Knights and thirtie thousand other people of warre the other victorie was at the journey of Poitiers which also the said K. Edward gained by the conduction of the Prince of Wales his sonne and lieutenant Generall against Iohn King of Fraunce who was there taken prisoner with a son of his called Philip after Duke of Bourgogne and many other Princes and great Lords all which were conducted into England there was made there a great discomfiture of people By these two battailes lost in Fraunce the one after the other in a small time the kingdome was so debilitated of his forces and goods as it could not stand yet for a further heape of mischeefes at Paris and in many other places of the realme at the same time arose there many broiles and civile dissentions But that good King Charles le Sage was so wise and prudent in the conduction and government of the affaires of the realme as well in the time that he was Dolphin and Regent of France his Father being prisoner as after when he was king that by little and little hee laid to sleepe all civile stirres and discords after hee did so much that he recovered upon the Englishmen almost all which they occupied and although he was not so brave a warriour as his father king Iohn nor as his grandfather King Philip yet was he wiser and better advised in his deliberations not hazarding his affaires as they did fearing to be reputed cowards nor did any thing rashly without due consideration Hee tooke not arms in hand but he knew well how and when to employ them to his good Insomuch that K. Edward of England seeing the wisdome of that king made his Armes rebound and become dull and his victories and conquests to be lost and annihilated Truly said he I neuer knew king that lesse useth Armes yet troubleth me so much he is all the day enditing letters and hurteth me more with his missives than ever did his Father or Grandfather with their great forces and Armes Behold the witnesse which king Edward gave of the wisdome of his enemie king Charles which was yet of so great efficacie that he brought his kingdome into a good peace by the meanes wherof his people became rich and wealthie where before they were as poore and miserable And not only the people became rich but the king also himselfe heaped up great treasures which hee left to his sonne after him insomuch that he was not onely surnamed the Wife but the Rich also I could to this purpose adde here many other examples but in a thing so cleare the example of these two kings Salomon and Charles shall suffice which two for their great wisdome have acquired the name of Wife they both were rich in great treasures both of them maintained their subjects in peace both left their kingdomes opulent and abundant and placed the estates of their Commonwealths in great felicitie It is a thing then plaine confessed That it is an exceeding great good to a people Prudence is more requisit in a Princes Counsell than in himselfe when they have a Prince that is wise of himselfe but thereupon to inferre and say as Machiavell doth That the government of Prince ought to depend vpon his owne proper wisdome and that he cannot be well counselled but by himselfe is evill concluded and such a conclusion is false and of pernitious consequence For a Prince how prudent soever he be ought not so much to esteeme of his owne wisedome as to despise the counsell of other wise men Salomon despised them not and Charles the wise alwaies conferred of his affaires with the wise men of his Counsell And so farre is it off that the Prince ought to despise anothers Counsell that even he ought to conform his opinion to that of the men of his Counsell which are wise and ought not stubbornely to resist their advise but to follow it and hold his owne for suspected And therefore that wise and cunning Emperour Marcus Antonius the Philosopher being in his privie Counsell house where was that great Lawyer Scaevola Maetianus Volusianus many other great persons excellent in knowledge and honestie after having well debated with them the matters they handled when sometimes he tooke in hand to sustaine opinions contrarie to theirs Well said he masters The thing then must be done according to your advise For it is much more reasonable that I alone follow the opinion of so good a number of my good and faithfull friends as you are than that so many wise men should follow the opinion of me alone Vnto this opinion of the Emperor Antonius agreeth also the common Proverbe That many eyes see clearer than one eye alone Experience also teacheth vs That things determined and resolved by many braines are alwayes wiser safer better ordered than the resolutions of one alone And we see also that the ancient Dionis Halic lib. 2. Romanes and all Commonweales well governed as well in times past as at this day have alwayes followed and observed that which by pluralitie of wise mens voices was concluded determined And truly so much the wiser a Prince is so much the more will he suspect his owne opinion For the same wisedome which is in him wil persuade him not to beleeve himselfe too much and to have his own judgement for suspected in his owne case as all publicke affaires may be said to be proper to the Prince and to permit him to be governed by his Counsell And contrarie because there are no people more presumptuous nor that thinke to know more than they which know little nor that thinkes to be more wise than they that have no wisdome if you learne a Prince that thinketh himselfe wise this principle of Machiavell That he ought to governe himselfe by his owne wisdome and Counsell and that he cannot be better counselled than by himselfe you shall streight find inconveniences For then shal you see that he will beleeve neither counsell nor advise but that comes out of his owne head and he will say to them that will give him any That he vnderstands well his owne matters and that he knoweth what he hath to doe and so will bring his estate and affaires into confusion and overthrow all upside downe And from whence comes this evill government and disorder Even from that goodly doctrine of Machiavell which willeth That a Prince should govern himselfe by his own wisedome and that maintaineth That a prince cannot be well counselled but by his owne wisedome The consequence then of this Maxime is not small seeing the publicke state of a countrey may stagger and be overthrowne thereby Better then it is that contrarie the Prince hold this resolution To govern himselfe by good counsell and beleeve it and have in suspition his owne wisedome For if the Prince bee wise and his opinion found to be founded upon Reason they of his Counsell will easily fall to his advise seeing also that
would please you to have pitie and compassion upon them They are your naturall subjects and they and their ancestors have ever been under the obedience of your majestie and your auncestors Alas Sir what greater evill hap can there come unto us than to be now cut off and alienated from the kingdome and from the Crowne of France They are borne and have been nourished in the French nation They are of manners condition and language naturall Frenchmen What a strange and deplorable miserie should it now be to them to bend themselves under the yoke and obedience of the English a strange nation altogether different from us in manners conditions and language shall not this be unto them a cruell and slavish servitude now to become subjects unto them which of long time have not ceased to vex this poore kingdome with warre For if upon some divine punishment and for our sinnes the poore town of Rochell must needs be violently plucked and seperated from France as the daughter from the mothers dug to submit it selfe unto the sad servitude of a stranger yet that evill should be farre more tollerable to serve and yeeld to the yoke of any other nation than to that which so long time hath been a bloudie enemie of Fraunce and hath shed so much of our bloud Wherefore most humbly we beseech you Sir said they with teares that you will not deliver us into the hands of the English your enemies and ours If in any thing we have offended your Majestie for which you will now leave and abandon us we crie you mercie with joined hands and pray you in the name of God and of our Lord Iesus Christ that it would please you to have mercie and compassion upon us and to retaine us alwaies under your obedience as we and our auncestors have alwayes been We are not ignorant Sir that your Majestie having been prisoner in England hath been constrained to accord with them to their great advantage and that we are comprehended in the number of the Townes and Countries that must be delivered but yet we have some hope that we may be taken from that number by silver and for that purpose your poore town of Rochell offereth contribution to yoâ—r Majestie all that it hath in her power and besides we offer to pay with a good heart hereafter for our Subsidies and taillies halfe the revenue and gaines of all our goods Have pitie then Sir upon your poore Towne which comes to retire her selfe under your protection in most humble and affection at obedience as a poore desolate and lost creature to his Father his King and his naturall Lord and Soveraigne We obtest and beseech you most deare Sir in the name of God and of all his Saints that you will not abandon and forsake us but that it would please your clemencie and kindnesse to retaine for your subjects most humble them which cannot live but in al vexation languishment and bitternesse of heart unlesse we be your subjects The king having heard the piteous supplication of these poor Rochellois mourned and pitied them greatly but he made them answere That there was no remedie that which he had accorded must needs be executed This answere being reported at Rochell it is impossible to speake what lamentations there were through all the Towne this newes was so hard that they which were born nourished French should be no more French but become English Finally they being pressed constrained by the kings Commissaries to open the Towne-gates to the English Well said the most notable townsmen seeing we are forced to bow under the yoke and that it pleaseth the king our soveraigne lord that we should obey the English we will with our lips but our hearts shall remaine alwaies French After that the English had been peaceable possessors of Rochell and all the other countries abovenamed king Edward invested his eldest sonne the prince of Wales in that government a valiant and very humble Prince towards greater than himselfe but haughtie and proud towards his inferiors who came and held his traine and court at Bourdeaux where having dwelt certaine yeares he would needs have imposed upon the countrey a yearely tribute of money upon every fire But to withstand this new impost and tribute the Lords Barons and Counties of those countries but especiall the Countie d' Armignac de Perigourd de Albret de Commenges and many others all which went to Paris to offer in their appeales against the Prince of Wales Arriving there they dealt with king Charles le Sage for king Iohn was then dead about their appeale who answered them That by the peace of Britaine which he himselfe had sworne the dead king his father for him and his successors to the Crowne had acquited and renounced all the soveraignetie of the said countries and that he could not with a good conscience breake the peace with the English and that it greeved him much that with good reason he could not accord their appeale The said Counties and Barons contrarily shewed him by lively reasons That it is not in the kings power to release acquite the soveraigne power and authoritie of his subjects and countries without the consent of the Prelats Barons Cities and good Townes of those Countries and that was never seene nor practised in France and that if they had been called to the treatie of Britaine they would never have consented unto that acquittance of soveraigntie And therefore humbly praied his Majestie to receive their appellation and to send an huisher to adjorne in case of appeale the Prince of Wales to appeare at Paris at the Court of Fraunce to the end to quash and revoke the said new ordinance for the said tribute Finally the king Charles was nothing offended to heare them so speake of a kings power much unlike our Machiavelistes at this day which call them culpable of treason which speake of Estates neither replied unto them that the power of a soveraigne Prince ought not to be limited neither that they spoke evill to revoke into doubt that which his dead father had done but contrary rejoycing at that limitation referred the cause to the debating and resolution of the wise men of his Counsell And after he was resolved that it was true which they said he accorded unto these Counties and Barons their demaund and sent to adjorne in case of appeale to the Court of Paris the Prince of Wales which done the said Counties and Barons easily revolted from the English obedience so did Rochell get all Englishmen out of their towne and castle This done the duke of Berry the kings brother would have entred there but for that time with good words they refused him the entrie thereinto saying they would send unto the king certain Delegates to obtaine some priviledges and therefore desired of the duke a safe-conduct which he willingly granted and having the same they sent twelve chosen for that purpose amongst their Burgesses which finding the king
in hearing interrogating and confronting them with him that is accused Therefore hee sent the cause and the parties to Iunius Rufus Governour of Macedonie commaunding him to examine diligently the witnesses and take good advisement whether they were good men worthy of credit and if Alexander the accuser could not prove well his accusation that he should banish him to some place This commandement of the emperour Adrian hath since been marked by the Lawyers which since made a law thereof Behold how men must proceed when it lies on mens lives and not to beleeve Marmosets and reporters neither beleeve papers without seeing or hearing witnesses and the accused without searching whether the witnesses be good men or no as is done at this day for at this day there is nothing wherof magistrats make a better market than of mens lives But let us passe on Froissart lib. 2. cap. 173. lib. 3. cap. 63 68. and other following and lib. 4. cap. 92. c. I would now rehearse an example truly tragicall of king Richard of England who was sonne of that valiant and victorious prince of Wales This king came to the crowne very yong and had three good uncles about him the duke of Lancaster Yorke and Glocester by whose counsell for a certaine time hee governed well his kingdome But the earle of Suffolke whom the king made duke of Ireland entred so farre into the kings favour that he governed himselfe after his fancie Then took he occasions to talke so of the kings uncles as was very strange for he told him that his uncles desired nothing but to deale in the affaires of the kingdome to obtaine it to themselves a thing which they never thought And did so much by his reports that the king put his uncles from his counsell and from dealing with any of the affaires of the kingdome whereof the people and especially the Londoners were so evill contented that they rose up and made warre against the king or rather against the duke of Ireland and they were at a point to give the battell one against the other But the duke of Ireland who was generall of the kings armie lost his courage with great feare that he had to be slain or taken and therfore fled passed into Flanders where he finished his dayes never after returning into England As soone as he was fled his armie was dissipated the kings uncles seized upon the kings person established a new Counsell by justice executed some of them which were of the duke of Ireland his adherents A longtime after another Marmoset called the earle Marshall gained the duke of Ireland his place and was so farre in the kings good grace that he governed all as he would One day this earle Marshall talking with the earle of Darbie eldest sonne of the duke of Lancaster the earle of Darbie chanced to say Cousin what will the king do will he altogether subject the English nobilitie there will soone be none it is plainely seene that he desireth not the augmentation of his kingdome But he held this talke because the king had put to death chased away a great number of gentlemen and caused the duke of Glocester to die a prince of his blood and yet continued in that rigour to make himselfe be feared and revenging still that which was done in the duke of Irelands time The earle Marshall answered nothing to the speeches of the earle of Darbie but only marked them in his heart Certain daies after he reported them to the king and to make them seeme of more credit he profered and said hee was readie to enter into the campe against the earle of Darbie to averre the said words as outragious injurious against his Majestie The king not measuring the consequence of the deed in place to make no account of these words sent for the earle of Darbie his cousin germane and after hearing before him the earle Marshall speak his wil was they should enter into the camp and fight it to utterance But the kings Counsell conceiving it might come to be anevill example such great lords to slay one another and that the earle Marshall was not of equall qualitie unto the earle of Darbie they counselled the king to take another course namely to banish from England for ever the earle Marshall because he had rashly appealed and challenged unto single combat a Prince of the bloud to banish also the Earle of Darbie for ten years only for speaking the aforesaid words of the king his lord The king following the advice of his Counsel by sentence given by himself banished the earle Marshall out of England forever the earle of Darbie for six years only moderating his Counsels advice foure years When the earle of Darbie came to depart there assembled in the streets before his gates at London more than fortie thousand which wept cried lamented his departure extreamly blamed the king and his Counsell insomuch that going away he left in the peoples hearts an extreame anguish and greefe for his absence and a very great amitie towards him yet notwithstanding he left England and came into France Whilest he was in France the duke of Lancaster his father died The king to heape up his evill lucks caused to be taken seized into his hands all his lands goods because they fell to the earle of Darbie Hereby hee got great hatred and evill will of the Nobilitie and of all the people Finally the Londoners which are a people easie to arise made a complot and part against the king and secretly sent word to the earle of Darbie that hee should come and they would make him king The earle arriving in England found an armie of the Londoners ready So went he to besiege the king Richard in his castle unprovided whom he tooke and imprisoned and caused him to resigne unto him the Realme and Crowne of England King Richard was put to death in prison after hee had raigned two and twentie yeares a thing very strange rigorous and unheard of in England or in any kingdomes nigh unto it And so the earle of Darbie who had beene banished from England remained a peaceable king and was called Harry the fourth of that name This earle Marshall who kept at Venise knowing these newes died ragingly This was the end of this Marmoset and the tragicall evill hap whereunto he brought his master and that upon words reported which were never spoken as any evill speech of the king but onely for the greefe hee had that they of his Counsell governed so evill the kingdomes affaires Which words should nor ought not to have been taken up nor reported to the king and being reported unto him he should have made no account of them to have alwaies presumed rather well than evill of his cousin Germane Herodes borne of a lowe and base race was created king of Iudea Galalie Samaria Joseph Antiq â—ib 14. cap 23.
came there was much beloved of the souldiors as well because he resembled his father Amilcar as for his militarie vertues Not many yeares after he was chosen captaine generall of the Carthaginian armie But as soone as he was setled in that estate he accomplished the prophesie of Hanno for hee lighted the great fire of the Punicke warres against the Romanes whereby in the end the Carthaginians were utterly ruined All this proceeded but from the Partialitie which was at Carthage for as soone as the Hannonians reasoned one way the Barchinians must needs reason to the contrarie and they studied for nothing but that by the pluralitie of their voices their opinion might obtaine the upper hand without any care or consideration what opinion was the best And thus ordinarily happeneth it where there is any Partialitie For then men give themselves more to contradiction than to judge after an wholesome sentence and without passion of that which is profitable and expedient The Partialities of the houses of Orleance and Burgoigne in our grandfathers memorie were they not cause of infinit miseries and calamities wherewith France was afflicted by the space of more than threescore yeares and of the entier ruine of the Bourgonianne house Lewis duke of Orleance the alone brother of king Charles the sixt tooke for his devise Mitto Duke Iohn de Bourgoigne tooke for his Accipio challenging as it were thereby an egalitie with the only brother of the king under colour that he was richer than hee This commencement of contrarie devices which they caused to paint in their banners of their launces and on their servants liverie coats erected a great Partialitie insomuch as the duke of Bourgoigne enterprised to cause the duke of Orleance to bee slaine as hee did The children of the duke of Orleance because justice was not executed on their fathers massacre levied armes Duke Iohn also by armes resisted them insomuch as all the realme was partialized about the quarrell of these two great houses After duke Iohn was slaine at Monterean-fante-Yonne in a strange manner whereupon his sonne Philip willing to revenge himselfe sent for the Englishmen which he caused to passe through Fraunce and occupied at least the third part of the kingdome of France This duke Philip made peace with the king but he had a son Charles his successour who would never put trust in the king of Fraunce fearing himselfe because of the warres which his father and grandfather had raised in the kingdome but would needs graple with king Lewis the eleventh This king who was too good for him raised him up so many enemies on all sides that the house of that duke came to ruine Behold the fruits of partialities which Machiavell recommendeth so much to a prince And hereupon should well be noted the saying of master Philip de Comines That Divisions and partialities are very easie to sowe and are a sure token of ruine and destruction in a countrey when they take root therein as hath happened to many monarchies and commonweales De Comines to prove his alledged saying setteth down other examples The Partialitie of the houses of Lancaster and Yorke in England whereby the house of Lancaster was altogether ruined and brought downe and the one house delivered to the other seven or eight battailes betwixt three and fourscore princes of the royall blood of England and an infinit number of people This here is no small thing but it is rather an example which should make us abhorre all Partialities Hee further saith That by the meanes of the said Partialitie betwixt these two houses many great princes and lords were banished and chased from England and amongst others that he saw a duke of the house of Lancaster the cheefe of the league of that house and brother in law of king Edward the fourth who saved himselfe in Bourgoigne yet in so poore estate that hee went bare foot and without hose after the traine of duke Charles of Bourgoigne demaunding his almes from house to house Hee after reciteth the tragicall acts of the duke of Warwicke of the kings Edward and Henry of the prince of Wales of the dukes of Glocester and Somerset which are strange hystories that cannot be heard or read without great horror and cannot but make men detest all Partialities and divisions In the time that Anniball made warre upon the Romanes there were created Titus Livius lib. 1. 7. Dec. 3. lib 4. 5. Dec. 1 Consuls together at Rome Marcus Livius and Claudius Nero which bore great enmitie one towards another and of long time The Senate fearing that these enmities betwixt those two Consuls should cause some Partialities in the administration of their estate which might turne to the domage of the publicke good admonished them both to be reconciled together Marcus Livius made answere That it was not needfull and that their enmities and Partialities should cause them with envie to seeke one to doe better than another but the Senate was not of that advice For they remembred that in the time of the Proconsulship of Quintius Paenus Caius Furius Marcus Posthumius and Cornelius Cossus the Romane armie had been vanquished and chased by the Veians because of the Partialities of the cheefetaines which could not accord in their counsels and deseignes but tended alwayes to contrarie ends The like also happened in the Proconsulship of Publius Virginius and Marcus Sergius But the most memorable and latest example which the Senate had before their eyes was the losse of the battaile at Cannes where the Romans lost fiftie thousand men which losse happened by the discord Partialitie of two cheefetaines Paulus Aemylius and Terentius Varro These examples mooved the Senate to exhort these two Consuls Livius and Nero to a reconciliation not beleeving that their Partialitie could serve them for any thing but evill to conduct the affaires of the commonweale insomuch as being constrained by the Senates authoritie they accorded and reconciled themselves together and very well acquited themselves in their charge and overthrew together a succour of fiftie thousand men which Asdruball conducted and brought over into Italie to Anniball his brother In this defeat also Asdruball himselfe was slaine and his head secretly carried and cast into Annibals campe who yet knew no newes of that journey When Anniball saw the head of his brother he then deplored his fortune and despaired of his affaires knowing that the Roman vertue would never bow nor stoope for either misfortune or calamitie The reconciliation then and concord of Marcus Livius and Claudius Nero were the cause of a great good and utilitie to the commonwealth and remounted the affaires Concord very profitable to the common-wealth thereof into a great hope and abated the pride that Anniball had taken of the battaile at Cannes as also by the contrarie the Partialitie of Paulus Aemylius who was a wise captaine and of Terentius Varro who was very rash and headie was the cause that the Romane
Anno 140â— Monstre lib. 1 cap. 22. and Reporters a great enmitie arose betwixt Lewis duke of Orleans the kings brother and Iohn duke of Burgoigne conte of Flanders of Artois and lord of many other lands and territories Our hystories name not these Marmosets but simply say that their houshold servants incited them to band one against another the duke of Orleans his servants and favourits said and said truly That he was the chiefe prince of the blood the kings only brother also more aged and of riper and more staied wit than the duke of Burgoigne and that therefore he should not set his foot before him in the handling of the kings affairs For at this time the king having not perfect sences his affairs were handled with the princes of the blood and the privie Counsell but contrarie the duke of Burgoigne his Marmosets said That he was the chiefe peere of France and as they cal it le Doy en des Pairs that he was more mightie and more rich than the duke of Orleans and although he was not so neere of the blood Roiall as he yet was he more neere by alliance for the Dauphin who was yet very young had espoused his daughter and therefore he ought in nothing to give place unto the duke of Orleans but that hee ought to maintaine and hold the same ranke that Philip duke of Burgoigne his deceassed father did who whilest his father liued governed the king and the kingdome at his wil. Briefly these tatlers and reporters caused this duke of Burgoigne so to mount into ambition and covetousnesse to raigne that he enterprised to cause the duke of Orleans to bee slaine who hindered his deseignes and purposes and indeed he caused him to be most villanously massacred and slaine at Paris nie the gate Barbette by a sort of murthering theeves which he had hired as the duke of Orleans went to see the queene who had lately bene brought to rest of a child Great domage there was for that good prince for he was valiant and wise as possible one might be Of him descended king Henry the second now raigning both by father and mother For king Francis his father was sonne of Charles duke of Angolesme who was son also of Iohn duke of Angolesme who was sonne of the duke of that Orleance and Madame Claude queene of Fraunce mother of the said king Henry was daughter of king Lewis the twelfth who was son of Charles duke of Orleance who was the sonne of this duke Lewis whereof wee speake I would to God princes his descendants would well marke the example of this massacre most horrible which was committed upon the person of that good duke their great grandfather and the great evill haps and calamities which came thereof to shun the like miseries which ordinarily happen when such murders goe unpunished For because the duke Iohn of Burgoine was not punished for this fault but found people which sustained and maintained it to have been well done as we shall say more at the full in another place and that followed his part stirring up civile warres which endured two generations and caused the death of infinit persons in France and that the English got a great part of the kingdome and that the poore people of Fraunce fell into extreame miserie povertie and desolation there were many causes and meanes of so many evils for injustice ambition covetousnesse desire of vengeance and other like things might goe in the ranke of causes of so many mischeefes But the Marmosets of duke Iohn of Burgoigne were they which stroke the yron against the flint out of which came that sparke of fire a device fatally taken by the duke of Burgoigne which brought into combustion and into a burning fire all the kingdome for so long time and at last ruinated the house of Burgoigne Francis duke of Bretaigne a prince that was a good Frenchman and affectionate Monstre lib. 3. cap. 4 33. to the king of France his soveraigne had a brother called Gills who gave himselfe to the English in the time that they made warre in France and accepted of the king of England the order of the Garter and the office of high Constable of England The duke and his brother much greeved hereat found meanes to take him prisoner and put him in a strong castle whereunto he would never goe to heare or see him he so much disdained him But yet he sent men unto him which hee trusted which indeed proved very Marmosets and false reporters for after Giles of Bretaigne had remained within the castle a certaine time and that he had considered well his doings that he was borne the kings vassale of France and that he ought never to have disunited himselfe from his brother he then praied his brothers people that came to see him to tell him from him that he greatly repented what hee had done and that if it pleased him to pardon him that from thence forward he would follow with a good heart the part of the king of France and his and that if it pleased them hee would streight send to the king of England his Order and Constables sword What do his Marmosets then They report to the duke that Giles his brother was still obstinate and so perfect English that no reasons they could make could turne him unto that side The duke sent still many times the same men unto him but alwaies they made the like or worse report of him insomuch that this good duke fearing that his brother was invincible in his obstination fearing also that if hee should let him loose he would cause the English to come into Bretaigne to avenge himselfe commanded the same reporters to strangle him in prison which they did Afterward as God when he seeth his time brings the most hid things to light these murdering reporters could not hold but discover the truth of the matter and that Giles of Bretaigne would have done any thing that the duke his brother would have had him to doe which comming to the dukes eares he was nigh out of his wits for his brothers death and caused the reporters to be hanged and to die with great and rigorous paines and executions Behold the end of Giles of Bretaign and the reward which such Marmosets received which were cause of his death Hereof Princes may note a rule Not to beleeve too easily reports made of men without hearing them but especially when it toucheth life One day before the emperour Adrian there was one Alexander which accused I. 3. 9. idem Diu. D. de Testi 6. of certaine crimes one Aper and for proofe of those crimes he produced certaine informations in writing against Aper which he had caused to be taken in Macedon Adrian mocked at it and said to Alexander the accuser that these informations were but paper and inke and it might be made at pleasure but in criminall causes we must not beleeve witnesses in writing but witnesses themselves
also comes that vertuous people beeing angry and chafed to see themselves despised as also to see strangers preferred before them suffer themselves to be governed and guided by turbulent passions contrarie to their natures Moreover it seemeth well that the Poet Hesiodius and Aristotle shoot not farre from the white of truth when they say That by right of nature he ought to dominier and rule who hath the more able spirit to know how to command well and he that hath the lesseable ought to obey And although sovereign principalities are not ruled by that naturall law because of the difficultie which falleth ordinarily in the execution of their election yet for all that that law alwayes sticketh naturally in the spirits and minds of men insomuch as it seemes to them which feele themselves to have some sufficiencie that there is wrong done them when they are put by to bring into an office one lesse capable By the abovesaid reasons then I hope men may see and usually we reade how great disorders doe often come when princes have preferred strangers unto publicke charges offices and honours before them of that nation and countrey where such charges and honours are distributed and exercised The yeare 1158 William king of Sicilie by his originall was a Frenchman gave Annale 1168. the estate of the Chancellor of his kingdome to a person very capable and fit but he was not that countreyman but a Frenchman The lords of the kingdome greeved to see a stranger constituted in so high an estate within their countrey and that A strange Chancellor cause of a great massacre in Sicilie the greatest magistracie of justice must needs be exercised by strange hands a very cruell conspiration For not onely they conspired the death of that chancellor a Frenchman but also of all them of the French nation which were dispersed in the kingdome of Sicilie Calabria and Apuleia For that purpose sent they secret letters through all the townes and places of the said countries whereby they advertised their friends and adherents which were alreadie prepared all over that they should massacre and slay each one respectively the Frenchmen of their places and towns on the day and hour that they would assigne them Which was executed and there was made in the said countries an horrible butcherie and exceeding great effusion of French blood Behold the mischeefe that came in that kingdome for having a stranger for their chancellor True it is that some may say that this massacre of the Frenchmen in Sicilia and other countries of Italie happened not so much for that reason that there was a strange chancellor as for that the Italian race hath alwayes ben much enclined to shed the blood of our nation For that same race made also another like generall massacre in the year 1282 by a conspiration wherin it was concluded that every one of the country should slay or cause to be slaine his French guest at the first sound of their Evensong bell even upon Easter day Which conspiration was not only executed but also the rage of the massacrers was so great that they ripped the bodies of women of their owne nation alive which were never so little suspected to be gotten with child by Frenchmen to stifle the fruit they caried And this cruell and barbarous massacre was called the Sicilian Evensong By the SiciliaÌ„ EveÌ„song imitation hereof the same race complotted and executed not in Sicilie but in France it selfe and through all the best townes of the kingdome the horrible and generall massacre of the yeare 1572 which will ever bleed and whereof their hands and swords are yet bloodie Of which exploit they have since incessantly vaunted and braved calling it The Parisien Matines M. Martin du Bellay rehearseth also in Paritien Matinâ— his Memories how the same race murdered a great number of poore souldiers after the journey of Pavie comming towards France lame wounded and unarmed slaying them in their high waies But such is this peoples generositie of heart alwayes to be tenne or twentie against one and to brave such as are wounded or unarmed which have no meanes to resist This Messeresque generositie is at this day called in France Coyonnerie and Poltromerie But let us come to our purpose touching the disorders that come by strange magistrates By the peace of Bretaigne made betwixt Iohn king of Fraunce and Edward king Froissart lib. 1. cap. 216. 246 c. Pla. in Martin 4. of England the countrie of Aquitaine was acquited purely and in al soveraigntie by the sayd king Iohn to the said king Edward This king Edward from the first possession of the sayd countrie gave it to the prince of Wales his eldest sonne who came and lay in Bourdeaux and apart kept a court great and magnificall The gentlemen of Gascoigne and of other countries of Acquitaine which by the means of the sayd peace should become vassals to the king of England to the said prince of Wales his sonne came straight to find the prince at Bourdeaux first to sweare their faith and homage secondly to obtaine his favour and good countenance as is the custome of all nobilitie The prince of Wales very gently courteously benignly and familiarly entertained them but in the meane while he gave all the offices estates of the countrie as the captainships and governments of the towns and castles the offices of bayliffs and stewards the estates of his court unto English gentlemen where of he had alwaies great store about him These English gentlemen although they held no other goods but their estates spent prodigally and held as great a traine as the lords of the countrey and to maintaine that they committed great extortions upon the people Hereupon came it that the people feeling themselves oppressed by the English officers the nobilitie and vertuous people seeing themselves recoiled and kept from offices that the prince gave al to strangers which were not of that nation and that herewith he would needs impose a new tribute and impost upon the countrie in a little time all revolted from his obedience and so caused all the towns of Aquitaine to revolt one after another insomuch that the king of England and the sayd prince of Wales his sonne lost straight all the countrey having therewithall procured the evill will of their subjects by giving offices unto strangers Iohn duke of Bretaigne in regard that hee had taken a wife in England was marvellously Froiss lib. 1. cap 311 â—14 affected to the English partie yea against the king of Fraunce his soveraign lord The nobilitie of Bretaigne were much grieved therat insomuch that one day the three greatest lords of the countrie that is to say the lord de Clisson de Laval and de Rohan went to him and after salutations said to him in this manner Sir wee know not upon what thought you shew your selfe so enclinable and favourable unto the English you know that the
to the manner of speech used amongst the people but there was never Philosopher so beastly that ever thought her to be any goddesse but when the auncient Philosophers say any thing comes by fortune or by adventure or contingencie they meane that the efficient cause of such a thing is unknowne for that is their doctrine and manner of speech to say that a thing happeneth or chanceth by Fortune and contingently when they know not the cause thereof Learnedly speakes Plutarke to this purpose when he sayth That the poets have Plutarke in libello de Fortuna done great wrong to Fortune to say she is blind and that she gives her gifts to men rashly without knowing them for sayth he it is we which know it not for Fortune is no other thing but the cause whereof we are ignorant of things which wee see come to passe And therfore the Stoicke philosophers although they knew not the second causes of all things no more than other philosophers yet used they another manner of speech than they and attributed the haps and chances of all things unto the ordinance and providence of God which they called by the name of Fatum yet indeed the Fatum differeth much from the providence of God which the Christians hold For the Stoickes held That God could worke no otherwise than the order of second causes would beare and leade him unto but wee hold That God is free in operation and not tied to second causes without which he can do that which he doth by them and can change them at his pleasure Timotheus an Athenian captaine comming one day from the war where his affaires had succeeded and sped well hee was much greeved at some which said that he Plu. in Silla was very happie and fortunate so that one day in a publike assemblie of all the people of Athens hee made an oration wherein hee discoursed all his gestes and victories uttering by the way the meanes and counsell which hee had used in the conduction of his affaires and after all this discourse Maisters said hee Fortune hath had no part in all this that I have accounted unto you as if he would say That it was by his owne wisedome that these things had so well succeeded to him The gods saith Plutarke were offended at this foolish ambition of Timotheus insomuch that he did never after any thing of account but all things he did turned against the haire till hee came to bee hated much of the Athenian people that in the end hee was banished and chased from Athens Hereby we may see that the ancient Paynims meant to attribute to the gods that which men in their common manner of speech attributed to Fortune but they never beleeved shee was a goddesse When Messiere de Commines speaketh of the constable of S. Pol who was so great and puissant a lord yet in the end such evill luck befell him that his hand was De Com. lib. 1. cap. 18. cut off Heereof hee makes a question and wisely and religiously absolveth it What shall wee say saith hee of Fortune This man that was so great a lord that by the space of twelve yeeres he had handled and governed king Lewis the eleventh the Duke Charles of Bourgoigne hee was a wise knight and had heaped together great treasures and in the end fell into her net Wee may then well say that this deceitfull Fortune beheld him with an evill countenance nay contrary wee must answere saith hee that Fortune is nothing but a poeticall fiction and that God must of necessitie have forsaken him because hee alwaies travailed with all his power to cause the war still to continue betwixt the king and the duke of Bourgoigne for upon this war was founded his great authoritie and estate and hee should bee very ignorant that would beleeve that there was a Fortune therein which could guide so wise a man to obtaine the evill will of two so great princes at once and also of the king of England which in their lives accorded in nothing but in the death of this constable Beholde the very words of Commines speaking of Fortune which senteth as much of a good man and a good Christian as the Maxime of Machiavell tastes of a most wicked Atheist And as for that which Machiavell saith That Fortune favours such as are most hazardous and rash Titus Livius is of a farther opinion who speaking of the victorie Tit. Livi. lib. 2. Dec. 3. which Anniball obtained nigh the lake Trasimene against the consull C. Flamminius saith That evill luck came by the temeritie of Flamminius which was nourished and maintained in him by fortune whereas before things had well succeeded with him but now hee which neither tooke counsell of the gods nor of men it was no mervaile if sodainely hee fell into ruine This losse of the battaile was the cause that Fabius Maximus was elected Dictator to go against Anniball as indeed after his election he tooke the field with a new army and certain time after being sent for of the Senat to assist at Rome certain sacrifices and ceremonies he left in the campe Minutius his Lieutenant saying unto him in this manner I pray you Minutius take heed you do not as Flamminius did but trust you more in good counsell than in fortune better it were to bee assured not to be vanquished than to hazard your selfe to bee vanquisher In another place Titus Livius rehearseth That Caius Sempronius captaine of the Roman Armie against the Volsques trusting in Fortune as a thing Lib. 4. Dec 1. constant and perdurable because alwaies before the Romanes had it in custome to overcome that nation used no prudence nor good counsell in his conduction but hazard and temeritie therefore saith Livie fortune and good successe followeth abandoneth rashnesse and this happeneth most commonlie Heere you see the opinion of Fabius Maximus and of Titus Livius much better than that of Machiavell who would persuade us that wee had better bee rash than prudent to have fortune favourable unto us for certaine it is that the haps which men call of Fortune proceede from God who rather blesseth prudence which hee hath recommended unto us than temeritie and although sometimes it happen that hee blesse not our counsels and wisedomes it is because we take them not from the true spring and fountaine namely from him of whom we ought to have demanded it and that most commonly wee would that our owne wisedome should bee a glorie unto us whereas onely God should bee glorified Heere endeth the second part entreating of such Religion as a Prince should use THE THIRD PART TREATING of such Pollicie as a Prince ought to hold in his Commonweale ¶ The Praeface I Have before in order disposed all Machiavels Maximes touching Counsell and Religion and at large I have shewed That all his doctrine shootes at no other marke but to instruct a prince to governe himselfe after his owne fancie not
not be corrupt and become cowards by too great peace and prosperitie for want upon whom to make warre The resolution of the Senat was in a meane betwixt these two opinions For it was ordained That the Carthaginians should be permitted to remove their towne into any other part tenne mile from the sea But the Carthaginians found so strange the removing of their towne that they had rather suffer all extreame things insomuch as by long warre they were wholly vanquished and their towne altogether rased and made inhabitable Very memorable also to this purpose is the advice of the Chancellor de Rochefort Annales upon the year 1488. who was in the time of king Charles the eight For many counselling this yong king to make war against Francis duke of Bretaigne to lay hold of his dutchie this good Chancellor shewed That the rights the king pretended to that duke were not yet well verified and that it were good to seeke further into them before warre was attempted for it should be the worke of a tyrant to usurpe countries which belong not to him According to this advice embassadors were sent to the duke who then was at Reves to send on his side men of counsell and the king would doe so on his side to resolve upon both their rights This was done and men assembled to that end but in the meane while duke Francis died and the king espoused Madame Anne his daughter and heire and so the controversie ended The same king enterprising his voyage of Naples caused to assemble all his presidents Annal. upon Anno 149â— of his courts of Parliaments with his Chancellor his privie Counsell and the princes of his blood to resolve upon his title and right to Naples and Sicilie These lords being assembled visited the genealogie and discent of the kings of Sicilie and Naples they found that the king was the right heire of these kingdomes so that upon that resolution this voyage was enterprised Hereby is seene the vanitie of Machiavell who presupposeth That king Charles had enterprised that voiage to get all Italie but that Fortune was not favourable unto him for that was never his deseigne nor purpose neither assayed he to seize upon any thing in Italie but of certaine townes necessarie for his passage in determination to yeeld them up again at his departure as he did And if the king would have enterprised upon Italie hee had had a farre more apparent title than the magnificent Lawrence de Medicis seeing all Italie was once by just title possessed by Charlemaine king of France his predecessor But this hath been alwayes a propertie in our kings not to run over others grounds nor to appropriate to themselves any seignorie which appertained not unto them by just title We reade also of Charles the fift called the Sage That being incited by his nobilitie Frois lib. 1. cap. 245. 25. and people of Guienne to seize againe that countrey which was occupied by the English he would not enterprise it without great good deliberation of good Counsell And therefore he caused well to be viewed by wise and experienced people the treatie of peace made at Bretaigne betwixt his dead father and the king of England for that it was told him that the king of England had not accomplished on his side that which he was bound to doe After they had as they thought well resolved him of this point yet he was not content to be satisfied himselfe but would that his subjects should be also well resolved thereof and especially such as were under the English obedience and to that purpose hee sent preachers covertly into such good townes as were occupied by the English insomuch that readily by the preachers inducements there were more than threescore townes and fortresses which revolted from the Englishmen and offered themselves unto the kings obeisance This then is a resolved point That a prince ought not to enterprise to obtaine a If by warre any can be constrained to be of any Religion countrey where hee hath no title under colour to deliver the inhabitants thereof from tyrannie But here may arise a question if it be lawfull for a prince to make war for religion and to constraine men to bee of his religion hereupon to take the thing by reason the resolution is very easie For seeing that all religion consisteth in an approbation of certaine points that concerne the service of God certaine it is that such an approbation dependeth upon the persuasion which is given to men thereof but the meanes to persuade a thing to any man is not to take weapons to bear him nor to menace him but to demonstrate unto him by good reasons and allegations which may induce him to a persuasion But he that will decide this question by examples of our auncestors he shall find divers to be for and against For to reade our French hystories in the lives of Clowis the first Charlemaine and some other kings of Fraunce it seemeth that their studie was altogether bent upon warre Annales upon Anno 718. against Paynims for nothing but to make them become Christians with hand-blowes and force of armes But what Christians That is when the Paynims were vanquished and that they could no more resist they were acquited upon condition to be baptized without other instruction And most commonly as soone as they could againe gather strength they returned to their Paynim religion And this is well shewed us by the hystorie of one Rabbod duke of Fricse who being upon the point to be baptized and his clothes off and having one foot in the font hee demanded of the archbishop of Sens which should have baptized him Whether there were more of his parents in hell or in paradice The archbishop aunswered him that the most must needs be in hell because his predecessors were never baptized Then the duke drawing his foot out of the water Well said he then I will goe to hell with my parents and friends and I will not be baptized to be seperated from them so he withdrew himselfe denying to be baptized Here I leave you to thinke if this man were well instructed in the Christian doctrine It seemeth that at that day to be a Christian it sufficed to be baptized and commonly Paynims were baptized by force of armes We reade also That our auncient kings of Fraunce made many voyages into Turkie and into Affrica for the augmentation of the Christian Religion and to revenge as they said the death of our Lord Iesus Christ upon the Paynims and Infidels But one time the Paynims themselves shewed them well that they enterprised such warres by an inconsiderate zeale For the armie of Fraunce whereof the duke of Bourbon was cheefe being in Affrica making warre against the Infidels in the time of king Charles the sixt the captaine generall of the Turkes and Saracens sent an herauld to the duke of Bourbon to know wherefore he discended into Affrica to
make warre upon them The duke of Bourbon assembled the greatest lords of the armie to resolve what answer to make to the herauld After by the advice of all it was answered That they Christians made warre upon them to revenge the death of Christ the sonne of God and a true Prophet which their generation had put to death and crucified The Turkes understanding this answere sent againe to the duke of Bourbon and the lords of France that they had by some received evill information upon that matter for they were the Iewes which crucified Iesus Christ and not their predecessors and if the children must needs suffer for their auncestors faults they should then take the Iewes which were then amongst them and upon them revenge the death of their Iesus Christ Our Frenchmen knew not what to answere hereunto yet they continued the warre where was done no notable exploit but by contagion of the aire they were constrained to returne after they had lost the most part of their armie Likewise in the yeare 1453 the Pope having proclaimed a Croisado in Christendome to run over Turkie to avenge the death of our Lord Iesus Christ and to constraine the Turkes to be christened the Turke writ letters unto him wherein he signified that they were the Iewes which crucified Christ And as for him hee descended not of the Iewes but of the Trojans blood whereof hee understood the Italians were likewise descended And that their dutie were rather both one of us and the other to restore rather the great Troy and to revenge the death of Hector their auncestor against the Grecians than to make warre one upon another as for his part he was readie to doe having alreadie subjugated the most part of Greece And that he beleeved that Iesus Christ was a great Prophet but that he never commanded as he was given to understand that men should beleeve in his law by force and by armes as also on his part he so constrained no man to beleeve in the law of Mahomet Behold the substance of the Turkes letter to the Pope which seemed to bee as wel yea better founded upon reasons than the Popes buls For verily Iesus Christ would that by preaching his law should be received into the world and not by force of armes In the time when Christendome was devided into Clementines and Vrbanists by reason of a schisme of Popes we may well presuppose that the one thought the Froisar lib. 2 cap. 132. 133 lib. 3. cap 24. other to be altogether out of the way of salvation and our hystorians say That the one part called the other dogs miscreants infidels c. Their reason was because they said that as there was but one God in heaven so there ought to bee but one on earth and the aforesaid Clementines held assuredly That Pope Clement was the true god on earth and Pope Vrbane the false god and that the Vrbanists beleeved in a false god and by consequent that they all strayed from the faith For as no religion can stand without beleeving in God so esteemed they that they which beleeved not in the true earthly god were altogether without all religion as dogs miscreants our hystoriographers which held that opinion as well as the other said That from that time the faith was shaken and readie to fall to the ground The same opinion had the Vrbanists of the Clementines as the Clementines had of the Vrbanists We have before in another place said That under colour of this diversitie in religion the king of England who was an Vrbanist enterprised to make warre upon the kings of France and Castile Clementines Likewise also the Clementines enterprised no lesse against the Vrbanists yea against the Pope Vrbane himselfe whom they besieged in the towne of Peronse where he was in great danger to have been taken yet in the end he saved himselfe at Rome The king of Fraunce determined to have passed into Italie by warre to have destroyed the Vrbanists but in the end he tooke another resolution which was to cause the schisme to cease so he caused to convocate a great and notable assembly in the towne of Rhemes in Campaigne whither in person resorted the emperour Sigismund and there a conclusion was made to exhort the two Popes to submit themselves to the new election of a Pope wherein their right should bee conserved unto them and if they would not submit themselves thereunto that the Christian princes and their subjects should withdraw themselves from the obedience both of the one and the other After this subtraction was made because the said Popes would not obey the exhortation that was made there was a new election of a Pope in a Counsell held at Pise by the emperors and the kings authorities called Pope Alexander the fift a Frier minor and the other two Antipopes were cursed as is said in another place And thus ceased the warres for Religion in all Christendome To this purpose also you must know That during the said schisme of the Clementines Froisar lib. 4 cap. 33. and Vrbanists the duke of Bretaigne had peace with the king of Fraunce and a great assembly was made betwixt them in the towne of Tours The duke appearing there some of the kings Counsell shewed him that hee was disobedient to the king being of another religion than the king was for the king was a Clementine and the duke an Vrbanist and it was not meet that the vassale should be of another religion than his soveraigne lord The abovesaid duke aunswered wisely That it could not bee called a rebellion or disobedience for no man ought to judge of his conscience but only God who is the soveraigne and only judge of such a matter and that he beleeved in Pope Vrban because his election was before Pope Clements Some of the kings Counsell of the meanest sort made a great matter of this diversitie of religion but the dukes of Berry and Bourgoigne the kings uncles were opinioned that it was not a sufficient point to stand upon to put by an accord with the duke of Bretaigne insomuch that following their advice an accord was concluded yea a mariage of one of the kings daughters with the said duke of Bretaigne This example and advice of these two good dukes mee thinkes all Christian princes should follow and not cease to agree together for diversitie of Religion but to remit the judgement thereof unto God who alone can compound and agree the differences of the same And not onely amongst princes the bond of amitie ought not to bee broken for difference of Religion but also princes ought not to use armes against their subjects to force them unto a Religion but they ought to assay all other meanes to demonstrate unto them by lively reasons their errors and so bring them to a good way and if it appeare not that their subjects doe erre and stray they ought to maintaine them and not persecute them at the
instigation of flatterers and envious people An example hereof is memorable of king Lewis the twelfth who was called the Father of the people For in his time certaine Cardinals and Prelates persuaded him to exterminate and utterly to root out all the people of Cabriers and Merindol in Provence which were the reliques of the Christians called Albi then sore persecuted for Christ telling him That they were sorcerers incestuous Molinaeus de la Monarchia deâ— Francois Anno. 155. persons and heretickes They of Merindol and Cabriers having some sente of the aforesaid accusation sent certaine of their wisest men to remonstrate to the king their justice and innocencie As soone as these men were arrived at the Court the said Cardinals and Prelates did what they could to hinder that they should not be heard and indeed told the king that he ought not to heare them because the Cannon law holds That men ought not to give audience to heretickes nor communicate with them The king replied That if he had to make warre upon the Turke yea against the divell himselfe he would heare them This was an answere worthie of a king For seeing kings hold in their hands the scepter of justice this is not to use but to abuse To condemne any not to heare them The said king Lewis then hearing the said messengers of Cabriers and Merindol they shewed him in all humilitie that their people received the Gospell the Bible the Apostles Creed the commaundements of God and the Sacraments but they beleeved not in the Pope nor in his doctrine and that if it pleased his Majestie to send to enquire of the truth of their speeches they were contented all to die if their words were not found true This good king would needs know if it were so and indeed deputed M. Adam Fumee his master of Requests and one M. Parvi a Iacobin his Confessor to go to Cabriers and Merindol to enquire of the life and religion of the inhabitants in those places which they did and after they had seene and knowne all they made their report unto the king That in those places their children were baptized they taught them the articles of the Faith and the commandements of God that they well observed their Sabboths alwayes preaching thereon the word of God and as for sorceries and whoredomes there were none amongst them moreover they found no images in their temples nor ornaments of the Masse The king having received this report what judgement gave he of it did hee condemne them straight because they had no images nor ornaments of the Masse No he presently swearing by his oth pronounced That they were better men than he or all his people Here may princes learne how to use themselves in supporting against slanderers such in whom there is no appearance of error But leaving this question and againe taking our purpose certaine it is That a prince ought not lightly to attempt warre as Machiavell persuadeth and upon A prince ought to seeke all meanes to put out war by a peace some necessitie having warre in hand he ought to search out and accept all honest conditions to get out of it For sometimes the prince which refuseth honest and reasonable conditions upon hope that his forces are great falleth oftentimes into great distresse and it hath been many times seene that pettie captaines have made head against great and strong powers of mightie princes In the time of the battaile of Poictiers where king Iohn was taken the prince of Wales before the battaile offered the king to yeeld him all that both hee and his Froisar lib. 1 cap 161. Annales upon Anno 1356 Annales upon Anno 1433. people had conquered since his departure from Bourdeaux also to yeeld him all the pillage but the king would not accept this offer but withall asked that the prince and foure of the greatest lords of the armie should yeeld themselves at his will The prince who was generous chose rather to fight it out than to accept so shamefull and dishonorable an accord so hee and his army fought valiantly insomuch that a very little numbar of English overcame great forces of the French and the king was taken and many other great princes and lords for which to redeeme the kingdome was so emptied of silver that they were compelled to make money of leather which in the middest had onely a note of siluer and from this battaile proceeded infinite evils miseries and calamities which had not happened if the king had beene so well advised as to have forgone that war by soft and assured meanes rather than by the hazard of the battaile But contrary to king Iohn king Charles the seaventh reconquering Guienne and Normandie upon the English never refused any proffer or composition sought alwaies to recover that which his predecessors had justly lost without effusion of bloud The Romane hystories are ful of such like examples For that which overthrew the Carthaginians the king Perseus the king Mithridates that which abated the pride of Philip king of Macedon of that great king Antiochus and of many others was they could never accept the good and reasonable conditions of peace which was offered unto them by the Romanes but would rather experiment what force founded upon a good right could doe I say founded upon good right because a small force which hath right with it oftentimes abateth a great force which is not founded on a good right the reason is evident because hee that knoweth hee hath just cause to make warre and which seeth that his adversary trusting much in his forces will not come to any reasonable composition redoubleth his courage his heat and fighteth more valiantlie than hee which is driven thereunto rather upon pride than of any generositie of heart but the principall reason thereof is that God who giveth victories inclineth most often to the rights side and although sometimes it seemes that the wrong carrieth away the victorie yet alwaies God shewes by the end issue according to which we must judge that hee is fot the right Above all the prince ought to appease the warres in his owne countrey whether A prince ought to appease war in his owne countrey they be raised by strangers or by his owne subjects for as for such warres as he may have in a strange land against strangers it may happen they will not prove so evill but hee may provide good souldiers in his neede and especiallie this point is considerable when a princes subjects are naturallie enclined to warre as is the French nation for then necessarily they must bee emploied in that wherein is their naturall disposition or els they will move war against themselves as Salust saith in these words If saith hee the vertue and generositie of princes captaines and men of warre might so well be emploied and shew it selfe of such estimate in peace as in warre humane things would carry themselves more constantly and men
of the commons which committed those barbarous inhumanities was called Cappeluche the executioner or hangman of Paris Those comparteners of the house of Burgoigne not contented to suscitate such popular commotions stirs in France but brought also the English men into Fraunce which were like to have beene masters therof yet not herewith content they caused king Charles the sixt to war against his owne son who after was called Charles the seventh and one moietie of the kingdome against another And not to leave behind any kind of crueltie no not towards the dead they caused to bee spread and published all over Fraunce certaine Popes buls wherby they indicted and excommunicated all the house of Orleance and his partakers both quicke and dead insomuch as when there died any in the hands of the parteners of Bourgoigne either by ward prison or disease they buried them not in the earth but caused their bodies to be carried to dunghils like carrion to be devoured of wolves and savage beasts What could they have done more to the execution of all barbarousnesse and crueltie Behold what fruits civile warres doe bring wee see it even at this day with our eyes for there is no kind of crueltie barbarousnesse impietie and wickednesse which civile warres have not brought into use The prince then that is wise will leave nothing behind to appease civile warres under his owne governement but will spend all his care power and dilligence to hinder it after the example of that good and wise king Charles the seventh king Lewis the eleventh his sonne Charles the seventh being yet Daulphin the duke Iohn Monstr lib. 2. ca. 175. 180 181 182 183 186 187. of Bourgoigne a man very ambitious and vindicative after by secret practise hee had caused to be slaine Lewis duke of Orleance the onely brother of king Charles the sixt and after hee had filled the kingdome with warres both civile and strange contented not himselfe herewith but laid hold of the king who by a sickenesse was alienated of his wits and of the queene to make warre upon the Daulphin These occasions seemed sufficient to such as then governed the Daulphin and at last to the Daulphin himselfe being yet very yong to enterprise an hazardous blow He then sent to the said duke that hee would make a peace with him and prayed him they might appoint a place and day together to meet for that purpose The day was appointed the place assigned at Montean-fant-Yonne whither the said duke came under the trust of the word of the Daulphin his faith and assurance As soone as hee arrived making his reverence unto Monsieur le Daulphin he was compassed in and straight slaine and withall also certaine gentlemen of his traine Philip sonne and successor of this duke Iohn tooke greatly to heart this most villanous death of his father and sought all the meanes he could to be revenged which still continued the civile warres This meane while the English did what they could in France and conquered Normandie Paris the most part of Picardie and marched even unto Orleance which they besieged The abovesaid king Charles the sixt died so that Monsieur le Daulphin his son who was called Charles the seventh comming to the crown and finding himselfe despoiled of the most part of his kingdome insomuch as in mockerie he was generally called the king of Bourges This wise king well considered That if civile warres endured he was in the way to loose all one peece after another hee therefore laid all his care power and diligence to obtaine a peace and an accord with the duke of Bourgoigne Therefore he sent in embassage unto him his Constable Chancellor and others his cheefe Counsellors to say that he desired to have peace with him and that he well acknowledged that by wicked counsell he had caused his father duke Iohn to be slaine at Monterean and that if he had been then as advised and resolute as hee was at that present hee would never have committed such an act nor have permitted it to have beene done but hee was young and evill counselled and therefore in that regard hee offered to make him such amends and reparation thereof as he should be contented therewith yea that he would demand pardon althogh not in person yet by his embassadors which should have expresse charge thereof and prayed him to forgive that fault in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that betwixt them two there might be a good peace and love for hee confessed to have done evill being then a young man of little wit and lesse discretion by bad counsell so to sley his father And besides this he offred to give him many great lands seigniories as the Countie de Masconnois S. Iangon the Counrie de Auxerre Barsur Seima la Counte de Boloigne Surmer and divers other lands that during his life he would acquite him and his subjects of personall service which he ought him as vassale of Fraunce yet made many other faire offers unto him This duke Philip seeing his soveraign prince thus humiliate himself to him bowed his courage justly exasperated for his fathers death harkened unto peace which was made at Arras where there was held an assembly of the embassadors of all Christian princes of the counsell of Basil of the Pope insomuch as there were there above 4000 horses All or the most part of those embassadors came thither for the good of the king and his kingdome but there was not one there which found not the kings offers good and reasonable as also did all the great princes lords of the kingdome all the kings counsel so that his majesties embassadors which were the duke of Bourbon the countie of Richemont constable of France the archbishop of Rhemes chancellor the lord de Fayette marshall many other great lords in a full assembly in the king their masters name demanded pardon of the duke of Burgoigne for his fathers death confessing as abovesaid that the king their master had done evil as one yong and of litle wit following naughtie counsell therfore they praied the duke to let passe away all his evill wil so to be in a good peace love with the king their master And the duke of Burgoign declared that he pardoned the king for the honor reverence of the death passion of our Lord Iesus Christ for compassion of the poor people of the kingdome of France to obey the Counsels reasons the Pope other Christian princes which praied him Moreover besides the aforesaid things it was accorded to the said duke that justice punishment should be done upon all such asâ—ed slain his father of such as had given the Daulphin counsell to cause his slaughter that the king himself should make diligent search through all his realme to apprehend them Here may you see how king Charles 6 appeased the civile wars of his kingdome by humilitie and
his sepulcher and another Amphitheater at Rome and many other goodly houses and publike buildings most sumptuous to behold he also caused to bee repaired bridges gates waies to furnish many townes with store of money as well to make new buildings in them as to renew the old heerein imitating the example of the emperour Trajan his predecessor who immortalized his name by his publike works and buildings which hee made even in building new townes and ioyning rivers one to another or to the sea by great and deepe channels to aide and make easie the commerce of all countries also in drying up great fennes and marrishes and in laying plaine rocks and mountaines to make fit waies for travailers and in doing other notable workes Such actions as these are meet workes for peaceable times and are honourable and proper to immortalize the name of a prince as to make warre to have victories and triumphs We see that the restauration of good letters which king Francis the first of that name of happie memorie brought into France in his time did more celebrate and make it immortall in the memorie of all Christian nations than all the great warres and victories which his predecessors had And truly princes which love and advance letters doe well merit that learned people should send their honourable memorie to all posterity and such as dispise them and hold them under feete are not worthie that hystoriographers and men of learning should bring their woords and victories into honour and reputation much lesse to immortalize them in the memorie of men For as lawyers say that they ought not to enjoy the benefite of lawes which offend and despise them so the prince which makes no account of learning ought not to enjoy the benefit thereof which is to make immortall generous and vertuous men But if we make comparison of the magnificence and Estate that a prince should Froisar lib. 7 cap. 353. 4. hold in the time of peace and prosperitie with that he should hold during war and povertie there is such difference as betwixt the day and the night for proofe hereof I will alledge but the time of Philip de Valois For wee reade that in that time which was a time of long peace that king had almost ordinarie in his court foure or five kings wich resided with him in regard of his magnificence as the king of Boheme the king of Scotland the king of Arragon the king of Navarre the king of Maiorque many great dukes counties barons prelates the greatest part of whose charges hee defraied that it might appeare that the king of Fraunce was a king of kings It is certaine to maintaine this magnificall and great Estate there must needs follow exceeding great expences but hee might well doe it for his people being ritch and full of peace they had better meanes to furnish and provide for him a crowne than in the time of warre to give him a three halfe pence At that time a king of England passed into France to doe homage unto king Philip for the dutchie of Guienne which the English had long time held of the crowne of France when the English king saw the traine of the court of France hee was ravished in admiration to see so many kings dukes counties barons princes peeres of France constable admirall chancelor marshall and many other great lords which reputed themselves happie to obtaine the good grace of king Philip. This moved the king of England far more easily and in other meanes to doe his homage than he thought to have done and at his returne into England he said on high That he supposed there was neither king nor emperor in the world that held so magnificent and triumphant an Estate as the king of France did Should not we desire to see such a time againe but we are farre from it and take no course thereunto for civile warres cannot bring us unto it but onely a good and holy peace well and inviolably observed by a good reformation of justice and of all estates which was corrupted in France For without it the people can never prosper but shall alwaies bee gnawne and eaten even to the bones and the people beeing poore the king cannot be ritch no neither his nobilitie nor clergie for all the kings revenewes all tallages all the nobilities and clergies rents proceede from the poore people By this which wee have above handled this Maxime of warre is sufficiently understoode I will add no more therunto but that Machiavell shewes himselfe a man of very good grace when he saith That the Italians are a people of nimble light spirits and bodies for hee cannot more properly note them of inconstancie and infidelitie and when afterward he saith That willingly they never go to battails he can not they any better taxe them of cowardise and pusillanimitie but the reason wherby he would seeme to couer this fault is more to be accounted of than the rest For saith he this proceedeth of the little heart cowardise of the captaines as if he said That all Italian captaines are faint hearted cowards which rather discourage than add heart unto their souldiers to fight And heerein I beleeve he saieth truth for so many Italian captaines as wee have seene in France this fifteene yeeres there hath not been one found that hath done any one memorable exploit they can indeede make many vaine and brave shewes and in many subtile stratagems there are found no better warriors but in battailes and assaultes of townes they never by their wills will come as their owne Machiavell beareth them witnesse 2. Maxime To cause a Prince to withdraw his mind altogether from peace and agreement with his adversarie he must commit and use some notable and outragious iniurie against him BEcause sayth Machiavell men are naturally vindicative and desirous Discourse lib. 3. cap. 32. to take vengeance of such as offend them it consequently fals out that they vvhich have outraged or iniured any but especially if the iniurie be great they can never trust him they have so iniured For every man feares and distrusteth his reconciled enemie And therefore to find meanes that a prince may never set his heart and mind upon peace nor reconcile himselfe to any adversarie hee must be persuaded to practise some outragious act upon his said adversarie So by that meanes he will never trust him nor be reconciled with him BEhold heere the very counsell that Achitophel gave to Absalon to make him irreconcilable with David his father and to place a division Samuel lib. 2. cap. 26. and perdurable confusion in all his kingdome For hee advised Absalon to cohabitate and dwell even with his father Davids wives which was the greatest and most villanous injurie that he could have done unto him and to this end he did it that Absalon and all they which followed him might bee utterlie out of hope to make peace with David and by that meanes
a new evill deed and in your prosperitie handle not as enemies them which in your adversitie you elected for friends The people saith Titus Livius were much moved by the ancient merit of the Caerites rather to forget the new fault than the old benefit and a An old pleasure putteth out a new offence peace and remission of their offences was accorded unto them The same moderation of minde used Francis the first of that name of good memorie towards the inhabitants of Rochell in Anno 1541. The Rochelois falling to mutunie against certaine of the kings officers about the impost of Salt but acknowledging Du Bello lib 9. of his Coment their fault they humbled themselves before that good king demanding pardon which hee granted in an oration with a grave and discreet admonishment very worthie such a king and Christian prince in these words My good subjects and friends for such may I well call you since you acknowledge your faults the office and dutie of subjects is so great towards their prince that they which faile in that dutie commit so great a crime as they cannot perpetrate a greater nor more punishable for the inconveniences which may thereupon follow For every estate of The publick estate lieth in wel commanding wel obeying a well instituted monarch and commonweale consisteth in two points namely in the just commandement of the prince or superiors and in the loyall obedience of subiects If either of these want it is as much as in thelife of a man the separation of the bodie and of the soule for in man life can no longer endure than the soule desisteth to command and governe the body and that the body desisteth from obeying the soule God grant mee grace that I may not faile in the commandement which hee hath given mee over you which I doe acknowledge to hold of him as a thing whereof I must make account unto him and although according to that command I have over you I may reasonably practise the punishment of justice upon you yet because it is a thing more covenable for a prince to prefer mercy and clemencie before the rigour of justice but especially towards such as repent and demand pardon I pardon you with a good heart seeing likewise that I know you are children of good fathers whose fidelitie hath beene many times experimented by my predecessors I had rather forget your new misdeede than your ancient merits I hope also that from henceforth you will as willingly bee enclined to obey mee as my naturall inclination is to pardon you I will not doe to you as the emperour did to them of Gaunt which having committed them under the slavish servitude of a citadell defiled his hands with their bloud My hands thanks bee to God are Crueltie takes love from subjects to their princes cleare from the bloud of my subjects and indeede hee lost the hearts and amitie of his subjects by shedding their bloud but I hope that my mercie and clemency shall confirme your hearts love towards me your king who kindly handleth you as a good father and that if you and your predecessors have beene in times past good and faithfull subjects you will bee much better heereafter I pray you forget this offence which is happened and for my part I will not remember it at any time of my life I pray you also bee as good subjects as you have heeretofore beene and I hope God will give mee grace to bee better towards you than I have beene God our Lord and creatour pardon you and I doe heartely forgive you all you have done without excepting any thing At this word proceeding from so magnificall and generous a king all the Rochelois began to weepe for joy and crying Vive le Roy they prayed God to conserve in all prosperitie so good a king so kind and mercifull Then upon the kings commandement all the bells of Rochell were rung all their gunnes were shot off and bonefires made in signe of great rejoycing And so much there wants that good princes have beene enclined to vengeance that contrary the principallitie it selfe makes them forget all affection of vengeance Spartian in Adrian that they had before as wee reade of the emperour Adrian who being come to the empire forgot all his former enmities insomuch as one day soone after he Ascending unto honor is descending from vengeance came to the empire encountring a capitall enemie of his hee said unto him Thou art escaped King Lewis the twelfth before hee was king being but duke of Orleance had many troubles For in the time of king Charles the eight his predecessor his enemies Annales upon Anno 1488. thought to have taken him prisoner but hee saved himselfe in Bretaigne whither hee was persecuted with an army and battaile was given him and the duke of Bretaigne who tooke his part at S. Aubin where the kings armie got the victorie and the said duke of Orleance were taken prisoners led to the castle Luzignen and from thence brought to the great towre of Bourges After all this there was a concorde amongst them and the said duke came to the crowne Being king they which followed him into Bretaigne and to other places during his adversitie persuaded him to bee revenged of such as had made warre upon him at the kings command and they shewed unto him that the cause of his then persecution came not by king Charles his motion who was then within age but by his principallest Counsellors and governours such as was Messire Lewis de la Trimonille and others But that good king Lewis shaped them this answere worthie of so gentle and christian a king that could command his choler and passions Nay saith hee a king of France may not revenge injuries done to the duke of Orleance King Phillip the hardie a gentle prince a lover of peace and very easie to graunt Annal. upon the year 1272. pardon The countie de Foix in his time rebelled but at the request of a sonne in law of the countie this good king pardoned him his fault and gave him againe certaine land which hee caused to bee seized and moreover made him knight and at Court retained him into his service This is far from nourishing enemies and perpetuall vengeance as Machiavell teacheth But heere might I accumulate and heape up many other examples of Caesar Augustus Traian Marcus Antonius Constantine Charlemaine S. Lewis Charles le sage Alexander the great of Sirus and generally of all the good princes which ever have beene all which were endowed with that excellent vertue of clemencie and were farre from all vengeance But these I have recited I hope may serve sufficientlie to shew by good reasons and notable examples that that passion of irreconcilable vengeance is unseemely and unworthie a good prince And as for the examples wherewith Machiavell serves himselfe they bee but examples of tyrants and such as were of no account and of
villanously to his death therefore by thine owne confession thou doest merit a most ignominious death Straight after the king commaunded that he should be hanged and strangled which was done So this perfidious and disloyall Heber received the reward of his perfidie and breach of Faith as hee himselfe judged to have merited Edward king of England the second of that name was much governed by the Frois lib. 1. cap. 5. 13 14. house of the Spensers which took upon them the handling of all the affaires of the kingdome and despised farre greater lords than themselves The said king having lost a battaile at Esturmelin against the Scots all England imputed the evill lucke of that losse unto the evill government of the Spensers They beleeving that the great lords of England which envied their credit had caused this brute to bee sowne resolved to take vengeance thereof by a most perfidious disloiall meanes For they persuaded the king to convocate a generall assemblie of States to advise and provide as they gave to understand for the affaires of the kingdome The princes and lords of the kingdome not doubting any thing assembled at the kings commaund But incontinent as they were assembled king Edward whome the Spensers had persuaded that his princes and lords meant to get his kingdome from him commanded them to be taken arrested prisoners which was done and without any knowledge of cause he cut off the heads from two and twentie of the greatest lords and princes of the kingdome and amongst them there was beheaded Thomas duke of Lancaster the kings uncle who was a good and a sage prince and who after was cannonized and saincted This perfidie joyned with crueltie for commonly the one goeth with the other was the cause that the said king was deprived by all the States of England of his royaltie as unworthie to carrie the crowne and was confined to prison where he finished his daies And the Spensers authors of such disloialtie were executed and rigorously punished according to their merits For after they had ben drawne on hurdles through the streets all over the citie of Herford their privie parts were first cut away and cast into the fire then were their hearts taken out of their bellies and also cast into the fire after their heads were cut off and carried to London and the bodies of every of them were quartered and every quarter caried into other severall towns to be set on the tops of their great gates in detestation of their great perfidie and disloyaltie which they used towards the said lords It was also a great perfidie in Charles the last duke of Bourgoigne in that hee De Comines lib. 1. cap. 78. and Annal. 1475. gave safe conduct to the contie of S. Pol constable of France to come to him with good assurance and then tooke him prisoner and delivered him to king Lewis the seventh who making his processe at Paris his head was cut off in the place de Greve True it is that the said countie had committed great faults as well against the king as against the duke hee had also alwaies studied to nourish warre betwixt the said two princes yet notwithstanding it was a very dishonorable and infamous thing for the duke to take him prisoner after hee had given him his faith and assurance by the safe conduct which hee graunted him For if hee had not beene hee had according to his determination with his silver fled into Almaigne from thence in time he might have made his peace and againe have come into the kings favour But he was deceived as before and the said perfidie was so much the more infamous and dishonest because it was perpetrated by this duke of Bourgoigne for the covetousnesse to gaine the townes of S. Quinten Han and Bohain which belonged to the said countie which the king gave to the said duke to the end hee would deliver and betray him But behold the just judgement of God who permitted that this duke of Bourgoigne was in the end beaten with the same rods wherewith hee had beaten the countie of S. Pol for being twice overthrowne at Granson and Morat by the Suissers the siege of Nus succeeding evill unto him and also having lost the dutchie of Lorraine which before he had unjustly occupied upon the duke of Lorraine who conquered it all these traverses and troubles engendred such greefe sadnesse and confusion in his spirit and great indisposition in his person that hee was never after whole either in bodie or mind His wits thus comming into decay there came into his braine a distrust of his owne subjects and therefore thought good to serve himselfe with strangers and to chuse a loyall and faithfull nation he addressed himselfe to a countie de Campobache an Italian and gave him charge to bring with him many Italians to his service as hee did This was the last act of the Tragedie of his life For this countie de Campobache ceased not till he had betrayed him unto the duke of Lorraine before Nancy which the said duke of Bourgoigne held besieged and there was slaine in an assault which the duke of Lorraine gave him to constrain him to raise the siege And so in like sort as by perfidie and violating of his faith he had caused the constable of S. Pol to leese both life and goods so by the treason and perfidie of Campobache hee both lost his life and his house was ruinated and â—ent in pieces which was the greatest house in Christendome next unto that of Fraunce He should never have done that would set downe all the calamities mischiefes proceeding of perfidie and breach of publicke Faith It caused the ruine of Carthage the great in Affrica which for a long time was one of the greatest and most flourishing commonweales that ever was in the world It was the onely ruine of Corinth of Thebes of Calchis which were three of the greatest fairest and richest cities of Greece It was the cause of Ierusalems destruction and of all the countrey of Iudea yea breefely there never happened any great subversion and desolation in the world were it of citties commonweales kingdomes empires great captaines great monarchs or of strong and flourishing nations but it came upon perfidie and the breach of Faith True it is that it draweth at the taile with her crueltie avarice and other like companions but yet perfidie is the mistresse and governesse of all She breaketh peace she renueth civile and strange warres she troubleth people nations which are quiet she destroyeth and impoverisheth them she overthroweth right and equitie she prophaneth and defileth holy and sacred things she banisheth and chaseth away all pietie justice and the feare of God she bringeth in Atheisme and contempt of all religion she defaceth all amitie and naturall affection towards parents our countrey and nation she confoundeth all politicke order shee abrogateth good lawes and customes Finally what mischeefes hath there ever beene in the
at Paris shewed him in all humilitie how of themselves they were rid of the English obedience and that again they would remit themselves into his Majesties obedience as being their king and naturall soveraigne Prince but that they besought him humbly to accord Priviledges of Rochell them certaine priviledges The king demanded what priviledges First said they That it would please your Majestie to agree unto us that the Towne of Rochell may be inseparably united unto the Crowne of France so that it may never be seperated nor dismembred by peace mariage nor by any compact condition or misadventure that can come in Fraunce Secondly that the Castle may be throwne to the earth without which we will keepe the towne of Rochell well for your Majestie The king perceiving their demands and finding them reasonable and proceeding from a true French heart accorded their requests and so the Rochellois returned merily into the French obedience from whence they had been seperated to their great greefe Here then you see how well to the purpose and to the great profit of the king and of the kingdome that law of not alienating the Lands Townes and Provinces of the Crowne was made But upon this that I have said of the Rochellois some Messer will say How happeneth it then that the Rochellois are at this day so bad French subjects hereunto the answere is easie and evident that is that they are at this day as good Frenchmen as ever were the ancestours but they are not good Italians neither meane to be subject under the yoke of strangers no more than their ancestors Let us now come to the other example King Francis the first of that name being prisoner at Madril in Spain in power of the emperour Charles the fist there was made a traitie and an accord betwixt the two great princes whereby amongst other things the king promised the emperor to grant him all his right and possession of the Dutchie of Burgoigne and that he would imploy himselfe to cause the Estates of the countrey to condiscend therunto This accord being concluded the emperor caused the king to be conducted to Bayonne and there by his embassadours summoned him to ratifie the accord which he had made at Madril when he was prisoner to the end to make more valeable and that it might the rather appeare to be made without constraint unto which embassadours the king answered that he could doe nothing in that article concerning the Dutchie of Burgoigne without first knowing the intent and will of his subjects because he could not aliene it without their consent and that he would cause the Estates of the countrey to assemble to know their wils therein Not long after the king caused the Estates of Burgoigne to come together which would by no meanes consent unto the said alienation whereof hee advertised the emperour who seeing that by reason they could not be alienated without their consents was content with that answer upon this condition That the king would assure the said Dutchie unto the first heire male which the said king should have by Elenor the said emperours sister unto whom he was then espoused so that that law That the king cannot alienate the Crowne-land was then verie profitable unto the king and the kingdome And unto this agree the doctors of the Civill law which hold that the emperour cannot aliene any thing of the Empires but he is bound to increase it to his power And from thence they drawe but foolishly the etymologie of that name Augustus saying The Emperors are called Augusti for that they ought to encrease and cannot diminish the Empire as much say they of other kings and monarchs for there is therein the like reason For a conclusion no man of perfect judgment can denie but these three lawes of the kingdome of France namely the law Salicke the law of the Estates general and the law of not alienating the lands and provinces of the crowne are the verie true pillars bases and foundations of the kingdome and the royaltie which none can or ought to abolish I doubt not but there will be found manie which will be quarelling at those aforesaid examples and reasons and will say That to sustain and defend that the king cannot abolish the said lawe is to diminish his power and to give limitation and restriction to his soveraigne authoritie But for reply I will only demaund If it be not puissance in a prince to conserve him and his estate If they confesse yea as none can denie it if he be not altogether without judgement I say it followeth by argument taken from contraries that it is then impuissance and want of power in a prince to ruinate himselfe and his estate And by consequent it followeth that when we say that a Prince cannot abolish the fundamentall lawes of him and his estate so much there wanteth that we diminish his power that by the contrarie we establish it and make it more firme greater and as it were invincible As also on the contrarie they which say that a Prince can abolish and change his lawes upon which he and his Estate are founded they establish and place in him an impuissance to conserve himselfe For to take it rightly and in good sence it is an act of impuissance to ruinat destroy overthrow and to participate his estate And contrarie it is an act of power to conserve himselfe and maintaine his estate No more nor no lesse than when a building falleth upon the earth or when a man letteth it fall these be acts of feeblenesse frailetie and impuissance but when the one and the other holdeth and standeth streight and firme without cracking or falling these be acts of force and power As for the law Naturall it cannot be abolished For if a Prince will authorise The law naturall cānot be abolished by the king or any other adulteries incests thefts murders and massacres and other like crimes which naturall reason and common sence causeth us to abhorre and detest certaine and evident it is that such authorising is of no value and that the Prince cannot doe this When the emperor Claudius wold espouse Agrippina his niece his brothers daughter he made a Law whereby he authorised the mariage of the uncle with the niece which was published all over but sayth Suetonius no man would imitate and follow the Emperours example but a bad servant newly enfranchised and a souldier every body so detested and abhorred such kind of mariages as being contrarie to the naturall law and common sence And indeed this mariage fell not out well for Sueto in Claudio cap. 26. Tacitus Annal lib. 12. him For Agrippina his neece and wife poysoned him to bring to the Empire Nero hir sonne whom she had had by another husband and had caused him to be adopted for his sonne although he had by his first wife Messalina another naturall sonne called Britanicus whom Nero when he came to the Empire empoysoned to
do often proceed when kings governe themselves by men of base hand as they call them for then are princes and great lords jealous And therefore to shun such jealousies and just complaints that great men may have to see themselves despised a prince ought so to advance meane men that hee recoile not great men and meane men ought alwaies to acknowledge the place from whence they came respecting great men according to their degrees without staggering in their dutie to their prince common-wealth And when they see that by some accident they are evill beloved of great men or of the common people and that for the good of peace it is requisit to extinguish the envie and jealousie conceived against them they ought voluntarily to forsake their estate For willingly to retaine it to the detriment and confusion of the common-wealth therein doe they evidently shew that they are not good servants of their prince King Charles the seventh had Counsellors both wise and loiall as M. Tanguy du Chastell M. Iohn Lowet president de Provence the Bishop of Cleremont Annal. upon An. 1426. and certaine others of meane qualitie which had done him great services in great affaires he had had as well when he was Dolphin as after he was king At that time this king had civile warre against the duke of Burgoigne whome secretly the duke of Bretaigne favoured which warre the king would gladly have had extinguished Therefore hee himselfe openly spoke to the said lords and dukes which made him answere That they were content to come to some good accord provided that hee would put from him such Counsellors as he had and take others These beforenamed Counsellors knowing this said to the king Since Sir it holds but thereon to quench civile warre which there is against the house of Burgoigne let them all goe home againe it shall not come of us that so good a thing shall bee hindered and they themselves desired and counselled the king to accord to that condition These were good and loyall Counsellors but they are dead and there are no more such to bee found But such there are now adaies which had rather see the commonwealth in combustion and ruine than they would suffer themselves to be removed from their places one pace Yet these good Counsellors abovesaid withdrew to their houses willingly and without constraint and soone after peace was accorded and finished betwixt the king and the duke of Burgoigne These good persons alledged not That men sought to take away the kings faithfull Counsellors to seduce and deceive him and that their dutie commaunded them then more than ever to keepe nigh his Majestie seeing the great troubles and affairs of the kingdome and that otherwise they might be accounted traitors and disloiall No no they alledged no such thing they looked right upon the white to keepe peace in the kingdome For they knew well that if they had used these reasons to the duke of Burgoigne that he could soone have answered replied that they were too presumptuous and proud to thinke that in all the kingdome of Fraunce there could not be found people as wise and faithfull to their prince as they For in all times the kingdome of Fraunce more than any other hath ever beene well furnished with wise and vertuous people of the Nobilitie Iustice Cleargie yea Marchants and of the third Estate To come againe to our purpose certaine it is That a prince which committeth the government of his affaires to one alone brings himselfe in great daunger and hardly can such governement bee without great mischeefes and disorders For this commonly men hold That being lifted up unto great honor and dignitie they cannot hold a moderation and mediocritie which is that which giveth taste and grace to all our actions The emperour Severus so high advaunced Plautianus that being great master of his houshold the people thought seeing his dealings in his office that hee was the emperour himselfe and that Severus was but his great master Hee Dion Spartian Severo slew robbed banished confiscated the goods of all such as hee would in the sight and knowledge of Severus who contradicted him in nothing So farre mounted this great and immoderate license that Plautianus durst well attempt to cause Severus to be slaine and his two sonnes But his wickednesse was disclosed by a captaine unto whom he had discovered it insomuch that Severus caused him to come before him and although by nature he were a cruell Prince yet was he so firmely affected to Plautianus that he never spoke sharpe or rigorous word unto him but onely uttered this remonstrance I am abashed Plautianus how it came in thine heart to enterprise this against me who have so much loved and exalted thee and against my children whereof Bassianus my eldest sonne hath married your daughter and so is your sonne in law Truly the condition of men is very miserable that cannot maintaine themselves in such honour and dignitie as I have placed you in I pray you tell me your reasons defences to purge you of this act The abovesaid Bassianus seeing that the emperour his father would receive Plautianus to his justification fearing he should have escaped caused one of his men to slay him in the presence of his father adding to the saying of Severus Certaine it is that great honors attributed to one man alone as to governe the affaires of a kingdome not only makes him go out of the bonds of reason but also subjects him unto great envies wherby great mischeefes happen unto him In the time of Philip le Bell king of Fraunce M. Enguerrant de Marigni Countie Annal. upon An. 1314 1326. de Longuevile a valiant and wise knight governed almost all the affaires of the king and his kingdome and especially of his common treasure which was distributed by his ordinance Amongst other things he caused to build that great Pallace at Paris where the court of parliament is held After the death of king Philip Charles Counte de Valois his brother begun criminally to pursue M. Enguerrant before certaine commissionaries of the said court delegated for that purpose And so farre did the said Countie de Valois being a great lord prince of the bloud and in great credit with king Lewis le Hutin his nephew and sonne of the said Philip pursue the cause against M. Enguerrant who was then out of credit after the death of king Philip his master that he was condemned to bee hanged and strangled on a gibbet at Paris as he was indeed This happened onely unto him by the envie he had procured by his great place and too great credit For true it is that he was accused of many things but he was not condemned of any punishable thing But our hystories say That he was not received unto his justifications and defences he was so fiercely pursued by the said Countie de Valois who after he had caused him to bee hanged and that
Normandie to the number of about 3000 men after hee embarked with the troupe and tooke his course to Dover wher king Richard attended him with 4000 men but God conducted that busines sending a contrary wind which landed the said earle in the northern parts of England where without all interruption landing they which sent for him met him by consent marched toward London King Richard met him on the way with 40000 or 50000 as they came nigh one another to give battaile the most part of king Richards people turned to the earle of Richmonds side Yet that king who despaired otherwise to bee maintained in his estate than by a victory upon his enemie gave battaile to the earle and was slaine fighting after hee had raigned about a yeere And the earle of Richmond went right to London with his victory and the slaying of that tirant Then tooke he out of the monastery king Edwards two daughters whereof hee espoused the elder and was straight made king of England called Henry the seaventh grandfather of the most ilustrious Queene Elizabeth at this present raigning Alfonsus king of Castile the 11 of that name who began his raigne Anno 1310 Frâ—isar lib. 1. cap. 230. 231 241. 242 243. raigned 40 yeeres left after him Peter Henry his bastard sons This king Peter was a prince very cruell inhumane amongst other cruelties he committed he caused to die Madame Blanche his wife daughter of duke Peter of Bourbon sister of the queene of France of the dutches of Sauoy He made also to die the mother of the said Henry his bastard brother also banished slew many lords barons of Castile Insomuch as by his crueltie hee acquired the hatred of all his subjects yea of strangers his neighbours so that his bastard brother being legitimated by the Pope at the earnest sute of the nobilitie of Castile and the help of the king of France Charles le Sage who sent him a good armie under the conduction of master Iohn of Bourbon countie of March of Messier Bertrand of Guesclin after constable of France hee enterprised to eject king Peter out of his kingdome of Castile and to make himselfe king and did according to his enterprise For as soone as hee was entred with forces into Castile all the countrie of all sorts abandoned that cruell king Peter who fled and retired to Bourdeaux towards the prince of Wales praying him to give him succours against his bastard brother This prince who was generous and magnanimous graunted his demaund under colour that the said Don Peter was a little of his parentage but in truth moved with desire of glorie and to acquire the reputation to have established a lawfull king in his kingdome against a bastard which the French had set in so did hee enterprise to goe inro Castile with a strong army to establish king Peter in his kingdome All succeeded so well unto him that hee got a battaile at Naverret against king Henry who fled into France and king Peter was established in his kingdome The prince of Wales exhorted him to pardon all such as before had borne armes against him and from thence forward to become gentle and kind towards all his subjects which hee faithfully promised to bee But hee did no such thing but againe exercised his cruelties and vengeances as well upon the one as the other In the meane while Henry the bastard gathered a new army with the help of the king of France which was conducted by the said Messier Bertrand of Guesclin and unlooked for they gave an assault nigh unto Montiell in Castile to king Peter and put him to flight with a great overthrow of his people King Peter saved himselfe in a castle which was incontinent besieged and seeing himselfe evill provided within it hee by stealth sought to save himselfe with a few people but he was encountred by the said Henry his bastard brother who slew him with his owne hand By which meanes the said Henry with his race remained peaceable kings in the kingdome of Castile and king Peter finished his life unhappie by reason of his great cruelty whereof hee could never be chastised By the abovesaid examples it seemes unto mee That a prince may easely judge if hee be of any judgement how pernitious and damnable the doctrine of Machiavell is to enstruct a prince to bee cruell for it is impossible that a cruell prince should long raigne but we ordinarily see that the vengeance of God yea by violent meanes followeth pace by pace crueltie Machiavell for confirmation of his doctrine alledgeth the example of the emperour Severus who indeede was a man very cruell and sanguinarie yet raigned eighteene yeeres or there abouts and dyed in his bed But unto this I answere that the cruelties of Severus seeme to bee something excusable because that he had for competitors in the empire Albinus and Niger two of greater nobilitie than hee and which had more friends Insomuch as it seemed necessarie for him to weaken the two competitors and to withstand their friends from hurting him to use that crueltie to kill them Yet hee pardoned many Albinians and reconciled himselfe unto them moreover hee exercised part of his cruelties in the revenge of the good emperour Pertinax which was a lawfull cause yet withall had he in himselfe many goodly and laudable vertues as wee have in other places rehearsed so that as his crueltie made him much hated his other vertues wrought some mitigation thereof Lastly hee made no other end than other cruell princes for hee dyed with sorrow as saith Herodian who was in his time for that hee saw his children Dion in Seve Herod lib. 3. such mortall enemies one against another and that Bassianus the eldest had enterprised to kill his father who yet did pardon him But Bassianus pardoned not his fathers phisitions which would nor obey him when hee commanded them to poison his sicke father for as soone as his father was dead hee hanged and strangled them all Heerein also God punished the crueltie of Severus that having exercised all these cruelties and slaughters well to establish the empire in his house hee was frustrated of his intention For of those two sonnes Bassianus and Geta one slew the other and Bassianus after he had slaine Geta endured not long but was slaine by Macrinus and left behind him no children Therefore although it seemed that God spared to punish Severus crueltie for his other good vertues yet remained not hee unpunished for seeing his sonne who had learned of him to bee cruell durst enterprise to slay him hee dyed of griefe and sorrow And wee neede not doubt but his conscience assaulted him greatly for he might well thinke that it was a just divine vengeance to see himselfe so cruelly assaulted by his owne blood and to see machinated against himselfe by his owne sonne the like crueltie which hee exercised against others yet he dissembled this pardoned
that which Machiavell prescribeth for by oppressing and causing to die al the conjurators and enemies and all their friends and allies he made himselfe so feared and redoubted that there was not in Rome great or little but he trembled for feare only to heare the name of Nero Such great men whose friends and parents were put to death came and fell downe on their knees before him and thanked him for the good and honour he had done them to have purged and cleansed their parentage and alliance from so wicked men as those he had slaine Others in signe of joy for the death of their friends and parents caused their houses to be hung with lawrell and made sacrifices to the gods to give them thankes for so great a good as was happened unto them They celebrated also great feasts of joy as they had been mariages The Senate also for their part being also in a great terrour ordained there should be processions and publicke sacrifices to yeeld thankes to the gods that this conjuration was discovered yea they caused to be builded and consecrated a chappell to the Sunne in the house where the conjuration was made because it shined to the discoverie therof They builded also a temple to the goddesse Health Nero thinking that all these joyes were true and unfained yet were they but simulations exercised still more and more his butcherie and in the end made himselfe so assured by reason he was feared and redoubted of all the world that he was of opinion that he had obtained the upperhand of all his enemies but it was cleane contrarie For by this strange slaughter with so many other wickednesses whereof hee was full hee brought himselfe into a deadly hatred of all the world insomuch as the provinces of the empire revolted from his obedience one after another and in the end he was abandoned of every man unlesse it were of some foure or five of his meanest servants which kept him companie in his flight untill he had slaine himselfe as is said in another place therfore Nero needed to take no thought how to nourish enemies against himselfe as Machiavell teacheth in this Maxime for hee never wanted a great number as all tyrants have ordinarily And how should not tyrants have good store of enemies seeing even good De Com. lib. 1. cap. 107 108 109 100 111. and wise princes doe not want them To this purpose master Phillip de Comines makes a very good discourse saying That it pleased God to give to all princes kingdomes and common weales an opposit and contrary unto them that both the one and the other might the rather bee held in their duties as England hath Fraunce Scotland hath England Portugall hath Castile Grenado hath Portugall the princes and common weales of Italie are contrarie one to another and so it is of all God hath giveÌ„ to every seignorie his opposit countries and seignories of the earth For if there bee any prince or common-weale which wants his opposite to hould him in feare straight one shall see him fall to a tyrannie and luxuriousnesse Therefore God by his wise providence hath given to every seignorie and to every prince his opposit that one by the feare of an other might be stirred up to a modest and temperate carriage And there is indeed nothing saith hee that better holdeth a prince in his duetie nor which causeth him to walke more upright than the feare of his opposit and contrary For the feare of God nor the love of his neighbour nor reason whereof commonly hee hath no care nor justice for there is none above himselfe nor any other like thing can hold him in his duetie but onely the feare of his contrary After that Comines had dispatched this question hee entreth into another which dependeth heereof What is the cause saith hee that commonly princes and great lords have Princes have not the feare of God nor of charitie for want of Faith not the feare of God nor love to their neighbours He answereth the want of Faith for if a prince beleeved verely the paines of hell to bee such as indeed they are hee would doe no wrong to noe man nor retaine an others goods unjustly For if they beleeved assuredly as it is true and certaine that they are damned in hell and are never like to enter into paradise which retaine other mens goods without making satisfaction or that doe any wrong to any without amends unto him It is not likely there would bee found a prince or princesse in the world or any other person which would with-hold anothers goods were it of his subjects vassailes or neighbour in good earnest or would put any to death wrongfully no not to hold them in prison nor take from one to give to another nor procure any dishonest thing against any person If then they had a firme faith and beleeved the paines of hell to bee horrible and great without other end or remission for the damned knowing againe the shortnesse of this life they would not doe that they doe And for example saith hee when a king or a prince is a prisoner and that hee feareth to die in prison is there any thing so deere in the world which hee would not give to come out Certainely hee would give both his owne and his subjects goods altogether As wee have seene king Iohn of France being taken prisoner by the prince of Wales at the battaile of Poitiers who paied 3000000 of franks for his ransome and acquited to the English all Aquitane or at least as much as they then held and many other cities townes and places all which came to the third part of the kingdome which was thereby brought into great povertie that no coine was there currant but it was made of leather with a little naile of silver in the middest of it And all this gave king Iohn and Charles the sage his sonne for the said kings deliverance out of prison And if they would have given nothing yet the English would not have put him to death but at the worst have kept him in prison And yet if they had caused him to die the paine that hee had suffered had not beene comparable to the thousand part of the least paine in hell Why then did king Iohn give all that hath beene said and so overthrew his children and the subjects of his kingdome because hee beleeved that which hee saw and knew well that otherwise hee could hot bee delivered But you shall not finde a prince or else very few that if hee had a towne of his neighâ—ours would yeeld it for the feare of God or the paines of hell It is then the want of faith because princes beleeve not that God will punish the wrongs they doe to another and that they doe not also beleeve that the paines of hell are horrible and eternall as they are Yet is this certaine that god will punish them as well as other men though not
bee any greater vice or sinne than they are Yea after a man once hath forfeated and failed in his Faith contract and promise although but in small things and of no great reckoning or value they will never afterward esteeme or account him a good or honest man So great I say is their detestation of all kinde of deceit and false dealing But a man needs not mervaile that Machiavell dare so impudentlie lye upon the Almaignes for hee hath brought forth more strange things than this slaunder as wee shall shew hereafter both to the good of all others that shall reade his writings and to the manifest and plaine laying open of him in his true and perfect colours For the effecting whereof let us then now enter into the matter THE FIRST PART ENTREAting what Counsell a Prince should use 1. Maxime A Princes good Councell ought to proceed from his owne wisedome otherwise he cannot be well counselled IT is a Maxime and generall rule sayth Machiavell that good counsell ought to proceed from the vvisdome of the Prince himselfe and not contrarie that the Princes vvisedome should proceed from good Counsell For if the Prince bee not vvise of himselfe hee cannot bee vvell counselled For as much as if hee bee counselled by one alone in the administration of his affaires hardly shall hee find a man of requisit honestie and sufficiencie vvell to counsell him and although hee should find one of such qualitie there were danger that hee would take away his estate For to dominier and reigne there is no honestie or vertue that can keepe in the ambition of men And if an unwise Prince take counsell of many hee must euer make his account to haue discordant and contentious counsels and opinions vvhich hee can never accord nor reconcile in the meane vvhile every one of his Counsellers vvill seeke his particular profit vvithout that the Prince can know or remedie it AT the first shew this Maxime seemeth to haue some appearance of truth but when it shall be well examined a man shall find it not only nothing true but also that it is pernitious and of wicked consequence I am well contented to presuppose that it is very true and certaine That there cannot come a better and Of a wise Prince of himselfe more profitable thing to a people and Commonweale than to haue a Prince wise of himselfe therefore said Plato That men may call that an happie Commonweale when either the Prince that raineth there can play the Philosopher or els when a Philosopher commeth to raigne there that is to say in one word when the Prince is of himselfe wise and prudent For in old time that name Philosopher was taken for a person full of wisedome and science not for a dreaming unsociable man as he is commonly taken at this day Of old that name of Philosopher was attributed for a title of great honour unto the Emperour Marcus Antonius who in truth was a good and a wise Prince But to verifie that which I say it is not needful to alledge many reasons for it is evident inough That the felicitie of a publick estate lieth wholly in well commanding well obeying whereupon resulteth and ariseth an harmonie and concordance so melodious and excellent that as well he that commandeth as he that obeieth do both receive contentment pleasure and utilitie But to obey well dependeth wholly of well commanding and it cannot be without it So well commanding dependeth of the prudence and wisdome of him that commandeth Therefore the Emperour Seuerus being Spartianus in Seuero in warres and his sonne Bassianus with him and being caried in a Litter because he had the Gout as he saw his soldiors discontented and mutinous and would needs have Bassianus his sonne their Cheefetaine he caused all the Army but especially his Colonels Captaines and Corporals to be called and to assemble in one place and after having made unto them some Remonstrance and Oration hee caused straight to be executed to death all the heads of that mutinie After he spoke thus to all the Armie Now know ye that it is the head and not the feet which commandeth you And indeed and truth the good commanding proceeds from the prudence and wisdome of him that commandeth which remaineth and hath his being not in the feet nor armes but in a brave mind wel staied and governed which is aided and helped with a good naturall towardnesse a mature and ripe age and experience And the Prince which can well command shall also vndoubtedly be well obeyed For a prudent commaundement draweth after it withall an obedience because a wise Prince will alwayes advise to found his commandements in Reason and Iustice and to the publicke utilitie not to his owne pleasure by which meanes they that are to obey shall as it were be constrained by the force of reason and equitie and drawne also by the sweetnesse of the profit to yeeld obedience But if some by these meanes cannot be induced to obey as there are alwayes some amongst many they will be brought thereunto either by the example of such as let themselves be overcome with reason and publicke utilitie or els by punishment which is in the Princes hand He that will shew this by pluralitie of examples That prudent Princes haue alwayes been well obeyed and that their kingdomes and countries haue been happy and full of all prosperitie should never haue done but I will content my selfe to alledge only two Salomon was a King most wise and a great Philosopher for he asked wisdome of God and he gaue it him in such abundance that besides that he was 1. Kings 4. 10. 1. Chron 9. ignorant of nothing which a Prince should know well to governe his subjects yet knew he the natures of Plants and living creatures and was so cunning in all kind of Philosophie that his knowledge was admired through the world This his prudence and wisdome made him so respected of all the great Kings his neighbours that they esteemed themselues happie that they could doe him pleasure and might have his amitie By this meanes hee maintained his kingdome in so high and happie a peace that in his time his subjects made no more account of silver than of stones they had such store And as for himselfe he held so magnificall an estate that we read not of any King or Emperor that did the like Charles the wise king of France comming to the Crowne found the kingdome Frossard lib. 1. cap. 132. in great confusion and calamitie For all Guienne part of Normandie Picardie were occupied by the Englishmen he saw he had K. Edward of England the third of that name his adversarie who was one of the most happie and most valiant princes that ever was in England and who certain yeares before had obtained two great victories in Fraunce the one at the journey of Crecy against K. Philip de Valoys where France lost eleuen Princes twelue hundred Gentlemen