to supplant Chievres It is unknown whether there was any neglect on the Deans part in not sending speedy enough advice into Flanders of what he had judged convenient to negotiate in Spain whether his Secretary was not faithful to him whether Chievres was not punctually informed by the Intelligences which he entertained at vast charges in Spain of what was hatching to his prejudice or whether Ferdinand by a Politick fetch which the Dean had not foreseen was the Author himself of Chievres his being acquainted with it in prospect of Governing in Flanders when he had set the two most faithful Ministers of his Grandson one against another But it is certain that Chievres was punctually advertised from other hands than the Deans of what he had transacted with Ferdinand to his prejudice and that thereafter there was no more solid friendship betwixt the Governour and Praeceptor of the Archduke However their misunderstandings appeared not but in such private occurrences as concerned the profit or satisfaction of either of the two and by the rarest event that perhaps can be found in any History it did not the least prejudice to the affairs of their Pupil Since it had only hapned by the overweening application of one of the two that is of the Tutor to the service of the Archduke Ferdinand reaped not from it all the fruit which he expected and the countenance which afterward he gave the Dean procured him many friends at Court because the Spaniards began to despair of his Catholick Majesties recovery He recovered notwithstanding and since he thought it necessary to deceive people by feigning to have recovered his former vigour he often changed his residence and used all the other exercises of those who are in health But the Physicians for all that whispered his friends in the ear that his Dropsie was come to a height and that some time or other it would carry him off Chievres was so well informed of it that he advised the Archduke not to be any longer so great a husband of his measures with his Maternal Grandfather but to use all necessary caution to hinder the effect of the kindness which he had for the Infanto Ferdinand The most important that he suggested to him was taken from the consideration that all the Sovereigns of Europe Leagued together in the Year One thousand five hundred and fifteen with the Catholick King against the new King of France Francis the First who succeeded to Louis the Twelfth with design to divert him from recovering the Dutchy of Milan This was the Count of Angoulesm of whom we have spoken in the First Book and seeing till then he had made a profession of friendship to the Archduke it ought not to be interrupted by his advancement to the Crown of France Gouffiers and Chievres the Governours of those two young Princes had united them principally in that prospect and if Francis was concerned to make sure of not being attacked by the Low Countries whilst he was employed in Italy Charles was incomparably more to be in a perfect intelligence with the French when ever the Succession of Spain came to be open For if his younger Brother were preferred before him by the last Will of the Catholick King and that he offered to the new most Christian King to restore Navarre to John d' Albert provided France entred into a League offensive and defensive with him against his elder Brother the Archduke would have no other way of reducing him but by the Ocean Sea the more unsafe that it was exposed to frequent tempests and besides it would be the more uneasie to get into Spain that way that all the Ports would be their Enemies If the Archdukes Fleet were disabled by the Winds or defeated by Ships of his younger Brother it would be impossible for him to fit it out again seeing the Netherlands were not of the humour to be at the charge of another and if the Forces that he landed were cut in pieces he would hardly find any others that would venture upon a second Expedition If the Catholick King left only the Monarchy of Arragon to Ferdinand he would keep it in spight of his Brother provided France were not against him In fine if the Infanto were omitted in his Grandfathers Will and nevertheless he did aspire to the Thrones which had been designed for him the Spaniards who desired a King by themselves would contribute what in them lay to raise him to them and the Archduke would not be in a condition of opposing it unless assisted by France whereas by contracting a firm Alliance with that King those who awakened the Ambition of the Infanto whilst they exasperated the Catholick King against the Archduke would refrain from both these designs when they saw no hopes of succeeding in them The Catholick King would not prefer a younger Brother before an elder when he saw that his preference would serve for no other end than to give occasion to the elder to oppress the younger The Infanto would submit to the Laws of Spain when all hopes of violating them securely were taken from him and whatever unexpected accident might happen all the Paternal and Maternal Dominions of the Archduke would be united in his person The Archduke being persuaded by these reasons sent Henry Count of Nassau to the French Court and Chievres framed his Instructions They consisted of three parts with relation to the three principal Affairs which then were to be adjusted betwixt the Archduke and the most Christian King with this Artifice that the most important of the three was put in the last place and appeared only as an accessary to the other two whereas the other two rightly taken were but an accessary to the last Chievres then represented in the first place that it was absolutely necessary for the repose of Christendom that the King of France and the Archduke to the friendship that was betwixt them should add a Bond that might render it indissoluble and that in the Juncture then no such Bond could be but the marriage of the Archduke with Renée of France second Daughter to Louis the Twelfth and younger Sister to the most Christian Queen The Count of Nassau was told that the chief business for which he was sent to Paris was only to make that Proposal and that there seemed only two Obstacles that could thwart it one arising from the Portion of the Princess and the other from her Person As to the first all men knew that Louis the Twelfth had but two Daughters alive by the Heiress of Bretagne Claudia Queen of France and Renée and that Claudia the Eldest whom the Salick Law debarred from the Succession to the Crown carried by birth-right the two Fiefs which were in deed and in pretension the Estates of their Father and Mother to which the younger Sister could lay no claim The Fief effective was Bretagne and the pretended the Dutchy of Milan which Louis had lost three years before his death and
the Servants of the Infanto should be changed a thing absolutely necessary seeing he deprived him of the Crowns which he left him by his former Will and in so contrary a disposition policy required that such persons should be placed about that young Prince as might make him forget what was past and patiently support the strange revolution of fortune that had befallen him It is not known whether the three Counsellors of State who suggested the last Testament forgot to propose that caution or that not judging it so necessary as indeed it was they thought it enough that they had obtained the chief which was to exclude the Infanto from the Throne and neglected the accessary that consisted in putting new Servants about him But it is certain that whatever Ximenes could do afterward he could not wholly remedy that inconvenience For though he obliged the Infanto to live always with him and employed more time in observing the Servants of that young Prince than in all the other affairs of State besides yet he could not prevent but that Gusman his Governour treated secretly with the chief Lords of Arragon who promised that if he could cunningly get his Pupil away from the Cardinal and bring him to them they would immediately place him upon the Throne and acknowledge him for their King. The Bishop of Astorga the Infanto's Tutor Negotiated also with the Emperor Maximilian to perswade him to come to Spain and depose Ximenes and proposed to him the two motives which he thought would be most prevalent to engage him to that expedition one the â—eizing of the Royal Treasury which â—he frugality of Ximenes had filled and the other the marriage of his Imperial Majesty with Queen Germana whom the Bishop had entirely engaged into his â—nterests by promising to make her Emperess The two Treaties were already far advanced before the spies of Ximenes discovered that of Gusman with the Arragonese and informed him of it eight or ten days before it was to be put in execution The Cardinal took two measures to render it ineffectual one was to send a Copy of it to Chievres and the other to double his diligence in observing the Infanto and his Servants The Negotiation of the Bishop of Astorga was discovered by another way Maximilian who bordered upon sixty years of Age was but weakly tempted to marry again and to rouze him up to take Queen Germana for a fourth Wife there was a necessity that she should have had for portion six hundred thousand Ducats in ready money as Bonna Sforza his third Wife had or that she should have brought along with her the Low-Countries and Bretagne as Mary of Burgundy his first Wife and Anne of Dreus his second had done In the mean while Queen Germana who was no less liberal in her way than Maximilian was in his had saved nothing of the gratuities that she had drawn from the Catholick King her Husband and besides though she had succeeded to the Estate of Gast on de Foix her Brother who was killed at the Battel of Ravenna yet Francis the First as we shall see more at length in the following Book would not consent that she should sell it and carry the money to the Emperor for fear that Prince might take a conceit to lay it out to the disadvantage of France Maximilian moreover was as bare of credit as of money In the Titles of the house of Foix. and seeing he could not borrow so much money as he needed to make a journey into Spain with an equipage suitable to his dignity he was forced to lay aside his design of marrying Queen Germana He was not very reserved naturally and it being to no purpose for him to conceal any longer the intriegue of the Bishop of Astorga he imparted it to Chievres and by so doing absolutely convinced him that for the interest of the Catholick King it was necessary to remove from the Infanto all the Servants whom the late King had placed about him and to give him others that should be devoted to the Court of Bruxelles He had written to Ximenes several times to that purpose who acknowledged the necessity which Chievres represented to him but excused himself from undertaking the execution of it so long as he was in health Whether it was that he feared to attract the hatred that would rebound upon him from so rigorous an action or that he foresaw that the Catholick King would not have so much need of him after that the Servants of the Infanto were sent home to their houses as he had whilst these Servants were a Bugbear to the Council of State of Bruxelles But when he found himself consumed by an internal heat which the prodigious quantity of water and other cooling things he drank did but more and more augment he observed no more measures but sent word to Chievres that he was ready to fulfil what was desired of him The only condition which he required was that the Catholick King should write him a Letter according to the draught that he sent without altering a syllable in it The draught contained an absolute and precise order to Ximenes to remove from the person of the Infanto his Governour Tutor Chamberlain and Steward of his Houshold by making known to these four Servants that if his Catholick Majesty sent them home to their houses it was not that he was displeased with them and that he approved not the conduct which they had hitherto observed in his Brothers service but only because he had respect to their Age and that he might not be accused of inhumanity if he gave them not time to take their ease when the Infanto who was entred into the sixteenth year of his Age needed no more their presence about him That he should remember their services and reward them in such a manner as should shew that he was not ungrateful The draught added That for the other Servants of the Infanto his Majesty left it to the disposition of the Cardinal to dismiss or entertain them as he should judge convenient Chievres failed not to expede the Letter in the precise terms demanded and to send it to the Cardinal But too much caution had like to have spoilt all not only by rendring the Letter useless but also hurtful Chievres who knew the importance of it recommended it particularly to the Courier who was to Post it through France that he might carry it with greater expedition into Spain The Courier discharged his duty and delivered faithfully the Letter to the Post-master But withal forgot not to tell him that Chievres had recommended it to his particular care and upon that account alone the Post-master imagined that it was the advice which the Catholick King sent to Ximenes that he was actually embarked for Spain The Cardinal at that time was in the Monastery of Aguera where it was a hard matter to speak to him because he was under a course of Physick The Post-master took that pretext
them that Fleming who had been his Governour and suffered them not to practise upon him and upon the Cardinal his Nephew all that rage and malice could suggest to them He understood the Spanish humour perfectly well and knew that that people never part from a prejudice when once they have been possessed with it and execute in secret the sentences which they have pronounced when there is no security for them to do it otherwise Nevertheless he chose rather to expose his person to continual Plots than to permit the punishments which were only inflicted for his safety Of the two hundred that had been excepted out of the Oblivion there were but two punished and Chievres obtained pardon for the rest We shall see by and by that that Heroick clemency much like to that of Caesar was as unhappy as his but the series of affairs requires that we first treat of one of the most important services that Chievres rendred to the Emperor which was the preservation of Navarre to him It hath been observed that the Clergy Nobility and People of that Country were become all equally sorry that they had assisted the Spaniards to conquer their Country and that they impatiently waited for an occasion to deliver themselves from the yoke which they had put upon their own necks That presented as of it self and yet the most favourable that could be desired The Cardinal of Tortosa the Constable and Admiral of Castille standing in need of Troops to quell the Seditious thought it not enough to draw out of Navarre the greatest part of those that were in Garison there They had also ordered the Artillery to be transported from thence into the Kingdoms of Arragon and Valentia whether that it was absolutely necessary for them to batter down the Rebellion or that despairing to preserve Navarre during the Civil War they resolved at least to make the best of the Cannon that were there The thing was fully put in execution and the Navarrese wanting only an Army to second them in the defection which they were hatching demanded one of the Countess of Chateanbrian who at that time could do any thing in France They represented to her that their Crown sprang from her house and must return to it again That her three brothers Lautrec Asparaut and the Mareschal de Foix were the next Heirs to Henry d' Albert That that Prince not being as yet of Age to carry Arms had need that his Cousin-german should act for him That the recovery then in agitation was neither doubtful nor difficult that all that was necessary to be done was only to take a Frontier place and then to appear in the heart of the Country where they would be favourably received That on the one hand they would have the hearts of the people and on the other no Enemy in the Field Two of the Brothers of the Countess were employed Lautrec was Governour of the Dutchy of Milan and the Mareschal de Foix commanded the Cavalry there In the Letters of the Mareschal de Foix to the King. Asparaut only remained who having no less courage nor ambition than they lived at home for want of an employment that he judged worthy of himself The recovery of Navarre was the most signal opportunity of getting reputation that for some years had been offered Glory there was enough to be acquired in case it succeeded and no great honour to be lost if it succeeded not So that the Countess employed her interest with Francis the First to engage him in the War of Navarre She told him that it was his interest to do it and that he might do so without breaking with the Emperor That there was neither money nor Forces demanded from him but that he would only suffer under hand men to be raised in the Provinces lying betwixt the Loire and the Pyrenees That if the enterprise proved unfortunate it would suffice for his excuse to disown it and if successful his Majesty might deliberate in Council whether he should recal Asparaut or assist him to pursue his Conquests in Spain to the end France might in a Treaty of Peace exchange them with the Kingdom of Naples The King had no more measures to be observed with the Spaniards since the Emperor had refused to set on foot again the Negotiation of Montpellier His most Christian Majesty had too publickly declared that he would by all means have the house of Albert restored to the Throne of Navarre to neglect so favourable an occasion that offered of it self and now the time was come when the two greatest Monarchs of Europe were to begin a quarrel that was to out-last themselves and expose Hungary to the invasion of the Turks The Court of France thought it not enough to suffer the Families of Albert and Foix do as they thought best in Guyenne and Languedock where both had vast Estates but favoured them in secret as much as they could and the young Gentlemen of Gasconny being perswaded that they would please their King by listing themselves under Asparaut flocked to his Colours in great numbers The Army was on foot before the Emperor knew that it was a levying and the Historians who agree that it was made up of choice men do so vary about the number of the Soldiers that it is not possible to reconcile them Some reckon them only to have been Eight thousand but others again swell them up to thirty It is also more difficult to be decided whether or not there was any intelligence betwixt Asparaut and the Rebels of Spain for the Authors on the other side of the Pyrenees positively assert it and prove it by fragments of several Letters which they say were found in Asparaut's Cabinet The French writers formally maintain the contrary And certainly there is nothing of it neither amongst the Records of the house of Foix nor amongst the Papers of Robertet who at that time discharged alone the office of Secretary of State under Francis the First However it be the enterprize of Asparaut was well enough conducted in the beginning He made the best of the fault of the Mareschal of Navarre which was mentioned in the foregoing Book and thought it not fit to engage himself in the mountains as he had done leaving behind him the important place of S. John-Pie-de Port. He besieged it in the usual form and seeing nothing withstands the first impetuosity of the French the besieged at the end of five or six days capitulated though they had all things necessary for maintaining a longer siege Asparaut who would lose no time crossed over the Pyrenees by the memorable passage of Roncevaux and at his descent was joyned by all that remained in Navarre of the Faction of Grammont able to carry Arms. The Duke of Najara Viceroy for the Emperor had none of those qualities that serve to help men at a dead lift when they are left in the lurch by other peoples fault He was superfluously cautious in all manner