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
Duke of Bretagne ended his days at the Castle de la Tousche near Nantes He left his Dutchy very much enriched and improved by a long Peace and mightily Peopled by that War which Year of our Lord 1443 made its Neighbouring Countries desolate particularly Normandy From that single Province there went above thirty thousand Families to inhabite in Bretagne and a great part of them at Rennes which mightily enlarged it and gave occasion to inclose with Walls that quarter of the Town which is named the Basse-ville He had three Sons Francis Peter and Giles whereof the two eldest were Dukes of that Country successively The foregoing year the English laid Siege to Diepe The Dauphin being returned out of Guyenne went thither in quality of Lieutenant-General for the King and chaced them shamefully thence But the Earl of Sommerset landing at Cherbourgh with six thousand fighting Men pierced as far as Anjou and Bretagne defeated the Mareschal de Loheac and the Lord de Rueil then returned loaden with spoil back to Rouen Year of our Lord 1443 Year of our Lord 1440 or 42. In the year 1440 or 1442. is placed the Invention or at least the first use of Printing which would be as excellent as it is wonderful were it not that like Fame whose clearest Trumpet it is it vends as many ill things as it does good ones The City of Leyden in Holland attributes the honour to it self in behalf of Laurent Johnson one of her Burghers Mentz for a Gentleman named Gutemberg Some allow it to one John Mentel of the same City Those deceive themselves that say it came from China for although it be true that they printed there a long time before yet was it not with Letters separate and movable as are ours theirs were graved on plates Year of our Lord 1444 The two Kings loved their pleasures enough to make them have but little love for War The King of England was the first that made mention of an accommodation the Deputies met at Tours where not being able to agree a final Peace they made a Truce of eighteen Months the Twentieth day of May and the Marriage of Marguerit Daughter of Rene of Anjou with the King of England to whom she was conducted by the Duke of Suffolk By consent of both Kings it was thought good to throw the French and English Forces upon the Countries of the Empire which were fat and but poorly defended The apparent pretences were to assist the House of Austria against the Swisse to revenge some incursions the Count de Montbelliard had made upon the Territories of France to affright the Council of Basil that they might put an end to the Schism and to take part with Rene of Anjou Duke of Lorrdin in his contest with the City of Metz for their having assisted Anthony Earl of Vaudemont his Enemy but the real design or cause was to discharge the Kingdom of those troublesom Sons of Mars the Soldiers Year of our Lord 1444 The Dauphin leading these Men there were near 20000 Horse parted from Troyes in the Month of July took Montbelliard and from thence went into Alsatia between Basil and Strasbourg Basil fortifi'd it self and called the Swisse in to their aid He sought four thousand near that place who rather tired then overcome died all upon the place but sold their lives at double the number There were but sixteen escaped others say but only one single man who being returned home to his Canton lost his Head as a deserter The Dauphin judging by this that he should gain nought from them but by losing too much himself and withall being gorged with spoil and observing the heavy German Body began to move he retired for fear of being over-matched and went to joyn with his Fathers Army that lay before Mets. He besieged that Town in favour of Rene Duke of Lorrain The Citizens seeing the Country wasted and ruined for seven or eight Months together bought their redemption at the rate of three hundred thousand Florins of which the King had two hundred thousand and the other hundred thousand they give Rene acquittance for who owed it to them The Army paid with this Money were all disbanded excepting fifteen hundred Men at Arms as many Coustilliers these were Foot that accompanied the Horse and three thousand Archers This was the establishment of what they called Companies d'Ordnnonance Year of our Lord 1444 and 45. He caused them to be quarter'd and cloathed and fed in the Towns but the Vulgar who look no further then the present and will never consider what may happen hereafter minded nothing but how to ease themselves of this burthen and granted a Tax in Money for the subsistence of these Gents-darmes not considering that when once this Tax was setled it would not be in their power to say either how long it should last or how much or little it should be increased or diminished Year of our Lord 1444 The Tenth of November was fought the bloody Battle of Varnes between the Turks and young Ladislaus King of Hungary He had solemnly sworn a Peace with them having unhappily broken it by the Popes instigation who dispenced him of his Oath he most unfortunately lost his Life and all his Army a wound that bleeds yet to this very day The Counties of Valentinois and Diois were united this year to Dauphine Lewis de Poitiers who possessed them had in Anno 1419. given them by his Will to Charles V. who was then Dauphin upon a condition to furnish fifty thousand Crowns to pay off his Debts and Legacies and in case he failed so to do he then gave the succession to Ame Duke of Savoy The Dauphin not having done it Ame was got into possession and had setled a Governor there But this year upon a Treaty at Bayonne agreed the third of April Lewis the Son of Ame gave up all the right he had in favour of the Dauphin Lewis who in retaliation quitted to him the absolute Siegneury and Homage of Foucigny Year of our Lord 1445 and the following During the quiet and soft minutes of the Truce the King enjoy'd the sweet pleasures of his Gardens and languished amidst his Amours and Mistresses Ease and prosperity had plunged him into daliance and effeminate softness His greatest inclination was Agnes Soreau a Gentlewoman of Touraine a very agreeable and generous Lady but who setting her self up as equal with the greatest Princesses became the envy of the Court and a scandal to all France Year of our Lord 1445 The King of England lived much more reserved He was a devout Prince fearing God and of a gentle disposition but having no great Spirit or parts and loving nothing but his Wife he suffer'd her to possess him wholly This Princess bold and undertaking beyond the nature of her Sex would needs take the Helm and make her self absolute To this end she gives some sinister impressions to her Husband concerning his Uncle Humphry Earl of Gloucester
That the Saint Ampoulle i. e. Holy Oyl was conveyed at his Baptism by a Celestial Dove That the Shield Semé with Flower-de-Luces and the Standard Royal de l'Oriflamme were by an Angel deposited in the hands of a good Hermit living in the solitudes of Joyenval near St. Germans en Laye That he had the Gift of Healing the Evil and made proof of it upon Lanicet his Favourite But God made him a more extraordinary and more excellent Present than all those when he bestowed upon him the Heavenly Knowledge of the Orthodox Faith there being amongst all the Princes upon Earth none but himself that did not live either in Error or Idolatry This Conversion did him no little Service towards keeping the Gauls who were all Christians in Obedience and to allure others who were Subjects to the Gothick and the Burgundian Princes whose Government was odious to them because they would compel them to follow the Opinion of Arrius The zeal of Christianity did not allay his Warlike heats Gondesigilus having promised if he would assist him in suppressing his Brother Gondebaud to share the spoil with him he fell with his Army upon the Burgundians Countrey Gondesigilus Year of our Lord 500 pretending he was mightily scared sent to pray his Brother to come to his assistance Gondebaud failed not but when it came to the Battle which was fought on the borders of the River L'Ouche near Dijon Gondesigilus went over to the French and began to Assault him Gondebaud finding it was a thing designed betwixt them fled to Avignon Clovis pursues and besieges him there The Sage Aredius Principal Counsellor to Gondebaud cunningly contrives to do his Master Service upon this occasion the Siege spinning out to some length he pretends to desert him and renders himself to Clovis with whom he manages Affairs so wisely as that King agrees to a Composition and Gondebaud becomes his Tributary Year of our Lord 500 and 501. When Clovis was out of that Countrey and perhaps employ'd in other business Gondebaud scorning to pay him the Tribute assembles his Forces together and besieges Gondesigilus in Vienne One Fontenier whom they had thrust out amongst the useless People discovered to him the mouth of an Aqueduct by which way he sent in some Men who surprized the City his Brother having sheltred himself in a Church belonging to the Arrians was there slain together with a Bishop of the same Belief Thus Gondebaud remained sole King of all Burgundy Year of our Lord Towards 502 or 503. It is my opinion during these years that the French as Procopius tells us not having been able to subdue the Armoricae betwixt the Seinè and the Loire did incorporate with them by a mutual Confederacy which of two made them bat one People The Roman Garrisons not being strong enough either to Retreat or to Defend themselves restored their Towns to them but did not quit the Countrey where they for a long time afterwards retained their Laws their Discipline and Habits The Citizens of Verdun being Revolted it is not said for what reason Clovit being ready to force them the Prayers of Euspice Arch-Deacon of that City a Man of a very Holy Life allayed his Wrath and obtained their Pardon I cannot tell precisely in what year hapned that which Procopius relates how Clovis and Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths having made an agreement together to conquer Burgundy and divide it upon condition that if either of the two Armies did not meet at a certain time appointed they should pay a certain Sum to the other the Visigoths made no great haste but left the French to bear all the brunt then coming when the hottest work was over and the Countrey subdued took their share of the Conquest paying the Sum as had been stipulated Year of our Lord 503 or 504. Neither the one nor the other held those Countreys long but restored them entire to Gondebaud who afterwards made a strict Alliance with Clovis against the Visigoths There is great likelyhood that it was in these peaceable days that Clovis laboured to reform the Salique Law which having been made by the French when Pagans might contain many things contrary to the manners and Laws of Christianity This Law was only for the French in his own Kingdom for those of Colen had another which we find to this day by the name of the Law of the Ripuarians conformable notwithstanding in many particulars to the Salique Law Year of our Lord 506. And the following Two Kings powerful and young as were Clovis and Alaric could not be long Neighbours and good Friends Divers petty differences set them at variance by the secret practises of the Bishops of Aquitain who being troubled they should obey Alaric an Arrian Prince pushed on Clovis to a Rupture The Two Kings had an Enterview and discoursed each other in the Island D'Or nigh Amboise between the City of Tours which belonged to the Visigoths and that of Orleance appertaining to the French This Meeting salved up their quarrel for a time and Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths Father-in-law to Alaric and Brother-in-law to Clovis undertook to make them agree but as great a Polititian as he was he could not restrain the Ardour of Clovis This Conquerour knowing the Visigoths were softned or effeminated by a long Peace and having made sure of Gondebaud by a League contracted betwixt them resolved to Attaque Alaric under the specious pretence of Religion the French followed him with great cheerfulness those of Aquitain invited Year of our Lord 507. 507 and him Heaven conducted him by visible Signs and Miracles Immediately the City of Tours surrenders to him Alaric who was getting his Forces together at Poitiers le ts him pass along to Vienne then imprudently resolves to give him Battle it was in the Plains of Vouglay Ten miles from Poitiers Clovis having exhorted his Soldiers Armed them with the Sign of the Cross and for the Word gave them the Name of the Lord. Alaric's Army was defeated and he slain in the Fight by Clovis's his own hand The vanquisher divided his Army in two Bodies with the one his Son Thierry makes himself Master of Albigeois of Rouergne of Quercy and of Auvergue and himself with the other of Poitou of Saintonge all Bourdelois and Burdeaux it self where he passed the Winter then in the Spring of Thoulouse wherein was the Treasure Year of our Lord 508 of the Visigoths At his return he took the City of Angoulesme the Walls whereof sell down before him in fine of all the Three Aquitains the Catholicks casting themselves into his Arms to be freed from the yoak of the Arrians At the same time Gondebaud pursuant to the Treaty made with Clovis Conquered the two Narbonnoises and the City of Narbona from whence he drove Gesali◠Year of our Lord 508 so was called the Bastard Son of Alaric who had seized on the Kingdom of the Visigoths because Almaric the Legitimate Son born of
of Soissons and Paris in Neustria CHILDEBERT II. called the Young aged Five years in Austrasia Year of our Lord 575 The death of Sigebert was followed with a suddain and general Revolution the Austrasians raised the Siege of Tournay and having joyned with those who were at Vitry they retired in confusion the Neustrians returned to the Obedience of Chilperic and Brunehaud found her self surrounded and cooped up in Paris where she then was with her Children and knew not how to get thence But the wisdom of the Duke Gombaud the greatest Lord of Austrasia found out a way to save the Pupil Childebert having let him down over the Walls in a Basket and put him into the hands of a faithful Person who himself carried him into the City of Mets. Already some of the Austrasians had made their Composition with Chilperic but the rest being assembled together in great numbers according to their custom set the young Prince upon the Royal Seat on New-years-day and put him under the protection of Gontran so that Chilperic lost his hopes of invading that Kingdom but he seized upon that of Paris and banished Brunehaud to Rouen and her two Daughters to Meaux Year of our Lord 576 He had sent Meroveus his eldest Son by Queen Audovere to seize upon Poitou which belonged to the Kingdom of Childebert Meroveus instead of putting this design in execution went to Tours and from thence to Rouen where he suffered himself to be so much surprized with the charms of Brunehaud as then aged at least 28 years that he Married her Pretextat Bishop of Rouen God-father to the young Prince making the Marriage The Father hastens thither and having by deceitful words drawn those so newly Wedded out of a Church where they had taken shelter he set a Guard upon Brunehaud and carried his Son away with him Mean time the Austrasian Lords who were come to submit to him returned again to Childebert Godin amongst others who to carry somewhat with him that might bid him welcom armed the Champanois and made himself Master of Soissons where he wanted but little of surprizing Fredegonda Chilperic was quickly there vanquishes him and re-takes the Town but Fredegonda believing that Godin had not undertaken so bold an enterprize without the participation of Meroveus and Brunehaud obliged her Husband to confine that young Prince and a while after to force him to turn Priest and send him to the Monastery of Aunisse which is called now St. Calas the name of its first Abbot The Austrasians demand their Queen Brunehaud with so much earnestness that Year of our Lord 576 he sent her to them and yet he could not forbear to invade the Lands of Childebert His Son Clovis took the Town of Saintes but the Duke Didier going to besiege that of Limoges met in his way the Patrician Mummole whom Gontran sent to Year of our Lord 577 defend the Country belonging to his Pupil the Fight was so obstinate that there were slain Thirty thousand on both sides three parts of them were Didier's who saved himself with much ado About the same time Meroveus escaped from the Monastery and secured himself in the Church called St. Martins of Tours prompted thereto by Gailen his most intimate Confident who was come to visit him and drawn by Gontran-Boson who had sheltred himself in that place as we have related The Step-Mother Ferdegonda favoured this Boson for the same reason that Chilperic would put him to death and maintained a private Commerce with him that he might destroy Meroveus as he had made his Brother Theodebert to perish The young Prince having notice that Fredegonda sought by all means to take away his life did not find himself there in security He goes out from thence accompanied with this Boson whose treachery he knew not of and would go to find out Brunehaud but the Austrasians refused to admit him he remained then some time concealed and a Vagabond in Champagne After which this Boson and Giles Bishop of Rheims upon the pretence of delivering up the City of Teroüenne to him made him fall into their Ambuscades surrounding and taking him Prisoner in a Village of which they gave immediate notice to Chilperic he went thither with Year of our Lord 577 all diligence but found that his unfortunate Son was dead he had been Poynarded by the order of Fredegonda who made him believe that apprehending he should be put to tortures he had borrowed the helping hand of Gailen his favourite to dispatch him A while before the Bishop Pretextat his Godfather was accused before the Bishops assembled in Councel at Paris where no proofs appearing strong enough against him touching what was alledged he suffers himself to be induced by two false Brothers upon an assurance the King would pardon him to confess more than they could desire for which he was banished to an Island near Coustances but with hopes of returning because he pretended he had not been degraded though they had placed Melantius in his See Death having snatched away the two Sons which Gontran had by Austrigilda his second Wife although he were not above the age of getting Children not being above Fifty he desired the Austrasians to bring his Nephew Childebert to him and Adopted him having placed him in his Royal Seat These two Princes being thus allied sent to Chilperic to demand their part of the Kingdom of Paris and declared War against him Chilperic did but scoff at them diverting himself in building of Cirques or places for publick Spectacles at Paris and at Soissons where he would have entertained the People with Chariot-races could he have found Charioteers that had skill enough The Bretons about the year 441. had possessed themselves of Vannes afterwards Year of our Lord 578 Clovis had taken that place again and likewise the Cities of Nants and Rennes at that time governed by Roman Captains This year 578. Waroc or Guerec a Count of Bretagne had the boldness to seize again upon Vannes which appertained to the Kingdom of Chilperic and march up to the French who were encamped on the Banks of the River Vilain They had some Companies of Saxons or Sesnes-Bessins in their Army one night he passes the River and beat up their Quarter but three days afterwards finding himself too weak for so potent an Enemy he desires Peace swore fealty to the King and renders up the City of Vannes upon condition he should remain Governor A short while after he again seizes it and so long as he lived put the French to a great deal of trouble Chilperic and his wicked Wife Fredegonda over-burthened the People with Imposts they had taxed an Amphore of Wine upon every half Acre of Vineyard several other Charges upon things of another kind and a Tribute upon the head of every Slave and indeed a kind of Poll-money for every Freeman insomuch that their Subjects ran away out of the Kingdom as a place of Torment and peopled
Year 800 beginning the Year on the First day of January but Year of our Lord 800 801 if we account Christmass Day the first of the New Year as the French Authors of those Times are wont to do After the Ceremony the Pope adored the New Emperour that is to say Kneeled down before him and acknowledged him for his Soveraign and caused his Portraiture to be exposed in publique that so all the Romans might pay him the same respect If we give credit to some of the Annalists of those Times he did not seek for this honour and the Pope surprized him when he besought him to accept of this Title And indeed it was so far from bringing him any advantage that it made him now hold that only by the Election of the Romans which he before held by the power of his Sword By this means the West had an Emperour again but one that had no connexion now with that in the East as formerly it had Year of our Lord 801 As the New Emperour was returning into France being at Spoleta there was a furious Earth-quake accompanied with horrible Noise which shook the Country thereabouts Neither was France and Germany free from it But Italy felt it most a great number of Cities being thrown down and destroy'd and this Prodigy was followed with Furious Tempests and afterwards with divers Contagious Maladies This Year Charles made no Military Expedition but his Son Lewis made himself Famous by the taking of Barcelona Year of our Lord 801 When the petty Saracen Princes upon the Frontiers of Spain feared they should be oppressed by the King of Cordoüa who was Generalissimo of Spain they made an Alliance with the French but the danger once past they fell again to their wonted Treachery Zad Prince of Barcelona studying some Treason against the French was nevertheless so imprudent thinking the better to conceal his Design as to come to King Lewis at Narbonna who caused him to be seized The Saracens Elected one Hamar of his Kindred in his room resolved to defend themselves to the uttermost Whilst this hapned the Gascons revolted because Lewis had set up at Fesensac a Count they were not pleased with After he had severely chastiz'd them he undertakes the Siege of Barcelona The King of Cordoüa takes the Field to Relieve it but being informed there was a Body of an Army to hinder his passage he bends his Forces against the Asturians The besieged after a Twelve-months resistance surrendred themselves up to Lewis who came himself to hasten forwards the Attaques he settled a Count in it named Bera who is said to be the Stock of the Earls of Barcelonna All the Princes of the Earth either feared or loved Charlemaine Alphonso King of Galicia and the Asturia's writing or sending Ambassadours to him would be called no other but his Man his Vassal The Scottish Kings always stiled him their Lord and termed themselves his Subjects and his Servants The Chiefs of the Saracens of Spain and Africa reverenced him and besought his Alliance The Haughty Aaron King of Persia who despised all other Princes in the World desired no Friendship but his He this Year sent him Jewels and Silks and Spices and one of the largest Elephants Withal understanding that he had a great devotion for the Holy Land and the City of Jerusalem he gave him the Propriety of them reserving to himself only the Title of his Lieutenant in that Country And two Years after interposed so earnestly in his behalf with Nicephorus that he engaged that Emperour to conclude a Treaty of Peace with him very advantagious to France Year of our Lord 802 During this great Torrent of good Fortune it had been easy for Charlemaine to conquer all the remainder of Italy and their Islands the Grecians having only a very wicked Woman in their Imperial Throne it was Irene the Widow of Leo who had caused the Eyes of her own Son Constantine to be put out But to stop his progress had the policy to amuse him with the hopes of marrying her which would have put the Empire of the East into his hands This Negotiation was well advanced and Charle's Ambassadours were at Constantinople to conclude it when she was driven thence by Nicephorus who made himself Emperour Nicephorus having chaced away Irene proposed to the Ambassadours of France who were come to Treat with her to make an agreement with Charles about Year of our Lord 802 Sharing the Empire He agreed therefore that he should bear the Title of Emperour as well as himself and that all Italy should be his to the Rivers of Ofantus and the Vilturnia with Bavaria Hungary Austria Dalmatia and Sâ—lâ—vonia the Gauls and Spaines For as to Germany it had never been in subjection to the Romans But Great Brittain or England had been a Member and by consequence ought to hold of Charlemaine Year of our Lord 802. and 803. Grimoald Duke of Benevent had revolted under the favour and with the support of the Greeks The French gain'd from him the City of Nocera but soon after he retook it with Vinigisa Count of Spoleta who lay sick in the place But when the agreement was made betwixt the two Empires he sent him back again very civilly and made his peace with the French Year of our Lord 804 The Saxons now revolted for the last time especially those beyond the Elbe incited by Godfrey who was King of Denmark and very potent at Sea Charles being come thither with all his Forces aud having pitched his Camp near the River Elbe that King advanced as far as Sliestorp upon the Borders of his Kingdom and the Country of Saxony to confer with the Emperour but some kind of Jealousie made him on the sudden turn back again and so the Saxon Holsatians finding themselves abandoned redeemed themselves from utter destruction by turning all Christians But he transported one part of them into Flanders and another into the Helvetian Country whence it is said the Swisse are descended a People who are very free in their own Country and yet serve in all others He bestowed the Lands they inhabited beyond the Ebre upon the Abrodite Sclavonians and he established a Councel in Saxony in manner of an Inquisition who had power to punish Mutineers especially such as returned again to their Idolatry This sort of Inquisition lasted in Westphalia to the 15 th Age. Thus ended the long and obstinate Rebellion of the Saxons who partly by consent partly by force submitted to the Yoak of Jesus Christ and the Dominion of France Year of our Lord 804 In the Month of October of the same Year Pope Leo's Ambassadours came to him at Aix la Chapelle to let him know their Master desired to see and entertain him with some of the Miraculous Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was affirmed to have been found at Mantoüa The King sent his Eldest Son Charles as far as Saint Maurice in Chablais to
over with Jewels and Stones the other being plain Gold without other Ornament Year of our Lord 817 Three Months after Leo went out of France he died at Rome the 25 th of January An. 817 a nd the Clergy Elected Paschal this man knowing the softness of the Emperor durst likewise take his Seat in the Pontificial Chair without waiting for his consent and yet excused it to him by an Ambassador sent expresly Though the Emperor was not very well pleased yet he did what was required for his Confirmation But he reproved the Romans and admonished them never to fall upon such an attempt again And yet if we believe the Partisans of the Court of Rome Paschal wrought so far upon the Emperor that he yielded up his right of confirming Popes The Sons of Godfrey demanded Peace of the Emperor It was taken to be only Year of our Lord 817 a pretence and therefore great succours were sent to Heriold Upon the demand of the Grecian Emperors Ambassadors who were come for that purpose Louis dispatched a Deputy to settle the Limits of Dalmatia between the two Emperors together with Cadolac who commanded for him in those Marches and the Sclavonians that had some interest Year of our Lord 817 The 17 th of February during an Eclipse of the Moon a Comet began to appear in the Sign of Sagittary Year of our Lord 817 Upon Holy-Thursday as the Emperor was coming out of the Church belonging to his Palace a Gallery fell down under him twenty persons of Quality were hurt but it proved to have more of fear then danger for their bruises and broken-shinns were soon healed It seemed Louis was Born rather for the Church then for the World For as he behaved himself he would have proved a better Abbot or a Bishop then a King Besides his perpetual exercise in Devotion which does not always sute with the Activity of Government he busied himself very much about the reformation of the Clergy Amongst other things in the Assembly at Aix la Chapelle he caused a Rule to be made for the Chanons drawn from the Writings of the Holy-Fathers commanded the Benedictins to observe theirs sent Commissary's into the Provinces to prevent the Simony Luxury and Pride with such other like abuses of the Churchmen and obliged the Bishops in Fine to Reform at least in outward appearance and throw aside their Belts and Embroid'red Girdles their Daggers with Hilts beset with Jewels and gingling Spurs which drew upon him the hatred of the Churchmen amongst whom the Greatest number were the worst In this assembly he Associated Lotaire his Eldest Son in the Empire and gave Aquitain to Pepin and Bavaria to Louis both with the Titles of Kingdoms Tegan Chorevesque of Treves hath written that he designed Lotaire his Eldest to be Sole Heir whether he did it before or after this partition it was a great weakness Louis the Debonnatre Emperour and King of France Eastern and Western     Lotatre King of Italy and Associate in the Empire Pepin King of Aquitain Louis King of Bavaria To this place they brought him intelligence of the defection of the Abodrites and the conspiracy of Bernard King of Italy both the attempts of the one and the other were suppressed and stifled in their Birth Bernard a young Prince had suffered himself to be possessed with an opinion that he could dethrone his Uncle This counsel came from the very Court of France where he had divers abettors who without all doubt persuaded him that all the Kingdom was his belonging to him as Son to the Eldest His design was discovered before he had time to take his measures the Forces to whom he had committed the defence or keeping of the passages to the Alpes abandoned them upon the first notice of the March of the Emperors Army and those that first set him upon this business were the first that forsook him In this distress he took the most dangerous counsel which made him come himself to Chaalons and fall down at his Feet begging his pardon This hindred not his being made a Prisoner together with all those Lords that were in his Train The Emperor being returned to Aix la Chapelle caused their process to be made The Seculars were all condemned to Death The Bishops amongst whom was Theodulfe d'Orleans degraded and consined to a Monastery Some of the first suffered the rigour of the Sentence others had their eyes put out whereof two of the most Eminent died and Bernard himself lost his life within three days after Whoever disturb the Peace of a Nation deserves death but it was too extream a rigour towards a young Prince of nineteen years and an Uncle towards his Nephew And indeed Louis had great remorse all his life nor did the French forgive him that cruelty Bernard left but one Son named Pepin and at his age he could scarce have any more at least Legitimate This same begat three Bernard Pepin and Heribert From Pepin sprang The First Branch of Vermandois The Emperor apprehending his Bastard-Brothers Charlemaine had left several might fall into the like Conspiracies caused them all to be shaved and thrust into Monasteries and sent away Adelard Abbot of Corbie and Valla his Brother The Bretons had created a King called Morman or Morvan The Emperor going thither in Person reduced all the Country in Forty days and Morman being Slain in his own Camp either by his own or by the French-men he gave them a Duke of his own At this return from this Voyage he lost his Wife Hermengard She died at Augiers leaving him three Sons Lotaire Pepin and Louis The Abodrites were Subjects and Tributaries to the French who nevertheless allowed them to have a King He whom they then had was called Sclaomir who having intelligence with the Enemies of France was seized upon by the Emperors Lieutenants and being unable to justify himself before him was banished and his Crown given to Ceadragne Son of Traciscon who had been cut off by the Danes Loup Centule Duke of the Gascons guilty of the like Crime being vanquished in a great Battel by the French Counts and afterwards taken Prisoner was likewise destituted and exiled He withdrew himself into Spain to the Court of the King of the Asturias These Commotions shewed enough the weakness of the Government Liudewit Duke of Pannonia Inferiora who sought pretences to revolt for grievances he alledged to have suffered by Cadolac Duke of Friuli threw off his Masque in the end and for three or four years gave a great deal of trouble to those Lieutenants that served the Emperor in Dalmatia Friuli and Bavaria till at length he was quite driven out of those Countries The same Year upon his return from that expedition Cadolac died upon the Frontiers and Baudry succeeded in his place In the general Assembly held at Aix Bera Count of Barcelonna being accused of Treason and thinking to justify himself by combat fell under the Sword of
his accuser and should have shamefully forfeited his life according to the Law had not the Emperor changed his Sentence of Death for banishment Year of our Lord 819 It was ill counsel made the Emperor give his Sons their shares so young as he had done But it was worse after he had done so to Marry a second Wife But being resolved notwithstanding his Devotion to taste again the pleasures of the Nuptial Bed he made choice of Judith Daughter to Helpon Duke of Bavaria so much the more a trouble to his repose as she was Beautiful Witty and Gallant The Truce between the French and Saracens of Spain is broken and the Saracens begin to range about the Coasts of Italy Sardinia and Corsica Year of our Lord 820 Thirteen Normand Vessels having attempted to make a descent in Flanders at the Mouth of the Seine went and pillaged the Island of Amboum upon the Coasts of Poitou So great a Mortality hapned amongst Bulls and Cowes that it almost destroyed the whole Race of that sort of Cattel thorow all France Year of our Lord 821 The Emperor confirmed the partition he had made amongst his Sons and obliged all the Lords that were present to Swear they would maintain them therein and as though he feared his Family might want Princes he made hast to marry them Lotaire with Hermengard Daughter to Count Hughes and the year after Pepin with Engheltrude Daughter of Thietbert Earl of Matrie Lotaire when his Marriage was consummate went into Italy where the Pope Crowned him Emperor and Pepin returned into Aquitaine We omit several minute things as the Negotiations of Ambassadors from divers Princes little exploits in War against the Abodrites Bretons Saracens and others But it is a very memorable thing that Louis the Debonnaire touched with remorse for having put his Nephew to Death and Cloister'd all his Brothers and natural Cousins against their wills made his confession to the Bishops and did publick Pennance before all the People at the general Assembly of Attigny After which he gave liberty to all those he had caused to be shaven to quit their Cloister and recalled Valac and Adelard to be of his Councel Year of our Lord 823 Birth of Charles the Bald and with him a world of Michiefs Which one may say had been presaged by many terrible prodigies hapning this year an Earthquake which shoke the Palace of Aix la Chapelle Furious Stormes which spoiled the Corn and Fruits of the Country a showre of huge Stones which fell together with Prodigious Hail many Men and Beasts in divers places struck with lightning a Girl that lived ten Months without eating and after all these a most raging Pestilence Year of our Lord 823 The Authority of the French at Rome did much incommode the Pope He knew what Emperors he had to do with and sought under-hand to weaken them and to render them odious and contemptible It hapned that Theodorus Prmicere of the Church and Leon Donatour his Son in Law were killed in his House for no other reason but because they had too much affection for Lotaire He purged himself by Oath that he had not consented to this Murther but however he would not deliver up the Murtherers saying they were of the Family of St. Peter And Louis too Debonnaire or meek puts up this injury whereas he should at least have required Justice upon them Year of our Lord 824 Shortly after the Pope comes to die Eugenius II. his Successor made some satisfaction to the French and there were Judges establisht in Rome all of the Emperors Palace none of the Popes The Bretons as obstinate for their Liberty as the Saxons for their Religion assayed to withdraw themselves from the obedience of the French and Elected a Lord of their Country to command them He was called Wihormac or Guyormac and was Vicount of Leon. The Emperor being entred into the Country with three Armies whereof he commanded one and his two Sons the two others made so great waste in the parts belonging to those Rebels that about the end of ten or twelve days they were glad to come and fall at his Feet and give up the Children of the most Noted Families for a Pawn of their Submission The following year the Principals and Guyomare their Chief came to the general Assembly at Aix as making up now a part of the French Monarchy The Emperor rewarded them all with rich Presents but when occasion offer'd they made it appear they could swallow the Bait and yet avoid the Hook The Peace being broken with the Saraeens of Spain the French Earls Guardians of the Frontiers had in An. 822. passed the Segre and going a great way into the Country brought thence very rich booty The King of Cordona would needs have his revenge upon Navarre and those Neighbouring Countries that were under the French Those People could hardly receive any assistance For the Saracens held Sarragossa and Huesca which hindred the passage of any succours that would go the lower way I mean Catalonia and the way thorow Gascony by Aspe and Ronceveaux was very incommodious insomuch that the Emperor could send only the Gascons unde r command of the Counts Ebles and Azenar or Aznar who were of that Country When they had taken care to secure Pampelonna and thought to retreat they found the Saracens had cut off their way back So they were forced to get the assistance of the People Inhabiting those Mountains to shew them some Year of our Lord 824 bye unknown ways but those treacherous Villains led them into places where the Saracens lay in Ambuscade so that they were cut in pieces and Ebles sent in Triumph to Cordoiia but Aznar set at liberty as being of Kin to some of those false-hearted Robbers The Bulgarians had already signalized themselves by their Incursions into the Territories of the Eastern Empire The French began to know them when they came to be their Neighbours Omortag their King sent Ambassadors to the Emperor to settle the Limits between the two Nations He detained them above two years with him and then sent them back without any answer By the assistance of the French Heriold was received in part into the Kingdom of Denmark with the Sons of Godfrey But those Princes out of hatred for that he Year of our Lord 825. and the following and all his Family had received Baptism drove him out of the Country which broke the Truce made with the Dane Soon after it was renewed and Heriold forced to content himself with the Earldom of Riusty which the Emperor had given him in Frisia Year of our Lord 826 The Normands Scowring the Coasts of Spain took Sevil which they held a whole year The Affairs of France being in a declining condition towards the Marches of Spain since the defeat of Ebles and Aznar a Lord named Aizo who had left the Emperors Court in discontent seized by a wile upon the City of Ossonna in Catalonia and made
Lord 930. 1. The Regal Authority was in an extreme low Ebbe and feeble condition the Lords made War upon one another for their under Vassals and such places as they usurped from each other and often times attaqued their Kings when they refused them certain Lands or Abby's Hebert could not agree with Rodolph because he was his Soveraign he held a correspondence with all his Enemies and sought all means to weaken him The pretence for this quarrel was that Hugh Brother in Law to the King had allured some of his Vassals from him amongst others Herluin Earl of Monstrueil Year of our Lord 931 There was a rude War betwixt them for five years together divers places taken and much Country laid wast Hebert made use of the assistance of the Lorrainers against him and had given his Oath to Henry King of Germany But Rodolph being helped by Hugh the Great took the City of Rheims which Hebert enjoy'd because he had caused them to Elect his Son Arch-Bishop though a Minor destituted Benon Bishop of Chaalons who had followed Hebert and besieged him in Laon himself which he gained upon composition Hebert's Insolence being a little abated Rodolph made a journey into Aquitain and Languedoc where he received hommage of Raymond and Ermengard Gothian Princes for so was named that part of Languedoc nearest to the Pyrennean Hills and of Loup Azenar Duke of Gascogny whom if we credit Flodoard was mounted upon a Horse one hundred years old and yet vigorous and lusty Year of our Lord 932 William Duke of Normandy did likewise pay him hommage and in retribution he gave him those Lands the Bretons held on the Sea-side I believe those were the Bessin and the Constentin In Italy King Hugh from the year 929. had obtained the Seignory of the City of Rome by wedding the lustful Merosia Widdow of Guy Marquiss of Tuscany who then Governed the City and the Holy Chair but he was soon driven thence by Alberic the Son of that Woman to whom he had given a Box on the Ear and retired into Lombardy Lambert who Succeeded in the Marquisat of Tuscany to Guy his Brother was likewise Brother by the Mothers-side to King Hugh for he was Son to Berte his Mother who in her widdow-hood married the second time to Adelbert Father of Guy and Lambert Hugh notwithstanding put him to death and bestowed Tuscany upon Boson his Brother both by Father and mother who proved as little faithful to him as Lambert Year of our Lord 931 The People were soon distasted with his Government and recalled King Rodolph These two Princes being ready to embroil all Italy their friends contrived an agreement between them which was such that Rodolph should renounce the Kingdom of Italy and also should assist Hugh with a certain number of men to preserve it on condition Hugh should give him la Bresse Viennois and all that he held in Provence ☜ with the Title of King of Arles which by this means was united to the Kingdom of Burgundy Trans-jurane The name of the Kingdom of Arles was not given it because those Kings that enjoy'd it did ever reside there nor were ever Crowned there but because that was so renowned a City as to deserve the Title having been in the Roman Emperors days the Capital of seven Provinces of the Gauls and her Metropolitans Vicars of the Holy Chair Notwithstanding this agreement the Italians persisting in their resolution to set aside Hugh invited Arnold Duke of Bavaria to come and take the Crown Year of our Lord 933 He made way as far as Verona and was well received but Hugh got good footing there and chased him back again into Bavaria After which to maintain his ground the better he associated his Son Lotaire to the Crown The Acts we find of Louis the Blind King of Provence makes it appear he was yet alive An. 933. So that there is no colour to mention his death till An. Year of our Lord 934 934. He was then 55 years of Age and had but one Son named Charles Constantine who not being at that time out of his Child-hood the Provensals who then stood in need of a King able to Govern Elected Hugh Son of Count Thibauld and Beâ—the who was Marquiss of Provence In the mean time the two most potent Lords in France Hugh le Blanc and Hebert Year of our Lord 933. 34. 35. 36. de Vermandois not being able to agree together made a rough War upon each other the King favouring Hugh whose Sister he had married Henry King of Germany having interposed to make up this Breach Saint Quintins was restored to Hebert and likewise Peronne by a Cessation which ended in a final Peace Anno 935. The three Kings of Germany France and Burgundy had an enterview near the Meuse to give joynt orders for repressing the cruel incursions of the Bulgarians who infested the Dominions of all these Princes This very year having ransacked Lombardy they were gotten into Burgundy but when they understood the King of France was marching that way they returned speedily into Italy In this march the same King besieged and took Dijon which Boson his own Brother had got in his possession Which I mention only to shew the universal disorders of those Reigns even amongst the nearest Kindred Year of our Lord 936 In the year 936 died Ebles Earl of Auvergne and Poictou and Duke of Aquitain the Son of Ranulfe and Successor to William leaving his Estates to William surnamed Teste d'estoupe or Flaxen-head his Son As likewise Rodolph the King of France left this World the 14 th of his Reign and the 15 th of January in the City of Auxerre where he fell sick in the former Autumn of a Phtiriasis His Monument is at St. Columbes of Sens. He was a Prince most Liberal Valiant Religious Just and worthy of better times His wife died a Twelvemonth before him and his Brother Boson about a quarter of a year both Child-less But they had another Brother called Hugh le Noir i. e. the Black who bare the Title of Duke of Burgundy and the surname of Capet Year of our Lord 936 The same year Henry the Bird-Catcher also ended his days and in his place the Germans set up Otho his eldest Son afterwards surnamed the Great Never Prince employ'd so much care and so much Time in regulating all that concerned the advantage and administration of the Church the Discipline of the Clergy and Christian manners as Louis the Debonnaire In all the Assemblies hardly any other thing was ever treated of He and the Grandees of his Kingdom were present in the Councils to approve and subscribe what was ordained which afterwards he confirmed by his Letters Patents At the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle in the year 816. were digested in writing the Form and Method of the Insticution of the Ecclesiasticks in CXLV Articles and those of Religious Orders in XXVIII both taken out of the Ancient Councils and
feared an absolute re-union between the King and his Subjects or whether the Tears of his Daughter Gerberge and compassion to behold a King so ill treated by his means moved his heart he roughly refused Hugh who sought his amity and Year of our Lord 946 profer'd Louis his assistance to revenge himself Year of our Lord 946 Lewis accepted it and soon after he was out of his imprisonment went to Otho at Cambresis where Arnold Earl of Flanders had joyned Forces with him So that they had together above thirty Legions And which is remarkable all these combatants except the Abbot of Corbie in Saxony had all Straw-hats without doubt to defend their heads from blows or from the cold Year of our Lord 946 One would imagine such a prodigious Army must overwhelm Hugh and all his Allies but after they had tried Laon driven away Arch-Bishop Hugh from Reims and restored Artold to his See having shewed themselves before the Gates of Senlis and the Suburbs of Paris they ran themselves on ground and Shipwrackt against Rouen The death of Otho's Nephew and a great number of Saxons who were slain there the autumnal Rains the approaching Winter Arnolds desertion who withdrew in the night time with his Forces apprehending to be delivered up to the Normans constrained Otho to raise his Siege and retire Year of our Lord 947 Afterwards Hugh besieged Reims and King Lewis Monstreuil held by Rotgar Son of Count Herluin but both without success In August the two Kings Louis and Otho conferred together on the Kar or the Cher concerning their affairs This River which coming from the Country of Luxemburgh falls into the Meuse between Sedan and Mouson hath ever since made the bounds or separation of the Kingdoms of France and Lorrain as it did heretofore of Neustria and Austrasia Year of our Lord 947 Anno 947. Italy suffer'd a New change Auscare and Berenger one Brother and the other Son of Adelbert Marquiss of Ivrea having ingratefully conspired against King Hugh that Prince put Auscaire to Death and Berenger escaped to Herman Duke of Suabia Now this man having good information that Hugh had rendred himself very odious to the Italians having sounded their affections repassed the Alpes He was received in Verona and in Milan and seemed welcom to most part of the Nobility Nevertheless the People moved with pity towards Lotaire the Son of Hugh a handsom young Prince not above 14 or 15 years old would have the Title of King to be preserved for him And Berenger consented for that time the more willingly because all the Authority was in him The agreement made Hugh returned into Provence with his Treasure where he died the same year Lewis in France Conrad in Transjurane and Arles Otho in Germany Lorraine LOTAIRE and Berenger in Italy The dispute for the Arch-Bishoprick of Reims between Hugh of Vermandois and Artold was a mighty business It was first treated of at Douzy by some Prelats Year of our Lord 948 who having not power to determine it referr'd it to a Synodical Assembly of Gallican and German Bishops which was held at Verdun in the middle of November Robert Arch-Bishop of Triers presided there Hugh appeared not but having sent thither certain Surreptitious Letters from the Pope which they little valued the enjoyment of the Arch-Bishoprick was awarded to Artold and Hugh was excluded for his contumacy till he should appear before the General Council in the Month of August following and had purged himself of the crimes imputed to him Hugh makes complaint to the Pope who sent a Legat to Otho to injoyn him to Year of our Lord 948 call a general Council of the Gallicans and Germans to determine this difference as also to decide the quarrel between King Lewis and Hugh le Blanc He convocated them at his Royal Palace of Ingelheim he and King Lewis assisting there and sitting on the same Bench. The Council heard the Kings complaint and then Artold's Petition The King declared all the mischiefs Hugh had done him even ☞ to the detaining him a Prisoner a whole year and offered if any one could reproach him that the troubles and calamities of the Kingdom were by any fault of his to justify himself in such manner as the Council should advise even by personal proof in the Field of Battel Upon these complaints they wrote Letters to Hugh le Blanc and his adherents to admonish them to return to their duty under pain of an Anathema and doing justice upon the Petition of Artold they confirmed the Arch-Bishoprick to him and excommunicated Hugh his competitor till he duly repented With this Otho assisted Lewis with good Forces the Lorrain Bishops his Vassals took Mouson and razed it excommunicated Thibault who maintained the City of Laon for Hugh and caused Hugh himself by vertue of the Legats letters to be cited to appear before the Council of Triers to give satisfaction for the damage he had done the King and the Church Who not appearing was excommunicated Year of our Lord 949 The War was not abated by this and divers Castles were taken by the two rivals for the Arch-Bishoprick of Reims as well as by the Kings Forces and those that belonged to Hugh This year hapned the death of Fulk the Good Earl of Anjou a mighty Religious Prince and a lover of Learning who being one day informed that the King scoffed at his going so often to Sing in the Quire wrote only these words to him Know Sir that a Prince without Learning is a Crowned Ass Year of our Lord 949 The Hungarians being fallen An. 949. upon Lombardy Berenger compounded with them for eight Bushels of Silver and upon pretence of raising that money committed violent extortions About that time Lotaire either out of grief to find himself despised or by some poyson fell into a Phrensie and died without Children towards the end of the same year Berenger immediately caused himself to be proclaimed King and was Crowned together with his eldest Son Adelbert Year of our Lord 950 Otho very glad of the disturbances in France gave slight assistance to Louis who in the necessity of his affairs relied much upon him and often went to him or sent his wife Gerberge He also made cessations from time to time In one of which he and Hugh meeting by consent at the Marne the River between them Year of our Lord 950 they patched up I know not what Peace upon which Hugh was to surrender up to him a great Tower which he held in the City of Laon. Peace being made on this side Lewis takes his progress towards Aquitain to secure himself of the Fidelity of the Lords of that Country For during these revolutions the Subjects faith was grown so wavering that often in less then a years time they swore obedience and fealty to three or four several Kings Which was indeed because they would have had none had it been in their power This year 951. Ogina Mother to
958. not without suspition of poyson and thus left his Conquest imperfect Year of our Lord 958 Now the complaints of the Lords and Prelats and the earnest entreaty of the Pope pressing King Otho he resolved to go himself after he had Crowned his Son Otho II. at Aix la Chapelle though he were but seven years of Age. Upon his Arrival in Italy Berenger his Son and his Wife abandoned the Cities and Country and retired each of them into a strong Fort. Otho was there received with universal applause recovered Pavia was Crowned King of Lombardy at Milan by the Arch-Bishop and thence marched to Rome where he received the Imperial Crown upon Christmass-day by the hands of John XII who had been put into the Holy Chair by the Credit and Money of his Father Alberic before Year of our Lord 960. 961. 962. the Age of 18 years This Alberic was the Son of Marosia who had chaced King Hugh from Rome after which he had changed the Government there and made himself Consul that he might command in Chief with a Prefect and some Tribuns Year of our Lord 963 Now the young Pope who had earnestly desired Otho to come quickly changed his mind and recalled Berenger to Rome as soon as Otho was gone from thence to reduce the rest of those places which that Tyrant still held Otho being informed of this odd fantastical news did not give over his Conquests then when he thought it seasonable to return to Rome he led his Army thither The young Pope being fled with Berenger and the Treasure of the Church he caused his Process to be made not for his Intrusion but for Murther Sacriledge Adultery Incest Simony and other enormous crimes For this end he Assembled a Council John was cited before them in due form and not appearing they deposed him and in his place put Leo who was the VIII of that name Year of our Lord 963 This Pope to avoid the trouble the Cabals caused in Elections gave the Emperor Otho the power thenceforward to Elect the Popes and Bishops and to give him Investiture The Ecclesiastical History does likewise observe that this John XII was called Octavian before his Election and that he was the first Pope that changed his name Whilst Otho was passing the Christmass Holy-days at Rome with the new Pope having quartred his Army out of the City the Faction and money of John the deposed Pope made the Romans rise to Attaque him Treacherously he had notice of it time enough to prevent surprize put himself in the head of his Army Year of our Lord 965 and came boldly to them They were afraid and coming to a composition with him gave several Hostages He delivered them up again some few days after upon the entreaties of Leo but no sooner was he gone to besiege Camerin but they revolted drove out Leo and received John in their City where he exercised most revengeful cruelty upon Leo's Friends He had continued it to the end had he not been killed in the very act of enjoying a Woman After his death the Romans persisting in their Rebellion Elected the Arch Deacon Bennet Immediately Otho returns again reduces Rome to a Famine compels Bennet to ask pardon in the Synod of Bishops and causing him to be degraded of his Priest-hood sent him Prisoner into Germany where about a year after he died at Hamburgh Some months thence believing Italy might remain in Peace because he had taken Berenger and confined him to Bamberg in Germany he returned home and marched his Army with him After his departure some Lombard Counts revolted having Adelbert and Guy the Sons of Berenger at their head But Duke Burchard whom he sent back overthrew them in a great Battel which was fought on the Banks of the Po. Guy the most mischievous of them all was left dead upon the place and Adelbert escaped with much ado This last having gathered some Forces together hazards another Battel An. 968 ☞ which loosing he died with grief And thus with him ended the second Kingdom of Italy or if you will it passed over the German Princes who let it moulder away and come to nothing After Pope Leo VIII was dead and that John XIII had been set in the Chair with the consent of Otho on whom Leo had bestowed the power of Confirming the Election of Popes the Prefect Consuls Tribuns and other Magistrates of the City of Rome displeased that Otho had greatly limited their power which before led all Italy as they pleased they put this Pope in Prison then turned him out of Rome calling to their aid Rofroy Count of Campania The Pope retires to Pandolfus Prince of Capoua who restored him and John his Brother slew Rofroy In recompence the Pope erects an Arch-Bishoprick at Capoua Year of our Lord 966 and bestowed it on the murtherer of his Enemy But Otho desiring to remedy things once for all by suppressing these Rebellions returns to Italy where he setled his Authority by severe punishments by rewarding Year of our Lord 966. and 967. of friends by creating new Counts by good and wholesome Laws and in fine by the conquest of Calabria and Puglia which he wrested from the Grecian Empire who had kept them hitherto Year of our Lord 968 And to compleat all he Crowned his Son Otho at Milan by the hands of the Pope and joyned him in the Empire This young Prince three years after that is to say in An. 971. Married Teophania or Tifaine Daughter of the Emperor Nicephorus who was then dead Thus Otho but little inferior to Charlemaine raised the Western Empire the ☞ Title thereof ever since that time remaining as it were annexed to Germany with pretences much more great and extensive then their Forces We shall henceforth speak no more of the affairs of Italy and little of Germany unless where things do joyntly relate to the French Year of our Lord 962 During these Transactions in Italy divers quarrels were troublesome to France the two greatest were that about the Arch-Bishoprick of Reims and the hatred of the Counts Thibauld de Chartres and Arnold of Flanders against the Normans The first might have been ended by restoring Hugh of Vermandois to his Dignity in Reims Artold the Arch-Bishop being dead An. 962. if the Queen could have suffer'd it But far from giving her assent she so brought it about that the Council of Soissons refer'd it to the Pope who declared him Excommunicated Year of our Lord 963 The Brethren of this Hugh furiously Animated against Guibuin Bishop of Chaalons who in that Assembly had proved thechief obstacle against his restoration Burnt the City Year of our Lord 964. and 65. The Earl of Chartres was supported by the King against the Normans because he was joyned both by alliance and affection to the Interest of the Sons of Hugh the Great He lost a Battel in Normandy for which he received satisfaction by the conquest of Evreux which the King put
which came on obliged him to retire and Lotaire and Hugh Capet having drawn their Forces together cut off all his Reare-Guard at his passage over the River of Aisne which was overflown and pursued him fighting to the Ardennes The Almain Monks of those days as it is the Genius of men to pretend Miracles in great danger write that St. Udalric Bishop of Ausburgh who accompanted that Emperor in this War went over the River Aisne dry-fout leading the way before him and his whole Army who followed the over-following Stream miraculously growing hard and firm under them the River becoming a Bridge to it's self In this retreat the Earl of Anjou did let the Germans know that the quarrel being between the two Kings it would be better according to common right for them to decide it singly hand to hand then to spill the Blood of so many innocent people But the Germans reply'd that although they did not doubt the courage of their ☞ King nevertheless they would not consent that he should expose his person singly Confessing tacitely thereby that they did not think him so brave as the King of France Year of our Lord 978 Otho thus roughly handled sought an accommodation with the French Lotaire and he conferring together in the City of Reims concluded a Peace upon condition that Lotaire should yeild him Lorrain to be held in Feif of the Crown of France say our Authors for which the French Lords shewed a great deal of discontent Year of our Lord 978 Thus the Soveraignty of that Kingdom remained in Lotaire the Dutchy of the Lower Lorrain which two years before had been bestowed upon Charles his Brother by Otho reverted to his disposal but as he must give some part to Charles he agreed he should enjoy that also Which was consented to at an enter-view between that King and Otho upon the River of Kar the German Prince having desired that conference before he undertook this expedition into Italy against the Saracens Year of our Lord 978 Charles imagining his Brother had yeilded him that Dutchy but by compulsion was so ill advised that he might have some body to support him in it as to render Hommage for it to Otho instead of holding the Soveraignty himself as he might have done Year of our Lord 981 Two years after Otho to oblige hm the more gave him likewise the Country all about Mets Toul Verdon and Nancy and other Lands between the Meuse and the Rhine Now this submission tendred by Charles to a Stranger sounded very ill amongst the French and the Augmentation of his power certainly shock'd the designs of Hugh Capet who was preparing his way to the Throne For we must consider that Charles was the only obstacle Lotaire having but one Son weak both in Age and understanding and of very small hopes Besides the long abode of that Prince in those Countries without coming into France the too great affection he shewed for the Germans who at that time were the Capital Enemies of France as likewise some ren-counters with the King his Brother one amongst the rest about the City of Cambray which he defended against that King who would have plundred the Churches as he had done those of Arras gave his Enemies occasion to decry him amongst the French Year of our Lord 982 The Emperor Otho II. Died in the year 982. having before declared his Son of the same name Successor of his Estates LOTAIRE and LOUIS his Son in France OTHO III. Emperor and King of Germany and Lorraine Aged 17 years CONRAD in Burgundy Upon the News of his Death Lotaire believed that Germany was going to be all in confusion and combustion by reason of the contests about the Guardianship of young Otho who was then but seven years old wherefore he entred Lorraine An. 983. to regain it and took 〈◊〉 with Godfrey Earl thereof but when he understood Otho was Crowned by thâ— content of all the Grandees he engaged no Year of our Lord 982 farther but returned home to Franâ—â— Year of our Lord 985 Two years after he rendred up the City of Verdun gave Godfrey his liberty and caused his Son Louis to be Crowned to Reign with him He had already married him to a Princess of Aquitain named Blanche And yet was at most not above 18 or 19. years of Age. It is not well known of which Aquitain she was for in that Age and the next following the French comprehended Languedoc and Provence likewise under that name Year of our Lord 986 This couple were ill-matched the Woman couragious and gallant the Husband wanting vigour of mind and perhaps of Body in so much that she despised him and carrying him into her own Country under colour that she could procure the conquest of it by the assistance and interest of her Kindred and Allies she planted him there and the King his Father was forced to go and fetch him thence again This was a great misfortune in the Royal Family and a greater yet that Lotaire Died the 12 th Day of March in the following year of some desperate morsel given Year of our Lord 987 him by his own wife He was a Warlike Prince active careful of his affairs and worthy in fine to have commanded better Subjects He survived little more then the 45 th year of his Age and the 33 th of his Reign LOUIS THE Lazy or Sloathful King XXXIV Aged about XX Years POPES JOHN XV. Elected towards the end of An. 985. S. 10 years 4 Months and a half whereof 16 Months under this Reign LOUIS the Do-Nothing in France OTHO III. CONRAD IT was divulged that at his Death he left the Guardianship of his Son to Hugh Capet who in effect was his Cousin German How-ever it were Emina Year of our Lord 986 not relying too much upon him as it seems had resolved to carry him in the Month of June to his Grand-mother Adeleida Widdow of Otho I. and Tutoress of Otho III. A Heroick Princess who was called the Mother of Kings But they did not give her the time for the 22 th of the same month the Poor Prince ended his Life in the same manner as his Father and by the crime of Blanche of Aquitain his wife He lieth at St. Corneille of Compiegne An Author of those times sayes that he gave his Kingdom to Hugh Capet another that he bequeathed it to his wife upon condition he should marry her He Reigned in all about three years Eighteen or Twenty Months with his Father and sixteen Months alone With his Reign ended that of the Carlian or Carlovingnian Line after it had lasted 236 years and had a Succession of Eleven Kings taking only those of West-France for if we reckon all the others we shall find above thirty without speaking of all those Princes who dismembred this Kingdom as being issued of this August blood descended by Women There were sprung up three Branches of this Race one in Italy by
greatest indignity even to the reducing him to much indigence of all things fit for him I find in the Life of this most Wife King an act of Clemency more then Royal. There having been discovery made of a grand Conspiracy against his Life and State and the Authors taken when the Lords were assembled together to Sentence them to Death he caused those Wretches to be splendidly entertained and the next day admitted to the Sacred Communion then would needs have them be set free saying They could not put those to Death whom Jesus Christ had newly received at his Table This year William IV. Duke of Aquitain and Earl of Poitiers died and his eldest Son William V. surnamed the Gross took the Goverment of his Country The Widow Dutchess second Wife of William IV. having Children to gain assistance against those of the first Bed Married Geofrey Martel a most valiant Prince the Son of Fulk Earl of Anjou Year of our Lord 1025 The year after Richard the Good Duke of Normandy ended his days and for Successor Year of our Lord 1026 had Richard III. his eldest Son Year of our Lord 1027 Othe-William Earl of Burgundy left this World likewise and his Son Renauld possessed his Estates An enraged Passion to govern Armed Baldwin then surnamed the Frison and afterwards the Debonnaire against Bearded Baldwin his own Father Earl of Flanders so that he drove him out of his Country This unnatural Son valuing himself highly on the Alliance of King Robert whose Daughter he had Married but who nevertheless did not countenance his impiety Richard III. Duke of Normandy others affirm it was Robert received the old banished Man and restored him to his Earldom but he could not totally supress the Partialities in those Countries where some still sided with the Son as others stood up for the Father Year of our Lord 1028 The 17th of September the young King Hugh died in the Flower of his Age bemoaned of all Europe for his rare and lovely Qualities which had acquired him so great Reputation that he could hardly have made it good if he had longer survived King Robert had three more Sons remaining Henry Robert and Eudes Some Year of our Lord 1028 29. say that Eudes was the eldest of them all However it were the King after the Death of Hugh would have Henry Crowned but Queen Constance by a depraved appetite had undertaken to put Robert in the Throne The Fathers Authority and Reason carried it for Henry amongst the French Lords and yet this Womans Obstinacy could not acquiesce but caused many Tumults her Husband not being able to prevent her even in his Life time from contriving a great Conspiracy to dethrone the eldest and place the younger in his stead ROBERT and HENRY his Son Aged some Eighteen years Year of our Lord 1029 RIchard III. Duke of Normandy having Reigned but two years died of Poyson by by his Brother named Robert who after his death enjoyed the Dukedom obtained Year of our Lord 1028 by Fratricide Year of our Lord 1029 30. In the year 1029. and 30. there began a great War between Eudes Earl of Champagne Chartres and Tours and Fulk Earl of Anjou because Fulk fortified the Castle of Montrichard which Eudes said did belong to the Country of Touraine After some Rencounters they came to a pitched Battle each being at the head of his Army the loss was great on either side but the Angevin obtained the Victory Year of our Lord 1030 31 and the following Though King Robert commonly permitted the liberty of Elections yet the Bishop of Langres being dead he by his absolute Authority substituted another as having need of one wholly at his Devotion in that place to help him in the bridling and containing of Burgundy The Canons having Poysoned this he put in a second there which excited so great trouble amongst the Clergy of that Diocess that he was forced to send his Son to install the last promoted and to secure him from their Attempts Year of our Lord 1033 Whilst Henry was in that Country hapned a great Eclipse of the Sun and Robert his Father was seized with a Distemper whereof he died the 20th of July in the year 1033. having lived Sixty one years of which he Reigned Forty five and an half that was Nine and an half with his Father and Thirty six since his death He had four Children living three Sons Henry who had the Crown Eudes who contended with him for it and Robert who was Duke of Burgundy and one Daughter named Adeleida who Married Baldwin Earl of Flanders It was no fault of his Government that France was not compleatly happy he gave his Subjects what depended upon him Justice and Peace but had the unhappiness to see a Famine three times and after that a Plague make great destruction in his Dominions the first in Anno 1007. the second Anno 1010. and the third from the year 1030 to 1033. The first was general over all Europe and the last so severe in France that many People were seen to dig up dead Carkasses for Food to go a hunting after little Children and lie in wait at the corners of Woods like Beasts of Prey to devour Passengers Nay there was a Man so possessed with the covetous desire of gain more cruel then the Famine it self that he exposed Human Flesh to sale in the City of Tournus but that detestable Prodigy was by them expiated in the Flames Henry I. King XXXVII POPES BENEDICT IX A young Boy intruded in December 1033. S. near Ten years Three Anti-Popes the same BENEDICT SYLVESTER and GREGORY VI. Elected after the Abdication of BENEDICT Anno 1044. S. Two years CLEMENT VII Named by the Emperor Anno 1046. S. Nine Months DAMASUS II. Elected in 1048. S. Twenty three days LEO IX After Five Months vacancy Elected in Feb. 1049. S. Five years two Months VICTOR II. Named by the Emperor Anno 1054. S. Three years STEPHANUS X. Elected in August 1057. S. Eight Months NICHOLAS II. Elected in 1058. S. Two years six Months Year of our Lord 1033 THe first and most capital Enemy against this King was his own Mother who continuing to the prejudice of his Fathers Declaration and the right of Nature to endeavour to set the Crown upon the Head of Robert her beloved Son raised a good Party of the Grandees against him particularly Baldwin Earl of Flanders and Eudes Earl of Champagne bestowing the City of Sens upon this last to engage him to her Party But Henry whose Resolution was above his Age went himself being the Twelfth to Robert Duke of Normandy to implore his Assistance The Duke by Motives of Fidelity or hatred against the Champenois aided him with all his Forces With which having in a short time defeated the Queen's in several Rencounters and taken the Rebels Holds he unlinked the whole Party and reduced her in despite of all her Projects to live quietly with him The War ended
of Allemans or Almans because this Prince being Duke of the Almans had ever both in his Train and in all Offices more of those People then of any other Country The Italians even in those days called then Tudesâ—hi as they do still Death ravisht from the King his two ablest Councellors which were Suger Abbot of St. Denis the Fifteenth of January and Rodolph Earl of Vermandois the last Prince of the second Royal Branch of that name He having no Children and his Sister being Married to Philip Son of Thierry Earl of Flanders the King who cherished this Philip left him the possession of Vermandois the Subject of a Quarrel in the Reign following Year of our Lord 1152 Whether it were jealousie or scruple of Conscience the King eagerly pursued the Separation from his Wife and obtain'd it by Sentence of the Prelats of his Kingdom whom he had called together at Baugency Immediately proceeding with integrity he withdrew his Garrisons from Aquitain to leave her that Country in freedom and gave her liberty to go whether she pleased keeping the two little Daughters he had by her with him This Woman burning with Love and Ambition Married some Months after Henry Duke of Normandy and Presumptive King of England a Prince both young hot and Red-Haired very able to satisfie her Desires As soon as Alienor was Divorced Lewis sent to demand Constance-Elizabeth Year of our Lord 1152 Daughter of Alfonso King of Castile by Hugh Archbishop of Sens who performed the Ceremony of that Marriage at Orleans and there Crowned the new Queen the Archbishop of Reims protesting in vain that this Right belonged to him only Lewis not able to endure his Vassal should go equal with him nor Henry who had so many great Lordships suffer a Soveraign above him it was imposible they should continue good Friends This last being assigned to appear in Parliament refused to come Lewis to punish him besieged and took the City of Vernon but Henry submitting out of some apprehension he yet had of King Stephen the Lords reconciled him with Lewis who restored the place to him Year of our Lord 1152 King Stephen the Usurper of the English Crown being dead Henry gets into possession of that Kingdom according to the former agreement betwixt them It was not permitted the Kings of France says Yves de Chartres to Wed any Bastards Now there went a report that Constance was such wherefore King Lewis two years after his Marriage would satisfie himself herein and under the pretence of going on Pilgrimage to St. Jago in Galicia took her Fathers Court in his way the most magnificent Prince of those times who received and entertained him Year of our Lord 1154 most Royally at Burgos and took away that suspicion he had conceived Year of our Lord 1154 Divers do in this year 1154. reckon the Death of Roger I. King of Sicily one of the most Warlike and Potent Princes of this Age. He raised the reputation and fame of the Normans to its highest pitch in so much as after him it did ever decline He had a Son named William and a Daughter called Constance the Son Reigned but with so much Injustice Avarice and Tyranny that he deserved the surname of Wicked or Bad. He prided himself most in filling his Coffers and draining his Subjects to the very last Penny Constance being an old Maid Married the Emperor Henry VI. in the year 1186. Year of our Lord 1155 Gefroy Earl of Gien on the Loire knowing himself too weak to oppose William Earl of Nevers who made a rude War upon him allied himself with Stephen de Champagne Count of Sancerre and gave his Daughter to him and for Dowry his Earldom to the Exclusion of his Son Herve The Son thus disinherited by his Father without any fault committed implored the Kings Justice who goes in Person and besieges Gien takes it upon Composition and settles him there Year of our Lord 1159 When Henry was possess'd of England Gefroy his Brother demands Anjou Touraine and Maine according to their Fathers Will but far from giving these he takes Loudun Chinon and Mirebeau from him so that he had been left without any thing had it not been his good Fortune to be chosen by the Nantois for their Earl who having forsaken Hoel stood in need of a Prince to defend them against the Assaults of Conan Year of our Lord 1158 The Enmities between King Lewis and Henry being ready to break forth the Lords found out a way to prevent it yet a while by the Alliance of Henry's eldest Son of the same name with Margaret Daughter of Lewis by his second Wife though both of them were Children and had scarce left off their Bibs The Girl was put into the Father-in-Law's hands and Lewis promis'd to bestow in Dowre with her Gisors and other places in the Normand Vexin which in the interim were trusted to the keeping of the Grand Master of the Knights-Templars to be deliver'd up to Henry when the Marriage should be Consummate The Emperor Frederick composed the Difference between Bertold of Zeringhen and Renauld about the Earldom of Burgundy in such a manner that he dismembred or cut off from it the little Country of Nuctland which is beyond Mount-Jou and the Cities of Geneva Lausanna and Sion to give them to Bertold leaving the remainder to Renauld whose Daughter and Heiress named Beatrix he Married After which keeping open Court with great Pomp at Besancon he received Hommage of all the Lords and Prelats belonging to the Earldom of Burgundy and the Kingdom of Arles who notwithstanding regarded not his Soveraignty but only to obtain a better Title to their Usurpations Those that were common Friends to both endeavour'd to procure an Enterview between him and the King of France and agreed upon the time and place but the King stung with Jealousie at the Grandeur of that young Prince or having some suspicion he would design upon his Person would go attended with a great number Year of our Lord 1159 of Soldiers which caused Frederick to withdraw very much dissatisfied Gefroy Earl of Nantes being dead without Children Conan Earl of Renes or of Little Bretagne seized on the City of Nantes King Henry Brother of Gefroy pretending it belonged to him by Succession undertakes to recover it by force of Arms. Year of our Lord 1160 Conan being hardly press'd buys his Peace by giving him his Daughter and Heiress named Constance for his Third Son by name Gefroy the same as his Uncle deceased After the Death of Pope Adrian the greater number of the Cardinals elected the Cardinal Rowland a Siennois who was named Alexander III. But the Roman People and two Cardinals only gave their Votes for Cardinal Octavian a Roman who took the name of Victor The Right of either side was dubious for on the one hand the Decrees of some Popes had referr'd the Election to the Cardinals only and on the other the Roman
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
all his Forces with him Year of our Lord 1289 Don Sancho King of Castille desired earnestly to have a Peace with King Philip and for that reason he would have given him up the two Sons of Alphonso de Cerda and to this intent had endeavoured to get them out of the hands of the Arragonian who kept them Now the Arragonian having denied so to do he Treated with Philip obliging himself to give the Kingdom of Murcia to the eldest of those two Brothers and some other Lands to the second The Arragonian hearing of this Treaty made haste to set them at liberty that so they might be obliged to him and continue still Enemies to Sancho In effect they were so ill advised as to refuse to stand to the Agreement which Philip their Cousin German had made for them and immediately took up Arms against the Castillan Year of our Lord 1290 Philips displeasure for being thus cantradicted by these two Brothers was craftily manag'd by the Castillan so that those two Kings had Interview at Bayonne and there made a Treaty by which Philip according the Advice of some interessed Counsellors totally abondoned his unhappy Cousins and withall yielded up and gave to Don Sancho all the rights he might have to the Crown of Castille This year Alexander III. King of Scotland dying without Children there arose a long and bloody Quarrel for the Succession between two Lords each of them pretending to be the next Heir Both of them being of the Blood Royal by their Mothers who were the Daughters of Scotland Their names were Robert Bruce and John de Baliol. This last was Originally of Normandy History does not mention of what part for there are divers places have the name of Baliol. These two Competitors having referr'd their Difference to Edward King of England he gives Judgment in favour of Baliol whether he believed his Title to be the better or whether it were because he made himself his Vassal as the Scots reproach him and had promis'd to hold his Crown of him Year of our Lord 1291 Alfir Sultan of Egypt had in the year 1288. wrested all the Cities of Tripoly Syria Lidon and Tyre with some other strong Holds out of the hands of the Christians They had nothing more left in all those Countreys but the Sea-Port Town of Ptolemais which made a Truce with the Sultan The French the Pisans the Genoese and the Venetians had each of them their distinct Quarters and Magistrates The Pope the King of Cyprus the Earl of Tripoly the Patriach of Jerusalem and the Templars contended for the Soveraignty Amidst these Divisions there was nothing but Murthers Robberies and Plunderings both within and without the City Besides all this they were so imprudent as to suffer some numbers of new Recruits that were come to them as Adventurers of the Cross to break the Truce The Sultan Mebee-Arafe who succeeded to Alfir demanded Reparation but as it was not in their power to deliver up the Violators he besieged the City and after Forty days continual attaques gained it by Storm putting to the Sword all that were within excepting only such as could save themselves on Ship-board Such was the end of the Christians Conquests in Syria and their Expeditions into the Holy Land For although the Popes have since caused the Croisado's to be preach'd for the recovery of it and several Princes and great Persons have made ✚ â—ow to go thither for the same purpose Nevertheless since the loss of Ptolemais none of them have gone thither but only some Pilgrims Year of our Lord 1291 Charles the Lame was in the end forced that he might free his Children and release those Gentlemen he had given in Hostage and who were all sent into Arragon to persuade his Cousin Charles Earl of Valois to renounce the Kingdom of Arragon upon which Condition King Alphonso engaged himself to go with his Forces into the Holy Land and in his pasiage through Sicilia to do his utmost to induce his Brother James Usurper of that Island to restore it to Charles the Lame Who in the mean while gave his Daughter Clemence in Marriage to Charles de Valois and for a Portion the Counties of Anjon and Maine Year of our Lord 1291 Otheline Earl of Burgundy ready to be trod under foot by Robert Duke of Burgundy who would have the Earldom to hold of the Dutchy and do him Homage cast himself head-long into the protection of King Philip bringing to him his eldest Daughter named Jane that he might Marry her to one of his Sons and in favour of this Alliance he from that time gave him up his Earldom reserving only to himself the Revenue during his Life This Jane was afterwards Married to Philip the Long the Kings eldest Son who was then but in his Cradle and her Sister Blanch to the second who was called Charles the Fair. Year of our Lord 1291 The excessive Usury of the Italian Bankers suckt all the Substance of the poor People The King had need of Money he was glad oâ— such an opportunity and pretence to do Justice to get some from them He therefore caused them all to be seized upon May-day night This was a sweet Knot or Nose-gay of May-Flowers but since under the same pretence they laid hold of many honest Merchants likewise and raised great Fines or Taxes upon them as well as upon the Blood-sucking Leeches this inquiry which in it self was just and necessary was converted into a most odious Robbery Year of our Lord 1291 It is believed that this year the holy Virgins little House at Nazareth where the Incarnation of the Word was declared to her was by Angels transferr'd to the top of a little Mountain in Dalmatia on the other side of the Adriatique-Sea That from thence three years afterwards it was brought to the hither-side in a Wood that belonged to a Widow named Loretta and that it was removed at two other times into two several places in the last whereof the Angels left it There is a Magnificent Church built there and a pretty good Town and both are called by the name of Loretta Year of our Lord 1291 The Emperor Rodolph ended his days in the Burrough of Geâ—inesheim near Spire the last day of September having Reigned Eighteen years He laid the foundation of the prodigious Grandeur of the House of Austria but undermined that of the Empire in Italy by neglecting to go thither and selling the Soveraignty to divers Cities of Tuscany in the year 1286. especially to that of Luca and Florence who bought it of him with their Money Year of our Lord 1292 In his room Adolph Earl of Nassau was elected the 6th of January and Crowned at Francfort a brave and generous Prince who would have maintained that Title better then any of his Ancestors had he but had as much Riches as Vertue The Peace between France and England had lasted to this time to the great satisfaction of both
1325. The Council of England found it necessary that Queen Isabella who was Sister to Charles the Fair should pass over into France with Edward his eldest Son to Negociate the Peace She managed the business with a great deal of Skill and finished the Treaty contriving it so that her Son Edward was invested in the Dutchy of Guyenne and the Earldom of Pontieu for which he did Homage to the King The King of England had too near him the two Hugh Spensers Father and Son the last having been bred with him in an unbecoming familiarity had an absolute empire over him and made him do what ever he desired The English Lords having made some Conspiracy and taken up Arms against this Favourite he drew them to a Parly where he caused them also to be seized against the Publick Faith and afterwards chopt off the Heads of Two and Twenty Barons amongst whom was Thomas Earl of Lancaster Son of Prince Edmond who when living was Brother to King Edward Pursuring his design he kept Queen Isabella and the Earl of Kent the Kings Brother at distance from the Court and likewise did privately seek to destroy them whether for that they had been in the Conspiracy with the Lords or that he apprehended their Credid or Interest and this was the chief ground for their coming into France Year of our Lord 1325 King Charles received his Sister with all the tenderness of a good Brother kept her a great while in his Court Treating and Honouring her according to her Quality and promised her assistance both of Money and Men as much as he well could without breaking with the English to Chastise that insolent favourite who continued to take off all those Heads that stood in the way which his Ambition led him to Unhappy Flanders was hardly ever without Troubles The Flemmings had but little affection to their Earl because he was too much French by inclination and resided but little in that Country He had a long and bloody Contest with the Citizens of Bruges Robert de Cassel supported them because he would have had him been kill'd They made John Earl of Namur his Uncle Prisoner and a while after they also did detain himself But when the Pope had laid an Interdict upon the Country when those Mutineers had been beaten by the Ghentois and they found the King was sending Forces to his relief they were forced to bend the Knee and humble themselves before him He Chastised them by great Fines the loss of their fairest Priviledges and by the banishment of a great number of the hottest Spirits Year of our Lord 1325 It was above a year that Charles Earl of Valois languished with a Distemper which was very odd and yet more painful Who knows whether it were not the effect of some cruel Poyson The Physicians not knowing either how to find out the true cause of the Malady nor any Remedies the poor Prince falls into an imagination that it was a Divine Punishment for the too eager and severe pusute he had made against Enguerrand de Marigny They have not forgot to mention his Penitence and to enumerate the satisfactions he offer'd to his Memory but perhaps these proceeded from a Mind as sick and as much out of tune as his Body After all if God so severely Chastised a Prince for persecuting a publick Robber and bringing him to Justice by unjust Methods and with an ill intent what did not that Robber deserve who for so long a time had tormented Millions of innocent Souls Year of our Lord 1325 and 26. The Spensers dreading the Storm which threatned them from the Coast of France obliged Edward earnestly to re-demand his Wife and they made use of so many Arts and scattered so much Money in King Charles his Court and even in the Popes to make him bestir himself for them that at length Charles won by their Presents or frighted with the fears of a Rupture not only retracted those Promises he had made his Sister but likewise upon pain of Banishment forbid all Knights to assist her and Commanded her to go out of his Countries Year of our Lord 1326 One Roger de Mortimer a Gentleman of Normandy was very much in the favour and good opinion of this fair Princess the Spensers had taken occasion to raise some Jealousie in the King her Husband and detain this Roger in the Tower of London but having sound means to escape he was come over into France and perhaps this was none of the least Arguments for which King Charles who was an Enemy to that unclean Folly would endure her no longer and so abandon'd her Year of our Lord 1326 At her leaving the Court of France she retired disconsolate into the County of of Pontien then into Hainault where she was so happy that John Brother of William the Earl declared himself her Knight-Errant caused her to be well and kindly received in his Brothers Court and having mustred Three hundred Knights more he carried her back into England No sooner was the news of her being landed known but Henry Earl of Lancaster the Brother of Thomas came to her the Earls Barons and Knights flock'd thither from all parts She besieged the King and both the Spensers in Bristol Spenser the Father and the Earl of Arundel Son-in-Law to the younger Spenser were taken in the City and beheaded The King and Spenser the Son who were retired into the Castle and from thence thought to make their escape in a Bark were taken at Sea The Favourite according to his Sentence given by the Barons was drawn on a Hurdle thorough the Streets of Hereford then led to the top of a Ladder where the Executioner cut off those parts that had transgress'd and plucked out his Heart then threw it into the Fire and quarter'd his Body Year of our Lord 1326 As for the King the Lords made his Process degraded him of his Royalty and condemned him to perpetual Imprisonment to put his Son Edward III. in his stead Afterwards the Friends to this unfortunate Prince by practising several means to save him compleated his ruine It was resolved to dispatch him out of the World and that after a most cruel manner They thrust a red hot Iron up into his Fundament through a Pipe of Horn fearing the burning should be discovered His Wife in her turn was punished by her own Son in the same horrible manner of revenge Year of our Lord 1326 In the mean time young King Edward Married Philippa the second of the four Daughters which the Earl of Hainault had by Jane Daughter of Charles Earl of Valois Divers Bands of Gascon Adventurers whom they called the Bastards perhaps because their Chiefs were such ravaged Guyenne They went into Saintonge where they seized upon the City of Xaintes but perceiving that the Captains whom King Charles had sent thither were resolved to give them Battle they withdrew in the night having set Fire to the City Year of our
Flowers upon their Heads and taking Hands with one another went into the Streets and Churches Dancing Singing and running round with so much violence that they fell down for want of breath This agitation made them swell so prodigiously they would have burst had not great pains and care been taken to swathe them with bands about their Bellies immediately such as looked on them too attentively were often infected with the same distemper Some believed it an operation of the Devil and that Exorcisms did much help them The vulgar named it The Dance of St. JOHN Year of our Lord 1375 Upon the instant and continual exhortations of the Pope the two Kings entred into a Negotiation to compose their differences For this an Assembly was held at Bruges in Flanders whither they sent their nearest Princes of their Blood and the most illustrious Lords of their Kingdoms It lasted almost two years incredible expence There was first a Truce made for a year to commence in the month of May of this year 1375. which being concluded the Duke of Lancaster and the Duke of Bretagne passed into England Bretagne not being comprehended their Duke returns with an Army of English and partly by force partly by correspondence regained St. Mahé St. Brieue and seven or eight other places whilst John d'Evreux Brother to the King of Navarre made great spoil and waste all about Kemperlay He had built a Fort thereabouts for his retreat from whence he very much incommoded that City Clisson Roban Beaumanoir and other Lords of Bretagne besieged him in it The Duke hastned thither to deliver him they quickly marched off he pursues them and besieged them in Kemperlay Now when they were just ready to be exposed to his mercy he would have shewed but little to those whom he proclaimed Traitors and Rebels a second Truce wherein they comprized him drew them most fortunately out of his hands Year of our Lord 1375 The minority of the King of France if I do not deceive my self lasted to the age of Twenty years and during all that time all Command all Orders and all Acts were made under the name of the Regent The wise King considered that an Authority so absolute might force or snatch the Crown from his Son if he left him a Minor That the people were it error or custom did not willingly acknowledge a Prince for their King till he was Crowned and that it might be feared lest the Duke of Anjou should make them believe by some former examples or presidents that they ought to chuse one that was in Majority and capable to Govern For these reasons or for others we are ignorant of he made his memorable Ordonnance by the advice of the Princes Lords Prelates University and other notable persons which imports That the eldest Sons of France as soon as they have attained to the age of Fourteen years should be held for Majors and capable of being Crowned and that they should receive the Homage and Oaths of sidelity from their Subjects This was made at the Bois de Vincennes in the month of August 1374. and verified in Parliament the Twentieth of May of the following year We must not however imagine that he believed as much King as he was that he could advance the course of Nature and give his Son the Sence and Wit that age alone can bestow since the same Year and the same Month he made a Declaration which mention'd that in case he died before his Son should have attained to the age of Fourteen years he left the Guardianship and Government of him and of his other Children as also the Government and Defence of the Kingdom to the Queen Mother she was then living and joyned with her the Dukes of Burgundy and of Bourbon with a necessary and sufficient Council of near Forty persons Year of our Lord 1376 The Popes Legats remained still constantly at Bruges and kept the Ambassadors of both Crowns there with them to labour for a Peace But the Propositions on either side being at too great a distance to be brought to a meane they obtained at least a prolongation of the Truce to the Month of April in the year 1377. In Gascongne the Earl of Armagnac thinking to take revenge upon the Earl de Foix who had beaten him increased both his shame and loss He had taken the little City of Caseres and put himself into the place without providing it with Ammunition the Earl de Foix besieges him and without striking a blow reduces him to the extreamest want but he would not agree to give him and his their Lives but upon condition that they should creep out thorough a hole made purposely in the Year of our Lord 1376 Wall which they could not do but by crawling with their Bellies upon the ground nor were they quit for all this affront the Earl of Armagnac and twenty more of the principal paid great ransoms before they could be released The King of Navarre pass'd his word for that of the Sire d'Albret Year of our Lord 1377 During the long absence of the Popes Italy had accustom'd it self to disregard and disown them The People of Rome set up themselves as several petty Tyrants to preserve some Image of their Liberty and by the same Spirit the Cities belonging to the Ecclesiastical State at the sollicitation and with the aid of the Florentines had shaken off the yoak and turned out his Apostolical Legats Gregony IX thinking to redress these disorders and besides being earnestly pressed by St. Bridget of Sweden and by St. Catherine of Sienna two persons who were thought to have a very frequent Commerce with Heaven resolved to transfer the Holy See back to Rome from whence it had been removed Seventy two years He departed from Avignon the three and twentieth of September embarqued at Marseilles and after very great dangers on the Sea Signes of the agitations that change had wrought in the Church he arrived at Rome the Twenty seventh of January following Year of our Lord 1377 King Edward in the mean while had lost the brave Prince of Wales his eldest Son who had left a Son named Richard very young and for two years past found himself much broken and his Brain decay'd with weight of continual business and contention though he were but 65 years of age This was it made him desire to have a Peace and made him willing to relinquish many Articles of the Treaty of Bretigny But death prevented the effects of that disposition and took him out of the World the 21 of June His Grandson Richard II. Surnamed of Bourdeaux succeeded him He had seven Sons whereof five only lived to Mens Estate and were Married those were Edward Lyonel John Edmond and Thomas Edward was the brave Prince of Wales for the other four the First was Duke of Clarence the Second of Lancaster both of them by the Heiresses of those two Houses and the Third Earl of Cambridge then Duke of York the Fourth
into Africk with the Count de Harcour the Lord de la Tremonille and other Lords and Gentlemen to the number of Eight hundred and a much greater number of Adventurers of divers Countries with whom he signaliz'd his Courage and Conduct against the Moors of Barbary The King of Armenia Minor sprung from the Blood of Luzignan flying from the cruelty of the Turks who had conquer'd his Kingdom and kept his Wife and Children in Captivity came for relief and assistance to the French Court where the King gave him Honourable Entertainment during all the rest of his days He enjoy'd it to the year 1404. then died at Paris and was interred at the Celestines Year of our Lord 1383. and 84. As to the Affairs of Naples Charles de Duras and his Captains behaved themselves so well that cutting off all Provisions from Lewis of Anjou and either following or flanking him so as to prevent his Fighting them they reduced him to the extreamest want of all necessaries even of Cloaths insomuch as this Prince who had carried away all the Kings Treasure had no more left him then a Coat of painted Cloth to wear and one Silver Bowl to drink in He had sent Peter de Craon an Angevin Lord into France to bring him Money and Succours this faithless Friend made no haste to return amusing himself at Venice with the divertisement of some Courtisans After the unfortunate Prince had waited a long time without any tidings of him he sunk under his grief and died the Tenth day of October in this year 1384. or Year of our Lord 1384 as some others will have it the One and twentieth day of September the year following The Earl of Savoy died in the month of March either of the Plague or by drinking Water out of a Fountain that had been poyson'd His Son Ame VII Surnamed Le Rouge succeeded him We must observe that this Amè VI. was the Institutor of the Order of the Collar which was composed of Love-knots together with the Symbolical Letters of the House of Savoy and had at the end a kind of a Ring or wreathed Coronet Duke Charles III. being at Chamberry Anno 1518. changed the name of this Order to that of the Annunciado to honour the Holy Virgin in that mystery which is the most agreeable to her adding Fifteen White Roses to the Fifteen Love-knots in remembrance of her Fifteen Joyes and filled the Pendant with Figures of the Annunciation Year of our Lord 1385 The unhappy remnants of the Duke of Anjou's Army perish'd by Famine and Want excepting such as dispersing by small parties retired into France begging their lively-hood and receiving more injuries and opprobrious words in their Travels then they got bits of Bread The Angevin party was not for all this quite extinct in that Kingdom it subsisted yet in the hearts of some Lords of that Countrey whereof Thomas de St. Severin was the Chief and who afterwards served very well upon occasion For this time the Kingdom rested quietly under Charles de Duraz. The Truce with the English being expired the King who began to take cognizance of his Affairs held a grand Council to deliberate whether they ought to continue it It was the interest of the Duke of Burgundy because of his Low-Countreys to have a Peace with the English but to counterpoise his Power and to flatter Year of our Lord 1385 the young Kings heat they resolved on a War and even to carry it into their own Countrey To this purpose they fitted up a great Fleet at Sluce and they sent to the Scots to oblige them to a rupture of the Truce on their side Year of our Lord 1385 By the methods the Kings Uncles Governed it appeared plainly they had a mind to suck the Peoples Blood to the very last drop The Clergy that they might secure something for their subsistance held an Assembly where they decreed that their Revenues should be divided into three parts the one to be for the maintenance of the Churches the other for Ecclesiastical Persons and the Third for the King without any mention of the Poor Pursuant to the recommendation of the late King Charles the Wise the young Kings Uncles sought a Wife for him in Germany the opinions in Council were different and divided the Duke of Burgundy carried it for Isabella Daughter of Stephen Duke of Bavaria Count Palatine of the Rhine The King Married her at Amiens the .... of July In the preceding month of April the Nuptials between John the Duke of Burgundy's Son and Marguerite Daughter of Albert Duke of Bavaria Earl of Hainault Holland and Zealand were consummate Year of our Lord 1385. and 86. The great design upon England being laid aside after a vast expence that something might come of it John de Vienne Admiral went with Threescore Sail to Scotland and there landed to attaque the English on that side He made an irruption into their Countrey and took some Castles but the savage humour of the Scots could not comply with the free liberty of the French Besides Love had invaded the Admirals Heart and Head which made him courta Lady of the Kings Parentage whereat that wh ole Court not being acquainted with those Gallantreys took such offence that he found it the best way to make his escape with all diligence Year of our Lord 1385 The obstinate Ghentois would not yet bend they had two new Leaders Francion and Atreman who hardned them against all apprehensions of punishment This obliged the King to make a third step into Flanders They had no Port could receive any English Succours but Damm the king having taken that by force and afterwards burning all the Houses round about their City the Rebels in the end began to hearken to Propositions for an accommodation being inclined by the more pacifique humour of Atreman one of their new Chiefs in despite of all the practises of John du Bois and returned to the obedience of the King and the Duke of Burgundy their Lord. This Prince quite wearied with this tedious War which ruined all his Countrey gave them a general Amnesty for all things that were past and the confirmation of all their priviledges upon condition they would renounce all Leagues and that the first that should violate the Peace might forfeit his Life and all his Goods The Treaty was Signed the Eighteenth of December A Truce was renewed likewise between France and England for some Months Charles de Duraz not being satisfied with having invaded the Kingdom of Naples went also into Hungary and usurped that upon Mary one of the Daughters of Lewis the Great his Benefactor who died Anno 1381. and Wife to Sigismund Brother of the â—mperour Wenceslaus whom he detamed in captivity with the Widow Queen his Mother After so many Treacheries and cruel Ingratitudes Heaven suffer'd him to be murther'd himself by the order of Nicholas Gato one of the Palatines of that Kingdom who was very
come to his majority Year of our Lord 1422 The one and twentieth of October following King Charles VI. the weakness of whose Brain stupified with so many relapses made him a prey to every one that could but come to deal with him ended his Life and his unhappy Reign in his Hostel of St. Pol at Paris attended only by his first Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber his Confessor and his Almoner His Funeral was at St. Denis no Prince of the Blood went to it not even the Duke of Burgundy who was ashamed to give place to the Duke of Bedford This last as soon as the Ceremony was over caused young Henry his Nephew to be proclaimed King of France Charles VI. Reigned two and forty years and five and thirty days and lived fifty two He had by Isabella of Bavaria six Sons the three first of them died in their infancy the other three Lewis John and Charles appeared on the Theater and the last survived him and Reigned He had the same number of Daughters Isabella Jane Mary a second Jane Michel and Catharine The first was Married to Richard II. King of England then to Charles Duke of Orleans the second died in her Cradle the third devoted her self to God in the Convent at Poissy the fourth Married John VI. Duke of Bretagne the fifth Philip who was Duke of Burgundy and the last Henry V. King of England Before him the Kings of France were wont at all Ceremonies to appear with all their Regal Ornaments and wear some marks about them every day as their Robes lined with Ermines and a Crown upon their Hoods or their Hats In the Army a Coat of Armour Sem'd with Flower-de-Luces and a Hoop with Flowers pretty high upon their Helmets This King neglected all these Ornaments and did not distinguish himself at all from other People so that he seemed to have degraded himself of all Royalty That Quarrel which Pope Boniface had with King Philip the Fair was the Rock whereon the Papal Power both Spiritual and Temporal was split and shipwrack'd which till then had Master'd had Lorded it over the Emperors and other Western Princes The translation of the Holy See to Avignon brought them lower yet by removing them out of their natural place and laying open their defects which exposed the Court of Rome to the great contempt and scorn of all that did but make the least observation on their ill Conduct But to say the truth France that thought to aggrandise it self by this Spiritual Power of the Popes Court gained nothing but their Vices with the plague of Litigious Disputes and the Maletost or extraordinary Taxes But if the multitude of Cardinals were an advantage to the State France might have vaunted that she alone had as great a number as all the other parts of Christendom besides We have seen how Clement V. promoted to the Papacy by a method not strictly Canonical extinguished the Order of the Templers who were found to be all guilty in France but innocent in divers other Countries John XXII was the first who made it a fixt and permanent right to reserve the Fruits of vacant Benefices for the Holy See He bestowed the same Honour on the Bishoprick of Toulouze but thinking it too rich and of too great extent he divided it into five whereof Toulouze is one Montauban Lavaur Rieux and Lombers are the other four which he would have to be its Suffragants as also Mirepoix and Lavaur created new by him Moreover he restored the Bishoprick of Pamiez to that of Toulouze which had been taken away and brought under Narbonne by Boniface VIII when he erected it To recompence Narbonne in some manner he made two more in the same Territory these were Alet whose See was first at Limoux and St. Pont de Tomieres He likewise made four for that of Bourges Castres of a portion of that of Alby St. Flour of part of Clermont Vabres of part of Rodez and Tulles of part of Limoges He likewise erected four for the Archbishoprick of Bourdeaux which had been dismembred Condon from the Territory of Agen Sarlat from that of Perigueux Maillezais and Lucon from that of Poitiers Most of these sixteen Churches were Abbies changed into Bishopricks and their Abbots converted to Bishops The Popes return to Rome was attended with a Schism of forty years which troubled all Christendom but afflicted France particularly overthrew the Discipline of Elections and of Collations filled all the Churches with Mercinary Pastors nay hungry Wolves and absorded all her Revenues not only by ordinary Taxes upon each of them by Annats and Rights of Provision but by extraordinary Taxes and Tenths The Princes first the Duke of Anjou then the Duke of Berry and after him the Duke of Orleans favoured the cupidity of the Popes of Avignon that they might share in the prey the Cardinals gorged themselves the Prelats either for want of courage or in hopes of getting into fatter Benefices gave their consent the lesser ones were so much under the pawes of the Wolf they durst not so much as open their mouths The University of Paris alone opposed these disorders and notwithstanding the Princes menaces the corruptions of the Court of Avignon the tricks and artifices of the Popes that were Competitors they saved the Temporals of the Gallican Church and restored the Universal Churches Peace by extinguishing the Schism And truly this great work is in the first place due to their zeal and labour and in the second place to the care and perseverance of the Emperor Sigismund who called and maintained the Council of Constance and who made divers Voyages into Italy France and Arragon to establish Unity and Peace There was not in all the Kingdom so powerful a Body as the University as well for the multitude of her Scholers which sometimes exceeded the number of thirty thousand as because she was the Nursing Mother of all the Clergy of France The remonstrances she took the liberty to make to the Princes the care she had to procure the reformation of the State during the troubles and that which hapned to Savoisy are very strong proofs of it But we will add two more The one that in the year 1304. the Prevost of Paris having caused a Scholer that was a Clerk to be hanged they carried their complaints to the King and left off their Exercises till they had satisfaction He was fain to go to the Pope for his absolution The other was thus in the year 1408. William de Tignonville who was at that time in the same Office having likewise sent a couple of Scholers to the Gallows who well deserved it but were Clarks was forced together with his Lieutenant to go and unhang them to kiss their Feet and cause them to be brought with great ceremony to the Matburins where yet their Epitaph is to be seen We find by the Letters of Pope John XXII that the Oriental Languages the Greek the Arabian the
Burgundy and the Earldom of Nevers on the one part and Bourbonnois Beaujolois Lyonnois and Forez on the other Then it proceeded a little further at Nevers in the interview of Charles Duke of Bourbon and the Burgundian whose Sister Charles had Married These two Princes having accommodated those Affairs that were between them concerning the Homage for some Lands which the Duke of Bourbon refused to render him and for which they had made a rude War for some time began to fall into discourse of the Affairs of the whole Kingdom and agreed together that there should be a Conference held at Arras to find out the best means for procuring Peace between the two Crowns and between the King and the Burgundian Year of our Lord 1435 According to this Resolution there was held at Arras the greatest and the most noble Assembly that ever this Age had heard of All the Princes of Christendom had their Ambassadors there the Pope and the Council each their Legats The Harbingers took up Stabling for ten thousand Horse This was opened the Sixth day of the Month of August Year of our Lord 1435 The Duke was obliged in honour not to Treat without the English provided they would be satisfied with reasonable Conditions They were profer'd Normandy and Guyenne if they would do Homage for them but when he found they would relinquish nothing of their Pretensions he disengaged himself from them and made a separate Treaty the Popes Legat having absolved him of that saith he had given them The Popes did often practise this believing it a part of the power which our Lord Jesus Christ had given to bind and unbind Here is the Summary of the chiefest Articles The King by his Ambassadors disown'd that he had consented to the Murther of Duke John wickedly perpetrated and by wicked Counsel for which he was sorry with all his heart Promised he would do justice and cause such as were guilty to be prosecuted whom the Duke should name to him That if they could not be taken he would banish them from the Kingdom for ever and never admit them upon any Treaty He obliged himself to build for the Soul of the deceased Duke the Lord de Novailles and of all those that died since in that quarrel a Chappelat Montereau on the place where the Body of that Duke lay interred to set up a Cross on the Bridge to found a Monastery or Chartreuse where should be twelve Friers and a high Mass that should be sung every year in the Church at Dijon To pay fifty thousand Gold Crowns at 24 Carats c. for the Goods and Equipage taken when the Duke was Murther'd Moreover he relinquished and acquitted him of all Homage due for any Lands he held of the Crown and his Service and Personal Assistance during his life Gave him to perpetuity for him and his Heirs Males and Females the Countries of Mascon and Auxerre the Lordship of St. Jengon the Bailliwick of St. Laurence the Castlewick or Chastelleny of Bar upon the Seine and as security for four hundred thousand Crowns payable at two certain terms the Chastellenies of Peronne Roye and Montdidier and the Cities of the Somme that is St. Quentin Corbie Amiens Abeville and others As also the County of Pontieu on either side the Somme and the enjoyment of the County of Boulogne for him and the Heirs Male of his Body with all the Rights of Tailles Gabelles and Imposts all profits of Courts of Justice of the Regalia and all others arising from all those Countries That the Burgundians should not be obliged to quit the St. Andrews Cross even when they were in the Kings Army That in case of any contravention of the Subjects both of the one and other of these Princes should be absolved from their Oaths of Fidelity and should take up Arms against the Infringer That the King should tender his submissions for the compleating of this Treaty into the hands of the Legats from the Pope and the Council upon pain of Excommunication Reagravation Interdiction of his Lands and all other to which the Censures of the Church can extend That to the same purpose he should give the Seals of the Princes of his Blood the Grandees of the State the most noted Prelats and the greatest and chiefest Cities Year of our Lord 1435 And to make this Reconciliation the more firm and durable there was added the promise to bestow Catharine the Kings Daughter upon Charles Earl of Charolois the Dukes Son both as yet very young Four years after they sent this Princess to the Duke of Burgundy to compleat the Marriage Year of our Lord 1435 Besides this weighty blow which amazed the English much they received another which was the death of the Duke of Bedford Regent in France after whom they never had any but Men that were very violent hare-brain'd without either prudence or conduct The French in the mean time time took Diepe by Escalado and the kind usage they shewed to the Inhabitants brought them all the places of the Country of Caux Year of our Lord 1435 At the same time which was about the last day of September died the Queen Mother Isabella de Baviere in the Hostel de Saint Pol at Paris where she lived in a mean condition since the time of her Husbands death justly hated by the French and ingratefully despised by the English Some have written that to save the expences of her Funeral they conveyed her Corps in a small Boat to St. Denis attended only by four People Her death is attributed to an inward grief occasioned by the outrageous railleries of such as delighted to tell her face that King Charles was not the Son of her Husband Year of our Lord 1435 and 36 One of the greatest faults they committed after they had refused the offers made them at Arras was their not treating the Duke of Burgundy well their giving him reproachful language and not suffering him to be Neuter as he desired but to fall on his People wherever they met them endeavouring to surprize his places and harrasing him so perpetually that at length they constrained him to become their utter Enemy The Parisians comparing the pride and wretchedness of these Strangers with the courtesie and magnificence of their Natural Kings could no longer endure them or if any thing did yet with-hold them it was some remainders of that affection they preserved for the Duke of Burgundy But this knot being broken they now sought nothing but the opportunity to free themselves from their Bondage Year of our Lord 1436 The English having therefore been beaten at St. Denis by the Constable the honest Citizens of Paris took that opportunity to treat about their surrender to him Having obtained an Act of Oblivion and the confirmation of their Priviledges in such form as they desired they introduced him by the Gate called St. James This was on the Friday after Easter When he was entred the People fell upon the English
would leave it to them two He failed not to take his advantage of these inconsiderate words He would not have his Brother be so near a Neighbour to the Burgundian his Interest was to place him at the other end of the Kingdom to break off their Communication That young Prince Weak Year of our Lord 1468. and 69. and Inconstant of mind was Governed by Oder-Daydie Lord of Lescun a Gascon and vain who would needs be a Prophet in his own Country by his means he was persuaded to renounce Champagne and accept of Guienne with the City of Rochel This change was the loss of that young Prince The Cardinal de la Ballue in whose hands the Treaty of Peronne had been Sworn with much regret suffered it to be altered whether out of love to Monsieur or that he would have had the King still in some perplexity This good Prelat and William de Hoeraucoux holding Intelligence with the Burgundian wrote to Monsieur to dissuade him and represented many things to him for his advantage but contrary to the Kings intentions Their Letters having been intercepted and they Seized they ingenuously confessed their practices The King sent the information to his Brother who suffering to be overcome by his Carasses accepted of Guyenne and came to meet him at Tours The Bishop was shut up in an Iron Cage a punishment he well deserved since he was the first inventor of it The Cardinal was convey'd to the Bastille where he remained twelve years the Pope demanding him as liable only to his Justice and the King pressing the Pope to let him have Judges assigned him within the Kingdom to hear his cause Year of our Lord 1469 The good correspondence between the two Brothers seemed to be perfected and the King to gain or wean Monsieurs Heart from the Countries on this side allured him with a great Match in Spain Henry King of Castille had a Daughter named Jeane but whom the Castillians held for a Bastard because he was esteemed impotent in so much as they had constrained him to declare the Infanta Isabella who was his Sister his Heiress The King sent the Cardinal of Arras to demand this Isabella for Monsieur But the Lords of the Country having stollen her away and married her to Ferdinand Infant of Arragon he seeks to have Jane which Henry agreed to A Matter for a long War if Charles had lived The first day of August the King being at his Castle of Amboise instituted an Order of Knighthood in honour of St. Michael and limited the number of Knights to 36 yet was it never filled up in all his Reign The French particularly Honoured St. Michael as the Tutelary Angel of that Monarchy And a better could not be pitched upon to tread down the Pride of the English who carr'd Dragons in their Ensigns then that Prince of they Celestial Militia who is painted with a Dragon under his feet And indeed it had been reported that he was seen at the head of our Army 's sighting against them for the French He imagined by means or vertue of this Collar that he should have drawn all the Grandees of the Kingdom within his clutclies when he held this Chapter And therefore the Duke of Bretagne refused it and the Duke of Burgundy doing yet worse received the Order of the Garter and wore it to his Death The Breton had in his service one Peter Landays his Treasurer a man of Low Birth but very knowing and able to countermine all the Artisices of Lewis XI It was he that led him to all these evasions and emboldned his Master to withstand all his devices and his threats Thus what ever endeavours he could use though he were on his Frontiers with an Army he could never disunite him from the Burgundian but only obliged him by a Treaty made at Saumur to renounce all offensive Leagues against the Kingdom Year of our Lord 1470 In the year 1470. John the Natural Son of Lewis Duke of Orleance left this world aged 70 years having divers years before left the Court because of his almost continual pain of the Gout which the hardships in the Wars had brought upon him This Prince valued in all things says Comines having made himself as able a Counsellor as he was a Captain was one of the principal instruments God made use of to drive the English out of France Therefore the Princes of his Family gave him the County of Dunois King Charles that of Longue-ville the Office of Great Chamberlain and the Lieutenancy General of his Army's and strong Forts A power of so great extent that it hath been communicated to none but himself in the third Race Year of our Lord 1470 The renunciation which the King caused the Breton to make had most respect to Edward of York King of England and Brother in Law to the Burgundian of whom it was hourly reported that he was coming to Land at Calais He was wholly prevented by the Earl of Warwick who in revenge of some injuries received from him set himself to carry on the interests of the House of Lancaster and had even Debauched the Duke of Clarence his Brother He had the foregoing year defeated his Army and afterwards took him Prisoner Then Edward having escaped beat him in his turn So that he was forced to save himself in France about the end of the Month of May this year From thence returning into England with the Succours the King leâ—t him he changed the Scene a second time For all slocked to him according to the Genius of that Country which loves change and Year of our Lord 1471 Edward wholly forfaken fled into Flanders to the Duke of Burgundy his Brother in Law Then King Henry who was in the Tower of London was set at Liberty and Warwick and Clarence took upon them the Government of the Kingdom Though the King still resented in his Heart the affront received at Peronne nevertheless being of a fearful Spirit and the length of any enterprize putting him out of patience if the success were not as swift as his desires he would have lived in peace if the Constable and those that were about him had not excited his resentment to draw him to a rupture They feared and the Constable most of all that a Peace making them appear useless the King might think of retrenching their great allowances and his stirring mind if it were not employ'd abroad might put him upon great alterations at home in his Court. Besides these motives there was also an Intrigue of the Bretons and the Constables in favour of Monsieur As they desired to strengthen him against the King they had inspired him with a desire of marrying the only Daughter of the Burgundian And because they knew the Father would not easily consent to it they believed they should sooner bring it about by force then by friendship and therefore they resolved to engage the King to make a War upon him The Bias they took
together from the Month of December It 's Head was in the Sign of the Ballance and it had a long Tail turning a little towards the North. In Spring the King drew near towards Guyenne the Monk had perhaps reiterated his Dose However it was Monsieur died the 12 th of May. In the mean time the Burgundian passionately desiring to recover St. Quintin and Amiens was entred into a Treaty with the King who promised to restore it and to leave the Counts of Nevers and St. Pol to his Mercy and the Duke reciprocally did oblige himself to abandon Monsicur and the Breton to him Neither of these Dreamt of keeping their Word of Faith The Duke Signed the first the King deferr'd from day to day expecting what would become of his Brother when he had certain news of his Death he scoffed at the Duke and Seized Guyenne again into his own hands Although in many actions he had not too much of the Fear of God before his Eyes nevertheless he had great Devotion towards the Saints enriched their Churches went several Pilgrimages every year particularly to places Consecrated to our Lady He Ordained on the first of May that at the sound of the great Bell at Noon every one should kneel down and say the Ave Maria. The same day after the procession William Chartier Bishop of Paris Died suddenly not without suspicion that some had contributed towards his Death Year of our Lord 1472 It was in this year that Philip de Comines quitted the Duke of Burgundy whose Domestick and Subject he was to go into the Service of the King his Soveraign Lord. If the Motive thereto had been Honest no doubt but it would have been explained by him who hath reasoned so well on every thing else Who could express the rage the Duke of Burgundy was in when he Learn'd the Death of the Duke of Guyenne He entred into Picardy with a Torch in one hand and his Sword in the other Hitherto burnings had not been practised by either Party nevertheless he made a Bon-fire of all the open Country and Sacrificed all that fell under his power to his Friends Ghost Nesle taken by assault endured all sorts of cruelties because the Inhabitants had killed a Herald at Arms who went to Summon them and two men besides during a Surcease which had been allowed them to Treat in The reverence to the Altar could not save those innocent people who fled to the Church for refuge and such as escaped the Sword were all hanged or had their hands cut off His blind fury ran aground at the Siege of Beauvais The want of attacking it roundly at first made him lose six Weeks time and two Thousand Men. It is Memorable that upon a General Assault which was given the Thursday 9 th of July the Men within being ready to give ground the Women conducted by one Jane Hatchete did wonders repelling the Enemy with showers of Stones Wild-fire and Lead melted with scalding Rozen The Effigies of that Woman is yet to be seen in their Town-Hall grasping a Sword in her hand and there is a procession the 10 th of July which is the Day on which the Siege was raised where the Women march first the Men following after Year of our Lord 1472 Going thence the Burgundian Ravaged all the Country of Caux took Eu and St. Valery but was repulsed before Diepe then before Rouen and having threatned Noyon he retired to Abbeville From Guyenne the King passed into Bretagne to force the Duke to renounce the League and surrender the Monk to him who had Poyson'd Monsieur For Odet-Daydie had Seized him and transfer'd him to Nantes The Monk was found dead in Prison the Devil as was said having broken his Neck the Night before that day wherein they were to pronounce his Sentence This was what the King desired that so the Proof of the Crime might perish with the Poysoner and it was more easie now for the Breton to avoid the heavy strokes of his power by the ordinary craft of his Landays He granted him a Truce the 10 th of September and remained still in Poitou till it was converted into a final peace Which was brought about by the Mediation of Odet-Daydie whom he allured to his Service by great rewards He knew better then any Prince in the World how to gain Men discover his Enemies secrets distract them with jealousies divide the most united but in his mirth he could not hide his secrets every thing came to light and he was likewise more subject to commit faults then able to repair them which he strove to do by Methods more frequently bad then good Year of our Lord 1472. 73. In the beginning of Winter the Burgundian accepted a Truce In the Month of February the Duke of Alenson who had a troubled and unquiet mind for having contrived I know not what League with him was made Prisoner and conveyed to the Castle of Loches and from thence to the Lowre The following year the Parliament by a Sentence of the 18 th of July Condemned him to loose his Head The King his Godson gave him his Life and Seventeen Months after took him out of Prison and put him into a Citizens House at Paris under a good Guard Year of our Lord 1474 where he soon Died. John V. Count of Armagnac who had been once more driven from his Country after the Death of Monsieur had again Siezed upon his City of Leytoure by certain correspondence and had there surprised Peter de Bourbon Beaujeu Governor of Guyenne He was straightly besieged in that place by the Kings Army commanded by the Cardinal of Arras 'T is said that having capitulated with him that good Prelate broke his Faith so that the City was invaded during the Suspension and the Count miserably Murth'red in his House His Brother Charles was brought Prisoner to Paris During the Truce the Burgundian wont to conquer the Dutchy of Guelders Duke Arnold had either sold or given it to him disinheriting his wicked Son Adolph who had a long time held his Father Prisoner and was himself so now by the Burgundian at Ghent This new Acquisition gave him the Appetite to encrease on the German side He flatter'd the Emperor Frederick with the marriage of his Daughter to his Son Maximilian and was even willing she should give him her promise and a Diamond With this Lure he brings Frederick to Mets thinking by his Authority to make himself Lord of that Town which did not Succeed and got his promise that he would raise his Dukedom to a Kingdom With these hopes he went awhile after to him at Treves carrying along the Regal Ornaments and made him a Feast with more then Royal Profusion But the Emperor meant the Marriage should be first accomplished and the Duke would sign the Contract in Quality of King They could not agree thereon And the Emperor left him there without taking his leave Year of our Lord 1473 The King let
Ferdinand and stept in before him prevented his getting into Romagnia These successful beginnings engaged Charles the more He parted from Ast the sixth day of October At Turin he borrowed the Dutchess of Savoyes Rings and at Casal the Marchioness of Montferrats and pawned them for twenty four thousand Ducats Ludovic with his Wife came to receive him at Vigeue and accompanied him as far as Piacenza He arrived at Pavia the thirteenth of October There he found Duke Galeazo very ill of some Morsel his good Uncle Ludovic had caused to be given him Being at Piacenza he heard of his Death and then Ludovic who had accompanied him thither took his leave of him to go and reap the Fruit of his Crime and make sure of the Dutchy without any regard to Galeazo's Son as yet but five years old The French trembled with rage that this wicked Wretch should bring the King to be witness of a Parricide upon the Person of his Cousin-German They thought it much more just and safe to revenge this Death upon that Tyrant and to conquer the Dutchy of Milan and the City of Genoa then to run to the farther end of Italy crossing above an hundred Leagues thorow the Enemies Country in the midst of Winter without Money and without Provisions to seek out a Kingdom which would be impossible to keep unless they could first be Masters of Genoa and the Milanois Such was the sentiment of Desquerdes a great Soldier and had he lived had so much Credit with the King as would no doubt have perswaded him to take that Course but he died at Lyons Ludovic's Intrigues who had gained Stephen de Vers overthrew all that good Counsel and the King went forward taking his march by Tuscany The taking a small Castle by storm on the Confines of the State of Florence and afterwards the Fort of Serezanella which capitulated and then the defeat of some Succors which Paul Vrsinus was bringing did so astonish Peter de Medecis that he consigned four Places into the King's Hands which were even the very Keys of that Country to hold them for some certain Time and consented that he should borrow Two hundred thousand gold Crowns of that City Ludovic had fancied to himself that the King would put those places into his hands pretending that two of them belonged to the City of Genoa And for this purpose lent him twenty Thousand Ducats The Council having fairly denied him he retired but left some of his Emissaries about the King to watch their opportunities and dispose things for his advantage His fingers itched to get Pisa One day while the King was in that City his men had persuaded the Pisans to fall on their Knees as he went along to Mass and cry out for Liberty The young King was moved with Pity and the Master of Requests who went along before assured him that what they craved was Just Thus without considering that City was none of his he granted them their desires The Florentines at all times French by inclination taking their opportunity of the Kings approach banished Peter de Medecis from their City by a Sentence of the Senate and recovered their Liberty He retired to Bologna and from thence to Venice with so little Credit that one of his own Factors refused to let him have a Piece of Cloth he sent for The 17 th of November the King entred into Florence his Army in Battallia and himself Armed at all points his Lance upon his Thigh The Florentines partly by force partly out of good will treated upon and agreed a Confederation with him which was proclaimed in all the Cities of Italy with a Manifesto declaring that the King was come thither only to chace away the Tyrants and from thence to carry his Arms against the Turks the capital Enemies to Christendom Picus Mirandolus that marvellous Prodigy of all sorts of Sciences Died in Florence the same Day the King made his entrance The very same hour he went forth the City of Pisa threw off the yoak of the Florentines the People pull'd down their Arms and erected the Kings Statue in the room of them This prodigious success of the French their great train of Artillery which was drawn by Horses and so well managed that in a few hours they could shatter and beat down the strongest Walls as likewise their Combats which was no Childrens play like the Italian fighting bred a Terror over all Young Ferdinand soon retreated from before Aubigny even to Rome and his Uncle Frederic getting out of the Port at Legorne retured to Naples All cried out Vive France the places about Rome strove which should first surrender and the Vrsini made their Peace with the King Then his Holyness to his great regret intreated Frederic to withdraw his Forces and himself was constrained to let the King make his entrance into Rome he being retired to the Castle St. Angelo Year of our Lord 1494 The King entred there Armed as into an Enemies Town upon the 28 th of December and disposed of his Soldiers and Artillery in all the publick places So that Alexander fearing to be taken by force and deposed as he well deserved capitulated with him and condescended to what ever he desired Amongst other things he let him have five or six of his best places for a certain time the investiture of the Kingdom of Naples Caesar Borgia his Bastard Son who was called the Cardinal of Valentia for Hostage and Zemes or Zizim the Brother of Bajazeth to make use of him against the Turks Year of our Lord 1495 The Treaty being finished the Pope came down from his Castle He and the King saw each other often with more appearance of Friendship then any real confidence And the King shewed great respect to his Dignity even to the kissing of his Feet giving him water to wash at Mass and taking his Seat in the Chappel below the Dean and Cardinals Which did not so well please such as expected he would have made use of his power in reforming the Roman Church and purging the Holy See of a Tyrant who defiled with all the abominations imaginable the House of God The eight and Twentieth of January the King went from Rome continuing his march towards the Kingdom of Naples Being at Velitri the Cardinal Bastard Son of the Pope who was an Hostage slunk away from him and returned back to Rome At the same place Antony de Fonseca Ambassador from Ferdinand King of Arragon seeking some pretence for a Rupture made sharp complaints for that the French invaded the Empire of all Italy and urged that when his Master treating with King Charles had promised not to oppose him in his Progress meant it only in relation to the Kingdom of Naples whereas the King had taken divers places from the Florentines and from the Holy See The French replied smartly And the dispute growing hot the Ambassador tore the Treaty in pieces in the Kings presence which so inceased
with a great Fleet which carried Ten Thousand Men and at the same time Felix of Wirtembergh entred by Land upon Milanois with a like number The Potentates of Italy did all bow down to this Power and the Pope himself came to Bologna to receive him But the Emperor informed of Solyman's irruption in Hungary durst not use all his Power to oppress them but on the contrary yielding to their Intreaties he resettled Francis Sforza in the Dutchy of Milan and agreed with all the other from whom he drew vast Sums of Money Year of our Lord 1529. and 30. There were none but the poor Florentines who remained exposed to the resentments of the Pope because they refused to submit themselves to the Medicis who were but private Citizens no more then the rest The Emperor lent him his Forces to Besiege their City who having defended themselves for Eleven Months in vain imploring the help of France and their ancient Confederates Surrendred upon Composition the Fifth of August in the following Year and were reduced under the Dominion of the Medicis although by the Treaty it was said that the Pope should Establish no Government that should be contrary to their Liberty Year of our Lord 1529 During these troubles between the two greatest Powers of Christendom Solyman snatched away the best part of Hungary The pretended King John had called him to his aid making himself his Subject and his Tributary but the Tyrant instead of putting him into possession of the Kingdom took for himself the Cities of the five Churches Alba Royal where were the Sepulchers of their Kings Buda Strigonium and Altemburgh After these Conquests he laid Siege to Vienna but in a Months time the scarcity of Provisions and the approach of Winter made him dislodge He raised his Siege the Fourteenth of October after he had lost near Threescore Thousand men and took his March towards Constantinople threatning to return the next year with a much greater force Those that adher'd to the doctrine of Luther acquired this year the Surname of Protestants because there having been a Decree made by the Arch-duke Ferdinand and other Catholick Princes in the Diet of Spire in favour of the ancient Religion and to hinder the progress of theirs they protested against it and appealed to the Emperor and to a General or National Council Year of our Lord 1530 The following year appeared their Confession of Faith which is called the Ausburgh Confession because they presented it to the Emperor in the Assembly which was held in that City to endeavour to pacifie and allay the differences in Religion Luther had composed it in Seventeen Articles Melancton explained and enlarged them The Affairs of Hungary and Germany not permitting the Emperor to be long absent the Pope gave him the Imperial Crown at Bologna with the same Ceremonies as if he had been at Rome The Emperor affected to pitch upon the Twenty fourth day of February for this great Ceremony as being his Birth-day and the day likewise of the taking of King Francis at Pavia Having sojourned there till the Two and Twentieth of March he returned into Germany and before he left Italy erected the Marquisate of Mantoua to a Dutchy in favour of Frederic Gonzague who merited a greater Title if Year of our Lord 1530 his Territory could have born it They had much adoe in France to make up the Twelve Hundred Thousand Crowns promised by the Treaty of Cambray for the Release of the Kings Children The Mareschal de Montmorency carried them to Endaya and the first day of June exchanged them for the two Princes in the same place and in the same manner as they did the Father The King went to meet them as far as Verin which is a Nunnery in the Launds of Bourdeaux near the Mount de Marsan In the same place he Married Eleonora the Emperors Sister who had sent her to him with his Sons The year following in the Month of March she was Crowned at Saint Denis and the City of Paris graced her with a Magnificent Entry This Princess aged thirty Years and rather ill-favour'd then handsom never possessed the heart of her Husband but that she might be consider'd gained the respects of the Mareschal de Montmorency who at that time governed the King and the Kingdom The Catholicks and Protestants had agreed in the Assembly at Ausburgh to call a Council that might put an end to their differences and the Emperor had given his assent because he would make use of this Proposition to awe the Pope In effect he was so alarmed at it that he wrote to the Kings of France and England that he would do all they would desire provided they hindred the Council In the mean time the Catholicks of Germany finding their Religion endanger'd made a League amongst themselves in the Month of November Which gave occasion to the Protestants to frame one likewise at Smalcalde about the end of the following Month. Year of our Lord 1531 The first effect of the Catholicks League was that by their help the Emperor got his Brother Ferdinand to be Elected King of the Romans who was already so of Hungary and Bohemia it was upon the Fifth of January in the Diet of Colen without having any regard to the oppositions of John Duke of Saxony and the Remonstrances of other Protestant Princes who being yet more alarmed upon this Election sent to the Kings of France and England to implore their Assistance They willingly granted it and Entred with them into a League but only to defend their Lands and the Rights and Liberties of the Empire The English promised to furnish them with Fifty Thousand Crowns monthly if they were Assaulted and the French deposited an Hundred Thousand Crowns in the hands of the Bavarian Princes to Levy Men in case they found reason for it or were necessitated thereto During the calmes of Peace to the Love for Ladies he joyned the Love of Learning The good King Lewis XII had caused him to be bred in the Colledge of Navarre and although he had made but a very small progress in the Latine Tongue nevertheless the little smattering he had gave him a great Gusto for the Sciences especially Astronomy Physick Natural History and Law He kept near him the ablest men in all the Kingdom who studied to make handsome and Methodical discourses to him upon all those parts of Learning most commonly whilst he sat at Dinner sometimes in his Walks or in his Closet and he improved so well by those entertainments that he became as knowing as the greatest Masters In acknowledgement of those Inestimable benefits he raised many of them to Offices and showred Presents and Pensions upon the rest Nor did they advance his Affairs a little by their Services and render his Name Illustrious to the Eyes of all Nations by their Works so that in spite of Fortune he gained most Renown though his rival flourish'd with more Success He instituted the Royal or
for the like time This was Proclaimed at Carmagnoles he present the Eight and Twentieth of November Both Princes got by it to the loss of the unfortunate Duke of Savoy because either of them remained in Possession of what they were seized on The King made Montejan his Lieutenant-General in that Country and William du Bellay Governor at Turin Year of our Lord 1538 When he was come back into France he honoured Montmorency who was a Mareschal and Grand-Maistre with the Constables Sword the Tenth of February He also raised Annebaut and Montejan to the Offices of Mareschals of France which were vacant the one by the promotion of Montmorency to that of Constable the other by the death of the Mareschal de Florenges who ended his days soon after the Siege of Saint Quentin These Offices were limited to the number of four only which the Kingdom encreasing have likewise been encreased to three or four times as many The same year the Chancellor Anne du Bourg lost his life by a strange accident Being with the King who made his Entrance into Laon there was so great a croud of Horses that he was thrust off from his Mule and trod under foot whereof he died His Office was given to Charles Poyet Son of an Advocate of Angiers and then a President in Parliament There was a second Conference at Locate to Treat of a final Peace The Deputies could agree to nothing but a prolongation of the Truce for six Months but the Pope who ardently desired to reconcile the two Princes fearing left their Division should hinder the effects of a great League which he the Emperor and the Venetians had concluded at the beginning of the Year against the Turks dispatched two Legates to them and sollicited them so earnestly that both of them resolved to meet at Nice and to accept of those Offices of Mediation which he proferr'd He came the first thither about the end of May the Emperor almost at the same time to the Port of Villa-Franca and Francis with the Queen his Wife to Villa-Nuova some days after The Duke found himself mightily perplex'd the Pope desired to Lodge in the Castle and that the Garrison might be drawn out the Emperor would have had it so but the King advised the Duke underhand to beware of it for that he would else disoblige him He followed the Kings Counsel and went to visit him the third day of the Month the Emperor took some jealousie upon it and yet for fear of loosing him Treated him the better in all appearance The Pope therefore Lodged in the Town the Emperor held Conference with him in a Tent under the Castle the King saluted him apart but the Princes saw not each other Was it that the Pope desiring to treat under Hatches the Year of our Lord 1538 Marriage of his Nephew Octavian Farnese with Margaret the Emperors Bastard and that of his Niece Victoria with Anthony Eldest Son of Charles Duke of Vendosme kept them thus assunder fearing lest the one should discover what he was negotiating with the other or else perhaps it was that the Emperor apprehending if he saw the King he must be obliged to promise him in express words the Dutchy of Milan and the Pope knowing it might possibly let the King understand it was only to amuse him What ever it were this Conference produced nothing but a prolongation of the Truce for Nine years but the Emperor promised the King to see him at Aigues-Mortes in Languedoc before he returned to Spain It was Queen Eleonora who procured this Enter-view The Emperor came and Dined in the Kings-House the next day the King went to Visit the Emperor in his Galley where he was entertained in like manner The subject of their entertainment was not known but they were observed to embrace so closely and shew such Signes of Amity for two dayes they were together that the most sharp-sighted were deceived and imagined it was in good earnest Three Months after the King was grievously Tormented with a troublesome Ulcer which hapned in that part the Physicians name the Sutura or Seame between the Testicles This they said was the effect of some ill adventure he had with the beautiful Ferronniere one of his Mistresses This Womans Husband enrag'd at that abuse which the Courtiers reckon only a piece of Gallantry contrives to go to some leud place and Infect himself that he might spoil her and Convey his revenge thus to his Rival The unhappy Woman died the Husband recover'd by timely Remedies the King had all the bad Symptomes and his Physicians treating him rather according to his Quality then his Distemper he had some Relicks remaining upon him all his Life the Malignity whereof did much discompose the sweetness of his disposition and made him Melancholy suspicious and hard to be pleased but to say truth more exact sparing and sticking closer to his business Year of our Lord 1539 The remainder of this Year he made several excellent Edicts amongst others That the Curates should keep a Register of all Christnings and that hereafter all Decrees and other Acts of Justice should be no more drawn up in Latine but in French If the Emperor continued to heap his marks of Affection on the King it was but to hinder him from embracing the Protection of the Ghentois They were revolted because of some new Imposts which Queen Mary Governess of the Low-Countries had laid upon them particularly upon Wines and had Massacred some of her Officers after which expecting no pardon they went on to that Degree that this Year they sent Deputies to the King to Intreat he would receive them as their Soveraign Lord and they promised provided only that he would own them to hazard Fifty Thousand Men in Battle against the Emperor But this same King that had with so great formality newly confiscated Flanders and Artois not only accepted not of their submission for fear of violating the Truce but also by an excess of generosity gave the Emperor notice of it The Rebellion growing in strength day by day it was to be apprehended that all Flanders would follow the example of Ghent and that the King of England might accept what the French had refused Nothing but the presence of the Emperor was capable of allaying this furious heat but the danger was too eminent to pass thorough Germany where it would have been in the power of the Protestant Princes to have stopp'd him and it was no less to have gone by Sea He intreated the King therefore to allow him passage thorow France and to obtain it he began to Lure him with the Dutchy of Milan In the Council every one was for granting him passage but not without having a writing under his hand and good Securities The Constable de Montmorency by what motive it is not known was not of that opinion and argued that he ought not to be setter'd by any Conditions This Sentiment appearing full of generosity highly pleased the
Duke of Savoy to all his Lands but that he should retain the Towns so long as the Emperor did hold Milan and Cremona That what had been taken Year of our Lord 1545 in those Countries since the truce of Nice the Emperor had taken but one place and the King above twenty should be resigned by either party as likewise all those which had been taken in France and in the Low-Countries This Place being more Advantageous to the Duke of Orleans then to France the Daufin who could not Suffer either the Aggraâ—dising of his Brother nor the damage of the Kingdom made Protestations against it in the Castle of Fontainebleau in presence of the Duke of Vandosme the Count d'Enghien his Brother and Francis Earl of Aumale the second day of December The Kings People of the Parliament of Toulouze did so likewise as to what concerned the Rights of the Crown and the Translation of the Subjects to another Prince That which hastned the King to conclude this Treaty was not alone the instigation of the Duke of Orleans but likewise the unwelcom news he received of Boulognes Capitulating and the extreme danger Monstreuil was in The Mareschal de Biez defended the last most Stoutly though it were nothing worth but his Son-in-Law James de Coucy Vervin a young Fellow easie to be scared as having no experience Surrendred Boulogne most unworthily before it was in danger and when the Daufin was within two days March of the Place to Relieve it Nor did he forgive him for it having ever a strong conceit that he had given it up to favour the Duke of Orleans Monstreuil was saved because the Peace being concluded at Crespy the Count de Bures and de Roeux who were joyned with the Duke of Norfolk had very express Orders to retire The Daufin who had used great diligence to come to the relief of Boulogne finding it Surrendred made an attempt in the Night upon the Basse Ville which was enclosed only with a Ditch without any Wall and yet nevertheless where the English had put their Cannon and Equipage He gained it very â—asily But for want of good Order his men falling upon the Baggage the English came down from the upper Town and though much inferior in Numbers beat and drove them out but not all for there were four or five hundred remained dead upon the place This project failing the Mareschal de Biâ—z had orders to raise a Fort upon the point of Land which lies right over against the Old Tower to hinder the entrance into the Harbour but they having no Water there and it being impossible the Souldiers could abide in it by reason it lay exposed to all Wind and Weather they built another that faced the Basse-Ville or lower Town in a place called Outreaâ— but made it so small that after three Months labour they were fain to fill up the Trenches to enlarge it Year of our Lord 1545 The Affairs of Scotland being Embroiled by the King of England who whatever it cost him would have the Heiress for his Son the King took a care to assist the young one and the Queen her Mother The Earl of Lenox in the year 1543. carried some Forces thither which he sent But that Spark having gamed away the Money which was for Payment of their first Muster went over to the King of England's Service who bestowed his Neece upon him In his room were sent the Lord de la Brosse a Gentleman of Bourbon then Lorges Earl of Montgomery Captain of the Scotch Guards with some Soldiers Some Vandoâ—s were still remaining in the Valleys of the Alpes between Daufiné and Savoy There were of them in the two Burroughs of Merindol and Cabrieres the first being part of the County of Venisse the other in the Territories belonging to the King Since Luther's starting up they began to Preach publickly About the year 1536. the Parliament of Provence whereof Anthony Chassane was then Premier President had made a Decree for the punishing them This had been put by several times but this year 1545. John Menier d'Oppede who succeeded Chassanâ— that dyed suddenly being moved either out of Zeal or because one of his Tenants went away to Cabrieres without paying his Rent undertook to Execute it He raised Forces and joyning them with such as the Vice-Legat of Avignon was pleased to furnish him withal went to Exterminate those miserable creatures and made a general Massacre of all of them without distinction of Age or Sex excepting only such as made their Escape to the Rocks The preceding year Anthony Duke of Lorraine had left this World this year Duke Francis his Son followed him leaving a Son named Charles aged but two years Anthony was fain to use great skill to preserve and poyse himself between the King and the Emperor He Married one of his Daughters to Rene de Chaalons Prince of Orange and Francis his eldest Son to Christina Daughter of Christierne II. King Year of our Lord 1545 of Denmark and Dorothy Sister to the Emperor The King had conceived great jealousies upon it Nevertheless his conduct was so prudent and his proceedings seemed so cordial in his Laborious undertakings to procure a Peace between him and the Emperor that at length he was fully satisfied in him The Council was earnestly demanded for by the Emperor and by the Germans but the Catholicks desired a general one and the Protestants a National where the Pope should not be Judge In the year 1542. Paul III. had indicted it at Trent And nevertheless for divers causes he delay'd the opening of it till the thirteenth day of December in this year which was the third Sunday in Advent The Orders for the Convocation were directed to the Emperor and the King by Name but to all other Princes only in general When the King found he could not recover Boulogne either by force or by way of Treaties he believed the best means to regain it would be to attaque the King of England in his own Island He therefore sent Orders to Captain Paulin to sit his Galleys at Marseilles and bring them to the Mouth of the River Seine got ten great Genoese Ships divers of which perished at the entrance into that River and joyned all the Good Vessels he had in any of his Harbours But intending to Treat the Ladies at Dinner in his great Carrack which was the stateliest Vessel belonging to the Sea the Cooks by their carelesness set it on Fire utterly consumed it and much damnified all those that lay about her by the discharging one hundred Guns she had on Board Which greatly disordered the Feast and gave an ill presage of that expedition The Admiral Annebaut had the Command of the Fleet. He went to seek out the English upon their own Coasts and Seized upon the Isle of Wight The English after some small Firings retired between that Island and Portsmouth in a place surrounded with Banks and Rocks where there was
but one narrow Channel to go in It was not thought sit either to fortifie the Island nor to fall upon them in a place of such advantage but to Land on their Coasts in sight of King Henry who was come down to Portsmouth to see what passed and send forth his Men of War They made two or three Landings with a great deal of Noise but Annebaut perceiving they would not come forth and his Provisions being spent he turned his Prow towards France and arrived there about the end of July The Mareschal de Biez advanced little against Boulogne though the King himself to push the business forward were come with Charles Duke of Orleans his second Son to the Abbey of Forrest-Moustier which is within ten Leagues of it between Abbeville and Monstrevil The Wound which Francis Duke d'Aumale received in a Salley made by the Enemies is a thing very remarkable He returned from the Engagement with the Iron head of a Lance and a piece of the Wooden Truncheon sticking in his head which entered at the Angle betwixt his right Eye and his Nose and came out behind between the Nape of his Neck and his Ear. The Chyrurgeon whose name was Ambrose Paré was forced to draw it out with a strong hand and Instrument and yet he most happily recover'd In the mean time Contagious distempers got into the Kings Army and the Duke of Orleans a Prince of great hopes dyed the eight of September at Forrest-Moustier whether of Venom or of some Poison that was thought to have been given him by some Creatures of his Brothers For they could not endure the King should cherish him so much as he did and be angry that the Daufin notwithstanding his command to the contrary kept correspondence with the Conestable Montmorency whose return they desired because their Master earnestly longed for it The death of this Prince broke all the bonds of Concord if there were any between the King and the Emperor The Envoyez carrying the News of it to the latter and asking how he intended to dispose of the Dutchy of Milan he plainly told them that he to whom he had promised it being no more he thought himself disengaged of his promise He declared his intention with so much the greater confidence as finding his Affairs against the Protestants in a very good posture some of whom as Maurice one of the Dukes of Saxony had taken his Party Frederic the Elector Palatin had Submitted Year of our Lord 1546 John Frederic Duke of Saxony and Philip Landgrave of Hesse who had declared War against him did not well agree together in-so-much as their vast Army which at first was Seventy Thousand Foot and Fifteen thousand Horse were almost dwindled to nothing and that his own encreased daily by the Supplyes sent him from the Pope and the Princes of Italy and those Forces he drew out of the Low-Countries his Hereditary Lands and from the Catholick Princes A Peace was equally desired by King Francis and by the King of England The first was not in very good health his Army wasted by Sickness and he apprehended those great Forces which Charles V. raised to quell the Protestant Princes of Germany might fall upon him Henry had neither Men nor Money and feared that a Forreign War might favour such as had a mind to rise at home Upon these considerations they named their Deputies about the end of April who meeting at a place between Ardres and Guines after six weeks debate concluded the Peace upon the eight day of June by which the King of England promised to restore Boulogne within eight years and the King was obliged to give him eight hundred thousand Crowns of Gold to be paid by one hundred thousand each year The residue of this same King Francis employed in visiting and furnishing his Frontiers fearing lest the Emperor should attempt something upon him as no doubt he would had the Protestants Submitted so early as he expected Francis was advised to assist them to keep the War out of his own Kingdom and maintain it in his Enemies He might do it with honour they were his Allies he might in Conscience do it since the Emperor by his Manifesto's declared he designed nothing against their Belief but their Rebellion Nevertheless the Scrupulous Counsel of the Cardinal de Tournon diverted him and even to let them know they were to hope for nothing from him engaged him to express his wrath against such as were Professors of their Religion by kindling the Flames of persecution throughout all his Dominions Great numbers of those miserable Creatures were Burnt many redeemed themselves from Fire and Faggots by Singing Palinodia and the more Sagacious by a timely Flight Year of our Lord 1547 The eight and twentieth of February in the year 1547. Henry King of England aged fifty seven years ended the Thrid of his Life which his incontinency had horribly knotted and entangled by the Multiplicity of his Marriages and the terrible change he made in the Anglicane Church He had six Wives Catherine of Arragon Anne Bullen Jane Seymour Anne of Cleve Catherine Howard and Catherine Parre He was divorced from the first and the fourth saw the third die in Child-Bed and caused the second and the fifth to be Beheaded for the crimes of Adultery the sixth survived him and Married Thomas Seymour Admiral of England By the first he left a Daughter named Mary by the second another named Elizabeth and by Jane a Son named Edward as then nine years of Age who came to the Crown immediately after him The rumour of the Emperors Armes gave astonishment to all Christendom the Pope himself Trembled for fear lest having Subdued Germany he should pass into Italy When Francis had therefore well considered the consequences of the ruin of the Protestants he changed his mind and made a League with them obliged himself to receive the Eldest Son of the Duke of Saxony into France and in particular permit him the exercise of his Religion promised to send an Hundred Thousand Crowns to his Father and as much to the Landgrave of Hesse till such time as he could assist them with Forces In the mean while his trouble for the death of King Henry encreasing his inveterate distemper changed a lingring Feavour that was upon him into a continued one and stopt him at the Castle of Rambouillet where he finished his life the last day of March by an end worthy of a most generous Prince and a most Christian King He earnestly recommended to his Son the diminishing of the Tallage which he had raised too much not to recall Montmorency to continue the Cardinal de Tournon to whom he willed a Hundred Thousand Crowns and Annebaut in the Administration told him that the Sons ought to imitate the Vertues of their Fathers and not their Vices that the French being the best people in the world deserved so much the more to be well Treated as they refused their King nothing in his
necessity and many other things which the Prince buried in Oblivion before his Father was laid down in his Grave If he would have had these last things put in practice he should have made those that were to be his Sons Year of our Lord 1547 Ministers his Executors Magnificence and State Attended him to his very Tomb his Funeral was made with extraordinary Pomp Elven Cardinals were present which before had never hap'ned He was publickly by Proclamation in the Palace-Hall declared a Prince Clement in Peace Victorious in War the Father and Restorer of good Learning and the liberal Sciences He never had his Paralel in liberality in magnificence and in clemency very few to compare with him in Valour Eloquence and useful Learning He would have been a great Prince in all things had he not sometimes suffered himself to be prepossessed by the Evil Counsels of his Ministers and a passion towards women Those to render themselves all-powerful set up his Authority above the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom even to an Irregularity of Government the Women he loved being vain and prodigal changed his Noble desire of Fame to fastuosity and vanity and made him often consume in idle expences the Money he had designed for some great enterprize The Ten last Years of his Life the anxiety of his distemper made him so good a Husband that although he had made several stately Buildings in divers places had employed great Sums in purchasing rich Furniture many Jewels excellent Pictures and curious Books though he had bestowed Pensions upon all the brave Souldiers and truly learned men he could meet with and had maintained a War against all the powers of Europe for almost Thirty years yet at his death he left all his own Demeasnes clear of all Engagements Four Hundred Thousand Crowns of Gold in his Coffers and a quarter of a years Revenue ready to be paid in On the contrary his Son in the thirteen years he reigned though he sold a great many Offices newly created raised the Imposts a third part higher and gave nothing to his Favourites was yet indebted fifteen or sixteen Millions a great Sum in those days I had forgot to note that he had chosen for his Devise or Impress a Salamander in the fire with this Motto Nutrisco Extinguo I am nourished by it and I extinguish it and that he Erected into Dutchies and Pairries the County of Vendosm for Charles de Bourbon in 1514. that of Guise in favour of Claude de Lorrain in 1527. that of Montpensier for Lewis de Bourbon in 1538. The same year out of affection to Francis of Cleve he likewise gave the Title of Dutchy to that of Nevers which was before made a Pairrie by King Charles VIII Anno 1459. Till then no Erection of such great Dignities had been made but to supply the number of the Six ancient ones wherefore the Parliament made a grave and serious remonstrance to the King to hinder that of Guise but he desired to gratifie with that honour a Prince whose extraordinary vertues raised him almost equal to those of his Blood He Married two Wives Claude Daughter of Lewis XII and of Anne de Bretagne in the year 1514 and Eleonora of Austria Sister of Charles V. in the year 1530. By the first he had three Sons and three Daughters whereof none remained alive but Henry who Reigned and Margaret that was Married to Emanuel Philibert Duke of Savoy Queen Eleonora brought him no Children After his death she retired into the Low-Countries to the Emperor her Brother who in Anno 1555. carried her into Spain She died at Bajadox in the year 1558. Aged about Threescore Years HENRY II. King LVIII Aged about XIX Years POPES PAUL III. Two Years and above 7 Months under this Reign JULIUS III. Elected in February 1549. S. 5 Years 1 Month and a half MARCELLUS II. Elected in April 1555. S. 22 dayes PAUL IV. Elected in May 1555. S. 4 Years 2 Months and a half Year of our Lord 1547 HENRY came to the Crown upon the same day of the Year that he came into the World The Robes and other preparations for the Ceremony of his Coronation not being got ready before Mid July he received not the Sacred Unction till the Five and Twentieth of that Month by the hands of Charles de Lorraine who was Archbishop of Reims Claude Duke of Guise and Frances de Cleves Duke of Nevers preceded Lewis de Bourbon Duke of Montpensier though a Prince of the Blood because their Pairres being more Ancient by some years the first represented the Duke of Guyenne the second the Earl of Toulouze but Montpensier the Earl of Champagne only This King had been without defects as he was without disquiet had his Soul been framed as compleatly as his body His noble Stature his Serene and goodly Visage his pleasing aspect his dexterity in all brave exercises his agility and bodily strength were not attended with that firmness of Mind Application Prudence and the Sagacity requisite in one that is to command He was naturally good and had inclinations to do justice but he never possessed himself and because he would do nothing he was the cause of all those Evils they Committed who governed him The Constable de Montmorency whom he immediately called to Court Frances Earl of Aumale who was Duke of Guise after the death of his Father and James d'Albon Saint André whom he made Mareschal of France had the best share in his Favour He considered the first as his principal Minister the two others as Favorites but all even the Queen her self bowed before his Mistress This was Diana de Poitiers Widow of Lewis de Brezé and whom he had made Dutchess of Valentinois She meddled with all she could do all That it might be known she Reigned he would have it appear in all his Turnaments on his House-hold goods in his Devises or Impresses and even on the Frontispieces of his Royal Buildings by placing every where a Crescent with Bows and Arrows which were the Symbols of that unblushing Diana Year of our Lord 1547 One might think this love of a young King for a Woman of Forty Years and who had three or Four Children by her Husband must have been indeed an Inchantment without Charmes She was unjust violent and haughty towards such as displeased her but otherwise ready to do good and very liberal her wit mighty agreeable and pleasing but her hands more yet because she bestowed often and much and with a very bon-grace The King loved her because she was so sensible of Love and this temperament did sometimes lead her elsewhere to seek out the full measure of her delights as she found in him the fulness of Honour and Riches Under a new Government there is a new face of Court They left Frances Oliver in the Office of Chancellor whereof he was very worthy but they took away the Administration from the Cardinal de Tournon and Annebaut
the last Will of King Edward and the Opinion of the Great Officers who are ever of the same mind as their Soveraign Jane was designed and appointed to be Queen and after the Death of Edward proclaimed and received in the Tower of London and Mary being the weaker retired into the County of Norsolk But as the people of Ranks and Degrees in the Kingdom were displeased at the great wrong done hereby to the Lawful Heirs and the Spanish Gold and Catholique Party stirred them mightily against it a world of the Nobility and Soldiery flocked from all quarters to Mary So that when the Duke of Northumberland Year of our Lord 1553 Marched with some Forces to go and take her and disperse those Assemblies it hap'ned that the same Officers and Counsellors of State who had allotted the Crown to Jane took and held her Prisoner after which most of those that were with the Duke forsook him and some that staid seized upon his person and carried him to London Year of our Lord 1553 and 1554. Some time after Mary came thither and made her entrance into the Tower the possession whereof was then necessary to such as were to be owned Kings of England When She was once absolute Mistress She cemented her Throne with the Blood of Jane her Husbands her Fathers and almost all her Kindred and after that She spilt much more to restore the Catholick Religion which brought the Estate into such Convulsions as had like to prove mortal and all for an advantage of a short duration The more She establisht and fixed her Authority the more Philip Prince of Spain pressed the consummation of his Marriage with her Though She had very great imperfections both of Body and Mind being infirm ugly and old nevertheless he had conceived some love not for her Person but for her Kingdom On the contrary the King turned every Stone in private and laid every rub in his way to prevent him from attaining his ends but Philips Party acting more bare-fac'd and with the charming Power of Money proved stronger then all those private obstacles the King could contrive against it So that he was betrothed by Proxie the Ninth of June and himself passing over into that Country with Six Thousand Souldiers Married her the Five and Twentieth of July a day he expresly designed as being the Feast of Saint James the Patron of Spain He staid in England till the Month of April of the following year and was Spectator of the Tragick Actions of his Wife to revenge her self for the Conspiracies were hatched hourly against her some upon the score of her Religion others in hatred of her Marriage All this year till the Month of June there had been as it were a tacite suspension of Arms between the King and the Emperor during which Cardinal Pool near of kindred to Mary whom the Pope was sending to England as his Legate to re-establish the Catholique Religion had undertaken to Treat the Peace He had got both their words that they would reciprocally lay aside many of their pretensions but when the Bell was to be sounded each of them stood up stiffer and at a greater distance then ever before The Emperor would willingly have accepted of a Truce and it would have been very advantageous to him by giving the Low-Countries time to settle and if we may so say to soulder themselves with England but for the same reasons it was not so to the King and moreover his Honour nor Interest would allow him to suffer the Siennois to be excluded as the Emperor did absolutely require Besides he had Information that the Emperor was very much indisposed both in Body and Mind that the Gout had deprived him of the use of one Arm and contracted the Sinews of one Leg that the same cause that made him impotent in his Members joyned to the bad success of his Affairs and perhaps complicated with some relicts of his Mothers Frenzy had so invaded his Brain that he could seldom sleep and did nothing else almost by day and night but take Clocks and Watches asunder and put them together again his Chamber being full of them Upon these reports which were for the most part true the King thought he should have an easie bargain of it and took a resolution of carrying the War into his Country He therefore set on Foot an Army of Fifty Thousand Men and divided them into three Bodies Commanded one by the Constable another by the Duke of Vendosme and the third by the Mareschal de Saint André the two last having taken some Forts of little concern joyned with the Constable before Marienburgh which had surrendred to him Some years before Marienburgh was but a little Village where Queen Mary made her Rendezvous for hunting The Situation seemed so pleasant and so convenient to her that She built a new Town there The King having it in his hands went on to fortifie it and to make the Road more secure from thence to the little City of Maubert-Fontaine which is the nearest towards France he likewise fortified the Villa ge of Rocroy Year of our Lord 1554 After he had well provided for Marienburgh he went and joyned the Duke of Nevers who had pierced through all the Ardennes he met him near Givets these are two Burroughs so named just opposite to each other upon the Banks of the Meuse From thence he went to Besiege Bovines whilst the Duke Besieged Dinan Bovines was sacked for having dared to withstand an assault of an Army Royal Dinan capitulated and they put Two Thousand Men in there to preserve it from the violence of the skulking Souldiers but in the night the Germans angry they were robb'd of their Pillage scaled the Walls broke open the Gates and put both the Garrison and Inhabitants to the edge of the Sword Perhaps they were not overmuch concerned at it because they had returned a brutish and most insolent Answer when they were Summoned on behalf of the King Then the Emperor finding himself much better in health takes the Field the King desiring to engage him in Battel assaults forces and razes a great number of Towns and Castles Maubege Bavay famous for its Antiquity Mariemont a Castle of pleasure of Queen Maries and the little City of Bins with the magnificent Castle which She had built He caused these two last places to be burnt to be reveng'd for their having set fire to his Royal House of Folembray There was a personal hatred betwixt these two for certain slighting and spiteful words and I know not what kind of Songs which had been made on either side After he had thus over-run and ravaged Brabant Hainault Cambresis and the Country of Namur he entred upon Artois and Besieged the Castle of Renty which did great injury to the Country of Boulonnois The Emperor came to relieve it and to put some into the place with the more ease would have seized upon a Wood the situation whereof must have been
intelligence of a School-master whom the desire of Gain had wrought upon to shew them a certain place where they might scale it It was upon a Shrove-tide Festival when Figuerba and all the Nobility of the Spanish Army were come thither to make a Carousel The City being taken Figueroa cast himself into the Citadel the Mareschal caused it immediately to be batter'd and in a few days forced it to capitulate Year of our Lord 1555 Queen Mary and the Cardinal Pool her Cousin fearing lest the quarrel betwixt the two Kings should embroil the English in a War earnestly desired to procure a Peace between them Their great instances engaged them to send Deputies betwixt Calais and Ardres to treat They Arrived there the one and twentieth of May. For their accommodation several Tents were set up containing a large Hall in the midst of them having four Gates one to the East for the Popes Legates one at the West part for the English Ambassadors one in the South for those of France and one on the North for the Emperors The two Princes according to the Proposals made by the English agreed well enough about the referring all their differences to the judgment of the Council but the King declaring he would not restore the Duke of Savoy till the Emperor surrendred up Navarre to Jane d'Albret and Piacenza to the Farneses the Assembly broke up without concluding any thing Neither the one nor the other were very well prepared for a War so that this Summer past without any great exploits The Imperial Army after several Marches and Skirmishes employ'd themselves in fortifying the Burrough of Corbigny upon the Meuse which they named Philip-Ville Martin Van Rossen Mareschal of Cleves who commanded it dying of the Plague the Prince of Orange succeeded him in that employ Beyond the Alpes after the capitulation of Siena they likewise took the Port-Hercole The French succeeded ill at the Siege of Calvi in Corsica The Mareschal de Brissac took Vulpian and though but little assisted by the Court made head bravely against the Duke d'Alva who succeeded Figueroa This Duke could bring Five and Twenty Thousand Men into the Field notwithstanding he received an affront before Saint Ia being forced to raise his Siege Year of our Lord 1555 The Five and Twentieth day of May Henry d'Albret King of Navarre died at Hagetmar in Bearn The King had a great desire to seize upon the rest of that petty Kingdom and to give Anthony de Bourbon who had Married the Heiress some Lands in exchange but Anthony hast'ned to go and take possession of it and his Wife found means to preserve it notwithstanding the perswasions and treachery of her Officers The King was so fretted at it that he dismembred Languedoc from his Government of Guyenne to bestow it on the constable he refused to give that of Picardy which Anthony surrendred upon his going away to Lewis Prince of Conde his Brother and gratify'd Coligny with it After his departure it hapned that la Jaille being gone to make incursion in Artois with a party of the Arriere-band was upon his return cut in pieces by Hausimont Governor of Bapaume a slight shock which yet so terrified the French that they put their Men in Garrisons About the same time the Diepois having Information that two and twenty great Flemmish Vessels were returning from Spain loaden with rich Goods went and laid in wait for them about Dover and not staying to fire at them went directly aboard Their Vessels were little and low the other large and high built so that they maul'd them with Shot and Granado's from above The Fight lasted six hours hand to hand at length some of them took Fire which burnt half a dozen of either Ships and parted them sooner then otherwise they would have done Jane Queen of Spain Widdow of Philip the Fair and Mother of the Emperor Charles V. died in Spain the Twelth of April Aged 73 years She had been lock'd up as one distracted ever since the death of Philip her Husband however the Estates still reserved the Title of Queen of Spain for her which in all publick instruments was joyned with that of the Emperor her Son This Great Prince finding his Body grown weak and his head crazy not being any longer able to support either the heavy burthen of worldly Affairs nor his own decayed Cottage Resolved in a Council of Women these were his two Sisters to renounce his Soveraignty Having therefore sent for his only Son Philip King of England to come to him to whom the year before upon his Marriage he had already given the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicilia and since that also the investiture of the Dutchy of Milan he assembled the Estates of the Low-Countries at Bruxels the Five and Twentieth of October and there he Created him first Chief of the Order of the Fleece then he resigned up those Provinces to him A Month after in the same City in presence of the Governors and Deputies of his other Estates whom he had called thither for that purpose he yielded up and remitted to him all other his Kingdoms and Seigneories as well in Europe as in the new World He had nothing now left him but the Empire which he held yet a year hoping to oblige his Brother Ferdinand to resigne that up likewise to his Son In the Month of March of this same year Pope Julius III. ended his life Marcel II. who was Elected in his place held it but one and twenty days and they Elected the Cardinal John Peter Caraffa Aged fourscore and one year old He was Son of the Count de Matalone in the Kingdom of Naples and they called him Theatin because he had been Archbishop of Theati and had there instituted the Order of Clerc's Regulars who took their name from that City Many because of the resemblance of the habit have confounded the Jesuits with them His religious life and austere manners which made the World affraid of a severe reformation were immediately changed into a proud and a luxurious huffing vanity He was of a haughty heart and a stubborn Spirit and yet suffer'd himself to be circumvented by his Nephews and led any way as they pleased Amongst the rest he had two Sons of his Brothers these were Charles who had born Arms for the French under the Mareschal Strozzi and Alphonso Count de Montorio greatly desirous to raise themselves the first very proud and rash the second more mild and moderate To this he gave the Government of the Church Lands and to the other a Cardinals Hat The Uncle and the Nephews for divers injuries received hated the Spaniards and by a necessary consequence all those of that party especially the Duke of Florence and the House of the Colonnas who besides all this have ever been averse to the power of the Popes Year of our Lord 1555 Being therefore prompted by this resentment and that spirit so ordinary in many of the Papal
each other Philip on the River of Antie and Henry along the Somme They lay there almost three Months without having any other Ren-contre besides one Skirmish because they were then upon propositions for an Accommodation The Popes Nuncios made the first mention of it the Constable and the Mareschal de Saint André whose favour was in a languishing condition at Court got Philip to give some Ear to it making use for that purpose of the interest of the Duke of Savoy who could no way be restored to his Estates but by a Peace Christierne Dutchess of Lorrain equally obliged to either King as Aunt to the first and nearly Allied to the second having newly given her Daughter Claudia to the Duke his Son promoted it with much industry and went with all the Messages to and fro so that at length she brought it to a Conference between their Deputies where her self and her Son assisted as Mediators Which proved a great reputation and honour to them both in all the Courts of Christendom Two Months before which was in October the Constable was freed from his imprisonment upon his parole and came to wait upon the King at Amiens who received him with inexpressible demonstrations of affection even to the making him lye in his own Bed It is said that this Lord having had notice the Kings affection towards him declined very much recover'd it again by the Credit of the Dutchess of Valentinois he seeking her Alliance and treating of a Match between his Son Danville with Antoinetta Daughter of Robert de la Mark and Frances de Brezé who was the Daughter of that Dutchess He had already agreed with the Spaniards on all the Articles of Peace but fearing lest he might alone be charged with the reproach of a Treaty so disadvantageous he contrived it so that the King upon the winding of it up should joyn with him the Cardinal Lorrain Mareschal de Saint André John de Morvillier Bishop of Orleans and Claude de l'Aubespine Secretary of State The Conference began in the Abbey of Cercamp the fifteenth of October and from that time the two Kings dismissed their Forces The difficulty concerning Calais was the greatest Remora Queen Mary would by all means have it again the King would needs keep it Thereupon that Princess hap'ned to dye without Year of our Lord 1558 any Children of a Dropsie caused by her infinite grief for the loss of that place and the little esteem her Husband had for her The fifteenth of November was the day of her decease and the sixteenth that of the Cardinal Pool her dear Cousin who had taken great pains to restore the Catholick Religion in England About this time the two Princes made a Truce for two Months then their Deputies parted Elizabeth succeeded Mary pursuant to the Will of Henry VIII Philip did yet for some time carry on the interest of Elizabeth then abandoned them lest they should prejudice his own He had likewise some design of Marrying her or at least to get her for his Uncle Ferdinand's second Son but the King who had great reason to hinder that Alliance and not suffer Elizabeth to take that Crown which he believed did belong to his Sons the Dausins Wife so ordered it that the Pope received the Envoy sent by that Princess to him but ill and treated her as illegitimate This injury made her determine openly to embrace the Religion of the Protestants who made no doubts concerning her and to repeal all Acts made by Mary and corroborate and revive those of Edward and put them in force Year of our Lord 1559 The Deputies from the two Crowns met again towards the end of January at Cateau in Cambresis where in few days they came to a final agreement on all the Articles Elizabeth fearing to be left alone sent her Deputies thither also By the Treaty between France and Spain that of Crespy and the preceding were confirmed The two Kings mutually restored all they had taken from each other for eight years past The King restored the Duke of Savoy to all his Lands and Estates yet still reserved the right he had but whilst that could be examined by Commissioners on either part which was to be done within three years time he kept by way of pawn or Security Turin Pignerol Quiers Chivas and Villeneuve of Ast Moreover he quitted all those he held in Tuscany to the Duke of Florence and those in Corsica to the Genoese gave his Sister Margaret in Marriage to the Duke of Savoy with Three Hundred Thousand Crowns in Gold and his Daughter Isabella to King Philip with Four Hundred Thousand The people who always desire Peace at what price soever testified a great deal of joy The Constable and the Mareschal de Saint André stood in need of it to recover their former favour which was in the wain but the Guisian party the sage Politiques the whole Nobility highly blamed it as a manifest juggle or Cheat whereby France was looser of one hundred ninety and eight strong places for three only which were given them these were Han le Catelet and Saint Quentin When Queen Elizabeth found the Treaty went forward and the Deputies for King Philip who pretended to mannage her concerns but acted very coldly obtained nothing for her advantage or interest She would needs Treat upon her own single account She got little more by it It was agreed that the King should either render up Calais to her and the re-conquer'd Country or if he liked it better pay her the Sum of Five Hundred Thousand Crowns which being referred to his own choice there was no doubt but he would keep that place which is the Key of his Kingdom During the Treaty the Spaniards God knows for what design exhorted the King very zealously to exterminate the new Sectaries and hinted that there were many of them even in his Court its self and of great quality amongst others Dandelot about whom they found some Books of that sort when they took him at Saint Quentin Upon which the King sent for him and asked him what he thought of the Mass Dandelot made him a very criminal reply which enraged him so greatly that he was almost in the mind to have kill'd him He commanded him to be made a Prisoner and put Blaise de Montluc into his Office a creature of the Duke of Guises The Constable his Uncle had very much ado to get him out of Prison and restore him It was suspected to be the Effect of a certain Conference held between the Cardinal de Lorrain and the Cardinal de Granvelle that by this Stratagem the first had a design to weaken the Constable by ruining his Nephews or to render Year of our Lord 1559 him suspected of Heresie if he protected them and that the other had a design of Setting the great Families of France to Daggers-drawing and of stirring up a Faction by making the Religionaries grow desperate believing they would joyn in a body
long while with Charles de Gontaud Biron Mareschal de Camp and Henry de Mesme Master of Requests In so much as the English Ambassador and the Ambassador from Florence becomeing friendly Mediators it was agreed upon the second day of March The Edict was verified in Parliament the twenty sixth of the same Month. This confirmed Year of our Lord 1568. March c. and restored intirely that which had been made for them five years before revoking and annulling all Exceptions Declarations and Interpretations which had been made to the contrary The more quick-sighted amongst the Huguenots were not for making this Peace which scattered them so wide assunder and exposed them to the mercy of their Enemies without any other Security but the word of an Italian Woman and indeed they named it the Boiteuse i. e. Lame and the Mal-assise alluding to Biron who was Lame and Mesme who was Lord de Mal-assise But the Prince protested he was constrained to it because the greatest part of his Forces disbanded the Nobility were returning to their own Homes which were exposed to Pillage and the Germans might perhaps have sold them for want of pay The Parliament of Toulouze did not verifie it till after they had four express Commands nor before they did cut off the head of Rapin whom the Prince had sent thither to press the Verification having raked up some old Crime against him upon which they made his Process in great hast In consequence of this Treaty the Huguenots raised the Siege of Chartres and gave up several Cities they had taken amongst others Soissons Orleans Auxerre Blois and la Charité upon the Loire Rochel refused to obey and after their example many others Prince Casimir led back his Forces into Germany and went to Heidelberg to give an account of his expedition to his Father the Elector He there found William of Nassaw Prince of Orange who having made his escape from the Low Countries implored his Assistance for the maintenance of their Liberty and his Religion against the Duke of Alva The Cruclties of that Duke the Deaths of the Counts of Egmont and Horn the Troubles of the Low-Countries and the Foundation of the States of Holland by the Marvellous Conduct and un-shaken Courage of that Prince of Orange are the noblest Subjects for History that can be met with in all these latter Ages And indeed it hath been Treated on by several Authors and of so great Merit as they have almost equall'd the grandeur of the Theam and Matter We shall observe only as the most monstrous Year of our Lord 1568 adventure that can be Imagined How Philip King of Spain being inform'd the Infant Don Carlos his only Son and his presumptive Successor who indeed was of a roving Spirit untractable and very dangerous held Correspondence with the Confederate Lords of the Low-Countries who endeavour'd to draw him into Flanders clapt him in Prison and deprived him of Life either by Slow Poyson or by stifling him and in a short while after upon some kind of jealousie Poysoned Elizabeth de la Paix his Wife making her Perish with the fruit then in her Womb as Queen Catherine made it appear after the Secret Informations she had taken and by the Domestick Servants belonging to that Princess when they were come back into France In the time of Peace one of the Admirals principal Cares was to encrease the Navigation and the Trade of France chiefly in those Countries of the other Hemisphear as well for the Credit of his Office as to plant Colonies there of his own Religion He had sent the Chevalier de Villegagnon to Florida as believing him fixt in the new opinions but this man failed him in his promises and rudely handled those of that Profession Afterwards in the year 1562. he dispatched John Ribaud thither with two Ships who Sailing a quite different Course then the Spaniards had wont to do most happily Landed at Florida When he had made discovery of the Country Treated an Alliance with the petty Princes and given Names to several Capes Rivers and Gulphs he built at the end of the Streight at Saint Helens a Fort which in honour of the King was Named Fort Charles and leaving a Lieutenant there together with some Soldiers well arm'd return'd into France after he had promised to come again to them as soon as possible to bring a reinforcement and refreshments Not being able to make good his word by reason of the Civil War that hapned their Provisions failing they shipt themselves In the midst of the Voyage they were so pressed with hunger that they killed one of their own Crew who was Sick and fed upon him An English Vessel who fortunately met them supplied their wants and carried them into England The Admiral not knowing they had quitted the Fort fitted out three Ships at Haure de Grace to go and relieve them René Laudonniere Commanded this Fleet he landed at the Golfe to which Ribaud had given the name of May and made an Alliance with some Petty Kings of the Barbarians but it hapned that whilst he was Sick part of his men debauched by some that were Factious forced him to permit them to go to New Spain to seek for Provisions where having taken a huge Vessel fraught with Riches wherein was the Governor of the Havana they were afterwards surrounded and seized in that Island and all sold or carried into Spain This Piracy gave the Spaniards a fair pretence who were already grown very jealous that the French began to settle in those Countries to fall upon them and allow no quarter They pretended those Territories belonged to them affirming they were the first Discoverers But in truth a Venetian Named Stephen Gaboury prompted in Emulation of Christopher Columbus to seek out new Countries under the auspicious favour of Henry VII King of England had found out and landed upon those Coasts even in the year 1496. long before there Ponce de Leon who was indeed the Person that gave it the name of Florida because he went first on Shoar there upon Palm-Sunday When Laudonniere was ready to return he spied Seven Vessels at Sea this was John Ribaud a very good Sea-man but an ill Soldier and much worse Captain who was made choice of by the Admiral as very affectionate to the Interests of his Party The Spaniards had at the same time sent one Peter Melandez with some Ships to hinder the French from taking root there Ribaud quitting his Fort which he left but slightly furnished with Men went on Board his Ships to Fight them When he was out at Sea a Hurrican a strange kind of Storm very frequent about those Coasts forced and beat all his Fleet in pieces against the Rocks His men getting to Land with their Long-Boats fell into the Hands of the Spaniards who having taken the Fort slaughter'd them all with a more then Canibal Cruelty tearing them piece-meal and plucking out their Eyes They said
Princes had passed the Loire and advanced towards Paris between Montargis Bleneau and Chastillon sur Loing The King 's was come to the Valley of Aillan as it were to stand betwixt them and home and barricade the way to Paris when after a Truce of some days the Negociation for a Peace often broken and as often renewed again finally succeeded to a Treaty of Peace which was concluded the fifteenth of August notwithstanding the Remonstrances month August and great Offers made by the King of Spain to obstruct it for he apprehended least after a Peace the two Armies should be United to fall upon the Low-Countries The King the Queen his Mother the Princes of the Blood those of the Council and all the Grandees about him swore to it solemnly at Saint Germain en Laye On the Huguenots part Beauvais la Nocle was dispatch'd to carry the News to Rochel and Guyenne and Teligny to the Army where it was Proclaimed the one and twentieth of the Month and sworn to by all the Protestant Nobility expresly assembled Five days after it was so likewise in the Catholick Army which Marched towards Lorrain to Convoy the Germans home again and dismiss them That of the Princes went as far as Langres when they caused theirs to be conducted to Pot a Mouson by the Marquiss de Renel they then returned towards la Charité and from thence crossing Linosin and Angounois they proceeded to Rochel having Count Ludovic with them That which was most particular in this Edict besides the Articles in the former was That they allowed them to Preach in the Suburbs of two such Cities as should be Assigned them in each Province That they should be admitted indifferently in the Universities Schools Hospitals and Spittles as also in all publick Offices Royal Seigneurial and belonging to Cities and Corporations Moreover that they should have the Liberty to except against an Appeal from a certain number of Judges in all Parliaments in some more in others fewer and generally from the whole Parliament of Thoulouze to the Requests of the Hostel who should be Soveraign Judges in those Cases That to take away all possible suspition doubt or jealousie they should keep as Pawns for security in their own hands the Cities of Rochel Montauban Cognac and la Charité upon condition the two Princes and twenty Gentlemen with them would oblige themselves joyntly and swear to surrender them up in the same condition at the expiration of two years It was likewise stipulated that they should restore to the Prince of Orange and Ludovic his Brother the Principality of Orange and all other the Lands belonging to them in France together with all their Titles and Writings that had been taken from them The reasons that enclined the Huguenots to this Peace were manifest the long and tedious absence from their Families the eminent and perpetual dangers they were in the utter ruine of their Estates and Goods as well by the Invasions of Year of our Lord 1570 the Catholicks as the expences themselves were at to maintain the War their Dwellings exposed to Plunder and Firings their Wives and Children to Affronts and Massacres with this their ill fortune which had ever disappointed them in their great enterprizes And in fine the cutting reproaches to all that were honest amongst them for flying out so often to Rebellion against their Soveraign and being looked upon and accounted the glowing Fire-brands of their Native Country The Motives which led the Court to this agreement were variously guessed at and talked of The Queen-Mother would have it believed that she had consider'd the prayers of the Princes of Germany and the Emperor's Advice Some fancied she made this Peace that she might have leisure to think upon the Marriage of her Son others that she condescended to it out of the jealousie she had to find the Spaniard concerned himself so much in the Affairs of France not as a friend only but as one interessed and apprehensive that having subdued the Low-Countries he might endeavour to bind the French in the same Fetters Many believed with good probability that this Princess a great lover of Divertisements and Pleasures was quite wearied with such continual troubles and melancholy consultations and the eternal danger she was in And indeed never any one that was more fond of or did more delight in the soft Past-times of the Galanteries Dancing Hunting Feasting and all sorts of Sports than she Wherever she went she always carried a compleat Equipage of the most voluptuous Divertisements in her Train and particularly two or ✚ three hundred of the most beautiful Women of her Court who drew a Pack of twice as many Courtiers after them In the mid'st of the greatest Embrass of War and Affairs the Balls and Musick must be sure to go on says Montluc The sound of the Violins must not be stifled by the Martial Trumpet the same Teams dragg'd along the Machines for their Plays and their Engins for War and in the same Lists were to be seen the Sons of Mars cutting each others Throats and the fair Off-Spring of Venus at their Carousels where the Ladies freely tasted every pleasure Others more penetrating believed that her designs tended to disarm the Huguenots tyred with the miseries of War and by degrees calm and lay all their jealousies asleep that they might the more easily be led into their snares which time and opportunity might direct her to contrive hereafter for them if perhaps she had not long before resolved which way to bring it about The event seems to confirm this suspicion though it is very probable that the many Accidents different Interests and various Humours and Minds of those that contributed to such a terrible Council made them often shift and change their Methods and Resolutions She had two excellent Lures to deceive and decoy the Queen of Navarre and the Admiral and consequently the whole Party I mean a War against the Spaniards in the Low-Countries which all the Huguenot Chiefs blindly gave credit to because they desired it with passion and the Marriage of Margaret the Kings Sister with Henry Prince of Navarre This last had been already propounded but the great Love the Duke of Guise had for that Princess was some obstacle The King who was extream Cholerick and Violent having observed it commanded Henry d'Angoulesme his bastard Brother to kill him when he went out to Hunt the Duke having a hint of it was advised to avoid the anger of the King by Marrying at soonest as he did with Catherine de Cleves Widdow of Anthony de Croüy Prince of Portian Some Months before Lewis de Vourbon Duke of Montpensier had for his Second Wife Married in the City of Anger 's Catherine Sister to that Duke The Cardinal de Lorrain negotiated this Alliance to gain the said Prince who before was much an Enemy to their House though at the same time he had a mortal Aversion to the Huguenots It was high time
enough to defend themselves but it was very rough and cruel at Meaux Troyes Orleans Nevers Lyons Toulouze Bourdeaux and at Rouen causing above Five and Twenty Thousand Men to Perish in the Red Sea of their own Blood At Thoulouze they hanged Five Councellors of Parliament in Scarlet Robes upon an Elm in the Palace Yard Matignon and the Vicount d'Ortez did generously refuse to stain their Hands with the Blood of their own Country-men the first preserved those of Alencon the other those of Bayonne The horrour of the Massacre brought back a great many to the Roman Church but the danger once over most of them fell off again These and some others who timely fore-saw the threatning Storm saved themselves in divers places Sancâ—rre Rochel Montauban and the Sevenes proved places of refuge to a great number The very Morning of Saint Bartholomews day the King had with his own Mouth told the King of Navarre and Prince of Condé that he pardon'd them provided they changed their Conduct and Religion Afterwards the whole Court labour'd for their Conversion the Example and Conferences of Rosiere a Minister of Orleans afforded a very specious colour and pretence for the King of Navarre month October to be Converted His Sister Catherine the Dowager of Condé and the Princess Year of our Lord 1572 did likewise abjure it The Prince would by no means hear of it the King being tyred with his over-long resistance sent for him and being quite transported with passion told him in three words Death Mass or the Bastile This Thunder-clap beat down his haughty Spirit and compell'd him to follow the Examples of the rest They were all absolved of the Crime of Heresie by the Cardinal de Bourbon and that they might not be able to Retract they were obliged to write themselves to his Holiness The Court of Rome and the Council of Spain were filled with unexpressible Joy upon the Tydings of the Saint Bartholomew the Pope went in Procession to Saint Lewis Church to render thanks to God for that so happy Success and a Panegyrical act thereof was represented before King Philip under the Title of The Triumphs of the Church Militant Both the one and the other of them believed this bloody Butchery would have brought the Protestant Party very low and that their fall would make their own power rise to the desired pitch Indeed if the King had but had an Army in readiness he might with ease have made an end of the Huguenots but he believed these Massacres had so quell'd them that it was to no purpose to maintain one for that Besides he must have been obliged to give the Command of it to his Brother the Duke of Anjou and his growing too great was the only thing he had to fear Whilst the Queen Mother by the Advice of Birague and de Rais her Confidents who apprehended a War as being â—itter to mannage Intrigues then draw a Sword amuses her self by Wyles and Artifices to subdue the remainders of the Huguenots those that had escaped the Blood-Hounds resumed their Courage Rochel labours to Fortiâ—ie it self Montauban encouraged by the fortunate Success of the Vesins who with Five and Twenty Horse defeated two Hundred and took Montluc's great Standard shut up their Gates against the Kings Soldiers their Chiefs seized upon several little Places in Quercy and Fifteen or Twenty Castles in Roüergne Lauraguez Albigeois and Foix Millaud and Nismes in Languedoc took the bit in their Teeths some small Towns in the Mountains of Vivarets and the Sevenes Barricado themselves and Anthony de Pleix Gremian Seizes upon the City of Sousmieres Against so many Heads as sprung up afresh on every side the Kings Council took the Sword again in hand and raised three Armies With one of them la Chastre had order to besiege Sancerre with the second Danville undertook to reduce the Rebel Cities in Languedoc and the third Commanded by the Marquiss de Villars Admiral of France to subdue those in Guyenne As for Rochel they thought fit before they made use of Force to make use of Mildness and Craft as fearing lest their dispair should cast them into the Arms of the English They sent first therefore Biron to be their Governour whom they guessed would be acceptable to them then when they had refused him they forced Francis de la Noüe with Arguments of Knives and Daggers to go thither and reduce them They did not receive him in quality of the Kings Servant but as General to Command their Army which the King was content with upon condition that if he could not incline them to make a Peace he should forsake them upon his first Summons Thus began the Fourth Civil War again The Huguenots escaped from the Butchery had scatter'd their fears amongst all the other Protestants The City of Strasbourg doubled their Guards the Swiss made great Levies and secured all their Avenues the German Princes and the Queen of England formed new Leagues together the Council therefore found it necessary to allay their Suspicions and palliate the Cruelty and Heynousness of the Fact To this end they dispatched Ambassadors to them with relations well contrived and forged and artificial propositions they renew'd the Treaty for Conquest of the Low-Countries with the Prince of Orange they endeavour'd to soothe and sweeten Queen Elizabeth desiring her to be God-mother to the Kings Daughter which she accepted and they began a third time to propound a Match between her and the Duke of Alanson which many attributed to the Queens vain Imaginations who being informed by certain Fortune-tellers that all her Sons should Reign by consequence if it were in France they must all die after one another struggled to alter the course of Fate by seeking other Kingdoms for them in Forraign Parts and proceeded so far therein as to desire the Kingdom of Tunis of the Turk for this last Year of our Lord 1572 The Eight day of November a new Phenomena began to be observed in the Heavens which seemed to be a Star because it was very Bright was fixed to one certain place like the real Stars appeared at the same height and held the same motion It made the Figure of a Lozenge with those of the Thigh aâ—d Breast of the Constellation named Cassiopea At first it equal'd in magnitude the Planet Jupiter but diminished by little and little and at Eighteen Months end quite disappeared The Huguenots interpreted this wonder to their advantage and one of their Poets dared to say it was the Asterism of the Apotheose of the Admiral As soon as it began to appear in France a new Disease broke forth indeed a very strange and odd kind of Malady for at every Tenth Year it still doubled its violence causing most horrible Contorsions and Dislocating every Joynt till the year 1606. that it began to be less frequent and less cruel and tormenting then before It was called the Billious Evil or Colick of Poitou because it reigned
The Duke of Alenson out-braved by the Favourites had plotted to get away the King having notice of it causes both him and all those that were suspected to have given him such advice to be seized but the next day upon the Queen-Mothers intercession pardon'd him and to compleat the favour did likewise set the other prisoners at large That done as if he had nothing more to fear he gave himself wholly up to idleness passed the Night-time in Feasting and Balls the Morning in adjusting his Cloaths or placing his Furniture to the best advantage and invent new modes the Afternoon in divertisements amongst the Ladies and the Evening in Gaming While he lived in this great security the Duke his Brother deceives those that were commanded to watch him and slipping away one evening the Fifteenth of September reached the City of Dreux where Bussy who had forsaken the Court brought him a great deal of company At his going away he declared himself an enemy to the House of Guise and openly protested to revenge the death month Septemb. of the Admiral and of Molle his Favourite Amongst the Cloaths in his Wardrobe he kept a Doublet belonging to the last and had sworn he would wear it on a day of Battle If the Duke of Montpensier would have joyned with the Duke of Nevers or have lent him his Forces he might have hindred from passing the Loire and getting into Berry For all Montpensiers refusal he had a great mind to charge them and marched with great speed to intercept him but the Queen-Mother sent a Courier with an express Order under her own hand which commanded him not to pursue them any further she fearing her Son might perish in the Fight Upon the noise of the Duke of Alensons evasion great numbers of the Nobility flocked to him from all parts amongst others Ventadour Turenne and the wise La Noüe In the mean while the Prince of Condé had finished his Treaty with Casimir who raised him Eight thousand Reisters and Six thousand Swiss upon this conditition Year of our Lord 1575 amongst other things that they should make no Peace without his consent nor until they had obtained of the King the Government in chief of Mets Toul and Verdun for him Toré having contributed Fifty thousand Crowns towards these Levies they could not refuse to let him have Two thousand Reisters and Five hundred Foot to carry the Duke of Alenson by way of advance but the Duke of Guise Governour of Champagne charged and defeated them near Chasteau-Thierry He was there wounded in the left Cheek with a Musquet-shot the scar remained all his life-time a very Glorious mark of Honour to the Catholiques and very becoming in a Ladies Eyes also who believe that such as are brave in the Field of Mars are ever so in the Camp of Venus too Toré made his escape to the Duke of Alenson in Berry by the swiftness ☜ of his Horse and thither his Infantry got safely by a brave retreat of above Thirty Leagues It was suspected that the Duke of Alensons evasion was contrived by the Queen-Mother thereby to keep up two parties in the Kingdom and render her self necessary between both The Huguenots growing every day more suspicious imagined she had sent him amongst them to divide and so to ruine them However it were most of the great ones were very well pleased with it and she had employment enough cut out for her self as she desired She therefore presently hies after him taking along the Mareschals of Montmorency and Cosse whom she had released from their imprisonment to make use of that credit they had with him Montmorency prevailed so far by his interest as to bring the Duke to the Castle of Champigny belonging to the Duke of Montpensier where she cajoled him so finely that he consented to a truce of Six Months beginning from the Two and twentieh of November That done she returns to Court leaving the said Mareschal there to dispose him to a final accommodation It was agreed by this Truce that the King should give to the Duke by way of security the Cities of Angoulesme Niort Saumur Bourges and la Charite and to the Prince of Conde Mezieres The Governours of Bourges and Angoulesme having refused to be diseised of their places the Queen-Mother returns again to her Son month Decemb. and managed him so well that she obliged him to accept of Cognac and St. Jean d'Angely in exchange after which the Truce was published the Two and twentieth of December There was however nothing as yet that tended to a Peace the King made great Levies both of Men and Money but the City of Paris instead of furnishing him with the sums he desired paid him with Remonstrances which relished of reproaches and did but too evidently let him know the little esteem they had of his Government Some Bourgeois however paid Taxes not so much out of good Will as the fear they had of the Reisters and to exempt their Countrey-houses from quartering of Soldiers wherewith they were menaced month January The Negotiations for Peace continued still this stopt the Prince of Conde and Casimir in Lorrain all the month of January at the end whereof being tired with the variety and uncertainty of such Propositions as were made them they descended into Bassigny crossed over Burgundy within sight of Langres Dijon and Beaulne passed the Loir at Marsigny les Nonains and extended themselves between that River and the River of Allier having gained the Bridge de Vichy Auvergne avoided that month February inundation which would have destroy'd it by a Present of Fifty thousand Crowns and by ordering Markets to serve them with Provisions where-ever they passed The Duke of Mayenne who commanded the Royal Army durst not approach the Princes any nearer then within two days march When the King perceived they were resolved to come directly to Paris he recalled his own and quarter'd them about it but this remedy which he thought sit to provide against their fears excited the Parisians complaints they fall a crying out that they ought not thus pursue the only Brother of the King and that it was a high piece of cruelty to drive a Son out of the House To these out-cries were added the Duke of Montpensiers refusal to take upon him the Command of the Royal Army the little zeal the Grandees express'd to serve the King in this occasion and a much more surprising accident then all these which was the evasion of the King of Navarre about the end of February This Prince having a long while suffer'd himself to be flatter'd with the hopes of the General-Lieutenancy and the deluding charms of some Court Syrens escaped at last from Senlis whither he was gone under pretence of a Hunting-match and retired to Poissy from thence to Alenson afterwards to Vendosme Two hundred Gentlemen month February coming there to meet him he travelled by long journeys into Guyenne where his quality of Governour and
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
Duke of Alenson after the Peace made his residence at Bourges where Bussy d'Amboise Fervaques Laffin Simiers and some other Favourites of his obliged him to stay for their own advantage or for their security Towards the end of October he was prevailed upon to go to Court by the perswasions of the Queen-Mother and came to salute the King at the Castle d'Olinville near Chastres The King received so much joy by this visit that he gave notice by Letters Patents of it to all his Kingdom Bussy would not follow his Master but went and setled his Habitation in the Castle of Angiers chusing rather said he to play the King in that Countrey then the Waiting-man or Valet at Court As soon as they had thus withdrawn the Duke of Anjou they began to continue the ruine of the Huguenots to form powerful Leagues as well within the Kingdom which we shall presently mention as without by communication with Don Juan of Austria whom King Philip was sending Governour to the Low-Countreys and with the Popes Legat. Year of our Lord 1576 Don Juan and the Legat arriving at Court on the very same day and from different places the first incognito and the other in great state had access and very private Conference with the Kings Council and yet more particularly with the Duke of Guise The Queen-Mothers aim was in the first place to take off the King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé from the party and in order to this she was resolved to make a journey into Guyenne and discourse with them but whether she found they were not so disposed as she desired to be deluded by her or not she did not go In the mean time these two Princes who had no secure retreat for their Persons endeavour'd to make sure of some the Prince with more Craft then Faith or fair Play seized upon Brouage having order'd some Companies to slip in then upon Mirembean himself who was Lord thereof whom he forced to put him in possession of the place promising however to render it again within three Months In effect he did render it to him but soon after seized it the Second time upon some jealousie either real or pretended The Rochellers took the allarm and the Court fomented their suspitions so much that the Mayor sent to desire the Prince not to come to Rochel but the Ministers and People made them change that resolution and ordered that he should be invited provided he brought no more then his ordinary attendance Thus the Court plainly perceived he was not so absolute over the party as he would have made them believe The late conjunction of the Duke of Alenson with the Religionaries and Politiques and the advantageous Peace granted to them produced that mightly Faction to which the Authors of it gave the name of Holy Vnion and the vulgar that of The League or to say better revived and fagotted together all the other particular ones which had been already formed in divers parts under the Reign of Charles IX For the Lords during those troubles had taken the confidence to make Treaties and Confederacies amongst themselves without asking permission of the King and the People arrogated to themselves the liberty of giving their Oaths to others besides their Sovereign justifying themselves by presidents drawn from the Huguenots who indeed shewed them first the example Thus they framed one in Languedoc between the Cardinals de Strossy and Armagnac and some Lords of that Countrey another again in Bourdelois of which the Marquis de Trans of the House of Foix was General another much greater whereof Montluc advised Charles IX to be the Head There were also certain Fraternities joyned in Burgundy which to speak properly were a kind of a League Besides that in Limosin in the Vivarets and some other Provinces the People armed to defend themselves against all Soldiers of either party Year of our Lord 1576 They tell us likewise that the Queen-Mother had given notice to Charles IX that if he would not consent to the Massacre on St. Bartholomews there was a League ready form'd should execute it without him and it is certain that upon the apprehension there was of King Henry's being stopt in Poland several Associations were made in the Provinces to preserve the State and the Catholique Religion So that it was but only the joyning and cimenting all these distinct parties together to make up the great Body of the League The zealous Catholiques were the instruments the new Religious Orders the Paranymphs and Trumpeters the Grandees of the Kingdom the Authors and Heads The easy temper of the King gave way to its growth and the Queen-Mother lent it her helping hand She was not prompted to it by any zeal for Religion nor for any love or kindness towards the Guises but out of her mortal hatred to the Huguenots above all other Reasons because they earnestly desired she should give an account of her Administration and bawled open mouth'd against the disorders of the Court and the enormous Vices of the Italians especially against the new and vexations Tolls and Faxes those strangers invented every day The Pope and the King of Spain were the promoters of it this because the Huguenots were in friendship with the Gueux the Rebels in the Low-Countreys and he apprehended lest the Duke of Anjou grown more powerful might affect to embrace the Sovereignty of those Provinces or that the King of Navarre young and valiant would endeavour to wrest that Kingdom out of his hands which he so unjustly detained from him the other because he feared the Huguenots might become so strong as would oblige the King to hold a National Council and believed withal that if he could but exterminate them in France he might very easily attain his ends and trample on all the Protestants elsewhere Now the League appeared first in Picardy The People in that Countrey ignorant and devout but hot-headed easily took fire upon the apprehension was spread on purpose amongst them how the Prince of Condé would plant his Religion in that Province if he came to make his Residence at Peronne pursuant to the Treaty of Peace James de Humieres Governour of Peronne Montdidier and Roye great in Estate and Credit induced the Nobility and most of the Cities in that Province to sign it and Aplincourt a young Gentleman of his kindred took the Oaths of the Inhabitants of Peronne The Duke of Guise and the Duke of Mayenne engaged Champagne and then Burgundy to do the like Lewis de la Tremouille prevailed in Poitou being offended with the Huguenots who now and then surprized some Castle of his withal desirous to impugne the Count de Lude Governour of the Province In fine this Faction which had this taken root in every Province did on a suddain shoot forth such thick and lofty branches that it both cover'd and eclipsed nay almost stifled the whole Regal Authority When the Huguenots demanded with such instance the Estates-General
Indulgence made Paris subsist some weeks the longer for it Year of our Lord 1590. July In the mean while the Politicks and Royalists were every day making Parties to deliver up the City to the King or to make the People rise and mutiny but they were so narrowly watch'd that all their Projects miscarried They wanted but little of succeeding one day about the end of July when being assembled at the Palais they took up Arms and began to cry out Peace or Provisions It is certain that if Nemours and Vitry had not ran presently thither all were inclining that way The Seize made such grievous complaint to the Parliament that they condemned a couple to the Gallows it was a Father and his Son who were both Hanged on the same Gibber the miserable fruit of Civil Wars The dangers of this day of Peace or Provisions struck so great a fear into the Chiefs of the League that they consulted about a Conference for a Peace Whilst they were deliberating upon it the King to spur them forwards attaqu'd their Suburbs and gained them all in one night The Cardinal de Gondy and the Archbishop of month August Lyons having secur'd themselves of a Pass-port the sixth day of August went and waited on him at St. Anthoine des Champs where they found him surrounded by great numbers of the Nobless They set on foot again with many notable additional Reasons the Proposition they had already made to him by other hands That he would grant them a Truce so as they might go to the Duke of Mayenne and dispose him to treat joyntly with them The King on his part proposed to them that if they would make their Capitulation to surrender within ten days and sign it immediately he would condescend to their demand That time seemed too short for them so they returned without concluding any thing Some Captains had been often of opinion to attempt Paris by main strength but the King was ever averse to it for besides that he was not certain to carry it he feared if his Men should force their way the Huguenots in revenge of the St. Bartholomew might put all to Fire and Sword that such a deluge must destroy some of his best Friends there and the greatest and richest Treasure of his Kingdom be rifled in one day whereof none should reap any benefit but the rapacious Soldiery For these reasons and because he promised himself day after day to reduce it by some Confederacy from within or at least by Famine for his Parasites made him believe it yet in much worse condition then in truth it was he either durst not or would not run so great a hazard He held himself so secure of gaining his ends that without making any Efforts or troubling his Head about the assistance they expected he diverted himself in seeking Year of our Lord 1590. August new Mistresses even within the Monasteries with as great security and leasure as if he had been quietly lodged in his Louvre By his example most of his Officers having little or no employment spent their time in the like Conquests and such as could not otherwise have any bought Parisian Ladies of Pleasure who disabled some in the service and corrupted the faith of many others The same day of the Conference at St. Anthoine the Duke of Mayenne arrived at Meaux with five or six thousand Men most of them Cavalry drawn out of Lorrain Champagne Cambresis and Picardy From thence he sent word of his arrival to the Parisians and gave them hopes of the sudden coming of the Duke of Parma who for two Months did not move whether foreseeing that in his absence the Prince of Orange would over-run part of his Conquests of the Low-Countries or feared King Philip would appoint him a new Successor or that he doubted the success of this Expedition However it hapned they were fain to send a very express and reiterated Order out of Spain to make him march He took for this purpose Twelve thousand Foot three thousand five hundred Horse and fifteen hundred Wagons loaden with Ammunition departed from Valenciennes the sixth day of August and advanced to Meaux by prefixt Stages encamping after the Roman mode in such places as he had caused to be exactly survey'd and which he compared with his Maps at every turn The King who thought he never durst have stir'd out of the Low-Countries nor engage himself so far in France was much astonished when he had certain notice of his arrival there the Two and twentieth of August and that having reposed his Army four or five days he was come to lodge at Claye After he had held several Councils and heard their divers opinions upon so important a business he raised his Siege the Nine and twentieth of the Month with intention to challenge him to Battle and oppose his Attempts There was above Chelles a place very commodious and very advantageous to Encamp the two Armies had the same design of seizing on it The Kings Light Horse beat off those of Parma and there it was that the said Duke having from an eminence beheld and observed the number and disposition of the Royal Army changed the desire he once had of fighting them and instead of the Musquet and Pike made his Soldiers take up the Matock and Spade to intrench with all speed in the neighbouring Marish Now to demonstrate that he did not act at random but that he walked by the just Rules of Military Art he had publickly reported and even told the Herauld the same thing who was sent from the King to defie him to Battle that he would oblige Year of our Lord 1590. September him to raise his Siege of Paris and would open one of the Rivers by forcing a Town even in his sight After therefore the two Armies had remained six days close by each other upon the seventh there hapning a great Fog and the Duke having first seized on the chief Posts near Lagny he attaqued that place by Cannon Shot the River betwixt The breach made in a short time he throws a Bridge of Boats over gives an assault and gained it so soon that the Troops which the Mareschal d'Aumont was leading about by the Bridge at Gournay within two little Leagues below it could not get thither time enough It then seemed as if the chance were turned the Parisians who had fasted so long had Provisions in abundance brought them from Beausse by Carts and on the contrary the Kings Army for the taking of Lagny deprived him of the River of Marne and the valiant Duke of Nemours scowring the Country cut off all Convoys by Land began to feel some want and were three or four days without any Ammunition Bread Then the Soldiers fell a murmurring and were ready to mutiny the Chiefs accuse one another for the ill managment of the Siege of Paris the Nobility desire to be dismiss'd since there was no likelihood of a Battle the hatred between the Catholicks
War A Peace would have blasted all their ambitious pretensions and they could no longer carry on the War without a King nor maintain and support a King without the assistance of Spain To this effect they deputed the President Janin to that Prince who gave him favourable Audience twice and afterwards sent him to confer with one of his Ministers By whose discourse the President discover'd the intentions of Philip which were to Assemble the Estates General that they might bestow the Crown of France upon him that should Marry his Daughter Isabella as the nearest Princess of the Blood Royal upon which condition he promised to send such numerous Forces into France as should drive out the the King of Navarre and withal offer'd ten thousand Crowns per Month to maintain the Duke of Mayenne He founded his hopes upon the charms of his Gold the affections of the Seize and the Cabals of the Friers Mendicants and other Religious Orders very powerful and at that time devoted to Spain by whose means he hoped to gain the greater Cities The Pope aimed at the same thing and treated the Seize as Men of great importance He fancied the time was now come to suppress all Heresies and that his Popeship might not lose the glory of it he resolved to joyn his Spiritual with the Temporal Power to destroy them He put forth two Monitories the one month March directed to the Prelats and Ecclesiasticks the other to the Nobility Magistrates and People By the first he Excommunicated them if within fifteen days they did not withdraw from the Obedience Territories and their Attendance on Henry de Bourbon and within fifteen more deprived them of their Benefices By the second he exhorted them to do the same if not he would turn his Paternal goodness and love into the severity of a Judge In both of them he declared Henry of Bourbon Excommunicate Relapsed and as such fallen from all right to his Kingdoms and Seigneuries Marcellin Landriano the Popes Referendary was the Bearer of them and contrary to the sentiments of the Duke of Mayenne published them in all the Cities of the League about the end of the Month of April month April To the same end the Pope raised Eight thousand Foot and a thousand Horse of whom he made his Nephew Hercules Sfondrata General and to make him the more Year of our Lord 1591. May. worthy that Command he invested him with the Dutchy of Montemarcian with most solemn Ceremony in the Church of Sancta Maria Major About this time the Marquiss de Maignelay who had promised the King to return to his Obedience with la Fere upon Oyse whereof he was Governor was assassinated in the midst of the City by the Vice-Seneschal of Montelimar named Colas and the Lieutenant of the Duke of Mayennes Guards who left the Government of it to Colas The King going to Compeigne to favour this Reduction very angry it was prevented came back to Mantes From thence he put in execution an Enterprise he had upon the City of Louviers It was taken at noon day by the Mareschal Biron Raulet having greatly contributed to this Exploit had the Government of it Fontaine-Martel Governor of the place and Claude de Saintes Bishop of Evreux were taken Prisoners Martel redeem'd himself by paying a Ransom the Bishop for being too hot was detained in Prison and there died The Popes Bull had scarce any other effect but to excite the Huguenots to demand an Edict give an opportunity to those of the third Party to advance and strengthen their Cabal and provoke the Parliaments of the one and the other Party to make bloody Decrees The Chamber of Chaalons a Member of that which was sitting at Tours by a Decree of the Sixth of June cancell'd and revoked them as null abusive scandalous seditious full of Impostures contrary to the Holy Decrees Canons Councils and the Rights of the Gallican Church ordained they should month June be torn and burnt by the hands of the Hangman that Landriano should be apprehended ten thousand Livers Reward to whomsoever should deliver him to Justice forbidding all the Kings Subjects to lodge or harbour him as likewise to carry either Silver or Gold to Rome or to sollicite the Provisions or Expeditions of Benefices And an Act to be given to the Sollicitor General for the appeal he was to bring to the next Council legally Assembled The Kings Council were divided into two parts the one sat at Tours where the Cardinal de Vendosme presided the other at Chartres with the Chancellor de Chiverny the King assembles them together at Mantes to deliberate on so important an Affair After he had heard their opinions he puts forth a Declaration in the Month of July month July wherein he gives notice to his Parliaments that all other things laid aside they should proceed against Landriano as they should in justice see cause and exhorted the Prelats to meet and advise together according to Holy Decrees that the Ecclesiastical Discipline might not be lost nor the People destitute of their Pastors Year of our Lord 1591 On the other hand he thought convenient notwithstanding the vehement oppositions of the Cardinal de Bourbon to grant a Declaration in favour of the Huguenots which revoked all Edicts that had been put forth against them with the Judgments that had ensued thereupon and restored revived and confirmed all the Edicts of Pacification but then added these words by provision only and until such time as he should be able to re-unite all his Subjects by a happy Peace This clause served as a Vehicle to make it pass in the Parliament of Tours As to the business of the Bulls this Company thundred lowder yet then the Chamber at Chaalons and out-vying them declared Gregory an Enemy of the Churches Peace and Union Enemy to the King and State adhering to the Conspiracy of Spain favourer of Rebels and guilty of the Parricide of King Henry III. On the contrary that of Paris pronounced That this Decree was null and of no force made by People without power Schismaticks and Hereticks Enemies to God and destroyers of his Church ordered it should be torn in full Audience and the Fragments burnt on the Marble Table by the Executioner of the Haute Justice The Clergy also assembled at Mantes pursuant to the Kings Declaration They were to examine the Popes Bulls and to settle some Orders for the Provisions of Benesices As to the first point the Assembly made a Decree which declared the said Bulls to be null unjust suggested by the Enemies of the Kingdom protesting notwithstanding that they would not depart from their obedience to the Holy See month August To the second they propounded many Expedients The Archbishop of Bourges this was Renauld de Bealne made a motion of creating a Patriarch in France and he believed his Quality of Primat in the absence of the Archbishop of Lyons who was for the League would acquire him that Dignity
return of the Duke of Mayenne who seemed loath to enter upon this matter let slip some Sessions without any proceedings then adjourned the Conference for eight days notwithstanding a Truce or Suspension was agreed for ten days At first a difficulty arose which had like to break off all those of the League would not suffer that Rambouillet should be present because the Dutchess of Guise accused him of having a hand in the death of her Husband Rambouillet on the contrary insisted upon his staying since he was come fearing lest his exclusion should imply a tacit owning of what they charged him with and the Blood of that Prince be required of him and his Posterity He therefore positively denied the Fact and offer'd to purge himself by Oath upon which the Deputies of his Party stood up so resolutely for him that he was not excluded It is very remarkable that the King having heard how some did even charge him with that death took the pains to write a Discourse which was perused by the chiefest ☞ of that Assembly wherein he shewed he never was the Author of so tragical and so cursed a Council He instanced amongst other things that the late King telling him how a great Man who pushed him on to do that action had in a Letter written to him on that Subject put in these four Latine words MORS CONRADINI VITA CAROLI He the King of Navarre replied in the presence of many Persons of Honour still living Yes but Sir this Party has not told you all the History for the death of Conradin was the ruine of Charles For the particulars of what passed in the Conference at Surene they are to be seen in the Records that are published The Archbishop of Lyons and he of Bourges made very Eloquent Discourses on either side to shew the one that they could not acknowledge an Heretical prince the other that they ought to obey him and this last summoned the Leagued Catholicks to joyn with them for instructing and converting the King but these stood stiff not to receive nor have any communication with him till he were truly converted and the Pope had received him into the bosom of the Church This Resolution express'd with great freedom and assurance brought over that Prince who wavered before in so much as he gave his positive word he would become a Convert to those Princes and Lords that were about him and demanded a Conference for his instruction to which he invited all the most learned of his own Party and of those for the League to meet the Fifteenth of July Not that he pretended the performance of his promise should depend upon that but only as a ceremony and form becoming such an Act. Year of our Lord 1593 It was time he should speak plain for the Estates some days before having made a month June solemn Procession were preparing for the election of a King and if the Spaniards had then made the Proposition which they did a Month after in behalf of the Duke of Guise it is most certain that all had gone that way even in despite of the Duke of Mayenne for he had not yet made his Faction strong enough as having been too long employ'd at Rheims He was newly come from thence very melancholy and dissatisfied with the Princes of his own House who were more vex'd with him so that they had parted as irresolv'd and as much dis-united as ever each of them with vast and confused thoughts and very little abilities to put them in execution Nevertheless there was enough to console him for his misfortunes had he known how to improve the opportunity for the King apprehending the Estates might nominate one before himself were Converted offer'd to give him then the same advantages the Spaniards promis'd him only for the future He had no other aim when he consented to the Conferences but only to amuse the Royalists but the event was quite contrary it gave the King great advantage The Seize on the one hand and the Huguenots on the other did in vain endeavour to interrupt them they were too much engaged from Surene they were transfer'd to la Raquete then to la Villette They ended and broke up in this latter place because the Leaguers would conclude on nothing more but that they referred the judgment of the Reduction of the King to the Authority of his Holiness who only said they had the power of opening the Gates of the Church to him and the other rejected this Proposition because that would be to submit the Crown of France to the disposal of the Pope During the time these Conferences held the suspension of Arms was continued and brought the People to an absolute longing after Peace The King having observed this effect would allow it no farther but for three days but in exchange offer'd a Truce of six Months The Legat and Spaniards expressing great aversion to it the Duke of Mayenne durst not accept of it The Spaniards on their side having already suffer'd the Spirits of their Party to grow cool in the Estates disgusted them wholly by their odious Propositions for Mendozze labour'd to prove the right of the Infanta and to demonstrate that the Crown appertained to her His discourse was very unacceptable Feria afterwards imagining that they had rejected it because the French abhorred the Government of a Woman caused Tassis to propound that the Catholick King would Marry the Infanta to the Arch-Duke Ernest who should Reign joyntly with her as if it would not have been more eligible to admit of one Stranger to sit in the Throne of France then to crowd two in at the same time Year of our Lord 1593 The Nobility having referr'd it to the Duke of Mayenne to make him such answer month June as he should think fit the Duke gave him to understand that the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom could not allow of a Stranger That nevertheless the Estates to testifie their acknowledgments to the Catholick King desired he would take it well they should elect some French Prince and that he would be pleased to honour them with his Alliance by the Marriage of the Infanta to him Now after the Spaniards had spent some days in deliberating on this Proposition Feria replied by the Mouth of Tassis that the King his Master would furnish them with all the assistance they should desire provided the Infanta were declared Queen upon this condition she should Marry one of the French Princes whom that King should chuse the House of Lorrain therein comprehended This Overture dazled most of the Deputies and if at that time the Ministers of Spain without so many Ceremonies had but named one the Assembly would have agreed to it but whilst they were standing upon their gravity and expected to be courted to what did n◠in any wise belong to them this opportunity slipt thorough their Fingers Three Princes aspired to this nomination the Duke of Nemours and the Duke of Guise
Catholick Religion and Union with the Holy See Immediately the King named the Duke of Nevers and four or five other Persons of rare Merit as well Churchmen as some of the Robe for this Negociation and the Duke of Mayenne on his part chose the Cardinal de Joyeuse and the Baron de month August Senescay but he dispatched them not till three Months after and in the mean time suffer'd himself I know not how to be re-engaged with the Spaniards by a new Oath he took never to depart from the Holy Vnion not to Treat with the King of Navarre whatever Act of a Catholick he should perform and to proceed to the Election of a most Year of our Lord 1593 month August Christian King upon Condition they would furnish him with Twelve thousand Foot six thousand Horse by them maintained and some other Conditions But at the same time fearing lest they should contrive some new Projects with the Estates he sent part of the Deputies back into the Provinces under colour of informing the People of the present posture of Affairs As for the residue of this Assembly they remained in Paris till the Reduction of the City being maintained by the King of Spain who allowed them Eight thousand Crowns a Month. He could not so easily get off from the Leâ—a s instances who demanded the Council of Trent might be received entire by the Gallican Church Although the Parliament and the Chapters opposed it he was fain to give him this satisfaction by a Declaration which was deliver'd to the Estates but he eluded the Execution having first drawn this Assurance from him That if there were any thing relating to the Immuâ—ities and the Franchises of the Kingdom that ought to be maintain'd his Hâ—liness being required to allow the simâ— should make no denial or difficulty month August The Truce in the mean time put a stop to theiâ— proceedings in the Provinces It made the Duke of Aâ—ercoeur raise his Sieâ—e of Moâ—t o nour drew the Royalists from that of Poitiers which Bâ—issac most valiantly defendeâ— and â—reed the Ca tle of Cavours from the Duke of Savoy This Prince had been handled very ill by Lâ—sdiguieres and had likewise the misfortune some Months before to lose Roderick de Toledo General of the Milanese and Neapolitan Forces sent him by the King of Spain who was utterly defeated and slain at the descent of the Mountain which extends towards the Douere near the Village of Salbeltran Espernon had missed of surprizing Marseille but reduced Arles and from thence came the Five and twentieth of June to encamp before Aix where he built on the Hill St. Eutrope which commands the Town a great Fort or rather a Camp for the circumference was so vast that his whole Army lodged in it It seemed also as if he would make it a Counter-City having created two Consuls who wore Hoods and managed the Government of it He thinking to force Aix by this means did not punctually observe the Truce but doubled the Garison in his Fort and continued to stop all their Provisions The King who could ill suffer that a Man he did not love should establish himself by force in that Province made up a private Party to dispossess him He chose Lesâ—iguieres to be the Head and joyned six Gentlemen of Provence with him Oraison St. Cannat Valavoire Crotes and Buoux who were Governors of the places of Manosque Pertuis St. Maximin Digne and Forcalquier The absence of the Duke d'Espernon who was gone to Pezenas in Languedoc to confer with the Constable de Montmorency and the hatred the Provenceaux bare against him did marvellously favour their Enterprise As soon as Lesdiguieres had sent to Year of our Lord 1593 month August or shewed the Letters of Credence the King wrote to each of these five Gentlemen and had explained his intentions and meaning they all made a private League with the Count de Carces excepting Buoux who refused to open his Commission and remained in the Dukes Service The day appointed all by consent drove out the Gascons and the Espernouists from their places and the Count de Carces and those of Aix broke the Truce Escarrevaques and Souliers his Father in Law did likewise stir up the People of Toulon and besieged the Citadel which they took by the help of two hundred Slaves month October to whom they gave their liberty Signarc who commanded there fell by the Sword with all his Garison but Esgarrevaques his Enemy was first wounded by a Musquet Shot of which he died Upon the rumour of this Rising Tarascon and almost all the other Towns declared against Espernon nothing was wanting to compleat the Enterprize but to shut up his Passage by the Rhosne and the Durance so that he should not have been able to return into the Country but they not minding to give Orders for it in due time he got again into his Fort and became strong enough to make them feel the smart of their imprudence When the Truce above mentioned was concluded the greater part of the Prelats Counsellors of State and such as were of the Parliament nay even some of the Deputies of the Estates had secretly tendred their Respects to the King either Personally or by the mediation of some Friends While the King was hovering about Paris one day the Seven and twentieth of August he being at Melun they happily discover'd an Assassin Suborned by some Leaguers who had undertaken to kill him with a Knife His name was Peter Barriere a Native of Orleans Aged Twenty month August seven years a Waterman by profession first then a Soldier The Prevost de l'Hostel made his Process there was not sufficient proof against him and the Torture of the Rack could not force him to own any thing but the Confessor who stood by him at his death prevailed with him to discover all He was condemned to have his Hand cut off holding the Knife in it his Flesh to be torn with red hot Pincers then broken alive and after he was dead to be burnt and his Ashes scatter'd in the Air. The King had frequent notice of the like Conspiracies most part contrived by Monks or Church-men and therefore a Peace was the only Soveraign Remedy that could allay the madness of so many Frantick Spirits he most earnestly desired to compass it and offer'd the Duke of Mayenne quite ruined as he was greater advantages yet then he had done when his Affairs were most flourishing but that Duke would not Treat till the Pope had given the King Absolution and besides he had not Strength enough to break those Bonds the Spaniards had cast upon him he Treated therefore at the same Instant both with the King and with them Year of our Lord 1593 Mean while to provide against all Events he endeavour'd to seize upon Lyons month August and joyn it with Burgundy imagining perhaps that he of the two Kings with whom he should agree might leave him that Country
day the Three and twentieth of April gives three Assaults The Besieged sustained two not without great loss Bidossan was kill'd in the second After this it was time to yield but Campagnoles by an excess of bravour would needs stand a third His Soldiers did not second his Resolution they gave ground and threw away their Arms to save themselves some here some there Such as could get into the Sanctuary of the Churches or avoid the first fury saved their Lives all the rest to the number of above seven hundred were put to the Sword It had been no great difficulty for the King to have made the Spaniards perish for want in Calais had he been assured the English would have served him faithfully but as he had not too much reason to confide in them he returned to the Siege of la Fere having first re-inforced the Garisons of Ardres Monstreuil and Boulogne La month April Fere might have held out much longer by the ordinary rules had it not been for the Consideration of Colas the King of Spain had given Order to Osorio not to stay till the utmost extremity for fear he should be obliged to deliver that Man up to the King so that although he had nothing to fear for at least a Months time he made Year of our Lord 1596 his Capitulation the Fifteenth of May to which Colas Signed Count de la Fere. month May. But in the interim the Archduke marching out of Calais the Third day of May to compleat his Exploits attaqued Ardres a little place but very strong and very considerable for that it covers Calais The Count de Belin and Montluc had shut themselves in to defend it and there were Fifteen hundred fighting Men nevertheless the horrible Slaughters of Dourlens and Calais had so much terrified those Soldiers that they trembled even while they defended themselves It hapned likewise by misfortune that Montluc in whom they had some confidence was slain by a Cannon-ball and afterwards the Basse-Ville was gained and most of those in it knock'd on the Head in heaps just at the entrance into the Upper-Town by reason those that stood there to guard it being more affrighted then the others had let down the Port-cullice and exposed them to the fury of the Besiegers Afterwards Rosne begins to thunder upon the Bastion with his great Artillery which begot so horrible and universal a dread amongst the Soldiers that they even leaped over the Walls or ran and hid their Heads in Cellars Belin himself most extreamly affrighted demanded Composition and surrendred the place the One and twentieth of May. Which having done maugre the Governor named Isambert du Bois-Annebout and without taking advice of the other Captains he ran great hazard of his Life at Court This was the sixth place the Spaniards conquer'd in one year from the French not so much by their own as the Valour of Rosne and about a hundred desperate Frenchmen more who knowing themselves utterly excluded from all pardon and favour endeavour'd to make the King regret them and the Spaniard consider them Now it fortun'd happily for France that the Archduke at his return to Flanders besieging Hulst in the Country of Waes Rosne was there kill'd in an Assault which hapned in the Month of August month August So many losses on the neck of one another the Frontier laid open in four or five places the Sea shut up the robberles of the Soldiers the surcharge of Tailles and Imposts caused an incredible consternation in the minds of the People awakened the Factions of the League and favour'd the Contrivances of the Grandees These well foreseeing that the too sudden establishment of the Regal Power would be the month June ruine of their own suborned the Duke of Montpensier a young and easie Prince to propound to the King That it would do well to give the Governments in propriety to those that held them thereby to engage them to contribute with all their might to the defence of a State in which they really had a share One may well imagine that this Expedient did not over-much please the King nevertheless he treated this Year of our Lord 1596 Prince in such a manner as seeming angry rather with those who had engaged him month June to deliver this Message then with him he put him first into a confusion and then furnish'd him with Reasons enough even to confound them likewise if ever they made mention again of the like to him The Huguenots gave him no less disquiet then did the Grandees of his Kingdom he could not grant them the Edict they craved without offending the Pope and they month July and Aug. to secure themselves deliberated to chuse them a Protector and establish an Order amongst them which realy would have formed as it were another State in the heart of the Kingdom After his Conversion they look'd upon him as a Prince whose interest was to destroy them they interpreted all the Excuses he made for not yet being able to satisfie them as studied Artifice and the remembrance of things past gave them just apprehensions for the time to come And indeed they forsook him in the midst of the Storm and held more Synods and Assemblies in these three last years then in the thirty five precedent The King was labouring at that time to re-unite all the Protestants his Allies in one League against the House of Austria these discontents of the Huguenots cast great coldness and suspicion upon their Spirits so that the German Princes did all excuse month September and October themselves excepting the Count Palatine and the Duke of Wirtemberg who notwithstanding gave him only good words Bouillon and Sancy had much ado to engage the Queen of England who at length made it Offensive and Defensive The King and she obliging themselves reciprocally to send four thousand Men into eithers Country if they were assaulted and to make no Peace or Truce with the Spaniard but by mutual consent The Hollanders entred into it likewise with great willingness and alacrity by a Treaty made the last day of October and promised to march into the Field upon the Frontiers of Artois or Picardy with Ten thousand Foot and fifteen hundred Horse The Kings Army was so tired with the Siege of la Fere that he was fain to send them to refresh themselves in the Provinces reserving only some Troops with which the Mareschal de Biron made three several irruptions into Artois He made horrible devastation in that Country by Fire and Sword as well in revenge of the cruel spoil month June July c. the Archduke had made in Boulonois after the taking of Ardres as to teach him hereafter to make a fairer War In the Month of July a Comet was discover'd in the Heavens whose light appeared sometimes pale and faint otherwhile more clear and lively it had a long Train that did extend towards the East and South Another Prodigy appeared in France at the
beginning of the year Francis de la Ramee a young Man so called being the name of a Gentleman with whom he had been bred in Poitou pretended to be lawful Heir to the Crown He said he was Son of Charles IX and Elizabeth of Austria and fancied that Catharine de Medicis stole him in his Cradle sent him out of his Country pretending he was dead that so her dear Son Henry III. might succeed Now being come I know not how out of Poiton into Vermandois he lodg'd himself in a Peasants House who assisted him in acting this Comedy and bare Witness of many Apparitions which this young Man pretended to have frequently seen There was great probability this Farce Year of our Lord 1596 was contrived and countenanced by some Grandees of the Kingdom and perhaps they would have carried it on a great way and perplexed the King a long time with it had not the thrid of it been cut in time A Counsellor of Parliament who hapned to be upon the place having caused this pretended Prince and his Paranymph to be apprehended they were both carried to Reims where they were condemned the first to the Gallows the other to be present at the Execution The Parliament of Paris upon his appeal confirmed the Sentence and added that the Body of la Ramee should be burnt and the Ashes cast into the Air. This was executed in the Greve the month March Eighth day of March The Parties condemned having been first obliged to own the Imposture openly Those things which pained the King most were how to content the Zealous Catholicks month September and October and the Court of Rome who were concerned how he would behave himself after his Absolution to find wherewith to defray the Expences of his Armies amidst the present distractions and miseries of his People and to redress and remedy the inconveniencies we have mentioned For satisfaction touching the first point he received the Popes Legat with all Affection and Reverence and took care the Prince of Conde might be instructed in the Catholick Religion The Mother of this Prince having been justified by the Parliament of Paris followed her Son in his Religion as she followed him in his Fortune and made her abjuration at Rouen at the feet of the Legat. This was Alexander de Medicis Cardinal and Archbishop of Florence a Prelat who coming into France with a Pacifique Spirit appeared as much an Enemy to all hot-headed Zealots as a true lover of Peace and the good of this Kingdom For the other two points the King could find no way more ready or effectual then to call a great Assembly of all the Kingdom but it was only of Notables chosen out of the Grandees Prelats and Officers of Justice and of the Finances or Treasury for that of the General Estates would have been too delatory and tedious and then as month November much as the wisest Politicians have otherwhile loved them so much the Princes of these latter times did dread them This meeting was held in the great Hall of the Abby St. Ouin at Rouen The King began the first Session on the Fourth of November with a Speech that was Pathetick Concise and Sententious in which they were over-joy'd to hear these Expressions truly worthy and becomming a good King whatever motive put them into his Mouth That he had not called them thither to follow him blindfold in what he ✚ should desire but to take their Councils to believe them to pursue them in short to put himself under their Tutelage The Chancellor set forth the urgent necessity of Affairs and demanded speedy assistance The Deputies made ready their Papers for the Reformation of the State and upon this occasion the Officers of the Robe and Finances made it appear by their demeanour that their power and interest was going to exceed all other Ranks and Orders as they have done even to these very times Year of our Lord 1596 Many excellent Reiglements were made and they named Commissioners to see them executed who were to undertake it till the meeting of another the like Assembly month December which was to be held at the end of three years All Orders made in such ☜ Assemblies for the publick good turn quickly into Air and nothingness while the Impositions and those Taxes as oppress the Subjects are sure to become permanent and therefore such as were of the Kings Council believing these Commissioners were but so many Spies and Controllers of their Actions did soon elude all their care and diligence herein but did not in the least forget most punctually to put those Orders in execution that were made for the raising of Money to wit the Postponing or to say better retrenching all Officers Wages for a year and the Imposition of a Sol per Liver upon all Merchandize entring into any enclosed Town excepting Wheat The first brought in a present Supply but the second produced much more trouble and difficulty then Money Year of our Lord 1597 Neither King Philips Body or his Mind had vigour enough to follow his swift-footed Fortune or carry the prosperity of his Arms so far as possibly they might have month January c. been in the present conjunctures As he began to languish and decay he desired the short remainder of his days might be free from all ponderous Cares and Troubles and besides he much longed to leave the Low-Countries at least to his dear Daughter Isabella Eugenia since not able after the expence of so many Millions to obtain the Crown of France for her He gave therefore greedy Ear to the Propositions of Accommodation made to him by his Holiness and had given long and favourable Audience to the General of the Cordeliers named Bonaventure de Calatagirone who was come to wait on him on behalf of the Pope He afterwards sent him to the Archduke Albert who made him go into France and from thence he returned again to Flanders So that the Treaty was much advanced when an accident of the greatest astonishment to France interrupted it and brought this Kingdom again into extremity of danger Hernand Teillo Governor of Dourlens who in the Body of a Dwarf had a more then Gigantine courage being well informed of the ill order observed by the Inhabitants of Amiens in the guarding of their Gates for they would admit of no Garison formed an Enterprize upon the Town and having communicated it to the Arch-Dukes Council obtained four thousand Men to put it in execution The Tenth of March a little before Nine in the Morning while all the People were at Church sixteen Soldiers disguised like Peasants and commanded by a Captain named d'Ognane enter the Gate de Montrescut some carrying Nuts others Aples and the Year of our Lord 1597 rest driving a Cart loaden with Straw One of the first lets fall a Bag of Nuts month March purposely untied to amuse the Guard and at the same time the Cart advances upon the Bridge of the second
the War he was gone on too far not to finish the Treaty and sent to his Deputies to conclude it provided they could first obtain the Cessation of Arms for his Allies which had been so earnestly demanded and promised the English that he would not Ratifie it till forty days after his Deputies had Signed it month May. Now they did Sign it the Second day of May and on the Twelfth they put it into the hands of the Legat praying him to keep it secret till the two Months of the Cessation were expired And yet the King made no scruple of publishing it to the Estates of Bretagne telling them he was going into Picardy to carry the Ratification himself In effect he went away with that design having first given the Government of Bretagne to the little Duke of Vendosme upon the surrender of the Duke of Mercoeur his Father in Law but an indisposition befell him on his way which constrained him to return to Paris The Queen of England unable to prevail with him to allow one Month beyond the forty days wrote to him of it with Reproaches and in terms which accused him of unthankfulness The English declaimed most outrageously in the Court of France against his proceeding and made their Complaints come to the Ears of all the Protestant Princes the Hollanders behaved themselves more modestly It was endeavour'd to satisfie both the one and the others with weighty Reason of State and with many examples of the like and they were often-times exhorted to enter into the same Treaty by that Door which was left open for them This seems to have been done only out of good manners for they knew well enough it was not their interest to come in and perhaps some would have been much puzled if they had been persuaded to it However it were the Deputies of the latter sent the King word the term of two Months was too short to Assemble the Estates of all their Provinces and the Queen of England made him understand she would not be divided from them Having as he believed therefore satisfied in every point of that devoir he owed to his Alliance and his Reputation he sent his Ratification to his Deputies about the end of May the date in Blank with order not to fill it up till the Twelfth of June at which time expired the forty days granted to Queen Elizabeth That day month May. the Peace was proclaimed at Vervins and afterwards in all the Cities both of France and the Low-Countries with such lowd Expressions of Mirth and Joy as resounded thorough all the Kingdoms of Europe and gave no less terror to the Turks then content to the greater part of Christians Year of our Lord 1598 month June The same four Lords whom the Arch-Duke gave as Hostages for the restitution of Places viz. Charles de Crouy Duke of Arschot Francis de Mendozze Admiral of Arragon Charles de Ligne Earl of Aremberg Knight of the Golden Fleece and Lewis de Velasco Grand Master of the Ordnance serving as Ambassadors with Richardot and Verreiken brought the Ratification to the King and Witnessed his Swearing to the Treaty in Nostre-Dame the One and twentieth of June there being present on behalf of the Duke of Savoy Gaspard de Geneva Marquiss de Lullins and Reonard Roncas his Secretary of State Reciprocally the Mareschal de Biron Billievre and Sillery did the same for the Arch-Duke at Bruxels the Six and twentieth of the same Month and William de Gadagne Boteon at the Duke of Savoy's who did not Swear it till the Second day of August at Chamberry King Philip the Second Signed the Articles indeed but being prevented by Death could not Swear to them with the same Ceremonies as the rest of the Princes had done This is the Substance of the most Essential Articles The Treaty was concluded conformably and in approbation of that of Cateau-Cambresis of which and the precedent ones nothing was to be innovated but such things as should appear to derogate from this same If any Subject of either of these two Kings should go to serve their Enemies by Sea or Land they should be punished as Infractors and Disturbers of the Publick Peace Such as had been forced out of their Lands Offices and Benefices accompting from the year 1588. should be restored however they should not enter upon any Lands of the Kings without Letters Patents under the Great Seal In case the King of Spain should give the Low-Countries and the Counties of Burgundy and Charolois to the Insanta his Daughter she and her Territories should be comprised in this Treaty without making any new one for that purpose The two Kings should mutually surrender what they had taken the one from the other since the year 1559. viz. the Most Christian King the County of Charolois and the Catholick King the Cities of Calais Ardres Monthulin Dourlens la Capelle and le Catelet in Picardy as also Blavet in Bretagne For security whereof he should give up four Hostages these were the above-named Both the one and the other reserving all his Rights Pretensions and Actions to what he had not renounced but should not pursue or prosecute the same but only by way of amity and Justice This had regard to Navarre and Year of our Lord 1598 the Dutchy of Burgundy It was likewise said That this Treaty should be Verified month June Published and Registred in the Court of Parliament of Paris Chamber of Accompts and other Parliaments and on the same day in the Grand Council other Councils and Chambre des Comptes of the Low-Countries The Interests of the Duke of Savoy were therein treated in such manner as we have related There was nothing mentioned of the Duke of Florence because he pretended not to be in War and said he had seized on the Islands of Marseilles only for satisfaction of certain Sums of Money owing by the King to him and whereof they had stopp'd or diverted the Assignments Add that d'Ossat was gone to Florence to month May. determine the said difference In effect he did decide it the Ninth day of May upon these Conditions That the Duke should render the Islands of If and Pommegues and might carry thence his Cannon Equipage and Ammunition For which the King should own himself his Debter for Two hundred thousand Crowns That good Assignments should be given him for it and for Security of the said Payment twelve Notables of the French whom himself should nominate Thus were extinguished to the very last Spark not only that Civil War the League had kindled in the Bowels of France but likewise those Firebrands which that Faction had fetched in from other Countries And this Kingdom being now in perfect quiet had no more to do but by gentle degrees endeavour to repair the infinite damage they had suffer'd and to recruit their Strength and Forces half consumed by so many ghastly Wounds and so great an effusion of their best Blood The first discharge
knew of it but then defended himself so poorly that they had just cause at least to accuse him of Cowardize The Duke of Savoy believed he might sleep quietly upon the Security of this Fortress and that of Montmelian They were both accounted impregnable the one because it was very regular the other for its odd situation for it stood upon a lofty Rock very steep on every side with Bastions not Mine-able a Fosse or dry Ditch hewn out of the quick Stone the Ground about it the same and cover'd with pointed Mountains which seemed accessible to none but the winged Inhabitants of the Air so that it was thought impossible either to make any Trenches or to raise Batteries This place was really well enough furnished but the Governor who was the Marquiss de Brandis of the House de Montmajor wanted Resolution The other on the contrary wanted almost every thing especially Provisions but in recompence was provided with a Commander who was very brave and resolved to all Extremities They called him the Chevalier de Bouvens Year of our Lord 1600 The taking of the City of Bourg was followed with all those of Bresse and the Country of Bugey Grillon with a Party of the Regiment of Guards seized on the Suburbs of Chambery The King going thither in Person the Count de Jacob month August who Commanded in the City capitulated to Surrender within Three days if it were not relieved The fear of being Plundred obliged the Inhabitants to anticipate the said term and open their Gates the very next day Miolans and Conflans made little resistance the Floods of Rain and difficulty of carrying their great Guns in a Country scarce passable for Carts defended that of Charbonnieres near Fifteen dayes But as soon as their Cannon had batter'd it in a place which seemed a Rock and was not so it was taken by assault the Nineteenth month Septemb. day of September After this Success Lesdiguieres push'd directly to Sainct John de Maurienne made himself Master of all that Valley to the foot of Mount Cenis Then entring into Tarantaise made them bring him the Keys of Briancon Monstiers and Sainct Jaquemont The report of these so sudden Conquests extreamly astonished the Pope The Spanish Ambassador solicited him most instantly that he would interpose his Authority to stop the King's Progress both these apprehended almost equally not the Ruin of the Duke of Savoy but that the French should have Passage to enter into Italy The Pope was therefore over-persuaded to send his Nephew the Cardinal Aldobrandin to the King in the quality of Legate with order to use all possible means to procure an accommodation It was much wondred at in the mean while that the Duke of Savoy did not go about to resist so Puissant an Enemy but on the contrary past his time at Turin in Dancing and making Love as if he had rested in the bosom of a profound Peace We cannot tell whether he relyed on the intercession of the Pope assistance from Spain the effect of some great Conspiracy or the event of some vain Predictions which assured him That in the Month of September there should be no King in France which proved true for he was then in Savoy Now when he found that all these failed him that the Citadel of Bourg was invested that of Montmelian formally Besieged and the Fort Sainct Catherine block'd up he began to awaken and draw his Forces together He promised himself that the Citadel of Montmelian would hold out at least Six Months believing the Heart of Brandis as well fortified as the place In effect that Marquiss did at first triumph in words as imagining they could raise no Batteries to Attaque him But when Rosny had found the way to plant them in four or five places for what cannot Money Ingenuity and Labour bring to pass his Bravery sunk on a sudden He permitted his Wife to hold Conversation with the Wife of Rosny and his Fears encreasing every hour he capitulated the month October Fourteenth of October to Surrender the Place upon the Sixteenth of November if it were not relieved within that time Upon which Design the Duke parted from Turin with Ten thousand Foot Four thousand five hundred Arquebusiers on Horseback and Eight hundred Maisires month October passed by the Valley of Aouste and along the little Sainct Bernard then came and encamped at Aixme The King went to meet him as far as Monstiers and had fought him but for the great Snow which fell in the Night and made a Barricade betwixt the two Armies The Duke needed but have made a Diversion towards Provence But Four thousand Spaniards lent him by Fuentes refused to go any further than Sainct Bernards and Albigny Lieutenant General of the Duke's Army had much ado to make them stay there to guard that Passage Mean time the timidity of Brandis had so infected the Courage of his Soldiers that there was no Spirit left amongst them For some out of fear did precipitate themselves from the Rocks to escape and the rest could scarce endure to stand under their own Arms and wanted even the Confidence to fire upon the Enemy Nay more Having suffer'd the French by small Parties to enter the Place they were found to be so numerous as to be able to Master them and could have turned them out So that having suffer'd himself to be reduced to this Condition he was forced to anticipate the term of the Capitulation and began to dislodge upon the Ninth day of November month Novemb. In the Place were found Provisions for above Four Months Thirty Pieces of Cannon mounted and Amunition enough for Eight thousand shot He talked a long time with the King in the Cloister belonging to the Dominicans and that same Night treated Rosny and Crequy with a Supper in his own House He afterwards Year of our Lord 1600 retired into France where his Cowardize was opprobrious even amongst the most Cowardly he took Sanctuary at Brandis in Swisserland and some while after was apprehended at Casal and carried Prisoner to Turim The Legate would not stir from Rome till the Ambassador of Spain had promis'd him in Writing the King his Master should agree to such Treaty as he could make and recall his Forces if the Duke proved obstinately contrary Passing by Milan he got the like Writing from the Count de Fuentes and the Duke whom he saw at Turin promised to stand to what he should think convenient His coming did not make the French put up their Swords the King would not see him till he was Master of Montmelian and the Five and twentieth of November coming to Chambery to receive him he refused to hear any thing of an accommodation month Novemb. or a Truce he only permitted the Dukes Deputies these were Francis d'Arconnas Count de Touzaine and René de Lucinge des Alymes Chief Steward of his Houshold should salute him then sent him to confer with Villeroy and at the same instant went
Lord then into a Strangers and an Hereticks The Day come they held a Council in the Town-Hall how to dispose of their Prisoners the wisest were of opinion to keep them as Hostages in case the Duke should have a mind to Besiege their City but the common Rabble and the Widows month Decemb. of those Citizens that had been Slain in the Attaque made such Out-cries that they resolved to treat them as Robbers They therefore Strangled those that were alive then cut off the Heads of them and Threescore more that were dead planted them upon the Walls and cast their Bodies into the Rhosne They make mention of a Damoisselle Wife of Sonnas one of the said Thirteen Officers that had Seven Children by him and was great with the Eighth who having resolved neither to eat nor drink till she had once more kissed her dear Husband and the Magistrates having refused to let her have his Head she sat her self just opposite to the place where they had planted it and kept her Eyes ever fixt upon that dismal Object of her Love and her Dispair till Death deprived her both of her Sight and Life It hapned after some good distance of time that Blondel Syndic of the Guards was accused by certain Persons of having had intelligence with Albigny but they being of the Scum of the People his Authority was enough alone to invalidate their Testimony so that the Business had rested there if himself to his Misfortune had not push'd it on too far by contending to have them punished as Calumniators The necessity of a Self defence drove them to search out for Proofs They alledged that he had sent Letters to d'Albigny by a Savoyard Peasant The difficulty was to meet with this Fellow three years were spent before they could get a sight of him so soon as he appeared Blondel made him Prisoner and had put him down into a Dungeon He thought by his very rough handling to force him to be willing to â—leer him But finding he persisted in the Truth he suborn'd the Goaler who strangled him in the Dungeon and left the Rope about his Neck as if the poor wretch had exercised that Cruelty upon himself The truth of the Fact being discover'd by Inspection of the Place and Circumstances Blondel and the Goaler were broke upon the Wheel The first before he died owning his Correspondence with the Savoyards Year of our Lord 1603 The News of this Enterprize being carried into Swisserland and France the month January February c. Canton of Bearn immediately concern'd themselves for the defence of Geneva the King assured them of his Protection and a Thousand or Twelve hundred Huguenots put themselves into the Place to defend it in case it were attaqued This People turbulent and proud of the Support of the Protestants and that of France gave themselves up to their resentments and began a War against the Duke of Savoy but with much more Fury than either Force or Success Now the King Year of our Lord 1603 whatever kindness he bare to Geneva had an interest to make up an Accommodation For if it went farther he knew himself obliged to assist the Huguenots and joyn all the Protestant Party together which would mightily have shock'd the Pope whom he more dreaded than all the Powers upon Earth For this reason he gave Order to Emery de Vic his Ambassador with the Swiss to come to Geneva and dispose them to Peace and at the same time declared to the Duke of Savoy who armed to Besiege that City that if he proceeded any further he must concern himself The consideration and weight of so great a Power put a full stop to their Motions on either hand and brought them to a Peace The Cantons of Glaris Soleure Scaffhaussâ—n Basil and Appenzel the least interessed of the Thirteen undertook to manage it It was first begun at Remilly and finished at Saint Julian's near Geneva the One and twentieth of July and ratified by the Duke the Five and twentieth The Treaty contained That they should mutually restore the Places which had been taken That the Immunities and Exemptions which those of Geneva enjoy'd for what they Possessed in the Territories of the Duke should be Confirmed That the Duke should not draw any Forces together raise any Fortifications nor keep any Garrisons within four Leagues of their City and that it was declared to be comprized in the Treaty of Vervins The Court passed the Winter after their wonted manner Dancing Gaming Feasts Balls and Comedies especially those of the Italians were their daily Divertisements In the beginning of March the King took a journey to Mets month January and February carrying the Queen along with him who on the two and twentieth of the preceding November was delivered of her first Daughter The chief Motive of this Voyage was to discover what practices the Duke of Bouillon might possibly have contrived with the Protestants of Germany and secure the City of Mets which being at that time in great combustion might have sided with some other month March Party The Duke of Espernon having been settled in that important Government by King Henry III. had left the Lieutenancy both of that City and Country in the hands of a Gentleman named Mont-Cassin his Kinsman and that of the Citadel to Sobole of the House of Cominges who had been bred as his Page Soon after having recalled Mont-Cassin near his person he bestowed both those employments on the second he invited a younger Brother to come into that Country a man violent and covetous and who soon gained the full sway over him Now the Elder Sobole having brought some assistance to the King at the Siege of Laon got of him as the reward for his Services the promise of these Lieutenancies his Master being then in Provence and in disfavour at Court with this new power playing Rex he begins to treat the Inhabitants scurvily and enraged that the Duke seemed to justifie their complaints and foment their discontents he by the advice of his younger Brother Accused the principal Citizens and Officers of Justice of having intelligence with Mansfeld Governor of Luxembourg upon this Information several were imprison'd and had been put to the Rack But in fine the business being brought before the Parliament their innocency and the calumny of Soboles were cleerly made known Then the Duke makes no difficulty of espousing the quarrel of the oppressed so that they barricade themselves to besiege Soboles in the Citadel This Mutiny proved the loss of the two ingrateful Brothers but the Duke got nothing but the pleasure of a revenge For the King making hast to treat with them pressed it so home that before his Arrival they Surrendred the place into his hands without making the least advantage to themselves He settled Francis de Montigny la Grange Lieutenant for the King over that Country and that City and Arquien his Elder Brother in the Citadel under the Government
not common in France for a long time for King Henry II. was the first who wore Silk Stockings at his Sister's Wedding month June Yet till those Troubles hapned which turned the whole Kingdom upside-down under the Reigns of Charles IX and Henry III. the Courtiers did not use much Silk but after that the very Citizens began to wear it frequently For 't is a most certain Observation that Pride and Luxury does never spread so much as during Publick Calamities For which I can guess at no other reason but that it is a Curse from Heaven which ever comes hand in hand with the Plague of Civil War Now King Henry IV. believing this Manufacture might in like manner be set up at Paris treated with certain Undertakers who Built several places in the Tuilleries the Castle of Madrid and at Fontainebleau to breed Silk-Worms they sending every year into Spain for the Eggs and gave order for the planting great Numbers of white Mullberry-Trees and raising Nurseries of them in all the adjacent Parishes the Leaves of those Trees serving as Pasture for those precious Worms or Catterpillers Year of our Lord 1603 In the year 1599. he had by Edict Prohibited all Foreign Manufactures as well of Silk as Gold Silver pure or mixt at the request of the Merchants of Tours who pretended to make quantities sufficient to furnish the whole Kingdom But as those kind of Establishments accommodate only the Undertakers and incommode all others it was soon found that this Project ruined the City of Lyons which may justly be called the Golden Gate of France destroy'd their Fairs and withal diminished the Customs by one half These Considerations tendred to the King as he was never obstinate to prefer his absolute Authority to evident Reason and Demonstration he made no scruple to revoke it In the Month of June Ferdinand de Velasco Constable of Castille passed thorow France on his way to England to finish that Treaty of Peace with King James which Taxis the Ambassador in Ordinary from Spain had begun I shall here observe that he concluded it about the middle of June in the following year to the great regret of the King of France who knew by this what he was to hope for from King James a Prince heedless and timorous a Philosopher in words yet having nothing but the meen of a Soldier And who withal was not yet so well setled in England as to venture or dare to shock any one of his Neighbours month May June July c. Divers things caused great inquietudes in the King There were some which troubled his Divertisements and others that tended to the disturbance of his Kingdom The Jealousies the Queen his Wife had of his Amours the Malice of his Mistresses especially the Marchioness de Verneuil the heats of the Count de Soissons which many times broke out upon Points of Honor for the most part rather imaginary then real and the Insolency's of the Duke d'Espernon were of the first sort The procedure of the zealous Catholicks who sought by oblique Methods to engage him to ruin the Huguenots as on the opposite the Discontents of the Huguenots who endeavour'd to Cantonize that they might not be taken unprovided were of the second We shall Discourse of the two first Points hereafter As for the Count de Soissons being already much offended for that Rosny had refused to allow him a certain Impost upon Linnen-Cloath which he begg'd of the King the false Reports made to him by the Marchioness of Verneuil push'd him on to such an extremity of resentment that he talked of nothing but to be revenged by the Death of Rosny and although the King did openly enough take part with this last he could never allay the Count's Passion but by obliging Rosny to disown by a Publick Writing what he was accused to have spoken of the Count and offer to fight any Man that durst maintain the contrary The Brave Grillon had suffer'd himself to be persuaded to lay down his Command of Mestre de Camp in the Regiment of Guards the Duke of Espernon Collonel of the French Infantry took it to be his Right to Nominate the King would retrench that Right and had destin'd it for Crequy Son-in-Law to Lesdiguieres Espernon after having made all his efforts by Intrigues and by Remonstrances to maintain his pretended Right retired Male-content to Angoulesme Nevertheless being informed the King threatned to follow him he was advised to submit to his Pleasure When the King saw he acquiesced obediently he did him Justice for he order'd Crequy to wait upon him in that Country to make Oath to him and to take his Attach on his Provisions However he reserved the disposal of that Office and the like in all other the old Bodies but would have them be subject to the same Devoirs towards their Collonel That when two Companies hapned to be vacant in the Regiment he would fill up one by Nomination of the Collonel who should not be installed nor take place but from the day they had given their Oaths to that Officer and taken his Attache That as for the like Officers in other Regiments the Collonel should Nominate and he choose Captains out of those so named and as to the Lieutenants Ensign-Collonels Sergeant-Majors and their Ayds Prevosts Mareschaux de Logis and other Officers he should dispose of such by his sole Authority Which raised his Power above that of Princes and almost in a condition to make Head against the King himself month June In the Council his Ministers animated with Zeal against the Huguenots and too much persuaded of the Spanish Grandeur endeavour'd to divide the King from the Protestants to reduce him to an entire submission to the Pope to bring in the Jesuits and to unite him with Spain and Rome thereby to extirpate Calvinisme from all his Territories Taxis Ambassadour from the Catholick King offer'd Year of our Lord 1603 him all the Forces of Spain for that purpose representing that the Huguenots were the greatest Enemies to his Person and often had sollicited King Philip to help them to dethrone him He was indeed but too well informed that the Chiefs of the Huguenots as Bouillon la Trimouille his Brother in Law Du Plessis-Mornay Lesdiguieres and some Gentlemen that were his Domesticks but had quitted him when he went to Mass and almost all the Protestant Ministers had no more that Love for him which otherwhile they had shown but sighed after some other Protector He could not how-ever resolve to treat those as Enemies who had so tenderly nursed and bred him up and had Sacrificed every thing for his sake and he consider'd withal that if he could have forgot their eminent Services he must thereby have alienated from him all the Protestant Princes and have remained alone exposed to the Mercy of the same Power and Persons that had formed the League which was what they desired He chose therefore rather to restrain the hatred
his full Liberty to continue his Correspondence with the Spaniards that he might discover all their Secrets and give him a true account thereof The King seemed to confide in his Promises soon discover'd that he neither kept Faith with him nor his Enemies but juggled with both Thereupon he Commands him to Court The Count excuses it till he had his full and authentick Pardon they sent it to him but with this Clause That he should come to the King He could not find in his heart to relye upon the word of a Prince whom he had so often deceived so that the King resolved he should be Apprehended month July in Auvergne The Count stood much upon his guard and thought there was no Man in the world able to surprize him being so well fore-warn'd Notwithstanding Nerestan and the Baron of Eurre having inticed him into the Field to be present at the Muster of a Company of Gens-d'armes belonging to the Duke of Vendosme surrounded and dismounted him and took him in such manner month Septemb. c. as is at length related by the Historians of those times At the same time Entragues and his Wife were seized in their House at Malesherbes and the Marchioness in her Hostel at Paris The Count was brought to the Bastille and Entragues to the Conciergerie or Common-Goal of Paris It was necessary that all the world might see and know the Spaniards still maintained Factions in France The King therefore commanded his Parliament to proceed against these Criminals The event we shall shew in the next years Transactions Another Faction also did much discompose the King's Thoughts He could not deny the Hugenots leave to Assemble at Chastelleâ—ant and it was to be feared the Intrigues of the Mareschal de Bouillon and Credit of the Duke de la Trimouille month May. and du Plessis Mornay should put them upon Resolutions contrary to his will and interest But Rhosny under colour of going to take Possession of his Government of Poiton broke their measures And la Trimouille falling into Convulsions and then languishing died some while after Aged not above Four and Thirty years He was a Noble-man of great Courage and of most eminent Qualities Year of our Lord 1604 but not of such as suited with a Monarchick state The King diverted himself amidst all these Intrigues with Buildings and other such like Occupations when his leisure would give him leave as tended to the improvement of his Kingdom King Henry III. had begun the Pont-Neuf having built two Arches and brought the Pyles for the rest above the Water mark Henry IV. finish'd it so that People began to pass over about the end of the preceding year He carried on the Works also of the Louver Galleries the Castles Sainct Germain en Laye Fontainebleau and Monceaux which last he had bestow'd upon his Wife After his Example all the Great and the Rich fell to Building the City of Paris was visibly enlarged and embellished The Hospital Sainct Lewis was Erected for such as were infected with the Plague Some private people undertook the Place or Square Royal and others offer'd to make a much finer one in the Marese du Temple They likewise offer'd at many Projects to make several Rivers Navigable which either had never yet been so of else were now choaked up and to open a Communication between the greatest by means of the lesser lying nearest together with some new Channels where it should be necessary to carry it from the month May. one to the other They proffer'd to joyn the Seine to the Loire the Loire to the Soane and the Garonne with the Aude which falls into the Mediterraneum neer Narbonne The Conjunction of these two last would have made that of the two Seas As for that of the Seine and the Loire Rhosny undertook it drawing a Channel from Briare which lies on the Seine to Chastillon above Montargis upon the River Loin and falls into the Seine at Moret In this Channel they Collected all the Waters of the adjacent Rivolets designing to make Two and thirty Sluces to retain and let them go by flashes when needful to convey their Boats He Expended above Three hundred thousand Crowns but the change of Government made this design to miscarry though very much advanc'd It was a long while after taken up again and compleated at last In the Month of October a new Phenomena was observed in the Heavens which appeared four Months together It was at first taken for the Planet Venus because although it exceeded all the other Stars in Magnitude and Splendour yet had it no Tail but Observation soon found it was different from that Planet for they both appeared at the same time John Kepler a very Learned Mathematician wrote a Treatise of its Motion according to the Rules of Astronomy without troubling himself or the World to no purpose like the Judicial Prognosticators who upon this Apparition and the Conjunctions and Oppositions of some other Planets hapning this year and such as were to happen the year following made as is usual divers strange and terrible Predictions month March c. There was for about two Months an extream Scarcity in Languedoc and which would have caused a horrible Famine had they not been furnished with Wheat from Champagne and Burgundy by the Rivers of Soane and the Rhône The Plague also raged in several Provinces of France the soregoing year it had afforded Death a most plentiful Harvest in England When the Plague was ceased in those Countries King James hold his first Parliament in London to whom having made a Gracious and Royal Speech concerning the happy Union of the two Kingdoms the Affection he had for his Subjects the Laws and Regulations they were to make he desired of his Parliament and they granted it That from thence forward the Kingdoms of England and Scotland should be joyned into one Body under the Denomination of GREAT BRITAIN otherwhile used by the Romans Whereupon was Coined that Medal bearing this Inscription HENRICUS ROSAS REGNA JACOBUS His Speech was full of excellent things amongst others That he did not believe as Flatterers would fain persuade their Princes that God bestowed Kingdoms upon Men to satisfie their unruly Lusts and Pleasures but to take care of the Peace and Welfare of the People That the Head was made for the Body not the Body for the Head The Prince for the People not the People for the Prince month March c. The Subtil Scholiasts have so great an itch to bring every thing into Dispute that some Jesuits moved this year three Questions at Rome which begot great Contentions in Year of our Lord 1604 that Court and greater Scandal thorow-out all Christendom The First That it was not an Article of Faith to believe that Clement VIII was Pope which so enraged the Holy Father as without the Intercession of the Spanish Ambassador the Society had been in great Danger The Second That Sacramental Confession might be made
Surrender till they had no more Earth left to cover themselves When the Spaniards were come in and found the Walls beaten quite down by the Cannon the Earth all torn up with their Mines and nothing remaining but Rubbish and Ruine they were but little satisfied for having bought so dear a little heap of Dust and Sand or rather a place of Burial which cost them above Ten Millions of Money Seventy thousand Men and Three hundred thousand Cannon-Shot not reck'ning the Cities of Rhimbergue Grave Sluce Ardembourg with the Forts of Issendre and Cadsant taken by Count Maurice whil'st they were pelting at this Siege In these times there hapned a not able Change in the Kingdom of Sweden The King Gustavus Eric-son had set up the Confession of Ausburg in the place of the Catholick Religion and bred his two Sons in that Profession namely John who succeeded him and Charles Duke of Sudermania John maintained the same yet notwithstanding whether he were not fully satisfied or were over-persuaded by his Wife Year of our Lord From the year 1602. until the year 1604. who was a Catholick he cansed Sigismond his Eldest Son to be bred up in that Religion Besides this Sigismond he had also another Son named John Sigismond was Elected King of Poland in the year 1587. during the Life of his Father and went into that Country the Second remained in Sweden Now when King John died in Anno 1592. he by Will either real or supposed left the Government of the Kingdom of Sweden to his Brother Charles this Prince making good use of the Assistance of the Lutherans to Exclude his Nephew and get into the Throne himself managed his Design so Prudently that he had the Government of the said Kingdom settled upon him by the Estates Anno 1595. and afterwards obliged them to take the Crown from the Sigismonds Anno 1599. And in fine after a War of some years to place it upon his Head Which was done this year 1604. Sigismond not being ever able to wrest it from him again so that after his Death it descended to the Great Gustavus his Son and to his Heirs Year of our Lord 1605 During the Balls and Mascarades which since the Peace ever began the year month January and February they went on with the Process against the Count d'Auvergne and his Complices with the more diligence because the Queen seemed to be a Party the King not to exasperate her shewed no less heat then she and the Parliament made all the dispatch they possibly could But the intentions of all three were very different for the Queens were to chastize a Mistress of the Kings that hereafter such as succeeded might dread her anger as for the Parliament such as minded Courtship more then to unriddle the hearts of Kings thought they did great service by proceeding with all severity and as for the King he had no mind to disgrace his Mistress for fear of distasting those by whom he expected to be obliged he only desired a thundring Arrest or Decree might pull down that haughty spirit and make her readily submit who of late treated him like a meer stranger and to his enjoyment opposed the fear of God and the prohibitions of her Confessor The Count d'Auvergne was Examined three times the King having given notice to the Parliament by his Attorney-General that they ought to have no regard to his pardon nor that Brevet he had granted him Entragues the Marchioness his Daughter and Morgan were likewise interrogated the Count laid all upon the Marchioness his Sister believing the King could never find in his heart to ruine her he cast all the reproaches on her he possibly could express and she upon him Entragues on the contrary did wholly acquit her and took all upon himself chusing rather to hazard three or four years of a languishing remainder of life for he was above seventy three years of age then to put his dear Daughter in danger of losing her head with ignominy The business was carried on with such heat that the first day of February there was an Arrest or Act which condemned the Count Entragues and month February Morgan to be beheaded in Greve and the Marchioness to be reclused in a Nunnery at Beaumont near Tours till more ample Information concerning her The Queen received much joy yet reaped not all the advantage she expected from this grand Arrest for the King acquainted the Court by his procurer or Sollicitor General that he desired the Sentence might be suspended till he had made a more narrow inspection When therefore he had humbled the haughty Marchioness by so terrible a Decree he began to show favour that he might obtain some from her and caused an instrument to be passed under the Great Seal which was verified in Parliament the three and twentieth of March giving her liberty to month March retire to her house of Vernueil After all this there were some people in Parliament so unacquainted with intrigues of this nature that they importun'd him for leave to pronounce Judgment but he eluded their pursuits by divers delays and at length by other instruments commuted the punishment of the Count and of Entragues to a perpetual imprisonment and then restored them to all their honours and estates though not to their month Septemb. Offices and Commands Soon after he allotted Entragues his house of Malesherbes for his Prison and as for Morgan he only banished him the Kingdom for ever Seven Months being pass'd and no new proofs coming in against the Marchioness for indeed who could have taken the pains to produce any the King gave her a Writing of the sixteenth of December which declared her perfectly innocent and imposed perpetual silence on his Sollicitor General touching that Fact The Count d'Auvergne being the most dangerous was therefore handled the worst they left him in the Bastille where he remained twelve years without any other consolation then what he received from good and ingenious Books the faithful compagnons for all Ages fortunes and places During these amorous intrigues which were managed as grand Affairs of State the King began to engage in affection with Jaquelina de Bueil whom he made Countess of Moret yet nevertheless he soon after recalled the Marchioness whose charming humour and conversation ever seasoned with pleasant railleries and picquant reflexions upon the other Court Ladies did most agreeably divert his mind from the too intense thoughts of his Affairs and vexations caused by the ill humors of his Wife but on the other hand it begot new Brouilleries every hour with her as also frequent punctillio's between the other Lords and Ladies of this Court a Subject much more worthy and fit for a Romance then such a Chronicle but which have occasion'd the most considerable Events in the Court of France since the Reign of Francis I. Year of our Lord 1605 As to the business of Ladies I must note that Queen Margaret having often earnestly desired permission to come
causes him to be degraded after his publick Pennance 127 128 Lothaire King of Italy difference between him and Charles his Brother touching their shares after the death of their Father 134 Reconciliation with Charles his Brother 138 Changes his Imperial Purple for a Friers Frock ib. His Wife and Children ib. Lothaire II. of Lorraine 139 He repudiates Thietberge his Wife to Espouse Valdrade and that made a great deal of noise 140 The said Marriage annull'd and he Excommunicated by the Pope 141 Passes into Italy against the Saracens his death by Divine Punishment 142 His Children ib. Lothaire Son of the King of Italy 179 Lothaire King of France 183 His Marriage with Emma or Emina Daughter of Lothaire King of Italy 187 Enterprize upon Lorraine 188 Repels and chases the Germans out of France where they had made an irruption 189 Repasses into Lorraine Causes his Son Lewis to be Crowned and to Reign with him ib. His death 189 Lothaire Duke of Saxony elected Emperor 238 Lothaire II. Emperor his death 243 Louis of Aquitaine passes into Italy to the assistance of his Brother Pepin 104 Besieges and takes Narbonne and Tortosae 106 c. Louis or Lewis the Debonaire his coming to the Crown 120 Purges the Court of Scandal ib. His Coronation and of the Empress Hermengarde His continual exercises of Piety and Devotion 122 Concerns himself in the reformation of the Clergy and draws upon him the hatred of the Churchmen 122 Associates Lothaire his eldest Son in the Empire and shares for his other Children ib. Severely punishes the King of Italy his Nephew who had conspired against his Person and his Complices 122 123 Causes all his Bastard Brothers to be shaved ib. Reduces Bretagne to a Dutchy ib. Marries a second Wife after the death of Hermengarde ib. Marries all his Sons 124 Subdues the Bretons ib. Gives occasion of discontent to his Children who conspire against him and shut him up Prisoner in the Abby St. Medard of Soissons 125 c. Does publick Pennance and is degraded 126 c. Is re-established in his Royal Throne 128 Divides again his Estates of France Eastern and Western 129 His death his Wives his Children 130 Of his great care in regulating all that concerned the advantage and administration of the Church the discipline of the Clergy c. 170 Louis Son of Lewis the Debonaire is made King of Bavaria 122 Louis King of Bavaria embraces the Cause of his Father Lewis the Debonaire afterwards turns against him 126 Louis Emperor King of Italy 138 Louis the Germanick usurps Neustria upon his Brother Charles 139 Divides Lorraine with him 142 Troubled and disquieted by his Children 144 His death ib. Louis the Emperor and King of Italy despised by his Subjects 138 Makes a League with Lewis the Germanick against Charles the Bald. 139 Difference about Lorraine 143 Is despised of his Subjects ib. His death 144 Louis the Stammerer Emperor and King of Neustria or West France Aquitain and Burgundy 148 Is Crowned Emperor by Pope John ib. His death 149 Louis III. and Carloman his Brother Kings of West France Burgundy and Aquitain 148 c. Death of Lewis 152 Louis Son of Boson seizes upon Provence 156 c. Louis Son of Arnold Emperor of Germany and King of Lorraine 162 His death 163 Louis the Blind King of Provence 170 Louis IV. called Transmarine is recalled from England owned and Crowned King of France 175 6 Abandoned of all his Subjects in Neustria is constrained to save his life by a shameful flight 177 Makes a Peace and is reconciled to his Subjects 179 Seizes Richard Duke of Normandy ib. His precipitate revenge draws great difficulties upon him 178 Is carried Prisoner to Rouen ib. Is restored to liberty 179 Brouilleries in France 180 c. Is reconciled with Hugh le Blanc and they make Peace together 181 His death ib. Louis King of Aquitain chastises the Revolt of the Gascons 110 Associated to the Empire and declared Emperor by Charlemain his Father 111 Louis King of France called the idle or Lazy Marries a Princess of Aquitain named Blanch. 198 His death ib. Louis called the Gross Son of King Philip designed King takes up the Government of Affairs 226 Passes into England 227 Betrothed to Luciane Daughter of Guy de Rochefort 227 His pretended Marriage with Luciana broken by the Pope ib. Quarrels and brouilleries with his Subjects 234 Defeats the English in Battle about Gisors 35 Renewing of the War between those two Princes 236 Strongly opposes the Emperors Efforts who would needs be revenged because he had protected Pope Calixtus II. 236 c. Reduces the Count d'Auvergne to reason 238 Revenges the Parricide committed on the Person of the Earl of Flanders 239 Causes his Son Philip to be Crown'd ib. Becomes an Enemy to the Clergy his Subjects and is Excommunicated 239 c. His death his Wives his Children 241 Lewis the Young Crowned in the life time of his Father Lewis the Gross 240 Louis the Young he Marries Alienor Daughter of the Duke of Aquitaine ib. Establishes Justice and secures the publick safety 242 Is Excommunicated and his Kingdom put under an interdiction by the Pope 243 Receives Pope Eugenius into France 244 Takes the Cross and goes into the Holy Land ib. His return into France 245 Repudiates Queen Alienor and Marries the Daughter of Alphonso VII King of Castille 243 Goes to St. Jago in Gallicia out of Devotion 246 Difference with Henry King of England for the County of Touloze 248 He makes Alliance by Marriage with the House of Champagne 249 Suppresses the disorders of his Kingdom ib. Enters into War again with the King of England their Reconciliation ib. Takes the protection of the King of England's Children against their Father 250 Passes over into England and goes to visit the Tomb of St. Thomas of Canterbury ib. His death his Wives his Children 251 Louis VIII King of France his Birth 254 Parlies with the Emperor Federic II. 266 His Coronation at Reims 295 Enterview with Henry Son of the Emperor Federic 295 Crosses himself against the Albigenses and makes War upon them in Person 296 His death his Wife and his Children 296 297 St. Louis King of France his Coronation 298 Great disturbances in the State at the beginning of his Reign ib. c. He Vowes to make War against the Infidels 303 Voyage to the Holy Land 304 c. His Army entirely defeated and he made Prisoner of War by the Infidels 305 Is set at liberty with all the rest of the French Prisoners 306 Whether it be true he gave a Consecrated Wafer as a pawn for his Word 305 He visits the Holy Places in the Holy Land 307 His return into France ib. He entertains the King of England magnificently ib. Regulates his Kingdom by good Laws and exercises himself in good Works 308 Endeavours to accommodate Affairs between the Barons and their King Henry 309 Undertakes a new Crosade for relief of
Wife and Marries Bertrade 223 Is Excommunicated because of this new Marriage by the Bishops by the Pope and by a Council at Poitiers ib. Braved by the Lord de Montlehery ib. In fine obtains a dispensation in the Court of Rome is absolved and his Marriage is confirmed 226 His death his Wives and Children 227 Philip Brother of King Lewis the Gross sides with the discontented Party 2â—5 Philip Augustus King of France his Birth 249 His Coronation 250 His Marriage with Isabella Alix 251 He begins his Reign and Government with Piety and Justice 252 He withdraws Vermandois from the hands of the Earl of Flanders 252 He sends succours to the Holy Land and causes the Croisade to be preached 253 Difference between him and the King of England 254 Takes the Cross on him with the King of England for the recovery of the Holy Land 255 Gives chace to the King of England who was entred upon France ib. His Voyage to the Holy Land Order for the Regency of his Son and Kingdom during his absence ib. Difference intervened between him and Richard King of England 256 Takes the City of Acre or Ptolemais ib. Falls sick and returns into France 257 Withdraws the County of Artois from the hands of the Earl of Flanders ib. Declares War against the King of England 258 Repudiates Isemberge his Wife then takes her again ib. Reconciles himself with John King of England 259 Endeavours to accustom the Ecclesiasticks to furnish him with Subsidies 261 Conquers all the Territories of King John which held of the Crown 261 c. Philip the Fair King of France Marries the Queen of Navarre 320 Is Crowned at Reims 322 Accommodates and makes Peace with the Castillian 323 Causes search to be made amongst the Banquers 324 Opposes the designs of the King of England for the subjecting of Scotland and recovering the Cities in Guyenne 325 Is offended with Pope Boniface 326 A great Conspiracy against him 326 Makes War in Flanders his progress 327 c. Confers with the Emperor Albertus 328 Enters into a quarrel with the Pope and hinders the French Prelats from going to Rome whither the Pope sent for them 329 Is Excommunicated by the Pope ib. Takes up Arms to chastize the Rebellion of the Flemings 330 Treats a Peace with the English ib. Makes a Voyage into Guyenne and Languedoc 331 Fore-arms himself against the Bâ—lls of Bâ—niface ib. Assists at the Coronation of Pope Clement at Lyons 332 Appears at the General Council of Vienne in Daufine ib. Undertakes War against the Flemings His three Sons Wives accused of Adultery His death his Wives and Children 336 Philip of Alsace Earl of Flanders his death 257 Philip of Dreux Bishop of Beauvais is held Prisoner 258 Philip Earl of Boulogne 299 Philip Emperor assassinated 264 Philip the Hardy King of France 314 Returns from Afric into France ib. He Arms against the King of Castille in favour of the Princes of Navarre his Nephews 316 Takes up Arms and passes the Pyrenean Mountains against the King of Arragon 320 His death his Wives and his Children 321 Philip the Long espouses Jane of Burgundy 324 Philip d'Euvreux 348 Philip the Long King of France 347 His Wife accused of Adultery 336 Brouilleries in the State 348 His death his Children 349 Philip de Valois passes into Italy against the Gibbelins 348 Philippa Daughter of the Earl of Hainault 352 Peter Son of King Lewis the Gross chief of the House of Courtenay 241 Peter Duke of Bretagne takes Arms against the King 296 Surnamed Mauclerc or Illiterate or Witless 300 His death 301 Peter Earl of Alencon 312 Peter Earl of Arragon Crowned King of Sicilia 317 A villanous and shameful slight 320 Is Excommunicated and degraded by the Pope ib. His death 321 Peter Abbot of Cane refuses the Miter 270 Planet Mars not visible in a whole year 105 Plectrude Widow of Pepin intrudes into the whole Government of France 78 She is constrained to quit the Government to Charles Martel 79 Poissy Gerard Financier 254 Politicks Hereticks 276 Poland honour'd with the Title of a Kingdom 209 Ponce Abbot of Clugny by his Debauches loses the Reputation of his Order 279 Papeliâ—ans Hereticks their Forces and Erâ—ors 276 Popes of the Fourth Age. 5 Popes when they began to change names at their creation 136 Memorable example of their Soveraign power and of an extream severity 209 Of their Elections 247 Have a right to exhort not to command the Kings of France 326 Acts of Temporal Soveraignty they assumed on all occasions during the Thirteenth Age. 337 They would raise themselves above all Soveraigns 293 Gilbert Porct Bishop of Poitiers condemned 289 Port-Royal its foundation 83 Portugal of a Dutchy made a Kingdom 243 Pragmatick of St. Lewis 312 Pretextat Archbishop of Rouen 32 Restored to his See and assassinated 38 Prior of the Monastery of Gristan his History 288 Primacy of the Church of Lyons over the four Lyonnoises 232 Prince that oppresses his Subjects is easily abandonned by them 45 Prince dispoiled of his Estate because of his ill Conduct 161 Priviledges of Monks 282 Bring a Scandal to the Church Buy it off dearly at Rome ib. Prodigy unheard of of Snakes and other Serpents who fought most obstinately 2â—8 Protade Maire of the Palace 43 Provenceaux rise against their Earl and Lord. 301 Provisions of the Pope 236 Petro Brusians Hereticks 276 Puisset Hugh 235 Q. Quarrel between Thierry and Boson 146 Quarrel for the Archbishoprick of Reims 177 c. Quarrel and hatred of the â—arls of Charâ—res and Flanders against the Normans 186 Quarrel famous between the Pope and the Emperors 223 Quarrel between Robert Duke of Normandy and Henry his younger Brother for the Kingdom of England 226 Quarrel of the Popes with the Emperor Henry IV. 227 c. Quarrel between the Bishops and the Monks for the Tenths 228 Quarrel between the Emperor and the Pope for the investiture of Bishopricks 236 Quarrel between the Secular Doctors of Theology and the Orders of Religious Mendicants 307 Quarrel of the Count d'Armagnac and the Lord de Casaubon 315 Quarrel bloody and long for the Succession of the Crown of Scotland 323 Quarrels Little particular Riots do often produce very great Quarrels 325 Qâ—iâ—alet Bishoprick transfer'd to St. Malo's Church of the Twelfth Century R. Rabanus Maurus Archbishop of Ments 173 Race Carolovinian and the end of it Causes of its ruine 198 199 Rachis King of the Lombards turns Monk 91 Leaves his Monastery whither he is forced to return again Radbod King of the Frisians 72 Radegonda Sainct 22 Raillery that cost very dear 222 Raimond Earl of Tolose principal Favourer of the Hereticks in Languedoc is Excommunicated 264 Reconciles himself to the Church 295 Is brought to reason 299 Raimond Earl of Toloze pretends to be Lord of the Marsellois c. 300 Raimond Prince of Antioch Rainfroy Maire of the Neustrians 79 His death 81 Rambold of Orange 224 Ranulf Duke of Aquitaine
English into Normandy 374 Philip Duke of Burgundy Son of John undertakes to revenge the Death of his Father 438 Seeds of Division between him and the English 440 He joyns to Flanders and Artois several other Counties and Lordships 450 He takes in second Marriage the Princess of Portugal 452 Institutes the Order of the Golden Fleece ib. He withdraws from the English and makes his Peace with the King of France 454 Besieges Calais upon the English in vain 456 Philip of Savoy is kept Prisoner 483 Philip the Good Duke of Burgundy his Death 488 Philip of Spain armes Powerfully against France 646 Enters himself upon Picardy 647 Philip of Spain Marries the Queen of England Recalled from England by the Emperour Charles V. his Father 966 Pius II. Pope his Design to make a War against the Turks without effect 467 Pius II. endeavours to extend the Power of the Popes beyond the bounds of all right and reason 482 Pisa shakes off the yoake of the Florentines 520 Pisseleu Anne Dutchess of Estampes 583 Diana of Poitiers Mistriss of Henry the Daufin afterwards King of France 622 623 Pompadour Geffrey Bishop of Periguex 511 Poncher Stephen Bishop of Paris 545 The Portuguese discover great Countries and Sail to the Indies 439 Posts and Couriers established 501 Poyet Chancellour of France deprived of his Office His death 610 Pragmatique abolished by a Declaration of the Kings that had no effect for the opposition it met with 482. 488 Set up by the Gallicane Church 526 Suppressed 526 Abolished by King Francis I. 560 The Praguerie a dangerous Commotion 457 Du Prat Chancellor Archbishop of Sens assembles a Provincial Council 590 Ant. du Prat Cardinal Archbishop of Sens His Death 599 The Provost of Paris Massacred 378 Protestant Princes of Germany and of their great Forces 620 Are vanquished 624 Protestants of Germany when and wherefore so named See Luther Protestants of Merindol and Cabrieres Massacred 618. 629 Provence parted in two 368 Psalter of the Virgin 539 Q QUarrel which arose between the Duke of Burgundy and the Duke of Bedford 449 Question about Property or Propriety makes a great debate and noise and ended with Fire and Faggot 443 R Giles de RAiz Mareschal of France Condemned to be Burnt alive 458 Rance de Cere General of an Army for the King at Naples 585 The C. de Rangon General of an Army in Italy 604 Ravenna taken and Burnt by the French 550 Rebellion severely chastised 609 Reconciliation of King Lewis XI with his Brother 491. Betwixt the Houses of Orleance and of Burgundy 458 c. Registers Baptisteries Religion Catholique abolished in England 626 Religionaries assemble by Night at Paris and are severely Punished 647 Peter Remi Sieur de Montigni Financier Drawn and Hanged 358 René of Anjou succeeds not in his Enterprize upon Naples 467 René Duke of Lorraine 496 Inconstant and variable ib. Is dispoiled of his Dutchy of Lorraine 497 Is amongst the Swiss and the Germans at the Battle of Morat 498 Is called to Naples to take that Crown 514 Rhodes Besieged by the Turks but bravely defended 503 Besieged and taken by the Turks 572 Richard II. Surnamed of Bourdeaux King of England 394 He and his Uncles Lancaster and Glocester have mortal jealousies of one another 416 He is made Prisoner Degraded and Deposed and Condemned to a perpetual Imprisonment 418 His Death Richard Duke of York excites a Civil War in England 464 Richard Duke of Glocester seizes tyrannically upon the Crown of England 504 505 Richmond Arthur Earl Connestable of France 448 c. Connestable and Duke of Bretagne His Death 466 Rincon Ambassadour of France assassinated 612 Robert the Wise King of Naples His Death 364 Rochefort William Chancellour of France 408 Rochell quits the English and returns to the Obedience of the King of France 391 Rome in great Trouble for the Election of two Popes 396 Attaqued taken by Assault Pillaged and ravaged by the Imperialists 585 586. Of the Rosarie 539 Rouen Besieged and taken by the English 437 Quits the English and returns under the obedience of the King of France 465 Roussillon sold to the King 482 Roussillon and Cerdagne rendred to Ferdinand 517 Rupture between France and the Empire 646 S SAcramentaries write against the Holy Sacrament 598 Eustace de Saint Peter a Burgher of Calais his Heroick Generosity to save his fellow Citizens 367 Saints or holy Persons living during the Fourteenth Age. 445 Salisbury E. Besieges Orleans 451 Lands in Bretagne 454 Salusses Marquiss Commands the King of France's Army in Italy 541 Commands the Army before Naples after the Death of Lautrec 590 Savoy erected to a Dutchy 433 Secret Women uncapable of Secresie 617 Secretaries the Kings Secretaries encreased 640 Sepus John King of Hungary in part 611 Sforza Ludowic surnamed the Moore was the principal Motive that determin'd King Charles IX to the Conquest of Naples 518 Seizes tyrannically upon the Milanois 520 c. Leagues with the Venetians and the Pope against the French 523 Treats with the King of France without executing any one Article of the Treaty agreed upon 523 Ludowic Sforza stripp'd of all his Estates takes refuge in Germany 534 His unhappy end 535 Sigismond Emperour comes to Paris 433 Sixtus IV. Pope solicites the Princes to Unite against the Turks 493 Solyman gets the best part of Hungary and lays Siege to Vienna in Austria 562 Attaques Hungary by Land and sends relief to the King 614 Seizes on Transilvania 630 Duke of Somerset Regent or Protector of England 626 Divisions between him and the Earl of Warwick 628 Agnes Soreau or Sorel Mistriss to King Charles VII 460 Stuard Robert King of Scotland 390 Suffolck Jane designed by King Edward and after his Death Proclaimed and received Queen of England 636 Made Prisoner 637 Swiss beat and utterly defeat the Burgundians in divers Battles 498 c. Refuse to engage against the French in Milan 535 Seize upon Bellinzonne ib. Devote themselves to the Pope against France 547 Beat and drive the French from before Novare 552 Enter into the Dutchy of Burgundy and Besiege Dijon 552 League with the Pope the Emperour the Arragonian and others against France for defence of the Milanese 557 George de Sully 522 T TAlbot a brave Soldier His death 464 Talmont Prince slain in the Battle of Marignan 559 Tamberlan 412 Toledo Peter Vice-Roy of Naples his Death 639 County of Tolosa united inseparably to the Crown 381 John Duke of Touraine Son of Charles VI. declares against the Armagnac's 433 His Death 434 Treaty of Marriage between the King of England Catherine of France Daughter of King Charles VI. 439 Treaty of Alliance between France and the Empire 542 Treaty of Madrid for the Liberty of Francis I. and for a Peace between the said Prince and the Emperour 582 Treaty of Peace between France and England 628 Transilvania invaded by the Turks 630 Truce between the French and English 415 416. Turks and
their Progress in Europe 412 Make a great Progress 562 Ravage the Island of Corfu Raise the Siege of Belgrade 606 Turelupines Heretiques 445 V VAlentinois and Diois United to Daufiné 460 Valentine of Milan Marries the Duke of Orleans 412 Vaudemont Commands the Naval Force for the King at Naples 585 His Death 590 Vaudois in the Alps exterminated Venceslaus Emperour King of Bohemia comes into France 417 Is degraded of the Empire 418 Venetians jealous of the glorious Success of the French in Italy make a League against them 521 Conquer a part of the Dutchy of Milan 536 Their irregular Ambition draws the French Arms upon them as also the Emperour and the Pope and are roughly handled 545 Their Affairs re-settled 546 Shut up the Passage into Italy against the Emperour Maximilian 544 c. Agree with France 552 John de Vienne Admiral of France Lands in Scotland against the English 408 Goes into Hungary against the Turks 417 La Vigne Ambassador of France at Constantinople 644 Villeroy Secretary of State 623 De Villers-Adam Burgundian is by Night introduced into Paris and makes himself Master of it 435 436 P. de Villers L'Isle-Adam Great-Maistre of the Knights of Rhodes 573 University of Paris and its Priviledges 413 Endeavour to determine the Schisme that was in the Church 414 A mark of their Power 420 Their continual pursuits for the re-union of the Church 422 Hinder the Abolition of the Pragmatique 482 Its Reformation 506 Vrban V. Pope ransomed by the Forces that were going into Spain 389 His Death 391 Vrban VI. Pope 396 Baseness and meanness 402 To revenge himself of Jane Queen of Naples he causes Charles de Duras to go thither and take Possession of that Kingdom 404 Sounds a War on all hands against the Clementines 407 His Death 414 Francis Maria Duke of Vrbin 570 The D. of Vrbin General of the Venetian Army 584 Commands the Confederate Army in Italy 591 D'Vrfé Grand Escuyer 508 The Earl of Warwick chaces Edward of York King of England 492 His Death 493 Dukes of Wirtemberg restored to their Countrey 597 Wirtemberg Duke General of an Army 605 Wickliffe X JOhn Xancoins Receiver General convicted of Misdemeanour 466 Y The D. of York Slain in Battle 467 Z John de ZApols pretended King of Hungary calls in the Turks to his Assistance 562 Zizim Son of Mahomet Prisoner to the Knights of Rhodes 503 Is put into the hands of Pope Innocent VIII 515 Zuinglius begins to Vend his Opinions Doctrines and Errors 563 A TABLE OF THE KINGS OF FRANCE Contained in this THIRD PART FRANCIS II. King LIX Page 657 1559. In July CHARLES IX King LX. 673 1560. In December INTERREGNVM 731 1574. In June HENRY III. King LXI 737 1574. In September HENRY IV. King LXII 797 1589. In August A TABLE Of the Principal Matters contained in this THIRD PART A ABbey of Saint Peter sacked Pag. 817 Abbeville sets up the Ensigns of the League 788 Submits to the King 839 Azores faithful to the Prior of Crato 753 Aiguesmortes surprized by Montbrun 728 Aiguillon taken by the Huguenots 709 Aix for the League 744 John d'Alargon de Merargues his Treachery 920 Alba-Royal taken by the Christians 886 Arch-Duke Albert of Austria 854 Takes Calais 855 And Ardres ib. d'Albret Jane Queen of Navarre Aldobrandius makes a Faction 915 Alfonso II. Duke of Ferrara 861 Alenson Duke courts Queen Elizabeth of England 722 Favours the Hereticks 725 Demands the general Lieutenancy of the Army 's 727 The King refuses him ib. Is the only hopes of the Huguenots ib. Escapes and gets to Dreux 741 Makes his Peace 743 Comes to Court 744 Takes the Title of Duke of Anjou Subject of his Animosity against the Huguenots 744 Besieges and takes la Charité 748 The King not willing he should concern himself in the business of the Low-Countries causes him to be secur'd he escapes 751 Comes to Anger 's and from thence to Mons in Hainault where he takes the Low-Countries into his Protection ib. Takes places for his Security ib. Besieges Bins and beats it so furiously that he takes it ib. Maubeuge opens her Gates to him ib. Quesnoy and Landrecy refuse him entrance ib. Alenson resents not the fury of the Saint Bartholomew Pag. 721 l'Allemand Vouzé Master of Requests discovers the Conspiracy of Amboise 665 Alost surprized by the Duke of Anjou 762 Ambassadour of France goes before him of Spain 685 Ambassadours of Poland their arrival to Congratulate their new King 725 Amnistie general granted to the Huguenots 688 Amnistie granted to the Parisians by Henry IV. 834 Amurath III. Sultan 876 Angoulesme seized by the Huguenots 680 Anjou Duke made General of the Armies 698 Fights the Battle of Jarnac 704 Raises the Siege of Poitiers 712 Fights the Battle of Moncontour 721 Excites his Brother to Massacre the Huguenots 717 Is elected King of Poland 725 Is much beloved there at first but soon after hated 726 Anthony King of Navarre 657 Unworthily used 659 Commands an Army for the King 683 Wounded at the Siege of Rouen his Death ib. Anthony Prior of Crato declares himself King of Portugal Comes into France 753 Antwerp taken and sacked by the Spanish Soldiers 751 Missed by the Duke of Anjou 763 Ardemburgh taken by the Hollanders 913 Arras the place where the Duke of Parma died 827 Arrest or Decree of Parliament in favour of Henry IV. 831 Arrest annulling all the Arrests or Decrees made against Henry IV. 838 Arrest or Sentence against Biron 896 Articles of Pacification granted to Rochel by the Duke of Anjou 725 Articles of the Treaty between Henry IV. and the Duke of Savoy 887 Assemblies Nocturnal and Clandestin of the Religionaries forbidden 661 Assembly of the Grandees of the Kingdom at Fountaâ—nbleau to remedy the troubles caused by the differences in Religion 666 Assembly of the Huguenots at Millaud 732 Assembly of the Notables at Compeigne 726 Assembly of the Clergy of France Church 16 th Age. Ast rendred to the Duke of Savoy 675 Aumale Duke Commands the King's Armies in Normandy 682 Austria Don Juan going to the Low-Countries passes thorow France 744 Is Governor thereof 751 Approves of the Pacification of Ghent ib. Gains the Battle of Gemblours 752 His death ib. Suspected to have been Poisoned by his Brother the King of Spain 752 Auvergne redeems themselves from being Plundred by the Germans 742 Auvergne partly debauched from the Service of the King 791 Count d'Auvergne apprehended 914 His long Imprisonment 915 B BAligny natural Son of the Bishop of Valence disposes the Polanders to elect the Duke of Anjou for their King 724. Balagny advises the War against the Spaniard 842 Loses Cambray 849 Balsac Frances Entragues Married with a Natural Daughter of Charles IX 730 Baronius an ardent defender of his Holiness 926 Bellarmine a defender of his Holiness 926 Serves Henry IV. 849 Barry Georges la Renaudie Deputy for the Huguenots 665 Is made Lieutenant to the Prince of Condé ib.