Crown which is held to be meerly without Tenure therefore saith a later Lawyer Ego scio legem salicam agere de privato Patrimonio tantum I know the Salique Law intends only private Possessions Again there are some who pretend to give us the names of the Compilers of this Law and not this alone but of many others as they say viz. Wisogast Bodogast Salogast and Windogast wise Councellors about that Pharamonds Reign the text of it in this part is offered us by Claude de Seissell Bishop of Marseilles Bodin and other French Writers as if it were as ancient as the original of the name in these words De Terra Salica nulla Portio Haereditatis Mulieri veniat sed ad virilem sexum tota terrae Hereditas perveniat No part of the Salique Land can descend to the Daughter but all to the Male and in substance as if referr'd to the person of the Kings Heir Female so much if remembred by that great Civilian Baldus and divers others but rather as a custom then any particular Law as an Author of that Kingdom hath expresly Written Ce n' est point vne loye ecritte mais nee auec nous que nous n' avons point inventer mais l' avons puisse de la nature meme qui le nous a ainsi apris donne cet instinct that is this is no Law Written but learned of Nature But why the same Author dares affirm that King Edward yielded upon this point to the French Phillip de Valois I wonder seeing all storie and carriage of state in those times is so manifestly opposite Becanus undertakes a conjecture of the first cause which excluded Gynaecocracie among them guessing it to be upon their observation of the misfortune in War which their Neighbours the Bructerans a people about the now over Issel in the Netherlands from near whom he as many others first derive the Franks endur'd in the time of Vespasian under the Conduct and Empire of one Velleda a Lady even of Divine Esteem amongst them The learned Drayton who has particularly treated of this Subject leaves it at last in suspence and concludes thus But howsoever the Law be in Truth or Interpretable for it might ill beseem me to offer determination in a matter of this kind it is certain that to this day they have an usage of ancient time which commits to the care of some of the greatest Peers that they when the Queen is in Child-birth be present and warily observe left the Ladies privily should counterfeit the inheritable Sex by supposing some other made when the true Birth is Female or by any such means wrong their ancient Custom Royal. But by his favour this is a custom in England as well as in France where the Females do notwithstanding inherit the Crown and never any Law pretended to the contrary I shall therefore conclude upon the whole with this one Remark that notwithstanding the many Volumes that have been writ to justifie King Edward and his Successors Title to France tho' its true the English in that age were better skilled in the Sword then in the Pen and the great dust that has been raised by the French under pretence of this Salique Law to impede his way to their Crown Yet after all it appears clearly to me that the aforesaid Dutchess of Orleans had a better Title then either King Edward or Phillip de Valois for she was Daughter to Charles the Fair the last King of the Caputian line whereas Edward was descended only from Isabel Sister to this same King And as for Phillip de Valois his pretentions had little of reality in them when'tis plain Hugh Capet descended from a Female of the Carolovinian line yet succeeded to the Crown of France and where was their Salique Law then whereof they afterwards so much boasted that it was born with them and never Writ but taught by Nature RICHARD II. SOn to Edward the Black Prince by Joan his Wife Daughter to Edmund Earl of Kent the youngest Son of King Edward I. succeeded his Grand-Father King Edward III. being but eleven years old but had neither his Wisdom nor good Fortune from Bourdeaux his Birth-place where his Father kept his residence as Duke of Aquitaiâ— he was called Richard of Bourdeaux in his Minority he was governed by his Unkles the Dukes of Lancaster and Glocester his Reign was first much disturbed with the Scots and there were also divers traverses of War especially by Sea with France for the French began to improve in Navigation and did us much mischief for they burnt a good part of Rye Hastings and Portsmouth advancing into the River as far as Gravesend where they likewise took booties and burnt almost all the place they also took footing in the Isle of Wight but were soon repell'd Sir John Arundel being sent with a considerable Fleet to Bretaign was disastrously cast away with above 1000 Persons more whereof some were of Rank and Gallantry but a little after Sir Hugh Caverley and Sir Thomas Percy being made Admirals they so scowr'd and secur'd the Seas and they took such a World of Prises that French Wines were sold in London for a Mark a Tunn and 't is a passage of some remark how one John Philpot a Citizen of London mann'd out a Fleet at his own charge took Prises and did many exploits against the French yet at his return he was questioned for setting forth Men of War without a Warrant from King and Council This Reign is also remarkable for the famous Rebellion of Wat. Tyler and Jack Straw for the expeditions of the Duke of Lancaster into Spain but especially for that famous interview between the Kings of England and France between Calais and St. Omers manag'd with all the Ceremony Pomp and Grandeur that could be imagined and where a knot of Friendship was tied by King Richards taking the Lady Isabel to Wife the King of France's Daughter he being then a Widdoer as having buried Queen Anne the King of Bohemia's Daughter about two Years before this King after much male-administration was at length deposed when he had reigned 22 Years and about 3 Months and was soon after murder'd in Pomfret Castle in Yorkshire HENRY IV. COmmonly called Henry of Bullingbrook the first King of this line was Son to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster 4th Son of Edward III. he came to the Crown by the power of the Sword but with the consent of the People the issue of Lionel Duke of Clarence 3 Son to the said King Edward being laid aside that had a precedent right he was a Prince of singular Prowess but most part of his time was taken up in suppressing of Rebellions at home and in the old trade of warring with Scotland whereat the French grew insolent fitted out divers Fleets and attempted the Coasts of England first under the count of St. Paul who landed at the Isle of Wight with 7000 Men where he burnt some Villages
A THEATRE OF WARS BETWEEN England France In all the Kings Reigns from the time of William the Conqueror to the Conclusion of the Peace on the 10th of September 1697. in the Eighth Year of the Reign of our Gracious Sovereign K. William III. Containing The Causes of the War the Battels Sieges State Policies Naval Fights Treaties and the several Truces Peaces Concluded Leagues made and broken c. With a large Discourse of the Salique Law by which to prevent the Right of other Princes the French pretend to Exclude Females from Enjoying the Crown of France and many other Transactions between the two Nations both Publick and Private With a Map of England and France on a Copper Plate By D. Jones London Printed for W. Whitwood at the Rose and Crown in Little-Britain 1698. A Map of ENGLAND and FRANCE To the Right Honourable ROBERT Lord Viscount LISLE c. My Lord THe Topicks usually insisted upon to engage the Favours of the Great are those of Honour and Goodness of both which your Lordship has no common share and if upon others they have been so powerfully influential in Addresses of this kind Your Lordship will Pardon me if being carried with the same current I presume to commit this little Treatise to Your Patronage as to a safe Azilum sufficient to skreen it from all the assaults of Male-volence and if it be an Argument of Imprudence to range far abroad for that Good which is attainable nigh at hand my Vicinity to your Lordship will not only justifie this my Practise but should I have neglected the improvement of it upon this occasion as I would hardly be brought to forgive my self for being guilty of the grossest Folly so would it bear a Semblance of the highest indignity offered to Your Honour and of the basest diffidence of Your Goodness The Subject My Lord must be acknowledged to be of an Heroical Nature and therefore a fit entertainment to Heroick Minds and consequently cannot but be so to Your Lordship however the structure may have suffered through the debility of the Architect who yet has this humbly to offer to your Lordship and under Your Patronage to the World that Truth is the great standard I have endeavoured to fix my Eye continually upon having strenuously avoided all false Idea's of the actions of my Country and herein have done both the Enemy that justice due to them in their various conflicts with us and made it appear there was no need of any such prevarication in that True Glory has been no stranger to the English Arms through the series of many hundred years together and though things may not here be exposed in their Native Lustre and Excellency yet I cannot otherwise then perswade my self but they retain still their Native and Original verity But to dwell no longer upon the Products of my own Teeming Fancy I submit all to Your Lordships adequate Judgment and if in this my studied Brevity you meet with any thing grateful or divertive so as that it may conciliate Your Lordship's Good Opinion of me his highest ambition is gratified who begs leave to subscribe himself My Lord Your Honours most Humble and most devoted Servant D. Jones TO THE READER GReat and Various have the Actions been between England and France since the Invasion of the Normans Anno Dom. 1066. which makes September next just 629 Years but that the French Nation should make a Conquest of England hereby nothing is more manifestly untrue that People being a distinct Nation from the French who conquering that Province by main force from Neustria call'd it Normandia in the Reign of Charles le Simple whence by the way 't is worth the remarking what kind of Kings France hath often had and what sort of Epithetts their own Cronicles give them which stand upon publick Record to all posterity as Charles le Simple Charles le Chauve Charles le Gros Charles le Gras Charles le Phrenetique Philip le Long Lovis le Begue c. Now tho there have been many and mighty Quarrels War-like Encounters and Feuds betwixt England and France yet in the reign of the Saxon Kings the Historians make little mention of any but since England was joined as it were to the Continent by addition of Normandy there have been as frequent traverses of War as have happen'd between any two Nations for of those 28 Kings and Queens which have reigned here from William the First to William the Third now Regnant there have been but a very few of them free from actual Wars with France yet in so long a tract of time when the French were at their highest pitch of Power they never did nor had any adequate power to invade England 't is true that they took footing once or twice in the Isle of Wight but it quickly grew too hot for them And touching Lewis the French King's Son who did stay and sway the Scepter here about two Years whereof they so much vaunt That was no Invasion but an Invitation being brought in by the discontented Barons in England so that in a manner France was the Theater of the War between the two Nations down from William I. to the present time As for the great Battles which were fought from time to time 't is confessed by the French Historians themselves that the English were at most but half in number to them in almost all Engagements insomuch that by pure prowess and point of the Sword the English possess'd two parts in three of that populous Kingdom and how all came to be lost again will appear by the sequel of the Story but here I cannot omit one remarkable accident that was concomitant with the English Arms in France and that is that when the English were at the height of their conquests in that Kingdom the Pope came to reside at Avignon in France and there was a common saying which continues still in memory among the Vulgar Ores le pape est devenu Francois Christ est devenu Anglois i. e. Lo the Pope is become a Frenchman and Christ an Englishman which related to the marvelous Exploits and Successes the English had in that Kingdom which were such that Sir Walter Rawleigh speaking of the famous Punick Wars puts this Quaere If one should ask which was the valiantest the Roman or the Carthaginian one might answer the Englishman who performed greater feats of Arms then either of them insomuch that some foreign Authors give this Character of France that it was the stage whereon the English acted their valour so often 'T is true that in canvassing of Treaties in subtleties or shuffling the Cards and mental reservations they were mostly too hard for the English who naturally use down right dealing and real integrity but in point of performance of what was stipulated especially if the Article related to Money whereof we drew from them vast summs they seldom exactly performed the Capitulation of any Treaty as Foreign Writers observe
same day landed at Calais some overtures of aâ— accommodation were made him from France before he took Shipping but he was no sooner arrived at Calais but the calm Winds of Peace began to blow for he found Maximilian was unprovided of the assistance promised for lack of Money which soon spread through the Army and upon the neck of this he received news also that Ferdinand and Isabel had made peace with Charles King of France upon his restoring unto them the Counties of Rousillion and Perpignan formerly mortgaged unto France by John King oâ— Arragon however October 15th he left Calais and directed his march towards Bulloigne where hâ— arrived in four days and so sat down before it 〈◊〉 the Siege continued for near a Month but without any memorable action or accident of War only Sir John Savage a valiant Commander was slain as he was riding about to view the Walls the Town was well fortified and had a good Garrison yet it was much distressed and ready for an assault which if it had been given 't was believed it would have been carried when the Commissioners appointed for that purpose concluded a Peace which was to continue for both the Kings lives wherein there was no Article of importance being in effect rather a bargain then a treaty as my Lord Bacon observes for all things remained as they were save that there should be paid to the King Seven Hundred Forty Five Thousand Duckats at present for his charges in that Expedition and Five and Twenty Thousand Crowns yearly for his expenses sustained in the aids of the Britons and besides this was left indefinitely when it should determine or expire which made the English esteem it as a tribute carried under fair terms and the truth is it was paid both to this King and to his Son King Henry VIII longer then it could continue upon aâ—y computation of charges but this Peace gave no great contentment to the Nobility and principal Officers of the Army who had many of them sold or engaged their Estates upon the â—opes of the War and they stuck not to say that the King cared not to plume his Nobility and â—nd People to feather himself and others made themselves merry with what the King had said in Parliament that after the War was once begun he doubted not to make it pay it self saying he had kept his Promise However Charles was by this peace assured of the Possession of Bretaign and free to prosecute his designs upon Naples which Kingdom he won though he lost it afterward in a kind of felicity of a Dream after he had passed â—he whole length of Italy without resistance so that it was true what Pope Alexander was wont to say That the Frenchmen came into Italy with Chalk in their hands to mark up their Lodgings rather then with Swords to Fight However Henry in the 11th year of his Reign upon this occasion entred into a League with the Italian Potentates for the defence of Italy He had many intestine broils and insurrections and his Reign is noted for Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck's impostures and no less remarkable for the immense treasure he left behind him a testimony of his avaritious nature and after above 23 years reign and having lived 52 he died April the 22d at his Palace of Richmond which himself had built Anno. 1508. The Causes of his Wars were partly for the relief of Bretaign partly on behalf of the Arch-Duke Maximilian and partly for the recovery of his own right in France HENRY VIII HEir to both Houses of York and Lancaster and the only surviving Son of Henry VII succeeded his Father at the Age of 18 and proved a Prince of great Vertues as well as Vices Towards the fourth year of his Reign the French King making war upon Pope Julius King Henry wrote him monitory Letters to desist as being his Friend and Confederate which letters being little regarded Henry sent to demand his Dutchies of Normandy Guien Anjou and Main and the Crown of France it self but this had the same effect with the former the French King continuing his war in Italy which provoked King Henry so that entring into Confederacy with the Emperor Maximilian Ferdinando King of Spain and other Potentates he determined by the advise of his Council to make War upon France and made preparations both by Sea and Land accordingly and in concert with Ferdinando sends over into Biscay an Army of 10000 Men all foot under the command of the Marquess of Dorset with a design to invade France on that side first for the recovery of the Dutchy of Aquitain but Ferdinand failing in the promises he had made of Horse Ordinance Carriages c. the English after they had waited from May till December for performance returned into England without any memorable action performed their number being considerably diminished through sickness Henry nothing discouraged hereat calls a Parliament who gave him a plentiful supply for carrying on the War wherefore with a Puissant Army wherein were many noble Persons and over which as Captain General was constituted the Earl of Shrewsbury under the King's Person he lands at Calais on the last day of June being the fifth Year of his Reign and the day following lands the Admiral of England at Whitsand Bay entred the Town and burnt it and then returned From Calais about the 21st of July the King marches in great state and good order of Battle towards Turwin where he arrives on the fourth of August and laies close siege to it the French attempting to impede his march but without success Seven daies after came the Emperor Maximilian whom the King received with great Triumph between Aire and the Camp where he enters into the King's Pay and as a Testimony thereof wore St. George's Cross with a Rose the Town made no extraordinary defence for notwithstanding the Garrison consisted of 4000 whereof were 600 good Horse yet they capitulated the 23d and marched away the day following but the King did not think fit to keep the place and therefore rased all the Works and burnt the Town removing first the Ordinance that was in it to Aire from hence he directs his march towards the City of Turnay and about the 21st of September sets down before it it was but weakly Garrisoned but full of Inhabitants and so on the 29th of the same Month was by Capitulation surrendred the Citizens which were to the number of 60000 swearing Allegiance to him Here Sir Edward Poinings was made Governour and of this City Wolsey then the Kings Almoner was made Bishop and so by the way of Calais Henry returns for England and on the 24th of October lands at Dover the Earl of Surrey during his absence having fought the Scots slain their King James IV. and defeated their whole Army The King's Arms thus prevailing by Land in France it self and against the Scots its confederates proved no less successful by Sea for Sir John Wallop
Treaty of Peace they were forced to restore all to the English again but they left St. Christophers in so pittiful a plight by destroying all the Plantations that it seemed in a manner to be as much a Wilderness as when first the English took footing in it About Seven Years after things veer'd about the French joining with the English against the Dutch in a second Dutch War during this Reign and here a late learned Author has observed that as the English were so succesful in the former War against both and the Dane to boot and were never beaten but once and that when the Fleet was divided so in this the English in all the Fights they had which were Four came off with more loss then the Dutch but the truth of it is the French only came out to learn to fight both in the one and the other War for they stood still looking on or firing at a very great distance while the English and Dutch battered one another and Monsieur de Martel for falling on and engaging bravely was recalled check'd and dismissed his imploy in so much that the Parliament who began to smell the French designs moved November the 4th 1673. that the Allyance with France was a Grievance and so a Peace was concluded with the States and our King sets up for a Mediator at Nimeguen between the French and Dutch with their Confederates and in the mean time having got considerable supplies from his Parliament raises Forces for the French King had during this Navall War possessed himself of a great part of Flanders and the Territories of the States but before a Peace was shuffled up or at leastwise before the Prince of Orange knew or would know of its being concluded the Prince not staying for Eight Thousand English that were on their march to join him did with the assistance only of Ten Thousand English under the command of the Duke of Monmouth and Earl of Ossery storm the Duke of Luxemburg's Camp fortified with all Imaginable Art before Monts with that resolution and bravery that he beat him out of it and relieved the place and this was the last act of Hostility between England and France of any kind during this Reign this King afterwards instead of putting a stop to the growing greatness of that Kingdom fell in more and more with the interest of it and the Nation during the latter part of his Reign was almost rent to pieces with the Parties of Whig and Tory which are but too much felt to this day and he himself at last died on the 6th of February 168 4-85 in the Fifty Fifth Year of his Age and the 37th of his Reign computing it from his Father's Death JAMES II. ONly Surviving Brother to Charles II. immediately assumed the English Crown of which notwithstanding the opposition made against him in the preceding Reign he got a peaceable possession but had not been long invested with the regal Dignity when the Earl of Argyle landing in Scotland and the Duke of Monmouth in the West of England put him in no small danger of losing that he had so lately attained but this storm blew over and ended in the Execution of both the aforesaid Chiefs with a multitude of their followers and that in a very barbarous manner which execution as it drew no small emulation upon his Person so the success egged him on with so much violence in the pursuits of his designs for the advancing of the Papal Power in these Kingdoms that it made the Subjects now in danger of the loss both of their Religion and Civil Properties have recourse for relief to that Prince who has since so worthily filled the Abdicated Throne and who then readily embraced their Quarrel and in the most perillous season of the Year with an Army from Holland landed at Torbay Novemb. 5th 1688. a day and year memorable in the Annals of time for the English deliverance and having wished success was the 13th of February following with his Princess Proclaimed King and Queen of England c. King James having sometime before withdrawn himself into France with whom he was so far from having any Wars during his absent four Years Reign that he entred into a stricter Alliance with that Crown but since his present Majesty's ascending of the Throne what traverses of War there have been between England and France by Sea and Land and what the Causes of them were consists in the following Pages WILLIAM III. UPon King James's withdrawing himself out of the Kingdom and retiring into France in consideration the French had committed many Hostilities in the Palatinate on the Rhine and on the Frontiers of Flanders and assisted the Irish in Rebellion with considerable Naval and Land Forces a War was Proclaimed and the King of England entered into a strict confederacy against the French King with Brandenburgh Spain and the United Provinces c. to hinder the Excessive Power and growing Greatness of France from Insulting over the Neighbouring Princes and Forces were sent over under the Command of the Earl of Marlborough and others who gained considerable advantages over the French Parties But as yet the greatest Scene of War on our Part was in Ireland where the Earl of Tyrconnel had declared for King James and put most of the Irish Papists especially in Arms stopping the Ports and hindering the Escape of many English nor was it long e'er King James Landed there with a great many French Officers and Soldiers so that most of the Principal Places in that Kingdom fell into his Hands A Party of the Iniskilling Men and London-Derry being almost all the Loyal English held in Ireland and these two acted wonders and in fine baffled the Enemies Power for the former gained in several signal advantages in the Field and the latter the Town being commanded in chief by one Mr. Walker a Minister a very valiant Man though enduring the Extremity of Famine that no unclean thing was left uneaten held out a Siege of 105 days Killing a great number of the Enemy in Salleys and from the Wall whose Army against it was at least 40000 so that the Besieged being relieved with Provisions by the way of the River the Besiegers despairing of success drew off and were pursued loosing a great many Men and some Cannon Tents and Ammunition in the Retreat On the 13th of August 1689. the Duke of Schomberg with a fair Army from England Landed at Carickfergus whereupon the Garison of Antrim deserted and Carickfergus after a short Battery surrendred the Garison being only allowed to march out without Baggage to the next Garison and that Winter the Duke Encamped after reducing some other Places on the Plains of Dundalk whose unhealthy Air and Dampness destroyed abundance of our Men yet in that Season Parties were daily out took some Places and got great Advantage over the Enemies Parties in the Field In 1690. The King with a Royal Army set forward and landed the fifteenth