an Equipage nor was his Presence useless to him there towards the bringing that Nobility to submit to his Command and thereby confirming his Authority The only hopes of the Huguenots was therefore in an Army of Reisters the King dreaded it above all things and France trembled at the very name of those cruel Plunderers who had so often prey'd upon them This makes the Queen Mother and the Duke of Alencon mediate a Peace the King of Navarre desired it as his only refuge and the Duke procured it that he might be able to carry the whole force both of the one and the other Party into the Low-Countries For the States having resolved to declare that the King of Spain had forfeited the Soverainty of those Provinces as they did the following year in their Assembly at the Hague had sent their Deputies to this Duke being then at Plessis lez Tours with whom they made a Treaty In which they owned him for their Prince and Lord him and his lawful Sons with the same rights as their preceding Lords upon condition that if he had several Sons they should have liberty of chusing which of them they best liked That he should preserve the ancient Alliances Rights and Priviledges of the Provinces should give no Offices or Employments but to the Natives of those Countries and do in such sort that the Provinces might ever be linked to France but without being either incorporated or united to the Crown This Treaty Signed he posted into Guyenne to Negociate the Peace the place month November for Conference was the Castle de Fleix belonging to the Marquiss de Trans In this place by the care and industry of the said Prince with the Duke of Montpensier and likewise the Mareschal de Cosse whom the King sent after him they came to an agreement towards the end of November in the explanation of certain Articles of the former Treaty of Peace which they confirmed by this same They likewise granted some places to the King of Navarre and to satisfie the passion of his Wife a revocation of Biron from whom they took away the Lieutenancy of Guyenne to bestow it upon the Mareschal de Matignon which she demanded for him whose sober and staid gravity seemed very proper to allay the quick and fiery temper of the Gascons month August The Thirtieth day of August 1580. Philibert Emanuel Duke of Savoy ended his Mortal Pilgrimage and left his Estates which he had happily recover'd by his Valour and his most prudent Conduct to his only Son Charles Emanuel who Year of our Lord 1581 was then in the One and twentieth year of his Age. France was at the same time afflicted with two cruel Diseases the Coqueluche and the Plague the first as we formerly noted having tormented this Nation twice already was very painful and sometimes mortal but lasted not above six months the other killing most that were therewith infected continued its violence five or six years ransacking sometimes one Province sometimes another so that before it ceased above the fourth part of the People died of it After the Duke of Anjou's quitting of Flanders their Discords and Confusions daily increased whereupon the Archduke Matthias whom the States had called in to Govern retired again The Duke of Parma who had the Command of the Spanish Army after the death of Don Juan of Austria defeated a Party of Casimirs Keisters and so beset the rest that they were glad to accept of quarter and return into Germany at which Casimir who was then gone into England to see Queen Elizabeth was so much ashamed that he goes directly home not daring to pals by way of the Low-Countries After their departure the Duke of Parma besieged Maestric He took it by Storm at four Months end and in the mean time Negociated it so well with the Male-contented Lords that they returned to the obedience of King Philip and brought in the Provinces of Arâ—ois and Hainault with the Cities of L'Isle Douay and Archies On the opposite the Provinces of Guelders Zutphen Holland Zealand Frise and Vtrect then the Cities of Bruges Ypres and others united more closely together for their mutual defence From thence came the name of the Vnited Provinces The ☞ Malecontents in the mean time did mightily annoy the other Catholick Provinces It is true the Fit of Sickness which the Duke of Parma fell into after the taking of Marstâ—ie gave the States a little breathing time and la Noue though he had but three thousand Men made Head most bravely against all their Enemies As the Spaniards took Groeningben from the States on his side he took Ninoue from them and in the said place the Count of Egmont with his Wife but shortly after this generous Commander was defeated in a Rencounter near the Castle of Ingel-Monster and fell into the hands of the Spaniards who set him not at liberty till the year 1585. and that upon the payment of an hundred thousand Crowns Ransom Year of our Lord 1581 The Edict granted to the Huguenots met not with so much difficulty neither for the verification in Parliament nor for the execution as the former ones had done month January and it was pretty punctually and quietly observed near five years As a violent agitation is so far from curing of Distempers it rather increases them and to allay hot Spirits we must let them a while repose so soon as they had left off Year of our Lord 1580 baiting and pursuing the Huguenots their Zeal grew much more temperate and indifferent The King taking the right course gave them assurance that they needed to fear no hurt from him but might expect much good That he would do them equal justice but that he would bestow no Offices or Employments upon them nor any Governments but keep all Dignities out of their reach Withall he endeavour'd to reclaim them by wise and Christian like Instructions and Arguments which method converted more of them in four years time then the Sword or Hangman had compell'd in forty and if they had continued the same way of proceeding this Opinion of Conscience would no doubt have given place to the sence of Honour During this calm the King instead of fortifying himself grew still weaker and was enervated by idleness and vain pleasures Since the death of the Princess of Conde he had but little inclination to Women and his Adventure at Venice gave him another bias His three chief Favourites were Arques the young la Valette and Saint Luc the last forfeited his favour by endeavouring to cure him of his depravation by an illusion which was very ingenious the other two remained in full power with no other Rivals but themselves and individually enjoy'd the affection of the King who called them his Children He was not satisfied with having erected the Vicounty of Joyeuse to a Pairie for d'Arques and the Territories of Espernon which he bought of the King of Navarre for la Valeste he would needs honour
their Sluces so that his unfortunate Army was constrained to expose themselves to a march through that great Tract of Water not without loss of above three hundred Men. In fine after they had trudg'd near thirty leagues with incredible difficulties though it was but seven leagues distant by the direct road they arrived at Dendremond which served them as the second Plank after their Shipwrack Year of our Lord 1583. February c. The Queen Mother the Queen of England and the King himself for the honour of the French Nation mediated and interposed to allay the fury of the Flemmings and palliate the fault of the young Prince So much was effected by their Negociations that the States fearing he should give up to the Spaniard those places he yet held agreed with him by a Provisional Treaty That he should have ninety thousand Florins to pay his Army provided he would retire to Dunkirk and remain there whilst they endeavour'd an Accommodation and in the mean time surrender Dendremond and Dixmude month April and May They thought with the assistance of his Forces to raise the Siege of Eiendhoue but Biron who commanded them being ill seconded and withall unprovided of every thing was not in a condition to perform it but had enough to do to struggle for two whole Months together with his necessities Nevertheless the Duke of Parma durst not attaque him in his Camp near Rosendale Mean while the Disorders increased daily in those Provinces thorough the contrariety of Sentiments and diversity of the Interests of the States Deputies who agreed in nothing but their outcries against the French Therefore after the Duke of Anjou had for two Months languished in his melancholy abode of Dunkirk expecting their ultimate Resolution in vain he Embarqued the Eight and twentieth of June to come to Calais month June month July Two days after his departure the Ghentois blinded by their obstinate hatred against the French and the Catholick Religion shut up Birons passage whereby he might have gone to the relief of Dunkirk so that it surrendred upon Composition and after that Neuport Furnes Dixmude St. Vinochs Bergh and Meenen fell into the hands of the Spaniards These losses redoubled their out-cries and mutinies in Ghent and Antwerp in so much as the Prince of Orangé not finding himself any longer secure in Antwerp prudently retired into Zealand with all his Family the Two and twentieth of July having first assigned the States General to meet at Middeburgh A Month after Biron went likewise out of the Country with his Troops and led month July and Aug. them to the Duke of Anjou who was in Cambresis He made signs as if he would have raised more but this was only to have some pretenoe not to come to Court though the King had sent for him His last act had cover'd his face with so much shame and confusion that he avoided the sight of all Mankind wandring from place to place like one berest of his sences and was not able to admit his own Mother into his presence who went on purpose to seek him out Thus did he waste the last six Months Year of our Lord 1583 of this year the King taking little thought for him as knowing the only remedy for these Escapades is the neglect of them But himself troubled with Hypocondriacal Vapours which affect the Brain render the Mind feeble and inconstant possess it with fantastical and airy Visions had suffer'd himself to be led away with a humour of Devotion as little serious as unbecomming his Dignity A Cloister was his most usual Retreat Processions and Fraternities his most frequent Exercise and Pilgrimages his greatest Expeditions From these Devotions he would often in an instant leap into his pleasures afresh and had even found out the art to blend them together During the Carnaval he went by day about the Streets in Masquerade and at night into the Houses where a thousand youthful frolicks were acted then in Lent he went in Procession with the Penitents This year he erected a Fraternity at Paris named Penitents of the Annunciation because he began it on that day They marched by two and two in three Divisions of blew black and white cover'd with a Sack or Frock of those colours having a Vizord on their Faces and a Whip in their Hands or at their Girdle The Cardinal de Guise carried the Cross all the Grandees of the Court even the Chancellor and Keeper of the Seals were of them but not one of the Parliament would be present lest they should seem to countenance and authorise this Forreign Novelty The People were too well acquainted with the disorderly and licentious lives of the Courtiers to be moved with these superficial shews of Devotion and moreover those loads of Oppression laid upon them by the Minions in new Imposts creation of Offices and violent Taxes which were raised a thing unusual in this Kingdom without any Verification of the Soveraign Courts whetted the most slanderous Tongues and Satyrical Pens both against them and against their Master Joyeuse and Espernon level'd at the Duke of Anjou whose grandeur was an obstruction to their vast designs and the Guises were agreed with them on this point Espernon shock'd the Guises and was shock'd by them upon all occasions but Joyeuse would hold in with those Princes because he had Married a Wife of that Family or rather because he desired to make himself Head of the League and gain the support of so strong a Party The Queen Mother had a mortal hatred both for the Guises and for the Year of our Lord 1583 the Minions but she declining in her power found her self under the necessity of making use both of the one and other to ascend again She trod the same path to her dying day yet she endeavour'd to preserve the Duke of Anjou whom either of them sought to ruine and studies to bring him once more to the management of Affairs for her own ends though she were resolved not to let him hold it long Such was the disposition of all Parties then The King himself had put the first thoughts of dividing his Kingdom betwixt them into the heads of his brace of Favourites as if they had been his own Children Joyeuse had conceived a design to get Languedoc and to joyn the Comtat of Avignon to it and to this effect was resolved by the Authority of the King to oblige his Holiness to Excommunicate the Mareschal de Montmorency as a protector and favourer of Hereticks and to give him the Comtat in exchange for the Marquisate of Salusses Now that he might not refuse him this he had contrived an intrigue to seize upon it by means of William Patris Bishop of Grace Favourite of the Cardinal d'Armagnac the Popes Legat in those Countries but the Mine being discovered Patris was assassinated by order from Rome Joyeuse did not give over the pursuing of his point and finding he could get nothing but ambiguous answers
was drawn up and signed by the Witnesses then present The Ceremony being over and the Gates open'd the Count de Castro Ambassador of Spain came to congratulate the Senate upon their reconciliation with the Holy Father and the Cardinal went to celebrate Mass pontifically in the Patriarchal Church where were present the Senate and the Count de Castro the people flocking thither from all parts with incredible joy Those Bishops that had not submitted to the Censures received absolution likewise but whilst they were in dispute about the Conditions with those whom the Pope had preposed for this Affair they wholly abstained from Celebrating and thus in effect submitted to the interdict after all The Senate honoured such as had written in their defence with good Pensions and took them into their protection but their whole power and care was not enough to secure Fra Paolo from the malice of some Assassines who having watched him a long time surprized him one day as he was returning to his Monastery and wounded him in several places with a Stiletto but such care was taken in the cure that he recovered Afterwards he hung up the Stiletto before an Altar in the Church belonging to his Convent with this inscription Dei Filio liberatori not so much perhaps to Consecrate his acknowledgment to God as to immortalize the horror of that Assassinate and stir up the publick hatred against those who were believed to be the Authors I come now to the Truce between the Vnited Provinces and the King of Spain The two parties were extremely fatigated with a War of above forty years continuance they had both of them diversly resented the inconveniencies and did dread the Event the Spaniards had expended infinite Sums of Money and lost more Men then those Countries were worth They saw no probability of reducing them by force and apprehended withal that if they should chance to get too much advantage over them they might cast themselves into the Arms of the French for protection which would have drawn after them the other Provinces that were yet left them But the greatest of their fears was lest they should utterly ruine their Trade to the Indies and hinder the Arrival of their Flota's Year of our Lord 1606 which are their main subsistence Besides their Council imagined that as the War had served only to exasperate and harden those People the more and taught them better how to defend themselves a Peace would soften them by little and little recover their wonted communication and perhaps incline them to respect their ancient Soveraign at least the Catholick party who made up near a fourth part of those revolted Provinces Withal the Arch-Duke Albert most ardently desired the Peace thereby to enjoy Flanders quietly and be able to employ his Money and Friends to gain the Imperial Throne which he expected would soon be vacant by the death of Rodolphus On the other hand the Provinces finding themselves overwhelmed with debts almost forsaken by the English and under the apprehension of being so too by the French who grew weary of contributing so much towards the expences of a War without reaping any apparent profit Many of their Merchants imagined that a Peace would bring them Mines of Gold and some being greatly allarm'd at the progress of Marquiss Spinola who amongst other places had taken Grol and Rhimbergue took the freedom to say That since they could not subsist of themselves in a separate body of State it were better they should rejoyn themselves to their natural Lord then to put themselves under another who would lie more heavy upon them as being so near a Neighbour A certain Flemming named Caminga one of the first of those who were otherwhile called Gueux having one night held such like discourse was the next day found dead in his Bed at Embden Their dispositions being such on either part the Arch-Dukes first sounded the Foord by Valrave de Wittenhorst and John Jevart who in the Month of May month Decemb. of the year 1606 first conferred with some particular Members of the States then towards the end of the same year were heard in the Assembly of the States themselves This first time having represented the long and cruel miseries of War and praised the mild and good intentions of the Arch-Dukes they propounded the re-union of those Provinces with the rest under the obedience of Year of our Lord 1607 their ancient Prince The States were not over-much pleased with the discourse and sent them back with an Answer directly contrary to their demand viz. That by the Decree made at Utrecht Anno 1579. the King of Spain had lost his right of Soveraignty over those Provinces and that they had been Vnited in one Body and declared a free State and Republick the which had been confirmed by a prescription of more then five and twenty years and by several Princes and States with whom they had made Year of our Lord 1607 divers Treaties and Confederations The Arch-Dukes as is believed made this Essay only in point of honour for their Deputies sent immediately to let the States know That the intention of their Princes was not to gain or take advantage of the United-Provinces but to leave them in the condition they then were in and to Treat upon that foot This proposition did not displease the States and on their side the Arch-Dukes month February and March to shew they acted sincerely employ'd in this Negociation Father John Neyen or Ney General of the Cordeliers but who was a natural Flemming and had been bred up in the Protestant Religion till the age of two and twenty years His Father was one Martin Ney otherwhile very well known too and employed by the Father of Prince Maurice As to the rest his behaviour appeared to have so much of integrity that notwithstanding his change of Religion and Habit the Hollanders had a great deal of confidence in him He brought them very obliging Letters from the Arch-Dukes who offer'd amongst other things to take away all suspicion of any surprize to depute none for this Treaty but Originaries of the Low-Countries to hold the Conferences in such place as it should please the States to chuse to agree to a Truce of eight Months and to get the conditions ratified by the King of Spain The States accepted of the Truce to begin on the fourth of May the Letters of the ratification were deliver'd on either part and publication thereof made The difficulty was for the ratification from Spain Lewis Verreiken Secretary of State to the Arch-Dukes brought it the fourteenth of July to the Hague but as it was only in paper subscribed Io el Rey and sealed only with the little Seal moreover as it gave the Arch-Dukes the Title of Lords of the Low-Countreys and they had omitted this Clause That they should treat with those Provinces as holding them for a free Country The States found it imperfect as well in form as in substance month
the King took a turn into France and how Don Pedro de Toledo who was then going to Germany came at the same time with design as was believed to found month Septemb. the Kings intentions and to take him off from espousing the interests of the States We there find likewise the great jealousies the States conceived upon the Conferences he had with the King the Intrigues and Artifices of Prince Maurice to break this Treaty the different Factions that were formed in that Country for and against it Then the rupture of the said Treaty by the States upon the Spaniards persisting to have the free exercise of the Catholick Religion re-established in all their Territories and that they should lay down the whole Trade and Navigation to the Indies and in fine upon this rupture the retreat of the Ambassadors of Spain who took their leaves of the States the last day of September and returned to Bruxels Those of France and Great Britain particularly the first did not for all this leave off their Mediation but propounded to both parties to make a long Truce at least since they could not agree upon the Articles for a perpetual Peace Prince Maurice opposed it openly because his employment must be at an end with the War He had subject enough to declaim against the artifice of the Spaniard and to entertain the peoples fears and jealousies and talked the more confident and high as having all the Sons of War on his side and the Province of Zealand besides four or five good places in his disposition and the desires of the Protestant Princes who apprehended lest during such a Truce the power of the Austrian House should fall upon their Backs But the Kings honour was too much concerned after he had taken so much pains and his interest likewise to disarm Flanders which he designed to seize upon not to bring this business to a conclusion He pursued it therefore so Year of our Lord 1609 warmly by intreaties and menaces to the States that their Deputies met again month January February March and April at Antwerp on the five and twentieth of March with those of Spain and made a Truce for twelve years which was proclaimed in that City the fourteenth day of April Year of our Lord 1069 It imported amongst other things That the Arch-Dukes treated with them in quality and as holding them for free Provinces upon whom they had no manner of pretence That there should be a Cessation from all Acts of Hostility but that in Forraign Countries it should not commence till a year after That Traffick should be free both by Sea and Land which however the King of Spain limited to the Countries he held in Europe not meaning the States should Trade into those others without his express Licence That either should hold such places as were then in their possession That such whose Estates had been seized or confiscate by reason of the War or their Heirs should have the enjoyment of them during the Truce and should re-enter upon them without any other form of Justice That the Subjects belonging to the States should have in the Kings and Arch-Dukes Countries the same liberty in Religion as had been granted to the Subjects of the King of Great Britain by the last Treaty of Peace Reciprocally the States promised that there should be no alteration made in those Villages of Brabant which depended upon them where hitherto there had been no other exercise of Religion but the Catholick for which the Ambassadors gave their Guaranty in writing The President Janin being returned to the Hague after the Publication exhorted the States in behalf of the King to grant to their Catholick Subjects the free exercise of their Religion but all that he could obtain was that they should be no more prosecuted nor troubled if they did it in their own houses and for their private Families only If the power of Spain received a great shock by this Treaty that which they procured themselves by the expulsion of the Moors was no less After the eversion of the Kingdom of Granada great numbers of Mahometans and Jews were remaining in those Countries who had settled and spread themselves in the Kingdoms of Valencia Chastille and Andalouzia they were baptized and professed Christianity for which reason they were called new Christians but yet did secretly exercise the impieties of their fore-Fathers They were reck'ned to be above twelve hundred thousand of both sexes King Philip informed that for divers years they had sought for and courted the protection of the King of France the Vnited-Provinces the King of England nay even the Turks and the King of Morocco and suffering himself to be perswaded that upon a certain Good-Friday they intended to cut the Throats of all the old Christians in those Countries where they inhabited resolved to thrust them out of his Territories not permitting them to carry away any thing excepting some Merchandize of the Country seizing and detaining their Gold and Silver their Jewels and moveables only he allowed the fourth part to the Nobility in recompence of the damage they sustained by such their banishment for they improved and made the Lands yield more by one third to the Gentry then the Spanish Tenants could do Year of our Lord 1609 and 1610 till March. This Edict was Executed with the utmost severity even against those that were Priests Friers Officers of the Kings and Allied to the most ancient Christian Families they haled and tore them from the very Altars Cloysters Tribunals of Justice the Husbands from the Arms of their dearest Wives the Wives from the Bosoms of their Husbands the Fathers or Mothers from their tenderest Children These wretches part of them transported into Africa part getting into France and Italy did most of them perish after divers manners some were drowned by those very Marriners who pretended to transport them others Massacred by the Arabes many being first stript and then turned away by those from whom they expected shelter died of hunger being in execration to the Christians as Infidels and to the Infidels as Christians so that of this huge Multitude hardly could the fourth part make shift to save themselves Spain will for a long time feel the smart of this more then barbarous inhumanity for the cruel expulsion of so many Myriads of Men together with the continual recruits they are ever sending to the Indies and their natural lazy temper has made of that Country otherwhile the most peopled and the most cultivated in Europe a vast and barren solitude Some Christian Pirates were retired to Tunis and Algier and had there gotten so many of their own stamp together that they held the Streight of Gibraltar as it were shut up and dar'd even attaque whole Fleets The Maloüins not able to endure these Robberies fitted out some Vessels to set upon them Captain Beaulieu their Commander having consider'd of the means to destroy the Year of our Lord 1608 whole force
who dyed before Duke John William but had left Sons and the last Charles of Austria Marquiss of Burgaw of whom there were no Children Of Mary-Eleonora and Albert were produced many Sons who died young and four Daughters the eldest of whom named Anne espoused John Sigismund of Brandenburgh who was Elector and Duke of Prussia The fourth was wife of John Georges Brother of Christian II. Elector of Saxony We have nothing to do with the other two Brandenburg pretended intirely to this Succession for his Son George William who was Issue of Anne Daughter of Mary-Eleonora the Eldest of the four Sisters But the Duke of Saxony demanded all these Principalities likewise founding his right upon the donation of the Emperors Frederic and Maximilian which he maintained to be good since the said Fiefs were Masculine and urged that the following Emperors could not otherwise dispose of them to the prejudice of the Laws and Customs of the Empire and contrary to the nature of those Lands The same Duke had two more claims besides this the one for John George his Brother who had Married the fourth Daughter of Mary-Eleonora the other was for the Princes of the Branch of Weymar and that of Koburg Issue of John Frederic Elector of Saxony dispoliate by Charles V. and of Sibylla Sister of William II. Duke of Cleves and Juliers Father of John William I speak not of the pretensions of the Duke de Nevers and of Henry de la Mark Count de Maulevrier whereof the first said he was Heir of the House of Cleves the other of the House de la Mark for they did not pursue it with much vigour Volfgang Eldest Son of the Duke of Newburgh entred the first into the Country Year of our Lord 1609 to make demand of the rights of Anne his Mother Immediately afterwards month May and June Brandenburgh sent his Brother earnest thither for those of his Son These two Princes not able to come to an agreement made a transaction by the mediation of the Landgrave of Hesse by which they promised to end their differences amicably to employ their Forces joyntly against any who to their prejudice should offer to seize upon those Lands and to administer them per individuum and without prejudice to the rights of the Empire and the other pretenders Soon after an Assembly of the States of that Country being held at Dusseldorp the King of France sent to desire them to approve of this Treaty and declared himself openly enough for those two Princes But the Emperor in case of litigation taking himself to be the Natural and Sovereign Judge between Parties contending for Fiefs holding of the Empire maintain'd that the Sequestration belonged to him till a definitive sentence therefore he caused them all to be Assigned before him by an Act of the four and twentieth of May and gave Commission to the Arch-Duke Leopoldus Bishop of Strasburgh and Passau to take those Territories into his hands The City of Juliers received him having been surprized by their Seneschal who Year of our Lord 1609 slipt away from the Estates of Dusseldorp but most of the other places gave month May c. themselves up to the two Princes Then the Acts of Hostility began between them and Leopold with several Mandates from the Emperor Manifesto's and Apologies which both the one and the other sent into all parts of Christendom The Interests of all the German Princes were very much perplexed and incertain in this Affair on the one side they all equally apprehended as well the Catholick as the Protestants lest the Emperor under pretence of Sequestration should make himself Master of those Countries and aggrandize his own house by it On the other side the Catholicks feared that the Protestant Princes if they remained in possession would become the strongest and oppress them Upon this consideration they contrived a League Defensive among themselves the Duke of Bavaria made himself the Head and drew in the Electors of Year of our Lord 1609 Mentz and Triers altogether sent away dispatches to Rome and to Spain to have month November and Decemb. the Assistance of his Holiness and of the Catholick King and when they had obtained a favourable Answer they held an Assembly at Wirtsburg where Leopold was present A month after the Catholick Electors and the Princes of the House of Austria went to the Emperor at Prague with design to Elect a King of the Romans whilst the Emperor was yet living for fear lest after his death the Protestants should make one of their own Religion There were some so confident as to propound the Duke of Bavaria and the Jesuits who were very powerful in that party were not much averse to it because they hoped to Govern that Prince as they pleased nevertheless that very consideration and the great interest of the House of Austria turned most of the Votes for Ferdinand Arch-Duke of Graits Cousin to Rodolphus The Protestants at the same time assembled at Hall in Suabia where there appeared fourteen Princes of that Religion above twenty qualified Lords and Deputies from all the great Protestant Cities Amongst those Princes was the Elector of Brandenburg Frederic-Ludovic Duke of Newburg and Christian Prince of Anhalt This last being sent by the two others into France brought word back that the King highly embraced their defence and that in the Spring he would March in person to their Assistance For proof whereof he brought with him an Ambassador from the King he was named Boissise The States of month January the United-Provinces promised likewise to aid the two Princes but not openly till they were certain the King had sent four thousand Foot and a thousand Horse to those Frontiers What they Treated at Hall was kept very secret the Princes writing down their resolutions with their own hands not trusting to their Secretaries It was said that they had agreed and resolved to consider of the means to retrieve the City of Donaverd out of the power of the Duke of Bavaria who had taken it upon pretence it was under the Imperial Ban for some Violencies Committed against the Catholicks to satisfie the Duke of Saxony for the succession of Juliers to Elect a King of the Romans and to make a Counter-League in case the Pope and the House of Austria formed any to oppress them It would be difficult to judge how intrigues so perplexed as these could have month February and March been disintangled to the content of the Protestants and satisfaction of the Catholicks The King pretended to say and had even openly declared to the former that he did not mean there should be any thing changed as to the Religion of the Countries of Cleves and Juliers and had assured the Popes Nuncio that if he assisted them it was principally to oblige them by his good Offices to Treat the Catholicks kindly in their Territories and perhaps to make them to become so themselves This Declaration gave some ombrage to the
word the Duke of Burgundy came to Paris towards the end of February at the head of Eight hundred Gentlemen all armed from Head to Foot only they did not put their Helmets on The Queen and Princes received him with all the demonstrations of confidence but they could not prevail with him to own the murther of the Duke of Orleans publickly He gave Commission for it to a Cordelier named John Petit Doctor in Divinity his Orator and obtained Audience for him in the Great Hall of the Hostel de St. Pol. This mercinary Divine endeavour'd in presence of the Princes and Council to make it appear That the Duke of Orleans had been a Tyrant every way that he was guilty of the crime de Laesae Majestatis both Divine and Humane That he had once bewitched the King another time had conspired to kill him and another to have him Deposed by the Pope That therefore his death was just and necessary It was not the Monks Harangue but necessity and danger that perswaded the Council They gave him an Act in Writing that abolished this crime and in appearance reconciled him with the Queen The King desired to put an end to the collusion of the Anti-Popes he resolved to publish an Order for Substraction the Fifteenth of May. In the mean time Pope Benedict having intelligence of it sent his Bulls to Paris forbidding him to do so upon Year of our Lord 1408 pain of Excommunication Those that brought them to wit Sancho Lupi and a Rider belonging to the Popes Stable having delivered them to the King and the Duke of Berry the Fourteenth of May were immediately seized on The Council sate three days to consider what was to be done having heard the Opinions and Remonstrances of the University the King caused a Pen-knife to be stuck into the Bulls which the Rector of the University afterwards cut in pieces Year of our Lord 1408 The Substraction was after this published and then those that brought the Bulls were tryed by Commissioners Their Sentence was severe they were drawn on a Sledge twice about the Palace-yard then mounted upon a Scaffold where being adorned with Paper Miters and clothed with long painted Vests after the Dalmatian fashion upon which Benedicts Arms were fastned they were severely reproached by a Doctor and after led back to their prison Divers Prelats and Clergy-men that sided with him were likewise sent to Goal Upon this news the two Popes who pretended to be going to Savona fled each his several way Benedict into Catalogna in a Galley and Gregory by Land to Sienna both of them forsaken by their Cardinals When the Burgundian was again returned to Artois the Dutchess of Orleans supported by the Queen who had Cantonized her self at Melun came to intreat the King that he would hear her Orator this was the Abbot of St. Denis in justification of the memory of her Husband and reparation for his death They gave him Audience in the Castle of the Louvre the King the Queen and Princes of the Blood being at the Council After this Harangue of the Widows Orator there Year of our Lord 1408 were divers Assemblies held with more animosity then zeal for Justice where in sine the Burgundian notwithstanding his Act of Abolition was declared an enemy to the State and it was ordered that Forces should be sent to fall upon him on every side and that all the ways should be strongly guarded to keep both him and all others from coming near the King He was at that instant at L'Isle in Flanders arming himself to restore John of Bavaria his Wives Brother to the Bishoprick of Liege This false Prelate who had nothing but the vain Spirit of the World deferring to take Holy Orders gave occasion to the Liegois to turn him out of the Episcopal See and to put in Thierry one of the Lord de Perruveys sons whose Original was from the House of Brabant They were not satisfy'd with having driven him out of their City but besieged him in Maestricht and had kept him blocked up for four Months When they had notice that the Burgundian had taken the Field they raised the Siege and retired but those haughty and rude People hearing that he had iu all but Sixteen thousand Men forced the Lord de Perruveys to seek him out and give him Battle They were three to one yet were they routed and cut in pieces Perruvey and his two Sons and Thirty thousand Liegois lay dead upon the place they had no quarter given them the Bishop rather a Tyger then a Shepherd could not have Blood enough to satisfy his cruel Thirst Their submission did not appease his sanguinary Rage when he was setled he fell not only upon the guilty and the ring-leaders but upon Women and Children Priests and Religious Votaries There was nothing else to be seen round about Liege and those other Cities that were Dependencies but Forrests of Wheels and Gibbets and the Meuse was choaked up with the multitude of their wretched Carkasses thrown into that River bound two and two together From hence began that implacable hatred of the Liegois against the House of Burgundy Had the Duke been worsted in that Battle all the Orleanois party were ready to have run open mouth upon him when they had received this news they found more cause to consult their own safety then his ruine The Queen did not believe her self secure in Paris She departed thence the Thirteenth of November being attended by the Duke of Bretagne her Son-in-law and took the King with her to Tours Year of our Lord 1408 The Duke informed of all particulars by the Parisians soon got to Paris with Four thousand Horse and Two thousand Foot mounted behind them they received him with great joyfulness and sent some Deputies to the King to desire he would return William Earl of Holland proffers to endeavour an accommodation A Second Peace was Treated on between both parties which being well advanced the Widow of Orleans a haughty and vindicative Princess died with grief and anger the 4th of December The Orphans were forced to consent to a reconciliation with him that had murthered their Father It was concluded in the City of Chartres about the end of the month of March The King with the Queen and the Princes being on a Scaffold in the Great Church but pallisado'd round about to hinder the People from seeing what they did the Burgundian fell on his knees before the King and pray'd him by the Mouth of his Advocate and afterwards with his own to lay aside his anger and receive him into his Favour but touching the Murther he expressed himself thus That he was ready to justifie himself The Princes that were present kneeled likewise and joyned their Requests to his Then addressing himself to the Princes of Orleans he desired them to forget what was past and harbour no revenge in their hearts After this they made them embrace and promise amity to each other and
d'Imbercourt They likewise called in the Bishop of Liege the Duke of Cleves and the Son of the Count de St. Pol. They were all divided about the marriage of the Princess Ravastein desired to have her married to his Nephew the Son of the Duke of Cleve The Chancellor Hugonet and the Lord d'Imbrecourt to the Dauphin and the Gauntois to some German Prince The Deputies from these were gone to the King of France in behalf of the States of Flanders and said they had full power to negociate a Peace The King shewed them maliciously some Letters from the Princesses Council which mentioned the quite contrary Their brutish Pride believed the Council plaid upon them and prompted them immediately to revenge As soon as they were return'd to Gaunt they laid hold on Hugonet and Imbercourt made Process against them under pretence of some concussions and cut off their heads not being moved with the humble Prayers and Intreaties or the abundant Tears of their Princess who with dishevel'd Hair came to the place of Execution to Implore the Lives of her two faithful Servants With the same fury they took away Ravastein and the Dutchess Dower from her gave her a Council of their own chusing and drew Adolph of Guelder out of Prison to command their Forces Ever since the War for the Publick Good the King had always had a Mortal desire for revenge against James de Armagnac Duke of Nemours This Lord after the Death of the Count d'Armagnac had retired himself into the strong Castle of Carlat in Auvergne in the year 1476. Peter de Bourbon-Beajeu had order to take him He could not have compassed it by force he makes use of fraud giving his Faith he should have no hurt yet nevertheless he brings him to the Bastille About seven or eight Months after the Parliament had orders to proceed against him Those men of honesty could not find any thing charged upon him sufficient to make him Guilty the King sends them to Noyon the 20 th of June to teach them their Lesson and put out of their places such Counsellors as refused to conclude he deserv'd Death The rest returning to Paris Chancellor Peter Doriole presiding they condemned him the 4 th of August to lose his Head and the same day the Sentence was put in Execution The King would have his two Sons who were yet but Children stand under the Scaffold that their Fathers Blood might run down upon their Heads Year of our Lord 1477 The Flemmings and the Duke of Bretagne earnestly Sollicited the King of England not to suffer the Heiress of Burgundy to perish without assisting her but the King amuzed him still with the Marriage of the Dauphin to his Daughter and spared neither Presents nor Pensions to all that were about the King who besides was over-burthned with Fat too much addicted to his pleasures and who feared dangers greatly because he had greatly suffer'd His Brother George Duke of Clarence having medled too much in his affairs or for some other cause which was never known fared but very ill he caused him to be drowned in a But of Malmesey In these times Oliver le Daim the Kings Barber who made himself a man of great importance had taken a Commission to reduce the City of Gaunt thinking he had much Credit amongst them because he was a Country mans Son of those parts The Gauntois baffled him as he deserved Retreating thence he by surprize got the Kings Forces into Tournay that from thence he might molest the Flemmings The Gauntois having taken Arms went Head-long to attack this place But they were ill handled and Adolph de Gueldres killed in their retreat This was about the beginning of July Year of our Lord 1477 It had been their design that he should Marry the Princess who very glad to be so deliver'd from him resolved in fine to determine which to take of the many that aimed to get her She therefore chose Maximillian Son to the Emperor Frederic to whom she had plighted her Faith in her Fathers Life time The Marriage was Consummated at Gaunt about the end of July He was so poor that his Wife was forced to be at the charges for the wedding for his Equipage and the maintenance of his Servants At first she got no advantage by a Husband who had no assistance from his Father very covetous nor his Uncle Sigismond rich enough in money but of a very poor Spirit Nevertheless upon the consideration of his Father who was Emperor the King being entred into some Conferences with him found it fit to grant him Truce for a year and to restore to him Quesnoy Bouchain and Cambray which were in the Territories belonging to the Empire Others say they drove out the French Garrisons and rendred themselves to Maximillian The Lord de Craon this was George de la Trimoville who commanded the Kings Army in Burgundy treated the Prince of Orange ill and did not restore him to his Lands as the King had promised notwithstanding he had express orders This was the cause that the Prince joyned himself again with Claude de Vaudrey and some other Noble-men of the Country and led away almost all the Province from him It is true that the Battel he afterwards lost nigh Montguyon brought back the Dutchy but the War did not end there as to the County Amongst other events the Lord de Craon shamefully raised the Siege before Dole The King was so angry that for this and his plundrings he set him aside and put Charles d'Amboise Chaumont in his place This man laid the foundation of the first League which the Kings of France have had with the Swisse He stipulated that the King should give a Pension of 20000 Livers yearly to the Cantons and as much to some particular people for which they should furnish him with six Thousand men to be paid by him and should give him the first Rank amongst all their Allies at which they made some difficulty because the Duke of Savoy had ever held it The Truce being expired Maximillian caused some Forces to enter Burgundy who more by the Factions of the People that regretted their ancient Princes then by their own proper strength took Beaune Chastillon Bar Semur and divers other places with so great facility that if the Emperor Frederick had assisted his Son never so little he had at that time re-conquered all the Dutchy The Lord d'Amboise who had money and men in abundauce chased them almost as easily out again as they gotten in and thereupon the Truces were renewed for some Months The Kings of France had for a long time had a good number of Gentlemen Pensioners to attend and to Guard them King Lewis encreased the number and gave them a Captain ✚ His impatience to know speedily all that passed in every part of his Kingdom was the occasion of setling the Posts and Couriers who for a long time were only for the Kings Service Italy had divided it self in
the Catholicks by them It is most certain but for them the old Religion must have given place to the new Sect. The Regent favour'd them in show that they might not fly out to extremes In the mean time the Navarrois desiring to enlarge his power began a quarrel by demanding to have the Keys of the Kings House brought to him not to the Duke of Guise that honour being his due in respect of his Office of Grand-Maistre The pretence was but slight but the King of Navarre carried it on so high that he was upon leaving the Court with all the Princes of the Blood and the Constable to come to Paris and deliberate concerning the Government of the State What did the Queen She regains the Constable and that he might have a plausible excuse to break their intended project prevailed with the King to command him in presence of the Four Secretaries of State not to forsake or leave him So that the Navarrois apprehending they might perhaps do well enough now without him was advised to stay and came to an agreement with the Queen who augmented his power of Lieutenancy From that time the Constable began to fall off from the Princes of the Blood The same proposition concerning the repetition of gifts being renew'd in the particular Estates of Paris he was made believe it was chiefly aimed at him because he had in truth received an Hundred Thousand Crowns under Henry II. whereof he had given no account To the apprehension he was under of being obliged to repay this Sum were joyned the several exhortations of his Wife the Dutchess of Valentinois Honorat de Savoy Count de Villars his Brother in Law his Son Henry Lord of Danville all which under the specious pretence of preserving the Catholick Religion persuaded him to enter into a League with the Duke of Guise and the Mareschal de Saint André the remonstrances of the Prince the Coligny's his Nephews and his Son the Mareschal esteemed one of the wisest Lords in the Kingdom were not so prevalent as to hinder it The Huguenots named this Union the Triumvirat These Brouilleries had hitherto retarded the Kings Coronation When these three Lords were thus united they carried him to Reims where he received the Crown the fifteenth day of May from the hands of the Cardinal de Lorrain Arch-Bishop of that See The Duke of Guise pursuant to the ancient Order of the Kingdom which gives place according to the dignity of their Lands or antiquity of Peerage not according to their birth did there precede the Duke of Montpensier a Prince of the Blood the Queen-Regent having so adjudged it though on the other hand she would have Alexander Monsieur her second Son Year of our Lord 1561 precede the King of Navarre who had a more eminent Title which was not so practised at the Coronation of Francis II. It had been agreed by the Treaty of the general Peace that within three years the right of the Kings pretensions to the Territories of the Duke of Savoy should be Examined and settled by Commissioners on either part King Francis II. and the Duke had named Deputies for that end in the year 1560. Anthony Seguier President in Parliament and Anthony de Chandon Master of Requests who were for the King made Six Demands 1. The County of Nice which they said was a Member of the County of Provence 2. The Cities of Turin Cony Montdevis Albe Querasque and Savillan 3. The County of Ast which had been given in Dower to Valentine de Milan Wife of the Duke of Orleans 4. The Dependancies of the Marquiss de Salusses specified in an Arrest or Decree of Parliament in the year 1390. 5. Homage of that Duke for what he held in Daufiné on this side Guyer le Vif and elsewhere in Focygny and in Genevois and the inheritance of Louisa Mother of Francis I. They produced their Titles and their Pleas the Deputies for the Duke their exceptions and their answers but seeing on either side they acted rather as Advocates then Judges they could not agree upon any thing and made their reports severally and diversly The Duke could not therefore obtain any thing till the year following when he was so earnest with the King that by Letters Patents of the eight of August he commanded that they should restore to him Turin Chivas Quiers and Villa-Nuova d'Ast excepting only the Ammunitions and Artillery in exchange for Pignerol Savillan and Perouse with all the Lands within their Limits Imbert de la Platiere Bourdillon the Kings Lieutenant beyond the Alpes started many difficulties sent warm Remonstrances to the Council to prevent the Execution of that Order and would not obey till after three express Commands and upon the most solemn and authentick discharges that could be imagined Which yet would have availed but little if the Dukes had not paid all the Arrears that were due to the French Garrisons in the said places and had not moreover lent a Hundred Thousand Crowns to the King The Ambiguous conduct of the Regent fomented the Troubles On the one side she feigned to give a favourable ear to the Huguenots for she permitted John de Montluc Bishop of Valence and Peter du Vall Bishop of Sées to Preach even in the Kings Family such Doctrine as was very much like theirs She wrote a long Epistle to the Pope wherein she said that till there were a General Council they might safely be admitted to the Communion of the Roman Church since they held or taught nothing contrary to Holy Scripture or the seven first Oecumenical Councils She set forth an Edict which commanded all men to leave them in peace and released from Prison and call'd home from Banishment all such as had been prosecuted upon that single account This was the first they ever had in their favour and on the other side she incited the Constable to complain aloud and openly of these things thus done to the prejudice of the Roman Church Honour would not allow the Constable to joyn himself openly with the Duke of Guise whilst the Prince of Condé continued to be his Enemy wherefore he begg'd the Queen to make an accommodation between them Both of them being therefore commanded to come into the presence of the King the Princes Cardinals and great Officers the Duke of Guise Addressing his Speech to the Prince assured him he had no way contributed to his imprisonment the Prince replied he held him for a Rascal and a Traitor whoever were the Author of it the Duke answer'd he believed so to and that this did no way concern him This past the King Commanded them to embrace and promise each other a sincere and cordial amity An instrument hereof was drawn up in writing which was signed by the two Secretaries of State The Parliament was in such a heat against the Edict the Queen had obtained in favour of the Huguenots because they had sent it only to the Presidials and not to
them that they made a Decree quite contrary Whereupon the King made another in July referring the Cognizance of all Crimes of Sedition and unlawful Assemblies to the Presidial Courts and those of Heresie to the Judges Ecclesiastical by whom the Parties convict should be delivered up to the Secular Power who should not however condemn them to any thing above banishment Year of our Lord 1561 They had often discoursed of a National Council till that could be called it was thought convenient to have a Colloquy or Conference between the Catholick Priests and the Huguenot Ministers The Cardinal de Lorrain was one of the chief Promoters whether to hinder the National Council which did not at all please the Court of Rome or to make ostentation of his learning and eloquence The Ministers did likewise promise much advantage to themselves for by this means they were made equal with Bishops whereas in a Council they could have had no place Besides they thought themselves able enough to throw Dust in the Catholicks Eyes and they reckon'd they must needs have the better of it seeing the two Bishops of Sées and of Valence who were of the most knowing Prelates leaned towards them Year of our Lord 1561. in May. In the interim the Assembly of the States which had been adjourned to Pontoise in May began to fall to work Whatever the Regents Emissaries had been able to do there was yet so much of the ancient French spirit left in the heads of the Deputies as would not suffer them to let a Woman have the Regency the King of Navarre was forced to go thither himself to let them know he had yielded up his right and together with the Mareschal de Montmorency Governor of the Isle of France intreat them they would speak no more of it This was not sufficient but for fear they should bring it again upon the Stage it was judged necessary to dismiss the Assembly till the Month of August and to appoint it might be held at Saint Germain en Laye where they did meet The King was present there sitting on his Throne the Queen-Mother at his left hand with her Daughter Margaret and somewhat lower the King of Navarre the Cardinal de Bourbon and the Prince of Condé before these on the right hand were the Constable on the left the Chancellor the Duke of Guise as grand Chamberlain lay at the Kings Feet The Cardinals pretended to take place before the Princes of the Blood and had often had it in other Assemblies but it was now judged otherwise in favour of those Princes The Cardinals de Chastillon and d'Armagnac did acquiesce and the old Cardinal de Bourbon remained there also who having the right of birth before the Prince of Condé had likewise the precedence but the Cardinals de Tournon de Lorrain and de Guise would not submit to it and so withdrew The Admiral being the person that had persuaded the King of Navarre and the Deputies of the Estates to confirm the Regency to the Queen-Mother She would in recompence whilst She stood in need of him favour the Huguenot party and according to that Air wherewith She had inspired the Court or to intimidate the Clergy and incline them to give Money it was observed that in this Assembly every thing was turned against the whole Body of them Those that spoke in the name of the third Estate and the Nobility mentioned no other thing but their irregularities and disorder and concluded as the Hereticks ever do and all such as have more Policy then Religion not so much to reform them as to retrench their vast Riches and take away their Temporal Jurisdiction and adjudg the possessions of Religious Rents to the King They added that a National Council ought to be called and in the mean time did tolerate the Religionaries to Preach with all freedom in such Temples where the King should appoint and give leave After these Harangues they considered and debated the propositions contained in the Deputies papers and instructions wherein some Reglements were made by way of satisfaction But the Regent did not forget to take those advantages which the Council of Kings is ever wont to draw from such Assemblies that is to say great Sums of Money For the Clergy having a hot Allarm gave consent they should raise four Tenths in Six years and the third Estate five Solz upon every Tierce of Wine that was carried into any Walled Town An impost that hath encreased ever since that time to this very day The day for the Colloquy being come there met six Cardinals and four Bishops at Poisy with a good number of the Most Learned Theologues amongst others Claude d'Espences and Claude de Saintes that which made the number of these Prelates there so great was their being sent for to advise about the place and time for a Council and to deliberate concerning the publick Affairs of the State Now before the Ministers were come they had propounded several things amongst themselves in order to restore the Discipline supposing as it was true that the corruptions thereof had given rise and birth to the present heresies but they came to no result of any importance Year of our Lord 1561 Some days afterwards ten or twelve Ministers arrived there the most famous of them were Theodore de Beze Augustin Marlorat Francis Morel who compiled the first Articles of their Religion Peter Martyr and John Viret The King and the Regent were present with the Royal Family the Princes of the Blood the Bishops Cardinals Council of State and the Grandees of the Kingdom both of the one and the other Religion all seated according to their Qualities and Degrees within a place enclosed with rails the Doctors were behind the Bishops upon low Forms The Ministers would have gone within the Enclosure but they were excluded and remained without and standing Though the Colloquy was appointed upon the Tenth of August it did not however commence till the Fourth of September After the Chancellor had open'd it the Cardinal de Tournon desired since the thing was new and without a President he might deliberate or consult of it with the Clergy The Queen-Mother would not allow it and commanded de Beze to speak for they had resolved to treat of and handle the questions by discourses and harangues not by argumentations month September and syllogismes which suited very well with the desire the Cardinal de Lorrain and Beze had to shew their Eloquence We may say of de Beze on this occasion to say no worse that he had neither the prudence nor the moderation he ought to have shown For upon the point touching the Holy Sacrament his zeal transported him to such expressions and discourses as horribly grated the Catholick Ears saying that the Body of Jesus Christ was as far distant from the Eucharist as Earth is from Heaven The Prelates trembled with horror of the expression the Cardinal de Tournon made a great deal of noise and
and the other Cities of that Dutchy where he passed as if he had been King of Spain himself He remained at Turin Eight or Nine dayes The Dutchess Margaret his Aunt one of the wisest and most accomplish'd Princesses of her Age gave him the same Counsel the Emperor had done and the Duke presented Damville his Kinsman to him whom he had sent for expresly upon his Parol that he might restore him to his Favour That Affection the King had otherwhile had for this Lord revived again He made him lye in his own Chamber and willingly gave ear to his Advice for granting a Peace to the Huguenots to ruine them afterwards by such Projects as he propounded and to take all the Government of State Affairs into his own hands But the Queen Mother having some hint of it sent Chiverny and Fifes who soon destroy'd all he had been Building in the King's Mind and represented him so odly that the King would have had him seized The Dutchess finding this gave notice of it to the said Lord and the Duke sent a strong Convoy along with him to Nice whence his Galleys carried him into Languedoc When he found he was got clear he Vow'd he would never see the King more but in a Picture nor did he break his Vow The becoming Civilities of the Duke and kind Caresses of the Dutchess whose graceful Presence Wit and Royal Qualities had yet preserved some Empire over the French and even over her Nephews were not useless to them The King was pleased and being picqued with Generosity and Justice promised to render up Pigâ—orol Savigliani and Perugia to the Duke who made it appear plainly to him that he could not detain them any longer unless he chose rather Year of our Lord 1574 to be guided by what they call Maxims of State than the common Rights of Men and the Faith of Treaties The Duke having obtained this Favour gave him Four thousand Soldiers and a Thousand Horse to attend him to Lyons lest the Huguenots of Daufiné should interrupt his Journey He accompanied him in Person and staid there some dayes but was call'd away again before he had obtained the accomplishment of his Promises having word brought him of the Death of the Dutchess his Wife whom God called into the other World the Fourteenth of September Henry III. King LXI Aged XXIII years almost compleat POPES GREGORY XIII Ten years and Seven Months under this Reign SIXTUS V. Elected the 24th of April 1585. S. Five years Four Months Three days whereof Four years Twenty five days under this Reign Year of our Lord 1574. September IT was the Fifth of September when King Henry arrived at Pont de Beauvoisin the place which parts the Territories of France from Savoy The Queen his Mother went thither to meet him and presented the Duke of Alenson and the King of Navarre to him to be disposed of as he pleased He received them with extraordinary coldness though they saluted him with the greatest Humility Some hours afterwards he granted them Pardon and Liberty but it was only in appearance for he appointed Guards who secretly observed them and there were certain Ladies who ever held them in their amorous fetters and denied them nothing that they might dive into the secrets of their very Souls In the same place he made Bellegarde a Mareschal of France he had promised him this Office whilst he was in favour but now he was not so he could not keep that post above Fifteen days Du Gua had set him besides the Cushion and got into his place One might to speak properly call the Reign of Henry III. the Reign of Favorites The softness of his Soul and his carelesness left him wholly in the hands of those People who went on to enervate all that little virtue that was left in him and to dissolve him in voluptuousness So that they obscured the luster of all those brave actions had been attributed to him and would have put the whole World in doubt whether he had ever any real share in them had not some rayes of truly Royal qualities darted sometimes through all those mists and foggs and kept up his Reputation Quelus Maugiron and St. Maigrin were his first Minions Afterwards St. Luc Arques and the young la Valete then Termes since named Bellegarde and some others The Queen-Mother was ravish'd to see him in those hands because at first they gave her an exact account of his most secret Thoughts and whilst they amused him either in the Anti-chamber amongst the Ladies or in his Closet where he spent whole days in consultation about the trimming of a Suit of Cloaths or the fitting of a Ruff the retained almost all the Authority not foreseeing that by little and little they would draw the greatest part even from her together with the affection of her Son Now that they might the more entirely posses him they did perswade him not to communicate himself so frequently to his Subjects as his Predecessors had wont but to keep himself behind the skreen like the Eastern Monarchs and not be seen by Year of our Lord 1574 them but in great splendour and magnificence nor made known but by absolute Commands and above all to dis-accustom and wean the French from making Remonstrances to him and to make them understand that there was no other Law but his Will Thereupon they wrought him to have a high opinion of himself deafned and confounded him with their flatteries and puft him up with an opinion that he was the greatest Prince in the World that he infinitely surpassed all the preceding Kings that he had shew'd himself an absolute Master in Politiques even in his first Essay and Apprentiship and that the prudence of the most knowing and experienc'd Statesmen was but meer ignorance in comparison of his Inebriated with these flattering perswasions he establish'd new forms of Grandeur set on foot again the Regiment of Guards of Ten Companies Charles IX a little before his death had reduced them to three caused Banisters to be set round his Table went rarely abroad in publique and always shut up in a Litter or a Boat adorned with Gold and Painting in his Promenade upon the smooth-fac'd River of Soane and allowed the Grandees no more that credit of recommending the little ones to him no not themselves but by the credit and access of those Minions There wâ—re no Favours but for them they set all Offices and Governments at a high price to wrest them out of the hands of such Noble Persons who by the eminent Services of their Fathers or their own Merits had justly acquired them A great many of the best qualified finding they were but little regarded retired from Court male-contented and then the Favorites being at large introduced that pernicious invention of Acquits Comptants with which they have so often and with impunity pillag'd and wasted the Kings Exchequer The Agents from the Duke of Savoy did mightily press for performance of the
arrival of a new Governour Don Juan of Austria In the mean time the Spanish Troops having mutined plundred the wealthy City of Antwerp where they got so much booty that some private Soldiers were seen to play for Ten thousand Franc's in one night The Catholique Provinces fearing they might be plundered in the same manner united by a Treaty made at Ghent with those of Holland and Zealand Now before they received or admitted Don Juan the Estates would have all the Spaniards sent out of the Countrey and the Treaty of Ghent to be confirmed Don Juan feigned to agree to those conditions and entred the Countrey in Sheeps cloathing but soon changed it for the Foxes skin seising upon Namur Charlemont and Mariemburgh Then the States armed against him drove him back into Luxemburg called in Matthias the Emperors Brother whom they chose for their Governor and the Prince of Orange for his Lieutenant But by the jealousy of the Catholique Lords thwarting the wise Councils of Orange Don Juan had time to receive the Forces brought him by Alexander Farness Duke of Parma with which he gained a signal Battle at Gemblours over the Army of the States and afterwards the Gueux having turned Year of our Lord 1577 the Priests and Monks out of Ghent broke and pull'd down all the Images in their Churches So that the happy success of Don Juan and the attempt of this insolent rabble gave occasion to some Lords already discontented to form a Third Party whereof Montigny was Head and to draw both Artois and Hainault to joyn with them The same Lords finding that the States had Treated with Queen Elizabeth who sent Casimir to them with some German Forces moved with apprehension of the great danger their Religion was in resolved to Treat with the Duke of Anjou to which the States did likewise incline being induced thereto by the practises of the Prince of Orange who had great suspition of Casimir Year of our Lord 1578 This business had been negotiating a year before by the tacite consent of the Queen-Mother but the King did not approve of his Brothers medling with the Low-Countreys Affairs he was too jealous of his advancement and besides too much netled at his Bussy's braving his Favorites every day Now these Picques and Controversies rising higher on either part he caused his Brother to be laid hold on in the Louvre and set Guards upon him but they did their Duty so negligently that he escaped out of their hands being let down by a cord into the Trench under the Louvre and went to the Abby St. Germain where Bussy waited for him and had made a hole in the Wall of the City From thence they got to Anger 's and after they had sojourned there some weeks advanced to Mons in Hainault to conclude the Treaty which was before prepared by one of his Secretaries He promised to assist the States with his Forces and Means to raise Six thousand Foot and Three thousand Horse to maintain them at his own charges for Three Months and to endeavour to bring the Queen of England the King of Navarre and Casimir into this Alliance Reciprocally they promised him that where-ever he should be personally he should Command in Chief with the General for the States That if they accepted of any Lord other then the King of Spain they would prefer him before all That forsecurity and a retreat for his Sick they would give him Quesnoy Landrecy and Bavais That if they could obtain a good Peace they would repay his disbursements and give him a reward worthy of his Grandeur month August Year of our Lord 1578 There never was a business so intangled nor a Countrey more divided and tormented then that same The Arch Duke Matthias had his party amongst the States and amongst the Nobless the Prince of Orange had all the power in the Provinces of Frise Holland Zealand and Vtrect Don Juan of Austria was Governor for the Spaniard but declared an enemy by the States Prince Casimir was there in the behalf of Queen Elizabeth the Duke of Anjou as their Ally and Protector Imbise had seized upon Ghent and Prince Casimir with his Forces was got into those parts as it were to cantonnize himself The Catholique Lords of Artois and Hainault floated between all parties desiring to preserve if it were possible their Liberty and their Religion So that there were Five Armies feeding upon and laying wast that unfortunate Countrey That belonging to the States was of Thirty eight thousand Foot and Eight thousand Horse That under the Duke of Anjou much inferiour for number to what had been promised him by Treaty He besieged Bins and batter'd it so furiously that it surrendred the Fourteenth day being the Sixth of September The civility he shewed month September to that Garrison open'd him the Gates of Maubeuge but the insolence of his Soldiers in the Field caused those of Quesnoy and Landrecy to be shut up against him For vexation of this inexecution and because Casimir kept still in Ghent he would not joyn with the States Army to whom however he had already sent Three thousand Men Commanded by la Noüe but retired into France having first sent to the Arch-Duke Matthias and the Council of the States to let them know the reasons for his departure and give them an assurance of his return The greatest part of his disbanded Troops went into the Service of the male-contented Lords Some Months after Don Juan of Austria hapned to die the King his Brothers jealousie made all his designs miscarry and perhaps hastned his end by some potion as he had the end of Escovado his Secretary and intimate Confident in Spain by cutting the thred of his Life with a keen ponyard His loss caused so great a consternation in his Army that if that of the States had fall'n upon them they might with ease either have forced or dispersed them but Year of our Lord 1578 besides that their disorders were likewise great in that great Body for want of pay the death of Maximilian Crook-Back who Commanded in Chief hapning within Six weeks after broke all that little Union there was between the Lords of the Countrey who fell from the common interest of the publique good to seek their own private advantages During this expedition of the Duke of Anjou into the Low-Countries the King languished still in unactive idleness wherein he was entertained by Villequier and Francis d'O his Son-in-law This last was Surintendant des Finances a Man wholly given up to Luxury who put the King daily upon making new Edicts called Bursaux and by carrying him to the Parliament forced them by his Presence to verify the same This was one of the chief causes of the ruine of this Prince the People observing so frequently that from his Court whence nothing but good and wholsome Laws should have proceeded there came nothing now but Edicts of Oppression and Severity did by little and little lose
day the Three and twentieth of April gives three Assaults The Besieged sustained two not without great loss Bidossan was kill'd in the second After this it was time to yield but Campagnoles by an excess of bravour would needs stand a third His Soldiers did not second his Resolution they gave ground and threw away their Arms to save themselves some here some there Such as could get into the Sanctuary of the Churches or avoid the first fury saved their Lives all the rest to the number of above seven hundred were put to the Sword It had been no great difficulty for the King to have made the Spaniards perish for want in Calais had he been assured the English would have served him faithfully but as he had not too much reason to confide in them he returned to the Siege of la Fere having first re-inforced the Garisons of Ardres Monstreuil and Boulogne La month April Fere might have held out much longer by the ordinary rules had it not been for the Consideration of Colas the King of Spain had given Order to Osorio not to stay till the utmost extremity for fear he should be obliged to deliver that Man up to the King so that although he had nothing to fear for at least a Months time he made Year of our Lord 1596 his Capitulation the Fifteenth of May to which Colas Signed Count de la Fere. month May. But in the interim the Archduke marching out of Calais the Third day of May to compleat his Exploits attaqued Ardres a little place but very strong and very considerable for that it covers Calais The Count de Belin and Montluc had shut themselves in to defend it and there were Fifteen hundred fighting Men nevertheless the horrible Slaughters of Dourlens and Calais had so much terrified those Soldiers that they trembled even while they defended themselves It hapned likewise by misfortune that Montluc in whom they had some confidence was slain by a Cannon-ball and afterwards the Basse-Ville was gained and most of those in it knock'd on the Head in heaps just at the entrance into the Upper-Town by reason those that stood there to guard it being more affrighted then the others had let down the Port-cullice and exposed them to the fury of the Besiegers Afterwards Rosne begins to thunder upon the Bastion with his great Artillery which begot so horrible and universal a dread amongst the Soldiers that they even leaped over the Walls or ran and hid their Heads in Cellars Belin himself most extreamly affrighted demanded Composition and surrendred the place the One and twentieth of May. Which having done maugre the Governor named Isambert du Bois-Annebout and without taking advice of the other Captains he ran great hazard of his Life at Court This was the sixth place the Spaniards conquer'd in one year from the French not so much by their own as the Valour of Rosne and about a hundred desperate Frenchmen more who knowing themselves utterly excluded from all pardon and favour endeavour'd to make the King regret them and the Spaniard consider them Now it fortun'd happily for France that the Archduke at his return to Flanders besieging Hulst in the Country of Waes Rosne was there kill'd in an Assault which hapned in the Month of August month August So many losses on the neck of one another the Frontier laid open in four or five places the Sea shut up the robberles of the Soldiers the surcharge of Tailles and Imposts caused an incredible consternation in the minds of the People awakened the Factions of the League and favour'd the Contrivances of the Grandees These well foreseeing that the too sudden establishment of the Regal Power would be the month June ruine of their own suborned the Duke of Montpensier a young and easie Prince to propound to the King That it would do well to give the Governments in propriety to those that held them thereby to engage them to contribute with all their might to the defence of a State in which they really had a share One may well imagine that this Expedient did not over-much please the King nevertheless he treated this Year of our Lord 1596 Prince in such a manner as seeming angry rather with those who had engaged him month June to deliver this Message then with him he put him first into a confusion and then furnish'd him with Reasons enough even to confound them likewise if ever they made mention again of the like to him The Huguenots gave him no less disquiet then did the Grandees of his Kingdom he could not grant them the Edict they craved without offending the Pope and they month July and Aug. to secure themselves deliberated to chuse them a Protector and establish an Order amongst them which realy would have formed as it were another State in the heart of the Kingdom After his Conversion they look'd upon him as a Prince whose interest was to destroy them they interpreted all the Excuses he made for not yet being able to satisfie them as studied Artifice and the remembrance of things past gave them just apprehensions for the time to come And indeed they forsook him in the midst of the Storm and held more Synods and Assemblies in these three last years then in the thirty five precedent The King was labouring at that time to re-unite all the Protestants his Allies in one League against the House of Austria these discontents of the Huguenots cast great coldness and suspicion upon their Spirits so that the German Princes did all excuse month September and October themselves excepting the Count Palatine and the Duke of Wirtemberg who notwithstanding gave him only good words Bouillon and Sancy had much ado to engage the Queen of England who at length made it Offensive and Defensive The King and she obliging themselves reciprocally to send four thousand Men into eithers Country if they were assaulted and to make no Peace or Truce with the Spaniard but by mutual consent The Hollanders entred into it likewise with great willingness and alacrity by a Treaty made the last day of October and promised to march into the Field upon the Frontiers of Artois or Picardy with Ten thousand Foot and fifteen hundred Horse The Kings Army was so tired with the Siege of la Fere that he was fain to send them to refresh themselves in the Provinces reserving only some Troops with which the Mareschal de Biron made three several irruptions into Artois He made horrible devastation in that Country by Fire and Sword as well in revenge of the cruel spoil month June July c. the Archduke had made in Boulonois after the taking of Ardres as to teach him hereafter to make a fairer War In the Month of July a Comet was discover'd in the Heavens whose light appeared sometimes pale and faint otherwhile more clear and lively it had a long Train that did extend towards the East and South Another Prodigy appeared in France at the
the War he was gone on too far not to finish the Treaty and sent to his Deputies to conclude it provided they could first obtain the Cessation of Arms for his Allies which had been so earnestly demanded and promised the English that he would not Ratifie it till forty days after his Deputies had Signed it month May. Now they did Sign it the Second day of May and on the Twelfth they put it into the hands of the Legat praying him to keep it secret till the two Months of the Cessation were expired And yet the King made no scruple of publishing it to the Estates of Bretagne telling them he was going into Picardy to carry the Ratification himself In effect he went away with that design having first given the Government of Bretagne to the little Duke of Vendosme upon the surrender of the Duke of Mercoeur his Father in Law but an indisposition befell him on his way which constrained him to return to Paris The Queen of England unable to prevail with him to allow one Month beyond the forty days wrote to him of it with Reproaches and in terms which accused him of unthankfulness The English declaimed most outrageously in the Court of France against his proceeding and made their Complaints come to the Ears of all the Protestant Princes the Hollanders behaved themselves more modestly It was endeavour'd to satisfie both the one and the others with weighty Reason of State and with many examples of the like and they were often-times exhorted to enter into the same Treaty by that Door which was left open for them This seems to have been done only out of good manners for they knew well enough it was not their interest to come in and perhaps some would have been much puzled if they had been persuaded to it However it were the Deputies of the latter sent the King word the term of two Months was too short to Assemble the Estates of all their Provinces and the Queen of England made him understand she would not be divided from them Having as he believed therefore satisfied in every point of that devoir he owed to his Alliance and his Reputation he sent his Ratification to his Deputies about the end of May the date in Blank with order not to fill it up till the Twelfth of June at which time expired the forty days granted to Queen Elizabeth That day month May. the Peace was proclaimed at Vervins and afterwards in all the Cities both of France and the Low-Countries with such lowd Expressions of Mirth and Joy as resounded thorough all the Kingdoms of Europe and gave no less terror to the Turks then content to the greater part of Christians Year of our Lord 1598 month June The same four Lords whom the Arch-Duke gave as Hostages for the restitution of Places viz. Charles de Crouy Duke of Arschot Francis de Mendozze Admiral of Arragon Charles de Ligne Earl of Aremberg Knight of the Golden Fleece and Lewis de Velasco Grand Master of the Ordnance serving as Ambassadors with Richardot and Verreiken brought the Ratification to the King and Witnessed his Swearing to the Treaty in Nostre-Dame the One and twentieth of June there being present on behalf of the Duke of Savoy Gaspard de Geneva Marquiss de Lullins and Reonard Roncas his Secretary of State Reciprocally the Mareschal de Biron Billievre and Sillery did the same for the Arch-Duke at Bruxels the Six and twentieth of the same Month and William de Gadagne Boteon at the Duke of Savoy's who did not Swear it till the Second day of August at Chamberry King Philip the Second Signed the Articles indeed but being prevented by Death could not Swear to them with the same Ceremonies as the rest of the Princes had done This is the Substance of the most Essential Articles The Treaty was concluded conformably and in approbation of that of Cateau-Cambresis of which and the precedent ones nothing was to be innovated but such things as should appear to derogate from this same If any Subject of either of these two Kings should go to serve their Enemies by Sea or Land they should be punished as Infractors and Disturbers of the Publick Peace Such as had been forced out of their Lands Offices and Benefices accompting from the year 1588. should be restored however they should not enter upon any Lands of the Kings without Letters Patents under the Great Seal In case the King of Spain should give the Low-Countries and the Counties of Burgundy and Charolois to the Insanta his Daughter she and her Territories should be comprised in this Treaty without making any new one for that purpose The two Kings should mutually surrender what they had taken the one from the other since the year 1559. viz. the Most Christian King the County of Charolois and the Catholick King the Cities of Calais Ardres Monthulin Dourlens la Capelle and le Catelet in Picardy as also Blavet in Bretagne For security whereof he should give up four Hostages these were the above-named Both the one and the other reserving all his Rights Pretensions and Actions to what he had not renounced but should not pursue or prosecute the same but only by way of amity and Justice This had regard to Navarre and Year of our Lord 1598 the Dutchy of Burgundy It was likewise said That this Treaty should be Verified month June Published and Registred in the Court of Parliament of Paris Chamber of Accompts and other Parliaments and on the same day in the Grand Council other Councils and Chambre des Comptes of the Low-Countries The Interests of the Duke of Savoy were therein treated in such manner as we have related There was nothing mentioned of the Duke of Florence because he pretended not to be in War and said he had seized on the Islands of Marseilles only for satisfaction of certain Sums of Money owing by the King to him and whereof they had stopp'd or diverted the Assignments Add that d'Ossat was gone to Florence to month May. determine the said difference In effect he did decide it the Ninth day of May upon these Conditions That the Duke should render the Islands of If and Pommegues and might carry thence his Cannon Equipage and Ammunition For which the King should own himself his Debter for Two hundred thousand Crowns That good Assignments should be given him for it and for Security of the said Payment twelve Notables of the French whom himself should nominate Thus were extinguished to the very last Spark not only that Civil War the League had kindled in the Bowels of France but likewise those Firebrands which that Faction had fetched in from other Countries And this Kingdom being now in perfect quiet had no more to do but by gentle degrees endeavour to repair the infinite damage they had suffer'd and to recruit their Strength and Forces half consumed by so many ghastly Wounds and so great an effusion of their best Blood The first discharge
they treat the good Catholicks After his Confinement unless at those times when he fell into perfect raving his mouth was ever full of Reproaches Imprecations and Rodomontado's Year of our Lord 1602 When they came to interrogate him he disown'd the Project then owned it without any necessity denied and then confessed divers Facts and upon this so ticklish an occasion whereas the wisest speak but by Monosyllables he launched into tedious Discourses and thereby often and very much entangled himself As to the Witnesses he reproached them not till after he had heard their Depositions though he had been fore-warn'd that if he had any thing to object it must be before-hand Thus he owned Laffin for an Honest man and his good month June Friend Then when they had read what he deposed he Curs'd him as the worst of all Mankind a Sorcerer a Traytor and a Sodomite Had he said this in due time it might in some measure have weakned his Evidence He said that if Renazé had been alive he could have testified the contrary and justified him he did not imagine he was so near at hand and was much amazed when they read his Deposition and brought him to confront him This fellow had made his escape from the Prison at Quiers with his Keepers so opportunely one would have guess'd the Duke of Savoy was of Intelligence with the King The Witnesses alone Convicted him for most of his Writings were dated month July before the Pardon the King had granted him at Lyons All things being ready they led him to the Parliament to give Judgment He was convey'd thither by Boat with a strong guard The Chambers were assembled the Chancellour presided not one of the Dukes or Pairs were there although they had been summon'd in due form He defended himself somewhat better there than he had done before his Commissioners They gave him full liberty and time to Plead and this time he did Plead as he had often Fought that is he did wonders All the strength of his defence consisted in an endeavour to make it out that the Will without any Effect or a Design without an Overt act was not punishable that his Services ought to over-poise and excuse some transports of passionate and indecent words and thoughts that had no farther consequence And above all he laid his main stress upon this that the King had Pardon'd him in the Cordeliers at Lyons To these Reasons and Arguments he added so lively a Representation of his brave deeds and so many Motives for Compassion that he drew Tears from the Eyes of some of his Judges and if they had at that instant given their Opinions perhaps he might have found some mercy but they having then not time enough to take all their Votes the Business was deferr'd till Monday in the mean while he was remanded to the Bastille On Monday while the Judges were in Consultation an Order was brought them under the Great Seal whereby he revoked the Pardon he had given him by word of mouth at Lyons Some of his Ministers finding the Prisoner stood so much upon that and apprehending his fury if he should escape prevailed with the King to make the said Revocation though it were a thing altogether unnecessary and somewhat contrary to his Natural Clemency The Judges as one Man gave all their Votes for his Death They declared him Convicted of High-Treason for Conspiracies against the Person of the King Designs upon the State and Treaties with the Enemies and Condemned him to have his Head cut off in the Greve his Estate confiscate to the King the Dutchy of Biron to be Extinguish't and those Lands and others if he had any which were held of the King reunited to the Crown The Sentence being brought to the King he put off the Execution till the next day and changed the place from the Greve to that of month July the Court in the Bastille Which to his Friends was interpreted as a Favour though it was purely an effect of the fear they had of some Commotion not so much amongst the common People as the Soldiery who loved him most entirely Upon Tuesday the last day of July about Noon the Chancellour with some Councellors of State and of the Parliament went to the Bastille to put the Sentence in Execution So soon as Biron saw him he cried out he was a Dead man and asked if there were no Pardon The extravagancies and the transports he shewed in this last Scene where his Courage ought to have shew'd its force if he had had any demonstrates enough that some who dare venture into dangers with Bravery because they have a prospect of overcoming have not the resolution to stare Death in the face when there 's no possibility of escaping The Year of our Lord 1602 Chancellour having given Order they should lead him to the Chappel he gave ☜ himself up to Cries to Complaints and to Reproaches protested his Innocency summon'd the Chancellour to appear at the Bar of Almighty God accused the King of Ingratitude and Injustice After he had thus spit all his fire and venom he fell into the other extreme his too great love of life flatt'ring him yet with a faint beam of Hope made him beseech his Judges to intercede once more for him and made him even beg the favour of Rosâ—y though he esteemed him his most mortal Enemy Then when he found they all were deaf and dumb to his requests he fell into more fury than before They had at first no little trouble to bring him to that condition a Criminal should be in to hear his Sentence pronounced yet he heard it patiently enough excepting those words which accused him of having Conspired against the Person of the King this he could not endure but cried out That was False and he persisted to his very death that he was innocent as to that point It was a mighty laborious task the Doctors had to prepare and dispose him to his Death he had scarce any settled intervals They thought fit not to tye him lest that should put him out of all his Senses When they led him to the Scaffold the sight of the Executioner put him into a new rage He would not let him touch him nor tye a Handkerchief over his Eyes he bound it on himself and then unbound it again two or three times At last the Executioner took his time and blow so dexterously as made his Head fly off at one stroke As it was full of Fire and Spirits it was observed to make two Rebounds and cast forth a much greater quantity of Blood than came from the whole trove of his Body His Corps month July was interred in the Church of Sainct Paul with a marvellous Confluence of People who flocked thither from all Parts and served for his Funeral train He was of a middle Stature and for Corpulence gross enough had black Hair beginning to turn grey his Physiognomy cloudy and ominous his Conversation rough
the like occasion and Year of our Lord 1608 that the Holy Father caused a Jubilé to be published which commenced at Rome month Novemb. the Sixth of September and Six Weeks afterwards at Paris I think I may in this year place the Invention of Perspective Glasses because the use of them began now to grow common in Holland and France A Spectacle-maker of Midleburg presented one which he had made to Prince Maurice which seemed to bring any Object though two Leagues distant within Two hundred paces of the Eye for from the Hague they could easily discern the Dial at Delf and the Windows of the Church at Leyden the year following many were to be had in the Shops at Paris but which could not descry a third part so far as those Some have named them Galileo's Glasses as if that famous Mathematician had invented them but it is most certain this happy Discovery was made long before his time We find manifest footsteps of them in the Works of Baptista Porta and we must acknowledge that the Ancients made use of them if that be true which Roger Bacon saith That Julius Caesar being on the Belgic Shoar opposite to great Britain did with certain great Burning-Glasses discover the Posture and Disposition of the Brittish Army and all the Coast along that Country However it were they have labour'd so happily to bring them to their full Perfection that it will be difficult to make any further Addition or Improvement The marvellous Observations which have been made and are daily taken of the Heaven by the help of them are a most illustrious proof of their Success As to the Subject of the Fougade at Westminster the King of Great Britain who believed that all these Conspiracies proceeded from that Power which the Pope pretended over Soveraigns made an Oath of Fidelity or Allegiance after a new form wherein he obliged all his Subjects to acknowledge that he was their true and lawful Soveraign and that the Pope had neither of himself nor from any other the Power to depose Kings or to warrant any Stranger Prince to invade their Country or to dispense their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance therefore should Swear to him that notwithstanding any Sentence whatsoever of the Popes they would faithfully obey him and serve him and his Successors and should discover whatever Conspiracies they did know either against his Person or against his State The Pope having notice hereof sent a Brief to the Catholicks to forbid them the taking this Oath George Blackwell Arch-Priest of England being imprisoned upon the refusal he made of it suffered himself at last to be perswaded that this Brief had been extorted and that there was nothing contained in the Formulary of the Oath contrary to the Articles of Faith so that he took it and caused it to be taken by the rest of the Catholicks in England But the Pope by a second Brief confirmed the first and Cardinal Bellarmin wrote a Letter to Blackwel to shew him that the said Oath wounded the Vnity of the Church and the Authority of the Holy-See He published an Apology for this Oath the Cardinal made an Answer the King a reply which he addressed to the Christian Princes Some Authors concerned themselves in the quarrel and it being a contest wherein the power of the Popes was debated as likewise that of temporal Princes it became the exercise and entertainment of the most learned men in Europe for some Months together The States of the United-Provinces had reason to make the Spaniards believe and see that in case the Treaty of Peace were broken off they should be assisted both by France and England wherefore they had several times made instance to the Ambassadors of those Kings that they would enter into a good Defensive League for their preservation The King of France did first agree and Signed it the second day of January notwithstanding the contrary advice of those of month January his Council whom a zeal for the Catholick Religion inclined indirectly to favour the Spaniard the Ambassadors of the King of England having some points to settle with the States touching the liquidation of Arrears of Moneys did not conclude it till four or five Months after Those of Spain deputed for the Peace to wit the Marquiss de Spinola General of King Philips Armies in the Low-Countries John Crusel Richardot President of the Privy-Council to the Arch-Dukes John de Mancicidor Secretary of War to King Philip Frier John Neyen or Ney Commissary-General of the Order of Saint Francis and Lewis Verreiken prime Secretary of State to the Arch-Duke Arrived at the Hague in the Month of January The States deputed Year of our Lord 1608 for the Generality William of Nassau and the Lord de Brederode and the seven Provinces named for each of them one of the most able and best qualify'd they had amongst them The Compliments made on either part they began to assemble the Sixth day month February of February In the first Ten Sessions they produced their Procurations and treated of an Amnesty of Reprisals and some other such Points which passed without much difficulty but when they came to mention the Commerce of the East-Indies there began the main of the Negociation the States insisting to have the full liberty of that Trade the Spaniards to exclude them thinking there were only a few Merchants interested in that Trade and that the rest would not concern themselves much for their preservation but the Company which of late years was set up for the Indies had forty Ships belonging to them the least of five hundred Tun burthen well provided for War and each of the value of five and twenty thousand Crowns Besides fourscore more of six or seven hundred Tun which traded to the West-Indies not reck'ning a great number of smaller bulk for Guiney and the Islands Saint Dominique Being therefore animated by their profit and withal upheld and countenanc'd by Prince Maurice they made so much noise and roused the publick by so many Manifesto's and discourses in Print that their Deputies were obliged to stand to it Seeing therefore they could not agree upon that point they quitted it to pass on to those concerning the reciprocal Trade in the Low-Countries the renunciation of reprisals the declaration of their limits the demolition and exchange of places the Cassation of Sentences of Proscription and Confiscation the restitution of Goods the Priviledges of Cities the disbanding of Soldiers on each side and many other points In the Memoirs of the President Janin are to be seen the difficulties that were created on either part upon different Articles particularly about the restitution of places How the Truce was prolonged two several times the one to the end of May the other till July How Father Ney going into Spain for more ample powers was detained there a long time by the slow motions either natural or artificial of that Council How the President Janin sent for by
of the little River Arouane which glides betwixt that of Yonne and Loing and falls into the Loing close by Moret Clotaire lost the Battle and almost Thirty thousand Men and saved himself by speedy posting to Paris But he durst not stay there long for the Victors being advanced as far as Essonne he retired into the Forrest of Arelaune In fine he was constrained left he should lose all to yield up to them the greatest part of his Kingdom to Thierry all that was between the Loire and the Seine as far as the Sea and to Theoderet the Dutchy of Dentelen which was between the Oise and the Seine or perhaps between the Somme and the Oise Year of our Lord 600 601. During the controversie between the Cousins the Gascons took occasion to come and plant themselves in the Countrey of Oleron of Bearn and of Soule The two Brother Kings thought it to better purpose having vanquish'd them to make them become Tributaries then to drive them quite away and gave them a Duke to Govern them he was called Genialis But as they are a stirring People during the Civil Wars of the French they gained all Aquitania Tertia which because of them is named Gascongne Year of our Lord 601 Brunehaud had all the power in the Court of young King Thierry having made him taste the pleasure of Women and Love betimes to keep him from medling with business of State by charms of voluptuousness and out of fear leâ—t a lawful Wife if he should take one should induce him to retrench her Authority by gaining the Affections of her Grand-Son from her This year he had a Son by one of his Mistresses which they named Sigebert Though Brunehaud were a Great-Grand-Mother she was not exempted from Love nor from inspiring it in others by the opportunities she had of bestowing the greatest Favours but this she did most commonly at the expence of the richest whom she fleeced by her Calumnies and her assassinations The precedent year she Year of our Lord 602 had taken away the Life of Egila Patrician of Burgundy to enrich her self with his Year of our Lord 603 spoil She loved amongst others a young Lord named Protades of Roman extraction that is to say Gaulois and had already made him Duke des Transjurains this was not enough she must raise him to the Office of Mayer of the Palace But Bertoald who then executed it must first be put out of the way To this end she sent him to gather up the Imposts in Neustria newly taken from Clotair and as yet not well subjected Landry Mayer of the Palace soon chases him pursues him even to Orleans and Besieges him King Thierry being informed thereof Mounts on Horseback the Battle was fought at the passage over the River of Estampes most part of Landry's Men were cut off but Bertoald was slain there as Brunehaud had wished and she gave that Employment to her Protades Year of our Lord 603 At the same time King Theodebert had taken the Field to run upon Clotaire but the two Kings being there present Theodebert grants him a Peace desiring to preserve him for a time of need against his Brother Thierry who likewise and perhaps upon the same consideration did in a while after make his accommodation with Clotaire Year of our Lord 604 The Old One had not forgot the Outrage she had received by Theodebert or rather the Austrasian Lords she infinitely desired Thierry might make himself Master of that Kingdom that she might execute her Revenge She made him believe therefore that Theodebert was not his Brother but that he was the Son of a Gardiner Was it that she would have it meant he had been Supposed or Changed or that the Queen Faileube had committed Adultery with some person of that condition Upon all occasions she and her Favourite thundered it in the Ears of Thierry and laid hold of every little subject of Pique to exasperate the Spirit of that young ambitious and violent Prince Insomuch as that in fine he took up Arms to deprive his own Brother both of his Crown and Life One day as the two Armys were encamped near each other the Leudes or Vaslals of the Kings detesting this impious War endeavoured an accommodation Protades opposing it those that belonged to Thierry gathered together and notwithstanding the Intreaty and Commands of that Prince Year of our Lord 605 to the contrary went and â—lew him in his Tent where he was playing at Chess Year of our Lord 605 6. In time Brunehaud found means to sacrifice all those that had procured his Death to the Manes of her beloved Friend But notwithstanding instead of one Gallant she chose many and those the handsomest of her Court The scandal was so great that St. Didier Bishop of Lions was obliged by his Pastoral Office and Duty to make some publique Remonstrances of it to her They wrought no effect upon a Soul so plunged in the Mire of her Lust but they acquired the Crown of Martyrdom for this Holy Prelate This Second Jesabel having first caused him to be degraded and banished by an Assembly of Bishops devoted to her passion then two years after stoned to death by her Satellites Some remorse of Conscience having touched Thierry he would needs take a lawful Wife and caused Hermenberg the Daughter of Bertric King of the Visigoths to come out of Spain that he might Marry her But Brunehaud by her Witchcrafts as it was said hindred him from consummating the Nuptials and even perswaded him to send her back and most unjustly detain all that she had brought with her for him The disorders of this Court were at such a height that it was to ruine ones self not to approve of it Nevertheless the H. Abbot Colomban who feared nought but God alone spared not to conjure King Thierry to put an end to his Debauches Year of our Lord 608 by a legitimate Marriage and refused to give Blessing to his Bastards boldly assuring him that God would never suffer the Sons of Sin to Reign This Christian liberty thwarted too much the Interests and Pleasures of Brunehaud she ceased not from irritating the King her Son against the Saint till he had caused him to be plucked out of his Monastery with violence and turned out of his Kingdom At that time when she her self was driven from the Court of Austrasia she had left one of her Servants there bought with the price of Money named Bilechild a Virgin of much Wisdom and more Beauty Theodebert having Married her the kindness that Prince had for her begot the aversion of Brunehaud It hapned that this year she dyed by some ill beverage It was not known from what hand it was directed whether that old jealous Woman or her Husbands who was grown weary of her and would have another as indeed he Married Theodechild one of the same quality and condition But her death was imputed to Brunehaud as well as the War that
in the Kings House or in the Houses of great Officers and Trained up to all noble Exercises more honourably then Pages are in these days The Kings Revenues consisted in Lands or Demeasns and in Imposts which were taken only of the Gauls for it was thought odious to take any of the French Some of them were levied in Moneys others in Goods When they made the Division of Lands into Acres or Furlongs the Kings for their shares had much of the best especially about and near the greatest Cities They made their Residence and built them Palaces in the most pleasant places and especially near some great Forests for they delighted in Hunting and made a general one every Autumn In all those places which they called Villae Fiscales they had Officers or Servants who were named Fiscalins and he that commanded them Dom stick There they laid in Stores of Provision as Wines Wheat Forage Meat especially Venison and Pork Amongst the Lords they always chose out some to eat at their Table and that was one step towards the highest Employments They only took the Quality of Illustrious which was common to all the Grandees of the Kingdom Sometimes the Title of Dominus was given them which was likewise ordinary to all that were any way considerable also of most Glorious most Pious most Clement and Precellentissime The Kings wrote their names under that of the Bishops when they wrote to them On the contrary Pope Gregory I. and the Emperor Mauritius preposed theirs before that of any Kings Gregory II. did not do so The Popes and Councils stiled them sometimes their Sons and sometimes the Sons of the Catholick-Church Their Male-Children in their young age were named Damoiseaux and at their Birth they gave some Fiscalins their Freedom in all the Lands and Houses belonging to the King their Father They oft took Wives of mean Birth and servile Condition on whom they did not bestow the Title of Queen till after they had born Children nor always then neither The Daughter of a King had that Title as soon as they were Married They had their Dower in Lands some Possessions in proper which their Kindred inherited their share of the Houshold Goods and great Officers just the same as the Kings had Oft times the Sons of France before they came to Reign were called Kings and the Daughters Queens There were but two Conditions of Men the Free or Ingenuous and the Slaves Amongst the Free there were Nobles who were so by Blood and by Antiquity not by Exemptions and amongst the Nobles the Grandees optimates I believe that those they called Majores were the Noble and the Minores those that were not so One knew not then what People of the Gown or Robe meant all the French made profession of bearing Arms Justice was rendred by People Armed their Battle-ax and Buckler hung upon a Pillar in the midst of the Malle In the Kings House it was the Count of the Palace that administred it sometimes the King himself took the Seat together with the Bishops and the Grandees and having heard Causes of highest concern pronounced Sentence himself In Villages the Centeniers in Cities the Counts and Dukes that gave Judgment without any thing of Pleadings or Writings They were called in general terms Judges and Seniors The Kings gave them these Offices for time and frequently continued them for Money Sometimes it was left to the People to chuse them and perhaps it was their Right There were no Degrees of Jurisdiction all judged without appeal because they took Cognisance of nothing but what was proportionable to their Degree It is true the Parties had a way of carrying their Complaints to the King if they believed they had not been judged according to Law but if the Complaint were not made good they were condemned is * Persons of Quality to a pecuniary Mulct the other to be Whipp'd The Counts and Dukes had Viguiers or Lieutenant-Generals who did Justice in their absence and several petty Viguiers which administred it in the Country They had Assessors whom they called Rachinbourgs they sat on every eighth or every fifteenth day according to the multiplicity of Affairs But the Dukes held the Grand Assizes from time to time where the Bishops of the Province were bound to be present There were likewise a kind of Commissary's or Envoys some for the King others for the Dukes who went about to visit the Provinces In their Proceedings and Publick Acts they counted their Terms by Nights As the Galls governed themselves according to the Roman Rules and Laws they were forced to have Judges that understood them and the French might perhaps imitate and follow them in many of their Contracts for the Salick Law was not extensive enough to comprehend and regulate every particular case The same Counts and Dukes as judged the French led them to the Wars There were no other Soldiers but the Militia They commanded those of the nearest Provinces or of any Province as they thought fit those that failed were put to a Fine they gave Letters of Dispensation to such as were grown over-aged in the Service In all the Provinces and particularly on the Frontiers they had Magazines of Provisions and Forage but as I believe they had no pay but their Plunder which was brought together and so shared always equally amongst them They put those into the condition of Slaves or Servants whom they took Prisoners of War as likewise such as were sent them for Hostages if they broke their Faith The great ones that were accused of any Crime were judged Militarily by their Equals the Execution was performed with a Sword or Battle-Ax sometimes by Dukes and Counts themselves Often times their Kings would not wait till Judgment was given their Wrath or Covetousness made Death go before any Sentence As for the People of a meaner Stamp they were extended on a Stake and were either Strangled or Whipp'd In some places they were Hanged on a Gallows or they were branched upon a Tree For lesser Crimes they were condemned to grind like Mill-Horses to dig Vineyards to work in Quarries and sometimes they were Branded with a hot Iron When a Man was accused for a Crime of State they tore off his Military Girdle and his Clothes and dressed him all in Rags Between Private Persons they might seek their satisfaction with their Swords and do themselves justice whence proceeded infinite Murthers if the King did not prevent it Murtherers bought their Lives with their Money and the punishment of most Crimes unless they were Crimes of State were pecuniary and determined by the Law The whole Kindred were liable to the payment if the guilty Person were insufficient When the Parties wanted Evidence to prove the Fact they came to a Combat either in Person or by those Champions they could procure This they said was to determine a Cause by the Judgment of God Almighty The Ordeal-Trial by red hot Irons
was natural to see a Prince of Twenty six years to be amorous but it was a prodigy against nature that at that age he should have such a covetous heart as nothing could satisfie Nevertheless being in himself at the bottom very good the Remonstrances of St. Amand Bishop of Tongres somewhat allay'd the heat of his Covetousness He took Nantilda his first Wife again and lived with her the rest of his days Year of our Lord 631 Mean time he had a Son by Ragnetrude the same year that he Married her He sent to pray his Brother Aribert to come and hold it at the Font. Both of them met at Orleance for that Ceremony and the Child was Baptized by the Bishop St. Amand and named Sigebert Year of our Lord 631 Aribert was no sooner returned to Thoulouse but he died and his Son Chilperic who was yet in his Cradle survived him but a few days It was suspected that Dagobert had contributed to the death of that Innocent to regain Aquitain by seizure as he presently did DAGOBERT I. Sole King It is certain this King had a singular Devotion for St. Denis and his fellow-Martyrs and that he Erected a Church in honour of him to which he joyned a rich Abby But the subject or cause which we related elsewhere passes amongst the Criticks but for a Fable I cannot tell whether it be a truth that he unfurnished several other Churches of their most precious Ornaments to enrich this same Year of our Lord 631 It hapned this year that some French Merchants who Traded with the Sclavonians were Robbed King Samon having refused to repair this Wrong Dagobert would needs right himself by the Sword The King of the Lombards and the Duke of the Almains the first of which was Allied and the other Subject to France attaqued them joyntly on the one hand whilst the Austrasian French assaulted them on the other The first got the advantage and slew a great many of them but the Austrasians who were discontented with Dagobert because he had preferred his Residence in Neustria before that of Austrasia behaved themselves very cowardly For having besieged the Castle of Vagastburgh wherein the bravest of the Enemies had put themselves they raised it the third day and retreated in great disorder After this the Sclavonians were emboldned to make Incursions in Turingia and other Countries belonging to the French And Debvan or Dervan Duke of the Sorabes they were a People of Sclavonia who inhabited Mâ—snia drew himself off from the Obedience of the French to put himself under Samon There had been of a long standing a Colony of Bulgarians who had taken up their Quarters in Panonia where they were Allied or become Tributaries to the Avares who possessed the greatest part of that Province with that of Dacia It is disputed whether the ancient Bulgaria was in Sarmatia Asiatica along the River Year of our Lord 631 Volga otherwise called Rha or else in the European on the borders of the Euxine Now the Bulgarians being entred into a War with the Avares were vanquished and so trodden under foot that there were left but nine thousand who were forced to forsake the Country with their Wives and Children These Wretches having besought Dagobert to give them an abiding in some Corner of his Dominions he sent orders to the Bavarois to receive them and to quarter them separately in Villages and Burroughs till the Estates of the Kingdom had ordained how to dispose of them The Estates found the best Expedient would be to cut the Throats of them all in one Night and that was put in execution but too punctually One of their Chiefs having got some wind of it made his escape with seven hundred of them into Sclavonia that Country is yet called the March of Wenden between the Rivers Save and Drave Year of our Lord 631 The Visigoths in Spain made and un made their Kings as they pleased This year 631. the Government of Suintila who had Reigned ten years being uneasie and displeasing to them they cast their Eyes upon Sisenand who implored the Assistance of Dagobert promising him in Recompence the great Golden vasa or Vessel weighing 500 pounds and enriched with Jewels which Aetius had bestowed upon Torismond for helping him against Attila Sisenand being instated in his Throne by the assistance of the French could not refuse this Vessel to the Ambassadors but the Visigoths Way-laid them and took it away again from them by force Dagobert was offended and threatned the business was canvassed and in the conclusion he was contented with two hundred thousand pieces of Silver As he was raising great Forces to stop the Incursions which King Samon with his Sclavonians made into Turingia the Saxons came and profer'd to repel them at their own Peril and Charge if they would forgive them the Tribute of Five hundred Beeves which they owed to France The profer was accepted and they were relied upon to make good their Promise but either they wanted strength or perhaps faith to perform it and secure Turingia as was expected Thus it continued still exposed to the insolency of those Barbarians The Neustrians were too remote to defend them the Austrasians should have done it and they had strength more then enough to have accomplished it but being ill affected they did not much trouble themselves about it It was necessary therefore to regain their hearts and affections to give them a King that should reside amongst them DAGOBERT in Neustria and Burgundy SIGEBERT his Son in Austrasia Year of our Lord 633 Wherefore Dagobert having Assembled the Prelates and the Lords of this Kingdom at Mets he by their Advice and with their Consent makes his Son Sigebert King of Austrasia furnished him with a Royal Treasure that is to say rich Moveables Precious Vasa's or Vessels and Silver Coyn and left the Conduct of his Education of his Court and his State to Cunibert Bishop of Colen and to the Duke Adalgise Then the Austrasians counting themselves restored to their Liberty because they had a King stood up for their Honour and valiantly repulsed the Sclavonians Year of our Lord 634 The following year he had a Son born by Queen Nantilda who was named Clovis Nantilda considering that if her Husband should come to die without setling the Succession this Son would have no share solicited him so earnestly that he sent for the Lords of Austrasia and made them understand that he meant and intended that Neustria and Burgundy should belong to the Infant that was newly born but that all the Cities of Aquitain of Provence and of Neustria which had been joyned to the Kingdom of Austrasia should so remain united excepting the Dutchy of Dentelen which Theodebert the Young had taken from King Clotaire Year of our Lord 635 The Gascons who had possessed one part of the Novem-populania or third Aquitain had again began their Robberies after the death of Caribert There were sent twelve Dukes with the
them was discomfited and laid dead upon the spot with the best part of his Men. But the end was not answerable to the beginning Radulfe being retreated with his Forces resolved to undergo all extremities in a Castle built of Wood which he had furnished with all sorts of Provisions upon a HIll nigh the River Onestrud and Sigebert having Besieged him a difference hapned amongst his Commanders some would immediately assault it others would give the Soldiers time to refresh and recruit themselves The First persisted obstinately and went up to make their Attaque the rest foreseeing what the event would be found fit to remain in their Camp and keep about the King's Person Radulfe comes forth to meet those that were climbing up to assail him beats them back and tumbled them down the steep Hill head-long with great slaughter the young King who was on Horseback could do nothing more then weep to behold them cutting the Throats of his Men in his sight Those who were about him grew so much afraid that they sent to demand permission of Radulfe that they might retire and had leave from him as a singular favour Year of our Lord 641 Ega Mayre of Neustria being dead this year of a Fever at the Palace of Cliâ—hy Erchinoald who was of Kinn to King Dagobert by his Mothers side a person who had all the Virtues that could be desired for that great Office was substituted in his place It was in the Lords of the Kingdom to elect the Mayre and in the King or his Guardian to confirm him Since the death of Varnaquier who ended his life An 607. there had been none in Burgundy Queen Nantilda having held an Assembly of the most Principal at Orleans which was become the Capital of that Kingdom recommended Floachat her neer kinsman to them who was chosen for the place Year of our Lord 642 This good Queen ended her life soon after having Governed in Neustria four years and a half without any trouble Year of our Lord 642 Year of our Lord 642 While she was alive there arose some jealousie in the Governors of Austrasia against those of Neustria and Burgundy because those would fain have joyned these two Kingdoms to their own and have put all France under the Empire of Sigebert as it had been under that of Clotaire Erchinoald and Floachat understanding their design united themselves more closely together and promised each other mutual assistance Floachat made use of this Union to ruine Villebald or Guillebaud Duke of the Transjurains his Enemy They had reconciled themselves and sworn and given mutual Faith to each other on the Tombs of Saints and divers Holy Relicks Nevertheless Floachat did not forbear having caused Guillebaud to come to an Assembly which was held at Autun to fall upon him in his Lodgings Guillebaud defended himself very bravely at length he was over-powred and slain with a great number of his friends and his Equipage rifled by Erchinoalds followers But the Murtherer as by Divine Judgment was seized with a burning Fever going down the Soan of which he dyed Year of our Lord 644 c The Sarrazins a People of Arabia who were known even in the days of Pompey the Great and who had since served the Romans in their Armies were retired into their own Countreys and had frequently made incursions upon the Empire As they were addicted to Robberies and had neither Law nor Religion they easily embraced the Mahumetan which was propagated by the Sword That Impostor lived but Ten years after he had declared himself Legislator and made no great progress having only small numbers of Soldiers rather like a Captain of Thieves or High-way Men then a Prince But in a very short time his Successors raised themselves prodigiously Abubecre the next after him broke into Syria Ann. 635. his Successor Omar took Damas with all that fair Province Ann. 636. and in a few years afterwards Phoenicia Palestine Egypt and Persia it self the last King whereof was Isdigerd infecting all those Countreys with the Superstitions of Mahomet Their Sovereign Communders were Heads of their Religion as well as of the State and they were called Caliphs an Arabian word which signifies Lieutenant that is to say of God whom they pretended to represent both in Spirituals and Temporals Year of our Lord 645 A great Famine which afflicted Neustria obliged Clovis to take the great Plates of Silver which cover'd the Tabernacle or Chappel of St. Dennis his Shrine to buy Provisions for the feeding of the Poor a pious and just Act for which nevertheless the Monks say that God did severely punish him having weakned and stupify'd his Spirits It is true he had a weak Brain and all those that descended from him were tainted with that Defect but at that time he was not above 14 or 15 years of age at most The indigency of Authors of those times is so great and the stile of such as are yet left of them so confused that we can hardly tell any thing of certainty neither Year of our Lord 650 as to their actions nor to the time Some Chronologists place in Ann. 650. the First day of February the death of Sigebert King of Austrasia who lived but little above 21 years His Merciful Humour his Devotion and Ten or Twelve Abbeys which he built in his Kingdom have acquired him a room in the Roll of Saints His Body was buried in the Abby-Church of St. Martins which he had erected in the Suburbs of Mets from whence it was transferr'd to Nancy when the French demolished it to maintain the Siege against the Emperour Charles V. in the year 1552. He had but one Son named Dagobert aged at most but two years Grimoald his Mayre of the Palace published that before he had that Child he had adopted his Son named Childebert It is not credible that he could despair of having any at the age of 19 years unless that he had made a vow of Continence and afterwards had broken that Vowagain But perhaps Grimoald proclaimed this to have some Title to usurp the Kingdom as he did when he thought he had disposed things so as he might undertake it CLOVIS in Neustria and Burgundy DAGOBERT an Infant in Austrasia Year of our Lord 651 In the mean time Dagobert the Son of Sigebert bore the name of a King a year and an half or two years in which time I meet with nothing considerable or memorable Year of our Lord 653 Towards the year 653 Grimoald imagining as it is probable that he had duly taken all his measures caused him to be shaven by Didon Bishop of Poitiers and banished and transported him into Ireland under the Guard of some people whom we may believe had all the care imaginable to keep him concealed and confined in some remote Monastery It was a long time before any news could be heard of him the Queen Imnechild his Mother sheltred her self under the protection of King Clovis with
one for Repairs The practice of publick Pennance and Absolutions was almost the same as in the Former Ages I mean the third and fourth as well as that of Baptisme which was performed by dipping or plunging not by throwing on or sprinkling of the Bishop or the Priest and this was only done at Easter and Whitsuntide unless upon urgent occasions The prayers for the dead were very frequent Singing made up a great part of their Study and Employment not only amongst the Clergy but the Nobility also that were very devout The French had brought this Passion towards Musick from Rome Bells grew also mighty common but they did not make any very great ones The Churches as well as most of their other Buildings were almost all of Wood. It was ordained that the Altars should be made of Stone The Bishops and Abbesses had their Vidames the Abbots their Advoyers or Advocates some Cities likewise had the same They were as their Proctors or Administrators in whose names all things were transacted and who Treated and Pleaded every where for them Every Bishop Abbot and Count had his Notary Excommunications were so frequent as they even became an abuse The person Excommunicated was Treated with great rigour no body would keep any Commerce or Conversation with them The Gallican Church had not extended the degrees prohibited in Marriage but to the Fourth in which Case it self they did not separate them being satisfied with imposing a Pennance on both the Parties but the Popes extended it to the Seventh and Gregory the II desired it might reach as far as any thing of parentage or kindred could be made out between the parties But if so it being notorious to Christians that all Mankind are of Kin in Adam to whom should they marry They likewise established the degrees of Spiritual Affinity between the Godfather and Godmother and between the Godson and his Godmother as well in Baptism as at Confirmation Notwithstanding the Corruptions we have noted the Church was not without her great Lights and Ornaments I mean a good number of Holy Men and some that were not Ignorant Amongst the Bishops Sylvin de Toulouze Wlfrain de Sens who renounced the Miter to go and Preach the Faith in Frisiae where he Converted Ratbod the II Son of that King of the same name who was so obstinate a defender of Idolatry Rigobert de Reims who was driven from his Seat by Martel Gregory of Vtrecht who was the Apostle of the Turingians and the Countries adjacent to Dorestat Corbinien Native of Chastres under Montlehery near Paris who was the first Bishop of Frisinghen in Bavaria as Suidbert the first of Verden Immeran of Ratisbon who was a Poitevin by birth Eucher d'Orleans who was banished by Martel and lived a good while after him as appears by the revelation he had how it fared with Martel after his death as hath been observed in the life of Martel if that were true Gombert held the Bishoprick of Sens and then retired to the solitude of the Vosge Lohier that of Sees and after him Godegrand doubly remarkable both for his own Vertue and for his Sisters Saint Opportune who took upon her the Vows of Virginity and listed many more into her Muster-Roll of whom she had the Gonduct But above all Boniface of Ments was eminent whom we have mentioned he suffered Martyrdom An. 754. amongst the Frisons He was Founder of the Great Abbey of Fulda in the Forrest of Buken the most Noble of all that are in Germany In the monasterial retirements we observe two Fulrads or Volrads the one Abbot of Saint Denis however a little too much taken up with Court Affairs and Negociations for one that is dedicated entirely to God the other Cousin to King Charlemain and Abbot of Saint Quentin Adelard of the same degree of parentage to the same King who withdrew from Court for the reasons we have before noted and was Abbot of Corbie and from thence recalled into the Kings Council Angilbert who exchanged the favour of Charlemain one of whose natural Daughters he had married for the austerity of the Monastery and was Abbot of Centule Pirmin who is said to have quitted the Bishoprick of Meaux and who having retired himself into a solitary place in Germany built there that Celebrated Abbey of Riche-Nowe Augia Dives and Nine or Ten other Monasteries in those parts and in Alsatia and the learned Alcuin to whom Charlemain gave the Abbey of Tours in recompence of those inestimable Treasures of Learning and Science he brought into France with Claud and John the Scotsman A great part of the Manners and Customes we described under the First Race were preserved under the Second All the great Offices of the Kings House were still the same unless the Maire of the Palace in whose place it seems the grand Seneschal or Dapifer succeeded but with much less authority and different Functions Hincmar sets down an Apocrisiaire a Count of the Palace a great Camerier or Chamberlain three Ministerial Officers to wit the Seneschal the Butler and the Count of the Stable one Mansionary that is grand Mareschal of the House Four Huntsmen and one Faulc'ner The King had ever a Council of State in his Train consisting of men chosen out of the Clergy and Nobility The Apocrisiary assisted in it when he pleased the other great Officers never went but as they were sent for Those of the Clergy had a place apart to meet in where they treated of Ecclesiastical Affairs as the Nobility treated of matters purely Temporal and when there was any thing of a mixt nature they joyned all together to determine it In the Militia and Courts of Justice we hardly meet now with any Dukes but only Earls some of whom were called Marquesses when the Care and Guarding of the Marches was committed to them which ordinarily was in the new Conquered Countries others were called Abbots either because they possessed the Revenue of the Abbeys or because they commanded some certain Company 's near the King and taught them their Discipline and Exercise the Grandees were called Princes and we have light enough even in those dark times to see that it was not in the power of the King to disseize them nor put them to death but by certain Forms and Rules and the Judgment of their Peers and Equals where he presided or in their general Assemblies I find three sorts of great Assemblies the general Pleas of the Provinces the May-Assembly whither came the Seniores Majores natu of the French people there they chiefly consulted about Warlike Affairs and the Conventus Colloquia Parliaments where met together the Bishops Abbots Counts and other Grandees consider of Laws and Rules for their Policy Justice and the Treasury as well as the Discipline of the Militia both sacred and prophane The two last kinds of Assembles were after confounded in one The Kings had ever made use of Envoyez or Intendan
greatest indignity even to the reducing him to much indigence of all things fit for him I find in the Life of this most Wife King an act of Clemency more then Royal. There having been discovery made of a grand Conspiracy against his Life and State and the Authors taken when the Lords were assembled together to Sentence them to Death he caused those Wretches to be splendidly entertained and the next day admitted to the Sacred Communion then would needs have them be set free saying They could not put those to Death whom Jesus Christ had newly received at his Table This year William IV. Duke of Aquitain and Earl of Poitiers died and his eldest Son William V. surnamed the Gross took the Goverment of his Country The Widow Dutchess second Wife of William IV. having Children to gain assistance against those of the first Bed Married Geofrey Martel a most valiant Prince the Son of Fulk Earl of Anjou Year of our Lord 1025 The year after Richard the Good Duke of Normandy ended his days and for Successor Year of our Lord 1026 had Richard III. his eldest Son Year of our Lord 1027 Othe-William Earl of Burgundy left this World likewise and his Son Renauld possessed his Estates An enraged Passion to govern Armed Baldwin then surnamed the Frison and afterwards the Debonnaire against Bearded Baldwin his own Father Earl of Flanders so that he drove him out of his Country This unnatural Son valuing himself highly on the Alliance of King Robert whose Daughter he had Married but who nevertheless did not countenance his impiety Richard III. Duke of Normandy others affirm it was Robert received the old banished Man and restored him to his Earldom but he could not totally supress the Partialities in those Countries where some still sided with the Son as others stood up for the Father Year of our Lord 1028 The 17th of September the young King Hugh died in the Flower of his Age bemoaned of all Europe for his rare and lovely Qualities which had acquired him so great Reputation that he could hardly have made it good if he had longer survived King Robert had three more Sons remaining Henry Robert and Eudes Some Year of our Lord 1028 29. say that Eudes was the eldest of them all However it were the King after the Death of Hugh would have Henry Crowned but Queen Constance by a depraved appetite had undertaken to put Robert in the Throne The Fathers Authority and Reason carried it for Henry amongst the French Lords and yet this Womans Obstinacy could not acquiesce but caused many Tumults her Husband not being able to prevent her even in his Life time from contriving a great Conspiracy to dethrone the eldest and place the younger in his stead ROBERT and HENRY his Son Aged some Eighteen years Year of our Lord 1029 RIchard III. Duke of Normandy having Reigned but two years died of Poyson by by his Brother named Robert who after his death enjoyed the Dukedom obtained Year of our Lord 1028 by Fratricide Year of our Lord 1029 30. In the year 1029. and 30. there began a great War between Eudes Earl of Champagne Chartres and Tours and Fulk Earl of Anjou because Fulk fortified the Castle of Montrichard which Eudes said did belong to the Country of Touraine After some Rencounters they came to a pitched Battle each being at the head of his Army the loss was great on either side but the Angevin obtained the Victory Year of our Lord 1030 31 and the following Though King Robert commonly permitted the liberty of Elections yet the Bishop of Langres being dead he by his absolute Authority substituted another as having need of one wholly at his Devotion in that place to help him in the bridling and containing of Burgundy The Canons having Poysoned this he put in a second there which excited so great trouble amongst the Clergy of that Diocess that he was forced to send his Son to install the last promoted and to secure him from their Attempts Year of our Lord 1033 Whilst Henry was in that Country hapned a great Eclipse of the Sun and Robert his Father was seized with a Distemper whereof he died the 20th of July in the year 1033. having lived Sixty one years of which he Reigned Forty five and an half that was Nine and an half with his Father and Thirty six since his death He had four Children living three Sons Henry who had the Crown Eudes who contended with him for it and Robert who was Duke of Burgundy and one Daughter named Adeleida who Married Baldwin Earl of Flanders It was no fault of his Government that France was not compleatly happy he gave his Subjects what depended upon him Justice and Peace but had the unhappiness to see a Famine three times and after that a Plague make great destruction in his Dominions the first in Anno 1007. the second Anno 1010. and the third from the year 1030 to 1033. The first was general over all Europe and the last so severe in France that many People were seen to dig up dead Carkasses for Food to go a hunting after little Children and lie in wait at the corners of Woods like Beasts of Prey to devour Passengers Nay there was a Man so possessed with the covetous desire of gain more cruel then the Famine it self that he exposed Human Flesh to sale in the City of Tournus but that detestable Prodigy was by them expiated in the Flames Henry I. King XXXVII POPES BENEDICT IX A young Boy intruded in December 1033. S. near Ten years Three Anti-Popes the same BENEDICT SYLVESTER and GREGORY VI. Elected after the Abdication of BENEDICT Anno 1044. S. Two years CLEMENT VII Named by the Emperor Anno 1046. S. Nine Months DAMASUS II. Elected in 1048. S. Twenty three days LEO IX After Five Months vacancy Elected in Feb. 1049. S. Five years two Months VICTOR II. Named by the Emperor Anno 1054. S. Three years STEPHANUS X. Elected in August 1057. S. Eight Months NICHOLAS II. Elected in 1058. S. Two years six Months Year of our Lord 1033 THe first and most capital Enemy against this King was his own Mother who continuing to the prejudice of his Fathers Declaration and the right of Nature to endeavour to set the Crown upon the Head of Robert her beloved Son raised a good Party of the Grandees against him particularly Baldwin Earl of Flanders and Eudes Earl of Champagne bestowing the City of Sens upon this last to engage him to her Party But Henry whose Resolution was above his Age went himself being the Twelfth to Robert Duke of Normandy to implore his Assistance The Duke by Motives of Fidelity or hatred against the Champenois aided him with all his Forces With which having in a short time defeated the Queen's in several Rencounters and taken the Rebels Holds he unlinked the whole Party and reduced her in despite of all her Projects to live quietly with him The War ended
Daughter and Heiress of the Earl of Toulouze and also gave him the Counties of Poitou and Auvergne and all that had been conquer'd in Languedoc upon the Albigensis Year of our Lord 1241 These years the Tartars made cruel irruptions amongst others one in Hungary under the Command of Bath who was one of their Generals and one in Russia Poland and Silesia whither they were conducted by another of their Generals who was named Pera. These Barbarians were Scythians Originaries between the Caspian Sea and Mount Imaus Some make them descended from the Ten Tribes of the Hebrews who were transferr'd by the King of Assyria into those Countreys and derive their Name from the Hebrew Word which signifies Forsaken Others derive it from the River Tatar which ran thorough their Countrey and say it was given to the whole Nation of the Mogles composed of seven principal People of which they made one They were Tributaries and as we say Slaves to a Christian Nestorian Prince whose Kingdom was in the Indies he was called Prestor-John But Cingis or Tzingis-Cham set that Nation free about the end of the last age ruined the States of Prester-John and founded a very great Kingdom out of it from whence divers Colonies went forth and setled in other Countreys even in some parts of Europe The Earl of Toulouze sought out all means underhand to repair the shameful Treaty he had made with the King and therefore he consulted and contrived with James King of Arragon who was come to Montpellier and with the Earl of Provence though he were the Kings Father-in-law to Dissolve his Marriage with Sanchia Year of our Lord 1241 the Arragonians Aunt upon pretence of parentage that he might Marry the Daughter of the Earl of Provence and that his Daughter Jane whom he had perforce given to the Earl of Poitou might not be his Heiress An example that proves to any that might doubt that amongst Great ones Honour Parentage Alliance and ☞ Conscience does easily give way and stoop to their Interest and Humour Hugh Count de la Marche to his misfortune had Married Isabella the Widow of King John who had formerly ravished her from him This Womans pride would not suffer him to do Homage to Alphonso the new Earl of Poitou the King undertook to compel him and on a suddain took several of his Towns and demolish'd them amongst others Fontenay where his Brother Alphonso was wounded with an Arrow The King of Englands assistance in behalf of his Mother was too slow he and his Brother Richard landed in the River of Burdeaux The Earl de la Marche had assured them that all Poitou would rise and joyn with them upon their arrival but as his promise failed their courage failed too the King falls upon them at the Bridge of Taillebourg fighting desperately in person making them retreat as far as Xaintes and from thence to Blaye The Earl and his proud Dame being forced to forget she had been a Queen found no safety but at the Kings Feet They experimented his Goodness was as great as his Courage and although she had suborn'd Rascals to Murther him who had been discover'd and punished he pardon'd both her and her Husband keeping only two or three of their Places in his hands till he was better assured of their Obedience Year of our Lord 1243 Italy was horribly shatter'd by the Factions of the Guelphs and Gibelins The First held for the Pope the others for the Emperour Year of our Lord 1243 The jealousie betwixt the Franciscans and the Dominicans which had its Birth almost with their Orders encreased likewise proportionably with their growth Insomuch that the Pope who stood in need of them and the King St. Lewis who cherished them found it no little trouble to distribute their favours equally and hold the ballance so even that they should have no cause to take advantage of each other But both of them took much over all other Religions Orders whom they despised as more imperfect and not only set a value upon themselves for their Divinity wherein sometimes they were so meerly notional and over-subtil as it approached very near to error but likewise took upon them the functions of ordinary Pastors drawing the grists of Alms pious Legacies and Burials of rich people to their own Mills concerning themselves in the directing of Consciences and the administration of the Sacraments to the prejudice of the Hierarchy who from that time hath ever been contending with them to maintain her authority Year of our Lord 1244 The Holy See having been vacant near twenty Months Innocent IV. was elected He was thought to be a friend to Frederick but whether that Emperour had not used him well or what else it were he followed the steps of his Predecessors and began to quarrel with him upon the same score of differences The feud grew so hot that Frederic being the stronger in Italy Innocent went thence that he might with more safety let fly his Thunder against him and came into France where being arrived in December this year 1244. he called a Council at Lyons for the year following In the year 1228. the Emperour Frederic being constrained by the threats of Pope Gregory was gone into the Holy-Land where by his Reputation rather then his Sword he had so contrived it that the Sultan had given him up the City of Jerusalem but dismantled with part of the Holy-Land The Pope not satisfied with that agreement had afterwards procured other Adventurers to go who broke the Truce aforesaid to the great damage of the Christians who being mightily weakned it hapned Ann. 1244. that the Chorasmins a People drove out of Persia by the Year of our Lord 1244 Tartars others say of Arabia fell upon the Holy-Land laid it all waste ruined all the Holy places of Jerusalem and drowned them in the Blood of Christians This news was brought to St. Lewis whilst he was fallen sick at Pontoise towards the end of December All those that were about him despairing of his Life he made a vow to God if he restored him to health that he would go in person to make war against those Infidels and in truth being recover'd he took the Cross from the hands of the Legat but could not so soon accomplish his pious design Year of our Lord 1245 The Council of Lyons was open'd the Monday after St. John Baptists Feast in the Abbey de St. Just and from thence transferr'd to the Cathedral Church of St. Johns The Emperour Baldwin the Earl Raimond de Toulouze and Berenguier de Provence were present there these two solliciting for the dispensation that Raimond might Marry with Beatrix the youngest Daughter of Berenguier but the Kings of France and of England and Richard Earl of Cornwal who had Married the other three Sisters hindred the Grant of it Year of our Lord 1245 The Emperour Frederic having quitted his Affairs of Italy to come there and having in the mean time sent his
Lord 1300 Boniface was grown obstinate in his design for the expedition to the Holy-Land and perswaded himself he had a right to oblige all Christian Princes to it He therefore sent Bernard Saisset Bishop of Pamiez to Philip with a charge to exhort him to this voyage and also to summon him to make good his word to the Earl of Flanders by setting his Daughter at liberty He acquitted himself of his Commissions in such high terms and it was told the King that he held discourses upon several occasions so injurious to his Person and so factious against the quiet and peace of the Kingdom that he made him be seized and kept prisoner Then their hatred ran up to the extremity the King besides all this being mightily heated by the ill reports of William de Nogaret For he informed him that when he was sent Ambassador to the Pope to acquaint him of his Alliance with the Emperour Albert he perceived that his Holiness was very ill inclined towards him that he had bad designs and that he led a scandalous life and most unworthy of the Succession to the Apostles Year of our Lord 1301 On his part Boniface dispatched the Arch-Deacon of Narbonna to Command him to set the Bishop of Pamiez at liberty and let him know there was a Bull importing that the King was under his correction for the sins he committed in his Temporal Administration as well as for others That the collation of Benefices did not appertain to him and that the Regalia was an usurpation By another Bull he suspended all the priviledges granted by his predecessors to the King to those of his House and to his Council And by a Third he ordered all the Prelats of the Kingdom should come to Rome to find out some remedy against Philips disorders and the Enterprizes he made upon the Ecclesiastical State Year of our Lord 1300 The King upon the earnest intreaties of the Clergy put the Bishop of Pamiez into the hands of the Arch-Bishoy of Narbonna his Metropolitan but he forbad the Prelats for going out of the Kingdom or the transporting of any Gold or Silver And for that point which he believed did concern his Sovereignty he thought it best to support himself with the Authority of all the Estates of his Kingdom against Boniface The Estates assembled in Nostre-Dame the 10th of April in the year 1301. Year of our Lord 1301 declared that they owned no other Superiour in Temporals besides the King and in conformity to that the Clergy wrote to the Pope as the Nobility and the third Estate did to the Cardinals who in their answers assured that it had never been the Popes intention to attribute that Superiority to himself During these quarrels a prodigious Comet appeared in the Heavens it began to shew it self in Autumn towards the West and in the Sign of Scorpio darting its Rays sometimes to the Eastward and sometimes to the Westward It was seen but one Month. The Earl of Artois Nogaret Peter Flote Chancellor to the King and the Colona's whom Boniface had thrust out of all proscribed and imprisoned exasperated all things more and more Many nevertheless were scandalized that they should contend against the Pope and therefore it was thought decent to maintain that he was not so and that by opposing his Person they did not oppose the Vicar of Jesus Christ but an ill Man that had intruded himself into the Papacy The King being therefore at the Louvre Nogaret in presence of divers Princes of the Blood and Bishops presented a Petition the Twelfth day of March accusing him of Heresie Simony Magick and other enormous crimes and demanding the Kings assistance that there might be a general Council called to deliver the Church from this oppression The Pope had dispatched into France a Cardinal named John Le Moyne a native of the Diocess of Amiens a knowing Man and very Learned upon pretence of negotiating some agreement with the King but indeed to sound the inclination of the Clergy in his favour Now being but ill satisfied with the answers the King made to his Quaeries he sent another Bull which declared him Excommunicate for having hindred the Prelats from going to Rome forbid them to admit him to the Sacraments or Mass Commanded them to be at Rome within three Months and summoned some by name upon the penalty of being deposed Year of our Lord 1302 During these Contrasto's Charles Earl of Valois was gone into Sicilia with a great Army with design to reduce it to the Obedience of Charles the Lame his Nephew He made so little progress that he thought fitter to make peace between both parties In effect he succeeded better in it then in his War The conditions of the Treaty were That Frederic should marry his Daughter Eleonor for whose Portion Sicilia should remain to him under the Title of the Kingdom of Trinacria but if he had no Children by her the Island should return to Charles the Lame or to his Heirs upon their payment of a hundred thousand Ounces of Gold Before his expedition into Sicilia he had been sent to Florence by the Pope to calm the Factions wherewith that Republick was most horribly tormented During five Months time that he remained there his Care nor his Authority could by no means prevent the Guelphs and Black from proscribing the White who were for the most part Gibbelins and from ruining their Houses Dante Aligeri one of the rarest wits of his time who was of the faction of the White though otherwise he were a Guelph was put into the number of the banished and could never obtain to be recalled He lays the fault upon the Earl of Valois for not having provided against those injurious proceedings and tried to place his revenge upon all the House of France by the cruel bitings of his Pen which certainly would have made some impression upon their posterity had there not been prooss much clearer then the Sun at Noon-day which dispelled that Satyrical calumny Year of our Lord 1302 There are some Authors that assign in this year 1302. the Invention of the Mariners Compass or Needle by one Flavio a native of Melplus However since we find some mention of it in Authors long before this timeâ— we can at most but give this Flavio the honour of having brought it to greater use and perfection This same year 1302. Flanders revolted and was lost as to the French Those people irreconcileable enemies to Taxes and heavy oppressions could not endure the violence and imposts wherewith their young Governour James de Chastillon vexed and tormented them by the evil Counsels of Peter Flote a violent and most covetous Man and indeed he was one-ey'd They therefore called in William Son of the Earl of Juliers and a Daughter of â—arl Guy's to be their Chief whose younger Sons with the Sons of his Brother John came into the County of Alost to support this Rising Year of our Lord 1302 The Fire began
fill his own Coffers and to enrich his Family with more Lands Employments and Benefices then a faithful and disinteressed Servant ought to do So the People had extream troubles and vexations to undergo one of the greatest was the changing of Moneys they had made it light and weak of too base allay and put too high a value then they would set them at a lower rate the loss was great the people of Paris mutined pillag'd and ruined the House of Stephen Barbet Treasurer from thence ran to the Temple where the King lay and committed a hundred insolences there but the sedition over a great many were hanged in several places The Templers were observed to have contributed to this mutiny it was believed they had done it because having a great deal of Money they lost much by this abating the value of the Coine It is likely that the King who never forgot an injury kept the remembrance of this in his mind and it was one motive that induced him to revenge himself upon the whole Order In compleating the peace with the Flemmings several Articles were changed or added amongst others it was allowed that the King might banish Three thousand of the most factious that the Cities of Ghent Bruges Ipre l'Isle and Douay should be dismantled and that if the Countrey in general or any particular person offended the King or his Officers they should immediately be liable to the thunderings of Ecclesiastical censures Year of our Lord 1307 Lewis Hutin the Kings eldest Son visits his Kingdom of Navarre fallen to him by the death of his Mother and is Crowned at Pampelona the Fifth of June Before his return he took off the two Heads of the Factions that had much troubled Navarre these were Fortunio Almoravid and Martin Ximenes de Aybar The effect of that secret promise the Pope had made to the King began to appear in his revenge upon the Templers The too great riches of those Knights their unsufferable pride their covetous and disobliging behaviour towards such Princes and Noblemen as went into the Holy-Land the little esteem they made either of Temporal or Spiritual Power their dissolute and libertine Humours and rendred them obnoxious and very odious and furnished those with a specious pretence who were resolved to exterminate them Year of our Lord 1307 This year therefore upon the discovery and confession of some villains amongst themselves the greatness of whose crimes or the desire of the Kings mercy and reward had prompted to it the King by consent of the Pope whom he had newly held conference with at Poitiers caused them all to be laid hold on in the same day the Twelfth of October thoroughout the whole Kingdom seized their Goods and took possession of tho Temple at Paris and of all their Treasures and Writings The Great Master whose name was James de Molay a Burgundian being sent for by Letters from the Pope to come from Cyprus where he valiantly made War upon the Turks presented himself at Paris with Sixty Knights of his Order amongst whom was Guy Brother to the Dauphin de Viennois Hugh de Peralde and another of the principal Officers They were all arrested at the same time and their Process was immediately made excepting the three I have mentioned whom the Pope would reserve to his own judgment Fifty of them were burned alive in a slow Fire but who denied at their deaths what they had confess'd upon the wrack Without doubt they were guilty of many enormous crimes but not perhaps of all the things I cannot tell whether I should say horrible or ridiculous that were imposed upon them and laid to their charge in general In the mean time upon King Philips importunity the Templers were likewise seized on in all the other States of Christendom and severely punished yet not with death in many places This prosecution lasted to the year 1314. Year of our Lord 1307 As Edward I. was going to make War upon Robert Bruce who disputed for the Crown of Slotland he died upon the borders of that Kingdom His eldest Son Edward II. succeeded him but was neither like his own Father nor his own Son but only in Name This Prince suffered himself to be Governed first by his Favourite Peter Gaveston then by the two Spencers caused great troubles and commotions in his Kingdom Year of our Lord 1307 This year the first lineaments of the Helvetian Alliance were rough-drawn in a generous conspiracy of the Three Cantons of Swits Vren and Vndervald against the oppressions of the Lieutenants for the House of Austria who possessed the Duchy of Scawben But it was not till the year 1315. that they drew up conditions in writing and got them confirmed by the Emperour Lewis of Bavaria Year of our Lord 1308 In Anno 1308. the Emperour Albert was slain near Rhinfeldt under the antient Castle of Habsbourgh by the conspiracy of John the Son of Rodolph Duke of Scawben whose Countreys he kept from him King Philip importun'd the Pope extreamly to make the Empire fall into the hands of Charles Earl of Valois but the Pope dreading the too great power of the House of France sent to the Electors to make haste so that they named Henry Earl of Luxemburg who was the Eighth of that Name Year of our Lord 1308 The Sixth of May Charles the Lame King of Sicilia on this side the Fare a Prince unfortunate in War but very illustrious in Peace and highly beloved of his Subjects ended his Life and Reign in his City of Naples He had nine Sons the Eldest was named Charles Martel the Second Lewis and the Third Robert The First was King of Hungary by Mary his Mother Daughter of King Stephen IV. but he was dead before his Father having left a Son whom they named Carobert Successor in his Kingdom The Second was Bishop of Toulouze For the Third which was Robert a great question was started between him and Carobert to wit which is preferable to the Succession either the eldest Son or the Uncle and whether the Son represented the Father to succeed his Grandfather The Lawyers of those times and the Pope himself as well upon motives for the publique good as Reasons and Grounds of Right and Title were for the Nephew the Pope admitted him to Homage Invested him and Crowned him in Avignon the first Sunday of the Month of August Observe that Carobert had two Sons Lewis and Andrew that Lewis was King of Hungary after his Father and of Poland by his Wife Elizabeth Daughter of Ladislas and that Andrew Married to his great misfortune Jane I. Queen of Sicilia Daughter of Charles Duke of Calabria who was Son of King Robert As likewise that Lewis had two Daughters Mary Queen of Hungary who Married Sigismond of Luxemburgh afterwards elected Emperour and Heduige Queen of Poland who was Married to Jageston Grand Duke of Lithuania in which Family that Kingdom remained till the year 1572. Year of our Lord 1310 The
affectionate to the Princesses which hapned the Sixth day of January in the year 1386. Year of our Lord 1386 The same year the Widow-Queen and her Daughter going into the Countrey fell into the hands of Horvat Governour of Croatia one of King Charles's Partisans or Confederates who to revenge the death of his Master caused the Widow and the Murtherer Gato to be massacred He kept the Princess some time then sent her to Sigismund having first obliged her by all sorts of Oaths to pardon him Sigismund did not think himself bound by her promises and therefore having surprized him made him dye amidst a thousand torments Year of our Lord 1386 The news of Charles's Murther being brought into Italy Thomas de Sanseverin caused Lewis II. eldest Son of the deceased Duke of Anjou to be proclaimed King and Clement VII to be owned Pope Afterwards Marguerite the Widow of Charles being retired to Cajeta with Ladislaus or Lancelot her Son aged about Ten years he reduced almost the whole Kingdom and Naples it self Thus all things went on smoothly for Lewis till Mary de Blois his Mother and Governess having sent Clement de Montjoye Nephew to Pope Clement with the Title and Authority of Vice-Roy the Sanseverins thinking themselves under-valued were alienated from her Service and turned to Ladislaus Year of our Lord 1386 In the mean while Lewis was put into possession of Provence and invested with the Kingdom of Naples by Clement but it was not without great trouble before the Provensaux would acknowledge him the Kings Counsel themselves inciting them underhand to a Rebellion upon divers motives because they would have disposed them to give themselves up to France After Five or Six years Truces and petty Wars the Council resolved to attacque the English not in Guyenne only but even in their own Island For this end they made the most formidable preparations of Men Engines and Ships that ever yet were seen They bought up or hired all the Vessels they could light on from the Ports of Sweden to those in Flanders they built a City of Wood which was to be taken in pieces to shelter themselves upon their Landing The King went to Sluyce to take a view of his Army and Navy consisting in Nine hundred Vessels The Duke of Berry's envy and jealousie retarded the progress he would needs break the design because he was not the contriver In order to which he made them wait for him till the Fourteenth of September when the Seas began to appear un-navigable So the Forces drew off into Quarters part of this numerous Fleet were scattered by Tempests the English pickt up many that were wrack'd or stragled Year of our Lord 1386 There was no reason to trust the Duke of Bretagne too much because of his too many Obligations to the English and the consideration that their suppression must he his ruine wherefore they warily minded his actions but he to justify himself laid Siege to Brest which they yet held as a bridle to Bretagne The Constable assisted him in the undertaking the place was mightily streightned but when they were at the last gaspe the Duke of Lancaster who was going into Spain with great Forces made them raise the Siege The occasion of his voyage was this Ferdinand last King of Portugal had no Child but a Daughter born of a Lady whom he had taken from her Husband He caused this Girl to be owned as his presumptive Heyress as likewise the Mother had been owned Queen and married her to John King of Castille who was a Widower and had two Sons but when he died the principal Cities of Portugal apprehending the Castillan bondage had more mind to have a bastard Brother of Ferdinands for their King his Name was John Froissard names him Denis thorow a mistake instead of saying he was Grand Master of the Order D'Avis The fortune of the War was favourable to the Bastard he gained a Battle at Juberot against his adversaries the Castillans having out of an ugly jealousie suffer'd the Gascons and French to be defeated who took their part with above Eight thousand Men and then were afterwards themselves defeated Notwithstanding this advantage it was to be feared the Castillan would be able yet to crush them and therefore the Bastard sent to the Duke of Lancaster inviting him to come and pursue the right he had to the Kingdom of Castille as on the other hand the Castillian had recourse to France Year of our Lord 1386 The Duke of Lancaster passed therefore into those Countreys with a huge force conquer'd a part of Castille and struck such a terror into all the rest that King John made some overtures of Peace but he spun out the Treaty awhile expecting the French succours when he sound those did not come the Duke of Bourbon their Conductor marching very slowly he concluded the Treaty the Duke of Lancaster Sealed it by the Marriage of two of his Daughters one with the King of Portugal and the other with the Castillans eldest Son This little piece of Honour cost the English very dear the losses they suffer'd by contagious Sicknesses in Spain and afterwards by Storms in their return were so great that the Duke of Lancaster hardly carried home the sixth part of his Men and not one but in a languishing condition half dead with malady and pain At last by a just punishment from Heaven Charles the Wicked who had blown up so many flames and burnt so many entrails with his violent poysons was most cruelly burnt himself He had caused his Body to be wrapp'd all over with Sheets drenched in Spirit of Wine and Sulpher to corroborate the natural heat decay'd by his debauches this took fire I know not by what accident and broiled him to the very bones whereof he died three days after being the First of January in the year 1387. Charles called the Noble his Son succeeded him Year of our Lord 1387 The Constable Clisson and the Admiral John de Vienne had so fill'd the King's Head with the expedition for England that he makes another preparation to execute it this year The state of Affairs was very favourable all England was in combustion against King Richard because he had put mean and vile People into places of the highest Trust who bear all the sway which his Uncles could not endure nor indeed would they have the Power lodged in any other hands but their own Now when France was on the point of making advantage of these troubles the Duke of Bretagne either of intelligence with the English or without thinking of them was cause of interrupting the Enterprize this time as it had been formerly Clisson was then in Bretagne to dispatch the Forces that were at Treguier that they might go and joyn with those at Sluyce but at the same time he was Treating of the Marriage of one of his Daughters with John the Son of Charles de Blois whom he had purposely got out of the hands
belonging to the Queen while the King and some young Lords were Dancing a Mascarade cloathed like Bears the Duke of Orleans holding down a Flambeau to discover their Faces set Fire to the Tow which was fastned upon the Bear-Skins with some kind of Glue The Hall was in an instant fill'd with Flames Shreeks and the astonishment of all the Presence they almost crouded themselves to death for haste to get out all together some cryed aloud Save the King the Dutchess of Berry cover'd him with her Gown which being clapp'd close about him preserv'd him from that torrent of Fire Three of those Masqueraders were most miserably broiled The Parisians hated the Duke of Orleans to death for it as if it had been a premeditated design he durst not appear for several days and to expiate that fault he founded a Chappel at the Celestines This accident did somewhat discompose the Kings health who was before it pretty well recover'd however the strength of his age and constitution or the Vows and Pilgrimages he made in Person as other devout People did for him did again restore him to a better temper and state insomuch as his Uncles having a Rendezvous at Lelinghan between Ardres and Guisnes to Treat about a Peace with the Crown of England in whose behalf the Duke of Lancaster was commissioned perswaded Lancaster to go to Abbeville that the English might be satisfied how well he was But he relapsed into his phrensie the Twentieth day of June which held him till the Month of January following They had recourse to Prayers Fasting Processions the ablest Physitians then Mountebanks and even to Magicians All this was in vain the distemper lasted as long as his life not continually but at several times and Fits and still worse and worse they drawing him into great debaucheries and disorders in his better intervals They did not know well whom to lay the blame upon the Jews were for the Seventh time enjoyned to quit the Kingdom or their Religion and become Christians some chose to forsake their Religion rather then that Countrey others sold all they had and went away Year of our Lord 1391 The University continued the pursute they had began with mighty earnestness the King being pleased with it they held a great Assembly wherein above Ten thousand of their Members gave their Suffrages in Writing which tended to bring the Popes to one of these three things either a Cession or a mutual promise of Arbitration or the Decision by a Council And Nicholas de Clamengis Batchelor in Divinity a Man very eloquent was ordered to compose a Discourse to the King in an Epistolary Form to which receiving no favourable answer they put a Second stop to all their Exercises Year of our Lord 1393 The new Constable for want of other employment had leave of the King to go into Hungary to make War upon the Turks who having withdrawn themselves the Hungarians employ'd him against the Patarins these were a kind of Sectaries that were esteemed Heretiques Year of our Lord 1394 Upon the Remonstrances of considering and prudent People who laid open the ill consequences of Gaming ever attended with idleness the ruine of the richest Families shirking swearing and even blasphemy the Council set forth an Edict ✚ prohibiting all sorts of sports but that of the Long-Bow and Cross-Bows The Courtiers a very idle sort of People and such as often neglect to acquire any other stock of virtuous knowledge whereby to make better use of their spare hours were concerned at this prohibition as if it had been a business of great weight and much to their prejudice never leaving their intrigues till they had got it to be repeal'd The free and bold Remonstrances of the University of Paris being carried to Pope Clement and read against his will by the Cardinals assembled made him die through rage and displeasure This news being brought to Court the King wrote speedily to the Cardinals to forbear the Election of a new Pope but they guessing what his Letters imported before they open'd them immediately proceeded and named Peter de Luna an Arragonian who took the Name of Benedict XIII Before this Election they took an Oath to labour all they could to heal up this Schism and that whoever were chosen should be obliged to lay it down again if it were judged necessary Peter de Luna confirmed this Oath and at the first shewed himself well inclined to do so Year of our Lord 1394 Upon this ground the King called an Assembly of the Prelats of France in his Palace who concluded all unanimously that a Cession was the most certain and Year of our Lord 1395 the easie method The Dukes of Orleans of Berry and of Burgundy with Ambassadors from the King and some Deputies from the University went to Bennet at Avignon to propound this expedient to him Of his Fifteen Cardinals there was but one that withstood it they therefore pressed him to condescend He a voided it by a thousand wiles and did so tire the Princes with his delays and evasions that they returned again without obtaining any thing and likewise without taking their leave nevertheless he stopp'd their Mouths and pacified them by granting them power to raise another Tenth Year of our Lord 1395 King Richard and his Uncles Lancaster and Glocester were in mortal jealousies of each other for the reasons above-mentioned Richard desiring to strengthen himself against them demanded the Kings Daughter Isabella in Marriage aged but Seven years This was agreed unto with the prolongation of the Truce for Twenty eight years The Marriage was performed by Proxy The King relapsed for the third time into his former distemper Some days he appeared to be quite stupify'd at other times he would cry out as if they pricked him with a thousand Bodkins He forgot his own quality and Name and could not endure the sight of his Wife but would suffer himself very patiently to be Governed by the Dutchess of Orleans for which reason the common people would needs be perswaded that Italian had bewitched him Indeed the Duke her Husband had the reputation of seeking for and conversing with Magicians The less credulous might well enough imagine that she charmed the King with something that was a more natural spell muck like to those wherewith the Duke Governed the Queens mind However it were fearing the foolish multitude should do her some mischief her Husband sent her for a while to Chasteau-neuf upon the Loire Year of our Lord 1396 In his best intervals the King labour'd with all his might towards the re-union of the Church using all his interest with the Christian Princes for that end Divers Princes of Germany the Kings of Hungary Castille Arragon and Navarre offer'd to joyn with him for the Cession the English were for the having it to determined by a Council Benedict flatter'd and soothed them all and promised one thing to one and the quite contrary to another his greatest care and
at Court Year of our Lord 1413 It was not without ground that they accused the Burgundian of bringing Fuel to maintain this scroching Fire of Sedition though in effect he could not govern their hot Heads as he would In the mean while all were forced to give way to this Torrent The King was forced to consent they should bring their Prisoners upon their Trail to go to Parliament in his white Hood and publish certain Ordinances for reforming some abuses touching his Revenue displace Arnaud de Corbie his Chancellor who surrendred the Seal to Eustace de Laitre his Son-in-Law and to deliver up to Execution an Esquire belonging to the Duke of Guyenne and Peter des Essards whose Heads were cut off James de la Riviere Chamberlain to the said Duke rather then undergo so great ignominy beat out his own Brains with a large drinking Bowle or else was kill'd in Prison by Helion Jaqueville a Captain of Paris but however it hapned they dragg'd him to the Gallows as one that had despair'd and Murther'd himself So violent a Government could not last long The Duke of Guyenne privately agreed with the Leagued Princes they made use of the Kings name and a pretence of confirming the Peace of Chartres which was not fully executed to enter upon a Conference with them at Vernevil Their Deputies being come to the King at Paris Year of our Lord 1413 the Seditious often broke up their Assembles where they were Treating about the Peace but yet could not by all their art or insolent rudeness prevent so good a work from going on To attain their ends an Enterview was propounded between the Duke of Berry and the Duke of Burgundy then a Conference concerning the other Princes at Pontoise by Deputies All that were foundest and Wisest the University the Parliament and the honest Citizens inclined to Peace the Burgundian had but little stomach to it as promising but slender advantage to him however it was concluded at Pontoise the first day of August and the King agreed the Princes should come and Year of our Lord 1413 Congratulate him in Paris This being so setled the Duke of Guyenne puts himself in Arms at the head of the honest Citizens and having gotten together above Thirty thousand Men well sitted marched through the Streets The Chiefs of the Factious who held the Bastille the Louvre the Palace and the Town-Hall left those places to him and withdrew Then he sets free all those they had imprisoned he changes the Sheriffs and putting out the Chancellor whom they had put in by force gave that Office to John Juvenal then restores the Seals to Arnaud de Corbie who gave them up to Henry de Marle the first President The Burgundian not thinking himself too safe resolved to be gone before the Orleannois were come Having therefore got the King one day forth a Hunting he takes his leave on a suddain and without bidding adicu to Paris hastens to Flanders by long days Journeys though very well attended Year of our Lord 1413 After his retreat there was an absolute Revolution The Duke of Orleance was so much in the Kings favour that he would have him Cloathed in the same Stuffs as himself wore The Coultable d'Abret returned to Paris with great splendour the Chiefs and Authors of the Sedition were sought for some executed some proscribed all the Burgundians Creatures were removed divers Gentlemen and Burghers Friends to him imprison'd They went farther yet the Declarations that had been made against the Princes were declared a surprize their Innocency owned and published and he on the contrary detested as an execrable Murtherer And for the greater affront Lewis of Anjou King of Sicilia sent him back his Daugher who had been put into his hands in order to be Married to his eldest Son and two months after he gave one of his own to Charles Earl of Pontieu the Kings third Son who was not fully Twelve years of age by this means making both himself and his Son-in-Law mortal Enemies to the House of Burgundy Year of our Lord 1413 The ill Treatment was hard to be digested the Burgundian complained to the King wrote of it to the Citizens of Paris the Parliament and the University but neither his Complaints nor Letters effected any thing Finding he did not succeed that that way he found means to renew some kind of Correspondence with the Duke of Guyenne his Son-in-Law who in effect was angry to be detain'd at Court and as it were a Prisoner in Louvre This was pretence enough for him to raise a great Army and take the Field to come and deliver him He was received at Noyon at Soissons and at Compiegne but Senlis shut her Gates against him He made himself Master of St. Denis by Intelligence and afterwards presented himself before Paris notwithstanding the King had forbid him to come near upon pain de Loesae Majestatis He thought to have received the former humour of the People and have made some rising that would have given him entrance Thereupon the King being recover'd of a Fit made a thundring Declaration against him When he found this he was afflicted and retreated in most horrible confusion Year of our Lord 1414 Every one bawl'd after him stop Traitor stop Murtherer The Bishop of Paris Brother of Montaigu and the Faculty of Theology having examined the Herangue of his Orator John Petit who was then dead drew seven Propositions out of it condemned them of Impiety and Heresie and caused them to be burnt in the Porch of Noster-Dame John Charlier named Jarson from his Native Village near Reims Chancellor of the University and a Doctor of great Reputation shewed himself mighty zealous in this Prosecution He had formerly some contest with Petit and the Burgundians had sold his Houshold Goods the year before for certain Taxes The following year the Burgundian removed this Business by Appeal to the Council of Constance where it was debated with much heat He maintain'd that those Propositions that had been condemned at Paris were not Petits but that they were forged and contrived by Jarson The Commissioners deputed to examine the thing having made their Report the Council without taking any notice of Petit or Jarson did in general condemn that pernicious Proposition that a Tyrant may be killed or put to death by his Subject in what manner soever At the same time the King proceeded against him as an Enemy to the State went to St. Denis to set up the Orislame and summoned the Ban and Arriere-Ban against him He takes the City of Compiegne upon Capitulation and Soissons by force This was miserably plundred and Bournonville who had defended it to the uttermost had his Head cut off Without doubt the Burgundian was in a great consternation at the taking of it and more yet when the Flemmings refused to serve him and sent Deputies to the King to offer him all Obedience The taking of Bapawne by the Duke of Bourbon
tawny speaking in a particular Canting Language of their own and using a Slight of Hand in Picking Pockets while they pretended to tell Fortunes They were called Tartars and Zigens These were the same in my own opinion as those the French at present call Bohemians and the English Gypsy's Year of our Lord 1417 We find in the Acts of the Council of Constance how the memory of Wicklef was Anathematiz'd and John Huss who treading his steps had sowed new Doctrines in Bohemia was burnt alive Anno 1415. notwithstanding he had a safe Conduct of the Emperor and how Jerome of Pragne his Associate but more cautious then he chose rather to be condemned absent then present In the same Council Bennet having been declared Contumacious and intruded into the Papacy the Cardinals of all Parties joyning together elected Otho Colomna who took the name of Martin as being promoted on the Eve of that Saints day Year of our Lord 1418 He immediately employs his Care and Paternal Authority to endeavour the making a Peace in France To this end he sent two Cardinal Legats upon whose sollicitation an Assembly was held at Montereau Faut-yonne where the Deputies on either side agreed upon the Seventeenth of May that all hatred being laid aside the Dauphin and Duke of Burgundy should have the Government of the State during the Kings Life But the Constable the Chancellor and those that had the greatest share in the management of Affairs fearing they should be pack'd away or apprehending the Burgundian's Resentment formally opposed it and the Chancellor did absolutely refuse to Seal the Treaty he who was said to have Sealed so many Instruments to the Peoples ruine and for his own private Interest Paris being sick of the War this was an excellent Theme to be preached to the People and stir up their hatred against them and also to rowze the Burgundian Faction who had still remained quiet had not the Populace been drawn to side with them upon this ill management In fine those of his Party holding themselves assured of his Affection introduced into their City Philip de Villiers L'Isle Adauâ— Governor of Pontoise by St. Germains Gate He entred by night upon the Twenty eight of May with Eight hundred Horse crying out Peace and Burgundy The People did not stir till they were come into Year of our Lord 1418 the Streets of St. Denis and St. Honore then they came out on all hands and joyned with them Tanneguy du Chastel Provost of Paris hearing the noise ran and took the Dauphin out of his Bed and wrapping him up in his Night-Gown convey'd him to the Bastille and from thence to Melun The King who was in his Hostel remained in the power of the Burgundians From thence spreading themselves over the whole Town they fell upon the Houses of the Armagnac's and searched from the very tops of the Garrets to the bottoms of the Cellers Some plundered the Household Stuff and carried away the Money but were most eager to seize upon their Persons and those were least unhappy that were coop'd up in private places till they had paid their Ransoms Most of them were haled to Prisons whither a great many fled voluntarily to avoid other mischiefs The Chancellor was taken the very same day and imprisoned in the Palace The next day the Constable was dragged to the same place He had concealed himself in a Masons House but Proclamation being made to discover all the Armagnac's upon pain of death his Hoste produced him Year of our Lord 1418 The Banished being return'd from divers parts with indignation and revenge in their Hearts made the most cruel Mutiny that ever was heard of this was upon the Two and twentieth of June They began with the Palace whence they drew forth the Constable and Chancellor Murther'd them and exposed their Bodies upon the Table de Marbre From thence they went to the Prisons Massacred the Bishops of Senlis and de Coutances in the Petit Chastelet and made the rest leap from the tops of the Towers receiving them below upon the points of their Swords and Javelines There was no part of the City which was not stained with the Blood they spilt Near two thousand Men were killed whose Carcasses were drawn into the Fields with deep Incisions made upon their Backs in form of a Bend or Scarfe which was the Signal that Party had marked themselves withal for distinction Such as were found with them were held to be worse then Hereticks the Priests denied them Burial and Baptism to their Children Whether it were Policy or not the Duke of Burgundy would not come to Paris till a month after L'Isle Adam had made himself Master of it The Queen and he made their entrance the fourteenth day of July as Triumphantly as if they were returned Year of our Lord 1418 from the Conquest of some new Empire There was nothing heard in the Streets but the soft Musick of Voices and Instrumens and yet their presence did not stop the bloody hands of Murtherers Whoever had Money or an Enemy an Office or a Benefice was an Armagnac The vilest and the most wicked had made themselves the Chiefs of that Blood-thirsty Militia The very Hangman was one of them and he had so much impudence as to shake the Duke by the Hand who knew not what he was The One and twentieth of August they made another great Commotion that infamous Villain being their Captain in which they killed above two hundred Persons and amongst others even some of those that dwelt in the Dukes Hostel and perhaps they would have carried it home to himself had he not been provided against that Scum of the Rabble He bethought himself of a wyle which was to send six thousand of that common Herd to besiege Montleberry and when they were gone he ordered the Hangmans Head to be chopt off and several of the most deserving to be Hanged or cast into the River Year of our Lord 1418 It seemed that Heaven would revenge those horrible Murthers with its severest Rod About the Month of June Paris began to be infected with the Plague which raged extreamly to the end of October carried off above forty thousand most of them being the meanest of the People and such as had dipt their Hands in Blood After the Dauphin was gone from Paris his Partisans made War in his Name Those Frenchmen that were disinteressed and impartial found themselves much perplexed between the Kings Commands whom the Burgundian made to speak as pleased himself and the Commands of the Presumptive Heir to the Crown which side soever they could take they were sure to be treated as Rebels and Traitors Year of our Lord 1418 The Duke of Bretagne labour'd so much that he made up the breach a second time All the Articles were agreed upon at St. Maurdes Fossez but those that had influence over the Dauphin kept him from Ratifying them so that there was only a Truce for three weeks After he
with a Sword on the Blade whereof were some Latin Verses engraved which invited him to that expedition Year of our Lord 1462 There was a rude War between Henry King of Castille and John King of Arragon This last had by a Treaty of accommodation given Catalogna to Charles Prince of Viana Son of his first Bed and therefore his principal Heir His Mother in Law harrass'd him so much that he once more fell out with his Father and took up Arms. He was again defeated and taken Prisoner The Catalonians making an insurrection in his favour forced his Father to set him at Liberty but the same day of his deliverance he Died of a Morsel which his Mother in Law had caused her own Physician to give him After his Death the Catalonians being revolted against John and having degraded him as the Murtherer of his Son Charles The King of Castille assisted them It was not the zeal of justice that led him to it but the desire of Siezing those places in Navarre which were for his purpose Mean while John that he mught have Men and Money in this pressing necessity had engaged the Counties of Roussillon and of Cerdagne to the King of France for 300000 Crowns Gaston de Foix Brother in Law to the Castillian and Son in Law to the Arragonian brought these two Princes to refer their differences to the judgement of the King who then was at Bourdeaux to treat of the Marriage of Magdelin his Sister with Gaston de Foix Count of Viana When he had heard the reasons of either party from the mouths of their Ambassadors he pronounced his Sentence of Arbitration but it satisfied neither the one nor the other any more then his enterview with Henry King of Castille satisfied either the French or Spaniards These scoffed at the Niggardlyness and mean and simple countenance of King Lewis who was cloathed only in coarse Cloth had a short and straight Garment on and wore a Madona of Lead in his Cap The others had an indignation at the Castillian Arrogance and the Pride of the Count de Lodesme Favourite of Henry But it is true that their King condescending as he ought to the Majesty of France passed over not only the River Bidasso which seperates the two Kingdoms to come to the King but likewise advanced two Leagues within his Dominions and came even to the Castle of Vterbia where they conferred together At his return from this Voyage Lewis found that the Lords de Crouy Father and Son had so well managed the mind of Philip Duke of Burgundy with whom they could do any thing that he consented to render up to him the Cities of the Somme for the 400000 Crowns The business was of importance and indeed for fear the Duke should find out some excuses to retract his word he caused the money to be immediately sent to Hesdin and went thither himself The surrender being executed he would shew himself in the Low-Countries where his Soveraignty was but little acknowledged He visited Arras was received at Tournay and went as far as l'Isle where the Duke came and saluted him The City of Tournay which had never owned any other Dominion but that of France sent three Thousand Citizens forth to meet him each of them having a Flower-de-Luce embroidred with Gold just upon his Heart Lewis Duke of Savoy waited for him at St. Cloud to make complaints of the disobedience of Philip his young Son who more sprightly then Amedea his elder Brother had gained the affections of the Nobility and was making his way to invade the Crown The King commanded Philip to come to him he immediately did so upon the Faith of a safe conduct which hindred not his being Arrested and then his sending him Prisoner to Loches He was detained two years to give his Father time to settle his affairs and authority and establish his eldest Son in the Succession The hatred betwixt the King and the Charolois was augmented more and more There are five or six principal causes taken notice of The surrender of the places in the Somme the kind reception the King made the Lords of Croüy whom the Charolois had driven from his Fathers Court and Country for that reason moreover the Kings endeavours to lay a Tax or Gabelle upon Burgundy contrary to the Articles of the Traty of Arras and the favour he manifested to the Count d'Estampes who was accused to have intended to poyson the Duke and his Son Year of our Lord 1463 At the same time the Chancellor de Morvilliers a Man vehement and bold went on the Kings behalf to forbid the Duke of Bretagne to Style himself any more Duke by the Grace of God to Coyn any money or to raise any Taxes in his Dutchy The Duke taken unprovided acted cooly and promised all but demanded time to Assemble the Estates of his Country and in the mean while he diligently negociated with the Burgundian by Romille and with all the Grandees of the Kingdom whom he knew to be highly discontented The Habits of Fryers Mendicatns especially of the Cordeliers served to make the Messengers of these intrigues pass securely up and down The Charolois had chosen Gorcum in Holland for his ordinary residence the Bastard de Rubempre slunk privately into that Port with a small Vessel being disguised like a Merchant to Sieze and carry away alive or dead this Romille the Engine of all these designs or perhaps the Count de Charolois himself However it were the Count having discover'd it caused him to be imprisoned and gave notice thereof to the Duke his Father who was going to Hesdin to Confer with the King Upon this intelligence the Duke retires in hast his People gave out that there had been a design to Sieze upon the Father and the Son both at the same time the Preachers entertained their Auditors with it and Oliver de la Marche Made mention of it in Terms which hugely offend the Kings Honour To justify himself against these reproaches the King sent Morvilliers his Chancellor and some Lords to make great complaints to the Duke and demand reparation The Chancellor did it in such high words and Soveraign expressions that he seemed to design rather to exasperate then to compose differences And indeed the Cound de Charolois said to one of the Ambassadors at their departure that before one year were past he would make the King repent it The King thought he had time to subdue the Breton before Philip whom Age render'd unwieldy could Dream of stirring He therefore called the Grandees of the State together at Tours to make them know what reasons he had to undertake it Charles Duke of Orleance first Prince of the Blood whould needs speak there of the disorders of the Kingdom as his Age his Reputation and his Rank obliged him to do but his Remonstrances grated the Ears of the King and were received with anger and contempt In so much as he died for grief within two
Ferdinand and stept in before him prevented his getting into Romagnia These successful beginnings engaged Charles the more He parted from Ast the sixth day of October At Turin he borrowed the Dutchess of Savoyes Rings and at Casal the Marchioness of Montferrats and pawned them for twenty four thousand Ducats Ludovic with his Wife came to receive him at Vigeue and accompanied him as far as Piacenza He arrived at Pavia the thirteenth of October There he found Duke Galeazo very ill of some Morsel his good Uncle Ludovic had caused to be given him Being at Piacenza he heard of his Death and then Ludovic who had accompanied him thither took his leave of him to go and reap the Fruit of his Crime and make sure of the Dutchy without any regard to Galeazo's Son as yet but five years old The French trembled with rage that this wicked Wretch should bring the King to be witness of a Parricide upon the Person of his Cousin-German They thought it much more just and safe to revenge this Death upon that Tyrant and to conquer the Dutchy of Milan and the City of Genoa then to run to the farther end of Italy crossing above an hundred Leagues thorow the Enemies Country in the midst of Winter without Money and without Provisions to seek out a Kingdom which would be impossible to keep unless they could first be Masters of Genoa and the Milanois Such was the sentiment of Desquerdes a great Soldier and had he lived had so much Credit with the King as would no doubt have perswaded him to take that Course but he died at Lyons Ludovic's Intrigues who had gained Stephen de Vers overthrew all that good Counsel and the King went forward taking his march by Tuscany The taking a small Castle by storm on the Confines of the State of Florence and afterwards the Fort of Serezanella which capitulated and then the defeat of some Succors which Paul Vrsinus was bringing did so astonish Peter de Medecis that he consigned four Places into the King's Hands which were even the very Keys of that Country to hold them for some certain Time and consented that he should borrow Two hundred thousand gold Crowns of that City Ludovic had fancied to himself that the King would put those places into his hands pretending that two of them belonged to the City of Genoa And for this purpose lent him twenty Thousand Ducats The Council having fairly denied him he retired but left some of his Emissaries about the King to watch their opportunities and dispose things for his advantage His fingers itched to get Pisa One day while the King was in that City his men had persuaded the Pisans to fall on their Knees as he went along to Mass and cry out for Liberty The young King was moved with Pity and the Master of Requests who went along before assured him that what they craved was Just Thus without considering that City was none of his he granted them their desires The Florentines at all times French by inclination taking their opportunity of the Kings approach banished Peter de Medecis from their City by a Sentence of the Senate and recovered their Liberty He retired to Bologna and from thence to Venice with so little Credit that one of his own Factors refused to let him have a Piece of Cloth he sent for The 17 th of November the King entred into Florence his Army in Battallia and himself Armed at all points his Lance upon his Thigh The Florentines partly by force partly out of good will treated upon and agreed a Confederation with him which was proclaimed in all the Cities of Italy with a Manifesto declaring that the King was come thither only to chace away the Tyrants and from thence to carry his Arms against the Turks the capital Enemies to Christendom Picus Mirandolus that marvellous Prodigy of all sorts of Sciences Died in Florence the same Day the King made his entrance The very same hour he went forth the City of Pisa threw off the yoak of the Florentines the People pull'd down their Arms and erected the Kings Statue in the room of them This prodigious success of the French their great train of Artillery which was drawn by Horses and so well managed that in a few hours they could shatter and beat down the strongest Walls as likewise their Combats which was no Childrens play like the Italian fighting bred a Terror over all Young Ferdinand soon retreated from before Aubigny even to Rome and his Uncle Frederic getting out of the Port at Legorne retured to Naples All cried out Vive France the places about Rome strove which should first surrender and the Vrsini made their Peace with the King Then his Holyness to his great regret intreated Frederic to withdraw his Forces and himself was constrained to let the King make his entrance into Rome he being retired to the Castle St. Angelo Year of our Lord 1494 The King entred there Armed as into an Enemies Town upon the 28 th of December and disposed of his Soldiers and Artillery in all the publick places So that Alexander fearing to be taken by force and deposed as he well deserved capitulated with him and condescended to what ever he desired Amongst other things he let him have five or six of his best places for a certain time the investiture of the Kingdom of Naples Caesar Borgia his Bastard Son who was called the Cardinal of Valentia for Hostage and Zemes or Zizim the Brother of Bajazeth to make use of him against the Turks Year of our Lord 1495 The Treaty being finished the Pope came down from his Castle He and the King saw each other often with more appearance of Friendship then any real confidence And the King shewed great respect to his Dignity even to the kissing of his Feet giving him water to wash at Mass and taking his Seat in the Chappel below the Dean and Cardinals Which did not so well please such as expected he would have made use of his power in reforming the Roman Church and purging the Holy See of a Tyrant who defiled with all the abominations imaginable the House of God The eight and Twentieth of January the King went from Rome continuing his march towards the Kingdom of Naples Being at Velitri the Cardinal Bastard Son of the Pope who was an Hostage slunk away from him and returned back to Rome At the same place Antony de Fonseca Ambassador from Ferdinand King of Arragon seeking some pretence for a Rupture made sharp complaints for that the French invaded the Empire of all Italy and urged that when his Master treating with King Charles had promised not to oppose him in his Progress meant it only in relation to the Kingdom of Naples whereas the King had taken divers places from the Florentines and from the Holy See The French replied smartly And the dispute growing hot the Ambassador tore the Treaty in pieces in the Kings presence which so inceased
Earl of Valois had hitherto desired it The Swisse denied Francis their Intercession with the Electors the Pope pretended to favor him but he was not either for one or other Year of our Lord 1519 of these two Princes because they were too Potent and if he recommended Francis it was to get the Suffrages from Charles and by this Intrigue to turn their Eyes and Thoughts toward some other German Prince The Electors for the same reason were in suspence a good while at the beginning the Palatine Triers and Brandenburgh seemed to be for Francis and the latter promised to gain the Archbishop of Ments his Brother likewise But when he had singer'd his Money and it came to give their Votes Ments pleaded stoutly for Charles and Brandenburgh seconded him Triers kept his Word The reputation of his Victories in Italy spake advantageously for the King and the War the Turks threatned Germany withal ought to have made him more considerable then Charles who had as yet done nothing and promised but little more But he was not of the German Nation besides the more he seemed to merit the more they feared he would reduce the German Princes to a low condition as his Predecessors had reduced those of France and if there were apprehensions of oppression on either Hand it did not appear so visibly on Charles's side nor seem to be so neer in likelihood from him who was five years younger then the other and of no very promising Genius In fine upon all these considerations and with three hundred thousand Crowns brought even a year before into Germany and not distributed but to good purpose Charles carried it and was elected at Francfort the twentieth of June being at that instant in Spain whither he was gone almost two years before Though King Francis set a good face upon it yet this refusal went to his Heart and he could not but imagine that Charles being Master of so many great Estates would revenge the Injuries done to his Grand-father and those of the House of Burgundy For this reason he applied himself with more care to gain the friendship of the Pope and the King of England but the Pope followed Fortune and invested Charles with the Kingdom of Naples notwithstanding the constitution of his Predecessors which forbid that the said Kingdom and the Empire should be in the same Hand Year of our Lord 1520 The election of Charles of Austria hastned the enterview of the King and Henry of England This was done in the Month of June between Ardres and Guines The two Kings equally Pompous and Vain made their magnificence appear to the highest profusion Francis expended more there then the Emperor did at his Coronation and put his Nobless to great inconveniences who ever imitate their Princes but more readily in their Excess then in their Wisdom This enter-view was called the Camp of Cloath of Gold After they had saluted each other on Horse-back they went into a Pavilion erected expresly with two or three Ministers of State belonging to either King and there talked a few Moments about their Affairs That done they left the care thereof to them and spent ten or twelve days together in Feastings and Turnaments at Nights Francis returned to Ardres and Henry to Guines Before they parted they confirmed their Treaty by solemn Oath upon the the Holy Communion which they received together But soon after Francis who too credulous built already on the Amity of the English might plainly perceive what stress he was to lay upon so jealous and so inconstant a Foundation Charles V. coming from Spain by Sea to the Low-Countries that from thence he might go to Aix to take the Crown passed first over into England and saw Henry with less splendor and perhaps more Fruit then he For the King of England promis'd him that in case any Difference hapned between him and Francis he would be Arbitrator and declare himself Enemy to him that would not stand to his Award or Judgment His Intention was not to joyn with either the one or the other but to keep himself in the midst and be sought to by them both giving them to understand that he could make the Ballance sway to that side he turned to As he seemed to point out to King Francis at their late enter-view at Ardres where over his Tent Door he had caused the Figure of an Archer to be placed with these Words He that accompanies or joyns with him is Master This was the Method he used all his Life The two and twentieth of October Charles was crowned at Aix la Chapelle and assigned a Diet at Wormes for the Month of January following In the mean time not staying for the Judgment of of the Assembly being at Colen he condemned Year of our Lord 1520 Year of our Lord 1520 Luther's Books to the Fire as Heretical but this so hasty proceeding he made more Friends and Defenders then Enemies In revenge Luther without respect either for Pope or Emperor was so confident as to burn the Book of the Decretals which he asserted to be contrary to the Word of God in several Passages he had extracted from them Year of our Lord 1520. 21. The Spaniards grew angry that their King had left them to go into Germany andbesides they could not endure the Government of the Flemmish for after the Death of that memorable Cardinal Ximene he left the Administration of Affairs to the Lord de Chevres They complained that those Strangers heaped up all their fairest Pieces of Gold and that they took into their Hands or sold the greatest Offices and the richest Benefices amongst others the Archbishoprick of Toledo wherewith the Lord de Chevres had provided his Brother Some Grandees of that Country who thought to do their business in the absence of a Prince whom they esteemed of little Courage kindled the Fire and made a League which they called la Sancta Junta Toledo and the greatest Cities came into it and the Chief Officers that commanded their Forces were John de Padillia and Antonio d'Acugno Bishop of Zamora They had a Design of giving the Kingdom of Arragon to Ferdinand Son of that Frederic that died in France and to make him come in with some Colour would marry him to Jane the Frantick Mother of Charles V. whom they siezed upon but whether he doubted the event or stood upon the Honor of keeping his Faith he rejected the proposition and would not stir out of the Castle where Charles V. had left him In the mean while the Vice-Rois of Castille and Arragon with the rest of the King's Servants having armed themselves against the Rebels lopp'd off by little and little the Branches of that Party and then fell'd it almost quite down by the defeat of their united Forces and the deaths of Padillia and the Bishop both slain in that Battle Now whilst the Vice-Rois had drained the Garrisons of most of the Places in Navarre to defend
from the Court set Guards upon them then some while after he released them and caused them to be conducted to Bayonne The King treated his Ambassador in the same manner he confin'd him to the Prison of the Chastelet and let him out a few days afterwards Now the Emperour in his reply to the Kings Herauld amongst other things said the King had broke his Faith and besides he bragged how two years before Year of our Lord 1527 and 28. he told the French Ambassador that it were more expedient and brave to decide their quarrels man to man in single combat then to trouble all Christendom and Spill the Bloud of so many poor Innocents not concerned in their disputes The ☞ Herauld having acquainted him thereof he would justifie and clear himself of these two reproaches of Perfidie and Cowardice by a publick Act and such a one as should appear most eminently to the eyes of all Europe He caused therefore a Scaffold to be set up in the great Hall of the Palace where sitting in his Royal Robes attended by his Princes and in presence of all those Ambassadors that were then about his Court he sent for him that belonged to Spain this was Nicholas Perrenot de Granvelle a Native of mean extract in Franche Comie but a man of Brain and caused a Cartel or challenge to be read before him which gave the Emperour the Lie and demanded he should assign the place for Combat and that he would bring the Weapons thither The Ambassador excusing himself from carrying this Challenge he sent a Herald to acquaint the Emperour with it and the King of England at the same time sent him the like defiance by a Messenger of his own Some while after the Emperour sent back a Herauld to the King with his answer The King placed himself in the same posture to receive it but being informed he would appoint no place till after the King should have diengaged his word and his Children he commanded him not to speak And thus all those challenges proved nothing but fine Theatrical Shows It had been agreed between the Kings of France and England that this latter should attaque the Emperour in the Low-Countries But his Subjects having an aversion for a War against the Flemmings because it destroyed their Commerce he rather chose to lend the King thirty thousand Crowns per Month and treated a Truce for all Merchants trading between the Low-Countries France and England to have free liberty for a year Upon the News of Lautrec's marching into Italy the Emperour had sent an Order to set the Pope at Liberty but first to endeavour the tying him to strict and harsh Conditions The Treaty for his freedom being concluded with Moncado whom the Emperour had by provision made Vice-Roy of Naples in the room of Lanoy who was lately dead he would not trust himself there till the next day but that very night slipt away disguised like a Merchant having before caused his Hostages to evade who would have run a great risque Lautrec had regained almost the whole Milanois and might in a short time have mastered Milan if the Kings express orders had not enjoyned him to give up all the Places to Sforza and to go to Rome to deliver the Holy Father When he was entring upon Romagnia he heard that he was escaped and that the Imperial Army upon the report of his March had quitted Rome to go and defend the Kingdom of Naples The Plague had devoured above two thirds of that Sacrilegious Army and it was observed that within the compass of one year there were not two hundred reamining but which in divers manners had felt the refentments of Divine Vengeance He pursued these Robbers by long Marches and having overtaken them at Abbruzzo presented Battle to them They dislodged in the night with great disorder and retired into Naples It was believed that if he had followed them in at their heels he might have expected good success from their Fears but he amused himself in taking of other Places and then when he had missed of so fair an opportunity he laid Siege to Naples Year of our Lord 1528 The Confederates at the same time when he entred that Kingdom were to have fallen upon Sicilia with their Fleet which was got together at Leghorn But they were disabled by a Tempest which so grievously shattered the twelve Galleys equipped by the Venetians that they were forced to put in at Corsu to Refit Rance de Cere and Andrea Doria with the Kings Ships made a descent at Sardinia put the Vice-Roy of that Island to a rout though he had double their Number and entred Pell-mell with him into the City of Sassary which they Plundred This S uccess was the occasion of great Misfortunes For the Souldiers over-glutted with Eating died most part of the Disenterie The King Plunged over Head and Ears in Pleasures became more negligent in sending Supplyes to Lautrec And Andrea Doria having some disputes with Rance de Cere it hap'ned that this last finding more favour then the other at Court the thoughts thereof Aggravated all those other little discontents he had formerly met with from the French Year of our Lord 1528 He had in his mind as it appeared afterwards a great desire of restoring his Country to its Liberty To this end he offered the King two hundred thousand Gold Crowns to let him have the Government of it not to hold it but that he might make a Regulation and he made earnest Applications that the French should give up the City of Savonna to that State because that being the better Port would ruin Genoa and make the City become Desert But the King absolutely denyed him both the one and the other Being therefore Malecontented in his Soul at this refusal and for their not paying him the Prince of Orange's Ransom he carried his Galleys back to Genoa under colour of having been so weather-beaten that they stood in need of reparations The French Army lay Encamped before Naples from mid April Lautrec thinking to have it by Famine and for that purpose was so pressing with Andrea Doria that he sent him the Kings eight Galleys and eight more which were his own all under the Command of his Brother Philippine Upon their Arrival they took three great Vessels laden with Corn which they were conveying into City It was believed that if the Venetian Forces had come in time and had not employed themselves as they did to recover some Cities in the Golf for their Seigneury which they had lost in the time of Lewis XII Philippine and they together might have so effectually blocked up the Port that no Provisions should have been carried in to Naples which began to feel some want The Spaniards did not however get much by the bargain in making such hast to engage Philippine before the Venetians came to joyn him Hugh de Moncado had put a thousand Select Arquebusiers on Board their Fleet thinking
Regis Professors at Paris for the Sciences and for the Tongues He had likewise a design to Build a Colledge and to settle a Fund of Fifty Thousand Crowns Revenue for the breeding and maintenance of Six Hundred Gentlemen He got together a huge number of Manuscripts of Ancient Authors which make up that precious Library which is the rarest Treasure of our Monarchs of France In a word he merited the glorious Surname of the Father or Patron and restorer of Learning The long and tedious Wars and his Imprisonment had accustomed the Nobility to all sorts of Violence and Crimes He caused the Grand-Jours or Sessions to be held at Poitiers this is an extraordinary Tribunal of Judges Commissioned Year of our Lord 1531 for a certain time and chosen out of those belonging to the Parliament to punish the most guilty There were others held during his Reign at Rion in Auvergne in the Year 1545. Towards the end of July there was a Hairy Comet observed in the Heavens which was visible all the Month of August The vulgar imagined it foretold the death of Louisa of Savoy the Kings Mother who might justly boast she brought him twice into the World once when he was born and again when by her care she deliver'd him from his Captivity She died at Grez in Gastinois the two and twentieth of September as she was Travelling to her Castle of Remorantin in Berry after a long fit of Sickness she had endured at Fontainebleau From the end of the Year 1528. to the beginning of the Year 1534. the wrath of Heaven was so great against France that there was a perpetual irregularity in the Seasons or to speak truth Summer alone usurped the place of the other three insomuch as in five years there had not been two days Frost together These tedious heats enervated as we may say and decay'd Nature making her impotent she brought nothing to maturity The Trees put forth their Blossoms immediately upon their Fruit Corn did not multiply in the Fields and for want of Winter there were such multitudes of Vermin and Insects that fed upon it at its first tender sprouting up that the Harvest yielded not enough for Seed against the next Season for Sowing This scarcity caused a general Famine then came a Disease which they named Truss-Galant after that a dreadful Plague so that these three destroyed above a fourth part of the People Year of our Lord 1532 Anno 1532. The King made a Journey into Bretagne and there after the deliberation which he procured with no small trouble of the Estates of the Country Assembled at Vannes he United that Province to the Crown and would needs have his Son Crowned Duke at Rennes and bear their Arms with those of France and Daufine The Patent for this Union bears date at Nantes in the Month of August of this Year 1532. During the six years of Peace the Emperor labour'd in Settling and Composing his Affairs in Germany which were much embroiled by the different Sects in opposing the designs of Solyman and more yet in contriving wayes and means to ruine the Affairs or at least blast the reputation of King Francis This year he went to the Diet at Ratisbon where at the request of the Princes of the Empire he reformed the Imperial Chamber and obtained of them and the Cities a very great Supply against the Turk who was making ready to fall upon Hungary with innumerable Forces by Land and upon Italy with a powerful Fleet by Sea He made use of this occasion to demand of the King that he would lend him Money and his Gentdarmerie He answer'd as touching the Money that he was no Banker and for his Horse-men that they were the strength of his State and that he lent them no more then he would his Sword but would fight at the head of them that he might have his share in the Honour or in the Danger But because the Imperialists proclaim'd it was a shame that both he and the King of England should stand idle or with their Hands in their Pockets amidst the danger that threatned all Christendom they made a League whereby they engaged betwixt them to set Four-score Thousand Men on Foot with an Equipage suitable and convenient to Attack the common Enemy and the King in particular proffer'd to defend Italy which the Emperor had denuded of all his Forces in case the Turkish Navy should land there The year was much advanc'd when Solyman appeared upon the Frontiers of Hungary with Two Hundred Thousand Men. Germany notwithstanding their Divisions made a greater effort then ever They opposed him with an Army of Ninety Thousand Foot and Thirty Thousand Horse all modelled Troops The Emperor was at their Head and this was his first Expedition which gave him a gusto for the Trade ever afterwards One Battle would have decided the Fate of either Empire and made one sole Master of the Universe But neither the one nor the other durst run the hazard of so great an Event there were only some Combats between detached Bodies Solyman withdrew first Charles V. afterwards in so great hast that he staid not to drive the pretended King John out of Hungary as he might have done Before his return into Spain he went to Bologna where he confer'd a second time with the Pope Year of our Lord 1532 The Union appeared very strickt between King Francis and King Henry These Princes desiring to confer with each other about their Affaires met in the Month of October at Saint Joquevert between Boulogne and Calais according as they had appointed the foregoing year Henry came to Boulogne to visit Francis who returned him his Visit at Calais Both of them were much dissatisfied with the Pope particularly Henry because he refused to appoint him Judges upon the place to take Cognizance in the matter of Divorce They treated therefore a League defensive with and against all and projected to demand of the Pope one his Assistance to recover the Dutchy of Milan the other a Bull for the dissolving of his Marriage otherwise they would withdraw their Kingdoms from his Obedience till a General Council the only Name whereof as they well knew made him even tremble But the news they received af Solymans retreat somewhat allayed those Propositions and delivered Italy from that approaching War they had threatned it withal The Pope and Emperor saw each other at Bologne with the same Demonstrations of Amitie as the first time but with much different Sentiments The Emperor pressed him to call a Council because he had promised the Germans one to renew a Confederation with all the Princes of Italy for their common defence against the French and to bestow his Niece Catherine upon Francis Sforza He likewise was earnest with him to cast his Spiritual Thunderbolts against the King of England for having Divorced himself from his Aunt Katherine As to the first the Pope not finding himself irreproachable but much hated of the
necessity and many other things which the Prince buried in Oblivion before his Father was laid down in his Grave If he would have had these last things put in practice he should have made those that were to be his Sons Year of our Lord 1547 Ministers his Executors Magnificence and State Attended him to his very Tomb his Funeral was made with extraordinary Pomp Elven Cardinals were present which before had never hap'ned He was publickly by Proclamation in the Palace-Hall declared a Prince Clement in Peace Victorious in War the Father and Restorer of good Learning and the liberal Sciences He never had his Paralel in liberality in magnificence and in clemency very few to compare with him in Valour Eloquence and useful Learning He would have been a great Prince in all things had he not sometimes suffered himself to be prepossessed by the Evil Counsels of his Ministers and a passion towards women Those to render themselves all-powerful set up his Authority above the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom even to an Irregularity of Government the Women he loved being vain and prodigal changed his Noble desire of Fame to fastuosity and vanity and made him often consume in idle expences the Money he had designed for some great enterprize The Ten last Years of his Life the anxiety of his distemper made him so good a Husband that although he had made several stately Buildings in divers places had employed great Sums in purchasing rich Furniture many Jewels excellent Pictures and curious Books though he had bestowed Pensions upon all the brave Souldiers and truly learned men he could meet with and had maintained a War against all the powers of Europe for almost Thirty years yet at his death he left all his own Demeasnes clear of all Engagements Four Hundred Thousand Crowns of Gold in his Coffers and a quarter of a years Revenue ready to be paid in On the contrary his Son in the thirteen years he reigned though he sold a great many Offices newly created raised the Imposts a third part higher and gave nothing to his Favourites was yet indebted fifteen or sixteen Millions a great Sum in those days I had forgot to note that he had chosen for his Devise or Impress a Salamander in the fire with this Motto Nutrisco Extinguo I am nourished by it and I extinguish it and that he Erected into Dutchies and Pairries the County of Vendosm for Charles de Bourbon in 1514. that of Guise in favour of Claude de Lorrain in 1527. that of Montpensier for Lewis de Bourbon in 1538. The same year out of affection to Francis of Cleve he likewise gave the Title of Dutchy to that of Nevers which was before made a Pairrie by King Charles VIII Anno 1459. Till then no Erection of such great Dignities had been made but to supply the number of the Six ancient ones wherefore the Parliament made a grave and serious remonstrance to the King to hinder that of Guise but he desired to gratifie with that honour a Prince whose extraordinary vertues raised him almost equal to those of his Blood He Married two Wives Claude Daughter of Lewis XII and of Anne de Bretagne in the year 1514 and Eleonora of Austria Sister of Charles V. in the year 1530. By the first he had three Sons and three Daughters whereof none remained alive but Henry who Reigned and Margaret that was Married to Emanuel Philibert Duke of Savoy Queen Eleonora brought him no Children After his death she retired into the Low-Countries to the Emperor her Brother who in Anno 1555. carried her into Spain She died at Bajadox in the year 1558. Aged about Threescore Years HENRY II. King LVIII Aged about XIX Years POPES PAUL III. Two Years and above 7 Months under this Reign JULIUS III. Elected in February 1549. S. 5 Years 1 Month and a half MARCELLUS II. Elected in April 1555. S. 22 dayes PAUL IV. Elected in May 1555. S. 4 Years 2 Months and a half Year of our Lord 1547 HENRY came to the Crown upon the same day of the Year that he came into the World The Robes and other preparations for the Ceremony of his Coronation not being got ready before Mid July he received not the Sacred Unction till the Five and Twentieth of that Month by the hands of Charles de Lorraine who was Archbishop of Reims Claude Duke of Guise and Frances de Cleves Duke of Nevers preceded Lewis de Bourbon Duke of Montpensier though a Prince of the Blood because their Pairres being more Ancient by some years the first represented the Duke of Guyenne the second the Earl of Toulouze but Montpensier the Earl of Champagne only This King had been without defects as he was without disquiet had his Soul been framed as compleatly as his body His noble Stature his Serene and goodly Visage his pleasing aspect his dexterity in all brave exercises his agility and bodily strength were not attended with that firmness of Mind Application Prudence and the Sagacity requisite in one that is to command He was naturally good and had inclinations to do justice but he never possessed himself and because he would do nothing he was the cause of all those Evils they Committed who governed him The Constable de Montmorency whom he immediately called to Court Frances Earl of Aumale who was Duke of Guise after the death of his Father and James d'Albon Saint André whom he made Mareschal of France had the best share in his Favour He considered the first as his principal Minister the two others as Favorites but all even the Queen her self bowed before his Mistress This was Diana de Poitiers Widow of Lewis de Brezé and whom he had made Dutchess of Valentinois She meddled with all she could do all That it might be known she Reigned he would have it appear in all his Turnaments on his House-hold goods in his Devises or Impresses and even on the Frontispieces of his Royal Buildings by placing every where a Crescent with Bows and Arrows which were the Symbols of that unblushing Diana Year of our Lord 1547 One might think this love of a young King for a Woman of Forty Years and who had three or Four Children by her Husband must have been indeed an Inchantment without Charmes She was unjust violent and haughty towards such as displeased her but otherwise ready to do good and very liberal her wit mighty agreeable and pleasing but her hands more yet because she bestowed often and much and with a very bon-grace The King loved her because she was so sensible of Love and this temperament did sometimes lead her elsewhere to seek out the full measure of her delights as she found in him the fulness of Honour and Riches Under a new Government there is a new face of Court They left Frances Oliver in the Office of Chancellor whereof he was very worthy but they took away the Administration from the Cardinal de Tournon and Annebaut
each other Philip on the River of Antie and Henry along the Somme They lay there almost three Months without having any other Ren-contre besides one Skirmish because they were then upon propositions for an Accommodation The Popes Nuncios made the first mention of it the Constable and the Mareschal de Saint André whose favour was in a languishing condition at Court got Philip to give some Ear to it making use for that purpose of the interest of the Duke of Savoy who could no way be restored to his Estates but by a Peace Christierne Dutchess of Lorrain equally obliged to either King as Aunt to the first and nearly Allied to the second having newly given her Daughter Claudia to the Duke his Son promoted it with much industry and went with all the Messages to and fro so that at length she brought it to a Conference between their Deputies where her self and her Son assisted as Mediators Which proved a great reputation and honour to them both in all the Courts of Christendom Two Months before which was in October the Constable was freed from his imprisonment upon his parole and came to wait upon the King at Amiens who received him with inexpressible demonstrations of affection even to the making him lye in his own Bed It is said that this Lord having had notice the Kings affection towards him declined very much recover'd it again by the Credit of the Dutchess of Valentinois he seeking her Alliance and treating of a Match between his Son Danville with Antoinetta Daughter of Robert de la Mark and Frances de Brezé who was the Daughter of that Dutchess He had already agreed with the Spaniards on all the Articles of Peace but fearing lest he might alone be charged with the reproach of a Treaty so disadvantageous he contrived it so that the King upon the winding of it up should joyn with him the Cardinal Lorrain Mareschal de Saint André John de Morvillier Bishop of Orleans and Claude de l'Aubespine Secretary of State The Conference began in the Abbey of Cercamp the fifteenth of October and from that time the two Kings dismissed their Forces The difficulty concerning Calais was the greatest Remora Queen Mary would by all means have it again the King would needs keep it Thereupon that Princess hap'ned to dye without Year of our Lord 1558 any Children of a Dropsie caused by her infinite grief for the loss of that place and the little esteem her Husband had for her The fifteenth of November was the day of her decease and the sixteenth that of the Cardinal Pool her dear Cousin who had taken great pains to restore the Catholick Religion in England About this time the two Princes made a Truce for two Months then their Deputies parted Elizabeth succeeded Mary pursuant to the Will of Henry VIII Philip did yet for some time carry on the interest of Elizabeth then abandoned them lest they should prejudice his own He had likewise some design of Marrying her or at least to get her for his Uncle Ferdinand's second Son but the King who had great reason to hinder that Alliance and not suffer Elizabeth to take that Crown which he believed did belong to his Sons the Dausins Wife so ordered it that the Pope received the Envoy sent by that Princess to him but ill and treated her as illegitimate This injury made her determine openly to embrace the Religion of the Protestants who made no doubts concerning her and to repeal all Acts made by Mary and corroborate and revive those of Edward and put them in force Year of our Lord 1559 The Deputies from the two Crowns met again towards the end of January at Cateau in Cambresis where in few days they came to a final agreement on all the Articles Elizabeth fearing to be left alone sent her Deputies thither also By the Treaty between France and Spain that of Crespy and the preceding were confirmed The two Kings mutually restored all they had taken from each other for eight years past The King restored the Duke of Savoy to all his Lands and Estates yet still reserved the right he had but whilst that could be examined by Commissioners on either part which was to be done within three years time he kept by way of pawn or Security Turin Pignerol Quiers Chivas and Villeneuve of Ast Moreover he quitted all those he held in Tuscany to the Duke of Florence and those in Corsica to the Genoese gave his Sister Margaret in Marriage to the Duke of Savoy with Three Hundred Thousand Crowns in Gold and his Daughter Isabella to King Philip with Four Hundred Thousand The people who always desire Peace at what price soever testified a great deal of joy The Constable and the Mareschal de Saint André stood in need of it to recover their former favour which was in the wain but the Guisian party the sage Politiques the whole Nobility highly blamed it as a manifest juggle or Cheat whereby France was looser of one hundred ninety and eight strong places for three only which were given them these were Han le Catelet and Saint Quentin When Queen Elizabeth found the Treaty went forward and the Deputies for King Philip who pretended to mannage her concerns but acted very coldly obtained nothing for her advantage or interest She would needs Treat upon her own single account She got little more by it It was agreed that the King should either render up Calais to her and the re-conquer'd Country or if he liked it better pay her the Sum of Five Hundred Thousand Crowns which being referred to his own choice there was no doubt but he would keep that place which is the Key of his Kingdom During the Treaty the Spaniards God knows for what design exhorted the King very zealously to exterminate the new Sectaries and hinted that there were many of them even in his Court its self and of great quality amongst others Dandelot about whom they found some Books of that sort when they took him at Saint Quentin Upon which the King sent for him and asked him what he thought of the Mass Dandelot made him a very criminal reply which enraged him so greatly that he was almost in the mind to have kill'd him He commanded him to be made a Prisoner and put Blaise de Montluc into his Office a creature of the Duke of Guises The Constable his Uncle had very much ado to get him out of Prison and restore him It was suspected to be the Effect of a certain Conference held between the Cardinal de Lorrain and the Cardinal de Granvelle that by this Stratagem the first had a design to weaken the Constable by ruining his Nephews or to render Year of our Lord 1559 him suspected of Heresie if he protected them and that the other had a design of Setting the great Families of France to Daggers-drawing and of stirring up a Faction by making the Religionaries grow desperate believing they would joyn in a body
Tenth of June and makes them continue the debate before him His presence did not so much daunt them but that three amongst the rest Anne de Bourg Councellor Clerc proceeded boldly to deliver their Sentiments upon the principal points of Religion and concluded by demanding a Council and that in the mean time Executions might be suspended He had the patience to hear them to the very last Argument and then to make the Clerk read over the Result of all Having thus discover'd their opinions he gave order to seize upon Du Bourg and Du Faur in the place and afterwards sent to take the President Ranconnet and the Counsellors Paul de Foix and Anthony Fumee all which were carried to the Bastille The President du Ferrier the Councellors Viole Du Val and Regnaute had met with the same treatment could they have been found Never did that August Assembly receive so great and so shameful a rebuke and blemish They appointed Commissioners for Trial of the Prisoners The Tragical accident which interven'd three Weeks after put some stop to those vehement prosecutions The Court being filled with all manner of Mirth Divertisements and expressions of Joy for the Nuptials of the Kings Daughter which was celebrated by Proxy the Seven and Twentieth of June and there being Turnaments and Carousels within Lists made cross the Street Saint Antoine from the Palace Royal des Tournelles to the Bastille Death as we may say having placed himself in Ambush amidst those pastimes and pleasures gave a blow as fatal as un-foreseen which converted all those gawdy Liveries into Mourning Weeds About the end of the third dayes tilting which was the Thirtieth of June the King had a great desire who had before broken several Lances with a great deal of dexterity to Just or Tilt agen with his Beaver open against the Earl of Montgommery Son of the Lord de Lorges one of the Captains of his Guard du Corps The Earl excused himself as much as he could but he would absolutely have it so now it hapned Year of our Lord 1559 that the Earl having broken against his Breast Plate hit him likewise above the right Eye-brow with the Truncheon that remained in his hand The stroke was so great that it threw him backwards on the ground and deprived him both of knowledge and speech He never recover'd them more which may convict of falsity those different discourses which both the one side and the other did put into his Mouth suitable to their divers interests and passions Notwithstanding he survived yet near eleven dayes and breathed not his last sigh till the tenth day of July He was in the fourth Month of the one and fortieth year of his Life and the thirteenth of his Reign About the end of June the Duke of Savoy was come to Paris accompanied with the Duke of Brunswic the Prince of Orange and an Hundred Gentlemen of Quality He had been received with extraordinary Civility by the King who met him at the Foot of the great Stair-Case in the Louvre When he found they dispair'd of the Kings Life he so much press'd the consummating of his Marriage that it was performed in Nostre Dame without any Pomp the ninth of July Margaret his Wife was in the seven and thirtieth year of her Age. They blamed King Henry of too much Indulgence or to speak better too great weakness towards his Mistress and his Favorites but they applauded a generous bounty in him to his Domesticks a great moderation and sweetness an agreable Conversation and a marvellous facility of expressing himself as well in publick as in particular He might have been praised likewise for his love to Learning for indeed he cherished it if the dissolutions of his Court authorised by his example had not perverted the best and choicest Wits to Compose Romances full of ☜ extravagant Visions and Lascivious Poems to flatter those Vices and that Impurity which had all the rewards in custody and to furnish that Sex with vain delights and amusements who still reign and govern by Fopperies Most of those Vices which ruine great States and draw down the wrath of Heaven reigned in that Court their gaming was seen in Triumph Luxury Impudicity Libertinage Blasphemy and that curiosity as foolish as impious to look into the Secrets of what is to come by the detestable Illusions of Magick Art Catherine de Medicis after a ten Years Barrenness brought this King ten Children as many of the one as of the other Sex the Eldest at this time being but seventeen Years old One of the Sons and two of the Daughters died in their Cradle There remained four Sons and three Daughters The four Sons were named Francis Charles Alexander and Hercules the names of the two last were changed at their confirmation Alexander was named Henry and Hercules changed for Francis The three first reigned after each other and all four died without Children The three Daughters were Isabella Claude and Marguerite Isabella Married Philip II. King of Spain Claude Charles III. Duke of Lorrain and Marguerite Henry de Bourbon who was then King of Navarre and afterwards King of France He had besides two Illegitimate Children Diana whom he Married to Horatio Farnese then to Francis Eldest Son of the Connestable de Montmorency and Henry who was Grand Prior of the Order of Malta and Governor of Provence The End of the Second Volume A Chronological Abridgment OR EXTRACT OF THE HISTORY OF FRANCE By the Sieur de Mezeray TOME III. Beginning at King Francis II. and ending at the end of the Reign of Henry IV. Translated by John Bulteel Gent. LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset Samuel Lowndes Christopher Wilkinson William Cademan and Jacob Tonson MDCLXXXIII FRANCIS II. King LIX Aged XVI Years and VI. Months POPES PAUL IV. 27 dayes under this Reign PIUS IV. Elected the 26 of December 1559. S. Five Years and eleven Months and a half Year of our Lord 1559 IF in a State it be a certain sign of it's decadency the want of good Heads for Council and good hands great Soldiers for Execution it is as certain a fore-runner and cause of troubles and Civil Wars to have multitudes of Princes and over-grown Nobility when there is not an Authority great enough to contain and keep them to their duty This misfortune hapned to France after the death of King Henry II. as soon as he was no more the Factions which were formed during his Reign began to appear and by an unluckly fate met with to fortifie themselves differing Parties in Religion great numbers of Malecontents lovers of Novelties and which was more and worse Soldiers of Fortune who having been disbanded would needs get themselves some employment at what rate soever On one side were to be seen the Princes of the Blood and the Constable on the other the Princes of the House of Guise betwixt these two Parties the Queen Mother who was bargaining to make her best Market and sided sometime with
it in France The time drawing near la Renaudie who forged a thousand fine imaginations upon the event of this project could not hold his tongue but opened the whole mystery to an Advocate of his own Religion named des Avenelles with whom he lodged at Paris The Advocate discover'd it to l'Allemand Vouzé a Master of Requests and l'Allemand carried him to Court to declare particularly all what he had learned of la Renaudie Upon this news the Guises first provided for the security of their own persons and without the least noise called all their trustiest friends about them gave order for the preservation of the great Cities caused the Prince and the Admiral to come to Court granted an abolition of all things past to the Religionaries excepting to those that had conspired and at the same time set Guards of Soldiers and Men belonging to the Provosts upon all the Roads leading to the Conspirators The Duke got the Title of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom confirmed to him as well whilst the King should be present as absent and established a Company of Musquetiers on Horse-back all select Men who were constantly to attend the Kings Sacred Person Year of our Lord 1560 The Court immediately dislodged from Blois and went to the Castle of Amboise as well because that place was stronger as to break the measures of the Plotters In the mean time the Duke of Guise sent the Kings Orders into all the Provinces with exhortations to the Nobility and Officers of War to arm themselves for the preservation of the State and to the Governors to seize upon all such as should be found in Arms whether on Foot or on Horseback upon the Road of Amboise The Prince of Conde who was going to Court met the Lord de Cipierre at Orleans by whom he was informed how the enterprize was discover'd but this hindred not his Journey forward nor la Renaudie a self-will'd fellow from pursuing his design But the Court having changed their station he was fain to change the Rendezvous appointed for his Gang and this was it that made them miscarry in the execution of the contrivance Castelno de Chalosses one of the chief Ring-leaders with Raunay and Mazeres were at Nozé James de Savoye Duke of Nemours took the two last as they were imprudently walking without the Castle but Castelno and the rest got in He besieged them there and being unable to take them by force drew them out by fair promises for he gave them his word he would carry them to the King and no hurt should be done to them neither should they be confin'd to Prison But as there is no security in the faith of that Man that is not able to warrant it as soon as they were come to Amboise they were cast into a Goal and Nemours thought it a sufficient excuse to say I cannot help it La Renaudie who was in Vendosmois made his Men advance with all speed to disengage Castelno whose surrender he knew not of but as they Marched in small parties and by ways thorow the Forrests the people set there by the Kings Order to watch them easily slew them or took them Prisoners and tied them to their Horse-Tails to lead them to Amboise whither they no sooner came but they hang'd them up immediately on the Battlements of the Walls Booted and Spurr'd The day after la Renaudie was kill'd in the Forrest of Chasteau-Renaud but he first slew Pardillan his Cousin to whom the King had given command to go a-hunting after the Conspirators with two hundred Horse His Body was for some hours hanged upon the Bridge at Amboise with this writing Captain of the Rebels then quarter'd and the quarters set up in divers places The Guises press'd the Chiefs might be dispatch'd the Chancellor was of opinion they should suspend that till they had found the bottom and main drift of the enterprize and to appease the fury of those exasperated spirits it would be fit to grant a Pardon to such whose blind zeal had misled them provided they would return to their own homes in small parcels of two or three in a Company But whilst they were contending for Mercy and Clemency against the rigour of Justice and Law a Captain of the Conspirators named la Motte made an attempt to surprize Amboise which stopt the Chancellors Mouth and let loose the raynes of persecution to the utmost severity A Command was given to take all such as had been in Armes either dead or alive though they should be returning to their own homes They pardon'd very few of those they had in Hold there were hanged drowned and beheaded near Twelve Hundred the Streets of Amboise were overflowed with Blood the River choaked up with dead Corps and the Market-places planted full of Gibbets The Chief were Executed the last the Queen-Mother her three Sons and all the Court Ladies gazing out of the Windows beholding this Tragical Spectacle as a divertisement Not one of them would own or confess that the Conspiracy aimed at the Kings Person but only against the Guises Raunay and Mazeres confessed upon the Rack that la Renaudie had told them that if it had succeeded the Prince of Condé would have declared Castelno stoutly denied it and upon their confrontation gave them very significant reproaches Some writings in Cyphers seized in the Custody of la Bigne Secretary of the Conspiracy and the Examinations of certain Captains that had Command amongst them gave them light enough to believe that the Prince of Condé and the Admiral were concerned but the proofs not being clear and the Evidence only upon hear-say and those that had orders to search the Princes House finding neither Men nor Arms there he demanded leave to purge himself in full Council before the King The Queen Mother being willing to admit him he made a discourse full of Reason and Eloquence to justifie himself concerning that attempt and afterwards gave the lye to all that durst say he was guilty of it and offer'd to Fight them himself renouncing his Quality only for that purpose Year of our Lord 1560 The Duke of Guise out of a most profound dissimulation applauded his generosity and told him he was also ready to maintain his Innocency but in private he notwithstanding was of opinion he ought to be seized on The Queen Mother did not judge it convenient whether she feared the Guises might make themselves too absolute if they could but pull down the only Prince that was able to make head against them or that she apprehended lest such a detension should produce some act of desperation which might prove more fatal then the fore-going Conspiracy The danger over they wrote Letters in the name of the King to all the Parliaments Governors and great Cities giving them an account of the eminent danger the King had escaped and the signal Service the Duke of Guise had rendred him The Parliament of Paris giving Credit to it bestowed upon him the glorious
Funeral Of so many Lords and so many Bishops as were then at Orleans there were none but Sansac and la Brosse who had been his Governors and Lewis Guillard Bishop of Senlis who was blind that conducted his Corps to Saint Denis His Heart was left to the Church named Saincte Croix at Orleans The Guises excused their not attending it upon the necessity there was for them to stay with their Niece to comfort her But they were not exempted from reproach such as had more sence of Honour then Ambition much blamed them for not paying that little devoir to him from whom they had received so much honour And indeed some body tack'd a Paper upon the Pall that cover'd his Coffin wherein were these words Taneguy du Chastel where art thou This Taneguy as was well known tho banished from Court during the Reign of Charles VII his Master came generously back again thither to make a Funeral for that King at his own charges shewing his gratitude thereby and making it appear to all the World that his thankfulness for the favours he had received were above his fear of the resentments of Lewis XI a mortal Enemy to the memory and Servants of his own Father The Constable who had been sent for several times but crept along slowly by little Journeys having heard the tydings of the Kings death doubled his pace and Arrived the Eight of the Month of December at Orleans Entring into Year of our Lord 1560 the City he made use of the power belonging to his Office and commanded away the Guards that were at the Gates threatning to send them to the Gallows if he found them any more besieging or investing the King in that manner in a time of Peace and in the very heart of his Kingdom As for the Prince though he had free liberty as soon as ever the King expir'd nevertheless he refused to go out of Prison till he knew who were the prosecutors against him and who his accusers There were none durst undertake to play so desperate a Game and the Guises replied that all had been done by express Command of the King but did not produce any Order by vertue whereof he had been so prosecuted So that Thirteen dayes afterwards he came forth and went to Ham in Picardy attended with Honour and respect by those very men that had served as Guards upon him in his Confinement CHARLES IX King LX. POPES PIUS IV. Five Years under this Reign PIUS V. Elected the 7 January 1566. S. 6 Years 3 Months and 24 dayes GREGORY XIII Elected the 13. of May 1572. S. 13. Years wanting one Month whereof two years under this Reign Year of our Lord 1560. in December THose hopes many had conceived that King Francis II. being near the time of his compleat Majority might possibly extinguish all the Factions were now by his death changed into a just fear of finding them rather more enflamed and heightned from a Sedition to a Bloody War wherefore the Tumults increasing every day they made hast to Assemble the Estates from whom the silly vulgar expect a redress of all their grievances and troubles The first Session was held the Thirteenth of December in a great Timber Hall expresly built in the place called l'Estape The Chancellor begun it with a Speech becoming his gravity He blamed the violent proceedings in matters of Religion told them the only means to reclaim such as went astray was a good exemplary Life and sound Doctrine exhorted them earnestly to lay aside the injurious names of Lutherans Huguenots Papists and desired every one to forbear all hatred and own no passion but for the publick good in which consists the benefit of all particular Persons There was nothing else done at this first meeting only the three Orders were sent to confer together about their Papers and Instructions Some who were inspired with a bolder zeal had a mind to confer the Regency upon the King of Navarre but withal to leave the Education of the young King to his Mother to set bounds to the Government and make choice of a good Council for the management of all Affairs of State The Queen Mother took the Allarm caused the Kings Council to make a Decree which forbad the Deputies to intermeddle with the Government and made use of so many intrigues that the Navarrois a Prince very inconstant and irresolute was perswaded to confirm what he had promised her during the Imprisonment of his Brother Year of our Lord 1561 The second of January was the second Sessions of the Estates The three Orders made their Harangues John de Lange Advocate of Bourdeaux spake for the Third Estate James de Silly Earl of Rochefort for the Nobility and John Quintin a Canon of Autun and Doctor en Decret for the Clergy The two first laid great stress and weight upon the Vices of the Ecclesiasticks the cause of all the disorders The last endeavour'd to defend them retorted all upon the new Sectaries and reflected particularly upon the Admiral who demanded reparation Year of our Lord 1561 Quintin was obliged to do it in a set Speech at the closing up of the Estates Whatever accord there could be between the Navarrois and the Regent yet there was danger that the Estates if they consider'd their power might put some Fetters upon this Woman who was a stranger and besides they began to perceive that the Princes were forming parties and tryed to foist in certain propositions for their own interests or concerning their private quarrels Amongst others the King of Navarre put them upon calling for an account of the Finances and a particular of all the Gifts bestowed in the Reign of Henry II. himself proffering to surrender all that were given him This touched the Constable and the Mareschal de Saint André more then the Guises as having expended more in the Kings Service then they had gained The Regent soon perceived where it pinched and joyning them to her self upon this consideration easily adjourned the Estates to the Month of May and the City of Pontoise and ordained that she might be at less Charge and trouble to bribe them that there should come but two Deputies from each Government In the Month of February the King being come to Fountainbleau the Prince of Condé appeared there with a slender attendance that he might give them no jealousie The next day being admitted to the Privy-Council and having spoken of his innocency he asked the Chancellor whether there were any proofs against him the Chancellor answered No and all the Princes and Lords having testified that they were satisfied of his innocency the King commanded him to take his Seat The Council did after make a Decree which declared him wholly innocent and sent him back to the Parliament of Paris to get a more Authentique one as he did in a few days afterwards The courage of the Guises did not sink upon the rise of their enemies they were supported by the Catholick Party and
Montmorency being suspected by them When the Parisians had recover'd their Armes again the Prince of Condé was the weaker and durst not Challenge the upper hand or dispute the Wall with the Triumvirs but to salve these sores a Composition was made by means of the Cardinal his Brother That the Heads of both Parties should leave the Town at the same time He therefore retired to his House de la Ferté-Aucou near Mâ—aux and the Duke of Guise went to Fountainbleau where the King was carrying so great a Convoy along with him that he made the Queen quickly sensible his Forces were much more numerous then the Princes She was gone thither amidst her irresolution which she ought to chuse either to cast her self into the Arms of the Prince and follow him to Orleans for he was to be there upon her first notice or to suffer her self to be carried to Paris by the Confederates Either of these made her a Captive the first was the more odious because of the great peril she would have put the Catholick Religion into and the latter appeared to her the more dangerous month March She would willingly have been in a Capacity of keeping them in equal balance on both hands and for that purpose had sent for the Prince who having gotten his friends together was Travelling towards her and had passed over the River at Saint Cloud His approach put the Parisians in Arms as if they might have been besieged by a handful of Men and gave occasion to the Confederates to let the Queen know it was necessary to remove the King to Paris lest he should fall into the Huguenots hands The King of Navarre carried her this unwelcome Message and she seeming to hesitate he told her plainly that if she were not pleased to go along with them she might stay behind She had not leasure to consider upon it but must follow or else loose the Party for at the same moment they carried the weeping King to Melun the next day to Bois de Vincennes and then to Paris Thus were all Addresses from that Queen fruitless and all the prudent Counsels of the Chancellor de l'Hospital which tended but to prevent a Civil War that he foresaw would be inevitable as soon as ever the King was in the hands of either Party Year of our Lord 1562. April In effect the Prince of Condé partly out of spight and revenge for having been deluded by a Woman for so he guessed it partly anger to see his Enemies Masters of the Kings Person and fear likewise of being left to their Mercy or suffer the zeal of his Friends and the Huguenot Party to grow cold ran post hast with two thousand Horse to Orleans where Dandelot had slily seized upon one of the Gates the day before which was the first of April This was as it were the place of Armes and Capital Seat of all his Party Now to keep them in Unity and under good Discipline the only bonds necessary to all establishments he took an Oath from all that were there That they would remain united for the defence of the Kings Person and of the Queens for the reformation and the benefit of the State That they should lead a Life without reproach and Christian-like observe the Laws of the Land and Military Year of our Lord 1562 Rules and should take care to provide Ministers to Preach the word of God to them That they should own him for their Head should obey all his Orders serve him with their Persons and should furnish him with Armes and Money He afterwards wrote to all the German Princes setting forth the cause of his taking up Arms and then sent the Queen Mothers Original Letters to perswade them thereby to send him some Assistance and lend a friendly and helping hand to redeem both the King and her from their Captivity At the same time he published a Manifesto to all the Kingdom to the same purpose and some dayes after sent after it the Copy whether real or supposed of a League made between the Pope the King of Spain and the Guises to exterminate all the Sectaries of the new Religion month April This was a strong motive to draw those Princes to his side who made profession of it and to retain and bind fast to him the Huguenots of France for the Kings Council thinking to dis-unite or lull them asleep by a deceitful security put out a Declaration upon the very same day directed only to their Bailiffs and their Lieutenants which confirmed the Edict of January granted Indemnity for all that was past forbid the molesting or doing them any injury for matters of Religion and gave them the Liberty of exercising the same in all places excepting within the City and Suburbs of Paris When the Prince had declar'd himself the Officers that took his part and the Huguenots of themselves seized upon several Cities as Mans Anger 's Vendosme la Charité upon the Loire Angoulesme Lyons Valence Romans and almost all those in Daufiné a great number of those in Guyenne and Languedoc In Normandy upon Rouen Caen Dieppe Havre de Grace Bayeux Saint Lo Vire Falaise and many others Matignon the Kings Lieutenant in that Province under the Duke of Bouillon who was Governor saved Granville and Cherbourg This was a signal Service for those Ports would have given an easie entrance to the English Wherever the Huguenots were Masters they utterly abolished the exercise of the Catholick Religion overturn'd the Altars broke the Images in pieces burned the Reliques and cast the ashes into the Air Tormented and Massacred the Monks and Priests not observing that equality and moderation herein which they expected should be measured to themselves but rendring their Party execrable to the People by the horrible profanation of all things Sacred The Prince neither by Intreaties nor by Remonstrances nor even by punishment had power to stop their fury which he knew must be very prejudicial to his cause And indeed they were even with them in many Cities where they Massacred huge numbers as particularly at Cahors Sens Amiens and at Beauvais and their pulling down and plundering continuing the Parliament by a Decree of the last of June enjoyned all persons to fall upon them and destroy and slay them in all places wherever they should find them as People that were mad and declared Enemies both to God and Man Though all the Kingdom were in a flame the Chancellor a right good Frenchman endeavour'd to remedy that evil he could not prevent and sought wayes for an Accommodation which did not seem impossible to him since their Forces had not yet engaged nor any Blood as yet been drawn but what was spilt in Tumults and Seditions The Queen consider'd likewise finding the Huguenots Masters of so many places that the Triumvirs might seize upon the rest and so both her Son the King and she might be wholly stripped of all and therefore she sent the Baron de la Garde to find
King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé from joyning with him whilst they were at Court but they came on with more boldness when they were in the Camp Henry de la Tour Vicount de Turenne at that time a Catholick and already very knowing and subtle though but young was the contriver of their Association Being all hot headed rash young Men many Designs were propounded as strange as bold The King having had some hint gave order to Pinard Secretary of State to enjoyn the Duke not to leave the Camp upon pain of Incurring his Indignation The Duke sending him back without any answer because he would not produce his Order the Kings Council took such an Alarm that the King apprehending some dangerous surprize wrote to the Duke of Anjou to hasten the taking of Rochel because he had need of his Forces about his Person This was the cause he made so many Assaults unseasonably and lost so many Men. Now as both the one and the other were in an extream Perplexity Arrives the News from Poland which open'd them a way to go off with Honour The Bishop of Valence had gained the Affections of the Polanders by means of Balagny his naâ—ural Son before the death of King Sigismond the last Prince of the House of Jagellons When he was dead which hapned the Seventh of July in the year 1572. he parted from Paris the Seventeenth day of August following and went thither himself The Queen Mother and the Duke of Anjou apprehended nothing Year of our Lord 1573 more then the success of this Election wherefore at the same time they pretended to employ all the Kings power for it they obstructed it underhand by private Methods Nevertheless the Bishop having more regard to the Kings Command and his own Honor then to a Womans fancies managed the business so well that it succeeded The Duke of Anjou was Elected King but as the Heads of two of those four Factions that were amongst them were Calvinists they obliged the French Ambassadors to promise them several Conditions in favour of that Religion particularly that they should leave all those Cities at Liberty which were Besieged Upon the News of this Election and the Arrival of the Polish Ambassadours who came to fetch their new King the Duke of Anjou made them give some fresh Assaults and then renewed the propositions for accommodation The Rochellers refused to hearken to any thing unless all the other Cities of their Party were comprehended and they were fain to yeild to them in this point unless for month June Sancerre whose Surrender was hourly expected The Articles were all resolved upon the Five and Twentieth of June the Ratification was brought back some dayes after with an Edict of Pacification which was more restrictive by much then the preceeding ones for it allowed only Liberty of Conscience but no publick exercise excepting in the Cities of Rochel Nismes and Montauban It was not in their Power to obtain the same advantage for Sancerre the King under colour it belonged to a particular Lord whose right he could not infringe refused to grant them any more but the Liberty of Marriages and Christnings So that although for four Months past the scarcity of Provisions grew daily to a most-horrible Extremity yet they resolved to perish rather then not enjoy the same Conditions which the rest had They fed upon the most unclean Creatures and upon such Herbs as Beasts themselves refuse to tast as also Parchment and Leather and to say all in a word they surprized a Father and a Mother feeding upon their own Daughter that had been starved to death Whilst they were in this most lamentable State and yet would not think of a Surrender the Ambassadours from Poland who Arrived in the beginning of August got composition for them but they had no other advantages for their Religion then what was general So that the Cruel and Voluntary death of Two Thousand of those unhappy Wretches served only to Signalize to all future Ages their too long and fatal obstinacy In the Treaty of Rochel it was Stipulated that the Rochellers should intreat the Duke of Anjou to come into their City but that he should not enter So that after the most eminent had been with him to request it he dismissed his Army and went on Board his Galleys visited the adjacent Islands thence Sailed to Nantes and so returned to Court being every where received in quality of a King Thus ended that Famous Siege where the King lost Twelve Thousand Men and a great many Persons of Note the most remarkable being Claude Duke of Aumale who was Slain with a Cannon Shot The Polish Ambassadours who were Twelve in number and for their Chief had the Bishop of Posna Arrived at Mets the Five and Twentieth of July made their Solemn entrance into Paris on the Third day of September and the Tenth month July c. read the Decree of Election in the Palace-Hall The King was there upon a Scaffold Array'd in his Royal Robes and accompanied by all the Princes and Grandees of his Court The Decree being taken out of a Silver Box Sealed with an Hundred and Ten Seals of the Prelates Palatines and Castellans of the Kingdom was open'd and read aloud by one of the Ambassadors The King having given them very many civil thanks rose from his Seat and went to embrace the King of Poland his Brother the other Princes and Noblemen then present went afterwards to Congratulate him and pay their Respects He kissed the Duke of Alâ—ncon and the King of Navarre and treated the others with more or less Ceremony according to their quality I shall say nothing of the Feastings and Balets wherewith the Queen Mother entertained them those are the Abortives of Luxury and Prodigality the remembrance of which ought to last no longer then the smell of the meat and noise ☜ of the Violins The King of Poland made his entrance into Paris by the Gate Sainct Amoine with a Suitable Magnificence It was looked upon as an ill Omen that his Heraulds mistook in their blasoning the Arms of his New Kingdom Year of our Lord 1573 These Ceremonies ended King Charles who had taken up a strong Resolution he would Reign himself and withdraw that Authority he had imprudently committed to his Mother hastned his departure with great impatience every hour seeming a tedious year but the more he pressed the more delays the other still sought out It was not the delights only of the Court his Mothers tenderness the almost Royal Authority his Command had placed him in as Generalissimo of the Army's and the hope of succeeding to the Crown which ever seemed near at hand because the King had no Child that detained him in France the violent Love he had for the Princess of Condé was a stronger tye then all these The Duke of Guise who had Married the Sister soothed and served him though to no purpose in his passion and by that means had
gained the Princes favour so entirely that he could not have liv'd a moment without him Seven or Eight dayes were past and the King of Poland went not though all his Equipage were ready and his Goods loaden The King attributes it to the month September Queen and told her with an Oath that one of the two must leave the Kingdom but the Duke of Guise with-held him still upon hopes of a sudden enjoyment and offer'd him Fifty Thousand men to defend him from the wrath of his Brother At Three dayes end the King verily believing the Queen his Mother was the cause of his delay and that it was to hatch some dangerous Conspiracy caused his Closet Door to be rudely shut against her and resolved to prevent their designes by some others which no doubt would have been very Tragical The Peril was Evident both for her and her Son yet notwithstanding she could hardly resolve to part with him The King would needs Conduct him to the Frontiers rather to hinder him from Cantonizing himself in any of the Provinces then out of any Affection He could not accompany him so far as he desired but was forced to stop at Vitry in Partois for in a few dayes after he had menaced his Mother he was seized with a lingring but Malignant Feaver which made him very giddy in his Head and sick at Heart almost every Minute The Queen Mother with the Duke of Alencon and the King of Navarre Conducted him as far as Blamont in Lorraine There the Mother and the Son took their Leaves of each other amidst their Embraces Sobbs Sighes and Tears she most imprudently let fall these words Farewel my Son you shall not stay there long which being over-heard by several and quickly divulged did much encrease the sinister suspicions they had of the Kings Malady though others attributed it to his constitution which was of adust Choller and to the violent exercises he used as Hunting Riding the great Horse playing at Tennis Five or Six hours together hammering and forging of Iron which had so over-heated his mass of Blood that he slept but little and had sometimes Fits like those that so much afflicted Charles VI. King Henry after his departure from Blamont having Travell'd cross all Germany Arrived at Miezrich the first City of Poland about the end of the Month of January He had in his Train the Dukes of Nevers and Mayne the Marquiss d'Elbcuf the Count de Rais lately made Mareschal of France Roger de Sainct Lary Bellegarde Ten or Twelve other Lords of Note and above Five Hundred of the bravest Gentlemen besides these several Men of the Gown amongst others Bellievre Ambassadour of France to him Vincent Lauré Apostolick Nuncio and Pibrac the Kings Attorney in the Parliament of Paris All the Princes thorow whose Territories he passed strove to pay him the honour due to his Birth and Dignity there was none but Frederic Count Palatine of the Rhine that Treated him otherwise That Prince one of the gravest of his time desiring to make the young King and his bloody Council know the Injustice of the Massacres received him after a manner not much obliging and took pleasure in putting him into some apprehension of a most terrible Revenge At first that Noble and Majestick Air which outwardly appeared in all his Actions and the Profusion he made with both hands got him the passionate Love of the Nobility and adoration of the People but soon after the discomposedness of his Mind proceeding from Vapours of the Spleen his Melancholly for not receiving so early as he wished the News he expected from France a disgust of the Manners and Conversations of those People rendred him un-easie to himself and to his Subjects He sought for solitude in his own Closet communicated himself to none but his Favourites was sad and silent but that which aggravated Year of our Lord 1573 his Sorrow the more was the Proposition made him by the Senate to Marry Anne Sister of the Deceased King ill-favour'd and old whose dis-agreeable aspect did but more encrease those Flames in his Breast first kindled at Paris by the bright Eyes of the charming Princess of Condé There was some likely-hood that his departure from France would contribute much towards the calming of the Affairs in the State That the fears of the Huguenots who dreaded him and his Favorites ceasing their emotions would cease likewise That the Queen Mother having none now to rely upon would be forced to obey in her turn and that her Italians who excited the publick hatred and perverted the Just and Ancient Laws of Government to Introduce a new and Tyrannical Power would loose their Credit and Interest But on the contrary the Huguenots believing themselves the Stronger had not laid down their Arms in Languedoc but being confirmed and encouraged in their Assembly of Millaud and afterwards in those of Montauban and Nismes they became more audacious in their demands than if they yet had their Admiral at the Head of Thirty thousand Men to fight their Battels And besides the Duke of Alencon and the Politiques believing they were now Masters of all by the absence of the Duke of Anjou would needs dispose of things as they pleased The Duke d'Alencon ready to embrace any Enterprize without consideration and to give it over as lightly without thinking forged several in his own head but chiefly two amongst the rest the one to undertake the Lieutenancy of the War in the Low-Countries against the Spaniards and the King would gladly have sent him thither to ridd his hands of such a turbulent and restless Spirit the other was to demand the General Lieutenancy as the Duke of Anjou had it The Mareschal de Montmorency was of opinion he should stick to the latter and earnestly desired it for him with such persuasive Arguments and Reasons that the King thought fit to grant it Year of our Lord 1574. January c. But the Queen Mother who did expect no more acknowledgment or respect from this Son than she had shewed affection towards him who besides feared he would wrest her Authority from her and if the King hap'ned to die might perchance shut her dear Son the Duke of Anjou out of the Kingdom studied to break his measures and desired the Lieutenancy for the Duke of Lorrain who had Married the Fondling of all her Daughters Now when she found the King had promis'd it to the Duke of Alencon she contrived the Matter so well that instead of a Patent he only made a Declaration by word of Mouth and gave Letters under the Privy-Seal to some Governours shewing thereby plainly enough he meant to recall his Word as he soon after did and confer'd that eminent Title upon the Duke of Lorrain In the mean time the Duke of Alencon had contracted a most particular tye with the Huguenots and had promised to take them into his Protection The King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé were entred into this
Duke of Alenson after the Peace made his residence at Bourges where Bussy d'Amboise Fervaques Laffin Simiers and some other Favourites of his obliged him to stay for their own advantage or for their security Towards the end of October he was prevailed upon to go to Court by the perswasions of the Queen-Mother and came to salute the King at the Castle d'Olinville near Chastres The King received so much joy by this visit that he gave notice by Letters Patents of it to all his Kingdom Bussy would not follow his Master but went and setled his Habitation in the Castle of Angiers chusing rather said he to play the King in that Countrey then the Waiting-man or Valet at Court As soon as they had thus withdrawn the Duke of Anjou they began to continue the ruine of the Huguenots to form powerful Leagues as well within the Kingdom which we shall presently mention as without by communication with Don Juan of Austria whom King Philip was sending Governour to the Low-Countreys and with the Popes Legat. Year of our Lord 1576 Don Juan and the Legat arriving at Court on the very same day and from different places the first incognito and the other in great state had access and very private Conference with the Kings Council and yet more particularly with the Duke of Guise The Queen-Mothers aim was in the first place to take off the King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé from the party and in order to this she was resolved to make a journey into Guyenne and discourse with them but whether she found they were not so disposed as she desired to be deluded by her or not she did not go In the mean time these two Princes who had no secure retreat for their Persons endeavour'd to make sure of some the Prince with more Craft then Faith or fair Play seized upon Brouage having order'd some Companies to slip in then upon Mirembean himself who was Lord thereof whom he forced to put him in possession of the place promising however to render it again within three Months In effect he did render it to him but soon after seized it the Second time upon some jealousie either real or pretended The Rochellers took the allarm and the Court fomented their suspitions so much that the Mayor sent to desire the Prince not to come to Rochel but the Ministers and People made them change that resolution and ordered that he should be invited provided he brought no more then his ordinary attendance Thus the Court plainly perceived he was not so absolute over the party as he would have made them believe The late conjunction of the Duke of Alenson with the Religionaries and Politiques and the advantageous Peace granted to them produced that mightly Faction to which the Authors of it gave the name of Holy Vnion and the vulgar that of The League or to say better revived and fagotted together all the other particular ones which had been already formed in divers parts under the Reign of Charles IX For the Lords during those troubles had taken the confidence to make Treaties and Confederacies amongst themselves without asking permission of the King and the People arrogated to themselves the liberty of giving their Oaths to others besides their Sovereign justifying themselves by presidents drawn from the Huguenots who indeed shewed them first the example Thus they framed one in Languedoc between the Cardinals de Strossy and Armagnac and some Lords of that Countrey another again in Bourdelois of which the Marquis de Trans of the House of Foix was General another much greater whereof Montluc advised Charles IX to be the Head There were also certain Fraternities joyned in Burgundy which to speak properly were a kind of a League Besides that in Limosin in the Vivarets and some other Provinces the People armed to defend themselves against all Soldiers of either party Year of our Lord 1576 They tell us likewise that the Queen-Mother had given notice to Charles IX that if he would not consent to the Massacre on St. Bartholomews there was a League ready form'd should execute it without him and it is certain that upon the apprehension there was of King Henry's being stopt in Poland several Associations were made in the Provinces to preserve the State and the Catholique Religion So that it was but only the joyning and cimenting all these distinct parties together to make up the great Body of the League The zealous Catholiques were the instruments the new Religious Orders the Paranymphs and Trumpeters the Grandees of the Kingdom the Authors and Heads The easy temper of the King gave way to its growth and the Queen-Mother lent it her helping hand She was not prompted to it by any zeal for Religion nor for any love or kindness towards the Guises but out of her mortal hatred to the Huguenots above all other Reasons because they earnestly desired she should give an account of her Administration and bawled open mouth'd against the disorders of the Court and the enormous Vices of the Italians especially against the new and vexations Tolls and Faxes those strangers invented every day The Pope and the King of Spain were the promoters of it this because the Huguenots were in friendship with the Gueux the Rebels in the Low-Countreys and he apprehended lest the Duke of Anjou grown more powerful might affect to embrace the Sovereignty of those Provinces or that the King of Navarre young and valiant would endeavour to wrest that Kingdom out of his hands which he so unjustly detained from him the other because he feared the Huguenots might become so strong as would oblige the King to hold a National Council and believed withal that if he could but exterminate them in France he might very easily attain his ends and trample on all the Protestants elsewhere Now the League appeared first in Picardy The People in that Countrey ignorant and devout but hot-headed easily took fire upon the apprehension was spread on purpose amongst them how the Prince of Condé would plant his Religion in that Province if he came to make his Residence at Peronne pursuant to the Treaty of Peace James de Humieres Governour of Peronne Montdidier and Roye great in Estate and Credit induced the Nobility and most of the Cities in that Province to sign it and Aplincourt a young Gentleman of his kindred took the Oaths of the Inhabitants of Peronne The Duke of Guise and the Duke of Mayenne engaged Champagne and then Burgundy to do the like Lewis de la Tremouille prevailed in Poitou being offended with the Huguenots who now and then surprized some Castle of his withal desirous to impugne the Count de Lude Governour of the Province In fine this Faction which had this taken root in every Province did on a suddain shoot forth such thick and lofty branches that it both cover'd and eclipsed nay almost stifled the whole Regal Authority When the Huguenots demanded with such instance the Estates-General
at Paris with his accustomed Pomp and Magnificence The number of Knights was limited to an hundred who were to be nobly descended for three Races not comprising the Ecclesiasticks which are four Cardinals and four Bishops and the Officers Year of our Lord 1579 He would needs have the Knights called Commanders having resolved according to the example of the Spaniard to attribute to every one of them a Commandery over the Benefices The Pope and Clergy refused to consent thereto nevertheless the name they still retain and the King in lieu of it assigned to each of them a Pension of one thousand Crowns to be paid out of his Treasury There is probability he instituted this Order in honour of the Holy Ghost as a remembrance that upon the day of Pentecost he received two Crowns first that of Poland and then that of France but an Author tells us he had taken this Model from the like Order instituted by Lewis King of Sicilia upon the same motives Anno 1532. As for the Political Reason he may have done it with the like design as Lewis XI did that of St. Michael i. e. to destroy the Leagues in his State and even to convert the Chiess of the Huguenot Party by the splendour and allurement of so desirable a Mark of Honour The Negociation of the Queen Mother with the King of Navarre at Nerac took her up more time then she imagined The Prince would conclude nothing without the advice of the whole Party whose Deputies he called together at Montanban She inveigled some of them by the artificial charms of those Ladies she carried along with her But Queen Margaret who counted all things lawful to revenge her self on her Brother for expelling her his Court took care to gain the heart of Pibrac who was her Mothers Counsellor That great Mans Wisdom foundred upon this Rock so that acting only as she directed and contrary to the designs of the Queen her Mother he explained and worded many Articles in favour of the Religionaries procured them many advantages and even several places for security The Conference ending with the Month of February the Queen would needs make month February c. the Tour of Languedoc and Dauphine In those Provinces she shewed much kindness to the Politicks and the Male-contented having a prospect of making use of them towards the Duke of Alensâ—n if her Son Henry should chance to die without Children From thence she travelled into Provence where the disturbances were still kept on foot between the Rasats and the Cacistes the latter had the Nobless the former the Populace and the Parliament for them The real cause of those Broils was the Government of the Province the Mareschal de Rais who had obtained the gift of it Anno 1515. was so little beloved that he was forced to give it up to the Count de Suse This Man being placed there by his means found as little pleasure and quiet as the other so that the Mareschal got it to be committed to the Cardinal of Armagnac who being aged and decay'd could not well bridle the Factious Henry Grand Prior of France the Kings Bastard Brother had a great mind to that Government and therefore stirred up and blew these Coals of Dissentions The Queen finding there was no other way to extinguish them gave him what he desired Year of our Lord 1579 At her return the Duke of Savoy came out of respect to wait upon her at Grenoble and engaged her to go as far as Montluc in Bresse to confer with Bellegarde This Mareschal discontented with the Court had seized on the Marquisate of Salusses and perhaps had some private Treaty with that Duke who had highly obliged him upon many occasions In effect when he died which fell out the following year the Duke endeavour'd by divers means to detain the places in that Marquisate to which he had several pretensions and stirred up such as were Governors there for the King to cantonize or at least favour'd them but as he durst not assist them openly they were forced to let go their holds after some resistance At this time the Queen had not leisure enough to unravel those intricate Affairs for receiving information how the Favourites made themselves absolute Masters of the Kings mind during her tedious absence she left Bellegarde and returned with great diligence to Court month May. She found the Duke of Anjou who had been absent ever since his escape was just come thither and lived in very good correspondence with the King He had taken this resolution without consulting his Bussy d'Amboise who staid behind in Anjou This proud and haughty Spirit continued there braving and despising all the World taking pride in triumphing over the Ladies as well as their Husbands till at last the Lord de Montsoreau kill'd him in his Castle de la Coutanciere at which place he had compell'd his Wife to make him an Assignation this was in the Month of July month June and July At the time he thus perished his Master was gone into England with two Gentlemen only to make love to Queen Elizabeth This Princess was so shaped or formed that though she loved passionately yet could she not admit of such love again as to be a Mother without the greatest hazard of her life for which reason she never did intend to take a Husband and yet refused none thereby to keep her Enemies in awe with the noise of her Alliances and gain her self friends upon the prospect of such fair hopes The Duke was so well received and treated by her with so much freedom and privacy that all such as did not know her well believed the Match indubitable And indeed it was her interest to have it thought so thereby to encourage that Princes Friends in assisting him to gain the Soveraignty of the Low-Countries not so much for love to him as to prevent their falling under the absolute power of the King Year of our Lord 1579 Upon the intelligence they received that the Duke of Savoy had agreed to share the Conquests of the Swiss Countries with the King of Spain and that he was to begin by Geneva which those Cantons had received into their Alliance forasmuch as it is by that Road they can both send Supplies into France and receive it thence the King was advised upon the earnest sollicitation of the Catholick Cantons themselves to take that City under his protection left any other should seize upon it To this purpose a particular Treaty was set on foot between him and the Swiss which was Negociated at Soleurre by Nicholas de Harlay-Sancy There were none now left amongst the Huguenots but the common People and Consistorians who had any great zeal for their Religion as for the Grandees theirs was but Faction the Prince of Conde was almost the only Man that was fully persuaded to be of their way Wherefore he had but little interest with the Politiques nor even with the King of Navarre and
all possibility of discovery who the Authors were that had encourag'd him to commit the Crime but the young Prince of Orange causing him to be searched found Spanish Letters in his Pockets which plainly told them who he was While the Prince was under Cure the Duke made his Entrance at Bruges and at Ghent in this last City he received the Ornaments of Earl of Flanders Some days after he discover'd the horrible Conspiracy of Nicholas Salsede Son of another Salsede month April c. Originally a Spaniard and a fugitive from his Country for some Crime who had taken up his habitation in France It was he that had made War against the Cardinal de Lorrain in the Country of Messin for which he was Murther'd on the bloody St. Bartholomews The Son was also banish'd from France for having burnt a Gentleman of Normandy in his own House who had accused him about false Money This Fellow therefore pretends to devote himself to the service of the Duke of Anjou with a whole Regiment raised at his own expence but the Prince of Orange who had ever a watchful Eye discover'd that he held some Intelligence with the Duke of Parma Thereupon they seize him as likewise one certain Francis Basa an Italian also a Bâ—nquier named Baldwin and some others It was said they had plotted to seize upon divers places to deliver them up to the Prince of Parma and had formed some attempt upon the Persons of the Duke of Anjou and the Prince of Orange The bottom of this mistery could never be certainly known because Basa after his having for fear of the Rack or otherwise discover'd very strange things Murther'd himself in Prison and the wretched Salsede varied two or three times upon his Interrogatories and involved so many Persons in his Crime who were known to be Innocent that no certain Judgment could be drawn from his Confessions It was believed he did so on purpose to be carried to Paris in hopes the Duke of Parma Year of our Lord 1582 would rescue him on the way but Bellievre conducted him thither with so much precaution that he deluded the Dukes Spies and frustrated the expectation of the Criminal The King caused him to be examined divers times by his Parliament Men and placed himself in a Chamber near at hand to over-hear what he would say he sung the same note as he had done in Flanders which startled the King so much that he knew not whom to confide in any longer seeing no body about him but such as were accused The Parliament condemned him to be drawn by four wild Horses The Sentence being pronounced as they were leading him to the Chappel there was as some affirm a certain Frier on the Steps who whispering somewhat in his Ear made him retract all what he had confess'd thereby leaving the Judges and the King in greater perplexity then ever month June July c. The States had but little Money and a great many Garrisons to maintain so that the Duke of Anjou's Army could not be above four or five thousand Men this Campagne which he divided into three small Bodies to cover the out-skirts of the greater Cities That of the Duke of Parma though consisting of more then Thirty thousand could take but four or five small Castles which were of no great importance For besides that he was obliged to leave the one half of his Forces to Garrison his places when he would have invested Bruxels he was assaulted by famine Artois and Hainault being so eaten up that they could furnish him with no Provisions and then when he attempted to get into the Country of Waes the Duke of Anjou shut up the passage after which divers contagious Maladies the inundations of Waters by breaking of the Dykes and such like inconveniencies constrained him to go into Winter Quarters The passion the Queen Mother had for conquering new Kingdoms had prompted her to cast her Eyes upon Portugal But not succeeding in her pretended claim she fancied she might accumulate the Right and Title of Anthony with hers And for this reason she had drawn him into France where the King received him with much honour and gave a smart reply to the Spanish Ambassador who made great instance he might be turned out thence that France had ever been the refuge of the unfortunate and that he should never be persuaded to violate the sanctity of an Asylum so inviolably maintain'd by all his Predecessors He therefore permitted his Mother to raise Forces in his Kingdom to pursue her Rights and to Equip as many Vessels as she pleased which she laboured in with great application all the whole year 1581. Year of our Lord 1582 The same Religious Monks who had persuaded the Islands of the Azores to declare for Anthony were grown so insolent of their power that they disturbed all by their Tumults and did nothing but put the People into such rage and heats as produced no good The Governor whom Antony had sent thither it was Emanuel de Sylva his Favourite whom he created Count de Torres-Vedras was more frantick and much more wicked yet then they So that Landerean whom the Queen had sent with Eight hundred Men till the rest of the Army was in readiness endeavouring to give him moderate Council he set all his Engines at work to ruine him even to the suborning of Rascals to assassinate or poison him month June c. The French Navy parted from Belle-Isle in the Month of June Strossy was Admiral Brissac Vice-Admiral Saincte Soulene a Poitevin commanded a Squadron Don Antonio went in this Fleet together with the Count de Vimiosa the only Portuguese Lord that stuck to him in his misfortune They landed in the Island St. Michael the only one of all the nine which held for the Spaniard forced eight hundred Men that would have hindred their coming ashoar defeated Noguera a Spanish Captain who had drawn three thousand Soldiers together and marched directly into the City Elgade but Anthony instead of Storming the Castle which would have made him absolute Master of those Islands and would have given him the opportunity and advantage of intercepting their India Fleet wherewith he might have maintained the War two or three years amused himself in playing the King amidst the acclamations of the light-headed Populace and in the mean while the Spanish Navy arrived Commanded by the Marquiss de Santa Crux who cast Anchor under shelter of the Castle d'Elgrade to wait an opportunity of fighting them The French Forces out-numbred them both for Ships and Men but there was no less disorder and mis-understanding amongst them then jealousies and quarrels there being many Volunteers on board most of the Captains having set out their month July Ships at their own charges and the Generals though Valiant were so careless and negligent that their Commands carried no Authority nor did their examples give any vigour or encouragement to their Men. When they came to engage which was on
from Rome he resolved to go thither himself to negociate this Affair with the Pope imagining that the splendour of his favour and the gallant propositions he would offer for the exaltation of the Pontifical Authority would obtain all he desired He was magnificently received at Rome Lewis Cardinal d'Est presented him to his Holiness he respected him as the Favourite of a very potent Monarch but for the rest did not comply with any of his demands except a Cardinals Hat for the Archbishop of Narbonne his younger Brother The King stiling him his Brother in his Letters of Recommendation the Venetians upon his return rendred him as much honour as if he had been a Son of France the Dukes of Ferrara and Mantoua treated him in the same manner and all the Cities of France where he passed made him their Compliments as they were ordered to do nevertheless the vexation of mind he brought home with him for the Popes denial or as some others will have it an unfortunate trick of youth cast him into a long fit of Sickness which made him so lean and so ill-favour'd that it was some time ere he durst appear before the King with whom during this interval his Rival had gained so much advantage that he might easily have quite supplanted him had he not feared Year of our Lord 1583 some other might come into his place whose more auspicious favour might perhaps have thrust him out likewise Queen Margaret was then at Court where she could not forbear making feuds and practising her wonted malice A Courier whom the King sent to Joyeuse in Italy month July being kill'd upon his Journey and his Letters rifled the King suspected it was by her contrivance and resolved to be revenged by defaming her as she endeavour'd to vilifie him He reproached her publickly of her familiarity with James de Harlay Chanvallon said she kept certain Ladies about her that were her Confidents whom he called precious Vermine then some few days after commanded her to go to her Husband and upon the Road sent a Captain of his Guards who searched her very Litter pull'd her Masque off her Face and seized upon two or three of her Domestick Servants and brought them before the King with two of her Dames He examined them each apart concerning the manner of Life and Conversation of his Sister then sent them to the Bastille The King of Navarre could easily not resolve to receive his Wife thus defam'd he pressed the King to chastise her himself if she deserved to suffer such Indignities if not to clear her of those Scandals the King without offering to make out any month August c. thing repeated his absolute Commands and the Mareschal de Matignon having invested him in Nerac by privately conveying Garrisons into all the places thereabout forced him to receive her The Expences of the Favourites were excessive and the depredations of the Finances even by those very Men that managed the Treasury much greater yet This ill Husbandry begot such an extream scarcity of Money that often times there was not enough to furnish the Kings Table and if we may so say the Pottage-Pot stood often topsey-turvey His Flatterers pretended the People loved him so infinitely that whenever he did but signifie his wants all 〈◊〉 untie their Purse Strings to assist him It was for this purpose but under 〈◊〉 â—our of redressing the present Disorders that he the precedent year had sent to visit the provinces by Persons of Credit and Probity who with smooth and fine Harangues concluded always with a touch upon that String but to very little purpose Year of our Lord 1583 When he found that Project would hot take he called an Assembly of Notables to St. Germain en Laye thinking thereby to gain the good will of the People and let them know that if he had sent Commissioners it was not so much for his own Interests as to hear their Complaints and do them Justice month Septemb. c. The Assembly was divided into three Chambers each of them having a Prince of the Blood for President The Affairs were all distributed which they reduced to certain Heads as well for the Reformation of the Clergy the Nobility and the Judges as for the Administration of the Government and regulation or dispensation of the Finances There were very excellent Propositions tendred as to set aside all sale of Offices and Employments to assign punishments for all such as should invent any new Imposts or Creations to purge the Kings Council of those that had any Combination with the Parties belonging to the Finances and to prevent all under-hand villanous dealing therein Chiverny had introduced that fraudulent practise amongst them ever since he had had the Seals endeavouring thereby to procure both Employment and Authority to himself as not having so much 〈◊〉 he desired in Affairs of State The Clergy were not forgetful in demanding the re-establishment of Elections and the publication of the Council of Trent as to the first point all those that thought it much easier to acquire favour and interest then merit and learning stood up against it and for the second the Chapters Parliaments and the Kings Council made Head and opposed it so that they obtained neither the one nor the other As for the rest the King established four Councils i. e. the Council for Foreign Affairs the Council of State the Council de Finances or the Treasury and the Privy-Council They were composed of Men of the Sword of the Church and of the long Robe to whom he prescribed even the fashion of their Garments both for Winter and Summer and assigned them two thousand Livers per Annum Wages The remaining part of the year was spent in setling these Regulations and divers ☞ other Orders the multiplication whereof in France hath never had any other effect but the multiplying of Abuses and Grievances In the mean while the Three and twentieth month November of November died the Cardinal Rene de Birague aged Seventy four years who said of himself That he was A Cardinal without a Title a Priest without a Benefice and a Chancellor without the Seals for in the year 1578. he had given them up to Chiverny One might have added A Judge without knowledge in the Law and a Magistrate without any Authority because in truth he had no learning and bowed his Head like a tall Reed to every blast of Court wind having more respect for a Valet in favour then to all the Laws of the Kingdom A famous Ingenier named Louis de Foix Native of Paris but Originally of the Country whose name he bare began this year to build the Phare at the mouth of the Year of our Lord 1583 River of Bourdeaux near the ruines of another Tower which was named the Tower of Cordouan Two years before he had done great service towards the Trade of Bayonne The Sea had brought such vast quantities of Sand into the old Boucaud of the
about preparing and equipping it and every year he laid out above a Million of Gold for the expences The King apprehending that the Leaguers if he ran them into despair might get them to land upon the coasts of France durst no longer deny those things they ask'd of him He gave them that Edict which bare the specious name of Year of our Lord 1588 Re-Vnion By which renewing his Coronation Oath he swear to root out all Schisms and Heresies and never make any Peace or Edict in favour of the Huguenots ordained likewise all his Subjects of what quality soever to swear the same and that his death hapning they should acknowledge no Prince for their King who was an Heretique or abettor of Heresie Declared Rebels and Criminals de Lesae Majestatis those who refused to Sign this Edict and approved all that had been done the 12 th and 13 th of May and since as well at Paris as in other Cities as being done out of pure Zeal for the Catholique Religion He swear this Edict with an appearance of great joy all those that were of his Council and of his Court did the same thing excepting the Duke of Nevers who refused the Oath three or four times till the King enjoyned him to it upon pain of disobedience The Parliament did forthwith Register and make publication of it and all the great Cities received it This done the King returned to Chartres towards the end of the Month and the Queen brought thither the Duke of Guise and presented him to the King There appeared in their countenances and in their discourse and in either of their proceedings so many marks of Confidence and a cordial Affection that the whole Court was overjoy'd at this reconciliation and the most cautelous believed it might be unfeigned At this time the King of Navarre was returned from Bearn to Rochell and sought to gain the favour of that City where indeed he had no very great credit during the life of the Prince of Condé Lesdiguieres was buisy in Danfiné curbing the Cities of Gap and Grenoble with Ports he mated Grenoble so effectually that they demanded a Truce for six Months He and Montmorency had also besieged the Pont Sainct Esprit when the Edict of Re-Union was brought to him It made the Mareschal put up his Sword but hastned la Valete to make a League Offensive and Defensive with Lesdiguieres There was nothing in Daufiné that made head against the last but only Charles de Simiane d'Albigny nor did he spare any thing to gain his amity he offer'd to give him his Daughter in Marriage to share his Authority between them and to leave it solely to him at his death These advantageous proffers had less power and influence over the Spirit of Albigny then that zeal he was confirmed in for the Religion of his Ancestors he ever constantly resisted him but not with so much success as courage month September and October The Provenceaux in the mean time were risen up against Valete the Kings private Orders the Parliaments hatred to the Duke of Espernon and the ambition of Vins who pretended to that Government did but too much animate those Spirits whose Blood is soon heated and easily incited to a commotion The supplies which came to him from Daufiné did but little service when the Parliament had once set him beside the Government most of the Gentry and all the Cities abandon'd him excepting four or five petty places which he maintained till the death of the Duke of Year of our Lord 1588 Guise when the face of Affairs were changed by the Kings changing of his mind month August In the precedent Month of August the Duke of Espernon saw himself in most dreadful danger his kind fortune and great courage drew him out of it Having staid some days in the Castle of Loches after his leaving the Court before he resolved to go to Angoulesme the Mayor of the Town had order from the King to oppose his entrance and not able to do so because Espernon had prevented the Courier he undertook to seize him in the Castle or the Kings House where he lodged He entred therefore with Ten Men well armed under colour of bringing a Courier to him but running rashly into the Wardrobe instead of going directly to his Closet he mist his prey and perish'd with his Brother-in-law who crept in thorow a hole to come to his aid The other Conspirators and their friends who had taken Arms in the City apprehending to be over-born by the Soldiers who came thundring in to the Dukes assistance and the Duke to be starved to death having not eaten in Thirty hours this fear and that necessity made an accommodation between them and obliged them to stand to it Villeroy was taxed as having abused or contrived Letters under the Signet to destroy Espernon but the King clearly owned the business He was grown so peevish that towards the end of the same Month he dismiss'd the Chancellor de Chiverny Villeroy and Pinard Secretaries of State and Pompone de Bellievre Sur-Intendant des Finances At the same time he heaped Favours upon the Leaguers for he put the Seals into the hands of Francis de Montolon Advocate in Parliament whom they revered because of his servent zeal for the Catholique Religion He also declared the Cardinal de Bourbon the nearest of kin to his Blood In effect he was so but not the fittest to succeed and he permitted the Clergy to furnish Five hundred thousand Crowns towards the expences of the War Now that the said Body Ecclesiastical might raise it without alienating their Fund he consented to the erection of an alternate Receiver and two Comptrollers of the Tenths hereditary in each Diocess This Fund was ordained for the maintenance of two Armies which he had raised He gave the one to the Duke of Mayenne and the other to the Duke of Nevers but this was upon the refusal of the Duke of Guise who by advice of the Arch-Bishop of Lyons resolved to remain at Court and got a constant and certain Fund setled to keep his Table of Grand Maistre month July and August The event made it appear that this resolution was not prudent for the beams of his power shining perpetually so bright in the Kings Eyes awakened his resentments which perhaps might else by little and little have been extinguished and laid to sleep in the shades of oblivion He was offended that the Pope should in a Letter call the Duke and the Cardinal de Bourbon Machabéans and say they had saved the people of Israel Besides this the Duke of Nevers and Lognac Captain of Year of our Lord 1588 the Forty-five did perpetually stir up his indignation The Duke of Nevers because he irreconcileably hated the Duke of Guise and Lognac because having in some manner succeeded to the Kings favour after Espernon as Second with Bellegarde Cosin-Germain to that Duke well knew that the House of Guise always enemies
to the Favorites would not suffer him long in that post They labour'd on both sides to gain the Deputies for the Estates The over-confidence of the League was a little humbled by the defeat of Philips Armado which month August equally threatned both France and England That Invincible Fleet so they called it after it had been tossed beaten scatter'd every where by continual tempests and then by the English and Hollanders having lost near Ten thousand Men and above Threescore Ships had much ado torn and shatter'd as it was to recover the Ports of Spain The King was at Chartres when he received the news of it and it was this perhaps which emboldned him to go to Blois where his presence was necessary to see and take notice of the Deputies as they repaired thither month September The Fifteenth of September being come but very few of the Deputies the Assembly was put off till October and the first Session was open'd on a Sunday the Sixteenth month October of that Month. The Clergy had an hundred thirty four Deputies there amongst whom appeared Four Arch-Bishops Bishops One and twenty and Two Chiefs of Orders attired in their Rochets and Surplices The Nobility had an hundred and Fourscore in Velvet Gowns and Caps The Third Estate an hundred ninety one part of them Lawyers part of them Trading People the First with Gowns and square Caps the others with short Cloaks and round Bonnets Before the opening of this Assembly the King knew by the tenor of their Papers or Instructions that there was a party made to diminish his Authority and augment that of the Estates wherefore he gave notice in his Harangue otherwise very eloquent and very pathetique of his resentment against the Duke of Guise for which that Prince made such violent complaint to him by the mouth of the Arch-Bishop of Lyons that he was obliged when he gave it to be Printed to retrench and alter many things which were but the deeper imprinted in his Heart At the Second Session which was the following Tuesday he swore to the Edict of Re-Union and ordained that it should be observed for a Fundamental Law of the State and would have the Three Orders swear to it with one voice the Clergy laying their hands upon their Breasts as the others hold theirs aloft This done he protested he would forget all that was past and charged the Prevost des Marchands Year of our Lord 1588 to assure the City of Paris of it month October Who can resolve whether these words were a sincere Truth or a profound dissimulation month November if his Soul were then such as he professed it did not hold long so He look'd upon the Duke of Guise as a dangerous Rival all whose actions seemed by his interpretation to tend to the ruine of his Authority he was netled that they should force him to swear to the Edict that the League had constrained the Count de Soissons for he had quitted the King of Navarre to take Absolution of the Pope notwithstanding they made all their effort though in vain to hinder his Holiness from granting it and that when the said Count had brought his Letters of Pardon to the Parliament a Taylor with a Crew of the most hot-headed Leaguers went to the Palais and so frighted the Counsellors that they durst not proceed to verisie it He was yet more stung and offended for that the Estates made great Complaints against the Government demanded the suppression of new Offices an abatement of the Tailles and Imposts the punishment of Financiers and Favourites and used all manner of practises to moderate and clip the Soveraign Power and set up the Laws Which did not only proceed from the Factions of the League but also the unanimous desire of the People who imagining the King would ere long lose either his Life or Sences for Miron his chief Physician had imprudently said that the one or the other would come to pass within a twelvemonth thought it now necessary to make so strong and high a fence against him that should next succeed to the Crown that he might never be able to force the same nor bring such heavy Oppressions upon the Subjects as France had groaned under ever since the Reign of Francis I. The Huguenots prompted by the same Spirit endeavour'd likewise to restrain the Power of the King of Navarre in an Assembly he had Convocated at Rochel For apprehending he might change his Religion they demanded Protectors in each Province and Chambers or Courts of Justice to hear their Complaints and do them Right He had much ado to avoid the first and hinder them from making choice of Prince Casimir for their Protector General but as to the second he was forced to grant it and set up of those Chambers in five or six Cities However he revoked them two years after when he came to the Crown The Duke of Mayennes Army made little progress in Dausine because he staid at Lyons to decide some Controversies there were for the Government of the City between Mandelot and the Son of Villeroy they spent all their Fire against the Fort of Oysans which Lesdiguieres had built in their way this scurvy Redout resisted thirty days before they would capitulate In like manner that under the Duke of Nevers in Poiton was consumed in taking some small places of no importance They lay before la Ganache when they received the news of the Duke of Guises death Year of our Lord 1588 The King thought himself daily wounded by fresh and more hainous offences their vehement urging him to receive the Council of Trent did greatly distaste and perplex him the demand of the Estates that their Instructions or Memorials should be conclusive appeared yet ruder to him but he took the Deputation they made to oblige him expressly to declare the King of Navarre incapable of succeeding to the Crown to be altogether insupportable During these times the Duke of Savoy a Man of high courage and a genius much greater then his State did not forget to do his own business Believing the Kingdom of France was going to be dismembred he thought he had more right then any one else to get his share as being almost the only Male Prince though by the Female side that was then remaining of the Blood of the great King Francis and withall having some pretensions upon the Marquisate of Salusses and other Lands on this side the Alpes However he would not varnish his design with that pretence but rather chose the fair Masque of Religion In effect Lesdiguieres being very powerful having taken Chasteau-Daufin and being leagued with la Valete who had the Government of Salusses there was some danger lest Calvinisme might from thence step into his Countries and become the most prevalent under favour of so pernicious a Neighbourhood The Duke Armed therefore feigning he designed against Montferrat and la Valete being so embarrassed in Provence that he could do nothing on this
Party but only Chaalons for the Inhabitants having received information of the death of Guise before the Governor had any notice which was Rosne assembled together and turned him out From thence he went to Sens where his presence was requisite to fortisie his Friends then to Orleans where he found the Citadel surrendred to his Party afterwards to Chartres who received him with extraordinary month February joy and lastly to Paris where he arrived the Tenth day of February That vast number of People were yet so furiously enchanted with the memory of the Duke of Guise that they would needs bestow the Title of King upon this Brother but he did not find himself sufficiently bottom'd to accept of so high a Dignity He consider'd that besides the divisions it would necessarily have begot betwixt him and the other Chiefs who were content to be his Companions but not his Subjects the Spirits of the Authors of that grand Revolution tended rather to establish a Democracy then a Monarchy Wherefore he presently labour'd to diminish their Power encreased the Council of Forty with fourteen more wholly at his own devotion and admitted not only all the Princes of the League but likewise the Presidents the Kings Attorneys and Sollicitors in Parliament the Prevost des Merchands and Eschevins that he might carry things by Multitude upon occasion Then not able to endure this curb by any means breaks it quite the following year when he was going to give the Battle of Yury Year of our Lord 1589 Notwithstanding it was that Council had confer'd upon him the command of month March the Armies and the Quality of Lieutenant General of the State and Crown of France but he gave them little thanks for it because they limited his Power to the meeting of the General Estates which was to be upon the Fifteenth of July His Commission was verified in Parliament the Seventh of March and he took the Oath before the President de Brisson They caused new Seals to be made a great one for Council Affairs and a little one for the Chanceries and Parliaments either of them had on one side the Flower-de-Luce as was usual but on the other an Empty Throne with these words about it The Seal of the Kingdom of France Now to make a real Union of this Party as they had the name and to link all the Cities to them that had declar'd already and intended to declare he made an excellent Reglement which being sent into the Provinces brought others into him Especially Laon where John Bodin the Kings Attorney in that Court prevailed so by his Interest and Eloquence that it was accepted having made it clear that the joyning of so many Cities ought not to be called Rebellion but Revolution that this was a just one against an Hypocrite and Tyrant King that Heaven it self seemed to authorize it because States have their periods as well as Men and the Reign of Henry III. ought to be the Climacterical to France he being the LXI King since Pharaemond who according to the Vulgar Account was the first King of the French To this pretended Order succeeded a general Disorder an universal Robbery thorough the whole Kingdom seizures of Goods sales by outcry Imprisonments Ransoms and Reprizals The Offices Benesices and Governments were divided into two or three private Families were even divided within themselves the Father bandying against the Sons Brothers against Brothers Nephews against their Uncles Nothing was to be gained but by those that had nothing to lose those that had wherewithal were obliged to spend it but the Thieves gained on both hands They nestled themselves in old Castles or in small Towns from whence they bolted out to pillage the Neighbouring Countries took up the Kings Rents made private Persons compound for theirs enjoy'd the Churches Revenues and thus enriched themselves with great ease and little danger month March In the beginning of March the King not finding himself secure at Blois retired to Tours He first took out his Prisoners from the Castle of Amboise sent the Cardinal de Bourbon to Chinon whereof Chavigny an ancient Gentleman was Governor the Prince of Joinville who from henceforward was and called himself Duke of Guise to Tours and the Duke d'Elbaeuf to Loches The Duke of Mayennes Affairs as we may say did do of themselves For even in the Month of February the Cities of Aix Arles and Marseilles offended at the Kings restoring la Valete to that Government took the Oath for the League but he in the mean while passed his time at Year of our Lord 1589 Paris where he and his Officers consumed in fruitless Expences the Moneys assessed month March upon the Country with the Confiscations and Sequestrations of the Politicks and Huguenots Estates While that Duke was in the greatest hurry of his Affairs it hapned that four or five of his Friends and Intimates being in debauch with some Ladies of Pleasure in the Hostel de Carnavalet one of them seeing him pass by ran after him and haled him in almost by force he did not stay above half an hour with this Company yet made a shift to get and carry that away with him that forced him to keep his Chamber several weeks after but being in haste he had time to take only palliative Remedies So that the venom remaining still in his Blood rendred him more slow lumpish and melancholy and in his Person stupified the activity of his whole Party In the Month of March John Lewis de la Rochefoucaut Count de Randan debauched Rion and part of Auvergne whereof he was Governor he had drawn the whole Country after him if some Lords as Rostignac Saint-Herem Allegre Fleurat Canillac and Oradour amongst whom d'Effiat having the Kings particular Orders had acquired great credit had not opposed their courage and skill against his Interest and Faction The Duke of Mercoeur having balanced a while debauched likewise all Bretagne excepting only Vitre the Nobility of the Country were cantonized there against him and whilst he besieged it Renes escaped from him Gefroy de Saint Belin Bishop of Poitiers and the Mayor and some other Leaguers stirred up that Town which however did not yet declare for the League Limoges remained under obedience of the King Pichery retained the City of Anger 's in despite of Brissac who had put them upon rising and reduced them by means of the Castle where he commanded Matignons prudence defeated the Conspiracy of the Leaguers who were beginning to Barricade themselves at Bourdeaux but he durst not search it to the quick the Combination being too general and so thought it sufficient to hang two or three of the most Zealous Since the King of Navarres return to Rochel he had taken Maran and then Niort by Escalado Some few days after hapned the Murther at Blois but that made no alteration in the conduct of his Affairs neither did it oblige him to discontinue his War The Cities of Loudun Thouars Monstreuil L'Isle
upon the Besiegers the first charge was but with little success but at the second when they had gotten some Cannon and a Reinforcement of a thousand Men sent them by Rochepot Governor of Anger 's they broke thorough their Barricado's pierced even into the Bass-court of the Castle and followed them so close as they betook themselves to their Heels but not breaking down the Bridge the greatest part were kill'd or taken Prisoners In Languedoc Montmorency armed slowly thinking by such coldness to make them send him the Constables Sword which other considerations with-held Albigny and Lesdiguieres made War in Daufine by taking and re-taking several Forts from each other The latter being the stronger marched sometimes towards Lyons to assist Maugiron who held one of the Castles of Vienne for the King and had St. Chaumont for Antagonist He likewise went frequently towards Provence to help la Valete Montmorency also passed the Rhosne divers times but that was to endeavour to lay hands on some places to enlarge his Dominion Provence was miserably rent and distracted by three or four Factions not reckoning the Royalists The Duke of Savoy had his the Countess de Sault and the Count de Carees each theirs That of the Duke seem'd to be the most predominant and to draw the two others to his Interests but the the Countess it was Christierne d'Aguâ—rre Widow of Lewis d'Agout Count de Sault a Woman of great courage and of a high spirit would not introduce him into the Province but to make her Year of our Lord 1590 self the stronger and the Count de Carces likewise not being able to stand upon his own Legs gave that Duke footing only that he might be enabled to make head against la Valete For he imagined that being prime Lord of the Country and Lieutenant of the Forces by Authority of Parliament all the Authority there ought to devolve on him The Parliament was also mightily divided between these three Factions and moreover some of the Officers belonging to them had left them to follow the Kings Party and that of la Valete his Governor These had withdrawn themselves to Manosque where they affirm'd they were the true Parliament During the first heat of these Commotions the Dukes Money and Practises gave month January c. him the advantage the Magistrates of the chief Cities amongst others Marseilles and Aix being all for him A great Assembly of the Clergy and Nobility which was held at Aix in the Month of January resolved to put the Province under his Protection and deputed a Bishop and the eldest Consul of the City to him and after that the Parliament Ordained likewise that he should be called in to defend it To which they added that the Estates of the Bigarrats so they named the Royalists should be confiscate As to the rest it were folly to engage in a Relation of all the several Intrigues and Exploits of so many Parties who changing every moment both their Designs and the management of them did not well know themselves what they would have or do I shall therefore not mention them no more then those of several other Provinces Only of Bretagne let me say that the Prince de Dombes rudely repulsed the Duke de Mercoeur took Hennebon Montcontour and Lambale but could not engage him to a Battle I shall likewise take notice of the great change at St. Malo's because it was a place of great importance Honorat de Bueil des Fontaines Governor of the Town lodged in the Castle which month March lies upon the Harbour and had there stowed all the Riches he had scraped together in the time of his being in favour with King Charles IX The Malouins being persuaded that he had plotted to introduce a strong Garison into their City and set the wealthiest Merchants at Ransom conspired to rid their hands of him Having therefore corrupted a Valet de Chambre of his they scaled the Castle on the Fourteenth of March in the night and it so hapned that he was kill'd with a Carbine Shot at a Window whether by chance or designedly I know not After which they plundred his Goods then got the Duke of Mercoeur to justifie them and fell in with the League yet they warily refused to admit of any Soldiers but kept the Castle themselves The Affections of considering Men as well as fortune and success began to dispose their minds by little and little to favour the King Pope Sixtus better informed Year of our Lord 1590. July of the condition of both Parties and comparing the qualities and the manner of that Princes acting with the Duke of Mayennes did well foresee that he would have the better and indeed he received into Rome then to his Audience the Duke de Piney deputed from the Catholick Nobility notwithstanding the threats and protestarions of the Spanish Ambassador and had sent Order to his Legat in France that he should make no use of Excommunication but try all ways of prudence and gentleness to bring back the King The People began likewise to be made sensible of the real goodness of this Prince as he had already taught them to dread his courage And the Duke of Nevers who had hitherto remained as it were Neuter in his own Town after his having consider'd of all the methods likely to convert him judged none could be either more certain or more Conscious then wisely to thrust himself between the Huguenots and him to divide him from them and so draw him mildly towards the Catholick Church With this design he came about the beginning of July and brought in great numbers of the Gentry by his Interest and Example It was about the same time the King recalled the Chancellor de Chiverny and restored the Seals to him Montholon had discharg'd himself of them after the death of Henry III. fearing he might be engaged to Seal some thing in favour of the Huguenots though he still remained of the Kings Party in which he this year died honoured by good Men with the Surname of the French Aristides After his demission the Seals had been managed by the Cardinal de Vendosme then put into the custody of Ruse Secretary of State but without any power of using them save by Order of the Mareschal Biron who had a hand in every thing About the time of his return the City of St. Denis surrendred and a design the Leaguers had contrived upon Senlis miscarried St. Denis having consumed all their Stores wherewith it was as little provided for as Paris made their Composition which was advantageous enough because the King desired to lodge there As to Senlis Bouteville who was Lieutenant to his Cousin Tore there walking one night upon the Rampart overheard some People beneath in the Fosse who spake very low and perceived they planted a Ladder against the Wall he rouls down a huge Stone from the Parapet which beat the Ladder in pieces and broke the Thigh-bone of one of them this
War A Peace would have blasted all their ambitious pretensions and they could no longer carry on the War without a King nor maintain and support a King without the assistance of Spain To this effect they deputed the President Janin to that Prince who gave him favourable Audience twice and afterwards sent him to confer with one of his Ministers By whose discourse the President discover'd the intentions of Philip which were to Assemble the Estates General that they might bestow the Crown of France upon him that should Marry his Daughter Isabella as the nearest Princess of the Blood Royal upon which condition he promised to send such numerous Forces into France as should drive out the the King of Navarre and withal offer'd ten thousand Crowns per Month to maintain the Duke of Mayenne He founded his hopes upon the charms of his Gold the affections of the Seize and the Cabals of the Friers Mendicants and other Religious Orders very powerful and at that time devoted to Spain by whose means he hoped to gain the greater Cities The Pope aimed at the same thing and treated the Seize as Men of great importance He fancied the time was now come to suppress all Heresies and that his Popeship might not lose the glory of it he resolved to joyn his Spiritual with the Temporal Power to destroy them He put forth two Monitories the one month March directed to the Prelats and Ecclesiasticks the other to the Nobility Magistrates and People By the first he Excommunicated them if within fifteen days they did not withdraw from the Obedience Territories and their Attendance on Henry de Bourbon and within fifteen more deprived them of their Benefices By the second he exhorted them to do the same if not he would turn his Paternal goodness and love into the severity of a Judge In both of them he declared Henry of Bourbon Excommunicate Relapsed and as such fallen from all right to his Kingdoms and Seigneuries Marcellin Landriano the Popes Referendary was the Bearer of them and contrary to the sentiments of the Duke of Mayenne published them in all the Cities of the League about the end of the Month of April month April To the same end the Pope raised Eight thousand Foot and a thousand Horse of whom he made his Nephew Hercules Sfondrata General and to make him the more Year of our Lord 1591. May. worthy that Command he invested him with the Dutchy of Montemarcian with most solemn Ceremony in the Church of Sancta Maria Major About this time the Marquiss de Maignelay who had promised the King to return to his Obedience with la Fere upon Oyse whereof he was Governor was assassinated in the midst of the City by the Vice-Seneschal of Montelimar named Colas and the Lieutenant of the Duke of Mayennes Guards who left the Government of it to Colas The King going to Compeigne to favour this Reduction very angry it was prevented came back to Mantes From thence he put in execution an Enterprise he had upon the City of Louviers It was taken at noon day by the Mareschal Biron Raulet having greatly contributed to this Exploit had the Government of it Fontaine-Martel Governor of the place and Claude de Saintes Bishop of Evreux were taken Prisoners Martel redeem'd himself by paying a Ransom the Bishop for being too hot was detained in Prison and there died The Popes Bull had scarce any other effect but to excite the Huguenots to demand an Edict give an opportunity to those of the third Party to advance and strengthen their Cabal and provoke the Parliaments of the one and the other Party to make bloody Decrees The Chamber of Chaalons a Member of that which was sitting at Tours by a Decree of the Sixth of June cancell'd and revoked them as null abusive scandalous seditious full of Impostures contrary to the Holy Decrees Canons Councils and the Rights of the Gallican Church ordained they should month June be torn and burnt by the hands of the Hangman that Landriano should be apprehended ten thousand Livers Reward to whomsoever should deliver him to Justice forbidding all the Kings Subjects to lodge or harbour him as likewise to carry either Silver or Gold to Rome or to sollicite the Provisions or Expeditions of Benefices And an Act to be given to the Sollicitor General for the appeal he was to bring to the next Council legally Assembled The Kings Council were divided into two parts the one sat at Tours where the Cardinal de Vendosme presided the other at Chartres with the Chancellor de Chiverny the King assembles them together at Mantes to deliberate on so important an Affair After he had heard their opinions he puts forth a Declaration in the Month of July month July wherein he gives notice to his Parliaments that all other things laid aside they should proceed against Landriano as they should in justice see cause and exhorted the Prelats to meet and advise together according to Holy Decrees that the Ecclesiastical Discipline might not be lost nor the People destitute of their Pastors Year of our Lord 1591 On the other hand he thought convenient notwithstanding the vehement oppositions of the Cardinal de Bourbon to grant a Declaration in favour of the Huguenots which revoked all Edicts that had been put forth against them with the Judgments that had ensued thereupon and restored revived and confirmed all the Edicts of Pacification but then added these words by provision only and until such time as he should be able to re-unite all his Subjects by a happy Peace This clause served as a Vehicle to make it pass in the Parliament of Tours As to the business of the Bulls this Company thundred lowder yet then the Chamber at Chaalons and out-vying them declared Gregory an Enemy of the Churches Peace and Union Enemy to the King and State adhering to the Conspiracy of Spain favourer of Rebels and guilty of the Parricide of King Henry III. On the contrary that of Paris pronounced That this Decree was null and of no force made by People without power Schismaticks and Hereticks Enemies to God and destroyers of his Church ordered it should be torn in full Audience and the Fragments burnt on the Marble Table by the Executioner of the Haute Justice The Clergy also assembled at Mantes pursuant to the Kings Declaration They were to examine the Popes Bulls and to settle some Orders for the Provisions of Benesices As to the first point the Assembly made a Decree which declared the said Bulls to be null unjust suggested by the Enemies of the Kingdom protesting notwithstanding that they would not depart from their obedience to the Holy See month August To the second they propounded many Expedients The Archbishop of Bourges this was Renauld de Bealne made a motion of creating a Patriarch in France and he believed his Quality of Primat in the absence of the Archbishop of Lyons who was for the League would acquire him that Dignity
by Escalado But while thinking himself to be already absolute Master he treated the Provencial Subjects with haughtiness and the Conquer'd without mercy while he built Citadels in Briguoles and in Sainct Tropez whose Inhabitants were great Royalists the jealous and impatient Spirits of those Countries were extreamly alarmed the Kings Agents by their secret practises put more fuel to their fire and the Dukes revenge begot in their hearts the most cruel and furious hatred that has been heard of in these latter Ages The Spaniards incessantly demanded the Convocation of the Estates General the Pope had delegated in France by Commission in form of a Bull Philip de Sega Cardinal Bishop of Piacenza to be assisting at the Election of a Catholick King and such a one as they should judge to be most capable of opposing the Undertakings of the Navarrois King Philip had resolved to send an Army into France of Thirty thousand Foot and six thousand Horse to support him who should be elected as designing him to be a Husband for his Daughter Year of our Lord 1592 Amidst these Transactions the Third of December died in Arras the Duke of Parma as he was drawing his Forces together and the King had advanced as far as month December Corbie to hinder his entrance into the Kingdom This great Soldier had languished a whole year of Poison said the more suspicious given him by the Ministers of Spain either by order of King Philip or out of some private hatred We do not well know whether it affected the Duke of Mayenne with joy or grief but it is certain that after the being acquainted with this news he took as much care to assemble the Estates as he had formerly used to retard it and presently made four Mareschals of France who were la Chastre Rhosne Bois-Daufin and Sainct Pol and gave the Command of Admiral to the Marquiss de Villars Was it to add more Dignity to that Assembly or to impose the necessity on them to elect him King For these great Officers would not have suffer'd they should confer the Crown on any other but their Creator The Duke of Guise and the Duke of Nemours â—ormed each their Cabal in Paris and expected to have the like in the Estates The Politicks having found their own strength conâ—idently held their Assemblies where they made Propositions for an Accommodation with the King of Navarre and it had passed in an Assembly of their Town-Hall to send to him for a free Commerce if the Duke of Mayenne had not hastned thither to prevent it This was by advice of the Seize but he shewed never the more kindness to them for it on the contrary he rejected all the Petitions they presented to him for which reason they spit their Venom in divers biting and horribly defaming Libels which did in truth extreamly decry him but rendred the Authors yet more odious month November and December In the Kings Party his Parliament his Council and even his House it self were likewise much embroil'd The Indifferent and the Leaguers who were returned to the Parliament brought Sentiments very opposite to the Spirits of the former In the Council every one strove to be highest and possess that place the Mareschal de Biron had held and the King was equally afraid of disobliging all the Pretenders for the first that had forsaken him would have dissolved the whole knot His Domestick inquietudes did no less discompose him The Count de Soissons not able to suffer any longer those delays of his Marriage with the Princess Cathâ—rine went to Pau to compleat it but the Parliament of Bearn shut their Gates upon him and placed Guards about the Princess She took her self to be highly affronted by these proceedings and complained bitterly to her Brother of the insolence of those Men of the Gown so she express'd it The King desiring to compose her disordered mind wrote back to her in very affectionate terms and order'd her to come to him at Saumur where he was to be in the Month of February Year of our Lord 1593 We are now arrived at the year 1593. one of the most memorable of this Reign month January in which Affairs by being so very much confused began to assume some order The Fifth day of January was published a Declaration of the Duke of Mayenne verified in the Parliament of Paris which after an ingenious and eloquent Apology for all he had done invited the Princes Pairs Prelats Officers of the Crown Lords and Deputies to joyn with the Party for the Holy Vnion and to meet in the Assembly of the Estates on the Seventeenth of February there without passion or interest joyntly to make choice of some good Remedy to preserve both Church and State About ten days after appeared an Exhortation of the Legats to the same end which spake much plainer then the Dukes saying They must elect a King both by profession and in reality most Christian and most Catholick and who had the power to maintain both Church and State This pointed to the King of Spain clearly enough This Paper of the Dukes having been perused by those Lords who were about the King some amongst others the Duke of Nevers thought convenient since he invited them to come to Paris to return him some Answer which might engage him to a Conference This Expedient was seconded by all with so much eagerness that it would not have been in the power of the King if he had so desired to hinder it The Proposition was therefore drawn up the Seven and twentieth of the Month and deliver'd to a Herauld to carry it to the Duke The Deputies went to their Devotions the One and twentieth at Nâ—stre-Dame then heard a Sermon preached by Gilbert Genebrand Archbishop of Aix who shewed That the Salique Law was either positive or changeable at the pleasure of the Legislator which is the Body of the French People The Assembly was open'd the Six and twentieth in the Hall of the Louvre the Duke began it by a Harangue which the Archbishop of Lyons had composed for him the Cardinal de Pelleve spake for the Clergy Senescay for the Nobility and Honore du Laurent the Kings Advocat in the Parliament of Provence for the Third Estate The Clergy had a pretty good number of Prelats of note with them amongst the Nobility there were few Gentlemen considerable and the Third Estate was a compounded Rabble of all sorts of People hired by the Duke of Mayenne or by the Spaniards Of these three Bodies there being none but that of the Nobility for the Duke he assay'd to add two new ones contrary to the ancient Order of the Kingdom i. e. one of Lords and the other of Members of Parliament and Gown Men but the three Orders fiercely rejected this Novelty The second day of their sitting a Trumpeter brought the Proposition from the Catholick Lords attending the King which imported That if those of the Party for the Vnion would depute honest
Kingdom and the opinions was held of them that by means of their Colledges and Auricular Confessions they perverted the minds of the Youthful and of the tender Conscienced which way best pleased them gave occasion to the Parliament to involve the whole Society in the same punishment due for the Crimes of particulars Thus by one and the same Decree which was pronounced the Nine and twentieth of the Month and executed by Torch-light they condemned John Chastel to suffer the pains accustomed for the like Parricides and Ordained that the Priests and Scholers of the Colledge of Clermont and others calling themselves of the Society of Jesus as being Corrupters of Youth Disturbers of the Common Peace and Enemies to the King and State should within three days leave their House and Colledge and in fifteen the whole Kingdom and that all what belonged to them should be employ'd to pious uses accordingly as the Parliament should dispose of it Some other Parliaments following the same Sentiments with this of Paris banish'd them by a like Decree but that of Bourdeaux and that of Thoulouze refused to conform to it so that they sheltred themselves in Guyenne and Languedoc till they were recalled By another Decree John Guignard having owned his Defamatory Writings was condemned to be Hanged not for the having made them but for having kept them By another also John Gueret under whom Chastel had gone thorough his Courses of Philosophy and the Father of this wretched Parricide were banished the Kingdom the first to perpetuity and the second for nine years and it was Ordained his House should be demolished and in its place a Pyramid of Carved Stone to be erected which should contain the cause of it Upon one of the four Faces was the Decree engraven and on the other three divers Latin Inscriptions in Verse and Prose in detestation of the Memory of that horrid Attempt and that Doctrine which was held to have been the occasion of it Year of our Lord 1594 month December Now the term the King had prefixed to the Hennuyers and Artesians being expir'd without their giving him any answer he caused a Declaration of War to be published against King Philip and his Subjects it hapned some weeks after that the Arch-Duke Ernest Governor of the Low-Countries died the One and twentieth of February King Philip committing the Administration to Peter Henriques Guisman Count de Fuentes till he had otherwise disposed of it The Duke of Nemours having made his escape from the Castle of Pierre-Encise disguised in the habit of a Valet and carrying the Pan of his Closs-stool got immediately on Horseback and with his Friends and three thousand Swiss lent him by the Duke of Savoy took several Forts round about Lyons whereby he thought to famish that great City but the Constable de Montmorency who brought a thousand Maistres and four thousand of the Kings Foot having received Order to remain in that Country Year of our Lord 1595 shut up the Duke himself in Vienne so close that his Swiss weary of the great month January want they endured retired into Savoy to the Marquiss de Trefort General of that Dukes month December in 1594. and January c. Army who far from being able to relieve him was forc'd to let the Constable Soldiers winter in Bress where they had taken Montluel Year of our Lord 1595 Whilst the Duke of Nemours was gone to the Constable of Castille with design of engaging him to come into Lyonnois Disimieu his most intimate Confident to whom month April he had committed the Guard of Pipet chief Castle of Vienne treated his Accommodation the Twelfth of April drew his Men into the Town and invited the Constable thither who took the Oaths of the Inhabitants Nemours who thought this bosom Friend had been proof against all Temptations was like to have lost his wits when he heard of this infidelity Such as were inclined to believe the worst and who judge of others actions by their own interpretation which is too often true said the motives that guided Lisimieu had more of self-interest then duty and chose rather to call him Traitor to his Friend then faithful to his King And even when Nemours fell sick whether for grief or some other cause they reported he had given him a Fig to prevent his Resentment month January Really this Prince was invaded by a strange malady and almost like that of Charles IX Blood flowed in great quantities from his Mouth His more then ordinary courage did for some time resist the violence of this Distemper but when he was so much attenuated that he could no longer stand upon his Feet he desired to be carried to his Castle of Anecy in Savoy and there having languished for some Months in such a dismal condition as drew tears from the Eyes of every one that beheld him he resigned up his Soul about mid July aged twenty eight years The Marquiss de Sainct Sorlin his Brother succeeded him in the Dutchy of Nemours and other Territories and soon after came to an agreement with the King month February The Duke of Mayenne had not so much love for him as to be grieved but the pejoration of his Affairs brought grief enough upon him from elsewhere In the Month of February the Inhabitants of Beaulne to whom the King the preceding year had granted a four Months Truce fell upon that Garison the Duke had re-inforced and called the Mareschal de Biron to their aid who then besieged the Castle Year of our Lord 1595 month February de Monstier-Sainct Jean hard by This Mareschal having forced three hundred Soldiers who yet defended themselves in the City to capitulate laid Siege to the Castle which surrendred within a Month having in vain expected the Duke of Mayenne month April would have joyned his Forces with the Duke of Nemours to deliver them The Cities of Autun and Aussonne finding his declining condition did also quit his Party the first by the advice and management of their Maire the second by a Treaty Senecay made with the King who left him the Government of it By the example of Beaulne the Inhabitants of Dijon took Arms in the beginning of May and finding themselves too weak to drive out the Garison had recourse to Biron who gained all the Quarters of the Town and at the same time besieged the month May. Castle and that of Talon which was within a quarter of a League whither the Count de Tavanes had retired The Constable of Castille named Ferdinand de Velasco was descended into the Franche-Comte in the Month of April with an Army of Fifteen thousand Foot and three thousand Horse This Mareschal apprehended lest he should fall upon his back with all his Forces the Constable de Montmorency had the same fear upon him and both these press'd the King extreamly to advance that way His Mistress by her Caresses made him resolve it She desired he might conquer the Franche-Comte for her
Lieutenant for the King in those Countries and with the knowledge as they said of the Dukes of Montpensier de la Trimouille and de Bouillon where they propounded to make a Tiers or third Party under the name of Bons Francois and under the Protection of the Queen of England as if the King had not had Strength enough to defend them or had been wanting in Care or Courage But the news they received that the Siege of Amiens went on more successfully then they had guessed stifled this Proposition and dissolved the Assembly Nothing less was expected from the Duke of Mercoeur but that the Truce which was to hold but till the end of March being expired he would make a great Effort to Master the whole Province nevertheless the Kings Agents had so much influence upon him that he prolonged it to the latter end of July Wherein he seemed not well to understand his interest and gave others a just occasion to reproach him with what he had often told the Duke of Mayenne That opportunities had never failed Year of our Lord 1597 him but he had often missed his opportunities month May. As for the Duke of Savoy Lesdiguieres not only made Head against him but carried the War even into his own Country He entred Morienne with Six thousand Men gave chace to Don Salines General of the Dukes Horse took St. John de Morienne St. Michael Aiguebella and divers Castles The Duke on his part Armed powerfully to drive him from his Territories and there hapned many Rencounters between them where the Valour of that Prince and the Experience of Lesdiguieres turned the balance of success sometimes one way sometimes the other till Winter came and parted the two Armies The Princes of Italy took France to be so much lost by the loss of Amiens that the Duke of Florence had the confidence to think of seizing some small fragment for his share During the greatest heat of the League Bausset fearing lest the Spaniards who had an Eye upon Marseilles should seize upon the Island and Castle d'If whereof he was Governor had intreated that Duke to send some Forces to assist him in the keeping them The Duke slipt not the opportunity he sends him Five hundred Men however Bausset still kept the Castle of If and quarter'd them without upon the Island Now one day when his Son whom he had left in his place was gone to Marseilles they seized upon this Castle partly by craft partly by force and drove out all the French They pretended in the beginning to amuse the Marseillois that they would only hold it for the King and defend it against all his Enemies but when the Duke of Guise had built a Fort in the Island of Ratouneau which lies near that of If thereby to cover Marseilles and counter-mine them they openly declared their intention John de Medicis Brother of the Duke of Florence coming thither with five Galleys built another Fort in the Island of Pommegue distant about a Mile from the other two took the Frigats the Marseillois had freighted with Provisions to Victual the Fort of Ratonneau and even told du Vair who was sent to him that those Islands belonged to his Brother the Duke In effect had not the face of the Kings Affairs been changed he would have explained his Pretensions and have urged that the Dutchess his Wife had a right to this Island as being of the House of Lorrain who believed they had so to all Provence The Huguenots after the Kings Conversion made as it were a Band apart and minded their own Interest singly as being now disjoyned from his They had employ'd themselves in no other thing for two years past but holding of Assemblies Politique composed of three Deputies of each Province i. e. a Gentleman a Minister and an Elder They met first at Saumur then at Loudun afterwards at Vendosme Year of our Lord 1597 month July then again at Saumur and lastly at Chastelleraud From all these Places they sent Deputies to the King to beseech him he would convert the Truce which Henry III. had granted them into an irrevocable Peace and he amused them still with fair words delays and many difficulties of his own creating Now when they plainly perceived that the more he setled his own Affairs the less he granted to them that besides he was perfectly well with his Holiness and heaped his favours and caresses on the Leaguers they imagined the coming of the Legat into France was upon some design to prejudice them and that he was just upon making his Agreement with Spain to destroy them utterly These apprehensions and the suggestions of la Trimouille and the Mareschal de Bouillon had made them like to have run to their Arms three or four times nevertheless the more moderate and the more saint-hearted amongst them who conjectured that when Amiens was taken they must lie at the Kings Mercy could not be persuaded to it on the contrary joyning to their Arguments some other means they used at the same time to gain the Deputies in those Assemblies they prevailed so far as to possess the others with Patience and to make them wait for the Edict he promised them Few of them however came to him at the Siege of Amiens the apprehensions some malicious People buzz'd in their Pates Of a Sainct Bartholomew in the Field and the little esteem they guess'd the Court had for them kept them at home As to the rest all that seemed to be most contrary to the Kings Service did on this occasion most promote it for Biron surpassed himself although he had no real affection for him his own Honour call'd him to Action The Leaguers were desirous now to become the Sword and Restorers of the State as they had been the Bucklers of Religion and the Queen of England though much dissatisfied sent him four thousand Men. month June July and August In the Town were Five hundred Garison Soldiers and above threescore Cannon mounted on the Ramparts by this means the Besieged were daily at handy blows with the French destroy'd their Works and their Batteries stopt them upon every turn and sometimes made them even give ground so that it was three Months ' ere they got to the Fosse Amongst a many Sallies they made three very great ones in the last of which were slain Five hundred French and thirty of their Officers The use of Mines which had been but little practised in France during the Civil War was revived in this Siege each did instantly attaque the other by these Subterraneous Fires and oft-times such were going to spring one Mine who found another bursting out under his Feet which blew him into the Air or buried him quick in the Earth The perpetual Combats by night and day much diminished the Besieged sickness had cast a greater number yet upon their Beds and their Medicaments which were Year of our Lord 1597 stale and spoiled in stead of healing
his forward heat and brought him back to the Siege The Arch-Duke being returned into Artois employ'd his Forces for the taking Monthuliâ— which incommoded Ardres then dismissed them and retired to Arras He there fell sick of Grief as it was said for having no better succeeded in his Enterprize of Amiens and for the loss during his absence of seven or eight places taken by Prince Maurice along the River Rhine and in the Country of Over-Issel The same day he went off the Besieged being Summoned which was upon the Nineteenth of September did not think convenient to stand so obstinately on a defence which might have held long indeed but had been to no purpose and only dangerous to themselves They Capitulated therefore upon the best Conditions usually granted on the like occasions and promised to surrender in six days unless they were relieved within that time They were allowed to send notice of it to the Arch-Duke and gave Hostages for performance of the Agreement The said Term expired they rendred the Town in the Morning of the Five and twentieth of the Month The Constable received it in the Name of the King they going forth about Ten of the Clock the same day carrying off together with their Bagage three hundred wounded Men and a thousand Women whereof four hundred belonged to that City The King being on Horseback at the Head of his Army with great kindness permitted Montenegre and the other Captains to salute him by embracing his Knees At Evening he made his entrance into the City and gave the Government to Dominick de Vic who finding but Eight hundred Inhabitants there in all re-peopled it Year of our Lord 1597 with four thousand within two years after and obtain'd the re-establishment of all month September their Priviledges but could not prevent the raising a Citadel over their Heads which makes their Posterity sigh to this very day for the neglect of their great Grandfathers The King himself carried the news of the surrender of Amiens to the Arch-Duke month October and November who was in Arras went to visit him there with his whole Army and to salute him with some Volees of Cannon Then finding no body mov'd he returned to Dourlens and invested it But the Rains the Myre the scarcity of Provisions the too great Fatigues and the Maladies proceeding from all those inconveniencies constrained them to decamp before the end of the Month of October with great damage and some shame Towards the end of this year the Dutchy of Ferrara for want of Heirs Males reverted to the Holy See by the Death of Duke Alphonso II. the last Legitimate Prince of the House of Est and Son of Hercules II. and of Madam Renee of France Ferrara was of the number of those Territories which the Countess month October c. Matilda Daughter and Heiress to the eldest of the House of Est gave to the Holy See for the sake of Pope Gregory VII about the year 1077. Since that time the Male-off-spring of the other Brothers bearing the Title of Marquiss d'Est had ever enjoy'd it not as Proprietors but only Vicars of the Holy See till the year 1471. that Pope Paul erected it to a Dutchy and invested Borso therewith to whom the Emperor had also given Modena and Regio with the like Titles Now the Duke Alphonso II. seeing himself without Male Children had made divers Applications to the Pope and the Emperor to obtain the transport of his Dutchies to Cesar d'Est who was his Kinsman The Court of Rome did not think him fit to succeed because his Father who was an Alphonso was reputed but the Natural Son of Duke Alphonso I. of that name Thus on that side he could get no ground but he gave such vast Sums to the Emperor Rodolphus that he granted him the transport of the Dutchy Modena and Regio of the Principality of Carpy and some other Territories holding of the Empire He made account that with all these together with the great Wealth and the good Friends he should leave him he might be able to maintain himself by force in the Dutchy of Ferrara In effect when he died which hapned the Twenty seventh of October Cesar believing he should be supported by the Venetians and even the Spaniards too got into possession and at first stood firm against the Excommunications of Pope Clement and against his Army which was commanded by the Cardinal Aldobrandino Legat and Nephew of his Holiness but when he understood that the King of Year of our Lord 1597 France which he never did imagine took the affirmative for the Pope and found the dread of this great Power had cooled his Allies and affrighted the Ferrareses he threw down his Sword and made his Accommodation about the end of December By the Treaty he restored the Dutchy of Ferrara to the Pope Who left him all the free Lands or Estate which the House of Est had possessed there and granted that he and the Dukes his Descendants should have in Rome the same Rank and the same Prerogatives as the Dukes of Ferrara had there enjoy'd month November and December The City of Paris honour'd the Kings Victory with a Triumphant Entrance they made for him He pass'd the whole Winter in his Louvre hearkning to Propositions of Peace but making however preparations for War employing his Intelligences to disunite the Huguenots and above all to regulate and meliorate his Finances As to the Peace while he was yet before Dourlens Villeroy on his behalf and John Richardot on the Arch-Dukes conferr'd together upon the Frontiers of Picardy and Artois and had agreed together that both Kings should send their Deputies to Vervins where the Popes Legat was to be present in quality of Mediator Year of our Lord 1598 Both were equally inclined to it upon different Considerations Henry IV. after so many satigues and pains earnestly desired to enjoy his repose and apprehended lest month January by the continuation of a War Fortune should shew him such another slippery trick as the surpisal of Amiens that some new Faction should start up within his Kingdom amongst the Grandees or the Huguenots or even in his own House because he had no Children As for King Philip he found himself even dying and saw his Son both weak and unexperienc'd so that they were both resolved to proceed with more sincerity then is wont to be practised on such occasions The King for this purpose named Pompone de Bellievre and Bruslard de Sillery both Counsellors of State and the latter also a President in Parliament The Arch-Duke having powers from the King of Spain who had contrived it thus that so if his Deputies must give place the shame would be the less to him made choice of John Richardot President of the Catholick Kings Council in the Low-Countries John Baptist Tassis Knight of the Order of St. James and Louis Verreiken Audiencier Prime Secretary and Treasurer of the Council of State Year of our Lord 1598
otherwhile their Head being ruin'd both in his Estate and Credit he lived meanly and affected to appear yet poorer then he was knowing his want of Power and Riches was now his only security But divers of those that had served the King taking themselves to be ill used absented yet more from him then he was alienated from them The most discontented were the Mareschal de Bouillon the Duke de la Trimouille the Constable de Year of our Lord 1599 month April Montmorency the Duke of Montpensier More then these yet the Duke d'Espernon and the Mareschal de Biron This last more bold and confident then the rest exhal'd his discontents by odious complaints and vauntings not to be endured He could speak well of no body but himself which was his Eternal Theme and Entertainment He exalted himself above the greatest Captains it was he alone that had done all there was no Place or Dignity he did not think beneath his Merit Nought but the Soveraignty could satisfie him and he would Crown himself with his own hands Too great applause had corrupted this brave Courage the King himself had praised him too much had raised him too high After the loss of Dourlens and Cambray the Nobless and the Soldiery all cast their Eyes upon him only as both the Sword and Buckler of the State At his return from the Siege of Amiens he was intoxicated by the fondness of the Parisians and when he went into Flanders to Witness the Archdukes Swearing to the Peace the Spaniards knowing his Vanity and ill disposition gave him such lofty Elogies as filled his Head with Air and Vanity and his Heart with wicked Thoughts and Sentiments From that time nay even before he sought and courted the favour of the Populace affected for the Catholick Religion a Zeal that proceeded even to Beads and month May and June Confrairies as if he would again set up that League his Sword had beaten down This year in the Month of May having made a Journey into Guyenne he there regaled the Nobility with Feasts Presents and Caresses held private Conference with such as had most Credit in the Province and behaved himself after such a manner that the King apprehending some Disturbance there descended to Blois month June c. and set a Report on Wing that he would pass on to Poitiers thereby to prevent many who might have engaged themselves in his Contrivances He was yet there when the news of the Duke of Savoy's Voyage obliged him to return to Fontainebleau During his abode in that Country Philip Hurat Chiverny Chancellor of France who had desired leave to go and see his House of Chiverny did there fall sick and died the Nine and twentieth day of June He stood much upon his Nobility and did as much affect the Quality of Earl and of Governor of Orleannois and Blesois as that of Chancellor which he had held twenty years His Posterity as almost all those that attain great Fortunes at Court sunk in a short time Pompone de Bellievre succeeded him in that great Office and at first began with two things which were most necessary viz. a severe Edict against Duels and a Rule that none should be admitted to the Office of Master of Requests till he had been ten years in the Soveraign Courts or twenty in some Court Subordinate Year of our Lord 1599 month June c. This new Chancellor Villeroy Secretary of State Sillery President in the Parliament of Paris Jannin in that of Burgundy and the Marquiss de Rosny Sur-Intendant of the Finances had the greatest share in the Administration of Affairs The last governing the Purse had great advantage over the others besides the King made himself more familiar with him and consider'd him as a Creature he had raised and one that had never held any Party but his own And indeed he was shaped every way to his humour and very fit to manage that Office as he intended it should be For besides that he was indefatigable thrifty and a Man of great order he was rough in denial impenetrable to Prayers and importunities and with both hands greedily scraping Money into the Kings Coffers To this purpose he received all manner of Proposals the easiest he made benefit of in his time and the refuse was left to glut the following Reign He made thorough inquisition after such Money as had been mis-employ'd and wherever that lighted he fell upon the great as boldly as the little ones took the hatred and blame of all denials or disappointments upon himself stopt his Ears at their Complaints or Reproaches not minding any other thing but where to raise new Fonds from day to day Hereby did he become most necessary to the King and got into his favour more and more He often shewed him a just state of Receipts and Payments in every Concern distinctly as likewise the Projects of such Expences as were to be made and the Inventories of all the Arms Ammunition and Cannon in his several Places all by Summary Abridgments to give the more gusto in perusal and inform him without tiring him For he knew very well that the King being of a ready and quick apprehension could not dwell long upon any one particular neither in Reading or Writing nor endure any tedious Discourse or Reasoning Those that had managed the Revenues or Finances had put things in a most horrible disorder and confusion and the Expences in the Civil War had drained them so low that it was almost impossible to remedy them by the ordinary ways The King was charged with Six Millions of yearly Rents and Pensions above five Millions Salary for his Officers of Justice and the Treasury with Petitions of an infinite number of brave Soldiers Officers Gentlemen and Lords who prayed some for Rewards others for some Benevolence and Charity that they might at least subsist It would therefore have been but reasonable if for a time they had exceeded the bounds of the common methods to repair these Disorders were it not that such Examples remain even after the necessity is over and that a Tax or Charge once imposed turns to a common Right or Claim ☜ Year of our Lord 1599 That they might bring the Revenues into the grand Channel of the Exchequer or Espargne he studied in the first place to open all the Springs from whence they were to slow and stop up all by-leaks which made them drop aside and lose themselves Most enormous abuses were committed upon the levying of such Moneys as were raised by extraordinary Commissions and it was the custom of some of the Council to procure very easie Adjudications that they might share in the profit As to the former he order'd the Receivers to make Receipts for these as for the other and as to the second having found out that the Sub-farms amounted to twice as much as the general Adjudication he tied up the hands of the Principal Farmers and caused the whole to be brought into the
his Honour and Credit upon the Faith of his Collectors such People being ordinarily but little exact not caring whether their materials be good provided they can but furnish store enough And likewise his acquaintance knowing his Quil much more fluent then his Tongue desiring he would rather have continued to write then adventure to discourse dissuaded him from entring the Lists with an Adversary whose Eloquence was a Torrent and his Memory a Prodigy Now whether it were presumption or want of fore-sight he either would or could not get out of this snare In the beginning the Popes Nuncio was much alarmed at this Conference however the King making him understand it did not concern the truth of the Doctrine but only that of his Quotations he assented to it The day appointed upon the fourth of May the Bishop of Evreux consigned into the hands of the Chancellor the five hundred Passages of which they were to take a certain number every day into examination and the very evening before the dispute he sent nineteen to Du-Plessis Year of our Lord 1600 which he would impugne This was perhaps a Stratagem to stupifie him and take month May. off the edge of his wit by engaging him to study the whole night The King was present at this Combat with the Chancellor some Bishops the Secretaries of State and six or seven Princes They could examine but nine passages that day Du Perron having the truth the King and the favour of the Assembly for him had the advantage in all he did not only overcome but overwhelm his Adversary who much weaker amazed and disfavour'd defended himself so poorly it made the Catholicks pity and his own despise him The Judges pronounced that in the two first passages he had taken the objection for the solution as for the sixth and seventh they were not to be met with in those Authors whence he quoted them upon the ninth that he had mis-translated Images for Idols and in the rest had either omitted some words that were material and necessary or had recited them but by halves The night put an end to the dispute Du Perron pursuing his advantage demanded it might be continued the next day but his Antagonist disordred with his over-watching the night before and to say truth with the shame of his ill success fell sick and retired to Paris and from thence to Saumur without so much as taking his farewell of the King leaving the Field to his Enemy and a fair Subject for triumph to the Catholicks and confusion to those of his own Party which was soon after forsaken by Fresne-Canaye Du Perron had for Crown of this Victory a Cardinals Hat The University eldest Daughter of our Monarchs being like the rest of the Kingdom extreamly disfigur'd by the War wanted to be reformed The King at his return to Paris gave charge thereof to Renaud de Beaune Archbishop of Bourges his great Almoner who having advised with the Deans of the four Faculties the most able Professors Proctors of the Nations Principals of Colledges and the Rector and viwed the Statutes and Reglements made 150 years before upon the like occasion by the Cardinal d'Estouteville changed added and retrenched as was thought most month June c. expedient The Parliament allowed of those Articles and deputed a President and three Counsellors who caused them to be openly read in an Assembly expressly convocated at the Mathurins The Arch-Duke Albertus going to attaque the Prince of Orange who besieged Nieuport had at the first a notable advantage over him regaining the Fort Albert taken by Maurice and cutting off near a thousand Hollanders in the place After which had he but fortified himself in the passage between Ostend and Nieuport he would have forced them to surrender at discretion or to have taken Shipping in Year of our Lord 1600 such disorder as must have given him opportunity to have charged and defeated month July them His Men were almost quite spent with lassitude and hunger for the preceding day he had marched them from Maestric at one Stage and the greatest part had scarce eaten a bit of Bread in four and twenty hours but the heat of this good success led him out of his Post to fall upon the Hollanders The Fight was very bloody being very old Soldiers on either hand and animated by the brave example of their Chiefs The day began to decline when the Victory inclined towards Maurice not but that his purchase was dear enough for it cost him twelve hundred Men but the Arch-Duke left near four thousand upon the place all his Cannon and a great number of brave Captains Amongst others Colas formerly Vice-seneschal of Montelimar and pretended Count de la Fere. It is observed to the honour of Maurice that he gained this Battle over an Albertus of Austria upon the same day viz. the second of July as another Albertus of the same House had three hundred years before gained a Victory over an Adolphus of Nassaw in a Plain near Spire where he deprived him both of his Empire and Life It was said the generous Blood of Nassaw had brought forth this Prince three Ages after to be the Avenger of the most illustrious of his Ancestors Year of our Lord 1600 The intention of the Duke of Savoy was not to stand to his Treaty at Paris he pretended to have been compell'd by a just fear of being detained and he flatter'd month March himself either that the King durst not attaque him by force for fear of being look'd upon as a Violator of the Treaty at Verwins or if he were assaulted he should be supported by the Spaniard whose interest it was to employ all their Power to bar up the French-mens entrance into Italy or that in fine if he should leave Paris those Seeds of Conspiracy he had sown in France would disclose themselves In effect the King of Spain had commanded the Count de Fuentes to furnish Monies towards it this Count had informed himself of it's Truth by the Spanish Ambassador in Swisserland and Roncas who had discoursed with Biron disguised like Porters yet nevertheless he refused to advance any thing unless the Duke of Savoy would give him Montmelian and two other Places for Security of the Money The Duke could never be brought to do that and so the Count let slip a fair Occasion for his Master's advantage As soon as he was arrived at Bourg the Fourteenth of March he dispatch'd a Courier to the King to give him thanks for the Honour he had received in France Being at Chambery the Four and twentieth of May Bruslard Brother of Sillery and the Patriarch of Constantinople went to Summon him either to agree to the Restitution or the Exchange since the time drew near He refer'd them till he month May. should be at Turin and from thence sent Roncas to demand a new delay this was to give Bely his Chancellor time to compleat his Negociation in Spain King Philip's Council to
in revoked and converted it into a moderate Subsidy For Imposts though they be Year of our Lord 1602 abolished like Wounds do ever leave some cicatrice and ill-favour'd Scar behind them Whil'st the King was in Poitou the Parliament the Chambers assembled after a Mercuriale and chiefly at the instance of the President Seguier seconded by the Examiners ordained that all Advocates or Attorneys pursuant to the 161 Article of the Estates at Blois should at the end of all their Briefs or Writings put down the particulars of all they had received for their Fees and give a Certificate of what they had gained from their Clients for their Pleadings He made this Decree the Thirteenth of May upon the desire the King had to reform the gross Abuses in law-Law-States and upon Complaint made to him by the Duke de Piney of an Advocate that had demanded Fifteen hundred Crowns of him to Plead one Cause The Advocates refusing to obey there was a second which enjoyned those that would not Plead to make such Declaration to the Register after which they were forbidden to exercise their Profession upon peine de faux i. e. Loss of Life and Estate month May. The Morrow after this had been pronounced in full Court they all went by two and two out of the Chamber of Consultations to the Number of 307. and going to the Registers laid down their Caps and declared that they obey'd The Palace or Court was dumb for Eight or Nine days Some of the Courtiers persuaded the King to leave them in that humor which they would have been weary of â—ooner than himself But having Business of much greater weight than this and the Brouillery beginning to look like a Commotion he would needs determine it and caused an Order to be dispatched which restored the Advocates to their Function and commanded them to return to the Bar and obey the first Article Which was only for the Formality For the Judges themselves who made it wink'd at it and let it fall to nothing It was with much reason suspected that the Commotions in Guyenne were a Train leading to those other Mynes contrived by the Mareschal de Biron and it looked as if at the same instant that he was to spring them the Spaniards were prepared to give the Assault and enter upon the Kingdom For they had raised a numerous Army by Land which was kept upon the Frontiers and were fitting another for Sea under the Command of Juan de Cardonna They gave out that the first was to be sent into Flanders and the second to execute some Enterprize upon Algiers by the assistance of the King of Fez But it was apprehended rather to be designed against Burgundy and to surprize some Sea-port Town in Provence The Spaniard shewed plainly enough by his Treatment of Alexander Caretta Marquiss de Final who was comprised in the Number of the King's Allies that he cared not over-much to observe the Treaty of Verwins for Fuentes seized upon Final having paid the Garrison of that place for Ten or twelve Musters that were due to them The very Old-Age of that poor Lord who was near upon Fourscore and his being destitute of Children gave him the Confidence to make this Vsurpation for which the good Man never had any other Satisfaction but only I know not what Pension allow'd him in the Kingdom of Naples The fear of some terrible Event keeping the King in perpetual alarms he came back from Poitou to Fontainebleau that he might search into the bottom of the Conspiracy believing that if once it were but laid open it would not be so month May. dangerous And therefore he would needs at what rate soever have Laffin be brought before him who was privy to the whole Secret We have told you what cause of discontent this man had against Biron It is conjectur'd he had given notice to the King of all his Practises for a long while before this time at least it is most certain he had thoughts of doing so and of providing himself with Evidence to verifie his Accusation And this they ground it upon Biron had with his own hand written a Project of the Conspiracy Laffin perswaded him it was dangerous to keep it by him and that he needed but to have a Copy Biron gives it him to Transcribe in his presence When he had done so he rowls up the Original between his hands like a ball and cast it into the Fire but Biron not minding it further the negligence of a great Lord he craftily draws it out agen and puts it into his Pocket So that some will needs believe this man over-whelm'd with Debts Year of our Lord 1602 Crimes and other Misfortunes soothed the passionate Mareschal in his Designs on purpose to make a fortune by betraying his Secrets and that if he would he might easily have prevailed with him to lay them all aside especially after the Queen was deliver'd of a Son For amongst the Letters the Mareschal had written to him there was one that said That since God had bestowed a Daufin upon the King he would think no more of his former Follies and pray'd him to return When Biron understood Laffin was press'd upon by the King to go to Court he sent a Gentleman to put him in mind of his Oathes to let him consider he had his Life and Honor in his hands to intreat him above all things to burn all his Letters and Papers and to rid himself of a certain Curate whom they had employ'd in some ill-favour'd Business Laffin being come to Fountainebleau revealed all to the King gave him all the Letters and Papers and named the Conspirators to him amongst whom he involved so many Persons of Quality even Rosny that the King amazed at the greatness of the Peril was for some time in much doubt whom to confide in His secret Council thought convenient to dissemble in respect of many of the accused and indeed there lay no other proof against them but the Depositions of Laffin It had been the ready way to have set all France on a flame should they have fallen upon so many great ones at once it was safer much to allow them time to repent than to have put them to the necessity of seeking their particular safety in a desperate general Rebellion And therefore 〈◊〉 all the Letters Laffin produc'd they publish'd none but those which made mention of Biron only month May. there were Five and twenty of them The King gave them into the Custody of the Chancellour who for fear they should be lost sowed them within the lining of his Doublet All this was done before the King went to Poitiers During his Voyage Peter Fougeu Descures and then the President Janin being sent into Burgundy labour'd to dispose Biron to come to Court His Conscience his Friends those Prognostications wherein he put much confidence divers ominous Presages the pressing haste of those that would have him go dissuaded him On the
by Letter The Third was The Novell Opinion of Molina the Spanish Jesuit touching Grace of which we shall perhaps make mention elsewhere I call it Novell because that Author vaunted himself the Inventor of it as a thing wholly unknown to the Ancient Fathers who by this said he might have avoided a great deal of Embaras had they lighted on the Notion The Jesuits for Self-Preservation were forc'd to renounce the two First which notwithstanding were rather stifled than Condemned but they maintain'd the Third with all their force against the Dominicans These attaqu'd it as an Opinion which destroy'd that of their Saint Thomas and even that of Saint Augustin which hath been received and allowed by all the Latine Church By too eager an endeavour to encrease the King's Revenue the Super-Intendant brought such disorder into the State as can never be made worse but by the continuation of it Formerly the Offices of Judicature and of the Treasury might be resigned but the Resignee was to live Forty days after otherwise the King was to provide one Now Rhosny considering that the King made no benefit upon such Vacancies by Death but was obliged to bestow them at the importunity of Courtiers he bethought him of a way to bring great Emoluments to the Exchequer Which was to secure the Office to the Wife and Heirs of those that were in Possession provided they would yearly pay the Sixtieth Denier of that Finance or Revenue those Offices had been valued at in Default whereof they should upon their Death revert to the Profit of the King This was called in Exchequerterms the Droict Annuel The Vulgar named it La Paulete from the Name of Paulet the first Contractor In some Provinces they gave it that of La Palote because the Officers there had to do with one named Palot who undertook it after Paulet This favour was first granted but for Nine years but it has been renewed for the said term from time to time to this very day Unless stark Blind they might with half an Eye foresee that this Edict would consequently and necessarily perpetuate the Sale of Offices besides the impossibility of reducing them as they ought to their ancient Number That it would raise the prizes of them to that monstrous excess as we have by Experience known That it would make those that held them less dependant on the King month Decemb. as tied only by their Purse-Strings That it would make their Children become Careless Ignorant Unjust and Proud as being certain to enjoy the Offices of their Fathers That it would bar the way to Honor against People of Quality or Merit and open it to People of no Birth Capacity or Honor to Solicitors Pedling-Merchants and Excise-men That it would excite a violent appetite after Riches the only means now to attain Imployments and by the same consequence a contempt of Virtue as only fit to be the compagnon of Poverty And which indeed is the greatest of all these Mischiefs it would at once take away all future hope of recovering satisfaction for any Injustice or Oppression done since they must certainly have the Successors of those very Men to be their Judges who had oppressed them And indeed no one Court throughout the Kingdom while they had nothing in their Prospect but the good of the Nation did much incline to accept of it So that they only read and published a Declaration in form of an Edict at the Court of Chancery in the year 1605. But when particular Men making reflexions considered their Families would receive vast advantages they consented to the publick loss for their own private Gain which perhaps in time may not prove altogether so much as they had flatter'd themselves withall The Chancellor Believre kept the said Declaration in his hands for some Months and did not then pass it till he was in danger of losing the Seals for it which he could not hold much longer however for Sillery's interest forced them out of his Possession Men of upright Honesty could have wished that instead of this odd kind of Establishment they would rather have taken away not only the Sale of Offices but likewise all Salaries Wages Spices and Presents without leaving any other Emoluments but the Honor of the Magistracy and hopes of future Rewards for their long or their eminent Services in the due Administration of Justice This Method said they besides that it would have produced the advantages contrary Year of our Lord 1604 to those inconveniences which are pointed at above in the Establishment of the Paulete would have been of vast Profit to the King by casing or discharging his Coffers of the Wages to so many Officers It would have reduced the Charges to a very small Sum and have discharged the publick of huge Burthens besides the Plague of tedious Sutes in Law For there could have been hone but Men of Integrity and Probity that would have undertaken those Offices thus denuded of Profit and such Magistrates being totally disinteressed and not in a possibility of getting by delays would most certainly have endeavour'd to do speedy and impartial Justice and retrench those Formalities and little quirks and shifts by the severe Punishment of litigious Pettifoggers And there was no month Decemb. need to fear but that amongst such huge numbers of Learned Men wherewith France then flourished and abounded even amongst the Gentry and the richer sort there would have been enough willing to undertake those Offices gratis and who till their Prince should have thought fit to reward their Vertue and Diligence otherwise would have satisfied themselves with the pleasure of well doing and the real delight of being commended respected honoured and by all ingenious Persons highly applauded a Motive which alone does daily prompt the more brave and generous to venture their Estates and Lives and wherewith the best governed States have ever rewarded the Noblest Actions rather than with Money which renders Judges covetous and mercenaries proud and voluptuous unjust and oppressors We must not step out of this year 1604. without briefly mentioning the Siege of Ostend which never shall be forgotten It lasted Three years and Seventy eight dayes during which time it was the School and Cock-Pit of all that were the bravest Warriours in Christendom the exercise of the best Ingeniers and most dextrous Inventors of Machines and the Spectacle of the curious and inquisitive who flocked thither from all Parts and gazed at the sight as on a Miracle The Arch-Duke began it the Fifth of July in the year 1601. The renowned Ambrose Spinola put an end to it the Twentieth day of September in this year 1604. having had the honor to reduce the place to a Capitulation It had the advantage of receiving daily Supplies by Sea so that when ever the Garrison was tyred they could send them out and take a Recruit of all fresh Soldiers in their stead By this means the Besieged disputed their ground foot by foot and did not
Accompts and a Treasurer of France and in the manner these did proceed none could have just cause of Complaint But when he had named others and it appeared by their management the Council had a design either to destroy or much lessen that Fond which was the clearest subsistence of many Families in Paris the interessed who Year of our Lord 1605 were numerous had recourse to the Prevost des Marchands he being as it were their Guardian This was Francis Miron a man of Courage and Probity and who had no other interest but his Duty and the Honor of his Office He took up the Business with some heat spake very resolutely in the Town-Hall and wrote to the King who was then at Fontainebleau Those of the Council who had a Pique against him for his great resolution too stiff in their opinion imputed as a Crime that he should mention Nero in some Discourse of his and insisted much with the King to have him apprehended The Bourgeois were ready to take up Arms in defence of their Magistrate although he protested he would rather chuse to die than be an occasion of the least disorder It was a great happiness for the City of Paris to have so good and so wise a King as Henry who having in other occasions thorowly tried the Fidelity and Candour of Miron and it being withal his Method to give People time to calm and cool themselves and repent of their rashness he would not push things on to extremity which must have engaged him to severe Chastisements So that the Tenants referring themselves wholly to this good natur'd Landlord and Miron having explained himself with all the Respect and Humility due from a Loyal Subject to his Soveraign he stopt all further proceeding touching their Rents As to the rest Paris does owe this acknowledgment to the honor of Miron that in his Office of Lientenant Civil and of Prevost des Marchands they never had a Magistrate so exact in settling of the City Government their Markets and what else was necessary or that so warmly espoused the Peoples interest or took more pains and care about the Revenue and Rights belonging to them to clear their Debts keep up that Splendour becoming the Capital City of the Kingdom as also to beautifie and furnish it with things that were at once an Ornament and of Publick Advantage The several Streets enlarged many new Paved and made shelving to convey away the Dirt and Water Eight or Nine stately Conduits or Fountains still casting forth their plentiful Streams the River improved with Wharffs Keys and watering places divers little Bridges in places convenient a new Gate at the Tournelle that of the Temple repair'd and open'd after it 's having been shut up above Forty years will be lasting marks and tokens of it to all Posterity But there was nothing so noble as the Front of the Town-Hall which seemed to have been left imperfect for Two and seventy years space to give this Magistrate an opportunity of making it the Monument of his Fame and to exercise his Generosity by employing all the Profits of his Offices to put it into that condition wherein we behold it to this very day As to the Assembly of the Clergy that Body having recovered much force and vigour the Complaints and Demands they had to make to the King were very great Hierosme de Villars Archbishop of Vienne presented the Assemblies Papers to him and was the Mouth of the whole Assembly He made a long discourse upon those vexations the Church suffer'd on all hands the infamous Trade of Benefices Simoniacal Bargains Pensions paid to Lay-men and frequent Appeals as gross abuses He said the cause of all those Disorders was the refusal they had hitherto met with for Publishing the Council of Trent That it was strange the Kingdoms of the Earth which are but as the baser Elements of the Terrestrial Globe should substract and withdraw themselves from the benign Influence of the Church which is the Coelestial World That the things which pass away on the wings of Time should hinder the Fruits of an Eternal duration That they should make Divine Reason stoop and truckle to Humane Policies and if we may so express it subject God in a manner to the Wills of Men. As to the Reception of the Council of Trent the King would not be Positive That it could not quadrare with the Reasons of State and the Liberties of the Gallican Church On the contrary he declared that he desired it as much as they and was very sorry it met with so great Difficulties That he would spare neither his Life nor Crown for the Honour and Exaltation of the Church And as concerning Simonies c. they must lay the blame upon those that practis'd it not upon him for he made no Trade of Bishopricks like the Favorites of his Predecessors but bestow'd them gratis and upon Persons of Merit He afterwards at leisure made distinct replies to all their Papers and amongst other things granted them by an Edict the liberty of redeeming such things as formerly belonged to them and had been sold for little or nothing without due Year of our Lord 1605 form or the Solemnities thereto requisite They were not satisfied with this but must have another to empower them to redeem in what manner soever they had been sold Yet the Parliament put in this Modification or Proviso That it should not extend to the prejudice of any who had been in Possession Forty years upon a legal Title There hapned this year Three Eclipses two of the Moon The first upon the Four and twentieth of March the second the Seventeenth of September and one of the Sun the Second day of October It began about One of the Clock afternoon and for two whole hours caused such a darkness that it seemed as it were Night the disk of that great Luminary being totally obscured by the Moon which appeared black and edged with a circle of light quite round month Decemb. The Astrologers after their wonted manner Predicted it would have most terrible Effects If the Fougade in England had not failed they would have made the world believe that this Phenomena did Prognosticate it Some English Catholicks accustomed to contrive Conspiracies during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth being much incensed against King James for that though at his first coming he had given them fair hopes of enjoying greater liberty than ever in their Religion yet did now keep as severe a hand over them as any before Plotted to destroy both him and all the most eminent of the Kingdom by a Blow the very thoughts whereof begets a horror Robert Catesby and Thomas Percy were the principal Authors These knowing the Parliament was to Sit at Westminster hired the Neighbouring Houses and then some Cellars under the very place of their Meeting filled them with Barrels of Gun-Powder which they cover'd with Coals and Faggots and intended to set Fire thereto when the Houses of
Parliament were Assembled and so blow up the King with all his Lords and Commons there attending One of the Conspirators could not forbear writing a Letter to a Gentleman his Friend but in a Counterfeit hand and without any Name conjuring him not to meet there in Parliament for some days This Gentleman Communicates his notice to a couple of the Lords belonging to the Privy Council who made their Report of it to the King thereby to discharge their Duty They took it to be a piece of Raillery on purpose to affright and scoff at them but the King was not of their Opinion and judged by the terms of the Letter which said That it should be a terrible Blow and the Danger past as soon as you can burn this Letter that this must be some Execution by Fire It was therefore thought necessary to search into all the Cellars and the neighbouring Houses the first time nothing was discover'd but the great quantity of Woods and Coals giving some suspition they returned agen the second time this was the Night preceding the Day the Parliament was to Assemble viz. the Fifth day of November They then perceived one of Percy 's Men at the Door named Faukes he had been observed there before and his Countenance was now Agast they seized him therefore and finding him provided with Match to give fire to the Train he boldly owned the Design The Conspirators who were retired into the Country till the Fougade had taken Effect hearing it was discover'd dispersed several ways to draw their Friends together and make the People rise but they were so roughly handled that some were slain others taken and the rest in great Numbers forced to quit the Kingdom Most of these last got over to Calais where the King had Year of our Lord 1606 commanded the Governor to give them shelter those that governed his Conscience month January having first persuaded him it was a meer Persecution contrived by the Ministers of State against those of the Catholick Religion The last day of January Eight of the Chief Conspirators suffer'd in London the Punishment inflicted on such as are found Guilty of High-Treason Not one of them accused the Priests or Friers being bound not to discover them by terrible Oaths yet King James caused diligent Search to be made for them especially the Jesuits Two of those Fathers had made their Escape viz. month January February c. Garnet and Hall with a Boy that served them to the Castle called Abington belonging to a Gentleman the People hid them in the Tunnel of a Chimney and fed them with Broath convey'd to them by a long Pipe But the Searchers having turned out all the Domesticks of the Family and left a strong Guard Year of our Lord 1606 there the poor wretches were fain to produce themselves They were brought to London the Boy whether in dispair or for fear he should by force oftortures discover his Masters Secrets ript open his own Belly with a Knife whereof he died before he could be examined King James was persuaded that Garnet knew every particular of the Plot as being an intimate Confident of Catesby's but would not put him to the month February c. Rack for he had rather his Confession should be free and voluntary than have the reproach of being extorted for Compulsion would have rendred it suspected He therefore made use of Moderation and Craft instead of Severities and the Rack They allowed him much liberty in Prison and suborn'd a Fellow who feigning himself a Catholick spake so much till he made him both speak and write They permitted him to converse even with his Compagnon Hall and from their Discourse which was over-heard by two Witnesses who lay conceal'd they got full proof for his Condemnation He died as a Martyr notwithstanding and passed for such in the opinion of the English Catholicks His Apologist writing also four years after affirm'd that a Gentleman who was present at his Death desiring to have of his Reliques having month May. gather'd up some few Straws which he saw stained with his Gore found Garnet's Picture traced in lines of Blood upon one of them which was at that time kept by a Lady as a most precious and wonderful Relique The Pope fully justified himself from the reproach of this horrible attempt and shewed by good literal Proofs that he had forbid the English to maâ—â— use of any such Bloody ways The Jesuits labour'd also on their part to make Father Garnet's innocency appear And King Henry IV. whose honor was much concerned in their Conduct since he had recalled them sent Father Coton to the English Ambassadour to assure him the Society had no hand in that Conspiracy and that if some particular Members of theirs were concerned they disowned and detested them There was however another Jesuit in England named Oldcorne who maintain'd that the said Enterprize was good and laudable and for so doing was Condemned and Executed as Garnet had been Year of our Lord 1605 In France about the end of the fore-going year was discover'd the Treason month December of John d'Alagon de Merargues a Gentleman of Provence but originally by his Ancestors of the Kingdom of Naples whence King René had brought his great great great Grandfather The resemblance of his Surname had infected him with the vanity to believe he was of the House of Arragon and upon that score it came into his head to make himself a Fortune by the Spaniards to deserve which by some Signal action he had undertaken to bring the Spaniards into Marseilles The Office of Procureur Syndic of that Country and his great Alliances by Marriage his Wife being related to the Duke of Montpensier and the House of Joyeuse rendred him very considerable the Command of two Galleys maintained for the King's Service seemed to facilitate the means to make him Master of the Harbour or Port and the Office of Viguier which he was assured of for the next year now at hand gave him great Power over the City He had notwithstanding so few Instruments for so great a Design that he communicated it to a Slave belonging to one of his Galleys whom he would needs employ in it the Slave discover'd it to the Duke of Guise and the Duke of Guise sent notice of it to the Court. Merargues going thither soon after about some Affairs of the Province la Varenne had order to observe him and acquitted himself so well that one evening slipping into his House with a Prevost he surprized him while he was entertaining Bâ—uneau Secretary to the Spanish Ambassadour with his Design They seized upon both and searching them found a Writing tied under Bruneau's Garter which decypher'd the whole Mystery Bruneau was Imprisoned in the Bastille Merargues in the Chastelet and from thence transfer'd to the Conciergerie The Spanish Ambassadour made great noise at the detention of his Secretary he spake of it as a high injury to the Dignity of his Master
an Affront to all Crowned Heads and a violation of the Security due to every Ambassadour month Decemb. Going to the King to redemand himb he was at first but ill received Sometimes he talked high as representing a great Monarch then chang'd his tone into a softer note as knowing his Secretary ran the hazard of being put upon the Rack The King without appearing overmuch concern'd shewed him what Crime his Secretary had committed and made him sensible that such who debauched and Year of our Lord 1606 corrupted his Subjects to commit Treason against his State were those that violated the Rights of People not he who only secur'd a man that had so visibly abused it The Ambassador having no reply to make to so just a reproach fell upon great Complaints and instanced that the King sent Men and Money to maintain the Hollanders and had attempted to stir up the Morisco's in Spain whereof there was proof said he in the Confessions of divers Criminals that had suffer'd Death in those Countries To the first point the King made the same answer he had formerly given upon the same Subject To the second he said it was an Artifice of the Council of Spain who by the extremity of Tortures had forced those Suppositions from the mouths of some unhappy wretches Executed for other Crimes or had thrust them into their forged Wills and Testaments thereby to have matter to recriminate with some appearance of Truth After divers Replications on either part the King assured the Ambassador that his Secretary should have no wrong done to him and that he would send him the whole result of the Process to see whether he would own it or not month Decemb. During all this Month the Entertainment of the Politicians in their Conversations and the subject of their Writings was to discuss to what Latitude this Security of Ambassadors and their Servants did extend and in what cases they ought to be subjected to the justice of that Country wherein they did reside In the mean while the two Prisoners were interrogated the Secretary confessed all and when they had clearly Convicted him and gotten sufficient proof from him to Convict Merargues the King forbad the Parliament to proceed any further with him and some few days after sent him back to the Ambassador with a Copy of the whole Process But as for Merargues they went thorow with him for an Arrest or Sentence of the Nineteenth of the Month made him lose his Head in Greve and Condemned his Body to be cut in four Quarters which they set up over the four principal Gates of Paris and sent his Head to Marseilles to be there planted upon one of their Gates month February Amidst the Divertisements of the Court to whom the Birth of a second Son of France administred new cause of Festivity the King was seriously minded to restore the Duke of Bouillon upon his entire and not conditioned submission It was nigh upon four years he had been out of the Kingdom and by his Apologies Negociations and the intercession of divers Princes of his Religion had contended with the King not as to his Duty which he said he was ever ready to pay but his Innocency and Honor which he was obliged to maintain In effect they could not Convict him of any Conspiracy not even of the last though there was some reason to suspect him guilty of all The King knew he had stopt his ears at the instant Sollicitations of the Spaniards He remembred the eminent Services he had rendred him in his most pressing Necessities and he desired he might do him more yet hereafter in the shock he intended to give the House of Austria On the other hand he well knew that this Mareschal so long as he was absent from Court would ever keep the Huguenot Party in suspition and it somewhat concerned his Honor to make all Europe see they being well informed of this Affair that it was not without good ground he had so used him Now the only way to satisfie together both his Reputation and his Clemency was to engage him to come and crave his Pardon and Surrender his City of Sedan into his hands which he would needs have in his Power at least for some days that the whole world might understand the Mareschal held both his Life and Fortune from his Bounty The Mareschal did at length resolve to acknowledge he had failed he named his faults however Imprudence and Precipitation rather than Infidelity And though he expressed an impatient desire to wait upon the King yet he excused his coming till all those Clouds and Foggs of Crimes wherewith he had been charged were utterly dispersed it being as shameful for a Master to make use of any Servant while under such ill-favour'd Circumstances as for the Servant to have been wanting in his Fidelity due to so great a Monarch He apprehended no hurt from the King but only from the Counsels of Sully for as he believed him his Capital Enemy he imagined he would persuade the King to keep Sedan and that the apparent Benefit of the State would excuse and cover the Venial Sin of breaking his word Year of our Lord 1606 Him whom we have hitherto named Rosny shall be henceforward called the month February Duke of Sully because at the beginning of this year the King honour'd him with the Title of Duke and Pair which he annexed to the Lands of Sully purchased by this Lord since his favour The Letters Patents were sealed the Nineteenth of February and verified the last day of the Month in Parliament whither the new Duke went to be received accompanied as one who had both the King's Treasury and favour to befriend him and invite them The Business was brought to that pass that the King finding himself in Honor absolutely engaged to have Sedan and the Mareschal obstinately bent not to be dis-seized nothing remained but force that could determine the Controversie In the Council Villeroy and Sully were of different Sentiments concerning this Enterprize Sully openly persuaded the King to go in Person to Sedan Villeroy endeavour'd to hinder it but by more private ways To this end he made the difficulties appear very great the Consequences worse the place impregnable the Mareschal's Correspondence both without and within the Kingdom very dangerous He represented how all the Huguenot Party was ready to rise all Germany ready to take up Arms all England to put to Sea to support it that he had numerous Levies in Swisserland and the Low-Countries who would begin their March upon the first beat of Drum But the King slighted all these Apparitions as vain and airy Fantosmes and if month April they had been real Bodies he ought to have hastned to prevent them When he was gotten to Donchery which is within a League of Sedan with his Forces and had himself taken a view of the place the Mareschal who had still kept his Negociation on foot demanded to confer with Villeroy before
the future That whomsoever the Chapter should nominate to lift or take up the said Shrine should be bound to take out Letters of Pardon under the Great Seal that so this favour might be derived indeed from the Prince and proceed in a judicial order We shall pass by these things and many others the like to observe the management of two very important Affairs without doors wherein the Kings Authority and Prudence had the best share I mean the difference between the Pope and the Seigneory of Venice and the Truce between the Spaniards and the States of the United-Provinces As to the first His Holiness complained for that the Seigneory Year of our Lord From 1605 to 1606. had put a certain Canon to death convicted of ravishing a Girl of Eleven years old and then cutting her Throat for that they detained two other Ecclesiastiques in Prison a Canon and an Abbot the first for having inchiostré that is to say besmear'd a door belonging to a Kinswoman of his with Ink which is the highest affront in those Countries because she had refused to consent to his infamous desires The second because he was Accused of incest with his own Sister of Assassinates Poysonings Robbery on the High-ways Magick and of many other Crimes He was offended yet more at three or four Decrees made by them against the honour and the liberty of the Church By one in 1602. they had excluded the Lords Spiritual under what title or pretence soever from the right of emphyteutique prelation By a second of the year 1603. they had forbidden the building of any Church Convent or Hospital without permission of the Senate upon pain of banishment for such as transgress'd and confiscation of the Ground and Edifice By a third of the year 1605. they extended that Decree made first only for the City of Venice in the year 1536. to all the Cities and Territories under their obedience viz. That no Ecclesiastique should be allowed to leave bequeath or engage any Goods to the Church and if it were found that they possessed any of that sort the said Goods should be distrained and the value restored to whom it should belong To which was added That henceforward none should give any Estate in Lands to the Clergy nor to the Religious Orders without the consent of the Senate who would allow of it upon good consideration still keeping and observing the same solemnities as are observed upon the alienation of the publick demeasnes The two first Decrees were made in the time of Clement VIII the third was renew'd during the vacancy of the Holy See Paul V. declared to the Ambassador of the Seigneory That he would have this last to be abolished The Ambassador having Year of our Lord 1605 written thereof to the Senate received for answer to his Holiness That the said Decree contained nothing that was contrary to the Ecclesiastical Liberty that it respected only Year of our Lord 1606 the Seculars over whom the Republick had a Sovereign Power That it was not just that such Lands as maintained the Subjects of the State and was to bear the Charges should fall into Mortmain and that the Senate had ordained nothing therein but Year of our Lord 1607 what the Emperors Valentinian and Charlemain the Kings of France from Saint Lewis even to Henry III. Edward III. King of England the Emperor Charles V. and several others most Christian Princes had ordained in the like matters But the Pope very far from taking these reasons for currant payment demanded moreover that they should deliver up the Prisoners to him and sent two Briefs to his Nuncio for Martin Grimani Duke of the Seigneory which ordained him to do both the one and the other under pain of Excommunication and interdiction When these Briefs arrived at Venice the Duke was in his agony so that they deferr'd the opening of them till the Election of a new one who was Leonard Donati Vnder the Authority of this Duke the Senate made answer to the Pope That they could find nothing in the Decree nor in their own conduct that did any way deviate from the respect they owed to the Holy See or which was not of the rights of their Soveraignty in temporals At the same time they nominated Duodi Ambassador Extraordinary to go and declare the reasons for their so doing to his Holiness In the mean time he from France it was Fresne Canaye and the Cardinal Delfini made use of all their skill to allay the Popes indignation but on the one side the Cardinals of the Spanish Faction and on the other the Catholick Kings Ambassador Ferdinand Paceco Duke d'Ascalona puff't him up and heated him with specious motives of Religion and Honour The Cardinals did this to cast the good man into some Embarass hoping the troubles of such a perplexed business would shorten his days As for the Duke of Ascalona he sought to revenge himself for some resentment he had against the Venetians and thought hereby to give his Master an opportunity that might signalize his power in Italy The extraordinary Ambassador from the Seigniory coming too late sound all things in a flame and notwithstanding all the respects he could tender to the Cardinals and all the Arguments and Reasons he could urge he saw some time after a Bull posted up in the publick places of Rome declaring that the Duke and the Senate had by their undertakings against the Authority of the Holy See the rights of the Church and the priviledges of the Ecclesiastiques incurred those Censures contained in the Holy Canons the Councils and the Constitutions of the Popes ordained them to deliver up the Prisoners into the hands of his Nuncio declared their Decrees null and invalid enjoyned they should revoke them raze and tear them out of their Archives and Registries and cause it to be proclaimed throughout all their Territories that they had abolished them and this within four and twenty days which he allowed as the utmost time And in case they obeyed not he declared Excommunicate them their Abettors Counsellors and Adherents And if after the four and twenty days prefixed they did abide the Excommunication with stubbornness then he aggravated the Sentence and subjected the City and State of Venice to interdiction This made Duodi retire from thence without taking his leave of the Pope bringing along with him Nani the Ambassador in Ordinary from the Seigneory month May c. This thundring Bull was sent to all the Bishops within the Territories of the Seigneory to publish it the number of those that obey'd was the lesser the Senate had taken such good order there that this great flash of Lightning could set no part on fire divine Service went on still in the open Churches and the Sacraments were administred as before The Ancient Religious Orders stood firm but most of the new ones quitted that Country particularly the Capucins and the Jesuits both very strictly tyed to his Holiness interest the latter having
April May and June Mean time the King of France who had received notice from the States that they had accepted of a Truce fearing the business should be managed to the disadvantage of his interest resolved that he might share in the Negociation and make himself as Arbitrator to send thither the President Janin one of the best heads in his Kingdom and Paul Choard Bazenval to labour jointly with Elias de la Planche Russi whom he had sent Ambassador to the States in the stead of Busenval by communicating with the said States and fortifying them with their conceils The King of England likewise would needs have his Ambassadors there and by his example the King of Denmark and the Protestant Princes but those of France arrived there the eight and twentieth of May those from England not till the Month of July and the others about the end of the year The Ratification of Spain carried to Madrid being brought agen to the Hague with some alterations but not all those the States had mentioned did not fully content them Those that desired not the Peace took occasion from thence and from some other incidencies to frame such Obstructions as made them spend four Months in contests only Notwithstanding in the beginning of November the States upon the instances of Father Ney went on to the Negociation month Novemb. and Decemb. but put this down for an immoveable and fixed point That they should not in the least touch upon the foundation of their Liberty and their right of Soveraignty which they had acquired at the Expence of all that was dear to them in the world Now because the Truce expired in January they left it to the discrâ—tion of the Arch-Dukes to prolong it for a Month or Six Weeks In these Messages too and fro was this whole year almost wasted It is held that one of the Considerations which hastned most the Council of Spain to accept of this Truce was their fear of losing the Indies and their Maritime Forces for the Hollanders had taken from them and Burnt within three years above Thirty great Galioons and now newly had defeated their Admiral Year of our Lord 1607 Don Juan Alvarezd'Avila in the very Port of Gibraltar the Five and twentieth month April day of April This Exploit may well be counted one of the most brave and resolute that ever was performed on the Seas Jacob de Heemskerk Commanding the States Fleet consisting of Twenty six Vessels attaqued that of Spain though above a third part stronger than his own and under shelter of the Cannon both of the Town and Castle He pursued the Admiral quite through the Enemies Fleet having given Command not to fire one Gun till they came Yard arm to Yard arm Upon this neer approach the Valiant Hollander had his Legg taken off by a Cannon Ball whereof he died about an hour after but in the interim harangued those with such force that were about him and gave such good Orders that his Men month April gained the Victory Burnt or Sunk the Spanish Admiral wherein d'Avila was and Twelve Ships more took Two hundred Prisoners amongst whom was the Son of d'Avila and kill'd above Two thousand Men whereof above Fifty were Persons of Quality This signal overthrow fill'd all Spain with mourning and carried a very hot Alarm even to Madrid It was believed that if the Victors had pursued their blow they might have forced Gilbraltar and Cadiz too but they retired to Tituan a place upon the Coast of Africa belonging to the King of Fez to refresh and to repair themselves Year of our Lord 1608 We are now in the year 1608. which is to this day called the Great Winter year for the Cold which began to be very bitter on Sainct Thomas's Day lasted above two Months without relenting in the least degree excepting one or two days and congealed or if we may so express it petrified all the Rivers froze most of the young Vine-Roots and other tender Plants starved above half the Wildfowl and Small Birds in the Fields great numbers of Travellers on the Roads and near a fourth part of the Cattle that were housed as well by its violent sharpness as for want of Forrage It was observed that the heats of the following Summer did almost equal the Severities of the Winter and yet the year might be reck'ned amongst the most plentiful The Thaw caused no less damage than the hard Frost had done the Cakes of Ice in the Rivers destroy'd a world of Boats Keys and Bridges The Waters raised by the sudden melting of the Snows drowned the Valleys and the Loire breaking down its Banks in many places made a second deluge in the Neighbouring Campagnes Year of our Lord 1608 That which hapned at Lyons is a wonder worthy to be described There was month February a mountain of Ice-Cakes accumulated on the Saone before the Church de l'Observance the whole City trembled for fear lest upon breaking loose it should carry away the Bridge and therefore made Publick Prayers to avert that Misfortune and Damage a simple Artisan undertook to make it break into little shivers and swim away by degrees without any disorder for a certain Sum of Money agreed upon by the Magistrates of the Town To this effect he on the Shoar right against it lighted two or three small Fires with half a dozen Faggots and a few Coals and falls a muttering certain words Immediately this prodigious glaciated Rock burst with a noise like the report of a Cannon into an infinity of pieces the greatest not exceeding four or five foot But this poor fellow instead of receiving his Reward was in danger of receiving severe Punishment for the Divines said That the thing could not possibly be so done without some operation of the Devil so that his Recipe or Charm was burnt publickly in the Town-Hall Ten or Twelve years after he brought his Action in Parliament for his Reward I could never learn the success of it Henry last Duke of Montpensier after he had languished two years with a Hectick Feaver reduced to suck a Nurses Breast expir'd about the end of February His only Daughter a little before his Death was Contracted to the King 's second Son who dying young she afterwards Married the third whom we have seen Duke of Orleans he came into the world the Five and twentieth of March following Henrietta Catherine de Joyeuse Widdow of Henry re-married some time after to Charles Duke of Guise In the Month of May Charles Duke of Lorraine a good Prince liberal and pacifick passed from this life to the other and had for Successor his eldest Son Henry Duke of Bar and Marquis du Pont. Some perhaps would take it amiss should I forget that the Duke of Neuers sent on an extraordinary Embassy to the Pope to tender him the filial Obedience made his entrance into Rome upon the Five and twentieth of November the most magnificently that ever had been known upon
of these Picaroons at one blow conceived the boldest design that could be imagined He resolved to attempt to burn their Ships even in the Port of Tunis under the very Castle of Goletta The Spaniards having joyned him with eight great Galioons would needs second him in this generous enterprize When the Wind stood fair he put himself bravely in the Van entred the Haven at noon day passed under the Cannon of the Fort against which he fired a hundred and fifty Broad-sides then observing his Vessels could get no nearer he leaped into a Barque with forty Men only and piercing thorow a continual Tempest of five and forty great Guns which thundred upon him from the Fort went and put fire to the greatest Vessel first whence it was convey'd to all the rest and consumed three and thirty whereof sixteen were fitted for Men of War and one Galley Year of our Lord 1609 The news of the death of Ferdinand de Medicis Duke of Tuscany Uncle to month February the Queen interrupted those divertisements which were the chiefest occupations of the Court during the melancholy Winter Season and made them lay aside the merry Carousels and the Balets His Son Cosmo II. of that name succeeded him in his Estates month June This year two memorable Edicts were published one of the Month of June to stop the fury of Duels the other of the Month of May to remedy or prevent the too frequent Bankrupts The first encreased the penalties ordained by the Precedent Laws against such as fought and against their Seconds made several rules for the reparation of affronts and allowed such as had received any great injury to bring their complaints to the King or else to the Connestable ☞ and Mareschals of France and to demand leave to fight which should be granted them if it were judged expedient for their honour The second punished the Bankrupts with death as Robbers and publick Cheats declared null all Conveyances Sales Grants or Donations by them fraudulently made ordained that even those that had received them or had been assisting towards the receiving of their effects or had induced or perswaded the Creditors to compound with them should be chastised as Complices forbid all their Creditors to give them any Letter of Licence or time of delay upon pain of forfeiting their respective debts and more if they transgressed Upon this there were great numbers that fled out of the Kingdom but one of the most notorious who sheltred himself in Flanders being taken at Valenciennes by permission of the Arch-Dukes was brought to Paris and by Arrest or judgment of the Masters of Requests made amende honorable with a Torch in hand was put in the Pillory three several days and then sent to the Galleys A most necessary example to suppress the Roguy-shirkings of that sort of Cattle For having hid their heads a while to oblige their Creditors to give away good part of what is their just due they soon after appear again proud with the spoil ☞ of those they have thus defrauded and think to cover their Guilt and Shame under the impudence of a brazen fore-head Year of our Lord 1609 and 1610. Whilst the King was acquiring the Title of the Arbitrator of Christendom by composing all the differences between the Neighbouring States unhappy discord sliding into his own Family rufled the tranquility of his mind fill'd his heart with a thousand discontents and sowred all the joy of his good success The disdain of the Marchioness de Verneuil had a new encreased his passion as on the other hand the pursuit he made to have her again within his power and the Offensive Language she used redoubled the Queens jealousie and their Domestique quarrels Sully and some other of the Kings Confidents laboured in vain to reduce both the one and the other to the Kings will and pleasure they threatned the Marchioness that he would make choice of some other and if once she lost his favour together with his heart both she and her Children must inevitably be confined to some Monastery In effect he endeavour'd to wean himself from her by making publick love to the Countess de Moret and a while after to the Damoiselle des Essars They at the same time represented to the Queen that her passion did but alienate the Kings affection more and more that Complaisance tenderness and caresses were the only Charms to retain him and that till she could prevail with him to forsake the illegitimate Objects she ought in common prudence to make use of all her moderation if she desired to obtain any favours for her or hers But Conchine and Leonora Galigay very remote from putting her into this disposition having usurped so much power over her will that they governed her desires her affection and her passions as they pleased Year of our Lord 1609 encouraged and soothed her more and more in her perverse humour The King had often been advised not to suffer those fatal brands so near her who every day put fire to the House and would some time or other set the whole Kingdom in a flame Don Juan de Medicis having essay'd by his Order to perswade the Queen to discard them she fell into passion with injurious words and reproaches and was so bent to do him some injury whatever the King could do to appease her that he was constrained to retire out of France The impudence of those little rascally people grew to so great a height that they used Menaces even against the Kings person if he durst attempt theirs as many had often counsell'd him to do The zealous Catholicks of his Council joyning with and pursuing the Queens intentions maintained dangerous correspondencies with the Council of Spain by means of the Ambassador of Florence and made much ado for the Marrying the Daufin and the eldest Daughter of France with the Son and Daughter of King Philip insomuch as that Prince whether of his own Motion or by their suggestion gave command to Don Pedro de Toledo related to the Queen whom he was sending into Germany to sojourn some time in the Court of France and sound the Kings intentions We know not what Propositions he made to him in private but it was suspected he had talked about making a League between the two Crowns to force all the Protestants to return to the Catholick Faith and that he had offer'd to yield up all the Right his Master had to the Vnited Provinces and to give them in Dower to the Daufin with his eldest Daughter But the King answered very coldly as to these Marriages for he would have no Alliance with the Spaniard he desired to Marry his Daufin with the eldest Daughter of Lorrain to joyn that Dutchy to France and had resolved to bestow the eldest of his Daughters on the Duke of Savoy's eldest Son It was said that to indemnifie the Lorrain Princes who pretended their Dutchy was a Fief Masculine he proposed to give them the Rank and
's new flame increasing by the Presence of the Princess of Condé appeared so plain and shone so bright and hot as offended the Eyes of her Husband and gave him a shrewd Fit of the Head-Ach Then the scrupulous the discontented the King 's concealed Enemies those People whose Malignity is never pleased but in Troubles without any other aim but to make mischief and even the Queen her self peeked him with Honour Year of our Lord 1609 and Jealousie He flies out and held Discourses very dis-respectful the King chastizes him by taking away his subsistence which was in Pensions and the Money he had promised upon his Marriage This rough treatment had an effect quite contrary to what he desired the Prince being the more enraged and withal apprehending some violence from so head-strong a passion though he had seen no such example in this good King resolved to retire himself from Court. Having therefore disposed every thing for his design he did as we may say steal away his wife the nine and twentieth of August set her behind him on Horse-back and when he had rode some month August Leagues put her into a Coach with six Horses He passed by Landrecy without entring there and from thence travell'd with all speed to Bruxels where the Popes Nuncio and the Arch-Dukes received him with a great deal of joy and render'd him all the honour that was due to his quality Upon the news of this unexpected Evasion the King full of anger and love could not dissemble his emotions not even before the Queen but yet endeavour'd to colour them with reason of State His Council was of Opinion he should resolve on nothing in so important a business till they were certain of the place of his retreat A Month afterwards they had certain notice he was at Bruxels then the King order'd Praslin Captain of his Guards to go to the Arch-Dukes and demand they should surrender to him the first Prince of his month October Blood To which they answered That the consideration and esteem they had for that Noble Blood having obliged them to allow him a retreat the Laws of Hospitality and honour would not suffer them to deliver him up and that there was no ground to fear he would attempt any thing either in word or deed contrary to that respect and service which he owed him This Answer did not satisfie the King he counted as dishonour all the honour they could shew to him who had incurr'd his disfavour and had carried Reports into stranger Countries which wounded his reputation Besides the too great familiarity that Prince had contracted with the Duke d'Aumale a mortal enemy to his person gave him a plausible pretence to evaporate his cholerick transports which were known to be produced by another and a fairer cause He therefore sent Ambassadors to the Arch-Dukes who spake yet lowder to them then Praslin yet gained no more then he Some of his Confidents thinking to do him good service would needs employ themselves without Commission and made attempts month Novemb. to steal away the Princess and others agen more imprudent then the first contrived some against the Prince himself the rumour of it being spread in Bruxels this was in February Anno 1610. the whole City put themselves in Arms to defend so Noble a Guest but he fearing some dangerous Event retired from thence and passed into Milan The Count de Fuentes a furious Enemy to the King set malitiously a report Year of our Lord 1610 on Wing that he had put the price of two hundred thousand Crowns month February upon his head and under that pretence ordered a Guard both of Horse and Foot to attend him which he did not so much for the safety of his person as to vilifie the reputation of the King and hinder any Envoy from reclaiming that Prince either by making him some offers very advantageous or by bringing him to abhor and repent what he had done He had in effect some reason to apprehend such a change since notwithstanding all this Precaution the Prince as it was said began to listen to the propositions were made him by France and was going to submit and comply when the death of the King hapned Whatever some may have said the greatest passion the King had was for Fame in the pursuit of his brave and noble design The death of John William Duke of Cleve Juliers and Bergh Count de la Mark and Lord of Ravestein hapning the five and twentieth of March afforded him a specious overture This Prince Year of our Lord 1609 was Son of Duke William who was so of John Duke of Cleves Count de la month March c. Mark and Lord of Ravestein which John had espoused Mary Daughter and Heiress of William Duke of Juliers and Bergh and Lord of Ravensburgh Observe it was expresly said in their Contract That those Lands should ever remain united in one hand thereby to be enabled the better to defend themselves against their Neighbours who became too powerful The Succession of Duke John William was extremely litigious amongst his Heirs as well because of the divers dispositions of the Dukes his Predecessors Year of our Lord 1610 as the Constitutions of the several Emperors directly contrary to one another For some had treated these Dutchies as Fiefs Masculine others would have it that they might fall to the distaff or females The Emperor Frederic III. had conceded them to Albert Duke of Saxony for services rendred to the Empire in case those who then were in possession should come to dye without Heirs Males and Maximilian I. had ratified this concession two several times Afterwards quite contrary when William Son of Duke John and Brother of Sibylla married to John Frederic soon after Elector of Saxony espoused Mary of Austria Queen of Hungary and Sister of Charles V. this was in Anno 1545. that Emperor granted to him and his Successors confirm'd it That if they left no Sons of this Marriage the Daughters should be capable of succeeding in all his Estates the Eldest first then the younger consecutively one after another and if there were none living at the time of the decease of the Father the said principalities should appertain to their Male-Children The same condition had been apposed in the Contract of Sibylla Sister of this William in the year 1526. when Duke John their Father Marry'd her to the said Frederic Elector of Saxony who was afterwards defeated and destituted of his Dutchy by the Emperor Charles V. Now this William Son of Duke John had had a Son to wit the John William whose death we now mention'd and four Daughters who were Mary-Eleonora Anne Magdalen and Sybilla These Daughters had Married the first Albert Frederick Duke of Prussia Anno 1572. of whom there were none but Daughters remaining The second Philip Ludovic Duke of Newburg of whom were born Wolfang and some other Males The third John Duke of Deux-Ponts Brother of that Ludovic
decimations for Leo did grant them so easily to the King that ever since the Pope his Successors have made no difficulty to do the same and have suffer'd them to become very common and frequent Such was the State and disposition of things when Luthers Schisme began first to appear The great noise it made soon stifled all the lesser disputes particularly that between the Orders of Saint Francis and Saint Dominique about the Conception of the Virgin-Mary which hath been since revived by the Dominicans stiff adherence to the Doctrine of Saint Thomas It likewise put an end to those which some Monks of Colen had raised against John Reuchlin who called himself Capnion Occasioned thus A certain Pseffercorn Renegado Jew had advised the Emperour Maximilian to cause all the Hebrew Books of the Rabins to be burnt not with design this counsel should be put in execution but to oblige the Jews to redeem the Writings of their learned Doctors with great Sums of Money of which he pretended to have his share Reuchlin very Skilful in the Hebrew Tongue having been consulted with by the Emperour upon this Subject was of a contrary Sentiment and put down his Reasons in Writing Pseffercorn mad he should hinder him of his Prey wounded his Reputation with biting Satyrs and some Monks of Colen taking up the cause and quarrel of this Fourbe because he had been Baptized in that City caused his Adversarie's Book to be burnt It is sufficiently known what Martin Luther was an Augustine Monk Native of Islebe in the County of Mansfeild Professor in Theology in the new University of Wittemberg Founded by Frederic Elector and Duke of Saxony who loved and valued him for the volubility of his Wit and his Eloquence He was a chearful Man and of very gay humour but too vehement and too intemperate in Speech extremely Confident who never retracted and delighted too much in the Musick of his own Commendations and Applause The occasion that brought him into the Lists is known likewise and that he was not excited to it but by the interest of the Wallet because the Preaching of the Croisade had been committed in Germany to the Jacobins against the ancient Custom which ever allotted it to the Augustins in those Countries In the beginning he Preached only against the abuse of those Indulgences by that means to ruin the Trade of the Jacobins who vended them but being pusht onward from Dispute to Dispute he was transported so far that he declared himself wholly against the Roman Church Anno 1520. 'T was the Protection of Frederic Duke of Saxony then esteemed the wisest of the German Princes and the Applause of the Nobless of Franconia that emboldned him to set up the Standard of Rebellion So long as Frederic lived he durst make no change in the outward form of Religion nor quit his habit of a Year of our Lord 1524 Monk but after his Death which hapned in the year 1524. Duke John his Successor being absolutely intoxicated with his Eloquence permitted him every thing He therefore cast off his Froe and Three years afterwards Married an un-vailed Nun. Then cutting at large as we may say in the whole piece he shaped a Religion after his own Mode which he changed added to or retrenched so long as he lived So that one may say he had no steady or certain belief and those Articles he framed were rather dubious than Dogmatical although he published them as Oracles He died at Islebe Anno 1546. the Six and twentieth of February revered of all those who followed his Doctrine as a great Apostle and on the contrary detested by the Catholicks as an Hereslarque and the publick Incendiary of Christendom Some time before he thus Un-masqued himself there had appeared several Preachers who fell foul upon the Vices of the Prelates and the Court of Rome threatning them with Divine Punishment as horrible as sudden and near at hand A Constitution of Leo X. made in the year 1516. which forbids them Preaching the like things of the farcing their Sermons with Tales Prophecies Revelations and Miracles is an evident proof thereof Luther's Credit drew after him one Party of the Augustins startled many more and rendred all of them so suspected that the Pope was like to have abolish'd the whole Order This pretended Evangelical Liberty open'd the Cloister Gates to many other Monks especially in Germany un-vailed great numbers of Nuns let loose the People against the Church-men and push'd on the Nobility to seize upon their rich Possessions But Luther did not remain long sole Head of this Revolt for whether it were he gave rise to these Motions or whether some malign influence disposed mens Minds thus to Brouilleries and Contention there arose in a short time a Prodigious quantity of new Doctors and of novel Sects who destroyed the one the other yet notwithstanding agreed all in these Six points The first That they directly shock'd the Superiority of the Pope The second That they would admit no other Judges of the Articles of Faith but the Holy Scriptures only The third That they rejected certain Books of it some more others fewer which they said were not Canonical The Fourth That they retrenched several Sacraments The Fifth That they held several Novelties concerning Grace and free Will And the Sixth That they denied Purgatory Indulgences Images Prayers to Saints and many Ceremonies of the Church After his Death the Confusion was incomparably greater It would be endless to enumerate all the Authors the Names and the Whimseys of these different Sects there were some that received the Errors of Ebion of Manes of Year of our Lord 1547. c. Paulus Samosatenus of Sabellius of Arius of Eutyches and other ancient Hereticks There were such who finding no firm footing or foundation any where did only acknowledge there was one God the Creator of all things these were called Deists Others going farther and making a last effort of Impiety denied there was any other Divinity besides Nature alone The furious Irruptions of the Turks into Hungary and the fatal Discords amongst the three greatest Princes of Christendom Charles V. Francis I. and Henry VIII were very favorable to these Sowers of new Seeds For whil'st Christendom was affrighted at the Ravages of the Infidels and every where in Divisions they had not the leisure to consider of these disputes And then Charles V. standing in need of the Princes of Germany to resist Francis I. and to get the Empire to be settled upon his Son which he could never obtain would not prosecute them to the utmost or totally destroy them as he might have done after the gaining of the Battel of Mulberg On the other hand Francis I. his Rival openly supported them and entred into League with them though at the same time he burnt the Sacramentaries in his own Kingdom Add thereto the difficulties the Popes made for the holding of an Oecumenical Council whose Authority perhaps
our Lord 1591 bloody decrees they made to draw the People from their obedience to Henry III. and Henry IV. but when the latter of these two Kings was converted and withal become Master of Paris they made one quite contrary in favour of him not waiting till he had received his absolution from Rome Gregory XIV not well informed of the State of the League engaged himself yet farther then his Predecessor he promised fifteen Thousand Crowns Year of our Lord 1591 of Gold per Month to maintain and defend the City of Paris and sent an Army into France but it perished almost before it's entrance and brought much more Scandal by the Vices of their Country then assistance to the Party The Prelates to preserve their Revenues which indeed was the main thing studied by most of them and their greatest obligation followed the Party that Year of our Lord 1591 was most prevalent in those Countries where they had their Benefices but in such parts as were Subject to the Incursions of both they did not know what measures to take for if they declared for the one the other immediately gave away their Benefices Gregory by a Bull of the year 1591. commanded all those that then followed the King to forsake him upon pain of Excommunication but the present evil touching them more sensibly then his remoter Menaces they would not obey his Commands This Pope held the See but six Months Innocent his Successor but two Clement VIII who was Elected afterwards did at first follow the Steps of Gregory and sent to Philip de Sega Bishop of Piacenza who was made Cardinal by the said Gregory to procure the Election of a Catholick King This was in the year Year of our Lord 1592 1592. The Prelates on their part finding that all Communication was broke off with Rome made a Proposition for the creating a Patriarch for France and such as were the most powerful at Court either upon the Score of favour or merit did second it with all their might out of the hopes they had to obtain the said high dignity But the Cardinal de Bourbon who had other thoughts for his own grandeur opposed it vigorously under pretence that it would be a means to Confirm the King in his Schism and exasperate his Holiness the more So it was ordained that the Kings nomination to Benefices should be Confirmed by the Bishops and that each of them should have the power of his Dispensation in his Diocess as the Pope If we should judge of the intent of the Heads of the League by the effect produced we might affirm it was good for the Traverse and Troubles they gave Henry IV. put him to such a plunge that fearing worse might follow he resumed and embraced the Religion of his Ancestors to secure himself of the Crown Clement did for some time after keep the Doors of the Church shut against him but at length finding the weakness of the League and the Ambition of the King of Spain open'd them wide to him with great demonstration of kindness But not however without making all his efforts for augmenting the Authority of the Year of our Lord 1595 Holy See upon so eminent and favourable an occasion From that time France was troubled no move with those violent fits occasioned by heats of Religion although some relicks still remained within her bowels of the inflamations of the Holy League as on the other side the Cabals and Contrivances of the Huguenots gave continual Alarms and Apprehensions to King Henry IV. We have told you he allowed them the exercise of their Religion and many other advantages by the Edict of Nantes Of the corruption of the two Parties a third was generated named The Politicks a People who seeming to profess the Religion of that Party they were engaged in yet having indeed none since they placed and made it wholly subservient in all things to Temporal Interests of State were for that reason more pernicious then all the Hereticks During the greatest Heats of War for Religion under the Reign of Charles IX and the beginning of that of Henry III. the Clergy had not the leasure to assemble any Provincial Councils although the Church stood in much need of them but after the year 1580. there were held five or six by the Arch-Bishops assisted by their Suffragants The Cardinal Charles de Bourbon Assembled one at Rouen Anno 1581. Anthony Prevost Sansac held one at Bourdeaux the following year Simon de Maillé one at Tours in 1583. Reinold de Beaune one at Bourges in 1584. Alexander Canigiani one at Aix Anno 1585. And Francis de Joyeuse Cardinal one at Toulouze Anno 1590. I do not reckon amongst these Assemblies neither the diverse Conferences between the Catholick Doctors and the Protestants of which the most Famous as also the most pernicious was the Colloquy of Poissy nor even what they call Assemblies of the Clergy of France because the Form and Methods of Proceedings and the reasons of their Convocation differ very much from those of Councils though upon occasion they do sometimes treat of Discipline and other Matters Ecclesiastical It is true that in all times the Prelates have held such Assemblies either by Order of the King or by his leave when it was requisite for them so to do but they were not held regularly as they began to be since that Sacred Order was obliged in a Contract of twelve Hundred Thousand Livers of Rent to the Hostel de Ville of Paris and upon that Score to pay their Tenths punctually We may in my Opinion put that of Melun Year of our Lord 1579 which was held in the year 1597. for the first of this kind The Remonstrances they made to the King by the Mouth first of Arnaud de Pontac Bishop of Basas then of Nicholas l'Anglier Bishop of Saint Brieuc's were very pressing for the discharging and taking of those Rents for reception of the Council of Trent and the re-establishment of Elections They could obtain nothing as to the first for the second they were promis'd it should be considered in due time and place but to the Third the King replied very roughly that he would do nothing in it and asked whether they did not hold their Bishopricks from him To which some answered generously enough that they were ready to surrender them into his hands again provided he would be pleased to surrender that right to the Church according to the Holy Canons As to the remainder we may know by their Remonstrances what the disorders of the Gallican Church then were we find how the Bishopricks the Abbeys and Collegiate Churches were in the hands of Captains That these words were often heard in their Mouthes my Bishoprick my Abbey my Priest my Chanons my Monks That by an Act the Grand Council Order'd the Moneys upon the Sale of a Bishoprick should be employ'd to pay the Debts of the Vendor that in the Kings Council an Abbey
Visigoths 22 He and his Brother Clotair make themselves Masters of the Kingdom of Burgundy ib. Inhumanely Massacre two of their Nephews ib. Makes War upon Clotair his Brother 24 He and his Brother Clotair pass the Pyreneans and ravage all the Country of Arragon His death his Wife and his Children 27 Childebert II. of that name King of Austrasia 32 Adopted by Goutran his Uncle 33 Makes a League with Chilperic against him and falls upon his Country 34 Reconciliation with Goutran 38 Carries his Forces into Italy against the Lombards 39 Gives examples of severity 40 His death his Children 41 Childebert II. called the Young King of France 72 His death his Children 73 Childebrand Son of Pepin 78 Childebrand King of the Lombards 91 Childerick fourth King of France 12 Degraded of his Royalty and chaced out of France and another elected in his stead ib. Is recalled by his Subjects his Warlike Exploits his death his Children ib. Childeric King of Austrasia 62 Becomes sole King of France 64 Plunges into the Debaucheries of Wine and Women 65 Persecutes St. Leger ib. Becomes a Tyrant his unhappy end ib. Chilperic II. King of Neustria with Rainfroy his Mayor 64 65 Chilperic alone King of France with Mariel his Maire 80 His death ib. Childeric III. King of France 86 Is degraded and made a Monk 87 88 Chilperic King of Soissons falls upon the Territories of his Brother Sigebert 29 Too great Licence in his Marriage 30 Makes War against Sigebert and causes him to be assassinated 32 Seizes on the Kingdom of Paris ib. Surcharges his People with Imposts 34 Assassinated at Chelles in Brie 36 Clement IV. Pope his rare modesty 310 Confirms the election of Charles of France for the Kingdom of Sicilia Clement elected Pope is Crowned at Lyons 332 His death 336 Clodion the Hairy second King of France 8 His Conquests in Gaul ib. His death his Children 9 Clodomir King of Orleans 20 Barbarous cruelty his unhappy end 21 His Children ib. Clotaire seizes on the Kingdom of Mets after the death of Theobalde his Nephew 26 Ranges the revolted Saxons to reason ib. Succeeds in the Estates of his Brother Childebert to the prejudice of his two Nices Daughters of the defunct 27 Cruelty more then barbarous towards his Son Chramue 28 His death his Wives and Children ib. Clotaire II. of that name King of Neustria 37 Remains sole King of all France 45 Set himself to regulate his State and restore Justice and good order ib. His death his Wives and Children 47 Count of Flanders makes a League with the English and draws the War upon his own Country 326 Is held Prisoner in Paris 327 Clotaire III. King of Neustria and Burgundy 62 His death 63 Clotaire King of Austrasia 79 His death 80 Clovis V. King of France succeeded to his Fathers Crown and makes great Conquests 14 Marries Clotilda ib. Defeats and subdues the Almains ib. His Conversion to the Christian Religion and his Baptism 15 Makes War upon the Burgundians 16 17 Reforms the Salique Law 16 Makes War against the Visigoths ib. Rids his hands of the other petty French Kings of his Relations 17 His death his Children ib. Clovis Son of Chilperic his unfortunate end by the wickedness of Fredegonda his Mother in Law 34 Clovis second King of Neustria and Burgundy takes away the Silver Ornaments of St. Denis Church to feed the Poor during a Famine accused for having taken an Arm of St. Denis to keep in his Oratory 59 His death his Wife his Children 60 Clovis III. King of Neustria and Burgundy 71 His death ib. Clugny Abby its beginning 205 Loses its Reputation Colledge of Navarre its Reputation 331 Combats of Wild-Beasts practised under our first Kings of France 90 Comedians Jugglers Buffoons c. banished the Court of France 253 Comet in the Sign of Sagitarius In the Sign of Virgo In the Sign of Scorpio 201 Comet seen in the year 1264. Comet in the year 1301. Of the Earldom of Holland 140 Earls of Anjou their Original 149 Conan Duke of Bretagne his death 221 Conan the Fat Duke of Bretagne 237 Conan III. Duke of Bretagne 245 Canon the Little Duke of Bretagne his death 249 Councils necessary to preserve the purity of the Faith and the Ecclesiastical Discipline 4 The first Councils that were held and Celebrated in Gall. 4 5 Councils held in Gall during the fifth and sixth Ages 18 19 Councils Convocated in France during the Seventh Age. 75 Council of Francfort against the Heresie of Felix d'Vrgel 104 Councils held in France during the Eight Century 114 Council of Lateran 141 Council of French Bishops at Mets. ib. Council of Attigny 143 Council of Savomeres Council of Poutigon 145 Council of Tribur 160 Councils Celebrated in France during the Ninth Age. 171 c. Council of French Bishops at Mets. 141 Council general of the Bishops of Gall and Germany at Ingelheim 180 Council of Reims 203 Councils held in France during the Tenth Age. 206 Councils Provincial annulled by the Popes 230 Councils assembled in France during the Eleventh Century 232 Council National at Chartres 243 Councils of Spain lay the first foundations of the Authority of the Popes 290 Council of Lyons where the Emperor Frederic is Excommunicated and degraded of the Empire 303 Council of Lyons the Pope presiding there in Person 316 Council general assigned at Vienne in Daufine 235 Councils of the Gallican Church during the Twelfth Age. 289 Such as were held by Order of the King 290 Councils of the Gallican Church lose their Authority 289 Councils of France of the Twelfth Age whereat the Popes assisted ib. Councils held in France during the Thirteenth Age for the extirpation of Hereticks 337 Confession publick at the point of death 287 Confession Auricular 287 Conrar Duke of Wormes raised to the Empire 217 Conrad King of Germany his death 163 Conrad Duke of Lorraine obstinately Rebellious 181 Conrad King of Burgundy his death Conrade the Emperor takes the Cross on him and goes into the Holy Land 244 His return into Italy 245 His death 246 Conrade Son of the Emperor Frederic 306 Passes into Italy causes his Nephew Frederic to be Strangled and seizes upon Sicilia 307 His death ib. Conradin ib. Descends into Italy with a great Army for the recovery of Sicilia his unfortunate end 311 Conspiracy of the Romans against Pope Leo. 121 Of Bernard King of Italy against his Uncle Lewis the Debonaire 122 Conspiracy and horrible Treason of the Neustrians against their King Charles 139 Other Treachery of the same in favour of the same Prince ib. Conspiracy against Charles the Bald. 146 Conspiracy of the Italians against their King Berenger 185 Constance Wife of King Robert proud capricious and insupportable 211 212 Constance of Sicilia Marries the Emperor Henry IV. 246 Constance Elizabeth second Wife of King Lewis the Young 16 Constantine Copronymus endeavours to recover the Exarchat by means of the French Constantinople besieged and forced by
Paris and Orleans and Duke of France 175 Hugh le Noir or the Black 176 Hugh the Great otherwise le Blanc i. e. the White makes a League with Hebet Earl of Vermandois against their King 176 His death his Children Hugh Capet Son of Hugh the Great 183 Earl of Paris and Orleans ib. Is made Duke of France 184 Elected and Crowned King of France 201 Why he would never put the Crown on his Head after his first Coronation 202 Of the State of the Kingdom of France at that time ib. He assocates his Son Robert to Reign with him 202 Sends his Son Charles and his Wife Prisoners 203 Re-unites the County of Paris and the Dutchy of France to the Crown ib. His death his Wives his Children 204 Hugh de Beauvais Favourite of King Robert 212 Hugh Son of King Robert Associated and Crowned by his Father His death 211 212 Hugh Earl of Vermandois chief of the second House of that name 218 Hugh Duke of Burgundy after the death of Duke Robert his Grandfather 221 Hugh de Saint Pol. 225 Hugh the Grand Brother to King Philip of France chief of the first and second Croisade his death 224 225 Hugh de Crecy 235 c. Hugh III. Duke of Burgundy his death 237 Hugh Count de la Marche is constrained to render Homage to the Earl of Poitou 303 Hugh Abbot of Clugny receives the Ornaments of a Bishop 284 Humbert with the White Hands Earl of Maurienne and of Savoy chief of the Royal House of Savoy 215 Humond Father of Gaifre resumes the Title of Duke of Aquitaine to his confusion 302 Huns make War upon the French 312 Huns Avari in Civil War I. James the Great of Arragon and the finding his Corps about the beginning of the Ninth Age. 114 James King of Arragon 312 James King of Majoraca and Minorca 320 Jane Countess of Flanders 304 Jane of Burgundy 324 Jane Queen of France Heiress of Navarre builds and founds the Colledge of Navarre at Paris 331 Her death ib. Jane of Burgundy 345 Jerusalem Kingdom its end 254 Images and the manner of Worshipping them in France 172 Imbert de Beaujeau commands the Kings Army against the Albigensis 238 Imposts excessive stir up the People to Rebellion makes them lose the respect and love they owe to their Prince 330 Indulgence general otherwise called Jubilee its institution 328 Ingonde Daughter of King Sigebert Espouses Hermenigilde Son of the King of Spain Leuvigilde 38 Her death ib. Ingratitude of Wenilon or Ganelon Archbishop of Sens. 138 Innocency justified by Combat 46 Innocent II. Pope makes War against the Duke of Puglia and is made Prisoner 240 Thwarted by an Antipope he takes refuge in France ib. He Excommunicates the King of France and puts his Kingdom under Interdiction 243 Innocent III. Pope puts the Kingdom under Interdiction 264 He Excommunicates Raimond Earl of Toloze 266 Owns the Authority of the Council and that a Pope may be deposed ib. Innocent IV. Pope takes refuge in France 303 Inquisition established in Saxony 108 Who first exercised it 264 Intendants of Justice or Law 117 Interdict pronounced against England 264 Interdict pronounced against France 259 Interest every thing yields to it amongst the great ones 302 Investitures of Benefices 236 Jourdain de l'Isle in Aquitain hanged on a Gibbet at Paris 351 Irene Empress chaced by Nicephorus 107 Isaac Angelo Emperor of the East deprived of the Empire of sight and of liberty 261 Isabella Widow of John King of England 302 Isabella of Tholoza her death 316 Isabella of France Married to Thibauld King of Navarre Her death ib. Isabella of France 327 Isabella Queen of England passes into France 351 Sent away from Court she retires again into France ib. At her return into England she revenges her self of her Husband by a most horrible treatment Afterwards chastised her self in her turn 352 Isemburge of Denmark Wife of King Philip Augustus repudiated by her Husband 277 c. Italy become a Kingdom 13 In trouble 134 Is horribly rent by the Guelfs and the Gibbelins 303 Italians inconstant 168 Judicael in Bretagne 157 Judith Daughter of Charles the Bald stolen by the Earl of Flanders 140 Judith second Wife of Lewis the Debonaire 129 Suspected and even accused of impurity 130 Ives Bishop of Chastres a great defender of the Discipline of the Canons 223 Justice exercised by such as made profession of bearing Arms under the Kings of the first Race 48 Punishment of Crimes and divers means to purge themselves of several Crimes 48 49 Justification by cold Water by hot Water and by Fire ib. L. St. Lambert Bishop of Liege Divine punishment of his Murtherer 72 Lambert Earl of Nantes 134 Lambert Son of Guy Crowned Emperor in Italy 160 Landry Maire of the Palace 41 Language natural of the first Frenchmen 50 Lasciviousness of a Prince cause of great evils 30 c. Latilli Peter Bishop of Chalons and Chancellor of France put out of his Office and imprisoned 344 Launoy John Viceroy of Navarre 323 Lauria Roger Admiral 320 Legats sent into France 230 Leger Saint Bishop of Autun Persecuted and confined in the Monastery of Luxeu 65 Re-established in his Episcopal See ib. His Eyes put out the Soles of his Feet cut away and his Lips then shut up in a Monastery 67 68 His death ib. Leo IV. Pope his death 138 Leo Emperor disputes the Worship of Images and will have them taken out of the Churches 84 Leo elected Pope 105 Ill treated at Rome has recourse to Charlemain and comes to him 105 c. Makes another Voyage into France 108 Leo Pope acts of severity his death 121 Leo VIII elected Pope in the place of John the XII 185 His death 186 Leo IX Pope comes into France and holds a Council at Reims 217 Is made Prisoner by the Normands of Italy 218 Leo Isauric Excommunicated 266 Letters of Exemption false counterfeited by certain Monks 290 Leudesia Maire of the Palace 67 Levies of Moneys of three sorts 111 Leutard an Heretick his unhappy end 228 Levigildus King of Spain causes his Son Hermenigilde to be strangled 38 His death ib. Lezignan Guy 257 Liturgy or Mass according to the Church of Rome brought into France 102 Locusts in a prodigious quantity 144 Lombards pass into Italy and establish a Kingdom 29 Descend into Provence and the Kingdom of Burgundy to their own confusion 30 Will have no more Kings and commit the Government to thirty Dukes 31 Restore Kingly Government 36 Lombards reduced to reason 186 Lorraine parted in two 143 Given to the Kings of Germany 149 The Soveraignty of that Kingdom remains in Lothaire King of France 188 Lothaire eldest Son of Lewis the Debonaire is made King of Italy and associated in the Empire 122 Lothaire King of Italy His Marriage with Hermengarde 123 Is Crowned Emperor by the Pope ib. Lothaire King of Italy seizes on the Empire of his Father and shuts him up in St. Medard at Soissons then
causes him to be degraded after his publick Pennance 127 128 Lothaire King of Italy difference between him and Charles his Brother touching their shares after the death of their Father 134 Reconciliation with Charles his Brother 138 Changes his Imperial Purple for a Friers Frock ib. His Wife and Children ib. Lothaire II. of Lorraine 139 He repudiates Thietberge his Wife to Espouse Valdrade and that made a great deal of noise 140 The said Marriage annull'd and he Excommunicated by the Pope 141 Passes into Italy against the Saracens his death by Divine Punishment 142 His Children ib. Lothaire Son of the King of Italy 179 Lothaire King of France 183 His Marriage with Emma or Emina Daughter of Lothaire King of Italy 187 Enterprize upon Lorraine 188 Repels and chases the Germans out of France where they had made an irruption 189 Repasses into Lorraine Causes his Son Lewis to be Crowned and to Reign with him ib. His death 189 Lothaire Duke of Saxony elected Emperor 238 Lothaire II. Emperor his death 243 Louis of Aquitaine passes into Italy to the assistance of his Brother Pepin 104 Besieges and takes Narbonne and Tortosae 106 c. Louis or Lewis the Debonaire his coming to the Crown 120 Purges the Court of Scandal ib. His Coronation and of the Empress Hermengarde His continual exercises of Piety and Devotion 122 Concerns himself in the reformation of the Clergy and draws upon him the hatred of the Churchmen 122 Associates Lothaire his eldest Son in the Empire and shares for his other Children ib. Severely punishes the King of Italy his Nephew who had conspired against his Person and his Complices 122 123 Causes all his Bastard Brothers to be shaved ib. Reduces Bretagne to a Dutchy ib. Marries a second Wife after the death of Hermengarde ib. Marries all his Sons 124 Subdues the Bretons ib. Gives occasion of discontent to his Children who conspire against him and shut him up Prisoner in the Abby St. Medard of Soissons 125 c. Does publick Pennance and is degraded 126 c. Is re-established in his Royal Throne 128 Divides again his Estates of France Eastern and Western 129 His death his Wives his Children 130 Of his great care in regulating all that concerned the advantage and administration of the Church the discipline of the Clergy c. 170 Louis Son of Lewis the Debonaire is made King of Bavaria 122 Louis King of Bavaria embraces the Cause of his Father Lewis the Debonaire afterwards turns against him 126 Louis Emperor King of Italy 138 Louis the Germanick usurps Neustria upon his Brother Charles 139 Divides Lorraine with him 142 Troubled and disquieted by his Children 144 His death ib. Louis the Emperor and King of Italy despised by his Subjects 138 Makes a League with Lewis the Germanick against Charles the Bald. 139 Difference about Lorraine 143 Is despised of his Subjects ib. His death 144 Louis the Stammerer Emperor and King of Neustria or West France Aquitain and Burgundy 148 Is Crowned Emperor by Pope John ib. His death 149 Louis III. and Carloman his Brother Kings of West France Burgundy and Aquitain 148 c. Death of Lewis 152 Louis Son of Boson seizes upon Provence 156 c. Louis Son of Arnold Emperor of Germany and King of Lorraine 162 His death 163 Louis the Blind King of Provence 170 Louis IV. called Transmarine is recalled from England owned and Crowned King of France 175 6 Abandoned of all his Subjects in Neustria is constrained to save his life by a shameful flight 177 Makes a Peace and is reconciled to his Subjects 179 Seizes Richard Duke of Normandy ib. His precipitate revenge draws great difficulties upon him 178 Is carried Prisoner to Rouen ib. Is restored to liberty 179 Brouilleries in France 180 c. Is reconciled with Hugh le Blanc and they make Peace together 181 His death ib. Louis King of Aquitain chastises the Revolt of the Gascons 110 Associated to the Empire and declared Emperor by Charlemain his Father 111 Louis King of France called the idle or Lazy Marries a Princess of Aquitain named Blanch. 198 His death ib. Louis called the Gross Son of King Philip designed King takes up the Government of Affairs 226 Passes into England 227 Betrothed to Luciane Daughter of Guy de Rochefort 227 His pretended Marriage with Luciana broken by the Pope ib. Quarrels and brouilleries with his Subjects 234 Defeats the English in Battle about Gisors 35 Renewing of the War between those two Princes 236 Strongly opposes the Emperors Efforts who would needs be revenged because he had protected Pope Calixtus II. 236 c. Reduces the Count d'Auvergne to reason 238 Revenges the Parricide committed on the Person of the Earl of Flanders 239 Causes his Son Philip to be Crown'd ib. Becomes an Enemy to the Clergy his Subjects and is Excommunicated 239 c. His death his Wives his Children 241 Lewis the Young Crowned in the life time of his Father Lewis the Gross 240 Louis the Young he Marries Alienor Daughter of the Duke of Aquitaine ib. Establishes Justice and secures the publick safety 242 Is Excommunicated and his Kingdom put under an interdiction by the Pope 243 Receives Pope Eugenius into France 244 Takes the Cross and goes into the Holy Land ib. His return into France 245 Repudiates Queen Alienor and Marries the Daughter of Alphonso VII King of Castille 243 Goes to St. Jago in Gallicia out of Devotion 246 Difference with Henry King of England for the County of Touloze 248 He makes Alliance by Marriage with the House of Champagne 249 Suppresses the disorders of his Kingdom ib. Enters into War again with the King of England their Reconciliation ib. Takes the protection of the King of England's Children against their Father 250 Passes over into England and goes to visit the Tomb of St. Thomas of Canterbury ib. His death his Wives his Children 251 Louis VIII King of France his Birth 254 Parlies with the Emperor Federic II. 266 His Coronation at Reims 295 Enterview with Henry Son of the Emperor Federic 295 Crosses himself against the Albigenses and makes War upon them in Person 296 His death his Wife and his Children 296 297 St. Louis King of France his Coronation 298 Great disturbances in the State at the beginning of his Reign ib. c. He Vowes to make War against the Infidels 303 Voyage to the Holy Land 304 c. His Army entirely defeated and he made Prisoner of War by the Infidels 305 Is set at liberty with all the rest of the French Prisoners 306 Whether it be true he gave a Consecrated Wafer as a pawn for his Word 305 He visits the Holy Places in the Holy Land 307 His return into France ib. He entertains the King of England magnificently ib. Regulates his Kingdom by good Laws and exercises himself in good Works 308 Endeavours to accommodate Affairs between the Barons and their King Henry 309 Undertakes a new Crosade for relief of
Wife and Marries Bertrade 223 Is Excommunicated because of this new Marriage by the Bishops by the Pope and by a Council at Poitiers ib. Braved by the Lord de Montlehery ib. In fine obtains a dispensation in the Court of Rome is absolved and his Marriage is confirmed 226 His death his Wives and Children 227 Philip Brother of King Lewis the Gross sides with the discontented Party 2â—5 Philip Augustus King of France his Birth 249 His Coronation 250 His Marriage with Isabella Alix 251 He begins his Reign and Government with Piety and Justice 252 He withdraws Vermandois from the hands of the Earl of Flanders 252 He sends succours to the Holy Land and causes the Croisade to be preached 253 Difference between him and the King of England 254 Takes the Cross on him with the King of England for the recovery of the Holy Land 255 Gives chace to the King of England who was entred upon France ib. His Voyage to the Holy Land Order for the Regency of his Son and Kingdom during his absence ib. Difference intervened between him and Richard King of England 256 Takes the City of Acre or Ptolemais ib. Falls sick and returns into France 257 Withdraws the County of Artois from the hands of the Earl of Flanders ib. Declares War against the King of England 258 Repudiates Isemberge his Wife then takes her again ib. Reconciles himself with John King of England 259 Endeavours to accustom the Ecclesiasticks to furnish him with Subsidies 261 Conquers all the Territories of King John which held of the Crown 261 c. Philip the Fair King of France Marries the Queen of Navarre 320 Is Crowned at Reims 322 Accommodates and makes Peace with the Castillian 323 Causes search to be made amongst the Banquers 324 Opposes the designs of the King of England for the subjecting of Scotland and recovering the Cities in Guyenne 325 Is offended with Pope Boniface 326 A great Conspiracy against him 326 Makes War in Flanders his progress 327 c. Confers with the Emperor Albertus 328 Enters into a quarrel with the Pope and hinders the French Prelats from going to Rome whither the Pope sent for them 329 Is Excommunicated by the Pope ib. Takes up Arms to chastize the Rebellion of the Flemings 330 Treats a Peace with the English ib. Makes a Voyage into Guyenne and Languedoc 331 Fore-arms himself against the Bâ—lls of Bâ—niface ib. Assists at the Coronation of Pope Clement at Lyons 332 Appears at the General Council of Vienne in Daufine ib. Undertakes War against the Flemings His three Sons Wives accused of Adultery His death his Wives and Children 336 Philip of Alsace Earl of Flanders his death 257 Philip of Dreux Bishop of Beauvais is held Prisoner 258 Philip Earl of Boulogne 299 Philip Emperor assassinated 264 Philip the Hardy King of France 314 Returns from Afric into France ib. He Arms against the King of Castille in favour of the Princes of Navarre his Nephews 316 Takes up Arms and passes the Pyrenean Mountains against the King of Arragon 320 His death his Wives and his Children 321 Philip the Long espouses Jane of Burgundy 324 Philip d'Euvreux 348 Philip the Long King of France 347 His Wife accused of Adultery 336 Brouilleries in the State 348 His death his Children 349 Philip de Valois passes into Italy against the Gibbelins 348 Philippa Daughter of the Earl of Hainault 352 Peter Son of King Lewis the Gross chief of the House of Courtenay 241 Peter Duke of Bretagne takes Arms against the King 296 Surnamed Mauclerc or Illiterate or Witless 300 His death 301 Peter Earl of Alencon 312 Peter Earl of Arragon Crowned King of Sicilia 317 A villanous and shameful slight 320 Is Excommunicated and degraded by the Pope ib. His death 321 Peter Abbot of Cane refuses the Miter 270 Planet Mars not visible in a whole year 105 Plectrude Widow of Pepin intrudes into the whole Government of France 78 She is constrained to quit the Government to Charles Martel 79 Poissy Gerard Financier 254 Politicks Hereticks 276 Poland honour'd with the Title of a Kingdom 209 Ponce Abbot of Clugny by his Debauches loses the Reputation of his Order 279 Papeliâ—ans Hereticks their Forces and Erâ—ors 276 Popes of the Fourth Age. 5 Popes when they began to change names at their creation 136 Memorable example of their Soveraign power and of an extream severity 209 Of their Elections 247 Have a right to exhort not to command the Kings of France 326 Acts of Temporal Soveraignty they assumed on all occasions during the Thirteenth Age. 337 They would raise themselves above all Soveraigns 293 Gilbert Porct Bishop of Poitiers condemned 289 Port-Royal its foundation 83 Portugal of a Dutchy made a Kingdom 243 Pragmatick of St. Lewis 312 Pretextat Archbishop of Rouen 32 Restored to his See and assassinated 38 Prior of the Monastery of Gristan his History 288 Primacy of the Church of Lyons over the four Lyonnoises 232 Prince that oppresses his Subjects is easily abandonned by them 45 Prince dispoiled of his Estate because of his ill Conduct 161 Priviledges of Monks 282 Bring a Scandal to the Church Buy it off dearly at Rome ib. Prodigy unheard of of Snakes and other Serpents who fought most obstinately 2â—8 Protade Maire of the Palace 43 Provenceaux rise against their Earl and Lord. 301 Provisions of the Pope 236 Petro Brusians Hereticks 276 Puisset Hugh 235 Q. Quarrel between Thierry and Boson 146 Quarrel for the Archbishoprick of Reims 177 c. Quarrel and hatred of the â—arls of Charâ—res and Flanders against the Normans 186 Quarrel famous between the Pope and the Emperors 223 Quarrel between Robert Duke of Normandy and Henry his younger Brother for the Kingdom of England 226 Quarrel of the Popes with the Emperor Henry IV. 227 c. Quarrel between the Bishops and the Monks for the Tenths 228 Quarrel between the Emperor and the Pope for the investiture of Bishopricks 236 Quarrel between the Secular Doctors of Theology and the Orders of Religious Mendicants 307 Quarrel of the Count d'Armagnac and the Lord de Casaubon 315 Quarrel bloody and long for the Succession of the Crown of Scotland 323 Quarrels Little particular Riots do often produce very great Quarrels 325 Qâ—iâ—alet Bishoprick transfer'd to St. Malo's Church of the Twelfth Century R. Rabanus Maurus Archbishop of Ments 173 Race Carolovinian and the end of it Causes of its ruine 198 199 Rachis King of the Lombards turns Monk 91 Leaves his Monastery whither he is forced to return again Radbod King of the Frisians 72 Radegonda Sainct 22 Raillery that cost very dear 222 Raimond Earl of Tolose principal Favourer of the Hereticks in Languedoc is Excommunicated 264 Reconciles himself to the Church 295 Is brought to reason 299 Raimond Earl of Toloze pretends to be Lord of the Marsellois c. 300 Raimond Prince of Antioch Rainfroy Maire of the Neustrians 79 His death 81 Rambold of Orange 224 Ranulf Duke of Aquitaine
of Austria Emperour comes from Spain into the Low-Countries is Crowned at Aix la Chapelle 564 His Cession and Renunciation of the Empire and his retreat into a Convent 645 Charlotta Queen of Cyprus her Death 512 Charles Bastard Brother to the King of Navarre 589 Charles Duke of Savoy not well looked upon by the King Francis I. 599 Besieges the City of Geneva without Success ib. His Death 636 Charles Duke of Lorraine Son of Francis is brought to the Court of France 646 Count Charolois out of favour with Lewis XI 481 482 483. Joyns with the other Princes and discontented Party and takes the Field 484 c. Makes an Alliance with the English by marrying his Sister Margaret 486 Goes against the Liegeois and chastises the insolence of those of Dinant 488 Chastillon made Prisoner by the English 388 389 Chaumont Governor of the Milanois chaces the Venetians from the Territories of Ferrara 547 Chastisement of Robels after a most noble and royal manner 612 613 Cherifs and the beginning of their Reign 551 Christiern III. King of Denmark 607 Christopher Columbus discovers the New World 516 517 Claude of France Marries Francis I. then Duke of Valois 555 Clement V. Pope 441 Clement VI. Pope 364 His Death 372 Clement VII his Election to the prejudice of Vrban VI. the Cause of a Schism in the Church 396 His Death Coligny Admiral of France 645 Combat of Birds in the Air the one against the other 513 Combat or Battle of Renty between the Emperour Charles V. and Henry II. 638 Combat Naval 642 Combat bloody betwixt Birds of all sorts of Species 426 Comets of an extraordinary magnitude 494 Comines quits the Duke of Burgundy ib. Is taken Prisoner 511 Cominges County United to the Church 458 County otherwhile preferred to that of Dutchy 434 Council of Trent assigned by Pope Paul III. who sends his Legates thither 613 Councel of Eighteen Persons established 485 Councel a Prince that will have sincere Advice ought to hide his own Sentiments 545 Constantinople taken by force by the Turks 465 Michael Corbier a Monk Antipope 359 Courtray Pillaged Burnt and Sacked by the French 406 Creation of a Chamber in each Parliament 357 Croisade in England against the Clementines 407 Crosses appear in the Air and on their Clothes 536 de Crouy Count de Reux ravages the Frontiers of Picardy 606 D Oliver DAin Barber to Lewis XI punished with Death 508 Dampierre Admiral his Death 433 Daufin of France Commands an Army in Roussillon 612 Daufine United and incorporated to the Crown of France 369 David King of Scotland driven from his Kingdom 360 His Death 391 Diepe Escalado'd by the French 455 Difference and Quarrel between the Pope and the Emperour 359 Difference between France and Austria 516 Difference quarrel between the French and the Arragonians for the Limits of the Partage of the Kingdom of Naples 537 Difference and quarrel raised at Venice between the French and Spaniards for Precedency 652 And Doria General of the French Galleys 587 Quits the King's Service and goes into the Emperour's 588 589 Chaces the French out of Genoa 590 Dragut a famous Corsaire or Pyrate gives chace to Andr. Doria's Galleys 634 Joyns the Galleys of France on the Coasts of Tuscany 639 Charles Prince of Duras 368 Most dexterously ruines the Duke of Anjou's Army and remains quietly in Possession of the Kingdom of Sicilia 408 Is Crowned King of Sicilia and Besieges Queen Jane in Naples Usurps Hungary his Death 409 E EClipses 616 Edict of Chasteau-Brian for a search after the Religionaries 631 Edward III. King of England Marries the Daughter of the Earl of Hainault 357 Renounces to the Crown of France ib. 380 Renders Homage to the King of France 358 Declares War against him 361 Recommences War with France 365 Lands in the Lower Normandy comes and defies King Philip de Valois to Fight him under the Walls of Paris and from thence retires to his County of Ponthieu 366 Defeats the French in the Battle of Crecy ibid. Besieges and takes Calais 367 Lands at Calais with a dreadful Army 379 Makes a Peace with France and with Flanders 380 Is defied by the King of France who denounces War against him 388 His Death and his Children 394 Edward Earl of Savoy his Death 358 Edward Son of John Baliol King of Scotland 360 Edward Duke of York Crowned King of England 467 Edward of York King of England utterly forsaken by the English flies into Flanders to the Duke of Burgundy 492 Returns into England and recovers the Throne 493 Lands at Calais 496 Accommodation with France 497 His Death 509 Eleonor Queen of France procures an Enterview between the Emperour and the King 608 Elizabeth Queen of England 651 Openly embraces the Protestant Religion ib. Emmanuel Emperour of Greece comes into France 419 Emmanuel Philibert Duke of Savoy Commands the Imperial Army in the Low-Countries 635 Empire of the East its end 465 C. d'Enguien gives Battle to the Imperialists and gloriously gains the Victory 616 Enterprise of the French upon Genoa very shameful 522 Enterview of the Kings of France and England Charles and Richard 413 Enterview of the King of France and Castille 482 Enterview of the Kings of Fr. Engl. 497 Enterview of the Kings of France and of Arragon 544 Eugenius IV. Pope 454 d'Eureux John in Bretagne 394 Expedition of the French and the Venetians against the Turks without Success 536 F FAction very pernicious in Paris 377 Famine and Plague 393 Federic utterly dispoiled of his Kingdom of Naples takes refuge in France 536 His Death 542 Felix lays down his Papacy in favour of Pope Nicholas 461 Ferdinand otherwise Ferrand Bastard of Alphonso of Arragon King of Naples 518 His Death ib. Ferdinand and Isabella conquer the Kingdom of Granada 516 League themselves with the Venetians and the Pope against the French 521 Surnamed in Raillery John Gipon makes Inroads upon the French 525 Usurps Navarre 551 Shares the Conquests of the Kingdom of Naples with the King of France 536 Drives out the French and makes himself Master of all 538 c. Makes a Peace with King Lewis XII 542 Receives from the Pope the investiture of the Kingdom of Naples 554 His Death 560 Ferdinand Son of Alphonso King of Naples abandons his Kingdom 520 Restored by means of the Italian Confederate Princes 521 His Death 525 Ferdinand Brother of Charles V. elected King of Hungary 584 Elected King of the Romans 593 Emperour 652 Ferdinand King of Hungary defeated of his Armies by the Turks 606 Flemmings abandon the French and acknowledge Edward of England for their King 362 Flanders over-run and ravaged by the English 397 In great Troubles split into divers Factions 403 Florence troubled by the two Factions of the Passy and the Medecis 501 Cast off the yoak of the Medicis and return to their popular State 586 Reduced under the Dominion of the Medicis 562 De Foix Gaston General of the King's
at the end of his dayes 730 His death 729 Description of his Person ib. His inclinations ib. Was a great Swearer 730 His Children ib. Vices Predominant during his Reign ib. Caused his Daughter to be named by Elizabeth Queen of England Chastel John wounds the King in the Mouth or the nether Lip 842 Is Condemned 843 Chastelleraud place of the Assembly of the Huguenots 871 Cemitery or Burial Place allowed the Huguenots at Paris 743 Clement VIII gives some Convents to the Recolts Church 16 th Age. Coligny the Admiral charged with the Death of the Duke of Guise 687 Joyns with the Germans 699 Is Condemned to Death and his Head proscrib'd 707 Takes several places going to Bearn 702 Comes to Court and is highly favoured 715 Is Massacred 719 Company or Society of Jesuites restored in France 907 Condé Princess loved by Henry III. 739 The King would vacate her Marriage and have her for his own Wife ib. Her death 739 Princess of Condé makes the King in Love with her 936 Is carried away by her Husband into Flanders 937 Confederation between Queen Elizabeth of England and the Huguenots of France 683 Conference between Henry King of Navarre and the Duke of Espernon 760 Confusion or amazement of those that were present at the Murther of Henry IV. 942 Councel of France betray'd 911 Courtiers Italians ruine the Kingdom of France 774 Courtiers adore not the Prince but during his Grandeur Cracovia in Uproar upon the departure of Henry III. 732 Croquants a Faction in the time of Henry IV. 840 Curates of Paris assembled to acknowledge Henry IV. 838 Curton dis-engages Florat Seneschal of Auvergne 705 D DAcier Commands a Body of an Army 703 Is made Prisoner 712 Dacier Attorney General preserves the City of Touloze for Henry III. 788 Dandelot Brother to the Admiral de Coligny imbued with the Opinions of Calvin 666 His resolution 696 Is with the Prince at Rosoy 697 Passes the River after the Battle of Paris 697 Makes up a small Army 704 Falls into Poitou 705 Declaration of the Duke of Guise against King Henry III. 769 Declarations of Henry III. against the leagued 788 Decree of the Clergy assembled at Mante declaring the Pope's Bulls against Henry IV. to be Null 850 Deputies of the pretended Reformed Churches have Permission to hold an Assembly at Mante 835 Dispair often-times more advantageous than good Fortune it self 794. 835 Desportes Abbot of Tyron a greater Courtier than a Poet though an excellent Poet for those times 818 Diego d'Ibarra Ambassadour of Spain 821 Demands the Crown for the Infanta ib. Diepe remains faithful to Henry III. 788 Acknowledges Henry IV. 801 The Difference between the Pope and the Venetians 925 Dijon sees Casimir pass by with his Germans 742 Given to the Chiefs of the League 771 Is seized by the Duke of Mayenne 787 Would return to their Obedience under the King and is hindred by the Duke of Mayenne 841 Its Reduction 844 Declaration denouncing a War against King Philip. 843 Directors and Confessors animate the People 775 Disciples of Luther Church 16th Age. Dixmude taken by the Duke of Alenson 762 Rendred to the States of the Low-Countries 763 Doctors of Paris enter into a Conference with Henry IV. 832 Dominique de Gourgues a Gascon revenges the French Massacred in Florida by the Spaniards 701 Doria General of the Spanish Galleys 713 Brings back his Vessels to Naples and forsakes the Christians 714 Doway its Seminary filled with Catholiques too Zealous 758 Dourlens taken by Orleans cause of the death of the Guises 782 Is granted to the League ib. Dourlens will needs be comprized in the Edict of the Reduction of Amiens Under King Henry IV. 839 Drougne a River where was fought the Battle of Coutras 778 Dunkirk in the hands of the Spaniards 758 Taken by the Duke of Alenson 762 Duel famous between Philipin Bastard of Savoy and the Lord de Crequy 876 Duplessis Mornay agrees Henry III. and Henry of Navarre afterwards King of France 791 D'uumvirs of Marseilles 851 E EBion his Errors renewed in the Sixteenth Age. Vide Ch. 16 th Age. Eclipses Three in one year 919 Edict to put Persons that were irreproachable into Offices of Judicature 665 Edict in favour of the Huguenots at the instance of the Queen Regent under Charles IX 675 It was the first that they ever obtained ibid. Edict against Duels 705 Edict Prohibiting foreign Manufactures 905 Edict which gives to Calvinisme the Name of Pretended Reformed Religion Edict against Duels and Bankrupts 934 Edward Prince of Portugal 752 Egmont Count his death 699 d'Elboeuf Duke Prisoner at Loches 790 Elector Frederic of Saxony vanquished and destituted of his Dutchy 937 Eleonor de Roye Wife of the Prince of Condé 658 Eleonor Daughter of William Duke of Cleves 937 Wife of Albert Federic Duke of Prussia ibid. Elgade a City of the Azores taken by Don Antonio Prior of Crato pretending himself to be King of Portugal 760 Taken by the Spaniards ib. Elizabeth de la Paix Wife of the King of Spain and Daughter of France is Poisoned 700 Elizabeth Queen of England assists the Huguenots 662 France declares War against her 689 Takes the Low-Countries under her Protection 762 Courted by the Duke of Alenson 754 Will take no Husband and the reason wherefore ib. Sends the Order of the Garter to the King 768 Puts Mary Stuart to Death 776 Sends assistance to Henry IV. 818 Sends Succours to the Siege of Amiens 860 Receives the Mareschal Biron very well 883 Her Death and her Praise 902 903 Elizabeth Daughter of Henry IV. 943 Is married to Philip IV. King of Spain ib. Emmanuel King of Portugal from whom by Daughters are issued the Dukes of Braganza 752 d'Entragues Espouses Mary Toucher Mistriss to Charles IX 876 Her Daughter beloved by Henry IV. ib. Is Condemned to be Beheaded but receives her Pardon 914 Ernest Archduke proposed to the Estates assembled at Paris to be King of France marrying the Infanta of Spain 831 Ernest of the House of Brandenburg pursues the right of his Nephew upon Cleves 939 Eseovedo Secretary of Don Juan of Austria is Poignarded 752 Espernon Duke Favorite of Henry III. designs against the Duke of Anjou 764 Makes a Party to seize upon the Duke of Guise 770 Being in the highest degree of favour advises the ruin of the Guises 775 Hinders the League from making any great Progress in Normandy 781 Was in the Coach with Henry IV. when he was Murthered 942 The Queen confides much in him 943 Causes her to be declared Queen Regent ibid. d'Espinay the Princess in the absence of her Husband defends Tournay during two Months 758 Essars d'Amoiselle beloved by Henry IV. 934 Estampes taken by Henry IV. 800 Estates assembled at Blois under Henry III. 804 Estates General of the Vnited Provinces treat with the Duke of Anjou 751 Are in Combustion The Duke of Anjou having endeavour'd to make himself Master of Antwerp they notwithstanding sends him Provisions
763 Send Deputies to King Henry III. to proffer him the Government of the Country 769 d'Estree beloved of Henry IV. goes to the Siege of Amiens the murmurings of the whole Army obliges her to quit the Camp 859 Sollicites the King to marry her 869 Her death 871 Europe began to be more enlightned in the 16th Age. Chu 16 th Age. F FAbian Son of Blaise de Montluc assists his Brother Bertrand in his Design for the East-Indies 701 Famagusta the Capital City of Cyprus gainedby the Turks 713 Federick Marquiss of Baden assists the King against the Huguenots 710 Ferdinand Emperour Brother of Charles V. 692 His death ib. Flemmings cannot endure the Inquisition 695 Final taken by the Spaniards 893 Florida whence the Name 700 Florence Duke assists the Duke of Nevers to seize upon Marseilles 769 la Force Massacred at the Saint Bartholomews 720 His Son Escapes ib. Fort Charles in Florida built by the Spaniards and taken by Dowinique de Gourgues 701 Fra Paolo otherwise Pol Soaue writes for the Republique of Venice against the Pope 926 Is like to be Murthered 928 France in Civil War for Religion 679 Hath always the preference before Spain 685 Afflicted with two most cruel Maladies 757 Their King essentially most Christian 798 Francis I. settles the Art of making Silk in Poitou 904 Was not severe against the Huguenots Church 16 th Age. Recalls his Legats from the Councel of Trent ib. Francis II. King of France 657 Falls Sick 670 His Death and Burial 671 Franche-Comte attaqued by the French 842 Promised to Biron with a Daughter of Spain 884 Given to Isabella Clara Eugenia Infanta of Spain 869 Conditions of that Donation ib. Frisia gives all Power to the Prince of Orange 751 Fuentes Governor of the Low-Countries 843 Besieges Cambray 847 Gains a Victory upon the French 847 Obliges Prince Maurice to raise the Siege of Grol 848 Takes Cambray and does not make an ill use of his Victory over the French ibid. Personal Enemy of Henry IV. 878 Fulgentius writes for the Venetians against the Pope 926 G GAbriella d'Estreé beloved of Henry IV. assists at the Ceremony of his Conversion 832 Gantois hate the French and the Roman Religion 762 Gascons in Dispute with the Provenceaux 825 Gaspard Bishop of Modena Nuncio in France 871 Delegated to take cognisance of the Nullity of Marriage of Henry IV. and Margaret of Valois 871 Geneva the Duke of Savoy endeavours to seize it 802 Withdraw from their Obedience to the Bishop Church 16 th Age. Call in Calvin and Farel to be their Pastors ib. Is as it were the Pontifical seat of Calvinisme ib. Gerard Balthazar a Franc-Comtois Emissary of the Spaniards Kills the Prince of Orange with a Pistol 767 Gondi the Cardinal confers with Biron 806 Golf of Venice the Ceremonies used there at the Reception of Henry III. 733 Gregory XIII Pope regulates the Calender 761 Gregory XIV declared an Enemy of the Peace and Union of the Church Enemy of the King and of the State 815 His death 818 Grisons renew the Alliance with Henry IV. 892 Quit the Roman Religion Chur. 16 th Age. Guiche the Countess beloved by the King of Navarre 773 Angry at the King 's forsaking her she endeavours to debauch his Sister 814 Guienne acknowledges Henry IV. 824 Guises make themselves Masters at Court under Francis II. 657 c. Duke of Guise possesses the whole favour of Francis II. 660 The Huguenots would ceaze him to make his Process 665 Fortifies himself with the Name of the King 669 Causes the Prince to be apprehended and prosecuted 670 Gains the Battle of Dreux 686 And makes the Prince Prisoner ib. His Courtesie and Gallantry ib. Lays Siege to Orleans 887 Is assassinated by Paltrot ib. Justifies himself of the Murther at Vassy 887 His Praises ib. Guise Duke returns into France with his Uncle the Cardinal of Lorrain 692 Defends Poitiers bravely and acquires much reputation 706 Is the Principal Author of the Saint Bartholomew 717 Is made the Chief to execute that Massacre 718 Declares for the League and seizes on the Cardinal of Bourbon 768 The Pope compares him to the Machabees 784 Has several Advertisements given him of his Danger 786 Is assassinated by the Order of Henry III. at the Estates of Blois ib. His Body is burnt by Richelieu 787 Guise the Cardinal bears the Cross in a Procession 764 Would make himself Master of Normandy 781 Is hindred by the Duke of Espernon ib. Guise Duke before Prince of Joinville made Prisoner at the Death of his Father 787 Escapes out of Prison 817 Is attaqu'd near Abbeville by King Henry IV. 821 Aspires to the Crown 832 Kills Saint Pol Governor of Reims and makes his accommodation with Henry IV. 841 Reduces Marseilles to obedience of the King 852 Gustavus Ericson introduces the Confession of Ausburgh in Sweden 913 H. HAinaut suffers scarcity 760 Hampton-Court the place in England where the Treaty between Queen Elizabeth and the Huguenots was concluded 683 Havre de Grace deliver'd to the English ibid. Besieged by the French Surrendred 689 Henry d'Angoulesme Bastard Brother to Charles IX has Order from the King to kill the Duke of Guise 712 Henry of Navarre Espouses Margaret of Valois 717 Generosity of that Prince who refuses to kill the Sole Heir of the Kingdom 740 Hates his Wife who hath as little Love for him 750 Henry III. is kill'd on the same day and at the same place where he advised the Massacre of St. Bartholomew 795 Henry Cardinal Archbishop of Evora King of Portugal after the death of Sebastian 752 Henry grand Prior of France Bastard Brother to the King 753 Henry III. King of France and of Poland 737 Leaves Poland 732 Makes his Entrance into Paris 739 Hates the House of Guise 745 Loves the Princess of Condé 757 Forms the design of putting the Duke of Guise to death 780 Besieges Paris reduces it to extremity and is kill'd at Sainct Cloud 795 Heemskerk Admiral for the States of the United Provinces attaques the Spanish Flota is slain his death glorious 790 Henry IV. his coming to the Crown 797 Gains the Battle of Ivry 705 Besieges Rouen 821 820 Beats up the Duke of Guise's Quarters at Abbeville 821 Opposes at Fontaine-Francoise and bears the brunt of the whole Spanish Army and gives proofs of his Heroick Courage 845 Receives his absolution from Rome 849 His consternation upon the loss of Amiens 858 Regains that Town in Sight of the Arch-Duke 862 Demands of the Duke of Savoy the Restitution of the Marquisate of Salusses 876 His Marriage with Mary de Medicis 885 Does what he can possibly to save Biron and in fine leaves him to the Law 895 Loves the Princess of Condé and is ready almost to declare War against the Arch-Duke upon her occasion 936 c. Forms the Design to pull down the House of Austria 938 His Wife Mary de Medicis Crowned 941 Is Murthered 942 Predictions of his death 941
Lorrain Forces 842 Triumvirate under Charles IX 681 Feared by the Queen ib. Troyes Abbot of Gastine hath his Head cut off by the Order of the Prince of Condé 683 Gebard Truchses Archbishop of Colen Marries Success of the said Mariage 766 c. Tunis Kingdom demanded by Catherine de Medicis for her Son 722 Turin rendred to the Duke of Savoy 675 V Du Vair a Councellor labours for the reduction of Paris 837 du Val Peter Bishop of Sees preaches some Sentiments very like to Calvinism 675 Valence assaulted in vain by the Huguenots 668 Valery Lands belonging to the Widow of the Mareschal de Saint André given to the Prince of Condé to continue his Love 689 La Valette a Favorite to Henry III. 737 Varade the Jesuit a great Enemy to Henry IV. is brought by the Cardinal de Piacenza 838 The Cardinal de Vendosme presides in the Council held at Tours 815 Venice receives Henry III. in a most gallant manner 733 Acknowledges Henry IV. for King of France 800 Venetians exclude the Ecclesiasticks from the Management of Affairs 661 James Vennes Maire of Dijon is beheaded 841 Vesins takes Montluc's great Cornet 722 Villars Governor of Rouen gives himself to the Guises 782 Makes a furious Salley upon the King's Army 821 Restores Rouen to the King and is made Admiral 839 Villa-franca taken by the Duke of Lorrain 812 Villegagnon sent to Florida by the Admiral Treats the Huguenots ill there 700 Villeroy Secretary of State retires from Court 780 Is made choice of for a Conference for the Conversion of the King 823 Sees the King who is very well satisfied with his Conduct ib. Viniosa the Count follows Don Antonio Prior of Crato King of Portugal 760 Vinon Besieged by the Duke of Savoy 817 Is bravely defended ib. W. Virtemberg Duke quits the Huguenots 679 Vitry refuses to Sign an accommodation for Religion with Henry IV. 798 Enters with some Forces into Paris 806 Hinders some that intended to open the Gates to the King 810 Makes his agreement with the King 835 Wolfang Duke of Deux-Ponts brings an Army into France 704 His March 705 Takes la Charité ib. His Death ib. The University Condemns Henry III. 788 Makes a Decree against Henry IV. 807 Declares Henry IV. unfit to come to the Crown ib. Assemble at Navarre to own Henry IV. 838 Warwick Ambrose Earl Governor of Havre de Grace Surrenders the Place 689 West-frizeland the Government is given to Prince Maurice 767 Vzez erected to a Dutchy and Pairie 730 Y YEure a River 836 Yonne a River 777 Yvetot place where the Dukes of Mayenne of Parma and Montemarcian were hemm'd in by Henry IV. 822 Yvry the Campagne or Field where was fought the famous Battle of that Name 705 Z ZAmet the famous Partisan under Henry IV. 871 Zelande League themselves against the Spaniards 757 Ziget a Fortress in Hungary attaqued by Solyman 693 Is gained ib. Zuinglius his Sect as much in Vogue as that of Luther Church 16 th Age. Zuniga Requesens Ambassador of Spain disputes for Precedency with the French and loses it 685 Zutphen Leagues against the Spaniards 757 FINIS * Pisatello * Countrey of Liege a Kempen in Brabant a East Frisia a North Holland b Zealand c Bishoprick of Munster d Bish of Osnabrug e Dutchy of Westphalia f Hesse Emp. Arcadius and Honorius in their 5th year 406. Emp. Honorius and Theodosius II. Son of Arcadius 408. in May. Church Emperour Honorius in his 18th and Theodosizs 11. in his 5th Emp. Theodosius 11. and Valentinian Son of Constantius and Placidia Sister to Honorius 423. in August Reigned 29 years 6 Months Emp. Valentinian III and Marcian who Marries Pulcheria Sister to Theodosia in August 450. R. Six years six Months Emp. Marcian and Maximus Murtherer of Valentinian 455. in March Then Majorian R. six years and half Emp. Stiff Majorian and Leon I. R. 17 years and half Emp. Zenon 474. Clovis or Louis so to be u d rstood th rough the whole History * Clodowic Ludwin or Louis all the same Name Emp. Anastasius raised to the Empire by Ariadne the Murtherer of Zeno her Husband * It lies between the Bridges of Amboise First Wars for Religion * Or Amaulry Manners and Customs Church Emp. Justin is Electin July R. 8 years * Or Gontier Emp. Justinâ—an Son of a Sister to Justin Created by his Uncle in April R. 38 years 7 Months * Languedoc * Barons T is the Town of St. Clou. * They were named Bajobares or Bajoarians * Part of the high and middle Austria * Good Friday * Great Master of his Horse * It is not well known what Forrest this was It is now St. Germain des Prez * Dutchies of Parma Plaisance Modena and Boulognia * States of Venice Trent and Mantcua * Vulgarly St. Mard. Cherebert Aribert Caribert is the same Name Emp. Justin Son of a Sister of Justinians in Novemb R. 13 years 9 Months * Thence comâ—s the Name of Halbards * Pavois Emp. Tiberius II. Chosen by Justin in August R. four years * The 7th or 8th part of a Muid and the Muid is a third part of a Tun. Emp. Mauritius Son in Law to Tiberius in Aug. Reigned nigh twenty years * They set up their new made King on a Shield or Target and so carry'd him before the People Emp. Phocas chosen by the Army kils Mauritius in Novemb. R. 18 years * At Chaalons Emp. Heraclius elected by the Army put Phocas to death R. 3â— years * This a 〈◊〉 upon 〈◊〉 confines 〈◊〉 Bâ—abant â—nd of Has 〈◊〉 The â—th of 〈◊〉 Manners and Customs * Le Pavois * Fosâ—erers Campus Martiâ— * Cubicularius * Regiae * Vir inluster Queens were fined most Pious and most Clement * Domicelli * Majores personae Minores personae The Church * In Latin Videâ—â—â— * Agricola * Carilesaâ— * Eparchâ—us * Stephen * Aribert Caribert and Cheribert are the same Name * Ansegisile Ansgise Anchisus Emp. Conâ—tantinâ— Son of Heraclius R. four Months Then Heraclâ—â—n Son of his Stâ—p mother R. Six Months Emp Constance Son of Constantine R. 26 years * Vulgarly Baucdour Emp. Constant Pogo or the Bearded Son of Constans R. 17 years * Arenes A Theater or Gravelly place to Fight or a kind of Amphitheater * Owen * Not now known * Regulus * Guillimer Gislimer Emp. Justinian II. Son of Progonatus Reigned nine years and an half * They yet call such in French Dodüe as are fat Emperor Leontius I. having chasâ—d and mutilated Justin Reigned two years and some months Emp. Tiber. Absim elected by the Soldiers degrades Leont Reigned seven years 700 c. 706 and 7. Emp. Justinian II. restores himself and puts Tiberius to Death Reigned seven years Church * St. Mauries in Chablais * St. Honorat * St. Vandrille * Deicola * Remiremont * Trudon * Baldomer * Vowed or Marry'd themselves to Chastity and Devotion *
years afterwards The Earl of Sens Raynard II. of that name called the Bad using much violence against Leoteric his Archbishop and all the Clergy within his Territory the Year of our Lord 1015 King besieged his City and took it deprived him of his Earldom and rejoyned it to his Demeasns The Burgundians having Rebell'd and divers Lords plundering and committing Robberies in the Province by means of their Castles and Fortified places the King Year of our Lord 1015 went thither and pulled down and destroy'd all those Nests and Dens of Thieves His eldest Son whose name was Hugh a Prince accomplish'd both in Mind and Body giving very great hopes though he were not yet Ten years old He caused him to be Crowned at Compiegne on the day of Pentecost in the year 1017. and afterwards his name was put to all Acts with that of his Fathers Year of our Lord 1017 ROBERT and HUGH his Son Year of our Lord 1018 THe Duke of Aquitain at his return from his third or fourth Pilgrimage to Rome those that made most were the most esteemed found his Country enriched with a new Treasure The Abbot of St. John's de Angery having lighted on the Scull of a Man in a Wall the Report was spread that it was the Head of St. John Baptist The People of France Lorrain and Germany who in those days ran with much Zeal after all sorts of Relicks flocked thither from all parts King Robert the Queen the Duke of Normandy and a great number of other Lords brought their Offerings thither The Kings was a Scollop-shell of Gold which weighed Thirty pounds an admirable Present in such times when Gold and Silver were fifty times more scarce then in our Age. The Danes or Normans beyond Seas having not quite forgotten their custom of Piracy did yet sometimes make Descents in England and on the Coasts of France They had Conquer'd a great part of England and at last made some Kings there This year they landed in Poitou being perhaps informed of the great Crowds of Pilgrims that came to see the Head of St. John and indeed they carried away a great many good Prisoners All the Country Armed to drive them thence The Duke of Aquitain going to attaque them twenty or thirty of his most considerable Gentlemen fell into Holes cover'd over with Branches and green Turfs which the Normans had digged about the Avenues to their Camp This accident disheartned the rest from going on however the Normans fearing a ruder onset dislodg'd in the night and got into their Vessels but they were forced to give them what Ransom they pleased to demand for the Prisoners they had gotten Gefroy Duke or Earl of Bretagne for in those times the Dukes took indifferently the Titles of Earls dying his eldest Son Alain III. of that name succeeded him in his Dukedom and Eudes his second had the Earldom of Pontieure in Partage Alain espoused the Princess Avoise Sister of Duke Richard and by that means Normandy and Bretagne hitherto great Enemies were united in Alliance and Amity Year of our Lord 1020 21 c. There was a War begun from the year 1017. between Richard Duke of Normandy and Eudes or Odon Earl of Champagne and Chartres because Eudes would not give up the City of Dreux granted him in Dowry with Matilda the Sister of Richard who was lately dead so that Richard had built the Castle of Tilleres from whence he made incursions on the Country of Dreux Eudes put himself in a posture to surprize the Garison having with him the Counts Valeran de Meulan and Hugh du Mans but he was soundly beaten and put to the rout Year of our Lord 1022 The War growing hotter he raised so many Enemies against the Norman Duke that that Prince fearing to be overwhelmed sent to Lagman or Lacime King of Sueden to assist him and also Olaus King of Norway who being landed in Bretagne and having forced and sacked the City of Dole marched towards the Chartrain Country All France upon remembrance of their former Desolations fell into an extream apprehension and dread and the King bestirr'd himself with so much activity to quench this Flame that he brought the two Princes to an Agreement and satisfied the Northern Kings who returned again after the Norwegian had received Baptism at Rouen having the name of Robert give him at the Sacred Font. The Emperor Henry and King Robert desiring cordially to take away all cause of difference between them agreed upon an Interview at the River Meuse Whilst the Courtiers on either side were making several Scruples about the Place the Manner and such like trivial Circumstances and Punctillios and the two Princes on the contrary had it in their thoughts to outvye each other in Civility Henry passes the River early in the morning and pleasantly surprizes Robert who the next day repays his Visit in the same manner Both Treated one the other Magnificently and offered each very rich Presents to the other but Robert took only a Book being the New-Testament and a Reliquary or Shrine wherein was a Tooth of the Martyr St. â—incent which was enriched with Precious Stones and Henry a pair of Ear-Pendants Year of our Lord 1024 This last being dead at Bamberg the German Princes elected Conrad Duke of Wormes who could not go to Rome to receive the Imperial Crown till the year 1027. At first the Italian Princes and Prelats hating the Teutonick Nation who Treated them Peremptorily ruling as it were with a Rod in hand refused to obey and sent into Year of our Lord 1025 France to profer King Robert the Kingdom of Italy for his Son Hugh Upon his refusal they Addressed themselves to William Duke of Aquitain very well known in Rome by his frequent Pilgrimages He hearkned to the Proposal understood their Methods sent some thither to found them throughly and after went himself When he was amongst them he found nothing of all they had promised every one demanding of him instead of giving to him they propounded no Conditions but such as were very ridiculous so that finding they had a design upon his Purse and feared his Power he laughed at them and left them The imperious and proud Humour of Queen Constance gave the King perpetual trouble and displeasures who used all means to soften her One day being offended and angry with a favourite of his named Hugh de Beauvais who upheld the Husbands Spirit against her undertakings she makes her complaint to Fulk Earl of Anjou her Cousin intreating to Revenge her The Count sent twelve of his own Country Gentlemen who taking their opportunity when this Favourite was Hunting with the King seized on him and cruelly cut off his Head in the Kings presence without any regard to his Intreaties Year of our Lord 1025 The King was forced to put up this Affront for fear of a greater mischief and withall to endure this Step-mother should Treat his Son King Hugh with the
but one narrow Channel to go in It was not thought sit either to fortifie the Island nor to fall upon them in a place of such advantage but to Land on their Coasts in sight of King Henry who was come down to Portsmouth to see what passed and send forth his Men of War They made two or three Landings with a great deal of Noise but Annebaut perceiving they would not come forth and his Provisions being spent he turned his Prow towards France and arrived there about the end of July The Mareschal de Biez advanced little against Boulogne though the King himself to push the business forward were come with Charles Duke of Orleans his second Son to the Abbey of Forrest-Moustier which is within ten Leagues of it between Abbeville and Monstrevil The Wound which Francis Duke d'Aumale received in a Salley made by the Enemies is a thing very remarkable He returned from the Engagement with the Iron head of a Lance and a piece of the Wooden Truncheon sticking in his head which entered at the Angle betwixt his right Eye and his Nose and came out behind between the Nape of his Neck and his Ear. The Chyrurgeon whose name was Ambrose Paré was forced to draw it out with a strong hand and Instrument and yet he most happily recover'd In the mean time Contagious distempers got into the Kings Army and the Duke of Orleans a Prince of great hopes dyed the eight of September at Forrest-Moustier whether of Venom or of some Poison that was thought to have been given him by some Creatures of his Brothers For they could not endure the King should cherish him so much as he did and be angry that the Daufin notwithstanding his command to the contrary kept correspondence with the Conestable Montmorency whose return they desired because their Master earnestly longed for it The death of this Prince broke all the bonds of Concord if there were any between the King and the Emperor The Envoyez carrying the News of it to the latter and asking how he intended to dispose of the Dutchy of Milan he plainly told them that he to whom he had promised it being no more he thought himself disengaged of his promise He declared his intention with so much the greater confidence as finding his Affairs against the Protestants in a very good posture some of whom as Maurice one of the Dukes of Saxony had taken his Party Frederic the Elector Palatin had Submitted Year of our Lord 1546 John Frederic Duke of Saxony and Philip Landgrave of Hesse who had declared War against him did not well agree together in-so-much as their vast Army which at first was Seventy Thousand Foot and Fifteen thousand Horse were almost dwindled to nothing and that his own encreased daily by the Supplyes sent him from the Pope and the Princes of Italy and those Forces he drew out of the Low-Countries his Hereditary Lands and from the Catholick Princes A Peace was equally desired by King Francis and by the King of England The first was not in very good health his Army wasted by Sickness and he apprehended those great Forces which Charles V. raised to quell the Protestant Princes of Germany might fall upon him Henry had neither Men nor Money and feared that a Forreign War might favour such as had a mind to rise at home Upon these considerations they named their Deputies about the end of April who meeting at a place between Ardres and Guines after six weeks debate concluded the Peace upon the eight day of June by which the King of England promised to restore Boulogne within eight years and the King was obliged to give him eight hundred thousand Crowns of Gold to be paid by one hundred thousand each year The residue of this same King Francis employed in visiting and furnishing his Frontiers fearing lest the Emperor should attempt something upon him as no doubt he would had the Protestants Submitted so early as he expected Francis was advised to assist them to keep the War out of his own Kingdom and maintain it in his Enemies He might do it with honour they were his Allies he might in Conscience do it since the Emperor by his Manifesto's declared he designed nothing against their Belief but their Rebellion Nevertheless the Scrupulous Counsel of the Cardinal de Tournon diverted him and even to let them know they were to hope for nothing from him engaged him to express his wrath against such as were Professors of their Religion by kindling the Flames of persecution throughout all his Dominions Great numbers of those miserable Creatures were Burnt many redeemed themselves from Fire and Faggots by Singing Palinodia and the more Sagacious by a timely Flight Year of our Lord 1547 The eight and twentieth of February in the year 1547. Henry King of England aged fifty seven years ended the Thrid of his Life which his incontinency had horribly knotted and entangled by the Multiplicity of his Marriages and the terrible change he made in the Anglicane Church He had six Wives Catherine of Arragon Anne Bullen Jane Seymour Anne of Cleve Catherine Howard and Catherine Parre He was divorced from the first and the fourth saw the third die in Child-Bed and caused the second and the fifth to be Beheaded for the crimes of Adultery the sixth survived him and Married Thomas Seymour Admiral of England By the first he left a Daughter named Mary by the second another named Elizabeth and by Jane a Son named Edward as then nine years of Age who came to the Crown immediately after him The rumour of the Emperors Armes gave astonishment to all Christendom the Pope himself Trembled for fear lest having Subdued Germany he should pass into Italy When Francis had therefore well considered the consequences of the ruin of the Protestants he changed his mind and made a League with them obliged himself to receive the Eldest Son of the Duke of Saxony into France and in particular permit him the exercise of his Religion promised to send an Hundred Thousand Crowns to his Father and as much to the Landgrave of Hesse till such time as he could assist them with Forces In the mean while his trouble for the death of King Henry encreasing his inveterate distemper changed a lingring Feavour that was upon him into a continued one and stopt him at the Castle of Rambouillet where he finished his life the last day of March by an end worthy of a most generous Prince and a most Christian King He earnestly recommended to his Son the diminishing of the Tallage which he had raised too much not to recall Montmorency to continue the Cardinal de Tournon to whom he willed a Hundred Thousand Crowns and Annebaut in the Administration told him that the Sons ought to imitate the Vertues of their Fathers and not their Vices that the French being the best people in the world deserved so much the more to be well Treated as they refused their King nothing in his
them The Duke of Nevers in the mean time besieged Issoire in Auvergne situate upon the torrent de la Couse A Gentleman whose name was Chavagnae Commanded within Matthew le Merle Son of a Wooll-comber of Vzez but advanc'd to be a Captain during these Troubles had surprized it three years before This Merle was gone to the Sevennes to pick up some Men to relieve it but he staid so long perhaps obstructed by some bags of the Kings Money thrown in his way that the place was forced to surrender at discretion That done the Duke of Anjou with the Duke of Guise returned back to Court which was then at Blois leaving the Command of his Army to the Duke of Nevers The Affairs of the Huguenots could not be in a worse condition the whole party was full of Divisions of Jealousies and of Cabals the Lords of the King of Navarres Court could neither agree amongst themselves nor with him because he gave too much credit and Faith to Lavardin who was known to be tied to the Queen-Mothers Interest insomuch as La Noüe forsook that King and Turenne and the rest served him not without much Anxiety and suspition There was also a mortal feud between the Prince and the Lord de Mirembeau about the business of Broüage a scurvy misunderstanding between the said Prince and the Rochellers for the nomination of a Maire and other points concerning the liberties of that City Eternal Picques between the Bourgeois and the Nobless and every moment some quarrel between the Commanders of their Forces withal most strange disorder and licentiousness amongst their Soldiers who were horribly ungovernable as well because of the want of Pay and the little authority of their Captains as by the mixture of their Politiques the most part Atheists and addicted to all manner of Vices Year of our Lord 1577 The confusion the Duke of Mayenne observed in that party gave him the prospect of subduing Rochel and also to that effect and purpose to hinder all Trade and Provisions from coming to them by Sea by taking the Islands and Broüage as by Land he had already got most of the Towns and Castles that furnish'd or stood them in any stead The Rochellers were jealous of the growing greatness of Broüage The Count of Montgomery who was Governour of it had by his debauches consumed the Soldiers pay and tormented the Inhabitants grievously Captain Lorges his Brother with his Regiment vexed and plundred the Islands so that both the one and the other desired a change that remedy of the unthinking vulgar who ever believe ☞ the present evils the most troublesome The King had equipped a Navy for this Siege the Prince and the Rochellers prepared one to hinder it Clermont Commanded it as Lansac did the Kings Both these met in the canal of Broüage that for the Huguenots was beaten by not keeping out at large Five Gallies brought thither by the young Montlue tearing them in pieces with their Guns during a calm In the mean while the Besiegers press'd upon them at Land and the King was come to Poitiers to encourage his Men. Their amazement was so great in Rochel that all the Suppliesthey endeavour'd to send thither were either taken or put to flight When the Besieged were almost at the greatest extremity the rumour was that the Duke of Anjou after the taking of Issâ—ire was coming to reinforce the Siege with that Army which breathed nothing but Blood and Slaughter the fear they were in that they should have no quarter made them hasten the capitulation and the Duke of Mayenne fearing that Prince would rob him of the Honour of his enterprize granted them Conditions favourable enough The King of Navarre who had taken the Field to succour them finding the business was decided desired to raise up the spirits of his party again by some famous exploit and if he could possibly give battle to that victorious Army but they were already gone to refresh themselves having no Orders to undertake any more Many were of that judgment that if they but push'd on their advantages against the Huguenots in the confusion they were then under they had been laid flat on the ground For it was not in their power then to set an Army on foot their Officers Year of our Lord 1577 were at daggers drawing the Council belonging to the Princes full of Traitors the People grieved at their ill Conduct and in despair for their being pillaged Besides Damville over-perswaded by his Wife and by his Secretaries whom they had bribed and withal picqued for that the Huguenots did not respect him enough had drawn his Sword against them in Languedoc and besieged Montpellier But was indeed upon the point of receiving an affront For Chastillon had bravely pierced thorow his Army and thrown Three thousand Men into the place and would have given him battle the next day if the news of the Peace had not prevented It could not be certainly known what the true Reasons were that induced the King to make it in a juncture that seemed so favourable unless it were his apprehensions of the Reisters coming again to ransack and waste his Kingdom and of the Rochellers giving themselves up to the English or else the intrigues of the Duke of Anjou who infinitely desired to go into Flanders and draw the Army after him or his own weak and uncertain temper not able to undergo the burthen and difficulties of any weighty Affair This Fifth Treaty of Pacification was concluded at Bergerac between the King of Navarre and the Duke of Montpensier The Edict was drawn up at Poitiers in the month of September and verified in Parliament in the beginning of October It was different from the last in that it restrained the exercise of their Religion to the limits of the preceding ones removed it Ten miles from Paris forbid it in the Marqulsate of Salusses and the County of Venaisin exchanged Montpellier for Beaucaire with them and did not restore them Issoire The Consistorians who had much more obstinacy then knowledge could hardly be brought to allow of this restriction but the Chiefs who better understood the state of their Affairs accepted it as very advantageous and the Prince caused it to be proclaimed by Torch-light at Rochel There must have been to make it firm and lasting a Will and Resolution in either party to keep and maintain it and to this end they should have renewed and restored a real confidence and true faith in each other but as the first being wanting the other became impossible they presently started up a thousand doubts and difficulties concerning the execution and it was the delight and interest of the Queen-Mother to be brangling and trucking with the one and the other to keep the Authority in her own hands and to shew her dexterity in disintangling those snarles and knots which she her self most commonly had tied The King her Son had learnt of her to make excessive expences and as he had
some noble inclinations for great things he easily addicted himself to shew his State Year of our Lord 1577 and Grandeur in those pomps and vanities which carry some outward appearance of Greatness His Favourites had possess'd him with the opinion that all his Subjects wealth was his own and that France being an unexhaustible Fountain of Riches the greatest prodigality could never incommode him It is almost incredible what excessive Sums he lavishly squander'd away and in what magnificent wantonness he wasted them He plaid and lost one night Fourscore thousand Crowns he went often in Masquerade he was seen to run at the Ring in a Ladies Dress with all the trinkets and gew-gaws of a proud gossip he made one Feast amongst many others where the Women waited and served at Table in the habits of Men clad in Green all the Guests wearing the same Livery and the Queen his Mother requited him with another in the same kind where the fairest Ladies about the Court acted the like parts with their white Bosoms open and their Hair dishevel'd The poor People paid for all these follies and mourned many years for a divertisement that lasted perhaps but some few hours The Kings Coffers were empty and they must have recourse to the worst methods for the filling them again particularly the creation of new Offices which the Italian furnished with Titles and perswaded him that such a multiplication was an excellent means to get Money without violence to any man and to render the Kings power more absolute by filling every City with Creatures of his own and such as would be tied fast to his interests thorow fear of losing their employments and so aid him in suppressing his Subjects and force them to lie quiet and submissively under the feet of Power ☜ This luxurious humour which travelled into every Countrey for divertisements brought from the furthest parts of Italy a band of Comedians whose Plays consisting of amorous intrigues and agreeable inventions to stir up and soothe the softest passions proved most pernicious corrupters of Modesty and Virtue and Schools of impudence They obtained Letters Patents for their establishment as they had been some excellent Society The Parliament rejected them as vagabonds or such Cattle whom good Morality the Holy Canons the antient Fathers and even our own Kings had ever esteemed infamous and forbid them to act or endeavour any more hereafter the obtaining of such License or Patent and notwithstanding no sooner was the Court returned from Poitiers but the King would have their Theatre open'd again month October This year appeared the greatest Comet that had been ever seen it took up Thirty degrees in length embracing the Signs Sagitarius and Scorpio the Tail turned towards the West it was observed from the Eighteenth of October till about the end of November An Astronomer found it to be of the same height as the Planet Venus Year of our Lord 1577 In the preceding Month of March John de Morvilliers Bishop of Orleans a great Statesman died at Blois and in the Month of July the Mareschal de Montluc at his House of Estillac in Agenois Armand Gontaud had the Mareschals staff vacant by the death of Montlue and quitted his Office of Great Master of the Ordnance which was given to Philibert de la Guiche one of the Kings Favorites There was open enmity between the King the Duke of Anjou and the Duke of Guise The great courage of this last and weakness of the other two made him almost their equal Their hatred broke into quarrels between their Favorites Quelus who was one of the Kings Darlings challenged Entroguet who was the Duke of Guises and took for his Seconds Livarrot and Maugiron who was likewise in favour ✚ His adversary chose Rybeyrac and Schombert Till this time Seconds had only served for witnesses of a combat but an itch of fighting came upon these and this one bad example has lasted to this very day Maugiron was killed upon the spot Quelus was brought back wounded in Sixteen places whereof he died in a Months time The King loved both these so infinitely that he kissed them when dead caused their flax-Locks to be cut off and treasured them up carefully assisted Quelus to his very death serving him with his own hands and erected a stately Mausoleum for them both in St. Pauls Church Some time after he likewise caused the Body of St. Maigrin to be interred there and Statues of all the three to be set upon their Tombs the rabble broke them down and dragg'd them to the River on the day of the barricades This St. Maigrin was also one of his Minions whom the Duke of Mayenne caused to be pistoll'd at his coming out of the Louvre for having vaunted he was in favour with the Dutchess of Guise For this reason the other Minions who apprehended the like Treatment if they plaid with such rough Gamesters never ceased exasperating the King by their stories and reports concerning these Princes and seeking by all manner of ways to ruine them Being thus pusht at they consider'd how to defend themselves and when they had examin'd and found their own strength and the Kings softness they did not stop at the defensive but carried things to a far greater height then their most daring thoughts durst ever make them hope to attain Whilst the Queen-Mother was in Guyenne whither she went to confer with the King of Navarre under pretence of carrying his Wife to him whom he little valued and by whom he was not esteemed much more the Duke of Anjou Treated with Year of our Lord 1577 the States-General of the Vnited-Provinces this was on the Tenth day of August and was assured moreover that Charles de Ganre Inchi Governour of Cambresis would deliver up to him the Citadel of Cambray for the Queen of Navarre his Sister had gained that Lord the year before in a journey she made to the Spaa Year of our Lord From Anno 1568. to the year 1578. We must now relate what had been transacted in those Provinces for some years past The Duke of 〈…〉 them near Five years during which time he exercised most unexpressible cruelties insomuch that he bragg'd that the very Confiscations of the Estates of those he had butcher'd amounted to Eight Millions of Gold yearly and the number of People who had suffer'd by the hands of the Hangman was Eighteen thousand He was recalled in the year 1513. by King Philip and Lewis dé Requesens Grand Commander of Castille put in his place This last gained a Battle at Mouker-Heyde near Nimeghen wherein Ludovic de Nassau was slain this was in Anno 1574. He afterwards assembled the Estates-General to raise some Moneys but far from granting any they firmly united together to desend their liberty and they took so much hearty grace upon his death which hapned some Months afterwards as to seize upon the Government which was then left in the hands of the Council of State till the