Alphonsus possess any thing in it 6. René dying an 1480. although his Daughter Yoland Dutchesse of Lorraine had left children he left the inheritance of the County of Provence and of his Rights upon Naples Charles Count du Maine Son to his brother of the same name and title And Charles dying likewise without issue left Lewis the XI his Heir in all his states and the Kings of France successours to Lewis Lewis neglecting to go to Naples held by Ferdinand bastard of that Alphonsus and by his Children contented himselfe to hold Provence But his Sonne Charles the VIII undertook the conquest of Naples an 1493. and after him Lewis the XII and Francis the I. In the next Chapter we shall see the severall Wars Partages and Treaties between these two Houses for that Kingdom So all the Rights of the House of France to the Kingdome of Naples are reduced to these heads 1. The investiture by Urban the IV. in favour of Charles brother to St Lewis A weak Right if it were alone the French Kings having not succeeded to that family by kindred for all that belongs to any branch of the House of France doth not therefore belong to France 2. The Adoption of Lewis the first of the second house of Anjou by Queen Jane the I. by the counsell and leave of Clement the VII who was acknowledged by France for a true Pope By that adoption the right of Naples fel to the house of Anjou of which the French Kings have inherited 3. The two adoptions made by Queen Jane the II. first of Lewis the III. Duke of Anjou and after him of his Brother René 4. The will of Charles Count du Maine who named Lewis the XI his heir both of Provence and of his right to the Kingdome of Naples and his successors Kings of France after him Paragraphe VIII Of the Dutchy of Milan After the wrack of the Roman Empire an 400. all the Countries about the River of Po towards the Alpes were taken by Theodorick Goth and kept by his children till about the year 550. that they were recovered by Belisarius and Narses two Captaines of the Emperour Justinian But soon after the same Countries were won by the Ostrogoths Kings of Italy and again by the Lombards who setled a great State there and maintained it till the time of Charlemagne who destroyed it an 774. After which time all the Towns of those parts were Imperial belonging to whosoever had the Empire of the West The house of Charlemagne being degenerated and having lost the Empire after the yeare 900. the Empire was disputed between the Italian and the German Princes for 50 yeares In the end the Germans having prevailed in the person of Otho the I the Emperors his successours having chosen the seat of their Empire in Germany and being at odds many times with the Popes their power sensibly decayed in Italy and great part of the Towns of Lombardy slipt out of their Dominion and chose to themselves Italian Lords the Emperours retaining the shadow only of Soveraignty Many also chose liberty a Popular State as Siena Pisa Florence Genoa and others In these confusions the City of Milan was usurped by the Viscounts of Angleria a small place in the Dutchy of Milan who maintained themselvs about six hundred years under that name and quality of Vicounts untill the year 1497. that the Emperour Wenceslaus not Friderick as Gassan saith erected Milan into a Dutchy The first Duke was Galeas the III. who had married Isabella daughter to John King of France That Galeas had three Sons John Maria that succeeded him and died without issue Philip Maria that succeeded his brother who likewise died without issue leaving a bastard daughter named Bona married to Francis Sforza a Souldier of Fortune but a gallant man That first Duke Galeas besides these two Sons had a daughter called Valentina married to Lewis Duke of Orleans Son to Charles the V. King of France an 1398. Her Father gave her the County of Ast for her portion with a Million of Livers wherewith the County of Blois was bought Chasteauduro Soissons and other Lordships And by the contract of Matrimony it was declared that if the masculine line of Galeas should fail Valentina and her children should succeed in the Dutchy It is true that this clause had this great defect that the Dutchy beeing establisht a masculine Fee Galeas could not make it feminine without the Emperours leave which was not demanded because the Empire was then vacant by the degradation of Wenceslaus whom the Electors deposed for his idlenesse But it is pretended that the Pope Benedict the XIII who then had his See at Avignon approved that contract for that right the Popes challenge in the vacancy of the Empire Howsoever John Maria and Philip Maria being dead without lawfull issue none had more right to that succession then the children of Valentina But that succession fel in the heat of the confusions of France under Charles the VII when the two Sons of Valentina Charls Duke of Orleans John Count of Angoulesme were Prisoners in England where the eldest remained five and twenty years and the second well nigh thirty In that long time it was easie for Francis Sforza who had married Bona the bastard daughter of Duke Philip Maria to make himself Master of Milan of which he procured and obtained the investiture from the Emperour Friderick the IV. This Francis Sforza had two Sons whom he left to the tuition of his brother Ludovick Sforza so famous in the History of Milan who having made away his pupills seized upon the State of Milan and was expelled out of it by Lewis the XII King of France and since was taken carried to Loches where he died in Prison He left two Sons Maximilian who was restored by the Switzers and since taken by Francis the I. and died in France His other Son was Francis Sforza the second who died without issue 1534. So that house of Sforza's maintained the usurpation of Mi. an well nigh a hundred years among many wars and divisions the lawfull right remaining still in the house of Orleans with the possession of the County of Ast which is part of that Dutchy But that right could not be prosecuted 1. In the desolation of the house of Orleans and the great divisions between that house and the house of Burgundy 2. In the long inprisonment of the two Princes of Orleans 3. In the great troubles of the State of France almost all the reign of Charles the VII 4. Besides Lewis the XI had many other businesses all his time Neither did he love the house of Orleans and the Princes of his blood And of all things he hated the Wars of Italie whither he would never go neither for the conquest of Naples nor for the receiving the City of Genoa that gave her self to him 5. All the time of Charles the VIII was spent in Civill Wars or in the Conquest
of which he had Children One of them and his successour was Denis Alphonsus being dead an 1279. From that Denis are descended all the Kings of Portugal to this day Some of the French Historians affirme that Mahaut had two Sons by Alphonsus in France the one that dyed young the other Robert from whom the whole House of the Counts of Bullen is descended which fell to Magdalen de la Cour wife to Laurens of Medicis by whom came Katherine de Medicis mother of the three late French King Francis the II. Charles the IX and Henry the III after whose death by the substitution set downe before in the contract betweene her and Henry the II the inheritance of Katherine came to her Daughter Queen Margaret first Wife to Henry the IV. That Queen made the Dolphin of France her Heir who since was Lewis the XIII When the dispute for the succession of Portugal was open after the death of Henry the Cardinal King an 1530 Katherine Queen of France among other pretenders to that Crown set forth her claim by Belloy Advocate Generall in the Parliament of Toulouse who pleaded that from the marriage of Alphonsus and Mahaut a Son was born called Robert and had succeeded in all his rights that Beatrix was the Concubine not the wile of Alphonsus and that the Pope could not legitimate Denis born of adultery to the prejudice of Robert the true Heir of Alphonsus Also that all the Kings that had reigned since Denis for three hundred years made no prescription because there can be no prescription for the right of Kingdoms That right being propounded to the Estates of Portugal was found too old and stale and injurious to all their Kings neither did they make any account of it Besides the Spanish Historians affirm that Alphonsus had no issue by Mahaut and that among the protestations which Mahaut made in Portugal against Alphonsus there is not one word of the injury which he did to her children which she would not have forgot if she had had any Yet that right may be defended by the testimony of the French Historians and by this true allegation that neither a bastard nor his Descent can prescribe against the lawfull Heirs Paragraphe III. Of the Kingdom of Navarra An. 713. when the Saracens invaded Spain Inigo Ximenes Arista Count of Bigorre gave a beginning to the little Kingdome of Suprarba within the Pyrenees which a while after having spread into the vales tooke the name of Navarra or Navierras which in old Spanish signifieth plain grounds It is certain that two generous Princes and great Catholiques resisted the Saracens in the very beginning of their invasion Pelagius towards the Astures which are Leon and Gallicia and this Ximenes Arista towards the Pyrenees though the date of the Conquests of this Ximenes be not so certain some Historians make him latter Upon which one may read the History of Navarra written by Favin 2. These Kings of Navarra in their beginings made many Conquests over the Saracens and that Family continued to Sanches the great who about the year 1035. shared all his Estates among his three Sons of whom the eldest Garcias had Navarra to whom many Kings succeeded till that State fell to the house of France by the marriage of Philip le Bel with Jane Inheritrix of Navarra Countesse of Campagn and Brie to whom Lewis Hutin King of France and Navarra succeeded in her Estates But he having no child but a daughter called Jane which could not be Queen of France he left her Navarra and so that State was soon separated from that of France That Jane married Philip of the Royall branch of Eureux 3. By that marriage the house of Navarro became a Royall French house but the nature of that Crown being to fall to women as the other States of Spain it passed not long after into the Family of Arragon by marriage and so again into the Family of Castilia and again into the Family of Foix after this manner 4. Charles the III. King of Navarre Grandchild to that Jane daughter to Lewis Hutin had one onely daughter called Blanch married to John Prince and afterwards King of Arragon From that marriage came Charles Prince of Viana who got a great but an ill renown in the Histories of Spain for making War to his Father and maintaining himself against him in his State after his mothers death That Prince of great learning and courage died a batchelour The two other children of John of Arragon and Blanch of Navarra were two daughters The eldest Blanch of Arragon who having been married with Henry the IV. King of Castilia surnamed the Impotent was separated from him by reason of his impotency and died without issue The other was Eleanor wife to Gaston the IV. Count of Foix who after the death of her Father Mother Brother and Sister succeeded to the Kingdom of Navarra and united it to the house of Foix. She enjoyed it but two months and a half and died An. 1469. Her eldest Son Gaston Prince of Viana being already dead and having left by his wife Magdalen daughter to Charles the VII of France two children Francis Phoebus who succeeded his Grandfather in the Kingdome of Navarra but enjoyed it but four years and died unmarried and Catherine de Foix who succeded him and married John d' Albret Son to Alen d' Abret a man of great note in Gascony but not of a soveraign house yet descended from that Amani d' Albret who in the time of Charles the V. of France married Magaret of Bourbon Sister to Jane Queen of France and raised his house to a great splendour by that royal alliance advanced much the party of the French against the English 5. John of Albret and Catherine de Foix had a Son called Henry who was King of Navarra and married Margaret Sister to Francis the first of France by whom he had Jane Inheritrix of Navarra Jane being married to Antony of Bourbon was by him Mother of Henry the IV. of France Father to Lewis the XIII and Grandfather to Lewis the XIV Thus that house of Navarra was united with two great houses in France yet not Royal that of Foix and that of Albret and after to the Royal house of Bourbon and became so powerfull in France that her possessions from these three houses much exceeded the Kingdome of Navarra Hence it is manifest how the last Kings of Navarra by the interesse of their Alliance and Estate were obliged to follow the party of France Now it hapned An. 1510. after that Lewis the XII had humbled the Venetians by the victory of Aignadel and brought terrour among all the Princes of Italy that Pope Julius the II. fell out with Lewis and prosecuted the quarrell with such animosity Lewis on the other side being as fierce as he that the contention grew almost into a Schism Julius excommunicated all that took part with Lewis and put an interdict as they call it upon
gave it to Bernard who was the first Count of Catalonia and was a powerfull and considerable man in the Court of Lewis the Meek and the Counts of that Province who then were but Goverours were a long time ordinary Courtiers and Attendants of the French Kings But by the idlenesse of the last descent of Charlemagne the Governours of Provinces and of this among the rest made themselves Masters About the beginning of the third Race of the French Kings the Family that ruled in Catalonia was that of the Beringers And that County was alwayes separate from the Kingdom of Arragon till the yeare 1131 when Don Alphonso King of Arragon surnamed the Bellador because he fought twenty two battels being dead without issue the people of Arragon tooke Ramires out of the Gloister of St. Pontius of Tomieres where he had lived forty yeares a Monk because he was of the Royal blood and Son to Sanchez Ramires King of Arragon He was married by a dispensation of Anaclet the II Pope or rather Anti-pope and had a Daughter named Petronilla married to Raymond Berenger Count of Catalonia So Arragon and Catalonia were united and never separated since James King of Arragon an 1320. by the advice of the State of the Land made the Law of union of the three Provinces Arragon Valentia and Catalonia not to be possest separately any more Together with that Law Catalonia agreed with the King of Arragon that she should have her forces and priviledges apart and that the Kings of Arragon who took only the title of Counts of Catalonia should oblige themselves by oath to observe that condition This precaution of the Catalans hath justified their late revolt which the most conscionable among them have yeelded unto acknowledging that their King had violated that Treaty It is a constant truth that all that time from the conquest of Charlemagne Catalonia was a Fee depending from France Charlemagne made the first Counts of it who were his Courtiers The first upon whom it was settled as a French Fee was Geffery le Velu invested by Charles le Gros an 885. And Bera Count of Catalonia being accused of felony before Lewis le Begue offered to purge himselfe by a Duell after the manner of the time in which being overcome he was deprived of his Fee and another invested with it All that time also all the publique Acts of Notaries in Catalonia were done in the name of the Kings of France which is an undoubted mark of Supremacy and all the Kings of Arragon Counts of Catalonia did homage for it to the Kings of France till the yeare 1181. and in the beginning of Philip the Conquerour when Alphonsus King of Arragon called a Councill at Tarracona a Town of Catalonia where under colour of conscience and respect to Religion he caused an Order to be made that from thenceforth the yeares of the French Kings should no more be put in the Deeds and Contracts of Catalonia but the yeares of Christ And the same King having neglected that homage to the Kings of France that right was lost under Philip Auguste Lewis the VIII and St Lewis the claim onely remaining In which consideration likely the Princes of Arragon were educated in the Court of France one of them was James who lived in the time of St. Lewis and had been educated with Philip le Hardy who being come to visit that King and having given him his sister Isabella to wife the Spartards say that by reason of that match and the cession which James made to Philip of the Town of Monpellier and of some other Lands which he possest in Langue doc the said King Philip quitted all his right of supremacy over Arragon and Catalonia That Treaty was an 1270 by which the Spaniards conceive that they have shaken the yoak of French Soveraignty But whether that Treaty be valid or no either for the fact or the right that cession being above 380 years old it seems authenticall and the French have given over that claim But they have another of latter date For by reason of the massacre made in the Siclian Vespers an 1281. Peter King of Arragon Count of Catalonia was excommunicated his Lands put in interdict and given to Philiple Hardy by Martin the IV Pope or to his Son Count of Valois but that right being the same as the right which the French claime or did claim upon Arragon of which we spake lately we will not here repeat So the French rights over Catalonia are reduced to these two neads The first is taken from the conquest of Charlemagne the estabishing of Counts and Governours in the same the homage done to the Kings of France the years of their reign ascribed in their deeds both private and publique The other is the same as is pretended upon Arragon Of both the French make no great account Onely because of late years Catalonia hath shaken the yoke of the Kings of Arragon and Castilia and have given themselves to the French it may be disputed whether the French King may use any of these old stale Titles or whether he must ground the justice of his possession upon the donation which the Catalans have made to him holding themselves free from the obedience of the Spaniard by reason of the infraction of their priviledges Certainly in all particular Treaties the unobservation of the conditions freeth the parties from the obligations of the contract But as for Soveraignties and the mutual obligations of Kings and Subjects many will reason otherwise saying that although the obligation be mutual as for the conscience yet as for the retrocession and the penalty attending the breach of the obligation it doth not reach to Kings whose actions are not censurable by the people not by the nature of the contract which is mutuall and reciprocall but for the danger of the consequence which might authorize revolts Others also will say that a Country giving her selfe to a Prince what priviledges soever the people reserve to themselves by contract they are all lost when they enter into subjection which by its nature makes a man subject to another man without any exception when the publique good is concerned that those priviledges by that subjection passe into the nature of meer liberties and concessions of Princes which they may stretch diminish and over-throw according to their discretion Certainly in all these contentions between the people and the Soveraign passion and interests bear a great sway make conscience plead on both sides But any reason will passe when there is strength to back it Paragraphe VI. Of the County of Roussillon and Sardinia That little Country at the foot of the Pyrenees and near the golph of Leon was antiently part of Languedoc and for a long time past through the same fortunes and changes It was for a great while part of the County of Beziers and Dutchy of Narbon Then it came into the hands of particular Counts which failing the Country fell to
the Empire and the confusions risen in Germany after there extinction of that Race gave a beginning to so many Fees both Secular and Ecclesiasticall which are now in Germany the Governours having made themselves Lords and laid the foundation of the great Houses now in being Which neverthelesse have gone through many changes some families being extinct and some Fees sold transported or confiscated Among these families one of the chiefe and indeed the most remarkable at this time is that of Austria 3. The French Kings of the first Race possessing a Kingdom of vast extent which they divided into Ostrick and Westrick Ostrick which by corruption and French termination was called Austrasie was the Eastern part and comprehended the Countries towards the River Msa and beyond the Rhine and as far as Hungarie Westrick which by corruption was called Neustria comprehended the Western part from Mosa towards Britain These names were long preserved even to the age of Charlemagne and being lost by the new partage between the Children of Lewis the meek yet the name of Neustria stuck long to the Western part which is now called Normandie for Brittain was a State by it selfe The name of Ostrick being lost by the same partage remain'd nevertheless to the most Eastern part and the next to Hungary and is that which we call Austria a word corrupted from Ostricke and Ostenrick and is that Province seated upon Danubius where the Capitall City of Vienna stands 4. In that Country Otho the III. about the year 1000 establisht Leopold a Marquis that is a keeper of those Marches against the ordinary excursions of the Hungarians That Leopold is the head of the first House of Marquisses since Dukes of Austria which continued till a certain Friderick who went to the War of Naples against Charles brother of St. Lewis and being taken with Conradin a competitor of that Kingdom was beheaded with him By his death without Children Austria returned to the Empire But Wenceslaus King of Bohemia sought to joyne it to his State and sent thither his Sonne Ottocarus who having conspired against the Empire with the Hungarians was degraded and put to death by the Emperour Rudolphus of whom we are now to speak 5. By the death of the Emperour Friderick the Second the great enemy of Popes which was about the year 1231. the factions were so great about a new election that there was an Anarchy of twenty years and above under these titular Emperours William Earl of Holland Richard of England and Alphonsus of Spain In the end after many assemblies and contentions the Electors gave their Votes to Rudolphus Earl of Habsburg who was acknowledged by the whole Empire That Election was in the year 1255. five years after the death of St. Lewis Philip le Hardy then raigning in France 6. Between Basel and Soleurre Cantons of Switzerland there is Triestein Castle the Lords whereof had the Title of Counts and by the women inherited the County of Habsburg and took the Title of the same Of that House was this Rodolphus before whom there is no certainty of the History of their House who by his virtue was elected Emperour An. 1275. and dyed in the 1291. The Dutchy of Austria being then vacant and Ottocarus the Bohemian having invaded it and made a league with the Hungarians against the Empire Rodolphus divested him of it and slew him and An. 1282. invested his Son Alber in the same In that Albert we must take the birth of the house of Austria And although that Albert was also Emperour from the year 1298. till 1308 yet his descent returned not to that quality but 130. years after and went for Princes of the Empire as other Imperial Families Onely in the time of Pope John 22. there was a great contention for the Empire between Friderick of Austria and Lewis of Bavié The whole Pedegree of thaâ— house is to be seen in the Tables of Bertius from the Creation of Rudolphus of Habsburg An. 1275. to the year 1438. when the Empire entred so into that hause that it did not come out since Paragraphe III. So much is known then that the house of Austria by the death of Albert the first lost the Empire and fell back into the State of a private principality and that lesse considerable then the houses of Saxonie Bavieres and Luxemburg which furnished many Emperours and so it continued till the Emperour Albert the II. Sigismond the Emperour of the house of Luxemburg was Son to Charles the IV. Emperour and Grand-child to John King of Bohemia And that Charles the IV. was he that made the golden Bull and establisht a certain â—orm of Imperial elections This Charles was Grand-child to the Emperour Henry the VII head of the house of Luxemburg Sigismond â—ad no male issue and gave his onely Daughâ—er Elizabeth to Albert of Austria who after he death of his Father in law was elected Emperour An. 1438. and this house hath ever since kept the Empire From that year these Emperours reigned Albert the II. who reigned two years Frideâ—ick the III. his Cozin who reigned 53 years Maximilian Son of Friderick who reigned 26 years Charles the V. who reigned 36 years Ferdinand I. brother to Charles who â—eigned 9 years Maximilian Son of Ferlinand who reigned 12 years Rodolphus II. Son of Maximilian who reigned 36 years Matthias rother to Adolphus who reigned 7 years Ferdinand II. Cozin to the two precedent Emperours who reigned 19 years To him sucâ—eeded his Son Ferdinand III. who is the â—enth of that house from the year 1438. To which if you adde the Three of antient date â—here have been thirteen Emperours of the â—ouse and name of Austria That house may be considered either in her Patrimonial estate which she held in Germany before her greatnesse Or in her grerising which sprung out of three heads 1. The mariage of Maximilian with Maâ—â— the Inheritrix of the seventeen Provinces 〈◊〉 Netherlands Franche County and the goodâ— not masculine of the house of Burgundy 2. The mariage of Philip Son of Maximiliaâ— and Mary of Burgundy with Jane the Inhertrix of Spain and by consequent of Sicily Nâ—ples and the West Indies and soon after of Poâ—tugal and the East Indies 3. The mariage of Ferdinand brother 〈◊〉 Charles the V. with Anne the Inheritrix 〈◊〉 the Kingdomes of Bohemia and Hungari The great estate of that house being accrewed to them by these waies We will speaâ— here of the Patrimonial Dominions of thâ— house of Austria reserving the rest for thâ— following Paragraphes The Patrimony of the house of Austrâ—â— wholly seated in Germany and upon the Râ—ver Danubius hath on the South the Mountains of Tirolis and towards the Rhinâ— Alsatia Bounded Eastward with Hungar and Poland Southward by the Venetians Westward by the Switzers and Northwarâ— by many Princes of Germany That Estate composed with many pieces which were united in one body as it followeth 1. The Emperour Rodolphus of Habsburg having overcome and
successively Dukes of Burgundy This last was Grandfather to Philip the last Duke who ended the masuline line But that Robert the II. had three Daughters besides Margaret wife to King Lewis Hutin whence came the house of Navarra Jane wife to King Philip de Valois and mother to King John and Mary wife to Edward Count of Bar. They say then that after the death of Philip the last Duke King John took that Dutchy by the right of his mother Jane which right he transported to his Son Philip le Hardy without any mention of masculine apanage wherby they will have it evident that femals may inherit it 8. Against that pretended right which was very much disputed in the Treaty of Madrid the French have strong exceptions The first is That from the time of Philip de Valois within which that gift was made no Son of France had any great Apanage but with that restriction against which whatsoever King John may have said or done and he was a very imprudent and rash man he could do no valuable deed to the detriment of the State or against the fundamental Lawes The second Reason is That since we see by the example of Hugh the IV. that females are excluded from that succession we must acknowledge that John did not succeed by right of his mother but as King receiving an apanage devolved unto him The third Reason is That King John was not the next Heir in blood for by proximity of blood the children of the eldest Daughter which was Margaret wife to King Lewis Hutin should have succeeded not King John who was Son to the second Now that succession fell when that wicked man Charles King of Navarra Grandchild to that Margaret was in his strength who if there had beene any life in that title would not have failed to have set it up for Burgundy was better then all his Navarra and the rest of his estate And yet that stirring man did not stirre that point or it was so slightly that he left off presently but hotly pursued a recompence for the Counties of Champagne and Brie which by right belonged to his mother Jane Daughter to Lewis Hutin Sonne to Jane Countess of Champagne and Brie Queen of Navarra wife to Philip le Bel. By all this it is evident that the Dutchy of Burgundy was setled upon Phillip le Hardy his Son in the nature of a true masculine apanage Paragraphe IV. Of the Towns of Metz Thoul and Verdun By the partage so famous among the Sons of Lewis the Meek an 843. it is certaine that all that was beyond the River Mosa towards Germany was cut off from that which retained the name of Kingdome of France and that these three Towns remained Imperiall But Mosa being the bound of these two States the Empire and the Kingdome yet by an infinity of Warres Usurpations and Treaties that bound and other limits between the two States were often changed In the time of the weakness and declination of the House of Charlemagne most part of the Cities and Lordships of the Empire did canton themselves and made themselves particular Dominions under the protection of the Empire and some remained free others were subjected to especial Lords some Lay some Ecclesiastical All these make up now the great body of the Empire Of that nature were these three Towns Metz Thoul and Verdun upon which the French Kings pretended no right till the time of Henry the II. An. 1550. the Protestants of Germany called Henry the II. to their help against the Emperour Charles the V. Henry sent them great Auxiliary forces by Ann de Montmorency Constable of France who in his way seized upon Thoul and Verdun put Garrisons into them to assure the passage of the French Forces into Germany The Government of Thoul was given to Monsieur d'Esclavoles Lieutenant of the company of the Duke of Guise And Charles Cardinall of Lorrain was restored to his Lordship annext to the Bishoprick of Verdun the King retaining the soveraignty for himselfe which he thought he could lawfully doe because the Lord of it was his subject and had an estate in France and because the Emperour was his declared enemy whose Estate he might invade In the same expedition the Constable seized on the City of Metz which the Emperour Charles the V. besieged towards the end of the yeare 1551. but in vain since which time the French have enjoyed these three Cities yet finding their right somewhat weak they used it at the first with great moderation calling themselves only Guardians and Protectors of the same till Lewis the XIII caused them to be altogether incorporated with France and in them hath establisht a soveraign Court of Parliament Indeed these three Townes have of long continuance been Imperial and being got by subtilty upon pretence of the surety of the passage the right of the French Kings in them should be much more disputable then in many other places as themselves have confest in many of their instructions for the generall Treaties Yet it may be said for the French that Henry the II. took them as his enemies estate when he made War against the Emperour That the Emperour never made since any stipulation for the restitution of them in any Treaty That the rights of the Empire on this side of Rhine are so vanisht and lost that the Countries seem now to be primum occupanti That Holland also Lorraine Switzerland Savoy Franch County Daulphinée Provence were Imperiall Lands and yet all these are slipt from the Empire by a prescription grounded upon the weakness and neglect of the old Soveraigne Also that the French Kings at the first declared themselves onely Protectors and Guardians of these Towns which if afterwards they have incorporated to their State it was by the consent of the people seeing themselves deserted and neglected by the Empire Finally in that point the French think they may use the right of Represals And that if the Emperour and the House of Austria should do them right about all their pretences there would be some reason why the Emperour should be contented about these Towns Paragraphe V. Of the Towns on the River of Somme and other contained in the Treaty of Arras The four Dukes of the last House of Burgundy were Philip le Hardy John Philip le Bon and Charles John after the death of his Father Philip le Hardy an 1404. caused great troubles in the State of France and caused his Cousin German Lewis Duke of Orleans to be slain an 1407. whence sprung those great Divisions and Wars between those two Houses of which the Histories are full That John was slain at Montereau foult-Ronne by the command of Charles the Dolphin an 1419. His Son Philip de Bon pursued with great power and eagernesse the vengeance of that death made league with the English and distressed very much the Kingdom of France In the end seeing himself ill used by the English he grew weary of their
that race held it But the last of them Robert was divested of them by his Nephew King Robert Son to Hugh Capet and it was re-united to the Crown All that was before the two Families of Burgundy of which we are to speak to discusse the right which the Spaniards pretend upon that piece of the French State 3. So then from the beginning of the first Race two Royall Families have possest the Dutchy of Burgundy The first began by Robert younger brother to King Henry the First and Son to King Robert To him his brother Henry gave that Dutchy in the year 1032. That Family continued from Male to Male without any interruption of Female succession untill the death of the last Duke Philip dead without issue An. 1362. Then King John at that time reigning in France seizd-upon that piece as an apanage so the French call the Portions of the Sons of France which are to return to the Crown when Heirs Male fail That apanage then being returned to the Crown King John bestowed it in the same nature upon his fourth Son Philip. This was the head of the second house of Burgundy which had four Dukes only successively This Philip called le Hardy invested by his Father then Iohn the third Philip le Bon the last Charles killed before Nancy An. 1477. who left his Daughter Mary his universall Heir She was married to Maximilian of Austria since Emperour and so carried all her estate into the house of Austria From that marriage came Philip Archduke married with Jane Inheritrix of all Spain and by her had two Sons Charles the V. and Ferdinand Emperours founders of the two Families of Austria that now reign 4. After the death of Charles killed before Nancy Lewis the XI seized upon the Dutchy of Burgundy as an apanage of France returning to the Crown Although Mary and her Husband Maximilian alleaged that the Dutchy had been given to Philip the Hardy by his Father King John as an absolute gift without any restriction of masculine descent That question though agitated on both sides will alwaies remain undecided The French Kings maintaining themselves in that possession Charles the V. Grandchild to that Mary grounding himself upon that right which we will declare afterwards required by the Treaty of Madrid that the Dutchy of Burgundy should be restored to him as his by his Grandmothers right and taken from her by Lewis the XI But after the return of Francis the I that Treaty was declared void as being contrary to all right of Nations which disannull Treaties made in Prison and extorted by violence contrary to the Municilpal Laws of the State of France which constitute the Kings to be alwaies Minors that is uncapable of absolute disposition as for the alienation of their Dominions So the Article of that Treatise concerning the restitution of Burgundy remained null though signed by the King Besides the States Generall of the Kingdom protested to the King that it was never in his power to alienate any Province of his State without their consent Which last opposition was of such force that since neither in the Treaty of Cambray nor in that of Crespy in Valois in which severall pieces were yielded unto the house of Austria any mention was made of Burgundy Yet the Kings of Spain take still the Title of Dukes of Burgundy So much for the Fact We will now examine the right 5. It must be acknowledged that the severity of Apanages for the Males onely to the exclusion of Females is not in use among the French but since the time of Philip de Valois who began to reign An. 1328 for remounting higher to Hugh Capet we find not that exclusion of Females from successions saving the ordinary preference of the Males before them And the Females were admitted Heirs in all kinds of estates whether given by the King or by others Yea many times the houses of the Sons of France have ended in Females that have transported their Estates to other Families as it appears in that of Dreux of Vermandois of Courtenay and of others But since the time of Philip de Valois no Son of France had any apanage but upon that condition Which is evident in that all the apanages are returned to the Crown by the extinction of Males to the exclusion of Females as those of Anjou Berry Alanson and others Yea although that first house of Burgundy be much antienter and hath begun almost with the third race yet as it was the first and most important apanage we have in the History thereof an example of the exclusion of Females and setling the inheritance in the Males Hugh the IV. of that name Duke of Burgundy had three Sons Eudes his eldest John Lord of Charrolois and Robert the II. Duke of Burgundy Eudes was married in his Fathers life time died before him and left three Daughters Joland Margaret and Alice or Alix John the second Son was married and died likewise before his Father leaving a Daughter Beatrix of Burgundy Lady of Bourbon This was the Lady who being married with Robert Son to Saint Lewis gave a beginning to the house of Bourbon When Eudes the IV. died it seemed that the Daughters of the First or Second of his Sons should have inherited by the right of representation of their Father but they were excluded from it by their Uncle Robert who enjoyed it and his Heirs Male peaceably though these four Daughters had been married in great and potent houses 6. Philip the last Duke of that Race being dead King John took the Dutchy in his Possession yet did not reunite it to the Crown but presently gave it to his fourth Son Philip le Hardy whom he especially loved because he had saved his life in the battell of Poitiers though he was then very young He gave it him by a long Charter which indeed contains not in expresse termes the exception of Female Heirs but conferrs it upon him with the same rights by which himself came by it and by which he possesseth it Termes which have caused difficulty because John could be said to succeed to it by two rights the one as King the other as the next Heir-male of the last Duke If he succeeded to it as King the Dutchy being an apanage returning to the Crown in defect of Heir-Male then without doubt it was setled upon his Son Philip as a masculine apanage both because his Father gave it him with the same right by wh ch himself had got it And because the severe Law of Apanages was already in use from Philip de Valois Father to John and never was interrupted since 7. But King John say the Spaniards inherited of the last Duke as the next of blood and his Heir ab intestato because it appeareth in the Genealogy of that first Race of Burgundy that Robert the II he that had excluded his four Neeces was Father to Hugh the V. who dyed without issue and of Eudes the IV. both