knowing that this point alone by necessary consequence draws after it the ruine of the Catholick Religion in France and thâ— establishment of their impiety which could not take footing where the Throne of St. Peter is reverenced as it ought to be And not to touch any thing here but what is most to our purpose What likelihood is there to think that the Head of the Christian Church would in part assist or consent to the ruine and destruction of this most Christian Crown What good could he expect and what misfortune ought he not to fear from thence Although this is the principal calumny wherewith they have laboured to make you abhor the name and holy memory of the late Popes howbeit they swerved not at all from the footsteps of their Predecessors whose sollicitousness for this Kingdom you were wont not long since with reason to commend as also the acknowledgment which they rendred for so many so signal enterprises atchieved by the most Christian Kings with most singular piety liberality and valour for the benefit of the holy See and to omit more ancient examples you cannot so soon have forgotten with what applause and thanks you received the notable supplies which were sent against the Hereticks from Pius Quintus of happy memory to Charles the Ninth then your King Can you then now accuse that in his Successor which you approved in him Heresie is still the same still pernicious cursed execrable and it is against that Infernal Monster that the Vicars of Christ and the Successors of St. Peter not to transgress in the duty of their Office do wage mortal War and not against the Catholick Kings and Kingdoms to whom they are Fathers and Pastors It is against it that withoâ—t exception of persons they do no less justly than wholsomly employ the Sword of Supreme Jurisdiction which our Lord Jesus hath put into their hand to cut off the festred putrified Members from the body of the Church to the end that their contagion might not be pestiferous and mortal to the rest which nevertheless they do as late as they can mildness and fatherly pity still going before in the Office of Sovereign Judge so that their rigour never chastiseth any but those that are incorrigible But if you please to turn your eyes upon other Countries or rather without going out of your own Kingdom to consider what usage it hath ever received from the holy Apostolick See you will find that since the combustion kindled in it by Heresie which still continues to consume it no Pope hath omitted any thing that he ought or could do to help to quench it The good intelligence which they have ever held with your Kings and the continual assistance which they have always given them of men and other means and the frequent sending of Legats hither do sufficiently shew the zeal they have ever had for the tranquillity repose and conservation of this most noble State Nor were their actions ever suspected or ill interpreted by you while as true Catholicks and Frenchmen you desired rather to give the Law to Hereticks than to take it from their hand You have always found them to be such as need required till these late days that by your discords and connivence you have suffered Heresie to gather such footing upon you that now it no longer demands favour of impunity from you as it was wont but begins it self now as every one knows to punish those who more careful of their Salvation refuse to submit themselves unto their yoke A strange unhappy revolution which makes you detest that as a most hainous crime which you your selves have taught others to be a rare and excellent vertue and which on the contrary makes you to crown vice which you ought still as in former times you have done to condemn unto the fire See what the deadly poison of Heresie can do from whose touch so many other absurdities and contradictions are bred which you would not deny to be spread amongst you if you would lay your hands upon your hearts For to go about to maintain that the priviledges of the Gallique Church extend so far as to permit that a relapsed Heretick and one excluded from the Body of the Universal Church should be acknowledged King is the dream of a mad-man which proceeds from nothing else but heretical contagion And from the same original we may likewise say have sprung all the sinistâ—r interpretations which have been made of the actions and intentions of our holy Fathers But let us see a little whether those of the late Pope Sixtus Quintus which are expresly declared by his Bulls concerning the business of the most illustrious Cardinal Gaetano's Legation can in any part be calumniated That Cardinal was sent by the aforesaid Pope of happy memory into this Kingdom not as a Herald or King at Arms but as an Angel of Peace not to shake the foundations of this State nor to alter or innovate any thing in its Laws or Policy but to help to maintain the true ancient Roman Catholick Apostolick Religion to the end that all Catholicks being united together for the service of God the publick good and the conservation of the Crown with a mutual unanimous consent might with security and repose obey and yield themselves subject to one only Catholick and lawful King Now as these intentions were pious and directed toward the common safety so can it not be denied but that the effect and execution of them hath been endeavoured as well by the said Pope Sixtus as by Cardinal Gaetano not perhaps with that severity which according to some mens judgments had been necessary but with all the mildness clemency and charity that could be desired from a most loving Father towards his dearest Children No sooner was that wise Legat entred into the Kingdom but to begin to lay his hand in good earnest to the work he addressed himself at his first arrival to all those whom he believed he should find so much the more disposed to shew him all favour in the administration of his Charge by how much greater were their obligations and means to do it he sent some Prelats purposely unto them to confer particularly about what might concern the fruit of his Legation those men as also all the Archbishops Bishops Prelats Lords Gentlemen and others with whom he treated or caused to be treated during his Legation and to whom he wrote about this matter can give testimony whether he ever exceeded the limits of his Commission and how much he always protested that his Holiness had no other aim nor design than to maintain and defend the Catholick Religion and to conserve this Crown entire for the lawful Catholick Successors that were capable of it But if by the same means he complained that having as it were forgotten not only the singular Piety and Religion of your Ancestors but the conservation and together with it the reputation of your Country and which is worse
that the Conference should be accepted and upon the Fourth day of March they framed an Answer to the Catholicks of this Tenor. WE have seen some few days ago the Letter which was written to us and sent by a Trumpet in your Name which we could wish came from you with such zeal and affection as you were wont before these last miseries to bear to the preservation of Religion and with such respect and observance as is due to the Church our Lord the Pope and the holy Chair we should for certain quickly be agreed and united together against the Hereticks nor would other Arms be longer necessary for us to beat down and break in pieces these new Altars which are set up against ours and to hinder the establishment of Heresie which because it hath been tolerated or rather honoured with reward and recompence when it should have been punished is not contented now adays to be received and accepted but will become Mistriss and domineer imperiously under the Authority of an Heretick Prince And though that Letter name no body in particular nor is subscribed by any of those whose names it bears and that we therefore are uncertain who sent it us or rather certain that it was done at the suggestion of others the Catholicks not having in the place where you are that liberty which is necessary to bear deliberate and resolve with the counsel and judgment of their conscience any of those things which our misery and the common safety require yet should we not have so long delayed to make answer to it had it not been that we stayed expecting to have the Assembly fuller and increased by a good number of persons who were upon the way to come unto it of whom the greater part being arrived out of a doubt that our so long silence may be calumniated We do it this day without deferring it to another in expectation of the rest who are yet to come And we declare first of all That we have all sworn and promised to God after having received his most precious Body and the blessing of the holy See by the hands of the Cardinal-Legat that the scope of all our counsels the beginning means and end of all our actions shall be to secure and preserve the Roman Catholick Apostolick Religion wherein we will live and die Truth it self which cannot lye having taught us that by seeking the Kingdom and Glory of God before all other things temporal blessings shall be added thereunto among which in the first place after Religion we put the conservation of the State entire and hold that all other means of hinderance ruine and destruction grounded only upon humane wisdom smell of impiety are unjust contrary to duty and the profession we make to be good Catholicks and without likelihood of ever having any good success And we being freed from those accidents and dangers whâ—â—h good men foresee and fear by reason of the mischiefs Heâ—esie produceth will not reject any counsel which may help to diminish our miseries or bring them to an end For we acknowledge and are but too sensible of the calamities which Civil War brings forth and have no need of any body to shew us our wounds but God and men know who are the authors of them It sufficeth us to say we are trained up and instructed in the Doctrine of the holy Church nor can our Souls and Consciences have repose and tranquillity nor taste any happiness while they are in fears and jealousies of losing Religion whose danger can neither be dissembled nor avoided if men continue as they have begun Thence it is that judging as you do that our reconciliation is most necessary we seek it with a truly Christian charity and pray and conjure you in the Name of God to grant it us Nor let the blames and upbraidings which the Hereticks cast upon us any way hinder you As for ambition which they publish to be the cause of our taking up of Arms it is in your power to see us within and discover whether Religion be the cause or pretence leave you the Hereticks whom at the same time you both follow and detest If we lift up our hands to Heaven to give God thanks if we be disposed and ready to follow all good counsels to love you to honour you to yield you that respect and service that shall be due to you then praise us as honest men who have had the courage to despise all dangers for the preservation of Religion nor have wanted integrity and moderation to forbear the thought of any thing that is against honour and reason but if the contrary happen then accuse our dissimulation and condemn us as wicked persons by so doing you will set both Heaven and Earth against us and make our Arms fall out of our hands as conquered or leave us so weak that the Victory over us will be without danger and without glory In the mean time blame the mischief of Heresie which is known to you and rather fear that canker that devours us and every day gets ground than a vain imaginary Ambition when there is no such thing or if there be it will be left alone and poorly attended when it shall be deprived of the cloak of Religion It is likewise a calumny to accuse us that we bring Strangers into the Kingdom it is necessary either to lose Religion with our Honours Lives and Estates or else to oppose the force of the Heretick whom nothing can please but our ruine and therefore we are constrained to make use of them since your Arms are against us They are the most holy Fathers and the most holy See that have sent us relief and though many have been called to that supreme Dignity since these last troubles yet have there not been one of them who hath changed his affection towards us a most certain testimony that our cause is just It is the Catholick King a Prince allied and confederate to this Crown only powerful now adays to maintain and defend Religion who hath likewise helped us with his forces and powers yet without any other reward or recompence but the glory which so good a work hath justly acquired him Our Kings against the Rebellion of Hereticks and in the like necessity have had recourse to them we have followed their example without entring into any Treaty prejudicial to the State or to our reputation though our necessity hath been much greater than theirs Rather set before your eyes that the English who assist you to establish Heresie are the ancient Enemies of the Kingdom who yet bear the title of that usurpation and have their hands imbrued in the innocent blood of an infinite number of Catholicks who have constantly suffered death for the service of God and the Church Cease likewise to hold us guilty of High Treason because we will not obay an Heretick Prince whom you call our natural King and have a care that bending your eyes to
c. 367 Secretary Villeroy and Duke d'Espernon fall into such a discord as in process of time produces many evil effects 280. foments a Conspiracy at Angolesme against the Duke by a secret Order from the King 356. goes over to the League where the Duke of Mayenne will not let the King speak with him who desired it 412. he dissuades the Duke of Mayenne from causing himself to be made King 114. treating with the King at Melun persuades him to turn Catholick 454 Secretary Pinart Governor of Chasteau Thierry brings all his Goods into it treats a Composition with the Duke of Mayenne for Twenty thousand Crowns and renders it 497 Sieur de Baligni in necessity at Cambray Coins Copper-money 640. makes composition with the King upon large Conditions 652 Sieur de Monthelon made Lord-Keeper 357 Sieur de Vins receives a Musquet-shot at Rochel to save Henry III. 151. he and the Countess de Seaux conclude to give the Supâ—riority of Provence to the Duke of Savoy c. 483. repenting himself begins to disfavour the Duke of Mayenne's designs though he wrote resentingly to him 484 Skyt-gate what it is 524 T. TAvennes vid. Viscount Tercera Islands 244 A kind of Toleration permitted to the Hugonots 46 Toquesaint an Alarum-Bell used as the Ringing of Bells backward with us 72 Henry de la Tour Viscount de Turenne marries Charlotte de la Mark Hâ—ir to the Dutchy of Bouillon 511 Tours taken by the Kings Army at the first Assault 70. an Interview there between the Most Christian King and the King of Navarre 397. made the Head-quarters Henry IVs. Party 416. is there acknowledged King of France by Publick Solemnity Page 427 Triumvirate vid. Union A Treaty of Agreement between Henry IV. and the Duke of Mayenne 436. Treaty propounded the L gat and Cardinal Gonde meet the Marquis of Piâ—ani but nothing concluded 465 A â—ruce made for two months in the new King Henry IIIs absence 205. Truce propounded to the Duke of Mayenne who refuses it 388. concluded for a year between the Most Christian King and King of Navarre 391. concluded for four Leagues about Paris and as much about Surenne 600. for three months making first a Decree for receiving the Council of Trent 614. prolonged for two months 624 V. VALois see Crown and House Anthony of Vendosme of the House of Bourbon that was Father to Henry IV. marrieth the Daughter of the King of Navarre by whom he inherits the pretensions of the Kingdom 10 Vendosme taken by the League by agreement with the Governor 397. taken by Henry IV. who gives the Pillage to the Soldiers condemns the Governor for his Infidelity and Father Robert a Franciscan for commending the killing of Henry III. 426 Veedor-General is Commissary-General c. 235 Verdun the first City taken by the League 265 In Victory moderation more profitable than at another time 455 De Vins vid. Sieur Viscount de Tavenne's error in drawing up his divisions of his Horse 445. Governor of Rouen but not liking him an Insurrection there 504. defeated and taken Prisoner going to put relief into Noyen 506 Viscount de Turenne obtains assistance of Queen Elizabeth of England the Hollanders and Protestant Princes of Germany for Henry IV. 486. brings him German Supplies 512 Union of the King of Navarre Duke of Guise and the Constable called by the Hugonots the Triumvirate 52. opposed by Queen Catharine 53 Holy Union a Decree so called made to combine themselves for defence of Religion 379. its Council consisting of forty of the chiefest persons of the League 384 W. WAR with Spain breaks out against Charles IX his will 178. between the Catholicks and the Hugonots 288. against the League begun by the Duke of Monpensier 394 Civil War the Incendiaries thereof are persons of desperate fortunes 59 Wolphangus of Bavaria aids the Hugonots with Fourteen thousand men 144 A Woman kills eighteen German Soldiers with a Knife 328 A Writing set forth by the Legat to keep the League on foot 630 Y. YEar begun is taken for the Year ended in matters of favour 90 Z. ZEalots in Religion and men disaffected to the Government compose the Catholick League 251 FINIS The Franconians a people of Germany not being able to subsist in their own Country issue out in armed multitudes and possess themselves of the Gallia's Pharamond chosen first King of the French at the river Salâ— and the Salique Law established The Salii Priests 419. The Franks began to invade the Gallia's in the year 419. being then possessed by the Romans Clodian the second King made himself Master of Belgia and this was first conquered Meroue the third King continues his Conquests as far as Paris and unites the two Nations into one Princes of the Blood The Assembly of the States hath the power of the whole Kingdom The pre eminencies of the Royal Family Inheritance and Administration The Royal races The Meroue Caroli Capetts and Valois St. Lewâ—â— the Ninth The Crown continued in the House of Valois thâ—ee hundred years 1515. The House of Bourbon being next to the Crown and grown to a monstrous greatness was hated kept under and suppressed by the Kings Francis the first advanceth Charles of Bourbon and afterwards suppresseth him whereupon he rebâ—lleth The House of Momorancy descends from one of those who issued out of Franconia with the first King Pharamond and pretends to be the first that received Baptism Anne de Momorancy after the death of Bourbon made High Constable The House of Guise descended from that of Lorain reckons in the male-line of their ancestors Godfrey of Bullen King of Ierusalem and shews a pedigree from a daughter of Chaâ—les the Grâ—at Anne of Moâ—erancy and the Duke of Guise fall into disgrace with King Francis 1547. Momorancy and Guise are recalled to the management of the affairs by Henry the Second Emulation between the Constable and the Duke of Guise The three brothers of Guise made absolute administrators of the politick and military Government by reason of their alliance with the Dolphin Antony of Vendosme of the House of Bourbon he that was father to Henry the 4th marrieth the daughter of the King of Navarre by whom he inherits the pretensions of that Kingdom The birth of Henry the 4th Dec. 13. 1554 in the Territory of Paw in theViscounty of Bearâ—â— a Free State 1559. Henry the 2d killed in a Tournament by Montgomery Francis the 2d his Son being 16 years old succeeds to the Crown TheObsequies of King Henry the Second last 33 days The King by the perswasion of his wife commits the management of the affairs to his Mother the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorain The causes of the Constables disgrace at Court and his exclusion from the affairs The Constable retires the second time from the Court. Francis Olivier the High Chancellor and the Cardinal of Tournon are recalled the second time to the Court. Secret Assembly of the Princes of Bourbon and
the Duke of Nevers unto the Assembly he caused them to propose that it being requisite to make War with powerful Armies against those that were disobedient to the Catholick Church great sums of money were also necessary and that therefore the Kings Treasury being exhausted he desired the States to assist him with two millions of Ducats to maintain the vast expences of War which none ought to refuse since they had all solemnly taken the Oath of the League and thereby obliged themselves to contribute their Fortunes in common at which demand the Deputies for the City of Paris not being present because some were indisposed and the rest gone home to elect the Prevost des Merchands the chief Officer of that City and therefore Iean Bodin being President of the Order of Commons and knowing all that burthen was to be laid upon the people rose up and answered That the Third Estate had always propounded and protested to desire unity in Religion and the reducing of those that went astray but without the noise of Arms and War and that if they looked into the Records of the Assembly they should find those very words formerly expressed in the Vote of the Commons which he had caused to be registred and that since they had not consented to the War neither were they bound to contribute to the expences of it to satisfie the fantastical humours of some of the Deputies and consume their own Estates to renew the yet bleeding wounds of the Kingdom to which speech of his not only the other Orders but the Clergy themselves assented who having sworn that in words which they were not so forward to perform in actions and desiring no less than the rest to ease themselves of those contributions wherewith all of them were equally wearied and burthened the ardour and constancy of those began to waver who had so readily resolved upon a War at the charge and danger of other men whereupon the King turning his sail according to the wind the next day he himself propounded to the Deputies That since they thought the charges of War so grievous a burthen they should patiently expect the Duke of Montpensier and Monsieur de Byron sent by him to the King of Navarre to procure his conversion in a friendly and peaceable manner with which motion notwithstanding the opposition of many the major part of the Deputies were contented Not many days after the Duke of Montpensier returned and being brought into the Assembly by the Kings command related in order all that had passed in his Negotiation and in substance shewed them that the King of Navarre being most desirous of the Peace of the Kingdom would be contented with such reasonable conditions as cutting off all exorbitant superfluous matters which were granted in the last Edict might moderate and compose all differences without putting themselves upon the necessity of a War and gave almost assured hopes that he himself though he would not give occasion to have it thought that he turned Catholick by compulsion might yet in time condescend to alter his opinion and make a happy conclusion of all things which relation coming from the Duke who was of the Blood-Royal Brother-in-law to the Duke of Guise and always partial to the Catholicks wrought such an effect in the minds of all as encouraged Iean Bodin and others of the Order of Commons again to try the way of agreement with express protestation that unity in Religion ought to be procured without War Which Vote being some days stiffly opposed and as constantly maintained was at last carried and a Writing drawn up in the Name of the States beseeching the King to endeavour an unity in Religion by peaceful means and without the necessity of War which being propounded by the King himself in his Council the opinions concerning it were diverse for the Duke and Cardinal of Guise the Duke of Mayenne the Duke of Nevers and others were against the proposition of the States alledging that the end they aimed at could not be obtained without the extirpation of the Hugonots who were up in Arms and moreover had already renewed the War and affirming that last proposition of the Deputies to be artificially contrived and extorted whereas the first had been voluntarily and generally agreed on and the Oath taken in approbation of the League which was directly contrary to the present proceedings But the Queen-Mother the Duke of Montpensier the Mareschal de Cosse Monsieur de Byron the High Chancellour Byâ—ago Morvillier Chiverny Bellieure and Villeclaire with the major part of the Council being of the contrary opinion alledged that there were many other means though such as required more time to bring those that were out of the way home into the bosom of the Church and that to destroy so much people would exceedingly weaken the Kingdom and bring it again into the late miseries and dangers Wherefore it was concluded that the Duke of Montpâ—â—sier should return to the King of Navarre to know his last answer concerning his conversion and reconciliation to the Church and the setling of a lasting reasonable Peace In the mean time many other things were debated in the Assembly about the rule of justice the ordering of the Finances the payments of debts and the reformation of manners among which matters some of the Prelats moved that the Council of Trent might be received and observed but the Deputies of the Nobility and those of the Commons opposed it stoutly with which the major part of the Clergy concuring for the conservation as they said of the priviledges of the Gallique Church and such as had been granted to it by several Popes it was at last resolved that it should pass no further The Heads of the Catholick League and their followers omitted not to seek some way of restraining the Kings power and propounded that his Council might be reduced to the number of four and twenty Counsellors which should not be chosen at the Kings pleasure but by every Province of the Kingdom as is the custom in other States But this motion being made but coldly and stifly opposed by many as contrary to the anâ—ient constitutions and all former precedents it was in the end cast ouâ— â—est the mention of it should too much exasperate the King With these deliberations not only ambiguous and uncertain but also opposite and disagreeing among themselves the Congregation of the States broke up which having neither concluded Peace nor War the King was left free to do what pleased himself who having happily though not without much pains and industry overcome the conspiracies of the League was in good measure confirmed in the resolution of his first designs having not only increased his inward hatred toward the House of Guise but found by experience his own weakness and the too great power of their Faction Wherefore being resolved to establish Peace because both parties were nourished and fomented by the War he first of all put the Bishop of
his life This Counsel prevailed with the Duke of Mayenne as well for these considerations as for two other reasons one that Don Bernardino de Mendozza the Spanish Ambassador did in a manner openly contradict his election wherefore by reason of the Authority and Forces of the Catholick King he thought it would be impossible to effect that which he should attempt against his will the other that if it should be discovered that he suffered himself to be swayed by his own interests and not by the respects of Religion and the general good he feared he should be forsaken by the Pope and all the Confederates and particularly by the Parisians For which reasons he chose rather to expect the maturity of time and in the interim to cause the Cardinal of Bourbon to be declared King towards whom he saw the common inclination bent and leaving the Name and Arms of King to him that was old weak and which imported most a prisoner to keep the force and authority of Government in his own hand being certain that by how much the more favourably he should he nominated and elected by the League by so much the more closely and warily would he be kept and guarded by the King of Navarre and by consequence so much the longer would the supreme authority remain in him in which time either by his death or some other occasion and perhaps by the help of Victory more easie and expedite opportunities might offer themselves hope in the mean time serving to spur on the other pretenders whose assistance would either be quite taken away or very much cooled if they should see that place possessed at the very first which they were plotting to procure for themselves Thus the Duke preventing the peoples desire and the Council of the Vnion was the first that declared the Cardinal of Bourbon King of France with the Name of Charles the Tenth and so caused him to be declared in the Parliament in the Council of the Vnion and to be proclaimed in the streets of Paris retaining to himself the name and authority of Lieutenant-General through the whole Kingdom This Declaration was pleasing and plausible to the people who were thereby well setled and confirmed to continue the War as they said for the liberty of their King and to root out the seed of Heresie it was well approved of by the Spaniards who desired to gain time to dispose of their affairs but above all it was a great satisfaction to the Pope who in the same point saw both the lawful Succession safe and the preservation of Religion The Cardinal of Bourbon being declared the lawful King by the Council of the Vnion the Duke of Mayenne by a lofty Edict full of high words exhorted every one to acknowledge that King which God had given unto the Kingdom to yield him due obedience and to endeavour with all their might to free him from that imprisonment in which he was detained by his Enemies he commanded that every one should tye himself by Oath before the Officers of his Province to live and die in the Catholick Religion and to defend protect and confirm it and pardoned all those who within the term of fifteen dayes should separate themselves from commerce with the Hugonots and retire into those places where the Catholick Vnion commanded Which Edict as soon as it was registred and published in the Parliament he dispatched the Commendatory de Diu to Rome again who had brought the Monitory against the late King to inform the Pope of the state of Affairs giving him notice that King Charles the Tenth was declared and intreating him to assist the cause of Religion not only by his approbation but also by supplies of men and money Into Spain he only dispatched a great many several expresses with particular news of the whole business deferring to send any persons of quality till he had conferred with Don Iuan de Morrea who having been sent by King Philip before the King's death he had notice was at that time in Lorain For the Catholick King though he had not been willing openly to declare himself Enemy to King Henry the Third to whom he in appearance bore respect for many reasons yet as from the beginning he had laid the foundation of the League and helped and strengthned the Duke of Guise with great sums of money so after his death he had caused Mendozza his Ambassadour to stay in Paris and there under colour of favouring Religion cunningly to be present at all businesses who by his arts and money had so won the hearts of the Parisians that he had as much power amongst them as the Princes of the House of Lorain and though the Catholick King did never send any supplies of armed men openly to the League while the King lived yet he permitted that Count Iago de Collalto who had raised a Tertia of German Infantry for his service and which was paid by him should under shew of friendship to the Duke of Mayenne go to serve him and had by his authority and partly with moneys assisted the leavies of Swisses and Germans which the Duke of Brunswick Count Charles of Mansfelt and the Sieur de Bossompierre had made in favor of the League But now the Kings death had taken away that scruple and that so honourable a pretence of assisting the Catholicks against an Heretick excommunicated King presented it self the Duke of Mayenne hoped he would turn all his Forces to assist the League and therefore he staid to hear his mind more particularly from the mouth of Don Iuan de Morrea and then he meant to send some person of Authority to establish the agreement of common affairs But the King having heard of the Declaration which had been made at Paris and received in other places of the League concerning the Cardinal his Uncle the first thing that came into his mind was just as the Duke of Mayenne had imagined to dispatch his Confident du Plessis-Mornay to Chinon where the Cardinal was and give order That he should be removed to Fontenay and there kept more carefully with stricter Guards thinking that place more secure because it was near Rochelle and invironed on all sides with the Hugonot Forces The second thing was to sollicite the Catholicks who had acknowledged him to send the Embassie already resolved on to Rome to begin to enter into a Treaty with the Pope and to see if it was possible to satisfie him Wherefore the Catholick Lords desiring that their Embassie might have authority both by the Birth and Wisdom of the person employed chose the Duke of Luxembourg a man of most noble Blood of singular parts and great experience in businesses of the Court The Embassie to the Pope being dispatched the King desirous to shew that he remembred what he had promised to the Catholicks caused the Assembly of the States to be appointed in October following at the City of Tours which the Parliament and Court of
which were Lorenzo Bianchetti and Philippo Sega who after were Cardinals Marc Antonio Mocenigo Bishop of Caneda a man well versed in affairs and highly esteemed by the Pope Francesco Panigarola Bishop of â—sti a Preacher of great renown and Roberto Bellarmino a Jesuite of profound and admirable Learning To the choice of these men the Pope added Bills of Exchange to the Merchants at Lyons for three hundred thousand Crowns with Commission to the Legat to dispose of them according to need and occasion but particularly to spend them for the Infranchisement of the Cardinal of Bourbon upon which he shewed his mind was fixed more than upon any other thought whatsoever But this so ardent resolution was cooled in the very beginning and the Pope was put in doubt by Letters that arrived from the Duke of Lâ—â—cembourg wherein he gave him notice that by the French Nobility who in a very great number followed and acknowledged the King of Navarre to be the legitimate King of France he was chosen Ambassador to his Holiness and the Apostolick See to inform him of the causes which had moved the minds of all good French-men to that acknowledgment and to require from him as from a common Father the proper means and remedies for the Peace and Union of the whole Kingdom By which Letters the Pope did not only find that what the Agents of the League had represented unto him was vain viz. That the major part of the Kingdom was joined to the party of the Union and that only a few desperate persons followed the King of Navarre but he also conceived some hopes that by the way of Pacification an end might be put to the miseries and discords of the Kingdom those that were gone astray might be reduced into the bosom of the Church and his aim of having a lawful Catholick French King might be attained without submitting the afflicted people of France any longer to new dangers and calamities of an obstinate War Wherefore being also excited by the diligent informations which were given unto him by the Venetian Ambassadours intent upon the preservation of the Crown of France he returned favourable Answers to the Duke of Luxembourg and the French Nobility which were in the Kings Camp assuring him that he should be well respected and kindly received and exhorting them to persist constantly in the Catholick Religion as in their Letters which came with the Dukes they asserted they would do and that they would continue it even to the effusion of their blood And yet the Agents of the League especially Frison Dean of Rheims lately sent thither by the Duke of Mayenne urging him not to delay the Legats expedition for that these were artifices of the King of Navarre to take him off and gain the benefit of time he dispatched the Legat towards France but with Instructions very different from his first designs For whereas before all the endeavours tended to the confirmation and freeing the Cardinal of Bourbon now passing over his name in silence the design was only to re-unite by any means whatsoever the Catholicks under the obedience of the Church and establish a Catholick King to the general liking without naming the person To these Commissions set down in a Writing dated the Fifteenth of October were added particular express Advertisements to the Cardinal Legat to shew himself no less neutral and dis-interessed in the Secular Pretensions of the Princes than most ardent and zealous concerning Religion and not to value one person more than another provided he were a French-man obedient to the Church and generally liked by the Kingdom Nay more at his last coming to receive Instructions the Pope added and repeated it effectually that he should not shew himself an open Enemy to the King of Navarre so long as there was any hope that he might return into the bosom of the Church But these Advertisements were very contrary to the principal scope of the Embassie which was to uphold the Catholick party of the League as the foundation of Religion in that Kingdom a thing often repeated in his Instructions and which was always the aim from the beginning but which the Pope pretended to have altered in his last directions so that the substance of the business changed in the variety of circumstances as it often happens did so disturb the execution that it was afterwards governed more by the diversity of accidents than by any firm determinate resolution The Advertisements of Cardinal Moresini differed not much from the Popes Instructions for being met by the Legat Gaetano in the City of Bolognia he as vers'd in the interests of the Kingdom gave the Legat a particular account of the intentions of Spain of the pretensions of the Duke of Mayenne of the weakness of the League composed of various different humours and of the Kings Forces which had more secure foundation in the concurrence of the major part of the Nobility than the party of the Union had in the conspiracy of the common people The same was told him at Florence by Ferdinando Great Duke of Thuscany who being perfectly informed of the interests which were on foot in the Kingdom of France perswaded him to keep himself Neuter and not to refuse those overtures of Agreement which might be with the profit of the Catholick Religion and the reputation of the Pope But both the advice of Cardinal Moresini and the Great Dukes counsel were suspected by the Legat doubting that the one sought to make him fall into the same faults whereof he was accounted guilty in the Court of Rome and that the other did not counsel him sincerely Wherefore as a man bent with severity to sustain the greatness and power of the Church and accustomed to the affairs of Italy where the Popes authority by the piety of the Nation and the nearness of the Princes is held in high veneration he firmly perswaded himself that by the meer terrour of Spiritual Arms he should keep all the Catholicks at his devotion and excluding the King of Navarre make a King to be declared and obeyed wholly depending upon the Apostolick See and neerly joyned and obliged to the Crown of Spain to which both by his ancient breeding and the new practices of the Conde de Olivares the Spanish Ambassador at Rome he was infinitely inclined He was the more confirmed afterwards in this his thought that all ought to depend upon his Authority when being arrived at Turin he saw that the Duke of Savoy did with exquisite terms of submission intreat him as one that might dispose of matters at his pleasure to consider his right to the Crown of France as born of Margaret Sister to King Henry the Second by whose right the course of the Salique Law having been formerly interrupted he alledged the Crown ought rather to be confirmed to him than to any other that in antient times had pretended title by the womans side and alledging his deserts to the Apostolick See since that
and Degrees of France to persevere in the Catholick Religion and labor by the glorious example of their Ancestors to extinguish and root up the evil of Heresie to cut off the occasions and roots of discord and that particular enmities and quarrels being finally buried and those fatal ruinous Civil Wars being laid down they should resolve to yield obedience to a lawful truly Catholick King and the Divine Worship being restored under his shadow and protection to live in charitable union and concord being in the mean time obliged to receive the Cardinal Legat with due reverence and to put in execution his fatherly admonitions thereby to reap besides temporal earthly fruits the divine heavenly benediction Two different Declarations followed upon the publication of this Breve one of the Parliament of Tours by which all persons were forbidden to obey or acknowledge the Legat the other of the Parliament of Paris by which all were exhorted to receive the fatherly love of the Apostolick See and to give due reverence to the Legat's Admonitions After which contrary Declarations learned men desiring to fight for their Factions in their way no less ardently then the Soldiers there came forth many Decrees of Parliament and infinite Writings of particular persons decisions of the Sorbonne Letters of the Legat Answers of those Prelates that followed the King's party and so great a quantity of Books spread abroad thorough all parts by curious men that it well appeared there was no Brain that laboured not nor Pen that writ not in the defence and confirmation of the Rights of each party but with so much pertinacy of Minds and Reasons all striking as it were at the mark of the coming and power of the Legat that it was an easie thing to consider how Spiritual arms wrested and interpreted divers ways in the heat and inconsiderateness of War were rather like to supply new fuel to the fire then to extinguish the flame already burning whereby Cardinal Gaetano within a few dayes perceived the falsity of his first opinion and that it had been better counsel to have staid neutral since that by coming to Paris he made himself Legat onely to one of the Factions which did not onely trouble him because it was very different from the mind and designs of the Pope but because he began also to know clearly the weakness and disorders of the League The affairs of the Vnion were at this time very doubtful and uncertain For the diversity of pretensions and the contrariety of the ends of the Confederates did as the custom is disturb the course of the enterprise and did not onely hold the deliberations of mens minds in suspence but also the effects and operations of common interests which by reason of the King's celerity and resolution had no need of delay The Duke of Mayenne Prince of the Faction and Head of the Enterprise who with the Authority of his Person the Prudence of his Government and his experience in War managed the weight of all things esteemed the reward which should result from the blood of his brothers and his own industry justly to belong unto himself and designed either to transfer the Crown upon himself and his own posterity as had hapned in the times of Pepin and Charles Martel or if that could not finally be obtained to confer it at least upon some Prince who should acknowledge it totally and absolutely from him Yet observing his wonted integrity and right intention he was resolved never to suffer that the Kingdom should in any manner be divided much less that it should fall into the hands of a Foreign Prince The King of Spain on the other side who from the beginning had secretly and now openly protected and fomented the League and who in late years had spent Two millions of Gold in the service of the Confederates and was fain now besides the maintaining of Horse and Foot to â—ontribute vast sums of money both in publick and private and who saw that without his Supplies which must be great and potent not onely the Enterprise could not succeed but also that the League could not so much as subsist but be speedily dissolved thought it more than reasonable and more than just that the expences and losses being his the fruits and profits should be so likewise and therefore besides a most secret hidden intention of uniting the two Crowns or to make that of France to come to his daughter the Infanta Isabella born of Queen Elizabeth Eldest sister to Henry the Third He sought also to be publickly declared Protector of the Crown of France with Royal pre-eminencies and authority to provide for the Offices of the Crown to chuse the Governors and Commanders in War to dispose of Prelatical dignities and to have the power belonging to a supream Prince and this was demanded and openly laboured for by his Agents who were Don Bernardino Mendozza the Commendatory Morrea Iuan Baptista Tassis Veedor General of his Armies who was newly come for that purpose from Flanders The Parisians who saw the foundation of the Faction consisted in them not onely by reason of the abundance of people and the power of the City but also of the continual Contributions from whence they derived the sinews of the War thought it belonged to them to dispose of the Crown And being ill-satisfied with the Duke of Mayenne because of his unprosperous success in the War both in that the Fauxbourgs seemed to have been lost by his delay and that through his want of diligence the City was in a manner besieged and in great scarcity of provisions they inclined to submit themselves to the will of the Spaniards hoping by means of their Forces utterly to destroy the King whose very name they hated bitterly to extirpate the Religion of the Hugonots whereof they naturally were enemies and by the Moneys of Spain to be eased of the intollerable burden of Contributions as the Catholick King 's Ministers went cunningly promising and bragging both in publick and private On the other side the Nobility who followed the party of the League and in whose hands were the Arms and Fortresses averse from submitting themselves to the Spanish dominion desirous of a French King and affectionate to or interessed with the House of Guise inclined to favour the Duke of Mayenne and following his Name and obeying his Command necessitated all the rest of their party to depend upon him and to order themselves by the motions of his will and the authority of his Government In the Parliament many were inclined to â—â—vour the King and desirous that he would turn to the Catholick Faith that they might acknowledge and obey him and universally the major part of the Counsellors were far from suffering either that the Kingdom should be divided or that it should come to a forraign Prince The Duke of Lorain from whom the League received no small increase of strength and reputation thought that the Kingdom
Forces to return and raise the siege which he was certain if they had but patience to suffer a little inconveniency would in the end prove vain and fruitless That in his stead he would leave his brother the D. of Nemours a youth of wonderful high courage and his Cousin the Chevalier d' Aumale to command the Soldiers and have care of the Military part of their defence and for other things the Cardinal-Legat and the Ministers of the Catholick King being there and seconded by the ardent zeal of the Council of Sixteen he could not doubt but all things would be managed with that prudence which need required That to shew how little he feared the City could fall into the Enemies hands and for a pledge of the speedy relief which he meant to make ready for them he would leave his Mother Wife Sister and Children in the City to bear part in that fortune which the Citizens should run That finally there being nothing else requisite but to perswade the people and resist the greediness of the belly he could not doubt of a happy issue with the exaltation of the League and total subversion of his enemies All of them commended his advice and the Heads of the people promised to keep united and constant in defending the place to the last man beseeching him onely to use all the speed he could possibly to prevent the extremities of the peoples sufferings who for Religion and in hope of his promises disposed themselves boldly to meet all those many weighty dangers which they saw hang over their heads The next day the Duke departed towards Picardy to meet with the D. of Parma General for the Catholick King in the Low-Countries knowing that to be the principal point and that if the Spaniards lent not their assistance in a considerable manner to him it would be a very difficult business to get a sufficient Army to raise the siege and relieve Paris and in the City they began with infinite diligence to repair the Walls to scowre the Moats to cast up Works to dispose their Artillery to arm the People and principally to provide whatsoever they possibly could against the imminent necessity of hunger In the mean time Manâ—e and Vernon had yielded themselves to the King since the Victory in which places he was constrained to stay longer than he intended for the extremity of ill weather and continual abundance of Rain had not onely overflowed the fields and made the wayes exceeding deep but had made it impossible to lie in the Field or march with Cannon and Baggage for men and horses could hardly save themselves and be secure within the shelter of houses In which time notice came to the King of another encounter which had happened in the Province of Auvergne near the Wall of Issoire where the Sieurs de Florat and Chaseron who were for him had routed and slain the Count of Randan who commanded for the League and with the death of about Two hundred of the Enemy had made themselves masters of the place Nor was it long before other news came from the Country of Mayne where Guy de Lansac who commanded the party of the League and the Sieur d' Hertre Governor of Alancon Head of the King's Forces charging one another had not altered the wonted event of things but Lansac Three hundred of his men being slain and the rest dispersed was fain to save himself by flight leaving the King's Forces master of the field in those parts These several disasters the news whereof came to Paris one upon the neck of another did much perplex the thoughts of those that governed but above all of the Cardinal-Legat upon whose shoulders lay the weight of all present affairs every one thinking that he as one that represented the Pope's person should in a cause wherein Religion was the principal object give supplies both of Men and Money for the relief of that adversity which the League was in at that time and the Duke of Mayenne complained publickly concerning it and wrote freely to the Pope that his backwardness to help so necessary a Cause was the principal occasion of all those evils The Spanish Ministers made the same lamentations being of opinion that the Legat was the cause the Catholick King was not satisfied in his demands and that while he neglecting his own businesses succoured the danger of Religion with Men and Money the Pope keeping his Purse close and nourishing ambiguous thoughts in his mind did neither send those necessary supplies which he had often promised nor consent to the satisfaction of the Catholick King who if his just demands had been yielded to would have employed his utmost Forces for the common benefit Nor were the Parisians backwarder in complaints than the rest who groaning under their present necessities and the extraordinary scarcity of provisions did importunately beg to be assisted by the Legat and relieved by the Pope since they did all and suffered all for the Catholick Faith and for the service of the Holy Church so that the Legat being surrounded by these troubles was in wonderful great anxiety of mind which was augmented to the extremity when he understood that by the Duke of Luxembourg's arrival and negotiation the Pope was almost utterly withdrawn from the designs of the League and moreover that he seemed ill satisfied at his being gone on to Paris and that he had not rather stayed in some neutral place as a disinteressed Mediatour between both parties and as a labourer for such a Peace as might be effected without danger or damage to the Catholick Religion The Duke of Luxembourg was gone to Rome with the name of Ambassador from the Catholicks that followed the King but indeed to see if he could reconcile the King himself to the Pope and to the Church and to take away those opinions which being spread abroad by those of the League were generally believed of him that he was an obdurate Heretick a persecutor of the Catholiks obstinate and disobedient to the Apostolick See and a perverse enemy to the Church Wherefore having first made a little stay at Venice to determine with that Senate what manner of proceeding was to be held all things being resolved on with most prudent advice he continued on his way boldly to Rome where having in his first audience by the dexterousness of his carriage introduced the Cause of the Catholicks into his discourse he excused them for following the King attributing it to be an advantage to the Catholick Religion not to abandon the lawful King in the hands of the Hugonots but to hold him on with protestations of service and win him by modest seasonable instances to return into the bosome of the Church which would absolutely have been despaired of if being forsaken by them he had been necessitated to have cast himself as a prey to Hereticks he began afterwards to let the Pope know those interests which under a cloke of Piety and under
the Eve of S t Iames the Apostle the whole Army being disposed in several places under their Commanders as the Clock struck three all the Fauxbourgs were assaulted at one time clapping a great number of Scaling-Ladders against the Works The Baron de Byron assaulted the Fauxbourg St. Martin the Sieur de Fervaques that of St. Denis Monsieur de St. Luc fell on that of Mont-Martre the Mareschal de Biron at St. Honore the Mareschal d' Aumont at St. Germain Monsieur de Lavardin near the Portes de Bussy and Nesle Monsieur de Chastillon assaulted St. Michael and St. Iaques the Prince of Conty and Duke de la Tremouille did the like at St Marceau and St. Victoire in such manner that being attacqued and stormed all at the same time the Defendents strove but in vain with their Cannon and Musket-shot from the Walls of the City for all the Suburbs were taken by the Army and the City and People thereby much more incommodated and streightned The Town of St. Denis was taken before this upon the seventh of Iuly in which siege the defendents having felt the same calamities capitulated at last to yield if within three dayes they received not relief from Paris or some other place which not being come to pass by reason of the weakness of the Parisians and the places near adjacent and because the King had obstructed all the Avenues sitting on Horseback himself Forty hours together they in the end gave up the Town marching out with their Arms and Baggage And the same did they who held the Castle of Dammartin on the lower part of the River So the whole Army being now set to streighten the City which had before been divided to besiege those two places the evil proved now without remedy there coming no certain news from any part that the Forces were upon their march to relieve them Wherefore though formerly they had refused to answer many of the Kings Letters in which promising them their lives and security for their consciences he exhorted them to desist from so great stubbornness and yielding up themselves to acknowledge and obey him for their Natural King yet now some Messages having passed between the Legat and the Marquiss of Pisani who had been Ambassador at Rome they were content at last to yield to some treaty of Peace but more with an intention to satisfie the people or to slacken the siege in some measure than with a thought of concluding any thing Wherefore due security being given and received the Legat and Cardinal of Gondy went tothe Hostel of Girolamo Gondy in the Fauxbourg St Germain whither a while after camethe Marquess of Pisani with others from the Camp but after a long discourse nothing was concluded for the Legat insisted to have the whole business remitted to the Pope's arbitrement and that there might be a Cessation of Arms till the Decision came from Rome and the Marquiss demanded to have the Parisians submit themselves unto the King's obedience who would afterwards give the Pope due satisfaction in point of Religion which things being so distant and so general could produce no conclusion at all of agreement The Legates return into the City without effect deluded the Peoples expectation and every one being afflicted at it increased the consideration of their present misery and of the certainty that they should lose their lives within a few dayes so that the cries and groans of the people not only filled all the streets but did also multiply the number of those who being overcome by the sharpness of their sufferings called out for Bread or Peace cries most frequent in the City especially in the night This beginning of insurrection was increased by the Sieur d' Andelot brother to Chastillon and some other Gentlemen of the King's party who being taken by the besieged in the skirmishes which were most frequent every day under the Walls and having liberty given them to go abroad upon their parole divulged among their friends and acquaintance the King's Clemency his readiness to pardon the liberty and security wherewith the Catholicks lived under his protection the respect he shewed toward the Catholick Religion his great strength which increased more and more every day wherewith he was resolved to meet their Succors and fight with them having assured hopes to beat them and to find the same facility he had done in the Battel of Yvry wherein the Forces of the League though intire and united were utterly dissipated by which instigations many already despairing of relief and drawn by their necessity inclined to try the so much commended clemency and faith of the Conqueror Whereupon there was like to be a very great insurrection of the People to force the Princes to a resolution of yielding and to make themselves masters of some gate and let in the King's Army which if it should have come to pass the Forces of the Soldiers and Citizens were so weakened by famine that it was thought they would have been able to make little resistance against the fury of the Enemy Wherefore the Parliament and Council being joyntly assembled in the Hall of St Lewis they resolved to appoint two Deputies that should go to treat with the King and if he permitted should pass on to the Duke of Mayenne and to take care not to yield up the City but if it were possible to include the particular agreement of the City in the union of the general Peace For this imployment they chose Cardinal Gondy and the Arch-bishop of Lyons being assured that neither of them would treat any thing that should be prejudicial to Religion and yet the Duke of Nemours rose up almost angry from the Council attesting he would maintain what he had sworn in the beginning of the siege and that he had resolved rather to die than yield the City into any other hands than his Brother's who had trusted him with it Nor did the Cardinal-Legat seem altogether ther pleased but said he permitted that Counsel by necessity but that he approved not of it and that having done and suffeâ—â—d so much they ought to have patience for a few days and expect the coming and issue of the relief which was ready to appear every hour But yet the Deputies went forth with safe conduct to the Abbey of St Anthoine des Champes half a mile without that Gate which is so called where they found the King with a great many Princes and Lords and among the rest the High-Chancellor Chiverny who having lived retired from the time that King Henry the Third dismissed him from the Court had a few dayes before been recalled by the King to execute his wonted Office in keeping the Seals The Deputies told the King that the Councel and Inhabitants of Paris moved to compassionate the miseries of the people of France which were the consequences of an obstinate Civil War had given them commission to come and treat with him and from
of Nemours and the Chevalier d' Aumale did use all possible means to keep them together The besieged finding themselves in this streight writ to the Duke of Mayenne for a final resolution that if they were not relieved within ten days it would be impossible for them to hold out and having done all that was possible they should be excused both before God and man if they took care of their own safety and the Dutchess of Mayenne wrote to her Husband to the same purpose conjuring him by his affection to their children that he should not suffer them to fall into the hands of so bitter an Enemy Which Letters being reing received by the Duke and being in no less perplexity of mind than the Parisians he united all his Forces together and advanced to Meaux ten leagues distant from Paris and dispatched the Marquiss Alessandro Malaspina to let the Duke of Parma know that if he made not haste with his Army all their labour would be lost the besieged not being able to hold out any longer and for assurance of it sent him the same Letters he had received There were with the Duke of Mayenne besides Quiroga's mutineers Capizucchi's Tertia and the Walloon Horse the Duke of Parma had given him six hundred Lanciers of the Duke of Lorain's commanded by the Count de Chaligny Brother to the Queen Dowager of France the French Infantry under Colonel St. Paul the Duke of Aumale with the Troop of Picardy the Marquiss de Menelay Monsieur de Balagny Governour of Cambray and the Sieur de Rhosne and de la Chastre with their Regiments and Attendents which in all amounted to the number of Ten thousand Foot and Two thousand and four hundred Horse With these Forces though he advanced as far as Meaux to be ready upon any occasion that should be offered and to put courage in the besieged by being so near yet he did not think them sufficient to be able to relieve or victual Paris because he knew the King by the addition of many supplies had under his Colours Six and twenty thousand Foot and more than Seven thousand Horse among which Five thousand were Gentlemen who bearing Arms only for Honour being well attended and gallantly mounted were esteemed by him both for their number and quality without comparison superiour and therefore he dispatched Letters and Messengers every hour to the Vice-Seneschal de Montelimar who resided for him near the Duke of Parma to the end that he might with all diligence sollicite his coming without which he thought it impossible to relieve the besieged The Duke of Parma having called a Council of War upon the first of August told them the Order he had received from the Catholick King to march with the whole Army into France and said That that resolution was contrary to his opinion alledging the Reasons for which he esteemed the enterprise to be of great danger and little advantage But since it had pleased the King their Master to command it so as he was resolved in that Expedition to imploy all those abilities God had given him so he prayed all the rest to apply their endeavours to the end that the Offices committed to their care might be discharged to the praise of God the Kings satisfaction and to their own honour And there having given every one his charge he commanded that the Army already drawn down together should be ready to march by the fourth of that month He writ to the Duke of Mayenne the certainty and time of his coming and gave the Parisians notice of the same attesting to them That for the only purpose of relieving them and for the maintenance of Religion the Catholick King neglecting his own Affairs sparing neither blood nor money and without those securities of strong Towns for Magazines of Arms and places of Retreat upon the Confines which are wont to be demanded and granted to the end that every one might know his candour in proceeding to be more lively and more real undertook that weighty enterprise which nevertheless he hoped by the help of God and the justice of the Cause to bring to an happy conclusion and with this Resolution his Army moved upon the Fourth of August toward Valenciennes The Marquiss de Ranti led the Van in the Battel with the Duke were the Princes of Ascoli Chasteau-bertrand and Chimay the Count de Barlemont the Count of Arambergh and many other Flemish Italian and Spanish Lords The Sieur de la Mothe Governour of Graveling commanded the Reer in which there were twenty pieces of Cannon two Bridges to be made upon Boats and all those other warlike instruments which are wont to be carried along in Royal Armies The Duke of Parma's Armies had ever been very well disciplined ready and accustomed to hardship punctual in obedience of commands and no ways given to pillage or plunder in a Friends Country And now knowing he was to enter into a Kingdom where the name of a Spaniard was generally hated by the people and that he was no less to govern suspicious minds ready to rise upon every slight occasion than to make War with a victorious Army and a wary compleat Souldier he was more careful than ever and strove with all possible diligence to keep his Souldiers from doing any injury using any violence or giving any cause of complaint unto the French He encamped always as if the Enemies Army had been close by him kept all his men together from stragling and orderly in their quarters he made careful discoveries and marched without confusion or tumult he came into quarters betimes in the evening and while they were disposed of and made defensible he caused the greater part of the Army to stand to their Arms he ordered strong Convoys to attend the Victual whereof he had made and did still make exceeding great provisions and yielding the honour and advantage in all things to the French strove to gain the love of the Nation to which end he having lived in Flanders among the Spaniards with retiredness and gravity equal to the humour of those with whom he conversed now being come into France he laid aside the state of Ante-chambers and the strict keeping of doors eat in publick kept a Table for the French Gentlemen and both in words and actions shewed himself wonderful affable and familiar And because in that multitude of Officers of note that were about him he resolved only to trust himself he would personally hear the relations of those parties that had been abroad to discover and scowr the ways himself would talk with Spies dispose the order of the Guards and hearken to all things appertaining to the discipline of his Army for which purpose watching all the night he only gave those few hours to sleep which past between the beating of the Keveille and the marching of his Army With this diligence marching gently not to tire out his men he came to Meaux ten
King put Monsieur de Sourdis in the Government to gratifie the High Chancellor upon whom he or as his Detractors said his Wife depended At the same time while the King was busied at the siege of Chartres the Duke of Mayenne being departed from Soissons with all his Forces and come to the Bois de Vincennes stood doubtful a good while whether he should venture the Army he had to relieve that place but those Forces that were sent for from many places not arriving time enough and knowing himself so much weaker that his advancing would have endangered the Army without hope of giving any relief to the besieged turned toward the way of Champagne where he had appointed the meeting of the Princes of Lorain and to keep up his reputation sate down before Chasteau-Thierry a great place well peopled and pleasantly seated but whereof no long defence was to be hoped for either in regard of the Walls of the Town or of the strength of the Castle The Governor was the Viscount de Comblesy Son to Secretary Pinart who besides his Wife and Children had also his Father and Mother and a great many Women shut up with him in the Castle who being all affrighted made a great stir and confusion though the defendants were sufficient to make it good for some dayes To this was added that the Father and the Son had brought into the Castle all their Plate Money and Housholdstuff which amounted to a great value and were above measure sollicitous for fear if the place should be sacked they might fall into the Enemies hands On the other side the Dukes Army had a desire not only to pillage the Town which was full of inhabitants but much more to plunder the Castle wherein the report was that there were inestimable riches by which hopes the Soldiers being encouraged and especially the strangers at their first arrival they bravely possessed themselves of the Suburbs frighting and confounding the heartless defendants with their resolution As soon as the Suburbs were taken the Cannons were planted without delay which having beaten down a good piece of the Wall the assault was given and though it was happily sustained till the evening yet it left the besieged without hopes of being longer able to defend the Town wherefore presently quitting it they retired the same night into the Castle At that the tumult increased and louder grew the cries of the Women who with their Prayers and importunities were the cause that Pinart sent a Trumpet for his old Colleague the Sieur de Villeroy who was in the Duke of Mayennes Camp to treat with him about some composition and yet having conferred together for two long hours they came not to any conclusion Wherefore no sooner was Villeroy gone out of the Castle but instantly the Cannon began to play the noise of which troubling not only the Ladies but even Pinart himself and also many others not accustomed to the trade of Arms the Sieur de Villeroy was sent for again the next morning who was met by Madam de Pinart with the other Ladies that were of her company kneeling upon the ground and beseeching him with tears to free them by a composition from falling into the power of the Soldiers and especially of strangers This sight moved even Villeroy himself who returning to the Duke of Mayenne laboured to perswade him that it was much better to receive the Castle upon a Capitulation and to get a good sum of money from it for the maintenance of the War than to enrich strangers and shed French blood to satisfie their greediness To which the Duke of Mayenne averse from cruelty and plunder easily consenting though the Army grumbled very much at it yet the agreement was concluded the Castle compounding for Twenty thousand Crowns great store of Victual which the Town was to provide the place with the Artillery and Ammunition remaining freely at the Dukes disposing But Pinart thinking himself free from the calamities of the siege fell presently into other troubles For being accused of treachery and that not out of cowardise but perfidiousness he had delivered up that place without any necessity he was therefore censured guilty by the Parliament of Chalons and being absent condemned as a Rebel and afterward bought out the Kings pardon and the confiscation of his Estate with Thirty thousand Ducats The taking of Chasteau-Thierry though not equal to that of Chartres either for the quality of the place or for the consequences that it drew along with it did yet give some reputation to the Arms of the League whereupon the Duke of Mayenne augmented in hopes and courage went to the meeting at Rheims where a common consultation was to be held of the way that should be taken to advance the common interests and to oppose the progress of the King who after the taking of Chartres had by policy and force gotten Louviers also a place in Normandy near Rouen which for its situation and fortification was esteemed of very great importance But though the War proceeded fortunately for the King other things were not so prosperous but new troublesome accidents arose within his own party for the Catholick Lords and Gentlemen seeing that the time of his conversion was deferred without end and that all the promises and all the appointments of assembling the States and calling the Prelates together to give him those instructions propounded by himself and talked of every hour proved vain and without any effect at all began already to stagger in their resolutions to think of retiring to murmur among themselves and to shew their discontent which was increased beyond measure by a Declaration of the Kings who after the taking of Chartres being come to Mante had called his Council with many of the most conspicuous persons that followed him and had given them to understand how the Queen of England and the Princes of Germany his Confederates of whose Arms and assistance he had such urgent need that without them he had no hope of being able to sustain his Crown did press him daily that giving peace to mens Consciences he would permit Liberty of Religion and a peaceable indifferent way of living to his Subjects to unite them with perfect charity in the same body and that the German Army being now upon the point of coming he thought it good to prevent those requests which would then be made unto him with arms in their hands in a time of extream necessity and to grant something now to those of the Reformed Religion that he might not be forced then to yield much more unto them That he did not intend to grant them more than what King Henry his glorious and most Catholick Predecessor had done but simply to renew the last Edict of Pacification which had after been broken and revoked not by the Kings will but by the violences of the League and that he thought fit to tell his Reasons there in Council to the end that
received so flourishing from their Ancestors and not to permit the people to remain without their Prelates and Pastors to the danger of errour schism and damnation things which though they were neither seen nor considered at Rome were yet nevertheless too obvious to the eye of whosoever should look upon them with Christian piety Hereupon he caused a very grave Decree to be made declaring That he would inviolably observe his promise and exhorting the Parliaments to take care for the dignity of the Crown and the Prelates to look to the people under their Charge and to preserve the liberty of the Gallique Church The Decree being made with a most free consent because every one was offended at the severeness of the Monitory and at the coming of the Nuncio Landriano he dispatched President de Thou to Tours and President Favre to Chalons in which Parliaments the person of Landriano was with very great liberty spoken and decreed against and there it was determined That the Monitory should be publickly burnt and at the same time most severe Decrees were made against those that should forsake the party and follow the intimation of Landriano depriving the Clergy of their Dignities and Benefices and confiscating the Estates and Goods of whatsoever Lords Gentlemen or others should do so and making them all subject to the pain of High-Treason and Rebellion which added to that disdain the French liberty had conceived at the severeness of the Monitory did so bridle mens mindes that there was not now any one that stirred but on the contrary those that were turned after the new designs attempted by the Cardinal of Bourbon did now alienate their mindes from all other thoughts save the Conservation and maintaining of the King whose Arms they saw in a fair way to Victory the Clergy saying publickly that the Canons did not command them to abandon their Flocks in such distracted dangerous times nor did duty enjoyn them to forsake their Countries their own houses and estates given by the liberality of former Kings as a reward for their labours to go like miserable vagabonds to beg a hundred Crowns in pension from the charity of the Popes Nephews That in the end the King remaining victorious would compose matters with the Pope and then whosoever had been obstinate and rebellious against him would be utterly undone and that they could not in conscience forsake a Prince who implored their â—id and instruction to come to the obedience of the Church Thus alwayes those engines that were framed to oppugn the King did wonderfully succeed to his advantage â—nd poisons wâ—re converted into medicines To these Decrees of the Parliament of Tours and Chalons the Parliament of Paris opposed contrary Decrees receiving the Monitory and admitting the Nuncio's Commissions exhorting and commanding that all should be accepted published and obeyed imposing most severe punishments upon those that should transgress But neither for this did the Prelates or Nobility that followed the King's Party stir one jot from their first proposal and all those discourses and complaints which before were made for the liberty granted to the Hugonots in the exercise of their Religion were now turned against the Pope's severe and as they called it precipitate resolution In the mean time the Lords of the House of Lorain the Nuncio Landriano the Spanish and Savoyard Ambassadors and Cardinal Pelleve Archbishop of Rheims an old protector and favourer of the League were all come into that City to the appointed Meeting and there their common interests were with long discourses exactly treated of wherein though every one did under various colours and pretences palliate the interests of his own designs yet was it very clearly seen they could not all agree in the same end The Spaniards trusted upon their power and the necessity that others had of their assistance the Nuncio upon the Majesty of the Apostolick See and upon the foundation of Religion asserting that the authority of disposing those matters was proper and peculiar to the Pope The Duke of Lorain grounded himself upon fitness and decency as Head of the Family and pretended that the rest ought in reverence to yield to his pretensions the Duke of Savoy aspired to the acquisition of Provence the Duke of Mercoeur to that of Bretagne the Duke of Nemours designed to Canton himself in his Governments and finally the Duke of Mayenne General of the Armies and leader of his party trusted upon the union of the People and the concurrence of the Nobility that bore an affection to his name But things were not yet ripe and every one proceeding with great wariness and secrecy concealed his own thoughts and made shew to be moved onely by the consideration of the general good which being observed by the Duke of Mayenne and being confident that with time opportunity and his prudent managery he should bring the rest to consent to his opinion having onely concluded with their common Forces to oppose the coming of the Kings forraign Supplies all other things were remitted till a more seasonable time the Duke having demonstrated that it was more necessary to employ the present in action and not in consultation the King 's Germans being already upon their March and he himself continuing prosperous in the progress of the War Wherefore the Meeting at Rheims broke up without any other determination and onely the Duke of Mayenne lost a little of that confidence he had conceived of the Pope's adherence having found the Nuncio in all things inseparable from the interests of Spain whereupon designing to make use of the Ecclesiastical Forces onely to hinder the entry of forraigners in other matters he was resolved not to trust to any but his French-men To this end he presently dispatched a Gentleman in all haste to President Ieannin who already was arrived in Spain to give him directions not so much to labour for supplies of Spanish or Italian Forces as to procure Pay for a set number of French Foot and Horse under pretence that the Officers of those two Nations were unwilling to obey his commands and that with French Forces which scorned not to acknowledge him and were acquainted with their own Country he might sooner more easily and with fewer rubs effect their common interests To the same purpose he by redoubled Messengers gave commission to Des Portes to sollicit the Pope for an express order that his Army under the D. of Monte-Marciano should stay in Lorain and there united with that Dukes Forces and the supplies from Flanders should oppose the coming of the Viscount de Turenne alledging that that was the principal means to hinder the King from assistance and very easily to become Conquerors in the War which having already agreed upon with the Nuncio whom he had easily made believe that the Sum of affairs consisted in that he with his own Forces took his way towards Paris and Normandy to withstand the King 's daily progress The D. of
put it to a day judging the Italian Forces to be yet raw and the Duke of Lorain's not well assured and therefore no way be compared to his Wherefore being departed from Attigny upon the first of October he quartered that night with his Van-guard at Grandpre upon which day Monsieur d' Amblise who commanded part of the Lorain Forces having marched from Montfaulcon joyned with the Army of the League The next day aâ—â—ut noon the King arrived with his Army within sight of Verdun spreading his â—â—uadrons largely imbattelled along the Plain On the other side they of the League who were encamped without the City drew themselves up in Battalia under the Walls the Italians having the right Wing the Duke of Lorain the Battel and the Duke of Mayenne's French the lâ—ft yet the Duke himself commanding and ordering the whole Camp as he pleased At the first arrival there began so great and so hot a skirmish between the two Armies that many of the Commanders themselves thought it would be a Battel for the Sieurs de Praslin de la Curee d' Arges and the Baron d' Giury with the Kings Light-horse in sour Divisions advanced to the very face of the Enemy to skirmish being seconded on the right hand and on the left by the Count de Brienne and the Sieur de Marivaut with Two hundred Cuirassiers and on the other side Cavalier Avolio Ottavio Cesis and Ascanio della Cornia were likewise advanced with the Popes Light-horse and the Sieur d' Amblise seconded them with a Body of Lorain Lances But though the skirmish was very fierce in the beginning the Sieur de Praslins Horse being killed under him and the Sieur de la Curee thrown to the ground with the shock of a Lance the Italians behaving themselves very gallantly every where yet were the Dukes of Lorain and Mayenne resolved not to fight because the Catholick Kings Forces that were come out of Italy following their wonted Counsels had denied to follow them and were marched streight to joyn with the Duke of Parma and the Popes Swisses were not above Three thousand Wherefore not thinking themselves strong enough to deal with the Kings Army in so open a place as is the Plain that lies before Verdun the skirmish by their order cooled by little and little and they drawing back their men under the Walls yet without shew of fear the King took up his Quarters and entrenched himself within sight of the Town and of their Army All sorts of provisions came in plentifully to the Camp of the League and the City furnished them with many conveniences not onely for victual but for lodging under cover whereas the King in the midst of an enemies Country and the weather being very rainy suffered both for want of victual and conveniency nor could his Soldiers accustomed to another kind of Discipline endure the hardship and incommodities of lying in the field in so contrary a season To other things was added a most cruel storm that night with thunders whirlwinds and infinite rain which spoiling all the Soldiers Huts and overflowing all the Plain put the whole Army in wonderful confusion Wherefore next day the King after he had stood firm in Battalia for many hours and none of the enemies appearing in the field faced about with his Army and marched back to quarter again at Grandpre There the Germans were like to have mutinied not being paid the money that had been promised them Wherefore the King who could now do no less than perform his promises to the Queen of England that he might receive the other Two hundred thousand Ducats having made provision at Sedan with the Jewels and credit of the Princess Charlotte of a certain sum of money to quiet his Germans took without delay the way towards Normandy to besiege at last the City of Rouen The Duke of Mayenne contrary to whose expectation the Popes forces had so long delaid their coming and who had also seen the King of Spain's march streight towards Lorain without making any stay presently dispatched the Count de Brâ—ssac to the Duke of Parma to protest unto him that if he entred not into the Kingdom or sent not such Supplies as should be sufficient to oppose the King the affairs of the League and the state of Religion would be very much endangered and that he should not be able to hinder many from making their peace as seeing the slowness and ill counsels of the Confederates they daily threatned The Duke made this protestation more at large to Diego d' Ivarra who was there present shewing him the wonderful ill effect which the delays and secret practices of the Spaniards did produce for if all the Catholick Kings expences and forces which he had granted severally to this man and to that in Bretagne Provence Savoy and Languedoc haâ— been put into one Body and all imployed to the root of the business and to the Spring-head of affairs the victory over the King would thence have ensued and also the suppression of their Enemies in all places but whilst the division of the League was endeavoured whilst his counsels were not believed and whilst the Duke of Parma would not advance the King had found opportunity to receive his Foreign Forces and now being grown powerful he over-ran all France at his pleasure to the admiration and grief of all good men But these Protestations and Reasons not availing with Diego d' Ivarra who had received another impression and was otherwise inclined and the cause from whence this hardness proceeded being clearly seen by the relation of President Ieannin the Dukes of Lorain and Mayenne not being able any other way to hinder it agreed together though secretly in this general to keep close and united together and not to suffer that any should be admitted to the Crown not only who was a stranger but who was not of their own Family and that if they were constrained to yield to any other persons a Prince of the Blood of the Catholick Religion should be chosen and never to consent either to the alienation or division of the Kingdom With this firm resolution confirmed also by a Writing which they signed the Duke of Mayenne set himself in order to prosecute the War and being departed from Verdun with the Popes Army and his own and with the Supplies he had obtained from the Duke of Lorain who gave way that the Count de Vaudemont the Count de Chaligny and the Sieur de Bassompierre should follow him he took the way toward Champagne that he might not go too far from the Confines till he heard the determinations of Flanders When the Duke was arrived at Retel in Champagne the Duke of Guise came up to him accompanied with Six hundred Horse all Gentlemen who upon the same of his being at liberty were come in to him and though at his arrival their greetings and outward actions shewed kindness and confidence in one another
Places Cities and Fortresses should for the space of six years remain in the hands of those that possessed them at that present to restore them to the King and to his free disposing within that time if they saw the Peace go on sincerely That the Government of Bourgogne with all the places also that held for the King should be left to the Duke of Mayenne which Government should be hereditary to his Sons with authority of disposing and distributing the Benefices Offices Governments and Places which should become void in that Province for the time to come That the King should give him an Office of the Crown superiour to the rest as it might be of Constable or of his Lieutenant-General That he should give him such a sum of money as should be sufficient to pay those debts which he was run into upon that present occasion That to the Government of Bourgogne that of Lyons and Lyonois should be added That the King should provide another Government for the Duke of Nemours which should be equivalent to it That the Duke of Guisâ— should have the Government of Champagne and two strong Holds for his security the Duke of Mercâ—ur that of Bretagne the Duke of Ioyâ—use that of Languedoâ— the Duke of Aumale that of Picardy and for his security St. Esprit de Rue That all the Lords of the League should be maintained in their Places Offices Dignities and Governments which they had possessed before the beginning of the War That the Catholick King should be comprehended in the Peace and reasonable satisfaction given to him for his pretensions That there should be an Act of Oblivion concerning all things that had befaln in the War and that the Narrative and Preamble of the Accommodation should be written in such manner as it might clearly appear the Duke of Mayenne had not acknowledged the King till then in respect of Religion and that now he did it by reason of his Conversion with the Popes consent and that also it might expresly appear he had no hand in the death of the late King Henry his last Predecessor These Conditions the Sieur de Villeroy imparted to Monsieur du Plessis and gave him an extract of them they being set down at large with their Causes and Reasons in the Presidents Letter Du Plessis first made small show to approve of them but Villeroy replied That this was not an Agreement with the Hugonots who by all Laws Divine and Humane were obliged to acknowledge their King established but a Capitulation whereby the Lords of the Union were contented to acknowledge or to say better upon certain conditions to make one King who was not Possessor of the Kingdom that that acknowledgment of theirs coming to pass the King would thereby attain the Crown of France which he possessed not and that therefore the Conditions ought not to seem strange unto him That the Lords of the League did now require all which they thought fit for their security because when the acknowledgment was once made they should be then no longer able to treat or demand any thing but as Subjects simply to beseech their Sovereign Lord That it was no wonder they should demand much at one time being very certain that after that they should never obtain any thing more during his Reign nor perchance in that of his Sons neither That the Duke of Mayenne had shewed himself so good a French-man that he would rather acknowledge a French King though an Enemy upon these conditions than a Stranger though a Friend and a Confident upon much greater ones That the King had always said he would content and secure the Lords of the House of Lorain and all the others of their party and lately while the War was in the heat before Caudebec had affirmed as much with his own mouth to the Baron de Luz with whom he had discoursed long about it in the field telling him That if the Lords of the Union would acknowledge and follow him he would not refuse any conditions and particularly that to his power he would give worthy satisfaction to the Duke of Mayenne whom he knew to be a good Prince and a good French-man That the Mareschal d' Aumont had by his orders repeated the same to the same Baron and therefore that ought not to appear strange now which he himself had proffered but a few days before But the Sieur du Plessis considered that to refer the business of the Kings Conversion to the Pope from whom by reason of the Spaniards power nothing at all would be obtained replied That it was not a thing to be expected from any other means but from Gods Divine Inspiration after such Instructions as should make him know himself to be in an errour for otherwise it was an unlawful thing to demand it and much worse to grant it the Soul being first to be thought of and then the affairs of the World And as for the other conditions repeating them one by one he shewed that if all the Governments and all the Places and Benefices should remain in the gift of the Lords of the Union the King would neither have any thing to reserve nor to grant to those of his own party and that it would be a monstrous thing to see all the Provinces in the hand of one only Family and the Princes of the Blood and so many other Lords excluded who had laboured and endangered their lives for the Kings Crown And yet after having again promised secrecy which the Duke of Mayenne required above all other things he said he would speak with the King himself concerning it and refer the resolution to his pleasure But being come into the Kings Council at Bussy where they were he was so far from favouring the Treaty of Peace and the Conditions propounded or from observing that secresie he had promised that publickly in the presence of all the Council he demanded pardon for having till then not any way out of an evil intention but through inadvertency deceived His Majesty since such Conditions had been propounded to him that he was ashamed of them and did much disdain to publish them He confessed that he had believed too much out of his desire of Peace and out of a will to serve the Publick Cause but the Conditions that were propounded were so unjust and dishonourable for the King and so pernicious for the whole Kingdom that they plainly shewed the Duke of Mayenne and those of his party had no thought of Peace but that they sought to hold the King in hand and to work a jealousie in the Spaniards to draw money and satisfactions from them That the things propounded were such as did not deserve any answer nor did he think them worthy to be heard by that Council and yet having proposed them with this Preamble not only the whole Council but even the King himself thought them not so exorbitant as he represented them and so much the rather because every one knew
heinous to you to confess your selves guilty of it But since his obstinacy hath already deprived him of all the rights which he could pretend to it likewise takes from you all pretences and excuses that you can alledge in his favour and your own discharge It is now time that you discover boldly all that you have in your hearts and if there be nothing in them that is not Catholick as your former actions have made known when the sorcery of Hereticks had not yet bewitched you declare for Gods sake with the rest of the Catholicks that you desire not any thing so much as to see your selves united under the obedience of a most Christian King both in name and actions It will be a prudent thing to have such thoughts a magnanimous one to endeavour the execution of them and a vertue every way most perfect to do both Now as at this present there is no more just nor more lawful means to compass this end than the holding of the States General to which you are invited by the Duke of Mayenne who following the duty of his Office and Authority hath ever sought and doth now more than ever seek with a piety constancy and magnanimity worthy of eternal praise the most certain and secure means to defend and secure this State and Crown in its integrity and to maintain the Catholick Religion and the Gallique Church in its true liberty which consists principally in not yielding obedience to an Heretick Head So we have thought fit in this place to protest unto you that containing our selves as our intention is within the limits of the charge it hath pleased his Holiness to give us we neither could nor would in any way assist or favour the designs and enterprises of the Duke of Mayenne nor of any other Prince or Potentate in the World be he who he will but rather with all our Forces would oppose them if we should know that they were in any part contrary to the common votes and desires of all good men true Catholicks and good Frenchmen and in particular to the holy pious intention of our Lord which moreover by these presents we desire to declare to have no other aim nor object but the glory of God the conservation of our holy Roman Catholick Apostolick Faith and Religion with the utter extirpation of Heresies and Schisms which have reduced this poor Kingdom of France to so miserable a condition which his Holiness desires to see principally crowned with its ancient splendor and majesty by the establishment of a King truly most Christian such an one God in mercy grant the States General may name and such an one no Heretick ever was nor ever can be Thither then in the name of his Holiness do I invite you to the end that separating your selves totally from the company and dominion of the Heretick you may with minds free from all passion and full of an holy zeal and piety toward God and your Country assist in all that you shall judge may serve to extinguish the general combustion which hath even almost burnt it to ashes It is no longer time to propose vain excuses and new difficulties you shall find no others but those that proceed from your selves For if you please to come to the said Assembly for the effect you ought we can assure you in the name of all the Catholicks who by Gods Grace have still persevered in obedience and devotion to the holy Apostolick See that you shall find them most ready to receive you and to imbrace as Brothers and true Christians whom with the price of their bloods and very lives they desire to save a holy peace and reconciliation with you Take order therefore that in good earnest we may see you there separated from the Heretick and in such a case demand all the securities you shall think necessary that you may freely go and come speak and propose in the said Assembly all that you shall judge most expedient to attain to the desired end The Duke of Mayenne is ready to grant you them and we on our part make no difficulty to oblige our selves that nothing shall be done to the contrary in any kind offering in that respect to take you if there he need under our especial protection that is of the holy Church and of the holy Apostolick See And we conjure you again in the Name of God that at last you would with lively effects shew that you are true Catholicks conforming your intentions to that of the chief Head of the Church without longer deferring to render to our holy Religion and to our Country that faithful duty which it expects from you in this extream necessity There is nothing to be expected from your divisions but desolation and ruine and though from elsewhere every thing should succeed according to your wish which me thinks you should not dare to promise to your selves under an Heretick Head yet ought you nevertheless to consider that Schisms which this Kingdom seems to be full of do in the end turn into Heresie which God of his Mercy be pleased not to permit but rather to enlighten your hearts and minds making them capable of his holy Inspirations and Benedictions to the end that being all united in deed and will in the unity of the holy Roman Catholick Church under the obedience of one King who may deservedly be called Most Christian you may in this life enjoy a secure tranquillity and finally come to that Kingdom which his Divine Majesty hath prepared from eternity for them who persevering constantly in the Communion of his said Church out of which there is no Salvation do give clear testimony of their lively Faith by holy and virtuous actions With this Writing in appearance like that of the Duke of Mayenne's but indeed full of matter very different did the Legat endeavour to establish the principal end of the Assembly to be not to treat of business with the Catholicks of the Kings party not to agree with him if he should resolve to reconcile himself to the Church not to raise any Prince of the Blood to the Crown but to elect a new King not only depending upon the Apostolick See but approved also by the Catholick King that they might make use of the power of his Arms and Moneys to protect and establish him And though the Pope being made acquainted with the Legats inclination and particularly advertised by the Venetian Senate that there was great suspicion of him and that many were scandalized because they thought he seemed to have more care of the satisfaction of the Spaniards than of the safety of the State and Religion did declare himself much more than he had done before by the Pronotary Agucchi by the means of Monsignor Innocentio Malvâ—gia sent by him to be Commissary of the Army in the stead of Matteucci and gave him particular Commission that above all things he should take heed of a monstrous election not generally
acknowledge the King of Navar for Superior though he should turn his Religion and make show to live as a Catholick to which the Duke of Mayenne not consenting as a thing very different from his practices and intentions the other Deputies that were present spake against it with divers reasons But the Legat urging with wonderful vehemence at last the Archbishop of Lyons said that the States were Catholicks obedient to the holy Church under the superiority of the Apostolick See in such cases and met together in obedience to the Pope and that therefore they would not be so impudent as to go about to bind his hands and presumptuously to declare that which he had not declared preventing his Judgments and declaring the King of Navar irreconcilable to the Church by a vain determination which was out of the Secular Power and wholly proper to the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and that therefore they were resolved not to proceed to that Oath lest they should offend their own consciences and the Majesty and Jurisdiction of the Pope and the Apostolick See Which reason with the decency thereof stopt the Legat's mouth and the Duke of Mayenne's intention not to proceed to that Declaration prevailed But upon the Twenty eighth day there came one of the King's Trumpets to the Gate of the City desiring to be brought in that he might deliver a Packet of Letters directed to the Count de Belin Governor of it and being ask'd what his business was he answered freely and publickly That he brought a Declaration of the Catholicks of the King's party addressed to the Assembly of the States and being come before the Governor he gave the Letters into his hand and made the contents of them more fully known among the People The Governor carried the Packet to the Duke of Mayenne who lay troubled in his Bed and not being willing to open it but in the presence of all the Confederates he sent for the Legate the Cardinal of Pelle-vé Diego d Ivarra the Sieur de Bassompiere Ambassador from the Duke of Lorain the Arch-bishop of Lyons Monsieur de Rosne the Count de Belin the Viscount de Tavannes the Sieur de Villars by him newly declared Admiral Monsieur de Villeroy President Ieannin and two of the ordinary Secretaries which they called Secretaries of State in the presence of whom the cover being taken off there was a Writing found with this Title The Proposition of the Princes Prelates Officers of the Crown and chief Catholick Lords as well Counsellors of the King as others now present with his Majesty tending to the end of obtaining Peace so necessary to this Kingdom for the conservation of the Catholick Religion and of the State made to the Duke of Mayenne and the Princes of his Family the Lords and other persons sent by some Cities and Corporations at this present assembled in the City of Paris Having seen the Title and every one being desirous to hear the contents the Writing was read by one of the Secretaries being of this Tenor following THe Princes Prelates Officers of the Crown and Chief Catholick Lords as well of the Council as attendance of His Majesty having seen a Declaration Printed at Paris in the name of the Duke of Mayenne dated in the month of December published with the sound of the Trumpet in the said City upon the Fifth day of this present Month of Ianuary as is found at the bottom of it and which came into their hands a◠Chartres do acknowledge and are of opinion with the said Duke of Mayenne that the continuance of this War bringing the ruine and destruction of the State doth also by necessary consequence draw along with it the ruine of the Catholick Religion as experience hath but too well shewed us to the great grief of the said Princes Lords and Catholick States who do acknowledge the King whom God hath given them and serve him as they are naturally obliged having with this duty ever made the Conservation of the Catholick Religion their principal aim and have then always been most animated with their Arms and Forces to defend the Crown under the obedience of his Majesty when they have seen strangers enemies to the greatness of this Monarchy and to the honor and glory of the French name enter into this Kingdom for it is too evident that they tend to nothing else but to dissipate it and from its dissipation would follow an Immortal War which in time could produce no other effects save the total ruine of the Clergy Nobility Gentry Cities and Countries an event which would also infallibly happen to the Catholick Religion in this Kingdom Thence it is that all good Frenchmen and all those that are truly zealous thereof ought to strive with all their Forces to hinder the first inconvenience from which the second is inseparable and both inevitable by the continuation of the War The true means to prevent them would be a good Peace and a reconciliation between those whom the misfortune hereof keeps so divided and armed to the destruction of one another for upon this foundation Religion would be restored Churches preserved the Clergy maintained in their estates and reputation and Justice setled again the Nobility would recover their ancient force and vigour for the defence and quiet of the Kingdom the Cities would recover their losses and ruines by the re-establishment of Commerce Trades and employments maintainers of the people which are in a manner utterly extinct the Universities would again betake themselves to the study of Sciences which in times past have caused this Kingdom to flourish and given splendour and ornament unto it which at this present languish and are by little and little wasting to nothing the fields would again be tilled which in so many places are left fallow and barren and in stead of the fruits they were wont to bring forth for man's nourishment are now covered with thorns and thistles in summ by Peace every one might do his duty God might be served and the people enjoying a secure Peace would bless those who had procured them that happiness whereas on the contrary they will have just cause to complain and curse those that shall hinder i◠To this effect upon the Declaration which the said Duke of Mayenne makes by his writing as well in his own name as in the names of the rest of his party assembled in Paris where he alledgeth that he hath called the States to take some course and Counsel for the good of the Catholick Religion and the repose of this Kingdom it being clear that if for no other reason yet because of the place alone where it is neither lawful nor reasonable that any other but they of their own party should interview no resolution can proceed from it that can be valid or profitable for the effect which he hath published and it being rather most certain that this can nothing but inflame the War so much the more and take away
General to Prince Casimire leads the Army 313. His excuse to the Emperor commanding him to disband ib. his Acts 324. disbands his Army 328 Battel between the Armies 37. at Brisac 140. at St. Denis 117 Bellegarde usurps the Marquisate of Saluzza 238 Birth of Henry IV. in the Territory of Pau 10. in the Viscounty of Bearn a free State Decemb. 13. 1554. ib. Bishop of Monsâ— sent on purpose by the King to demand absolution for the Cardinal of Guise's death 385 Bishop of Paris gives way that the Church-Plate should be turned into money for relief of the Poor 460 Bishops to judge â—f Heresie 50 Blois taken and pillaged by the Kings Army 70 Jean Bodin contradicts the Prelates in the General Assembly 229 Body of Henry III. laid in the great Church of Campeign 416 Francis de Bonne made Head of the Hugonots and after Constable of the Kingdom 212 Bourges rendred upâ—â— Condition 71 Brigues in French signifies Factions 64 C. CAhors taken and sacked by the Hugonots 241 Calais recovered from the English and besieged by the Spanish Army 702. A description of its situation 703. agrees to surrender if not relieved within six days but de Martelet getting in with 300 Foot they refuse the Castle stormed Governor killed and all put to the Sword 705 John Calvin a Picard preacheth and publisheth in Print 128 Principles differing from the Roman-Catholick Religion which had their foundaetion in Geneva at first hearkned to out of curiosity but at last produce great mischief 19. Henry II. severe against the Calvinists of whose death they boast much 20 Cambray its Siege 685 c. yields to the Spaniard 690 Cardinal Alessandrino Legat from Pope Pius Quintus refuses a rich Iewel presented to him by the Kings own hand 177 Cardinal Alessandro de Medici who was after Pope Leo XI appointed Legat into France 675. received with great demonstrations of Honour by Monsieur des Digâ—ieres a Hugonot His solemn entry into Paris 710. setling Religion he begins to promote a Treaty between France and Spain 711 Cardinal of Bourbon Vncle to the King of Navarre desired for the Head of the Catholicks 252. His pretensions to the succession of the Crown 253. put into the Castle of Amboise 374 declared King of France by the League and called Charles X. 417 Cardinal of Chastillon changing his Religion calls himself Count of Beauvais 64. the Lye passes between the Constable and him 115. flies disguised like a Mariner into England and remains with the Queen as Agent for the Hugonots Page 130 Cardinal of Guise made Prisoner 370. is slain and his body and the Duke of Guise's two Brothers burn'd in Quick-lime and their bones buried in an unknown place 373 Cardinal Gondi and the Legat meet the Marquis of Pisani upon a Treaty but nothing concluded 465. he and the Archbishop of Lyons chose by the Council of Paris to treat with the King 466. he and the Marquis of Pisani chosen to go to Rome by Henry IV. 557. sends his Secretary to excuse himself to the Pope 561. notice that he should not enter into the Ecclesiastical State by the Pope 163. is permitted by the Pope to come to Rome but not to speak a word of the affairs of France 644. return'd to Paris commands they should use the Prayers were wont to be made for the King and to acknowledge Henry IV. lawful King 653 Cardinal Henrico Gaetano a man partial to Spain declared Legat to the League in France 431. the Popes Commissions to him 432. his request to Colonel Alphonso Corso and his answer 433. overcoming many difficulties arrives at Paris 434. Grants the Duke of Mayenne 300000 Crowns brought for enlargement of the Cardinal of Bourbon 439 meets with the Mareshal de Byron they treat of divers things without any conclusion 453 Cardinal of Sancti Quattro succeeds Gregory XIV by name of Innocent IX 530 Cardinal Hippoliâ—o d'Esâ—é Legat in France 51 Cardinal Hippolito Aldebrandino aged 56 succeeds Pope Innocent IX by the name of Clement VIII 555 Cardinal of Lenon-Court gives the King notice of the Cardinal of Vendosme's designs 499 Cardinal Sega Legat in France hath prudent instructions from the Pope by Monseignor Agucchi touching the affairs thereof 564. executes not his Orders ib. his Declaration and Exhortation 577. his Proposition 584. opposes an offer of the Catholick Lords but to no purpose 500 persuaded by the Archbishop of Lyons he secretly consents to it 597. sets forth a Writing to keep the League on 〈◊〉 630 Goes out of the Kingdom 637 Cardinal of Tournon called a second time to Court 13 Cardinal of Vendosme raises a third party of Catâ—olicks to make himself Head and so come to the Crown 498. sâ—ndâ— Scipio Balbani to treat with the Pope and communicate his design 499. Cardinal Lenon-Court gives the King notice of his designs ib Catharine de Medicis Wife to Henry II. dyed in the 70th year of her age thirty whereof she spent in the regency and management of greatest affairs and troubles of France 374 Catholicks besiege la Charité which being stoutly defended they give it over 156 raise the Siege before Chastel-rault 157. take all the Hugonots Baggage and Cannon and 200 Colours 163. King of Navarre proceeds against them 217. desire the Cardinal of Bourbon for their Head 259 War again between them and the Hugonots 288. recover the Castle of Angâ—ers taken suddenly by the Hugonots 290 besiege Maran 295. Lâ—se a Battel are all killed and taken Prisoners except a very few that save themselves by flight 322. assemble themselves to consult about a future King 408. resolve to declare the King of Navarre King of France upon assurance of changing his Religion 409. swear Fidelity to the King by a Writing sign'd and establish'd 410. complain of Henry IV. continuing in Calvinism 405. they of Henry IV. party displeased that the Peace should be treated by du Plessis a Hugonot renew a third party 555 Causes that moved the Guises to frame the League 224. vid. 325 Cause of distaste between Duke d'Espernon and Secretary Villeroy 348. of Hatred between the Prince and King of Navarre 407 that moved the Duke of Mayenne to hope to be chosen King 565 Ceremonies used at the Conversion of Henry IV. 613 Chancellor Birago made Cardinal and Philip Huralt chose in his place 235 Chancellor Chiverney put out of his place 357 recall'd to his Office by Henry IV. 466. his opinion 467 Chancellor Olivier call'd a second time to Court 13. dyes Chancellor de l'Hospital succeeds him 29. put out of his Office upon the Kings jealousie 130. and conferred upon Monsieur de Morvilliers ib. Charles IX marries Izabella Daughter of Maximilian the Emperor 171 Charlotte de la Marc Heir to the Dutchy of Bouillon married to Henry de la Tour Viscount de Turenne 511 Chartres voluntarily sets open its Gates 402. its Description and Siege 494 496 Chastel-rault besieged 156. Siege raised 157 Jaques Clement his birth age and
the King ' Ambassadors very sharply who came to excuse it to him Sixtus Quintus chuseth a congregation of Cardinals who were to consult about the affairs of France * The French sayes Commandeur Vn Commandeur is one that having Ecclesiastical Livings may not Marry and yet is not compelled to be a Priest as the Grand Prior of France and all the Knights of St Iohn's in Iâ—rusalem Commines lib. 7. cap. 9. The King writes kind Letters to the Duke of Mayâ—nne promising him very great things The Duke of Mayenne notwithstanding the Kings promises being perswaded by Madam de Montpensier his sister makes himself Head of the Holy Vnion * Oâ— sâ—veral C urâ—s The Duke of Mayenne being come to Paris is declared Lieutenant-General of the Crown of France The Council of the Union is chosen consisting of forty of the chiefest persons of the League The Bishop of Mans is sent by the King on purpose to demand absolution for the Cardinal of Guise his death The Abbot of Orbais sent to Rome by the Duke of Mayenne treats of the affairs of the League very effectually The Legat propounds a Truce to the Duke of Mayenne but he refuseth it The King of Navarre grants Liberty of Conscience in those places he had taken and publisheth a Manifâ—st offering to take Arms against those that rebelled against their natural King The Duke of Espernon returned into his former Greatness treats a Truce with the King of Navarre Cardinal Moresini the Legat makes grievous complaints unto the King The Spanish Ambassador departs from Court without taking leave and goes to Paris Cardinal Moresini stays with the King and the Pope falling into suspicion of him accounts him guilty The peace is concluded between the King of France and the King of Navarre Capt. du Gast who killed the Cardinal of Guise treats an agreement with those of the League by the perswasion of the Archbishop of Lyons The prisoners given in custody to Captain du Gast Governour of Amboise are sent to several fortresses under safer guards The Truce is concluded for a year between the most Christian King and the King of Navarre Cardinal Mâ—resini the Legat assoon as the Peace is concluded with the Hugonots departs from Court to go out of the Kingdom * Two thousand pounds sterling The Legat moves the Duke of Mayenne to an accommodation who refuses to hearken to it The Parisians at the news of the Truce between the King and the Hugonots besides many publick signs of contempt forbid the King to be prayed for any longer in the Canon of the Mass. The Duke of Montpensier begins the war against those of the League and besieges the Falaise The Gautiers Country people up in Arms to the number of 16000 fight for the League Montpensiâ—r defeats the Count de Brissac's Forces who came to divert the siege of Falaise The Gautiers being fortified in three places after they had fought a long time some are cut in pieces and some yield Vendosme taken by the League by agreement with the Governour * Or Plessis les Tours The Interview between the most Christian King and the King of Navarre at Tours The Duke of Mayenne defeats the Count de Brienne and takes him prisoner The Duke of Mayenne assaults the Kings Army at Tours where they fight a long time The King himself orders and disposes his Souldiers puts himself among those that fight At last supplies coming from the King of Navarre the Duke of Mayenne gives off the enterprise St. Malin who gave the first wound to the Duke of Guise at Blois slain in the Fight at Tours his death is boasted of as a Miracle and as a presage of Victory The Duke of Aumale besieges Sâ—nlis Monsieur de Longueville goes with small forces to relieve it and raises the siege with a great slaughter of the Leaguers The Duke of Aumale loses the day with his Artillery Baggage and thirty Colours Monsieur de Sancy having raised great Forces in Switzerland and begun the War with Savoy marches-towards Paris against the Leaguers The Count de Soissons assaulted at Chasteau-Gyron by the Duke de Mercoeur is taken prisoner The Sieur de Saveuse going with 400 horse to joyn with the Duke of Mayenne is routed by the Sieur de Chastilloâ— and taken prisoner The King takes Gergeau and Piviers Chartres voluntarily sets open the Gates The Pope by a Monitory declares the King liable to Censure if within 60 dayes he releases not the Prelates and does not Penance for the Cardinal of Guise's death The King troubled at it fasts forty hours Words of Hen. the Third upon the Excommunication thundered out against him The King of Navarr's Answer The King taking Estampes hangs the Magistrates and gives the pillage of the Town to the Soldiers The Swisses arrive and joyn with the King at Poissy The King with a victorious and numerous Army lays siege to Paris having taken all those placâ—s that furnisht it with victual A saying of the Kings who having been to discover the Enemies Works staid at a place from whence he looked upon the whole City of Paris The birth age and condition of Iaques Clement a Fryar of the Order of St. Dominick The King is called Henry of Valois the Tyrant and Persecutor of the Faith Frier Iaques Clement having advised with the Prior and others of his Order resolves to kill the King and to that end goes from Paris A Question made to the Frier and his Answer Upon the first of August the Frier brought in to the King gives him a Letter and then drawing a Knife thrust it into his Belly The King strikes the same Knife into the Friers Forehead Monsieur de la Guesle runs him thorough and being cast out of the window he is torn in pieces The death of Hen. the third upon the first of August at night Anno 1589 he having lived 36 years and reigned 1â— and two months the House of Valois ended in him and the Crown devolved upon the House of Bourbon The King of Navarre having many Lords in the Camp ill-affected to him in respect of Religion and other private causes is in great perplexity Causes of hatred between the King of Navarre and the Duke of Espernon The Catholicks assemble themselves to consult about the future Kâ—ng The Catholicks resolve to declare the K. of Navarre K. of France upon assurance that he would change his Religion The Duke of Luxembourg delivers the resolution of the Catholick Lords in the Camp to the K. of Navarre The King thanks the Catholicks and his answer about changing his Religion The Sieur de la Noue a Hugonot tells the King that he must never think to be King of France if he turn not Catholick The Catholicks of the Camp swear fidelity to the King by a Writing signed and established and the King Swears to the maintenance of the Catholick Religion by the same Writing The Duke of Espernon standing upon precedency will not sign the