represented to them the greatness of the danger the King was in and the more effectually to move her audience she gave frequent interruptions to her Speech with tears and sobs and after she had thus mollified their hearts she prick'd them on with the thoughts of what immortal glory would attend them in being the Instruments of their Monarchs Preservation Moreover she gave them to understand how little hazard they would run provided they made haste since the Rebels who design'd to seize upon the King at the passage of Estampes would fall into their mouths without going farther the Colonels then having assur'd her that they would presently go and get their Companies together and hasten their March she provided experienc'd under-Officers to order and conduct them The Parisians arriv'd at Montleher sooner and with greater force then could have been imagin'd and having drawn up in a large Battalion they set the King in the midst of them and brought him back along with them to their Town before the Rebels had determin'd what measures were to be taken to oppose them But by the same way that the Earl of Champaign came to know their design they came to know that it was he who discover'd it to the Regent However the extraordinary desire which they had to be reveng'd of him did not yet so far blind them but that they foresaw it would be incomparably more advantageous for them to make use of the natural inconstancy of this Prince and to draw him once more over to their Party than unseasonably to endeavour his present mischief The Duke of Bretaign who had no Children but one Daughter whose beauty was charming enough to raise the drooping Spirits of an ill treated Lover had she not been endow'd besides with a Province of large Extent offer'd the Earl of Champaign provided he would take part with the League to put into his possession the Princess of Bretaign and to permit him either to espouse her himself or to bequeath her to some other Prince of his house This offer as advantageous as it was the Earl refus'd whether it were that he was not yet perswaded that the Regent consider'd him no otherwise then as a property to be made use of or as hoping the two last Services he had render'd her would produce at length the Effect which he had in vain expected by all his former assiduities once more he made his Love tryumph over his Ambition and all the fruit he drew from these Temptations was to advertise the Regent thereof to the end she should be sensible that if he yielded not she was the sole cause The Rebels more offended at his refusal than they had been at his deertion conceiv'd so implacable a malice against him that they left the Regent to her quiet and repose and resolv'd to turn their Arms against Champaign they conspire his ruine by a particular Treaty and as they foresaw that the Regent was too much oblig'd to abandon him to people whom he had not quitted but for her they found a pretext so plausible that she durst not apparently assist him without committing a notorious piece of Injustice Divine Providence had not utterly abandon'd the two Nieces of the Earl of Champaign though defrauded of their Right by their Uncle The Eldest nam'd Alice had the fortune to be married to Hugo de Lusignan the first of that Name King of Cyprus The goodness of Henry Father of this Princess doubtless procur'd her this Match and the Lord of Joinvile the most credible of all the Historians that write of St. Lewis hath a passage concerning this matter which it will not be from the purpose here to abbreviate Henry Earl of Champaign the Eldest Brother and Predecessor of Thibault was of so free and liberal a disposition to give to all sorts of People especially the poor that he was thence sirnam'd the Large that is to say large hearted or bountiful He had no particular Favourite only there was one Artaud a Citizen of Troyes who had insinuated into his familiarity whether it were that there was some conformity in their humours or that the Earl had the more consideration for Artaud in regard he was the richest of his Subjects One day when they were together at Church a poor Gentleman presented his two daughters to the Earl and besought him to bestow something upon them to marry them off They were handsome and of an Age so fully ripe for Marriage that in case they stay'd much longer unprovided for it was to be fear'd their virtue might be in danger Artaud knew well enough that the Prince his Exchequer was much exhausted and brought low and as he had many times taken upon him to answer for the said Earl without being thought ill of for his pains so upon this occasion he smartly told the Gentleman that the Earls Liberality had already brought him so low that he had hardly any thing left to give There is nothing so ungrateful to the quality of a Prince as Poverty and therefore nothing so ill to be brook'd by them as the reproach thereof The Earl now incens'd at the too much liberty or to say better sauciness of Artaud told him he lyed and that he had yet enough to give if it were but an Artaud and at the instant of his pronouncing the word Artaud he made signs to the Gentleman to seise upon the Citizen and to demand what Ransome for him he pleas'd The Gentleman accordingly took hold of him carryed him away to Prison and there detain'd him till he had paid 500 Livres which serv'd for Portions for the two Damsels The Rebels took hold of Count Henry's Liberality to concern themselves in his behalf to their own advantage maintaining that it was a thing not to be endur'd to see the Eldest Daughter of him who had reliev'd so many poor People kept out from her hereditary Estate and accordingly offer'd their assistance toward her reestablishment The Queen of Cyprus took them at their word and the Champaigneses seing them enter their Countrie with two Armies one commanded by the Duke of Bourgogne the other by Hugo de Lusignan Earl of March let open the gates of all their Towns before Earl Thibault could bring up the Army Royal to their succour The Rebels success gave them opportunity to take new measures they abandon'd all the pretence they had formerly made use of against the Regent and declar'd themselves her Majesties most humble Servants they protested they had taken Arms only to restore the Queen of Cyprus to that Estate she layd claim to they offer'd to lay down their Arms as soon as their most Christian Majesties should have beheld with satisfaction and approbation the reestablishment of this Princess and to decide the difference between her and her Uncle by a fair combate presuming there were no less than 300 Knights as well on the one side as the other Their Majesties accepted the submission of the Rebels with this reserve that they
THE MINORITY OF St. Lewis With the Politick Conduct of Affairs by his Mother Queen Blanch of Spain during her Regency BEING A Relation of what happen'd most Memorable under his Reign during the Year 1226 1227 1228 and 1229. LONDON Printed for R. Bentley and S. Magnes at the Post-house in Russel-Street in Covent-Garden 1685. To the most Illustrous Prince HENRY DUKE of NORFOLK Earl Marshal of England Earl of Arundel Surrey Norfolk and Norwich Baron Mowbray Howard Seagrave Bruse de Gower Fitz-Allan Clun Oswaldestrey Maltravers Talbot Verdon Lovetot Furnival Strange of Blackmere and Howard of Castle Rysing Constable and Governour of His Majesties Royal Castle and Honour of Windsor Lord Warden of Windsor Forrest Lord Lieutenant of the Counties of Norfolk Surrey and Berks and of the City of Norwich and County of the said City and Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter MY LORD I Should not have presum'd to approach with an Address of so small importance a Personage of your Dignity and Grandure in whose present station all the Honours and in whose Person all the Virtues of your Illustrious Family so eminently shine but for this consideration that there is an obliging condiscention which ever attends upon true Nobility and Native Greatness But my Lord I have this moreover to plead that in this so small a Volume there are such Arcana Historiae and such well weigh'd Characters of persons that those even of the highest Sphaere and Imployment may I judge think a few hours not ill bestow'd in the perusal of them The last pretension I lay to your Graces pardon is that I have taken care to give your Grace as little interruption as possible to your more weighty affairs in striving to express the ambition I have of paying my Mite of those honours and respects which you merit from all the world and thereby of aspiring to the Title of MY LORD Your GRACES most humble most obedient and most dutiful Servant Edw. Philips The MINORITY OF St. Lewis OR A Relation of what happen'd of most Memorable under his Reign during the Years 1226 1227 1228 and 1229. NEver any Christian Prince merited of History more solid serious and univerversal Praise than Lewis the 9th of that Name King of France firnamed the Saint and consequently never any Christian Prince hath been so ill treated by the generality of Historians both French and Foreigners Ancient and Modern Good and Bad of all sorts of People and of all Religions The Hereticks of latter times haply offended at the Reason he gave for refusing to go to see the Body of Christ become visible in the hands of a Priest namely that he had no need of ocular Testimony to convince him of a Truth whereof he was already so well satisfied have with that prejudice represented even the most Heroick of his actions that were their Credit valuable this Prince could certainly be allow'd no better a Character than any of the nine last Kings of the Merovingian Race They will needs have that haughtiness wherewith he treated his Brother Charles of Anjou who after he was crown'd King of Naples and Sicily let loose the Reins to licence pass for an Effect of secret Pride and Ambition they brand with rashness and imprudence the two Expeditions he made against the Infidels and will have the extraordinary Charge he was at in those Undertakings no other than Profuseness and Prodigality That Majestick Air which he exprest in all his Actions and which descended to him from the Queen his Mother they interpret to be only a natural Surliness and Austerity of humour in him and though more Covertly they forbear not to censure his frequent Visitations and regulations of Hospitals The plainness of his habit they attribute to a poorness of Spirit in him and from his aptness to conceal and pass over all private Injuries offer'd him they are ready to accuse him of Pusillanimity and Cowardice His Conversation though obliging enough they account too Reserv'd and Morose considering the Familiarity and Freedom that had been allow'd to Courtiers in those times They cavil at the sincerity of his Answers both by word of mouth and in writing to foreign Ambassadors in the Affairs he had to concert with the Crowns of England and Spain they tax him of too much Severity in the Execution of his Laws especially against the Jews and of too much adhering to particular Justice to the prejudice of the publick in the renuntiations he made to the Dutchy of Guien and Kingdom of Castile Nor is this noble Prince and Saint King Lewis better dealt with by the Catholick Historians though perhaps not with such an apparent and design'd prejudice and that by Reason for a more probable cause cannot be guess'd at of that pragmatick Sanction which came forth under the Name of this Prince occasion'd by the quarrel he had with the Court of Rome They look'd upon as Criminal the zealous Concerns he had for the Rights of his Crown and upon this pretence took upon them to bespatter all his actions without Limit or Distinction Of this last sort of Writers some there are who not daring to launch out into those high Intemperancies have yet fallen into another default equally disadvantageous to the glory of this Royal Saint They have a conceit forsooth that there is no extraordinary Sanctity to be found but in Monasteries or at least that it is not to be attain'd but by such Mortifications of the body as are there in use and upon this presupposal they carry on the main part of their design throughout all their Writings so that they make it not so much their buisiness to represent this holy King Lewis such as really he was but such as in their Opinion he ought to have been that is to say in stead of making him a great King as he was they set him forth a very Monk of the most reformed Order Insomuch that in a Manuscript Imbellisht with curious Figures in Miniature which came to light about 12 years after his death he is pourtray'd in several Exercises of Penitence the most severe and bloody that were than practic'd in Cloisters Moreover one Richard a Monk of the Abby of Enove de Votsge describes him yielding to the Temptation of a certain Jacobin who urg'd him to take upon him the Order of St. Dominick and from which nothing but the powerful and incessant Interposings of the Queen his Mother Philip the Hardy his Son and Charles of Anjou his Brother could have diverted him Mathew Paris an English Benedictin an Historian otherwise the most faithful and best informed of his Time brings in our Princely St. Lewis at his restitution of Guien to the English uttering himself in a Speech no less void of Sense then Regal Authority and gives him a very lame at least imprudent Character when he tells us that without fear or respect of the Barons of his Realm he had given up to the English those other Provinces which
were to have the Sovereign decision of the affair in hand after they had try'd all ways which their prudence should suggest to them to bring the Parties to agreement but that above all things it was expected his most Christian Majesty should be invested with the Right of Sequestration that is should have the Title of all the Estates in Controversie deposited in his Royal hands The Rebels who found that this Expedient would not turn to any account to them rejected it and the Regent sent Forces enough into Champaign to dislodge the Earls Enemies She foresaw in the end that in pronouncing a definitive Sentence upon so nice a Process her Authority and Reputation would be much expos'd and brought into danger for that if her Sentence were favourable to the Earl of Champaign all the French would be ready to tax he of notorious Injustice especially if she should make it her business in this affair to serve her pretended Lover all the Satyrical wits would begin to let fly at her with more fury than before on the other side if she should decree the Queens reestablishment in her Estate of the house of Champaign she would be liable to be censur'd of Ingratitude toward Count Thibault to whom she ow'd her Regency at least if not her Life In short which way soever she gave her Sentence all outward appearances conduce to this perswasion that the Arrest would be subject to a review because otherwise the Duke of Bretaign and the rest of the revolted Peers would not have been assistant in it so that the business could not but go well on the fair one's side and this the Regent brought the better about by a trick which in brief was as followeth She represented to the Queen of Cyprus that the Rebels sending for her was but to make her endure a long continuance of affliction after a short flash of joy for that no sooner should she be put into the possession of her Fathers Estate by their means but she would be driven out again and that she plainly foresaw the Rebels would not be in a capacity of restoring her the second time wherefore since her engaging with them would signifie so little to her there remain'd but one Expedient by which if she would take her advice she might come off with honour That she had but one Son who in regard he was oblig'd to reside in Cyprus would not be able to preserve the Inheritance of Champaign any long time though she her self should leave the peaceable possession of it to him that her daughters would never find Matches in Cyprus answerable to their quality that therefore it would be much better for her by yielding to an accomodation with Count Thibault to receive a present summ of mony and such a portion of Land in France as would put her into a capacity of matching her daughters into Sovereign houses than by standing out to be reduc'd to a Condition of having nothing to give them The Queen of Cyprus was not without those failings which are usual with persons of little or no experience in the World she despair'd of ever bringing to pass those affairs in which she was bauk'd at first and had too much impatience in the midst of ill fortune to wait the turning of the Tide She had entertain'd a belief that it was not the will of God she should ever be Countess of Champaign because she had twice in vain made her pretensions to it and in the heat of this perswasion she consented to a Treaty without communicating the affair to any of those that had been the occasion of sending for her over into France She was contented to accept of 40000 Livres of ready mony and the Counties of Brienne and Joigni for all she pretended to of her Fathers and Mothers Estates Earl Thibault was not so indiscreet to refuse an agreement which was of such advantage to him but he wanted money and the summ he was to raise was so considerable that his Subjects harrass'd by the quartering of so great Forces as had lately been among them were not able to furnish him and no less unable to assist him were the rest of the Feudataries his friends so that if it were any where to be had it must be had out of the Kings Exchequer but the Regent was too prudent to take any thing out from thence but upon very good Terms and what ever obligations she and the King her Son had to the Earl when all things came to be weigh'd in the ballance of Truth it would easily appear that he had done them as much harm as good having poison'd the Father of the one and the Husband of the other His power too great for any Vassal gave him the boldness to commit this crime and the only way to be reveng'd on him for it was to reduce him to such a Condition that his Successours should never dare to have any thoughts of the like attempts as not being able to execute them with Impunity In short the design in hand was to weaken the house of Champaign and this present occasion was too favourable to be neglected The Regent waited the time when this Summ should be desir'd of her and when the business was mov'd she made answer she was ready to lend provided such Security were given for the repayment thereof as was fit to be accepted by a King's Mother and Governess The Earl offer'd her Majesty to engage those Counties he possess'd in the heart of the Kingdom but it was answer'd him that this kind of Engagement would be subject to grand Inconveniences and hazards both as to the repaiment of Principal and Interest and the care which was to be had to repair wastes and make Improvements that it became a Governess to avoid as much as possibly she could all kind of Embarasments in the affairs of her Pupil In fine if the Earl had a mind to sell she was willing rather to purchase than to lend mony The Earl saw well enough that they went about to ruine him in so subtile a manner as that he should have no certain foundation or pretence of complaint he was a man of too much sense and spirit not to be troubled to see himself thus dealt with and to find by these proceedings that the Regent was far from ever having any inclination for him but it was no time now to declare his resentment and he foresaw that in case he refus'd to relinquish a part of his Inheritance he should be sure to lose all Upon which he consented to sell the King his Earldoms of Charters Blois and Sancerre and the Viscountship of Chateaudun and out of the money of this sale Her Majesty deducted 40000 Livres which she paid immediately to the Queen of Cyprus The Rebels by this Transaction being frustrated of the pretence they had of treating the Earl as an Enemy and on the other side not being able easily to resolve upon forgiving him found out another Expedient
which was no less advantageous to their Party They laid Treason to his Charge impeaching him of the untimely death of his late Sovereign Lord King Lewis the 8th by poyson given him and offer'd to undergo the severest penalties that could be inflicted upon false accusers if they did not plainly prove him guilty of two Crimes which rendred him unfit for humane Society that is to say of high Treason against his Sovereign Lord and of being a Traitor against his Country This they urg'd with Arms in their hands and the danger which threatned the Crown from their impetuous heat was thought so considerable that all the grand Ministers of the Kings Council were of Opinion that the best way would be to give them some satisfaction The Count himself was of the same Sentiment for quietness sake and it was with his own consent that the Queen upon Treaty with them made the chief Condition of their laying down their Arms to be the Earl of Champaign's taking upon him the Croisada and setting out immediately for the holy Land attended with a hundred Knights at least to be maintain'd at his own Charge This was a very notable Expedient in regard it equally pleas'd both Parties For on the one side the Earl found it very advantageous to him in regard both his Crime met with a far gentler punishment than it really deserv'd or he could have hop'd for had he been brought to Trial and his Reputation was in a manner salv'd by going in a croud of so many innocent persons as daily went upon this Expedition upon no other motive than their most ardent zeal On the other side the Rebels also obtain'd what they desir'd for besides that they had a long time of deliverance from their Enemy and the satisfaction of having put him upon an Expedition from whence few valiant men live to return If the accusation wherewith they branded him were not made out in full it was at least in part for admitting there were among the Croisado'd Champions many innocent persons there were also many culpable and as divers Princes and Great men led Armies over into Palestine merely for the accomplishing of those religious vows they had made for the recovery of the holy places where Jesus Christ had been conversant and died for the Salvation of mankind So there were others of no less grandure who undertook this Voyage or rather Pilgrimage as a penance enjoyn'd and to obtain absolution of those Ecclesiastical Censures which they lay under And this was the case of Henry the second King of England who for his Assassination of St. Thomas of Canterbury had this penitential Voyage enjoyn'd him by Pope Alexander the third which our Earl of Champaign so willingly accepts Civil wars and the Defluctions of the body end much after the same manner that is to say by discharging themselves all at once upon the weakest part and throwing on it a greater weight than it is able to bear The French were almost brought to a right understanding yet nevertheless would not easily consent to lay down their Arms they earnestly press'd to be employ'd in prosecuting the design of Lewis the 8th and there was reason to fear lest the refusal of their demand might occasion new troubles Never was there a fairer prospect of the Conquest of Languedoc the longer the delay the greater would be the difficulty and the Interests of State were not to be neglected so long as they were seconded by those of Religion In order hereunto the Regent resolv'd to drive the Earl of Tholouse to the utmost extremity and the better to assure her self of the greatest advantage possible in all humane appearance she made it her first business to deprive this Prince whose ruine she design'd of the surest refuge he had to trust to It hath been already observ'd that the Earl of Provence was his Cousin and a Prince in like manner as himself of the house of Catalogue Languedoc had expectation of assistance more ways than one Those of Provence were in a Condition to aid them if not directly yet at least indirectly being at that time the most free from war of any people in France and their Prince the most mony'd man of any Prince in Europe Mony was the main thing the Earl of Tholouse wanted and but for the want of which he could not have wanted Souldiers notwithstanding all the Excommunications thunder'd against him from the Court of Rome Above all things therefore the Earl of Provence must of necessity be taken off him the Regent knew to be a sincere man and a most punctual observer of his word wherefore she represented to him by secret Messengers that he was now grown old and could not if he regarded his health and consider'd his true Interest engage himself in the Earl of Tholouse his quarrel without drawing an inevitable war upon Provence let him use all the faution he could That he had only our daughters and the Earl of Tholouse but one so that since the house of Catalonia was drawing toward a period he could not better consult for the honour and advantage of his Family than by making an Alliance with that of France which beyond all dispute was the noblest in the world That the Eldest of the Provencian Princesses could not be more happily matcht than with the young King of France that this proposal was not so much upon the account of her Estate as of her matchless beauty and the charming sweetness of her Nature and to evince to the Earl that this Alliance was not in the least promoted in reference to the uniting of his Estate to the Crown of France there should be a renunciation made to any such pretension upon the contract of Marriage of the King with his Eldest daughter and free leave given him to divide all he had among his three younger daughters or to give it to her of the three whom he preferr'd before the rest The Earl of Provence could never have been more easily tempted than by two such soft and obliging Proportions as the concluding his Life in Tranquility and repose and the liberty to dispose his Estate as he pleas'd For besides that he was much of the temper of those effeminate Princes who hate nothing more than business he was overtaken with the vice of those who happen to have Children in their old Age that is to say he lov'd the Princess Beatrice his youngest daughter better than any of the other three to her he design'd to leave Provence and as a man is apt for the most part to give way to the belief of what he earnestly and constantly desires he perswaded himself that in preferring the youngest he should do no wrong to the three Elder daughters since it was his intention to leave them his Treasures which he look'd upon as treble the value of his Sovereignty He fancy'd if the King of France by marrying of his Eldest daughter shewd himself an approver of what he had determin'd