Nine years JOHN I. The 23 August 423. S. Two years nine Months and a half BONIFACE II. The 15 th Oct. S. One year JOHN II. In Decemb. 431. S. Three years four Months AGAPETUS In July 534. S. One year SILUERIUS In June 536. S. Four years VIGILIUS In 540 S. 15 years Thierry King of Meâ—z or of Austrasia aged between 28 and 30 years Clodomir of Orleans aged 16 or 17 years Childebert of Paris aged 13 or 14 years Clotaire of Soissons aged about 12 years Year of our Lord 511 THese four Brothers divided the Kingdom betwixt them and drew their shares by Lot Thierry had all Austrasia and the Countreys beyond the Rhine the other Three had Neustria they were all equally Kings and without dependence upon one another yet nevertheless all these parts together made but up the body of one Kingdom The Historians count their Succession by the Kings of Paris because that City hath since been the Capital of all France Year of our Lord 512. c. Five or six years successively these Princes lived in quiet the three Sons of Clotilda being yet young and perhaps the two last under the Government of their Mother it seems a little after the death of their Father the Visigoths regained from them the Countrey of Rouergne and some other Lands in the neighborhood of Languedoc France then began to be divided into Oosterrich or the Eastern part called by corruption Austria and Austrasia and into Westrich or Western part and by corruption Neustria Austrasia comprehended all that is between the Meuse and the Rhine and even on this side the Meuse Rheims Chalons Cambray and Laon. Besides antient France and all those people subdued beyond the Rhine as the Bavarois the Almains and a part of the Turingians depended upon it Neustria extended from this side the Meuse unto the Loire Aquitain was not comprised under the name of France nor Burgundy not even after it was conquer'd nor Bretagne Armorick at least the lower because it was an independent Estate Year of our Lord 516 Gondebaud King of Burgundy dyed in the year 516. He had compiled or written a Law called by his Name the Law Gombete which was long in use amongst the Burgundians as the Salique was amongst the French He had two Sons Sigismond and Gondemar The first succeeded him in all his Dominions and having been Converted many years before by the Instructions of Avitus Bishop of Vienne he abjured Arrianisme at his first coming to the Crown and brought all his People over with him to the Orthodox Faith A Danish Captain named Cochiliac exercising Piracy had made a Descent on the Year of our Lord 518. towards 519. Lands belonging to Thierry 's Kingdom near the mouth of the Rhine when he would have gotten on Ship-board again with his Plunder comes the Prince Theodebert eldest Son of Thierry who assaults him kills him and having stained both Land and Sea with the Blood of those Pirats regained all what they had seized and stollen Sigismond bad at his first Marriage espoused Ostrogotha Daughter to King Theodorick of Italy by whom he had a Son named Sigeric After the death of that Queen he took one of his Servants into his Bed who having conceived a Step-mothers hatred against the young Prince made him seem criminal in his Fathers Eyes by her frequent calumnies who caused him to be strangled with a Napkin as he was sleeping but immediately he was so struck with Remorse that he retired himself for a time to weep for this Year of our Lord 522 crime into the Monastery of d'Agaune which he himself had built or much enlarged in Honour of St. Maurice and his Companions The Divine Justice as may be well believed stirred up the French Kings to chastise him though he had married his Daughter Sister to Sigeric with King Thierry the other three Brothers forbore not to conspire his ruine being incited thereto by Year of our Lord 523 their Mother Clotilda who yet cherished in her bosome the desire to revenge her Fathers death If at least we may suspect such a thing from so pious a Princess In few days they made themselves Masters of a great part of Burgundy either by the gaining of some Battle or the defection even of the Burgundians Sigismond fearing to be delivered up by his own Subjects disguises himself like a Monk and retires to the top of an inaccessible Mountain he had not long been there but some of those he thought his most faithful Servants went and found him and advised him to quit that place as not safe and betake himself to St. Maurice's Church the most Sacred Asylum of all those Provinces when he was come almost to the Gate of that Monastery the Traitors delivered him into the hands of the French Clodomir carries him away with his Wife and Children and shuts them in a Castle not far from Orleans As for Gondemar having saved himself by flight he awhile afterwards gathers Year of our Lord 524 up his Brothers Wrecks and puts himself in possession of the Throne Clodomir could not endure it and Leagued himself with Thierry his elder Brother to compleat his overthrow Before he set forth he was resolved to rid himself of Sigismond St. Avy Abbot of Micy endeavoured in vain to prevent him by his Pious Arguments adding In the Name of God the threats of a Reprisal on his Head and his Family but he Treated him in Ridicule and caused Sigismond to be cruelly Massacred with his Wife and Children and their Bodies to be thrown into a Well The prophetick threatnings of the Holy Abbot soon had their effect It was impossible but Thierry must in his Soul have a just Resentment for the death of Sigismond his Father-in-law so that when he beheld Clodomir far engaged in the medley which was in a Battle they fought against Gondemar near Autun he forsook him and suffer'd him to perish The Burgundians knowing him by his long Royal Locks cut off his Head and fixed it on a Lance but that spectacle instead of terrifying the French inflamed their Courage and Fury they revenged his death by a horrible slaughter of the Burgundians and conquer'd a part of that Kingdom to wit that which lay nearest the Kingdom of Orleans Clodomir was aged some Thirty years he left three Sons then but Children Theobald Gontair and Clodoaldo whom Clotilda their Grand-mother took care to breed hoping that when they came to be of age their Uncles would restore their Fathers Kingdom to them Clotaire his younger Brother presently married his Widow she was named Gondiocha so little the Princes of this First Race had any consideration for their Blood being as bruitish in their Amours as in their Revenge THIERRY in Austrasia at Mets. CHILDEBERT in Neustria at Paris CLOTAIRE in Neustria at Soissons The Kingdom of Burgundy was not shared amongst these Brothers till some years afterwards and Thierry had no part of it Theoderic King of the Ostrogoths
with a powerful Army ruined all the Countries of the most Factious and Stubborn and gave quarter only to those that besought his Pardon From thence finding he was so far on his way he pushes on to Pampeluna where he made some stay to assure himself of the fidelity of the Inhabitants of that Country which was very uncertain Before he Filed off his men thorow the passages of those Mountains he would needs be precautioned against the Robberies of those Gascon Mountaineers some of them being already in Ambuscade by seizing on their Women and Children and hanging one of their Spies who came on purpose to observe them and give his Companions notice of their motion Year of our Lord 810 Being returned into Aquitain he mightily laboured to reform that Kingdom and especially the Ecclesiastical Order which was so much deformed the Prelates and Priests being all turned Sword-men that there were no footsteps of any Discipline remaining He not only restored it by his exemplary devout life and by his good Rules and Orders but also by the great care he took to repair or build Monasteries which were as the Seminaries of good Church-men The Author who wrote his life reckons no less then Five and Twenty or Thirty Year of our Lord 810 Pepin not able any longer to endure the double dealing of Maurice and John Dukes of the Venetians who favoured the Greeks and desiring to restore Obelier and Beat who were expelled goes out of Chiassi which is the Port of Ravenna with his Fleet and enters the Lake of Venice In the beginning he took all the little Towns which were upon the Shore then turned towards the Island of Malamauca the Dukes Seat which he found quite forsaken Maurice and John his Son having withdrawn themselves into that of Rialto and Oliuolo The Venetian Authors relate that commanding his men to Attaque those Islands with floats of Boards or Timber and the Army of the Dukes defending them it hapned that wanting knowledge of the Channels and Depths his Fleet received a notable repulse That a great number of the French were slain and stifled in the Mud and that he himself who staid in the Island Malamauca with the least part of his Forces Retreated to Ravenna carrying Obelier and Valentine who had very unluckily engaged him in this enterprise along with him In this Island of Rialto was soon after built a Palace for the Duke and in that of Oliuolo another for the Bishop and in time they joyned all those little Islands near one another by Bridges so that all these together have made the City of Venice so renowned for its wonderful situation and more for the wisdom of its conduct In the mean time Godfrey with a Fleet of Two Hundred Sail lands in Frisia pillaged the Country and exacted Tribute He bragg'd also that he would give the Emperor Battel who was encamped near the place where the Rivers Alare and Veser joyn together but instead of coming forwards he retreats back into his own Country where he was killed by a certain Son of his in revenge for having repudiated his Mother Heming his Brothers Son who succeeded him Treated a Peace with the French Year of our Lord 810 France had not their revenge for the affront received in the Gulph of Venice because Pepin a Son worthy of his Father dyed at the age of 33 Years the 29 th of his Raign in Italy He left only one Bastard-Son named Bernard who succeeded him in that Kingdom a young Prince not above Twelve or Thirteen Years old at most About the end of the following Year Charles the Eldest Son of the Emperor dyed likewise who left no Children But the preceding Spring his Father concluded a Peace with the Dane and sent Three Armies one against the Sclavonick Year of our Lord 811 Hedinons beyond the Elbe the second into Pannonia to make head against the Sclavonians for they molested the Huns very much who were Subjects to the Year of our Lord 812 French and the third against the Bretons who renouncing that obedience they had sworn to him had chosen themselves a King named Coenulph Machon The Year of our Lord 812 two first returned home loaden with Spoil and the last with the honour of having vanquished the Bretons and their new King Year of our Lord 812 Charlemain being already broken with Age and Labour the loss of his two Sons made him more inclinable to have a Peace with the Saracens in Spain with the Greeks and with the Danes Which was the more easie to be compassed for that Mahumed King of the Saracens in Spain being in War with Abdella his Brother was the year following forced to let him have a share in the Kingdom in Greece Year of our Lord 812 the Emperor Nicephorus was slain in a Battel against the Bulgarians and Heming King of Denmark being dead there was a Civil-War about the Succession between Sigifroy and Amulon or Hamildon this Nephew to Hericold and the other to Godfrey They fought a bloody Battel where both of them were slain together with Ten or Eleven Thousand men but Amulon's Party remaining Victorious Secured the Kingdom to Heriold and Rainfroy his Brothers Amidst the Multitude of Affairs which Charlemain had in all the three several parts of the World he did not forget what concerned Religion Upon the intreaty of Biorn King of Sweeden he sent some Priests thither to instruct those People in the knowledge of the Gospel Ebon a Man of a holy life established a Bishoprick there in the City of Lincopen Year of our Lord 813 Finding himself grow weaker day by day he caused his Son Lewis to come to the Parliament of Aix where he had called together the Bishops Abbots Dukes and Counts he asked them all one by one whether they would be pleased that he should give him the Title of Emperor To which all having replied yes he declared him his Partner in the Empire commanded him to go and take the Crown which was upon the Altar and put it himself upon his own head In the same Parliament he likewise declared Bernard the Son of his Son Pepin King of Italy whither he had already sent him under the Conduct of Vala or Galon Son of Bernard his paternal Uncle The death of this mighty Prince was preceded with all sorts of prodigies both in the Heavens and upon the Earth enough to astonish even those that have but little faith in such presages and give least Credit to them Whilst he was studiously employed in the Reading and the Correcting some Copies or Manuscripts of the holy Bible in his Palace at Aix a Feaver seized him and carried him out of this World the 28 th of January the Two and Seventieth year of his Age at the beginning of the 14 th of his Empire and the 48 th of his Raign His Will and Year of our Lord 814 Testament which is yet to be seen is one of the greatest Tokens of his
Piety For he left but one Fourth part of his Treasure and Goods to be divided amongst all his Children and gave the rest to the Poor and to the Metropolitan Churches of his Kingdoms He was buryed in the Church of Aix la Chapelle which he had erected He caused all the Laws and Customs of the several Nations under his Empire to be digested in writing contrived several Capitulary's or Ordinances he Collected all the ancient Poetry that contained the brave Acts of the French to serve as Memoirs for a History thereof which he did intend to Compose He understood Theology so well that he wrote himself against the Heresy of Felix Vrgel and about the controversy of Images He made Speeches in their great Assembly's and took as much care to make his Eloquence triumphant as his Arms. In the clearest Nights he pleased himself in the Observations of the Spheres and Planets whereof there are many curious things in his Annals which it is believed were made by himself To illustrate his Language which was the Dutch he brought it under Rules and made the Grammer and assigned names for all the Months in that Tongue as likewise for every Wind such as for the most part are retained to this very day In fine hitherto no King of France hath had a life and Reign so long and so Illustrious nor a Kingdom of so large extent as he His Fame would be without blemish as it is beyond parallel had he not been too much given up to Women and too indulgent towards his Mistresses and his Daughters in their carriage He had at least Three lawful Wives Hermengard Daughter of Didier King of the Lombards whom he repudiated the second year Hildegard Daughter of Childebrand Duke of Suabia and Fastrade Daughter of one Count Rodolph The last brought him no Children but Hildegard had Nine Four Sons and Five Daughters The Sons were Charles Pepin Lewis and Lotaire these two last were Twynns Lotaire dyed young Charles and Pepin fell in the strength of their Age. Louis reaped alone the whole Succession of his Father The Daughters were named Rotrude who was promised to the young Emperor Constantine Son of Leo the III. and Irene she dyed when Marriageable Berte who espoused Count Angilbert afterwards Abbot of St. Riquier Gisele who became a Nun and Hildegard and Adelelaid who dyed in infancy Neither the number or names of his Mistresses are set down who were not few but amongst his Bastards there is mentioned Pepin the Crook-back Hugo Duke of Burgundy called the Great Abbot Dreux Bishop of Mets and amongst Seven or Eight Daughters Tetrade Abbess of Argentuil Euphrasia Abbess of Saint Laurence of Bourges and Hildetrude who became scandalous in her Fathers House by her actions The Gallican Church had never yet been in so great disorder as towards the latter end of the Seventh Age or Century and to the middle of the Eighth and indeed they were above Sixty Years without any Council Nevertheless they had happily enough preserved their Temporal Estates under Pepin the young who was a liberal and religious Prince but Charles Martel his Son had not the same countenance nor shewed the same respect as he had done Many Prelates of Neustria and Burgundy having favoured Rainfroys Party gave him an occasion to squeeze them and the Wars he had against the Saracens furnished him with a pretence of taking away the riches of the Altars to defend them In some Countries he gave the Abbeys and Bishopricks to Lay-men who instead of keeping Clergy-men maintained Soldiers In others he took away their Lands and Tithes and distributed them amongst his Warriours The Priests and Monks that mixed with them laid down their Psalters to take up the Sword some out of pure licentiousness others to get a livelihood For the same reason the Bishops and Abbots turned Soldiers and were made Captains The whole Clergy was in extreme disorder the most of them had Concubines there were some Deacons known to have at least Four or Five in keeping The least debauched married Wives and proceeded even to second Marriages The Nuns neither kept their Cloisters nor their Vows In fine there was no rule no obedience of Inferiours towards their Superiours little Divine Service no Study and great ignorance in things of Religion and the Holy Canons This disorder gave opportunity to Boniface a Man very Illustrious in those days as well for his exemplary Life as his Activity and Zeal to strengthen himself with the Authority of the Pope that he might apply some Remedy He was an Englishman by birth who by a particular inspiration and emulation of divers holy men of the same Robe had gone from his Monastery to sow the Seed of the Gospel amongst the barbarous Nations in Germany especially the Frisiae the Turingi and the Catti and had devoted his Service to the Pope so strictly and intirely as to change his English name which was Vinfred or Winifred to that of Boniface he had been first made Bishop by Gregory the II then Archbishop by Gregory the III and by him not only honoured with the Pall but also with the Title of his Vicar In this quality he divided Bavaria where there was but one Bishoprick into Four Diocesses This was in the Year 739. The following Year he established Three in Germany one at Wirtsburgh another at Buraburgh and the third at Herpsford These two last held not this honour long But the Pope together with the Title of Vicar had given him power to call Councils and to make Bishops in those Countries which he had Converted to the Faith with Letters of Recommendation to those People and to Charles Martel praying him to take him into his protection which he did as likewise an Order to the Bishops of Bavaria and Germany to assemble together when he should call them as being his Vicar Now Prince Carloman having declared he would restore the Ecclesiastical Discipline Boniface embraced that work with much willingness and as he was active and indefatigable he advanced apace but not indeed without somewhat diminishing the Liberty and the Dignity of the Gallican Church to the advantage of the Popes At his instance Carloman held a Council in Germany the place is not mentioned where he assisted with the Grandees of his Kingdom and the Year after another at the Royal Palace of Leptines or Estines just against Bincks in Hanault which confirmed the Acts of the former Pepin likewise Convocated one at Soissons An. 754. and subscribed it with three of the Great Men of his Country's perhaps there might be one belonging to Neustria one to Burgundy and one to Aquitain In all these Councils Boniface presided in quality of Legate from the Holy Chair And in the first the Clergy Signed a Profession in writing which obliged them not only to keep the Catholique Faith but likewise to remain in Unity subject and obedient to the Roman Church and Saint Peters Vicar which being carried to Rome
they held as what they produced how situated or some particularities of their Castles or such Office they bore Some there were that chose such things as preserved the memory of their brave Feats of Arms or some singular Adventure which had hapued to them or theirs and others in fine would have such as betokened their inclination not to mention those that would needs have their Coats out of a meer fantastical Humour and without any design These glorious Marks and Badges belonged otherwhile only to the Nobility and was not the least illustrious part of the Succession of their Noble Families Now at this time every one hath them the meanest villains are the most curious herein they have not only brought the ✚ Rebus's of the little Citizens Merchants Cyphers Shop-keepers Signs and Artists tools and implements into their Coats under the shadow of Crowns Helmets and Supporters but likewise by a confidence not to be endured they have made choice of the most illustrious things and given occasion to observe that there are no better Coats then the Arms of a Villain or Plebeian Year of our Lord 1096 97 98 and 99. From the first Croisade William Rufus King of England taking the opportunity of his Brothey Roberts absenc had seized on the Dutchy of Normandy Swoln with this increase of Power he promised himself to invade France because he saw the Excommunicated King languishing in the Arms of his Concubine who besides had but one lawful Son of 15 or 16 years of age and was destitute both of Money and Friends Nevertheless this young Prince surpassing his age did by his Courage and Virtue defend himself so well three years together that Rufus was forced to leave him in Peace and retired again into England In that Countrey letting himself loose to all sorts of infamous pleasures tiranny Year of our Lord 1100 and execrable wickedness both towards God and Man he perished in a tragical manner being as he was Hunting shot with an Arrow either designedly aimed at ☞ him or by chance which pierced his very Heart Henry his younger Brother got into the Throne during the absence of Duke Robert who was still in the Holy-Land Notwithstanding the Popes Excommunications the King had renewed society with Bertrade by the consent even of Foulk her Husband being so infinitely enchanted with that Woman that he was often seen at her Feet there to receive all her Year of our Lord 1098 99 and 1100. Commands as if he had been a Slave Some of the Belgick Bishops honour'd the Kings Adultery with the name of Marriage and on their great Feasts according to ancient custom placed the Crown upon her Head to shew or signifie they did not hold her to be Excommunicated but the Popes Legats denied to communicate with him and conven'd a Council at Poitiers in July where he was Excommunicated once more William Duke of Aquitain who feared the like Treatment having committed the like fault for he entertained a Concubine and had forsaken his lawful Wife affronted and abused the Prelats greatly and perhaps his Sorrow and Repentance for it afterwards prompted him to go to the Holy Land as we have observed The King constant in his Affections solicited the Popes Favour so earnestly that he sent some Legats to re-view the Cause Year of our Lord 1101 They assembled a Council at Baugency The King and Bertrade promised to abstain from each other till the Popes Dispensation and thus the Council broke up Year of our Lord 1102 without giving any Judgment The King continued with the recommendation of the Bishops to endeavour the obtaining a Dispensation in the Court of Rome in the end he had it he was Absolved in the City of Paris and his Marriage confirmed so officacious is constancy even in things not commendable The opposition of the Bishops served only to authorize the use of Dispensations from Rome which since have been very common in all matters and occasions Young Lewis whom they named the Prince of the Kingdom and was designed King by his Father it is not specified in what year took the Government of Affairs Year of our Lord 1102 3. and the following PHILIP LEWIS Surnamed the Gross designed King aged 19 or 20 years In those times the Rights of the French were such that they could not legally arrest the Lords nor punish them with death unless it were for Treason but only deprive them of their Lands I mean those they held of the King they called them Honours This was it that gave them Licence to arme to oppress the weaker to rob and plunder and above all usurp the Goods of the Church Year of our Lord 1100 Lewis had to do first with Bouchard Lord of Montmorency against whom he embraced the Cause of the Monks of St. Denis whose Lands that Lord had pillaged and having appeared according to an assignation in the Kings Court of Justice refused to obey the Sentence or Judgment given against him therein He forced him by destroying and burning all his Villages and his Castle it self to submit to Reason In like manner he chastifed Droco or Dreux de Mouchy and Lionnet de Meun who tyrannized this over the Churches of Orleans the other over those of Beauvais Also he humbled Matthew Count of Beaumont upon Oise Son-in-law to Hugh Earl of Clermont in Beauvoisis who having half of the Lands of Luzarches in Dowry had seized upon all and had devested the good Man his Father-in-law Year of our Lord 1103 He durst or would not intermeddle with the quarrel between the two Norman Brothers Robert and Henry The First upon his return from the Holy Land demanded the Kingdom of England of his younger Brother who had usurped it after the death of William Rufus The business after three years Negotiation and War was determined in this manner Robert An. 1107. having lost a Battle at Tinchâ—bray in Normandy was made prisoner by his cruel Brother who deprived him of Sight by placing a burning Bason of Brass before his Eyes whereof he dyed in Prison Thus the whole Succession of William the Conquerer remained in Henry the youngest of his three Sons Year of our Lord 1103 In the year 1103. Lewis passed into England to King Henry I cannot tell upon what design Bertrade his Mother-in-law who could willingly have sent him out of the World sollicited Henry to make him away and this Artifice failing she caused poison to be given him at his return into France which put him in great hazard of his Life Year of our Lord 1104 The King to rid himself of the trouble brought upon him by the Family of Montlehery agreed upon a Marriage with Guy Troussel betwixt Philip his Son and bertrade to whom he gave the Earldom of Mantes on condition that Guy should deliver him the Castle of Montlehery which he did Year of our Lord 1104 At the same time or a little after Guy Lord of Rochefort Uncle of Troussel entirely possessing the Kings
most in those Countries under the protection of Roger Earl of Alby who much favoured them Year of our Lord 1178 During the Calm of this Peace Lewis who was extream feeble with Age using the same provident foresight as his Predecessors resolved to have his Son Philip Crowned but it hapning that this young Prince fell ill upon an afright for having lost his way in a Wood as he was Hunting this Ceremony was fain to be put off which was not performed till the year following In the mean time Peoples Devotion increasing towards the Reliques of St. Thomas of Canterbury from the example of King Henry who of his Persecutor was become his Adorer King Lewis passes into England prayed on his Tomb and left very rich Tokens of his Piety there behind Year of our Lord 1177 In sine Prince Philip was Anointed Crowned at Reims on All Saints day by William Archbishop of that City and Cardinal Brother to the Queen his Mother The Duke of Normandy and Philip Earl of Flanders both Pairs or Peers assisting at that Ceremony and holding the Crown upon his Head Year of our Lord 1180 Soon after Philip Earl of Flanders faithful and affectionate to King Lewis procured the Marriage of his Neece Isabella-Alix Daughter of his Sister and of William Earl of Hainault with the new King who was his God-son and treating her as his own Daughter because he had no Children he gives her in favour of this Marriage the County of Artois and the County all along the River of Lys. Year of our Lord 1180 Hardly was the joy of this Festival over when King Lewis died of the Palsy in the City of Paris the 18th or 20th of September Aged as many tell us near Seventy years but according to my Computation not above Sixty three or Sixty four whereof he had Reigned Forty three His Corps lies in St. Denis He was not very happy in his grand Designs and too effeminate or mild in Affairs that required vigour but as Pious Charitable Good Just Liberal and Valiant as any Prince in his Time He can be taxed but for two faults the one against Prudence for Divorcing his Wife the other against the Laws of Nature having supported the Rebellion of Henry's Children against their Father He had three Wives Alienor or Eleanor of Aquitain Constance of Spain and Alix or Alice of Champagne By the first he had two Daughters Mary and Alix who Married the two Brothers Henry Earl of Champagne and Thibauld Earl of Chartres and Blois By the second came Margaret Married first with Henry the young King of England and then with Bela III. King of Hungary By the third he had two Daughters Alix who was betroathed to Richard of England afterwards Married to William Earl of Pontieu Agnes Married to Comnenius the Son of Emanuel of Constantinople and a Son named Philip who Reigned Philip II. King XLI POPES ALEX. III. One year under this Reign LUCIUS III. Elected 29 Aug. 1181. S. Four years three Months URBAN III. Elected in Decemb. 1185. S. One year and near Eleven Months GREGORY VIII Elected in Octob. 1187. S. a little less then two Months CLEMENT III. Elected in January 1188. S. Three years three Months CELESTINE III. Elected in April 1191. S. Six years nine Months INNOCENT III. Elected in January 1198. S. Eighteen years six Months nine days HONORIUS III. Elected in July 1216. S. Ten years eight Months whereof seven during this Reign PHILIP II. Surnamed the Conqueror or Augustus King XLI Aged Fifteen years EVen in the Life-time of Lewis the Young Affairs began to be governed in the name of Philip and by the Administration and Care as I believe of Philip Earl of Flanders who was his Guardian his Governor and his God-father The Methods of Piety and Justice his Father and Grand-father had taken to Year of our Lord 1180 strengthen their Authority had much advanced them in their Design He was therefore Councel'd to pursue them Wherefore immediately undertaking the Protection of the Church he with a high hand went and reduced Ebles Lord of Charenton in Year of our Lord 1180 Berry Imbert Lord of Beaujeu in Lyonnois and Guy Earl of Chaalons upon Soane who oppress'd the Ecclesiasticks At the same time he began to let the Grandees of the Kingdom know how he could order and reduce them for he dissolv'd a powerful League which they had formed against him perhaps out of the jealousie they had conceiv'd of the greatness of the Earl of Flanders and forced the Earl of Sancerre who was the first that declar'd himself to fly to his Mercy Year of our Lord 1181 After the Death of his Father desiring to Sanctifie his new Reign he publish'd an Edict against such as utter those horrible Blasphemies composed or made up of the Name and Body or Members of the Son of God condemning them to pay a certain Pecuniary Mulct if they were People of Quality and to be thrown into the Water if they were meaner People Year of our Lord 1181 Prompted with the same Zeal he caused strict search to be made after all those that were accused of Heresie and sent them to the Fire expell'd all the Jews within his Territories and Confiscated their Estates suffering them to carry away only the Price of their Household-Goods His Piety appeared no less in the expulsion of Comedians Juglers and Jesters or Buffoons whom he turned out of his Court as People that serve only to flatter Vice encourage Sloath and fill idle Heads with vain Chimera's which perverts them and puts their Hearts into those irregular Motions and Passions as Wisdom and true Religion commands us so much to suppress and mortifie Princes were wont to bestow great Presents on those People and reward them with their richest Clothes But he being persuaded says Rigord his Historian That to give to Players was to Sacrifice to the Devil chose rather according to the Example of that Holy Emperor ☜ Henry I. to make a Vow he would henceforth employ his Money towards the maintenance of the Poor Anno 1183. he encompassed the Park du bois de Vincennes with a Wall and stock'd it with Deer which the King of England sent over to him The same year Henry the young King of England died in the Castle of Martel in Quercy Perhaps by the just Punishment of Heaven for having been so often as he was at this time in Rebellion against his Father Year of our Lord 1183 Every private or particular Lord having usurped a Right of making War upon one another after either had sent his defiance there followed Murthers and continual Spoils and Plunderings For which the Bishops and some of the wisest Lords of the Kingdom had endeavour'd to find a Remedy from the year 1044. having ordained the Truce or Peace of God for those Disputes and Contests betwixt particular Men during certain times in the year and certain days of the week with most severe Punishments
and Richard Duke of Gloucestre You have seen how he put the first to death upon some ill grounded suspicion Now thus the other revenged it upon his Children Edward before his Marriage to her by whom he had them had clandestinely espoused a woman who was yet living The Bishop of Bathe who Marry'd them reveales it to Richard who being easily persuaded that Edward's Children were not Legitimate Seized upon his two Sons the Eldest of them being but Eleven years of age and named Edward V. put to Death five or six of the greatest Lords who plainly foresaw his ill intents and then having dispatched these Two young Princes out of the World and made their Sisters to be declared Bastards he set the Crown upon his own Head all Christian Princes even Lewis XI himself having this deed in horror It is pleasant to read in History what the fear of Death and of losing his Authority made King Lewis do during the last years of his Reign The dancing of young Lasses about his House and the Bands of Musicians that play'd on Flageolets which were brought from all parts to divert him the Processions ordained over all the Kingdom for his Health the publick prayers to God to hinder the blowing of certain Winds which incommoded him a great heap of Reliques which were sent for by him from all Corners even the St. Ampoulle or Holy Oyle with which he seemed as if he would Arm himself against Death the great sway his Physician James Coctier had over him who grumbled at him as he had been his Servant and squeezed from him 55000 Crowns and many other Boons in five Months space the Baths of Childrens Blood which he made use of to sweeten his sharp and pricking Humours in fine his voluntary Imprisoning himself in the Castle du Plessis le Tours where none could enter but through a Wicket the Walls thereof being Armed with Iron Spikes and lined Day and Night with Cross-Bow-men Every hour he was upon the Brink of his Grave and nevertheless he strove to persuade them that he was well sending Embassy's to all Princes Buying up all manner of Curiosities of Forreign Country's and making it appear he was alive by the Bloody effects of his Vegeance which could not die but with him Year of our Lord 1482. And 83. His greatest hope was in a Holy Hermit called Francis Martotile a Native of Calabria Founder of the Order of Minimes whom he caused expresly to come into France upon the Fame of those wonders God had wrought by his Ministery He Flattered him Implored him fell on his Knees to him He Built too Covents for his Order the first within the Park de Plessis les Tours the second at the Foot of the Castle de Amboise that he might prolong his days But this good Man in answer talked to him of God and Exhorted him to think more of the other Life then this Feeling himself grow weaker every day he sent for his Son from Amboise gave him excellent Counsel exhorting him to be Governed by the Advice of the Princes of the Blood the Lords and other Notable Persons not to change his Officers after his Death to ease his Subjects and reduce the Leveys of Moneys to the Ancient orders of the Kingdom which was to raise none but by consent of the People He had encreased the Taxes to 4700000 Livers a Sum so excessive in ☞ those days that the People were miserably over-burthened He died in fine the 29 th Day of August and accordingly as he had ordained was Interred at Nostre-Dame de Clery for which he had a particular Devotion The Course of Life had lasted Sixty one years compleat his Reign 22 years and one Month. Comines describes him to us as very wise in adversity very able to penetrate into the Interests and thoughts of men and to allure them and turn them to his ends infinitely suspicious and jealous of his power most absolute in his will who pardoned not mightily oppressed his Subjects and yet withal this the best of Princes in his time He had caused above 4000 people to be put to Death by divers cruel Torments and sometimes pleased himself in being a Spectator The most part were Executed without Form of Process or Trial many Drôwn'd with a Stone about their Necks others precipitated passing over a turning Plank whence they fell upon Wheels armed with Spikes and sharp Hooks others stifled in Dungeons Tristan his Creature and the Provost of his House being alone both Judge Witness and Executioner Besides his Devotion at least in appearance his persuasive and attracting Eloquence his Marvellous craft in setting his Enemies at variance with one another and unravelling their quarrels again his Liberality in recompencing the Services done for him when they hit his fancy we must not deny two things worthy of praise in him at the Latter end of his days one that he would not suffer an Ambassador which Sultan Bajazet sent to him to come nearer then Marseilles not believing one could be a Christian and have Communication with the Enemies of Jesus Christ the other that he had undertaken to reduce all the Weights and Measures to one Standard and to set up a General Custom in all the Provinces of the Kingdom I will add a Third that he resolved and intended that exact Justice should be dealt to all particular People He Instituted two Parliaments that of Bourdeaux which had been promised by Charles VII and that of Burgundy The Letters Patents for the first are Dated the 7 th of June 1462. that of the second the 18 th of March 1476. If he suffered not his Son to be brought up to good Learning it was because he apprehended to make him too knowing or hurt his delicate and tender Complexion by the Labour of Study It was not that he despised it or was altogether ignorant of it as some have believed since Comines says That he was well enough Read that he had had another sort of breeding then the Lords of that Kingdom and that according to Gaguin he understood Books and had more Erudition then Kings were wont to have Add that he much encreased the Royal Library which Charles V. had begun at Fountainbleau and which was transferr'd to the Louvre by Charles VI. That he kindly received and favoured those Learned Men who had made their escape from Greece after the taking of Constantinople That he took delight in alluring some out of Forreign Country 's with great Presents amongst others the Famous Galeotus Martius And that he gave himself the Trouble to compleat the reformation of the University of Paris by the care of John Boccard Bishop d'Auranches and a Cordelier named Wesel Gransfort a Native of Groningue Besides it is certain that the Kings of France and particularly those of the third Race have all been instructed in good Learning and loved it excepting Philip de Valois He married two Wives to wit Margret Daughter of James I. King of Scotland
of Soissons and Paris in Neustria CHILDEBERT II. called the Young aged Five years in Austrasia Year of our Lord 575 The death of Sigebert was followed with a suddain and general Revolution the Austrasians raised the Siege of Tournay and having joyned with those who were at Vitry they retired in confusion the Neustrians returned to the Obedience of Chilperic and Brunehaud found her self surrounded and cooped up in Paris where she then was with her Children and knew not how to get thence But the wisdom of the Duke Gombaud the greatest Lord of Austrasia found out a way to save the Pupil Childebert having let him down over the Walls in a Basket and put him into the hands of a faithful Person who himself carried him into the City of Mets. Already some of the Austrasians had made their Composition with Chilperic but the rest being assembled together in great numbers according to their custom set the young Prince upon the Royal Seat on New-years-day and put him under the protection of Gontran so that Chilperic lost his hopes of invading that Kingdom but he seized upon that of Paris and banished Brunehaud to Rouen and her two Daughters to Meaux Year of our Lord 576 He had sent Meroveus his eldest Son by Queen Audovere to seize upon Poitou which belonged to the Kingdom of Childebert Meroveus instead of putting this design in execution went to Tours and from thence to Rouen where he suffered himself to be so much surprized with the charms of Brunehaud as then aged at least 28 years that he Married her Pretextat Bishop of Rouen God-father to the young Prince making the Marriage The Father hastens thither and having by deceitful words drawn those so newly Wedded out of a Church where they had taken shelter he set a Guard upon Brunehaud and carried his Son away with him Mean time the Austrasian Lords who were come to submit to him returned again to Childebert Godin amongst others who to carry somewhat with him that might bid him welcom armed the Champanois and made himself Master of Soissons where he wanted but little of surprizing Fredegonda Chilperic was quickly there vanquishes him and re-takes the Town but Fredegonda believing that Godin had not undertaken so bold an enterprize without the participation of Meroveus and Brunehaud obliged her Husband to confine that young Prince and a while after to force him to turn Priest and send him to the Monastery of Aunisse which is called now St. Calas the name of its first Abbot The Austrasians demand their Queen Brunehaud with so much earnestness that Year of our Lord 576 he sent her to them and yet he could not forbear to invade the Lands of Childebert His Son Clovis took the Town of Saintes but the Duke Didier going to besiege that of Limoges met in his way the Patrician Mummole whom Gontran sent to Year of our Lord 577 defend the Country belonging to his Pupil the Fight was so obstinate that there were slain Thirty thousand on both sides three parts of them were Didier's who saved himself with much ado About the same time Meroveus escaped from the Monastery and secured himself in the Church called St. Martins of Tours prompted thereto by Gailen his most intimate Confident who was come to visit him and drawn by Gontran-Boson who had sheltred himself in that place as we have related The Step-Mother Ferdegonda favoured this Boson for the same reason that Chilperic would put him to death and maintained a private Commerce with him that he might destroy Meroveus as he had made his Brother Theodebert to perish The young Prince having notice that Fredegonda sought by all means to take away his life did not find himself there in security He goes out from thence accompanied with this Boson whose treachery he knew not of and would go to find out Brunehaud but the Austrasians refused to admit him he remained then some time concealed and a Vagabond in Champagne After which this Boson and Giles Bishop of Rheims upon the pretence of delivering up the City of Teroüenne to him made him fall into their Ambuscades surrounding and taking him Prisoner in a Village of which they gave immediate notice to Chilperic he went thither with Year of our Lord 577 all diligence but found that his unfortunate Son was dead he had been Poynarded by the order of Fredegonda who made him believe that apprehending he should be put to tortures he had borrowed the helping hand of Gailen his favourite to dispatch him A while before the Bishop Pretextat his Godfather was accused before the Bishops assembled in Councel at Paris where no proofs appearing strong enough against him touching what was alledged he suffers himself to be induced by two false Brothers upon an assurance the King would pardon him to confess more than they could desire for which he was banished to an Island near Coustances but with hopes of returning because he pretended he had not been degraded though they had placed Melantius in his See Death having snatched away the two Sons which Gontran had by Austrigilda his second Wife although he were not above the age of getting Children not being above Fifty he desired the Austrasians to bring his Nephew Childebert to him and Adopted him having placed him in his Royal Seat These two Princes being thus allied sent to Chilperic to demand their part of the Kingdom of Paris and declared War against him Chilperic did but scoff at them diverting himself in building of Cirques or places for publick Spectacles at Paris and at Soissons where he would have entertained the People with Chariot-races could he have found Charioteers that had skill enough The Bretons about the year 441. had possessed themselves of Vannes afterwards Year of our Lord 578 Clovis had taken that place again and likewise the Cities of Nants and Rennes at that time governed by Roman Captains This year 578. Waroc or Guerec a Count of Bretagne had the boldness to seize again upon Vannes which appertained to the Kingdom of Chilperic and march up to the French who were encamped on the Banks of the River Vilain They had some Companies of Saxons or Sesnes-Bessins in their Army one night he passes the River and beat up their Quarter but three days afterwards finding himself too weak for so potent an Enemy he desires Peace swore fealty to the King and renders up the City of Vannes upon condition he should remain Governor A short while after he again seizes it and so long as he lived put the French to a great deal of trouble Chilperic and his wicked Wife Fredegonda over-burthened the People with Imposts they had taxed an Amphore of Wine upon every half Acre of Vineyard several other Charges upon things of another kind and a Tribute upon the head of every Slave and indeed a kind of Poll-money for every Freeman insomuch that their Subjects ran away out of the Kingdom as a place of Torment and peopled
and Provence and to Griffon a Portion betwixt his two Brothers made up of some parcels of the three Kingdoms The Son of the Duke Eudes held Aquitania Prima Secunda and the Duke of the Year of our Lord 741 Gascons the other Shortly after on the 20th of October he ended his Life in the Castle of Carissy upon the Oyse within three Leagues of Noyon He had ruled about three years in Austrasia and 28 in this Kingdom and in Neustria The Martial Courage and Spirit which inclined him to have always his Sword in hand to smite his Enemies acquired him the name of Martel in History and an immortal Fame But the Ecclesiasticks whom he had rudely handled fullied his Memory and would not forgive him in the other World For they affirmed according to a Revelation of St. Eucher Bishop of Orleans that he burned both Body and Soul in Eternal Flames and that his Tomb having been opened there was nothing to be found in it but a huge Serpent and a stinking Blackness the marks of the ill condition of his State or Salvation CARLOMAN in Austrasia and PEPIN in Neustria Burgundy Dukes and Princes of the French HOw little soever the share was which Griffon had his two Brothers could not endure it they Besieged him in the City of Laon shut him up in Chasteauneuf in Ardenna and having seized on his Mother Soxichilde allotted him the Abby of Chelles for his Subsistence and his Prison At the same time Theodebald Son of Grimoald whom Martel had left in Peace after he had strip'd him was taken out of the World perhaps because he had some intrigues with Sonichilde All those People whom Martel had brought to their Duty by the power of the Sword imagined that after his death it would be easie for them to cast off the yoak Particularly Thibaud Son of Godefroy Duke of the Almans and Hunoud Duke of Aquitain This last being the most dangerous the two Brothers joyned their Force against him They handled him so roughly having driven him beyond Poitiers and forced the Castle of Loches that he desired a Peace the conditions are not specified Before the two Brothers left Aquitain they shared the Kingdom betwixt them or rather what they had taken from Hunoud which they did at the place called The Old Poitiers between the Clain and the Vienne near Chastellerand Besides these two Expeditions the year was remarkable for the Birth of Charles Year of our Lord 742 called the Great or Charlemain the Son of Pepin and Berte his Wife who was born into the World in the Palace of Ingelheim upon the Rhine this year 742. The same year Carloman passed the Rhine marched into the Almans Countrey Year of our Lord 742 as far as the River Lee which separates them from the Bavarians and brought them so low that their Duke Thibaud Son of Godefroy gave him up Hostages for pledge of his Faith and the tribute he was to have from him It seems to have been in this year or at least the next that the two Brothers bethought Year of our Lord 743 themselves of filling the Royal Throne in appearance which had been vacant five years and putting Childeric in it who was surnamed the Witless or Senseless as being either really such or so represented to the People Some make him to be the Brother of Thierry de Chelles others of Clotaire III. and if so he must have been at least â—7 or 18 years of age but many think him the Son of Thierry and then he could be but 10 or 12 at most Childeric III. called the WITLESS King XXI Aged Eighteen years POPE Zachary Elect in Dec. 741. S. Ten years Three Months whereof above Nine Months in this Reign CARLOMAN in Austrasia and PEPIN in Neustria Dukes and Princes of the French Year of our Lord 743 THose Princes that had Revolted in the time of Martel obeying his Children but unwillingly made a powerful League to break and throw off the Bonds of their subjection Odillon Duke of Bavaria was the Head instigated no doubt by his Wife Chiltrude Daughter of Martel and Sonichilde who two years before having stollen away from her Brothers went into that Countrey and was Married to him The Saxons and Almans assisted him with Men and at the same time while the two Brothers were on their way thither Hunoud Duke of Aquitain falls upon Neustria and descends as far as Chartres which he forced and buried almost under its own Ruines Odillon was encamped with his Army on the brink of the River Lecq which he had Palisadoed with strong Timbers The two Brothers having staid Fifteen days right over against him without attempting to pass one fair night a kind of impatient Spirit prompting the French they forced their way over with the loss of many of their Men who were drowned and brought a terror to his whole Camp All his Men betook themselves to flight and left their Baggage and the two Brothers their full and free liberty to range over the whole Countrey of Bavaria for two Months together Year of our Lord 741 From thence Carloman marched against the Saxons gained the Castle of Hochsburgh upon Composition and Theoderic Duke of that Countrey who solemnly gave his Faith to him and yet he nevertheless broke it again presently and obliged Carloman to return thither the very next year to the very great damage of his Countrey But it was not till after the two Brothers having ravaged Aquitain had constrained Hunoud to crave their pardon the third time and redeem his fault with the price of many great Presents made to them Year of our Lord 745 He had the courage of a Woman quarrelsome and weak and consequently suspicious and cruel His Brother Hatton being come to see him upon the security of his Word he put him to death and a short while afterwards either upon some Motions of Repentance or lightness and giddiness of Brain he made himself a Monk in a Monastery in the Isle of Rhe having left his Dutchy to his Son Gaifre about the age of 18 or 20 years Prince Carloman after he had struck his last blow against the Almans whose pride Year of our Lord 746 he had abated by the blood of a great many of the most mutinous which was in the year 746. resolved likewise to quit the World either by a powerful and efficacious inspiration of God or the terror of those most dismal Stories they spread of his Fathers Damnation The Fifth year of his Principality having given up his Estate and his Son Drogon or Dreux into the hands of Pepin he went to pay his Devotions at St. Peters in Rome from thence he went to take the Habit of St. Bennet at Mount Soraâ—ie or Mount St. Sil and some while after because he was too much importuned by Visiters he retired to Mount Cassin Pepin allowed no share of his Dominion to his Nephew Dreux nor his Brothers other Children but the same year
and a few days after put him to death The two Cousins having shared the Soveraignty soon quarrell'd each other and came to blows near Rennes Vrfand with a Thousand men only charged Pasquitan who had Twelve times as many and got the advantage The other Lords of the Country after the example of these two set up likewise Year of our Lord 875 for Soveraigns amongst others Alain Earl of Broerec that is to say the Territory of Vennes and that of Porhoet and Salomon Count of Rennes Son of the Sister to a King of the same name On the other hand the Normans wasted all the Country so that Bretagne thus torn lost the name of a Kingdom And took that of a County and then a Dutchy In those days these two Titles were confounded Soon after Vrfand fell sick to extremity Pasquitan having notice of it gets his Forces together Vrfand whose courage could not fail but with his Life was carried in a Litter to the head of his men his presence gave them the victory but hastned his death a little A great deal of honour which cost him but a Moments Breath Year of our Lord 875 His Rival did not long survive him sickness deprived him of that which death had bestowed on him His Succession remained in dispute between Alain his Brother and Judicael Son of the Daughter to Herispoux They found it better to share it by agreement then by the Sword and at length it fell to Alain by the Death of Judicael who was slain in a fight against the Normans Louis Emperor of Italy Dies without Male Children in the Month of August An. 875 the 20 th of his Empire who had been mightily disturbed by Factions of the Grandees his State and incursions of the Saracens His Tomb is to be seen at Milan in St. Ambrose Church His Wife was named Engelberge according to some the Daughter of Ethico who was Son of another Ethico Duke of Suevia or Germany by whom he had but one Daughter only named Hermengarde who An. 876. was Ravished by Boson Brother to the Queen Richilde and with the consent of Everard Berenger Son of the Duke of Friuli who had her in keeping Louis the Germanick Charles the Bald. Year of our Lord 875 It was now betwixt the Germanick and the Bald who should first Seize upon Italy The Bald making great diligence got thither before Charles and Carloman two of the Germanicks Sons who went two several ways whilst their Brother Louis fell upon France to make a diversion For the two first the Bald amused them with very fair words and sent them back handsomely and as for the third the Prelats made such pathetical remonstrances to him that he took pitty of the poor people and returned without committing many acts of Hostility The Popes interest was to have an Emperor of a great name one that could lend him powerful assistance as Pepin and Charlemaine had done but yet not abide in Italy where he must have lain too heavy upon his shoulders wherefore he would have no Italian Lord because they were both weak and resided upon the place and besides being to chuse out of the Carlovinian Line he could not so well comply with the roughness of those that Governed in Germany He therefore pitched upon Charles the Bald and incited him by a sumptuous Embassy to come to Rome to receive the Imperial Diadem as if it had been absolutely in his disposal Year of our Lord 875 He set it on his Head upon Christmass Day with great Solemnity After which the new Emperor bestowed the Dutchy of Spoleta upon Gay the Son of Lambert and that of Friuli on Berenger the Son of Everard At his return he received also the Crown of Lombardy at Pavia and a Confirmation of the Imperial one at an Assembly of Counts and Prelats in the said City Year of our Lord 875 the Pope assisting in Person And the following year there being yet several Lords in Italy who refused to acknowledge him the Pope held another Council in Rome to Confirm him a second time adding Excommunications against the refractory Year of our Lord 875 Year of our Lord 876 The Western Empire could be but a vain or empty Title and at most had nothing belonging to it but the Exarchate of Ravenna and the Pentapolis for his power was not Year of our Lord 877 absolute in the City of Rome and the Kingdom of Lombardy belonged nor held any wise of it Nevertheless the Bald esteeming himself wholly obliged to the Pope and of ☜ his Soveraign being become his Subject even so far condescending as to take it for an honour to bear the Title of his Counsellor of State endeavoured in recompence with all his might to extend his Authority over the liberties of the Gallican Church In a Council held at Pontigon he supported as much as he could the Popes Legats who brought Letters of Primacy to Ansegise Arch-Bishop of Sens saying the Pope had Commissioned him to assist at that Council and to cause his Orders to be put in execution and in effect he made him take his Seat immediately next the Legats But the French Prelats encourag'd by Hincmar who thought he better deserved that honour then Ansegise could never be induced neither by Prayers nor threatnings to give consent to that Novelty At the eight Session the Bald brought in the Empress his wife so fond was he of her with the Crown upon her Head to preside there with him of which the Bishops were so ashamed that they did not so much as rise up to receive her Though the Germanick were Seventy years old and much discomposed in his Family by the discord amongst his Sons he had nevertheless so great a resentment for that Charles the Bald did him no justice in the matter of the Empire and Territories of Italy that he gathered all his Forces to make a powerful irruption upon Neustria Being come to Francfort Death broke the thrid of his life and his undertakings the 28 th of August the Seventieth of his Age and the 59 since his first Coronation This Prince was well read in the Learning of those times He was all his life long Active Warlike and Liberal one that cared not for money but to bestow it and had a greater esteem for Steel then Gold a great Zealot in Justice and Religion an equitable distributer of commands and employments in Fine approaching more then any Prince of his Line to the noble virtues and qualities of Charlemaine By Emne his sole wife a Spaniard by Nation much applauded by the Authors of those days for her Wisdom and Piety he had three Sons Carloman Charles and Louis Year of our Lord 876 Upon the News of his death the Bald of a defender which he was just before became an aggressor and resolved to strip those young Princes his Nephews before they could be aware Louis nearest Neighbour to this danger sent Ambassadors to him to put him in mind
Italy betwixt them Year of our Lord 888 THus the Succession of the Carlovinian House was divided into five Dominions without counting the Lords who set up almost for Soveraigns 1. Italy which was joyned with the Title of the Empire 2. Germany which then also comprehended the Kingdom of Bavaria 3. France which had the Kingdoms of Neustria Aquitain and part of Burgundy 4. Burgundy Cis-jurane named ordinarily the Kingdom of Arles or Provence under which were likewise the Lyonnois and Daufine 5. and Burgundy Trans-jurane or beyond the Jour as the other on the contrary We need not doubt but these new Kings gave part of the Quarry to the Lords of their Party and consented to every thing to get only their Oaths and Homage nor can we imagine but these Lords did the like towards their Vassals and these again to the lesser Nobility From hence arose so many Lordships both small and great of which the Bishops themselves such as were of good Families and had but courage enough did not forget to take their shares Year of our Lord 889 Now Eudes to show himself worthy the choice they had made of him went out against the Normans who ravaged Burgundy He set upon them on St. John Baptists Day nigh Mountfaucon slew nineteen thousand and pursued the remainder to the very Frontiers shewing himself personally brave on all occasions Another party of them who were in Champagne descended by the Marne as far as Paris and there loading the Barks upon Waggons carried and put them into the River again below the City then falling down to the Sea and so running along the Coasts plund'red the Country of Constentine Year of our Lord 889 Alain and Judicael who were contending for their shares in Bretagne agreed together to sight the Normans their common Enemy Judicael alone rashly presents them Battel and so doing lost both his Life and honour But Alain having gotten all his Forces together fought them so fortunately that of fifteen thousand hardly did four hundred escape The Bretons attribute this success to a vow he made to bestow the Tythe of the Spoil he should gain upon St. Peter's at Rome Such Devotion towards the Holy-Chair was very ordinary in those Ages Divers Princes devoted their Estates and became Tributaries to St. Peter Which did not a little contribute to imprint that persuasion the Popes then had in their minds that they had a right both to give and to take away Crowns After these losses the Normans having but few men left in France two of their Chiefs Godfrey and Sigefroy went and shipped a new levy of a hundred thousand men raised in Denmark Sweden and Norway that their reputation might not be wholly blasted They entred the Meuse with fourscore and ten thousand leaving the remainder to guard their Vessels King Arnold's Lieutenants assaulting them indiscreetly were defeated with the loss of an infinite number of the Nobility Year of our Lord 890 But Arnold himself picqued at so bloody an affront passes the Rhine with the whole Force of Germany seeks them in their very Camp which was close by the Meuse and forced them with so much fury that he left not so much as one of them alive The dead Bodies made a Bridge quite cross the River and the Flood was swoln with the Blood of those Barbarians If any wonder whence there could come such vast numbers we must know First that all the rascally and pilfering French and the like of other Countries joyned with them That besides those Countries were then extremely populous and all those Inhabitants greedy of Plunder listed and embarqued themselves to come and rob such rich and fertile Nations In fine there came so many who were either destroyed or else Inhabited in France that those large Territories of the North are unpeopled to this very day Thus in these last Ages Spain which once swarmed with men has made her self become a Desart through the covetous humour in her Subjects who all transport themselves into that new World where are the Mines of Gold and Silver they so long for Year of our Lord 891. and 892. All the Neustrian Lords did not own Eudes for their King Aymar Earl of Poitiers whom he would have dispossessed of his Estate to give it to his Brother Robert Ranulfe II. Duke of Aquitain and some others in those parts had taken up Arms against him Year of our Lord 892 Now whilst he was employed in Poitou in the War a confederacy was contrived between Herebert and Pepin Brothers sprung from Bernard King of Italy the one Earl of Vermandois the other of Senlis and Baudouin or Baldwin Earl of Flanders Fulk Arch-Bishop of Reims and many others who having been to fetch Charles the Simple out of England whither his Mother had carried him caused Year of our Lord 893 him to be Crowned at Rheims the 27 th of January in the year 893. It was by the assistance of Fulk that he immediately wrote Apologetick Letters to Arnold Guy and Rodolph exhorting them to help the Pupil against the Usurper Which at first made some impression upon Arnold in favour of Charles but soon after either in terest or inconstancy turned him on Eudes side Some have said that that Guy of Spoleta whom we have mentioned had likewise been Crowned at Langres three years before So that there were three Kings chosen and Crowned in West-France But Guy had absolutely quitted it for Italy and seemed to pretend no more to it CHARLES Called The SIMPLE King XXX POPES STEPHEN VII Near Three years THEODORE II. Elect. 901. S. 20 dayes JOHN IX also Elected in 901. S. 3. Years 15 days BENNEDICT IV. Elect. 905. S. about 2. Years LEO V. Elected in 907. S. 40 days after which Christopher dethroned him S. 7 Months SERGIUS III. an 908. having dethroned Christopher S. about 3 years ANASTASIUS III. Elected an 910. S. 2 years 2 Months JOHN X. Elected in 912. S. 15 years whereof 12 under this Reign Arnold King of Germany Bavaria and Lorraine Eudes and Charles Competitors for West-France Guy Emperour and King of Italy Rodolph in Burgundy and LOVIS in Arles Year of our Lord 893 FOr two whole years the parties for Charles and Eudes made War with various success Eudes being returned from Guyenne drove Charles out of Neustria but shortly after he got in again by the assistance of the Lords of his party Eudes made him work enough and had no less to do himself being forced to guard himself as well from his own party as from his Enemies Count Gautier Son of Adelme his paternal Uncle and Count of Laon drew his Sword upon him in open Parliament and had afterwards the confidence to take shelter in the City of Laon but Eudes followed him so close that not giving him time to put himself into a posture of defence he took the Town and caused his Head to be cut off Year of our Lord 892. and 3. Arnold was sometimes on his side
sometimes for his Rival The well meaning French tyred with these discords during which the Normans took their opportunity to return contrived I know not what kind of Truce between the two Kings It seems Burgundy and Aquitain Champagne and Picardy were to belong to Eudes all the rest was Charles's It troubled Arnold very much that contrary to the custom of France such Princes who were of Charlemain's Blood but only by the Female side should dismember the best Portions of his Succession He goes down therefore into Italy drives Guy de Spoleta out of all Lombardy and forces him to retire to Spoleta But he satisfied himself with that advantage only and went back into Germany Now this Guy labouring to gather an Army about Spoleta died of a bloody Flux say some though others make him to live a great while longer How-ever it were Arnold gained nothing by his Death for as he was at distance the Lords conferred the Kingdom upon Lambert his Son before Berenger his Competitor who thought to restore his own Title had time to take his measures This Lambert was Crowned Emperor and bare the Title as long as he lived In the mean time Arnold attaqued Rodolph in Burgundy beyond the Jour or Trans-jourane and put him to a great deal of trouble however he could not force Year of our Lord 895 him quite out of those Mountains Year of our Lord 895 The year following he held a Council at the Palace of Tribur which is betwixt Ottenhin and Ments on the other side of the Rhine and after that a Parliament at Wormes where King Eudes was present and upon his return Plundred the Baggage belonging to the Ambassadors whom Charles the Simple was sending to Arnold In this Assembly Arnoid with the consent of the Lords which he had very much ado to obtain got Zuentibold his Bastard Son to be accepted for King of Lorrain This young Prince embracing Charles's Party besieged the City of Laon then esteemed very important because of its advantageous situation upon a Hill But when he found Eudes returned out of Aquitain with his Army he raised the Siege and turned his back to him The Normans began again their Incursions on that unhappy Kingdom with so much the more assurance and facility as they found Eudes backward and careless to suppress them who indeed was only able to do it but left them to go on to revenge the inconstancy of the French who having made him King would not obey him as he expected and required This year Rollo or Rol one of the most considerable Leaders of those Pyrats after he found he could do nothing in England where he had tried to Land being also advertised by a Dream or divine Vision steered his course towards France and puts in at the Mouth of the Seine Perhaps he might be called in by Charles who turned every Stone to ruin his Rival As for the Empire of Italy Arnold being invited by Pope Formosus who would revenge himself for the outrages received from the Romans forced the City of Rome and having chastised them was Crowned Emperor But soon after as he was besieging the Widdow of Guy in the Castle of Fermo one of his Valets de chambre whom that subtil woman had corrupted gave him a Drink which laid him asleep for three whole days and brought him to be Paralytick for a while Year of our Lord 897 There hap'ned this year a horrible scandal in the Roman Church Formosus Bishop of Porto otherwhile degraded and condemned by Pope Nicholas was elected Pope after Stephanus VI. This was the first example in the Church and of most pernicious consequence as we find it now every day that without any necessity a Bishop is transferr'd to another See and as one may say does quit and forsake his first wife to marry another But after his death Pope Stephen VII his Successor caused him to be taken out of his Grave and having placed him in the Papal Chair dressed up in his Pontifical Ornaments reproved and told him that Year of our Lord 897 thorough his ambition he had violated the orders of the Church then condemned him as if he had been living disrobed him of his Ornaments cut off those three fingers with which he gave his Benediction and caused him to be thrown into the River Tiber with a stone about his neck Year of our Lord 898 The enterprises surprises and ren-counters between Charles and Eudes ended by the death of the latter which hapned the 3 d. of January An. 898. about the end of the 36 th of his Age and the 8 th of his Reign At his death he very earnestly desired and enjoyned his Brother Robert and the other Lords to own and acknowledge King Charles whom he hoped they should find a Prince as much deserving for his Vertues as his Birth to Rule over them He left but one Son by his Queen Theodorade named Arnold who took the Title of King of Aquitain But death soon snatcht the Crown from him before he was married or as I believe of Age enough to be so Arnold Emperor in Germany Charles alone in France Zuendibold in Lorraine Louis in Provence Rodolph in Burgundy Lambert in Italy Year of our Lord 898 The loss of the Kingdom of Lorrain did much displease the French wherefore Charles to gain their esteem endeavoured to recover it The rebellion of Duke Reinier who had been the Favourite of Zuendibold and whom that Prince had driven out of his Country did facilitate the means he therefore passed the Meuse with a great deal of company Zuendibold betakes himself to flight but soon after all his Lords coming to him he pursues him in his turn and there had been a Battel if the Lords on either Part had not procured a Truce between them Soon after an Assembly was held in the Abbey of Gorze nigh Mets which confirmed a Peace between Charles Arnold and Zuendibold Towards the end of the year Arnold died having Reigned twelve years since the Death of his Father Charles the Fatt And held the Empire only two years Year of our Lord 899 and a half He had divers Children by three several women amongst others Zuentibold and Arnold the Bad by two Concubines and Louis by a lawful Wife This last was but eight years old when his Father died Charles the Simple in France Zuentibold in Lorraine Louis in Germany Rodolph II. in Burgundy Transjurane Lambert and Berenger in Italy The German Princes immediately Crowned Louis and committed his person to the care and Guardian-ship of Otho Duke of Saxony who was married to his Sister and Arch-Bishop Haton as they did the conduct of his Army to Lutpold or Leopold Duke of the Eastern Frontiers of Bavaria From whom some make the House Year of our Lord 900 of Bavaria to be derived The Dominions of Louis were soon enlarged by the death of Zuentibold who behaving himself with much irregularity and little justice and making his chief exercise
which came on obliged him to retire and Lotaire and Hugh Capet having drawn their Forces together cut off all his Reare-Guard at his passage over the River of Aisne which was overflown and pursued him fighting to the Ardennes The Almain Monks of those days as it is the Genius of men to pretend Miracles in great danger write that St. Udalric Bishop of Ausburgh who accompanted that Emperor in this War went over the River Aisne dry-fout leading the way before him and his whole Army who followed the over-following Stream miraculously growing hard and firm under them the River becoming a Bridge to it's self In this retreat the Earl of Anjou did let the Germans know that the quarrel being between the two Kings it would be better according to common right for them to decide it singly hand to hand then to spill the Blood of so many innocent people But the Germans reply'd that although they did not doubt the courage of their ☞ King nevertheless they would not consent that he should expose his person singly Confessing tacitely thereby that they did not think him so brave as the King of France Year of our Lord 978 Otho thus roughly handled sought an accommodation with the French Lotaire and he conferring together in the City of Reims concluded a Peace upon condition that Lotaire should yeild him Lorrain to be held in Feif of the Crown of France say our Authors for which the French Lords shewed a great deal of discontent Year of our Lord 978 Thus the Soveraignty of that Kingdom remained in Lotaire the Dutchy of the Lower Lorrain which two years before had been bestowed upon Charles his Brother by Otho reverted to his disposal but as he must give some part to Charles he agreed he should enjoy that also Which was consented to at an enter-view between that King and Otho upon the River of Kar the German Prince having desired that conference before he undertook this expedition into Italy against the Saracens Year of our Lord 978 Charles imagining his Brother had yeilded him that Dutchy but by compulsion was so ill advised that he might have some body to support him in it as to render Hommage for it to Otho instead of holding the Soveraignty himself as he might have done Year of our Lord 981 Two years after Otho to oblige hm the more gave him likewise the Country all about Mets Toul Verdon and Nancy and other Lands between the Meuse and the Rhine Now this submission tendred by Charles to a Stranger sounded very ill amongst the French and the Augmentation of his power certainly shock'd the designs of Hugh Capet who was preparing his way to the Throne For we must consider that Charles was the only obstacle Lotaire having but one Son weak both in Age and understanding and of very small hopes Besides the long abode of that Prince in those Countries without coming into France the too great affection he shewed for the Germans who at that time were the Capital Enemies of France as likewise some ren-counters with the King his Brother one amongst the rest about the City of Cambray which he defended against that King who would have plundred the Churches as he had done those of Arras gave his Enemies occasion to decry him amongst the French Year of our Lord 982 The Emperor Otho II. Died in the year 982. having before declared his Son of the same name Successor of his Estates LOTAIRE and LOUIS his Son in France OTHO III. Emperor and King of Germany and Lorraine Aged 17 years CONRAD in Burgundy Upon the News of his Death Lotaire believed that Germany was going to be all in confusion and combustion by reason of the contests about the Guardianship of young Otho who was then but seven years old wherefore he entred Lorraine An. 983. to regain it and took 〈◊〉 with Godfrey Earl thereof but when he understood Otho was Crowned by thâ— content of all the Grandees he engaged no Year of our Lord 982 farther but returned home to Franâ—â— Year of our Lord 985 Two years after he rendred up the City of Verdun gave Godfrey his liberty and caused his Son Louis to be Crowned to Reign with him He had already married him to a Princess of Aquitain named Blanche And yet was at most not above 18 or 19. years of Age. It is not well known of which Aquitain she was for in that Age and the next following the French comprehended Languedoc and Provence likewise under that name Year of our Lord 986 This couple were ill-matched the Woman couragious and gallant the Husband wanting vigour of mind and perhaps of Body in so much that she despised him and carrying him into her own Country under colour that she could procure the conquest of it by the assistance and interest of her Kindred and Allies she planted him there and the King his Father was forced to go and fetch him thence again This was a great misfortune in the Royal Family and a greater yet that Lotaire Died the 12 th Day of March in the following year of some desperate morsel given Year of our Lord 987 him by his own wife He was a Warlike Prince active careful of his affairs and worthy in fine to have commanded better Subjects He survived little more then the 45 th year of his Age and the 33 th of his Reign LOUIS THE Lazy or Sloathful King XXXIV Aged about XX Years POPES JOHN XV. Elected towards the end of An. 985. S. 10 years 4 Months and a half whereof 16 Months under this Reign LOUIS the Do-Nothing in France OTHO III. CONRAD IT was divulged that at his Death he left the Guardianship of his Son to Hugh Capet who in effect was his Cousin German How-ever it were Emina Year of our Lord 986 not relying too much upon him as it seems had resolved to carry him in the Month of June to his Grand-mother Adeleida Widdow of Otho I. and Tutoress of Otho III. A Heroick Princess who was called the Mother of Kings But they did not give her the time for the 22 th of the same month the Poor Prince ended his Life in the same manner as his Father and by the crime of Blanche of Aquitain his wife He lieth at St. Corneille of Compiegne An Author of those times sayes that he gave his Kingdom to Hugh Capet another that he bequeathed it to his wife upon condition he should marry her He Reigned in all about three years Eighteen or Twenty Months with his Father and sixteen Months alone With his Reign ended that of the Carlian or Carlovingnian Line after it had lasted 236 years and had a Succession of Eleven Kings taking only those of West-France for if we reckon all the others we shall find above thirty without speaking of all those Princes who dismembred this Kingdom as being issued of this August blood descended by Women There were sprung up three Branches of this Race one in Italy by
be in their own power He therefore took this Business mightily to heart and dispatched the Abbot Leon to France with an order to the Prelates to Assemble in Council about that Affair and to Seguin Archbishop of Sens to Represent his Person amongst them Year of our Lord 994 Hugh complained opposed it and held good some time against this Enterprize But a new born Royalty could not but comply and yield at last to those Orders for fear of being quickly tumbled down again The Council which was held at Reims deposed Gerbert and restored Arnold to his See after three years imprisonment Gerbert withdrew himself to his Disciple King Otho who bestowed upon him the Archbishoprick of Ranonna from whence some years after he was raised to the Holy Chair Year of our Lord 994 In the year 994. the unhappy Charles died in Prison at Orleance It is not said what became of his Wife but he two Sons Otho and Lewis and two Daughters Gerberge and Hermengarde All these Children went to the Emperor Otho III. The eldest enjoyed the Dutchy of the lower Lorrain some years and died without Heirs The other is not mentioned Hereafter we shall take notice to whom his Daughters were Married Year of our Lord 994 and the following King Hugh as well as Pepin and all such Princes as set up by a new Title amongst People that are not perfectly Barbarians was truly Religious Devout and a lover of the Church and Church-men gave up all the Abbies he held and surrendred the Right of Election to the Clergy and Monks By his Example those Lords that possessed Church-Lands as their own Patrimony not only restored them but for Restitution of their unjust Enjoyment and Detention founded divers Monasteries which they peopled with reformed Monks who certainly were much less good and more interested then the former had been Year of our Lord 996 He ended his Life Anno 996. the 29th of August or according to others the 22th of November aged about Fifty five years having Reigned nine years and some months He was buried at St. Denis If he Married Blanche the Widow of Lewis last Carolovinian King he had no Children by her but by his first Wife Adeleide Daughter according to some of William II. Duke of Aquitain he had a Son named Robert and three Daughters Haduige or Avoye Wise of Renier IV. Earl of Monts and of Haynault Adelais Wife to Renand I. Earl of Nevers and Gisle who Wedded Hugh I. Earl of Pontieu to whom she brought the City of Abbeville in Marriage Year of our Lord 996 The same year 996. Richard surnamed Sans Peur or without Fear Duke of Normandy ended his days in his Palace of Fâ—scamp aged Sixty four years of which he had Reigned nine and was Interred before the Portal of the Church there His Son Richard II. succeeded him About these times that Sacred Fire which they named the Burning Sickness and had otherwhile made great destruction broke out and kindled again cruelly tormenting France especially for two Ages It seized again on a suddain and burnt the Intrails or some other part of the Body which fell off piece-meal Happy were those that escaped with the loss of a Leg or an Arm. This caused many great Donatives to be given to those Saints whose help they believed they had received in the midst of their dreadful Torments as likewise the frequent sounding of Hospitals for such as were infected with this Distemper The Calamity which Anno 994. destroyed in Aquitain Angoumois Perigord and Limosin above 40000 Persons in a few days time wrought at least this good that the Grandees who had troubled this Province by their private Feuds fearing the Wrath of God made a Solemn Oath amongst themselves to do Justice to their Subjects and for this end formed a Holy League which drew other Provinces by their Example to do the like It was likewise in this Age that Pilgrimages to the Holy Land grew very Frequent I mean amongst the Seculars for the Monks and Clergy-men travelled to those Holy Places from the time of King Clovis If the Tenth have deserved the name of the Iron Age which is commonly bestow'd upon it must have been for the continual and very Bloody Wars between the Western Princes and for the terrible Devastations of the Normans the Hungarians and the Saracens but if they called it so for the ignorance and irregularity of their Manners it was rather in respect to the Church of Rome where in truth there were horrible Disorders and Crimes then those of France and Germany It is certain that the Bishops and Abbots notwithstanding the Prohibitions of Princes and Councils bore Arms and went to the Wars a Custom which passed into a Law and Obligation and lasted a long time in the third Race That several were plunged into Vanity Luxury and Dissolution and lived rather like Princes of this World then Apostles of Jesus Christ That those Wars which scourged them made them yet but more worthy of Chastisement for the Disorders and Licentiousness they fell into That their Manners run to ruine with their Buildings and that as there hardly remained any Monastery or Church entire so there was scarce any Discipline left not even amongst the very Monks That in fine many Churches were without a Pastor for example there was but one Bishop in all the Country of Gascongny who enjoyed the Revenue of six or seven Bishopricks But after all these Ruines they began before the middle of this Century to gather up the broken pieces or fragments and reform the behaviour of the Clergy as well as rebuild their Churches William Duke of Aquitain and Auvergne having founded the Monastery of Clugny in the year 910. and St. Mayeule having raised as it were a Nursery of Religious good Men they took some Plants from thence to stock and furnish those Abbys which the Princes re-edifi'd This Abbot and Odillon his Successor furnished at least twenty or thirty who remained still in submission to their common Mother and formed the Congregation of Clugny As much did William Abbot of St. Benigne at Dijon as likewise Abbon de Fleury to some others about Aquitain Subordinations which may procure much good and perhaps much greater evils St. Gerard of the Blood of the Dukes of Lorrain having embraced a Monastick Life reformed Eighteen or twenty Adalberon Bishop of Metz Brother to Frederic first Earlo Bar made a Regulation in those of his Bishoprick amongst others in that of Gorze and at St. Arnold from whence he expelled the Canons who were grown disorderly to place Monks in their stead Abbon de Fleury going to settle his Reformation in the Monasteries of Squirs upon the Garonne which therefore was called the Rule and in the Language of that Country La Reovle and near to which was built a City of that name was knock'd down by a Sedition which the Gascon Monks of that place and the Women had raised against him Amongst the Bishops there
some Method to bring Hugh in again to that See but considering that a small number could not undo what had been done by a greater and that they had notice from the Pope to clear their doubts that he had Excommunicated him in a Council held at Rome Anno 949. they broke up without proceeding any farther That of Reims in 975. wherein presided Stephen Deacon to Bennet V. Pope and Adolberon of Reims Excommunicated Thibauld who had usurped the See of Amiens In 983. that of Mount St. Mary in the Diocess of Reims where Adalberon presided confirmed the Decree made by that Bishop to put Monks into the Monastery of Mouson in the stead of those Canons that were there In the foregoing Age in many places the Canons were more desired The Humour was changed in this Gerbert solliciting with heat to have Arnold de Reims his Process made a Council was called in that same City Anno 992. where his Credit and the vehement Eloquence of Arnold d'Orleans carrying it against the Remonstrances of Abbon Abbot of Fleury and the Sentiment of Seguin de Sens who was President Arnold was deposed and Gerbert instaled in his See The Pope believing it intrenched upon his Authority if he suffer'd them to undertake this without his Order sent a Legat into France the year ensuing who first called together some Bishops at Monson then a greater number at Reims where Seguin representing the Person of the Pope it was said that Gerbert should be deposed and Arnold restored but this last being a Prisoner at Orleans Gerbert disputed it and stood his ground yet for some time and appealed to the Pope who grew more stubborn and stiff in favour of Arnold and forced the King by the threatnings of a terrible Excommunication to release him and suffer him to enjoy his Bishoprick Robert King XXXVI POPES GREGORY V. About two years under this Reign SILVESTER II. Elected in March 999. S. Four years and two Months JOHN XVIII Elected in May 1003. S. Five Months JOHN XIX Elected in Novem. 1003. S. Five years ten Months SERGIUS IV. Elected in Aug. 1009. S. Two years eight Months and an half BENEDICT VIII Elected in 1012. S. near Twelve years JOHN XX. Elected in March 1024. S. Nine years eight Months ROBERT King XXXVI Aged Twenty four or Twenty five years THis King compleat both in Body and Mind of a handsom Stature a sweet and grave Air a composed and sage Humour having been nurtur'd to Piety and good Learning by Gerbert became very knowing for that Age much more Religious and Zealous in the Service of God and as Just Charitable and Debonnaire towards his People as any Prince that ever wore a Crown And indeed God favour'd his Reign with the choicest Blessing he is wont to bestow upon those Kings who are according to his own Heart I mean with a long and happy Peace which he enjoy'd near Thirty years after some slight and petty Wars Year of our Lord 996 This year 996. died Richard I. Duke of Normandy who was past his Seventieth year He left his Dukedom to his Son Richard II. surnamed the Good Year of our Lord 997 98. William Earl of Poitou and Duke of Aquitain having War with Boson II. Earl of Perigord and de la Marche Robert was obliged to assist him as his Kindred and Vassal They both laid Siege to the Castle of Belac but their Army wanting Provisions because they were too numerous could not subsist till the taking of the Place The Chronicles of those times who are all very succinct do not give an account of the end of that War no more then of many other things Eudes Earl of Brie and Champagne prompted with great desire to have a passage Year of our Lord 999 over the Seine as he had already over the Marne thereby to go commodiously from Brie to his County of Chartres cast his Eyes upon Melun and with Money gained the Vicount or Castellaine belonging to Earl Bouchard who deliver'd it up to him Bouchard had been the favourite of Hugh Capet who had given him that Earldom and he was yet at this time Count Palatine for King Robert Wherefore this King took in hand his defence sent Richard II. Duke of Normandy his Cousin and good Friend and with him besieged the place The Battery with their Engines having made a Breach the Garrison surrendred upon Composition the Castellaine and his Wife were both Hanged on the top of a Hill near the place They did not punish Gentlemen with Death for Rebellion or Felony unless they committed Treason but in that case they hanged them in some eminent Place that Crime degrading them of all Nobility Year of our Lord 999 Poland was honoured with the Title of a Kingdom by the Emperor Otho III. who going to Gnesne to Visit the Sepulchre of St. Adalbert Martyr gave the Regal Ornaments to Duke Boleslaus The following year Hungary had the same Advantage and Honour but would receive it from the hands of the Pope to whom Prince Stephen the Son of Geisa who first embraced Christianity sent to demand the Royal Crown Year of our Lord 1000 Towards the end of January in the year 1002. the Emperor Otho aged but Twenty nine years died in the City of Rome or in Paterna not leaving any Children It was believed to be of Poyson the cursed practise thereof being much in use as I have observed in this Age thorough all the West Henry II. of that name called the Cripple Duke of Bavaria and Earl of Bamberg succeeded him by an Election of the German Princes but did not bear the Title of Emperor at least not in Italy till he had been Crowned by the Pope which was Twelve years afterwards Year of our Lord 1002 The degrees of Parentage wherein Marriage was prohibited having been extended to the Seventh besides the obstructions from Spiritual Alliance or Gossipship caused much Broil especially amongst Princes and Grandees who commonly are of Kin to one another even within that degree For so soon as a Husband or a Wife were disgusted with each other or that any one had a mind to trouble them they needed but to Article and make Oath they were of Kin within the degrees forbidden and produce Witnesses upon it to the number of nine as I believe which were not wanting or difficult to get and thereupon the Diocesan Bishop or an Assembly of Bishops if there were any greater difficulty pronounced Judgment Year of our Lord 1003 Now Queen Lutgard the first Wife of Robert being dead he was advised by Maxims of Policy to Wed Bertha Sister to Rodolph the Lazy King of Burgundy Widow of Eudes I Earl of Chartres and Mother of Eudes II. as yet but young She being of Kin in the fourth Degree and besides he having held a Child with her at the Font he thought he might prevent the inconveniency of nullity of Marriage by the Authority of the Gallican Church he called therefore his
to St. Omers But as he was retreating towards Monstreuil Eustace Earl of Boulogne who had a great Body of Reserves took Robert and carried him to St Omers He that Commanded the place surrendred it to deliver Richilda for which the King was enraged that he sacked and burnt the City Year of our Lord 1071 The same year Richilda though still assisted by the French lost another Battle in which Eustace Earl of Boulogne being made prisoner his Brother Chancellor of France and Bishop of Paris to obtain his freedom obliged the King to intermedle no more in that dispute Nay which was more he made him Marry Bertha the Daughter of Florent I. Earl of Holland and Gertrude of Saxony who had taken Robert for her second Husband By this means he was engaged to maintain the Cause for his Father-in-law who by his assistance defeated Richilda's Army the Fourth time and so remained Master Year of our Lord 1071 of Flanders Roger Brother of Robert Guischard Duke of the Normans in Puglia was by his Brother sent into Sicilia which was possessed by the Saracens he conquerd d the City of Panormus and Messina which opened him a way to become Master of the whole Island Year of our Lord 1073. and 4. After the death of Baldwin the Regent King Philip being arrived to the age of Adolescency ran into many disorders and vexations with his Subjects Whereupon Pope Gregory VII who sought but the occasion to constitute himself the Judge and Reformer of Princes wrote to William Duke of Aquitain that together with the Lords he should make him some Remonstrances and Declare that if he did not amend he would Excommunicate both him and all the Subjects that obey'd him and would place the Excommunication upon St. Peters Altar to re-aggravate it every day Year of our Lord 1076 The death of Robert I. Duke of Burgundy his Son being deceased before him had left two Sons Hugh and Otho the first of these succeeded his Grandfather Year of our Lord 1077 After William the Conquerour had entirely subdued England suppressed the Rebellion of his Son Robert and quelled the Manceaux he went into Bretagne to reduce them to his Obedience and laid Siege to Dol. The Duke or Earl Hoel implored the Kings help who marching in person to his assistance made them raise their Siege A Peace immediately follow'd but was broken almost as soon again upon another Year of our Lord 1076 score which was for that the Conquerour in the Kings Presence having given the Dutchy of Normandy to his Son Robert before he went to invade England Robert would take possession of it the Father hindred him and the King justified the Son in his demands This was the subject of a new War The Father besieges his rebellious Son in the Castle of Gerbroy near Beauvais In a Sally the Son wounds him and turned him off from his Saddle with his Lance but Year of our Lord 1077. 78. and the following coming to know who it was by his voice he helped him up again with Tears in his eyes and the Father at length overcome by the sentiments of nature and the intreaty of his Wife and Barons gave him his pardon and quitted the Dutchy to him then returned into England Gozelon Duke of the Lower Lorrain who in favour of Baldwin Earl of Monts Year of our Lord 1077. and 78. the Son of Richilda had fought and defeated Robert the Frison being a while after this Victory assassinated in Antwerp the Emperour detained the Dutchy of the lower Lorrain and gave only the Marquisate of Antwerp to Godfrey Duke of Bouillon the Son of Adde Sister of Gozelon and Eustace Earl of Boulongne but Twelve years after for his great Services he gave him the said Lorrain Year of our Lord 1080 The Lords of Touraine and of Maine extreamly pressing Foulk Rechin by force of Arms to set Gefroy his Brother at liberty this barbarous Man rather then release him chose sooner to give the County of Gastinois to King Philp that he might maintain him in his unjustice Some time after his own Son named Gefroy likewise and surnamed Martel moved Year of our Lord 1080 with the miseries of his Uncle forced his Father to set him free but whether it were the Melancholy he had contracted or some Drink they had given him he could never relish the sweetness of his liberty The famous Robert Guischard Prince of the Normans in Puglia after he had gained Year of our Lord 1085 two Naval Victories one over the Venetians and the other over the Greeks died this year 1085. He had two Sons Boemond and Roger the eldest being then upon the coasts of Dalmatia with a Navy his younger Brother seized on the Dutchies of Pouille and Calabria for which the Brothers were contending till the time of the first Croisado or Holy War when the French Lords passing that way to the Holy Land brought them to an agreement Their Uncle Roger held Sicily with the Title only of Earl Year of our Lord 1085 Upon complaints about the vexations and ill Treatment Duke Robert shewed to his Norman Subjects his Father the Conquerour comes over out of England to chastise him but his paternal tenderness did easily admit of a reconciliation The death of Guy-Gefroy-William his Son William VIII aged but 25 years succeeded him Year of our Lord 1086 King Philip a very voluptuous Prince being disgusted with Berthe his Wise made use of the pretence of Parentage which was between them and having proved it according to the course then in use caused his Marriage to be dissolved by authority of the Church though he had a Son by her named Lewis about Five years old and a Daughter named Constance He banished his Divorced Wife to Monstreuil upon the Sea-side where she lived a long time poorly enough Year of our Lord 1087 This Divorce according to Rule and a judicial Sentence being made he demanded the Daughter of Roger Earl of Sicilia named Emma who was conducted as far as the coasts of Provence however he did not Marry her the reason is not given Year of our Lord 1088 William the Conquerour become crazy was under a strict regiment of Dyet at Rouen to pull down his over-grown fatness which did much incommode him The King rallied at him and asked when he would be up again after his Lying in the Duke sent him word that at his Uprising he would go and visit him with 10000 Lances instead of Candles and indeed as soon as he could he got on Horseback he destroy'd all the French Vexin and forced and burnt Mantes But he over-heated himself so much in the assaulting of that place that it set his own Blood and Body on fire and brought a fit of Sickness so that he returned to Rouen where he dyed in a few days By his Will he gave the Kingdom of England to William called Rufus who was bat his Second Son Normandy to Robert who was
Favour contracted his Daughter Luciana but ten years old to Prince Lewis Year of our Lord 1103 Ebles Baron de Roucy a famous Captain who often raised Soldiers with which he went into Spain not so much to fight the Saracens as to find opportunity to plunder and pillage the Churches vexed all those of Champagne upon complaint of the Clergy Lewis hastens to Reims his Celerity astonished the Plunderer so much that he laid down his Arms and promised to forbear those Robberies Year of our Lord 1106 The protection he gave to Thomas Lord of Marle against Enguerrand de Boves his Father was not so just Thomas by means of his Castle of Montagu in Laonnois committed a thousand Cruelties and Robberies insomuch that his Father was forced to besiege him Lewis upon the request of Thomas re-victuals the Castle at which Enguerrand and the Lords were so enraged that they declared they owned him no longer for their Sovereign since he protected the wicked They were almost ready even to give him battle but being brought to a Conference they kissed his Hand and swore Service to him The unhappy Emperour Henry IV. against whom the Popes had stirred up first his eldest Son Conrad then he being dead Henry his Second Son being taken prisoner by this unnatural Child wrote very pathetical Letters to King Philip and Prince Louis which begot a great deal of compassion towards him but no help Being got out of prison he died in the City of Liege the Second of August and Henry V. his Son succeeded him in his quarrel with the Pope as well as in his Estates Pope Paschal II. not willing to go to this Henry because said he the Germans are yet enough humbled came into France passed to Clugny la Charite Tours Paris and went to St. Denis where the King and his Son paid him their Respects by bowing Year of our Lord 1106 down to the very ground At Chaalons he Treated with the Ambassadors of Henry V. and held a Council at Troyes In this Council whether by the zeal of the Prelats or the suggestion of Prince Lewis the Pope pronounced the Dissolution of his Marriage not yet consummated with Luciana Guy de Rochefort discontent for the Divorce of his Daughter retires from Court Anseau and Stephen de Garland the Brothers exasperate Prince Lewis's Spirit against him which they swayed Rochefort commits some hostilities at his Castle of Gournay upon Marne Lewis besieges the place a League is formed between Rochefort and Thibauld Earl of Blois and Chartres Lewis goes to meet the Army of these discontented Gentlemen defeats them and returning to the Siege takes Gournay Year of our Lord 1108 King Philip quite wasted with excess of pleasures dies at Melun the 26th of July aged 56 years whereof he had Reigned 48 and two Months From thence he was carried to St. Bennets Abby on the Loire where he had chosen his Burying place He was a Prince of a good shape and stature but his softness and amorous Commerce had rendred his Body unactive and heavy and stupisied his Conscience and Courage He had had two Wives Berthe the Daughter of Florent Earl of Holland and Bertrade of Simon de Montfort The First brought him two Children Lewis who Reigned and Constance who Married Boemond Prince of Antioch An. 1106. By Bertrade were born two Sons Philip and Florus or Fleury and one Daughter named Cecely The two Sons were Married but had no Male-issue The First was Earl of Mantes Mâ—un upon Yeurre and Montlehery the Daughters first Husband was Tancred Prince of Antioch the Second was Ponce de Toulouza Count of Tripoly The Tenths the Offrings the Presentations and the very Churches as we have related had been Infeoffed to the Laity by a strange abuse whereof the Footsteps are yet to be seen in Gascongne The Lords took the investiture of the Prince and held them of him in Fief so that they could not alienate them without his consent and when they sold them it was upon condition of preference for the Curate or for the Bishop if he would Now to bring them back by little and little to the Ordinarys it had been ordained by the Councils especially by that of Mets under King Arnulf that the Laicks should not put them off of their hands nor give them to the Monasteries without the permission of the Diocesan Bishops or the Pope which was since confirmed by the Council of Rome in the year 1078. and by that of Melfe An. 1090. When it hapned then that the Seculars would discharge their Consciences and restore those Possessions to the Church which their Fathers had usurped during the Wars the Ordinaries believed they ought not to suffer the Monks should draw these to themselves and joyned together to make them revert to the benefit of the Hierarchical Order This was the subject of an obstinate and bloody quarrel between the Bishops and the Monks the First held divers Assemblies to preserve their Rights There was one amongst the rest in the Abby of St. Denis about the end of the Tenth Century where Seguin de Sens venerable both for his Age and Virtue presided The Monks perceiving the Council was going to pronounce against them raised a furious Sedition to scatter them Abbon de Fleury was accused to have been the Boute-feu How ever it were Seguin was wounded with an Axe betwixt the two Shoulders and Arnold d'Orleans a particular enemy to Abbon had lost his Life there had he not fled away betimes As the conduct of the Prince is the Rule to all his Kingdom the Piety of Robert served not a little to contain the Ecclesiasticks in their Duty and incline them to the exercise of their Religion and the study of good Literature We ought certainly to reckon him the first amongst the Learned Men of this age not so much for his quality and rank as for his capacity which was not little for those times and to him we may add Gauslin his bastard Brother Arch-Bishop of Bourges who amongst other Works composed a Discourse about the causes of the showre of Blood that had fallen An. 1017. in Aquitain for three days together and had this of wonderful in it That it could not be wiped or rubbed off from any Flesh Cloaths or Stones but out of Wood the spots might be easily taken away and leave no stain behind Amongst other persons of erudition those that most excell'd were Foulk and Yves Bishops of Chartres Leoterick of Sens Gervas de Reims Chancellour of France Beranger Arch-Deacon of Anger 's Hildebert du Mans his Disciple and Admirer and Gefroy de Vendosme these two passed very far in the other age Lanfranc Abbot of St. Stephens at Caen Durand Bishop of Liege and the Monks Sigebert of Gemblours Glaber of Clugny and Helgaud de Fleury who all three labour'd in History We must take notice besides those most eminent Servants of God Odillon whom we have already
falsely maintained who had Married Anno 1186. Henry Son of the Emperor Frederic This young Prince was raised to the Empire this year 1190. The Emperor his Father having drowned himself while he was bathing in the little River of Serre between Antioch and Nicea as he was leading great succours into the Holy Land Now Constance pretended to succeed his Nephew but Tancred his Bastard Brother had excluded him and seized on the Kingdom It was he that received the two Kings at Messina where they landed in the Month of Year of our Lord 1190 March and sojourn'd there above six Months During their stay Richard had great Contests with Tancred concerning the Articles of his Sister Jane's Dowry Widow of King William He was often like to come to blows about it and had thoughts of forcing the Town of Messina In sine Philips Mediation procur'd him 60000 Ounces of Gold from Tancred whereof he had a third for his pains Year of our Lord 1190 Now Tancred whether it were true or whether by a Diabolical Artisice shew'd Richard some Letters which he affirmed to have been written to him by Philip wherein that King profer'd him all his Forces to attaque Richard and seize upon him in the night if he would at the same time fall upon him likewise Richard believed the Letters to be real and made a great stir about it Thus the two Kings were mightily exasperated against each other Richard for the design contrived against his Life Philip for the reproach against his Honour Year of our Lord 1191 Towards the end of the Winten Richard makes known to Philip that he cannot Wed his Sister for certain Reasons which he will not discover perhaps it was because old Henry his Father had kept her too long and declares to him he had betrothed Berengaria Daughter of Garcias King of Navar and that his Mother Alienor was bringing her thither to Consummate the Marriage Philip was not Transported but wisely suppressing his Anger left him to his liberty of quitting his Sister provided he would surrender those Lands he had given him for her Dowry and would at the first conveniency go along with him to the Holy-Land Also he consented to a Truce for those Countries during all the time they should remain abroad Richard accepted of the Truce willingly but refused to go so soon These were the chief causes that changed the mutual affectionof these young Kings into a cruel hatred Year of our Lord 1191 James d'Avesnes with some Flemish Forces and the remainders of the Emperor Frederic's had already besieged the City of Acre it was otherwhile called Ptolemais very considerable for its Port and its strong Walls King Philip parted from Messina in the beginning of March and landed near this place took his Quarters about the Town raised his Batteries and made a wide breach Year of our Lord 1191 In the mean time Richard putting to Sea was driven by Tempest on the Coasts of the Island of Cyprus It was then in the possession of one Isaac a Grecian Prince who having abused and pillag'd his weather-beaten Soldiers whereas he ought to have relieved them provoked his just wrath in so much that he seizes on that Kingdom and carried away an immense quantity of rich Plunder together with the said Isaac and his Wife both of them bound in Chains of Gold Year of our Lord 1191 He got not to Acre till two Months after Philip and far from promoting the taking thereof he retarded it by the continual disagreement between them The Siege lasted five Months in all and caused a great many Princes and brave Men to perish there In the end the City surrendred upon Composition importing that the Besieged should obtain of Saladine the release of all the Christian Prisoners in his hands and the true Cross which he had taken in Jerusalem for which their Lims and Lives were to be Security till performed at the Mercy and discretion of the Conquerors They were therefore together with all the Spoil equally shared betwixt the two Kings and as Saladine would not perform the first of these two Conditions and the second was not in his power because the true Cross was not to be found Richard too passionate and cholerick put seven thousand of them to the edge of the Sword who were his Prisoners and reserved not above two or three hundred of the Principal In this Siege were slain a great number of People of quality Rotrou Earl of Perche Thibauld Earl of Blois Great Seneschal and Uncle to the King and Alberic Clement Lord du Mez his Mareschal Son of another Clement who had executed the same Office Our Kings of France in those times had but one and these Clements were the first who raised or improved this Office by their favour and extended it to the Soldiery whereas before them it had nothing to do but with such as belonged to the Kings Stables Year of our Lord 1191 The contagious distempers destroy'd yet more of their Men then the Sword Philip d'Alsace Earl of Flanders ended his days in the Month of June He had no Children but only one Sister whom he had Married to Baldwin Earl of Haynault from whom were sprung two Elizabeth who was Married to King Philip and a Son of the same Name as the Father Year of our Lord 1191 King Philip being likewise seized with a long fit of Sickness which was suspected to proceed from some ill morsel because his Nails and Hair fell off resolved to return into France but to remove the jealousie Richard might conceive at his departure he made Oath he would not in the least meddle with his Lands till forty days after he were certain of his being returned into France He likewise left with him near Six hundred Horse and Ten thousand Foot with their m inainance for their three years under the Conduct of Hugh III. Duke of Burgundy After that having taken leave of his Lords he puts to Sea and being Convoy'd by three Gallies only which the Genoese furnished him withal landed in Puglia When he had somewhat recover'd his Health he sets forward on his journey with a small number of followers visited the Sepulchre of the Apostles at Rome and Year of our Lord 1191 having received the Popes Blessing parted from thence and arrived in France in the Month of December He pass'd his Christmass Holy-days at Fontaine Eblaud and from thence came to his dear City of Paris After his departure all the Forces put themselves under the Command of Richard who did so many prodigious acts of valour that they surpass the belief as well as the ordinary strength of Mankind In a word he had regained the Holy-City if Year of our Lord 1191. and 92. the jealousie of Hugh Duke of Burgundy had not obstructed his progress And indeed he had a design in his Head of forming a great Kingdom in those Countries and that none might dispute the Title with him of King of
the Empire and that the election of the Grandees belonging to it could make but a King unless their own Authority would honour it with the Title of Emperour This belief was grounded upon what they had done for Pepin and Charlemain whom indeed they first dignified with the Title of Patrician and afterwards conferred that of Emperour upon Charlemain As for this point they carried it cleerly against the Emperours The example of Henry VI. puts it out of all doubt for when he took the Imperial Crown at Rome in the year 1191. Pope Celestine III who was upon a Scaffold and sitting holding it between his Feet threw it down upon the ground to shew it lay in his power to overthrow it and the Cardinals having caught it in their hands put it upon the Emperours Head who was below and on his knees waiting that favour with submission But the Popes could not so easily gain a fourth point which was to hinder the Bishops from paying Homage to their Temporal Sovereigns They opposed this submission because they thought it unworthy that those Sacred Hands which were employd in the operations of the most Holy Mysteries of Religion should be touched or pressed by Hands profane Now although Sovereign Princes especially the Kings of France had a great reverence for all that came from the Holy See they could not for all that yield them this point nor that concerning the franchise of Goods and Persons For King Lewis VI. would not suffer Rodolph to re-enter the Arch-Bishoprick of Bourges till he had done him Homage which Yves de Chartres excused to Pope Paschal upon the apprehension of a greater inconvenience And that Pope having granted a Bull at the requisition of the Clergy of France which prohibited upon pain of Excommunication all Bayliffs and Prevosts belonging to the King the exacting any Loan of poor Clerks the said King wrote Letters full of heat to Yves threatning he would take the Goods of any Clerks wherever he could find them if that Bull were not revoked I cannot say what hapned upon this There was a Maxim set up in those ages which gave the Popes an indirect Dominion over Princes and right of animadversion on their Government which was that although they did not believe the Princes depended upon them for things Temporal they thought they had good ground considering the Spiritual to judge whether their actions were good or evil to admonish them to correct them to forbid them things they held unlawful and command them to do what they thought was just When two Princes made War they concern'd themselves to bring them to a Truce to refer their business to Arbitration and oblige them to debate it in their presence King John pressed upon by Philip Augustus had recourse to Innocent III. who wrote thereupon that being proposed to the Government of the Universal Church he found himself obliged by the command of God to proceeed in that Affair according to the Rules and Forms of the Church and to pronounce the King of France to be an Idolater and a Publican if he did not make his Right appear before him or his Legat. For although said he it did not belong to him to judge of the Fief yet he had right to take cognisance of the Sin and it appertained to the Holy See to correct all persons of what quality soever they could be and if they proved refractory to his Commands to employ the Power and Arms of the Church These were the Excommunications and also the Interdictions cruel remedies which took away the use of the Sacraments and the Divine Service from the Living and sometimes the very Burials from the Dead They were perswaded it was part of their Duty to provide against all publique scandals of their paternal care to help and protect all the oppressed and of the grandeur of their Tribunal to do justice to the whole World So they received the complaints of all that were under oppression nay they would go to meet them as it were and take cognisance of what injustice Princes used towards their Subjects and of their new exactions They sometimes denounced Anathema against those that levied them and sometimes exposed the Goods and Estates of these they Excommunicated as a Prey and gave Command to seize their Persons and bring them into slavery The Sovereigns were not exempted or secure against these Thunder-claps for whether by virtue of an opinion commonly received in those days but in my judgment not to be maintained or made out that the Excommunicate have lost all Titles to their Estates or whether they did not believe the Government of Catholique people was not to be left in the hands of Princes revolted from the Church they proceeded even to the deposing them declaring their Subjects Absolv'd of all the Oaths they had taken and forbid them longer to obey them Gregory VII began to exercise this Authority against the Emperour Henry IV. He would have practis'd the same towards Philip I. King of France For he once wrote to all the Grandees of the Kingdom to hinder the excess he committed especially towards those Merchants that went to great Fairs And another time he threatned to dissolve those Bonds and Obligations of Fidelity which tied his Subjects to him if he did not forbear the sale of Benefices and suffer the elect Bishop of Mascon to enter upon his Bishoprick Victor II. did in effect Excommunicate him in the Council of Clermont Other Popes Excommunicated and deposed the Emperours Henry V. Frederick I. and Frederick II. and have attempted the like things against divers other Crowned Heads It is admired that Popes who had so great a reputation for their goodness particularly Gregory VII and Alexander III. should have undertaken such things which seem so contrary to the Maxims of the Ancient Fathers and the Innocency of former ages We must therefore know that these supposed Letters of the First Popes upon which they founded a new Cannon right had made their Predecessors believe even from the end of the Eighth Century that their Authority and Power over the Faithful had no limits that in quality of universal Pastors they had Power to lay Commands or to forbid any of the Faithful in any thing that concerned their Salvation and the promotion of Religion to admonish them and afterwards punish them if they did not obey That if the predecessors of Gregory had not made use of this power against Emperours it was because those Princes were then more regular and the Popes of those times involved in great troubles but on the contrary Henry IV. had made himself execrable by his infamous Vices And Gregory was venerable through all Christendom for his Virtues I shall presume to add that there was even some things in the preceding Ages that might give some colour to what that Pope did undertake For in the Sixth the Church had assumed power to exclude those who were enjoyned publique pennance from exercising any function Civil or
assign a Council in a place of safety where every one might come Friend or Foe as well those of the Clergy as the Laity to judge whether he or the Emperor had broke the Peace and to consider of some means to restore it again Gelasius II. said the same thing and that he would acquiesce in the Judgment of his Brothers the Bishops whom God had Constituted Judges in his Church and without whom a Cause of that Nature could not be determined Innocent III. wrote word That he durst not decide any thing concerning the Marriage of King Philip II. without the determination of a General Council and that if he should do it he might run the hazard of his Order and of his Office very remarkable words for that they seem to insinuate that a Pope may be deposed not only for Heresie but likewise for abusing his Power In those times they were likewise obliged to govern the Church by Advice of the Cardinals whose Power was raised to such a height since the year One thousand that they were the Collaterals and Coadjutors of the Pope saith St. Bernard that their Priviledges or Rights were greater then those of the Patriarchs and the Primates and that they had the Power of giving Authentick Censures against the Popes themselves The assistance and ability of so many great Men chosen out of all the Western Churches as fill'd this sacred Colledge did not a little help the Popes in bearing the great burthen of Affairs and maintaining and encreasing their Authority in the remotest Countries But when they were once become great enough by their assistance they freed themselves from their dependance and now they only ask them their opinions and do not think themselves at all obliged to follow what they Advise or Councel As for the disposing of Benefices they had gotten the greatest into their own power as the Archbishopricks Bishopricks and Abbies by making themselves Masters of the Elections under pretence of judging those Differences that hapned betwixt opposite Parties and the lesser as the Dignitaries and Canons of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches by their recommendations to the Chapters in favour of those Clergy-Men that follow'd their Court. When having often obtained the thing desired they at length turned such Recommendation into an absolute Command by the instigation of Flatterers and interessed People and then that was follow'd with Reservations and after with Expectatives the abuse whereof went on increasing still notwithstanding the Pragmatick of St. Louis and the Remedies Philip le Bel or the Faire would have applied and lasted till the time of the great Schism when King Charles VI. and after him Charles VII set roundly upon it and brought back all Elections Collations and Presentations to the same method and order as had been Decreed by General Councils without any regard or respect to those pretences and claims the Court of Rome had taken up and exercised In the Fifth Age not only the Bishops but almost all the Church-men on this side the Mountains had taken up that pious Custom of going to Rome to visit the Sepulchres of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul as it were to pay their Hommage and testifie they held the same Faith which those Apostles had preached At the same time they paid their Respects to their Holy Fathers who in length of time converted this Voluntary Devotion into an indispensable Obligation in so much as they highly reproached such as omitted it Dispensations were utterly unknown in the first Ages and when they did begin to give them it was not to allow them to infringe the Canons but rather to absolve those that had infringed them After the Eleventh Age the use grew very frequent I observe four or five causes The continual Wars between private Persons as well as between Princes The multiplicity of Decrees which were so numerous it was difficult to avoid breaking some or other of them The corruption of Manners and the little regard they had for Ecclesiastical Orders or Rules insomuch as they obliged to obviate that scorn by granting Dispensations and they thought to hide or conceal the Transgression by permitting it The Popes however did not dispense in things against our Faith nor against good Manners but in those that were only forbidden or permitted by positive Law As for the Divine Law they did not directly dispense with that but by Interpretation and by Declaration As for the Exemptions of Monasteries we have observed in the Sixth Age how they began by the concessions of the Bishops and how all the Grandees affected to obtain them for such as they founded The first we find that were allowed them was only to free the Monks from Temporal Payments and Duties Afterwards they obtained some kind of Priviledges to be added amongst others That they should chuse their own Abbots That they should be Masters of their own Discipline and that the Bishops should Ordain Priests for them at their Request In fine they found out means to extend them to the Spiritual Jurisdiction and free themselves from any dependance upon Bishops to which three things were required the Bishops Consent the Authority of the Holy Chair and the Pragmatick Sanction of the King The number of these Exemptions encreasing day by day the Pope arrogates to himself the power of giving them and of submitting the Monasteries to the Holy See maugre the Bishops Diocesans He did the very same in relation to some Bishops and some Chapters substracting these from their Bishops and the Bishops from their Metropolitans Vertuous Men could not held their Tongues upon these Disorders their Writings mention it yet St. Bâ—ruard though a Monk and very ✚ zealous for the Holy Chair highly condemned them For to exempt the Abbots from the Jurisdiction of the Bishops what was it else said that great Saint but to command them to Felony and Rebellion and was it not as monstrous a deformity in the Body of the Church to unite an Abby or a Chapter immediately to the Holy Chair as in a Human Body to joyn and fasten a Finger to the Head These favours were not bestow'd gratis at Rome the Abbots and Monks stript their Monasteries to purchase this independance and made them oft-times Tributary to the Holy See of many Silver Marks which they paid yearly The Abbots notwithstanding these Exemptions were still obliged after their Election to render Obedience to their Bishops and by a Writing but the most part refused it so that the Council of Rheims was forc'd to make a Decree to compel them and yet they did over-much care to submit to it which Disobedience was so far carried into a common Right that Henry II. King of England made bitter complaints to Pope Innocent II. for that Hugh Archbishop of Rouen exacted this said Duty of the Abbots of Normandy The Pope perceiving with what heat the King wrote to him sent to the Archbishop that he should for a time forbear to ask that Right too
decamp till he brought the Besieged to Reason in so much that on the Assumption-day they were reduced to a Capitulation They gave up two hundred Hostages their Walls were pull'd down their Moats and Grafts fill'd up and three hundred Houses with Turrets demolish'd These were Inns belonging to Gentlemen who had the like at Toulouze and other great Cities in those Provinces Going thence the King went into Provence and all the Towns surrender'd to him within four Leagues of Toulouze The Season growing bad and he somewhat tender of Constitution he takes his way back towards France leaving the Conduct of his Forces and the Government of those Countries in the hands of Imbert de Beau-jeu Year of our Lord 1226 Upon his return one of the Grandees of the Kingdom whom History has not dar'd to name caused some Poyson to be given him whereof he died at the Castle of Montpencier in Auvergne upon a Sunday being the Octave of All-Saints He had Year of our Lord 1226 lived Thirty nine years and had Reigned three and about four Months He is buried at St. Denis by his Father The Clergy because of his Piety and his Chastity reported that his Sickness proceeded from his too great Continence for his Wife did not go with him and that he chose rather to dye then make use of an unlawful Remedy they presented him for Cure As he foresaw things in a posture that threatned great troubles after his death he took the Oaths and Seals of Twelve Lords that were about him that they should cause his eldest Son to be Crowned and if he failed they should put the Second in his stead By his Wife Blanche de Castille he had nine Sons and two Daughters there were but five Sons alive Lewis Robert Alphonso Charles and John According to his Will and Testament Lewis Reigned Robert had the County of Artois and propagated the branch of that name Alphonso had that of Poitou and Charles that of Anjou From him sprung the first Branch of Anjou John dyed at the age of 14 years Of the two Daughters only Isabella was left who having been promised to divers Princes and grown to be an old Maid took on the Holy vail and shut her self up the year 1260. in the Monastery of Longchamp between Paris and St. Cloud which the King her Brother founded for her Saint Lewis King XLIII Aged Eleven years six Months POPES HONORIUS III. Five Months GREG. IX Elect in April 1227. S. Fourteen years Five Months CELESTINE IV. Elect in Sept. 1241. S. Eighteen days Vacancy of Twenty Months INNOCENT IV. Elect in June 1243. S. Eleven years Five Months and a half ALEXANDER IV. Elect in Decemb. 1254. S. Six years Five Months URBAN IV. Son of a Cobler of Troyes Elected about the end of August 1261. S. Three years Thirty four days CLEMENT IV. Elected in Feb. 1265. S. Three years and about Ten Months Vacancy of Thirty five Months from Dec. in the year 1268. the Cardinals not agreeing amongst themselves in the Conclave about the Election THis is the Third Minority in the Capetine Race and the First wherein a Year of our Lord 1226. in Novembre Woman had the Regency Blanche de Castille a stranger but courageous and able undertook it and carried it being assisted by the Counsels of Romain the Cardinal Legat who had great power with her and grounded upon the Certificates of some Lords who attested that her Husband being on his Death-bed had ordered that he would have his eldest Son with the Kingdom and all his other Brothers be left to her Guardianship and Government Immediately before the Lords had time to contrive any obstacles to her Regency Year of our Lord 1226 she drew all the Forces she possibly could together and with them went and caused her eldest Son Lewis to be Crowned in the City of Rheims The Episcopal See being vacant the Bishop of Soissons who is the Suffragant performed the Ceremony It was on the First day of December The Lords of the Kingdom had been invited thither by Letters but the greatest part refused to come amongst others Peter Duke of Bretagne Henry Earl of Bar his Brother-in-law Hugh de Luzignan Earl de la Marche Thibauld Earl of Champagne Hugh de Chastillon Count de St. Pol and divers others They were framing a League amongst them demanding that the Regent who was a Stranger should give security for her good Administration that whatever had been taken from the Lords during the two last Reigns should be restored to them and such as were prisoners should be released especially Ferrand Earl of Flanders Year of our Lord 1226 After her departure from Rheims notwithstanding the severity of the Winter she marched towards Bretagne where lay the strength of the League The Confederates being not yet ready avoided what mischief they could by a Retreat but she followed so close at their heels that the Earl of Champagne fell off from the party then the others entred into a Treaty and promised to appear in full Parliament which was to be held at Chinon and which at their request was removed to Tours then to Vendosme Year of our Lord 1227 In that Parliament which was held in the Month of March a Peace was patched up between the Regent and the Lords but the same year they being assembled at Corbeil plotted to surprize the King as he was coming from Chastres to Paris their design had infallibly succeeded if the Queen Regent had not been informed and cast her self with the King into Montlehery The Citizens of Paris having taken up Arms went thither to guard him and brought him back with joyful acclamations to their City The Earl of Champagne was the man that had given this private intelligence to the Queen This young Prince had a pretence of Love or Gallantry for her rather out of some Court-like vanity then for the power of her charms she being a Woman of above Forty years of age she knew how to make her own advantage of his folly and wished him to continue amongst those discontented People that he might betray all their intrigues to her Year of our Lord 1227 The King of England would needs concern himself in this quarrel and promised them his assistance and the Earl of Toulouze taking his opportunity during these Brouilleries and Stirs had got possession again of all his Places The Queen Regent fearing this Flame might be blown too high renew'd a Treaty with the Princes of this League whom by that means she kept from farther proceeding all this year and in the mean while she confirm'd the Alliance with the Emperour Frederick made a Truce with the English for a Twelve-month and came to an agreement with the Duke of Bretagne who gave his Daughter to be Married to a Son of hers named John Thus the Earl of Toulouze was left alone Imert de Beau-jeu having received a notable re-inforcement bethought himself instead of taking the Castles one by one it would do
November the pious King parted from Damiata and marched against the Saracens who had drawn all their Forces about the City of Massoura He encamped on an arm of the Nilus formerly called Canopus and in those times the Raschit which was not foordable whilst this was doing their Sultan named Melidin hapned to dye and till his Son could come they gave the Command to the most valiant of his Emirs or Satrapes who was Farchardin Year of our Lord 1250 In sine the French having passed over the Raschit gained in two several days two Battles against the Insidels wherein St. Lewis animated with a Sampson-like Spirit and Zeal did prodigious acts of Valour but in the first which was fought in February his Brother Robert was slain pursuing too inconsiderately the flying enemy thorough the City of Massoura Year of our Lord 1250 The Christians Army being Encamped near to Pharamia to refresh themselves Melec-Sala the Son of Meledin arrives with another Army which he had obtained of the several Sultans of his Religion wherewith he so beset the Christians stopping up all passages by which they were to receive Provisions that hunger and the distemper now call'd the Scurvy or Scorbut reduc'd them to a miserable condition In this extremity it was resolv'd to lead them back to Damiata but it proved too late the Army was utterly defeated in their march and the King taken prisoner with his other two Brothers Alphonso and Charles and almost all the Officers there were but very few of his who escaped from captivity or death This misfortune hapned the 5th day of April To this grief of the good King 's the Barbarian Conquerours added an outrage which touched him yet more sensibly than either the loss of his Army or his Liberty They scourged a Crucifix before him defiled it with spitting upon it and dragg'd it thorough the Mire However the Sultan Melec-Sala took a particular care of his person so that he restor'd him to his health again He also agreed a ten years Truce with him but thereupon being murther'd by his Emirs the King was likewise in great danger of perishing in the same storm of rage notwithstanding him whom they elected for Sultan he was named Turquemir preserved him and confirm'd the Treaty By those Articles they gave both him and all the Christian Captives their liberty with leave to carry away with them all their equipage they agreed to a Truce for Ten years and left them all they held beside in the Holy Land upon condition they Year of our Lord 1250 surrendred Damiata and should set free the Saracen Slaves and give them 400000. Liures ready Money It is remarkable that this generous King not enduring they should set a price upon his Person would needs have that sum to be the ransom for the rest and the City of Damiata for his and having notice that upon payment of the said Moneys the Saracens had mis-told and taken less then was agreed by a great deal he sent them the remainder immediately It is a Fable that he should give a consecrated Host to those Barbarians for security of his Word He would have exposed himself a thousand times to death rather then have deliver'd uphis God to those impious enemies It is true indeed that they afterwards coined Moneys with a Pix stamped upon it and the Sacred Host over it and that the same Figures were wrought in some pieces of their Tapistries and to this day there are the Figures of some Chalices Graved or Carved about the Walls of Damascus or Damas perhaps they meant to let the World know by these means and preserve the memory of it to future ages what Victories they had obtained against the Christians and how they had led their God in Triumph Year of our Lord 1250 The Sum paid and Damiata restored the King and Princes were deliver'd and embarquing upon some Galleys belonging to Genoua landed at the Port of Acon but for the rest of the prisoners such as were sick being in great numbers were knock'd at head and the remainders constrain'd to pay a new Ransom or to renounce It hath been said that the Barbarians put out the Eyes of Three hundred Gentlemen and that in memory of those Noble Martyrs that St. Lewis some years afterwards Founded the Hospital des Quinze-vingsts at Paris but this is no whit mentioned in the Grant or Writings for this Foundation and I find far before this time that a Norman Duke built one of the very same sort at Rouen only it was for maintenance but of One hundred blind People Of above 30000 Fighting Men who follow'd him in this Expedition there were hardly Six thousand remaining too scanty a number for any Enterprize Notwithstanding upon the Christians carnest intreaties who belonged to those Countreys and because he knew those Barbarians would break the Truce as soon as ever he were gone he resolv'd to stay some time and in the interim sent his Brothers Alphonso and Charles home into France Year of our Lord 1250 Whilst the Emperour Frederic was again drawing his Sword to be revenged on the Pope he died at Firenzuole the 13th of December perhaps stifled or poison'd by Mainfroy one of his Bastard Sons He left the Empire and Germany to his eldest Son Conrad to Frederic his Grandson issue of his eldest Son Henry the Dukedom of Austria and to the above-named Mainfroy the Principality of Tarentum But all that Race was extinct in a few years for having say some opposed the Holy See Year of our Lord 1251 When Pope Innocent had heard of the death of Frederic he went from Lyons where he had staid Six years and a half to return again to Rome Year of our Lord 1251 Upon the news of the pious Kings imprisonment a certain Apostate Monk by name Master Hungary pretending and affirming he had a particular Mission from God went picking up all the young Countrey fellows over the whole Kingdom to go said they and deliver their Prince and the Holy Land These new Brothers of the Cross were called Pastoureaux i. e. Shepherds or Graziers The Bandits Robbers Heretiques and all manner of wicked rascally people listed themselves in this crew who took the liberty to commit all manner of disorders especially against the Clergy and against the Jews The Inhabitants of Berry with the Nobility fell upon them and routed them some of them were hanged afterwards this rabble was dispers'd and vanish'd to nothing Year of our Lord 1252 Queen Blanch afflicted for the absence of the good King her dear Son and for the sickness of her other Son Alphonso who seemed incurable ended her days at Melun the Six and twentieth of November aged above Sixty and five years Her Son having sounded the Monastery of Maubuisson of the Order des Cisteaux for her She was conveyed thither in great pomp upon the Shoulders of the chief Nobility of the Court sitting in a Golden Chair her Face bare being cloathed in her
and misused him so strangely that he durst not go into any of them but Ghent The King as his Lord and of near Parentage took his part and entred Flanders with an Army of Twenty five thousand Men. The Flemmings had posted Sixteen thousand upon a Hill near Cassel to guard their Frontier He coming to encamp in a Valley beneath them they had the confidence to go and attaque him and appointed three Bodies at the same instant to make their way to his Tent to the King of Bohemia's and to that of the Earl of Hainault thinking to surprize them all three unawares His Person was in great danger but whilst the bravest of his Men stood as a Rampart and put a stop to the Enemy the rest Armed themselves and charged the Flemmings so stoutly that the three Princes defeated those three Parties not one Man of them escaping All Flanders quell'd by this great shock submitted to his Mercy He caused several hundreds to be Hanged Banished and Confiscated and the year after dismantled five or six of their Towns which allay'd their heat for some time but did not extinguish it The severest punishment for those that are corrupt Officers of the Treasury and indeed the most beneficial to the Publick is not the hanging of them but to pare their Rapacious Talons so close that they may not be in a capacity to deserve it Peter Remy Sieur de Montigny had succeeded to Marigny and la Guette in the management of the Treasury their sad example had not so great influence upon him as the passion to enrich himself as they had done So that by Sentence of Parliament where there were Eighteen Knights Five and twenty Lords and Princes and the King himself present he was Condemned to be Drawn and Hanged as a Traytor at the Gallows of Montfaucon which he had caused to be rebuilt His Confiscation amounted to Twelve hundred thousand Livers a prodigious Sum for those times Of the Six great Pairries of the Laity the Kings had appropriated four to themselves to substitute others in their place and erected many new to wit Beaumont le Roger in Anno 1328. for Robert d'Artois and Anno 1329. the Barony of Bourbon this with the Title of Dutchy that with the Title of Earldom Then afterwards in several years Alenson Evreux Clermont in Beauvoisis all for Princes of his Blood and upon Lands truly of much lower Dignity and Consideration then those of the former six Pairries but as much above those of this Age as the Princes of the Blood are above Private Gentlemen Edward Earl of Savoy was come into France to demand assistance of the King against the Dauphin de Viennois and the Earl of Geneva his perpetual Enemies Year of our Lord 1329 Dying at Paris and leaving only a Daughter John III. Duke of Bretagne Husband to this Princess made earnest sute to have the Succession but the Estates of Savoy wherein presided Bertrand Archbishop of Tarentaise declared That the Salique Law took place there and called Aymon Brother of the deceased to that Crown Year of our Lord 1329 Upon the first Summons they sent to Edward by two Lords who had express Commission according to the custom of Fiefs he promised to come and do Homage to the King of France The seizure of his Fiefs of Guyenne and Ponthieu was therefore deferr'd and he came to Amiens in great Equipage After he had there in vain demanded the restoring of what had been taken in Guyenne from his Father he did Homage But it was with his Tongue and in general words only intending to Advise first with his Barons what was to be done When he was returned into England he sent Letters to King Philip under his great Seal in which he declared That that Homage was Liege and that he owed it for the Dutchy of Guyenne and the Earldoms of Ponthieu and Monstereuil Year of our Lord 1328 The Troubles that hapned in England had hindred him from performing that Devoir sooner His Mother with her Mortimer had made him believe that his Uncle Edmund Earl of Kent had plotted to take away his Life Indeed thaâ— Earl endeavour'd to get King Edward II. out of prison who was his Brother and as he thought yet living Upon this Information young Edward causes him to be seized and condemned to death somewhat too lightly but afterwards Mortimer and the Queen his Mistress were Treated in the same manner For the young King weary of their scandalous deportment caused the Gallant to be hanged upon pretence of several Crimes and his Mother to be shut up in a Castle where they hastned her end a very just act had it been done by any other hand but that of a Son The discord between Pope John XXII and the Emperour Lewis of Bavaria grew to that extremity that Lewis being in Italy after the example of the Emperour Otho degraded John of the Papal Dignity and in his place substituted Michael de Corbiere a Frier Minor under the name of Nicholas V. Michael de Cesenna General of that Order and divers of his Monks supported him mightily by their Preachings and Writings These Monks and others of the Imperial party having spread many reproachful and bloody Invectives thorough all Christendom against Pope John XXII an Assembly of the Clergy was held at Paris where the Bishop in his Pontifical Habit attended by many other Prelats and Clergy-men declared to the People in the Church-Porch of Nostre-Dame the Attempts and Mistakes of Corbiere and pronounced Excommunicate both the said Corbiere the Emperour Lewis and Michael de Cesenna with their Adherents Two things ruined this Party the Emperours ill Conduct which forced him to go out of Italy and the disagreement between the Friers Minors many of whom having forsaken their General it weakned his Interest so much that in the end he was disowned by all of that Order So that Corbiere after many Adventures being caught and brought to Avignon in the year 1330. begged pardon of John XXII with a Rope about his Neck but he could not get off so they put him in prison where he died some Months afterwards Year of our Lord 1329 We must not confound this Assembly above-mentioned with another which was held in the same City and the same year 1329. upon complaint the Kings Judges made by the Mouth of Peter Cugnieres Kt. Counsellor and Advocate-General of the Parliament touching the Usurpations and Attempts of the Clergy upon the Secular Jurisdiction The business was discussed in a Council held at Vincennes then again in the Assembly of Parliament Cugnieres spake earnestly and to the good liking of all the Nobility who applauded him Peter Roger elected Archbishop of Sens afterwards made Pope and Bertrand Bishop of Autun who was a Cardinal having undertaken the defence of their Body replied very eloquently The Clergy was in great danger not only of being lopt off in part but quite rooted out of their Jurisdiction The King at
mean time were forced to dissemble till they could have fit opportunity to declare the Truth and to write Letters to all Princes that his Election was Canonical however they gave notice to the King of France that he should give no faith to their Letters till they were out of danger But when upon pretence of avoiding the extream heats in Rome they were retired to Anagnia being moreover offended at the proud deportment of Bartholomew they made the Truth of the matter of Fact known to all Princes admonished Bartholomew three several times to desist from pretending to the Papacy since he well knew they had no intention to elect him and afterwards they proceeded judicially against him and declared him an intruder That done they retired to Fundy under protection of the Earl of that place and there elected one of the six Cardinals Year of our Lord 1379 that had remained in France This was Robert Brother of Peter Earl of Geneva whose Courage was as high as his Birth He took the Name of Clement VII France after several Assemblies had been held of the most Learned of the Clergy and the most judicious Prelats and Nobility adhered to Clement the Kings of Castille and of Scotland who were his Allies did the same the Earl of Savoy and Jane Queen of Naples also although in the beginning she had protected his Competitor But all the rest of Christendom owned Vrban the Navarrois the English and the Flemmings out of spite to France the Italians to preserve the Papacy in their Year of our Lord 1378 and 79. Nation the Emperour in acknowledgment because that Pope before he was ever required had made haste to confirm the election of Wenceslaus his Son the King of Hungary that he might have a pretence to dispoliate the Queen of Naples and the rest for divers interests Peter King of Arragon remained Neutre At first Clement was well armed and in a condition to over-top his adversary having in his service one Sylvester Bude a Captain of Bretagne with Two thousand old Adventurers of that Nation who took the Castle St. Angelo defeated the Romans in Rome it self and made themselves Masters of the City But after another famous Captain who was an Englishman and was named Hacket otherwhile Head of the ✚ Bands of the Tard-Venus and now in the service of Vrban had vanquished and taken him prisoner Clements Affairs went on so ill that he was driven out of Italy and retiring himself to Avignon left his Rival sole Master of Rome This Schisme lasted Forty years either party having great Persons Saints Miracles and Revelations as they said and even such strong Arguments and Reasons on his side that the dispute could never be decided but by way of Cession that is by obliging the two Contenders to abdicate the Papacy so that it is great boldness to call those Anti-Popes who during this Schisme held the See at Avignon Year of our Lord 1379 The death of the Emperour Charles IV. fell out upon the Nine and twentieth of November in the year 1378. in the City of Prague the 63 year of his age Wenceslaus his Son who was elected King of the Romans in the year 1376. succeeded him in the Empire and the Kingdom of Bohemia a Prince deformed both in Body and Soul Year of our Lord 1379 It was a kind of Rebellion in the Earl of Flanders to own any other Pope then his King had done and indeed he shewed him ill will for it and more yet towards the Breton who encouraged him in his obstinacy Besides it had so fortuned that the Flemming by the Counsel of that Duke had caused one of his Envoyes to be staid who was passing thorow his Countrey on his way to Scotland to incite Robert Stewart to break the Truce with the English The King made complaint to the Flemming and Commanded him to drive the Breton out of his Countreys but the Flemming having taken advice of his People who assured him of Two hundred thousand Combatants in case he were attaqued refused to give him that satisfaction The Breton nevertheless went out of Flanders and took refuge in England The place of his retreat aggravated his crime the King orders him to be summoned to appear in Parliament to be judged by his Pairs Not presenting himself he was declar'd by Sentence of the Ninth of December attainted of the crime of Felony and all his Lands as well in Bretagne as all others he held in the Kingdom consiscated for having defied the King his Sovereign Lord and for having entred the Countrey in Arms with the enemies of the Kingdom That which in appearance seemed likeliest to ruine this Duke raised him The Bretons who for a thousand years past had so generously fought for the liberty of their Countrey having discover'd that the King designed more against the Dutchy it self then the Duke alone and that he would take it away from the guilty only to apply it to himself began to complain to withdraw from their affection to the French to re-unite amongst themselves and to make divers Leagues and Associations between the Cities and the Nobless Even the Widow of Charles de Blois by Counsel of the friends of her House sent to protest against that Decree and alledged that Bretagne was not subject or liable to consiscation because it was not a Fief and that if the Dukes had submitted their persons by obliging themselves to certain Service it was not their power to subject their Countrey This year a most cruel War was kindled in Flanders which lasted Seven years The interior cause of this inflammation was the Luxury of the Nobility and the dissolute and excessive expences of the Earl the occasion was a quarrel that rose between one called John Lyon and the Matthews who were six Brothers both the one and the other were very powerful amongst the Navigators or Mariners and between the Cities of Ghent and Bruges for a certain Canal or River which those of Bruges would needs make The Earl took part with these and was cause that John Year of our Lord 1379 Lyon formed against him a faction of White Hats in the City of Ghent He sets up the Matthews to oppose and countermine them John Lyon was found to be the stronger and pushed the contest on to the utmost extremity The Duke of Anjou was mighty greedy of Money and a great exactor his People by his Order or upon their own Authority having laid some new Imposts upon the City of Montpellier which was under his Government but of the Propriety of the King of Navarre the People mutined and killed Fourscore of them amongst which number were his Chancellour and the Governour The Duke hastned thither with some Forces and caused a most horrible Sentence to be given for punishment of that crime but it was moderated almost in every point by the intercession of his Holiness excepting against the Authors of that Sedition who paid down their Heads for it
at one another the Burgundian breaks off the Treaty and thinks of nothing now but to accommodate Affairs with the Dauphin They conferred therefore in the open Field near Povilly le Fort within two Leagues of Melun between the two Armies each of them attended by half a score Horsemen and there they made a Treaty in which they sware to love and assist each other like Brothers submitting themselves in case of any failure to the Soveraign Judgment of the Holy See After which they agreed to meet upon the Bridge de Year of our Lord 1419 Montereau Faut-yonne the Eighteenth of August each accompanied with ten Men armed to determine all their disputes in a most amicable manner The Servants belonging to the deceased Lewis Duke of Orleans particularly Taneguy du Chastel and John Louvet President of Provence procured these Interviews for no other end but to find an opportunity to revenge the death of their late Master upon him that was the Author of it They durst not attempt it at Pouilly but they put things in better order at Montereau by the contrivance of certain Barriers which being made in appearance for the mutual safety of them both served as a snare or trap to that unfortunate Prince The day being come the Dauphin arrives at Montereau the Duke made him wait almost fifteen days His friends forewarning and advice his own pressentiment all humane prudence and reasonning forbid his going thither the power of his ill destiny dragg'd him along by the horrid treachery of a second Dalila I mean the Lady de Gyac his Mistress or perhaps it was the hand of Divine Justice for the Blood of his own Cousin and so many thousands of Men as had been spilt in that Quarrel To allure him the better they delivered up to him the Castle of Montereau but wholly unfurnish'd of Provisions or Artillery From thence he descended to the Bridge with his ten Men and placed a guard at the end While he was kneeling before the Dauphin Taneguy du Chastel and some others leaping over the Barriers Massacred him by several wounds his People making but a slight defence only Nouailles Brother of Captal de Buch who was kill'd with him We must believe this act was done without the Dauphins order for he was not above Seventeen years of age and Heaven would never have permitted a Prince designed to wear the Year of our Lord 1419 Crown of France should have perpetrated so horrible and base a piece of treachery However it were the event made it appear how much those wounds did blemish his Honour and not only proved hurtful to him but almost mortal to the whole Kingdom For Philip the only Son of the deceased although a very good Prince highly undertakes to revenge his Fathers death and wanted not for means to do it All that were friends to that House all those that were discontented came and tendred their service to him compassion and horror for this Murther renewed and heated the affections even of such as were grown coldest the Parisians sent to assure him of their Services and he to gain the love of the People obtained a Truce of the English to the exclusion of the Dauphins People who were come to Rouen to desire the same thing for which they made great profers From this time the French the English and the Burgundians began to mix and live together as if they had all been but one Nation but the difference of their humours and interests would suffer no long unity amongst them Year of our Lord 1419 On the other hand the Dauphin gathered up all his Friends in the Provinces of Poitou Orleannois Berry Auvergne Lyonnois Dauphine Provence and above all thought to secure himself of Languedoc He took away that Government from the Earl of Foix and gave it to Charles Count de Clermont eldest Son of the Duke of Bourbon From these Provinces it was that he drew his Succours that maintained him Besides the Kings of Castille and of Scotland with the Duke of Milan suppli'd him in his necessities with some of their Forces Year of our Lord 1420 According to what had been agreed upon the King of England and Philp Duke of Burgundy met at Troyes where the King and Queen were and there the Peace was Treated together with the Marriage of Catharine of France with King Henry Which was first sworn to by all the Lords there present and then by all the good Cities that were of their party The Marriage was compleated the Second day of June This Treaty amongst other things contained That King Charles named and owned Henry for his Heir to the Crown of France That however Henry should not take the Title of King of France during the life of Charles but that he should have the quality of Regent and the government of Affairs That the two Kingdoms of France and England should be united and held by the same hand viz. by Henry and his Heirs but that they should not depend upon one another and should be governed according to their Laws That all Priviledges and Rights should be preserved to all Estates and to every particular Person That no Treaty of Accommodation should be made with the Dauphin without the consent of both the Kings the Duke of Burgundy and the three Estates of both the Kingdoms The two Kings afterwards with the Burgundian having taken Sens and Montereau journyed towards Paris Melun made the King of England know how much all France might cost him he was four Months before it and not able to force it Famine only did what his Sword could not The Besieged surrendred upon composition but contrary to the faith given they were all detained Prisoners At their departure from thence the two Kings made their entrance into Paris the first Sunday of Advent and the next day the two Queens The Duke of Burgundy having tender'd his complaint before them and their Councils in the Hostel St. Pol the Dauphin was summon'd to the Table de Marbre with the usual formalities and afterwards as attainted and convict of Murther was declared unworthy of all Succession namely of that to the Crown of France and banished the Kingdom to perpetuity From this Sentence given by incompetent Judges against all Right and contrary to the Laws of the Kingdom he appealed to God and his Sword and transferr'd the Parliament and University to Poitiers at which place the most illustrious Members of those two Companies did not fail to appear Thus almost every thing was double in the Kingdom there were two Kings two Regents two Parliaments two Constables two Chancellors two Admirals and so of most of the great Officers not to mention the multitude of Mareschals of France whereof each Party made seven or eight Year of our Lord 1420 This year 1420. the Portugal Navigators defray'd and encouraged by Henry Duke of Visen Son of John King of Portugal sailing at large in the Ocean found in their midway between Lisbonne and
Nicholas d'Outrecour was forced to retract from sixty Articles which he had framed upon divers Heads of Philosophy and Divinity owning them to be false and Heretical and the Books wherein they were contained were ordered to be torn and thrown into the Fire The year 1369. a Frier Minor named Denis Soulechat had taught some errors concerning the renouncing of Temporal Goods and about Charity and the perfection of Love which being condemned by the Faculty of Divinity he appealed to the Pope who confirmed their Judgment and sent him back to Paris to retract them in the presence of John de Dormans Cardinal Bishop of Beauvais The great Plague which reigned over the whole Earth about the middle of this Age begot a Spiritual one which was the Sect of Flagellants which taking birth in Hungary spread it self in short time over Poland Germany France and England They carried a Cross in their Hands and wore a Capouch on their Heads were naked to their Wast scourged themselves twice a day and once in the night with knotted Cords stuck with sharp pointed Rowels prostrating themselves upon the ground in form of a Cross crying out for Mercy Each Band had their Chief These Pious beginnings degenerated into Heresie by their own pride and their herding with the Begards Rascals and all sorts of idle People They affirmed that their Blood was united in such manner to the Blood of Christ that it had the same vertue and that after thirty days scourging all their Sins were remitted both as to the guilt and punishment so that they did not care for the Sacraments This phrensy lasted a great while in the subsequent Age and neither the Censures of the Church nor the Writings of Learned Doctors nor the Edicts of their Princes could purge the Brain of these melancholy Zealots There started up another sort of Hereticks that were more pleasant but more infamous withall in Dauphine and Savoy they were called Turlupins These lived without any shame like the Cynick Philosophers prayed not but with their hearts and believed that Men who were perfect ought to have a liberty of Spirit not subject to any Law That Opinion which Pope John XXII endeavoured to set up touching the state of the Soul till the day of Judgment had it seems been very common in the foregoing Ages but the World had examined and consider'd it better so that for a long while it had passed for an error The University therefore corrected the Holy Father in that point and he not only desisted from it himself but likewise gave a publick Act of his Retraction whether upon King Philip de Valois his threats who sent a Message to him in these very words That if he did not retract he would have him burnt or rather his being better satisfied in the Point The grand Assemblies being formidable to all such as govern by absolute Authority rather then by Law there were very few Councils in this Age. I have told you to what end that of Vienne was held Anno 1311. some will have it a General one because Pope Clement V. presided there and it consisted of a great number of Bishops and Prelats In the year 1318. Robert de Courtenay Archbishop of Reims convened one at Seulis where his eleven Suffragants were in Person or by their Proxies They there pronounced Excommunication against all those that were Usurpers or Detainers of the Churches Goods The Eighteenth of June of the year 1326. the Archbishops of Arles Aix and Embrun assembled the Prelats of their Provinces in the Abby of St. Ruf near Avignon to labour for the reformation of Manners the establishment of Discipline the preservation of Ecclesiastical Immunities and the Hierarchial Authority over the Regulars Anno 1337. there was another at the same place and from the same Provinces which treated about the same things Pope Bennet XII presided there That of Lavaur in the year 1368. composed of three Provinces Narbona Toulouze and Ausch and convened by the Authority of Pope Vrban V. had for their chief aim the reformation of Manners We must not omit that in the year 1377. King Charles V. used his intercession to Pope Gregory XI to order it so that the Bishoprick of Paris might be no longer subject to the Metropolis of Sens and that it might be honoured with the Pall like the other Bishopricks in France His Holiness excused himself as to the first point as a thing too prejudicial to the Church of Sens whereof Clement VI. his Uncle had been Archbishop and where himself had held one of the highest Dignities but for the second he willingly granted it However we do not find that the Bishops of Paris ever thought of making use of it Charles VII King LIII POPES MARTIN V. Eight years five Months under this Reign EUGENIUS IV. Elected the 15th of March 1431. S. sixteen years NICOLAUS V. Elected the 12th of March 1447. S. eight years wanting twelve days CALIXTUS III. Elected in April 1455. S. three years three Months PIUS II. Aeneas Silvius Elected the 19th of August 1458. S. six years whereof four under this Reign CHARLES VII Called the Vctorious King LIII Aged Twenty years eight Months Year of our Lord 1422 THE Dauphin was at the Castle of Espailly near du Puy in Auvergne when he received the news of the death of his Father The first day he put himself into Mourning the second he Cloathed himself in Scarlet and after he had heard Mass in the same Chappel made them set up the Banner of France upon sight whereof all those Lords that were then present with Pennons of their Arms cried out Vive le Roy The English and the Burgundian held the best Provinces of France they had Normandy entirely and all that is between the Scheld even to the Loire and the Saosne excepting some few places which Charles had yet here and there As for his part he had only all that lies beyond the Loire excepting Guyenne but then he had all the Princes of the Blood on his side the Burgundian excepted the best Captains and the bravest Adventurers or Volunteers as the Bastard of Orleans Taneguy du Chastel James and John de Harcour Lewis de Culan Lewis de Gaucour the Mareschals de la Fayete de Rieux de Severac de Boussac Poton de la Hire Stephen de Vignoles-Saintrailles Ambrose de Lore William de Barbasan called the Knight without reproach and a great many others and indeed he purchased them at a dear rate for he was constrained to engage his Castles and the best part of his Demeasnes in pawn for them Now because during his first years he commonly resided in Berry his Enemies nick-named him in raillery the King of Bourges Year of our Lord 1422 In the beginning of November he was Crowned at Poitiers whither he had transfer'd his Parliament The accident that hapned to him at Rochel some days before was a kind of presage that he should fall into extream dangers but yet
Burgundy and the Earldom of Nevers on the one part and Bourbonnois Beaujolois Lyonnois and Forez on the other Then it proceeded a little further at Nevers in the interview of Charles Duke of Bourbon and the Burgundian whose Sister Charles had Married These two Princes having accommodated those Affairs that were between them concerning the Homage for some Lands which the Duke of Bourbon refused to render him and for which they had made a rude War for some time began to fall into discourse of the Affairs of the whole Kingdom and agreed together that there should be a Conference held at Arras to find out the best means for procuring Peace between the two Crowns and between the King and the Burgundian Year of our Lord 1435 According to this Resolution there was held at Arras the greatest and the most noble Assembly that ever this Age had heard of All the Princes of Christendom had their Ambassadors there the Pope and the Council each their Legats The Harbingers took up Stabling for ten thousand Horse This was opened the Sixth day of the Month of August Year of our Lord 1435 The Duke was obliged in honour not to Treat without the English provided they would be satisfied with reasonable Conditions They were profer'd Normandy and Guyenne if they would do Homage for them but when he found they would relinquish nothing of their Pretensions he disengaged himself from them and made a separate Treaty the Popes Legat having absolved him of that saith he had given them The Popes did often practise this believing it a part of the power which our Lord Jesus Christ had given to bind and unbind Here is the Summary of the chiefest Articles The King by his Ambassadors disown'd that he had consented to the Murther of Duke John wickedly perpetrated and by wicked Counsel for which he was sorry with all his heart Promised he would do justice and cause such as were guilty to be prosecuted whom the Duke should name to him That if they could not be taken he would banish them from the Kingdom for ever and never admit them upon any Treaty He obliged himself to build for the Soul of the deceased Duke the Lord de Novailles and of all those that died since in that quarrel a Chappelat Montereau on the place where the Body of that Duke lay interred to set up a Cross on the Bridge to found a Monastery or Chartreuse where should be twelve Friers and a high Mass that should be sung every year in the Church at Dijon To pay fifty thousand Gold Crowns at 24 Carats c. for the Goods and Equipage taken when the Duke was Murther'd Moreover he relinquished and acquitted him of all Homage due for any Lands he held of the Crown and his Service and Personal Assistance during his life Gave him to perpetuity for him and his Heirs Males and Females the Countries of Mascon and Auxerre the Lordship of St. Jengon the Bailliwick of St. Laurence the Castlewick or Chastelleny of Bar upon the Seine and as security for four hundred thousand Crowns payable at two certain terms the Chastellenies of Peronne Roye and Montdidier and the Cities of the Somme that is St. Quentin Corbie Amiens Abeville and others As also the County of Pontieu on either side the Somme and the enjoyment of the County of Boulogne for him and the Heirs Male of his Body with all the Rights of Tailles Gabelles and Imposts all profits of Courts of Justice of the Regalia and all others arising from all those Countries That the Burgundians should not be obliged to quit the St. Andrews Cross even when they were in the Kings Army That in case of any contravention of the Subjects both of the one and other of these Princes should be absolved from their Oaths of Fidelity and should take up Arms against the Infringer That the King should tender his submissions for the compleating of this Treaty into the hands of the Legats from the Pope and the Council upon pain of Excommunication Reagravation Interdiction of his Lands and all other to which the Censures of the Church can extend That to the same purpose he should give the Seals of the Princes of his Blood the Grandees of the State the most noted Prelats and the greatest and chiefest Cities Year of our Lord 1435 And to make this Reconciliation the more firm and durable there was added the promise to bestow Catharine the Kings Daughter upon Charles Earl of Charolois the Dukes Son both as yet very young Four years after they sent this Princess to the Duke of Burgundy to compleat the Marriage Year of our Lord 1435 Besides this weighty blow which amazed the English much they received another which was the death of the Duke of Bedford Regent in France after whom they never had any but Men that were very violent hare-brain'd without either prudence or conduct The French in the mean time time took Diepe by Escalado and the kind usage they shewed to the Inhabitants brought them all the places of the Country of Caux Year of our Lord 1435 At the same time which was about the last day of September died the Queen Mother Isabella de Baviere in the Hostel de Saint Pol at Paris where she lived in a mean condition since the time of her Husbands death justly hated by the French and ingratefully despised by the English Some have written that to save the expences of her Funeral they conveyed her Corps in a small Boat to St. Denis attended only by four People Her death is attributed to an inward grief occasioned by the outrageous railleries of such as delighted to tell her face that King Charles was not the Son of her Husband Year of our Lord 1435 and 36 One of the greatest faults they committed after they had refused the offers made them at Arras was their not treating the Duke of Burgundy well their giving him reproachful language and not suffering him to be Neuter as he desired but to fall on his People wherever they met them endeavouring to surprize his places and harrasing him so perpetually that at length they constrained him to become their utter Enemy The Parisians comparing the pride and wretchedness of these Strangers with the courtesie and magnificence of their Natural Kings could no longer endure them or if any thing did yet with-hold them it was some remainders of that affection they preserved for the Duke of Burgundy But this knot being broken they now sought nothing but the opportunity to free themselves from their Bondage Year of our Lord 1436 The English having therefore been beaten at St. Denis by the Constable the honest Citizens of Paris took that opportunity to treat about their surrender to him Having obtained an Act of Oblivion and the confirmation of their Priviledges in such form as they desired they introduced him by the Gate called St. James This was on the Friday after Easter When he was entred the People fell upon the English
with a Sword on the Blade whereof were some Latin Verses engraved which invited him to that expedition Year of our Lord 1462 There was a rude War between Henry King of Castille and John King of Arragon This last had by a Treaty of accommodation given Catalogna to Charles Prince of Viana Son of his first Bed and therefore his principal Heir His Mother in Law harrass'd him so much that he once more fell out with his Father and took up Arms. He was again defeated and taken Prisoner The Catalonians making an insurrection in his favour forced his Father to set him at Liberty but the same day of his deliverance he Died of a Morsel which his Mother in Law had caused her own Physician to give him After his Death the Catalonians being revolted against John and having degraded him as the Murtherer of his Son Charles The King of Castille assisted them It was not the zeal of justice that led him to it but the desire of Siezing those places in Navarre which were for his purpose Mean while John that he mught have Men and Money in this pressing necessity had engaged the Counties of Roussillon and of Cerdagne to the King of France for 300000 Crowns Gaston de Foix Brother in Law to the Castillian and Son in Law to the Arragonian brought these two Princes to refer their differences to the judgement of the King who then was at Bourdeaux to treat of the Marriage of Magdelin his Sister with Gaston de Foix Count of Viana When he had heard the reasons of either party from the mouths of their Ambassadors he pronounced his Sentence of Arbitration but it satisfied neither the one nor the other any more then his enterview with Henry King of Castille satisfied either the French or Spaniards These scoffed at the Niggardlyness and mean and simple countenance of King Lewis who was cloathed only in coarse Cloth had a short and straight Garment on and wore a Madona of Lead in his Cap The others had an indignation at the Castillian Arrogance and the Pride of the Count de Lodesme Favourite of Henry But it is true that their King condescending as he ought to the Majesty of France passed over not only the River Bidasso which seperates the two Kingdoms to come to the King but likewise advanced two Leagues within his Dominions and came even to the Castle of Vterbia where they conferred together At his return from this Voyage Lewis found that the Lords de Crouy Father and Son had so well managed the mind of Philip Duke of Burgundy with whom they could do any thing that he consented to render up to him the Cities of the Somme for the 400000 Crowns The business was of importance and indeed for fear the Duke should find out some excuses to retract his word he caused the money to be immediately sent to Hesdin and went thither himself The surrender being executed he would shew himself in the Low-Countries where his Soveraignty was but little acknowledged He visited Arras was received at Tournay and went as far as l'Isle where the Duke came and saluted him The City of Tournay which had never owned any other Dominion but that of France sent three Thousand Citizens forth to meet him each of them having a Flower-de-Luce embroidred with Gold just upon his Heart Lewis Duke of Savoy waited for him at St. Cloud to make complaints of the disobedience of Philip his young Son who more sprightly then Amedea his elder Brother had gained the affections of the Nobility and was making his way to invade the Crown The King commanded Philip to come to him he immediately did so upon the Faith of a safe conduct which hindred not his being Arrested and then his sending him Prisoner to Loches He was detained two years to give his Father time to settle his affairs and authority and establish his eldest Son in the Succession The hatred betwixt the King and the Charolois was augmented more and more There are five or six principal causes taken notice of The surrender of the places in the Somme the kind reception the King made the Lords of Croüy whom the Charolois had driven from his Fathers Court and Country for that reason moreover the Kings endeavours to lay a Tax or Gabelle upon Burgundy contrary to the Articles of the Traty of Arras and the favour he manifested to the Count d'Estampes who was accused to have intended to poyson the Duke and his Son Year of our Lord 1463 At the same time the Chancellor de Morvilliers a Man vehement and bold went on the Kings behalf to forbid the Duke of Bretagne to Style himself any more Duke by the Grace of God to Coyn any money or to raise any Taxes in his Dutchy The Duke taken unprovided acted cooly and promised all but demanded time to Assemble the Estates of his Country and in the mean while he diligently negociated with the Burgundian by Romille and with all the Grandees of the Kingdom whom he knew to be highly discontented The Habits of Fryers Mendicatns especially of the Cordeliers served to make the Messengers of these intrigues pass securely up and down The Charolois had chosen Gorcum in Holland for his ordinary residence the Bastard de Rubempre slunk privately into that Port with a small Vessel being disguised like a Merchant to Sieze and carry away alive or dead this Romille the Engine of all these designs or perhaps the Count de Charolois himself However it were the Count having discover'd it caused him to be imprisoned and gave notice thereof to the Duke his Father who was going to Hesdin to Confer with the King Upon this intelligence the Duke retires in hast his People gave out that there had been a design to Sieze upon the Father and the Son both at the same time the Preachers entertained their Auditors with it and Oliver de la Marche Made mention of it in Terms which hugely offend the Kings Honour To justify himself against these reproaches the King sent Morvilliers his Chancellor and some Lords to make great complaints to the Duke and demand reparation The Chancellor did it in such high words and Soveraign expressions that he seemed to design rather to exasperate then to compose differences And indeed the Cound de Charolois said to one of the Ambassadors at their departure that before one year were past he would make the King repent it The King thought he had time to subdue the Breton before Philip whom Age render'd unwieldy could Dream of stirring He therefore called the Grandees of the State together at Tours to make them know what reasons he had to undertake it Charles Duke of Orleance first Prince of the Blood whould needs speak there of the disorders of the Kingdom as his Age his Reputation and his Rank obliged him to do but his Remonstrances grated the Ears of the King and were received with anger and contempt In so much as he died for grief within two
out of that Laudible zeal he hath transmitted to all his posterity to procure the publick good There were more Propositions made no doubt then they intended to practise and fine studied speeches This is what they call in France de Belles actions brave actions Year of our Lord 1466 The excessive heats of the Summer bred many contagious Maladies which in the City of Paris alone swept away above forty Thousand People and frighted away a much greater number In so much as the King desiring to re-people it by an Edict called in all sorts of Nations and People even such as were banished or Criminals to whom besides the Abolition he gave Priviledges and Franchises Year of our Lord 1467 The Pragmatique subsisted yet Pope Paul II. sent as Legat to the King John Joffridi Cardinal Bishop d'Alby to get the revocation verified who employed John Balue Cardinal Bishop of Angiers to carry the Letters from the King to the Chastelet and the Parliament They passed at the Chastelet without opposition but in the Parliament he found John de Sainct Romain Attorney General who opposed him to his face and the University went to the Legat to signify their Appeal to the next Council and after entred it into the Register at the Chasteler Paris being as it were the Kings Bulwark against the Grandees that loved him not he ordained that all the Inhabitants even the Ecclesiasticks should enroll themselves under the Banners of their Principals and Sub-Principals that is to say of Colonels and Captains and should provide themselves with good Arms. At one Muster which was made the 4 th of September there were found to be between 70 and 80000 men between the ages of 16 and 60 years In another which was made the following year they counted 84000. Year of our Lord 1467 The 15 th of July in the year 1467. Philip Duke of Burgundy called le Bon i. e. the Good ended his days at Brussels in the 72 th year of his Age and the 45 th of his Domination He yielded not in power or riches to any King but the French but had not his like in Goodness and Magnisicence And indeed he was adored by his people respected by all the Princes of Christendom and dreaded even by the Infidels The Count de Charolois Succeeded in his great Dominions not at all in his Goodness and Wisdom He was Rash Presumptuous Quarrelsome and Bloody But withal Valiant Undaunted and Indefatigable in War and who within himself observed exact justice and right towards his own Subjects Year of our Lord 1467 At his first coming to this Estate he was engaged against the Liegois whom the King had wrought to break the Truce and he assisted them yet notwithstanding he offered to forsake them if the Duke would forsake the Breton whom the King held already as it were by the Throat being entred into his Country with thirty Thousand Men. The Duke would do nothing of this but hastned to make an end of the War with Liege Now the Liegois having lost a Battel when they came to relieve the City of St. Tron did submit themselves to any conditions he would require excepting firing and plundring He caused the Heads of 20 or 30 of the most guilty to fly together with the Towers and Walls of the City of Liege changed the Magistrates and the Laws and drained them of great Sums of Money for his expences This was in the Month of November The people of Flanders especially the Gantois who had mutined after the Death of his Father humbled themselves likewise before their victorious Prince and sent him all their Banners to Bruges In the Month of October the King received advice that the Duke of Alenson who made one in every discontented Party was joyned in that of Monsieur and the Duke of Bretagne and had given them up all his places by means of which and of those that yet remained in their possession amongst others Auranches Bayeux and Caen they held almost all the lower Normandy The King willing to tread him down first in his way to the others did presently cause his Army to march into the Countreys of Perche and of Mayn and arrived at Mans himself Year of our Lord 1467 One of the causes which had most stirred up the Cities especially Paris against the King in the League for the publick good had been the mutation of Officers For this reason before his march against the Leagued Princes he made this celebrated Ordinance of the 21th of October which bears That considering that in his Officers consists under his Authority the direction whereby are Policed and managed the publick affairs of the Kingdom and that thereof they are Essential Ministers as members of that Body whereof of he is the Head he would therefore free them from all doubts they had of falling into the ineonveniences mutation and destitution and provide for their security And therefore he Ordained that thenceforward there should be no Office disposed of unless it were vacant by Death or by voluntary resignation or by forfeiture judged and declared Judicially by a competent Judge His Army lay all the rest of Autumn without doing much for as subtil as he was he suffer'd himself to be amused by the Breton with the hopes of an accommodation Nevertheless he did not wholly lose his time Towards the end of the year he Debauched Rene Count du Perche Son of John Duke of Alenson who betraying his own Father delivered the Castle of Alenson up to him which in those days was reckoned for a very good place The Breton forsook the Town And sinding Monsieur and the Duke of Bretagne astonished at so unexpected an accident he employ'd the Popes Legat to let them know that he would refer all his Deputies to the judgment of the General Estates And for that purpose summoned them together at Tours the first day of April Year of our Lord 1468 All the Deputies proved to be so much at his Devotion that they ordained nothing but what was conformable to his desires That Normandy being united to the Crown could not be dismembred to be given to his Brother That that young Prince should be exhorted to be satisfied with twelve thousand Livers yearly Rent in Lands for his Appenage and 60000 Livers Annual Pension but this not to be a President for the futureSons of France That the Breton should surrender the places in Normandy and if he would not obey this Ordinance they should make War upon him with all their Forces and to do this they proffered their Lives and Fortunes He caused this to be immediately made known to his Brother and to the Breton and at the same time his Army led by his Admiral entred Bretagne took Chantoce and Ancenis and penetrated a great way into the Country whilst himself after he had visited his good City of Paris was gone towards the Frontiers of Picardy to make use of some Engines to endeavour to disjoyn the Duke of Burgundy
the prospect he had of what would be squander'd and wasted in Luxury and vain Prodigallity by Francis I. after his death he sighing said Ah! we labour in vain this great Boy will spoil all Two Male Children he had by Anne of Bretagne died in the Arms of their Nurses There were only two Daughters left Claude who was married to Francis I. and Renee who in Anno 1528. was by that King married to Hercules Duke of Ferrara a petty Prince whom he made choice of purposely that he might not be able to contend with him for the Dutchy of Bretagne FRANCIS I CALLED The Great KING AND THE Father of Learning King LVII Aged XX Years and about four Months POPES LEO X. near seven Years under this Reign ADRIAN VI. Elected the 4th of January in the Year 1522. S. 1 Year and above eight Months CLEMENT VII Elected the 29th of November 1525. S. 10 Years and above 10 Months PAUL III. Elected the 13th of October 1534. S. Years and one Month whereof 12 Years and a half under this Reign Year of our Lord 1515. in January THis is the third time in the Capetine Race that the Scepter for want of Male-Children in the direct Line passes in a collateral Line Lewis I. Duke of Orleans had two Sons Charles who was Duke of Orleans after him and John who was Earl of Angoulesme Lewis XII was the Son of Charles and from John came another Charles who was Father of Francis I. who succeeded to Lewis XII He was crowned at Reims the five and twentieth of January and took the Title of Duke of Milan with that of King of France When this Prince appeared on the Throne in the Flower of his Youth with the Meene and Stature of a Hero with wonderful dexterity and address in all the noble Exercises of a Cavalier Brave Liberal Magnificent Civil Debonnaire and well Spoken he attracted the Adoration of the People and the Love of the Nobility and indeed he had been the greatest of Kings if the too high Opinion of himself grounded upon so many fair Qualities had not inclined him to suffer himself to be entangled in the Snares of Women and the Flatteries of Courtiers who corrupted his Mind and made it spend its self most in outward vain Glory and superficial appearances His first Cares were to seek the Alliance and Amity of the Princes his Neighbours The King of England taking yet to Heart the Infidelity of Ferdinand his Father in Law continued the Peace with him on the same Conditions as he had made with his Predecessor and to last during both their Lives The King sent back Queen Mary to him who afterwards married the Duke of Suffolk The Arch-Duke likewise being thereto obliged by the Flemmings who in no wise would have a War with France and besides judging there might be danger to let things stand without any Colligation between France and England sent the Count of Nassaw Ambassador to him who after he had rendred the Homage due for the Counties of Artois and Flanders treated a perpetual confederation between the two Princes Year of our Lord 1515 The Band and Knot that was to tye this fast was the Marriage in future of his Master with Renee the Queens Sister It was stipulated under terrible Oaths and great pains of refusal on either Part for which Francis stak'd down the Faith of several great Lords and twelve of his best Cities for security The Conditions were six hundred thousand Crowns of Gold and the Dutchy of Berry for her and for her Children That she should renounce to the Succession of Father and Mother namely to the Dutchies of Milan and Bretagne and that the King should be engaged to assist the Arch-Duke with Men and Ships to go and take Possession of the Kingdoms of Spain upon the Death of Ferdinand his Grand-Father It would have been very easie also for the King to have confirmed the League made by his Predecessor with the Venetians but Ferdinand refused the continuation of the Truce unless upon the same Conditions as the last which was that he should not meddle with or touch the Dutchy of Milan Which the King not having accepted of the said Ferdinand the Emperor the Swisse and Sforza Duke of Milan made a League which imported That to compel the King to renounce that Dutchy the Swisse should attack France by the way of Burgundy That in order to it they should receive three thousand Ducats Monthly from the other Confederates and that King Ferdinand should fall with a powerful Army into Guyenne or Languedoc The Pope for whom they had left room in this League did not enter till the Month of July when he found that the King who had kept this design conceal'd all the Winter marched in good earnest to pass the Mountains Upon his access to the Crown he supplied the Offices of Constable and Chancellor with two Persons whereof one caused great mischiefs to France in this Reign only and the other was the occasion of such as were felt then and perhaps may last to all the following Ages He gave that of Constable to Charles de Bourbon who afterwards stirred up great Troubles against him and that of Chancellor to Antony Duprat at that Time first President of Paris who to furnish the Prodigal and conquering Humor of a young King with Money suggested to him the Sale of Justice by creating a new Chamber of twenty Counsellors in the Parliament of Paris and so proportionably in all the others to augment the Tailles and lay new Imposts without waiting the Consent or Grant of the Estates as was the ancient Order and Practice of the Kingdom Year of our Lord 1515 All the Apparel for War being ready the King went to the City of Lyons where he staid some time till Trivulcio and the Lord de Morete with the Mountainers whom the Duke of Savoy had sent to them could find a Passage over the Alpes for his Troops which were arrived in Dauphine For the Swisse who had posted themselves at Suza and those Parts hindred their way by Mount Cenis and the Mount of Genevra which begin both in that Place The Popes Army and that belonging to Ferdinand were encamped on the other side of the Po towards Piacenza and Parma and Prespera Columna had come and lodg'd himself with a thousand Horse in Villa Franca which is within seven Leagues of Saluzzes where he thought himself very secure When with incredible difficulty and by meer strength of Arms Trivulcio had made them sling and hoyst the Artillery over the tops of the Mountains and from thence with no less toyl let them down again in the Country of Saluzzes the King's Forces passed the Alpes at Dragonniera Roquepavier and other Passes which are nigh Provence La Palice who was passed one of the first having correspondence Year of our Lord 5115 with some Inhabitants of Villa-Franca used so much Skill and Celerity that he surprized Prospera as he was sitting down
chiefly in that Country Year of our Lord 1573 The Three Armies destined against the Huguenots did but little La Chastre succeeding ill in his Attaques upon Sancerre at the end of Three Months turned the Siege into a Blocade Danville instead of taking Nismes as the Cities of Lyons and Thoulouze did heartily wish because they paid and maintain'd his Army set upon the little City of Sous-Mieres whether with design not to succeed or otherwise I know not for he knew very well they plotted the Ruine of his House and he put as little Confidence in the Kings Council as they did in him He therefore ruined his Army before it and raised the Siege after he had lost Two Thousand men with Henry de Foix Count de Candale slain upon an Assault This Lord had Married his Sister and brought him Twelve Hundred Gascons Villars and la Valette cleared Gascongne of several small Garrisons but could not take Cossade and were constrained to disband their Troops who lived so licentiously that the Commons rose up in Arms to fall upon them The greatest efforts were at the Siege of Roâ—hel Strossy and Biron had invested it the preceding year all the Forces of the Kingdom were come thither and Monsieur himself Arriving there in the Month of February had brought along with him all that were bravest and greatest about the Court the Duke of Alencon month February c. his Brother the Duke of Montpensier all the Guises the Duke of Nevers and even the King of Navarre the Prince of Condé and the Mareschal de Cossé for fear lest they should make some stir elsewhere in favour of the Huguenots After several fruitless Conferences after that la Noüe not being able to perswade the Rocheliers to submit was come out of the Town and they had chosen Six Captains in his sted Monsicur began to express his mind by the roaring Mouths of his Cannon having Four-score in Battery against them In this Siege it was made more manifest then in any other of these last Ages that there is nothing which the perswasion of 〈◊〉 and Religion does not overcome and nothing that can overcome it It lasted Eight Months to reckon from the time of the Blocade the Baron de la Garde had begun within a Month after Saint Bartholomew the City during that time sustained Five and Thirty ☜ Thousand Cannon shot Nine grand Assaults above Twenty lesser ones near upon Seventy Mines very frequent Conspiracies as well by contrivance of some that were Rich who feared to loose their Wealth as by some of the Gentry who have ever some particular engagements at the Court and seldome desert it but in expectation of being called back again to the Cost of whatever Party they Espouse The People labour'd with so much heat that they raised a double Terrass and digged a deep Retrenchment at the place where they batter'd the Town before they could make their breach Besides their men were perpetually making Sallies the Women went along every where with them some to Fight others to carry necessaries and refreshment carry off and dress the wounded and gather up the Spoil others again to throw kettles of scalding Liquor or Oil melted Pitch red hot Iron Hoops Bricks Stones Timber Loggs and the like upon the Assailants heads Their Courage did not fail them though the Assistance from England which Montgommery was to have brought failed them After a long expectation in mid March they appeared but very Slender for as much as the Mareschal de Rais as well by the Intrigues he forged in England as the Pensions the King bestowed on Queen Elizabeths Councellours had notably hindred him from obtaining Year of our Lord 1573 so considerable a Supply as was promised Finding the choice Mâ—n of the Besiegers Army had put themselves into the Kings Ships and the Channel stopt up with an Estacade which they could not gâ—t over but at Spring-Tydâ—s â—e weighed Anchor and went and seized upon Bâ—ll-Isle But hearing the Count de Rais was coming against him with a dozen Ships he quitted it after he had plundred it and retired to the Isle of Wight The Count de Rais under pretence Bâ—ll-Isle wanted some Lord to defend it manag'd his Interest so that the King by his Soveraign Authority caused it to be substracted and dismembred from the demesne of the Abbey of Saincte Croix de Quimperlay and erected it to a Marquisate to bestow it upon him During all the Siege of Rochel those within enjoy'd a perfect health they had established a very good order for the distribution of their Provisions so that they had enough for two Months longer when they were deliver'd For though they were but meanly furnished with Corn they had great Stores of Flesh and Salt-Fish and the Sea shewing her self Charitable and Merciful to that Town which she hath ever looked upon as her Nurse-Child threw upon the Owze infinite quantities of Shel-Fish for the Subsistance and Relief of the Poor On the contrary the Besiegers were under all sorts of inconveniencies the neglect of discipline and the desolation of the Country round about them had caused extream scarcity of Provisions and Forrage in their Camp and a most terrible Infection which bred frequent and contagious distempers But the complement of all those Evils was their general Division which held the Royal Army in perpetual agitations and ready to cut one anothers Throats like Cadmus his Soldiers There were of three sorts of People the Malecontents the Gentlemen were most of them so with the Queen Mother who governed all by two or three Strangers Covetous Proud and without Faith the Faithful these were the Huguenots who had not quitted their Religion but to avoid the ruine of their Houses or for some Interest at Court had followed Monsieur and the New ones whom the fear of being Massacred had forced to go to Mass though they did not believe in it Out of some of each of these was a Club or Party made whom they named the Politiques and these had together agreed that without any more mention of Religion they would demand the Reformation of the State and expulsion of Strangers Amongst the Catholicks the Montmorencies Biron and Cossé were the Chief Heads these were linked together above a Twelve month before the Saint Bartholomew The Duke of Alencon a Prince ambitious and unquiet despised for his low Stature and his ill Meen had desired to be one and having in his tender Youth taken some Impression of the New Religion from those that Educated him had tied himself in strickt Amity with the Admiral believing by that means to make a Party strong enough to equal the Credit of the Duke of Anjou and get some share in the Govâ—â—â—ment To which he was thrust on by the Ambition of his Favourites and by his Sister Margarets Spleen much offended the Duke of Anjou slighted her after he highly cherish'd her Divers considerations proceeding from jealousie suspicions and fear had withheld the
was drawn up and signed by the Witnesses then present The Ceremony being over and the Gates open'd the Count de Castro Ambassador of Spain came to congratulate the Senate upon their reconciliation with the Holy Father and the Cardinal went to celebrate Mass pontifically in the Patriarchal Church where were present the Senate and the Count de Castro the people flocking thither from all parts with incredible joy Those Bishops that had not submitted to the Censures received absolution likewise but whilst they were in dispute about the Conditions with those whom the Pope had preposed for this Affair they wholly abstained from Celebrating and thus in effect submitted to the interdict after all The Senate honoured such as had written in their defence with good Pensions and took them into their protection but their whole power and care was not enough to secure Fra Paolo from the malice of some Assassines who having watched him a long time surprized him one day as he was returning to his Monastery and wounded him in several places with a Stiletto but such care was taken in the cure that he recovered Afterwards he hung up the Stiletto before an Altar in the Church belonging to his Convent with this inscription Dei Filio liberatori not so much perhaps to Consecrate his acknowledgment to God as to immortalize the horror of that Assassinate and stir up the publick hatred against those who were believed to be the Authors I come now to the Truce between the Vnited Provinces and the King of Spain The two parties were extremely fatigated with a War of above forty years continuance they had both of them diversly resented the inconveniencies and did dread the Event the Spaniards had expended infinite Sums of Money and lost more Men then those Countries were worth They saw no probability of reducing them by force and apprehended withal that if they should chance to get too much advantage over them they might cast themselves into the Arms of the French for protection which would have drawn after them the other Provinces that were yet left them But the greatest of their fears was lest they should utterly ruine their Trade to the Indies and hinder the Arrival of their Flota's Year of our Lord 1606 which are their main subsistence Besides their Council imagined that as the War had served only to exasperate and harden those People the more and taught them better how to defend themselves a Peace would soften them by little and little recover their wonted communication and perhaps incline them to respect their ancient Soveraign at least the Catholick party who made up near a fourth part of those revolted Provinces Withal the Arch-Duke Albert most ardently desired the Peace thereby to enjoy Flanders quietly and be able to employ his Money and Friends to gain the Imperial Throne which he expected would soon be vacant by the death of Rodolphus On the other hand the Provinces finding themselves overwhelmed with debts almost forsaken by the English and under the apprehension of being so too by the French who grew weary of contributing so much towards the expences of a War without reaping any apparent profit Many of their Merchants imagined that a Peace would bring them Mines of Gold and some being greatly allarm'd at the progress of Marquiss Spinola who amongst other places had taken Grol and Rhimbergue took the freedom to say That since they could not subsist of themselves in a separate body of State it were better they should rejoyn themselves to their natural Lord then to put themselves under another who would lie more heavy upon them as being so near a Neighbour A certain Flemming named Caminga one of the first of those who were otherwhile called Gueux having one night held such like discourse was the next day found dead in his Bed at Embden Their dispositions being such on either part the Arch-Dukes first sounded the Foord by Valrave de Wittenhorst and John Jevart who in the Month of May month Decemb. of the year 1606 first conferred with some particular Members of the States then towards the end of the same year were heard in the Assembly of the States themselves This first time having represented the long and cruel miseries of War and praised the mild and good intentions of the Arch-Dukes they propounded the re-union of those Provinces with the rest under the obedience of Year of our Lord 1607 their ancient Prince The States were not over-much pleased with the discourse and sent them back with an Answer directly contrary to their demand viz. That by the Decree made at Utrecht Anno 1579. the King of Spain had lost his right of Soveraignty over those Provinces and that they had been Vnited in one Body and declared a free State and Republick the which had been confirmed by a prescription of more then five and twenty years and by several Princes and States with whom they had made Year of our Lord 1607 divers Treaties and Confederations The Arch-Dukes as is believed made this Essay only in point of honour for their Deputies sent immediately to let the States know That the intention of their Princes was not to gain or take advantage of the United-Provinces but to leave them in the condition they then were in and to Treat upon that foot This proposition did not displease the States and on their side the Arch-Dukes month February and March to shew they acted sincerely employ'd in this Negociation Father John Neyen or Ney General of the Cordeliers but who was a natural Flemming and had been bred up in the Protestant Religion till the age of two and twenty years His Father was one Martin Ney otherwhile very well known too and employed by the Father of Prince Maurice As to the rest his behaviour appeared to have so much of integrity that notwithstanding his change of Religion and Habit the Hollanders had a great deal of confidence in him He brought them very obliging Letters from the Arch-Dukes who offer'd amongst other things to take away all suspicion of any surprize to depute none for this Treaty but Originaries of the Low-Countries to hold the Conferences in such place as it should please the States to chuse to agree to a Truce of eight Months and to get the conditions ratified by the King of Spain The States accepted of the Truce to begin on the fourth of May the Letters of the ratification were deliver'd on either part and publication thereof made The difficulty was for the ratification from Spain Lewis Verreiken Secretary of State to the Arch-Dukes brought it the fourteenth of July to the Hague but as it was only in paper subscribed Io el Rey and sealed only with the little Seal moreover as it gave the Arch-Dukes the Title of Lords of the Low-Countreys and they had omitted this Clause That they should treat with those Provinces as holding them for a free Country The States found it imperfect as well in form as in substance month
Annual right That the inquisition he made after such Catterpillers served more to confirm their Robberies than to punish them That loving a little too much to be soothed he gave a freer access to Charlatans and Flatterers than to his prudent and faithful Counsellors and that he often suffer'd importunity to wrest those favours from him which he had refused to bestow on Merit They added That he was very liberal of Caresses and fair words towards the Sword men when he stood in greatest need of them but the Peril once pass'd their Services were as soon forgotten and that he oftner gave rewards to those who had done him Mischief than to such as Sacrificed their Fortunes for his Interest and Advantage That he did not much trouble himself to restrain the concussions of his Lawyers and Justices though he were well enough acquainted and informed thereof but let them go on impunitively provided they did not oppose his absolute Will and the verification of his Edicts That he had suffer'd those belonging to the Treasury to ally themselves with the Officers of his Soveraign Courts who before controul'd their misdemeanour whence consequently followed that the one being fortified by the other they feather'd and deck'd themselves with the richest Plumes and Spoil the War had stripp'd the honest ✚ Gentry of So that the fairest Lands and Estates of a Kingdom which had been founded and maintained by the Sword were now to the indignation and ☞ view of all worthy Persons unhappily made a prey and shared by those Brothers of the Quill If History might make Apologies she might vindicate him from the greater part of these reproaches though not altogether from the fondness not to say frenzy he had to Gaming which certainly is very unbecoming in a great Prince and which begot a great many Academies and Gaming-Houses in Paris most pernicious Schools for Youth and the fatal Rocks whereon many rich and noble Families do split and sink themselves and much less yet could she excuse his abandoning himself to Women which was so Publick and so Universal from his early youth even to the last Period of his days that it will not so much as admit of the name of Love or be allowed but Galantery But these defects have been in some manner effaced and dispell'd by the lustre of his great and glorious Actions his continual Victories and his high Enterprises by the infinite goodness he manifested towards his People and above all by his Valour tryed in so many Combats and his never-failing Clemency salutary to so many People These two most royal Vertues which marched in the Van of all his Undertakings were ever contending with each other which should o'recome his Enemies in the noblest manner so as they have left it still a doubt to whether of the two he was most obliged for his good Success and whether it must be said he recover'd and conquer'd his Kingdom by force of Fighting or by vertue of Pardoning Church of the Sixteenth Century THe Heads or Governors of the Church having not had that care incumbent upon them to maintain its discipline the irregularities and vices of the Clergy mounted to the highest degree imaginable and became so publick as rendred them the Objects both of the hatred and contempt of the people One cannot without blushing make mention of the Usury Avarice Crapulence and Dissolution of the Priests of the licentious and villanious Debaucheries of the Monks the Luxury Pride and vain Expences of the Prelates the shameful sloath gross ignorance and superstitions both of the one and the other Neither durst we say how the corruption of Simony had invaded and tainted the noblest parts of the Church nay even the head its self had we not for undeniable proof the constitution made by Julius II. in the year 1505. which ordained that such Pope as should have attained the Papal dignity by those means should be destituted That they should proceed against him as against an Heretick imploring even the Secular power That the Cardinals accomplices of this impiety should be degraded and deprived of all Offices Honours and Benefices That the remaining ones who had no hand in it should proceed to a new Election and if it were needful should assemble a General Council These disorders to speak truth were not new we must confess there had been the like of a long time but the general ignorance which reigned in those former barbarous ages did as it were hide and cover them in her shades of darkness now in these latter days the light of good Learning being brought into Europe its beams illuminating the obscurest places made these stains appear in all their deformity And as the ignorant whose weak eyes being dazled with this brightness found fault with it and endeavour'd to cast Dirt on that which exposed their defects the Learned in revenge treated them in ridicule and took the greater pleasure in discovering their turpitude and decrying their superstition It must be likewise granted that the enterprizes of the Court of Rome had highly exasperated the Princes and the Nobility of Germany and that the wicked life of Alexander VI. and the contest between the Pope Julius II. and France had extremely scandalized the most moderate men Lewis XII the best of Year of our Lord 1510 Kings caused a Medal to be stamped whose Inscription bear these words Perdam Babylonis nomen and procured the Assembly of the Council of Pisa to restrain the Attempts of Julius It is true that Council caused more scandal then good but there were started some questions very disadvantageous to the Soveraign Authority of the Pope and which could not but leave very ill impressions in Mens minds After the death of Julius Leo X. made the Concordat with Francis I. by which that Pope obtained an Abolition of the Pragmatick and secured to himself the Annates payable at every mutation of Bishops and Abbots they call Year of our Lord 1515 these Benefices Consistorials Which in truth encreased the Popes Revenues but according to the opinion of many did much blemish their Sanctity In effect never was there so odd an exchange as this appeared to be the Pope whose power is spiritual took the temporal for himself and gave the spiritual to a temporal Potentate And indeed one of the greatest and wisest Prelates of our times seems to say the Annates in respect of the Popes could not pass but for perfect Simony were it not that our Kings in this case do transmit their temporal right to them We must refer it to the more learned to judge whether the Elections were Jure Divino and whether they could be taken away as likewise whether that observation which many have made be true that from the very time they were Abolished Heresies have crowded in throngs into the Church and that Holy City being thereby denuded of her strongest Walls and Ramparts found her self to be insulted over by Errors and her temporal Estate invaded by
thoughts or desire of pleasing any but him who does bestow the Celestial Crowns of Eternity and since she could not lose her Virginity to become the Mother a Daufin would needs make her self the Mother of an infinite Company of Virgins by preserving it She therefore instituted the Order of the Annunciation or the Annunciades which she put under the direction of the Friers Minors Observantines The Rule is not taken either from that of Saint Bennet nor that of Saint Augustin nor any other but formed of the ten Vertues of the Holy Virgin which are Chastity Prudence Humility Truth Devotion Obedience Poverty Patience Charity and Compassion The Habit is singular the Vail black the Mantle white the Scapular red the Robe gray and a Cord for a Girdle There are divers Monasteries of them in France and in the Low-Countries We must not confound this Order with that of the Celestial Annunciades the institution whereof came from Genoa and did not begin till the year 1604 we shall make mention of it in due time and place The Rule of the she Capucines is almost the same with that of the Men and their Institution almost as ancient The Dutchess of Mercaeur laid the first Stone for the Foundation of their Convent at Paris in the year 1604. pursuant to the intentions of Queen Louisa her Mother in Law who by Will left wherewith to build it for those Sisters The first Convent of the she Feüillantines was established near Toulouze about the year 1590. then transferr'd to Toulouse it self Antoinetta d'Orleans Widdow of Charles de Gondy Marquess of Belle-Isle put her self into it Anno 1599. The Pope drew her thence to give her the Government of the Abbey Font-Evrard and some years after she instituted the Congregation of the Benedictines under the Title of Saint Mary of Calvary and Saint Scholastique As for the Sister Carmelites their reform not being brought out of Spain in above forty years after their first beginning it hapned that Anno 1604. Peter de Berulle who was yet but a simple Priest though one that had rare natural Talents and the particular favour of Heaven took the pains to go into that Country and to bring thence some Scions of that most happy Nursery to graft and plant in France so that at present there are nine and fifty Monasteries of them King Henry III. as we have already mentioned established the Order of the Holy-Ghost Anno 1597. and Henry IV. that of Nostre-Dame du Mont-Carmel Anno 1607. The Pope gave him his Bulls for the Erection of it the same year and the following others whereby he united it with that of Saint Lazarus We must note touching this last that at the time when the Western Christians held the Holy Land besides the orders of the Templers the Teutonick Knights and the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem there was likewise one established under the Title of Saint Lazarus who received Pilgrims into their Houses founded for that purpose conducted them in their Journeys and defended them against the Mahometans insomuch that the Popes gave them great Priviledges as other Princes gave them great Possessions Lewis VII Anno 1154. bestow'd the Lands of Boigny near Orleans upon them These Knights there seated themselves after the Christians were beaten out of the Holy-Land kept their Titles and always held their Assemblies in that place Now being become useless they also came to be despised so that the Knights of Saint Johns easily obtained the suppression of that Order and the Uniting of it to their own from Innocent VIII but those in France having made complaint to the Parliament it was ordained they should be kept separate from all other And in effect they have always had their grand Masters Pius IV. who was ever very curious for the adorning his Family with fair Titles gave the said Honour of great Master of those in Italy only to Joannot de Chastillon his Kinsman This Joannot being dead in the year 1572. Pope Gregory XIII left it wholly to the Duke Emanuel Philibert of Savoy and to all his Successors and joyned this Order to that of Sainct Maurice which he instituted in favour of that Prince But as that concerned not France Aymar de Chattes Knight of Malta had a desire to get it restored and revived here that he might be graced with that dignity Philibert de Nerestang a Gentleman of extraordinary vertue and Captain of the Guards du Corps succeeded him in the same design and so effectually and happily employed the power and interest of Henry IV that he made him Great Master in the year 1608. and obtained a very advantageous Bull of the Pope for the said Order which is particular for the French only as that of Sainct Maurice and of Sainct Lazarus is for those beyond the Alpes The Knights amongst other Priviledges have the liberty to marry and hold Pensions of Consistorial Benefices I do not know that the Gallican Church produced many Prelates in this Age who encreased the Catalogue of Saints but she had many that were very illustrious some for their Learning others for the management of Affairs as well Spiritual as Temporal and divers both for the one and the other The first and the most eminent of them all was George de Amboise Cardinal a wise Prelate a generous able and honest Minister and a Cardinal with but one Benefice who governed his almost absolute power by rules of justice and founded the Kings interest upon the publick good The Popes never made so many Cardinals in France as during this Age particularly under the Reigns of Francis I. and Henry II. There were three in the House of Bourbon Lewis Son of Francis Duke of Vendosme Charles Brother of Anthony King of Navarre and another Charles Son of Lewis Prince of Condé The first was Arch-Bishop of Sens the other two of Roüen There were five of the House of Lorrain The first was John Bishop of Mets who kept up the dignity of his Birth at a very great height and made it appear he was a Prince by such liberalities as amounted even to profusion The second was Charles Arch-Bishop of Reims He was Nephew of the said John and Brother of Francis Duke of Guise Heaven Fortune and his Birth had denied him nothing that was requisite to the making up of a great Man the learned of his time said of him that he was the Mercury of France as his Brother was the Mars but many Men believed he would have been much greater yet had he been less ambitious and less turbulent The third was Lewis Brother of this Charles who was called the Cardinal de Guise Arch-Bishop of Sens. The fourth another Lewis also Arch-Bishop of Reims as Charles his Uncle had been he was Murther'd at Blois with Henry Duke of Guise his Brother And the fifth Charles called the Cardinal of Vaudemont Brother of the Queen Loüisa There were others likewise of great Birth one of the House
two causes One was that Richard refused to do Hommage to Year of our Lord 1186 the King for his County of Poitou grounded perhaps on this that it held immediately of the Dutchy of Aquitain The other Henry deferr'd to surrender Gisors and other places of the Vexin which Louis VII had given in Dowre to Margaret who had no Year of our Lord 1187 Children by young Henry Philip sets upon him towards Berry took Issoudun and besieged the Castle-Ruouel The King of England and his Son came to its Relief and sent to bid Battle but the two Armies being ranged Henry's heart failed him he talks of an Agreement promises Satisfaction to Philip and leaves him Issoudun for his Expences in that War Year of our Lord 1187 The Fifth of September Lewis the first born Son of Philip came into the World for which the City of Paris expressed so much Joy that they made the whole week but one Holy-day keeping all darkness at a distance by the infinite numbers of Flambeaux every where Saladin King of Syria and Egypt who from a low Birth was raised to that high power not without great desert after his having obtained many Victories over the Christians at last tears the Holy City of Jerusalem from them whereof Guy de Luzignan was then King it was taken the Second day of October and all the Holy-Land excepting only Tyre Tripoly Antioch and some strong Holds Thus at the end of Eigthy eight years Ended the Kingdom of Jerusalem which Title after it had ambitiously passed through the Houses of divers Princes does at this day make us part of the Catholick Kings At this dreadful news which arrived towards the end of the year 1187. all the Faithful made a great moan never was any sorrow so great or so universal The Kings Philip and Henry being sensibly touched Conferr'd together at Gisors and Trie and resolved to take up the Cross with great numbers of Princes Lords and Prelats to recover those Holy Places out of the hands of the Infidels In remembrance whereof they erected a Cross in the Field where they had resolved upon this Croisade and mutually promised to leave all Disputes in the same posture they then were till after their return from this holy Expedition Year of our Lord 1188 The Month of March following Philip Assembles a Parliament at Paris where it was resolv'd by Advice of the Bishops and Barons to take the Tenths of all Goods Movables and Immovables of all Persons as well Ecclesiasticks as of the Laity excepting only the Monks de Cisteaux the Chartreux de Fontevrault and the Spittles belonging to the poor Leprous People This Impost was called the Saladine Tith Year of our Lord 1188 Whilst they were preparing with great chearfulness and courage for this Expedition Richard for I not what little Injury received of Alfonso Earl of Thoulouze renew'd the old Pretention of his Mother Alienor to that County and endeavoured to recover it by the Sword Philip to disengage his Brother-in-Law and make a Diversion falls into Berry takes all the places the English were possessed of drove out old Henry who was got thither with an Army and pursued him as far as Normandy Year of our Lord 1189 Winter brought them to a Truce In the mean time Richard falls out with his Father and threw himself into the Arms of Philip. His discontent proceeded from his Fathers delay in giving him Alix of France betroathed to him Some believe the old Man cast other looks upon her then he ought towards his Sons Wife and besides by compleating this Marriage he had been obliged according to the Contract to let his be Crowned and give him the Title of King The Physitian Rigord in the History of Philip relates That being at Argenteuil when the Moon was at Full and the Night very clear a little before day-break the Prior of that Monastery and several of the Monks saw that Planet descend in a Moment to the Earth where having rested some time it went slowly up again and took its former place Year of our Lord 1189 The following Spring Philip takes the Field Conquers all the Countrey of Mayne and the City of Mans Touraine and the City of Tours himself having as by Miracle found a Foard in the Loire which he discover'd to his Army At the same time John surnamed Without-Land the Third Son of Henry likewise takes up Arms against his Father who not knowing which way to turn himself leaves Chinon and advances towards King Philip humbly to desire a Peace Philip grants it and reconciles him to Richard upon condition that one of them should accompany him to the Holy-Land Year of our Lord 1189 But Henry as unfortunate in War as he was unfortunate in his Children overcome with shame and sorrow dies three days after he was returned to Chinon Richard succeeds him and then Philip his Brother-in-Law generously restores to him all he had Conquer'd of his excepting Issoudun and the Fiefs he held in Auvergne settling Gisors and all the Vexin for his Wives Portion The two Princes thus united in a Friendship which appeared to be very cordial and so firm that one would imagine nothing could untie or shake it fitted themselves for their Expedition to the Holy-Land appointed the Rendezvous for their Armies at Vezelay and took Shipping Richard at Marseilles and Philip at Genoa Both of them landed in Sicily but Philip not so happily as Richard a furious Tempest having forced him to throw over-board part of his Horses and his Equipage Year of our Lord 1190 Before their departure Philip with the leave and by the agreement of all his Barons left the Guardianship of his Son and the Government of the Kingdom to the Queen his Mother Alix de Champagne and to William Cardinal-Archbishop of Reims Brother to that Queen But fearing they might abuse it he left an Authentick Order in Writing Signed by the Great Officers belonging to the Crown which limited their Power and prescribed their Lesson in many cases Amongst others he would have them bestow vacant Benefices of the Regalia by the Advice of Brother Bernard who was a devout Hermit living in the Bois de Vincennes and that during his absence no Tailles should be levied by any Lords upon their Lands nor in case he should happen to dye by the Regents during the Minority of his Son Year of our Lord 1190 He likewise ordered the Sheriffs of Paris that they should take care to enclose it with Walls and Towers There were no Ditches made the Enclosure on the left hand of the River upwards hath been often enlarged and altred The Burghers of other Cities by their example were ambitious to Wall their Towns and make Ramparts for defence William the Good King of Sicily Son of William the Wicked or Bad being dead without Children Anno 1189. He had an Aunt the Daughter of King Roger named Constance who being almost Thirty years of Age not a Nun as some have