to Table and made both him and all his Prisoners Some days before Emard de Prie with five or six thousand Men was gone to Genoa to attack Alexandria and some other Towns on this side the Po. Octavian Fregosa had at the same time treated with the King who left to him the Signeury of Genoa to be not a Duke but only Governour in his Name These tydings brought to Lyons the King parted from thence the fifteenth day Year of our Lord 1515 of August accompanied by seven Princes of the Blood and an infinite number of Great Lords having before-hand left the Regency to Louise de Savoy his Mother who was stiled Madame As he was going forth arrives an Ambassador from England to let him know from his Master that he ought not to pass into Italy for fear of disturbing the Peace of Christendom which only served to discover the inconstancy of that Prince and the jealousy he had left a young King should out-strip him in the Race of Honour who had lived a much longer time King Ferdinand's Menaces signified as little as the King of Englands Remonstrances He was but too well pleased that the first Efforts and Attempts of this new Conqueror were to fall upon Italy and not upon Spain And therefore as soon as he was certain of his March that way he disbanded the greatest part of his Forces and little cared for that League he was entred into for the defence of Milan This Shock or Surprize of Prospera Colomna's being very considerable because Year of our Lord 1515 it was the first essay of the whole Enterprize greatly changed the disposition of the Minds of the Emperor the Pope and even the Swisse who after having burnt Chivas and Verceil retired to Novarre whilst the King was assembling his Troops at Turin He immediately set forwards to follow them without delay being informed how they began to disagree and judg'd he had a fair opportunity either to vanquish them during their disunion or to treat the more advantageously with them And indeed some of their Chiefs began to give ear to the Propositions that were made by him but knowing he was come to Verceil they dislodg'd from Novarre and retired to Galerate He followed the same Pace and got into all their Towns without striking one Blow Being thus repulsed and at variance with each other they set a Treaty on Foot by the mediation of Charles Duke of Savoy their ancient Allie He obtained them all the satisfaction they could hope for that is to say great Summs of Money as well for their Pensions as to make good the Treaty of Dijon and a very fair settlement in France for Duke Sforza in recompence for his Dutchy of Milan But thereupon arrives a re-inforcement of ten thousand Men from their own Country who desiring to have their share in the Honor and Spoil as well as their Compagnons whom they found very rich broke off all and led them back to Milan This did not however take away all hopes they might be pacified by adding an over-plus Summ to stop the Months of the most Troublesom and Active but one Day when all seemed to be at an end and the King was ready to send Money for performance of the Articles the Cardinal of Sion whilst they were all met to make the final Conclusion begins to Harangue them with so much earnestness that he made them take up their Arms to come and Charge the French who were lodged at Marignan within a League of Milan and expected no less then such a sudden Onset Therefore the thirteenth of October about four in the Afternoon they came and Charged the French Van-guard with impetuosity who having been forewarn'd received them much better then they imagined they could not however hinder them from gaining the enclosure of their Camp and some Pieces of Canon But the King hastning to that part with the Flower of his Nobility and Gentdarmerie prevented them from piercing any further Never was there a more furious scuffle not heavier Blows the Fight lasted four hours in the Night nought but their over weariness made Truce between them till break of Day but did not part them many of both Parties lying down by each other all the Night The King with his Armor on rested himself upon the Carriage of a Gun where the great Thirst his toyl had brought upon him made him relish even a little Water mixed with Dirt and Blood brought to him by a courteous Soldier in his Morion Year of our Lord 1515 He did not waste all the Night in reposing himself but the greatest Part in placing his Guns his Musquetiers and Gascon Cross-bow Men. The Day appearing the Swisse returned to the Assault with more vigour then the Night before but the Cannon broke their Battallions the Bullets and Arrows made a great Slaughter then the Horse sallied and ran over them some of their Companies were driven into a Wood who were all cut in Pieces About nine in the Morning the rest thinking themselves vanquisht because they had not been able to Vanquish and withal observing Alvaine approach with the choice of his Venetian Cavalry began to make their retreat towards Milan none endeavouring to pursue them excepting Alvaine who thinking to Charge them in the Rear soon found by their fierce resistance that they dreaded their Italian Lances but little This was all the Share he had in this Battle whatever the Authors of that Nation are pleased to relate The French kept the Camp cover'd with ten thousand dead Swisse and three or four thousand of their own Men but of the bravest and for the most part Gentlemen Francis de Bourbon Brother to the Constable the Prince of Talmont only Son of Lewis de la Trimoville Bussy d'Amboise Nephew to the Cardinal of that Name the Count de Sancerre and eight or ten other Lords of Note were slain there Claude Duke of Guise who commanded the Lansquenets in the absence of Charles Duke of Gueldres his Maternal Uncle was trod under Foot a German Gentleman his Esquire saved his Life at the expence of his own by covering him with his own Body and receiving the Blows they made at his Master This ill Success begot new discords between the Swisse those that would have agreed with the King demanded Money of Sforza that they might be gone they knew well enough he had none and thereupon they returned by way of Coma which the King had left open for them The rest follow'd them the next day but left fifteen hundred of their Men with Sforza to maintain the Castle together with five hundred Italians he had there promising in a short time to come back to his assistance as likewise on his side the Cardinal of Sion going to the Emperor for the same purpose vow'd to return again speedily So that upon this assurance he shut himself into the Castle with one John Gonzague Jerome Moron and some Milanese Gentlemen The City surrendred the next day
Windore Charles Prince of Duras who was likewise of the blood of the Kings of Sicilia and had espoused Mary the Sister of Jane was Counsellor and Author of this infamous act Jane was not innocent well might she lament and sigh her cries and tears signified less towards her justification then her subsequent Marriage with Lewis her Cousin-German a lovely Prince and according to her desires made for her conviction Lewis the Great King of Hungary being come into Italy to revenge the death of his Brother Andrew and to get the Kingdom Treated Charles de Duras in the same manner as they had used King Andrew He would have done the like to the Princess and her fair Husband had they fallen into his hands for which reason she fled away in good time to her County of Provence and her Husband soon after her The Pope shewed her great respect but taking advantage of the extreme necessity she was reduced unto he got from her the City and County of Avignon for which he was to give but Fourscore thousand Gold Florins of Florence but over and besides this bargain he approved her Marriage with Prince Lewis who in requital ratified this sale It belongs to the Lawyers to judge whether the minority of this Queen and the Edicts she afterwards made to declare null all alienations of the Lands in Provence which had been made as well in the Reign of Robert as by her self whilst she was yet a Minor do not make this Contract void and null but the Emperour Charles IV. confirmed it and wholly freed this County from the subjection of the Empire of whom it held as being an Under-Fief of the Kingdom of Arles We ought to know that when the Earls Alphonso de Toulouze and Raimond Berenger of Barcelona married the two Daughters of Gilbert â—arl of Provence and parted his Succession between them whereof Alphonso had all from the Durance to the Lisere with the Title of a Marquisate and Raimond what is from the Durance to the Sea with that of an Earldom they likewise divided the City of Avignon betwixt them and that the Kings of France as Successors to Alphonso de Poitiers Brother of St. Lewis who married the Heyress of Toulouze had enjoy'd the one moity till the year 1290. When Charles the Fair gave it to Charles II. King of Sicilia upon the Marriage of Charles de Valois his Brother with Margaret the Daughter of that King The Lords of Montmorency de Charny and others who commanded the French Forces in Artois and Picardy thinking it might not be amiss to recover Calais during the Truce held some intelligence with Aymery of Pavia a Lombard Captain in that City but the double-hearted Traitor gave ear to them only to surprize them he gave notice of it to Edward who desiring to be of the party passed the Sea with â—ight hundred Men at Arms that this great draught might not break out of the Net so that when it came to be put in execution they found themselves unfortunately caught in the toyl with the Twenty thousand Crown bargain and a thousand select Men whereof One hundred of them who had engaged themselves in a Tower belonging to the Castle and the rest who waited for entrance were charged and cut in pieces after a brave defence In the Month of August of the year 1348. there appeared on the side of Paris a kind of Comet or Star extraordinary Luminous the Sun being not then Set it appeared as not very far distant from the Earth the following night it was thought to be much greater and divided in several Rayes but soon after it disappeared Year of our Lord 1348 France was miserably tormented all manner of ways it had undergone a horrible Famine Anno 1338. and after that the spoil the Soldiers made had caused every thing to be held excessive dear and kept the whole Kingdom in great scarcity This year 1348. A cruel Plague made all the Provinces desolate the Exactions worse then all these Plagues together ruined the People utterly and by I know not what curse the more the Taxes were increased the more indigent was the King Year of our Lord 1348 There never had been any Plague more furious and destructive then that in Ann. 1348. It was universal over all our Hemisphere there was neither City nor Village nor House but was infected It began in the Kingdom of Cathay Anno 1346. by a vapour that was most horrible stinking which breaking out of the Earth like a king of subterraneal Fire consumed and devoured above Two hundred Leagues of that Countrey even to the very Trees and Stones and infected the Air in such manner that there fell down millions of young Serpents and other venemous Infects From Cathay it passed into Asia and Greece thence into Africk afterwards into Europe which it ransacked throughout to the very utmost bounds of the North. The venome was so contagious that it infected by the very sight It was observed to last Five Months in its full force and rage where once it had got footing Those that suffered least by the Sword of this exterminating Angel could hardly save one Third of the Inhabitants but in many places it did not leave above the Fifteenth or the Twentieth person alive Year of our Lord 1348 Money was wanting they set upon squeezing the Officers of the Treasury amongst others Peter des Essards the Kings Treasurer was condemned to the sum of a hundred thousand Gold Florins which was moderated to the half Afterwards to stop the peoples Mouths and daily complaints they chose out for the management of the Treasury two Bishops two Abbots and four Knights and they expelled all the Italian Usurers called Lombards out of the Kingdom The principal Lottery-Money they had lent was taken and confiscated to the King this was but about Four hundred thousand Livres but their Use-Money which was two Millions was remitted to the Owners Year of our Lord 1348 Queen Jane Daughter of Robert Duke of Burgundy being dead in the year 1349 King Philip though he were yet in mourning weeds took fire for Blanch Daughter of Philip King of Navarre He had sent for her to be Married to his Son but he liked her best for himself and did wed her Year of our Lord 1349 There had been for many years a mortal War between the Earls of Savoy and the Dauphins de Viennois The Dauphin Humbert feeble in Body and Courage not able to endure the continual Attaques of Amé VI called the Earl Verd and besides being very melancholy for the loss of his only Son withal over Head and Ears in debt and having no love for his kindred bethought himself of giving up his Countrey to some great potentate who might plague and put the Savoyard to as much trouble as he had put him His inclination was to make an accommodation with the Pope the People could have wished to be under the Government of the Savoyard that they might
with the Bentivoglios the Pope retired to Ravenna and left the guarding of Bologna to the Cardinal of Pavia his Favourite and to Francis Maria Duke of Vrbin his Brothers Son his Forces being in the Place and the Venetians in the Vicinage but this could not stay nor hinder the inconstancy of the Bolognese nor the impetuosity of the French Upon his way he met with three Mortal Displeasures the first was the News that the Bolognians had driven out his Soldiers the second that his Army was dispersed the third the Duke of Vrbin his Nephew stabb'd almost in his sight the Cardinal of Pavia in Ravenna upon some Quarrel between them and in those Cities thorough which he passed he saw the Indiction posted up for a General Council at Pisa the first of September It was of the sixteenth of May made at the requisition of the Kings and the Emperors Procurators in execution of the Decree of the Council of Constance and in the Name of nine Cardinals three of them having signed it these were Sancta Croce Cosenza and Saint Malo their Names Bernard de Carvajal Francis Borgia and William Briconnont who hapned to be then at Milan The King and the Emperor approved this Indiction by their Letters Patents of the following Month of July In this consternation seeing no Security for himself even in Rome if the Kings Victorious Army should pursue him he cast about for an Accommodation but as soon as he knew that the King tyred with the importunate Scruples of his Wife had sent Orders to Trivulcio not to make any Attempt upon the Territories of the Church he shewed himself more stubborn and more implacable then ever Year of our Lord 1511 And so by his Bulls of the Seventeenth of July he assigned a Council at Rome in the Lateran Palace for the nineteenth of April following declared Null the Convocation of that of Pisa and cited the three Cardinals to appear before him within threescore and five Dayes upon default whereof they should be degraded of their Dignities and deprived of their Benefices The Kings negligence and the Chimerical irresolutions of the Emperor heightned his Courage For the Emperor ever slow and wavering omitting at first to press the Business home had not so much Credit as to make his Prelates go to Pisa the King managing this serious Business as it were but in Sport sent thither but fifteen of his Bishops of France and Milan together with some Abbots Doctors and Procurators of the Universities and the Council was not opened till the twenty-ninth of October they being troubled to obtain leave of the Florentins under whose Seigneury Pisa then was who had at length reduced it by force about two Years before this The Cardinal de Sancta Croce was President there Odet de Foix Lautrec the Guardian and Philip Dece an excellent Lawyer the Advocat Year of our Lord 1511 The Pisans had little respect for this Assembly and the People whether of themselves or by the secret Instigations of the Popes Emissaries or the Florentins who apprehended the furious resentments of the Pope did often quarrel with the French Soldiers The Fathers took such an Allarm upon it that at their third Session they transferr'd it to Milan where they were no better received nor longer in quiet Year of our Lord 1511 Julius relied much upon the Assistance of Ferdinand and the Venetians the twentieth of October he concluded the League with them which they named Holy for the Peace of the Church said they the abolishing the Council of Pisa the recovery of the Lands belonging to the Holy See and the expulsion of all those out of Italy that would hinder the Execution of those things Year of our Lord 1512 In the Month of January of the Year 1512. the Army of the Holy League commanded by Raimond de Cardonna Vice-Roy of Naples besieged Bologna and the Citizens of Brescia introduced the Venetians into their City where they put in fifteen hundred Horse and eight thousand Foot in Garrison who besieged the Castle But now behold the young Gaston de Foix General of the Kings Army in those Countries more sudden and more terrible then Thunder overthrows them and all their Designs For on the tenth Day of the Siege whilst the Snow fell so thick as to prevent the being observed he entred into Bologna to the great astonishment of those Old Soldiers who raised their Siege confounded and cloathed with Shame From thence marching towards Brescia with six thousand chosen Men he on his way defeated John Paul Bailloni who commanded part of the Venetian Army Then entring into the City by the Castle he forced their Works and the Intrenchments they had made strewed the Streets with eight thousand of their Slain and drove out the Venetian Troops These three grand Exploits performed in less then fifteen Daies raised this Prince above all the Captains of his Time Notwithstanding all these Advantages the Pontifical League being reinforced every day with some remainders the Florentins renounced their Amity with France the Report was spread of a sudden Irruption of the Swiss and the English were just upon breaking with the King for the Pope had intoxicated them with the vain Glory of defending the Holy See and the Fumes of all sorts of delicious Wines whereof he had sent them a whole Ships loading together with Hamms Sauciges and Spices to give the Wine a better relish or gusto and make them the more desirable Year of our Lord 1512 Now the King that he might not have so many Enemies at once sent Order to Gaston that he should give Battle to the Army of the League during the Torrent of his good Fortune The Enemies themselves presented it to him being approached near Ravenna to make him raise the Siege which he had undertaken Year of our Lord 1512 for this very purpose It was fought on Easter Day the eleventh of April Their Forces were equal the shock very bloody in the conclusion the Commanders for the League some of them being fled and the others taken the Victory turned to Gaston's Lot But as he was pursuing too eagerly a Body of four thousand Spaniards who made their retreat in good Order by the way betwixt the rising Ground and the River Ronca he was surrounded and slain with the thrust of a Pike and his Cousin Odet de Foix Lautree grievously wounded This gross was not pursued the rest were all cut in Pieces or made Prisoners Ravenna afterwards Sacked and some Neighbouring Cities put into the Hands of the Cardinal Sanseverin Legate from the Council of Pisa as likewise the Cardinal Julian de Medicis the Popes Legate Ferrand d'Avalos Marquiss of Pescaro and Peter de Navarre who had all been taken in the Battle After this it was expected there would have been an Universal Revolution in Italy in favour of the French In effect their fright was so great in Rome that the Cardinals in a Body went to implore the Pope to
the other two the one was for the Protestant Cantons and imported That they should not be obliged to serve against those of their own Religion The other for the little Cantons allowing them to continue their Alliance with Milan and Savoy provided it were not Prejudicial to that which they had newly made with the King Year of our Lord 1602 An Edict which the Chancellour had minuted against Duels was not yet Published The King receiving every day Complaints how the most generous Blood of his Nobility idle and punctillious was shed in these Combats thought himself obliged to put that Curb upon so Tragical a Fury The Edict was Published in the Month of June It forbad all the King's Subjects from making any Duels or Challenges as well within as out of the Kingdom under pain of the Punishment inflicted for High-Treason viz. Death and Confiscation as well for the Seconds as for the principal Parties concerned Ordained that Process should be made to the memory of those that should happen to be Slain in those Combats Enjoyned the Connestable and Mareschals of France to cause such to be brought before them as had any month June quarrel and to order Reparations for the Injury to which the Parties were to acquiesce otherwise to incur the uttermost Displeasure of the King and to be Banished both from the Court and the Province Complaint was made that Strangers melted down the Gold and Silver and carried it out of France and that the manner of counting by Crowns encreased Luxury because it cost no more to say Crowns than Livers Upon this pretence some of the Council by Motives not well understood persuaded the King to raise the price of Moneys so that the Gold Grown which was at Sixty Sols was raised in value to Sixty and five the Franc's which were worth Twenty Sols to One and twenty and four Deniers the quart d'Escus of Fifteen Sols mounted to Sixteen and the Testons of Fourteen and a half to Fifteen and a half It was likewise ordained That from that time forward they should account by Livers as was used before the year 1578. when King Henry III ordained they should reckon by Crowns Those who had given this advice desiring to have it Authorized the King sent for the Chief of the Four Soveraign Companies of the Chambers des Monoyes and the principal Bourgeois and Merchants to come to the Louvre to have their Opinions All excepting those of the Monoyes found great inconveniencies in the said Change or Alteration Nevertheless those that had given that Council persuaded the King to pass by all those Reasons to the contrary and to force the Parliament by divers express Commands to verifie it without having any regard to the Remonstrances made by them whom they would not allow to speak but only to deliver what they did object in Writing The Preparation made by the Duke of Savoy was for an Attempt upon Geneva Albigny his Lieutenant General on this side the Alps and Governor of Savoy had the first Conceptions of it Bernoliere Governor of Bonne perfected the Design The first chose Twelve hundred Men to execute the same on the Night of the Two and twentieth of December led them to the foot of the Wall between month Decemb. the Porte-Neuve and that of la Monnoye made them plant their Ladders which were of a marvellous Structure and saw Three hundred Soldiers get up well Armed and provided with good Hatchets Pincers and Hammers this was about two hours after Midnight Bernoliere who managed the whole Design having surprized the Sentinel forced the Word from him then kill'd him and stood in his place he did the same to the next that came the Rounds but imprudently suffer'd a Boy that carried the Lauthorn to escape The Lad ran to give the Alarm to the Court of Guard and the whole Town who but for this had remained in a profound quiet resting upon the Faith of their first Syndic of the Guard named Blondel who was afterwards proved to be of intelligence with the Undertakers They had designed not to stir till just at break of day but now finding they were discover'd they resolved to begin the Execution They therefore divided themselves into two Parties went to gain the one the Porte-Neuve or New-Gate and the other that of the Tartaise and of these last part of them believing the Town was already their own broke into the Houses and fell a Plundring The first did Petard the inward Gate but it hapned that the Petard was not in a readiness to break open the second that soon after their Petardier or Gunner was Slain and a Burgher cut the Rope which held the Port-Cullis and made it slide down Then was the time they should have made use of their Hatchets But their Astonishment made them forget they had any such Instruments In the mean time the Inhabitants having taken up their Arms and gotten into a Body came to attaque them The Savoisiens who were gone to the Tartaise Gate rejoyn with those at the New-Gate This Gate is taken and retaken Year of our Lord 1602 three several times Bernoliere is laid dead upon the spot these that were without do not succour them as they ought to have done by giving hot and false Alarms at the other Gates In fine their great Numbers over-whelm the Savoisiens about some Fifty of them are cut off the rest run to their Ladders the Cannon from an opposite Bastion had batter'd them in pieces they leap from top to bottom of the Fossez where most of them are knock'd on the Head and even many of those that had not been within the City Attignac and the other Chiefs to the number of Thirteen defend themselves so valiantly they obtain a Capitulation with their Swords in hand But as you shall find their valour reserved them but to a more ignoble Fate The Duke of Savoy believed the Success so certain that he parted from Turin four dayes before and was come to Pont d'Estrambieres which is within a League of Geneva We may guess what his displeasure was when upon his Arrival he heard Albigny Sounding a Retreat Wherefore he returned the very next day over the Mountains in post-haste leaving his Forces in the Countries of Foucigny Chablais and Ternier and sent dispatches to the Neighbouring Princes especially to the Swiss to justifie his Action He had three colours for it The First That Geneva was not comprised in the Treaty of Vervins Neither was it indeed expressed by Name but the King maintain'd that it was included under the Name of the Allies of the Swiss The Second That the Inhabitants of Geneva refused to Pay him the Duties and Imposts for what they possessed in some Parts of the Countries subject to him and this was true The Third That Lesdeguieres had contrived a Design to seize upon their City and that he only endeavour'd to prevent him as being more equitable it should fall into the hands of their Natural