whom she set forth in all her Negotiations as Lime-twigs or Nooses to catch those with whom she Treated Year of our Lord 1576 Prince Casimir obstructed the accommodation for some time he obstinately persisting to have the Government of Mets Toul and Verdun in chief and would have had the Churches belonging to the Catholiques to be in common for the Huguenots without the trouble and charge of building any others The Queen-Mother having discoursed him in private found an expedient to stop his Mouth and satisfy him by promising great sums of Money to make him desist from those demands So that the Treaty was finished the Ninth of May and Signed the day following The Edict month May. was drawn the Fifteenth and verified in Parliament the same day the King being present that there might be no cause of delay It were much more advantageous for the Huguenots then the precedent ones for it allowed them the free exercise of their Religion which from that time forward was to be called The pretended Reformed Religion over all the Kingdom without exception either of time or place provided they had the permission of the Lords of those places allowed them places for burial of their dead especially that of the Trinity at Paris Moreover the faculty of being admitted to all Offices and into Colledges Hospitals and Spittles Forbid the making any search or inquisition after such Priests and Monks as were Married amongst them and declared their Children Legitimate and capable of succeeding and inheriting their Estates and Moveables expressed great sorrow and regret for the Murthers committed on the St. Bartholomew exempted the Children of such as were then Massacred from the Arrier-ban if they were Gentlemen and from Tailles if they were Plebeian revoked all Sentences given against la Molle Coconas John de la Haye Lieutenant-General in the Presidial of Poitiers as also those whereby they had condemned the Admiral Brequemaut Caevagnes Montgomery Montbrun and others of the Religion owned the Prince with Damville and his Associates for his good Subjects Casimir for his good Allie and Neighbour and accounted all what they had done as done for his Service Granted to the Religionaries that they might have equal justice done to them Chambers My-Parties in each Parliament and for places of security Beaucaire and Aigues-Mortes in Languedoc Perigueux and le Mas de Verdun in Guyenne Nions and Serre in Daufiné Issoire in Auvergne and Sene la Grand Tour in Provence They promised also to Prince Casimir the Seignieury of Chasteau-Thierry in Principality a Company of an hundred Men at Arms the Command of Forty thousand Reistres Twelve thousand Crowns of Gold in Pension Seven hundred thousand Crowns Year of our Lord 1576 of Silver ready Money for the payment of his Army and Rings and Jewels in pawn for the rest To the Prince of Conde the effectual enjoyment of the Government of Picardy whereof he had the Title already and Peronne for his place of Residence The conditions for the Duke of Alenson were the best they gave him in augmentation of his Appenage the Countreys of Berry Tourain and Anjou with the right of nomination to consistorial Benefices as his Brother Henry formerly had and besides an hundred thousand Crowns Pension month October The greatest difficulty was to find the Money they wanted for Casimir to whom they had assigned the Bishoprick of Langres for Quarters where he lived German-like while waiting for his Pay They sent Peter de Gondy Bishop of Paris to Rome to ask consent of his Holiness to alienate as much as amounted to Fifty thousand Livres Rent of the Demeasnes Ecclesiastical the Holy Father agreed to the Demand and gave a Bull directed to the Cardinals of Bourbon Guise and Est and to some other French Prelates the Parliament verified it but without approving that clause which mention'd That the distraction should be made even manger the Possessors The Duke of Anjou so we shall name him henceforward whom we have hitherto called
them The Duke of Nevers in the mean time besieged Issoire in Auvergne situate upon the torrent de la Couse A Gentleman whose name was Chavagnae Commanded within Matthew le Merle Son of a Wooll-comber of Vzez but advanc'd to be a Captain during these Troubles had surprized it three years before This Merle was gone to the Sevennes to pick up some Men to relieve it but he staid so long perhaps obstructed by some bags of the Kings Money thrown in his way that the place was forced to surrender at discretion That done the Duke of Anjou with the Duke of Guise returned back to Court which was then at Blois leaving the Command of his Army to the Duke of Nevers The Affairs of the Huguenots could not be in a worse condition the whole party was full of Divisions of Jealousies and of Cabals the Lords of the King of Navarres Court could neither agree amongst themselves nor with him because he gave too much credit and Faith to Lavardin who was known to be tied to the Queen-Mothers Interest insomuch as La Noüe forsook that King and Turenne and the rest served him not without much Anxiety and suspition There was also a mortal feud between the Prince and the Lord de Mirembeau about the business of Broüage a scurvy misunderstanding between the said Prince and the Rochellers for the nomination of a Maire and other points concerning the liberties of that City Eternal Picques between the Bourgeois and the Nobless and every moment some quarrel between the Commanders of their Forces withal most strange disorder and licentiousness amongst their Soldiers who were horribly ungovernable as well because of the want of Pay and the little authority of their Captains as by the mixture of their Politiques the most part Atheists and addicted to all manner of Vices Year of our Lord 1577 The confusion the Duke of Mayenne observed in that party gave him the prospect of subduing Rochel and also to that effect and purpose to hinder all Trade and Provisions from coming to them by Sea by taking the Islands and Broüage as by Land he had already got most of the Towns and Castles that furnish'd or stood them in any stead The Rochellers were jealous of the growing greatness of Broüage The Count of Montgomery who was Governour of it had by his debauches consumed the Soldiers pay and tormented the Inhabitants grievously Captain Lorges his Brother with his Regiment vexed and plundred the Islands so that both the one and the other desired a change that remedy of the unthinking vulgar who ever believe ☞ the present evils the most troublesome The King had equipped a Navy for this Siege the Prince and the Rochellers prepared one to hinder it Clermont Commanded it as Lansac did the Kings Both these met in the canal of Broüage that for the Huguenots was beaten by not keeping out at large Five Gallies brought thither by the young Montlue tearing them in pieces with their Guns during a calm In the mean while the Besiegers press'd upon them at Land and the King was come to Poitiers to encourage his Men. Their amazement was so great in Rochel that all the Suppliesthey endeavour'd to send thither were either taken or put to flight When the Besieged were almost at the greatest extremity the rumour was that the Duke of Anjou after the taking of Issâ—ire was coming to reinforce the Siege with that Army which breathed nothing but Blood and Slaughter the fear they were in that they should have no quarter made them hasten the capitulation and the Duke of Mayenne fearing that Prince would rob him of the Honour of his enterprize granted them Conditions favourable enough The King of Navarre who had taken the Field to succour them finding the business was decided desired to raise up the spirits of his party again by some famous exploit and if he could possibly give battle to that victorious Army but they were already gone to refresh themselves having no Orders to undertake any more Many were of that judgment that if they but push'd on their advantages against the Huguenots in the confusion they were then under they had been laid flat on the ground For it was not in their power then to set an Army on foot their Officers Year of our Lord 1577 were at daggers drawing the Council belonging to the Princes full of Traitors the People grieved at their ill Conduct and in despair for their being pillaged Besides Damville over-perswaded by his Wife and by his Secretaries whom they had bribed and withal picqued for that the Huguenots did not respect him enough had drawn his Sword against them in Languedoc and besieged Montpellier But was indeed upon the point of receiving an affront For Chastillon had bravely pierced thorow his Army and thrown Three thousand Men into the place and would have given him battle the next day if the news of the Peace had not prevented It could not be certainly known what the true Reasons were that induced the King to make it in a juncture that seemed so favourable unless it were his apprehensions of the Reisters coming again to ransack and waste his Kingdom and of the Rochellers giving themselves up to the English or else the intrigues of the Duke of Anjou who infinitely desired to go into Flanders and draw the Army after him or his own weak and uncertain temper not able to undergo the burthen and difficulties of any weighty Affair This Fifth Treaty of Pacification was concluded at Bergerac between the King of Navarre and the Duke of Montpensier The Edict was drawn up at Poitiers in the month of September and verified in Parliament in the beginning of October It was different from the last in that it restrained the exercise of their Religion to the limits of the preceding ones removed it Ten miles from Paris forbid it in the Marqulsate of Salusses and the County of Venaisin exchanged Montpellier for Beaucaire with them and did not restore them Issoire The Consistorians who had much more obstinacy then knowledge could hardly be brought to allow of this restriction but the Chiefs who better understood the state of their Affairs accepted it as very advantageous and the Prince caused it to be proclaimed by Torch-light at Rochel There must have been to make it firm and lasting a Will and Resolution in either party to keep and maintain it and to this end they should have renewed and restored a real confidence and true faith in each other but as the first being wanting the other became impossible they presently started up a thousand doubts and difficulties concerning the execution and it was the delight and interest of the Queen-Mother to be brangling and trucking with the one and the other to keep the Authority in her own hands and to shew her dexterity in disintangling those snarles and knots which she her self most commonly had tied The King her Son had learnt of her to make excessive expences and as he had
a Peace to the Huguenots pursuant to the Tenour of the Edicts of Pacification Knowing not what to reply he for some time avoided the sight of those Ambassadors and went to Dolinville having given Order that some Noblemen should go meet and conduct them to Paris Then from Dolinville under pretence of some indisposition he went to the Waters of Pougues and from thence even to Lyons But being pressed by their continual instances he was constrained to return and in fine he gave them an Answer but very crude and very disobliging whether to satifie his Honour or not to discontent the League I know not He endeavour'd during these delays on the one hand to appease the fervour of the League making them great profers and on the other to bring back the King of Navarre representing to him that his absence from the Court would keep him from the Crown and gave the Leagued too much confidence and advantage but he could gain nothing neither of him nor of the Leagued These having held a general Council of their Party at the Abby of Orcam near Noyon refused those places of security and other great advantages he offer'd them At their departure thence the Duke of Guise attaqu'd the Duke of Bouillon and invested the City of Sedan as being one of the principal Heads of the Huguenots and giving the Reisters passage through his Countries However the Queen Mother who Negociated eternally betwixt the two Parties procured a Truce between them imagining that by this obligation she might incline the Duke of Bouillon to serve the King towards the Protestant Princes and hinder their Army from entring into the Kingdom Year of our Lord 1586 As for Joyeuse he could reckon amongst his Exploits nothing but five or six paltry Places after which Winter coming on he put his Forces half diminished by Sickness month October into quarters Having made a pompous flourish before Thoulouze he left the conduct to Laverdin and came post to Court The Duke of Espernon was more fortunate then so The Parliament of Aix had taken the Government of â—â—ovence and Vins having got some Forces together offer'd him his service He had an opposite Party of Huguenots and Male-contents of whom Francis d'Oraison Vicount de Cadenet and the Baron d'Alemagne were the Heads Now it hapned that Vins pursuing them with too much heat and besieging the Castle of Alemagne was defeated by Lesdiguieres who came to their relief which did marvellously help Espernons business and gave him so much advantage over either Party that he became both the Arbitrator and Master at least for that present time Winter approaching he returned to the King leaving the Command to Bernard Lord de la Valete his eldest Brother who had it already in Daufine where he was no less active to ruine the Party of the League then that of the Huguenots by turning out such Governors as either of them had placed there month December In the Month of December the Queen Mother had a Conference with the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde at St. Bris which is within two Leagues of Cognac She had according to her custom carried in her Train a good number of the finest Women of her Court but this time the Princes avoided the Nets she thought to spread for them by those alluring Charms stood firm in maintenance of their Religion till they might have the judgment and determination of a National Council and demanded the rupture of the League the Qâ—een on the contrary declared that the Kings positive resolution was that there should be but one Religion in his Dominions The Guises perceived plainly that the Kings main Resolution was to ruine them and although he did not love the Huguenots nevertheless he would tolerate them as an indirect opposition to their progress wherefore they caused him to be decried by their Emissaries and by their Preachers as an Abettor of Hereticks and proclaimed every where because he had courted the King of Navarre for an Accommodation that he conspired with him to oppress all the good Catholicks The inferior People who the more ignorant they are the more they must be medling still with matters of Religion grew hot enough of themselves the Directors and Confessors animated the Citizens who were both foolish and credulous at their Confessions or by the Persuasions of their Wives and entertained them with Congregations Confraternities Paradices and Oratories which they adorned with Plate and Jewels Images and Agnus Dei and with Processions which they caused to come thither from Brie Champagne and Picardy These all made their entrance into Paris cloathed in white Linnen bearing Wax Candles in their hands from whence they called this year The year of white Processions Year of our Lord 1586 It was not so much woundred at to see the People led away thus with false and pretended Devotions as that the King authorised them by his example He went perpetually on Pilgrimage to divers parts of the Kingdom walked in Procession on foot in the Streets of Paris in the habit of a Penitent wore a String of huge Beads or Chaplet at his Girdle each Bead being carved like a Deaths Head shut himself up in certain Oratories with the Hieronimites whom he had sent for out of Spain or with the Feuillants who were Bernadines of a new cut begun in the Abby of that name within the Diocess of Rieux in Languedoc He built Cells for the first in the Bois de Vincennes and lodged the others in the Fauxbourgh Saint Honore upon one side of the Garden of the Tuilleries Amidst these pious Divertisements he amused himself likewise in carving of Images casing them and setting them up in some Closet He had another Pastime also which was to buy and breed up little Dogs such as are wont to be the vanity and delight of Ladies in which he expended above a hundred thousand Crowns a year and little less in Monkeys and Perroquets There were a world of People that followed the ☜ Court with all this dainty Equipage and himself during the last years of his life * carried a Panier or little round Basket on a Scarf full of little Spaniels and the like Creatures which he often cherished with his Voice and by stroaking them Espernon raised to the highest degree of favour from which Joyeuse began to decline was ever pushing on the King to destroy the Guises and they in retaliation having conspired his ruine framed divers Projects for it He had so much craft as to persuade the King they were all Contrivances against his Sacred Person and by that means prevailed he should ever keep above him that famous Band of Forty five whom he chose himself perhaps for that very end which the event will shew us They were all Gascons whom the desire of making their own fortunes had fitted for any undertaking Lognac being their Captain It is credible that the knowledge the Guises had of those intentions did the more
Sisternon took up the Government till the King should otherwise dispose thereof His death dispersed the greater part of his Troops and caused divisions between the Provenceaux and the Gascons concerning whom should succeed him The Gascons desired the Duke of Espernon and were the stronger so the others pretended to acquiesce and all sent to the King to demand him The King had not love enough to bestow so considerable a gist upon him and feared lest his haughty and ambitious Spirit might lead him to Cantonize himself in that Province which was both Maritine and Neighbour to the Duke of Montmorency and the Duke of Savoy Nevertheless when he perceived he was sitting himself to go and take possession of it and that his refusal would serve to no end but to cast him on the Enemies side he sent him his Commission with very obliging Letters but took from him the Office of Admiral which he gave the young Biron and under-hand order'd Mesplez a Gentleman of Bearn and also others of the most authorised amongst the Gascons and Royalists of Provence to cross him in his Government till such time as he could find an opportunity to force him out The Affairs of the Duke of Savoy were but little the better for the death of la Valete The Sixteenth of February the Inhabitants of Arles killed their first Consul Riviere while he was endeavouring to introduce some Savoyard Companies into the City and certain Gentlemen Royalists went and assassinated Biord Lieutenant to the Seneschal a great Partisan for the Duke who was retired to a Farm of his own thereabout Some Months after the third Consul raised the City of Arles and rejoyned them to the Parliament of Aix but did not restore them to the interests of the Duke This Prince having no strong Holds in the Province but Berre and Grace and of month March three great Cities none left him but that of Aix which was neither a Frontier nor a Sea-Port nor upon any River took his farewell of the Parliament the Thirtieth of March and carried away all his Luggage and his Forces to Nice having notwithstanding made them fair promises of a speedy return The Parliament of Aix in his absence took up the Government of the Province and got Letters Patents for it from the Duke of Mayenne When he departed the Country Lesdiguieres was called in by the Parliament of Year of our Lord 1592 Sisteron Having therefore made a Truce with the Duke of Nemours he came into month May c. Provence towards the end of May refused that demanded by the Parliament of Aix took all the little Castles about Aix and towards Antibes ran over all the Country beat the Duke who â—ad undertaken to come to the relief of Aix and much streightned both the City and Parliament But when he was just upon the point of reducing them Nemours broke the Truce took the Fort des Eschelles and gained Maugiron who commanded for the King in Vienne He would not however leave the Government to him fearing lest he that had once changed might have a fancy to do so a second time The noise of this progress recalled Lesdiguieres into Daufine when he was there he tried all manner of ways to draw him to a Battle he could never engage him to it yet by hunting him from place to place in time dispersed his whole Army month July About the end of July the Duke of Savoy took Antibes at discretion La Valete had formerly treated a League with the Venetians the Duke of Florence and the Duke of Mantoua to carry a War into the Country of Savoy They obliged themselves to furnish him an Hundred thousand Livers per Month as soon as he should month September have taken any considerable place Lesdiguieres got to be accepted in his stead and acquitted himself as well as the former could have done He passed the Mountain Genevra the Six and twentieth of September divided his Army into three Bodies the one to attaque Perouse the other Pignerol and the third which he commanded in Person the Pas of Suza He succeeded only in Perouse where he gained all the Passages that were convenient for Carriages and those of the Valley of Quieras proper for the passage of his Foot Soldiers Moreover he fortified Briquieras in sight of the Duke of Savoy took the City and then the Castle of Tavours and made the Duke retire who was coming on to relieve it then having provided for the security of his Conquests he returned to Winter in Daufine The Duke d'Espernon passing with Three thousand Men along the Frontier of Languedoc found there the Duke of Joyeuse who besieged Villemur on the Tarn at the request of those of Toulouze who by that means designed to prevent the incursions of them in Montauban The rumour of his march made the Besiegers hastily dislodge but as soon as he was gone some distance Joyeuse forced as one may say by his ill destiny renewed the Siege The Mareschal de Montmorency fearing his power would become too great made up a Body of his choicest Men giving the Command to Lecques Chambaud and Montoison Messilac heretofore named Rostignac Year of our Lord 1592 Governor of Auvergne joyned them with some Horse All these together month August and September having certain notice that the Duke had sent his Light-Horse to quarter in certain Villages resolved to attaque him the Nineteenth of October At the same time they made the onset Temines who had thrown himself into the place with a good number of the Nobility made also a great Sally They forced the Dukes Retrenchments put his Men into disorder rout them knock a great many on the Head make as many more drown themselves in the Tarn and even the Duke himself the Bridge falling under him by reason of the multitude of run-aways This news begot an incredible consternation in Toulouze and after every one had bemoaned both the general and his particular loss they were to consider of chusing another Chief The defunct Duke had yet two Brothers but both of them devoted to the service of God the one a Cardinal the other a Capucin called Father Angel The first who was very well vers'd in the conduct of Affairs would willingly have undertaken that part of the Government but he excused himself as to the command of the Army It was confer'd upon his Brother who had otherwhile exercised that trade yet did he not accept of it without a great deal of difficulty The Duke of Espernon arrived in Provence towards the end of August his entrance was very glorious the People receiving him every where with acclamations of joy He employ'd the Months of September and October in setling himself in the Province and in clearing it of several Castles and Dens of Thieves The Month of November was spent in Parlies and Negociations of Peace though very ineffectually after which he went to attaque Antibes and took the City upon Composition and the Castle
during which time might bring forth some favourable occasion to change the Scene or turn the Tide another way But this Dame as crafty as themselves made no great haste to serve them but on the contrary would let them know her intercession only could save them When therefore the Dutchess of Mercoeur presented her self one Morning at the Gates of Anger 's she was rudely turned back and forced to retire to Pont de Ce but when her Pride thus humbled had taught her to refer her self wholly to the will of the fair Dame she was the very same day sent for and the King soon moved with the Tears of that obliging Sex and very ready to grant what his Mistress requested allowed the Duke an Edict almost as honourable as he could have expected when his power was greatest For having taken care in the Preface of it to excuse him though after his Reconciliation with the Pope nay even after the coming of the Legat into France he had not submitted to him supposing he acted in that manner for some reasons that respected the preservation of Bretagne which must have run the hazard of being invaded by Strangers whilst the Forces of France were employ'd upon the Frontiers of Picardy He declared That he held him and all those that had follow'd his Party for good and faithful Subjects restored them to their Estates and Commands Revoked all Judgments given against them Confirmed all such as had been made by the Members of Parliament and Presidial Courts of that Party Year of our Lord 1598 Moreover he gave the Duke Two hundred thirty six thousand Crowns Reparations month April for his Warlike Expences and Seventeen thousand Crowns Pension Besides this a permission to sell of the Corn that was in store to the value of Fifty thousand Crowns The keeping of the Castles of Guingamp Montemort and Lamballe Pass-ports for the Spaniards who lay in the River of Nantes to retire and power to keep the Places and Forces he then had till a Month after the Verification of this Edict Not to mention several other the like Conditions as those granted in the Edict for the Duke of Mayenne The Price of so honourable a Treaty was his Daughter whom the King in few days betrothed to his Son Caesar He had legitimated and enriched him with the Dutchy of Vendosine to be by him held with the same Rights and Advantages as the preceding Dukes had enjoy'd and with a promise to give him within four years wherewith to redeem all its Lands that had been alienated Which the Parliament verified without drawing any consequence for such other Lands as were of the Kings Patrimony which by the Laws of the Kingdom were re-united to the Crown from the moment he attained it The Treaty made the Duke of Mercoeur came to Anger 's to salute the King who received him as his Sons Father in Law The Contract for this future Marriage was sealed in the Castle belonging to the said Town and the Fiancailles or Betrothings were celebrated in the same place with as much Pomp as if he had been a Son of France The Cardinal de Joyeuse not disdaining to perform the Ceremony From Anger 's the King descended to Nantes and from thence went to Renes where the Estates of Bretagne were held He fojourned about two Months in those two Cities employing that time in putting every thing in good order for the quiet and security of the Province and collecting Twelve hundred thousand Crowns the greatest part whereof was given him by the Estates of that Country Whilst he was at Nantes he finished the business of the Huguenots Their Deputies being come to him at Blois he made them follow him thither and had put them off till after his Treaty with the Duke of Mercoeur That Treaty being perfected he would yet have made some further delay but they press'd it so home that he could scarce find any reasonable Excuse And besides he apprehended lest their despair should in the end put them upon some undertaking that might retard the Peace with Spain and give the Leaguers a plausible pretence to re-unite and take up Arms again This Consideration above any thing else obliged him to grant them the Edict which from the name of that Town is called the Edict of Nantes Year of our Lord 1598 It contains Ninety two Articles which are almost the same as those in the foregoing Edicts granted to them but it is more advantageous in that it opens them a Door to Offices of Judicature and Finance There were added fifty six other Articles which are called Secret the most important being that which left them several Places of Security besides all those they already held This Edict is that Safe-guard under which they have lived to this very hour in security and quiet and freely enjoy'd the Exercise of their Religion The King durst not send it to the Parliament to be verified till the Legat were out of the Kingdom so that it came not thither till the following year They labour'd incessantly at Vervins about the Peace the French did not insist so much now on Cambray although they had not yet passed by that Article The Arch-Duke impatient to consummate his Marriage with the Infanta Clara-Eugenia hastned as much as possible he could the grave pace of the Spaniard and obliged his Deputies to step over many trivial things Had it not been for the Allies of France the Treaty had been finished in less then three weeks The King demanded a two Months Cessation of Arms for them that they might send their Ambassadors the Spaniards refused it absolutely and upon this Contest the violent Spirits belonging to eithers Court the chief Commanders of their Armies and those that desired troubled Waters did not fail to press for a Rupture with all their might and interest but it availed nothing the two Princes were of a contrary disposition In the mean time the English Ambassadors arrived at Court which as then was at Nantes they did not shew themselves much averse to the Peace for the difficulties did not concern them but the States from whom they had Orders not to separate Now those would have none at all knowing too well the Peace could not be made without some prejudice to their liberty for which they had fought almost thirty years and without which they neither valued their Estates nor Lives chusing rather therefore to hazard all then to lose the Recompence of so much Labour Blood and Treasure One thing besides confirmed them yet more in this generous Resolution which was a Dispatch they intercepted coming from the King of Spain which gave his Deputies Order not to comprise them unless upon Condition to restore the Roman Religion over all their Country to reduce it to an absolute Obedience and fill up all Offices with Catholick Magistrates Year of our Lord 1598 Whereupon there were no Efforts no Offers but they made to the King to persuade month April him to continue
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
notwithstanding of the Duke D'Espernon who feigned to be very well satisfied though he fore-saw he should have no power in those parts so long as the King lived Ever since the Kings absolution at the Court of Rome the Jesuits had missed no opportunity of employing the Popes intercession with all their art and industry to sollicite their re-establishment pretending it was one of the secret conditions which had been opposed at his absolution But the imprudent conduct of some of their Society in England at Venice and in the lesser Cantons of Swizzerland having brought complaints against them to Rome the Pope grew somewhat cold in the pursuâ—e of it Now as the King was passing by Verdun the Year of our Lord 1603 Rector and Fathers of the Colledge in that City incouraged by la Varenne presented themselves to request of him that the Decree of the Parliament of Paris which forbid the French to send any of their Children to study in the Jesuits Colledges might not extend to theirs The King having returned them a very Gracious Answer they thought it a fit time to try a little further Their Provincial named Armand and three or four of his came to Mets and chusing the week of the Passion of our Lord most proper to stir up mercy and compassion in a Christian Soul got into the Kings Closset upon Holy-Thursday after noon and fell down at his feet The good Prince soon raized them agen and gave them a full Audience The Provincial who was Spokes-man insinuates himself by extolling of his Victories and his Clemency then endeavour'd to justifie his Society from the common reproaches of their Enemies and afterwards concluded by conjuring and imploring his Royal Clemency by the precious Blood of Jesus Christ to shew mercy towards them and to do it in such sort that this favour might depend on nothing but his own goodness that it might be wholly from him alone and that they might have no obligation but to himself They had put down their harangue in writing after he had heard it with all possible humanity he took it out of their hands as if to read it with more attention The Monday following having called them a second time into his Closet he gave them his positive word for their being restored commanded the Provincial to come to him at Paris and to bring Father Cotton then embraced him and all his Compagnons in token he freely forgave them for the time past and would make use of them for the time to come While he was at Mets he received some Letters the Prince Palatine had written in favour of the Duke of Bouillon his Brother in Law In the same place some German Princes came to Compliment him particularly Maurice Landgrave of Hesse N. de Bavaria Duke of Newburg the Duke of Deux-Ponts of the same House and John George of Brandenburg who disputed the Bishoprick of Strasburg with Charles Cardinal of Lorrain ever since the year 1592. the first having been Elected by the Protestants at Strasburgh and the second by the Catholicks at Saverne The Emperor had often endeavour'd to bring them to an agreement but could never effect it The King rather suspended then decided the controversy by sharing the Revenue between the two Contenders but the following year it was absolutely and finally determined by the mediation of Frederick Duke of Wirtemberg upon these conditions amongst many others That John George of Brandenburg should entirely yield up the Bishoprick to the Cardinal de Lorrain for an hundred and thirty thousand Crowns of Gold ready Money and that the City and Baillywike of Oberâ—agh should remain in the hands of Frederic redeemable at the end of thirty years by the Cardinal or his Successors for the sum of four hundred thousand Crowns From Mets the King went to Nancy to visit the Dutchess of Bar his Sister and to give her the satisfaction of seeing a Balet danced which was of her own invention for such things are not to be counted the least important Affairs of the Court It was likewise as some would have it further to convince the Duke of Bar of his scruples concerning that Marriage and to let him know that the devoir of Man towards his Wife being founded both on a natural and a divine right ought to be more regarded then humane prohibitions However it was within some few Months after the Dutchess believed she was with Child The King had designed a longer stay upon those Frontiers that he might draw the German Princes to him by making himself a friendly Mediator of their differences reconciling as much as possible the Protestants with the Catholicks re-uniting in one common League those that apprehended they might be oppressed month April by the grandeur of the House of Austria and scattering Money amongst the Captains and Officers But the News he received that Elizabeth Queen of England was at the Agony made him suddenly leave that place to return to Paris This Princess so much exalted by the Protestants and made so black by the zealous Catholicks was in truth worthy of immortal praise for the grandeur of her courage her marvellous prudence the rare qualities of her mind and above all that tender love ☞ wherewith she cherished her people a vertue which may well cover all the other Vices in a Soveraign but her reputation will be for ever stained with the Blood of a Queen her Cousin which she spilt upon a Scaffold and with that of a great number of Catholicks her Subjects whom she exposed to cruel deaths This severity notwithstanding proceeded Year of our Lord 1603 not so much from her own temper as the Instances of her Counsellors Who by reason of the frequent Conspiracies hatched by an indiscreet and unwarrantable zeal month April against her person had specious opportunities to involve the innocent with the guilty and to encrease her hatred to that Religion by the hainousness of those attempts She died the fourth of April about four in the morning Aged sixty nine years and six months of which She had Reigned forty five and more On her Death-Bed she gave Letters written with her own hands and sealed with her own Seal to Robert Cecil High Treasurer and Secretary with Command he should open them so soon as she expir'd Now whether by these writings she had declared James Steward King of Scotland her Successor or had left the liberty of Election to her Subjects as the last mark of her affection the Lords the Bishops those of the Privy-Council to the late Queen with a great number of the Nobility and the Major and Sheriffs of London being on the same day assembled early in the Morning at the Guild-Hall Elected that Prince for their King and so speedily that they Proclaimed him by eight of the Clock whereof sending him notice to Edinburg he came to London the seventeenth day of May. It concerned France to take care in time to secure the Alliance with this new King for that hitherto
likewise somewhat to clear before him concerning the great Affair of the point of Grace with the Dominicans wherein they ran no less hazard should they miscarry then to be charged with temerity and errour month June July c. Whilst both parties were thinking to arm the one to attaque and the other to defend themselves their men of Learning began the War by divers writings which they sent picqueering abroad The most Signal that appeared on the Theatre for the Republick were Pol Soave of the Order of the Servites vulgarly called Fra Paolo John Marsile a Neapolitan Doctor in Theology and Fulgentius of the same fraternity with Pol Soave on the opposite Cardinal Bellarmine and the Cardinal Baronius appeared the most zealous defenders of his Holiness After these had dealt the heaviest blows a confused multitude of meaner Authors tilted at one another the meanest Lawyers and Canonists presuming according to the party they espoused either to restrain or extend the Authority of the Pope beneath or above the Council and Canons and to discourse of the power of Princes and the boundaries of their Dominion It was to be feared lest a more dangerous shock should follow the Pope drew his Forces together in the Dutchy of Spoleta and had given the general Command of them to Rainutio Farnese Duke of Parma He had promis'd himself to make his Censures Year of our Lord 1606 more biting with the sharp edge of his Sword and at first breath'd nothing but Battels and Sieges but these were old mens flashes which grew cold and drooping as soon as he began to feel the burtâ—â—â— of the expence the cares attending so great an enterprize and the perpleâ—ity he had run himself into The two most potent Princes of Christendom the Kings of France and Spain outvied each other in offering their Assistance but he perceived plainly that they at the same time treated with the Venetians and designed only to make an accommodation and gain the honour and credit to themselves The Spaniard had sent him a very obliging Letter and dispatched Francis de Castro Ambassador extraordinary to Venice The King of France also dealt with his Holiness by Alincour his Ambassador in Ordinary and towards the end of the year ordered the Cardinal de Joyeuse to go to the Venetians to Negociate the Treaty which was already much advanced by Fresne Canaye his Ambassador in Ordinary Year of our Lord 1607 The Cardinal found nothing so difficult as the re-establishment of the Jesuits the Senate perswaded they had not only animated the Pope to lay the interdiction but also month January stirred every stone and tried all possible means to debauch the people and the other religious Orders had caused information against them touching other Criminal matters and as if they had been Convicted banished them from all their Territories by a solemn Decree Wherefore they stood stifly upon it not to open the Door again for their re-admittance at least till such time as by a deportment wholly contrary to the former they had taken away all just cause of suspicion and jealousie month February As to the rest of the conditions they soon agreed upon them The Senate made a Vote to resign the Prisoners and not execute their Decrees till both Parties were satisfied therein to revoke all their Edicts made against the Interdiction and recall all the Religious Orders that had retired themselves excepting the Jesuits Reciprocally the Pope passed his word to take off the Censures and receive the Seigneury into his paternal affection Joyeuse and d'Alincourt Procurators for the King in this mediation promised to subscribe to these conditions and to become security to his Holiness for performance and his Holiness upon the receipt of this writing from their hands was to give Joyeuse power to take off the Censures month March The Cardinal de Joyeuse went post to Rome with these Articles The day after his Arrival which was the Eighteenth of March the Pope having admitted him to Audience did again make great Efforts at least in appearance for the restoration of the Jesuits for it concern'd him in honour not to forsake them visibly since they had been expell'd for his quarrel The Cardinal did as good as undertake to obtain this point if they would leave the business absolutely to his management but the Pope did not think that convenient The Cardinal du Perron who was then at that Court upon some other account employ'd his Eloquence to perswade him he ought not to break off the agreement for the Jesuits sakes since their return was not positively denied but only deferred The Pope pretended to yield to his ponderous reasons but it appeared at last that Du Perron's was a needless debate on that point since the Spaniards as was after known bad secretly obtained of his Holiness that he would make no further instance but for fashion-sake only whereof they failed not to give the Senate Notice They had had all the share they could desire in the secret inward managing of this Affair but they endeavour'd likewise to have the outward publick transacting The French would never suffer et which proved none of the least difficulties in the compleating it For these Urafty Politicians resolving to have a hand in 't or to break it sometimes demanded that the taking off the Censures should be done at Rome otherwhile essay'd to have some new Clause added to the Popes Brief Then again they endeavour'd to perswade they ought to oblige those Bishops that had not obey'd to come to Rome and defire absolution of his Holiness None of these succeeding they try'd to allarme him by spreading a report the Senate would protest against the surrender of the Prisoners but the Cardinal de Joyeuse secur'd him from that apprehension Having made all these attempts in vain they demanded that the Cardinal Sapate who had zealously stickled for the interests of his Holiness might be associated with the Cardinal de Joyeuse for the executing of the Brief But Joyeuse told them plainly he would sooner leave all as it was then suffer any other whoever he were to partake this honour with him month April Wherefore thus was their Affair determined After the Cardinal was returned to Venice and had consulted with the Seigneory they appointed the one and twentieth of April for the Action In the morning of that day before any other thing was done the two Pâ—â—soners were brought to the Dukes House and theredeliver'd into the Year of our Lord 1607 hands of a Doctor Commissioned by his Holiness for that purpose in the presence of several Witnesses That done the Cardinal entred alone into the Senate when he had been there some time they called in two Witnesses before whom he caused the Brief of interdiction and Excommunication to be read by a Herauld After which he gave absolution in due form with the sign of the Cross to the Senate and to all those that had incurr'd the said Censures An Act thereof