Assaults to wit Hungary and Poland against those of the Turks and Swedeland and Poland against the Muscovites and Tartars After when all these fifteen Dominions had been well established with their rights their Governours and Limits which he hoped might be done in less then three years they should together of their own accord have chosen three general Captains two by Land and one by Sea who should all at once have assaulted the Ottoman-house to which each Dominion should have contributed a certain quantity of Men Ships Artillery and Money according to the Tax imposed The sum in gross which they should furnish out should amount to two hundred sixty five thousand foot-men fifty thousand horse a train of two hundred and seventeen pieces of Cannon with Waggons Officers and Ammunition proportionable and one hundred and seventeen great Ships without counting Vessels of less force Fire-ships or Ships of burden This establishment would have been advantagious to all the Princes and Estates of Europe There was onely the house of Austria which would suffer any loss and which was to be despoiled to accommodate others But the project was laid to make them either willingly or by force consent in this manner First it is to be supposed that on the part of Italy the Pope the Venetians and the Duke of Savoy were well informed of the Kings designes and that they ought to assist with all their forces especially the Savoyard who was moreover extreamly animated because the King gave his Daughter in marriage to his son Victor Amadeo In Germany four Electors to wit the Palatine Brandebourg Colen and Ments were likewise to know it and favour it and the Duke of Bavaria had their word and that of the King to raise him to the Empire and many Imperial Cities had already addressed themselves to the King to beseech him to honour them with his protection and to maintain them in their Priviledges which had been abolished by the house of Austria In Bohemia and Hungaria there was intelligence held with the Lords and Nobility and that the people desperate with the weight of that yoak were ready to shake it off and to relieve themselves on the first proffered occasion All these dispositions being so favourable to him the business of Cleves happened of which we at present shall speak which furnished him with a fair occasion to begin the execution of his projects which he was to do in this manner Having raised an Army of forty thousand men as he did he was in his march to dispatch towards all the Princes of Christendome to give them the knowledge of his just and holy intentions After under the pretext of going to Cleves he was to seize all the passages of la Mense and all at once assault Charlemont Mastrich and Namur which were but ill fortified At the same time the Cities of the Low-Countries had cryed out for liberty and the Lords put themselves in the Field for the same purpose and had blazoned the Belgique Lyon with the Flowers de Lis. The Hollanders had infested the Coasts with their Ships in very great number to hinder the Traffick of the Flemins by Sea as it was shut up by the French by Land which should have been done of purpose to hasten the people to shake off the Spanish Rule and to address themselves to the King and to the Princes his Associates to pray the King of Spain to put them in liberty and out of his goodness to restore peace to them which they could never hope so long as they were under his Dominion In all probable appearance at the approach of so great an Army by reason of the intelligences of the principal Lords by the insurrection of the great Cities and of the love which these people have still had for liberty Flanders would all have risen especially when they had seen the wonderful order and exact discipline of his souldiers who should have lived like good Guests paying for all and not doing the least outrage upon pain of death and when it should be known that he laboured for the safety of the people not reserving any thing of all his Conquests but the glory and the satisfaction of having restored those Provinces to themselves without keeping so much as a Castle or Village to himself At the same time that he had put Flanders into a free state and accommodated the difference of the succession of Cleves all the Princes interested in this business the Electors we have named and the Deputies of many great Cities were to come and thank him and intreat him that he would joyn his Prayers and his Authority to the supplications they had to make to the Emperour to dispose him to restore the Estates and Cities of the Empire to their ancient Rights and Immunities above all in the free Election of a King of the Romans without using any practices constraints promises and threats And that for this effect it should be from that moment resolved that they should elect one of another house then that of Austria They had agreed among themselves that it should be the Duke of Bavaria The Pope had joyned with them in this request which had been made with such instance that it had been difficult for the Emperor being unarmed as he was to have refused it The like request had been made to the King and his Associates by the people of Bohemia Hungary Austria Stiria and Carinthia above all for the right they had themselves to make choice of their Prince and to put themselves under that form of Government they should think best by the advice of their friends and allies To which the King condescending had used all sorts of fair means prayers and supplications even below his dignity that it might be seen he intended not so much to serve himself of power as of equity and reason After this the Duke of Savoy by the same way had demanded of the King of Spain with all sorts of civility and in the name of his children that he would be pleased to give them a Dower for their Mother as good and advantagious as he had to their Aunt Isabella and in case of refusal the King was to permit Lesdiguieres to assist him with fifteen thousand Footmen and two thousand Horse for the Conquest of Milan or the Country of Lombardy in which he would have been favoured by the greatest part of the Princes of Italy This done he with his Associates were to beseech the Pope and the Venetians to become Arbitrators between him and the King of Spain to terminate friendly these differences which were ready to break forth between them by reason of Naples Sicily Navarre and Roussillon And then to shew that he had no thought to aggrandize himself nor other ambition then to settle the repose of Christendom he had shewed himself ready to yeild to the Spaniard Navarre and Roussillon so that
of Good-fortune who foretold that he should be a very great Lord but that he should have his head cut off at which being troubled he outragiously beat him That another Diviner told him he should be King if a blow of a sword behinde hindred it not And another that he should die by the hand of a Burgonian and it was found that the Executioner who cut off his head was a Native of Bourgongne Divers others were reported but to speak the truth the most of these Predictions are ordinarily known after the Events and though they do effectually precede the event it must be believed by chance and not by knowledge the Prognosticators telling so many stories that it is impossible but some should happen It is therefore a great wisdome to disabuse our spirits of these sorts of curiosities for besides that they have no foundation in Reason we offend God by believing them and give money to let our selves be fool'd and led by the Noses nor do ever wise men give any faith to them though sometimes they serve to deceive the simple Laffin and Renaze had their full pardon One named Hebert Secretary to Marshal Byron suffered the ordinary and extraordinary Question without confessing any thing yet he was condemned to perpetual imprisonment but a little after the King gave him his liberty yet the resentment of what he had suffered having more power over him then the favour he fled into Spain where he finished his days The Baron of Lux Byrons chief Confident came to Court on the Kings word He told him all that he knew and possibly more by which means he obtained his pardon in what form he pleased and was confirmed in his Charges and in the Government of the Castle of Dijon and the City of Beaune The King kept the Government of Bourgongne for Monseur le Dauphine and gave the Lieutenancy to Bellegarde who afterwards was Governour in chief Montbarot Lord Breston was put into the Bastille upon some suspitions had of him but being found innocent the Gates were soon opened to him The Baron of Fontanelles a Gentleman of a very good house had not the same fortune for for having a hand in the conspiracy and besides that treating of his own accord with the Spaniards to deliver to them a little Island on the Coast of Bretany he was broke on the Wheele in the Greve by sentence of the great Council The King in consideration of his house which was very illustrious granted to his Kindred that in the sentence he should not be called by his proper Name but History could not be silent in it The Duke of Bouillon finding himself likewise somewhat involved in Byrons business judged it convenient to retire into his Viscounty of Turenne where the King being advised that he yet plotted something sent for him to come and justifie himself In stead of coming he writ to him a very eloquent Letter by which he represented to him That having understood that his Accusers were both extreamly wicked and very cunning he entreated him to dispense with his coming to Court and think fit that to satisfie his Majesty all France and his own Honour his Process should be made at the Chamber of Castres by vertue of the priviledge he had granted to those of the pretended Religion and that he would send thither his Accusers and Accusations In pursuance of which he came to Castres presented himself to the Chamber and took an Act of his appearance The King was not at all pleased with this Answer blamed the Judges of Castres for having given him that Act and sent to tell him that there was yet no question of leaving him over to Justice and that therefore he should the rather come Being advertized by those friends he had at Court of the Kings resolution who had sent to him the President Commartin to let him understand his will he departed from Castres went to Orange passed by Geneva and so retired to Heidelberg to the Prince Palatine saying like a sage Politician as he was That he ought neither to Capitulate with his King nor yet go near him whilst his anger lasted This business lay a breeding some years we shall see in its place how it terminated It must here be acknowledged that the favour of Rosny served in this time for a pretext to almost all the discontents and all the conspiracies of the great ones The King had truely raised him by four or five great Charges because he believed he could not sufficiently recompence those services he had rendred him And in that this Prince merits onely praise for a good Master cannot do too much for a good and faithful servant But though the troublesome and discontented Spirits might complain that the King gave him too many Charges and Employments yet they could not lament his giving him too much power or that he gave it to him alone for we may with truth sayâ— that Rosny had not the liberty to do the least grace of his own accord He was forced in all things to address himself directly to the King who would himself distribute his favours and recompences to those he knew worthy that they might acknowledge the whole Obligation and dependence from him This great Prince knew well That he who gives all may do all and that he who gives nothing is nothing but what it shall please him who gives all He had too much Honour and too much Glory to suffer that another should act in the most noble Function of his Royal Authority Whatever favour or whatever familiarity any had with him if they were wanting to conserve it with a profound respect or should speak or act with him otherwise then with their Master and with their King they would doubtless as soon fall into disgrace and this was as we have observed one of the causes of Byron's loss Judge then if he who would not that any should in any thing in the world act the Companion with him would have endured that they should act the Soveraign Judge if he would have been contented that his Ministers should simply have taken his consent in a business or that they should speak to him of things in manner of discharge after having themselves resolved them No without doubt He would that all Resolutions should come from his own Head and from his own Motion that the choice should be his that he alone should have the power to raise and throw down and that none but himself should be Arbitrator in the Fortunes of his Subjects Not but that he considered as it was just the Recommendations of the great ones of his Estate and of his Ministers in the conferring of his Favours Employments and Charges but it was still in such a manner that he made them to whom he gave them know that they ought onely to hold them from him which the following Example well demonstrates The Bishoprick of
caused likewise the Registers of Parliament and of the Notaries to be taken off the File with all informations which might conserve the memory of his Crime By this see an example how time causes a mutability in all things and how it changeth the greatest hatreds into the greatest affections and on the contrary transmutes the strongest affections into mortal hatreds By searching into the plot of the Marchioness her Father to deliver her with her Children to the Spaniards the designes of the Duke of Bouillon were likewise discovered who at present was the onely person could give the King any trouble in his own Kingdom It is most certain that this Prince had conferred on him very considerable Favours having given him the Staff of Marshal of France and procured him the marriage of the Heiress of Sedan and this Lord had likewise very well served him in his greatest necessities But after he saw him converted to the Catholick Faith he diminished much of his affection and moved partly by Zeal for his false Religion and partly by Ambition he conceived vast designes of making himself Chief and Protector of the Hugonot party and under that pretext make himself Master of the Provinces beneath the Loire It was believed that for this effect he had much assisted to exasperate the spirit of the Marshal of Byron and that he had made a Treaty with the Spaniard who was to furnish him with what money he desired but not with forces for fear of rendring himself odious to the Protestants It was but too visible that after the conversion of the King he had instantly laboured to beget distrusts and discontents in the spirits of the Hugonots and to unite and Rally them together that they might make a body perswading himself that that body must necessarily have a head and that they could chuse no other but himself And for these Reasons so many Assemblies were made and so many particular and general Synods of those of this Religion held wherein nothing was heard but complaints and murmurs against the King whom they continually wearied with new Requests and Demands Moreover it was found that this Duke had Emissaries and Servants in Guyenne and particularly in Limosin and Quercy who held private Councils among the Nobility distributed money and took oath of those who promised him service and had formed designes against ten or twelve Catholick Cities The King judging that he ought to dig up the root of this mischief before it extended farther and not knowing indeed to what it might extend resolved himself to go and remedy it He departed from Fontainbleau in the month of December having sent before Jean-Jacques de Mesmes Lord of Rossy to make process against those that were culpable Immediately all this conspiracy flew into smoak The best advised came to the King to cast themselves at his feet The chief Agent of the Duke of Bouillon being advertized that there was order given to arrest him brought his head to the King and told him both all he knew before and all that he did not know The others either fled out of the Kingdom or else hid themselves Five or six unfortunate persons being taken were beheaded at Limoges and their heads planted on the tops of the Gates their bodies burnt and the ashes thrown into the Air. Three or four others suffered the same punishment at Perigord There were ten or twelve condemned for Contumacy and their Effigies hanged up amongst others Chappelle-Byron and Giversac of the house of Cugnac But in all these procedures there were found no proofs by writing nor yet by any formal deposition against the Duke of Bouillon so cautiously and subtilly had he carried his business Before these executions the King having made his entrance into Limoges returned to Paris He passionately wished that after this the Duke of Bouillon would acknowledge and humble himself For if he remained impenitent he was obliged to prosecute him to the utmost and if he did prosecute him he offended all that great body of Protestants which were his faithful Allies He employed therefore underhand all means which he could devise to induce him to have recourse to his Clemency rather then to the intercession of strangers which a Soveraign could not agree to in the case of his Officer and Subject The Duke desired as much as he to draw himself out of this trouble but he believed he could not finde security at Court because Rosny who was not his friend and who had conceived some jealousie to see him more authorized then himself in the Hugonot party had so great credit with the King So that after many Treaties and Negotiations the King resolved to go seek him at Sedan with an Army Rosny laboured with great Zeal to make preparation for this Expedition The King confided much in him and by honouring him desired to testifie to the Hugonots that if he assaulted the Duke of Bouillon it was not against their Religion but the Rebellion he made War For this purpose he erected the Land of Sully into a Dutchy and Peerage wherefore we shall henceforward call him Duke of Sully His thoughts were that the King should pursue the Duke of Bouillon to the utmost Villeroy and the rest of the Council were of a contrary judgement they would not have the Siege of Sedan hazarded because the length of that Enterprize might possibly revive divers factions in the other corners of the Kingdom give time to the Spaniard to assault the Frontiers of Picaray to the discontented Savoyard to cast himself with the Forces of the Milanois on disarmed Provence and to the Hugonots and Protestants of Germany to come to the assistance of their friends The King well foresaw all these inconveniences and therefore having advanced to Donchery during the absence of Sully who was gone to provide Artillery he treated with the Duke of Bouillon and received him into grace on condition that he humbled himself before his Majesty and received him into the City of Sedan and delivered up the Castle to him to keep it with what Garison he should think fit for foâ—h years These were the publick Conditions but by the secret Articles the King promised the Duke to stay but five days in Sedan nor to put but fifty men in the Castle which should immediately depart upon humble supplication made by the Duke All these things were faithfully executed and without the least distrust either on the one side or the other The Duke came to meet the King at Donchery where he besought his pardon The King received him as if he had never been faulty and five or six days after entred into Sedan where he stayed onely three days and then returned to Paris The Duke accompanied him as far as Mouson passing then no further but some days after when he understood that the Parliament had confirmed his pardon in which were likewise comprehended his
in the year 1607. by which appeared Acquittances for eighty seven Millions which established the reputation and credit of France among strangers by whom it was before much cried out upon That done he continually laboured to joyn in his great design all Christian Princes offering to give them all the fruit of his Enterprizes against the Infidels without reserving any thing for himself for he would not said he have other Estates then France He likewise proposed to himself the seeking of all occasions to extinguish disorders and to pacifie differences among the Christian Princes so soon as they should see them conceived and that without any other interest then that of the Reputation of a Prince Generous disinterested wise and just He began to make his Friends and Associates the Princes and Estates which seemed best disposed towards France and the least indisposed to its interests as the Estates of Holland or the United Provinces the Venetians the Swisses and the Grisons After having bound them to him by very strong ties he endeavoured to negotiate with the three puissant Kingdoms of the North England Denmark and Swedeland to discuss and decide their differences and likewise to endeavour to reconcile them to the Pope or at least to obtain a cessation of that hatred and enmity by some formulary in such manner as they might live together so that it had been advantagious to the Pope in that they had acknowledged him for the first Prince of Christendome as to Temporals and in that case rendred him all respect He endeavoured in fine to do the same thing among the Electors the Estates and Cities Imperial being obliged particularly said he to take care of an Empire had been founded by his Predecessours Afterwards he sounded the Lords of Bohemia Hungary Transylvania and Poland to know if they would concur with him in the designe of taking away and rooting up for ever all causes of trouble and division in Christendom He treated after that with the Pope who approved and praised his Enterprize and desired to contribute on his part all that should be possible These were the dispositions of his great designe of which I shall now shew you the platform and model He desired perfectly to unite all Christendom so that it should be one body which had been and should be called the Christian Common-wealth for which effect he had determined to part it into fifteen Dominions or Estates which was the most he could do to make them of equal power and strength and whose limits should be so well specified by the universal consent of the whole fifteen that none could pass beyond them These fifteen Dominations were the Pontificate or Papacy the Empire of Germany France Spain Great Britain Hungary Bohemia Poland Danemark Swedeland Savoy or the Kingdom of Lombardy the Signory of Venice the Italian Commonwealth or of the little Princes and Cities of Italy the Belgians or Low-Countries and the Swisses Of these Estates there had been five successive France Spain Great Britain Swedeland and Lumbardy six elective the Papacy the Empire Hungary Bohemia Poland and Danemark four Republicks two of which had been Democratical to wit the Belgians and the Swisses and two Aristocratical or Signories that of Venice and that of the little Princes and Cities of Italy The Pope had had besides those Lands he possesses the whole Kingdome of Naples and Homages as well of the Italian Common-wealth as for the Island of Sicily The Signory of Venice had had Sicily in faith and homage of the holy Seat without other rights then a simple kissing of feet and a Crucifix of gold from twenty years to twenty years The Italian Commonwealth had been composed of the Estates of Florence Genoua Lucca Mantoua Parma Modena Monacho and other little Princes and Lords and had likewise held of the holy Seat paying onely for all by advance of a Crucifix of gold worth ten thousand Franks The Duke of Savoy besides those Lands he possessed should likewise have Milain and all should be erected into a Kingdom by the Pope under the title of the Kingdom of Lombardy from which should have been taken Cremona in exchange of Moâ—tferrat which should be joyned There should have been incorporated with the Helvetian or Republick of the Swisses the French County Alsatia Tirol the Country of Trent and their dependences and it had done a simple homage to the Emperour of Germany from five and twenty to five and twenty years All the seventeen Provinces of the Low-Countries as well Protestants as Catholicks should have been established into a free and soveraign Republick save onely a like homage to the Empire and this Dominion should have been encreased by the Dutchy of Cleves of Juliers of Berghe de la Mark and Ravenstein and other little neighbouring Signories To the Kingdome of Hungary had been joyned the Estates of Transylvania Moldavia and Valachia The Emperour had for ever renounced aggrandizing himself or his by any confiscation disinheritance or reversion of Fiefs Masculine but had disposed vacant Fiefs in favour of persons out of his Kindred by the consent of the Electors and Princes of the Empire It should likewise have been held of accord that the Empire should never upon any occasion whatsoever be held successively by two Princes of one house for fear of its perpetuating as it hath for a long time in that of Austria The Kingdome of Hungary and of Bohemia had been likewise elective by the voice of seven Electors to wit 1. that of the Nobles Clergy and Cities of that Country 2. of the Pope 3. of the Emperour 4. of the King of France 5. of the King of Spain 6. of the King of England 7. of the Kings of Swedeland Denmark and Poland who all three had made but one voice Besides to regulate the differences which might arise between the Confederates and to decide them without sight of Fact there should have been established an Order and Form of Procedure by a general Council composed of sixty persons four on the part of every Dominion which should have been placed in some City in the midst of Europe as Mets Nancy Collen or others There should likewise have been established three others in three several places every one of twenty men which should all three make report to the grand Council Moreover by the consent of the general Council which should be called the Senate of the Christian Commonwealth there should be established an Order and Regulation between Soveraigns and Subjects to hinder on one side the Oppression and Tyranny of Princes and on the other side the Tumults and Rebellions of Subjects There should likewise be raised and assured a stock of money and men to which every Dominion should contribute according to the Assessment of the great Council for the assistance of the Dominions bordering upon Infidels from their
it to be opened in the presence of twenty six Physitians aâ—â— Chirurgeons who found all parts so sounâ— â—hat in the course of Nature he might yet have lived thirty years His Entrails were the same hour sent to St. Denis and interr'd without any Ceremony The Fathers Jesuites demanded the heart and carried it to their Church de la Fleche where this great King had given them his house to build that fair Colledge at present seen The Corps embalmed in a sheet of Lead covered with a Coffin of Wood and a cloath of Gold over it was placed in the Kings Chamber under a Canopy with two Altars on each side on which Mass was said for eighteen days continuance Afterwards it was conducted to St. Denis where it was buried with the ordinary Ceremonies eight days after that of Henry the third his Predecessor For it is to be understood that the body of Henry the third remained till then in the Church of St. Cornille in Compeigne from whence the Duke of Espernon and Bellegarde great Esquire formerly his favourites brought it to St. Denis and caused his funerals to be celebrated Civility obliging that he should be buried before his Successor The Kings death was concealed from the City all the rest of that day and a good part of the morrow whilst the Queen disposed the Grandees and the Parliament to give her the Regency She obtained it without much difficulty having led the young King her Son to the Parliament and the Prince of Conde and the Count of Soissons who alone could have opposed it being absent The first was at Milan as we have said before and the second at his house at Blandy whither he was retired discontented some days before the Instalment of the Queen When the fame of this Tragical accident was spread through Paris and that they knew assuredly that the King whom they believed only wounded was dead that mixture of hope and fear which kept this great City in suspence broke forth on a suddain into extravagant cries and furious groans Some through grief became immoveable Statue-like others ran through the streets like mad men others embraced their friends without saying any thing but Oh what misfortune some shut themselves up in their houses others threw themselves upon the ground women were seen with their disheveled haire run about howling and lamenting Fathers told their Children What will become of you my Children you have lost your Father Those who had most apprehension of the time to come and who remembred the horrible calamities of the past Wars lamented the misfortune of France and said that that accursed blow which had pierced the heart of the King cut the throat of all true French-men It is reported that many were so lively touched that they died some upon the place and others a few days after In fine this seemed not to be mourning for the death of one man alone but for the one half of all men It might have been said that every one had lost his whole family all his goods and all his hopes by the death of this great King He died at the age of fifty seven years and five months the thirty eighth of his reign of Navarre and the one and twentieth of that of France He was married twice as we have said before First with Margaret of France by whom he had no children The second time with Mary of Medicis Margaret was Daughter to King Henry the second and Sister to the Kings Francis the second Charles the ninth and Henry the third from whom he was divorced by sentence of the Prelates deputed for that purpose from the Pope Mary of Medicis was Daughter to Francis and Niece to Ferdinand Dukes of Florence She had three Sons and three Daughters The Sons were all born at Fontain-bleau The first named Louis came into the world on the 27 September in the year 1601. at Eleven a Clock at night He was King after him and had the Surname of Just. The second was born on the 16 of April 1607. he had the title of Duke of Orleans but no name because he died before the Ceremony of his Baptism was celebrated in the year 1611. The third took birth on the 25 of April 1608. and was named John Baptista Gaston and had title Duke of Anjou but the second Son being dead that of Duke of Orleans was given him which he bore to his death which happened two years ago The eldest of the Daughters was born at Fontain-bleau the 22 of November 1602. she was the second child and was named Elizabeth or Isabella she was married to Philip the fourth King of Spain and died some years past She was a Princess of a great heart and had a spirit and brain above her Sex the Spaniards therefore said that she was truly Daughter to Henry the Great The second was born at the Louvre at Paris the 10. of February 1606. There was given to her the name of Christina and she Espoused Victor Amadeo then Prince of Piedmont and after Duke of Savoy a Prince of the greatest vertue and capacity in the world The third was born in the same place on the 25. of November being the Feast of St. Katherine in the year 1609. and had name Henrietta-Maria This is the present Queen-Mother of England widow of the unfortunate King Charles Stuart whom his Subjects cruelly despoiled of his Royalty and Life but heaven the protector of Soveraigns hath gloriously re-established his Son Charles the second Besides these six Legitimate children he had likewise eight Natural ones of four different Mistresses without counting those whom he did not own Of Gabriella d' Estrees Marchioness of Monceaux and Dutchess of Beaufort he had Caesar Duke of Vendosme who yet lives and was born in the month of June in the year 1594 Alexander great Prior of France who died prisoner of Estate and Henrietta married to Charles of Lorrain Duke of Elbeuf Of Henrietta de Balsac d' Entragues whom he made Marchioness of Verneuil he had Henry Bishop of Mets who yet lives and Gabriella who Espoused Bernard of Nogaret Duke of Valette at present Duke of Espernon by whom she had the Duke of Candale dead some time since and a Daughter at present a Religious Carmilite after which she died Of Jacqueline de Bueil to whom he gave the County of Moret was born Anthony Count of Moret who was killed in the Service of the Duke of Orleans in the Battail of Castlenaudary where the Duke of Montmorency was taken This was a young Prince whose Spirit and Courage promised much The Marquis of Vardes Espoused afterward this Jacqueline de Bueil Of Charlotta d' Essards to whom he gave the land of Romorantin came two Daughters Jane who is Abbesse of Fontevrault and Mary-Henrietta who was of Chelles He loved all his children Legitimate and Natural with a like affection but with different consideration He would
into Paris by the Serjeants for the debts of his Father contracted in his service and when la Noue went to complain to him of this insolence he answered publickly La Noue you must pay his debts for I pay likewise those of mine But after that he took him apart and gave him some precious stones to engage to his creditors in stead of the Baggage which they had seized Was there ever a more wonderful goodness or more exact Justice The second is that the same evening he played at Cards with the Dutchess of Montpensier who was of the house of Guise and the most vehement Leaguess of the Party What could be seen of more Policy After this reduction of Paris the other Cities and their Governours hastened likewise to conclude their Treaties Villars made his for Rouen so gaining to himself the Government in chief of this City and Bailiwick and that of the Country of Caux with the charge of Admiral which he was to take out of the hands of Byron for that of Marshal of France twelve hundred thousand Livres of present money and sixty thousand Livres of pension At the same time or little after Montreuil and Abbeville in Picardy Troyes in Champagne Sens and Riom in Auvergne Agen Marmande and Villeneuve d' Agenois rendred themselves obedient and their Governours had all they could demand of the King The City of Poictiers and the Country thereabouts treated likewise by means of its principal Magistrates and the Marquis of Elbeuf Governour for the League seeing he could not hinder the Revolution permitted himself to be drawn in with them and composed with the King who left him the Government of that Province In the mean time the Count Mansfield entred into Picardy to endeavour to sustain the League which was in a very low condition and took la Capelle The King in revenge laid siege to Laon and took it by capitulation notwithstanding all the endeavours of the Duke of Mayenne to relieve it Balagny with his City of Cambray renounced likewise the League and promised service to the King He had called himself Sovereign of this City and had held it from the time that Henry the thirds brother the Duke of Alenzon had usurped it from the Baron of Inchi who in the great Rebellion of the Low-Countries had quitted the obedience of Spain to embrace his party In like manner the Cities of Beauvais and Peronne renounced the League as did likewise that of Amiens shaking off the yoak of the Duke of Aumale There resting to that party in all Picardy only Soissons la Fere and Ham. And which was much more the Duke of Guise shook off the Duke of Mayenne and brought the Cities of Reims Vitry and Mezieres under the Kings obedience who in recompence of it gave him the Government of Provence from which he was obliged to withdraw the Duke of Espernon because the People the Parliament and the Nobility had taken Arms against him The Duke of Lorrain likewise who negotiated his peace by the intermission of Bassompierre concluded it the twenty sixth of November But neither the example of this Duke chief of the house of Lorrain nor the general revolution of that party could oblige the Duke of Mayenne to withdraw himself from that danger wherein he was ready to be overwhelmed he could not abandon that fair title of Lieutenant-General of the Crown but flattered himself with the hopes that the assistance of Spain might again give his affairs the upper hand He was retired into his Government of Bourgongne because that remained yet most entire to him though to keep to himself Dijon he was forced to make use of an odious cruelty in cutting off the head of the Mayor and another who laboured to reduce it to the Kings service Now since it was the Spaniards who maintained him in his obstinacy and who made War against the King in his name it was proposed and agreed in the Councel to assault them with an open War to the end that being imployed at their own homes they might lose the desire and leasure of coming to disquiet the King in his For they not only assaulted him by force of Arms and by practices which encouraged the people in Rebellion but moreover they would have had his life and endeavoured to murther him by base and execrable waies They contrived or favoured many conspiracies against his Sacred person which were well discovered Those two which made most noise was that of one Peter Barriere and that of John Castel The first was a Souldier aged about twenty seven years who being discovered at Melun in the year one thousand five hundred ninety three as he sought the execution of his detestable blow was condemned to have his right hand burned holding the Knife with which he should have struck the King after to have his flesh torn off with burning Pinsers and to be broken on the wheel alive The second was a young Scholar aged about eighteen years son of a Merchant-Draper of Paris keeping Shop before the Palace this villain about the end of the year fifteen hundred ninety four having thrust himself with the Courtiers into the Chamber of the fair Gabriella where the King was would have struck him with a Knife into the belly but by good fortune the King then bowing to salute some one the blow chanced on his face only piercing his upper lip and breaking a Tooth It was not known for the present who had struck it but the Count of Soissons seeing this young man affrighted stopt him by the arme He impudently confessed that he had given the blow and maintained that he ought to do it The Parliament condemned him to have his right hand burned his flesh torn off with red-hot Pinsers and after to be torn in pieces by four horses This detestable Parricide not shewing any sign of pain so much had they imprinted in his spirit that he would offer a Sacrifice acceptable to God by taking out of the world a Prince relapsed and Excommunicate The Father of this miserable villain was banished his house before the Palace demolished and a Pyramide erected in its place The Jesuites under whom this Miscreant had studied were likewise accused for having instructed him with this pernicious Doctrine and they having many enemies the Parliament banished the whole Society out of the Kingdom by the same Arrest of their Scholar Yet these Fathers were not wanting notwithstanding that the times were contrary to them to labour to sustain their honour but writ many things to justifie themselves against their charge And truly those who were not their enemies did not at all believe the Society culpable so that some years after the King revoked the decree of Parliament and recalled them as we shall mention hereafter The success of the War declared against Spain was much different from that which the King maintained against the League and made
the King granted him and the Conditions are so honourable that never Subject had greater Advantages from any King of France but they had been greater if that before his party had been so much ruined he had treated for those great Cities who yet held him as their Chief and whom by this means he might still have kept firm to his interests Some time after he came to Monceaux to salute the King who seeing him coming along an Alley where he was walking advanced some paces towards him with all Alacrity and good Countenance possible and thrice straitly embracing him assured him that he esteemed him so absolute a man of Honour that he doubted not of his word treating him with as much freedom as if he had always been his most faithful servant The Duke surprized with his goodness said at his departure That it was now onely that the King had compleatly vanquished him And he ever after as well remained in the duty of a most faithful Subject as the King shewed himself a good Prince and exact Observer of his word At the same time that this Duke had concluded his Treaty and obtained an Edict from the King which confirmed it the Duke of Nemours his Brother by the Mothers side and who was called Marquiss of St. Sorlin whilst the brave Duke of Nemours his elder Brother was living by the means of his Mother reconciled himself likewise to the King and brought under his Obedience some little places which he yet held in Lyonnois and in Forez His elder Brother one of the most noble and generous Courages was ever known died the year before of a strange malady which made him vomit through the mouth and through all his pores even to the last drop of his blood Were it that this malady happened to him out of his extream grief when he was shut up in the Castle of Pierre-Encise to hear of the surrendry of Vienne which was his surest retreat or were it caused by a sharp and scalding poyson reported to be given him by those who feared his resentment he died without being married and his younger Brother of whom we speak was Father to those Messieurs de Nemours whose deaths we beheld in the years last past The Duke of Joyeuse who after the death of his younger Brother slain in the Battel of Villemur near Mountauban had quitted his habit of Capuchin to make himself chief of the League in Languedoc and had maintained the City of Tolouse and the Neighbouring Countries on his party took likewise this time to make his Accommodation and obtained very favourable Conditions by the means of Cardinal de Joyeuse his other Brother among other things he had the Staff of Marshal of France The Lord of Boisdaufin had the same recompence though he had no more then two little places in Mayne and Anjou to wit Sable and Castle-Gontier the King granting him this good Treatment rather in Consideration of his Person then his Places There were now no more to reduce besides the Duke of Merceur and Marseilles This City was governed by Charles de Casaux Consul and by Lewis d' Aix the Viguier or Judge As these two men were upon the point to deliver it to the Spaniards a Burgess named Libertat with a Band of his friends caused the Inhabitants to rise against them and having killed Casaux and driven out Lewis d' Aix put it in full Liberty under the Obedience of the King As for the Duke of Merceur the King granted him a prolongation of the Truce because he was not in capacity at present to go so soon to dispossess him of the rest of Brittany being much hindred by the Siege of la Fere where he was in person and where he had made little progress in three or four moneths Moreover it happened when he least thought of it that the Arch-Duke Albert who commanded the Spanish Army incited by the counsels of that Rosny of whom we have spoke came to fall upon Calais and that Rosny who was a great Captain having at first took the Forts of Risban and Nieule the Spaniards forced the place on the 24 of April and put all to the sword A little after the King took la Fere which surrendred for want of Victuals The Spaniards having made the Treaty would have no Hostages from him saying That they knew he was a generous Prince and of good credit a Testimony so much the more glorious for him because coming from the mouth of his enemies The grief which he had for the loss of Calais was redoubled by that of the Cities of Guines and Ardres which were likewise taken by the industry and valour of Rosny who had done many such other exploits if some months after he had not been killed happily for France at the Siege of Hâ—lst near to Gaunt Now the noise of these four or five great losses received one upon another cast some terrour into the hearts of the people and the Emissaries of Spain excited as much as they could new seeds of division in their spirits serving themselves to that purpose of all sorts of pretexts but above all of that of the oppression of the people Truely it was great but it was caused by the pillages of War and by the necessity of Affairs rather then the Kings fault who had no greater desire then to procure the ease of his Subjects as we shall see This cast him into a great affliction and trouble because he had no Treasure to continue the War and he foresaw by the murmurs already excited that if he crushed the people more he should raise against himself a new tempest In this trouble he had recourse to that great Remedy accustomed to be practised when France is in danger which is the Convocation of the Estates but because the pressing necessity gave him not time to assemble them in a full body he called onely the chiefs of the Peers of his Estate of the Prelates and of the Nobility with the Officers of Justice and of the Revenues He desired that the Assembly should be held at Rouen in the great Hall of the Abby of St. Ouen in the midst of which he was seated in a Chair elevated in form of a Throne with a Cloth and Canopy of Estate On his sides were the Prelates and Lords behinde the four Secretaries of Estate beneath him the first Presidents of the soveraign Courts and the Deputies of the Officers of Justice and of the Revenues He made his Overtures to them by a Speech worthy a true King who ought to believe that his Greatness and Authority consists not onely in an absolute power but in the good of his Estate and the safety of his people If I should account it a glory said he to them to pass for an excellent Orator I should have brought hither rather good words then good will but my ambition tends to something higher
remitted to the judgement of the holy Father who was to decide that controversie in a year The Publication of the Peace was made on the same day through all the Cities of France and the Low-Countries with those rejoycings whose rumour spread to the utmost bounds of Christendom but none so truly resented a joy for it as our Henry who was accustomed to say That it being a thing Barbarous and contrary to the laws of Nature and Christianity to make War for the love of War a Christian Prince ought never refuse peace if it were not absolutely disadvantagious to him The Third PART OF THE LIFE OF Henry the Great Briefly containing what he did after the Peace of Vervin made in the year 1598. unto his death which happened in the year 1610. HItherto we have followed the Fortune of our Henry through ways craggy and intricate over Rocks and Precipices during times very troublesome and full of storms and tempests at present we are about to trace it through paths more easie and fair in the sweetnesses of calm and quiet peace where however his Vertue slept not in his repose but appeared always active where his great Soul was employed without ceasing in the true functions of Royalty and where in fine among his Divertisements he made his most necessary and most important employs his principal pleasures In the two first parts of his Life which we have seen he was by constraint a Man of War and of the Field in this last a Man of Counsel and a great Polititian but in both invincible and indefatigable The true duty of a Soveraign consists principally in protecting his Subjects he must both defend them against Strangers and repress the Factions and Attempts of Rebels It is for this purpose that he hath the power of Arms in his hands and that it is advantagious to him perfectly to understand the mystery of War But that comprehends but a part of his Functions and we may truely say that it is neither the most necessary nor the most satisfactory For besides that he may manage his Wars by his Lieutenants who doubts him to be the most happy Prince that governs his Affairs in such a manner that he hath no need of his Sword but is powerful enough to distribute Justice punish the wicked and to honour and reward deserving men to confer graces and recompences to keep good order and conserve the Laws to maintain his Provinces in tranquillity sustain his Reputation and greatness by his good Conduct inform himself often and diligently of all that passes make himself to be feared by his Enemies and esteemed by his Allies and like a Soveraign himself preside in his Councils receive Ambassadours and answer them dispatch great Affairs by Treaties and Negotiations prevent all ill and deprive wicked persons and enemies of their power to hurt encourage Traffick and the Studies of Sciences and Noble Arts to make his Kingdome rich flourishing and abundant to fetch wealth from all the corners of the earth but above all to procure the glory and service of God so that his Kingdome may be as a Paradise of Delights and a Harbour of Felicity These are in my opinion Employs worthy a potent King a Christian and wise King who being the Shepherd of his people as Homer often calls the great King Agamemnon ought not onely know how to drive away the Wolves I mean make War but likewise understand how to manage his Flock preserve them from Diseases fatten and multiply them The Peace being published with an incredible joy of the French Flemins and Spaniards it was solemnly sworn by the King on the one and twentieth of June in the Church of Nostre-Dame on the Cross and the holy Evangelists in the presence of the Duke of Arscot and the Admiral of Arragon Ambassasadors from the King of Spain for that purpose and afterwards Cardinal-Arch-Duke Albert Governour of the Low-Countries for that King swore it on the six and twentieth of the same moneth in the City of Bruxels the Marshal of Byron assisting whom our Henry had newly honoured with the Quality of Duke and Peer confirmed in Parliament as well to give more splendour to that Embassy as to recompense those great services that Lord had rendred him in his Wars In this Voyage the Spaniards spared neither Caresses nor Prayers to this new Duke to inspire him with Pride and Vanity and intoxicated him in such manner with a good opinion of himself that it put a fancie in his head that the King ought him more then he would ever know how to give him and that if his vertue were not sufficiently honoured in France he would finde other places where it should be set at a higher price That which afterwards produced very ill effects Many among the French who knew not truely the pitiful estate wherein the King of Spain and his Affairs were could not comprehend why this Prince should buy the peace at so dear a rate as the surrendry of six or seven strong places and amongst others Calais and Blavet which might be called the Keys of France On the contrary the Spaniards who beheld their King as it were dying his Treasury wasted the Low-Countries shattered in pieces Portugal and his Lands in Italy on the point to revolt the Son which he left a good Prince in truth but who loved repose were astonished that the French having so bravely re-taken Amiens and re-united all their Forces after the Treaty of the Duke of Merceur had not pressed farther into the Low-Countries seeing that in all appearance they might either have carried them or at least sorely shaken them The King answered That if he had desired peace it was not because he was weary of the incommodities of War but to give leave to afflicted Christendome to breath That he knew well that from the Conjuncture wherein things were he might have drawn great advantages but that God often overturns Princes in their greatest Prosperities and that a wife man ought never out of the opinion of some favourable event be averse to a good accord nor trust himself too much on the appearance of his present happiness which may change by a thousand unexpected Accidents it having often happened that a man thrown down and wounded hath killed him who would make him demand his life It was known in a little time that King Philip the second had more need of the peace then France for his sickness was more then redoubled he had for twenty six days continually a perpetual flux of blood through all the conduits of his body and a little before his death he had four Aposthumes broke in his Groin from whence there tumbled a continual multitude of Vermin which all the diligence of his Officers could not drain In this strange sickness his constancy was wonderful nor did he ever abandon the reins of his Estate until the last gasp of his Life for he
Poictiers becoming vacant Rosny very instantly besought him to consider in this occasion one named Frenouillet reputed a knowing man and a great Preacher The King notwithstanding this Recommendation gives it to the Abbot of Rochepozay who besides his own particular good Qualities was Son to a Father who had served him well with his Sword in his Wars and with his knowledge and spirit in Embassies Some time after the Bishoprick of Montpellier became vacant the King out of his own proper motion sent to seek Frenouillet and told him that he would give it him but on this condition that he should acknowledge no Obligation but to himself By which it may be seen how he in some sort considered the Recommendation of Rosny but it may likewise be perceived that the power of that Favourite who caused so much jealousie in the world was bounded I call him Favourite by reason that he had the most splendent Employments though to speak truth he had no pre-eminence over others of the Council for Villeroy and Janin were more considered then he in Negotiations and Forraign Affairs Bellievre and Sillery for Justice and Policy within the Kingdome and it is not to be imagined that those people did in any manner depend on him There was onely one head in the Estate which was the King who alone made all his Members and from whom onely they received spirits and vigour About the end of this year the Duke of Savoy thinking to revenge himself and repair the loss of his County of Bresse on the City of Geneva attempted to take it by storm The Enterprize was formed by the Counsels of the Lord of Albigny and the Duke having passed the Mountains believed it infallible D' Albigny conducted two thousand men for this purpose within half a League of the City yet was not so rash as to engage himself but left the conduct to others More then two hundred men mounted the Ladders gained the Ramparts and ran through all the City without being perceived In the mean time the Burgesses were awakened by the cries of some that fled from a Guard which had discovered the Enterprizers and as soon beheld themselves charged by them The Gunner who was to have broken a Gate within to cause those without to enter was unhappily slain after which they were weakned on all sides The greatest part endeavoured to re-gain their Ladders but the Cannons on the Flankers having broken them in pieces they were almost all slain or broke their necks by leaping into the Ditch There was thirteen taken alive almost all Gentlemen amongst the others Attignac who had served as second to Don Phillipin bastard of Savoy They yeilded upon assurance given them that they should be treated as prisoners of War But the furious cries of the common people who represented the danger wherein their City was of Massacres Violation universal Destruction or perpetual Slavery forced the Council of this little Republick to condemn them to the infamous death of the Gibbet like to Thieves Their heads with fifty four others of those that were killed were stuck on Poles and their bodies cast into the Rhone The Duke of Savoy confused with such ill success and much more with the reproaches of all Christendome for having endeavoured such an Enterprize in time of absolute peace repassed the Mountains in haste leaving his Troops near to Geneva and endevoured to excuse himself to the Suisses under whose protection that City was as well as under that of France for having attempted to surprize it saying That he had not done it to trouble the repose of the Confederacy but to hinder Lesdiguieres from seizing it for the King The Dukes of Savoy have for a long time pretended that this City appertained to their Soveraignty and that the Bishops who bore the title of Earls and were for some time Lords of it held it from them which is however a thing that the Bishops never acknowledged always maintaining that they depended immediately on the Empire The City on their part sustained that it was a free City and not subject in temporal things neither to their Bishops whom they quite drave out in the year 1533. when they unhappily renounced the Roman Catholick Religion nor to the Duke of Savoy but onely to the Empire for which reason they always bore the Eagle planted on their Gates Both one and the other have very specious Titles to shew their rights but for the present the City of Geneva enjoyed full liberty and had for above sixty years being become an Allie of the Cantons of Switzerland Now the Suisses were comprehended in the Treaty of Vervin as Allies of France and by consequence so was the City of Geneva and the King had sufficiently declared it to the Duke of Savoy notwithstanding which he ceased not to attempt this Enterprize hoping that if it succeeded the King of Spain and the Pope would sustain him in it and that the King for so small a thing would not break the peace The Genevans furiously incensed against him began to make War couragiously entred his Country and took some little Towns They hoped that the King and the Suisses would second these motions of their resentment and that all the Princes of Germany would likewise come to their assistance But the King desired to keep the peace and was too wise to kindle a War in which he could not make Religion and Policy agree or unite the Honour and Interests of France obliged to protect its Allies with the good favour of the Pope moved by his duty to the ruine of the Hugonots He therefore sent de Vic to assure them of his protection but with order to let them know that Peace was necessary for them and War ruinous and that they ought to embrace the one and shun the other And they having little power for so much anger and not being able to do any thing without his assistance were constrained to consent and enter into a Treaty with the Savoyard by which it was said that they were comprized in the Treaty of Vervin and that the Duke could not build any Fortress within four Leagues of their City It happened almost in the same time that the City of Mets rose against the Governour of that Citadel He was called Sobole who having been made Lieutenant by the Duke of Espernon to whom Henry the third had given the Government in chief had deserted this Duke I know not for what consideration and had taken provision of the King He had a Brother who seconded him in the Charge of this Government During the last War against Spain these two Brothers had accused the principal inhabitants of Mets for having conspired to deliver the City to the Spaniards There were many imprisoned some put to the rack but none found culpable so that all the Burgesses believing with reason that this was a Calumny conceived a hatred against these Soboles and drew up
friends that had been condemned for the default of Limoges he came to Court where he received more Houours and Kindnesses then ever This was the custome of that great King He had a heart like a Lyon against the Proud and against Rebels but he was pleased to relieve with an unparallell'd goodness those he had overcome when by their submissions they rendred themselves worthy to receive his grace And the Duke of Bouillon who perfectly knew his Nature for they had lived and made War a long time together was not wanting in this Conjuncture to comport himself with all that Prudence and Compliancy which an understanding man as he was could be capable of Notwithstanding this great generosity and goodness of the King his Kingdome was no less turmoiled with incredible infidelities and conspiracies such were the treason of l' Oste the attempt on the City of Marseilles by Merargues and another on Narbonne and Leucate by the Luquisses L' Oste was Clerk to Villeroy and his God-son the employment he had under him was to copy out the dispatches This unfortunate man revealed all the secrets of the Kings Affairs to some of the Council of Spain who had corrupted him with twelve hundred Crowns of Pension which they promised him whilst he was in that Country with the Ambassadour Rochepot His treachery being discovered he fled and as he was pursued by the Provosts of the Marshal he drowned himself in the River of Marne near the Ferry of Fay. It may easily be judged that Villeroy whose fidelity by this means remained exposed to the Kings just suspitions and to the calumnies of his enemies was sensibly troubled He had had without doubt some difficulty to clear himself of this business if the King who saw him in an extraordinary affliction had not had the goodness to go visit him himself and by that honour brought him the comfort of justifying him against all calumnies the Envious might sow against him Merargues was a Provincial Gentleman of a very good House who having assurance that he should the following year be Viguier or Sheriff of Marseilles had promised to deliver that City to the Spaniard during his Sheriffalty He was so imprudent and so foolish as to discover his designe to a Slave of the Gallies of Marseilles who gave advice of it to the Court to the end possibly that he might gain his liberty Upon this advice Merargues who was then at Paris was watched so diligently that they found him conferring with the Secretary of the Ambassadour of Spain and speaking so loud that almost all they said was heard They searched him and found in the fold of his Garter a Note containing the model of his Enterprize He was arrested and had his head cut off by sentence of the Parliament of Paris on the nineteenth of December His body was quartered and his Quarters fixed before the City-gates his head carried to Marseilles to be planted on a Pole on a Tower of one of the principal Gates The Secretary of the Ambassadour was arrested as well as he and had been in great danger if the King had been as furious as those counselled him who desired a rupture with Spain This Rencounter gave subject to the Polititians to discourse diversly concerning the Rights of Ambassadours and their people but Henry the Great decided himself the Question in this manner The Ambassadours said he are sacred by the right of Nations now they first break them when they contrive any treason against the State or against the Prince to whom their Master sent them and therefore by consequence this right ought not secure them from being sought out and punished Moreover it is not to be presumed that they are either Ambassadours or that they represent the Soveraign who sends them when they commit those treacheries and infidelities which their Masters would neither act nor avow However there is more generosity in not using in this point the utmost rigour but reserving the advantage to chastise them without doing it And to this purpose being well read in History he alleadged that example of the Roman Senate who having discovered that the Ambassadors of the Allobroges were concerned in the Conspiracy of Catiline contented themselves with commanding them to depart the City This was his Opinion and as he always followed the most generous Maximes he forbad that any process should be made against the Secretary to whom the Judges were about to give the Question In the mean time the Ambassadour thinking to cloak this perfidy by his Exclamations came to complain to him that the rights of Nations were violated and in them the Dignity of Ambassadours and that the King his Master would have that resentment of it which became a great Prince when offended The King answering him with a wise coldness represented unto him what his Secretary had acted with Mirargues The Ambassadour not willing either to own the Man or approve his Action turned the business another way and complained that the King had made the first breach of the peace of Vervin by assisting the Hollanders both with men and money The King replyed that for the men they went not by his Orders and that there were Frenchmen in the service of the Arch-Duke as well as in the Hollanders but for his money that it was in his power to do with it what he pleased and to lend it or give it without offending any The Ambassadour was very hot and there past some high words both on one part and the other In fine the King returned him his Secretary as he had resolved to do before he spake As for the Luquisses they were two Brothers Genoways by extraction who had made agreement with the Governour of Perpignan to deliver to him Narbonne and Lucate It is certain that it was not in their power to execute this designe and that there was more ill will in them then danger that the thing should succeed Nevertheless they were taken and carried to Tholouse where the Parliament sent both the one and the other to the Gibbet It seemed that not onely the malice of men but even folly it self conspired now against France for the same day that Merargues was executed an unhappy Fool made an attempt on the sacred person of the King throwing himself upon him with a Dagger in his hand as he passed on horse-back over the Pont-Neuf returning from hunting The Foot-men of the King running in made him loose his aim and had killed him on the place if the King had not forbad it who caused him to be carried Prisoner to For-l ' Evesque He was called John de l' Isle Native of Vineux near Senlis He was presently examined by the President Janin who could get no reasonable answer from him for he was indeed quite out of his senses He believed himself-King of all the world and said that Henry the fourth having usurped and taken France
Secretary His punishment The Ambassadours Secretary arrested Several discourses concerning Ambassadours priviledges The King forbids any process against the Secretary The Ambassadour makes a great noise and threatens his Kings resentment Treason of the Luquisses A fool makes an attempt on the Kings person Those who desire war whet the Kings spirit upon these Conspiracies Character of Philip 3. of Spair A good profitable reflection In what the courage of a Soveraign principally consists The goodness of Henry the Great But the King hastens not the War He makes himself Arbitrator of the differences of Christendom 1606. After the death of Clement 8. he causes to be chosen Leo xi who soon dies and Paul 5. succeeds A great difference between Paul 5. and the Venetians The Venetians had made a law to bound the Acquisitions of the Clergy They make other Decrees Paul 5. offended at these Decrees He sends Briefs to revoke them He Excommunicates the Senate They declare his sentence of Excommunication null and abusive 1607. Henry the great undertakes to accommodate the difference He sends to this purpose Cardinal Joyeuse who concludes an accommodation The Pope absolves the Signory There was nothing but the reestablishment of the Jesuites not obtained 1608. The King endeavours an accommodation between the Hollander and Spaniard He underhand assists the Hollander with men and money Janin sent for this accommodation They come presently to an eight months truce The King makes an offensive and defensive League with the Hollander The Spaniards Alarm'd at this League Don Pedro de Toledo makes great complaints to the King Things very curious which passed betwixt the King and Don Pedro. Their entertainments Lively and quick replies Don Pedro kisses the Kings Sword Two obstacles in the Treaty of the Hollanders surmounted by the King The Treaty ends in a twelve years Truce Great praise given by the republick of Venice to our Henry All desire his friendship and protection He will not protect Subjects against their Soveraign What the Maurisques were The Spaniards treat them ill * An avanie is when by a false accusation money is forced from any person They demand assistance of Henry the Great He refuses it The King of Spain banisheth them all They are horribly ill Treated by the Spaniards and by the French They are carried into Affrica but some stay in France The great designe of Henry 4. for the extent of the Christian Religion in the Levant He sends some to spy the Country He seeks means to raise mony without burthening his people He would disengage his demain * The Greffes is a due to the King of 63 â— 9 d. Tours upon the sale of wood in several places and take off the Impost by buying the Salt-Marishes He is constrained to acquit himself of old scores to make some new imposts creations He makes not always use of innocent means Inquisition of the rents of the City-house cause disturbance * Hostel de Ville is the same at Paris as Guild-hall at London Miron Provost of the Merchants sustains the interest of the people Some would incense the King against him The people rise to defend him The King counselled to take him by force The Kings wise answer worthy a great Polititian He will not pursue this business of the Rents Establishment of the Paulete Justice formerly administred in France by Gentlemen How it fell into the hands of the Plebeians who made profit of it The Parliament of France meddle with particular affairs and is made sedentary at Paris They make all other Judges subalternate to them The number of the Officers of Parliament small How Offices became vendible under Francis 1. * He had often said that fat Boy would spoile all and Henry 2. How this might be remedied But on the contrary is made incurable by the Paulete Which causes great abuses 1609. Marriage of the Prince of Conde And of the Duke of Vendosme What were the Kings divertisements He loved Play too much He was extremely given to women This passion made him do shameful things Three or four of his Mistresses This causes often contentions with his wife And hinders his great design What that was The means with which he served himself to put it in Execution To this purpose he grants an Edict to the Hugonots and pays his debts Which regains the reputation and credit of France He joyns to him all Christian Princes by promising his conquests He reunites them by accommodating their differences The Princes he made his friends How he would have accommodated the Protestant Princes with the Pope He treats with the Electors With the Lords of Bohemia Hungary Poland With the Pope Model of the designe of Hen. 4. He would part Christendome into fifteen equal Dominions To wit eleven Kingdoms and four Republicks What the Pope had had The Signory of Venice The Italian Common-wealth Duke of Savoy Republick of the Swisses The Low-Countries Kingdome of Hungary The Empire with free election Bohemia Hungary elective A general Council of sixty persons Three others of each twenty Order to hinder tyranny and rebellion and to assist the Provinces adjoyning to Infidels Three general Captains two by Land and one by Sea to war against the Turks What forces what train None but the house of Austria had suffered by this establishment In Italy the Pope Venetians and Savoyard would consent In Germany many Electors and had chosen the Duke of Bavaria Emperour In Bohemia and Hungary the Lords and Nobility The business of Cleves happens to give a beginning to the great designe The Cities of Flanders should revolt The Kingâ— Army should have lived in great order The King would have reserved nothing of his Conquests He had with other Princes prayed the Emperour to rerestore the Cities of the Empire to liberty Bohemia Hungary Austria had made the same request The Duke of Savoy had demanded the Dower of his wife from the Spaniard The Pope and Venetians to become mediators of the difference of Navarre Naples Savoy c. And the King had yeilded his right They had perswaded the King of Spain or else forced him The great Prudence and moderation intended by the King in the pursuit of his design The preparations he made The forces he had The Prince of Oranges Army That of the Electors German Princes That of the Venetians and Savoyard His Exchequer for defraying this great designe He would make the War powerfully that it might be short Great appearance it might have succeeded having no Princes to oppose it but the Dukes of Saxony and Florence What was the business of Cleves and Juliers Death of John Duke of Juliers without issue His succession disputed by many particularly by Brandenbourg and Newbourg The Emperour said it was devolved to the Empire He invests Leopold of Austria who whilst Brandenbourg and Newbourg dispute seizes Juliers They implore the Kings assistance who promises to march in person But tells him he intended to conserve the Catholick Religion in that Country Answer made to the Ambassador of the Empire He establishes good order in the Kingdom before his departure Leaves the Regency to the Queen but gives her a good Council He establishes little Councils in the Provinces who refer to the great one 1610. Some put it into the spirit of the Queen that she should be installed before the Kings departure He though unwillingly consents The instalment of the Queen Many Prognosticks which seemed to presage the death of Henry 4. Advice from several places that his life should be attempted He seems to believe them and fear Who Ravaillac was He is induced to kill the King but it is not known by whom The King departs the Louvre to go to the Arsenal What persons were with him His Coach stopt in the street of the Ferronnerie Ravaillac killeth him He is torn with burning pincers and drawn in pieces by four horses The Kings body opened and found that he might yet live 30 years He is buried at St. Denis The Queen made Regent The great desolation in Paris when they knew of the Kings death His age and the time of of his reign His two wives Margaret and Mary He had three Sons by Mary and three Daughters He had eight Natural children of divers Mistresses Two Sons and a Daughter of Gabriella A Son and a Daughter of the Marchioness of Verneuil Of the Countess of Moret one Son Of Madam d' Essards two daughters He loved all his children and would have them call him Papa Summary recital of the Life of Henry the Great Parallel of his adversities and prosperities * There are more then fifty conspiracies against his person His adversities whet his spirit and courage Why Princes who come young to the Crown seldome learn to govern well Those who come to a Crown at greater distance and a more ripe age are more capable and better The reasons of it A mystick Crown to the glory of Henry the Great