that the Empire of the Moon shall be divided betwixt Two Sons of the Turkish Emperour that shall be the Fifteenth Emperour of Turkey at which time the Moon shall be bowed into two Horns And this star is indeed a very terrible one and will make it appear that he that shall conquer and subdue the Turkish Empire shall be Lord of the whole Earth The House of Spain then can never attaine to any great Monarchy according to Fate but only by the adhering to Italy the Roman Empire which is the German the Right Head The King of Spain therefore is to use his utmost endeavour that he may be chosen Emperour seeing that not only God but even Human Prudence also may inform us that by that meanes he may attain to what ever his heart can wish A beginning of which thing appeared plain enough in Charles the Fifth King of Spain who being also Emperour and being assisted with the whole power of Italy and Spain overcame those of Tunis and the King of France and conquered all Germany in so much that Solyman seeing the prosperous Fortune of this Prince had good Cause to say that it behooved him to take heed of Charles neither would he though he were stronger then He fight with Him under the Walls of Vienna We see therefore that which way the Fates incline the same also goes all the rest of the Fortune and so on the other side all things must needs be successelesse that are taken in hand under a Reluctant Fate I shall here also open another Mystery namely that all Empires according to the Prophesy of Noah do descend from the Sons of Japhet God shall enlarge Japhet and he shall dwell in the tents of Sem and Cham shall be his Servant And from Cham are to descend none but Slaves and Tyrants who are indeed Slaves as I have elsewhere proved Wherefore the Turkish Empire comes from Japhet by Magog and as to the Law from Sem by the Line of Ishmael from whom Mahumet descended as it hath allwaies been observed to fall out that the Northern People which are fierce and by the armes of Japhet still Victorious have yet received Lawes and Rules from the wiser Southern People who were the Ofspring of Sem. And yet the Empire sometimes hath otherwise had a succession of Tyrants also who have descended from Cham though by the intervention of the German who is descended from Japhet as the Spaniard himself derives his Line from Japhet by Tubal like as concerning the Law the Roman Christianity doth derive it self from Sem in respect of Christ who is a true Sem by the Line of Isaac Seeing therefore Dominion was promised to Japhet it belongeth chiefly to the Spaniards who are more nearly and by a firmer alliance descended from the Law-giver then the Turks and their Victorie drives on to this end that they may dwell in the House of Sem seeing that they possesse the Greatest part of Italy by the Investiture of the Pope who is descended from Sem Of whom this is no fit occasion to say any more although I willingly would do so and indeed ought I shall only add here that they cannot according to Fate come to be Lords of all unlesse they become the Deliverers of the Church and set it free from out of the hands of the Babylonians that is to say of the Turks and Hereticks Upon this account they conquered the Moores God bestowing upon them so great an Empire as their reward Now it is evident that the Church is in subjection to Babylon as long as it is Militant and I have formerly shewed elsewhere that it doth yet retain the dayes of Tuesday and Friday and the moneths of August and July which were theirs of the Roman Babylon and the Church now suffers most grievous Persecutions under the Babylonian Infidels both in Africk Asia and Europe and especially in Germany France England and Poland This discourse therefore is to be listened unto with attentive eares because that all the Jewish Affaires were a Type and figure of those of the Christians He therefore that shall deliver the Church out of these evills shall become the Universal Monarch because He shall perform the Office of the Christain Cyrus whom God shall raise up as Esay saith to subdue the whole World to restore Jerusalem to remove their Captivity and to build a temple to the God of Heaven and Earth wherein shall be set up the Continual Sacrifice as is foretold by Daniel Esay and Esdras Cyrus also was of the Linage of Japhet by the Medes and notwithstanding that the Turk is descended of the same stock also yet shall He not perform the Office because that He is become an Enemy by setting up another Contrary Law The French in the time of Charlemagne arrogated this Office to themselves who by their often delivering the Pope out of the hands of the Princes of Italy the Lombards and the Goths arrived to so great power that they became formidable to all and the said Charlemagne might have come to have been Universal Monarch of the World had not his sons been at Variance among themselves but had managed their Empire rightly and as they ought to have done But the discords that were betwixt the Christians and the following Heresy raigning at this day broke the neck of the French Empire at least took away from it all hope of ever arriving to the height of so much greatnesse But the Spaniards by being continually rooting out of the Moors became powerful but contrariwise Constantinople because it deserted the Pope and adhered to Arrius Sabellius and others came to destruction The Venetians also have by the Popes meanes arrived to a great height because that they assisted him against Frederick So that it is manifest that he that shall take any enterprize in hand under a Favourable Fate shall have all happy successe therein but on the contrary he that shall rush on upon any undertaking under a Crosse and Vnwilling Fate shall find the Event also quite contrary to his desires Which may also be demonstrated out of Reasons of Policy For he that maintaines the Popes Interest maintaines the Universal Right of all Christendom which depends upon the Pope For this Cause is accounted both a Just and a Religious one and therefore all men will take it up And the Opinion also of Religion overcomes all other causes as we have already shewed elsewhere and shall further shew hereafter Add hereto that the Pope is the Universal Moderator and Judge of all things to whom all people have their recourse and yeild obedience to him as to their God and Deliverer as on the contrary the Sweden Saxon and the Constantinopolitan Princes as being enemies to and Stubborn opposers of Him are rejected and deserted by them Therefore the Office of Cyrus belongs to the King of Spain who being now honoured by the Pope with the Title of The Catholick King may easily arrive to the Principality
true yet the Course that the Turk takes is so blunt and plain that if he should have but one overthrow so that it were a lusty one indeed it would prove his utter Ruin as I have hinted before since that He hath no Vice-Roys or Barons by whom he might be recruited and made whole again But we cannot say so of the King of Spain who in such a case would presently be furnished with Aides from the Pope and the Princes of Italy and that by reason of their Union in point of Religion I say moreover that He cannot suffer any Notable Overthrow unlesse it be by some very Potent Prince such a One as the great Turk is who yet lying so very far remote from him as Alexander the Great of old did from the Romans cannot so quickly ruin him whereas on the Contrary any Peaceable Agreement of the Christians among themselves if so be it were but Firm and Lasting would utterly confound the Turk And therefore I say that although King Philips Kingdomes lye scattered far and near yet his enemies also lye far asunder one from another and therefore it is clear that his Emulators the Italians Tuscans and Venetians will never enter into a Combination against him unlesse he First give them some evident cause and wrong them very much Neither indeed will the Pope ever suffer any acts of Hostility to be done against His Catholick Majesty and besides it is also most certain that the Catholick Princes both out of fear of the Hereticks and also of the Authority of the Pope will never attempt any such thing And the Hereticks are at very great Variance also amongst themselves and for this reason Germany being divided into severall small Republicks cannot do him any harm at all and it is besides part of it made subject to the House of Austria and the Archdukes thereof by the Emperours and part also to certain Archbishops who are withall secular Princes as namely the Archbishops of Mentz of Colen Trevers Salsburg Strasburg and Bamberg and part also to the Dukes of Bavaria so that the Protestants can by no meanes make any Insurrection against the King of Spain The Lower Germany also is divided into more Common-Wealths then the other all which bear Armes against the King of Spain though it be only to defend themselves and not to offend Him And of this number are the Provinces of Holland Frisland and Zealand Besides the Upper and the Lower Germanies differ very much in their Religion which we may also say of the Danes Norwegians Transylvanians Gotlanders Polonians French Switzers and Grisons so that the King hath no need at all to fear that these should ever all joyn together against him and besides the King retains a great part of these Nations in pay and by that means keeps them his friends and then the King of Poland and the Prince of Transylvania are allied to him by Marriage and so are in league and amity with him So that He hath no body to stand in fear of but only the King of France and the King of England which two Princes by reason of their being of different Religions can never agree together Now although the King of Spain cannot as yet subdue the King of France yet it makes very much for His Interest that the King of France being absolved by the Pope is returned again to the Obedience of the Church For otherwise he would have been the Head of all the Transalpine Hereticks and would have marcht with an Army of them over into Italy to the great Prejudice both of the Pope and of our King which None of the Hereticks hath to this day adventured to do merely for want of a Powerful General to head them Then besides there is a Division broken out in France betwixt the Catholicks and the Hereticks and which is the chiefest thing of all there are in that Kingdome many Potent Bishops who would not by any means see Spain ruined And lastly our Kings Subjects do not come into the field with Lances Swords and Horses as the French use to do but they come into it armed with Guns which are a kind of Arms that are fitter for the defending of strong Holds and Fortifications then for the setting upon an Enemy in an open Field And hence it is that the French are able indeed to resist all the Spaniards Attempts but they cannot overcome them for in this case the very Princes and States of Italy who have to this day alwaies held with the French would go over to the Spaniard for it is their Design to keep the Ballance alwaies so even betwixt these two Nations as that neither of them may preponderate and bear down the Scales and so make a Prey of the Other which Hiero King of Syracuse heretofore laboured to do betwixt the Romans and the Carthaginians although he failed of his purpose Besides the King of France cannot march with an Army into Spain by reason of the Fortified Places and Castles that lye in his way and are kept by the Spaniards who are very well skilled in defending such Places Neither can he so soon march out with an Army against Millan or Naples but that the King of Spain can be much sooner in France with an Army and shall so force him to return back again and defend his own Kingdom Neither did the King of France ever passe over into Italy unlesse when he was assisted by the Pope as the Expedition of Charles of Anjou testifies or except he were called in by some Prince or State of Italy as Charles the Eighth was called in by the Duke of Millan which yet at this time can hardly be done again For the Italians were now afraid that they would bring in a New Religion with them And besides it is a usual thing that that Prince that first calls Forraigners in to his aide shall be first ruined by them for he must necessarily entertain them and allow them Quarters who after they have overcome the adverse Party will joyn with them and so drive out Him who called them first in Examples of this we have in the Sforza's Castruccio's and the Florentines with many others and also in the Pope himself although his own Papal Authority restored him again And therefore the Spaniard hath no need to fear the King of France much And as for the English he hath much lesse reason to stand in fear of them seeing they are shut up within an Island and we seldome see Islanders get any sure footing and make themselves Masters of any part of a Forraign Continent And therefore it is sufficient for them if they can keep their own only they send out their Ships to fetch in Prizes by Sea but for this Mischief I shall hereafter set down a Remedy Only let the King of Spain take care that the English joyn not their Navy with the Hollanders Scots Danes Norwegians and Danzickers for if they should they might then be able to overrun all
Circumstances you shall not find to meet in any one Country besides for some lye either very far off as the Turks and English do or else are heartlesse and unapt for War as are the Italians or else are divided among themselves as the Germans are All these things I say being considered it will be needful that I should here give a more exact and punctual account of the French then ordinary wherein also I shall discover what and how great Errours we have of late years committed in reference to them that so for the future we may be the more wary as to this Particular The French Nation being descended from Japhet by Gomer by their strength and the force of their Armes and having also their Religion and the Fates Propitious to them have had very great Successes in that under the Conduct of Charles the Great and King Pepin they arrived to so great a Monarchy as they then had And certainly all the other Princes of Christendom had at that time an eye upon the Kingdom of France and if the French had but crusht the Impiety of the Mahumetans when it was yet but in the Bud they might easily have compassed the Monarchy of the whole World and that so much the rather by reason that their Rivals the Spaniards were divided into Many several Kingdomes and were besides held in Play with the Moors who had invaded their Country so that at that time they were not at leasure to interrupt the French or to take them off from their Designes as the French at this day hinder Them in theirs But for as much as the French have not the skill of carrying a Moderate Hand in Government over such Forraigners as are under their Subjection but are too Impatient and Indiscreet they could never yet attain to so great a height of Power For they are apt to arrogate too much to themselves shewing no gravity at all they permit their Subjects to do what they please and so sometimes they use them too cruelly and sometimes again too gently having no regard at all to their own defects and weaknesses And hence it hath come to passe that though they have gotten many things abroad yet they have not been able to keep any of them For in One evening they lost all Sicily and almost in as short a time the Kingdom of Naples too together with the Duchy of Millan and for no other reason but only because that they knew not how through want of Prudence in Governing to oblige their Subjects to them by the Love of the Publick Good nor yet took any care to draw in others to put themselves under their Protection For when the people once perceaved that there would be very litle or no difference to them in respect of their Liberty whether they served the French or the Spaniards they would not vouchsafe so much as to draw a Sword in their behalf And for the very same reason did the King of France and the Duke of Millan several times lose their Dominion over the Genois We may add hereto in reference to the French the Discord that was betwixt the Sons of Charles the Great because that one of them would be King of Italy another of Germany and a third of France and likewise the weaknesse of the French Nobility who would needs all be free Princes and live of themselves without any Head such as are the Duke of Burgundy the Earl of Flanders the Duke of Bretaigne of the Delphinate of Savoy the Count Palatine of the Rhine with diverse others each of which would needs be an Absolute Prince of himself So that as well for these Reasons and because of their being dlvided in their Religion and also as well by Fate as by God himself and besides by not laying hold upon Occasion when it was offered they seem to be excluded from ever attaining to the Universal Monarchy of the whole World And therefore the Majesty of the Universal Dominion over all seemes rather to incline toward the Spaniards both because Fate it self seemes to have destined the same unto Them as also because it seemes in some sort to be their Due by reason of their Patience and Discretion But because that the very Situation of the Country the manner of their Armes in War and the natural Enmity that there is betwixt the French and the Spaniards seem to require that France should be continually in War with Spain and should be still interrupting their Glorious Proceedings like as also when it was in a flourishing state under Charles the Fifth it was hindred by Francis King of France and as it may also at this day be troubled by the Hereticks of France and their King Henry the Fourth who is a Valiant and Warlick Person these things I say being considered it nearly concerns the King of Spain seriously to consider the state of his own Affaires and withal to weigh the Power of France and to be sure when any fit Opportunity is offered to fall upon them with all his might to set upon them on that part where they are Weakest that so that other part where they are more powerful may sink of it self Seeing therefore that they are weak not in Armes but in Wisdom and Brain He ought to manage his War against them accordingly And therefore first of all he must be sure to lay hold on Fortune and Opportunity whensoever they offer themselves as evidently appeares by the example of that good Fortune that delivered the aforenamed King Francis and Germany into the hands and power of Charles the Fifth by which means had he pursued that Opportunity he might have crushed all the Princes that were his Competitors for he ought immediately to have bent his whole strength against France and by the assistance of the Germans to have repressed and curbed the Insolency of the French I say by the assistance of the Germans for they as being the more Fierce Nation of the two have alwaies been as an Antidote against the Fiercenesse of the French And hence it is that the Franconians Normans Swedes Gotlanders Danes and other Northern Forraign Nations have alwaies in a manner been to hard for the French that lye not so Northerly as they And therefore as I said Charles the Fifth ought immediately with an Army of Germans to have set upon France And after that he should have put Guards of Spaniards into all their Castles and strong Holds and should have placed Italians in all their Courts of Judicature and have appointed them to regulate their Lawes and then should either have brought France wholly under his own Power and Obedience or else should have put it into the hands of some Petty Princes to be governed by them and so should presently have declared Himself Head of the Christian World But he instead of doing thus had recourse to that Vain uselesse course of securing himself by marriage chusing rather to winne over to him his Rivall Neighbour by Fair
faithful and true unto Him Neither yet is He so free in his gifts to them as that they shall never have need of him more But when He hath once attained to what he laboured for he then becomes more thrifty and looks about him and considers how he may maintain his own State least otherwise He should be forced by the necessity of imposing upon his Subjects Unusual Taxes to gain their ill will and lose their Affections which was Caligula's Case heretofore who after that he had in riotous courses fool'd away all his own Estate was necessitated presently to snatch away other mens Certainly whosoever takes in hand any high and difficult Attempt under the Assistance of a Favourable Fate he must necessarily be Couragious and daring and indeed every Great and Memorable Enterprise requireth a certain Extraordinary Valour and Courage which yet in case the successe should not be answerable would be called Rashnesse As for example it was accounted a Bold undertaking in Columbus to go in search of a New World but plain Rashnesse in Vlisses only because the one escaped safe but the other suffered shipwrack But when a Prince hath effected his desires he must then have an eye to the uncertainty of Fortune and must therefore take heed how he is too bold and daring the observing of which Counsel being neglected by Charles the Fift was the cause of bringing to nothing all that he had atchieved before in Germany for he did not take the same wise Course to preserve what he had gotten as he had done in the getting of it And the case was the same also with the great Julius Caesar And then again in war there is a necessity of using severity that so the Souldiers may all be kept to their several duties and besides those that perform any Signall peices of Service are to be rewarded accordingly which Course unlesse it be taken they will begin to spurn at the Government and break out into seditious wayes as Tiberius his Army did when it was in Germany and will fall to an insolent course of Plundering and robbing and so by these meanes will bring the Victory they had gotten before to nothing as it happened to Conradinus the Swevian and Charles of Anjou Therefore after any Conquest gotten over a Kingdom the Conquerour must modestly use his Victory and endeavour to please the People For otherwise he will alienate their affections from himself and they will be apt upon all occasions to invite in his Enemies to fall upon him as it happened to Rehoboam and Charles of Anjou in Sicily and to the Carthaginians after the First Punick War and to Aecolinus against whom his subjects the Citizens of Padua shut their gates as likewise to Nero who though Prince of it was yet called The Enemy of his Country And although many Crafty Practises are now in use among Princes for the keeping of their Subjects in due obedience yet I dare boldly affirm that they will in the end prove destructive to those Princes For we see that Tiberius that Grand Artifex of Subtleties and Craft was miserably hated by his Subjects and so led a very sad life because he found he was not loved by any body so that he was fain to put some or other every day to death as contemners of his Majesty and so to be ever of a troubled disquieted mind which certainly may better be called a Death then a life Therefore the highest and most advantageous Craft that a Prince can make use of is to shew himself Beneficent Religious and Liberall toward his Subjects yet this in so moderate a way as that by this means he give them not occasion to despise him as happened to Pope Celestine the Fifth But let us now proceed to those things that more Particularly concern Spain As I have before shewed by Divine Reasons that there can be no Universal Monarchy among the Christians expected save that of the Pope and have also declared how he is to be dealt withal so I shall now prove by Reasons of Policy that there can be no Monarch in the Christian World unlesse he have his dependance upon the Pope For certainly what Prince soever hath any other that is superiour to Him though in Religion onely and not in point of Armes as the Pope is he can never attain to an Universal Monarchy For whatsoever He shall take in hand it will be successelesse and he shall be as it were crushed in pieces by the superiour For All Religions as well the False as the True do prevail and are Victorious when they have once taken root in the Minds of men upon which onely depend both their Tongues and Armes which are the onely Instruments of attaining Dominion Thus we see that Julius Caesar when any were created Consuls if the Pontifex Maximus came and sayd They were not created Rightly they were presently by him put by and so whensoever he was to enter into a fight if the Augurs said that The Pullen would not eat their meat he forbare to go on and did onely what he was directed to by their Omen And therefore when the same Caesar had fallen upon a resolution of making himself A Monarch he opposed Cato as much as possibly he could and endeavoured by all possible meanes to be chosen to be the Pontifex Maximus Which when he had once attained unto he acted another way and took upon himself all the Martiall Offices that were to be administred by the sword that so he might drive on his designs the more securely and withal by his gifts obliged all the Souldiery so to him as that they refused not to bear arms for Him even against their Country and to assist him in his designs of changing the Government of the state So in like manner Cyrus would be called by the Title of Gods Commissary that so no Prophet might pretend to be greater then Himself And Alexander the great would be accounted the son of Jupiter Ammon for the very same reason It is also very evident that no Monarchy in the Christian World hath arrived to the Height by reason of the obedience which is due to the Pope And hence it is that Mahomet when he aspired to a Monarchy brought in first a New Religion which was quite different from what was before For Armes cannot effect any thing against Religion if they be overmaster'd by another more powerful Religion though a worse if so be it be but entertained by the People For as much therefore as there is no more powerful Religion found in the World then that of the Roman Christian it is evident that neither Spain nor France can attain to any greater Dignity then It. And hence it was that Charles the Great when he had a design upon the Universal Monarchy of the World took upon himself the Title of being The Protector of the Pope and indeed so long as he stood up in a defence of Christianitie he became Great If the King of
which those Heresies that chiefly raign at this day are built upon And therefore on the contrary let him endeavour to bring in the Knowledge of the Arabick Tongue by meanes whereof the Mahumetans may be the better convinced and the troublesome Transalpine Wits may imploy themselves rather in confuting the Turks then in vexing the Catholicks with their Disputes Eighthly Let him also erect Mathematical Schools because this would be of great use and advantage in respect of the New World as well as of the Old because by this means the Peoples Minds will be diverted from creating Us any trouble and will be incited to bend their studies that way which may be useful to the King Then let him get about him the Ablest Cosmographers that he can and assign them Liberall Allowances Whose businesse it shall be to describe those several parts of the World wheresoever the Spaniards have set footing throughout the Compasse of the whole Earth because that Ptolomy knew nothing of most of those Countries at all And let Him by the Industry of these his Mathematicians correct all the Errours of the Ancient Geographers and he may also put forth a Book under the Title of the King of Spains Name wherein he shall set forth the praises due to Christophorus Columbus Magellanus Amoricus Vesputius Ferdinandus Cortesius Pizarrus and others of his Valiant Sea-Commanders whose Posterity He ought to confer Dignities upon for the Incouraging of others to fall upon the like undertakings Let him also send able Astrologers abroad into the New World and especially some of those beyond the Alpes to the end that he may by this means also take them off from their Heresies and filth and let him by proposing rewards to such invite the ablest Wits out of Germany and send them into the New World that there they may give an account of and describe all the new Stars that are in that Hemisphere from the Antarctick Pole to the Tropick of Capricorn and may describe the Holy Crosse whose figure is at that Pole and about the Pole it self they may place the Effigies of Charles V. and of other Princes of the House of Austria following herein the Example of the Grecians and Egyptians who placed in the Heavens the Images of their Princes and Heroes For by this meanes both Astrology and Local Memory will be both learnt together And when any such Illustrious Persons are so advanced to Honour and rendred so Venerable and such Astrologers are encouraged with large rewards it is of no small advantage to the enlargment of a Kingdom For all the Worlds Affections will be inclined toward such a Prince and will desire to serve him We are to know also that the Novelty of Doctrine is a great promoter of Monarchy provided it be not against Religion as was that of Luther but that it rather agree well with it as doth that of Telesius and that which I my self have collected by my reading of the Ancient Fathers of the Church or at least when it doth not contradict the same but rather enlargeth it and renders it admired by all men and takes up the Minds of the People and keeps them in from running after and employing themselves in that which is prejudiciall to the Kingdom Aristotle though his Opinions were impious yet was he in nothing at all any hinderance to Alexander and therefore much lesse can there be any hurt in such a Doctrine as we speak of The King must also take care to have the General Histories and Annals of the Whole World compiled in a compendious and succinct way like that of the Books of the Kings of the Hebrewes and which may also shew from the first building of Rome the whole progresse of this Monarchy down to this present day and may set down the time when the Christian Faith was first embraced by it and may make it known to all so many Kings thereof as were Pious and and Religious men were all of high esteem in the World and reigned happily but those that were Wicked and Ill men were also Unfortunate Let Him likewise cause a Brief Collection to be made of the Lawes of all the several Kingdomes and Principalities of the World digested in their several Orders as also their Religions and Customes and let him make use of the best of these and reject the bad But he must be very careful that He publish not in any place such Lawes as the Nature of that place cannot bear CHAP. XI Of Lawes both Good and Bad. THe King of Spain as well for Theological as Politick reasons can enact no New Lawes For the Christian Law together with the Roman Military Power and Prudence is that which He succeeds in and with which He is to comply He must take heed therefore that He make not many Pragmatical Sanctions And it would be an excellent thing if the Lawes as far as it were possible were all written in the Spanish Tongue that so the whole World might be acquainted and might have some commerce with the Spanish Monarchy both in the Language and the Lawes But seeing that this Monarchy had Its Rise under the Roman Empire and Religion the Latine is a Language that it needs not be ashamed of Let such Lawes therefore be made as the People may keep rather Willingly then by compulsion and through fear of punishment as finding them to be advantagious to themselves For when such Lawes are enacted as make for the Profit of the Prince or some few Particular persons only the People must needs be out of love with them and then do they presently find out waies to elude the same whereupon there strait followes Confiscation of the Subjects Goods with Mulcts Punishments and Banishment Then must we have New Laws made to punish the Transgressors of the Former and then again other New Lawes must be made for the punishing of such as have offended against these latter and thus is the Number of Lawes increased the Princes Authority slighted and the Subjects at length out of hate to their Prince either rise up against Him or else forsake the Kingdom to the very great damage no question of the Prince for by this means both the number of the Souldiery is diminished and besides the Kings Subsidies grow lesse Every Tyrant therefore that maketh Lawes that are for his Own Advantage only and not for his Subjects is a Fool for by this meanes He loseth himself whereas on the other side a wise King while he seems to do things Prejudicial to himself doth himself notwithstanding thereby the greatest Right that can be And we find by Experience that Princes that are Popular are more extolled then those are that admit into their friendship and favour some few Noblemen or Courtiers only as we may observe in the Contrary Examples of Augustus and Tiberius It is moreover necessary that a Law be conformable to the Custome of the place for which it is made for all Northern People love Easie Lawes
a man of a Warlike spirit being King of Spain was afterwards chosen also Emperour of Germany by al which advantages He might have been able to have made himself Lord of the whole Earth had He but known as well how to give Lawes to those He conquered as He knew how to conquer them This Prince took Tunis and having driven thence Ariodenus the Turk He made Muleasses King of that place without changing the former State of the Kingdom at all After this He conquered Germany that is to say the Protestant Princes there whom He devested of their Electoral Dignity substituting into their places their Brethren and Kinsmen but otherwise leaving them in the same state He found them And although He had once got Luther himself into his hands and power yet looking after the empty Fame only of being accounted a Mercisul Prince He let him go again that so he might have the opportunity forsooth of reducing all Germany and the Nâ—therlands He took Francis the King of France and then set him again at liberty that so he might raise up a new War against Him and thereby frustrate all that He had done before He also took in the Cities of Sienna Florence and bestowed them upon the Family of the Medici that so He might procure himself more powerful enemies by the bargain For whosoever is raised by any one to some degree of Power what service soever is due from him to his Rayser he will be sure to decline the doing it as much as he can and therefore he seeks all the occasions he can of shaking off the Yoak that he may make his Benefactor his Enemy which very thing was done by the Dukes of Florence and by Maurice Prince Elector of Saxony against Charles the Fifth And indeed such Benefits as by reason of the greatnesse of them cannot any way be returned commonly they draw a hatred upon the Virtue of the Benefactor as we see it evidently fell out in the case betwixt the aforementioned Francis King of France and Charles the Fifth Another cause that this Monarchy hath not yet hitherto been brought about is this because that Philip could not succeed his Father not so much as in the War and therefore lost both the Low Countries together with the Imperial Titles But that Affliction which also fell upon him by the losse of Charles his Son was the most grievous of all the rest for he would have been able to have maintained the Wars in His stead which seeing the King of Spain is not able to do He is constrained alwaies to defend and make good the bounds of his Kingdom rather then to endeavour to enlarge them and to look to his Commanders and see that they do not pillage the Countries where their Command lies and enrich themselves out of the Kings Treasure it being their onely care how to keep up such a Trade of War by which they may make advantage to themselves rather then any way enlarge the Kings Dominions I shall therefore here lay down these Rules though they are not so proper for this place that when any new Country is conquered that is of a different Religion and manner of Government the Natives are presently to be removed out of it and carried into some other Country where they may serve as Slaves and their Children are to be Baptized and may be either put into the Seminaries before spoken of or else sent into the New World and into this conquered Country may be sent Colonies of Spaniards under the conduct of some Wise and faithful Commander Which Course ought to have been taken by Charles the Fifth at Tunis who should also have carried away Muleasses to Naples And He should by right have done the very same thing in Germany namely in Saxony in the Marquisat of Brandenburg and the Lantgravedome of Hessen into which Countries He should have sent New Colonies under the Command of New Governours The Free Cities also He should have suppressed and have taken away their Priviledges and lastly He should have made Three Cardinals the Governous of all Germany But when any New Country is taken in that is not of a different Religion but only differing in Government let Him then change nothing at all in matters that concern the People but only let Him set strong Guards upon the Country and let the Chief Officers be chosen all out of the Kings party but the Inferiour out of the Common People of the place the Lawes whereof may also be altered by little and little and made to conforme to the Kings Lawes either by heightning or abating the rigour of them according as the Condition and Temper of the place shall require All Authors or Heads of Factoins must be presently removed out of the way either by Death if they have been Enemies or if they have been friends they must be carried away into Spain that they may there receive Baronies for their reward or may have liberty of free Traffick into the Kings Dominions granted them But the Chief Heads of such People as He shall subdue He must never suffer to continue in their places which course ought to have been taken with the Strozzi Medici Cappones Petruccij and other Ringleaders and Heads of Factions at Sienna and Florence And indeed the same Course should have been taken with Francis King of France that so he might have had no further opportunity of attempting any thing against Charles the V. But as for the Hereticks and Luther the best way would have been to have suppressed them under some other Pretense presently after the breaking up of the Diet at Ausburg as I shall shew hereafter And if Charles the Fifth had but taken these Courses He had never left behind him so much work and trouble for King Philip and perhaps his young son Charles too might have been alive at this day and might perhaps by His Arms have added Africk Hungary Macedonia Italy and England to his Dominions But He as I have before said was the onely cause of all those Evills which we see at this day So that I do not wonder at all that notwithstanding the vast Treasures of the King of Spain yet the bounds of His Monarchy are not all this while enlarged But I rather wonder that so Wealthy a Prince hath not laid up all such his Revenues for Necessary Uses against times of need which might have been his ruin For if so be his Negotiation by Sea should be stopt or interrupted but for one five or six yeares space together or that his Plate Fleet should be intercepted in its return home from the West-Indies would it not be so fore a cut to him as that he must of necessity be forced to oppresse his own snbjects by laying most heavy and unusual Taxes upon them and so draw upon himself their Hate and besides should he not also undoe all his Merchants and defraud his Souldiers of their Pay and by that means be in danger
meanes which is never to be done but with those that are farther off and which is especially to be declined when a Prince hath so Potent Neighbours that are his Antagonists for an Empire For the French had first a design of making themselves Universall Monarchs of the World before the Spaniards had any such thought whom the French afterwards envied when they found them aspiring that way A second Opportunity of keeping France under in such sort as that It should not have been able to have opposed or hindred the growing Potency of the Spaniard was offered to his Son Philip had he but had the skill to have laid hold of it and to have made the right use of it For Henry the III. of France being slain by a certain Dominican Frier under pretense of his favouring those of the Religion and the whole Kingdom of France being now divided into two Factions namely the Catholicks and the Huguenots and many Governours of Provinces having at that time the said Provinces at their Devotion as for example Montmorency had that of Languedoc and Espernon and others had others the Line of Valois being now quite extinct and there being a great Controversy started amongst them whether it were best for them to think of choosing any New King of some other House or not and lastly Henry of Navarre being by reason of his being an Heretick hated by the Catholick Party King Philip had at that time five Opportunities offered him either of which had He but laid hold of it would have been sufficient to have made him Master of France or at least to have weakned the power of it very much not to say any thing what might have been done when all of them concurred and met together And yet to say truth it lay not in his power at that time to effect this for he saw that if he should fall upon this design in an open way of making war upon them it would have been necessary for Him then to have had good store of Souldiers to have brought into the Feild which at that time He had not to be able to divide and distract all the Nobles of that Kingdome and to set them together by the ears And therefore he should first of all have dealt under hand either with the Duke of Guise or of Maine or with some other of the most Powerful amongst them and have promised to make Him King and besides to make him His Son in Law and at the same time to give hopes also to all the rest of the Nobility that they should every man of them be made the Proprietary and Absolute Lord of their several Provinces as that Montmorency should have Languedoc confirmed to Him Espernon should have Provence and every one of them should have had a promise made him of such Lordships as they liked best and all of these He should also have furnished with mony that they might have been the better enabled to make resistance against Henry of Navarre He ought also to have entred into a League with the Pope and the rest of the Catholick Princes that so joyning all their forces together they might all at once have set upon Henry of Navarre who was of a different Religion from them And then besides all this He ought to have obliged to him the hearts of all the French Bishops and Preachers by conferring upon them large Dignities and Preferments And when all these things had been thus ordered then either the King himself in person or else if He should not think that fit His Son or the Duke of Parma should presently have invaded France with an Army of at least a Hundred Thousand men consisting of Germans Italians and Spaniards and He should also immediately have sent out some to make Excursions into France by the way of the Duke of Savoys Country and by Navarre and Picardy And all these things should have been with all care and diligence put into Execution which if they had He had then certainly done his businesse and had either added France to his other Dominions or else might have Canton'd it out into many small Baronies and Republicks as Germany is and so he should have been ever after secure from their being able to do Him any hurt But King Philip was not nimble enough in his businesse and besides He was deluded by the French Nobles who almost all went over to the King of Navarre whereas had He been but as quick as He should have been all this had never happened For this is the usual Course of the World that every man looks first of all to his Own Interest and then to that of the publick and accordingly men use to bestirr themselves in troublesome times But here in this case where every one of them perceived that the good of the Publick did consist in the welfare of each Particular person and so on the Contrary they then presently made choise of that which they conceived would be for the Publick Good And so although those French Nobles being at the first by Mony and fair Promises wrought over to favour the King of Spain and so were brought to enter into Action in order thereunto yet when upon better Consideration they found at last that in case the Crown of France should passe away to another or that the Kingdom should be parcell'd out into small Dominions and Republicks the losse would at length redound to each of them in particular whiles that the King of Spain might then with ease reduce them one by one and bring them under his Obedience seeing that they were so divided as that they could not in any convenient time joyn their strengths together to make any opposition against him and besides knowing that France it self which had been hitherto so much honoured by all other Nations would now come to be despised by them and that all hopes of ever attaining to the Crown would now be quite cut off from them and that they should afterwards find that the Spaniards would but laugh at them for all their pains they conceived it to be the safer and more advantageous Course for themselves to adhere to the King of Navarre and receive him for their Prince Which certainly when at the first whiles they were inveagled and blinded by the false hopes of the Spaniards Mony they had not so well and throughly considered as They did afterwards when they had once weighed in their minds what the Event was like to be and also saw with their eyes what the Kings Proceedings were They then at length began to elude Art with Art Besides the French perceiving also how great Inconveniences would arise by maintaining a War with the Spaniard did therefore the more willingly and chearfully proceed to the election of a New King because that they were perswaded that when a King was once chosen those evils would then be removed which yet at the first they made litle account of But the King of Spain committed yet
therefore stand stiffely to maintain their Liberty And as in Temporall Matters they are indeed under the Government of Republicks or Elective Princes and yet are no farther Obedient to them then they themselves please even so in Spiritual Matters also do they take to themselves the same Liberty And as among these Northern Nations their Commanders and Souldiers are more eminent for their strength and courage then for their Policy and Stratagems in like manner are their Ministers in their Disputations much better at Rayling then at Reasoning And hence it is that under the Pretense of Liberty of Conscience they only seek after Liberty of Domineering and being accounted the only Men which pleases them much better And therefore the first Errour that was committed by the Spaniards in this Particular was that at the Diets of Worms and Ausburg Luther was suffered to go away alive Which although as some are of Opinion was done by Charles the Fifth out of a Politick consideration namely that by this meanes the Pope might have some body that he should alwaies stand in fear of and so should be forced to hold alwaies in with the Emperour furnishing him continually with Mony and Indulgencies till such time as He should attain to an Universal Monarchy and withal pronouncing all wars whatsoever that He should undertake to be Just and Lawful as fearing that in case he should not do these things the Emperour might take part with his Antagonist Luther yet the event shewed clearly that this was done against all the Rules of Policy For the Pope being by this meanes weakned the whole Christian World is now thereby weakned also and now that Heresy is introduced all Subjects under the Pretense of Freedom of Conscience have shaken off the Yoak of Obedience an evident example whereof we have in Germany and the Low Countries both which were Subject to the said Charles V. And therefore we may very well and safely conclude from hence that He was deceived out of a certain Generous Pity because He doubted not but that He should be able to subdue not only Germany and the Protestant Princes but even the whole World also whensoever and as often as himself pleased Which Fancy of his deceived him in like manner in those expeditions that He made against Tunis and France And therefore I say that it was well done of Him indeed to keep his promise made to Luther so long as the Diet lasted But yet afterward He ought not only to have dispatched Him in his return home but to have proceeded to the utter extirpating also of the Protestant Princes For by this meanes that Heresy had been utterly crushed in the very Bud neither should Calvin with so many others that have since infected both Germanies ever have appeared in the World neither had the Princes of the Netherlands so carefully followed the steps of the Protestant Princes of Germany against the interest of Charles V. A second errour was commited by them in those Parts that border upon the Rhine in that they believed that they should be able to bring in subjection and order that People that had now shaken off the Yoak only by taking the course that is used by the Spaniards namely by introducing that Rigid Inquisition by the Duke of Alva For we see that Fires that are now beginning by the strength of the Winds blowing on them increase rather the more then are any whit put out by the same When as therefore at the first these aforenamed People cryed out for Liberty of Conscience that so under this Pretense they might shake off the Yoak of Obedience and that they could not at the first of all suppresse them either by Armes or strong Holds or by their Lawes that were yet accommodated to their own Natures and Temper it was an easy matter for them to lay hold on their so much Beloved Liberty And hence it was that they divided themselves into several Republicks and chose themselves Commanders in order to a War to be made with the Spaniards and so by this meanes it came to passe that all the most Ingenious and Valiant Persons among them had now an opportunity of shewing themselves in the World either in the Pulpit or in the Field Then presently followed the Wars betwixt them and the Spaniard whereby these People were so much exasperated as that they gave their Generals a greater Power then they had before and therefore appointed Count William of Nassaw Prince of Orange to be General of all their Forces who was a Man that was indeed more fearful then a Sheep but more crafty then a Foxe to whom his Son now succeeds who is a Warlike young Man and grown famous for his worthy Deeds and Victories that he hath gotten And these Princes because they professed themselves the Patrons of the Peoples Liberty only were strangely followed by them and cryed up above measure Then did they to the end that they might make the People hate the Spaniards the more bring in among them Calvinisme by which meanes there was caused a greater Disagreement betwixt them and the Pope and Spaniard then is caused by the diversity of Manners shape of Body and Disposition of Mind that is betwixt them For the Netherlanders as hath been said before are white of Complexion Tall Licentious great Drinkers and Gluttons Impatient Indiscreet Sanguine and of a free behaviour whereas the Spaniards are Black Crafty Circumspect Sober Continent Patient Discreet Melancholick Covetous Severe and Grave and to say all in a word contrary to them in all things So that it seemes to be an impossible thing where there is so great a dissimilitude and disagreement in Manners and Temper of Body to cause there any agreement of Minds which before was maintained betwixt them only by their being united both in Religion and Government which Union being now dissolved there was Necessarily to follow a Disagreement and Breach of all former Ties of Friendship And hence it is now come to that passe that the Low-Countrymen do more detest and abhor to be subject to the Spaniards then they love their own life and so likewise on the other side the Spaniards hate them worse then the Divell himself although they know how to conceal their hatred of them better then the Netherlanders do theirs yet in the mean time do they not omit to do them all the mischief that possibly they can that so they may make up their revenge full Now the want of weighing and considering rightly of these things was the cause of the losse of these Provinces By what hath been said it appears that the King should not have made so much hast to have brought in the Inquisition amongst them neither should He have put such extraordinary Taxes upon them or have affrighted them with the fear of War But He should rather upon the sudden and before they were aware of any such thing have clapt strong Garrisons into all the great Cities and all the Valiantest
small number it will concern him that he have more of his own Souldiers with him then either of Auxiliaries or Hired Souldiers or of those that are Guarders of the Frontiers least when they come to the point they all run away There are many more Observations required to the making up of a Perfect Commander all which I cannot here set down my design being at present to deliver such things as concern Spain only But above all care must be taken that the Souldiers be not used like Beasts who if they have but their wages duly paid them and if when they are wounded they be carefully looked to and be encouraged also to shew themselves Valiant men through the hopes of Military glory and by hearing good Preachers and by rewards they will then never think either of running away or of Revolting which are two of the greatest Mischiefs that can befal an Army I would also have some persons appointed out of some of the Religious Orders to commit to writing the famous and memorable Acts of each particular Souldier which should be read openly before the King when ever He bestowes rewards upon his Souldiers For this is the reason why the Barons refuse to serve in person in the Wars saying The King himself is not there to be an eye witnensse of my Valour and I cannot confide in the treacherous Memories of Envious Commanders Neither would I have the Souldiers to be rewarded with Mony only but sometimes also with some Coronet either of Oak or of Olive which is a most Magnificent argument of Honour to them and of no charge to the Prince and by this means they will be the more faithful and constant to Him For an other mans Mony may in like manner buy and sell perhaps that Faith which you have so purchased of them but such Honour it cannot seeing it is a most ignominious thing even in the esteem of an Enemy himself for any one to forsake his King And therefore it should be lawful for any man to kill such a one as should begin to run away or that goes abroad a pillaging without the leave of his Commander which very thing hath often hindered the obtaining of Victory against the Enemy and those that are of least account in the Army do by these courses enrich themselves while the Valiant Souldier fights it out to the last drop of blood in his body What Souldier soever shall fill up the place of his slain fellow-Souldier or protects him and saves his life he should have a Coronet of Oak granted him This was called by the Romans Corona Civica That Souldier that shall first get upon the Enemies Walls should have a Mural Coronet made of Herbs wreathed together in form of a Coronet which he should recieve at the hands of the General whiles the rest of the Army standing round about shall celebrate his Gallantry with Acclamations and Songs according to the ancient custome of the Romans For these two things Punishment and Reward are the two Pillars whereon all Military Discipline is founded and built the Former whereof deterrs the Souldier from wicked courses as the latter pricks him on to do gallant things the Former was devised for the restraining of Vile Rebellious spirits as the latter was for the Encouragement of the Generous and Valiant the former serves instead of a Bridle as the later doth of a Spur. Alexander the Great erected for the honour of his Souldiers that were Slain at the River Granicus Statues of Marble in a most stately manner The King of Siam that he might encourage his Souldiers to fight bravely took care to have the names of all those that had behaved themselves Gallantly in the Wars to be registred in a Book and afterwards to be recited before him which was the custome also of King Ahasuerus as the holy Scripture testifieth Whensoever there are any designs on foot for the gaining any large Kingdom or Empire the King ought alwayes to go in person to the Wars because that Princes that are Warlick alwaies get more then those that are sluggish and negligent which is a consideration of great importance for all such Princes as desire to enlarge their Dominions But if they care only to preserve their own they may then stay at home themselves provided that they set Valiant and faithful Commanders over their Souldiers However it will concern a Prince that he get an opinion of being a Warlike man unlesse he mean to be despised by all People or let him make an open shew that he loves Wars And to the end that He may be the more secure of Victory let him alwaies take with him good store of Souldiers that so he may neither lose his reputation nor be despised by his Enemies Those Defeats of his Armies are the least hurtful to Him where He himself was not present at the Engagement Strength of his forces at Sea wherein the Genoese Portugals and Hollanders do most excel is also a most necessary businesse For whoever shall make himself master of the Seas the same shall command all by Land also CHAP. XVI Of the Treasury of Spain IT is necessary that the King have a full Treasury if it be but for the keeping up of his Reputation abroad for as the World goes now a dayes the Power of Princes is valued according to the fulnesse of their Purses rather then the largenesse of their Territories And therefore not only in the time of War but of peace also it behoves a Prince to have alwaies good store of ready Mony by him For it is a very hard and dangerous businesse also especially when He is now already engaged in a War to expect and wait till monies can be raised Tolle moras Semper nocuit differre paratis It is necessary therefore that there be Monies alwayes in a readinesse for the raising of Souldiers in an instant least while you are employed in getting Mony together your Enemy be before hand with you To this end Augustus Caesar erected a Military Treasury as Suetonius testifieth and that he might alwaies and without any trouble be provided of Mony for the raising and paying of his Souldiers he filled the same with New Taxes and Impositions And certainly very many wonder how it comes to passe that the King of Spain whose yearly Revenues amount to above twenty Millions hath not by this time made Himself Universal Monarch of all Christendome nor hath all this while so much as as once set upon the Turk To whom I answer that this is nothing at all to be wondred at if they would but take notice that the reason of this it because He hath not the skill to lay hold on Occasion when it is offered Him which very thing hath hitherto upheld the Fortune of all Great Empires For there was an Occasion given him at the Uniting of the Kingdomes of Castile and Arragon and of Naples and Millan but there was a much fairer offered to Charles the V. who was