not here tell the mischiefs and inconveniencies which this wicked invention hath caused and doth daily cause The most stupid may easily know them and see well that it is a disease whose remedy at present is difficult I will not charge this History with all the Ceremonies and Rejoycings made at the Birth and Baptism of all the Children of Henry the Great nor at divers Marriages of the Princes and Grandees of the Court amongst others of the Prince of Conde and the Duke of Vendosme which were made in the Month of July 1609. The Prince of Conde Espoused Câ—anlatta Margarita of Montmorency Daughter of the Constable who was wonderfully fair and had a presence absolutely noble which the King having considered was more lively struck with her then he had ever been with any other which caused a little after the retreat of the Prince of Conde who carried her into Flanders and thence retired to Milain Not without the Kings extreme displeasure to see the first Prince of his blood cast himself into his enemies hands The Duke of Vendosme Espoused Madamoiselle de Merceur to whom he had been affianced since the year one thousand six hundred ninety seven as we have said before however the Mother of the Lady standing upon high punctilio's of honour brought many troubles to the accomplishment of this Marriage so that it had never been made had not the King highly concerned himself in it This was none of the least difficulties of his life for he had a high and obstinate spirit to bend however he employed only ways of sweetness and perswasion acting in this business only as a Father who loved his Son and not as a King who would be obeyed Now will I speak of his ordinary divertisements Hunting Building Feasts Play and Walking I will adde only That in Feasts and Merriments he would appear as good a Companion and as Jovial as another That he was of a merry humour when he had the glass in his hand though very sober That his Mirth and good Discourses were the delicatest part of the good Chear That he witnessed no less Agility and Strength in Combats at the Barriers Courses at the Ring and all sorts of Gallantries then the youngest Lords That he took delight in Balls and Danced sometimes but to speak the truth with more affection then good grace Some carped that so great a Prince should abase himself to such follies and that a Grey-beard should please to act the young man It may be said for his excuse that the great toiles of his spirit had need of these divertisements But I know not what to answer to those who reproach him with too great a love to playing at Cards and Dice little befitting a great King and that withal he was no fair Gamester but greedy of Coin fearful at great Stakes and humorous upon a loss To this I must acknowledge that it was a fault in this great King who was no more exempt from Blots then the Sun from Beams It might be wished for the honour of his memory that he had been only guilty of this but that continual weakness he had for fair Ladiesâ— was another much more blamable in a Christian Prince in a of his age who was married to whom God had shewed so many graces and who had conceived such great designs in his spirit Sometimes he had desires which were passant and only fixt for a night but when he met with beauties which struck him to the heart he loved even to folly and in these transports appeared nothing less then Henry the Great The Fable saies that Hercules took the Spindle and Spun for the love of the fair Omphale Henry did something more mean for his Mistresses He once disguised himself like a Country-man with a Wallet of straw on his back to come to the fair Gabriella And it hath been reported that the Marchioness of Verneuil hath seen him more then once at her feet weeping his disdains and injuries Twenty Romances might be made of the intrigues of his several loves with the Countess of Guiche when he was yet but King of Navarre with Jacqueline of Bueil whom he made Countess of Moret and with Charlotta d' Essards without counting many other Ladies who held it a glory to have some Charm for so great a King The high esteem and affection which the French had for him hindred them from being offended at so scandalous a liberty but the Queen his wife was extremely perplexed at it which hourly caused controversies between them and carried her to disdains and troublesom humours The King who was in fault endured it very patiently and employed his greatest Confidents and sometimes his Confessor to appease his spirit So that he had continually a reconciliation to make And these contentions were so ordinary that the Court which at first were astonished at them in the end took no more notice Conjugal duty without doubt obliged the King not to violate his faith to his Legitimate Spouse at least not to keep his Mistresses in her sight but if he in this point ought to have been a good husband so he ought to be likewise in that of Authority and in accustoming his wife to obey him with more submission and not perplex him as she did with hourly complaints reproaches and sometimes threats The trouble and displeasure of these domestick broiles certainly retarded the Execution of that great design which he had formed for the good and perpetual repose of Christendom and in fine for the destruction of the Ottoman power Many have spoken diversely but see here what I find in the Memoires or Notes of the Duke of Sully who certainly must know something being as he was so great a Confident of this Kings which makes me report it from him The King said he desiring to put in Execution those projects he had conceived after the Peace of Vervin believed that he ought first to establish in his Kingdom an unshaken Peace by reconciling all spirits both to him and among themselves and taking away all causes of bitterness And that moreover it was necessary for him to choose people capable and faithful who might see in what his Revenue or Estate might be bettered and instruct him so well in all his Affairs that he might of himself take Counsels and discern the good from the ill feasible from impossible enterprizes and such as were proportionate to his Revenues For an expence made beyond them draws the peoples curses and those are ordinarily followed by Gods He granted an Edict to the Hugonots that the two Religions might live in Peace Afterwards he made a certain and fixed Order to pay his debts and those of the Kingdom contracted by the disorders of the times the profusions of his Ancestors and by the payments and purchases of men and places which he was forced to make during the League Sully shewed him an account
difficult and very rare for those who are born to a Crown and bred up to a near hope to mount into a Throne after the death of their father or who finde themselves too soon raised to it ever to learn well the Art of raigning be it their not being so happy as to be educated under the care of a Mother so vertuous and so affectionate as that great Queen who hath so diligently caused to be instructed King Lewis the 14 her son in all good Rules and in all Maximes of Christian Policy or so happy as to be blessed with a Minister so wise and so interested for their good as that young Monarch hath found in the person of Cardinal Mazarine The reasons of this are that ordinarily those persons into whose hands they fall in their infancy desiring to conserve to themselves the Authority and the Government in stead of obliging or indeed constraining them to apply their spirits to things solid and necessary act so cunningly that they employ them onely in trifles unworthy of them and amuse them with so much subtilty that it is impossible that a young Prince can know it In stead of laying incessantly before their eyes the true Grandeur of Kings which consists in the exercise of their Authority they feed them onely with appearances and images of that greatness as are exteriour pomps and magnificences wherein there is onely pride and vanity In fine in stead of instructing them diligently in what they ought to know and in what they ought to do for all the knowledge of Kings ought to be reduced into practice they keep them in a profound ignorance of all their Affairs that they may always be Masters and that they may never be able to be without them From whence it happens that a Prince though he be great knowing his own weakness judges himself incapable to govern and from that moment wherein he is possessed with this opinion he must needs renounce the conduct of his Estate if that he have not indeed extraordinary natural qualities and a heart truly Royal. Moreover these persons would seize themselves of all Avenues and hinder â—onest men from approaching those tender ears or if they cannot hinder their approaches they are not wanting to render them suspected or to deprive them of all belief in the spirit of these young Princes making them pass with them either for their enemies or people ill affected or else for ridiculous or impertinent Moreover they have some Emissaries who infatuate them with flatteries with excessive praises and adorations who never let them know any thing but what shall be to their ends who improve their defaults by continual complacences who make them believe they have a perfect intelligence of all things when they know nothing who make them conceive that Royalty is onely a Soveraign Bauble that travel befits not a King and that the functions of Royalty being laborious are by consequence base and servile In this manner they soon disgust them with their own Command they accustom them to have Masters because they have yet neither so much knowledge nor so much courage as to be Masters And thus these poor Princes being not at all contradicted but always adored nor having any experience of themselves or ever suffered pain or necessity become often presumptuous and absolute in their fancies and believing their puissance to have Peerage with that of Gods they begin to consider nothing but their passion their pleasure and humour as if Mankinde were created for them whilst they were created wisely to order and govern Mankind who let profusion and waste be made of the life and goods of their subjects and who with an unparallel'd insensibility hearken no more to their Laments and Groans then to the Lowings of a slaughtered Ox. On the contrary those who come to the Crown at a greater distance and in a riper age are almost always better instructed in their affairs they apply themselves more strongly to Govern their Estates they will alwaies hold the Rudder they are juster more tender and more merciful they know better how to manage their Revenues they conserve with more care the blood and the goods of their subjects they more willingly hear their complaints and do better Justice they do not with so much vigor use their absolute power which oft-times makes the people despair and causes strange revolutions If the reasons why they are so be sought they are because they have been in a Post or place where they have often heard truth where they have understood what ignominy it is for a Prince not to enjoy his own personal power but to leave it to another where though they have had some flatterers they have likewise had open enemies who by censuring their faults have induced a Reformation where they have heard blamed the faults of that Government under which they were and have blamed them themselves so that they are obliged to do better and not to follow what they have condemned where they have studied to govern themselves wisely because they were dependants and fearful of punishment where they have often heard the complaints of particular persons and seen the miseries of the people in fine where they have understood by suffering what evil is and to have pity of those who suffer injustice because they themselves have proved the rigour of a too high and severe Government We have two fair Examples in Lewis the twelfth surnamed the Father of the people and in our Henry two of the best Kings who in the last ages have born the Scepter of the Flowers de Lis. Now who would gather together and worthily compose all the Heroick vertues the Noble actions and Eminent qualities of Henry the Great would make him a Crown much more precious and resplendent then that wherewith his head was adorned on the day of his Coronation That treasure of freedom and sincerity free and exempt from malice from gall and bitterness should be the matter more precious then Gold His Renown and his Glory which will never have end should be the Circle His Victories of Coutras of Arques of Yvry of Fontaine-Franzoise his Negotiations of the peace of Vervin of his accommodations between the Venetians and the Pope of the Truce between the Spaniard and the Hollander and that great League with all the Princes of Christendom for execution of the designe of which we have spoken should be the branches Then his war like valour his generosity his constancy his credit his wisdome his prudence his activity his vigilance his oeconomy his justice and a hundred other virtues should be the precious stones Amongst which that Paternal and Cordial love he had for his people would cast a fire more lively and bright then the Carbuncle The firmness of his courage alwaies invincible in dangers would bear the Price and Beauty of a Diamond And his unparallel'd Clemency which raised up those enemies he had overthrown would appear like an Emerald which
fault it is but a light one and ought to be pardoned since ingenuously confest For other more remarkable ones I may have committed I presume on your goodness that Reader you will not treat me with the utmost rigour but that you will have as much indulgence for me as I have in this Work had Zeal for the Service of my King and Affection for the good of France THE HISTORY OF HENRY the Great King of France and Navarre To the King SIR THat Respect and Love which all good French-â—â—n have still conserved for 〈…〉 happy Memory of King Henry the Great your Grandfather represents it self as fresh to their remembrance as if he still reigned and Renown conserves the Splendour of his fair Actions in the Hearts and Mouthes of Men as lively and entirely as in the time of his Triumphs But we may say moreover when we consider your Majesty That he hath regained a new Life in your Person and that he makes himself dayly be seen under a Visage yet more August and by Vertues which appear as redoubtable to the Enemies of France as they are sweet and charming to its People In truth Sir that praise-worthy Impatience which your Majesty hath testified when I presented our History to your reading to come to this glorious Reign and for it to leave behind seven or eight others of Kings that preceded him is a most certain proof that you desire him for your Model and that you have resolved to study his Conduct and conserve it in the Government of your Estates Your happy Birth and your Inclinations wholly Royal lead you to it The Hopes and Votes of your Subjects agree to it The Necessities of your Kingdom afflicted with the Miseries of the longest War it ever sustained oblige you to it and Heaven hath disposed you to it by so many Graces and eminent Qualities that it would be difficult for you not to follow the â—air Pâ—â—â—â—â—ples of this great Monarch I dare likewâ—â—â— say and I may speak it with truth that it will not be impossible for you to surpass him if you enforce your self to improve well all those Advantages wherewith Heaven hath endowed you above other Princes of your Age. Yes Sir he hath to you as well as to the King your Grandfather given a generous Soul good and beneficent a Spirit elevated and capable of the greatest things a Memory happy and facile a Courage Heroick and Martial a Judgement neat and solid astrong and vigorous Health but he hath moreover given you one Advantage this great Prince never had that is A Majestick Presence an Air and Port almost Divine a Person and Beauty worthy the Empire of the Universe which attracts the Eyes and Respects of all the World and which without the force of Arms without the authority of Commands will gain you all those by whom your Majesty shall make your Self be seen I will not speak of the Prosperities of your Estates since your happy Advancement to the Crown how you have been proclaimed Conquerer as soon as King how by the assisting Counsels of your great Ministers your Frontiers have been extended on all sides and your Enemies everywhere defeated but I ought not to forget that singular Grace which Heaven hath conferred on you by instructing you in the Catholick Religion and in true Piety by the continual Diligences and Examples of the Queen your Mother tâ—â—â— which was without doubt wanting to the Youth of our Henry You cannot Sir with so fair Dispositions with so many super-excelling Favours of Heaven be confined beneath the Glory and Reputation of this great Prince Remember if you please that you have done me the honour to tell me more then once that you ardently aspire to a like Perfection and that you have no greater Ambition All France who at present have their Eyes upon you rejoyce to see the Effects already second your Desires and that you strive as puissantly to imitate as you have passionaaely desired to hear the Recital of so fair a Life Your Majesty knows that Wills pass but for Weaknesses when they render not themselves efficacious and are so far from being worthy praise that they condemn those who have them so much the more because they see well what they ought to do and have not the heart to attempt or enterprize it The way of Vertue at first glance seems rude but it conducts to the Temple of Glory where it is certain we arrive not by simple Thoughts and idle Discourses but by Labour Application and Perseverance I have often taken the Liberty to represent to your Majesty That Royalty is no Infant-Mystery That it consists almost altogether in Action That a King ought to make his Duty his Delights and That he ought to know how to Reign that is how to hold himself the Helm of his Estate the better to Conduct them with Vigour Wisdome and Justice Who knows not that there is no Honour in bearing a Title without executing the Functions of it That it is in vain to have acquisted the best Knowledge without labouring to reduce it into practice That it is ridiculous to propose to our selves a great Model unless it be effectually imitated And in fine that it is nothing to understand by heart all the Maximes of Policy if we apply them not to their right Use Without lying he that hath Eyes and will not open them who hath Arms and will not take the pains to move them is in a worse estate then the Blinde or the Cripple I cannot dissemble Sir that unspeakable Joy I have sometimes conceived when I have understood from the Mouth of your Majesty that you would chuse rather never to have wore a Crown then not your Self to govern it but resemble those Infant-Kings of the first Race who as all our Historians say served onely as Idols to the Majors of their Palace and who had had no Name but onely to mark the year in the Chronologie But it will be enough to make France know how much your Majesty condemns that sleepy Lethargie to tell them that you are at present resolved to imitate your Grandfather Henry the Great who hath been the most active and most laborious of all our Kings who hath dedicated himself with most Diligence to the Management of his Affairs and who hath cherished his Estates and People with most Affection and most Tenderness This is to declare that your Majesty hath taken a firm Resolution to put your hand to the Work to know both the inside and outside of your Realm to preside in your Counsels to give feet and motion to all Resolutions to have a continual Eye over your Revenues to cause a true faithful and exact Account to be given to distribute Graces and Recompences to those of your Creatures shall prove worthy in fine fully and amply to enjoy your Authority It is thus the incomparable Henry acted whom we are about to see reign not onely in France by right of Blood but over
towards Senlis and retired to Alenzon where however he acted nothing the peace being soon after concluded with them all There was granted to Monsieur a great Portion in money and places to the Hugonots many very advantagious conditions to the Prince of Condé the Government of Picardy and the City of Peronne for his retreat but to our Henry nothing else but hopes of which being in the end dis-abused he renounced the peace re-entred into the Hugonot party and quitting the Catholick Church returned anew to his first Religion It is to be believed that he did it because he was perswaded it was the better thus his fault will be worthy of excuse nor can he be accused but for not having the true light In the mean time it must not be forgot to observe on this that the greatest reproach his enemies ever made him I mean those of the League was his having thus relapsed and this was likewise the greatest obstacle he found at Rome when being converted he demanded the absolution of the Pope The Rochellers received him into their City but not without great Pre-cautions and not until he had driven from him some people who were neither Catholicks nor Hugonots but Atheists and horrible wicked persons It hath been held that they followed him against his will that truely he had served himself of them in some intrigues but that it was himself who by secret advice obliged the Rochellers to demand their expulsion After he had so journed some months at Rochel he went to take possession of his Government of Guyenne where he had the displeasure to see shut against him the gates of the City of Bourdeaux under pretext that the inhabitants feared that if he became Master of it he would banish the Catholick Religion A very sensible injury to a young Prince full of courage but he knew most wisely how to dissemble it at present because he had not power to revenge it and generously forgot it when he had the means to do it About this time the League took birth that puissant faction which for twenty years together tormented France which thought to introduce the Spanish Domination and which would have renversed the order of the succession of the Royal family under the fairest pretext in the world to wit the maintenance of the Religion of our Ancestors At other times under the reign of Charles the ninth there were divers Leagues and Associations made in Guyenne and Languedoc to defend the Church against the Hugonots I leave it to judge whether those who rendred themselves Chief of them had most Zeal or most Ambition but they were not pressed so forward nor so diligently formed and therefore became extinct The Grandees of the Realm however might by them observe that if at any time such associations were made it would be a fair means to elevate to a great height him who could render himself their Chief Henry Duke of Guise who had a King-like heart had in all likelyhood this thought or if he at first had it not the favorites of Henry the third by persecuting him forced him to entertain it and to apply himself to this party to defend himself against them There were of his house seven or eight Princes all brave to the utmost extent The principal of them were the Duke of Mayenne and the Cardinal de Guise his brothers the Duke d' Aumarle and the Marquiss d' Elbeuf his Cousins Now the Evasion of Monsieur of which we have spoken to the Hugonots and the advantagious peace after granted them made the League show it self which was but little in its commencement Those who to render themselves puissant desired a new faction in the State took this subject to make it be represented by their Emissaries the great danger in which the Catholick Religion was and to remonstrate the excessive puissance of its enemies who had on their side the two first Princes of the blood and Monsieur who was their friend What would it be said they if he should come to the Crown with such ill intentions that therefore they ought to advise in good time and fortifie themselves against that danger which threatned the holy Church They whispered at present these Considerations and other like them into men ears and when they had disposed their spirits published them aloud Upon this the Burgesses of Peronne a free City and which was accustomed to have so puissant a Governour refused to receive the Prince of Condé because a Hugonot He made his complaints to the King and demanded the execution of the treaty of peace The Picards opposed him and were the first that made a League or Union for the defence as they said of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Faith The Prince of Condé could never have reason and was constrained to retire into Guyenne James Lord d' Humieres was made Chief of this League in Picardy and Aplincourt a young Gentleman took the Oath of the Inhabitants of Peronne by whose example the Cities of Amiens Corbie St. Quintins and many others did the like Lewis de Tremoville began one likewise in Poictou The Queen-mother secretly favoured this designe to the end she might retain her authority among these discords and disturbances The first Model and the Articles of this League were brought to Paris and there were some so zealous as to carry them from house to house endeavouring to engage the most backward but Christopher de Thou chief president hindred for the present the progress of this conspiracy Those who were the first inventors of it had deliberated among themselves that to the end to give it means to aggrandize it self and to keep the spirits of the people still warm it was necessary to continue the war with the Hugonots for this purpose they stirred up divers persons who surprized their places and committed a thousand affronts against our Henry and the Prince of Condé And much more they raised so many factions and complaints on all sides of people who demanded the summoning of the Estates that the King was obliged to agree to it They assembled then at Blois and began in the month of December in the year 1575. The Hugonots themselves were not at all troubled at this Convocation because they imagined that the third Estate which ordinarily is the strongest and which hath most reason to apprehend the war would cause the peace to be confirmed but the Juncto of those which were for war was so strong that it was resolved puissantly to prosecute it They judged it notwithstanding convenient to depute before-hand some persons of the Assembly to our Henry and to the Prince of Condé to exhort them to return into the bosome of the Catholick Church And this taking no effect the King was obliged to declare himself Chief of the League and so from Soveraign become Chief of a faction and enemy to a part of his subjects He raised three or
utmost parts of the Kingdom where he was like a banished man and led him by the hand to the fairest Theatre in France but only to make known his goodness and virtue and put him in an Estate to gain that Succession to which had he been absent he had never been called But on the other side when the multitude of his Puissant enemies which armed themselves against him are considered the small Treasure and few Forces he had the Obstacle of his Religion and a thousand other difficulties it could not be certainly judged whether the Crown was ordained for him to enjoy or fallen upon his head to crush him in Pieces and there might be reason to say that if this Conjuncture Elevated him it was upon a Throne trembling and erected on the brink of Precipices Whilst Henry the third was in his Agony our Henry held many Tumultuary Councels in the same lodgings with those whom he Esteemed his most faithful Servants So soon as he understood he was expired he retired to his quarter at Meudon and attired himself in the mourning Purple he was presently followed by a great quantity of Noblemen who accompanied him as well for Curiosity as affection The Hugonots with those Troops which he had led presently swore Allegiance to him but this number was very small Some of the Catholicks as the Marshal d' Aumâ—nt Givry and Humieres swore Service to him until death and that willingly without desiring any Condition of him but the greatest part of the others being either estranged by inclination or exasperated by some discontent or else believing now to have found the time to make their Services be bought kept at a greater distance and held several little Assemblies in divers places where they formed a number of Fantastick designs Each of these proposed to make themselves Sovereigns of some City or some Province as the Governours had done in the decadence of the house of Charlemagne The Marshal of Byron among others would have had the County of Perigord and Sancy not to reject him spoke to the King This Proposition was very dangerous for if he denied it he incensed him and if he accorded to his demand he opened the way to all others to make the like and so the Kingdome would be rent in Peices It was only his great spirit and understanding which could walk safely in so dangerous a path he therefore charged Sancy to assure him on his part of his affection of which he would willingly in time and place give him all the markes a good Subject could expect from his Sovereign but at the same time he furnished him with so many puissant reasons wherefore he could not accord to what he desired that Sancy being himself first perswaded found it not difficult to work the same effect on the spirit of Byron whom he obliged not only to renounce that pretence but likewise to protest that he would never suffer any peice of the Estate to be dismembred in favour of whomsoever We may without doubt conclude that the great Henry did reason puissantly and that he explained his reasons in the best manner since he could in occasions so important perswade such able Spirits against their proper interests Byron being thus gained went with Sancy to assure themselves of those Suisses which Sancy had brought to the deceased King but who being of the Catholick Cantons made some difficulty to bear Arms for a Hugonot Prince and that without new order from their Superiour As for the French Troops of the Defunct King it was not so easie to gain them The Lords who Commanded them or who had their Chiefs under their dependance had every one divers designs one would have one thing and the other another according to their several interests or Caprichio's There were six Princes of the house of Bourbon to wit the old Cardinal of Vendosme the Count of Soissons the Prince of Gonti the Duke of Montpensier and the Prince of Dombes his Son which in stead of being his firmest Prop gave him no little inquietude because there was none of them which had not his particular pretence which proved to him a continual Obstacle Many of the Lords which were in the Army were not very well intentionated particularly Henry Grand Prior of France Natural Son to Charles the ninth after Count of Auvergne and Duke of Angoulesme the Duke of Espernon and Termes Belle-garde who out of the fear they had formerly had lest he should deprive them of the favour of their Master had opposed him in divers Rencounters For the Courtiers as Francis d' O and Manou his brother Old-Castle and many others they knowing that our Henry detested their Villanous Debaucheries and that he would not prove a person of so ill management as to lavish out his Revenues to supply their Luxury had no great inclination for him Nevertheless hoping to find things better they resolved to declare in his favour but with such Conditions as should restrain and bridle him and in some manner oblige him to depend on them For this purpose there met an Assembly of some Noblemen at d' O's Palace a man Voluptuous Prodigal and by consequence not very scrupulous but who at present made Conscience a Cloak to render himself necessary who there resolved not to acknowledge him till he were a Catholick Francis d' O accompanied with some Noblemen had the confidence to carry to the King the Resolutions of this Assembly and added a studied discourse to perswade him to return to the Catholick Religion but the King who had already past over his greatest fears made them an answer so mixt with sweetness and gravity with spirit and reservedness that Couragiously repulsing them without too severely taunting them he testified to them that he desired to conserve them his but that after all he feared not much the loss of them Some time after the Nobility after divers little Assemblies held a great one with Francis de Luxembourg Duke of Piney There many Propositions being made at last the Dukes of Montpensier and Piney subtilly Matraged the Spirits and Steered the Opinions of the most importunate to this Resolution That they would acknowledge Henry for King upon these Conditions 1. Provided that he would cause himself to be instructed for they presupposed conversion must necessarily follow instruction 2. That he should not permit the exercise of any but the Catholick Religion 3. That he should neither give charge nor employment to the Hugonots 4. That he should permit the Assembly to depute Agents to the Pope to let him understand and agree to the Causes which Obliged the Nobility to remain in the Service of a Prince separated from the Romane Church The King had the knowledge of this Resolution from the Duke of Piney he thanked them for their zeal for the Conservation of the Estate and the affection they had for his person promising them that he would sooner
lose his life then the remembrance of those good services they had rendred him and granting them easily all the points they demanded only the second In stead of which he promised them to re-establish the exercise of the Catholick Religion through all his Territories and to remit the Ecclesiasticks into the possession of their Estates and of this he caused a Declaration to be ingrossed which after all the Lords and Gentlemen of Note had signed he sent to be confirmed by that part of the Parliament which was at Tours There were many who signed it with some regret and others who absolutely refused it among whom were the Duke of Espernon and Lewis d' Hospital Vitry This last disturbed as it was said by a scruple of Conscience cast himself into Paris and gave himself for some time to the League but first of all he abandoned the Government of Dourdan which the Defunct King had given him Such were then the Maxims of persons of true honour in the Civil Wars that in quitting one party which ever it was they quitted likewise those places they held and returned them to those had conferred them The Duke d' Espernon protesting that he would never be either Spaniard or Leaguer but that his Conscience would not permit him to stay with the King demanded leave of him to retire to his Government The King after having in vain endeavoured to retain him gave him leave with many Carresses and prayses but so much was he in his heart troubled at his abandoning him that it hath been believed he conserved against him a secret resentment so long as he lived The Duke of Mayenne was not a little troubled in Paris what resolution he should take he saw that all the Parisians even those who had held of the party of the Defunct King had fully resolved to provide for the security of Religion But that however they would all have a King contrary to some of the Sixteen who imagined they might form a Republick and turn France into Cantons like to the Suisses but those were neither sufficiently powerful in Number Riches or Capacity to Conduct such a design So that the most part of his friends counselled him to take the title of King but when he went about to sound this Gulfe he found that this proposition was neither agreeable to the people nor yet to the King of Spain from whom he received and was to receive his Principal stay and means of Subsistence Hereupon two other Counsels were given him the one to accord willingly with the new King who without doubt in the conjuncture wherein things were would grant him most advantagious conditions The other that he should by Declaration publish to the Catholicks of the Royal Army that all resentments remaining Extinct by the Death of Henry the third he had no other interest then that of Religion That that point being of Divine obligation and regarding all good Christians he summoned and conjured them to joyn with him to exhort the King of Navarre to return to the Church upon which they promised to acknowledge him immediately for King but if that he refused to do it they protested to Substitute in his place another Prince of the blood This advice was the best And indeed it was proposed by Jeannin President of the Parliament of Burgongne one of the wisest and most Politick heads of his Councel and who acted in his affairs without Sleights or Stratagems but with great judgement and singular Honesty The Duke of Mayenne equally rejected both these advices and took a third to wit the causing the old Cardinal of Bourbon who was at present detained prisoner by order of our Henry to be proclaimed King still reserving to himself the quality of Lieutenant-General of the Crown He published after several Declarations one of which he sent to the Parliament the other to the Provinces and the Nobility inviting them to endeavour to deliver their King and defend their Religion At the same time the King tried by divers Negotiations and caused him to be exhorted rather to seek his advancement by his friendship then by the troubles and miseries of France But to this the Duke answered that he had engaged his Father in the Publick cause and given Oath to King Charles the tenth for so they called the old Cardinal of Bourbon who was named Charles to whom according to the sentiment of the League the Crown appertained as to the nearest Kinsman of the Defunct And in the mean time he entertained Plots and Conspiracies in the Royal Army where his emissaries from day to day debauched many persons even of those whom the King believed most assured There were many Generous enough to resist the temptations of Silver but nothing was proof against the intrigues of the Ladies of Paris who cunningly attracted the Gentlemen and the Officers in the City sparing nothing to engage them The King knowing that there daily remained some catch'd in these snares and having just reason to fear that those which returned tempted by their Mistresses might bring back some perâ—itious designs and the Duke of Nemours being upon the advance with his Troops to joyne with the Duke of Mayenne the Duke of Lorrain being likewise to send his having cause to doubt his retreat might be cut off on all sides found it convenient to discamp from before Paris But before he dislodged he writ to the Protestant Princes to give them an account of what he did and to assure them that nothing should be capable to shake his Constancy or separate him from Christ and he spoke at present according to his thoughts and Conscience not having any desire to change which yet the Ministers of his Religion would not believe but watched him so close on this Subject that they became importunate It was oertainly an unspeakable trouble which continually for three or four years he was forced to undergo to hear on one side the exhortatious of those people and on the other the most instant Remonstrances of the Catholicks for it was necessary he should allay the distrust of the first and entertain the second with continual hopes of making himself be instructed How much prudence had he need of how much patience with how much jugdement and policy must he manage such great differences Certainly he could not do it without imploying all the powers of his Spirit and experience And he well knew how far it was necessary for a Prince to have his Spirit happily exercised and to be well instructed how to Negotiate and Speak well to be able at his necessity to serve himself of his talent Without falsity he might well at present praise those who having had the care of bringing him up had formed him in his youth to the Management of affairs to Treating with men and to the gaining the affections of all the world Those last devoirs he desired to render his Predecessor served as a fair
soon converted into a Frugality very necessary for the State He had chosen for his Council very able and faithful Ministers as Chiverny Bellievre Sillery Sancy Janin Villeroy and Rosny I speak not here at all of his gallant Men for War as the Marshal of Byron Lesdiguieres Governour of the Daulphinate the Duke of Mayenne the Constable of Montmorency the Marshal de la Chastre the Marshal d' Aumont Guitry la Noue and many others of whom he served not himself in the Administration of State-affairs though he often entertained himself with them and for their honour sometimes communicated to them things of consequence demanding their advice The Chancellour of Chiverny who had been raised to this charge under the reign of Henry the third was a man cold dissembled and considerate but as his Enemies said he was a much better Pleader then Counsellour of State He died the year following and in his place the King constituted Pompone de Bellievre a man perfectly accomplished in the knowledge of the Rights and Interests of France and a most expert Negotiator as he well shewed in the Treaty of Vervin He was old when the King gave him this Charge and therefore said himself That he onely entred into it to go out of it He counselled the King to make a severe Act against Duels He established a very good Order in the Council and ordained That none should be received Master of the Requests but who had been ten whole years in one of the Soveraign Companies or sixteen in other of the Subalternate Seats Nicholas Bruslard de Sillery President of the Cap to the Parliament of Paris who was his Son-in-law and who had been his Companion at Vervin was of a spirit sweet facile and circumspect It hath been said that the Publick never beheld any passion either in his Countenance or Discourse Harlay-Sancy was a man free bold and dauntless who feared no person when he acted for the service of the King but he was a little rugged and spoke to him too freely witness what he said concerning Madam Gabriella who knew how to return it to him As for Janin President of the Parliament of Bourgongne and Villeroy chief Secretary of State they had both taken part with the League and yet very profitably served both the King and France having in what they acted endeavoured onely for the defence of the Catholick Religion and not been moved out of a spirit of faction They had hindred the Spaniards from planting themselves in this Realm and the Duke of Mayenne from absolutely casting himself upon them as his despair had often perswaded him to do They agreed both in this point that they loved the Estate and Royalty with passion and that they had great judgement but for the rest of their humours they were very much different Janin was an old Gaul who would manage his Affairs by the ancient forms according to the Laws and Ordinances a good Lawyer firm and resolute who went directly towards his end and who knew no subtile turnings and windings but entirely loved the publick good Villeroy was one of the wisest and most exact Courtiers that was ever seen he had a spirit clear and neat which would unravel with an incredible facility the most embroyled Affairs explain them so agreeably and intelligibly as nothing more and who turned them as himself pleased He was wonderfully active withal and most excellent at finding Expedients taking his business by so sure hold that it was difficult to escape him The King often conferred with these Counsellours for they were now so called and not Ministers as they had been for above thirty years before He spoke to them of his Affairs sometimes to be instructed and sometimes to instruct them which he did either in the Council-chamber or walking in the Gardens of the Tuilleries Monceaux St. Germain and Fontainbleau He discoursed often with them apart calling them one after another and he did so either to oblige them to speak to him with more liberty or not to tell them all together what he would onely tell to some particularly or for some other reason which he without doubt deduced from good policy He said That he found none amongst them who satisfied him like Villeroy and that he could dispatch more business with him in an hour then with the others in a whole day As for Maximilian de Bethune Baron of Rosny and after Duke of Sully he had been bred up with the King in the Hugonot Religion and the King had known his capacity and affection in divers affairs of consequence but above all that his genius carried him to the good management of Revenues and that he had all qualities requisite for that purpose In effect he was a man of good order exact a good husband a keeper of his word not prodigal nor proud nor carried away by vain follies or expences or play or women or any other things not convenient for a man entrusted with such an Employment Moreover he was vigilant laborious expeditious and one who dedicated almost his whole time to his affairs and little to his pleasure and withal he had the gift of piercing into the very bottome of matters and unravelling those twistings and knots with which Treasurers when they are not trusty and faithful endeavour to conceal their deceits We have already said how the King desired above all things to provide for a good Government in his Revenues and the reasons for which he had been obliged to leave Francis d' O in the charge of Superintendant After this man was dead he gave that charge to five or six persons whom he believed both capable and honest men he was perswaded that he should be better served by them then by one alone imagining that they would serve as checks and controulers to one another But the quite contrary happened every one discharged himself on his Companion nothing was advanced and if any would act the others were not wanting to cross him by their jealousies so that they only agreed in this point that every one looked that his Salary was well paid him which cost the King six times more then if he had had only one Superintendent whilst he drew no profit from this multitude Knowing then that so many people did onely imbroil his Revenues he returned them again into the hands of one and this was Sancy But a short time after finding him more proper for other Employments then that he gave him Rosny for a Companion and after made Rosny alone Superintendent Rosny before he entred into this Charge was provided with all necessary knowledges to acquit himself well of it he knew perfectly all the Revenues of the Kingdom and all the expences which were necessary He communicated all he knew to the King who on his part had likewise studied all these things so that an hundred Crowns could not be laid out but he would
little St. Anthonies being holy Thursday as she returned to her Lodging and being walking in the Garden she felt her self struck with an Apoplexy in the brain The first fury of it being passed she would no longer stay in that house but caused her self to be carried to that of Madam de Sourdis her Aunt near St. Germain of the Auxerrois And all the rest of that day and the morrow she was perplexed with Swoondings and Convulsions of which she died on the Saturday-morning The causes of her death were diversly spoken of but however it was a happiness to France since it deprived the King of an object for which he was about to loose both himself and his Estate His grief was as great as his love had been yet he not being of those feeble souls who please themselves in perpetuating their sorrows and in bathing themselves in their tears received not onely those comforts he sought but still conserved for the Children and particularly for the Duke of Vendosm that affection he had born the Mother All good French-men passionately desired that so good a King might leave legitimate Children They durst not press him to take a Wife capable to bring him forth such so long as Gabriella lived for fear lest he should espouse her and out of the same fear Queen Margaret would not give her consent to dissolve his marriage But when Gabriella was dead she willingly lent her hand to it and her self addressed a Request to the holy Father to demand the dissolution founding it principally on two causes of nullity The first was the want of consent for she alledged she had been forced to it by King Charles the ix her Brother The second the Proximity of Kindred found between them in the third degree for which she said there had never been any valuable Dispensation In like manner the Lords of the Kingdome and the Parliament besought his Majesty by solemn Deputations that he would think of taking a Wife representing to him the inconveniencies and the danger wherein France would be found if he should die without Children These Deputations will not seem strange to those who know our ancient History where it may be seen that neither the King nor his Children married but by the advice of his Barons and this passed in that time for almost a Fundamental Law of the Estate The King touched with these just supplications of his subjects addressed his request to the Pope containing the same reasons as that of Queen Margaret and charged the Cardinal d'Ossat and Sillery his extraordinal Ambassadour whom he had sent to Rome to pursue the judgement of the Pope concerning the restitution of the Marquisate of Saluces to sollicite instantly this Affair The cause reported to the Consistory the Pope gave Commission to the Prelates to judge it on the place according to the rights of that Crown which suffers not French-men to be transported for Affairs of the like nature beyond the Mountains whither it would be almost impossible to bring the necessary proofs and witnesses These Prelates were the Cardinal of Joyeuse the Popes Nuntio and the Archbishop of Arles who having examined both Parties seen the Proofs produced on one and the other and the Request of the three Estates of the Kingdom declared this marriage null and permitted them to marry whom they should think fit Queen Margaret who for many years had deserted the King and voluntarily shut her self up in the strong Castle of Usson in Auvergne had now permission to come to Paris money given her to pay her debts great Pensions the possession of the Dutchy of Valois with some other Lands and right to bear still the Title of Queen She lived yet fifteen years and built a Palace near du Pre-aux-Clercs which was after sold to pay his debts and demolished to build other houses She loved extreamly good Musitians having a delicate Ear and knowing and eloquent Men because she was of a spirit clear and very agreeable in her discourse For the rest she was liberal even to prodigality pompous and magnificent but she knew not what it was to pay her debts Which is without doubt the greatest of all a Princes fault because there is nothing so much against Justice of which he ought to be the Protector and Defender This marriage being dissolved Bellievre and Villeroy fearing lest the King should engage himself in new loves and be taken in some of those snares which the fairest of the Court stretched out for him perswaded him by many great Reasons of State to fix his thoughts on Maria de Medicis who was daughter to Francis and Neece to Ferdinand great Dukes of Toscany The Cardinal d' Ossat and Sillery made known his intention to the great Duke Ferdinand her Uncle and Alincour son to Villeroy whom he had sent to thank the holy Father for his good and brief Justice touching the aforesaid dissolution of his marriage had order to testifie to him that the King having cast his eyes on all the Daughters of the Soveraign Houses of Christendome had found no Princess more agreeable to him The business was managed with so much activeness and vigilancy by the diligence of those which had enterprized it that the King found himself absolutely engaged The contract of the marriage was signed at Florence by his Ambassadors the fourth of April in the year one thousand six hundred And Alincour in seven days brought him the news to Fountain-bleau He assisted at present at that famous Conference or Dispute between James David du Perron Bishop of Eureux afterwards Cardinal and Philip du Plessis Mornay where truth nobly triumphed over falsehood There are particular relations of the solemnities made at Florence the Magnificences of the great Duke the Ceremonies of the Affiancing and Marriage of this Queen of her Imbarking her being convoyed by the Gallies of Malta and Florence and her reception at Marseilles at Avignon and at Lions and therefore I shall speak nothing of it Whilst the Marriage of Florence was treating the King having a heart which could for no long time keep his liberty became enslaved to a new object It is to be understood that Mary Touchet who had been Mistress to Charles the ninth from whom came Issue the Count d' Auvergne had been Married to the Lord d' Entragues and had by him many children amongst the rest a very fair daughter named Henrietta who by consequent was sister by the mothers side to the Count of Auvergne This Count was about the age of thirty years and she about eighteen It is but too well known that Flatterers and wicked Sycophants ruine all in the Courts of great Men and corrupt likewise their persons These are they which sweeten the poyson which embolden the Prince to do ill which make him familiar with vice which seek and facilitate occasions for it and who act as we may say the mystery of
Satan and of the Tempter It is impossible to purge Courts from these plagues they insinuate maugre the utmost endeavours into the Palaces of great ones they render themselves agreeable by new divertisements gain the ear by flattering prayses by pleasant and well-devised Fables and Stories and when they have gained their entrance they make their venome slide into the heart and impoison the souls of the most innocent Our Henry though so great a Prince as he was had these people near him who knowing his weakness as to women in stead of fortifying him against it and restraining him like true friends they spurred him as it were forward in his wickedness and made their fortunes from his faults It was these who by commending the Beauties the Carriage the Spirit and the divertizing and pleasant discourse of Madamoiselle d' Entragues made him first have a desire to see and to love her They could never have done a worse Service for their Master then this She had certainly many Charms nor had she less spirit and cunning Her refusals and modesty did more and more provoke the Kings Passion Though he was not prodigal he caused an hundred thousand crowns to be carried her at once She refused them not and reciprocally testified much love and impatience for so great a King but she cunningly caused her Father and Mother to observe her so near that she could not give him a full conveniency to speak to her Hereupon she let him understand that she even dispaired that she could not keep her word with him that it was necessary to have the consent of her Father and Mother for which on her part she would labour Afterwards after many delays and put offs she told him that they could not be brought to so delicate a point except were it onely to secure their consciences towards God and their honour towards the world his Majesty would make her a promise of Marriage That she had no desire to serve her self of such a writing and that if she would do it she knew well there was no Officer who durst cite a Man who had fifty thousand men of war at his command but that these good people desired it should be so and that he need make no difficulty to please their fancy since he did but give her a little bit of paper in Exchange of the most precious thing she had in the world In fine she knew so well how to work his spirit that he gave her a promise under his hand by which he obliged himself to espouse her in a year so that in that time she brought forth a Male-child All this intrigue may be seen in the Memoires of Sully where he says that the King having led him alone into the first Gallery of Fountain-bleau shewed him this promise written under his hand and demanded his advice That in stead of formally answering him concerning it he tore it in two pieces That the King remained quite astonished and speaking angerly How now I believe that you are a fool and that he answered It is true Sir that I am a fool and could wish I were more so so that I alone in France were one That at his departing from the Gallery the King entred into his Closet and demanded a pen and inke and that he believed it was to write another However it were this promise caused much trouble afterward for the Lady would have made it valid as we shall speak At the same time that the King pusued the dissolution of his first marriage at Rome he made likewise instance to the holy Father that he would decide the difference concerning the restitution of the Marquisate of Saluces the Decision of which had been referred to him by the Treaty of Vervin To understand this well it must be known that this Marquisate was a Fief dependant of the Daulphinate of which King Francis the first had seized himself by right of reversion for default of heirs Males in the Succession of the Lords that held it Now in 1588. during the Estates of Blois the Duke of Savoy having advice that the League became very strong in France and that apparently that Monarchy would dismember snatched this Marquisate without having any subject of quarrel he cloaked only this unjust usurpation with this fair pretext that he seized it out of fear lest Lesdiguieres should possess himself of it and by this means establish Hugonotism in the midst of his Territories Seven years after to wit in the year 1595. the King being gone to Lyons after the battail of Fountain-franzoise the Duke who foresaw well he would again have this Marquisate proposed to him some accommodation for it The King offered to give it to one of his Sons to hold it at faith and homage with some other conditions but the Duke demanded it without any dependance and so this Negotiation was broken Our Ambassadors treating the general peace at Vervin were not wanting instantly to demand the restitution of that Fief Those of the Duke who assisted alledged in favour of their Master that piece appertained to him as being a Fief dependant of Savoy and that he had more essential titles to prove that dependancy which it was necessary to see to decide the difference with knowledge of the cause Now it would have taken up too much time to cause them to come from Savoy And the Popes Nuntio pressed the peace for fear lest during these delays some accident might happen to break it quite so that not to retard it it was judged convenient to refer to the Pope the decision of this affair on condition that he should terminate it in a year The French during that time sollicited strongly at Rome to have it decided The Savoyards defended it onely at extremity and that for fear to lose their cause by default Both the one and the other produced their Titles Those of the French were the best and moreover they had had a peaceable possession of more then sixty years which was more then sufficient to gain prescription The year being expired the Pope demands of the King the prolongation of two months to give in his sentence of Arbitration and that in the mean time the Marquisate should be sequestred in his hands The King willingly consents but the Duke enters into a mistrust that the Pope would have it for one of his Nephews so that his Ambassador having testified this mistrust the Pope refuses to meddle any farther either with the Gage or with the Arbitration The Duke imagined that his best way was to use delays since it might happen that either the French King would grow weary of following of this business or that some other more important affair might divert his thoughts otherwhere Moreover knowing that there were many melancholy spirits who could not be recovered out of that opinion that the King was still in his heart a Hugonot and with them many concealed and
of Good-fortune who foretold that he should be a very great Lord but that he should have his head cut off at which being troubled he outragiously beat him That another Diviner told him he should be King if a blow of a sword behinde hindred it not And another that he should die by the hand of a Burgonian and it was found that the Executioner who cut off his head was a Native of Bourgongne Divers others were reported but to speak the truth the most of these Predictions are ordinarily known after the Events and though they do effectually precede the event it must be believed by chance and not by knowledge the Prognosticators telling so many stories that it is impossible but some should happen It is therefore a great wisdome to disabuse our spirits of these sorts of curiosities for besides that they have no foundation in Reason we offend God by believing them and give money to let our selves be fool'd and led by the Noses nor do ever wise men give any faith to them though sometimes they serve to deceive the simple Laffin and Renaze had their full pardon One named Hebert Secretary to Marshal Byron suffered the ordinary and extraordinary Question without confessing any thing yet he was condemned to perpetual imprisonment but a little after the King gave him his liberty yet the resentment of what he had suffered having more power over him then the favour he fled into Spain where he finished his days The Baron of Lux Byrons chief Confident came to Court on the Kings word He told him all that he knew and possibly more by which means he obtained his pardon in what form he pleased and was confirmed in his Charges and in the Government of the Castle of Dijon and the City of Beaune The King kept the Government of Bourgongne for Monseur le Dauphine and gave the Lieutenancy to Bellegarde who afterwards was Governour in chief Montbarot Lord Breston was put into the Bastille upon some suspitions had of him but being found innocent the Gates were soon opened to him The Baron of Fontanelles a Gentleman of a very good house had not the same fortune for for having a hand in the conspiracy and besides that treating of his own accord with the Spaniards to deliver to them a little Island on the Coast of Bretany he was broke on the Wheele in the Greve by sentence of the great Council The King in consideration of his house which was very illustrious granted to his Kindred that in the sentence he should not be called by his proper Name but History could not be silent in it The Duke of Bouillon finding himself likewise somewhat involved in Byrons business judged it convenient to retire into his Viscounty of Turenne where the King being advised that he yet plotted something sent for him to come and justifie himself In stead of coming he writ to him a very eloquent Letter by which he represented to him That having understood that his Accusers were both extreamly wicked and very cunning he entreated him to dispense with his coming to Court and think fit that to satisfie his Majesty all France and his own Honour his Process should be made at the Chamber of Castres by vertue of the priviledge he had granted to those of the pretended Religion and that he would send thither his Accusers and Accusations In pursuance of which he came to Castres presented himself to the Chamber and took an Act of his appearance The King was not at all pleased with this Answer blamed the Judges of Castres for having given him that Act and sent to tell him that there was yet no question of leaving him over to Justice and that therefore he should the rather come Being advertized by those friends he had at Court of the Kings resolution who had sent to him the President Commartin to let him understand his will he departed from Castres went to Orange passed by Geneva and so retired to Heidelberg to the Prince Palatine saying like a sage Politician as he was That he ought neither to Capitulate with his King nor yet go near him whilst his anger lasted This business lay a breeding some years we shall see in its place how it terminated It must here be acknowledged that the favour of Rosny served in this time for a pretext to almost all the discontents and all the conspiracies of the great ones The King had truely raised him by four or five great Charges because he believed he could not sufficiently recompence those services he had rendred him And in that this Prince merits onely praise for a good Master cannot do too much for a good and faithful servant But though the troublesome and discontented Spirits might complain that the King gave him too many Charges and Employments yet they could not lament his giving him too much power or that he gave it to him alone for we may with truth sayâ— that Rosny had not the liberty to do the least grace of his own accord He was forced in all things to address himself directly to the King who would himself distribute his favours and recompences to those he knew worthy that they might acknowledge the whole Obligation and dependence from him This great Prince knew well That he who gives all may do all and that he who gives nothing is nothing but what it shall please him who gives all He had too much Honour and too much Glory to suffer that another should act in the most noble Function of his Royal Authority Whatever favour or whatever familiarity any had with him if they were wanting to conserve it with a profound respect or should speak or act with him otherwise then with their Master and with their King they would doubtless as soon fall into disgrace and this was as we have observed one of the causes of Byron's loss Judge then if he who would not that any should in any thing in the world act the Companion with him would have endured that they should act the Soveraign Judge if he would have been contented that his Ministers should simply have taken his consent in a business or that they should speak to him of things in manner of discharge after having themselves resolved them No without doubt He would that all Resolutions should come from his own Head and from his own Motion that the choice should be his that he alone should have the power to raise and throw down and that none but himself should be Arbitrator in the Fortunes of his Subjects Not but that he considered as it was just the Recommendations of the great ones of his Estate and of his Ministers in the conferring of his Favours Employments and Charges but it was still in such a manner that he made them to whom he gave them know that they ought onely to hold them from him which the following Example well demonstrates The Bishoprick of
Poictiers becoming vacant Rosny very instantly besought him to consider in this occasion one named Frenouillet reputed a knowing man and a great Preacher The King notwithstanding this Recommendation gives it to the Abbot of Rochepozay who besides his own particular good Qualities was Son to a Father who had served him well with his Sword in his Wars and with his knowledge and spirit in Embassies Some time after the Bishoprick of Montpellier became vacant the King out of his own proper motion sent to seek Frenouillet and told him that he would give it him but on this condition that he should acknowledge no Obligation but to himself By which it may be seen how he in some sort considered the Recommendation of Rosny but it may likewise be perceived that the power of that Favourite who caused so much jealousie in the world was bounded I call him Favourite by reason that he had the most splendent Employments though to speak truth he had no pre-eminence over others of the Council for Villeroy and Janin were more considered then he in Negotiations and Forraign Affairs Bellievre and Sillery for Justice and Policy within the Kingdome and it is not to be imagined that those people did in any manner depend on him There was onely one head in the Estate which was the King who alone made all his Members and from whom onely they received spirits and vigour About the end of this year the Duke of Savoy thinking to revenge himself and repair the loss of his County of Bresse on the City of Geneva attempted to take it by storm The Enterprize was formed by the Counsels of the Lord of Albigny and the Duke having passed the Mountains believed it infallible D' Albigny conducted two thousand men for this purpose within half a League of the City yet was not so rash as to engage himself but left the conduct to others More then two hundred men mounted the Ladders gained the Ramparts and ran through all the City without being perceived In the mean time the Burgesses were awakened by the cries of some that fled from a Guard which had discovered the Enterprizers and as soon beheld themselves charged by them The Gunner who was to have broken a Gate within to cause those without to enter was unhappily slain after which they were weakned on all sides The greatest part endeavoured to re-gain their Ladders but the Cannons on the Flankers having broken them in pieces they were almost all slain or broke their necks by leaping into the Ditch There was thirteen taken alive almost all Gentlemen amongst the others Attignac who had served as second to Don Phillipin bastard of Savoy They yeilded upon assurance given them that they should be treated as prisoners of War But the furious cries of the common people who represented the danger wherein their City was of Massacres Violation universal Destruction or perpetual Slavery forced the Council of this little Republick to condemn them to the infamous death of the Gibbet like to Thieves Their heads with fifty four others of those that were killed were stuck on Poles and their bodies cast into the Rhone The Duke of Savoy confused with such ill success and much more with the reproaches of all Christendome for having endeavoured such an Enterprize in time of absolute peace repassed the Mountains in haste leaving his Troops near to Geneva and endevoured to excuse himself to the Suisses under whose protection that City was as well as under that of France for having attempted to surprize it saying That he had not done it to trouble the repose of the Confederacy but to hinder Lesdiguieres from seizing it for the King The Dukes of Savoy have for a long time pretended that this City appertained to their Soveraignty and that the Bishops who bore the title of Earls and were for some time Lords of it held it from them which is however a thing that the Bishops never acknowledged always maintaining that they depended immediately on the Empire The City on their part sustained that it was a free City and not subject in temporal things neither to their Bishops whom they quite drave out in the year 1533. when they unhappily renounced the Roman Catholick Religion nor to the Duke of Savoy but onely to the Empire for which reason they always bore the Eagle planted on their Gates Both one and the other have very specious Titles to shew their rights but for the present the City of Geneva enjoyed full liberty and had for above sixty years being become an Allie of the Cantons of Switzerland Now the Suisses were comprehended in the Treaty of Vervin as Allies of France and by consequence so was the City of Geneva and the King had sufficiently declared it to the Duke of Savoy notwithstanding which he ceased not to attempt this Enterprize hoping that if it succeeded the King of Spain and the Pope would sustain him in it and that the King for so small a thing would not break the peace The Genevans furiously incensed against him began to make War couragiously entred his Country and took some little Towns They hoped that the King and the Suisses would second these motions of their resentment and that all the Princes of Germany would likewise come to their assistance But the King desired to keep the peace and was too wise to kindle a War in which he could not make Religion and Policy agree or unite the Honour and Interests of France obliged to protect its Allies with the good favour of the Pope moved by his duty to the ruine of the Hugonots He therefore sent de Vic to assure them of his protection but with order to let them know that Peace was necessary for them and War ruinous and that they ought to embrace the one and shun the other And they having little power for so much anger and not being able to do any thing without his assistance were constrained to consent and enter into a Treaty with the Savoyard by which it was said that they were comprized in the Treaty of Vervin and that the Duke could not build any Fortress within four Leagues of their City It happened almost in the same time that the City of Mets rose against the Governour of that Citadel He was called Sobole who having been made Lieutenant by the Duke of Espernon to whom Henry the third had given the Government in chief had deserted this Duke I know not for what consideration and had taken provision of the King He had a Brother who seconded him in the Charge of this Government During the last War against Spain these two Brothers had accused the principal inhabitants of Mets for having conspired to deliver the City to the Spaniards There were many imprisoned some put to the rack but none found culpable so that all the Burgesses believing with reason that this was a Calumny conceived a hatred against these Soboles and drew up
accord the party had by this means conserved its bonds together and not been overthrown but appeased When he had got the upperhand in his Affairs and was reconciled to the Pope and that his subjects were reconciled with him the ill counsel of the Hugonots who desired always to see him in trouble perswaded him to declare a War against Spain It was now that he thought he should fall into a worse Estate then ever They took from him Dourlens after the gain of one battel Calais and Ardres by storm and Amiens by surprize The rest of the League which lay hid under the cinders began to rekindle the discontents of the great ones to be discovered Conspiracies were formed on all sides his servants were amazed his enemies emboldened But his Vertue which seemed to sleep in prosperity rouzed it self in adversity he encouraged his friends re-took Amiens and forced the Spaniard to make peace by the treaty of Vervin The Duke of Savoy thinking to deceive him in the restitution of the Marquisate of Saluces and to raise factions in his Realm which should hinder the King from demanding reason of him found that he had to do with a Prince who knew as well how to over reach him in his designes as to conquer his forces for he forced him among those rocks where he boasted he had nothing to fear but the thunder-bolts of Heaven and made him shamefully restore what he had unjustly usurped At the same time the King had thoughts as well for the security and tranquillity of France as for his own to generate Children of a lawful marriage Heaven gave him six and with them a peace of ten years which was onely lightly troubled by the conspiracy of Byron by the devices of the Duke of Bouillon and by some popular risings against the Pancarte or Sol pour livre During all this he laboured principally for two things the one his great designe of which we have spoken for which he made friends and allies on all sides cleared his revenues paid his debts with as good credit as if he had been a Merchant gathered monies and pacified all differences which were between those Princes with whom he would associate The other was to repair the damages and ruines of France which a forty years civil War had caused remove those causes which imbittered and divided spirits reform those disorders which disfigured the face of the Estate make it flourishing and rich to the end his subjects might live happily under the wings of his protection and his justice In the mean time himself was not free from troubles perplexities and disgusts his Mistresses caused him a thousand vexations in the midst of his pleasures he found thorns even in his Nuptial-bed and in the ill humour of his wife and Conchini was causer of griefs to him just as a little but vexatious Mouse may furiously trouble and turmoile the noble Lyon As he was ready to mount on horse-back to begin his great designe by the assistance of his Allies he lost his Life by the most detestable Parricide was ever known Thus he whom so many Pikes so many Musquets and Cannons so many Squadrons and Battalions of men could not hurt in the trenches and in the field of battel was killed with a Knife by a wicked and trayterous Rogue in the midst of his capital City in a Coach and on a day of publick Joy Unhappy blow which put an end to all the joys of France and which opened a wound which to this day hath left its scar. Henry was of a middle stature disposed and active hardened to labour and travel His body was well formed his temperament able and strong and his health perfect onely about the age of fifty years he had some light assaults of the Gout but which soon passed away and left behinde them no weakness He had his forehead high his eyes lively and assured his nose Aquiline his complexion ruddy his countenance sweet and noble and yet withal his presence Warlike and Martial his hair brown and very thin He wore his beard large and his hair very short He began to grow gray at the age of thirty five years upon which he was accustomed to say to those who wonder'd at it It is the wind of my adversities hath blown me this Indeed to consider well all his life from his very birth few Princes will be found who have suffered so much as he and it will be difficult to tell if he had more crosses or more prosperities He was born the Son of a King but of a King despoiled of his Estates He had a Mother generous and of a great courage but a Hugonot and an enemy of the Court He gained the battel of Coutras but he lost a little after the Prince of Conde his Cousin and his right hand The League stirred up his vertue and made him know it but it thought to overthrow him It was the cause that the King having called him to his assistance he found himself at the gates of Paris as if God had led him by the hand but Paris armed it self against him and all his hopes were almost dissipated by the scattering of the Army which besieged that City It was without doubt a great happiness that the Crown of France fell to him there having never been a succession more distant in any hereditary Estate for there were ten or eleven degrees between Henry the third and him and when he was born there was nine Princes of the blood before him to wit King Henry 2. and his five sons King Anthony of Navarre his father and two sons of that Anthony eldest brothers of our Henry All these Princes died to make room for his succession But he found it so embroyled that we may say he suffered an infinity of labours pains and hazards before he could gather the fair flowers of this Crown Young he espoused the sister of King Charles which seemed a match very advantagious for him but this marriage was a snare to entrap both him and his friends Afterwards that Lady in stead of being his Consort became his trouble and in stead of being his honour became his shame His second Wife brought him forth fair children to his no little joy but her grumblings and disdains were the causers of a thousand discontents He triumphed over all his enemies and became Arbitrator of Christendom but the more powerful he made himself the more was their hatred envenomed and the more means used they to destroy him so that after having plotted an infinite number of conspiracies against his life they found in the end a Ravaillac who executed in the end what so many others had failed in Now it must be acknowledged that all these adversities which he suffered ought to whet his spirit and his courage and that in fine he should be the greatest of Kings because he came to the Crown through so many difficulties and in an age very mature And certainly it is
Secretary His punishment The Ambassadours Secretary arrested Several discourses concerning Ambassadours priviledges The King forbids any process against the Secretary The Ambassadour makes a great noise and threatens his Kings resentment Treason of the Luquisses A fool makes an attempt on the Kings person Those who desire war whet the Kings spirit upon these Conspiracies Character of Philip 3. of Spair A good profitable reflection In what the courage of a Soveraign principally consists The goodness of Henry the Great But the King hastens not the War He makes himself Arbitrator of the differences of Christendom 1606. After the death of Clement 8. he causes to be chosen Leo xi who soon dies and Paul 5. succeeds A great difference between Paul 5. and the Venetians The Venetians had made a law to bound the Acquisitions of the Clergy They make other Decrees Paul 5. offended at these Decrees He sends Briefs to revoke them He Excommunicates the Senate They declare his sentence of Excommunication null and abusive 1607. Henry the great undertakes to accommodate the difference He sends to this purpose Cardinal Joyeuse who concludes an accommodation The Pope absolves the Signory There was nothing but the reestablishment of the Jesuites not obtained 1608. The King endeavours an accommodation between the Hollander and Spaniard He underhand assists the Hollander with men and money Janin sent for this accommodation They come presently to an eight months truce The King makes an offensive and defensive League with the Hollander The Spaniards Alarm'd at this League Don Pedro de Toledo makes great complaints to the King Things very curious which passed betwixt the King and Don Pedro. Their entertainments Lively and quick replies Don Pedro kisses the Kings Sword Two obstacles in the Treaty of the Hollanders surmounted by the King The Treaty ends in a twelve years Truce Great praise given by the republick of Venice to our Henry All desire his friendship and protection He will not protect Subjects against their Soveraign What the Maurisques were The Spaniards treat them ill * An avanie is when by a false accusation money is forced from any person They demand assistance of Henry the Great He refuses it The King of Spain banisheth them all They are horribly ill Treated by the Spaniards and by the French They are carried into Affrica but some stay in France The great designe of Henry 4. for the extent of the Christian Religion in the Levant He sends some to spy the Country He seeks means to raise mony without burthening his people He would disengage his demain * The Greffes is a due to the King of 63 â— 9 d. Tours upon the sale of wood in several places and take off the Impost by buying the Salt-Marishes He is constrained to acquit himself of old scores to make some new imposts creations He makes not always use of innocent means Inquisition of the rents of the City-house cause disturbance * Hostel de Ville is the same at Paris as Guild-hall at London Miron Provost of the Merchants sustains the interest of the people Some would incense the King against him The people rise to defend him The King counselled to take him by force The Kings wise answer worthy a great Polititian He will not pursue this business of the Rents Establishment of the Paulete Justice formerly administred in France by Gentlemen How it fell into the hands of the Plebeians who made profit of it The Parliament of France meddle with particular affairs and is made sedentary at Paris They make all other Judges subalternate to them The number of the Officers of Parliament small How Offices became vendible under Francis 1. * He had often said that fat Boy would spoile all and Henry 2. How this might be remedied But on the contrary is made incurable by the Paulete Which causes great abuses 1609. Marriage of the Prince of Conde And of the Duke of Vendosme What were the Kings divertisements He loved Play too much He was extremely given to women This passion made him do shameful things Three or four of his Mistresses This causes often contentions with his wife And hinders his great design What that was The means with which he served himself to put it in Execution To this purpose he grants an Edict to the Hugonots and pays his debts Which regains the reputation and credit of France He joyns to him all Christian Princes by promising his conquests He reunites them by accommodating their differences The Princes he made his friends How he would have accommodated the Protestant Princes with the Pope He treats with the Electors With the Lords of Bohemia Hungary Poland With the Pope Model of the designe of Hen. 4. He would part Christendome into fifteen equal Dominions To wit eleven Kingdoms and four Republicks What the Pope had had The Signory of Venice The Italian Common-wealth Duke of Savoy Republick of the Swisses The Low-Countries Kingdome of Hungary The Empire with free election Bohemia Hungary elective A general Council of sixty persons Three others of each twenty Order to hinder tyranny and rebellion and to assist the Provinces adjoyning to Infidels Three general Captains two by Land and one by Sea to war against the Turks What forces what train None but the house of Austria had suffered by this establishment In Italy the Pope Venetians and Savoyard would consent In Germany many Electors and had chosen the Duke of Bavaria Emperour In Bohemia and Hungary the Lords and Nobility The business of Cleves happens to give a beginning to the great designe The Cities of Flanders should revolt The Kingâ— Army should have lived in great order The King would have reserved nothing of his Conquests He had with other Princes prayed the Emperour to rerestore the Cities of the Empire to liberty Bohemia Hungary Austria had made the same request The Duke of Savoy had demanded the Dower of his wife from the Spaniard The Pope and Venetians to become mediators of the difference of Navarre Naples Savoy c. And the King had yeilded his right They had perswaded the King of Spain or else forced him The great Prudence and moderation intended by the King in the pursuit of his design The preparations he made The forces he had The Prince of Oranges Army That of the Electors German Princes That of the Venetians and Savoyard His Exchequer for defraying this great designe He would make the War powerfully that it might be short Great appearance it might have succeeded having no Princes to oppose it but the Dukes of Saxony and Florence What was the business of Cleves and Juliers Death of John Duke of Juliers without issue His succession disputed by many particularly by Brandenbourg and Newbourg The Emperour said it was devolved to the Empire He invests Leopold of Austria who whilst Brandenbourg and Newbourg dispute seizes Juliers They implore the Kings assistance who promises to march in person But tells him he intended to conserve the Catholick Religion in that Country Answer made to the Ambassador of the Empire He establishes good order in the Kingdom before his departure Leaves the Regency to the Queen but gives her a good Council He establishes little Councils in the Provinces who refer to the great one 1610. Some put it into the spirit of the Queen that she should be installed before the Kings departure He though unwillingly consents The instalment of the Queen Many Prognosticks which seemed to presage the death of Henry 4. Advice from several places that his life should be attempted He seems to believe them and fear Who Ravaillac was He is induced to kill the King but it is not known by whom The King departs the Louvre to go to the Arsenal What persons were with him His Coach stopt in the street of the Ferronnerie Ravaillac killeth him He is torn with burning pincers and drawn in pieces by four horses The Kings body opened and found that he might yet live 30 years He is buried at St. Denis The Queen made Regent The great desolation in Paris when they knew of the Kings death His age and the time of of his reign His two wives Margaret and Mary He had three Sons by Mary and three Daughters He had eight Natural children of divers Mistresses Two Sons and a Daughter of Gabriella A Son and a Daughter of the Marchioness of Verneuil Of the Countess of Moret one Son Of Madam d' Essards two daughters He loved all his children and would have them call him Papa Summary recital of the Life of Henry the Great Parallel of his adversities and prosperities * There are more then fifty conspiracies against his person His adversities whet his spirit and courage Why Princes who come young to the Crown seldome learn to govern well Those who come to a Crown at greater distance and a more ripe age are more capable and better The reasons of it A mystick Crown to the glory of Henry the Great