Julius Caesar at the time of his second expedition into Brittaine this Haven being then Portus Gessorianus This Tower which we now see seemeth to be but the remainder of a greater work and by the height and scituation of it one would guesse it to have been the Key or watch Tower unto the rest it is built of rude and vulgar stone but strongly cemented together the figure of it is six square every square of it being nine paces in length A compass to little for a Fortress and therefore it is long since it was put to that use it now serving onely as a Sea mark by day and a Pharos by night Vbi accensae noctu faces navigantium cursum dirigunt The English men call it the Old man of Boulogue and not improperly for it hath all the signes of age upon it The Sea hath by undermining it taken from it all the earth about two squares of the bottom of it the stones begin to drop out from the top and upon the rising of the wind you would think it were troubled with the Palsie in a word two hard winters seconded with a violent tempest maketh it rubbish what therefore is wanting of present strength to the Haven in this ruine of a Tower the wisdom of this age hath made good in a Garrison And here me thinks I might justly acâ—use the impolitick thrift of our former Kings of England in not laying out some money upon the strength and safety of our Haven Townes not one of them Portsmouth onely excepted being Garrison'd true it is that Henry the eighth did eâ—ect Block-Houses in many of them but what bâ—bles they are and how unable to resist a Flees royally appointed is known to every one I know indeed we were sufficiently Garrison'd by out Naâ—e could it either keep a watch on all particular places or had it noâ— sometimes occasion to be absent I hope our Kings are not of Darius mind in the storie quâ— gloriosius raâ—us est hostem 〈◊〉 quam non admittere neither will I take 〈◊〉 to give counsell onely I could wish that we were not inferiour to our neighbours in the greatness of our care since we are equal to the best of them in the goodness of our Country This Town of Boulogne and the Country about it was taken by Henry the eighth of England Anno 1545. himself being in person at the siege a very costly and chargeable victory The whole list of his Forces did amount to 44000. foot and 3000. horse Field Pieces he drew after him above a hundred besides those of smaller making and for the conveyance of their Ordinance baggage and other provision there were transported into the Continent above 25000. Horses True it is that his designes had a further aim had not Charles the Emperour with whom he was to join left the field and made peace without him So that judging onely by the success of the expedition we cannot but say that the winning of Boulonnois was a dear purchase and indeed in this one particular Sr. Walter Raleigh in the preface to his most excellent History saith not amiss of him namely that in his vain and fruitless expeditions abroad he consumed more treasure than all the rest of our victorious Kings before him did in their several Conquests The other part of his censure of that Prince I know not well what to think of as meerly composed of gall and bitterness Onely I cannot but much marvail that a man of his wisdom being raised from almost nothing by the Daughter could be so severely invective against the Father certainly a most charitable judge cannot but condemn him of want of true affection and duty to his Queen seeing that it is as his late Majesty hath excellently noted in his ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΟΠΔΩΡΟΠa thing monstrous to see a man love the Child and hate the Parents And therefore he may earnestly enjoyn his Son Henry to repress the insolencie of such as under pretence to tax a vice in the person seek craftily to stain the Race Presently after this taking Boulogne the French again endeavoured the regaining of it even during the life of the Conquerour but he was strong enough to keep his gettings After his death the English being engaged in a warr against the Scots and Kit having raised a rebellion in Norfolk they began again the reconquest of it and that more violently than ever Upon news of their preparations an Ambassage was dispatched to Charles the fifth to desire succours of him and to lay before him the infancy and several necessity of the young King who was then about the age of ten years This desire when the Emperour had refused to hearken to they besought him that he would at the least be pleased to take into his hands and keeping the Town of Boulogne and that for no longer time than until King Edward could make an end of the troubles of his Subjects at home An easie request yet did he not onely deny to satisfie the King in this except he would restore the Catholike Religion but he also expresly commanded that neither any of his men or munition should go to the assistance of the English An ingratitude for which I cannot find a fitting Epithite considering what fast friends the Kings of England have alwayes been to the united Houses of Burgundy and Austria what moneys they have helped them with and what sundry warrs they have made for them both in Belgium to maintain their authority and in France to augment their potency from the marriage of Maximilian of the Family of Austria with the Lady Mary of Burgundie which happened in they ear 1478. unto the death of Henry the eighth which fell in the year 1548. are just seventy years in which time onely it is thought by men of knowledge and experience that it cost the Kings of England at the least six millions of pounds in the meer quarrels and defence of the Princes of those Houses An expense which might seem to have earned a greater requital than that now demanded Upon this denial of the unkindful Emperour a Treaty followed between England and France The effect of it was that Boulogne and all the Country of it should be restored to the French by paying to the English at two dayes of payment 800000. Crowns Other Articles there were but this the principal and so the fortune of young Edward was like that of Julius Caesar towards his end Dum clementiam quam praestiterant expectant incauti ab ingratis occupati sunt The CONCLUSION A Generall censure of France and the French A gratulation to England The end of our journey ON wednesday the third of August having stayed in Boulogne three dayes for wind and company and not daring to venture on Calice by reason of the sickness there raging we took ship for England the day fair and the wind fitly serving us we were quickly got out of the harbour into the main And so I take my leave of France
unto it self following no Rule written in their Sentences but judging according to equity and conscience In matters criminal of greater consequence the process is here immediately examined without any preparation of it from the inferiour Courts as at the araignment of the Duke of Biron and divers times also in matter personall But their power is most eminent in disposing the affaires of State and of the Kingdome for such prerogatives have the French Kings given hereunto that they can neither denounce Warre nor conclude Peace without the consent a formall one at the least of this Chamber An Alieniation of the least of the Lands of the Crown is not any whit valued unless confirmed by this Court neither are his Edicts in force till they are here verified nor his Letters Pattents for the creating of a Peere till they are here allowed of Most of these I confess are little more than matters of form the Kings power and pleasure being become boundless yet sufficient to shew the body of Authority which they once had and the shaddow of it which they still keep yet of late they have got into their disposing one priviledge belonging formerly to the Conventus Ordinum or the Assembly of the three Estates which is the conferring of the Regency or protection of their Kings during their minority That the Assembly of the three Estates formerly had this priviledge is evident by their stories Thus we find them to have made Queene Blanche Regent of the Realm during the non-age of her Son St. Lewiis Anno 1227. that they declared Phillip le Valois successor to the Crowne in case that the widdow of Charles de belle was not delivered of a Son Anno 1328. That they made Charles the Daulphin Regent of France during the imprisonment of King John his Father Anno 1357. As also Phillip of Burgony during the Lunary Charles the sixth Anno 1394 with divers others On the other side we have a late example of the power of the Parliament of Paris in this very case for the same day that Henry the fourth was slain by Raviliae the Parliament met and after a short consultation declared Mary de Medices Mother to the King Regent in France for the Government of the State during the minority of her Son with all power and authority such are the words of the Instrument dated the 14. of May 1610. It cannot be said but this Court deserveth not onely this but any other indulgence whereof any one member of the Common-wealth is capable So watchful are they over the health of the State and so tenderly do they take the least danger threatned to the liberties of that Kingdome that they may not unjustly be called Patres Patriae In the year 1614. they seazed upon a discourse written by Suarez a Jesuite entitled Adversus Anglicanae sectae errores wherein the Popes temporal power over Kings and Princes is averred which they sentenced to be burnt in the Pallace yard by the publick Hangman The yeare before they inflicted the same punishment upon a vain and blasplemous discourse penned by Gasper Niopins a fellow of a most desperate brain and a very incendiary Neither hath Bellarmine himself that great Atlas of the Roman Church escaped much better for writing a Book concerning the temporal power of his Holiness it had the ill luck to come into Paris where the Parliament finding it to thwart the Liberty and Royalty of the King and Country gave it over to the Hangman and he to the Fire Thus it is evident that the titles which the French writers gave it as the true Temple of the French justice the Buttresse of Equity the Guardian of the Rights of France and the like are abundantly deserved of it The next Chamber in esteem is the Tournelle which handleth all matters Criminal It is so called from Tourner which signifieth to change or alter because the Judges of the other several Chambers give sentence in this according to their several turnes The reason of which Institution is said to be least a continual custome of condemning should make the Judges less merciful and more prodigall of blood An order full of health and providence it was instituted by the above named Phillip le Belle at the same time when he made the Parliament sedentary at Paris and besides its particular and original employment it receiveth Appeals from and redresseth the errours of the Provost of Paris The other five Chambers are called des Enquests or Camerae Inquasitionum the first and ancientest of them was erected also by Phillip le Belle and afterwards divided into two by Charles the seventh Afterwards of Processes being greater than could be dispatched in these Courts there was added a third Francis the first established the fourth for the better raising of a sum of money which then he wanted every one of the new Counsellers paying right dearly for his place The fifth and last was founded in the year 1568. In each of these severall Chambers there be two Presidents and twenty Counsellers beside Advocates and Proctors ad placitum In the Tournelle which is the aggregation of all the other Courts there are supposed to be no fewer than two hundred Officers of all sorts which is no great number considering the many Causes there handled In the Tournelle the Iudges sit on matters of life and death in the Chambers of Enquests they examine onely civil Affairs of estate title debts and the like The Pleaders in these Courts are called Advocates and must be at the least Licentiats in the study of the Law At the Parliaments of Tholoza and Burdeaux they admit of none but Doctors now the form of admitting them is this In an open and frequent Court one of the agedest of the Long Robe presenteth the party which desireth admission to the Kings Atturney General saying with a loud voice Paisse a Cour recevoir N. N. Licencie or Docteur en droict civil a l'office d' Advocate This said the Kings Atturney biddeth him hold up his hand and saith to him in Latine Tu jurabis observare omnes Reges Consuetudines he answereth Iuro and departeth At the Chamber door of the Court whereof he is now sworne an Advocate he payeth two Crownes which is forthwith put into the common Treasury appointed for the relief of the distressed-Widdows of ruined Advocates and Proctors Hanc veniam petimusque damusque It may be their own cases and therefore it is paid willingly The highest preferment of which these Advocates are capable is that of Chauncellor an Office of great power and profit The present Chauncellor is named Mr. d' Allegre by birth of Chartres he hath no settled Court wherein to exercise his authority but hath in all the Courts of France the supream place whensoever he will vouchsafe to visit them He is also President of the Councill of Estate by his place and on him dependeth the making of good and sacred Lawes the administration of Justice the reformation of
lusty as the Horses of the Sun in Ovid neither could we say of them flammiferis implent hinnitibus aur as All the neighng we could hear from the proudest of them was onely an old dry cough which I le assure you did much comfort me for by that noise I first learned there was life in them Upon such Anatomies of Horses or to speak more properly upon such several heaps of bones were I and my company mounted and when we expected however they seemed outwardly to see somewhat of the post in them my beast began to move after an Aldermans pace or like Envie in Ovid Surgit humi pigre passuque incedet inerti Out of this gravity no perswasion could work them the dull jades being grown insensible of the spur and to hearten them with wands would in short time have distressed the Country Now was the Cart of Diepe thought a speedy conveyance and those that had the happiness of a Waggon were esteemed too blessed yea though it came with the hazard of the old woman and the wenches If good nature or a sight of their journeys ever did chance to put any of them into a pace like a gallop we were sure to have them tire in the middle way and so the remainder of the Stage was to be measured with our own feet being weary of this trade I made bold to dismount the Postilion and ascended the Trunk Horse where I sate in such magnificent posture that the best Carrier in Paris might have envied my felicity behind me I had a good large Trunk and a Portmantue before me a bundle of Cloaks and a parcel of Books Sure I was that if my stirrups could poize me equally on both sides that I could not likely fall backwards nor forwards Thus preferred I encouraged my Companions who cast many an envious eye upon my prosperity and certainly there was not any of them who might not more justly have said of me Tu as un meilleur temps que le pape then poor Lauarillo's Master dâ—d when he allowed him an Onion for four dayes This circumstance I confess might have well been omitted had I not great example for it Philip de Comminees in the midst of his grave and serious relation of the battel of Mont l' hierrie hath a note much about this nature which gave me encouragement which is that himself had an old Horse half tired and this was just my case who by chance thrust his head into a pail of Wine and drunk it off which made him lustier and friskier that day than ever before but in that his Horse had better luck than I had On the right hand of us and almost in the middle way betwixt Abbeville and Boulogne we left the Town of Monstreville which we had not leasure to see It seemed daintily seated for command and resistance as being built upon the top and declivity of an hill it is well strengthened with Bastions ramparts on the outside hath within a Garrison of five Companies of Souldiers their Governour as I learned of one of the Paisants being called Lenroy And indeed it concerneth the King of France to lâ—ck well to his Town of Monstreville as being a border Town within two miles of Artoys and especially coâ—siâ—ering that the taking of it would â—ut off all entercourse between the Countreys of Boulogne and Calais with the rest of France Of the like importance also are the Towns of Abbeville and Amiens and that the French Kings are not ignorant of Insomuch that those two onely together with that of St. Quintin being put into the hands of Philip Duke of Burgundy to draw him from the party of the English were redeemed again by Lewis the eleventh for 450000. Crowns an infinite sum of money according to the standard of those times and yet it seemeth the King of France had no bad bargain of it for upon an hope onely of regaining those Towns Charls Earl of Charoloys Son to Duke Philip undertook that warr against King Lewis by which at the last he lost his life and hazarded his estate CHAP. V. The Country of Boulonnois and Town of Boulogne by whom enfranchised The present of salt butter Boulogne divided into two Towns Procession in the low Town to divert the Plague The forms of it Processions of the Letany by whom brought into the Church The high Town garrisoned The old man of Boulogne The neglect of the English in leaving open the Havens The fraternity de la charite and inconvenience of it The costly journey of Henry the eigth to Boulogne Sir Waâ—ter Raleighs censure of that Prince condemned the discourtesie of Charls the fifth towards our Edward the sixth The defence of the House of Burgundy how chnrgeable to the Kings of England Boulogne re-yeilded WE are now come to the Country of Boulonnois which though a part of Picardy disdaineth yet to be so counted but will be reckoned a County of it self It comprehendeth in it the Towns of Boulogne Escapes and Neus-Chastel beside-divers Villages and consisteth much of hils and valleys much after the nature of England the soyl being indifferent fruitful of corn and yeilding more glass than any other part of France which we saw for the quantity Neither is it onely a County of it self but it is in a manner also a free County it being holden immediately of the Virgin Mary who is no question a very gracious Land Lady For when King Lewis the eleventh after the decease of Charles of Burgundy had taken in Boulogne Anno 1477. As new Lord of the Town thus John de Sierries relateth it he did homage without sword or spurs bare-headed and on his knee before the Virgin Mary offering unto her image an heart of Massie gold weighing two thousand Crowns he added also this that he and his successors after him being Kings should hold the County of Boulogne of the same Virgin and do homage unto her image in the great Church of the higher Town dedicated to her naâ—e giving 〈◊〉 every change of a Vassal an heart of pure gold of the same weight Since that time the Boulonnois being the Tennants of our Lady have enjoyed a perpetual exemption from many of those tributes and taxes under which the rest of France are miserably afflicted Amongst others they have been alwayes freed from the gabel of Salt by reason whereof and by the goodness of their pastures they have there the best Butter in all the Kingdom I say partly by reason of their Salt because having it at a low rate they do liberally season all their Butter with it whereas they which do buy their Salt at the Kings price cannot afford it any of that dear commodity Upon this ground it is the custom of these of Boulonnois to send unto their Freinds of France and Paris a barrel of Butter seasoned according to their fashion a present no less ordinary and acceptable than Turkeys Capons and the like are from our Country Gentlemen to those
man as he informed me able to discharge the trust reposed in him by his Master and one that very well affecteth the English Nation He hath the fairest Eglise and keepeth the largest retinue of any ordinary Embassadour in the Realm and maketh good his Masters supremacy by his own precedency To honour him against he was to take this charge his Holiness created him Bishop of Damiata in Egypt A place which I am certain never any of them saw but in a Map and for the profits he receiveth thence they will never be able to pay for his Crosier But this is one of his Holiness usual policies to satisfie his followers with empty titles So he made Bishop whom he sent to govern for him in England Bishop of Chalcedon in Asia and Smith also who is come over about the same business with the Queen Bishop of Archidala a City of Thrace An old English Doctor used it as an especial argument to prove the Universality of power in the Pope because he could ordain Bishops over all Cities in Christendom If he could as easily also give them the revenue this reason I confess would much sway me till then I am sorry that men should still be boyes and play with bubbles By the same authority he might do well to make all his Courtiers Kings and he were sure to have a most Royal and beggerly Court of it To proceed a little further in the Allegory so it is that when Jacob saw Esau to have incurred his Fathers and Mothers anger for his heathenish marriage he set himself to bereave his elder brother of his blessing prayers and the sweet smell of his Venison the sweet smelling of his sacrifices obtained of his Lord and Father a blessing for him for indeed the Lord hath given unto this his French Jacob as it is in the Text The dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth and plenty of corn and Wine Gen. 27. 5 28. It followeth in the 41. ver of the chapter And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his Father had blessed him and Esau said in his heart the dayes of mourning for my Father are at hand then will I slay my brother Jacob The event of which his bloudy resolution was that Jacob was fain to relinquish all that he had and fly unto his Vncle This last story expresseth very much of the estate of the French Church The Papists hated the Protestants to see them thrive and encrease so much amongst them this hatred moved them to a war by which they hoped to root them out all together and this war compelled the Protestants to abandon their good Towns and strong Holds and all their possessions and to fly unto their friends wheresoever they could find them And indeed the present estate of the Protestants is not much better than that of Jacob in Mesopotamia nor much different the blessing which they expect lyeth more in the seed than in the harvest and well may they hope to be restored to the love and bosome of their brethren of which as yet they have no assurance For their strength it consisteth principally in their prayers to God and secondly in their obedience to their King Within these two Fortresses if they can keep themselves they need fear none ill because they shall deserve none The onely outward strengths they have left them are the two Towns of Moutabon and Rochell the one deemed invincible the other threatned a speedy destruction The Duke of Espernon at my being there lay round about it and it was said that the Town was in very bad terms all the neighbouring Townes to whose opposition they most trusted having yeilded at the first sight of the Canon Rochell its thought cannot be forced by assaults nor compelled by a famine some Protestants are glad of it and hope to see the French Church restored to its former powerableness by the resistance of that Town meerly I rather think that the perverse and stubborn condition of it will at last drive the young King into a fury and incite him to revenge their contradiction on their innocent Friends now disarmed and disabled Then will they see at last the issue of their own peremptory resolutions and begin to beleive that the Heathen Historian was of the two the better Christian when he gave us this note Non turpe est ab eo vinci quem vincere esset nefas neque illi in honeste etiam summitti quem fortuna super omnes extulisset This weakness and misery which hath now befallen the Protestants was an effect I confess of the ill will which the other party bare them but that they bare them ill will was a fruit of their own grafting In this circumstance they were nothing like Jacob who in the hatred which his brother Esau had to him was meerly passive They being active also in the birth of it And indeed the lamentable and bloudy war which fell upon them they not onely endeavoured not to avoid but invited During the raign of Henry the fourth who would not see it and the troublesome minority of Lewis the thirteenth who could not molest them they had made themselves masters of ninety nine Towns well fortified and enabled for a siege A strength too great for any one faction to keep tother under a King which desires to be himself and so rule his people In the opinion of their potency they call Assemblies Parliaments as it were when and as often as they pleased There they consulted of the common affairs of Religion made new Laws of government removed and exchanged their general Officers the Kings leave all this while never so much as formally asked Had they onely been guilty of too much power that crime alone had been sufficient to have raised a war against them it not standing with the safety and honour of a King not to be the absolute commander of his own subjects But in this their licentious calling of Assemblies they abused their power into a neglect and in not dissolving them at his Majesties commandement they increased their neglect into a disobedience The Assembly which principally the war and their ruine was that of Rochell called by the Protestants presently upon the Kings journey into Bearne This general meeting the King prohibited by his especial Edicts declaring all them to be guilty of treason which notwithstanding they would not hearken to but very undutifully went on in their purposes It was said by a Gentleman of that party and one that had been employed in many of their affairs that the very zeal of some who had the guiding of their consciences had thrusted them into those desperate courses and I beleive him Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Being assembled they sent the King a Remonstrance of their greivances to which the Duke Lesdiguiers in a letter to them written gives them a â—e y fair and plausible answer wherein also he entreateth them to obey the Kings Edict and
October Anno 1603. They not onely gave audience to Ambassadours and received Letters from forrain Princes but also importuned his Majesty to have a general liberty of going into any other Countreys and assigning at their Counsel a matter of especial importance And therefore the King upon a foresight of the dangers wisely prohibited them to go to any Assemblies without a particular licence upon pain to be declared Traytors Since that time growing into greater strength whensoever they had occasion of business with King Lewis they would never treat with him but by their Embassadors and upon especial Articles An ambition above the quality of those that profess themselves Sorbonets and the onely way as Du Seirres noteth to make an estate in the State but the answers made unto the King by those of Alerack and Montanbon are pregnant proofs of their intent and meaning in this kind The first being summoned by the King and his Army the 22. of July Anno 1621. returned thus that the King should suffer them to enjoy their liberties and leave their fortifications as they were for them of their lives and so they would declare themselves to be his subjects They of Montanbon made a fuller expression of the general design Disobedience which was that they were resolved to live and die in the Vnion of the Churches had they said for the Service of the King it had been spoken bravely but now rebelliously This union and confederacy of theirs King Lewis used to call the Common-wealth of Rochell for the overthrow of which he alwayes protested that he had onely taken Arms and if we compare circumstances we shall find it to be no other In the second of April before he had as yet advanced into the Feild he published a Declaration in favour of all those of the Religion which would contain themselves within duty and obedience And whereas some of Tours at the beginning of the warrs had tumultuously molested the Protestants at the burial of one of their dead five of them by the Kings especial commandement were openly executed When the warr was hottest abroad those of the Gospel at Paris lived as securely as ever and had their accustomed meetings at Charentan So had those also of other places Moreover when tidings came to Paris of the Duke of Mayens death slain before Montanbon the Rascal French according to their hot headed dispositions breathed out nothing but ruine to the Hugonots the Duke of Montbazon Governour of the City commanded their houses and the streets to be safely guarded After when this Rabble had burnt down their Temple at Charentan the Court of Parliament on the day following ordained that it should be built up again in a more beautiful manner and that at the Kings charge Add to this that since the ending of the warrs and the reduction of almost all their Towns we have not seen the least alteration of Religion Besides that they have been permitted to hold a National Synod at Clarenton for establishing the truth of their doctrine against the errors of Arminius Professor of Leiden in Holland All things thus considered in their true being I cannot see for what cause our late Soveraign should suffer so much envy as he did for not giving them assistance I cannot but say that my self hath too often condemned his remissness in that cause which upon better consideration I cannot tell how he should have dealt in Had he been a meddler in it further than he was he had not so much preserved Religion as supported rebellion besides the consequence of the example To have assisted the disobedient French under the colour of the liberty of Conscience had been onely to have taught that King a way into England upon the same pretence and to have troad the path of his own hazard Further he had not long before denyed succor to his own children when he might have given upon a better ground and for a fairer purpose and could not now in honour countenance the like action in another For that other denial of his helping hand I much doubt how farre posterity will acquit him though certainly he was a good Prince and had been an happy instrument of the peace of Christendom had not the later part of his raign happened in a time so full of troubles So that betwixt the quietness of his nature and the turbulencies of his later dayes he fell into that miserable exigent mentioned in the Historian Miserrimum est cum alicui aut natura sua excedenda est aut minuenda dignitas Add to this that the French had first been abandoned at home by their own friends of seven Generals whom they had appointed for the seven circles into which they divided all France four of them never giving them incouragement The three which accepted of those inordinate Governments were the Duke of Rohan his Brother Mr. Sonbise and the Marquess la Force the four others being the Duke of Tremoville the Earl of Chastillon the Duke of Lesdiguier and the Duke of Bovillon who should have commanded in cheif So that the French Protestants cannot say that he was first wanting unto them but they to themselves If we demand what should move the French Protestants to this rebellious contradiction of his Majesties commandements we must answer that it was too much happiness Causa hujus belli eadem quae omnium nimid faelicitas as Florus of the Civil warrs between Caesar and Pompey Before the year 1620. when they fell first into the Kings dis-favour they were possessed of almost an hundred good Towns well fortified for their safety besides beautiful houses and ample possessions in the Villages They slept every man under his own Vine and his own Fig-tree neither fearing nor needing to fear the least disturbance with those of the Catholike party they were grown so intimate and entire by reason of their inter-marriages that a very few years would have made them incorporated if not into one faith yet into one family For their better satisfaction in matters of Justice it pleased King Henry the fourth to erect a chamber in the Court of Parliament of Paris purposely for them It consisted of one President and sixteen Counsellors their office to take knowledge of all the Causes and Suits of them of the Reformed Religion as well within the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Paris as also in Normandy and Brittain till there should be a Chamber erected in either of them There were appointed also two Chambers in the Parliament of Bourdeaux and Grenoble and one at Chasters for the Parliament at Tholoza These Chambers were called Les Chambres de l' Edict because they were established by a special Edict at the Town of Nantes in Brittain April the eighth Anno 1598. In a word they lived so secure and happy that one would have thought their felicities had been immortal O faciles dare summa Deos eademque tuerâ— Difficiles And yet they are not brought so low but that they may
Endive root Raddish Cheese and to the board there came A dish of Eggs ne're roasted by the flame Next they had Nuts course Dates lenten Figs And Apples from a basket made with twigs And Plums and Grapes cut newly from the tree All serv'd in earthen dishes huswifelie But you must not look for this ohear often At Wakes or feast days you may perchance be so happy as to see this plenty but at other times onus omne patilla the best provision they can shew you is a piece of Bacon where with to fatten their pottage and now and then the inwards of Beasts killed for the Gentleman But of their miseries this me thinketh is the greatest that sowing so many acres of excellent Wheat in a year and gathering in such a plentiful vintage as they do they should not yet be so fortunate as to eat white bread or drink Wine for such infinite rents do they pay to their Lords and such innumerable taxes to the King that the profits arising out of these commodities are onely sufficient to pay their duties and keep them from the extremities of cold and famine The bread which they eat is of the coursest flower and so black that it cannot admit the name of brown and as for their drink they have recourse unto the next fountain A people of any the most infortunate not permitted to enjoy the fruit of their labours and such as above all others are subject to that Sarcasme in the Gospel This man planted a Vineyard and doth not drink of the fruit thereof Neo prosunt Domino quae prosunt omnibus artes Yet were their cases not altogether so deplorable if there were but hopes left to them of a better if they could but compass this certainty that a painful drudging and thrifty saving would one day bring them out of this hell of bondage In this questionless they are entirely miserable in that they are sensible of their present fortunes and dare not labour nor expect an alteration If industry and a sparing hand hath raised any of these afflicted people so high that he is but four or five shillings richer than his neighbour his Lord immediately enhanceth his rent and enformeth the Kings task-masters of his riches by which meanes he is within two or three years brought into equal poverty with the rest A strange course and much different from that of England where the Gentry take a delight in having their Tennants thrive under them and account it no crime in any that hold of them to be wealthy On the other side those of France can abide no body to gain or grow rich upon their Farms and therefore thus upon occasions rack their poor Tennants In which they are like the Tyrant Procrustes who laying hands upon all he met cast them upon his bed if they were shorter than it he racked their joynts till he had made them even to it if they were longer he cut as much of their bodies from them as did hang over so keeping all that fell into his power in an equality of stature I need not make further application of the story but this that the French Lords are like that Tyrant How much this course doth depress the military power of the Kingdom is apparent by the true principles of warr and the examples of other Countries For it hath been held the general opinion of the best judgements in matters of war that the main buttress and pillar of an Army is the foot or as the Martialists term it the infantry Now to make a good infantry it requireth that men be brought up not in a slavish or needy fashion of life but in some free and liberal manner Therefore it is well observed by the Viscount St. Albons in his history of Henry the seventh that if a State run most to Nobles and Gentry and that the Husbandmen be but as their meer drudges or else simple Cottagers that that State may have a good Cavilleria but never good stable bands of Foot like to Coppines wood in which if you let them grow too thick in the standerds they will run to bushes or briers and have little clean under wood Neither is it thus in Franne onely but in Italy also and some other parts abroad insomuch that they are enforced to employ mercenary Souldiers for their battalions of Foot whereby it cometh to pass in those Countries that they have much people but few men On this consideration King Henry the seventh one of the wisest of our Princes took a course so cunning and wholesome for the encrease of the military power of this Realm that though it be much less in territories yet it should have infinitely more Souldiers of its native forces than its neighbour Nations For in the fourth year of his raign there passed an Act of Parliament pretensively against the depopulation of Villages and decay of tillage but purposely to make his Subjects for the warrs The Act was that all houses of Husbandry which had been used with twenty acres of ground and upwards should be maintained and kept up so together with a competent proportion of Land to be used and occupied with them c. By this meanes the houses being kept up did of necessity enfarce a dweller and that dweller because of the proportion of Land not to be a beggar but a man of some substance able to keep hinds and servants and to set the Plow going An Order which did wonderfully concern the might and manhood of the Kingdom these Farmers being sufficient to maintain an able body out of penury and by consequence to prepare them for service and encourage them to high honours for Haud facile emergunt quorum virtutibus obstat Res angusta domi As the Poet hath it But this Ordinance is not thought of such use in France where all the hopes of their Armies consist in the Cavallery or the Horse which perhaps is the cause why our Ancestors have won so many battels upon them As for the French Foot they are quite out of all reputation and are accounted to be the basest and unworthiest company in the world Besides should the French people be enfranchized as it were from the tyranny of their Lords and estated in free hold and other tenures after the manner of England it would much trouble the Councill of France to find out a new way of raising the Kings Revenues which are now meerly sucked out of the bloud and sweat of the Subject Anciently the Kings of France had rich and plentiful demeasnes such as was sufficient to maintain their Majesty and greatness without being burdensome unto the Country Pride in matters of sumptuousness and the tedious Civil warrs which have lasted in this Country almost ever since the death of Henry the second have been the occasion that most of the Crown Lands have been sold and morgaged insomuch that the people are now become the Demain and the Subject onely is the revenue of the Crown
so I leave the Constable to take a veiw of his Province A man at this time beloved of neither parties hated by the Protestants as an Apostata and suspected by the Papists not to be entire To proceed July the twenty eighth we came unto Clermont the first Town of any note that we met with in Picardy A pretty nea Town and finely seated on the rising of an hill For the defence of it it hath on the upper side of it an indifferent large Castle and such as were the scituations of it somewhat helped by the strengths of Art might be brought to good service Towards the Town it is of an easie access to the fieldward more difficult as being built on the pendicular fall of a Rock In the year 1615. it was made good by Mr. Haroncourt with the Regiment of eight Companies who kept it in the name of the Prince of Conde and the rest of that Confederacy but it held not long For at the Marshal d' Ancres coming before it with his Army and artillery it was presently yeilded This warr which was the second Civil warr that had happened in the reign of King Lewis was undertaken by the Princes chiefly to thwart the designes of the Queen Mother and to crush the powerableness of her grand favourite the Marshall The pretence as in such cases commonly is was the good of the Common-wealth the occasion the cross Marriages then consummated by the Marshal between the Kings of France and Spain For by those marriages they seemed to fear the augmentation of the Spaniards greatness the alienation of the affections of their ancient Allies and by consequence the ruine of the French Empire But it was not the fate of D' Ancre to perish two years more of Command and insolencies his destinies allowed and then he tumbled This opportunity of his death ending the third Civil war each of which his faulty greatness had occasioned What the ambition of his designs did tend to I dare not absolutely determine though like enough it is that they aimed further than at a private or personal potency for having under the favour and countenance of the Queen Mother made himself Master of the Kings ear and of his counsels he made a shift to get into his own hands an authority almost as unlimitted as that of the old Mayre of the Palace for he had suppressed the liberty of the general Estates and of the Soveraign Court removed all the Officers and Counsellors of the last King ravished one of the Presidents of the great Chamber by name Mr. Le Jay out of the Parliament into the Prison and planted Garrisons of his own in most of the good Towns of Normandy of which Province he was Governour Add to this that he had caused the Prince of Conde being acknowledged the first Prince of the bloud to be imprisoned in the Bastile and had searched into the continuance of the lives of the King and his Brother by the help of sorcery and witchcraft Besides he was suspected to have had secret intelligence with some forrain Princes ill-willers to the State and had disgraced some and neglected others of the Kings Confederates And certainly those actions seem to import some project beyond a private and obedient greatness though I can hardly beleive that he durst be ambitious of the Crown for being a fellow of a low birth his heart could not but be too narrow for such an hope and having no party amongst the Nobility and being less gratious among the people he was altogether destitute of means to compass it I therefore am of opinion that the Spanish gold had corrupted him to some project concerning the enlargement of that Empire upon the French dominions which the cross Marriages whereof he was the contriver and which seemed so full of danger to all the best Patriots of France may seem to demonstrate And again at that time when he had put the Realm into this third combustion the King of Spain had an Army on foot against the Duke of Savoy and another in the Countries of Cleive and Juliers which had not the timely fall of this Monsieur and the peace ensuing prevented it might both perhaps have met together in the midst of France but this is onely conjectural CHAP. II. The fair City of Amiens and greatness of it The English feasted within it and the error of that action The Town how built seated and fortified The Cittadel of it thought to be impregnable not permitted to be veiwed The over-much openness of the English in discovering their strengths The watch and form of government in the Town Amiens a Visedamate and to whom it pertaineth What that honour is in France and how many there enjoy it c. THat night we went from Clermont to a Town called Bâ—etaul where we were harboured being from Clermont six French Leagues and from Paris twenty Our entertainment there such as in other places as sluttish and as inconvenient The next day being the twenty ninth about ten of the clock we had a sight of the goodly and fair City of Amiens A City of some English miles circuit within the wals which is all the greatness of it for without the wals it hath houses few or none A City very capacious and for that cause hath been many times honoured with the persons and trains of many great Princes Besides that once it entertained almost a whole Army of the English For King Lewis the eleventh having made an advantagious peace with our Edward and perceiving how ingrateful it was amongst the military men he intended also to give them some manner of satisfaction he sent therefore unto them three hundred Carts laden with the best Wines and seeing how acceptable a present that had proved he intended also to feast them in Amiens within half a league of which their Camp was lodged This entertainment lasted four dayes each street having in it two long tables and each table being furnished with very plentiful provision Neither were they denied entrance into any of the Taverns or Victualling-houses or therein stinted either in meats or drinks whatsoever was called for was defraied by King Lewis An action wherein if my opinion might carry it there was little of the Politician for there were permitted to enter into the Town so many of the English-men at once that had they been but so minded they might easily have made themselves as well Masters of the place as of the Kings person nine thousand are reckoned by Comminees to have been within together and most of them armed so that they might very easily have surprised the Gates and let in the rest of the Army Those of the French Kings Council feared it much and therefore informed both Princes the one of his Town the other of his honour But this jealousie was but a French distrust and might well have been spared the English being of that Generals mind that scorned to steal a Victory and of that generous