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
all Europe by the esteem of his Vertue In effect since the first foundation of the French Monarchy the History furnisheth us not with any Reign more memorable by reason of the great Events more repleat with the wonders of Divine Assistance more glorious for the Prince and more happy for the People then his and it is without Flattery or Envy that all the Universe hath given him the surname of Great not so much for the greatness of his Victories however comparable to those of Alexander or Pompey as for the greatness of his Soul and of his Courage for he never bow'd either under the Insults of Fortune or under the Traverses of his Enemies or under the Resentments of Revenge or under the Artifices of Favorites or Ministers he remained always in the same temper always Master of himself In a word he remained always King and Soveraign without acknowledging other Superiour then God Justice and Reason Let us then proceed to write the History of his Life which we shall divide into three principal Parts The first shall contain what happened from his Birth till his coming to the Crown of France The second shall speak what he did after he came to it until the Peace of Vervin And the third shall recount his Actions after the Peace of Vervin until the unhappy day of his death But before all it is necessary we speak something briefly of his Genealogie He was Son to Anthony de Bourbon Duke of Vendosme and King of Navarre and of Jane of Albret Heiress of that Kingdome Anthony descended in a direct and Masculine Line from Robert Count of Clermont fifth Son to King St. Lewis This Robert espoused Beatrix Daughter and Heiress to John of Burgoyne Baron of Bourbon by his Wife Agnes for which cause Robert took the Name of Bourbon but not the Arms still keeping those of France This sage Pre-caution served well to his Descendants to maintain themselves in the Degree of Princes of the Blood which those of Courtnay lost for not having acted in the same manner And besides the Vertue which gave a splendour to their Actions the good management and oeconomy which they exercised to conserve and augment their Revenues the great Alliances in which they were very diligent to match themselves ever refusing to mingle their Noble among Vulgar Blood and above all their rare Piety towards God and that singular goodness wherewith they acted towards their Inferiors conserved them and elevated them above Princes of elder Branches for the People seeing them always rich puissant wise and in a word worthy to command had imprinted in their spirits as it were a prophetick perswasion that this House would one day come to the Crown and they on their side seemed to have conceived this hope though it were at great distance having taken for their Word or Device Espoir or Hope Among the younger Branches which issued from this Branch of Bourbon the most considerable and most illustrious was that of Vendosm It carried this Name because they possessed that great Country which came to them in the year 1364. by the marriage of Katharine Vendosme Sister and Heiress to Bouchard last Count of Vendosme with John of Bourbon Count of the Marches At present it was but a County but was after made a Dutchy by King Francis the first in the year 1514. in favou◠of Charles who was great grand-childe to John and father of Anthony This Charles had seven Male-Children Lewis Anthony Francis another Lewis Charles John and a third Lewis the first Lewis and the second died in their infancy Anthony remained the eldest Francis who was Count of Anguien and gained the Battel of Cerisoles died without being married Charles was a Cardinal of the title of Chrysogone and Archbishop of Rouen this is he who was named The old Cardinal of Bourbon John lost his life at the Battel of St. Quintin The third Lewis was called The Prince of Condé and by two Marriages had several Male-Children from the first descended Henry Prince of Condé Francis Prince of Conty and Charles who was Cardinal and Archbishop of Rouen after the Death of the old Cardinal of Bourbon There were eight Generations from Male in Male from St. Lewis to Anthony who was Duke of Vendosme King of Navarre and father to our Henry As for Jane d' Albret his Wife she was Daughter and Heiress to Henry of Albret King of Navarre and of Margaret du Valois Sister to King Francis the first and Widow to the Duke of Alenzon Henry d' Albret was son to John d' Albret who became King of Navarre by his Wife Katherine du Foix Sister to King Phoebus deceased without Children for that Realm had entred into the House of Foix by marriage as it 〈…〉 afterwards into that of Albret and since into that of Bourbon Ferdinand King of Arragon had invaded and taken the Higher Navarre that is that part which is beyond the Pyraenean Hills and the most considerable of that Realm from King John d' Albret so that by consequence there rested to him onely the Lower that is that beneath the Mountains towards France but with it he had the Countries of Bearn of Albrett of Foix of Armagnac of Bigorra and many other great Signories coming as well by the House of Foix as that of Albret Henry his Son had onely one Daughter Jane who was called The Minion of Kings for King Henry her Father and the great King Francis the first her Uncle with Envy to each other strove most to cherish her The Emperour Charles the fifth had cast his Eyes on her and caused her to be demanded of her Father for his Son Philip the second proposing this as a means to pacifie their Differences touching the Kingdome of Navarre but King Francis the first not thinking it fit to introduce so puissant an Enemy into France causing her to come to Chastellerault affianced her to the Duke of Cleves and after releasing her of that Contract married her to Anthony of Bourbon Duke of Vendosme and the Marriage was solemnized at Moulins in the year 1547. the same year that Francis the first died The two young Spouses had in their first three or four years two Sons both which died at Berceau by accidents very extraordinary the first because its Governess being her self cold of nature kept it so hot that she stifled it with heat and the second by the carelessness of the Nurse who playing with a Gentleman as they danced the Childe from one to another let it fall to the ground so that it died in torment Thus Heaven deprived them of these two little Princes to make way for our Henry who merited well both the Birth-right and to be an onely Son Let us now come to the History of his Life The First PART OF THE LIFE OF HENRY the Great Containing his History from his Birth until he came to the Crown of FRANCE
IT hath not been precisely known in what place Henry the Great was conceived The common opinion holds that it was at la Fleche in Anjou there where Anthony of Bourbon his father and the Princess of Navarre his mother sojourned from the end of February anno 1552 until the middle of May in the year 1553. But it is certain that she first perceived her conception and felt it move at the Camp in Picardy where she was with her husband who was Governour of that Province and who was gone from la Fleche to command an Army against Charles the fifth It was most just that he who was destined to be an extraordinary Prince should begin the first motions of his life in a Camp at the noise of Trumpets and Cannon as a true childe of Mars His grandfather Henry d' Albret who yet lived having understood that his daughter was with childe recalled her home to him desiring himself to take care for the conservation of this new fruit which by a secret pre-sentiment he was wont to say ought to revenge him of those injuries the Spaniards had done him This couragious Princess taking then leave of her husband parted from Compeigne the fifteenth of November traversed all France to the Pyrenaean mountains and arrived at Pau in Bearne where the King her father was the fourth day of December not having stay'd above eighteen or nineteen days on her journey and the thirtieth of the same month she was happily brought to bed of a son Before this King Henry d' Albret had made his Will which the Princess his daughter had a great desire to see because it was reported that it was made to her disadvantage in favour of a Lady that good man had loved She durst not speak to him of it but he being advertised of her desire he promised to shew it her and put it in her hands when she should shew him what she carried in her womb but on condition that at her delivery she should sing a Song to the end said he that thou bringst not into the world a weak and weeping infant The Princess promised him and had so much courage that maugre the great pains she suffered she kept her word and sung one in the Bearnois language so soon as she understood he was entred into the chamber It was observed that the infant contrary to the common order of Nature came into the world without weeping or crying Nor was it fit that a Prince who ought to be the joy of all France should be born among tears and groans So soon as he was born his grandfather carried him in the skirt of his Robe into his own chamber giving his Will which was in a box of gold to his daughter telling her My daughter see there what is for you but this is for me Whilst he held the infant he rubbed his little lips with a clove of Garlick and made him suck a draught of Wine out of a golden cup that he might render his temperament more masculine and vigorous The Spaniards had formerly said in Raillery concerning the birth of the mother of our Henry O wonder the Cow hath brought forth an Ewe meaning by that word Cow Queen Margaret her mother whom they called so and her husband Cow-keeper alluding to the Arms of Bearn which are two Cows And King Henry resting assured of the future greatness of his little grandchilde taking him often in his arms kissing him and remembring the foolish Raillery of the Spaniards spoke with joy to all those who came to visit him and congratulate this happie birth See said he how my Ewe hath now brought forth a Lion He was baptized the year following on Twelfth-day being the sixth of January 1554. For this Baptism were expresly made Fonts of silver richly gilded in which he was baptized in the Chappel of the Castle of Pau. His Godfathers were Henry the second King of France and Henry d' Albret King of Navarre who gave him their Name and the Godmother was Madam Claudia of France after Dutchess of Lorain Jaques de Foix then Bishop of Lescar and after Cardinal held him over the Font in the name of the Most Christian King and Madam d' Andovins in the name of Madam Claudia of France He was baptized by the Cardinal of Armagnac Bishop of Rhodez and Vice-Legat of Avignon He was however difficult to be brought up having seven or eight Nurses of which the last had all the honour At his being weaned the King gave him for Governess Susan de Bourbon wife of John d' Albret Baron of Miossens who elevated him in the Castle of Coarasse in Bearn situated amongst the rocks and mountains His grandfather would not permit him to be nourished with that delicateness ordinarily used to persons of his quality knowing well that there seldom lodged other then a mean and feeble soul in a soft and tender body He likewise denied him rich habiliments and childrens usual babies or that he should be flattered or treated like a Prince because all those things were onely the causers of vanity and rather raised pride in the hearts of infants then any sentiments of generositie but he commanded that he should be habited and nourished like the other infants of the Country and likewise that they should accustom him to run and mount up the rocks that by such means he might use himself to labour and if we may speak so give a temperature to that young body to render it the more strong and vigorous which was without doubt most necessary for a Prince who was to suffer so much to reconquer his Estate King Henry d' Albret died at Hagetmau in Bearn on the five and twentieth of May 1555. being aged about fifty three years or thereabouts He ordained by his Will that his body should be carried to Pampelona to be interred with his predecessors and that in the mean time it should be laid in State in the Cathedral of Lescar in Bearn This Prince was couragious of a great spirit sweet and courteous to all the world and so nobly liberal that Charles the fifth once passing thorow Navarre was in such manner received that he protested he had never seen a more magnificent Prince After his death Jane his daughter and Anthony Duke of Vendosme his son-in-law succeeded him They were at present at the Court of France and with much difficulty obtained their leave to retire to Bearn for King Henry the second pressed to it by ill Counsel would have deprived them of the Lower Navarre which yet remained to them pretending that all that was below the Pyrenaean Mountains belonged to the Realm of France They knew how justly to oppose against him the Estates of the Country and the King durst not too much pursue this subject for fear lest despair should force them to call the Spaniards to their assistance but he still remained troublesome
crimes in this Court and it ought to be attributed to a particular grace of Heaven that he was not infected with all for there was never any more vicious nor more corrupted Impiety Atheism Witchcraft all most horrible wickedness black ingratitude and perfidiousness poisoning and assassination reigning there in a soveraign degree yet all these abominations in stead of infecting him fortified him in the natural horror he had against them and though amongst wicked persons he had never any thoughts to become their Companion but many to be their Enemy On St. Bartholomews-day succeeding they would finish to exterminate the Hugonots and to this purpose the Duke of Anjou went to besiege Rochel carrying him with him but caused him to be so well observed that he could neither evade to the right hand nor the left It may be judged what heart-grief it was to him to be made an instrument in the destruction of those which yet remained his friends and servants and had refuged themselves in this City After a long siege it was relieved by the arrival of the Ambassadors of Poland who came to seek the Duke of Anjou whom the Estates of that Country had elected their King Some moneths afterwards Charles the ninth fell mortally sick vomiting forth blood through all the conduits of his body so that by many it was believed he was empoisoned but however it were it may justly be said if it be permitted to judge of Kings who ought to be judged by none but God That it was a Divine punishment for his blasphemies His extream malady gave birth to a league made by the Duke of Alenson the Marshals of Montmorency and Cossé and some Catholicks with the Hugonot party to deprive the Queen-mother of the Government and drive the Guises from the Court where they were very puissant Our Henry entred into it not out of any designe to oblige himself with those people but onely that he might have the means to retire with security into his own Country The Queen-mother having understood these practices caused him and the Duke of Alenson to be arrested and committed to Guard The Prince of Condé saved himself happily in Germany She caused likewise the two Marshals of Montmorency and Cossé to be secured and to let the world see she treated not Princes of their degree in this manner without sufficient cause she made them be strictly examined on many treasonable Interrogatories but which were all false there were onely put to death la Mole Coconas and Tourtray three Gentlemen of note who had engaged themselves in their intrigues and possibly this execution was necessary to calm the spirit of the Nobility and People who began to murmur that a son of France and the first Prince of the blood should be treated in this manner In this affair the Chancellour would have examined the King of Navarre but though captive and threatned he would not so much wrong his Dignity as to reply to him However to content the Queen-mother he made a long discourse addressing his speech to her by which he declared many things touching the present estate of affairs but charged no person as the Duke of Alenson had weakly and unworthily done King Charles the ninth being near his death and hating possibly not without reason both his two brothers and his mother sent to seek our Henry in whom alone he acknowledged to have found faith and honour and most affectionately recommended to him his wife and his daughter Katherine de Medicis knowing that he had sent for him was fearful lest he should leave to him the Regency and to this purpose would cast some fear into his soul to the end he should not dare to accept it As he went to attend the King who was at Bois de Vincennes she gave order he should be made pass under the Arches between the Guards who lay in ambush and posture to massacre him He startled at first with fear and recoiled two or three paces backwards however Nanzay le Chastre Captain of the Life-guards reassured him swearing to him he should receive no prejudice he was therefore constrained though he trusted but little to his words to pass through the Carabines and Halberds After the death of Charles the ninth Katherine de Medicis partly by force and partly by cunning seized on the Regency expecting the return of her dear Son the Duke of Anjou who was named Henry the third When he was returned from Poland she brought the two Princes before him to do with them what he pleased whom after some chidings and threatnings he set at liberty These two Princes making reflection on the continual dangers they had for two years past been in resolved with the first occasion to deliver themselves from these fears The Prince of Condé who was in Germany had raised Levies for the Hugonot party who about the end of the reign of Charles the ninth had retaken Arms and Damville second son to du Feu Constable and brother of the Marshal of Montmorency who was a prisoner in the Bastile had joyned himself to their party not taking Religion for his pretext because he was a Catholick but the publick Liberty and Reformation of the State This sort of Catholicks who joyned themselves in league with the Hugonots were named The Politicians Our Henry could not escape from the Court so soon as he desired he was diligently watched and his very Domesticks were as so many spies over him He well understood that if he were surprized whilst he endeavoured to save himself he should certainly be murthered and now whilst he sought occasions to do it with security he engaged himself in new snares becoming passionate of la Dame de Sauves wife to a Secretary of State and at present the fairest in the whole Court In the mean time the Queen-mother who with so much diligence kept him at Court could have been well contented he had been gone For the King her dear Son began to take some knowledge of his own affairs a thing much displeasing to her because she would have governed all she therefore apprehending that as he took the Authority into his own hands hers would be diminished believed that she ought to embroile all by factions and civil wars of which she alone as it may be said had the Key so that nothing could pass without her See here the reason wherefore so long as she lived she did underhand nothing but suscitate troubles and animate different parties both at Court and abroad that in the end after having caused the desolation of the Estate and the subversion of all Laws and all Orders she might her self perish in those flames which she had kindled and supplyed with so much fuel Amongst these transactions as the King went to Rheims to be enstalled a conspiracy was discovered against his Person fostred by the Duke of Alenson
pleasure it causes a thousand troubles and a thousand mischiefs even in this world it self The King being now but just fifty years of age began this year to have some small feelings of the Gout which possibly were the doleful effects of his excessive voluptuousness as well as of his labours To return to the Marchioness it happened one day that the Queen being very much offended at her discourse threatned her that she should know how to bridle her wicked tongue The Marchioness upon this seemed sad and grieved shunn'd the King and let him understand that she desired that he would no more demand any thing of her because she feared that the continuation of his favours would be too prejudicial both to her and her children Her design was to inflame more his passion by shewing her self more difficult But when she saw that her cunning had not all the effect she hoped and that the Queens anger was encreased to such a point that indeed there was some danger for her and hers she advised her self of another thing D' Entragues her Father demanded permission of the King to carry her out of the Kingdom to avoid the vengeance of the Queen The King granted her demand easier then she thought he would wherewith being excessively enraged her Father and the Count d' Auvergne her Brother by the Mothers side began to Treat secretly with the Ambassador of Spain to have some retreat in the Territories of his King casting themselves absolutely they and their children into his Arms. The Ambassador believed that this business would be very advantagious to his Master and that in time and place he might serve himself of that promise of marriage which the King had given to the Marchioness he therefore easily granted them all that they demanded and added all the fair promises with which weak and feeble spirits might be entoxicated The King had granted them permission to retire themselves out of France but yet without the Children out of a belief he had that they would go into England to the Duke of Lenox and the Earl of Aubigny of the house of the Stuarts who were their near kinsmen but when he understood that they consulted of a retreat into Spain he resolved to hinder them but to employ fair means to do it He sends therefore for the Count d' Auvergne who was then at Clermont so much beloved in the Province that he believed he might securely stay there He refused to come before he had his Pardon Sealed in good form for all that he might have done This was a kind of new crime to capitulate with his King however he sends it him but with this Clause That he should make his immediate appearance His distrust permitted him not to obey on this condition he stayed still in the Province where he kept himself on his Guard with all precautions imaginable Nevertheless he was not so cunning but the King could entrap him and by an Artifice very gross He being Colonel of the French Cavalry was desired to go see a Muster made of a Company of the Duke of Vendosmes He went well mounted keeping himself at a good distance that he might not be encompassed Nevertheless d' Eâ—â—â—re Lieutenant of that Company Nerestan approaching him to salute him mounted on little Hobbies for fear of giving him suspition but with three Souldiers disguised like Lacquies cast him from his horse and made him prisoner They led him presently to the Bastille where he was seized with a great fear when he saw himself lodged in the same Chamber where the Marshal of Byron his great friend had been Immediately after the King caused d' Entragues to be Arrested who was carried to the Conciergerie and the Marchioness who was left in her lodgings under the Guard of the Cavalier de Guet After desiring to make known by publick proofs the ill intention of the Spaniards who seduced his subjects and excited and fomented conspiracies in his Estate he remitted the prisoners into the hands of the Parliament who having convicted them of having complotted with the Spaniard declared by a sentence of the first of February the Count of Auvergne d' Entragues and an English man named Morgan who had been the Agent of this fair Negotiation guilty of Treason and as such condemned them to have their heads cut off The Marchioness to be conducted with a good Guard into the Abby of Nuns at Beaumont near to Tours to be there shut up and that in the mean time there should be more ample information made against her at the request of the Attorny-General The Queen spared no sollicitations for the giving of this sentence believing that the Execution would satisfie her resentment but the goodness of the King surpassed her passion The love which he had for the Marchioness was not so far extinct that he could resolve to Sacrifice what he had adored he would not permit them to pronounce the Sentence and two months and a half afterward to wit on the fifteenth of April he by Letters under his Great Seal changed the penalty of Death on the Count of Auvergne and the Lord d' Entragues into perpetual Imprisonment Some time after he had likewise changed the prison of Entragues into a Confinement to his house of Malles-herbes in Beausse He likewise permitted the Marchioness to retire to Verneuil and seven months being passed without the Attorney-Generals procuring any proof against her he caused her to be declared absolutely innocent of the crime whereof she was accused There rested onely the Count of Auvergne who being the most to be feared was the worst treated for the King not onely kept him prisoner at the Bastille where he lay for twelve whole years but likewise deprived him of his propriety in the County of Auvergne He had bore the title and enjoyed it by vertue of the Donation of King Henry the third Queen Margaret newly come to the Court sustained that this Donation could not be valuable because the contract of the Marriage of Katherine de Medicis her Mother to whom that County appertained allowing Substitution of her goods and that Substitution said she extending to Daughters in default of Males that County was to come to her after the death of Henry the third nor could he give it to her prejudice The Parliament having hearkned to her reasons and seen her proofs annulled the Donation made by Henry the third and adjudged her this County In recompence of which obligation and many others she had received from the King she made a Donation of all her Estates after death to the Daulphin reserving to her self onely the fruits of them during life The Count of Auvergne thus despoiled remained in the Bastille untill the year one thousand six hundred and sixteen when Queen Mary de Medicis having need of him during the troubles delivered him from thence and caused him to be justified She
at the instigation of the friends of the defunct Admiral and of de la Mole who had been his favourite many believed this to be a thing devised by the Queen-mother of purpose to astonish and weaken the spirit of her Son and the reason they had to believe it was because she obliged the King to pardon this crime so lightly none either of the Complices or Instigators being punished for it However it were Henry the third testified in this occasion a particular confidence in our King of Navarre who assisted by his friends served him as Captain of his Guards through the whole way never stirring from the boot of his Coach and in this appeared so much the more generous having no reason to love him beside the obligation of his duty being his kinsman and his vassal Henry the third being arrived at Rheims was on the fifteenth of the month of February installed by the Cardinal of Guise and on the marrow espoused to Louise de Lorrain daughter of the Count of Vaudemont which added yet a great lustre to the house of Guise of which Duke Henry was chief who was at present in favour though after killed at Blois This Prince one of the bravest in all manners that Age produced had ever promised himself to govern the King by Queen Louise his kinswoman He had contracted a very strait familiarity with the King of Navarre whom he called his Master as that King called him his Gossip Queen Margaret who to speak the truth could not live without Intrigues nor Galanteries contributed with all her power to the entertainment of this good intelligence and essayed to make the Monsieur who is he we call Duke d' Alenson enter into it whom she most passionately loved But the union of Princes being the ruine of Favorites and those that governed the Queen-mother straight broke this designe begetting in the King a jealousie of his wife incensing Monsieur against the Duke of Guise by the remembrance of the massacre of the Admiral continually confounding the King of Navarre by the intrigue of some Ladies but particularly of de Sauves who enjoying such person as Katherine commanded her received the love and services of Monsieur to create a difference between them The Queen-mother entertained likewise an irreconcileable hatred between the King and Monsieur by which means there arrived an affair which as much proclaimed the greatness of Courage and Generosity of our Henry as any action he had done in his life The King being fallen sick and in great danger of death with a pain in his ear believed himself to be poisoned as Francis the second had been and accused Monsieur In this belief he sent to seek the King of Navarre and commands him to dispatch Monsieur so soon as he was dead enforcing himself by all reasons possible to perswade him that that wicked one would make him perish and all his if he prevented it not The favorites of the King having the same opinion with their Master seeing Monsieur pass sacrificed him already to their revenge by murthering regards Our Henry endeavoured to sweeten the fury of the King and remonstrated to him the horrible consequences of this command but the King not content with reasons contrary to them emported himself in such manner that he would he should presently execute it for fear lest he should fail of it when he were dead If the two brothers to wit the King and Monsieur had been out of the world the Crown appertained to him Now one in all appearances was about to die and he might easily finde a death for the other having the Favorites the Officers of the King the Guise all their friends and almost all the Nobility at his devotion for Monsieur was a Prince of an ill presence and of low inclinations yet malign and cruel and for all these fair qualities hated by almost all the world and sustained onely by the brave Bussy d' Amboise How few Princes are there that would have let slip so fair an occasion I dare boldly speak it how few are there would not seek it and yet our Hero for in such an action I must of force call him so was so far from prevailing himself of it that he conceived a horrour at the furious vengeance of Henry the third There is no nobler ambition then to know how to moderate ambition when it is not just and to endeavour to conserve our conscience and honour rather then acquist a crown by wicked ways Diadems gained by ill means are not marks of glory to those fronts that carry them but rather frontlets of infamy such as are placed on Thieves and Villains Heaven without doubt approved the generous sentiments of our Henry and destined to him the Scepter of the Flower de Luce because guiltless of an impatience to reach it before his degree On the contrary these brothers of the house of Valois who endeavoured to ravish it one from the other died all unhappily and had him for their successour who by a crime refused to be so Henry the third being recovered knew well that he had wrongfully accused his brother to have impoisoned him yet he loved him never a whit the more he dayly suffered his favorites to give him a thousand affronts and to domineer over him in the publick Assemblies He would likewise cause Bussy d' Amboise who was his favorite and onely support to be murthered by night at the gates of the Louvre and it was believed he had given order if the Duke of Alenzon had gone to his assistance for there were people appointed to come and tell him that Bussy was assassinated to slay him likewise In such manner that getting the bridle out of his teeth he escaped from Court put himself in the field gathered together some male-contents composed an Army and joyned with that of the Hugonots commanded by the Prince of Condé and by Casimir youngest son of the Count Palatine who in these civil wars of the Religion twice or thrice led great levies of German Horse into France Our Henry was puissantly sollicited to follow him and Monsieur said he had promised him to do it but they had taken from about him all those who might favour his escape and placed in their stead people of their own hire He was moreover promised the Lieutenant-Generalship of the Kings Army which was a strong lure to retain him nor was the love of the fair de Sauves less powerful However the natural spurs of his courage and the fear he had left Monsieur and the Prince of Condé should seize on the chief Command amongst the Hugonot party which had been his Cradle and was to be his Castle the remonstrances of some of his servants and the inventions of Queen Katherine who expresly incensed the King against him in the end obliged him to escape and made him take his resolution He saved himself therefore by feigning to go on the Chace
That force could not justly be employed against him who so far submitted himself to reason and the greatest part of the Nobility approved this generous procedure and proclaimed aloud that the Duke of Guise ought not to refuse so great an honour That Duke wanted no courage to accept the Defiance but he considered that drawing his sword against a Prince of the blood was in France accounted a kinde of Parricide that otherwise he could willingly have reduced the cause of Religion and of the Publick to a particular Quarrel He therefore prudently answered That he esteemed the person of the King of Navarre and would have no controversie with him but that he onely interested himself for the Catholick Religion which was threatned and for the tranquillity of the Kingdome which onely and absolutely depended on the unity of Religion His other Action was thus Having understood the noise of those paper-Thunder-bolts which the Pope had thrown out against him he dispatched one to the King to make his Complaints to him and to remonstrate to him That this procedure concerned his Majesty nearer then himself That he ought to judge That if the Pope took upon him to decide concerning his succession and should seize to himself a right to declare a Prince of the blood unable of the Crown he might afterwards well pass further and dethrone himself as Zachary is reported to have formerly degraded Childeric 3. Upon these Remonstrances the King hindred the publication of those Bulls in his Dominions But our Henry not contenting himself there with knowing himself to have friends at Rome proved so hardy as to fix his and the Prince of Condé his opposition at the corners of the chiefest streets of the City by which those Princes appealed from the sentence of Sixtus to the Court of Peerage of France giving the Lye to whoever accused them of the crime of Heresie offering to prove the contrary in a general Council and in the end professing that they would revenge upon him and upon all his successours the injury done their King the Royal Family and all the Courts of Parliament It could not but be supposed that this opposition would incense to the utmost the spirit of Sixtus the fifth and indeed at first he testified a very furious emotion However when his Choler was a little asswaged he admired the great Courage of that King who at such a distance had known how to revenge himself and fix the marks of his resentment even at the gates of his Palace in such manner that he conceived so great an esteem for him so true is it that Vertue makes it self be reverenced by its very enemies that he was often afterwards heard say That of all those who reigued in Christendome there was none but this Prince and Elizabeth Queen of Enland to whom he would have communicated those great things which agitated his spirit if they had not been Hereticks Nor could all the prayers of the League ever oblige him to furnish any thing towards the charges of this War which possibly overwhelmed the greatest part of their Enterprizes because their hopes in part depended on a Million which he had promised them Now as on their side the Chiefs of the League endeavoured to engage on their party all the Lords and Cities they could our Henry on his part re-united with him all his friends both of the one and the other Religion the Marshal of Damville-Montmorency Governour of Languedoc the Duke of Montpensier Prince of the blood who was Governour of Poictou with his Son the Prince of Dombes the Prince of Condé who held a part of Poictou of Xaintonge and of Angoumois the Count of Soissons and the Prince of Conty his brother Of these five Princes of the blood the three last were his Cousen-Germans the two first were removed one degree further and all professed the Catholick Religion save onely the Prince of Condé He had likewise on his part Lesdiguieres who from a plain Gentleman had by his Valour elevated himself to so high a point that he was Master of the Daulphinate and made the Duke of Savoy tremble Claudius de la Trimouille who possessed great Lands in Poictou and Brittany and was sometimes before turned Hugonot that he might have the honour to marry his Daughter to the Prince of Condé Henry de la Tour Viscount of Turenne who either out of complacency or true perswasion had espoused the new Religion Chastillon son to the Admiral of Coligny la Boulaye Lord Poitevin Rene chief of the house of Rohan George de Clermont d' Amboise Francis Count of Rochefoucaud the Lord de Aubetterre James de Caumontla-force the Seigneurs de Pons Saint Gelais-Lansac with many other Lords and Gentlemen of remark all or most of the new Religion At the same time he dispatched to Elizabeth Queen of England and to the Protestant Princes of Germany such able Agents that they joyned all together in a strong Union The One to maintain the Other so that all these being united all things arrived contrary to what the League expected and our Henry found himself fortified in such manner that he had no longer any apprehension of being oppressed without having the means to defend himself I shall not make here a particular Recital of the Actions either of the one or the other party during the years 1585. and 1586. because I have observed nothing very considerable King Henry the third was extreamly perplexed at this War which was maintained at his expence and to his great prejudice since they disputed the succession he yet living and well and already considered him as one dead He loved neither the one nor the other party but did so much cherish his Favourites strange blindness that he could have desired had it been in his power to have parted his Estate amongst them The League on their side pretended to have power enough to carry it and our Henry hoped to frustrate the designes both of the one and the other The Queen-mother having other wishes for the children of her Daughter married to the Duke of Lorrain promised the King to finde means to calm all these tempests To this purpose she procured a Truce with our Henry during which an Interview was agreed upon between him and her at the Castle of St. Brix near Coignac where both the one and the other met in the month of December There was some difficulty to finde security both for the one and the other but especially for the Queen-mother who was wonderfully distrustful Our Henry hereupon did an Action of great Generosity which he managed in this manner There had a Truce been agreed upon for the security of this Conference in such sort that if either party broke it they were in fault and might justly be arrested now some of our Henry's followers feigning to be Traytors had enticed some of the Catholick-Captains too greedy of the booty to Fontenay which they
not here tell the mischiefs and inconveniencies which this wicked invention hath caused and doth daily cause The most stupid may easily know them and see well that it is a disease whose remedy at present is difficult I will not charge this History with all the Ceremonies and Rejoycings made at the Birth and Baptism of all the Children of Henry the Great nor at divers Marriages of the Princes and Grandees of the Court amongst others of the Prince of Conde and the Duke of Vendosme which were made in the Month of July 1609. The Prince of Conde Espoused Câ—anlatta Margarita of Montmorency Daughter of the Constable who was wonderfully fair and had a presence absolutely noble which the King having considered was more lively struck with her then he had ever been with any other which caused a little after the retreat of the Prince of Conde who carried her into Flanders and thence retired to Milain Not without the Kings extreme displeasure to see the first Prince of his blood cast himself into his enemies hands The Duke of Vendosme Espoused Madamoiselle de Merceur to whom he had been affianced since the year one thousand six hundred ninety seven as we have said before however the Mother of the Lady standing upon high punctilio's of honour brought many troubles to the accomplishment of this Marriage so that it had never been made had not the King highly concerned himself in it This was none of the least difficulties of his life for he had a high and obstinate spirit to bend however he employed only ways of sweetness and perswasion acting in this business only as a Father who loved his Son and not as a King who would be obeyed Now will I speak of his ordinary divertisements Hunting Building Feasts Play and Walking I will adde only That in Feasts and Merriments he would appear as good a Companion and as Jovial as another That he was of a merry humour when he had the glass in his hand though very sober That his Mirth and good Discourses were the delicatest part of the good Chear That he witnessed no less Agility and Strength in Combats at the Barriers Courses at the Ring and all sorts of Gallantries then the youngest Lords That he took delight in Balls and Danced sometimes but to speak the truth with more affection then good grace Some carped that so great a Prince should abase himself to such follies and that a Grey-beard should please to act the young man It may be said for his excuse that the great toiles of his spirit had need of these divertisements But I know not what to answer to those who reproach him with too great a love to playing at Cards and Dice little befitting a great King and that withal he was no fair Gamester but greedy of Coin fearful at great Stakes and humorous upon a loss To this I must acknowledge that it was a fault in this great King who was no more exempt from Blots then the Sun from Beams It might be wished for the honour of his memory that he had been only guilty of this but that continual weakness he had for fair Ladiesâ— was another much more blamable in a Christian Prince in a of his age who was married to whom God had shewed so many graces and who had conceived such great designs in his spirit Sometimes he had desires which were passant and only fixt for a night but when he met with beauties which struck him to the heart he loved even to folly and in these transports appeared nothing less then Henry the Great The Fable saies that Hercules took the Spindle and Spun for the love of the fair Omphale Henry did something more mean for his Mistresses He once disguised himself like a Country-man with a Wallet of straw on his back to come to the fair Gabriella And it hath been reported that the Marchioness of Verneuil hath seen him more then once at her feet weeping his disdains and injuries Twenty Romances might be made of the intrigues of his several loves with the Countess of Guiche when he was yet but King of Navarre with Jacqueline of Bueil whom he made Countess of Moret and with Charlotta d' Essards without counting many other Ladies who held it a glory to have some Charm for so great a King The high esteem and affection which the French had for him hindred them from being offended at so scandalous a liberty but the Queen his wife was extremely perplexed at it which hourly caused controversies between them and carried her to disdains and troublesom humours The King who was in fault endured it very patiently and employed his greatest Confidents and sometimes his Confessor to appease his spirit So that he had continually a reconciliation to make And these contentions were so ordinary that the Court which at first were astonished at them in the end took no more notice Conjugal duty without doubt obliged the King not to violate his faith to his Legitimate Spouse at least not to keep his Mistresses in her sight but if he in this point ought to have been a good husband so he ought to be likewise in that of Authority and in accustoming his wife to obey him with more submission and not perplex him as she did with hourly complaints reproaches and sometimes threats The trouble and displeasure of these domestick broiles certainly retarded the Execution of that great design which he had formed for the good and perpetual repose of Christendom and in fine for the destruction of the Ottoman power Many have spoken diversely but see here what I find in the Memoires or Notes of the Duke of Sully who certainly must know something being as he was so great a Confident of this Kings which makes me report it from him The King said he desiring to put in Execution those projects he had conceived after the Peace of Vervin believed that he ought first to establish in his Kingdom an unshaken Peace by reconciling all spirits both to him and among themselves and taking away all causes of bitterness And that moreover it was necessary for him to choose people capable and faithful who might see in what his Revenue or Estate might be bettered and instruct him so well in all his Affairs that he might of himself take Counsels and discern the good from the ill feasible from impossible enterprizes and such as were proportionate to his Revenues For an expence made beyond them draws the peoples curses and those are ordinarily followed by Gods He granted an Edict to the Hugonots that the two Religions might live in Peace Afterwards he made a certain and fixed Order to pay his debts and those of the Kingdom contracted by the disorders of the times the profusions of his Ancestors and by the payments and purchases of men and places which he was forced to make during the League Sully shewed him an account
sends forth enlivenings and joy into the eyes of all that behold it To continue the Metamorphosis I will yet say that so many wise Laws which he made for Justice for Policy and for his Revenues so many good and useful Establishments of all sorts of Manufactures which produced to France the yearly profit of many Millions so many proud buildings as the Galleries of the Louvre the Pont-neuf the Place Royal the Colledge Royal the Keys for Merchants of the River Seine Fontain-bleau Monceaux St. Germain so many publick works Bridges Causwaies Highwaies repaired so many Churches rebuilded in many places of the Realm should be as the Ingravements and Imbellishments Let us Crown then with a thousand prayses the immortal memory of that great King the love of the French and the terror of the Spaniards the Honour of his age and the Admiration of Posterity Let us make him live in our hearts and in our affections in despite of the rage of those wicked persons deprived him of life Let us shout forth as many Acclamations to his glory as he hath done benefits to France He was a Hereules who cut off the Head of the Hydra by overturning the League He was greater then Alexander and greater then Pompey because he was as Valiant but he was more Just he gained as many victories but he gained more hearts He conquered the Gaules as well as Julius Caesar but he conquered them to give them liberty and Caesar subjugated them to enslave them Let his Name then be raised above that of the Hercules the Alexanders the Pompeys and the Gaesars Let his Reign be the Model of good Kings and his Examples the clear Lights to illuminate the eyes of other Princes Let his Posterity be Eternally Crowned with the Flowers de Lis Let them be alwaies happy alwaies Triumphant And to compleat our wishes let Lewis the Victorious his Grand-child Resemble or if it be possible Surpass him FINIS The Life of Hen. the Great divided into three parts The first The second The third His Genealogie Who Antho. de Bourbon his father was a Peter sixth Son to Lewis le gross espoused Isabella Heiress of Courtnay and took both Name and Arms a fault very prejudicial to his posterity b The branch of Bourbon produced many among others that of Vendosme Charles Duke of Vendosme had Anthony and six other sons Who Jane d' Albret his Mother was 〈◊〉 of Bourbon Duke of Vendosme and Jane d' Albret married at Moulins 1547. 1552. Henry the Great conceived at la Fleche 1553. His mother sings at her delivery of him He cries not at his birth So soon as born his grandfather carries him into his chamber he rubs his lips with Garlick makes him taste wine The Spaniards Raillery concerning the birth of his mother Her fathers Reply to it 1554. Baptism of Hen. 4. His godfathers and godmother He was hard to bring up He had for Governess Madam de Miossens His grandfather permits him not to be nourished delicately * It hath been said that he was ordinarily nourished with coarse bread beef cheese and garlick and that oftentimes he was made to march with naked feet and brre headed The death of Henry d' Albret 1555. His daughter son-in-law succeed him and retire from the Court. 1557. 1558. 1559. Death of King Henry the second Francis 2. succeeâ—s Divisions at Court 1560. Death of Francis 2. Charles 9. succeeds Queen Katherine declared Regent and the King of Navarre Lieutenant-General of the Realm 1562. He is killed before Rouen 1562. The Queen his wife returns to Bearn and embraces Calvinism 1566. She taâ— her son from the Court and gives him a Master instructs him in ill Doctrine 1567. Henry Prince of Navarre declared chief of the Religion 1569. Louys Prince of Condé his Uncle his Lieutenant with Admiral Coligny A judicious action when yet an infant b This Duke of Anjou was King after Hen. 3 Another action very judicious at the battle of Jarnac Lewis Prince of Condé slain After his death the Admiral commands all He hazards the battle of Montcontour Our Prince impatâ—ent to engage but hindred Gives marks of his judgement 1570. He with the Admiral continues the War The peace of Arnay-le-Duc 1571. A Resolution to entrap the Hugonots and exterminate them Death of Jane d' Albret Her son takes the quality of King of Navarre He marries the King of France his sister Massacre of St. Bartholomew The grief and fear of our young King He is constrained to turn Catholick 1572. His great dangers troubles at Court His wise prudent conduct He contracts friendship with the Duke of Guise He shuns contention with Duke d' Alenzon but lets himself be overcome by the beauty of Ladies which was his greatest weakness 1572. He fell not into any other of the horrible Vices of the Court. 1573. The Duke of Anjou besieges Rochel and carries the King with him The siege raised by the election of Duke d' Anjou to the Kingdome of Poland 1574. Charles 9. falls mortally sick at Bois de Vincennes A league made at Court into which Henry enters The Queen-mother discovering it causes him the Duke Alenson c to be arrested and la Mole Coconas Tourtray to be put to death The Chancellour would examine the King of Navarre Charles 9. near his death sends for him 1574. Queen Katherine alarm'd would affright him After the death of Charles 9. she seizeth on the Regency The two Princes set at liberty The Prince of Condé was in Germany The King of Navarre cannot escape as he desires He falls in love with a Lady The Queen-mother alluminates all the factions and civil wars 1575. Conspiracy against Henry 3. who confides in our Henry Henry 3. anointed and espoused to Louis de Lorrain Familiarity between our Henry and the Duke of Guise The Queen-mother breaks this union Henry 3. falls very sick a Francis 2 died of an Aposthume in his ear which was believed to come of poyson A noble and generous action of our Henry 1575. 1576. Monsieur departs from Court and joyns with the Hugonots Our Henry could not soon follow him but at length saves himself at Alenzon Peace made with Monsieur and the Hugonots 1576. Our Henry again turns Hugonot He is received into Rochel and after goes into Guyenne The gates of Bourdeaux shut against him The birth of the League These Leagues a fair path for the ambitious to rise by The Duke of Guise makes himself chief of the League The War of Monsieur his joyning with the Hugonots the cause of the League The Cities of Picardy begin it and why Christopher de Thou hinders its procedure at Paris The Leaguers oblige the King to call the Estates They assemble at Blois War resolved against the Hugonots Henry 3. declares himself chief of the League 1577. He raises three or four Armies against the Hugonots The Queen-mother obliges him to grant them peace 1578. She makes a voyage to Guyenne
and carries with her her daughter Margaret The King of Navarre looses Agen and la Reole by two follies of youth Two exquisite Reflections Queen Margaret did not over-well love her husband nor he her but he draws advantages from her intrigues The Queen-mother Monsieur the Guises weary of the peace 1579. They under-hand perswade the King of Navarre to a Rupture which proves very disadvantagious to him Monsieur procures the peace Of much damage to the Estate being the cause the two Henries plunged themselves in pleasure Henry 3. hath favorites who prejudice his affairs Dispositions to the League to the loss of Hen. 3. 1584. a Monsieur intending to surprize Antwerp and treating ill the people of the Low-Countries who had called him was driven thence The death of the Monsieur begets thoughts of a Successor to the Crown The Queen-Mother designs to give the Crown to the children of her daughter married to the Duke of Lorrain A belief that the Duke of Guise hoped to Reign himself Henry 3. knew his design or was advertized of it by his favorites He sends the Duke d'Espernon to the King of Navarre to oblige him to return to the Catholick Church but he refuses The Duke of Guise profits himself of it The League Established at Paris The Pope disapproves it It is turned against Henry the third The Treaty of Joinville where the Spaniards enter into the League furnish money The League seize many places The Queen-mother enters into conference with Guise who breaks it when he sees himself in an Estate to fear nothing The King astonished grants him all he desires 1585. Pope Sixtus 5. excommunicates the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde The vertue of our Henry awakened He doth two noble actions He defies the Duke of Guise to single Combat Why the Duke of Guise accepted not the defiance The other gallant Action of our Henry He causes to be fixed up at the corners of the chief streets of Rome oppositions to the sentence of Sixtus 5. who at first is incensed but afterwards conceives a great estèem for him The King of Navarre makes a League to defend himself 1586. Henry 3. hated both the League the Hugonots and loved none but his favourites The Queen-mother endeavours an accommodation with the King of Navarre The Interview and conference at St. Brix A noble generous Action of our Prince His constancy in the whole conference A handsome answer to Duke de Nevers Conference at St. Brix produceth nothing Dances and Feasts in the Courts of the two Kings Blaise de Monluc Marshal of France who writ in these times says in his Memoires That whatever affair there were of force the Dancing was still to go forward 1587. An Army of German Protestants enter France It is followed by the Duke of Guise It doth nothing to purpose The King of Navarre would joyn with them but the Duke of Joyeuse makes head against him with an Army The Duke overtakes him near Coutras What the Army of Joyeuse was What that of the King His Exhortation to his Army and to the Princes of the Blood His valour bravery An Action of great Justice and Christian Humility The Battail of Coutras which he gains Joyeuse slain His moderation and admirable Clemency in his Victory He pursues it not and wherefore Defeat of the German horse The rest of that Army retire 1588 Prognostications of the evils of the year 1588. Death of the Prince of Conde The King of Navarre much afflicted But in his affliction puts his trust in God The League rejoyce The Hugonots afflicted Sentiments of Hen. 3. The Duke of Guise presseth him to give him forces to exterminate the Hugonots The Duke of Guise much loved and Hen. 3. much haâ—ed D' Espinac Villeroy become friends to the Duke of Guise and why The ill Conduct of Henry 3. The Conduct and employs of the Duke of Guise What the sixteen were The King would punish them The Duke of Guise hastes to defend them The King retires to Chartres The league becomes Mistriss Paris The Parisians send Deputies to the King The King pardons all so they lay down Arms. The Duke of Guise demands the expulsion of Espernon which is in the end granted And after comes to the Court at Chartres The Estates of Blois The death of the Guises Death of Queen Katherine de Medices Different Judgments concerning the death of the Guises Our Henry speaks very wisely He changeth not his Conduct 1589. Henry 3. amusiag himself too much at Blois the League is re-assured and grows furious The Parliament imprisoned in the Bastille by Bussy le Clerk forced to swear to the the â—eague A part remains at Paris and the others go to the King who transfers all to Tours Those of the Parliament remaining at Paris make process against Henry 3. An excellent reflection for Kings Henry 3. excommunicated by Pope Sixtus 5. The Duke of Mayenne assures himself of Burgongne and Champagne and comes to Paris He takes the quality of Lieutenant-General of the Estate and Crown of France they likewise break the Kings Seals Henry 3. for fear retires to Tours He in vain endeavours to appease the Duke of Mayenne He in the end calls the King of Navarre gives him Saumur The King perswaded by his friends not to trust him Yet he resolves to go arrive what will to which purpose he passes the River Cher. His interview with the King at Tours He repasses the River and lies in the Fauboâ—rg but on the morrow visits the King alone They resolve to besiege Paris Duke of Mayenne wants little to surprize King Hen. 3 â—â— Tours Great and profitable Reflections made on the different Conducts of Hen. â— and the King of Navarre Paris besieged King Hen. 3. killed by a Jacobin Our Henry comes to visit him dying What the King said to him and those present 1589 Change caused by the Death of Hen. 3. Problem if Hen. 3. died in a time favourable to Hen. 4. or not Henry 4. holds many Councels Same Catholicks acknowledge him but most refuse Some design to make themselves Sovereigns The Marshal of Byron among others but the King made him forgo his desire Byron and Sancy assure the Catholick Suiss to the Kings Service What was the disposition of the Princes of the blood towards the King Many Lords in Camp and Court ill intended Assembly of Noblemen at d' O's who would have the King converted d' O carrys him word of it The King answers them hansomely and couragiously Another greater Assembly resolved to acknowledge him provided he will permit himself to be instructed The Duke of Piney carries their resolution to the King who agrees to it and grants a Declaration touching the exercise of the Catholick Religion through all his Territories Many sign it with regret and others refuse as Vitry who becomes a Leaguer And the Duke of Espernon who retires The Duke of Mayennâ— troubled what party to take Two