Satan and of the Tempter It is impossible to purge Courts from these plagues they insinuate maugre the utmost endeavours into the Palaces of great ones they render themselves agreeable by new divertisements gain the ear by flattering prayses by pleasant and well-devised Fables and Stories and when they have gained their entrance they make their venome slide into the heart and impoison the souls of the most innocent Our Henry though so great a Prince as he was had these people near him who knowing his weakness as to women in stead of fortifying him against it and restraining him like true friends they spurred him as it were forward in his wickedness and made their fortunes from his faults It was these who by commending the Beauties the Carriage the Spirit and the divertizing and pleasant discourse of Madamoiselle d' Entragues made him first have a desire to see and to love her They could never have done a worse Service for their Master then this She had certainly many Charms nor had she less spirit and cunning Her refusals and modesty did more and more provoke the Kings Passion Though he was not prodigal he caused an hundred thousand crowns to be carried her at once She refused them not and reciprocally testified much love and impatience for so great a King but she cunningly caused her Father and Mother to observe her so near that she could not give him a full conveniency to speak to her Hereupon she let him understand that she even dispaired that she could not keep her word with him that it was necessary to have the consent of her Father and Mother for which on her part she would labour Afterwards after many delays and put offs she told him that they could not be brought to so delicate a point except were it onely to secure their consciences towards God and their honour towards the world his Majesty would make her a promise of Marriage That she had no desire to serve her self of such a writing and that if she would do it she knew well there was no Officer who durst cite a Man who had fifty thousand men of war at his command but that these good people desired it should be so and that he need make no difficulty to please their fancy since he did but give her a little bit of paper in Exchange of the most precious thing she had in the world In fine she knew so well how to work his spirit that he gave her a promise under his hand by which he obliged himself to espouse her in a year so that in that time she brought forth a Male-child All this intrigue may be seen in the Memoires of Sully where he says that the King having led him alone into the first Gallery of Fountain-bleau shewed him this promise written under his hand and demanded his advice That in stead of formally answering him concerning it he tore it in two pieces That the King remained quite astonished and speaking angerly How now I believe that you are a fool and that he answered It is true Sir that I am a fool and could wish I were more so so that I alone in France were one That at his departing from the Gallery the King entred into his Closet and demanded a pen and inke and that he believed it was to write another However it were this promise caused much trouble afterward for the Lady would have made it valid as we shall speak At the same time that the King pusued the dissolution of his first marriage at Rome he made likewise instance to the holy Father that he would decide the difference concerning the restitution of the Marquisate of Saluces the Decision of which had been referred to him by the Treaty of Vervin To understand this well it must be known that this Marquisate was a Fief dependant of the Daulphinate of which King Francis the first had seized himself by right of reversion for default of heirs Males in the Succession of the Lords that held it Now in 1588. during the Estates of Blois the Duke of Savoy having advice that the League became very strong in France and that apparently that Monarchy would dismember snatched this Marquisate without having any subject of quarrel he cloaked only this unjust usurpation with this fair pretext that he seized it out of fear lest Lesdiguieres should possess himself of it and by this means establish Hugonotism in the midst of his Territories Seven years after to wit in the year 1595. the King being gone to Lyons after the battail of Fountain-franzoise the Duke who foresaw well he would again have this Marquisate proposed to him some accommodation for it The King offered to give it to one of his Sons to hold it at faith and homage with some other conditions but the Duke demanded it without any dependance and so this Negotiation was broken Our Ambassadors treating the general peace at Vervin were not wanting instantly to demand the restitution of that Fief Those of the Duke who assisted alledged in favour of their Master that piece appertained to him as being a Fief dependant of Savoy and that he had more essential titles to prove that dependancy which it was necessary to see to decide the difference with knowledge of the cause Now it would have taken up too much time to cause them to come from Savoy And the Popes Nuntio pressed the peace for fear lest during these delays some accident might happen to break it quite so that not to retard it it was judged convenient to refer to the Pope the decision of this affair on condition that he should terminate it in a year The French during that time sollicited strongly at Rome to have it decided The Savoyards defended it onely at extremity and that for fear to lose their cause by default Both the one and the other produced their Titles Those of the French were the best and moreover they had had a peaceable possession of more then sixty years which was more then sufficient to gain prescription The year being expired the Pope demands of the King the prolongation of two months to give in his sentence of Arbitration and that in the mean time the Marquisate should be sequestred in his hands The King willingly consents but the Duke enters into a mistrust that the Pope would have it for one of his Nephews so that his Ambassador having testified this mistrust the Pope refuses to meddle any farther either with the Gage or with the Arbitration The Duke imagined that his best way was to use delays since it might happen that either the French King would grow weary of following of this business or that some other more important affair might divert his thoughts otherwhere Moreover knowing that there were many melancholy spirits who could not be recovered out of that opinion that the King was still in his heart a Hugonot and with them many concealed and
demolished it After the taking of this the King would visit Geneva so famous for being one of the Ramparts of the Protestant Religion Theodorus Beza the chief as well in age as in Doctrine of all the Hugonot Ministers made him a Speech in few words The Marshal de Biron having considered the place which the inhabitants had been forty years fortifying with great care and expence whether to make himself esteemed a great Captain or to shew the great zeal he had for the Catholick Religion boasted he could take it in twenty days A speech the King was not pleased with because France had taken it undeâ— its Protection since the Reign of Francis the first and was obliged to defend it against the Duke of Savoy who pretended that Seignory belonged to him In the meantime the Pope desiring above all things to extinguish the fire of this War had dispatched towards the King and towards the Duke his Nephew the Cardinal Aldobrandin who incessantly laboured to make a peace His greatest difficulty was to find knots strong and sure enough to hold the Duke of Savoy for those of his promises and his faith were so uncertain and so slippery that he could not trust them At the same time the King whose thoughts of his marriage the War had not interrupted imbarqued on the Rhone and went down to Lyons where the Queen his new Spouse was arrived and expected him The Legat would not discontinue the Treaty of peace he followed him to Lyons for that purpose where he made his entrance fifteen days after the Queen The Ambassadors of Savoy followed him but their power was given in such terms that the Duke might find ways to disavow it However when they saw the Citadel of Bourg reduced to extremity they instantly sollicited the Legat to renew the first earnests of the Treaty But he would do nothing till they had given it him in writing that they besought it for the good of their Masters affairs When the Articles were drawn up and agreed they were signed on the one part and the other and the peace was published at Lyons the seventeenth of January 1601. by which the Duke yeilded to the King and to his Successors Kings of France the Country and Seignories of Bresse Bugey and Veromey and generally all that appertained to him lying along the River Rhone from the egress of Geneva as likewise the Bailiwick and Barony of Gex and that in exchange of the Marquisate of Saluces which the King absolutely left to him both for himself and his The Treaty agreed likewise that all the places taken by the King from the Duke of Savoy should be restored but all the Kings pretended rights against the said Duke should be reserved to him according as was contained in the Treaties of Cateau in Cambresis and of Vervin By this exchange both the one and the other equally gained The King for a Marquisate of little extent distant from all his Territories and encompassed by those of Savoy and which he could not keep but by great Garisons which would consume twice more then the Revenue it yeilded gained a Country of more then twenty five Leagues extent which was bounding upon his which enlarged his Frontier in which he had eight hundred Gentlemen and which was very fertil and abundant principally in pastures to nourish Cattel The Duke appropriating to himself the Marquisate took a troublesome Thorn out of his foot or rather a Sword which pierced through his body and put himself in security For whilst the French held it he durst not go out of Turin but with three or four hundred horse for his Convoy and he was forced to maintain great Garisons in the midle of his Country The Treaty being signed the King departed from Lyons by Post to return to Paris whither the Queen followed him by little journies Some time after her arrival he led her to see his buildings of St. Germain in Laye This was one of his delights and certainly a very innocent one and which agrees well with a powerful Prince after he hath paid his great debts and eased his people of their heavy load of oppressive Impositions For by raising these proud Edifices he leaves the fair marks of his greatness and riches to posterity he embellishes his Kingdom attracts the admiration of his people makes strangers know that his Coffers swell with Treasure gives life and bread to a great number of poor handy-crafts-men labours profitably for his own conveniency and for that of his Successors and in fine makes Architecture Sculpture and painting flourish which have ever been infinitely esteemed by all the most Polite nations of the world Our Henry took not this divertisement but to recreate his spirit after labours and not to imploy it For he had his soul too great and his genius too elevated to dedicate it self wholly to such mean things much less to fix it on vain amusements It is true that he built that he hunted that he was merry but this was without diverting himself too much from his affairs without abandoning the helme of his estate which he held as firmely and diligently during the Calme as during the Tempest Moreover he had a care not to grow sleepy whilst it was fair weather which is often deceitful for besides that a good King ought to labour within his Estate during peace as well as without during war he knew that the Spaniard and the Savoyard still grumbled and contrived in their hearts some enterprize against him The Count of Fuentes having raised a great army to assist the Savoyard was troubled that the peace had deprived him of the occasion to employ them Some places he had taken in Picardy during the War between the two Crowns had created a vanity in him and made him believe that he should alwaies gain the advantage over the French At the same time the King of Spain had put to sea a Naval Army commanded by one Doria which had without doubt some designe on Provence if the peace had not been made And though it was concluded Fuentes ceased not to make an attempt of an enterprize upon Marseilles to cause a rupture Those with whom he held intelligence to this purpose offered the King to draw fix or seven hundred men into the snare and keep them prisoners or cut them in pieces But the King judged not so little advantage to countervail the giving subject to the enemies to break the peace and to re-enter into a War which might have proved very dangerous they being so powerfully Armed Moreover he feared lest there were still in his Estate some fire concealed under the embers which on the noise of a War might more facilely make their attempts upon his person For to tell the truth he had more reason to fear their Knives and Daggers then their Swords He therefore wisely dissembled this enterprize and answered the Marseillians That he knew not how to
Poictiers becoming vacant Rosny very instantly besought him to consider in this occasion one named Frenouillet reputed a knowing man and a great Preacher The King notwithstanding this Recommendation gives it to the Abbot of Rochepozay who besides his own particular good Qualities was Son to a Father who had served him well with his Sword in his Wars and with his knowledge and spirit in Embassies Some time after the Bishoprick of Montpellier became vacant the King out of his own proper motion sent to seek Frenouillet and told him that he would give it him but on this condition that he should acknowledge no Obligation but to himself By which it may be seen how he in some sort considered the Recommendation of Rosny but it may likewise be perceived that the power of that Favourite who caused so much jealousie in the world was bounded I call him Favourite by reason that he had the most splendent Employments though to speak truth he had no pre-eminence over others of the Council for Villeroy and Janin were more considered then he in Negotiations and Forraign Affairs Bellievre and Sillery for Justice and Policy within the Kingdome and it is not to be imagined that those people did in any manner depend on him There was onely one head in the Estate which was the King who alone made all his Members and from whom onely they received spirits and vigour About the end of this year the Duke of Savoy thinking to revenge himself and repair the loss of his County of Bresse on the City of Geneva attempted to take it by storm The Enterprize was formed by the Counsels of the Lord of Albigny and the Duke having passed the Mountains believed it infallible D' Albigny conducted two thousand men for this purpose within half a League of the City yet was not so rash as to engage himself but left the conduct to others More then two hundred men mounted the Ladders gained the Ramparts and ran through all the City without being perceived In the mean time the Burgesses were awakened by the cries of some that fled from a Guard which had discovered the Enterprizers and as soon beheld themselves charged by them The Gunner who was to have broken a Gate within to cause those without to enter was unhappily slain after which they were weakned on all sides The greatest part endeavoured to re-gain their Ladders but the Cannons on the Flankers having broken them in pieces they were almost all slain or broke their necks by leaping into the Ditch There was thirteen taken alive almost all Gentlemen amongst the others Attignac who had served as second to Don Phillipin bastard of Savoy They yeilded upon assurance given them that they should be treated as prisoners of War But the furious cries of the common people who represented the danger wherein their City was of Massacres Violation universal Destruction or perpetual Slavery forced the Council of this little Republick to condemn them to the infamous death of the Gibbet like to Thieves Their heads with fifty four others of those that were killed were stuck on Poles and their bodies cast into the Rhone The Duke of Savoy confused with such ill success and much more with the reproaches of all Christendome for having endeavoured such an Enterprize in time of absolute peace repassed the Mountains in haste leaving his Troops near to Geneva and endevoured to excuse himself to the Suisses under whose protection that City was as well as under that of France for having attempted to surprize it saying That he had not done it to trouble the repose of the Confederacy but to hinder Lesdiguieres from seizing it for the King The Dukes of Savoy have for a long time pretended that this City appertained to their Soveraignty and that the Bishops who bore the title of Earls and were for some time Lords of it held it from them which is however a thing that the Bishops never acknowledged always maintaining that they depended immediately on the Empire The City on their part sustained that it was a free City and not subject in temporal things neither to their Bishops whom they quite drave out in the year 1533. when they unhappily renounced the Roman Catholick Religion nor to the Duke of Savoy but onely to the Empire for which reason they always bore the Eagle planted on their Gates Both one and the other have very specious Titles to shew their rights but for the present the City of Geneva enjoyed full liberty and had for above sixty years being become an Allie of the Cantons of Switzerland Now the Suisses were comprehended in the Treaty of Vervin as Allies of France and by consequence so was the City of Geneva and the King had sufficiently declared it to the Duke of Savoy notwithstanding which he ceased not to attempt this Enterprize hoping that if it succeeded the King of Spain and the Pope would sustain him in it and that the King for so small a thing would not break the peace The Genevans furiously incensed against him began to make War couragiously entred his Country and took some little Towns They hoped that the King and the Suisses would second these motions of their resentment and that all the Princes of Germany would likewise come to their assistance But the King desired to keep the peace and was too wise to kindle a War in which he could not make Religion and Policy agree or unite the Honour and Interests of France obliged to protect its Allies with the good favour of the Pope moved by his duty to the ruine of the Hugonots He therefore sent de Vic to assure them of his protection but with order to let them know that Peace was necessary for them and War ruinous and that they ought to embrace the one and shun the other And they having little power for so much anger and not being able to do any thing without his assistance were constrained to consent and enter into a Treaty with the Savoyard by which it was said that they were comprized in the Treaty of Vervin and that the Duke could not build any Fortress within four Leagues of their City It happened almost in the same time that the City of Mets rose against the Governour of that Citadel He was called Sobole who having been made Lieutenant by the Duke of Espernon to whom Henry the third had given the Government in chief had deserted this Duke I know not for what consideration and had taken provision of the King He had a Brother who seconded him in the Charge of this Government During the last War against Spain these two Brothers had accused the principal inhabitants of Mets for having conspired to deliver the City to the Spaniards There were many imprisoned some put to the rack but none found culpable so that all the Burgesses believing with reason that this was a Calumny conceived a hatred against these Soboles and drew up
accord the party had by this means conserved its bonds together and not been overthrown but appeased When he had got the upperhand in his Affairs and was reconciled to the Pope and that his subjects were reconciled with him the ill counsel of the Hugonots who desired always to see him in trouble perswaded him to declare a War against Spain It was now that he thought he should fall into a worse Estate then ever They took from him Dourlens after the gain of one battel Calais and Ardres by storm and Amiens by surprize The rest of the League which lay hid under the cinders began to rekindle the discontents of the great ones to be discovered Conspiracies were formed on all sides his servants were amazed his enemies emboldened But his Vertue which seemed to sleep in prosperity rouzed it self in adversity he encouraged his friends re-took Amiens and forced the Spaniard to make peace by the treaty of Vervin The Duke of Savoy thinking to deceive him in the restitution of the Marquisate of Saluces and to raise factions in his Realm which should hinder the King from demanding reason of him found that he had to do with a Prince who knew as well how to over reach him in his designes as to conquer his forces for he forced him among those rocks where he boasted he had nothing to fear but the thunder-bolts of Heaven and made him shamefully restore what he had unjustly usurped At the same time the King had thoughts as well for the security and tranquillity of France as for his own to generate Children of a lawful marriage Heaven gave him six and with them a peace of ten years which was onely lightly troubled by the conspiracy of Byron by the devices of the Duke of Bouillon and by some popular risings against the Pancarte or Sol pour livre During all this he laboured principally for two things the one his great designe of which we have spoken for which he made friends and allies on all sides cleared his revenues paid his debts with as good credit as if he had been a Merchant gathered monies and pacified all differences which were between those Princes with whom he would associate The other was to repair the damages and ruines of France which a forty years civil War had caused remove those causes which imbittered and divided spirits reform those disorders which disfigured the face of the Estate make it flourishing and rich to the end his subjects might live happily under the wings of his protection and his justice In the mean time himself was not free from troubles perplexities and disgusts his Mistresses caused him a thousand vexations in the midst of his pleasures he found thorns even in his Nuptial-bed and in the ill humour of his wife and Conchini was causer of griefs to him just as a little but vexatious Mouse may furiously trouble and turmoile the noble Lyon As he was ready to mount on horse-back to begin his great designe by the assistance of his Allies he lost his Life by the most detestable Parricide was ever known Thus he whom so many Pikes so many Musquets and Cannons so many Squadrons and Battalions of men could not hurt in the trenches and in the field of battel was killed with a Knife by a wicked and trayterous Rogue in the midst of his capital City in a Coach and on a day of publick Joy Unhappy blow which put an end to all the joys of France and which opened a wound which to this day hath left its scar. Henry was of a middle stature disposed and active hardened to labour and travel His body was well formed his temperament able and strong and his health perfect onely about the age of fifty years he had some light assaults of the Gout but which soon passed away and left behinde them no weakness He had his forehead high his eyes lively and assured his nose Aquiline his complexion ruddy his countenance sweet and noble and yet withal his presence Warlike and Martial his hair brown and very thin He wore his beard large and his hair very short He began to grow gray at the age of thirty five years upon which he was accustomed to say to those who wonder'd at it It is the wind of my adversities hath blown me this Indeed to consider well all his life from his very birth few Princes will be found who have suffered so much as he and it will be difficult to tell if he had more crosses or more prosperities He was born the Son of a King but of a King despoiled of his Estates He had a Mother generous and of a great courage but a Hugonot and an enemy of the Court He gained the battel of Coutras but he lost a little after the Prince of Conde his Cousin and his right hand The League stirred up his vertue and made him know it but it thought to overthrow him It was the cause that the King having called him to his assistance he found himself at the gates of Paris as if God had led him by the hand but Paris armed it self against him and all his hopes were almost dissipated by the scattering of the Army which besieged that City It was without doubt a great happiness that the Crown of France fell to him there having never been a succession more distant in any hereditary Estate for there were ten or eleven degrees between Henry the third and him and when he was born there was nine Princes of the blood before him to wit King Henry 2. and his five sons King Anthony of Navarre his father and two sons of that Anthony eldest brothers of our Henry All these Princes died to make room for his succession But he found it so embroyled that we may say he suffered an infinity of labours pains and hazards before he could gather the fair flowers of this Crown Young he espoused the sister of King Charles which seemed a match very advantagious for him but this marriage was a snare to entrap both him and his friends Afterwards that Lady in stead of being his Consort became his trouble and in stead of being his honour became his shame His second Wife brought him forth fair children to his no little joy but her grumblings and disdains were the causers of a thousand discontents He triumphed over all his enemies and became Arbitrator of Christendom but the more powerful he made himself the more was their hatred envenomed and the more means used they to destroy him so that after having plotted an infinite number of conspiracies against his life they found in the end a Ravaillac who executed in the end what so many others had failed in Now it must be acknowledged that all these adversities which he suffered ought to whet his spirit and his courage and that in fine he should be the greatest of Kings because he came to the Crown through so many difficulties and in an age very mature And certainly it is
order in the Revenues Effects of this good management of Rosny * A general place for receipt of Revenues whereof there be 20. in France viz. Paris Rouen Caen Nantes Tours Bourges Poictiers Agen Tholouse Montpellier Aix Grenoble Lyons Dijon Chaalons Amiens Orleans Limoges Soissons Moulin Expedients to hinder those of the Council to share with the Farmers The Collectors exclaim against Rosny but he derides them 1599. The King cannot yet provide for the Reformation of the Clergy His abuse of Benefices Remonstrance of the general Assembly of the Clergy to the King The Kings answer He had need of great Prudence to conduct himself with the Pope and with the Hugonots Edict of Nantes granted to the Hugonots The Parliament with great difficulty confirm it The King shews all respect â—o the Pope Cause of the Dutchy of Ferrara Caesar bastard of Ferrara would maintain it The Pope makes war against him The King offers his sword to the Pope Caesar quits Ferrara remains Duke of Modena Many Hugonots converts The King takes the young Prince of Conde from the Hugonots and causes him to be instructed in the Catholick Religion Marriage of the Infanta of Spain and Ratherine sister to the King Qualities of Katherine why the King married her to the Duke of Bar. The marriage made in the Kings Closet The Pope troubled at the Duke of Bar for this marriage Death of the Dutchess of Bar. The Duke of Joyeuse re-takes the habit of Capuchin The Marchioness of Bell ' Isle turns Feuillantine Duel of de Crequy and Phillipin bastard of Savoy The Apparition of the great Hunter to the King hunting at Fountainbleau What these fantasms may be The fair Gabriella demands the King to espouse her and legitimate his Children He feeds her with hope She in the end obliges the King to demand Commissioners of the Pope to judge of the divorce of Margaret The King remains at Fontainbleau to do his Easter-devotions and sends the fair Gabriella to Paris * A service in the Roman Church used three days before Easter which are called Les tâ—ois Jours de tenebres She dies in a strange manner The King comforts himself conserves an extream tenderness for her Children Queen Margaret presents a request to the Pope to dissolve her marriage The Lords and Parliament beseech the King to take a wife He presents his request to the Pope as well as Queen Margaret The Pope appoints Commissioners who pronounce the dissolution of the marriage After which Queen Margaret comes to Paris Her inclination 1600. Maria de Medicis demanded for Hen. 4. The contract of the marriage at Florence and the Nuptials Solemnized by Proxy The King falls into the snares of Madam d'Entragues afterwards March ioness of Verneuil A good reflection concerning flatterers The King gives an hundred thousand crowns to Madamoiselle d' Entragues Her cunning to bring him to her designs She gets a promise of marriage from him Sully tears it but the King makes another He pursues at Rome the decision of the Marquisate of Saluces How that Marquisate appertained to him How the Duke of Savoy seized it An accommodation spoke of He offers it to be held at faith homage By the Treaty of Vervin the business is remitted to the Popes Arbitration The Pope refuses farther medling with the Arbitration why The Duke of Savoy strives to gain time He would come to France to confer with the King What might be the motives of his voyage His Train The King causes him to be well received every where He passes Lyons Arrives at Fontainbleau where the King is His address to gain confidence with the King who is as subâ—ile as himself and carries him to Paris Overture of the Centenary Jubilee at Rome Great Demonstrations of friendship between the King and Duke How the Duke lived in the Kings Court. The King shews him his Parliament * A place I suppose so called which looked into the Parliament-House and where they might see and not be seen Yet the King releases not to him the Marquisate * The French hath it Prendre le Change which is taken for flying out at a wrong Deer like hounds of Riot The Duke not succeeding it is believed he endeavoured to debauch Byron by the means of Laffin The vanities of Byron become insupportable He esteems himself more then the King who takes disgust at it A good and important Reflection The Duke causes to be carried to Byron some disadvantagious words of the Kings The King proposes to the Duke the exchange of the Marquisate for la Bresse The Duke seems not a verse but takes three moneths to consider He takes leave of the King who accompanies him to Charenton Some had counselled the King to arrest him The Kings noble Answer The three months expired the King presses the Duke to chuse either the change or the restitution The Duke presses the Council of Spain to help him The Count of Fuentes comes to this purpose to Milain but too late The King again presses the Duke to chuse the change or restitution He promises positively to surrender the Marquisate But when the King sends his forces he takes off his mask and refuses The King declares war against him He gives advice of it to the neighbouring Princes * Julius Caesar would never let the tenth Legion fight but with him Byron conquers all la Bresse The Pope Alarm'd at this War sends to the King The Kings good and Christian answer The King enters Savoy Yet the Duke stirs not He trusts some vain predictions of Astrologers or to Byron much incensed against the King In fine the Duke takes the field but does nothing The Citadel of Montmelian taken and that of Bourg and fort St. Katherine The King visits Geneva The Pope endeavours a peace and sends to that purpose his Nephew Legat. The King comes to Lyons where his Queen expected him The Legat likewise comes and the Ambassadors of Savoy 1610. The peace agreed signed and published at Lyons They both gain by the exchange After the King goes to Paris followed by the Queen He carries her to see his buildings He divertised but never employed himself about buildings An excellent reflexion Count Fuentes would surprize Marseilles to break the peace His people might be intrapped by counter-intelligence but the King will not The Spaniards turn their Arms against the Infidels The Duke of Merceur commands the Emperoâ—rs forces and dies Gentlemen of the Ambassador of France in Spain kill some Spaniards The Magistrate violates the freedom of the Ambassadors house and takes them out Discourse of the freedom of Ambassadors Palaces The King being offended recals his Ambassador And goes in haste to Calais to visit his Frontier The Pope undertakes to accommodate the difference and doth it The Arch-Duke besieging Ostend sends to complement the King * This siege lasted three years three months and three days The King returns the civility to the Arch-Duke The Queen of England
sends likewise to complement him and he answers it by Byron To whom she shews the Earl of Essex head The King Queen enjoy the Jubilee at Orleans The Queen brought to bed of a Daulphine who is named Lewis after surnamed The Just. The King gives him his blessing and puts his sword in his hand Birth of the Infanta of Spain named Anne who after espoused King Lewis xiii The King makes divers Orders for the good of the Estate He suppresses the Triennial Officers for Revenues He establisheth a Chamber of Justice to call Treasurers and Collectors to account The onely remedy against their thefts The King prohibites the transport of gold or silver out of his Kingdome and wearing gold and silver lace or gildings Introduces the manufacture of silk into France The usury excessive in France which caused the ruine of the best families and the Merchants to abandon all traffick The King reduces interests to six in the hundred His great care to enrich his Kingdom He favours the establishment of manufactures After his example all labour for their benefit Idleness punished 1602. The King remedies two things capable to overthrow France The tax of a Sol pour livre burthensome It causes commotions in the Provinces The King to appease them goes to Poictiers His wise and just remonstance to the Deputies of Guyenne * He had sold the Lands of his Patrimony He calms the seditions and revokes the Sol pour livre Conspiracy of the Marshal Byron Laffin discovers it to the King * Vidame is a Lord who holds his Lordship in Fief of a Bishop How he got the Notes written with Byron's own hand The Duke of Savoy keeps Renaze Laffins Secretary Propositions betwixt Byron the Duke of Savoy and the Count Fuentes Byron had demanded pardon of the King but after fell again He speaks ill of the King and boasts excessively of himself Two things compleat his loss Laffin comes to Court and reveals all to the King The King sends for Byron to Court who at first excuses himself In the end Byron comes The King conjures â—im the first time to confess the truth He insolently vindicates himself The King prayes the Count of Soissons to exhort him to confess his crime But he is more obstinate The King speaks to him the second time but in vain He is troubled what to resolve on He resolves to leave him to Justice Yet tries the third time to draw truth from him He finds it in vain leaves him By on and the Count of Auvergne Arrested prisoners His kindred intercede for him The Parliament make his Process He defends himself weakly Letters of the King revoking the pardon granted him at Lyons He reproacheth not Laffin Renaze appears before him at which he is much astonished He is conducted to the Parliament and heard Sentence of death voted against him The King removes the execution to the Bastille Sentence pronounced His head cut off He was very ignorant but a great lover of predictions A reflection very necessary for great men Laffin and Renaze pardoned * That is the Rack So is the Baron of Lux and confirmed in his Charges Montbarot imprisoned and soon released Fontanelles broke on the wheel Duke of Bouillon had a hand in the conspiracy The King sends for him to Court but he presents himself to the Chamber of Castres After he retires to Geneva thence to Heidelberg to the Prince Palatine his Kinsman The favour of Rosny a pretext to the discontents of the great ones Yet the King gave him not too much power but keeps it to himself An important truth A memorable example that a King ought not to yeild too much to his Ministers Enterprizes of the Duke of Savoy on Geneva Thirteen of the Enterprizers â—anged The Duke of Savoy excuses himself to the Suisses From whom the City of Geneva was held It was an Allie of the Suisses and under protection of France The Genevans make War on Savoy But the King obliges them to peace The inhabitants of Mets rise against Sobole their Governour The Duke d' Espernon kindles the fire more The King goes in person The Jesuites present their request to the King for their reestablishment He re-establisheth them gloriously 1602 1603. He visits his sister at Nancy Renews his alliance with the Suisses and Grisons Hears of the death of Queen Elizabeth of England She beheaded Mary Queen of Scots James 6. King of Scotland and Son of Mary succeeded to the Kindom of England He was James the first of that name among the Kings of England Ambassadors go from France and Spain to desire his friendship Piety yeilds to Interest The King labours to conserve peace Excellent speeches of a good King His divertisements Employs of the Nobility Duels too frequent The King makes an Edict against this madness He makes Acts for working the Gold Silver and Copper Mines An enterprize to joyn the Seine and Loire Another design to joyn the two Seas Navigation to Canada Establishment of Religious Orders at Paris The King gives Verneuil to Madamoiselle d' Entragues She despises and offends the Queen * Alluding I suppose to the Dukes of Florence who are all Merchants The Queen on her part troublesome to the King Leonora Conchini her husband foster the Queen in ill humors 1604. The Kings debaucheries cause the Gout The Queen threatens the Marchioness Who prays the King to see her no more And her Father demands leave to retire with her out of France They treat with the Ambassador of Spain The King resolves to hinder them To this end he sends for Auvergne who is at Clermont and refuses to come He is Arrested prisoner and carried to the Bastille D' Entragues and the Marchioness likewise Arrested * The Common Goal of Paris Sentence of Parliament against them The King pardons them and justifies the Marchioness But the Count of Auvergne remained at the Bastille and is despoiled of his County Which is adjudged to Queen Margaret who gives her Estates to the Daulphin The designes of the Duke of Bouillon discovered The King had done him many favours and he had as well served the King But after the Kings conversion he excites the Hugonots against him and would make himself chief of their party His Emissaries endeavour to form a party in Guyenne The King goes to prevent them All the Conspiracy dissipated The King returns to Paris He in vain endeavours to make the Duke of Bouillon humble himself He resolves to besiege Sedan Rosny makes all necessary preparations The King makes him Duke of Sully Inconveniences in the siege of Sedan The King chuses rather to receive the Duke into favour On what conditions The Duke demands pardon of of the King who enters Sedan and thence goes to Paris A great example of generosity in our Prince Notwithstanding which there are many conspiracies Treason of l' Oste. 1605. Treason of Merargues He is surprized talking with the Spanish Ambassadours
Famine made them despair in such manner that it was no longer in his power with all his inventions to retain them from surrendry for more then five or six days at most When the Duke of Parma was within two days Journey of Meaux he caused it to be signified to the King That the Duke of Mayenne could no longer treat but conjoyntly with him At present the Council of the King was much astonished and in a great irresolution not knowing what to do It was without doubt a great shame for the King and a notable diminishing of the Reputation of his Arms to raise a Siege which had endured four months and it must needs be a most sensible displeasure to this Prince who was brave and glorious to raise it on the Eve of the taking of that great City the reduction of which had been a mortal wound to the League He had therefore but one course to take but which was without doubt very hazardous nevertheless the King resolved it this was to leave a part of his Troops in the Suburbs and chuse a place of Battel where the rest of the Army might make head against the Duke of Parma and not raise the Siege To this effect the King confirmed in it by the advice of la Noue Guitry and Plessis Mornay left onely three thousand men on the side of the University and put the rest of his Army in Battalia in the Plain of Bondy which was between Paris and the Duke of Parma But the Marshal of Byron disanulling absolutely that counsel wrought so far that it was resolved to advance as far as Chelles with intention to give Battel It was not known whether he was carried to this advice either out of jealousie because he had not given the first counsel or because it seemed to him too dangerous to remain so near Paris from whence there might sally fifteen or sixteen thousand men on the day of battel to charge them behind However it were his Authority was so great among the Men of War and it was so dangerous in this Conjuncture to contract that hot spirit that they were forced to believe him and absolutely raise the Siege to go encamp at Chelles The Duke of Parma seeing that and judging it not convenient to fight retrenched himself readily in a Marish so well that he feared not to be forced he boasted likewise that the King should not in that Post know how to force him to discharge one Pistol and yet that he would take a City in his sight and open a passage on the Rivers to send Provisions into Paris In sum he executed punctually what he had said It was not in the power of the King to oblige him to fight and he took Lagny on the Marne whilst he was not able to relieve it Thus Paris was absolutely deliver'd receiving on the morrow a very great quantity of Boats laden with all forts of Provisions Yet their Joy was not equal to their Comfort for their too long Misery had in such manner weakned their Bodies and supprest their Courages that they were not capable of any sentiments of rejoycing The Troops of the Duke of Nemours having regained heart by this refreshment sallied dayly with the most couragious of the Burgeffes and cut off all Provisions from the Kings Camp in such manner that a little Scarcity being got amongst them Sicknesses began to multiply and the Gentlemen who had flocked thither out of the hopes of a Battel began to grow impatient which the King seeing assembled his Council to seek some remedy to these inconveniences He found that throughout his whole Army there were very ill dispositions and that he had better make a Retreat then expose himself to greater Affronts but being loth to quit the Enterprize of Paris he tryed in passing to carry it by storm on the University-sides between the Gates of St. James and St. Marceau which having done in vain he retired to Senlis and thence to Creil In the end not able to do better he took Clermont in Beauvoisis which incommodated Senlis and Compeigne Afterwards he put a part of his Troops in the Cities about Paris sent another into the Provinces to re-assure them in their Obedience and kept onely with himself a flying Army So soon as he was retired the Dukes of Parma and Mayenne enlarged themselves in the Brie Parma instantly sollicited by the Leaguers besieged Corbeil he thought to take it in four or five days but he lay before it a whole month through the Duke of Mayenne's fault who either out of neglect or jealousie furnished him with Ammunition but by little and little So that seeing his Army much diminished and the rest to licentiate themselves to all Disorders after the Example of the French Souldiers he returned to Flanders much discontented with the Conduct of the French Nation whom he had found as he said inconstant and volatile full of Jealousies and Divisions insatiable and ingrateful His vexatious Melancholy sure made him say so Before his departure he had the displeasure to hear of the loss of Corbeil which had cost him so much Givry Governour of Brie for the King re-gained it in one night by storm and the League whatever instances they made to him could not oblige the Duke of Parma to stay in France till they had re-taken it He left them onely eight thousand Men of his promising to return at the Spring with a greater Army and counselling them in the mean time to amuse the King by Treaties of Peace until the next Campagne a Counsel which the Duke of Mayenne was not wanting to follow which kept many Cities to his party were ready to abandon him The expedition of the Duke of Parma into France retarded much the Affairs of the King but advanced not at all those of the Duke of Mayenne on the contrary it embroiled them and begat those dispositions which in the end ruined them For the Duke of Parma knowing the defaults of the Duke of Mayenne represented to the Council of Spain That he was very improper for the advancement of their interests being both too weak and having too little Authority to keep in Unity so great a Party too jealous too slow and too idle to give order in all things that therefore it was necessary that the King of Spain should take care of the League and become absolute Master of it That to this effect he should gain the Ecclesiasticks and the people of the great Cities who having a great desire to see the Estate of the Government changed because under the last Kings it had been very oppressive to the people would be easily induced either to joyn the Cities together in form of Cantons or make a King whose power should be so limited that he could never weaken them either by Taxes or by Arms as the two last Kings had done In effect the King of Spain finding this way most
into Paris by the Serjeants for the debts of his Father contracted in his service and when la Noue went to complain to him of this insolence he answered publickly La Noue you must pay his debts for I pay likewise those of mine But after that he took him apart and gave him some precious stones to engage to his creditors in stead of the Baggage which they had seized Was there ever a more wonderful goodness or more exact Justice The second is that the same evening he played at Cards with the Dutchess of Montpensier who was of the house of Guise and the most vehement Leaguess of the Party What could be seen of more Policy After this reduction of Paris the other Cities and their Governours hastened likewise to conclude their Treaties Villars made his for Rouen so gaining to himself the Government in chief of this City and Bailiwick and that of the Country of Caux with the charge of Admiral which he was to take out of the hands of Byron for that of Marshal of France twelve hundred thousand Livres of present money and sixty thousand Livres of pension At the same time or little after Montreuil and Abbeville in Picardy Troyes in Champagne Sens and Riom in Auvergne Agen Marmande and Villeneuve d' Agenois rendred themselves obedient and their Governours had all they could demand of the King The City of Poictiers and the Country thereabouts treated likewise by means of its principal Magistrates and the Marquis of Elbeuf Governour for the League seeing he could not hinder the Revolution permitted himself to be drawn in with them and composed with the King who left him the Government of that Province In the mean time the Count Mansfield entred into Picardy to endeavour to sustain the League which was in a very low condition and took la Capelle The King in revenge laid siege to Laon and took it by capitulation notwithstanding all the endeavours of the Duke of Mayenne to relieve it Balagny with his City of Cambray renounced likewise the League and promised service to the King He had called himself Sovereign of this City and had held it from the time that Henry the thirds brother the Duke of Alenzon had usurped it from the Baron of Inchi who in the great Rebellion of the Low-Countries had quitted the obedience of Spain to embrace his party In like manner the Cities of Beauvais and Peronne renounced the League as did likewise that of Amiens shaking off the yoak of the Duke of Aumale There resting to that party in all Picardy only Soissons la Fere and Ham. And which was much more the Duke of Guise shook off the Duke of Mayenne and brought the Cities of Reims Vitry and Mezieres under the Kings obedience who in recompence of it gave him the Government of Provence from which he was obliged to withdraw the Duke of Espernon because the People the Parliament and the Nobility had taken Arms against him The Duke of Lorrain likewise who negotiated his peace by the intermission of Bassompierre concluded it the twenty sixth of November But neither the example of this Duke chief of the house of Lorrain nor the general revolution of that party could oblige the Duke of Mayenne to withdraw himself from that danger wherein he was ready to be overwhelmed he could not abandon that fair title of Lieutenant-General of the Crown but flattered himself with the hopes that the assistance of Spain might again give his affairs the upper hand He was retired into his Government of Bourgongne because that remained yet most entire to him though to keep to himself Dijon he was forced to make use of an odious cruelty in cutting off the head of the Mayor and another who laboured to reduce it to the Kings service Now since it was the Spaniards who maintained him in his obstinacy and who made War against the King in his name it was proposed and agreed in the Councel to assault them with an open War to the end that being imployed at their own homes they might lose the desire and leasure of coming to disquiet the King in his For they not only assaulted him by force of Arms and by practices which encouraged the people in Rebellion but moreover they would have had his life and endeavoured to murther him by base and execrable waies They contrived or favoured many conspiracies against his Sacred person which were well discovered Those two which made most noise was that of one Peter Barriere and that of John Castel The first was a Souldier aged about twenty seven years who being discovered at Melun in the year one thousand five hundred ninety three as he sought the execution of his detestable blow was condemned to have his right hand burned holding the Knife with which he should have struck the King after to have his flesh torn off with burning Pinsers and to be broken on the wheel alive The second was a young Scholar aged about eighteen years son of a Merchant-Draper of Paris keeping Shop before the Palace this villain about the end of the year fifteen hundred ninety four having thrust himself with the Courtiers into the Chamber of the fair Gabriella where the King was would have struck him with a Knife into the belly but by good fortune the King then bowing to salute some one the blow chanced on his face only piercing his upper lip and breaking a Tooth It was not known for the present who had struck it but the Count of Soissons seeing this young man affrighted stopt him by the arme He impudently confessed that he had given the blow and maintained that he ought to do it The Parliament condemned him to have his right hand burned his flesh torn off with red-hot Pinsers and after to be torn in pieces by four horses This detestable Parricide not shewing any sign of pain so much had they imprinted in his spirit that he would offer a Sacrifice acceptable to God by taking out of the world a Prince relapsed and Excommunicate The Father of this miserable villain was banished his house before the Palace demolished and a Pyramide erected in its place The Jesuites under whom this Miscreant had studied were likewise accused for having instructed him with this pernicious Doctrine and they having many enemies the Parliament banished the whole Society out of the Kingdom by the same Arrest of their Scholar Yet these Fathers were not wanting notwithstanding that the times were contrary to them to labour to sustain their honour but writ many things to justifie themselves against their charge And truly those who were not their enemies did not at all believe the Society culpable so that some years after the King revoked the decree of Parliament and recalled them as we shall mention hereafter The success of the War declared against Spain was much different from that which the King maintained against the League and made
remitted to the judgement of the holy Father who was to decide that controversie in a year The Publication of the Peace was made on the same day through all the Cities of France and the Low-Countries with those rejoycings whose rumour spread to the utmost bounds of Christendom but none so truly resented a joy for it as our Henry who was accustomed to say That it being a thing Barbarous and contrary to the laws of Nature and Christianity to make War for the love of War a Christian Prince ought never refuse peace if it were not absolutely disadvantagious to him The Third PART OF THE LIFE OF Henry the Great Briefly containing what he did after the Peace of Vervin made in the year 1598. unto his death which happened in the year 1610. HItherto we have followed the Fortune of our Henry through ways craggy and intricate over Rocks and Precipices during times very troublesome and full of storms and tempests at present we are about to trace it through paths more easie and fair in the sweetnesses of calm and quiet peace where however his Vertue slept not in his repose but appeared always active where his great Soul was employed without ceasing in the true functions of Royalty and where in fine among his Divertisements he made his most necessary and most important employs his principal pleasures In the two first parts of his Life which we have seen he was by constraint a Man of War and of the Field in this last a Man of Counsel and a great Polititian but in both invincible and indefatigable The true duty of a Soveraign consists principally in protecting his Subjects he must both defend them against Strangers and repress the Factions and Attempts of Rebels It is for this purpose that he hath the power of Arms in his hands and that it is advantagious to him perfectly to understand the mystery of War But that comprehends but a part of his Functions and we may truely say that it is neither the most necessary nor the most satisfactory For besides that he may manage his Wars by his Lieutenants who doubts him to be the most happy Prince that governs his Affairs in such a manner that he hath no need of his Sword but is powerful enough to distribute Justice punish the wicked and to honour and reward deserving men to confer graces and recompences to keep good order and conserve the Laws to maintain his Provinces in tranquillity sustain his Reputation and greatness by his good Conduct inform himself often and diligently of all that passes make himself to be feared by his Enemies and esteemed by his Allies and like a Soveraign himself preside in his Councils receive Ambassadours and answer them dispatch great Affairs by Treaties and Negotiations prevent all ill and deprive wicked persons and enemies of their power to hurt encourage Traffick and the Studies of Sciences and Noble Arts to make his Kingdome rich flourishing and abundant to fetch wealth from all the corners of the earth but above all to procure the glory and service of God so that his Kingdome may be as a Paradise of Delights and a Harbour of Felicity These are in my opinion Employs worthy a potent King a Christian and wise King who being the Shepherd of his people as Homer often calls the great King Agamemnon ought not onely know how to drive away the Wolves I mean make War but likewise understand how to manage his Flock preserve them from Diseases fatten and multiply them The Peace being published with an incredible joy of the French Flemins and Spaniards it was solemnly sworn by the King on the one and twentieth of June in the Church of Nostre-Dame on the Cross and the holy Evangelists in the presence of the Duke of Arscot and the Admiral of Arragon Ambassasadors from the King of Spain for that purpose and afterwards Cardinal-Arch-Duke Albert Governour of the Low-Countries for that King swore it on the six and twentieth of the same moneth in the City of Bruxels the Marshal of Byron assisting whom our Henry had newly honoured with the Quality of Duke and Peer confirmed in Parliament as well to give more splendour to that Embassy as to recompense those great services that Lord had rendred him in his Wars In this Voyage the Spaniards spared neither Caresses nor Prayers to this new Duke to inspire him with Pride and Vanity and intoxicated him in such manner with a good opinion of himself that it put a fancie in his head that the King ought him more then he would ever know how to give him and that if his vertue were not sufficiently honoured in France he would finde other places where it should be set at a higher price That which afterwards produced very ill effects Many among the French who knew not truely the pitiful estate wherein the King of Spain and his Affairs were could not comprehend why this Prince should buy the peace at so dear a rate as the surrendry of six or seven strong places and amongst others Calais and Blavet which might be called the Keys of France On the contrary the Spaniards who beheld their King as it were dying his Treasury wasted the Low-Countries shattered in pieces Portugal and his Lands in Italy on the point to revolt the Son which he left a good Prince in truth but who loved repose were astonished that the French having so bravely re-taken Amiens and re-united all their Forces after the Treaty of the Duke of Merceur had not pressed farther into the Low-Countries seeing that in all appearance they might either have carried them or at least sorely shaken them The King answered That if he had desired peace it was not because he was weary of the incommodities of War but to give leave to afflicted Christendome to breath That he knew well that from the Conjuncture wherein things were he might have drawn great advantages but that God often overturns Princes in their greatest Prosperities and that a wife man ought never out of the opinion of some favourable event be averse to a good accord nor trust himself too much on the appearance of his present happiness which may change by a thousand unexpected Accidents it having often happened that a man thrown down and wounded hath killed him who would make him demand his life It was known in a little time that King Philip the second had more need of the peace then France for his sickness was more then redoubled he had for twenty six days continually a perpetual flux of blood through all the conduits of his body and a little before his death he had four Aposthumes broke in his Groin from whence there tumbled a continual multitude of Vermin which all the diligence of his Officers could not drain In this strange sickness his constancy was wonderful nor did he ever abandon the reins of his Estate until the last gasp of his Life for he
this Prince He came to this effect to Milain but too late where with two Millions of Gold which were ready he begins to make great preparations After that the Duke had by divers Artifices drawn out the Negotiation almost two moneths longer the King wearied with these delays prepared himself to bind this Proteus who changed himself into all sorts of forms and to force him to give a certain answer He advanced to Lyons whither he had before sent his Council The Duke knowing that he approached had recourse to other cunnings he sent to him three Ambassadours who conjoyntly proposed an Act by which they declared that their Master was ready to accomplish the Treaty made at Paris and that he promised to restore the Marquisate but he of the three who had the secret refused to signe the Articles till first the Duke had shewed them to his Council and signed them By this trick the Duke yet gained seven or eight days time but the King resolved to press him to a conclusion still followed his trace discovered his deceits and left him no further subterfuge he was forced therefore to answer positively and he promised to surrender the Marquisate by the sixteenth of August Upon this assurance the King caused to advance le Bourg-l ' Espinasse an old Colonel of Infantry with the Troops of the Suisses to take possession of the Marquisate As he approached the Duke took off his Mask and answered clearly That according to the Conditions proposed War was less sharp to him then Peace Wherefore the King was obliged to come to that point to which he had long foreseen he should come to wit an open War he declared it therefore on the eleventh of the moneth of August but with these express terms That he did it onely for the Marquisate and without prejudice to the Treaty of Vervin which he desired to observe inviolably At the same time he gave advice of this rupture to all the neighbouring Princes and made them understand the just reasons he had This great King knew well that among Christians the breach of peace is extreamly odious and that without reasons which strongly convince our spirits we ought never to trouble the publick tranquillity He was at present at Grenoble where he had to begin this War only three or four Companies of Ordinance Some proposed to him to cause his Regiment of Guards to advance he answered that he would not send them from him that they were the tenth Legion which never fought without Caesar. But in a little time the French Nobility and the Adventurers flocked to him on all sides as as if they had come to a Marriage or a Ball. The Marshal of Byron though already disgusted having gathered some Troops spoiled the Country of Bresse in many places with his Canon he forced the City of Bourg but the Cittadel defended it self better and proved indeed the onely difficulty in this War Crequy entring into Savoy gained the City of Montmelian about midnight but not the Castle The Pope Alarm'd by the first sparkles of this fire and fearing lest it should enflame all Italy imployed himself immediately to extinguish it he dispatcht a Prelate who bore the title of Patriarch of Constantinople to remonstrate unto him the inconveniences of this rupture and to conjure him in the name of God not to pass farther The King assured him that he had no design to trouble the peace of Italy that he was a Christian and just Prince that God had given him a Kingdom sufficient to content him but that he desired to have what belonged to his Crown that if he had had other more vast designs he had made greater preparations Few days after he departed and entred himself into Savoy His presence so much astonished the City of Chamberry that they made the Garison depart by a quick Capitulation He made himself after master of Tarentaise and la Morienne by taking in two or three days the City of Conflans and that of la Charbonniere which till then had passed for impregnable Yet the Duke of Savoy moved not he was so little concerned that he Hunted and Danced whilst his Provinces were despoiling he seemed not to be the adversary but the spectator his subjects likewise seemed not much astonished at the Kings Progress they said that if he took any places in Savoy their Duke would take others in France It could not be divined from whence this great security proceeded some believed that the Duke assured himself on I know not what Prognostications of Astrologers who had foretold that in the month of August there should be no King in France that which happened to be very true for at that time he was victorious in the midst of Savoy Others believed that the Duke yet trusted to the intelligences he had with the Marshal of Biron whose fidelity much shaken by his artifices while he was in France was now near entirely debauched by those grand Subjects of discontent this Marshal had received since this War For the King testified that he put not so much trust in him nor treated him with the same freedome he had done before and he committed the principal direction of this Conquest to Lesdiguieres who indeed better knew the Country and the manner of making War in those Mountains then he This Preference furiously incensed such a high spirit who believed nothing either could or ought to be done without him Afterwards the refusals of the King to give him the Government of the City of Bourg put him quite out of his senses From this time he had none but extravagant and criminal thoughts and began as it was said to treat a League with the Savoyard for the re-kindling a new Civil War in France I cannot relate the particulars of this design because they were never well known The Duke of Savoy believed his Fortresses of Montmelian in Savoy and of Bourg in Bresse impregnable reposing the security of his Country upon them He was much surprized to understand that the Marquis of Brandis Governour of the first had capitulated to surrender it in a certain time Upon it he put himself in the field and used all his endeavours to get into an estate to relieve it He had recourse to the assistance of the Spaniards but the Count of Fuentes who desired to engage affairs farther refused him forces in his need and in the mean time the term of the capitulation being finished he lost Montmelian to the great astonishment of his Subjects and no less shame to Brandis Want of Victuals and Ammunition made him likewise in some weeks lose the Citadel of Bourg which the Governour held out to the last extremity The King passing by the side of Geneva submitted the Country of the Chablais and the Faussigni The inhabitants of Geneva took the Fort of St. Katherine which the Savoyards had built to annoy them and
steal a victory that ambuscadoes were not honest but onely during War and that it was necessary for his honour to take heeâ— that he did not in any manner contribute to that rupture the enemies had a design to make In fine the Spaniards having found that this wise Argus had too many eyes and too much vigilance to be surprized on any side resolved to employ their Arms in pious and honorable enterprizes A part of their Land-Army passed into Hungary which was at that present assaulted by the Turks The Duke of Merceur being gone to seek in that Country a juster glory then in the Civil-wars of France commanded the Emperours forces He made known to the Infidels by many gallant exploits particularly by the memorable retreat of Canise that the French valour was chosen by God to sustain the Christian Religion Nor was there any doubt made but that he would have quite chased them out of that Kingdom of which they had invaded more then one half if he had not died the year following of a burning Feavour which seized him at Nurembourg as he was about to go pay his devotions at the Shrine of the Lady of Loretto There arrived some time after an accident by which the King took occasion to let the Spaniards know that he could not suffer any thing against his honour nor against the dignity of his estate Rochepot was his Embassador in Spain Some Gentlemen of his train of which one was his Nephew washing in the River chanced to have a quarrel with some Spaniards and killing two saved themselves in the Ambassadors house The friends of the slain so much excited the people that they besieged the house and were ready to put fire to it The Magistrate to prevent the Tragick effects of this fury was constrained to do an injustice and to violate the freedom of the Ambassadors house for he seized by force and led the accused to prison The King of Spain being troubled that he had violated the right of Nations sent him to demand pardon of the Ambassador yet the French men still remained prisoners There were made many discourses and writings concerning the rights and priviledges of Ambassadors It is true said they that an Ambassador hath alone right of Soveraign Justice in his Palace but the people of his train are subject to the Justice of the estate in which they are for those faults they commit out of his Palace and so if they be taken out of it their Process may be made and though it be known that this rigour is not generally observed and that the respect born to the Ambassadors person extends to all those that follow him yet however this is a courtesie and not a right But notwithstanding it is not permitted to go seek the Criminal in the Palace of the Ambassador which is a sacred place and a certain Sanctuary for his people yet ought it not however to be abused or made a retreat for wicked persons nor give Sanctuary to the Subjects of a Prince against the Laws and Justice of his Realm for in such cases on complaint to his Master he is obliged to do reason Now the King being offended as he ought to be at the injury done to France in the person of his Ambassador and not judging the satisfaction the Magistrate had given him sufficient commands him immediately to return which he did without taking leave of the King of Spain He forbade likewise at the same time all Commerce with Spaniards and foreseeing that in these beginnings of the rupture they might enterprize somewhat on the Towns of Picardy he with great diligence departed from Paris to visit that Frontier and came to Calais The people who began to taste the sweetness of repose and to Till their lands with patience trembled for fear lest a new War should expose them once more to the License of the Souldiers But God had pity of these poor people The Pope becoming mediatour to remedy those mischiefs which threatned Christendom happily accommodated the difference The Spaniard remitted the Process and the Prisoners whom his Holiness consigned some days after into the hands of the Count of Bethune Ambassador for France at Rome and the King afterwards sent an Ambassador into Spain which was the Count of Barraut Whilst the King was at Calais whither as we have said he went the Arch-Duke who was before Ostend where he continued that Siege the most famous that ever was since that of Troy feared with some reason lest the Kings approach should retard the progress of his enterprize in which he had already lost so many men so much time spent so many Cannot shot so much money and such stores of Ammunition he sent therefore to complement him promising him on the part of Spain satisfaction for the violence done to the Lodgings of his Ambassador but intreating him that the besieged might not prevail themselves of this Conjuncture The King who never let himself be overcome by Courtesie no more then by Arms sent the Duke of Aiguillon eldest Son of the Duke of Mayenne to assure him that he desired to maintain the peace that he was not advanced on the Frontiers but to dissipate some designs which were contriving and that he hoped in the equity of the King of Spain which he doubted not would do him reason VVhilst he was at Calais Queen Elizabeth sent likewise to visit him by my Lord Edmonds her principal Confident For answer to which obliging civility he caused the Marshal of Byron to pass into England accompanied by the Count d' Auvergne and the choice of all the Nobility of the Court to represent to her the displeasure the King had finding himself so near her that he could not enjoy the sight of her This Queen endeavoured by all means possible to make known to the French her greatness and power One day holding Byron by the hand she shewed him a great number of heads planted on the Tower of London telling him that in that manner they punished Rebels in England and recounting to him the reasons she had to put to death the Earl of Essex whom she had once so tenderly loved Those who heard the discourse remembred it afterwards when they saw the Marshal Byron fallen into the same misfortune and lose his head after having lost the favour of his King VVe must not forget how that before the King made his voyage to Calais he had led the Queen with him to enjoy the Jubilee in the City of Orleans where the holy Father had ordained the Stations for France to begin His piety which was sincere and unfeigned gave a fair Example to his people who see him go to Processions with great devotion and pray to God with no less attention his heart agreeing with his lips He laid the first stone to the foundation of the Church of the holy Cross at Orleans which the Hugonots had miserably
bodies and goods of those who went thus into the field For the present this prohibition made the ardor of the most violent a little relent but because he often pardoned this crime not being able to refuse it to those who had faithfully served him in his need it happened that in a little time this mischief regained its course almost as strong as before His receiving from all persons all advices that might accommodate and in rich his Kingdom made him understand that there were in divers places of France very good Mines both of Gold and Silver Copper and Lead and that if they were wrought there would be no need to buy of strangers That likewise though there should accrue no great profit in digging them yet by them many idle persons might be employed and likewise those criminals who deserved not death might be condemned for so many years to work in them He made therefore an Act which renewed the ancient orders concerning the Officers Directors and Workers of Mines And they began to work in the Pyrenees where it is most certain that formerly there hath been Gold and that there still is In such manner that had they continued this labour they might in all appearance have gained notable advantages but either through the negligence of the Overseers or through the little intelligence or rather impatience of the French who cast by any thing that presently seconds not their desires this work was discontinued Another very great conveniency for Paris was enterprized which was the joyning of the River Loire to the Seine by the Chanel of Briare Rosny laboured in this with much expence employing in it near three hundred thousand crowns but the work was interrupted I know not wherefore It was renewed again in the Reign of Lewis the thirteenth and brought to perfection There was proposed likewise another which was to make a conjunction of the two Seas the Ocean and the Mediterranean by uniting together the Garonne which runs into the Ocean and the Aude which fals into the Mediterranean Sea below Narbonne by Channels which were to be drawn along little Rivers which run between these great ones The Country of Languedoc offered to contribute but there were difficulties found which hindred this enterprize Navigation was established by the good order which the King had taken to keep his Coasts in security and to punish Pirates severely when they catcht them Our ships were not content to Traffick to the ordinary places but enterprized likewise to go to the new world which they had almost forgot since the time of Admiral Coligny A Gentleman of Xaintonge named du Gas began with the Kings Commission the voyage of Canada where afterwards was established the Commerce of Castors or Beavers which are the skins of a certain amphibious creature much like the Otters of this Country Among all these establishments we must not forget a great quantity of new Religious Companies which were made in Paris There was first seen the Recollects which were a branch of the Order of St. Francis of a new Reformation Capuchins and Feuillantines Carmelites who were brought from Spain Barefooted Carmes who came likewise from that Country of the Brothers of Charity vulgarly called the ignorant brothers who came out of Italy and all had soon built them Convents out of the Almes and Charity of Devout persons In the midst of this fair Calme at which the King rejoyced and during all these fair occupations which were worthy of him he was not left without troubles and vexations which perplexed his Spirit He had none more piercing nor more continual then those which came on the part of his Wife and his Mistresses We have already said how Madamoiselle d' Entragues had engaged him He had given her the land of Verneuil near Senlis and for the love of her had made it a Marquisate After that he was married he ceased not to have the same passion for her and to carry her with him in his Progresses and lodge her at Fontain-bleau These scandalous disorders extremely offended the Queen and the Pride of the Marchioness more furiously incensed her for she spoke alwaies of her in terms either injurious or disdainful sometimes not forbearing to say that if she had Justice she should hold the place of that fat Banker The Queen likewise on her side was with reason transported against her and made her complaints to all the world But this was not the way to gain the spirit of the King she had done better had she wisely dissembled her displeasure and by her kindnesses made her self master of that heart which of right belonged to her The King loved to be flattered he loved sweet and compliant discourse and was to be gained by tenderness and affection The band of love is love it self this was that she ought to employ with him and not grumblings disdains and ill countenances which serve onely more and more to disgust a husband and make him find more pleasure in the allurements of a Mistress who takes care to be alwaies agreeable and alwaies complacent But in stead of holding this way she was alwaies in contention with the King she exasperated him continually by her complaints and by her reproaches and when he thought to find with her some sweetness to ease the great labours of his spirit he encountred nothing but Gall and Bitterness She had belonging to her Chamber a Florentine woman Daughter of her Nurse named Leonora Galigay a creature extreme ugly but very spiritual and who knew so perfectly how to insinuate into her heart that she had in such manner seised on it that she absolutely commanded her It hath been said that this woman fearing that the Queen her Mistress would love her less if she perfectly loved the King her husband kept her from it as much as she could that she might possess her with more ease Afterwards to the end she might have a second in her designs she Married and Espoused her self to a Florentine a domestick of the Queens named Conchini of a little better Extraction then her self being grand-child to Baptista Conchini who had been Secretary to Cosmo Duke of Florence The Common opinion was that these two persons conjoyntly laboured so long as the King lived to conserve a spleen in the spirit of the Queen and to make her always troublesome and humoursome towards him in such manner that for seven or eight years together if he had one day of peace and quiet with her he had ten of discontent and vexation In this truly the Kings fault was the greatest because he gave the occasion of these troubles and the husband being as St. Paul saith the head of the wife ought to give her example and keep a more strict union with her We have observed this once for all But we cannot too often make this Reflexion That sin is the cause of all disorder and that for a little
not here tell the mischiefs and inconveniencies which this wicked invention hath caused and doth daily cause The most stupid may easily know them and see well that it is a disease whose remedy at present is difficult I will not charge this History with all the Ceremonies and Rejoycings made at the Birth and Baptism of all the Children of Henry the Great nor at divers Marriages of the Princes and Grandees of the Court amongst others of the Prince of Conde and the Duke of Vendosme which were made in the Month of July 1609. The Prince of Conde Espoused Câ—anlatta Margarita of Montmorency Daughter of the Constable who was wonderfully fair and had a presence absolutely noble which the King having considered was more lively struck with her then he had ever been with any other which caused a little after the retreat of the Prince of Conde who carried her into Flanders and thence retired to Milain Not without the Kings extreme displeasure to see the first Prince of his blood cast himself into his enemies hands The Duke of Vendosme Espoused Madamoiselle de Merceur to whom he had been affianced since the year one thousand six hundred ninety seven as we have said before however the Mother of the Lady standing upon high punctilio's of honour brought many troubles to the accomplishment of this Marriage so that it had never been made had not the King highly concerned himself in it This was none of the least difficulties of his life for he had a high and obstinate spirit to bend however he employed only ways of sweetness and perswasion acting in this business only as a Father who loved his Son and not as a King who would be obeyed Now will I speak of his ordinary divertisements Hunting Building Feasts Play and Walking I will adde only That in Feasts and Merriments he would appear as good a Companion and as Jovial as another That he was of a merry humour when he had the glass in his hand though very sober That his Mirth and good Discourses were the delicatest part of the good Chear That he witnessed no less Agility and Strength in Combats at the Barriers Courses at the Ring and all sorts of Gallantries then the youngest Lords That he took delight in Balls and Danced sometimes but to speak the truth with more affection then good grace Some carped that so great a Prince should abase himself to such follies and that a Grey-beard should please to act the young man It may be said for his excuse that the great toiles of his spirit had need of these divertisements But I know not what to answer to those who reproach him with too great a love to playing at Cards and Dice little befitting a great King and that withal he was no fair Gamester but greedy of Coin fearful at great Stakes and humorous upon a loss To this I must acknowledge that it was a fault in this great King who was no more exempt from Blots then the Sun from Beams It might be wished for the honour of his memory that he had been only guilty of this but that continual weakness he had for fair Ladiesâ— was another much more blamable in a Christian Prince in a of his age who was married to whom God had shewed so many graces and who had conceived such great designs in his spirit Sometimes he had desires which were passant and only fixt for a night but when he met with beauties which struck him to the heart he loved even to folly and in these transports appeared nothing less then Henry the Great The Fable saies that Hercules took the Spindle and Spun for the love of the fair Omphale Henry did something more mean for his Mistresses He once disguised himself like a Country-man with a Wallet of straw on his back to come to the fair Gabriella And it hath been reported that the Marchioness of Verneuil hath seen him more then once at her feet weeping his disdains and injuries Twenty Romances might be made of the intrigues of his several loves with the Countess of Guiche when he was yet but King of Navarre with Jacqueline of Bueil whom he made Countess of Moret and with Charlotta d' Essards without counting many other Ladies who held it a glory to have some Charm for so great a King The high esteem and affection which the French had for him hindred them from being offended at so scandalous a liberty but the Queen his wife was extremely perplexed at it which hourly caused controversies between them and carried her to disdains and troublesom humours The King who was in fault endured it very patiently and employed his greatest Confidents and sometimes his Confessor to appease his spirit So that he had continually a reconciliation to make And these contentions were so ordinary that the Court which at first were astonished at them in the end took no more notice Conjugal duty without doubt obliged the King not to violate his faith to his Legitimate Spouse at least not to keep his Mistresses in her sight but if he in this point ought to have been a good husband so he ought to be likewise in that of Authority and in accustoming his wife to obey him with more submission and not perplex him as she did with hourly complaints reproaches and sometimes threats The trouble and displeasure of these domestick broiles certainly retarded the Execution of that great design which he had formed for the good and perpetual repose of Christendom and in fine for the destruction of the Ottoman power Many have spoken diversely but see here what I find in the Memoires or Notes of the Duke of Sully who certainly must know something being as he was so great a Confident of this Kings which makes me report it from him The King said he desiring to put in Execution those projects he had conceived after the Peace of Vervin believed that he ought first to establish in his Kingdom an unshaken Peace by reconciling all spirits both to him and among themselves and taking away all causes of bitterness And that moreover it was necessary for him to choose people capable and faithful who might see in what his Revenue or Estate might be bettered and instruct him so well in all his Affairs that he might of himself take Counsels and discern the good from the ill feasible from impossible enterprizes and such as were proportionate to his Revenues For an expence made beyond them draws the peoples curses and those are ordinarily followed by Gods He granted an Edict to the Hugonots that the two Religions might live in Peace Afterwards he made a certain and fixed Order to pay his debts and those of the Kingdom contracted by the disorders of the times the profusions of his Ancestors and by the payments and purchases of men and places which he was forced to make during the League Sully shewed him an account
sends forth enlivenings and joy into the eyes of all that behold it To continue the Metamorphosis I will yet say that so many wise Laws which he made for Justice for Policy and for his Revenues so many good and useful Establishments of all sorts of Manufactures which produced to France the yearly profit of many Millions so many proud buildings as the Galleries of the Louvre the Pont-neuf the Place Royal the Colledge Royal the Keys for Merchants of the River Seine Fontain-bleau Monceaux St. Germain so many publick works Bridges Causwaies Highwaies repaired so many Churches rebuilded in many places of the Realm should be as the Ingravements and Imbellishments Let us Crown then with a thousand prayses the immortal memory of that great King the love of the French and the terror of the Spaniards the Honour of his age and the Admiration of Posterity Let us make him live in our hearts and in our affections in despite of the rage of those wicked persons deprived him of life Let us shout forth as many Acclamations to his glory as he hath done benefits to France He was a Hereules who cut off the Head of the Hydra by overturning the League He was greater then Alexander and greater then Pompey because he was as Valiant but he was more Just he gained as many victories but he gained more hearts He conquered the Gaules as well as Julius Caesar but he conquered them to give them liberty and Caesar subjugated them to enslave them Let his Name then be raised above that of the Hercules the Alexanders the Pompeys and the Gaesars Let his Reign be the Model of good Kings and his Examples the clear Lights to illuminate the eyes of other Princes Let his Posterity be Eternally Crowned with the Flowers de Lis Let them be alwaies happy alwaies Triumphant And to compleat our wishes let Lewis the Victorious his Grand-child Resemble or if it be possible Surpass him FINIS The Life of Hen. the Great divided into three parts The first The second The third His Genealogie Who Antho. de Bourbon his father was a Peter sixth Son to Lewis le gross espoused Isabella Heiress of Courtnay and took both Name and Arms a fault very prejudicial to his posterity b The branch of Bourbon produced many among others that of Vendosme Charles Duke of Vendosme had Anthony and six other sons Who Jane d' Albret his Mother was 〈◊〉 of Bourbon Duke of Vendosme and Jane d' Albret married at Moulins 1547. 1552. Henry the Great conceived at la Fleche 1553. His mother sings at her delivery of him He cries not at his birth So soon as born his grandfather carries him into his chamber he rubs his lips with Garlick makes him taste wine The Spaniards Raillery concerning the birth of his mother Her fathers Reply to it 1554. Baptism of Hen. 4. His godfathers and godmother He was hard to bring up He had for Governess Madam de Miossens His grandfather permits him not to be nourished delicately * It hath been said that he was ordinarily nourished with coarse bread beef cheese and garlick and that oftentimes he was made to march with naked feet and brre headed The death of Henry d' Albret 1555. His daughter son-in-law succeed him and retire from the Court. 1557. 1558. 1559. Death of King Henry the second Francis 2. succeeâ—s Divisions at Court 1560. Death of Francis 2. Charles 9. succeeds Queen Katherine declared Regent and the King of Navarre Lieutenant-General of the Realm 1562. He is killed before Rouen 1562. The Queen his wife returns to Bearn and embraces Calvinism 1566. She taâ— her son from the Court and gives him a Master instructs him in ill Doctrine 1567. Henry Prince of Navarre declared chief of the Religion 1569. Louys Prince of Condé his Uncle his Lieutenant with Admiral Coligny A judicious action when yet an infant b This Duke of Anjou was King after Hen. 3 Another action very judicious at the battle of Jarnac Lewis Prince of Condé slain After his death the Admiral commands all He hazards the battle of Montcontour Our Prince impatâ—ent to engage but hindred Gives marks of his judgement 1570. He with the Admiral continues the War The peace of Arnay-le-Duc 1571. A Resolution to entrap the Hugonots and exterminate them Death of Jane d' Albret Her son takes the quality of King of Navarre He marries the King of France his sister Massacre of St. Bartholomew The grief and fear of our young King He is constrained to turn Catholick 1572. His great dangers troubles at Court His wise prudent conduct He contracts friendship with the Duke of Guise He shuns contention with Duke d' Alenzon but lets himself be overcome by the beauty of Ladies which was his greatest weakness 1572. He fell not into any other of the horrible Vices of the Court. 1573. The Duke of Anjou besieges Rochel and carries the King with him The siege raised by the election of Duke d' Anjou to the Kingdome of Poland 1574. Charles 9. falls mortally sick at Bois de Vincennes A league made at Court into which Henry enters The Queen-mother discovering it causes him the Duke Alenson c to be arrested and la Mole Coconas Tourtray to be put to death The Chancellour would examine the King of Navarre Charles 9. near his death sends for him 1574. Queen Katherine alarm'd would affright him After the death of Charles 9. she seizeth on the Regency The two Princes set at liberty The Prince of Condé was in Germany The King of Navarre cannot escape as he desires He falls in love with a Lady The Queen-mother alluminates all the factions and civil wars 1575. Conspiracy against Henry 3. who confides in our Henry Henry 3. anointed and espoused to Louis de Lorrain Familiarity between our Henry and the Duke of Guise The Queen-mother breaks this union Henry 3. falls very sick a Francis 2 died of an Aposthume in his ear which was believed to come of poyson A noble and generous action of our Henry 1575. 1576. Monsieur departs from Court and joyns with the Hugonots Our Henry could not soon follow him but at length saves himself at Alenzon Peace made with Monsieur and the Hugonots 1576. Our Henry again turns Hugonot He is received into Rochel and after goes into Guyenne The gates of Bourdeaux shut against him The birth of the League These Leagues a fair path for the ambitious to rise by The Duke of Guise makes himself chief of the League The War of Monsieur his joyning with the Hugonots the cause of the League The Cities of Picardy begin it and why Christopher de Thou hinders its procedure at Paris The Leaguers oblige the King to call the Estates They assemble at Blois War resolved against the Hugonots Henry 3. declares himself chief of the League 1577. He raises three or four Armies against the Hugonots The Queen-mother obliges him to grant them peace 1578. She makes a voyage to Guyenne
retires to Pont de l' Arche The Duke of Parma takes Caudebec and is wounded and the Duke of Mayenne falls sick The Army of the King increases and the pursues the two Dukes Byron beats up one quarter but will not quite defeat them He would continue the War * A French Proverb aâ— if he should say Wouldst thou have me ruine my own Fortune Wonderful retreat of the Duke of Parma which the King cannot hinder The King admires the action A noble and dangerous action of the King at Aumale where he saved his Rereguard Grave answer of the Duke of Parma's concerning the Kings action Byron killed at Espernay Conferences renewed The Duke of Mayenne calls the Estates to Paris to elect a King The election of a King would have been the ruine of Henry 4. and France Expedient which the King finds to hinder this election Confeence of Surene 1593. Estates of the League assemble at Paris Mansfield comes with a Spanish Army takes Noyon afterwards his Army dissipates Byron raises the siege of Selles to relieve Noyon but dares not aâ—tempt it which puffs up the Kings enemies Conspiracy to surpâ—ize his person The Duke of Feria brings a Letter to the States-General from the King of Spain It was time for the King to convert In fine God touches him and he is converted The Spaniards and Legat press the Estates to chuse a King Grand arrest of the Parliament at Paris for the Salique Law Advantagious testimony of Villeroy in favour of the Parliament The King takes Dreux The Spaniards propose to the Estates to elect the Duke of Guise and their Infanta The Duke of Mayenne enraged his Wife more He makes truce with the King His subtile Argument against the Minister He abjures his Errour and becomes a Catholick The Duke of Mayenne dismisses the Estates The King sends the Duke of Nevers to Rome to have absolution of the Pope The Pope shews him self very difficult 1594. The League fals in less then a year Meaux Aix Lyons Orleans Bourges surrender to the King Reduction of Paris The King anointed at Chartres It was almost a wonder how he became master of Paris He sees the Spanish Garison depart and what he saies to them Parliament at Tours recalled to Paris The City rejoyce and are peaceable Two worthy actions of the King The one of Justice The other of Policy Reduction of Rouen Abbeville Troyes Sens c. La Capelle taken by Mansfield and Laon by the King Balagny turns to the Kings party with his City of Cambray Reduction of Amiens Beauvais Peronne The Duke of Guise compounds with the King And likewise the Duke of Lorrain The Duke of Mayenne remains alone and retires into Bourgongne 1595. The King declares war against the Spaniards Two artempts on his person Of Peter Barriere and of John Castel Jesuites exiled the kingdom Reduct on of Beaune Auxerre and Dijon c. The King goes into Bourgongne against the Spanish Army Battail of Fountain-Franzoise where the King shews his valour but is in danger of his life The Spanish Army retire The Duke of Mayenne despairing would retire into Savoy The King hath pity of him and offers him an accommodation and place of retreat He grants him a truce La Fere Ham delivered to the Spaniards who are cut in pieces at Ham. Humieres killed Many Leaguers despairing cast themselves into the Spaniards arms Amongst others Rosny who causeth the taking of Dourlens Battel of Dourlens Villars slain Cambray taken by the Spaniards The Pope absolves the King The Duke of Mayenne in the end makes his Treaty with King Hath advantagious Conditions He comes to Monceaux to salute the King The Duke of Nemours reconciled likewise His elder Brother died of a strange disease 1596. The Duke of Joyeuse makes his Treaty with the King And the Lord of Boisdaufia Reduction of Marseilles The King grants a truce to the Duke of Merceur Arch-duke Albert takes Calais Taking of la Fere by the King The Archduke takes likewise Guines and Ardres The King to have mony calls an assembly of the Chiefs to Rouen The manner of their sitting His Speech The Assembly grant money for the War King of Spain desires the peace Surprizal of Amiens by the Spaniards retards the peace 1597. The King resolves to besiege Amiens Many conspiracies discovered The people contribute willingly and the Leaguers serve him well The Arch-Duke comes to relieve Amiens His arrival assaults put the Kings Army in disorder The King re-assures them Words worthy a good and Christian King The Arch-Duke retires to Flanders The King retakes Amiens The King marches to the gates of Arras and dares the Spaniards The Duke of Merceur daily delays concluding his Treaty The King goes into Brittany resolved to chastise him He gives his daughter to the Kings natural son and by this means makes his agreement By reason of this marriage the King gives his son the Dukedom of Vendosme 1598. He goes to Nantes and Rennes He puts good order in the Province Endeavours for a general peace and the two Kings wish it The Deputies met at Vervin Substance of the Treaty of Vervin The peace published 1598. The third part of the Life of Henry the great more calm and more peaceable then the others He was a Souldier by constraint but a Polititian by inclinaon It is necessary a King should know War but besides that there are other functions of Royalty What those functions are The Peace sworn by the King and Arch-Duke Albertus Byron made Duke and Peer goes to swear the peace in the Netherlands The Spaniards possess him with pride and presumption VVhat the French and what the Spaniards said of the peace VVhy the King desired peace Excellent words Strange sickness death of Philip 2. of Spain Before his death he takes care to marry his son and daughter His sickness hinders his swearing to the peace His son Philip the 2. doth it after his death The King forbids the carrying of arms He dismisses his Troops He remits the arrears of Taxes He commands the false Nobles to be sought out and taxes re-imposed on them He retrenches theluxury of the Nobility and sends them all to their houses in the Country He shews them by his example the modesty of his habits He falls dangerously sick Words of a good King He gives the Estates an account of his expences Cuts off the superfluous expences of his Tables Who were his Counsellours Ministers Chiverny Bellievre Sillery Sancy Janin Villeroy The King confers often with his Counsellours how Rosny after Duke of Sully After the death of Francis d' O he commits his Revenues to five or six who acquit themselves ill Seeing that he makes Sancy alone Superintendent And very little time after Rosny who knows perfectly the Revenues Which the King knows also so well that he could not be cheated He desires Rosny to take no Presents without advertising him He begins to establish a constant
towards Senlis and retired to Alenzon where however he acted nothing the peace being soon after concluded with them all There was granted to Monsieur a great Portion in money and places to the Hugonots many very advantagious conditions to the Prince of Condé the Government of Picardy and the City of Peronne for his retreat but to our Henry nothing else but hopes of which being in the end dis-abused he renounced the peace re-entred into the Hugonot party and quitting the Catholick Church returned anew to his first Religion It is to be believed that he did it because he was perswaded it was the better thus his fault will be worthy of excuse nor can he be accused but for not having the true light In the mean time it must not be forgot to observe on this that the greatest reproach his enemies ever made him I mean those of the League was his having thus relapsed and this was likewise the greatest obstacle he found at Rome when being converted he demanded the absolution of the Pope The Rochellers received him into their City but not without great Pre-cautions and not until he had driven from him some people who were neither Catholicks nor Hugonots but Atheists and horrible wicked persons It hath been held that they followed him against his will that truely he had served himself of them in some intrigues but that it was himself who by secret advice obliged the Rochellers to demand their expulsion After he had so journed some months at Rochel he went to take possession of his Government of Guyenne where he had the displeasure to see shut against him the gates of the City of Bourdeaux under pretext that the inhabitants feared that if he became Master of it he would banish the Catholick Religion A very sensible injury to a young Prince full of courage but he knew most wisely how to dissemble it at present because he had not power to revenge it and generously forgot it when he had the means to do it About this time the League took birth that puissant faction which for twenty years together tormented France which thought to introduce the Spanish Domination and which would have renversed the order of the succession of the Royal family under the fairest pretext in the world to wit the maintenance of the Religion of our Ancestors At other times under the reign of Charles the ninth there were divers Leagues and Associations made in Guyenne and Languedoc to defend the Church against the Hugonots I leave it to judge whether those who rendred themselves Chief of them had most Zeal or most Ambition but they were not pressed so forward nor so diligently formed and therefore became extinct The Grandees of the Realm however might by them observe that if at any time such associations were made it would be a fair means to elevate to a great height him who could render himself their Chief Henry Duke of Guise who had a King-like heart had in all likelyhood this thought or if he at first had it not the favorites of Henry the third by persecuting him forced him to entertain it and to apply himself to this party to defend himself against them There were of his house seven or eight Princes all brave to the utmost extent The principal of them were the Duke of Mayenne and the Cardinal de Guise his brothers the Duke d' Aumarle and the Marquiss d' Elbeuf his Cousins Now the Evasion of Monsieur of which we have spoken to the Hugonots and the advantagious peace after granted them made the League show it self which was but little in its commencement Those who to render themselves puissant desired a new faction in the State took this subject to make it be represented by their Emissaries the great danger in which the Catholick Religion was and to remonstrate the excessive puissance of its enemies who had on their side the two first Princes of the blood and Monsieur who was their friend What would it be said they if he should come to the Crown with such ill intentions that therefore they ought to advise in good time and fortifie themselves against that danger which threatned the holy Church They whispered at present these Considerations and other like them into men ears and when they had disposed their spirits published them aloud Upon this the Burgesses of Peronne a free City and which was accustomed to have so puissant a Governour refused to receive the Prince of Condé because a Hugonot He made his complaints to the King and demanded the execution of the treaty of peace The Picards opposed him and were the first that made a League or Union for the defence as they said of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Faith The Prince of Condé could never have reason and was constrained to retire into Guyenne James Lord d' Humieres was made Chief of this League in Picardy and Aplincourt a young Gentleman took the Oath of the Inhabitants of Peronne by whose example the Cities of Amiens Corbie St. Quintins and many others did the like Lewis de Tremoville began one likewise in Poictou The Queen-mother secretly favoured this designe to the end she might retain her authority among these discords and disturbances The first Model and the Articles of this League were brought to Paris and there were some so zealous as to carry them from house to house endeavouring to engage the most backward but Christopher de Thou chief president hindred for the present the progress of this conspiracy Those who were the first inventors of it had deliberated among themselves that to the end to give it means to aggrandize it self and to keep the spirits of the people still warm it was necessary to continue the war with the Hugonots for this purpose they stirred up divers persons who surprized their places and committed a thousand affronts against our Henry and the Prince of Condé And much more they raised so many factions and complaints on all sides of people who demanded the summoning of the Estates that the King was obliged to agree to it They assembled then at Blois and began in the month of December in the year 1575. The Hugonots themselves were not at all troubled at this Convocation because they imagined that the third Estate which ordinarily is the strongest and which hath most reason to apprehend the war would cause the peace to be confirmed but the Juncto of those which were for war was so strong that it was resolved puissantly to prosecute it They judged it notwithstanding convenient to depute before-hand some persons of the Assembly to our Henry and to the Prince of Condé to exhort them to return into the bosome of the Catholick Church And this taking no effect the King was obliged to declare himself Chief of the League and so from Soveraign become Chief of a faction and enemy to a part of his subjects He raised three or
of his Conversion and in the mean time they would continually keep him as it were besieged by those strangers forces In effect Elizabeth who had zeal for the Protestant religion interested her self very strongly in the cause of this King daily generously assisted him and strenuously sollicited the German Princes to coâ—cur with her At the same time the Hugonots pressed with all their force that he would grant them an Edict for the Free exercise of their Religion they pursued it so strongly that he was forced to accord it them and they sent it to the Parliament sitting at Tours but they could never obtain it to be confirmed by them but with these words by proviso only shewing themselves as much enemies to this false Religion as they were to the factions of the League During this time Pope Sixtus 5. died leaving in the Treasury of the Church Five Millions of gold which he had heaped up He was much disgusted at the League and stretched forth his armes as much as he could to our Henry to recal him into the Church whilst the League endeavoured to shut the gates against him that they might exclude him from his Royalty To Sixtus succeeded Urban 7. who held the Seat only thirteen daies and to that Urban Gregory the 14. who being of a violent spirit and a Spaniard by inclination zealously embraced the party of the League as we shall see hereafter I silently pass over divers enterprizes made both by one party and the other The Parisians made one upon St. Denis The Cavalier d' Aumale one of their Chiefs whom they called the Lion Rampant of the League was killed in the midst of the City when he had made himself almost master of it The King on his side made an other attempt upon Paris It was called the battail of the Flour because he was to surprize the City under pretext of a Convoy of Flour or Meal carried thither but it was discovered and obliged the Duke of Mayenne upon the vehement cries of the Sixteen to receive four thousand Spaniards into the Garrison which retarded for more then a year the reduction of Paris It is convenient to understand that neither the one nor the other party having any foundation to keep continually their Armies on foot they only as we may say made War by intervals When they had been three months together they retired and then re-assembled again and according as they were stronger or weaker made their enterprises The King having Rendezvouzed his besieged the City of Chartres where la Bourdaisiere commanded There was but a small Garrison within yet however the siege was long difficult and bloody It s length gave subject to the third party to continue many dangerous intrigues but the taking of that place repressed them for some time He restored the Government to Chiverni Chancellour of France who had had it before the League seized it After this the Duke of Mayenne who beheld himself in no very good Estate following the Counsel of the Duke of Parma renewed a Conference for peace which ending without doing any thing the Princes Lorrains and the Principal Chiefs of the League held a general Assembly at Reims It was resolved that they being altogether too weak to resist the King and wanting money it was absolutely necessary to unite themselves more firmely with Spain then they had formerly done and to this Effect they dispatched the President Janin to Philip the second This President was a man of a strong brain and a good French-man who laboured for the League and for the Duke of Mayenne but who would save the Estate by saving the Religion so that he well endeavoured to serve himself of the Spaniard but he would not serve them or procure their advancement Yet we cannot doubt but as he had his ends they had likewise theirs and that they designed to make good their expences laid out for the League on the Kingdom of France The Spaniard had for Aid and Second in his design the new Pope Gregory the 14. who yet went on more swiftly and with more heat then he for without having regard either to the Letters which Monsieur de Luxembourg after Duke of Piney writ to him on the part of the Princes and Catholick Lords which were in the Kings party or to the submissions and three humble Remonstrances made him by the Marquis of Pisany who was there at Rome deputed from them he strenuously embraced the party of the League entertained correspondence with the Sixteen receiving Letters from them and writing to them and which is more he prodigally wasted that treasure which Sixtus 5. had heaped up to raise an Army of twelve thousand men giving the Command to Count Hercules Sfondrato his Nephew whom he made expresly Duke of Montmarcian to authorize him the more by this new title He accompanied this Army with a Monitory or Bull of Excommunication against the Prelates which followed the King and sent it by Marcelin Landriano his Nuntio with great quantity of Silver to the Sixteen of Paris to be distributed among them and the Chiefs of the Cabals in the great Cities The Parliament at Tours having had advice of this Monitory caused it to be torn by the hand of the Common Scavenger and decreed an Arrest against the Nuntio That at Paris on the contrary annulled that Arrest as being said they by persons without power and commanded that the holy Father and his Nuntio should be obeyed After all these Bulls produced no great effect at present and the Cardinal of Bourbon tormented himself in vain to make the assembly of the Clergy which was held at Chartres declare against the Arrest at Tours Nor did the Army of the Pope do any great exploits but was almost quite dispersed ere it came to render any Service The same arrived not to those Troops the King had caused to be raised in Germany by the Viscount of Turenne They served the King well in his affairs and gained him notable advantages In recompence he honoured this Lord with the Staff of Marshal of France to render him the more capable to Espouse Charlotta de la Mark Dutchess of Bouillon and Sovereign Lady of Sedan who though a Hugonot had been puissantly sought to both by friendship and force by the Duke of Lorrain who desired to marry her to his Eldest Son the Marquis du Pont. The King made this Match to oppose a man to the Duke of Lorrain who helped to sustain the League Of which the new Marshal acquitted himself having among other fair exploits surprized Stenay the night preceding his Nuptials The King had another great Captain in the Daulphinate which was Lesdiguieres who held that Country having reduced the City of Grenoble and who saved Provence for him of which the Duke of Savoy thought to seize himself and dismember that piece from the Crown This Duke being Son-in-law to Philip the second King of
took care before his death to treat of the marriage of his Son with Margaret Daughter to the Arch-Duke of Grats and that of his dear Daughter Isabella with the cardinal-arch-Cardinal-Arch-Duke Albert of the same blood with her and gave him for Dowry the Low-Countries and County of Bourgongne on Condition of its Reversion if she died without issue He had already signed the Articles of the peace but this mortal sickness permitted him not to give Oath to it with the same solemnities as the King and Arch-Duke had done Philip the third his Son and Successour acquitted himself of this Obligation on the one and twentieth of May in the year 1601. in the City of Vallidolid and presence of the Count of Rochepot Ambassodour of France The license of the War having for many years permitted mischiefs with impunity there were yet found a great number of Vagabonds who believed it still permitted them to take the Goods of others at pleasure and others there were who thought they had right to do themselves justice by their arms not acknowledging any Laws but force This obliged our wise King to begin the Reformation of the Estate by the Re-establishment of publick Security To this effect he forbad all carrying of Fire-arms to all persons of what quality soever upon pain of the Confiscation of their Arms and Horses and a Fine of two hundred Crowns for the first fault and of Life without remission for the second permitting all the world to arrest any who carried them except his light-horsemen his Gens d' Arms and the Guards of his body which might bear them onely when they were in service To the same purpose and to ease the Country of the multitudes of his Souldiers he dismissed not onely the greatest part of his new Troops but likewise reduced the one half of his old He reduced the Companies of the Ordinance to a very little number and took off the Guards of the Governours of the Provinces and Lieutenants of the King not willing to suffer any whatsoever besides himself to have that glorious mark of Soveraignty about their persons The Wars had spoiled all Commerce reduced Cities into Villages Villages to small Cots and Lands to Deserts nevertheless the Receivers constrained the poor Husband-men to pay Taxes for those Fruits they had never gathered The Cries of these miserable people who had nothing but their Tongues to lament with touched in such manner the very Entrails of so just and so good a King that he made an Edict by which he released them of all they owed him for the time past and gave them hopes to ease them more for the future Moreover having understood that during the Troubles there were made a great quantity of false Nobles who were exempted from the Tax he commanded that they should be sought forth nor did he confirm their Usurpation for a piece of mony as hath been sometimes done to the great prejudice of other taxed people but he would that the Tax should be re-imposed upon them to the end that by this means they might assist the poor people to bear a good part of the burthen as being the richer He desired with much affection to do good to his true Nobility and repay them those Expences they had been at in his service but his Coffers were empty and moreover all the Gold in Peru had not been sufficient to satisfie the Appetite and Luxury of so many people For King Henry the third had by his example and that of his Minions raised expences so high that Lords lived like Princes and Gentlemen like Lords for which purposes they were forced to alienate the Possessions of their Ancestors and change those old Castles the illustrious marks of their Nobility into Silver-lace Gilt-coaches train and horses Afterwards when they were indebted beyond their credit they fell either upon the Kings Coffers demanding Pensions or on the backs of the people oppressing them with a thousand Thieveries The King willing to remedy this disorder declared very resolvedly to his Nobility That he would they should accustom themselves to live every man on his Estate and to this effect he should be well content that to enjoy themselves of the peace they should go see their Country houses and give order for the improvement of their Lands Thus he eased them of the great expences of the Court and made them understand that the best treasure they could have was that of good management Moreover knowing that the French Nobility would strive to imitate the King in all things he shewed them by his own example how to abridge their superfluity in Cloathing For he ordinarily wore gray Cloath with a Doublet of Sattin or Taffata without slashing Lace or Embroydery He praised those who were clad in this sort and chid the others who carried said he their Mills and their Woods and Forests on their backs About the end of the year he was seized with a suddain and violent sickness at Monceaux of which it was thought he would die All France was affrighted and the rumours which ran of it seemed to re-kindle some factions but in ten or twelve days he was on foot again as if God had onely sent him this sickness to discover to him what ill wills there were yet in the Kingdome and to give him the satisfaction to feel by the sorrows of his people the pleasures of being loved In the strength of his Disease he spoke to his friends these excellent words I do not at all fear death I have affronted it in the greatest dangers but I avow that I should unwillingly leave this Life till I have put this Kingdome into that splendour I have proposed to my self and till I have testified to my people by governing them well and easing them of their many Taxes that I love them as if they were my Children After his recovery continuing in his praise-worthy designes of putting his Affairs in order he came to St. Germain in Laya to resolve the Estates of the expence as well of his House as for the Guard of Frontiers and Garisons entertainment of Forces Artillery Sea-Affairs and many other Charges He had then in his Council as we may say we have at present very great men and most experienced in all sorts of Matters but he still shewed himself more able and more understanding then they He examined and discussed all the particulars of his expence with a judgement and with a clearness of spirit truely admirable retrenched and cut off all that was possible allowing onely what was necessary Amongst other things he abridged the superfluous expences of the Tables in his house not so much that he might spare himself as to oblige his subjects to moderate their liquorish prodigality and hinder them from ruining their whole houses by keeping too great Kitchins In sum by the example of the King which hath always more force then Laws or then Correction Luxury was
wilt punish me as my sins deserve I offer my head to thy Justice spare not the Culpable but Lord for thy holy mercies sake take pity of the poor Kingdom and smite not the flock for the offence of the shepherd It cannot be expressed of what efficacy these words were they were in a moment carried through the whole Army and it seemed as if some vertue from heaven had given courage to the French The Arch-Duke therefore finding them resolved and in good Countenance durst not pass farther Some other attempts he afterwards made which did not succeed and he retired by night into the Country of Artois where he dismissed his Army In fine Hernand Teillo being slain by a Musquet-shot the besieged capitulated and the King established Governour in the City the Seigneur de Vic a man of great order and exact discipline who by his command began to build a Citadel there At his departure from Amiens the King led his Army to the very Gates of Arras to visit the Arch-Duke he remained three days in battalia and saluted the City with some Volleys of Cannon Afterward seeing that nothing appeared he retired towards France ill satisfied said he gallantly with the courtesie of the Spaniards who would not advance so much as one pace to receive him but had with an ill grace refused the honour he did them The Marshal of Byron served him extraordinarily at this siege and the King when he was returned to Paris and that those of the City gave him a reception truly Royal he told them shewing them the Marshal Gentlemen see there the Marshal de Byron whom I do willingly present both to my friends and to my enemies There rested now no appearance of the League in France but onely the Duke of Merceur yet keeping a corner of Brittany The King had often granted him Truces and offered him great Conditions but he was so intoxicated with an ambition to make himself Duke of that Country that he found out daily new fancies to delay the concluding one imagining that time might afford him some favourable revolution and flattering himself with I know not what prophecies which assured him that the King should dye in two years In fine the King wearied with so many protractions turns his head that way resolving to chastise his obstinacy as it deserved He had been lost without remedy if he had not been advised to save himself by offering his only daughter to the eldest son of the Fair Gabriella Dutchess of Beaufort who is at this day Duke of Vendosme His Deputies could at first obtain nothing else but that he should immediately depart out of Brittany and deliver those places which he held which done his Majesty would grant him oblivion for all past and receive him into his favour But the King being of a tender heart and desiring to advance his natural son by so rich and noble a marriage granted him a very advantagious Edict which was verified in the Parliament as all those of the Chiefs of the League were This accommodation was made at Angiers the Contract of marriage passed at Chasteau and the affiances celebrated with the same Magnificence as if he had been a Legitimate son of France He was four years old and the Virgin six The King made gift to him of the Dutchy of Vendosme by the same right that other Dukes hold them which the Parliament verified not without great repugnancy and with this condition that it should be no president for the other goods of the Kings patrimony which by the Laws of the Realm were esteemed reunited to the Crown from the time of his coming to it From Angiers the King would pass into Brittany He stayed some time at Nantes from thence he went to Rennes where the Estates were held he passed about two months in this City in feasts joys and divertisements but yet ceasing not seriously to imploy himself to hasten the expedition of many affairs For it is to be observed that this great Prince employed himself all the mornings in serious things and dedicated the rest of the day to his divertisements yet not in such manner that he would not readily quit his greatest pleasures when there was any thing of importance to be acted and he still gave express order not to defer the advertizing him of such things He took away a great many superfluous Garisons in this Country suppressed many imposts which the Tyranny of many perticular persons had introduced during the War disbanded all those pilfering Troops which laid waste the plain Country sent forth the Provosts into the Campagne against the theeves which were in great number restored Justice to its authority which License had weakned and gathered four Millions of which the Estates of the Country of their own free will levyed eight hundred thousand crowns So he laboured profitably for these two ends which he ought most to intend to wit the ease of his people and the increase of his treasures Two things which are incompatible when a Prince is not Just and a good manager or lets his mony be managed by others without taking diligent care of his accounts Thus was a calme of Peace restored to France within it self after ten years Civil Wars by a particular grace of God on this Kingdom by the labour diligence goodness and valour of the best King that ever was And in the mean time a peace was seriously endeavoured between the two Crowns of France and Spain The two Kings equally wished it our Henry because he passionately desired to ease his people and to let them regain their forces after so many bloody and violent agitations and Philip because he found himself incline to the end of his days and that his Son Philip the third was not able to sustain the burthen of a War against so great a King The Deputies of one part and the other had been assembled for three months in the little City of Vervins with the Popes Nuntio Those of France were Pompone of Believre and Nicholas Bruslard both Counsellours of State and the last likewise President of the Parliament who acting agreeably and without jealousies determined on the most difficult Articles in very little time and according to the order they received from the King signed the peace on the second of May. The 12. of the same month it was published at Vervin It would be too long to insert here all the Articles of the Treaty I shall say only that it was agreed that the Spaniards should surrender all the places they had taken in Picardy and Blavet which they yet held in Brittany That the Duke of Savoy should be comprehended in this Treaty provided he delivered to the King the City of Berry which he held in Provence And for the Marquesate of Saluces which that Duke had taken from France towards the latter end of the Reign of Henry the third that it should be
and carries with her her daughter Margaret The King of Navarre looses Agen and la Reole by two follies of youth Two exquisite Reflections Queen Margaret did not over-well love her husband nor he her but he draws advantages from her intrigues The Queen-mother Monsieur the Guises weary of the peace 1579. They under-hand perswade the King of Navarre to a Rupture which proves very disadvantagious to him Monsieur procures the peace Of much damage to the Estate being the cause the two Henries plunged themselves in pleasure Henry 3. hath favorites who prejudice his affairs Dispositions to the League to the loss of Hen. 3. 1584. a Monsieur intending to surprize Antwerp and treating ill the people of the Low-Countries who had called him was driven thence The death of the Monsieur begets thoughts of a Successor to the Crown The Queen-Mother designs to give the Crown to the children of her daughter married to the Duke of Lorrain A belief that the Duke of Guise hoped to Reign himself Henry 3. knew his design or was advertized of it by his favorites He sends the Duke d'Espernon to the King of Navarre to oblige him to return to the Catholick Church but he refuses The Duke of Guise profits himself of it The League Established at Paris The Pope disapproves it It is turned against Henry the third The Treaty of Joinville where the Spaniards enter into the League furnish money The League seize many places The Queen-mother enters into conference with Guise who breaks it when he sees himself in an Estate to fear nothing The King astonished grants him all he desires 1585. Pope Sixtus 5. excommunicates the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde The vertue of our Henry awakened He doth two noble actions He defies the Duke of Guise to single Combat Why the Duke of Guise accepted not the defiance The other gallant Action of our Henry He causes to be fixed up at the corners of the chief streets of Rome oppositions to the sentence of Sixtus 5. who at first is incensed but afterwards conceives a great estèem for him The King of Navarre makes a League to defend himself 1586. Henry 3. hated both the League the Hugonots and loved none but his favourites The Queen-mother endeavours an accommodation with the King of Navarre The Interview and conference at St. Brix A noble generous Action of our Prince His constancy in the whole conference A handsome answer to Duke de Nevers Conference at St. Brix produceth nothing Dances and Feasts in the Courts of the two Kings Blaise de Monluc Marshal of France who writ in these times says in his Memoires That whatever affair there were of force the Dancing was still to go forward 1587. An Army of German Protestants enter France It is followed by the Duke of Guise It doth nothing to purpose The King of Navarre would joyn with them but the Duke of Joyeuse makes head against him with an Army The Duke overtakes him near Coutras What the Army of Joyeuse was What that of the King His Exhortation to his Army and to the Princes of the Blood His valour bravery An Action of great Justice and Christian Humility The Battail of Coutras which he gains Joyeuse slain His moderation and admirable Clemency in his Victory He pursues it not and wherefore Defeat of the German horse The rest of that Army retire 1588 Prognostications of the evils of the year 1588. Death of the Prince of Conde The King of Navarre much afflicted But in his affliction puts his trust in God The League rejoyce The Hugonots afflicted Sentiments of Hen. 3. The Duke of Guise presseth him to give him forces to exterminate the Hugonots The Duke of Guise much loved and Hen. 3. much haâ—ed D' Espinac Villeroy become friends to the Duke of Guise and why The ill Conduct of Henry 3. The Conduct and employs of the Duke of Guise What the sixteen were The King would punish them The Duke of Guise hastes to defend them The King retires to Chartres The league becomes Mistriss Paris The Parisians send Deputies to the King The King pardons all so they lay down Arms. The Duke of Guise demands the expulsion of Espernon which is in the end granted And after comes to the Court at Chartres The Estates of Blois The death of the Guises Death of Queen Katherine de Medices Different Judgments concerning the death of the Guises Our Henry speaks very wisely He changeth not his Conduct 1589. Henry 3. amusiag himself too much at Blois the League is re-assured and grows furious The Parliament imprisoned in the Bastille by Bussy le Clerk forced to swear to the the â—eague A part remains at Paris and the others go to the King who transfers all to Tours Those of the Parliament remaining at Paris make process against Henry 3. An excellent reflection for Kings Henry 3. excommunicated by Pope Sixtus 5. The Duke of Mayenne assures himself of Burgongne and Champagne and comes to Paris He takes the quality of Lieutenant-General of the Estate and Crown of France they likewise break the Kings Seals Henry 3. for fear retires to Tours He in vain endeavours to appease the Duke of Mayenne He in the end calls the King of Navarre gives him Saumur The King perswaded by his friends not to trust him Yet he resolves to go arrive what will to which purpose he passes the River Cher. His interview with the King at Tours He repasses the River and lies in the Fauboâ—rg but on the morrow visits the King alone They resolve to besiege Paris Duke of Mayenne wants little to surprize King Hen. 3 â—â— Tours Great and profitable Reflections made on the different Conducts of Hen. â— and the King of Navarre Paris besieged King Hen. 3. killed by a Jacobin Our Henry comes to visit him dying What the King said to him and those present 1589 Change caused by the Death of Hen. 3. Problem if Hen. 3. died in a time favourable to Hen. 4. or not Henry 4. holds many Councels Same Catholicks acknowledge him but most refuse Some design to make themselves Sovereigns The Marshal of Byron among others but the King made him forgo his desire Byron and Sancy assure the Catholick Suiss to the Kings Service What was the disposition of the Princes of the blood towards the King Many Lords in Camp and Court ill intended Assembly of Noblemen at d' O's who would have the King converted d' O carrys him word of it The King answers them hansomely and couragiously Another greater Assembly resolved to acknowledge him provided he will permit himself to be instructed The Duke of Piney carries their resolution to the King who agrees to it and grants a Declaration touching the exercise of the Catholick Religion through all his Territories Many sign it with regret and others refuse as Vitry who becomes a Leaguer And the Duke of Espernon who retires The Duke of Mayennâ— troubled what party to take Two