and so stood ready to embrace a peace to which purpose was sent Beavois and Teligni the Admirals Son and with them Monsieur de la Chossetire the Prince of Navars Secretary and so on the eleventh day of August 1570. was a peace concluded according to the Edict of Pacification in January A peace concluded with free Liberty That every one should have free liberty of conscience to use and profess the Reformed Religion Rochel and Montauban was to be held in the Princes name for the space of two years by the Protestants The Articles of Peace were afterwards published and Registâ—ed in the Parliament But alas we shall see that this Sun-shine of Peace like the poor Traveller in the sable sooner makes the Protestants cast off the cloak of their security than all the blustering storms of the Kings Warlike forces could For by embracing a peace they hug in their bosoms and nourish in their hearts their own calamities and know it not by reason it is printed and gilded with the name of peace Several Protestant princes sends Embassadours to congratulate with the King and his peoples tranquillity in the peace concluded The King olemnly gives his faith for ever to observe the Edict Not long after this peace thus concluded several Princes of Germany that had respect to the Protestant Religion among whom was the three Electors the Palsgrave the Duke of Saxony and the Marquess of Brandenburgh all sent their several Ambassadors to the French King to congratulate this happy peace and to shew their joyful resentment of the same promising that if any new commotion should arise they would assist him to the uttermost against the Contrivers and authors thereof To this Embassage the King replies by words and afterwards subscribes to a Book with his own hand giving his faith by both That he would for ever most sacredly and faithfully observe the late Edict of Pacification But alas his heart was too many leagues from his mouth his promises are no better than if written in water with ones finger being too far short of truth and intention which is sad to confider that the King should have no way to keep his faith but to break it that oaths and promises which should ty devils fast is the onely way to levell all faith and engagements For now it is to be taken notice of that wheras before the Kings age made his Authority fit only to advise and countenance now he manages affairs with his own Council and command for being now come to the years of 22. he displaies himself on the Theatre of the World in such a splendid equipage that all might see him to be of a fierce resolute nature and above all an absolute dissembler as one of the French nation very well observed and if he did not yet this History will sufficiently evidence The Armies dismissed and the Princes and Admirall go to Rochel Now this peace being thus concluded the Armies are dismissed and the Strangers retire to their own Country after which the Princes retired to Rochel for now to effect the deep and bloody plot nothing wanted but the Art of perswasion to entice the Princes Q. of Navar the Admiral and Principal Protestants Lords to come to Paris nothing more desired for their the trap was laid for their destruction and doubtless this mock-peace had never been embraced if it had pleased God to have given them an insight to the bottome of this unheard-of and unimaginable depth of Treachery and Deceit which being hatcht and brought forth in the Hellish Court of the Cabinet Council we shall too soon see the speedy and sad effects of it the Lord knows it will too soon come to the birth of their bloody hopes and cruel desires for as vengeance persues blood at the heels so a hideous storm of cruelties succeeds this peace The Peace though fully concluded of between the King and Protestants yet was not fully observed in all places according to the Edict So that the Princes and Admiral to give a reason why they stood at such a distance from his Majesty send to Court Theligny Briquemault Beauvais La Nocle and Cavannes They are no sooner come but the King welcomes them to the Court and professes that it is his Royal pleasure that the full Observation of the Edict was no less than he really intended and therefore to scatter all mists of doubt from the Princes and Admiral he desired that they would acquaint him of his real resolutions for their good The King and Cabinet Council plots the ruin of the Protestants being desirous to get the Princes Admiral to Paris and so to cut them off And now they begin their Politick Maxim Parvi sunt Arma foris nisi sit consilium domi That policy is of more force in Military affairs than valour They now to the Trade of Politick treachery the King and his Cabinet Council meets and their Result is With speed and secrecie by Serpentine Labyrinths and enfoldings to bring the principal Protestants into the Not of destructior A Wor being thought too hazardous and weak to effect therefore must the principle of Machevil take place in their judgements and practice i. e. To effect their desires though they swim through a Sea of blood For now they have hopes that their plot might take effect in regard that their private actings were now mannaged by those that were jointly concerned in the effects of their desires and hoped to have some share in eheir bloody success The King by fair carriages intends to slide into the Protestants affections and so draw them to Paris and cut them all off which was the plot laid for them To which purpose a good opinion of the Kings sincere intentions for the Protestants good must be fixed in the minds of the Princes of the blood the Queen of Navar and the Admiral so that all their foul actings might seem so fair as no tincture of suspition should enter into their thoughts he penetrates their hearts with shews of love but his own heart is filled with deceitful plots and treacherous Resolutions endeavouring so to insinuate into their good natures that he might lodge in their hearts good thoughts of his bad intents so that all carriages must be screwed up to the highest pin of affection and love as we shall shortly see conferred on them by an outward confluence of all favours that the least doubt might not have any footing to the prejudice of their bloody aims hoping by this means to have their desires and success to lodge under one roof All their plot being to get them to Paris the Theatre of this most horrid and cruel Tragedy ensuing unarmed and then by further progress to put in execution the practical part of their bloody plot so marshalling their affairs that all the Protestants shall be immediately cut off in the bloodiest war that ever was known Now the plot being laid the Gin being set they fall to
to the King of Navar the King crowned the Princes of the Bloud and Duke of Guise contends at the Coronation about precedency the King gives it to the Duke of Guise the Constable forsakes the Protestants and cleaves to the Duke of Guise the Queen Mother for her own advantage joyns with the King of Navar and gives some liberty to the Protestants which so enrages the Catholick party as presently all former Edicts in behalf of the Protestants were broken by a contrary Edict that no Religion should be suffered in the Kingdom but the Romish the King and Queen Mother subscribes thereunto the Protestants at their request have a Conference granted they meet and confer in a hot Dispute but agree not the Catholicks murder many Protestants in Paris the eight Parliaments of France assembles the Duke of Guise disapproved of it and so in a fury departs the Court and goes for Spain the Protestants deluded by the Queen Mother gives her a List of all their Forces the King of Navar turns Catholick the eight Parliaments meet and with the consent of the King and Queen Mother do decree a free and publick Toleration of the Protestant Religion but speedily a sad and cruel Massacre the Duke of Guise furiously assaults the Protestants at a Sermon and murders two hundred of them the Protestants complain to the Prince of Conde of breach of Covenant and Edict the Duke of Guise seises on the King and carries him to Paris the Queen Mother writes to the Prince of Conde for aid against the Duke of Guises Attempt the Prince in his journey to Court suddenly retires to Orleance and possesses it the first Civil War begins The death of King Francis and Reign of King Charls FRancis second King of that name dying the fourteenth of December 1560. made entrance for the Reign of Charls the ninth and as the first died of a Feaver so the last reigned in a Frensie the legitimate off-spring of his Predecessours disease whose short Reign was thought too much lengthened by the train of all sorts of bloudy cruelties which filled this poor distracted Nation of France whose wicked Reign was also attended with the sable clouds of Flagellum Dei which swept both Field and City The beginning of his wicked Reign had a bloudy ending to the poor Kingdom and himself for the bodies of the murthered Protestants was a Prey to the Birds of the Air and Beasts of the Fields the whole Nation wearing the Pensive Weeds of a Ruinous Distraction for through the Lords just Judgments on the Nation they suffer nothing less than all Roberies Rapes and all sorts of Cruelties with horrid Massacres for the space of twelve years And as the Prologue of his Reign was Perjury and Treachery so was the Epilogue Bloudy to himself and poor Nation especially to the poor innocent Protestants A Parliament sits and the Government committed to the Queen Mother during the Kings minority A Parliament being called they begin the 23. of December Now at this time in the Court of France was Katherine de Medices Pope Clements Brothers Daughter and this Kings Mother who being born in Florence a City of Italy had conferr'd upon her the Government of this Kingdom in the Kings minority for it is well known that according to the Laws of this Nation neither the Administration nor Inheritance thereof can justly be cast on the shoulders of a Woman and yet against this Law and through the negligence of the King of Navar the said Queen Mother was joyned with him in the Office of Protectorship the confirmation of her Regency being allowed of by the Chancellour was afterwards confirmed by the Speakers Now in this Assembly of Parliament one John Quintin a Doctor of the Common Law at Paris for the Clergy pleads that none of the Religion Reformed for so they called the Protestants should any more be tolerated or suffered and desired that the Laws in that case provided might be put in speedy execution but the day following that brave Commander and good Christian Gasper de Coligni the Admiral of the Protestants complained to the Queen Mother against the said Quintin who presently excuses himself and in his second Speech moderates his Plea to the Admirals content The Parliament a little enlarges the Protestants privileges Now the Estates proceeds in their consultations making themselves and the beginning of this year somewhat happy by some moderation in matters of Religion whereby the reproachfull names of Papist and Hugenot was forbidden upon pain of Death which name Hugenot they fixed in disdain and derision to the Protestants and was derived from a Gate-house in Tours called St. Hughs Gate where they met in Assemblies Many good and necessary Laws were then published but with more confusiom than advantage for Laws though good and many yet through want of a due execution by the Magistrates power makes the good intent thereof to be perverted and turned into an indirect Channel giving the people cause to slight such wholesom Laws and grow bad under a good Government Great contentions and private animosities arose between the Princes of the Bloud that is the Prince of Conde and King of Navar who were Protestants and Francis Duke of Guise who was descended of the House of Lorain and now Grand Master of the Kings House who being a strong Catholick was no less a bitter Enemy to the poor Protestants the Queen Mother in her affections did secretly incline to the Duke of Guise yet to secure her own interest and power in the Kings minority carried fair to both The Princes of the Bloud being Protestants in discontent absent from Court but the King of Navar and Prince of Conde with the Constable seeing themselves justled out of that power and favour in Court which as due they did expect and also foreseeing the event which must necessarily ensure having onely the pacings of the Duke of Guise they absent from Court with all their Attendants resolving to right their wrong on the Queen Mothers Regency and the Guisans usurpation of their unlimited power Now the Queen Mother by her subtil and natural insight to secret affairs judged so at their Discontent that she politickly cast her Cards that both might have a good hand yet deald her self the Trumps checking their power that they might not check hers The King of Navar by the Queens policy jointly governs with her To which purpose she makes a new Agreement with the Navarois concluding him in the Government that taking the Title and Power of Regency to her self he should be called and but called Lieutenant General to his Majesty All this but in Paper and Ink composed of a double intent but those that can break Oaths witnessed by God and all the World how soon can they swallow and digest the breach of such Paper-promises like that good Actor in Smyrna that cried O Terram yet pointing to the Heaven and O Coelum yet pointing to the earth
which when one of the Spectators saw in anger he said to the company This fellow has made a Solicism spoken as it were false Greek with his hand And indeed here it was so with the Queen Mother too many Leagues being betwixt her heart and her mouth for we shall ere long see these two parties the Princes of the Bloud and Duke of Guise and Queen Mother make greater wounds in a short time than Ages can afterwards cure The Prince of Conde we must understand was now at liberty and freed from the unjust Sentence against him in the Reign of Francis the second which was for some pretended Fact but indeed was for his Religion sentenced to be executed but the Kings death prevented it The Protestant Princes desire a Toleration The Prince of Conde and King of Navar with the Admiral and other principal of the Protestants desire of the Queen Mother a Toleration for their Religion but the Queen Mother now tottering between these two Factions of the Princes of the Bloud and Guisans counted all things below the present danger of either parties getting power and so thought it not fit therefore to deny their request telling them withall that it could not yet publckly be granted by her to the content and satisfaction of all therefore she would secretly promise them her best way of bargaining that she governing by common consent with the King of Navar would by indirect by ways so work under hand upon emergency of occasions which might daily occur that at last it should incensibly yet assuredly come to pass to their own desire which says she suddenly proclamed might render you in danger and my self out of power to help you These things the Queen Mother promised being forced by necessity and dissembling pollicy for her own safety and security but it is ill making a fast Bargain with a loose Merchant nothing by her being less intended than really promised for she thought it fit and convenient for preservation of her Son's and own interest not wholly to put under hatches nor quite to extinguish the power of the Duke of Guise who was an apt weight to ballance and counterpoise the Power of the Princes of the Bloud desiring to carry it so to both that she might displease neither till she had a sure staff of the one and the other no power lest to oppose hers which at last answered her hellish Plot so that reserving many things to the benefit of time and future industry she left no stone unrolled to provide for time to come and to remedy the present Distractions The Protestants increase and the Princes of the Bloud protect them and presses the Queen Mother for her promise of Toleration Now the goodness of God in converting many to the Protestant Religion appears in a great and vast multiplication of the Professours thereof the King of Navar and Prince of Conde with the Admiral protects and defends them who earnestly presses the Queen Mother to perform her Promises for a free Toleration of their Religion she findes many nice excuses and well-spun pretences to evade the dint of their resolute desires and her absolute promise endeavouring by most subtile arts of perswasion to put off the performance of her Promise till a seasonable oportunity offered to ripen her Designs But the King of Navar daily pressed forward and grew more and more earnest for the speedy effecting of it and he did so publickly reason their case that many of the Kings Council yielded to the force of his Arguments disbanding their former Reasons on the contrary for the King of Navar alleged that it pittied his soul to see so many Protestants and the Kings true Subjects scattered from their peaceable habitations for fear of death and danger and did further profess it did deeply penetrate his heart with an abhortency to think of any more effusion of blood Amongst those of the Religion were many of pregnant wit and Christian courage that with small Tracts in Print dispersed as also with sober Petitions seasonably presented did at last help forward their desires to a speedy Grant A Decree for Release of all Protestants that were imprisoned for their Religion The Queen being now forced to yield gave way by a Decree of the Council at Fontainbleau the 28. of January 1560. That the Magistrates should release all such Prisoners as stood committed for matters of Religion to their former freedom prohibiting all Reproaches of either party with Heretick or Papist To search no mans house The Protestants by this being not fully authorized by a full Toleration and free Exercise of their Religion yet were somewhat satisfied by this seeming Inclination thereunto at least being protected from the present violence daily threatned The Queen Mother would not suppress their power yet would she depress their growth The King of Navar has the Keys of the Palace delivered to him which his great Enemy the Duke of Guise kept Now the King of Navar falling short of the full Grant of the Queens Promise proceeds further to a full Grant which she had secretly made to him requiring that as he was the Kings Lieutenant General the Keys of the Palace might be assigned to him which the Duke of Guise as Grand Master always and at this day kept The Queen as she was loath to offend the Duke of Guise and his party who with the Duke of Lorain upheld the Catholick Cause and Religion so was she as carefull to please the King of Navar and Protestant Princes till time gave a more secure season to bring about her desires for her desire was to be firmly seated betwixt them both by a plausible carriage to either and keeping them both dependents to her power and both equal in strength that neither might have encouragement to murmour To which purpose she is the more willing to favour the King of Navar in his request by reason at this time she findes the power of the Duke of Guise a Pin higher than the Princes of the Bloud and invested with more power than jumped with her purposes she conceived this a fit oportunity to pull down the Guisans power to an equal ballance with the Princes of the Bloud which suiting with her own interest she willingly executed their growth at this time being high and insolent and at all times of an aspiring nature as that they could not be content to fit under the Pent-house of their present power but must suddenly aspire to the pitch of their ambitious aim So the Queen caused the Keys of the Palace to be delivered into the custody of the Kings Lieutenant General the King of Navar. At this the Duke of Guise is highly enraged whose pride findes no bounds but reserved and secret revenge waiting for a fit oportunity to desplay his envenomed hate so that he dissembles his inveterate anger and malice he bore to the Princes of the Bloud and Admiral so he onely makes some shew of discontent for the
tacit Toleration granted the Protestants which doubtless was as real as his malice to their persons for the sad event will too soon and surely demonstrate so that now the discords of these great men seemed to be enveloped in a good satisfaction of their present conditions all discontent seeming to be vanished and laid aside in the Grave of obscure forgetfulness The King of France crowned Now is thought the fittest time to confirm the Kings authority by crowning him though in his minority which was ordered to be done according to the usual Ceremonies accustomed to all the Kings of France in their Coronation to which end and purpose the King journeys to Rheims and there by the Cardinal of Lorain was solemnly crowned and conducted to the City of Paris The King at the Coronation gives the right of precedency from the Princes of the Bloud to the Duke of Guise Now at this time of Coronation the Princes of the Bloud and Duke of Guise contend about precedency but it was ordered by the King though against order that the Duke of Guise should precede all the rest which accordingly was performed the Duke of Guise hereupon like Tinder to the Spark took fire of Ambition flying high with an exasperated spirit to the Princes Admiral and principal of the Protestants and to make his power greater and to ingraft himself more firmly to wrestle with opposition and to strenghthen his malicious resolution The Constable turns Catholick he and the Constable strikes a League together for the preservation of the Catholick Religion and to endeavour the utter extirpation of the Religion Reformed But the Queen Mother hearing of their intended intended purposes presently Aprehended her own danger by the Guisans growing greatness and what tall Cedars they would grow if this confederacy took root according to their desires she also considered that the Princes of Lorain were unsatisfied with her late proceedings in behalf of the Protestants and would Assist and endevor a conjunction with the Guisans faction to deprive her of her Government A thing she only desired peacable to enjoy shee Therefore to preserve her own Interest enters into a firm union with the King of Navar the better to ballance the Guisans power and secure her self so that in this juncture of time shee was well pleased that the King of Navar and his party should have some power which she resolves should stand her instead against the Duke of Guise and his Adherents Which indeed fitly served for her own ends It was therefore commended to all the Parliaments by new edicts and Decrees No further to molest any of the Religion and to restore the goods houses and possessions of those that only for the cause of Religion were deprived of them The Parliament in Paris with the assistance of King and Q. Mother dashes in pieces all former Edicts for Toleration and passes an Edict that no Religion should be suffered but the Romish and that all the Protestants should be expelled the Kingdom This gave an ill gust to the Guisans palat who being enraged with malice set on foot all their power in a strong opposition of the Government whereupon the Cardinall of Lorain took occasion at the Councell table the King and Queen Being present to speak against those of the Religion and against the Tolleration and Edicts lately passed in their behalfs whereupon it was resolved with consent of the Councill to summon A Parlament to meet at Paris which accordingly appeared at the day appointed the thirteenth of July and then and there in a full appearance of Palament they shewed to the King their dislike of the Edict passed the 28. of January Beseeching his Majesty to force his subjects to An open profession of the Catholik Appostolik and Romish Religion upon such pains as should he adjudged of in Councill Which Councill brought forth an hellish bratt from the bosoms of their wicked desires for now contrary to all former edicts they pass an edict That all Protestant Ministers should be expelled the Kingdome no religion to he professed but the Romish all Protestant Assemblies forbidden in all places in the Kingdome And thus was the poor Protestants banished their habitations and condemned to seek refreshment and abode else where and to this edict did the King and Queen Mother subscribe whereupon the cheif of the Protestants were very much greived in regard they knew themselves free from any guilt that might challenge such hard measure from the King and Court of France to such faithfull allegiance concluding it must needs proceed from some inveterate malice or deep design Therefore The Protestants desire conference and had it granted The Prince of Conde and Admirall being not able to hinder this edict presently flies to the Queens promise which she had assuredly given them but now as assuredly broke so that no redress could be found there Whereupon they demand of the King liberty for a conference between the Ministers of the Protestants and the Kings Prelats To examine the Articles of their Doctrins before the Kings presence being not without hopes by this moderate way to Interpose that if possible some liberty might be granted At first it was not allowed of but afrer second considerations it was thought meet to answer their desires and give a hearing The Pope hearing of this meeting for a conference and doubting some liberty might thereby follow to be granted to the Protestants and disadvantage of his Authority presently speeds away the Cardinal of Ferrara his Legat to the Court of France withall giving in command that the cause might be referred to the Councell of Trent which by him was published The Protestant Ministers that were banished by reason of this late edict and settled their a bodes in Geneva now had safe conduct allowed them for there security in their journy to Poissy five leagues from Paris being the place apointed for the conference Them that were at this meeting for the Protestants were Theodora Beza Theodora Beza Peter Martir and others with the K. Court and Prelats meet at Poissy but break up and no good done Peter Martir a Florintin John Virell Augustin Virnmelio Marlorat and other Ministers to the Number of twelve with twenty-two Deputies from the Protestant churches On the Romish side came besides the King and Court the Cardinalls of Lorain Tournon Armagnac Bourbon Guise and Chastillon together with the Bishops and Prelats many Doctors of Sorbon also with many others sent for from most Cities and Universities in the Kingdom This meeting began the nineth day of September in the year 1561. the Relation being at large Recorded I leave the reader to peruse at his liberty But this conference proved not such a salve for the sad distractions of the kingdom as was expected for the Catholicks resolved to continue in force the late edict against the Protestants so that they were in many places forced to stand upon their own guards against the violent attempts of
the Catholicks cruelty This made the Papists take up couragious resolutions Mutining in divers places A mutinie in Paris and many Protestants stoned and distroyed with fire and sword especially at Paris where the poor Protestants through the violence of cruell and bloody men suffered the enemies persecution with stones staves swords and in their return they set fire on the Suburbs of St. Marceau At St. Medard they Ring the Alarum Bell they kill and wound many others they take and hang One Gabaston Knight of the warch lost his head for atempting to appease the people so suffered some others also The whole Kingdom being full of broils and in a civil flame of combustions that it seemed to all spectators as if the whole Land was turned upside down And thus were the poor Protestants at the merciless cruelty of their malitious Enemies Hereupon the Queen Mother fearing this might disquiet and annoy her Regency An Assembly of eight Parliaments and endanger the tranquillity of the Kingdom during the Kings Minority Especially fearing the Duke of Guise should be too powerfull she therefore causes to be Issued out orders for calling and assembling of the eight Parlaments of France with the Princes of the Blood Noblemen and they of the Privye Councill to consider of the estate of all the Provinces and to consult about a way to heal these breaches to her content and lasting peace of the Kingdom she knew this was the ready way to enjoy her power which must necessarily fall if either party rise if either partie prevailed in a successive power they would too soon give a pull at hers the Duke of Guise in A Rage departs the Court for Spain The Duke of Guise and his confederate Catholiks was so swelled at the heart That his breast the Poyson of his purposes could not be contained within the limits of moderation But like a rapid Torrent bandies against this course And as water cast upon lime burns inwards till it breaks without into a flame so this cruel Duke foaming with malice and cherishing those furies that Hell would cast out disaproves of this Assembly and openly enveighs against the King of Navar the Prince of Conde Admiral and chief of the Protestants and so in discontent departs the Court for Spain there to plott for effecting a tragicall and more bloody effusion of Protestant blood then by his presence could be effected in the French Court. Whereupon the Queen Mother still to strengthen hir self betwixt these two factions dissembles hir secret intentions and gives out publickly an inclination to cleav to the Protestants which indeed did astonish all that heard thereof Nay she did so hipocritically mannage her secrefie That the Admirall and all the Chief Protestants could give no other interpretation of her carriage then Reality and she the more effectually to penetrate into their perswations more to confirm their credulous opinion and perfectly to blind their eies she declares her carriage to he the bottom of her intentions the Protestants deluded by the Queens dissembling gives her A list of all their forces So making her impious treachery turn treason parent The Protestants believing all true she said were so farr deluded into a firm belief thereof That they gave her a list of two thousand one hundred and fifty Protestant churches who by their Deputies offered their Goods and persons to the King to withstand the force of the Guisants who had invited the Spaniards into France And thus with this deep dissimulation covered with fair pretexts the Protestants were drawn in to discover their strength which when shee collected her desires were satisfied with this handsome dissimulation But none could know it but the eternall and alseeing eye of God for she had so carried it that the very Catholick party thought all as reall as it was Hypocriticall At this time the King of Navar being not fully fixed in the firmament of an established mind the King of Navar turns Catholick The Reverend servant of Christ Theodora Beza laboured much to bring him to a right understanding of the truth but he like a carnall pollititian replies quod pellago se non ita commissurus esse quin quando libere pedem referre possit That he would launch no further into the deeps then he might with safety return again And so he fully declares for the Catholicks which by a little dispondency of Spirit did weaken the Protestants and strengthen the Guisants But now like lightening before death wee shall see a greater part of bloody treacherie then ever was acted in any Christian Nation For In this year 1561. mens Spirits were so malitiously bent that they were redy to receive any fire of commotion The Protestants have no security nor safety for lives or goods there was great danger for these poor Christians that professed the name of the Lord yet like palme the more depressed the more they grew like trees upon high Mountains though under the power and in the cie of the greatest storms and gusts yet are more firmly rooted then those that grow in fruitfull valies so these poor Saints of God through their affliction did increase more and more whereupon did arise to them great troubles and persecutions in regard the late edict against them gave courage to the Catholicks to persecute them by Authority by which also it did frustrate their more publick meeting And Here it is to be taken notice of That formerly the custome in France of pounishing the Protestants was besides their estates seased on for the Kings use their bodies were to be burned at the Tyrannicall request of their Lords and nobillity but now God who is rich in mercy has freed his poor servants from the unheard of and slavish bondage and given a little more liberty though against the will of his and their adversaries The eight Parliaments meets with the King and Queen Mother And now according to the forementioned order of the Queen the eight Paliaments of France meets where was present with them the King and Queen Mother and thus this great Assembly of Estates from all the Provinces meets at St. Germans in Lay near to the City of Paris where with the Royal assent of Charls the ninth Was that famous and so much celebrated edict brought forth wherein there was great Liberty to the weary Protestants that was so tossed up and down which indeed had proved more happy then I can express if they might have enjoyed the benefit of performance with as much liberty as it promised The eight Parliaments with the King and Queen decree A liberty for the Protestants but speedily a sad and cruel Massacre of 30. thousand Protestants The contents of this edict which did Invest the Protestants with these privileges were A free liberty to enjoy profess and exercise their Religion To have Assemblies and publick meetings at sermons But without the Towns and in the Subburbs onely This Edict crossing that which was made in
July last took date the seventh of January which for the great liberty it gave the present freedom from persecution and hope of peace to all the Nation was commonly called by the name of the edict of January But Alas alas wee shall too soon see the sad effects of this edict for instead of bringing forth the peaceable fruits of a desired and expected tranquillity it brought forth such a sad Perisian Massacre as it may well be termed a monster of nature wherein was such a slaughter of poor Protestants as for the horidness of the fact it is not to be parrelled For before wee come to the end of this sad History wee shall see such a slaughter of Noble gentelmen Gallant souldiers poor Ladies and Gentlewomen and other innocent souls as in three dayes were no less slain then ten thousand whereof 500. were Noblemen Gentlemen and Ladies that were invited to Paris by the Kings dissimulation and treacherous bayt to their sad ruin And in other parts of France in ten dayes by the Kings own commandement were Murtherd most inhumanly thirty thousand Innocent Soules besides what the wars destroyed Such were the sad effects of solemn engagements as if there were no other way of keeping Covenant then by breaking it Nay this edict of peace was by the Kings command and so was the Masacre Oh! that it may stand as a Pyramide to all Nations to be ware how they Make a Peace with those that know no way of Lawfull keeping but unlawfull breaking their most sacred and solemn Oathes promises and engagements This edict being proclaimed did much trouble and dismay the Principal Catholicks setting them all on fire with rage and malice But the greatest enemies the Protestants had were the Duke of Guise King of Navar the Constable and Cardinalls the Queen also was a secret enemie and Ianus like had two faces One full of the greatest dissemulation that ever was found in a female sex taking their parts onely with fair words before their faces yet had the foulest heart wicked inventions as could be imagined And so to support her own power between the indifferent state of the Princes of the blood and the Guisans The Queen Mother being now returned to Fontanbleav Assures the Prince of Conde by all the protestations of Reality that her intentions was no less resolute to preserve the Edict of pacification for their good then it was to secure her own life and so likewise protested to the King of Navar and Duke of Guise that she would never forsake the Catholick partie Now what a wonderfull art of dissimulation was this Queen arrived too what depth of deceit lay hid in her breast which she so ordered by fair pretences that the Protestants that had cause and the Catholicks that had no cause of mistrust yet both alik doutbed of her Reality The Duke of Guise aforesaid being at Spain was absent from this Assembly of estates Asad Massacre of the Protestants at Vassay where the Duke of Guise blaspheming fell on them at a sermon and murthered 200. which was the begining of the first Civil war and consequently affented not to this famous Edict granted by the King Queen and eight Parliaments But he no sooner heard of it but his wonted malice begins to work it is not to be conceived or imagined how full loaden he was which malice and venemous intentions of Injurie to the poor Protestants and so boyling with incredible sorrow at this decree in their behalfs he resolves to wreak his furie on their Innocency He therefore with the constable Cardinal many Gentlemen of the prime Catholicks and two squadrons of Lances advances towads Paris Now as they march from Ianuile to Vassay a little Town in Campagne comming neer and understanding the bell was ringing to Sermon he draws nigher and whilst the poor Protestants were serving God in his holy Ordinances in a barn he furiously sets upon them crying Death of God kill those Huguenots Whereupon he murthered to the number of two hundred men and weomen some had their heads cleft in two others their hands and heads cutt off so that the walls and Galleries of the barn were died with the blood of the slain The Duke with his sword drawn stood among them charging his men to kill without sparing The faithfull Minister of Gods Word was brought to the Duke who cursing called for the Provost and commands him to be hanged on a Gibbot yet through Gods mercy he was released at the request of the Prince of Portion this sad murder we shall shortly see will produce sad effects The Protestants complain to the Prince of Conde of the Breach of the Edict and demands justice of the King Those that were the principal of the Protestants were Lewis of Bourbon of the Bloud Royal commonly called Prince of Conde after the name of a certain Town which Prince was of great force with the King in regard of his alliance so that when the Duke of Guise attempted the breach of the famous Edict endeavouring the utter ruine thereof especially in his bloudy cruelty at Vassey which coming to the hearing of the Admiral and his Brother Francis de Andelot Captain of the Fantery and other Princes Noblemen and Gentlemen of the Protestants they flock daily in heaps with Complaints to the Prince of Conde of the outragious malice and violent attempt of the Duke of Guise against their Brethren the Protestants demanding also of the King Justice for that bloudy Breach of his special Edict and Command The Duke of Guise to countenance his wicked intentions seizes on the King and carries him to Paris Presently after the Duke of Guise arrives at Paris with his bloudy Train and thought it not unfit for carrying on of his Design to get the King into his power that what afterwards he did might be in the Kings name well knowing what great Authority the name of the King would carry in France Whereupon he with the Constable and Marshall of St. Andres seizes on the Kings person and so carries him from Fontanbleau to Paris and there fell a defacing and overthrowing the places where the Protestants used to assemble which so encouraged the Romish party that in every place they abused the Protestants as the most cruel barbarous would blush to act The Queen Mother by Letters desires the Prince of Conde's help for the King and her assistance Hereupon the Queen Mother fearing the power and fierce pride of the Guisans makes a virtue of necessity and writes with her own hand to the Prince of Conde which Letters were produced by the Prince and at the Assembly of the Princes of Germany at Frankford holden under Ferdinand the Emperour were openly read the Contents were Earnestly to intreat his speedy succour and in so great danger and distress not to forsake her but to account both the Mother and the children meaning her self the King and his brethren as committed to his faith and natural kindness desiring
him that he would with all carefull speed powerfully to provide for their common safety assuring him that she would imprint his willing care into the Kings minde that he should never be a loser by it The Prince of Conde possesses Orleans The Prince of Conde being on his journey to Court news was brought him in the way how things were carried That they had taken the King and brought him to Paris Then presently the Admiral advances towards him and overtaking him they make a stand and there consulted what to do whereupon seeing their own danger the Duke speedily hasted to Orleans and possessed it And this was the beginning of the first Civil War CHAP. II. The Contents THe Prince of Conde publishes a Manifesto laying down the Reasons of taking Arms. Burges and Orleans are the Potestants refuge The King declares against the Prince The Armies meet but engage not The Prince and Admiral dispose of their Armies into Garisons The Kings Army takes and sacks some Towns takes Burges on conditions The Queen Mother unmasks her self causing the Protestants to be proclamed Rebels The Prince and Admiral delivers up Roan Diep and Haverdegrace to Queen Elizabeth of England The Kings Army besieges Roan where the King of Navar is slain and the City stormed and sacked for three days together with cruel murdring De Andelot joynswith the Admiral The Prince of Conde and Admiral advances to the City of Paris The Kings Army advances for defence of the City The Protestants march toward Normandy to receive Queen Elizabeths supplies The Kings Army follows them they joyn Battel where both Generals are taken Prisoners The Admiral with his Army marches to Normandy The Duke of Guise with the Kings Army besieges Orleans the Duke slain before it The Admiral returns from Normandy and enters Orleans A Treaty is begun and Peace concluded at Orleans with free liberty for Religion which is publickly proclamed THe Divisions thus increasing made way to erect a Theatre for a sad Tragedy for the Prince of Conde published a Manifesto and sent Letters also to the King Parliament of Paris Protestant Princes of Germany and to all other Christian Princes The Prince of Conde prints a Manifesto of the grounds of his proceedings The Reasons laid down by the Prince of Conde for his taking Arms. were these The defence of the famous Edict of Toleration which was made by the King being the high Road to Peace if duly observed which could not but be kept without horrible breach of faith and assured ruine of the French Nation in regard there were so many of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation that were Protestants and daily came in to the Religion And those of Noble birth that were in power dignity or otherwise above others thought it not meet to suffer the cruel punishments and Massacres daily inflicted on some and threatned to others since God had given them power to help themselves And further it was declared that the Duke of Guise a new-come Foreiner translated from the Forests of Lorain should usurp such power in France such dominion and command as the Princes of the Bloud must lose their proper interests to be his slaves and vassals against all the Laws of the Nation further declaring That if the King should cause an observation of the Edict for Religion already signed and that Arms might be laid down on the Kings part they were ready to do the like and would speedily lay down their Arms To this he added the Queen Mothers singular care as it was reported and as indeed she did outwardly shew for preservation of peace and pulling down the powerful rage of the Guisans which indeed she so dissembled that on the very account hereof it is certain above twenty thousand Catholiks joyned themselves to the Protestants in defence of their cause Burges Orleans proves a Sanctuary and hiding place in time of Gods These flames being begun could not so easily be extinguished mauy cruelties being committed on the bodies of the poor Protestants without mercy such as will no question draw out tears from the eies of serious Christians being such sad examples of crueltie as cant be believed should have proceeded from any that had known that ever Christianity had been in the world nothing being drunk more eagerly then the blood of the poor Saints Yet in this callamity God provided a place of refuge for such as he pleased in mercy to preserve from their cruelty For Bourges and Orleans being kept by the Protestants The King declares against the prince of Conde did greatly administer comfort to many distressed Christians that fled theither Hereupon the King at Paris declares against the Edict and the Prince of Conde The Queen Mother now arms those she privately huggs in the bosom of ther affections The Prince of Conde desires to lay all private interests aside for preservation of the Publick efusion of blood But the King of Navar the Duke of Guise the Constable and Marshall of St. Andre by an Edict banishes the Protestants out of Paris and sudenly advances towards the Prince of Conde with twelve thousand foot and three thousand horse They find the Prince strong enough to encounter them contrary to ther expectations and De Andelot and Boucart strongly urged to engage the Kings Army the Queen with subtilty and treacherous pollicie beguils the Protestants But the Queen Mother abuses them with her subtile treachery telling them the hopes of agreement was too near for them to undo all by a too hasty ingagement in so much that she fed them with hopes till the Catholick Army increased in strength both with French and forein forces Thus the Queen having delayed and protracted all hopes of Issue by battle the Prince of Conde maintains his Army about two months in such peace to the Country as was not in the least found to be outragious by spoyling or robbing such was the Christian and carefull discipline of the Prince and Admiral of the Protestant Army which in France was the greater wonder because whoring robbing and blaspheming was the usual attendants and constant harbingers to the Catholick camp which could not be avoyded because the King could not keep to so strickt a discipline as the Prince of Conde and Admiral The Prince and Admiral disperse the Armie into several Provinces The Prince of Conde and Admiral wisely prudently like valliant carefull Commanders take all waies to use their present power for future advantages and ensuing Storms so they send out to several Provinces men of approved fidelity to the Protestant cause which proved next to Gods blessing a great help to their success in possessing many strong holds in sundry parts of France as Roan Deip Angiers Blois Vendosme Tours Poictiers Ragency Maus Angoulesme Chalon upon Soan Maskon and the most part of Daulphin The Kings Army secures what they had and falls upon several Towns taking and miserably sacking them which
shall shortly in particular be related with all the sad circumstances of their cruelty The Catholicks take Bourges oâ— conditions Now the Kings Army sits down before Burges the 10. of August where they felt the valour and courage of the Protestants by many salies even to their trenches but in regard they had no time to fortifie the place their innate valour was forced to yield to necessity whose law has no bounds and so the Governour Monseiur D'Yvoy began to capitulate and at last on conditions yielded but was out of favour ever after by the Prince of Conde and Admiral the Queen discovers her selfe agrinst Protestants and prcolaims them Robels And now the Queen shews her selfe in her colours casts of her vizard and openly appears what she was inwarly For the Catholick cause and against the Protestants and so moved by her implacable malice and inward hatred she with the consent of the King caused the Principal of the Protestants to be Proclaimed Rebels and thus made way for a more open discovery of her most secret treachery whose close hypocrisie til now was so hid under hatches by deceitfull slights that on all hands her deep dissimulation was esteemed real But we shall shortly perceive that the copy of mens actions are sooner read than the copy of their countenances The Prince of Conde delivers up Roan Deip and Haverdegrace to the Queen of England In this mean while the Protestants had delivered up to the Queen of England the Towns of Roan Haverdegrace and Deip as pledges for her security And now the Kings Army marches towarde Roan and on the five and twentieth of September 1562. the whole Army Lodges at Darnettel two Leagues from the City of Roan where the Count Montgommery was Governour for the Protestants and commander of the City The Kings Army Advances to Roan having with him for defence thereof two thousand English and twelve hundred French foot four troopes of horse and an hundred Gentlemen of quallity whose valour was well known to the Army of the Kings that on all times and upon all occations felt the power of their resolutions whose strength and provision failing together with the Kings taking their principal fort did much trouble and hinder their promised success whereupon they sent to Haverdegrace for such supplies as could possibly be spared which in part was effected although the Kings Army had planted Cannons along the River but their great want could not be supplied with a little although at one time from the English arrived with great difficulty to their greater necessity seven hundred men with monyes and ammunition King of Navar slain And here at this seige was remarkably slain the Apostate King of Navar who felt the reward thereof from a divine hand of puunishment The City taken by storm and for three dayes nobus cruelties and murthers The twenty sixt of October the Kings Army storms the City and with great loss and valor on both sides takes it and for the cruelties they used against the poor Protestants lying at their mercy for the space of three dayes I refer the Reader to peruse in the Massaces at Roan which is fully and shortly related in the following Chapter Count Montgomery saved himself through great danger in a galley passing to Haverdegrace and so for England The Admirals Brother D'Andelot with 11000. horse and foot joyns with the Prince of Conde and Admiral Lewis of Burborn Duke of Montpenseir took from the Protestants severall Towns whose barbarous course of cruelty and treacherie is also contracted into a narrow compass which follows in the next chapter Mean while D'Andelot with five thousand foot and four thousand horse with great policie and and no less danger and toyle marches through the enemies power and at last joyfully and seasonably arrives and joyns with the Prince of Conde and Admiral who with great joy and welcome embrases him as much sorrow presently balances all for the success in another place was differently carried by the like Adventure of a Noble Commander the Baron of Duras who having levied five thousand horse and foot in Gascoin and Provinces adjacent endeavouring to pass through difficulties was obstructed by a sharp encounter by the Kings Horse under Command of Monsieur de Mouluc and Burie and at last was defeated yet with good part he escaped to the assistance of the Prince of Conde and Admiral The Prince and Admiral advance with their Army to the walls of Paris who now all march against Paris the Metropolis of the Nation and in their March taks in Estampes Piviers and Dordane and so marches to Paris where after some skirmishes beat back their enemies with Terrour and Confusion into the City putting them all to a stand in their councils but the Queen by Treaties and often Messengers did so with ther subtilty treat with the Prince and Admiral that by delayes the City was strengthened and their gallant Enterprize suprized for want of quick execution but the truth is the Protestants at all times were ready to embrace peace in the midst of their power and so suffered that convenient opportunity to slip and fall into the hands of the Queens policy which opportunity had the Catholicks ever enjoyed peace had not gone before their cruelties But it falls into course here to let the world take notice of this full demonstration of the Princes and Protestants Declarations That they sought only liberty for â—heir Estates and Lives and therefore would to their own prejudice wait an opportunity to effect their peaceable desires But alas it is to be bewailed that ever the Protestants down-right in their actions and words should ever have to deal with such an enemy whose treachery is their refuge and cruelty their mercy Now when they see their Enemies Designs they begin to remember the loss of their own yet falls on the City by a general Assault shoots many Cannons at last face the City to provoke and incite the Enemy to battel all which not answering their desires the Prince and Admiral draw off their Army The Kings Army advances to the defence of the City and the Prince withdraws and marches towards Normandy And now the Kings Army having by this time gathered a great strength from all parts advances under the command of the Duke of Guise and Constable and so follows the Princes Army who now resolves to march into Normandy to joyn with the Forces and Provisions that Queen Elizabeth of England had then according to covenant promised the Protestants being six thousand men twenty pieces of Cannon much Ammunition and fifteen thousand Ducats This March being resolved on at Beauss on December 14. they advance by the way of Chartres and so for Normandy The Kings Army follows the Protestants swiftly and the Protestant Army being very weary and both Armies very near they were by a manifest necessity driven to a Battel The Kings Army follows and they join battle
The Protestant Army under the command of the Prince of Conde and Admiral lodged about Dreux being a Town twenty six Leagues from Paris and situated on the confines of Normandy in which place on a Plain the 19. of December they joyn Battel The Kings Army was reckoned to be nineteen thousand foot and two thousand Horse The Prince of Conde's Army consisting of twelve thousand Foot and four thousand Horse And now the Battle of Dreux begins where the Admiral of the Protestants with great courage leading the Van fell upon the Kings Cavalry commanded by the Constable and at first onset slew Gabriel de Momorancy and laid dead on the place Count de Rochefort the whole cavalry running away The Constable taken prisoner the Constable himself taken Prisoner and the Duke of Nevers Monsieur de Givry d'Annebault La Bross and his Son with many other Gentlemen and Cavaleirs slain upon the place The Duke of Aumaule Brother to the Duke of Guise and Beauvais were wounded Now the Princes forces being in a too eager pursuit of the Enemy was furiously set upon by the Duke of Guise where after a furious on set and doubtful shock on both sides endured at last the Prince of Conde was taken Prisoner Prince of Conde taken prisoner and on the Kings side was taken Monsieur d'Anvelle being sore wounded which the Admiral perceiving rallies and advances but the former encounter so wearied and weakned his men that after a sharp conflict he was put to the worst and so made an honourable retreat In this encounter was slain on the Catholike party the Marshal de St. Andre The same night all the Army of the Protestants were met together where the Admiral by general consent was chosen General of the Army instead of the Prince of Conde Prisoner Both Armies leave the field the Duke of Guise by the speedy advance of night upon him was forced to lodge upon the Plain at Blainville where the Prince of Conde and the Duke of Guise two mortal enemies both supped and lay in one bed together The next morning after Battle the Admiral presents himself with his Army in the field in Battalia There was in this battle slain seven thousand whereof on the Protestants two thousand foot and one hundred and fifty horse and doubtless it was a dubious engagement for had the Protestants carefully maintained their first encounter in an orderly station they had not been so assailed and foyled at last but Victory had crowned their valour without hazard of doubt but however the Battle proved fatal to the Catholicks and famous to both in that both Generals were taken Prisoners And as the Admiral was chosen General so for the Catholicks was the Duke of Guise General in lieu of the Constable prisoner The Duke of Guise hereupon suddenly marches to lay siege â—o Orleans The Admiral proceeds to the Resolution before determined The Admiral marches for Normandy and keeps his march for Normandy but before their March takes Selles in Bervy St. Aigna Sulli upon Loire and Montrichard and so leaving the care of Orleans to his Brother D'Andelot he advances towards Normandy to meet with Queen Elizabeths supplies and so to come with more strength to annoy the Catholicks and assist his Friends The Duke of Guise with the Kings Army layes siege to Orleans On the fifth day of February the Duke of Guise lays siege to Orleans where the King and Queen Mother came in person D'Andelot was Governour of Orleans who was also assisted with Monsieur de St. Cyr the Sieur de Avaret Bussay Duras and Bouchavanes under whose command were fourteen companies of foot consisting of Germans and Gascoins with five Troops of French Horse that were old Souldiers to whose valour was joined for assistance the unanimous consent of the Citizens to withstand the enemy whose harmonious and joint resolutions for defence of Religion and Liberty did strive to out-vy the Souldiers valour and thus being resolved to dy in pursuit of so good a cause they encourage one another to repulse the enemies assaults The Defects of the Town-walls being supplyed with Resolutions which made weakness impregnable and stood as a Rock against the strongest shock of the enemies force Now the Duke with the whole strength of his Army sets upon a Fauxburg of the City and suddenly surprizes it the first day The Duke of Guise threatens to destroy men women and children in Orleans but is himself cut off which so encouraged the Catholick party and especially the hot spirit of the Duke of Guise whose inveterate malice could not be contained in the bounds of moderation or secresie but openly delivers it by word of mouth and writes by Letters to the King boasting that twenty four hours should not pass so sure as he would in the same compass force the City to his obedience And further declared The day should be made memorable by destroying both men women and children sparing none But behold his hellish rage was confined by a judgement from Heaven whose death was not much unlike our late Duke of Buckingham for the same night there was a young Gentleman descended of a noble family known by the name of John Poltrat Sieur de Merebourn who being mounted on a Spanish Jennet and watching his own opportunity did by his proper and private motion shoot the Duke of Guise into the shoulder with a Pistol laden with three bullets and so this wretched enemy of God and the poor Protestants dyed the four and twentieth of February who by Gods justice was deprived of his unjust and bloody intentions the said Poltrat being afterwards taken and executed did freely declare at his death that what he did in destroying the Duke was to deliver France and especially the City of Orleans from his violent and bloudy threatnings The Admiral returns from Normandy and with his Army enters Orleans This accident in the Kings Army stopt their furious assaults till the seasonable advance of the Admiral from Normandy with Supplies which made a full stop in the siege who after he had greatly annoied the Catholicks in Normandy came to Orleans the 17. day of March and enters the City where was Prisoner the Constable General of the Kings Army taken at the Battle at Dreux and in the Kings Army was the Prince of Conde Prisoner Now the Kings Queen Mother with the Privy Counsellours and Deputies of the Court of Paris were about to arraign the Prince of Conde which being ballanced with a fearful expectation of the like to the Constable they let their resolutions fall A Treaty begun and finished with the Edict of January for liberty granted The Queen Mother at this time fearing the issue of War and seeing success alike to both doubted her desired expectation would fall by reason of the unexpected and constant supplies the Admiral had on all straits she therfore enters on the Old Way Her only way making use of that Proverb VVhere force will
Protestants in France during this Civil War they are so sad they need no comment An unparralled murther but indeed that which follows is not to be paralleld for perfidious treachery Breach of the faith of a King and Court and for hellish and unheard-of cruelties sad murthers in cold blood upon Lords Gentlemen poor Ladies Rivers swimming with bodies and died with blood Indeed the most sad Tragedie that ever was yet acted upon the theatre of the world by Turks Heathens or Christians CHAP. IV. The Contents THE King and Queen Mother lay siege to Haver de grace which surrendered on Henourable tearms The King is declared out of his minority and swears to observe the Edict of Pacification but keeps not his oath nor promise The Council of Trent meet a League is made between the King of France and King of Spain called the Holy League the Cardinal of Lorain posts to Rome to desire the Pope to cause the French to observe the decrees of the Council of Trent Great heart-burnings arise The Protestants dayly complain to the King of their injuries desiring him to keep to his covenant but to no purpose The King and Queen Mother in progress rides through the Nation and secretly confer with the Popes Messenger and the King of Spain They come to Lyons and forbid the exercise of the Protestant Religion Many Protestants cruelly and inhumanly murthered by the Catholicks in several places The King and Queen Mother treacherously leavie six thousand Switzers to destroy the Protestants Letters are intercepted which discover a bloody plot against the Prince of Conde the Admiral and all the Protestants The Prince Admiral and Principal Protestants seize on Troys Lyons and Tholouse The King and Queen Mother forced to ret reat to Paris Thâ—â— beginning of the second war the King sends an Herauld to the Prince of Conde and Admiral Their answer The Principal of both Parties treat but to no purpose The Prince and Admirals answer to their Demands The Protestants never embrace a more sure ruin then a peace with the King The Armies meet and engage the success The Prince of Conde and Admiral march to join with Prince Casimir who had raised twelve thousand men for their aid The Duke of Lorrain made General of the Kings Army Prince Casimirs Noble Declaration in defence of the Protestants The Prince of Conde's Gallant speech to the Army A gallaut Resolution in a free Contribution through the Princes Army Prince of Conde and Admiral join with Prince Casimirs Army The Prince of Conde besieges Chartres The Queen Mothers treachery and speech a peace concluded but full of Treason Guile and hypocrisie The Protestants no sooner dismiss their Armies and deliver up their Garrisons but are speedily filled with Souldiers of the Kings A bloody Cabinet Council erected by the King They plot to cut off the Protestants but are discovered The Kings Army suddenly begirts the chief of the Protestants but they escape with their families to Rochel The Queen of Navar comes to Rochel with horse and foot Cardinall Castillon flies to England disguised The Prince of Conde and Admiral publish a manifesto to all Christian Princes the Queen of Navar declares for the Protestants A bloody Edict is published by the King that none should profess any other Religion but the Romish the King of France strangely declares to all the world That he meant not what he said WE concluded the latter part of the second chapter with a Peace concluded at Orleans whereupon was publickly proclamed a free liberty for the Protestants according to the Edict of Pacification Now the King and Queen Mother endeavour to reduce Haverdegrace to their obedience which the Protestant party had delivered up to the Queen of England as aforesaid The Kings Army besieges Haverdegrace To which purpose they lay siege the Town holds out a good while till at last being sore streightned and no hopes left of relief they come to conditions of surrenders but before Hostages were delivered and English Fleet of sixty brave Ships appears under sayl fleering directly to the Port but the Earl of VVarwick like a true hearted Englishman scorning to dishonour his Nation with such perfidious treachery as most of the French acted he sends word to the Admiral of the Fleet Honourably surrendred that the Town was to be surrendred that day being the seventeenth day of July and so performed his Contract to his great Honour I cannot compare this noble act to any but that brave Roman Consuls who being taken by the Carthaginians in Africa had liberty given to return to Rome to effect the release of some Prisoners and in them his own in exchange promising to return prisoner if he could not Now when he came to the Senate he perswades them not â—o accept of the conditions and so according to his promise returned and was miserably tormented to death Oh that it might be said so of our Charls the Ninth that he had but been regardful of his Oaths and covenants then had not we been partakers of such a sad spectacle of cruelty by reading this bloody Tragedie The Catholicks now after this peace at Orleans feared the greatest visible power rested in the Prince of Conde So the Queen Mother treads in her old paths of deceit intending by her cunning subtilty to cut off all pretences of right to the Government by the Princes of the blood The King declared out of his minority and swears in the presence of God to olserve the Edict of Pacification to which purpose she causes the King now but fourteen years old to be declared King and past his Minority She carries his Majestie to Roan and there the fifteenth day of December 1563. they went Solemnly with all the Lords of the Court and Officers of the Crown to the Parliament Where in the presence of the Counsellours he received the usual Ceremonies used in France at the Coronation the Parliament publishing the Declaration of his Majority the King there publickly protested and swore in the presence of Almighty God That be would for ever after duly observe the Edict of Pacification threatning all opposers for such was his express will and pleasure Thus all things seem in a peaceable way one would now think so much blood expences of treasure and a consumption of his subjects would weary any nation and make any King rejoice For a peace is the more sweetned by the effects of a Civil war already felt for two extreams illustrate each other The peace not kept But alas this peace succeeds not the hopefull expectation of his peaceable subjects in many places it was not observed The Council of Trent meets The King of Spain and France make a league and call it the Holy league And now assembles that Council known by the name of the Council of Trent who meet for the maintainance of the Catholick Religion Now the Cardinal of Lorrain being an active Agent to forward any design
but was a plot to cut them of His Oathes being as carfully broken as solemnly made And that which gave the Protestants too sure grounds of fear least a storm should fall undiscovered till unavoydable was this When Ferdinando Alvares de Tolleda Duke of Alva was marching into the Low Countries with a puissant Army to subdue the Protestants there that embraced the reformed Religion against the King of Spains will and desire the Queen Mother ordered the raysing of six thousand Switzers and brought them into France pretending forsooeh that they went for guarding the fronteirs of the Kingdom against the attempts that might be made by the Duke of Alva's Army But see how the light of Heaven penetrats into the dark designes of Hell Letters are intercepted in their way from Rome Letter intercepted the Plot discovered and Spain wherein was discovered a plot for the Protestants for therein was found That it was decreed in a secret Councell to apprehend the Prince and Admirall to destroy the one and keep the other Prisoner and therefore if the Prince and Admirall escaped this bloody Tragedy prepared for them and should try it by Arms that then on a sudden ere they could Arme or be provided those six thousand Switzers were to arrive at Paris where was to remain two thousand as many into Orleans and the rest into Poictiers and thus was the six thousand Switzers pretended to be raised for defence of the Protestants against the Duke of Alva that was indeed for their utter ruin the King and Queen Mother concluding that if the head were off The wickedness of the Duke of Alva the body would fall to the ground calme the winds and the billows will soon surcease their rage Now this bloody Duke of Alva carried himself against the Protestants in such an unhuman way that he permitted his Soldiers to ravish Virgins and one time at his Table boasted the Prince and Admirall and chief Protestants take Lyons Troys and Tholouse for their defence that besids privat Massacres and what the War had destroyed he had Caused to be put to death by the Hangman Eighteen Thousand in six years time And now the Protestants seeing so clear a Plot in the midst of Peace nay that under pretence of safety lurked ruin and Treacherie They prepare to defend themselves by force and stand on their own ground for their Lives and Estates because they see peace is the direct road to a murderous death resolving rather to die in field like men and Soldiers than be cut off by Plots Oh! that they had continued and never embrased Peace may all true Protestants say ere this History ends they therefore to the aforesaid purposes seize on three principall Towns Lyons Troyes and Tholuse The King of France as the usuall Custom is was then preparing for Meaux the King forced to a disorderly retreat from Meaux to Paris to solemnize the day af St. Michaell the Prince of Conde with five hundred Protestants approach Meaux the King and Queen Mother hearing thereof Retire with great disorder and fearfull hast to Pars with six thousand Switzers and other Horse and thus begins the second War being armed on all sides and a generall rising in the Land Now sundry particulars which happened in this second War for our better proceeding in this Tragicall History and for our present purpose must only be touched at carrying along with us the most observable deeds The King sends to the Prince of Conde and Admirall for a more clear understanding of the whole business that we may go on in som order till we come to the rest The second War thus beginning the King sent an Herald to the Protestants whom the Prince and Admirall received in behalf of the rest to whose message they return this Answer That they were resolved to continue the Kings good subjects and what they did was for the defence of their religion liberty granted by the Edict which the King by Oaths had promised faithfully to keep that they desired nothing more then the security of their Lives and Estates in A peaceable enjoyment of the liberty of their Consciences which might the better enable them to be the more firmly fixt in obedience to his Majesties Command The heads of both sides meet and treats but to no purpose But if they should disband it were the most compendious way to their assured Ruin and a plaine laying of their necks to the block and so offer their throats be to be cut by their merciless enemies the Kingdome being full of Swisses Flemings Italians and Germans Hereupon the heads of both parties meet at St. Denis the Constable desires the Prince and Admirall to relie on the Kings word of whose performance he hoped they need not doubt to what ever he promised Oh! that the poor protestants had found is so then had not forty thousand Innocent souls been slain basely and murthered treacherously The Prince and Admiralls noble answer to the constalle To this answer was returned that it was not now time to trust in the Kings word which how little it was kept was too visibly to be read in the bloody effects of the constant breach thereof An Edict being made and sworn to by the King was by the same King violated which was a manifest signe of treachery and perjurie and so perfidious The Prince and Admiralls noble answer to the Constable as few christian Kings would signe to so that they could no more depend upon the Kings word which had hitherto been a snare a sure trap to catch them in and truly they that run may read that all along this sad History the poore Protestants were never und on but when they took the Kings word which indeed at all times proved but the umbrage or shadow of a promise The Protestants never embraced their ruin but when they trusted to the Kings word in a peace being alwayes made with a resolution never to be kept which at last proved a faithfull paslage to their utter ruin so that now this meeting brought nothing conducing to peace for it is certaine that in such a short tract of time I could never yet hear or read of such a constant practise of covenant breaking which all along in this Kings reigne was so often practised as if it had been reckoned amongst their meritorious works as if there were not a God to punish perjurie or treachery And now the Protestants lay their Army down before Pâ—â—is and shortly after both Armies meet and on the tenth of November gave battle and the Protestants received the worst by reason de Andelot came not into the Princes assistance till midnight The two Armies give Battle after the battle therefore next day they enter the field with their Army shew themselves in battalia ready to fight the enemie and so standing some houses before the great citty of Paris they bury their dead the Constable slain cure
their wounded but the Catholicks in Paris durst not come out to engage in this battel was slain the Constable on the Kings side On the fourteenth day the Prince and Admiral with their Army the Prince of Conde and Admirall with their Army march to joyn with the Prince Casimirs Army of 11. thousand marched to Campagn and so past into the confines of Lorrain to joyn with Prince Caisimir son to the Prince Palatine of Rhine Elector to the Sacred Empire whose royall worth cannot shine through the description of my pen according to the lustre of his native and intrinsick worth who had now for the defence of the Protestants raysed an Army of ten or eleven thousand who in their march took in som towns In this mean while the Duke of Lorrain was created Generall of the Kings Army and the Duke of Anjon Lieutenant Generall now Prince Casimir aforesaid writ to the King protesting that it was not any profit or privat interest of his own that prompted his resolutions Prince Casimirs noble declaraton in behalf of the protestants but only and really to assist those that afflicted and persecuted for the same religion had required his help And further declared That if yet the King would grant them free liberty according to his promise in the last Edict he was ready to retreat A noble and brave resolution of a gallant Prince and a true friend such friendship shall never want it's reward in this or another world Sincerity in affection will endure the touch of affliction But here succeeds a block that must be removed out of the way which the Prince of Conde out of a tender respect to a conscionable performance of his promises did only surmise which was bravely and couragiously performed as follows The Prince of Conde had promised to the Prince of Casimirs Army at their approach to the confines the sum of one hundred thousand crowns the Prince of Condes Brave speech to the Army with Christian resolution to keepe his covenants the present want of which did much perplex the Prince of Conde but calling the Army together he there soberly and wisely related their present condition acquainting them that their generall welfair consisted in their particular assistance and that in outward apearance the Prince of Casimir was the greatest pledg of their hopes and on whose help did depend their future hapiness if God blessed their willing resolutions and therefore it were better to hazzard their private estates for a prosperous Issue then lose life liberties and estates to a bloody cruell and perjured enemie and so excited them freely to contribute what they could and with the price of their present assistance to redeem their lawfull liberty Estates Lives and Families A gallant and free contribution of the Protestants Army with their noble resolutions not to be parralleld So there were two Ministers appointed to receive their free contribution now though nothing could be worse spared yet nothing was more freely given for this brave Comander the Prince of Conde like a pious adventurer with a forward inclination to redeem their liberty though with loss of estates sets them a faire coppy to imitate for he was the first that gave all his monies and plate yet not contented gave the very rings off his fingers and all the valuable riches he had the Admirall chearfully follows this Christian and unparralled example then as willingly follows the chief officers of the Army and so from the gentlemen to the privat soldiers and from them to the footmen and boyes in the Camp There was such joyfull and freewill-offering even to the valew of all they had by which chearfull contribution was made up in monies The Armies of P. Casimir P. Conde joyne foreces Plate chaines of Gold Rings and Jewels to the valew of fourscore thousand Franks which for the present satisfied Prince Casimir's Army who doubtlesse would not let their resolutions stop in a vigorous prosecution of their purposes though they had not had this rare piece of affection and care of their prosperity But it was more the noble prince of Condes care to perform his promis then any promptitude in the Princes Army who wer exceedingly pleased Now all parties being fully satisfied on the eleventh of January 1568. they both joyned in a harmonious conjunction Rochell for the Protestants both of force and affections In the mean while the Pope sends aid to the King of France being four troops of Italian Horse six companies of Italian foot with two French Regiments and four thousand Swisses who were all joyned to the Kings Army under comand of the Duke of Anjou Whilest these things were agitating Rochell declared for the Protestants The Prote stant sn their march beseiged Charteres which proved ever after by the wise and mercifull care of God a good sanctuary for his poor people Now the Prince of Conde with Prince Casimir advance and in their way beseige Charteres which place was now as a store-house for Paris and the parts adjacent for it was a plentifully filled with Corne Now the Kings Army encamped before Sein and was loath to put all to the hazard of a battle which did put Charteres to a great strait The Queen Mother of France her treacherous Speech The Queen Mother perceiving which way the game was like to play falls to trade in her old Treacherous policy the only way for her security who used to say She could make three sheets of paper do more then the power of a whole Army To which purpose she sets on foot a Peace which indeed was no less necessary for the Catholicks then desired by the Protestants which may admit of one necessary observation The protestants in the height of their power yet alwaies ready to embrace the least motion of peace That when the Protestants had the greatest advantage of the King yet the least notice of peace was hearkned too and imbraced though in the full carrier and pursuit of their unresistable power and prevalency Therefore it may safely be concluded That if they had had any other intent in taking arms but for Lives Liberties Estates and Families they would never have laid down arms to embrace a peace which at all times they found as a Snake in their bosomes and did expose them to the greatest cruelty an inraged enemy could inflict So that now the Catholicks disadvantage in power meeting with a peaceable though powerful enemy A peace with full liberty of conscience but oh treason and deceit is the sad effects were the wheels that moved to a conclusion of War and so to sit down under a settlement so that the War having continued about six Moneths a Peace was concluded at Lonianieau with the same liberty allowed to the Protestants as was expressed in the Edict of Pacification granting liberty of Religion That they should Really Fully and Publickly enjoy the liberty and free exercise of the Religion
unsufferable injuries and cruel murthers were dayly heaped and committed upon the poor Protestants even to the loss of the Estates and Lives of many of their dear friends which opposition was the greater being done by the Kings Liberty granted contrary to Articles of peace and Edict of Pacification promised by Oaths and Covenants therefore though they dayly waited yet now they saw no other way but to arm in their own defence which was the least they could do being tyed by the laws of God and Nature to preserve their Religion Lives and Estates of themselves with their poor wives children and families that else would be left to the power and rage of bloody and deceitful men and that this was their only design of taking arms And further did declare that if they could espy and other way to enjoy their Estates Liberty and Lives they would speedily lay down their arms yet notwithstanding they desired and resolved to continue his Majesties faithful Subjects in obedience to all lawful commands wishing a period to their lives the same moment their obedience ceased if they could but herein see security for enjoyment of their Religion and Lives The Q. of Navars noble Declaration in behalf of the protestants At the same time the Queen of Navar with some dashes of her illustrious pen and a full Testimony of a Christian Resolution does by Letters declare That she could do no less than joyn with the Prince of Conde and Protestants which with the life of her self and children as also the miserable Reliques of the Kingdom of Navar The Cardinal of Lorrain on the one hand and Spaniards on the other did jointly indeavour by force and policy to destroy which was so discernable that all the world was witness to her injuries And indeed this Noble Queen The Q. of Navars high merits in part described would be ecclipsed of her due value by the draught of my rude pen the highest Encomiums will but stain her virtues but to a little belief of her high deserts know only this That her enemies confessed her virtues and Christian valour to exceed the very applause of her Friendly admirers and therefore her deserts was concluded as much undeniable to them as unspeakable by her friends Thus the very beginning of this pretended peace ends in a third Civil War whose effects was as bloody as sharp and at last we shall speedily see in a Tragical Massacre of many thousand Protestants of all degrees and sexes so securely were the Protestants lull'd asleep in their too credulous opinion of the King and Court Now in this Cabinet Council of the Kings was Charls Cardinal of Lorrain The King publishes a bloody Edict that no Religion should be exercised but the Romish on pain of death which cuts off all former promises and Edicts as if they had never been made to be kept Brother to the Duke of Guise a man of a most crafty and terrible nature insomuch that at Rome he was no less reputed for he was a bitter enemy to the Protestants and for the cruelty of his nature was termed the Firebrand of all Civil Flames whose hands being deep in the blood of the Protestants For by his means and the willing mind of the King and bloody Council was published an Edict in his Majesties name levelling the famous Edict of January and enjoyning That none should profess any Religion but the Romish and that it was treason to embrace any other requiring upon pain of death a general conformity to the Catholick Religion Which bloody Edict was accordingly published whereupon all the Protestant Ministers were banished all places of the Kingdom which were in the Kings power The King declares he meant not what be said Oh deep deceit And that the King may stand amazed at this deep hypocrisie this following Sentence was expressed in this Edict printed at Paris And it was further then declared that albeit the King had in many Edicts before that time permitted the freedom of Religion yet his meaning was to retain and cause to be retained of all men the only Romish or Popish Religion within his Realm Which Edict and clause being so wonderfully strange to all that heard or saw it and because it stained the Kings name with the most horrid spot of perjury and breach of faith it was therefore in other impressions afterward printed purposely omitted in the Edict This Edict was published with an incredible confluence of all sorts of Catholicks and received with the highest celebrations of joy as can be imagined and the rather because the Catholicks much doubted of the Queen Mothers intentions in regard of her dissembling carriage to the Protestants and now all was put out of doubt by this Edict Which clearly demonstrates that the King and Queen Mothers intentions all along was to destroy the Protestants root and branch only took their best opportunity to effect their desires with the least noise of suspicion and greatest security to drive the nail home to the head and their bloody Swords to the hearts of the most innocent souls And thus begins strong preparations for a third Civil War for Religion the sad effects whereof we shall peruse in the next chapter CHAP. V. The Contents THe Protestants gallant Resolutions Both parties arm Queen Elizabeth aids the Protestants The protestants take several towns the Armies face one another but ingage not the Battel at Brisac where the Prince of Conde is slain the Prince of Navar and Prince of Conde chosen Generalls of the protestant Army the Admirall and whole Army swears subjection to these two young Princes the Queen of Navar coins money to pay the protestant Army the Princes and Admiral draw their Army into Garrisons the Kings army sits down before Cognac but are valiantly repulsed they take Mucidan put all to the Sword but lost Count Brisac the Duke Deux Pont with 14. thousand marches to join with the Princes but dies himself by the way The Pope sends Forces to ayd the King Both armies engage the Kings Army retires to Garrisons the Princes take in Chastelrault and Lusignan Town and Castle they lay siege to the great City Poictiers the Kings forces besiege La Charite but leave it after the loss of many brave Gentlemen and Commanders the Duke of Anjou besieges Chastelrault but after great loss leaves it the young Duke of Guise advances to Court and his Fathers place at once the Cabinet Council meets the Armies ingage in a bloody Battel the Kings Army besieges Angeli but receives a gallant shock of a resolute defence by that brave Commander Monsieur de Pilles and at last yielded honourably the Kings Army disbands the protestants increase and are Masters of the field The King summons his forces together and gives the command to Marshall de Coss the King Queen Mother and Cabinet Council plot to linck a peace and the Protestants ruin together the protestants at all times willing to embrace a peace the end
of the third Civil War the K. and Queen Mother speed Messengers to the princes and Admiral to make way for a peace they yield to imbrace a treaty the King propounds for both armies to join against a foreign Enemy A firm peace concluded with free liberty of the Edict Several protestant Princes congratulate the King for his happy peace the King subscribes to keep the Edict the Armies dismissed the peace not fully observed the King with the Council plot destruction the King and Court feed the protestants with favours to make them the easier to swallow their own ruin and his love together the King dissembles with the Princes in shewing a dislike to the Catholick party the prince of Orange and his Brother offer the King of France their assistance against the King of Spain and is accepted the Count of Nassaw disguised goes to the King the King invites the Admiral to Court the Duke of Guise and Cardinal Lorrain depart the Court the better to allure the Princes and Admiral to their Ruin the Prince of Orange takes the Spaniards slips the King propounds his Sister the Lady Margaret in mariage with the Prince of Navar the Popes Embassadour arrives at the Court the Kings plot to surprize Rochel the King pronounces the Admiral not guilty many protestants at Roan murthered the Admirall perswaded of the Kings Reality by a Letter under his own Hand and Seal The protestants noble resolutions NOw begins the third bloody War wherein the Protestants solemnly covenanted together so to cleave fast one to another so to knit themselves firmly together in their affections and resolutions as no future transactions should with the help of God ever make them to forget or forsake the cause of God concerned in the Protestant Religion but resolutely to maintain it to the loss of their lives and all that was dear to them Both sides prepare for war Hereupon the King arms amain so also the Princes and Admiral who send out a fleet of thirty sail for Provision for the Army to supply them for the ensuing Winter The Queen of Navar also endeavours all she can for their aid and assistance Q. Eliz. aids the protestants Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory sent over to their aid one hundred thousand Crowns besides ships of Corn and Ammunition A thing to be treasured up in the remembrance of her lasting fame The protestants take in many Towns both armies meet but fight not The Prince and Admiral advance with their Army and soon levels the force of many strong Towns to their power in taking them in and so become Masters of the Field At length both Armies meet yet no battel in regard of the cold season neither Army would fight but on advantage which would be given by neither The Winter being now past in the year 1569. the Armies engage at Battel at Brisac the 16. of March The Battel at Brisac the prince of Conde slain to his eternal honour fighting on his knees to the last wherein the Prince of Conde was wounded and his horse shot under him yet did valiantly defend himself on his knees in the midst of his Enemies but at last was slain On the Kings side was slain the Duke of Monsalez whom de Andelot the Admirals Brother charged so furiously that with his bridle hand he lifted up the Bever of his Helmet and discharged his Pistol in his face and so laid him dead on the ground Great was the slaughter on both sides of Gentry especially wherein the Protestants were worsted by the Catholiques comming upon part of their Army in full bodies which unfortunately was scattered by their too great security and sudden approach of the Kings yet their demeanor in the fight was such that the Kings Army had reason to bewail their great loss and admire their Enemies valour and undoubtedly in outward appearance had the body been entire and both encountred on equal advantatages the day was generally believed would have been otherwise for the Horse only was engaged but the foot never came to any service but secured themselves in a body And thus died that brave Prince of Conde exceedingly commended for virtue and valour and asmuch bewailed for his loss Prince of Navar and prince of Conde Generalls for the protestants After this Battel the Protestants rallie their Forces and by a General choice of the Army Henry Prince of Navar and Henry Son to the deceased Prince of Conde were both elected Generals of the Protestant Army The Prince of Navar was of a noble and gallant Spirit full of Urbanity and Civil courtesie The Prince of Navar shews a gallant spirit in a piâ—hy speech of a Warlike courage and being naturally given to valourous and heroick actions he embraces this courteous invitation and like a Souldier of a long standing being but fifteen or sixteen years old he lengthned their hopeful expectations by a short pithy speech wherein He promised to protect the true Religion and to persevere constantly in defence of the common-cause till death or victory proved the Issue Now to ballance this Royal assent and Christian magnanimity of so tender a Sprout of virtue The Admiral and whole Army profess fidelity and obedience to the princes of the blood and the protestant cause the Admiral and Count de la Roch-fou-caut first submitted and swore fidelity then followed the principal Officers and Soldiers in joint Resolutions to order their steps after his Royal commands and the religious ends proposed in his Speech All of the Army protesting fidelity to the Princes of Bourbon And thus with a volley of applause was this Gallant young Prince elected General of the Army and Protector of the Protestants whose yeers were far younger than his wise conduct of affairs in whom it was hard to say whether his resolution valor and wisdom or youth was more perspicuous for he seemed as if nature which accomplishes others by degrees had finished him in a trice He was no sooner come to his Horizon but his deserts lifted him up to his Meridian The Queen of Navar mother to this virtuous Prince approved well of their choice and his acceptance so that she sharpned all their resolutions by her couragious assistance of the Protestants The Religious and Noble Q. of Navar coins money and inserts a christian and resolute Motto She was a religious Queen in whom resided much virtue and constancy to a good cause Wherefore she caused monies to be coined with her picture on one side and the Princes on the other with these words Pax Certa Victoria Integra Mors Honesta A Motto becoming her noble Spirit Thus they fall to consultation how to order the Army with the best prudence they resolve to divide and draw into Garrisons so also does the King The Princes Army draws into Garrisons So the Princes and Admiral retire to Saint Jean D' Angeli Brave Monsieur de Pilles defended Xaintes Montgomery and Puviant
take charge of Anglolesm Ienlis commands with a strong garrison in Londun and Monsieur d' Aciere with seven thousand foot and six thousand horse remains at Cognac where the late Battel was fought The K. besieges Cognac is forced to leave it Mucidan taken and all put to the Sword Hereupon the Kings Army under command of the Duke of Anjou attempted to sit down before Cognac but the continud valor in their often sallies amaz'd the enemy to a retreat The Army thus forced to leave Cognac layes siege to Mucidan where the Count of Brisac on the Kings side was slain yet the Town was taken and not only Souldiers but all Inhabitants suffered the rage of a bloody Sword and inveterate Enemy The Noble protestant Duke of Deux-Ponts with fourteen thousand joins with the Princes Army be dies in his March To the assistance of the Princes and Admiral advances the Duke of Deux-Ponts with an Army of fourteen thousand in which Army my was VVilliam of Nassaw Prince of Orange with Lewis and Henry his Brothers in their march it pleases God the Duke the General died by the way and so the Charge of the Army was committed to the Lieutenant General Count Volrade of Mansfield Three daies after the Armies meet with great joy on both sides The Pope mean while assists the Catholicks with four thousand foot and eight hundred horse The Pope and others aid the K. commanded by Paulo Sforza the Duke of Tuscany sent also to their assistance a thousand foot and two hundred horse The Duke of Alva sends three thousand VValloons and three hundred Flemish but Gods just judgments followed their insolent carriages for such Miseries wants and sicknesses followed them that by the way abundance died On the 23. day of June 2569. both Armies approach neer together The Armies engage and next morning by break of day the Princes fell on Strozzi's quarter who was Col General of the Infantry who were all routed and he taken Prisoner there was slain S. Loup and Rogucleauz Lieutenants to Strozzi twenty two Captains and 350 of their best Souldiers on the Protestants side was slain in all 150. The Noble Princes of Navar charges in the head of the Army The Prince of Navar commanded the other part of the Army and charged the Enemy to their quarter with a great deal of manly courage beyond expectation himself charging in the front of his Army Which was so much the more remarkable in regard danger at first seems most terrible so that they that beheld this valour had their senses lifted up with admination and the whole Army puffed up with expectation that the world would be filled with the renown of his actions The Kings Army draws into Garrisons And so after a little skirmishing they both withdrew Hereupon the Duke of Anjou seeing little hopes of overcoming the Invincible manhood and great power of the Protestants he dismisses the Nobility and settles most part of the Army in Garrisons till the first of October against which time all was ordered to be in readiness to appear The Protestants take in Chastelrault The Prince and Admiral advance with their Army and take in the Town of Castelrault and enter in the King of Navars name by whose authority as first Prince of the Blood all things were dispatched The Town and Castle of Lusignan taken They speedily advance to Lusignan and taking the Town laie siege to the Castle which though impregnable for strength yet could not withstand the battering assaults of their valour so was forced to yield on conditions marching with flying colours The Articles being as faithfully performed as promised which though according to Justice yet contrary to the Catholiques constant practice which was a great dishonor to their Army and whole nation The Strong City of Poictiers beseiged but left Speedily after they march and lay siege to the Strong City of Poictiers a City of the greatest Circuit of any in France except Paris being the Head of the adjoining Provinces and where all the wealth and treasure of the Catholiques in the Country was brought for security The Duke of Guise enters with a party to defend the City and after strong assaults and much loss on both sides the Admiral falls sick with continual care and pains to prosecute the siege to a conquest so they rise with their Army and leave the place The catholicks besiege La Charite but are forced away with great loss Now the Kings forces under the command of Monsieur de Sansat laie siege to La Charite and after a sharp assault and stout resistance with the loss of many gallant Gentlemen they were forced to leave it being kept by a resolute and valiant commander Monsciur de Guerchy Cornet to the Admirals own company of Gens d' Arms whom we shall afterwards find basely murthered The catholiques besiege Castelrault but leave it The Duke of Anjou not able to raise the siege of Poictiers did in the mean while lay siege to Chastelrault a place but lately taken by the Protestants but finding a stiff resistance by their valour were forced to tetire with the loss of Fabiano del Monte commander of the Tuscan Forces with two hundred fifty Souldiers and many Gentlemen The Admiral advancing to their relief the Duke was forced next day to march away and lodge his Army at Sello The Duke of Guise admitted to his Fathers place and Cabinet Council The Duke of Guise about this time goes to Court and for his faithfullnesse to the Catholick cause was admitted to his fathers place and to the Cabinet councill this Councill now meets again to consult of the affaires of the Kingdome at last concludes to draw their forces together and fight the Princes Army which although the Prince was on disadvantage yet they resolved unanimously the fight the Catholicks The Armies engage in a bloody and furious battel After sundry skirmishes and sharp encounters the Armies both meet the beginning of October when first the Prince of Navar with ample and Christian Speeches recommended to them all the cause of Religion and Liberty now they engage first with terrible thundering of Cannons and much slaughter but they presently close and fall on with wonderfull fury the horse and foot being strangely mixed together in the heat of the Battle nay such was the heat of their valour on both sides that the very common attendants of the Armies such as Sucklers Boyes Pioneers were deeply engaged for either party And herein the Admirall acted so much of his wonted valour that he shewed himself a valiant Soldier and couragious Conductor for with a furious assault and fixed resolution in the head of his cavalry he charges the Rein-grave and though the Admirall had received a shot in the cheek with a Pistoll yet discharged his Pistoll in the Rein-graves face and there layes him dead on the place and fought valiantly allthough the blood from his wound did
work labouring to bring this bloudy brat to the Birth To which purpose the King and Queen Mother calls to Council the Duke of Anjou the Cardinal of Lorrain the Duke of Guise and Alberti Conde Count de Retz and speedily resolve them of their secret intentions if by any means it could be effected they therefore desire their best aid and assistance together with their approbation which needed not be doubted for they were men ready enough at all times to act the Kings pleasure The King therefore begins sending out strict orders to all the Provinces of his Kingdome Now the King begins to dissemble strictly commanding an observation of the Edict which he intends not should be observed The King outwardly carried it harshly to the Catholicks to more to work the Protestants to their lure to have a high esteem and regard to the late Edict in behalf of his good Subjects the Protestants and that it was his Majesties express command to have it strictly observed and to make their Hearts understand what they heard by the ear the King gives Order to have this message proclaimed at Rochel the Seat of the Princes and Admiral assuring them in particular of the Kings favourable intentions to what he had confirmed with his Royall Hand which should be kept inviolable from all attempts of the strongest perswasion And yet to penetrate more deep to make one act of dissimulation out-vy another to let the world see he was a good proficient in the Art of Treachery and Bloodshed he carries himself outwardly very harsh to the Catholicks telling the Commissioners that the Power of the Duke of Guise and Cardinal of Lorrain was not to be feared for that the Government now rested in himself and had no dependency on any of their commands and therefore though they live at Court yet needed not the Princes of the Blood or Admiral fear them as Adversaries for they lived as Subjects not as Masters and that ere long he hoped all acts of forformer hostility and enmity should be by his means buried in eternal forgetfulness and that both parties should be reconciled to the Kings desire and their own good All which did not only peirce the hearts of the common people but wonderfully wrought upon the hearts of the Princes and Admiral with the chief of the Protestants who now begun to believe the Kings intentions real and that being now weary of the bloudy Civil Wars and Distractions and beginning now to govern by himself and not by his Council might at last sincerely desire a firm peace But alas they are too short sighted to espy and too sincere to doubt that such unparalleled deceit should lodge in the hearts of devils much less in a King a Christian King not so much as in his thoughts much less in his intentions and practice but it is the less wonder seeing it is so that not only in publick actions of great men but also in our common intercourse with things of smaller moment we all experience that the greatest hatred and malice is covered with the greatest love and friendship and that there is no greater knavery then that which borrows a cloak of Religion to cover it with some men again make use of friendship as a stepping stone to their own ends as the For being environed with a high Wall and hotly persued by his Enemies was put to great straits for his liberty for he could not leap over the Wall at last espying one by the Wall side stooping for a stone to throw at him he suddenly leaps on the mans back and by that step of advantage leaps over Little did the poor Princes and Admiral with the Queen of Navar and Nobles and Gentlemen of the Religion think their Noble blood to be so neer spilling by such base and unheard-of cruelties covered under so much love who would not pitty to read that so much valor as was in these brave Commanders should be murthered and laid in the bloody grave of a Treacherous death which shortly we shall sadly peruse The first thing the Admiral embraced by these perswasions was the War against the King of Spain which made the way easier to the rest that followed and yet he often said to his Son-in-Law Teligny that he suspected the rowling wit of the Queen Mother whom he was afraid would lead them on in this enterprize and leave them in the midst The Prince of Orange and Count Lodowick his Brother profer their service to the King in the war of the Low Countrys The Count of Nassaw advising with his Brother the Prince of Orange sends word to the King That if it were his Majesties pleasure to War against the King of Spain in the Low Countries they would so order themselves under his commands as that by their service therein his Majesty should find them faithful and useful and perceive their affections to him and the cause in hand to this the King replies in loving Letters commending their resolutions and gave them hearty thanks for their loving Message which tended highly to a free manifestation of their affections to his Service The Emperour mediates between the Prince of Orange and the K. of Spain The King of France encourages the Prince of Orange against the perswasions of the Emperour Now Maximillian the Emperour pretending to pitty the Estate of the Prince of Orange had obtained by Embassadours to the King of Spain that the Prince should have his goods restored conditionally that he should not settle his habitation in the Low Countryes but in some other place and yet nevertheless should enjoy freely all his Revenues As soon as the French King hears hereof and doubting it might be a hindrance to his present design he speedily posts Messengers to the Prince of Orange to perswade him that what the Emperour had done was nothing but to hinder their progress in so good and advantagious a cause and being only a devise to break up his leavies that he had begun in Germany letting him further understand that if he will please to give him credit he should not want assistance sufficient to regain his Estate from the King of Spain These perswasions of the King being not suspected to come from dissimulation and hypocrifie by the Prince of Orange so did he firmly believe all to be real insomuch as he proceeded in his Musters resolving a while to bear the charges thereof whilst all things else fitting for the war were in readiness though the charge at that time was very heavy Count Lodowick disgrised goes to Court and treats with the King and agrees about the War Now Count Lodowick his Brother being of a resolute disposition essayed his own fortunes and by encouragement from the King he secretly journies from Rochel taking with him onely two companions giving out he was going for the Prince of Orange his Brother but in a disguised habit he privately departs and that night arrives at the Court which then was kept at
Bloys where the King and Queen Mother shewed great demonstrations of a joyful welcome and at this time the King in person himself did treat with the Count without the assistance of any of his Council which the rather was done that the Count might see and report that now he acted by the Counsel of his own command that so the Admiral and Princes might see and understand his promises could not be hindred or frustrated by the counsels of their adversaries about him at Court that so also they might receive the better encouragement to come to Court seeing their Enemies was not of his Council At this meeteng of Count Lodowick and the King it was agreed that the War should go forward against the King of Spain The Admirall desired by the K. to come to Court and be Captain General in the War with all possible speed and that the Count should go before to prepare that the Admiral shall go Captain General desiring further of the Count that he would signifie as much to the Admiral and to desire him in his Majesties name to come to Court the better to treat and confer fully thereof whose advise should have as great power with the King as could be expected that he should have allowed for his Guard fifty persons in Arms at Paris The K. very earnest to have the admiral at Court under spetious pretences of favour for safety of his person or should have any other security that might put him out of hazard of his Enemies Attempts and might also bring him into a good opinion of the Kings real intentions Oh! deep dissimulation This being don betwixt the Count of Nassaw and the King the Count returneth to Rochel who poor Prince not seeing this depth of Treacherous deceit used all Rhetorical Art of perswasions to the Princes and Admiral to journey to the Court and indeed he was the only Spur to them and much perswaded them of the Kings real intentions and how joyful the King would be of their Company and Counsel in his affairs The King now returns to Paris and takes his pleasure that the World might see he minded only recreation but God knows plotted his poor subjects ruin who with the Cabinet Council sits close for effecting their bloody desires in the plot laid for their destruction The Dukâ— of Guise Cardinall of Lorrain feign a discontent depart the Court on purpose to allure the Princes Admirall to Court by their absence from it To which purpose the Duke of Guise and Cardinal Lorrain give out the better to draw and allure the Protestants to Court in their absence their high displeasure against the late proceedings of the King in behalf of the Protestants by his favours conferred on them therfore in great disdain and greater Policy the Cardinal of Lorrain departs the French Court and carries with him Cardinal Pelvey Duke of Pontmenseir and the Prince Dauphine pretending to go to the Election of a New Pope but indeed was only to draw the Princes and Admiral to Court by being encouraged with their adversaries absence that they may come to Court with more confidence and less fear but we shall shortly see that though they divide in opinion yet they unite in Counsel and bloody crueltys The Prince of Orange his Fleet takes the Spaniards Ships and sells them as Prizes in Rochel by the Kings permission And that this Treachery might still be more compleatly freed from all suspition and all things seem to be carried on by the Kings mind his Majesty gives leave to the Prince of Orange his fleet to hover about Rochel and by opportunity to set on the Spaniards Ships and Portugalls which might happen to sail along that Coast taking such as they cold which they did and brought them into the Haven of Rochel where they openly sold their prizes which the K of Spain by his Embassadour often complained of But to set the world a fair copy of a Kingly treachery to his poor Subjects to lay the Top-stone of Dissimulation in the fairest pretences of affection and desire of peace the King ushers in one of the handsomest pieces of Hypocrisie that ever carryed the face of Reality for although the thing he pretended was really effected yet the grounds and ends by him proposed which was the only thing pretended by him was clean contrary to his promise and what he did in it was basely to defile his own actions with his ruin And indeed it put all out of doubt of the Kings integrity The King propounds his Sister the Lady Margarite in mariage with the Prince of Navar. The business was this The King sends Mounseir de Byron with propositions to the Queen of Navar that the Lady Margarite the Kings own Sister should be given in mariage to her Son the Prince of Navar that the anticut consanguinity and present peace might be more confirmed and established to the liking of all parties And indeed this did put on a great confidence in all especially the Princes the Queen of Navar and Admiral that the King was now real in what he professed and propounded But Oh the bloody effects it produced shall at last too sadly be related An Embassadour from Rome arrives in the French Court. In the midst of these transactions secretly carried on arrives in the depth of a most sharp winter in the King of France his Court the Cardinal Alexandrio who came from Rome by the advice of Cardinal de Pelve that went from the French Court with Cardinal Lorrain This Pelve was sometimes a Scholar in the College of Montaigue and during his study there was a Servant to the Cardinal of Lorrain and afterwards was grown to be a Scullion but now being advanced to the place of Cardinall was so fitted for any Treason or act of cruelty that nothing though never so horrid would stick in his throat but he was able to swallow down that which was able to damn a World for the sinfulness thereof Now the Instructions that Cardinal Alexandrio brought along with him from the Pope was to perswade the King to enter into the Society of the Council of Trent the first and principal Article whereof was That the Confederation should join their power to make war upon the Turks and Hereticks meaning all Princes that suffered the use of the Protestant Religion The Cardinal was honourably received and welcomed to Court he urged how much it was against the profession of a Christian King to make peace with Hereticks and to war against the King of Spain how it did weaken his Friends and strengthen his Enemies treating in Leagues with Forein Princes that were excommunicated by the Apostolick Sea which negotiation was so mannaged as the result was not published but it was publiquely rumored amongst the Common people that he had not the effects of his desire yet the Cardinal returned cheerfully to the Pope and it was reported that he did say he had such answer
their Ruin The Duke of Anjou the Kings Brother commanded Cossin Captain of the Kings Guard to place a band of Souldiers to watch before the Admirals Gate giving strict charge that no Catholicks should enter Now none could be pitched on as the grand Enemy to the Admiral and Protestants and friend to the Guisans than was this Cossin as we shall see by the following narrative The Admirals friends that lay scattered up and down the City were desired under pretence of care and affection to remove their lodging into the same street with the Admiral that they might be sure not to escape Oh! Monstrous and Hellish Plot covered with the Kings care Now the Duke of Anjou as an inheriter of his Brothers Dissimulation strives also to colour his damnable Plot and Treason in the lovingest and highest demonstrations and and care of the Admiral and Protestants and therefore advises that the Admirals friends that now lodged so far distant from his person as the Fauxburgh might have liberty to have their lodgings neerer to him for saies he they being so far assunder they might on any uproar be hurt and no means to prevent it which being neerer one another they might join force to affection and better afford one another their joint aid And so presently commanded the lodgings in that street to be provided Now this was a bait that took off all suspition for alas who could suspect or imagine this to be out of any treacherous intent but rather of care and respect but Oh sad and hellish plot under the vizard of friendship these poor Noblemen Gentlemen and brave Commanders that might have escaped from the calamity are intangled and allured into a narrow street as into a fold or narrow path of destruction no way to escape the fury of their Enemies rage and cruelty All the names of the Protestants and place of abode is taken into a Catalogue against the day of their calamity The next day the Duke of Anjou and Duke of Guise commanded the Undermasters of the streets vulgarly termed Quartermen to take a view of all the Inns and victual-houses from one house to another and to take all the names of the Protestants and so to bring in an Account of their names and places of abode in writing and to deliver them to the Duke of Anjou and Duke of Guise so that presently after the Protestants begun to discover some bloody intentions through the prospect of these preparations Now the King had by this time set a Guard of fifty Harquebuzeirs at the Gate of the Admirals Lodging and great store of Arms were carried into the Loure and about the evening all the people of the City were in arms The Protestants meet advice given to remove from Paris but they still resolve to depend on the K. vows promises Hereupon the chief Noblemen and Gentlemen of the Protestants assemble together again in the Admirals lodging where amongst the rest was the Vidame of Charteres who as before so now advised speedily to try if by any means the Admiral might be forthwith carried out of Paris and that presently the rest should dislodge yet all refused this Counsel resolving to rely on the word of a King sealed with so many Vowes Covenants and Solemn protestations in the presence of God and to the clear witness of all Princes and States The K. and Q. meet and consult of their bloody cutting off the Protestants in a merciless cruelty and devillish massacre In the afternoon the King and Queen Mother walk forth into a Garden named Tegliers accompanied with the Duke of Anjou Gonzague Tavignes and Count de Retz which garden being remote from Resort was thought the fittest place for secrecie and a silent place for privacy and very well fitted for the present conclusion of their last and bloody consultation Here in this bloody Council it was considered of and spoken That the Princes Admiral with the Noblemen and Gentlemen of the Religion were now securely entangled in the Fetters of their own confidence which was so well wedged into their minds as prisons could prove no better instruments to ripen their desires the Admiral he was lying bedsick and could not stir by reason of his wounds the Prince of Conde was fast in the Castle of Loure the City Gates kept shut all night and watched all day those Gentlemen that lodged in the Suburbs were now lodged in the same street with the Admiral and all within the Gates of Paris the rest of the principal Protestants in other Towns were all unarmed and unprepared besides there was not ten Protestants to a thousand Catholicks that the Parisians were in arms and able to make sixty thousand fighting men and that in one hour all might be slain and if these were destroyed they would never make head again in the Kingdom but on the contrary if the Admiral recover such an opportunity would never offer therefore saies the Queen Mother this season must not be lost but taking time by the Foretop all our desires will now come to a period in a success proportionable to all our wishes if we let slip time it withers like a neglected rose on a stalk with a languished head if we shake hands with this golden opportunity our designs will grow under the Sunshine of our desires Thus they lie perdue under the shelter of an unmercifull and bloody Balcony all being resolved to be so swift in execution of the Kings pleasure that no time shall be delayed between his commands and the execution but the moment of performance for now they resolve to take journey from contemplation to action they have learned the Theory of Treachery perjury and cruelty now they come to the practical part of this sad Tragedy But this being a gross and downright murtherous way and no handsome Apology provided to cast over the eyes of peoples understandings it was thought fit to frame some smooth pretext They study a smooth pretext for their bloody cruelty to cosen the vulgar conceptions and honest interpretations But oh who can hide the greatest secrets from Gods searching eye to take off the force and dint of vulgar reports and so to divert the natural current of this tragedy into the illegitimate name of convenient necessity whereupon they order that the common vogue of the peoples tongues should be tipt with this specious pretence that the Duke of Guise and Admirals enmity was the cause of this Massacre They resolve to spare the K. of Navar and Prince of Conde if they will turn Papists Now in this bloody Assembly it was moved whether the King of Navar and Prince of Conde should be destroyed in this Massacre or whether saved the King of Navar in regard of his affinity was concluded to be saved but for the Prince of Conde it was doubtfully carred they considered first whether for his age it were best to spare him or secondly whether to put him to death in revenge of
his Fathers protection of the Protestant cause as also in a hatred of his Fathers name the Duke of Guise urged with a pressing forwardness to have both the Prince of Navar and the Prince of Conde to dy amongst the rest but all thought that too abominable if any thing could be so indeed to such bloodthirsty wretches that two young Princes in the flower of their age of the Royal Family the one in the imbraces of his dear Spowse under the protection of such neer friends and late conjunction by mariage that they should be so miserably destroyed so that the opinion of Gonzague was prevalent who pleaded that with fear of death and torment they should be violently turned to the Catholick Religion The plot is committed to the Duke of Guise to put in execution next day And so this Hellish vaux-like Council broke up with firm and fixed Resolutions to act their several parts and so it was appointed that next morning about three or four a cloak it should be put in execution and that all things should be committed to the mannagement and care of the Duke of Guise On Saturday morning it is bruited and noised throughout all the City of Paris A report is spread that the Duke of Guise was in danger of the Admiral and friends that the House of Gâ—ise was in danger of the Admiral and rest of the Protestants by their great threatenings The Dukes of Guise and Aumale speed to the King and complain of their danger and insolent threatnings of the Admiral and Adherents against their lives protesting sorrow to his Majestie that their services were not accepted but their persons slighted and so desired leave of his Majesty to absent from Court and retire to their houses The Kings horrible dissembling for they were ready to depart the King with a frowning countenance saies Go where you please I will have you at all times if you be found guilty of the Admirals Hurt So with a shew of discontent they mount their Horses and bloody resolutions at once but instead of going home they ly in Paris all night Bloody treachery The King sends the Duke of Guise to provide 2000 men in arms on Sabbath day at night All things being resolved on the 24. day of August being Sabbath day at twilight the Duke of Guise with orders from the King comes to President Charron Provost des Marchands the chief head of the People of Paris giving him to understand that by the Kings command he was fotthwith to provide and order in readiness two thousand armed men which accordingly was done The Admiral having word brought thim that there was great noise of armour The Admirall at the noise of armour fears danger and sends to the King Oh! bloody and cruel command of a King They refuse to let any Protestant Gentlemen to watch with the Admiral The Officers assemble and are commanded by the King to destroy the Protestants whom he calls Rebells and great threatnings heard in all parts of the City and preparations of all things in order for a tumult that night presently he sends word to the King who gave answer that the Admiral needed not fear for all was done by his command and that he had appointed in certain places of the Citie a number of men in arms for fear of any tumult This evening some Protestant Gentlemen profer to watch with the Admiral but poor Gentlemen they were refused A sad presage of Treachery my heart relents and bleeds to write the rest When the Duke of Guise saw all things ready he called to him one Marcel charging him a little after midnight to assemble together the Masters of the Streets commonly called Diziners into the Town House for he was to declare from his Majesty and by his command several things they assemble according to the appointed time Charron the Provost des Marchands guarded with Entrague Puygailart and certain other Guisans did there declare that the King had given him in command to destroy all the Rebells meaning the Protestants to cut off root and branch of that Rebellious race letting them understand that the business was so mannaged to their hands that now with great facility his Majesties desire might be accomplished for the Admiral and all the chief were securely under their power being lodged within the walls of the City that it was first intended they should begin with the Admiral and the principal Protestants lodged in that street and then with speedy alacrity to follow on and to cut off the rest in the City and Suburbs and that the like should be done to the Protestants in all parts of the Kingdom which was in the Kings power for his Majestie would take order that it should be speedily effected The token given to be ringing the great Bell and the murtherers to be distinguished with a Napkin on their arms and a cross on their caps and to begin at the Admirals lodging first Orders given to be couragious in shedding blood Divers Lords guard the King The bloody Murthers assaults the Admiralls lodging Now for better order in this bloody undertaking the token given should be with ringing the great Bell of the Palace called Tocksein at break of day which said bell was only rung on great and emergent occasions and that the distinguishing marks should be a white cross on their caps that candles should be lighted at every window that without confusion or disorder they might proceed from house to house to the exact execution of the Kings command Now the Duke of Guise the better to prepare all things acquaints the Captain of the Kings Guard consisting of Gascoins French and Switzers that they would be in readiness to go on with a bold courage exhorting them to be speedy in bloody executions So at midnight the Provost Sheriffs and Captains of each ward in the City had the same commission given them The Duke of Montpenseir and Duke of Nevers with many other Lords of the Court take arms and being accompanied with their Friends guard the Kings person all the Guards being in Arms at the Gates of the Lour At the Prefixt hour the Duke of Guise the Duke of Aumale and Monsieur de Angoulesm Grand Prior of France the Kings bastard Brother with other Commanders to the number of three hundred went to the Admirals house where they found by the Duke of Anjou's order Cossins company with lighted maches placed for a Guard before it and on both sides the Streets Some of the Gentlemen and Commanders of the Protestants that was lodged in this Street awaken with the noise of men running up and down in arms and lighted Torches they presently got up to enquire what was the matter but alas poor Gentlemen it was now too late they were all dead men no way to escape The Admiral is still perswaded of the K. fidelity repeated his Oaths Promises Leagues Publick Faith sacred respect to the Law of Nations and
of Vines herbs red Snails and Blackberries they endured all miseries till famine had imprinted old age on the Visages of Children so that the youths appeared like the Ghosts of the deceased Eighty persons died by the Sword but the famine destroyed five hundred Some Souldiers and Townsmen choosing to cast themselves upon the Enemy than dy by famine adventured out whereof some were killed some imprisoned and others executed The King having sworn that he would make them devour one another was disappointed by a special hand of Providence and a thing no waies expected by the besieged Protestants who indeed looked for a general Massacre according to the K. threats who was resolved to bring their houses of a threatning height as low as their foundation and their aspiring resolute minds lower than them resolving to raze the City into a solitude and to bury his Resolution in their Ruin but it pleased God that the Duke of Anjou this Kings Brother being chosen K of Poland Ambassadours were comming for him and by the way hearing of this siege they earnestly solicite the Bishop of Valence to perform his promise for the Bishop had sworn in the name of the King his Master that all Towns molested for Religion should be free So the poor Town was saved from the fury of a bloody and cruel Enemy and yielded on condition to depart with their arms bag and baggage those that stayed to be free from any further question for what was past with a promise to preserve the Honour of women and maids The King with an Army of fifty thousand men and sixty pieces of Artillery besieges Rochel both by Sea and Land The Town was fortified strongly nothing wanting to annoy the Enemy and encourage valor among themselves In one Months time was shot no less than thirteen thousand cannon and many assauls But alas the Catholicks were too weak to encounter with the Protestants strength and Courage Till at length having endured some Moneths the King Queen Mother Duke of Arjou all the Nobles with the Cavalry and all the Infantry both Swiss and French arrive to this famous siege the beginning of February 1572. of the French Nobility there was the Duke of Alancon third Brother to the King the Duke of Montpenseir the Duke of Aumale the Duke of Guise and Mayen his Brother The Duke of Nevers Bouillon D' Uqes and the Duke of Longueville the Prince Dauphine the Count of Manlevrier Marshal de Cosse the Bastard De Angoulesm the Count de Retz Monsieur de Moluc and all the Catholick Commanders in the Civil Wars and Massacre In Rochel there was a great number of Horsemen and Gentlemen eight Companies of Inhabitants nine companies of Strangers one Company of the Mayers one Company of Volentiers consisting of twenty Musquetiers twenty five armed with Costlets of Proof and thirty Harquebuzeirs Two thirds whereof were Gentlemen and such as had command in the late wars The siege continued with great valour on both sides and great loss to the Kings Army which in the assaults made and often sallies lost the Duke of Aumale and Cossin Field-Marshal who was the first that entered the Admirals lodging an infinite number of Gentlemen and Officers with twenty thousand Souldiers and the Duke of Anjou wounded in the Neck side and left hand by a Harquebuzeir but six thousand fresh Switzers coming to the siege did much straiten the Rochellers that at last having no hope of Relief they grew in great want of Victuals yet in their straits the hand of good was wonderfully seen for in the midst of their wants when all other provision failed there came before the Haven an infinite number of small fishes which proved a great Supply in their needs Which wonderful sign of Gods goodness amazed them the more because it was never before nor since that ever the like was seen During this sharp siege the same occasion happened now as did at Sancerre for the Ambassadours of Poland being come for the Duke of Anjou proved a relief for the Rochelois when they expected none So Articles were agreed on both sides That there should be a free exercise of Religion in Rochel Montauban and Nismes and to other Towns to be in their houses without search That Baptism and Matrimony should be freely administred not above ten persons meeting together and that those that had a mind to sell their estates might do it and live where they pleased Thus ended the two famous sieges of Rochel and Sancerre Let us now observe a little the Transactions of both parties during these Sieges Whilst these sieges continued the other Provinces which the Protestants had in their power they fortifie The Baron of Serignac a discreet and virtuous Protestant and no less valourous did with some others fortifie Montauban and afterwards they advance into the Field with their Troops and garrison Terride assault Buzet upon Tar and many other Places and strongly fortifies the Towns that they had kept during the Civil Wars so at an Assembly held at Realmont in Albigeois they consent to separate to their several charges apart A part of Quercy towards Cadenac was the lot of the Vicount of Gourdon the Count of Serignac governed towards Montauban and Gasconie The Viscount of Paulin had the command of Lauragais And the County of Foix and the Mountain Country was under the command of Vicount Cauâ—â—ont These Commanders resolve to defend their several charges to secure themselves as well as God would enable them retiring all to their several Commands The Earl of Villars Admiral and Lieutenant to the King gathers forces against the Protestants takes in St. Geniz and contrary to Articles carries the Lord of the Place away Prisoner The Protestants to ballance this loss takes in Foreze Montesquian and other places Against the Protestants does the Marshall de Anville appear in arms claps siege to Sommiens the Earl of Candale brother to the Marshall arrives to his Assistance and strengthens the Siege who now with a resolute charge assault the Town but meeting with a sharp encounter were forced to as nimble a retreat and that not without the loss of 300. of their most resolute Souldiers After a months time and five thousand Cannon shot spent the Marshal by his Brothers perswasions to revenge the loss of his Captains and Souldiers set on a fresh assault and having before his eyes lost many of his men fell on himself but was as gallantly repulsed as assaulted The Town now being straitned and their wals beaten down yielded on honourable terms after which the Marshall seeing and considering the Protestants resolutions there and elsewhere concludes it best for him to disband which being done he made seizure and sale of the estates of those Protestants which lay within the power of his merciless cruelty The King besieges Caussade and meeting with resolution amongst the Protestants who did so wast his Army that the Kings Admiral drew off and persued by the Vicount of Gourdon in their
in large volumes now it is reduced and fitted to the time and purses of those that had no occasion and less abilities to accomplish the perusal or purchasing of large Folio's which I think was the grand reason of stifling the knowledge hereof to many of this age Reader thou art here presented with the most horrid Rapes Murthers Perjury and Treacherous Cruelty of a Prince and Court that ever landed on European shore for in few daies all the Protestant Nobility and Gentry with Ladies and innocent Gentlewomen and children to the number of fourty thousand were inhumanely butchered and cut off by the Kings special Commandment Here thou mayest see a Prince besmearing himself with the Goar blood of his own Subjects and at last wallowing in his own we shall here see Religious Vows and Promises no stronger ties to the King and Court than a Rope of sand to a wild beast being gone so far in perjury that the Kings faith was accounted like the Greeks whose unfaithfulness to their promises is become Proverbial that when one would express perjury they termed it Greca fides for though a Creditor had ten bonds and as many Sureties and Seals yet will he find it extreme hard to accomplish his debt so when a Jew is to deal with a Genoa he puts his finger in his eye fearing his Treachery They resolve to have no other virtue rampant than perjury and cruelty Abandoning that part of Religion which ties to a strict observance of Duty Omnia Religiosa nunc ridentur they will wade no further in Religion than may serve their cruel ends insomuch that in one Town which the Protestants kept they engraved on the gate this Motto Roy sans foy ville sans peur the King had no faith nor they no fear And as the Roman Emperor Caligula said of Seneca's Works they were Arena sine calce sand without lime having no connexion so was the King of France his Solemn Oaths and Promises It is a Christian accomplishment in Princes to govern non per timorem sed per amorem as it is said of Octavus Augustus And when any judgment befalls this Nation let them remember that as they made it an Acheldema or Field of Blood so will God the place of his Plagues for who knowes not that the Blood of so many thousand souls crys to heaven for vengeance upon the third and fourth Generation and I could wish that all Protestant Princes would beware how they shake hands with such faithless People Now the right use of these sad and sudden murthers should be to learn us the necessity of being ready prepared for such violent deaths and that prosperity is as diet to us Adversity as Physick reducing to a right tast of these mortal enjoyments How happy will the Torments of cruelty be when our cyes are fixed by faith on an Eternal inheritance linking our selves in that golden Chain of Salvation which extends from Eternity to Eternity Death comes not unexpected when a soul is interessed in Christ our Saviour how necessary is it for us to live ready to dy He that too closely hugs transitories makes a rent in his constancy and a greater in his soul How can a Christians Judgement but be at nonage when he values not the true worth of Celestials but puts them in the ballance with Terrene things He indeed hath found the Philosophers stone that can turn all events into a Subjection to Gods Will. It was the gratious words of Holy Greenham having food and rayment let us take the rest as an overplus these poor Souls had no other warning peice to dy than sudden and violent deaths that like the flying fish reported to be in great hazzard by the Shark and Dolphin in the Sea yet when advanced into the air to escape he is by Birds of prey in no less danger so were these poor Saints of God in War hazardous in Peace undone What shall we say of that Religion which perjury cruelty blood and the greatest cruelties are reckoned as virtuous Jewels in the Crown of their Government they are sweet when seasonable and parallel to their murtherous Hearts and it must needs presage ruin to that Nation that stands on no other Pillars for their foundation than bloody and infamous Plots and Treachery who will not conclude that Nation lies level to justice and I wish the large field of Liberty allowed the Papists in England to walk in may not insensably grow our inavoidable and swift ruin since it is well known by all how they wait for our destruction But to contract let me intrea◠〈…〉 my sincere and publick intentions which is all I adopt to be mine and that ex abundanti amoris out of the surplusage of Love thou wilt waft my Endeavours to the Haven of thy kind embraces where I cast Anchor and rest Reader these Books following are printed for and are to be sold by Richard Tomlins at the Sun and Bible neer Py-Corner THe General Practice of Physick Folio Drummonds Hist of 5. Kings of Scotl. fol. The Fortune Book in fol. English Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixot Fol. Mr Collings Cordials 1st 2d 3d. part quarto His Vindiciae Ministerii quarto His answer to Mr Sheppard quarto His answer to Fisher and Hammond quarto His answer to Boatman Prin Humfries qua Dr Holdsworths one and twenty Sermons quar Euclides Elements in quarto Eng. History of seven Champions quarro Packet of Letters quarto Cupids Messengers quarto The birth of Mankind or Womens book quar The perfect Pharisee under Monkish holines qu. The false Jew quarto Mr Collings 5 lessons for a Christian to learn 8. His Faith and Experience octavo Mr Wincolls Poems octava Excellency of Christ octavo Erasmus Colloquies octavo Wings and Libourns Urania Practica octavo Velitationes Polemicae octavo Janua Linguarum octavo Brinsley's Cordelius octavo Mr Sidenham's Mystery of Godliness octavo Mr Sidenham's hypocrisie discoved octavo Paul Hobson's last book of Queries octavo Watson's untaught Bridegroom twelves Place this fol i Men quartered Aliue Roasted on a spit Rauishing woomen Burning men Aliue Beating mens Braines out Ripping vp woomen w th Child Cutting Throats 300 protestants Murthered in a Church Stabbing with daggers Men Cutt in peeces The Civil Wars of France CHAP. I. The Contents THe Reign of Charls the ninth A Parliament called the Government committed to the Queen Mother during the Kings minority the names of Hugonet and Papist forbid on pain of death Prince of Conde and King of Navar in discontent departs the Court the King of Nevar made Lieutenant General and joyntly interessed in the Government with the Queen Mother the Princes desire a Toleration of Religion for the Protestants which is privately granted the Protestants multiply and the Princes protect them demanding the Queens promise for Toleration the Protestants that were in Prison for Religion freed by a Decree of the Council the Duke of Guise surrenders the Keys of the Palaces