LA GALERIE DES FEMMES FORTES THE GALLERY OF Heroick Women Written in French by PETER LE MOYNE of the Society of JESVS Translated into English by the MARQUESSE OF VVINCHESTER LONDON Printed by R. NORTON for HENRY SEILE over against S. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet M.DC.LII The Translators Address to the Ladies of this Nation LADIES ME Thinks I see your curious Eyes advancing apace to behold this Noveltie this fair Gallery of Heroick Women first erected in France to the Honour and instruction of your Sex and now transported into England upon the same Account These Gallant Heroesses repaired first from all the Regions of History to the Court of France to lay down their Crowns at the Queen Regents Feet This Ceremonie and Duty performed they had a desire to passe the Sea and inform themselves of the condition and state of this Island And finding no Queen here to whom they might render the same obedience they resolved to address themselves to you hoping to finde amongst such noble Company some Ladies who resemble them at least in part of their Vertues if not in all A Voyage of this Nature deserves the best Entertainment And the most sumptuous Feast you can set forth to such illustrious Guests in acknowledgement of the Honour they have done you by this Visit will be the pure oblation of your Hearts inflamed with a desire to follow their Glorious steps and imitate their Exemplar Vertues The conversation of such brave women cannot chuse but be most delightful and instructive to you and some of your hours I assure my self will be well imployed in giving a serious Attention to the Stories of their renowned Actions and in reflecting chiefly on the examples of those Christan Heroesses who beautifie this rich Structure and contribute most to your Imitation Their gallantry is so perfect as you need not doubt but they will gladly suffer your noble Hands to take some Flowers out of their Garlands which if well applyed Crowns may be formed on them and one day placed upon your Heads by some worthy Person of our Countrey who taking notice of your Vertuous Carriages and improved Actions in this land of trial may hereafter erect a new Gallery in which your Statues and Names will remain a Spectacle of Honour and Imitation to Posterity I need say no more having given you sufficient matter of Emulation It is powerful in all great souls and observed to be particularly grafted in your Sex I will not then detain you any longer from entring into this resplendent Gallery but open the Doâ—r to you by this little tribute of Respect rendred to your fair Hands by Your most Humble Servant WINCHESTER The Authors Panegyrical Address to the Queen Regent MADAM THE Heroick Women assembled in this Gallery are come from all parts of History to lay down their Crowns at your Majesties Feet and to congratulate in common the Honour you have rendred to your Sex True it is Madam that all the Eyes of Europe are now fix'd on you And there are no Mouths so little Christian and so much ingaged elsewhere which do not seriously and sincerely applaud you However Madam I may say that the Company I present unto you will bring no confusion to the Feast They are Soveraign and Illustrious Women who have been like your self the choicest objects of their Ages They are Victorious Persons whom Vertue and Glory have Crowned with their own Hands And this must needs be a sweet satisfaction to you that so many Soveraign and Illustrious Women have descended from their Thrones and Theaters to become your Spectators The Sound and Acclamations of so many Heroesies who applaud you with their Hands cannot chuse but be a pleasing harmony to your Ears The chief thing Madam is that these Applauses are no Stage Representations that these Acclamations are no constrained or purchased Flatteries They are serious and legitimate Tributes which the vanquished pay to their Victress And you have vanquished them with so much Grace and Justice the Advantages you have over them are so charming and your emulation hath been so modest as there is not one amongst them who is not thankful and well pleasing with your Victory This Victory Madam so acceptable to the Vanquished is intirely Yours It is not of your Regency It is of your whole Person And though it be Peaceable and free from blood yet it is not inferiour to those tumultuary and bloudy Victories you have gained in the generall distemper of all Europe It is certainely your great glory to have overcome on the Rhein on the two Seas beyond the Alps and the Pyrenean Mountains But your Glory Madam is much greater by having ouercome in Histories and Annals in Heroick Ages and in the Region of great Examples And what noise soever is made by the Arm 's of France the Reputation of your Vertue Victorious over the Artemisias the Radaguna's and Pantbea's is far more illustrious and resplendent then the renown of your Fortune victorious over so many defeated Armies and reduced Fortresses I need not fear that any one will accuse me of flattery or reproach my words with hyperbolicall Excesse Heathen Vertues were never of the force or stature of Christian Vertues and amongst these later yours Madam are the most Vigorous and eminent they are Heroick and Soveraign Your Piety indeed is of another Elevation and Zeal then their affected shews of Devotion who limit to the circle of their Beads who referre all their Meditations to the modesty of their dresse and to a few tears squeezed out by force Your Piety amuseth not its self in making smoak in the house of God and trafficking with him by consuming Tapers and evaporating Perfumes It draws from the bottom of your heart the fire Incense and Victime of the Sacrifices it offers to his Divine Majesty And which is more acceptable to him then all the Gums of Land and Sea which is more pleasing to him then the bloud of slaughtered flocks it presents unto him the Contrition of a Soveraign heart the Humility of a Crowned head and the abasement and adoration of a humiliated and religious Authority This private Worship and these domestique Sacrifices make not her whole imployment she hath other more generall Practises and other Exercises exposed to the eyes of the world These Practises are Instructions which equall the worth of Laws And these Exercises are Examples which command She refers her particular devotions to the edification of the People She Prayes and Meditates for an infinity of Souls And the Propagation of Faith the Defence of the Church the safety of the Kingdom the Peace and Tranquillity of the whole Christian World are the points of her Meditation and the scope of her Prayers Publick persons ought thus to meditate and pray for the Publick Their Devotion should be a devotion of Order and their Zeal a zeal of Discipline They cannot vow any thing better then wholesome Laws and good Examples not any thing more holy then
sick comforted by her good deeds but Nations were conserved thereby and Provinces setled in Peace Wars extinguished Troubles pacified good Lawes established publick abuses reformed Heresies either humbled or abolished and a whole kingdom preserved in peace and quietly governed and with Justice These Royal Charities and Mercies of State are of a quite other Rank then the particular ones which are practised in Hospitals And the Crown of a Holy Queen which Blanch hath merited thereby may equal those of a holy Wife of a holy Widow and of a holy Nun which the purchased by her other Vertues But I look upon her here as a Widow and without doing injury to the memory of three others who were not set forth with so much advantage and who left lesse light behinde them We may well place her upon the Stage and propose her for the pattern of a modest and constant active and victorious Widow Her heart by the Death of the King her Husband suffered all that a Heart violently tâ—rn from another and divided between Grief and Love could endure But Reason and Piety prevailed over Grief and Love and so well ioyned the pieces of this Heart that a scarre onely remained without weaknesse or undercencie After this secret and domestick Combat sought against two predominant passions and authorized by Nature she began by the Cares and Duties of a Mother which was to her more intimate and of a longer standing then a Regent and applyed her first thoughts to the education of her Son Having a designe to make him a Holy Wise and Victorious King she placed about him able Religious men and of good 〈◊〉 who seasoned in him the first principles of Piety Men of businesse and experience who read him lessons of State-affairs and taught him Policie sutable to the time and practise Captains and Knights of Reputation who instructed him in the Science of War and rendred him one of the most Gallant men at Arms in the whole Kingdom Passing from thence to the Functions of her Regencie she began with setling Religion which ought to be the principle Pillar of a State And because she was not ignorant that the least Divisions in this Pillar might procure the general destruction of the whole building and that Conspiracies and Revolts are the ordinary Attendants of Schisms and Heresies she vigorously endeavoured the reduction of the Albigenses Her pains therein found so happy success as she dissipated the Remnants of this unhappy Sect And Raymond Earl of Tholouse forced by her Arms submitted to the Authority of the Church expiated the Apostacie of his House and the Rebellion of his Progenitors made publick satisfaction and in his shirt to that Religion which he had so often violated These happy successes of a most happy Regency did not hinder the Commotions of some disgusted Princes from shaking the vessel and indangering it in the midst of a Calm They did not hate the Princess who governed she was too amiable and ruled with too much Prudence and Grace But it vexed them to see the Stern in her hands and they were willing to take it from her with a purpose to break it and to divide it amongst themselves Noise and Tumult did not astonish the Regent not put her in disorder she dexterously managed the most tractable and brought them back by little and little to their duty she shewed her Sword lifted up to the most perverse and untractable persons And by her Prudence no lesse then by her Courage their raised Troops and plotted Enterprises were reduced to Deputies and a Conference Force having proved so unsuccessful to them they resolved to practise Treason and undertook to carry away the King as he was going to the appointed Assembly at Vandome But it is a dangerous thing to undertake to steal away a young Eagle from under the Wings of his Mother and to carry away by force a young Whelp from a Lionesse Blanch being advertised of their Conspiracie saved the King in the Castle of Mount-le-Hery and from thence brought him back to Paris with a strong Convoy and even the sight of the Conspirators to whom there remained only shame and despite which are the first punishments of discovered Treasons After these appeased Troubles the Duke of Brittany on the one side and the Earl of Champain on the other raised with new Charges a new party Blanch went out the first in the most rigid season of the Year The heat of her Courage was so great in this War and her March so speedy and vigorous that not being to be stayed either by 〈◊〉 which stopped the most rapid Rivers nor by the Heavens which poured down Snow she returned in few Moneths victorious over Winter Nature and Rebellion The Earl of Champain was defeated with less Noise and with gentler Arms. The King being already set forth to chastise him the Regent got before him and went to try whether perswasions might prevail without Force But he yielded neither to perswasions nor Force They were the Graces which vanquished him The face of Blanch left nothing to be acted by Reason or Arms It gained the Victory without Combat It concluded the Treaty without contestation or Articles And the Earl who was come forth a Rebel to the Son returned back a Slave to the Mother and a sworn Servant to them both All the whole Regency of Blanch was thus powerful And in the Field as well as in the Closet in Military no lesse then Civil Enterprizes she shewed that her Heart and Head were equally capable of the two parts of Regality That her Hands were as fit for the Scepter as for the Sword and that she knew how to govern as efficaciously as handsomly to overcome This so lively and beneficial light did not escape the being assaulted with very soul slanders which fell upon that which ought to be most respected and inviolable in a Woman But the vapours which arise from the Earth do not darken the Sun nor hinder it from doing good to the World and these Obloquies took not away one single Ray from the Vertue of Blanch nor hindred her from shining and finishing her Course peaceably and with Honour In fine to equal also in austerity and submission such as she had excelled by action and in the Government of affairs she imbraced like them the profession of a regular life Thereby the acquired out of the World the Regality of the poor and humble the Soveraignty of Spirit and interiour Unction She finished what was wanting to a Queen by adding to that Dignity the Title of Religious And the Veil which she took was to her a second Crown which gave a second Lustre and set a new value upon the first MONIME Femme de Mithridate se deliure de la tyrannie de la Fortune et 〈…〉 Monima YOU have heard of the Rout of Mithridates and of the last part his treacherous Fortune plaid him This extravagant after many phantastical prancks and dayly disorders at last entertained new
the Sixt King of England and by this Marriage the Truce was continued between two Neighbors the greatest Enemies in the whole World the most jealous of each other The poor Princess did not long enjoy the Repose she give to the Publike and it hapned to her as to Victims which bear the Sorrows of the People for whom they are Sacrificed The Nuptials were Celebrated at Nancy with great Preparations of Carâ—ousels and Tournaments according to the Mode of the 〈◊〉 of that time who were only acquainted with Valiant and Manly Delights with Pastimes which equalled Battels and produced 〈◊〉 Victories Wherein surely to speak this by the way they were more Cavaliers and Men at Arms then those of our days who know no other 〈◊〉 then Racing nor other Tournaments then Dancing who have â—ffeminated Magnificence and taken away from Sports and Divertiâ—ements all that they had of Noble and Military Margaret being passed into England found not there the same Sweetness and Tranquility she had left in France Not that she was one of those ill lodgâ—d Persons who have always either Rain or Smoak in their Houses And Her Marriage was none of those Tyrannical Yoaks and Torturing Chains which a certain Person wished to his Enemy instead of a Gibbet and â—alter She enjoyed at Home a most pure Calm and without Confusion and her Marriage felt nothing Heavy or Incommodious The King her Husband had all the Qualities of a good Man and a good Prince But being born under a very Contagious Constellation and of a very Malâ—volent Influence the Queen his Wife failed not to he involved therein and to have her share of the Poison and bad Fortune She patiently received all that fell upon her Besides she joyned Grace with Patience And being induâ—d with a pleasing Humour and a Gallant Spirit she made Answer to such as lamented her Condition That having taken upon her Marriage Day the Rose of England she ought to bear it intire and with all it s I horns Moreover King Henry had a great inclination to Repose and no Aversion to Pleasure The Mildness and Indifferency of his Spirit did not Correspond with the Functions of Regality which required Courage and Resolution Noise and Stirs made him wâ—y his Head and when things were in his own choice he contented himself to have Ease and Repose for his part and left to his Favourites and Ministers of State the Authority with the Trouble and Affairs with the Tumult This Soft and Slothful Life afflicted the Queen who had a High and Active Spirit Noble and Manly Thoughts and a Head as Capable to fill a Crown as any Prince of Her Time Not that she did not affect the Repose of her Husband and wished him his Hearts Content But her Love being Magnanimous and of the Complection of her Heart she would have rather liked in him a Glorious Activeness and accompanied with Dignity then this stupid Repose and these mis-becoming Eases which Dishonoured him Truly this Prince though otherwise good was not beloved by his Subjects And his Reputation bore the brunt of all the Faults of his Favourites and Ministers of State The Revolt of the Grandees the Seditions of the People the Mutinâ—es of the Mayor of London who was then a Popular Soveraign and a King of the third Estate and generally all the Disorders of his Kingdom were cloaked with this Pretence All these Commotions grieved the Queen But they did not affright her She hastned still with the first to the most wavering Places and where Power and Authority might stop any Disorder Her principal Effort was upon the Kings Spirit She continually represented to him and with Pressing and Efficacious Terms that the Repose of Kings consisted not in the softness of their Bed but in the stability of their Thrones That the Throne could not be secure if Esteem and Authority do not Support it And that Esteem which ariseth from Action and Authority which grows from Courage are lost by Sloth and Softness that Affairs are truly very ponderous but that this Weight procures the Stability of Affairs And that there could be nothing more Fickle and Tottering then a King who discharges himself of all that lies heavy upon him That it were to Act a very bad part to play the Titulâ—r King and to Reign by Agents and Deputies That Authority Substituted and out of its Place is weak and without vigour And the Scepter which hath Force and begets respect in the Hand of a Prince is easily broken in the hands of a Subject and Resembles a Scepter in a Play These and other like Remonstrances accompanied with the Eloquence of Beauty and the Perswasion of Love Fortified the Kings Spirit and made him take a firm Resolution to Reign for the Future without a Substitute and to Act of himself He Resumed that Authority which he had conâ—erred on his Uncle Hâ—â—pâ—â—y Duke of Glocester And he called back all Affairs to his own Conduct And thereby it appeared how Imployments Protect those whom they burthen And how Authority Supports and Settles those whom it Loads The poor Duke of Glocester was no sooner put out of Office and Authority but his Enemies which before did not so much as shake him did now overthrow him And within a short time after his â—all he was strangled in Prison by a Sudden and Illegâ—l â—â—â—cution The Faction of the White Rose which could not endure the Odour of the â—lower de â—uâ—e and beheld with regret a French Woman so absolute in England â—ailed not to charge her with the Contrivance of this Death Andâ—while after the Danger of Richard Earl of Warwick who was Assaulted neer London by the Kings Guards and thrust into the Tâ—ames gave Occasion and Authority to this Calumny The â—arl of Salisbury his Father and Richard Duke of York Head of the White Rose made thereupon several Manifests by Word of Mouth and Published in the Country and Cities that this piece was devised by the Queen who had undertaken to cut off the Arms of England and to deprive it with its best â—lood both of Strength and Spirit to the end she might deliver it up to France That she began not her Work amiss And that if the end of the Enterprise should Correspond with the beginning if the Great Ones did not look better to themselves then the Duke of Glocester and the Earl of Warwick had done in a short time not one drop of good Blood not one single Noble part would be left in the Body of the State The good Queen was very far from entring into these Tragical Thoughts And though she truly wished Authority and Power to the King her Husband yet she did not wish him such an Authority as might be hated and lamented not sâ—ch a Power as might cause Desolation and Ruines Besides less was it in her Thoughts to procure the Destruction of that â—ree upon which she her self was Grafted And if she bore much Affection to the Stem of