sharp-sighted as to see at so great distance the mark he aimed at But it is a thing almost impossible long to conceal the manner how great Princes are Educated when it is not in all things conform to the Custom practised in their Age. The most Christian King Louis the Twelfth had an Affair to be concerted with the Archduke which required to be managed by so much the more skilful hands that the Emperour and Catholick King were concerned in it Hangist of Geulis one of the most noted and understanding Gentlemen of Picardy was chosen to negotiate it for two reasons one because his Person was acceptable to the Flemings and the other that being Chievres his Kinsman he might the more easily accord with him but Geulis was extremely surprised when he found himself obliged to treat hand to hand with Charles who was then but fourteen years old compleat He was glad of it nevertheless at first as hoping to make a better bargain of it but when he found that the Archduke at the Age and in the State he saw him in was already the ablest Prince of his time in the Art of Governing he began to suspect the evils that that might occasion to France and seeing it would not have been civil to have declared his thoughts as to that openly to Chievres he only told him that he did did not conceive why he put the Archduke upon so great an application to Affairs of State since it neither agreed with his tender age his quality constitution nor the profound Peace which the Low Countries enjoyed that the temper of that Prince was all fire and that his prodigious activity was a sufficient proof of it that nothing was so contrary to People of that constitution than a too long and serious meditation and seeing they spent incomparably more spirits than others in the exercise of their faculties they proportionably wore out the Organs they made use of and so hastened either their death or from a continual speculation ran into madness that the latter of these inconveniences was the more to be feared that in respect of Charles it was a Family distemper and that if his Mother was troubled with it without application he had reason to foresee that the excess of application might produce in him the most terrible and most ignominious of its effects Chievres gave Geulis an answer which the Spaniards have reason to match with the Apophthegms of Antiquity He replied that he had heretofore reflected upon all that he had said and often considered of it but that after all he was persuaded that it was the chief duty incumbent on him and to which he was most obliged in conscience according to the Commission given him to put Charles as soon as he could in a condition not to stand in need of a Tutor and nevertheless he must need one so long as he lived if he did not accustom him in his younger years to take cognizance of his own Affairs because if they expected till he was more advanced in age he would never apply himself to that so much as was necessary whether that he would find himself at first overcharged with the multitude of Affairs or that he would be discouraged by the pains he must take in determining them being but a novice therein and by the frequent impediments they would bring in the way of his pleasures and recreations However Chievres read in the thought of Guelis what care soever he took to conceal it that he feared the Archduke might become too knowing and laboured as much as he could to divert the prejudice that might redound to the Monarchy of France from the Education of the Prince Nay and at first he succeeded in it pretty fortunately and if after he was dead the affairs which he had well disposed changed countenance he is no more to be blamed for that than for the evils that hapned before he was born and those who out lived him gave him the testimony that if his life had been longer France and Spain had never engaged together in War. Louis the Twelfth had no Son and by consequent Francis Count of Angoulesm first Prince of the Bloud Royal was by the Law of the State next to succeed him This Prince was brought up at Coignac a Town of Angumeis but Louisia of Savoy his Mother was commonly at Court. She had quarrelled with the Queen for some reasons that make nothing for the clearing of this History and there could not be a greater misunderstanding betwixt two Princesses than when Louis was so ill that the Physicians despaired of his recovery His most Christian Majesty a few months before had concluded two Treaties the first with the Emperour Maximilian and the second with Ferdinand the Catholick King both Treaties carried in express terms That the Archduke Charles of Austria should marry Claudia of France eldest Daughter to the most Christian King. France in the present Juncture could not receive a greater prejudice than by that seeing the Marriage agreed upon would one day render it weaker than Spain and by consequent would infallibly expose it to succumb under the first War that might happen betwixt them Bretagne a Province of vast extent and important in situation had for many Ages been dismembred from the Monarchy of France and with extreme difficulty had been reunited to it again The Conduct of Philip Angust was signal in obliging the Dukes of Bretagne Princes of the Bloud and of the Branch of Dieux to perform a regular Homage to France and when the debate for that Fief arose betwixt John of Montfort and Charles of Blois King Charles the Fifth evocated the cause to his Parliament and decided it In a word when there was no Males in the House of Bretagne and that that Dutchy fell to Female France by an irregular Conduct of those who governed it under the Minority of Charles the Eighth was at the point of seeing that Dutchy fall into the House of Austria The French unseasonably declared War against the Bretons pressed them with extraordinary violence in a time when the Laws of War were as yet exactly enough observed attempted to seize the State of their Heiress without marrying of her and thereby constrained them to cast themselves into the Arms of Maximilian of Austria That young Prince by a strange good luck had married the Heiress of Burgundy and by that means deprived the French of their hopes of adding the Low Countries to their Monarchy His Wife lived no longer than was necessary to secure the property of the Low Countries to the House of Austria seeing she died within a few years after their Marriage leaving him only one Son and one Daughter He was therefore in a condition to engage in a second Marriage with the Heiress of Bretagne and again to border upon France by Normandy Maine Anjou Touraine and Poitou as he bordered upon it by Picardy Champagne and Burgundy That second Match the most considerable in Christendom
of Oran the Capital of a Kingdom to which it gave the name was afterwards attacked and taken by storm Bugy where the University of the Moors was and the only place known in Affrica where they went to learn the little of Arts and Sciences which they have was as easily conquered The occasion that Ximenes had of seizing it deserves to be known were it for no other reason but to convince us that if Christians took as much care to be informed of the affairs of Infidels as Infidels take to learn what news happen amongst Christians we should get more by it than they and find a a great many favourable occasions which are lost for want of that application The Uncle of the King of Bugy by the Father a few days before the Spaniards drew near that Kingdom thought it not enough to dethrone his Nephew but also put out his eye-sight with a hot Iron that thereby he might render him incapable of reigning and prevent according to the Custom of the Country the designs of those who pretended afterward to re-establish him upon the Throne during the life of the Usurper or immediately after his death Ximenes accidentally was informed of so barbarous an action and presently resolved to make his advantage of it He sent word to the friends of the dispossessed King that he would exemplarily revenge the injury that was done if they would act in concert with him and there needed no more to raise in the Kingdom of Bugy a second revolution as great as the former The Party that was worsted took courage again and quickly setled secret correspondences with the Spaniards who they thought had offered themselves to them out of a principle of generosity They took so just measures with them that they facilitated the taking of places that were capable to hinder them from approaching the Capital City and then brought them into Bugy by means that were kept so secret after the execution of them that the Spanish Historians disagree about the manner This is certain that an accident supervened which was so much the more favourable to the Spaniards for winning that other Crown of Barbary that not being so skilful in medicine as they had been in the time of Averroes and Avienne they took it for a miracle The red-hot Iron that had been made use of to blind the King by holding it near his eyes a quarter of an hour had indeed deprived him of sight but had not wholly dried up the humours whether it was that the Ministers of the Usurpers cruelty had taken it out of the fire before it was hot enough for the intended operation or that it was not put near enough his eyes and held there a sufficient time for drying entirely up the humidity which serves to the functions of sight The Spanish Chirurgions perceived it and undertook to cure the Moorish King. The cure was long and difficult but at length it succeeded and was look'd upon as well by him upon whom it was wrought as by his Subjects as an evident mark that it was the purpose of heaven that they should be Tributaries to the Spaniards The Corsairs of Algiers In the relation of that Conquest who till then had with impunity destroyed the Christian Fleets and spoil'd the Commerce of Europe in Africa followed the example of those of Bugy and submitted to the payment of the same tribute In a word the Spaniards by an excess of good fortune which they have not had since in their Wars against the Barbarians made themselves Masters of the Kingdom of Tripoli and Ximenes returned to his Church of Toledo with so much glory and booty that Ferdinand durst think no more of molesting him In this manner the Archduke Charles reaped so much advantage from the quarrel of that Prelate and his Maternal Grandfather that three illustrious Kingdoms and a more famous Republick were thereby subjected to him and shortly after in the year One thousand five hundred and twelve the same good fortune brought under his Dominion the Kingdom of Navarre when neither he himself nor his Governour Chievres had any hand in it That Monarchy had often fallen to Daughters and by consequent had successively passed into several Families By that way it was transferred from the ancient House of Navarre to that of Leon from the House of Leon to that of Castile from the House of Castile to that of Champagne from the House of Champagne to that of France from the House of France to that of Evreux from the House of Evreux to the House of Arragon and from the House of Arragon to that of Foix-Grailly Gaston de Foix married Eleanor Queen of Navarre second Sister to the Father of Ferdinand the Catholick King by whom he had twelve Children of both Sexes The eldest Son died at two and twenty years of age he left a Son and a Daughter whom he had of Magdalen the youngest Daughter of Charles the Seventh The Son named Francis Phoebus reigned not long in Navarre and died before he was married The Daughter named Catharine became thereby the richest Heiress of Europe She remained under the Guardianship of her Mother who would never hear of marrying again though she was a Widow at the age of seventeen years There were but few Princes in Europe that courted not the Alliance of the young Queen of Navarre and the most considerable Husband that was proposed to her was the Insanto of Spain John the Son of Ferdinand who was much of the same age with her That Prince was the only Son of Ferdinand and Isabella and if he had married Catharine all the Monarchies of Spain had been reunited except that of Portugal Ferdinand and Isabella designed that chiefly by the Match But Magdalen of France had not so great an aversion to the House she was come of as to contribute to the raising in Spain a Power almost equal to that of France She absolutely refused her Daughter to the Prince of Spain but for all that she had not so much kindness for the House of France as to marry her Daughter into it as she had not so much affection for her Daughter as to marry her into a Sovereign Family She gave her to John Son of Alan d' Albert a powerful Lord indeed in Gascony but who possessed not a foot of Land but what held of the Kings of France in quality of Dukes of Guyenne Irregularities in Politicks are of more dangerous consequence than others and it is rare to be found in History that Queens of themselves have married Husbands inferiour to them in quality without having great occasions of repenting it John d' Albert seemed born to verisie the old Proverb That the best men are not always the best Kings He had all the qualities that could accomplish a private man but he wanted those which distinguish Sovereigns from those that are not and were not cut out for being so He delighted only in study and minded nothing by his good
in one and the same Family she had two Lovers that deserved her who offered to take her without putting her Brother to any trouble for a Portion We have taken notice before that Manuel King of Portugal Espoused in first marriage his Nephews Widow eldest Sister to the Mother of the Catholick King by whom he had a Son who if he had lived would have put by the Catholick King from the successions of Castille and Arragon But the Mother dying of her first Child and the Child not surviving her above two years Manuel for his second Wife married the Sister of his former younger than the Catholick Kings Mother by whom he had five Sons and four Daughters She also had left him a Widower at the Age of forty nine years and seeing he was not of the humour to spend the rest of his life in Widowhood he courted for a third Wife the elder Sister of the Catholick King and Niece to his two former Wives But he was rivall'd by his own eldest Son John Infanto of Portugal who pretended to the Infanta Leonora upon better ground as being of the same Age with her So that the Catholick King was to chuse Father or Son which he pleased and Chievres inclined him in favour of the Father by representing to him that if he took the Infanto of Portugal for his Brother-in-law he could draw no assistance from him when he stood in need of it for canvassing for the Empire it being the custom of Portugal that the eldest Sons of the Kings had no more subsistence but their Fathers Table with a small Pension until the Law of Nature and of the State called them to the Crown That in the mean time they ate with their Fathers their Servants of whom they had but a small number were payed with the Kings and that they received for Cloaths and their small pleasures but about a thousand Crowns a month Whereas Manuel being the King of Europe that had most money and having been governed by his two former Wives he would give the third no less dominion over him and would not have the power to refuse her when she should desire him to lend the King her Brother the vast summs of money that he would stand in need of for disposing the more scrupulous Electors to give him their Voices The Catholick King being prevailed upon by that Argument employed Chievres to perswade the Infanta his Sister to prefer the Father before the Son and Chievres for compleating what he had begun had no more to do but to take the Infanta by her weak side which was ambition He represented to her that Manuel Amongst the Pictures of Portugal who had always been reckoned the handsomest Monarch of his Age had not as yet lost any of his personal Charms That few men of his Age matched him in vigour That he had all the signs of a long life and by consequence the Prince of Portugal must wait long before he could come to the Crown That the Princess that should marry him would be in danger of never being Queen whereas she that married his Father would be sure of it the first day The Infanta Leonora was of the Age wherein Maids are only taken with what glisters to their Eyes She considered nothing but the outside of Royalty was charmed with it and fancied that she could not too soon be a Queen So she willingly fell into the snare that Chievres â—aid for her and consented to marry Manuel She was not long left in that inclination without giving her satisfaction for fear she might change her mind and she was Crowned the same day she was married by Proxy though it was still the custom to delay such Ceremonies till the Marriage were in effect consummated The Catholick King being thus discharged of his Brother and elder Sister went merrily into Arragon where he found a fresh the usefulness of the Council that Chievres had given him of removing with all expedition and by all means the Infanto Ferdinand out of Spain The Estates of Arragon assembled at Sarragossa in the Palace of the Archbishop made greater difficulty of acknowledging the Catholick King for their King during the life of the Queen his Mother than the Estates of Castille had done They demanded in the first place that they might be allowed to give their Oath at the same time to the Infanto Ferdinand as presumptive Heir of their Monarchy and it was the more positively refused them that it was seen that they thereby sought a pretext of revolting when they pleased by refusing to put in execution afterwards the Orders of the Catholick King that might in the least seem uneasie to them upon the only account that the concurrence of the Infanto might be wanting to them The Estates solicited that Article with so much zeal as made it visible that they would never have yielded in it had that young Prince been still in Spain And the truth is they yielded not till it was slily insinuated to them that their efforts were so far from recalling the Infanto back into Spain that they would hinder him from ever setting foot there again as it happened The second proposition which they added to the former had no better reception They condescended to acknowledge the Catholick King but they pretended it should be as Guardian and Administrator of the Estates of his Mother during her infirmity and not in quality of King. It was easie to be seen that their design was to Reign amongst themselves during the life of the Queen and the Grandees of Castille who had in honour to the Catholick King waited on him to Sarragossa were so scandalized at it that some of them went to words about it with the Deputies of Arragon and raised quarrels which occasioned bloud-shed But at length Chievres appeased them and the Catholick King was acknowledged for Monarch of Arragon without any other condition but that of confirming the priviledges of the Country as he had been acknowledged in Castille The ceremony of it was performed in the beginning of May one thousand five hundred and eighteen and six weeks after Chievres had much ado to ward the reverse blow of the Infanto's travels into Germany so hard a thing it is in Politicks to give good counsels in one sence which are not bad in another The Infanto Ferdinand being come to the Emperor Maximilian his Grandfather to Vienna in Austria moved him with pity at his misery and affected him with the same sentiments that Ferdinand the Catholick had heretofore had for him His Imperial Majesty resolved to make over to him the Territories which the house of Austria possessed in Germany and to assure to him the Succession to the Empire He needed the consent of the Catholick King for putting in execution the first of these projects but not of the second and that made him delay the one that he might mind the other The Diet was summoned at Ausbourg against the end of the year
as the ancient Patriarchs did in a continual Pilgrimage and so to distribute his cares time travels and presence that the Low-Countries Germany and Italy would have the better share oâ— them and Spain the least That there was no other way to ward so dangerous a blow than by insensibly bringing back the Catholick King into the course that Nature and the Law of Nations required of him and by convincing him by his own experience that the elder of his Grandsons deserved better to succeed to him than the younger and that so all that Charles had to do was to become more virtuous and better qualified than Ferdinand Chievres advised Charles in relation to the two other Crowns of Spain which were those of Navarre and Portugal that it would be convenient to continue the Project of the Catholick King for reuniting them to the â—est of the Spanish Monarchy by means of â—lliances but that there was but little appearance that that could be so soon accomplished seeing on the one hand Cathaâ—ine de Frix Queen of Navarre and â—ohn d' Albert her Son had such near Alliâ—nces with the Crown of France that â—ey would never dispose of their Children but with the consent and approbation of Louis the Twelfth And on the other hand Manuel King of Potugal had Five â—sty Sons by the Aunt of Charles his seâ—nd Wife and that by consequent the â—aughters of the same marriage could not â—pect to succeed so soon but that the â—gagement of the King of Navarre with tâ—e French might some time or other be â—…nare to him and that besides as the â—…sterity of Charlemain was extinct in the â—…ce of Eighteen years though it was so â—…merous that it consisted of thirty two â—…gorous Princes all married so that of Manuel might fail by a like or more unhappy Fate England was more important in all respects to Charles and his Governour advised him to look upon it at all times as a Kingdom able to do him great services and proportionably to hurt him for the Low-Countries in the condition they were then in needed not fear to succumb unless they had France for their Enemy and then they could not expect any assistance greater speedier more suitable to their necessity nor nearer at hand than that of the English That if the necessity of that assistance did not encrease after he came to the enjoyment of the Successions which he expected it would at least be as great seeing Spain would then become a Monarchy that might counterpoise France and none but England could be in a condition then to turn the balance to which side of the two it adhered That Charleâ— would always have the advantage of the French when he competed with them tâ— draw England over to his side since be sides the invincible antipathy betwixt the English and French Nation and the inveterate hatred fomented by so many Wars Henry the Eighth of England was marrieâ— to the last Infanta of Spain Sister to Charle his Mother and constantly favoured hâ— Father-in-law Ferdinand the Catholick against Louis the Twelfth In relation to Scotland it behoved Charles to reason from a quite opposite Maxime and that he must not expect upon any Juncture that could be offered to him to engage that King into his Interests The Alliance of that Nation with the French had without interruption continued seven hundred years from King to King and from Crown to Crown and though it had not been so old nor so strict yet it would be enough for the Scots that Spain courted the friendship of the English to make them declare against it for France though they had not as yet spoused any Party Italy came next in course into the thought of Chievres of which he only represented to the Archduke four principal Powers from whom the Inferiour were 〈◊〉 receive their influence to wit France â—pain the Holy See and the Republick of â—enice France held there the Dutchies of Genoa and Milan Spain the Kingdom of Naples â—…e Holy See ten Provinces besides the â—…ity of Rome and the Venetians the State â—hich is called Terra Firma The Italians â—…d no reason to fear that the Popes or â—enetians would trouble their repose because both had almost an equal interest to preserve it But if the French and Spaniards grew weary of Peace and took up Arms again they must infallibly have the same success which they already had that is to say that the Nation of the two which could get the Pope on their side would overcome and as the most Christian and the Catholick Kings did not conquer nor divide betwixt them the Kingdom of Naples but by the consent of Alexander the Sixth as the Spaniards had not driven the French from thence two years after but in pursuance of a secret Treaty concluded for that end betwixt the Great Captain and the same Alexander and as the Pope Julius the Second contributed most to hinder the most Christian King from recovering what he had lost by ruining the formidable Army of that Prince upon the side of the River of Garillan so the Spaniards in their turn would be driven out of the Kingdom of Naples whensoever it should be their misfortune to displease the same Julius or one of his Successours So that the Archduke in the sense of his Governour ought chiesly to apply himself to entertain his Holiness in the good disposition he was in in relation to Spain and if the matter was not difficult by reason that Julius hated Louis so much the more that formerly he loved him no more would it be in regard of succeeding Popes since on the one hand their State bordered immediately upon the Kingdoms of Naples and that they were next Neighbours whereas the Territories of divers Princes lay betwixt theirs and the Dutchy of Milan and that so the Court of Rome were not so much exposed to be surprised by an Invasion from the French as from the Spaniards and on the other hand it was not so much to be apprehended that the Spaniards would usurp all Italy if they retained the possession of Naples as it would be that France might reduce Italy into a Province if they added the Kingdom of Naples to the Dutchy of Milan because then they could march by Land into the Milanese having only the Alpes and Piemont to cross whereas the Spaniards could not go thither but by Sea and have a Voyage of five hundred Leagues to make The Republick of Venice according to Chievres was no less to be considered in matter of Politicks than the Court of Rome but for power it was not so much since the Holy See the Emperour France and Spain having entered into a League to ruine it Louis the Twelfth alone had defeated all its Forces at the Battel of Giaradadda and taken from it all it possessed in the Terra Firma It is true it afterward recovered part of that State but seeing it was not so easily regained as lost and that in all
was offered to him a second time as the first had been without suing for it and these latter Ages had not produced any man so fortunate It would have been folly to have refused a Princess of twelve years of age the most beautiful of her time who bestowed her self upon him to save her Portion and Maximilian had wit enough to accept of her but he wanted heat enough to go and marry her in Person He was content to marry her by Proxy and the Bretons took exceptions at that negligence The person of greatest credit amongst them was the Mareshal de Rieux who had not favoured the House of Austria but because he had been ill treated by that of France He expected that Maximilian would have come into Bretagne with Forces and Money enough to snatch out of the hands of the French what they had taken in the Province but perceiving that none came in his name but one Lord so ill accompanied that he durst not make a publick entry into Reunes and so beggarly that the Heiress of Bretagne was obliged to maintain him he repented of what he had done and was not long in finding out means to make reparation for his fault He represented to the French the errour they committed in losing Bretagne by the same way that they had lost Flanders He let them know that offensive and defensive Arms were useless in a Juncture when the Weapons of love could overcome he composed the greatest animosities on both sides and disposed Charles the Eighth not only to become Maximilians Rival but also to prevent him So that whilst Maximilian sollicited the Merchants of Antwerp and Bruges to lend him money for his pretended Voyage into Bretagne Charles went thither won the heart of the Heiress banished from thence and supplanted Maximilian A Marriage solemnized by both parties in Person carried it over another that was on the one side only celebrated by Proxy Charles possessed the Heiress of Bretagne and her Country peaceably He had three Boys by her who all died Children and Louis XII who succeeded him married his Widow as much through inclination as reason of State. He had indeed the greatest Civil Interest to preserve Bretagne but besides he had loved the Heiress and his flame was easily kindled again though seven years of imprisonment had been used to extinguish it They add that he was reciprocally beloved and that the Widow of Charles the Eighth comforted her self for the loss of him in hopes that she should still reign in France She was not mistaken in her opinion and Louis that he might enjoy her the more speedily knowing that the dispensation to marry her had been granted him stayed not till the Legate delivered it into his hands He took the start and married and the two Daughters which he soon had persuaded him of a numerous Posterity and that after the Girls he would have Boys Trusting to that supposition he had twice promised his eldest Daughter to Charles the Grandson of Maximilian but his conjecture was only verified in part His Wife was brought to bed of some Male Children but they died almost as soon as they were born and he had none remaining alive but his two Daughters Reasons of State and Decorum required that the Count of Angoulesm should marry the Eldest and the honest Frenchmen pressed the King to it but the Queen had got so great an ascendant over the mind of her Husband as to keep him from disposing of his Daughter to any person without her consent The hopeful and lovely presence of the young Count was not disagreeable to her and besides in that particular she was inclinable enough to the Interests of France but the rebounds of the hatred of women commonly go farther than those of men The aversion of the Queen to the Countess of Angoulesm rebounded in a very strange and odd manner upon the Count her Son and her Majesty made no account of the singular qualities which distinguished him from other Princes of his age and procured him the admiration of the People She only considered him in the natural relation and affection he had to the Countess and as she was not ignorant of the deference that he had for his Mother so she thought of nothing for the future but that when he was King he would give her a great deal of Authority in the State and that so after the death of Louis the Twelfth the Countess would have as much credit as the Queen had had during his life Ambitious people behold nothing with so jealous eyes as those who are like to supplant them and the Queen was in that disquiet condition of mind at the time the King was so ill that the Physicians despaired of his recovery It is not certain whether the Queen obliged them to conceal nothing from her of what they thought of him or that she suspected the worst but it is certain that she took the same measures as if she had been persuaded of it She durst not or would not forsake a Husband that had been so loving to her but she dreaded as the greatest of miseries to fall into the hands of the Countess Yet her Majesty could not avoid it if her eldest Daughter continued in France until the death of the King seeing his Successour would not suffer her to depart out of the Kingdom but would marry her So she resolved to remove her before and send her into Bretagne whâ—…â—he might dispose of her according to her humour by marrying her to the Archduke of the Low Countries and by raising by virtue of that Alliance an Enemy that might torment the French Monarchy in such a manner that the Countess should not get much by her Sons becoming King. The Court was at Blois and it was not far from thence to Bretagne but most part of women are covetous and near and thereby often lose the occasion of executing great designs The fourteen Dukes of Bretagne had for the most part been magnificent and had left a vast quantity of most rich furniture The Queen had caused it to be transported into France and could not resolve to leave it there lest the Countess might make use of it and at her cost live in the luxury wherein she so much delighted That consideration preserved Bretagne to France because it hindered the Queen from sending her Daughter by Land with a strong Guard that could not be stopt Her Majesty thought it necessary that the young Princess should depart with the Baggage to the end that the respect which would be shewn her might keep it from being searched and seeing it was not sufficiently concealed neither as to the quantity nor value when carried by Land in Waggons it was thought more convenient to send it in Boats by Water but it seldom happens that one woman surprises another that mistrusts her and the Queen stood in need of too many people to keep her project hid so long as would have been necessary The Countess
received investiture of them that it was not in the power of the Feudatary for any cause or pretext that might be to frustrate his eldest Son or the Male Children of that eldest Son by giving them to his other Children nor to deprive the Paternal Cousins how remote soever of the same in favours of their own Daughters Constant and uninterrupted custom had exactly agreed with these Laws and no instance could be given that they had ever been violated as to that particular in whole or in part It was not so in the Succession which the Archduke expected from the Catholick King and he had more reasons than one to fear that he might be disappointed of it though at first view it appeared to be full as sure as that of the Emperour For in the first place Ferdinand had sufficiently testified his displeasure that his Dominions one day should fall to the House of Austria by omitting nothing that could naturally be done to prevent it He acted not with so much sincerity as the House of Austria in the marriage of his Son (1) John of Arragon Prince of Spain and Daughter (2) Joan of Arragon surnamed the Fool. with the Son (3) Marguerite of Austria and Daughter (4) The Archduke Philip. of the Emperour and whereas Maximilian had given him an only Daughter he had only given to Maximilian for Philip of Austria the second of his four Daughters The Eldest he married in Portugal shewing by so publick a preference that he had rather his Succession should descend upon a Prince whose Grandfather was a Bastard and great Grandmother the Daughter of a Shoomaker Jew than be wanting in circumspection to remove his Son-in-Law the Archduke Philip from the succession to the Crowns of Castile and Arragon His forecast nevertheless was vain and in a very few years the Emperours Sons Wife became Heir apparent of so many Kingdoms Any but the Catholick King would in so sudden a revolution have adored the Order of Divine Providence and wholly submitted to it Nevertheless that Prince opposed it by a longer and more steady obstinacy than that of Jonas in declining to go to Niniveh His Wife was no sooner dead but that he married another in the sole prospect of having a Son by her and because he drew towards fifty years of age and that the disorders of his youth gave him ground at that age to distrust his own vigour he had his recourse to Physick and took Potions that were thought fit to supply that defect In the second place the Catholick King had lusty handsome Bastards and if he preferred them before the Children of his lawful Daughter in succeeding to the Throne he would in that do nothing contrary neither to the Custom of Spain nor the inclination of the Spaniards It was no new thing in that Country the remotest of Europe on the Affrican side to promote Bastards to the Throne in exclusion of lawful Children and Ferdinand himself descended in right Line from Henry the Second who was a Bastard There was besides another instance of that irregularity in his Family For his Uncle Alphonso of Arragon Elder Brother to John of Arragon his Father dying without Children by Testament which in that part was executed frustrated John of Arragon of the Kingdom of Naples and left it to a Bastard whom he had by a Person of quality Educated in that prospect In the third place the Catholick King could not only take from the Archduke Arragon and the Crowns that depended upon it but also he might by the way we shall now treat of hinder him from reigning in Castile and in the Monarchies annexed to it This young Prince drew his Title to Castile from Queen Isabella his Grandmother by the Mothers side and yet that Princess had not inherited it without violence and encroaching upon the most sacred and inviolable Laws of Civil Society Henry the Fourth her Brother King of Castile married the Infanta of Portugal and that Infanta during his marriage with her was brought to bed of a Daughter the most beautiful as they say that ever was born in Spain This Daughter by the Fundamental Laws of the State excluded her Aunt from succeeeding to so many Kingdoms because she was nearest by a degree and represented her Father Nevertheless the Aunt pretended that her Brother was impotent and that the Daughter that was fathered on him was begotten by his Favourite Don Bertram de la Cueva Duke of Albuquerque For that reason or under that pretext she made a great Party and raised a War in Castile But the Party of the Daughter proving the stronger the Aunt had her recourse to Ferdinand and gave her self to him having no other way to engage him to espouse her interest against her Neece Ferdinand having married the Aunt transported all the Forces of Arragon into Castile He overcame them who favoured his Wives Neece and dispossessed her of the Kingdom But was now in a condition to repay the injury which he had done her by recalling her into Castile where he had the Power raising her to the Throne and marrying her to one of his Bastards Upon the Reasons we have been mentioning Chievres made the reflections they deserved He long considered with himself the prejudice that might befal the Archduke by not entertaining an entire correspondence with his maternal Grandfather Nevertheless having put into the balance together the hurt that might redound to that Prince by breaking with France during his minority if he Leagued too strictly with the Catholick King and the injury the Catholick King might do him if he united not so closely with him he found the first alone to weigh far more than all the others put together and by the boldest result of prudence that is to be found in the History of Spain he judged it to be avoided rather than the rest He kept the Archduke in friendship with the French and Germans He thought it enough not to give the Catholick King any cause or pretext to complain of him in particular and in the following Books we shall find that his conduct in that point was as fortunate as it had been judicious The End of the First Book THE HISTORY OF Monsieur De Chievres The Second BOOK CONTAINING The most remarkable Occurrences in the Monarchy of Spain during the years One thousand five hundred and thirteen and One thousand five hundred and fourteen THat we may conceive the motives which induced Chievres to prefer the Paternal Grandfather of Charles of Austria his Pupil before the Maternal and that we may understand the advantages which Charles drew from that preference we must necessarily presuppose that Ferdinand the Catholick King who was the Maternal Grandfather spoken of here bounded not his ambition within Spain after he had entirely driven the Moors from thence by the conquest of the Kingdom of Granada It troubled him to be confined to one of the extemities of Europe without any appearance of
in that disposition contributed not a little as they say to keep him in it being assured to render himself necessary to his Master so long as it lasted There was no more Commerce betwixt the Father and Son in law but what could not civilly be discontinued and the Archduke to make a closer Union with the most Christian King against his Catholick Majesty made three agreements for the marriage of his eldest Son with Claude of France eldest Daughter to his Majesty But the Alliances which are most securely contracted in writing are not those which most frequently succeed best The death of Queen Isabella which happened the seventeenth of November One thousand five hundred and four was the cause or pretext that the three Contracts of marriage were not fulfilled and Ferdinand for all he was so politick a Prince could not ward a blow that was so disadvantageous to him and so favourable to his Son-in-law * In the Testament of Queen Isabella There was indeed a Testament of Queen Isabella found which ordained that the King her Husband during life should have the administration and Revenues of Castile but the Testament was no sooner examined than the Courtiers and Lawyers agreed in suspecting it to be forged The Archduke who had a mind to reign and saw himself excluded for a long time and perhaps for his whole life by an Act so inconsistent with Motherly affection had no regard to it and indeed it was hard to be believed that it could have been dictated and signed by Queen Isabella considering her humour all her life time in relation to her Husband for there hapned to that Princess what is but too common to Women who out of a Maxim of State marry Husbands as young again as themselves When Ferdinand and Isabella were married Ferdinand was but sixteen years old and Isabella two and thirty Her Jealousie of Ferdinand appeared soon after their marriage and it ought to be said here for her excuse that it was not without ground Ferdinand had slighted her and been often unfaithful though she was very beautiful and besides no woman living more scrupulous in the point of Chastity than her self He had loved other Ladies by whom he had the Archbishop of Sarragossa Don Alphonso d' Arragon and other Bastards who will be more properly mentioned in another place of this History Isabella had not therefore behaved her self the worse towards him but Injuries of that nature which are most patiently born with are not those for all that which make the smallest impressions in peoples minds and are soonest blotted out If Isabella had so much command over her self as during her life to dissemble the ramblings of her Husband it is not very likely that at her death she would reward him for them that is to say in a Juncture when there is no time for counterfeiting and when she was no longer to observe measures with him nor that she would have deprived her eldest Daughter of the enjoyment of the Kingdom of Castile which Nature Law Reason and the Custom of Spain gave to her to leave it to a fickle Husband who would not fail so soon as he should be a Widower to marry again nor to employ all sorts of means not only to secure to the Children of the second Marriage the Crowns of Arragon but also if possible to procure for them the Kingdoms of Castile in prejudice of the Children of his former bed Isabella had cause to fear it since the Father and Mother of Ferdinand had done as much for him and that the unfortunate Charles Prince of Vienne the Son of the first Wife of John King of Arragon had been poysoned to make way for the same Ferdinand who was only the Son of the second Be it as it will the Archduke was not amused by the Couriers whom his Father in law sent to stay him in Flanders under pretext that it might be prejudicial to the Archdutchess his Wife ready to lie in of a Daughter which was Mary Queen of Hungary He nevertheless departed with her for Spain in the month of January One thousand five hundred and seven and the new Queen of Castile had no prejudice by it Chievres was left Governour of the Low Countries and Manuel accompanied the Archduke Ferdinand was so ill informed of the course his Daughter and Son-in-law took that he went to wait for them at one end of Spain whilst they landed at the other All the great men of the Kingdom except two declared for them they were solemnly Crowned the People swore Allegiance to them without respect to the Testament of the late Queen and Ferdinand finding himself not to be the stronger caused an Accommodation to be proposed to his Son-in-law seeing he confided far more in his own management than in that of his Agents he sollicited with so much perseverance an interview with the King of Castile that he obtained it but it cost him dear and he must first pass through mortifications that were so much the more sensible to him as that he was the less accustomed to the like He was constrained to go to his Son-in-law trust himself in his hands to be satisfied with his bare word for a safe Conduct and to present himself in the posture of a Supplicant He appeared indeed in that manner accompanied with a small Retinue without Arms and mounted on Mules He could not have a private Conference with his Son-in-law and Manuel who was the man in the world he hated most because he imputed to him all the harshness he found in the King of Castile towards him made always a third person in the Conference Ferdinand at first lost his hopes of retaining the administration left him by his Wife and condescended at length to accept one half of the Revenues But he was positively denied any share and sent back extremely vexed that he had humbled himself in vain Cardinal Ximenes who was no less his Friend though he owed not his advancement to him mediated for him another interview with his Son-in law in the Vestry of the Church of Remedo a League from Vailladolid The two Kings discoursed alone without any other Witness but the Cardinal who kept the door They concluded at length that Ferdinand should absolutely renounce the administration of Castile upon two conditions The one that he should enjoy during life the three great Masteries of the Orders of St. James Callatrava and Alcantara The other that his Son-in-law should pay him yearly at Sarragossa whither he should immediately after the interview retire a moderate Pension which amounted but according to some to three Counts of Maravedis or to eight Counts at most according to others Ferdinand was no sooner in Arragon but that he laboured to be revenged for the pretended indignities received from his Son-in-law He supposed that the personal charms of that young Prince would indeed preserve to him the affections of the Castillians in time of Peace but he doubted that that
inclination would not continue in time of War. Upon this he grounded his conjecture that the King of Castile as shall be mentioned hereafter being excessively liberal there was no appearance that he would moderate that predominant inclination in the midst of Arms and when every moment he would have fresh occasions of giving In the mean time the Revenue of Castile and of the Crowns that depended on it were so scanty that they could not suffice to carry on a long War and at the same time supply the superfluous expensiveness of their King. His Majesties Treasury would thereby soon be drained and if the seeds of a Civil War could be sowed when money was wanting a general revolution would quickly follow and the same Philip who till then had been the Idol of the Castillians would become their aversion The measures to be taken for the execution of that project ought not to be managed but by a very cunning person and for that purpose Ferdinand employed the famous Raymond of Cardonna with the following instructions * In his life in Castillian It hath been mentioned in the preceding Book that Queen Isabella at first reigned not peaceably in Castile That her Brother Henry had by the Infanta of Portugal a Daughter the most beautiful and unfortunate of her age That Isabella had maintained that Henry was impotent That Bertrand de la Cueva Duke of Albuquerque was her Father and that by consequent she ought not to succeed to the Crowns of Castile The probability of that discourse was grounded upon this that Henry having no Children by the Infanta of Navarre his first Wife had divorced her and having been able to get none neither upon the second the report went that he had rather that his Favourite La Cueva should supply his defect than that he should be reckoned impotent He constantly owned the Daughter whom his Wife brought forth for his own and his Sister Isabella being too weak to make her pass for illegitimate had her recourse to Ferdinand and married him though she was thirty two years of age and he but sixteen upon condition that he would back her interest with the Forces that he could bring from Arragon Ferdinand in a pitch'd Battel routed those who maintained the Party of the Princess of Castile forced her to take refuge in Portugal obliged the Estates of Castile to declare her Bastard and maintained himself in the possession of these Kingdoms during the life of Isabella But after her death for his own sake he formed a design of repairing the wrong he had done and proposed to himself the marriage of the Princess of Castile to bring her back by force of Arms into the Kingdoms that had belonged to Henry the Fourth to raise her the Party there again which before he had suppressed and there to renew the Civil War in the opinion that as at that time when the Forces of Arragon in the dispute betwixt the Aunt and the Neece were sufficient to give the Monarchy to her of the two Pretendents they declared in favours of that is for the Aunt in prejudice of the Neece so they would be still sufficient to turn the balance on the Neeces side in prejudice of the Children of the Aunt when they should awaken the dormant Faction under the same pretext that had been before made use of which was that of marriage There appeared only two impediments which might cross his marriage to be surmounted for as to the third which was the aversion that the Princess of Castile had to Ferdinand because he had robbed her of her Dominions he made account that she would be reconciled to him so soon as he offered to re-establish her in the Throne and that she would chuse rather by marrying him to recover the fairest Monarchy of Spain than as a private person to spend the rest of her days in a forced continence The first Impediment in the judgment of Ferdinand would be on the part of Pope Julius the second an undertaking bold man and ambitious to signalize himself but scrupulous and reserved in granting favours upon the sole account of making them the more valuable It was to be feared that his Holiness would hardly be brought to consent that Ferdinand should marry the Neece of his deceased Wife and that he would absolutely refuse the dispensation demanded were it for nothing else but that he might not fall out with the House of Austria which would thereby be irreconcilably offended But the enmity that Julius entertained against the French and the resolution he had already taken by all means to engage Ferdinand to joyn with him for driving them out of Italy made a stronger impression in the mind of that Pope than the Canon Laws He gave intimation to Ferdinand that the dispensation should be no hindrance to the marriage that he had in his head and so all Ferdinands care was to get over the next difficulty It consisted in getting the Princess out of Portugal and by consequent in disposing Manuel to deliver her Ferdinand expected far less opposition to his designs on the part of that Prince than he had found from the Pope because Manuel was doubly his Son-in-law It hath been said before that Ferdinand gave him in marriage his eldest Daughter upon no other account but that he might hinder his Succession from falling to the House of Austria into which the second Daughter was married and it is to be added here that Ferdinand's caution proving ineffectual he farther gave his third Daughter to his Portuguese Majesty who by consequent by an odd singularity not as yet to be parallelled in these last Ages having for his first Wife married his Nephew's Widow for his second married the Sister of his former Wife * He married also for his third Wife the Daughter of the Sister of his two former Wives But what appears to Kings most feisible in speculation is not so always in practice because self-love sometimes represents to them the interests that sets them upon action more urgent than it seems to be to other Sovereigns who they think ought to second them in the execution Manuel King of Portugal was of the humour of Princes who come to the Crown by chance and without laying claim to it directly He was only the kinsman far remote in a collateral Line of John the second his Predecessour and by consequent he was afraid upon the smallest occasions to lose the good fortune that had happened to him contrary to his expectation He saw no advantage neither present nor future in the proposition made to him of delivering the Princess of Castile and on the contrary found in it present inconveniences and inevitable Wars afterwards If the Princess had Children by Ferdinand those of Manuel would be the farther removed from the Succession of Arragon if she had none and yet out-lived him she would transfer the Crowns of Castile to him whom she should chuse for a second Husband and if she
an entire satisfaction to the most Christian King And that in fine when the Catholick King were once assured of obtaining what he desired by proposing it the matter should be varnished over with so plausible colours that if it were not frankly consented to yet at least it should pass in Form and without Sedition That the Catholick King expected an happy success in this provided he were suffered to take his own way in Negotiating it and that Chievres durst undertake for it upon two conditions one that his Master were allowed time to go to Spain and there to dispose the minds of the People and the other that the promise of restoring in convenient time the two Kingdoms to the most Christian King and John d' Albert should be kept so secret that no Spaniard might dive into it The discourse of Chievres if rightly taken was captious seeing he demanded a present and most important favour such as the security of the Low-Countries during the absence of Charles for hopes so much the more uncertain that the fulfilling of them was remote and would absolutely depend upon the faithfulness of his Catholick Majesty who having obtained beforehand all that he could have desired perhaps would not take much care of performing his promise Nevertheless whether it was that Gouffier did not sufficiently reflect upon that or that he yielded to the importunities of inferiour Ministers who were appointed to Negotiate under him whom Chievres had charmed with his caresses the Court of France committed an irreparable fault and suffered themselves to be choused by a man whom then they had but too great ground to distrust They consented that Gouffier and Chievres should confer together about finding out an expedient that might a little more bind the Catholick King and nevertheless leave him as much liberty as he desired for disposing his new Subjects to satisfie France Several were proposed and that which the two Plenipotentiaries at length agreed upon was that there should be two Treaties of Noyon of the same date one which should be kept secret by the Parties concerned until the time of its execution and another which should be made publick so soon as it was signed By the first In the two Treaties of Noyon Charles obliged himself not to lose any time in the restitution of the Kingdoms of Naples and Navarre after he had taken possession of his maternal Crowns and to do it himself by his own absolute Authority if he could not obtain the consent of the Spaniards But the second only contained that the most Christian and Catholick Kings should agree upon Arbitrators who within a prefixed time should declare whether the Crowns of Arragon and Castille had any right or not to Naples and Navarre That if these Arbitrators decided in favour of Spain the two Kingdoms should remain united to it and that if their Sentence were to the disadvantage thereof the Catholick King should instantly restore them The other Articles of the two Treaties were in all things alike which may have given occasion to think that there was but one The three most considerable were that until the Arbitrators should decide to which of the two France or Spain the Kingdom of Naples belonged the Catholick King should pay to the most Christian King one hundred thousand Crowns a year as a quit-Rent That the Catholick King should espouse Lovisia of France who was yet but a year old and that if that young Princess died before the Marriage were consummated the Catholick King should Marry another of the most Christian King's Daughters in case he had more and that if he had none the Marriage of the Catholick King with Renee of France Sister-in-law to his most Christian Majesty should be accomplished as it was agreed upon in the former Treaty That in fine the Emperor Maximilian should restore to the Republick of Venice the City of Verona with this caution that he should put it into the hands of the French who should immediately after deliver it over to the Venetians and that the Senate of that Republick should pay to the Emperor two hundred thousand Crowns to reimburse the charges he had been at in Conquering that City Gouffier in this matter concluded the Treaty of Noyon and Politicians judged that he lost in it as much reputation as Chievres had acquired And truly if we may judge of the satisfaction of the two Kings with their Plenipotentiaries by the reward which they gave them it is certain on the one hand that Gouffier received none of Francis the First and on the other that Chievres was so well recompenced by Charles that he became the richest Subject in Christendom Maximilian the First and Philip had already given him the forfeiture of the Estate of the house of Gaure the Government of Nivelle the Collar of the Golden Fleece the great Bailliage of Haynault and two thousand Crowns for his extraordinary Embassy in France in the year One Thousand Five Hundred and One where he had made himself known to Louis the Twelfth according to his value though there was nothing concluded in the Peace which he went to Negotiate betwixt his most Christian Majesty and Ferdinand the Catholick King. Charles added to these by his Letters Patents of the twenty third of June Câ—e Thousand Five Hundred and Seventeen the charges of High Admiral of the Kingdom of Naples of Captain General of his Armies by Sea of alâ— the Kingdoms Territories and Principalities of his Catholick Majesty oâ— High Chamberlain and of chief Minister of State and by other Letters Patents of the fifteenth of December the same year the Dutchies of Sovia and Atri iâ— the Kingdom of Naples the particulaâ— Government of the Town of Escluse it Flanders the erection of the Barony oâ— Arscot into a Marquisat a Company oâ— an hundred Armed men maintained iâ— time of Peace as well as War and lastly the erection of the Lands of Beaumont into a County The multitude of these favours is upoâ— two accounts remarkable First because Charles was not liberal and that besides he had the more reason to dividâ— his bounty amongst several persons thaâ— never Prince was so well served as he was and by consequence was obliged to give so many Rewards as he and secondly because Chievres as hath been observed before never begg'd any thing of him neither for himself nor his Relations and thought it enough to deserve from a grateful Prince the Favours that he heaped upon him Seeing the accommodation of Noyon had surmounted all the obstacles that could obstruct Charles in taking possession of his maternal Estates he had not so great cause any more to fear the excess of Authority which Cardinal Ximenes took to himself in Spain and Chievres was of the opinion that he should be let alone to do so provided his actions struck neither directly nor indirectly at the personal advantages of his Catholick Majesty The Cardinal on his side vied in gratitude and served Charles with as