fact for the greatness and admirableness of it to the Mystery of the Incarnation and Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour The King had caused the Duke of Guise who was head of the Rebels to be slain and this was one main matter which incensed the Pope against him Thu. l. 94. For the Pope had agreed with Guise in secret to marry his Niece to the Prince of Jonvil Guise his son and heir and to depose the King thrust him into a Monastery and compel him by the Popes authority to renounce his right to the Kingdom and to set up Guise the father King in his place But how zealous and jealous he was for the Dignity and Authority of the Holy See is worth our further notice in an instance related by a good Catholick the learned Civil Lawyer William Barclay in his book De Potestate Papae dedicated to Pope Clement VIII None of all the writers of the Popes part saith he hath either more diligently collected or more ingeniously proposed or more smartly and subtilely concluded their reasons and arguments for the Popes Authority than the Eminent Divine Bellarmine who although he attributed as much as with honesty he could and indeed more than he ought to have done to the Authority of the Pope in Temporals yet could he not satisfie the Ambition of that most Imperious man Sixtus v. who affirmed that he held a Supreme Power over All Kings and Princes of the whole Earth and all People and Nations delivered to him not by humane but Divine Institution In so much that he was very near by his Papal Censure to have abolished to the great detriment of the Church all the works of that Doctor which at this day oppose heresie with very great success as the Fathers of that Order of which Bellarmine was have seriously told me cap. 13. But enough of Sixtus By whom for example we may guess by these fruits what likelyhood there is that he and such as he whereof there hath been no small number Popes since the tenth Age especially that Seculum Infelix when with a great Eclipse of Learning the Popes of Rome as even Bellarmine noteth degenerated from the Piety of the Ancients were partakers of and directed by that Holy Spirit which God giveth to them that obey him to conduct them in all truth or rather the Spirit of the world the Spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience whose works they have done 35. The three next succeeding Popes Vrban 7. Gregory 14. and Innocent 9. did not all of them live out half three years from the death of this year 1591 and therefore we cannot expect to hear of any attempts or design of theirs against this Kingdom But after Clement VIII who was elected Pope 3. Feb. 1591 2. year 1592 was settled in his seat the like practises soon began again wherein those agents whom we have mentioned before year 1593 Hesket Lopez and Complices his Cullen York and Williams who confessed some others and Squire year 1594 were imployed to raise rebellion poison or assassinate the Queen Lopez by the King of Spain's Ministers of State not without the privity and consent of himself all the rest incited and encouraged by the Jesuites who for the like practises at the same time against the most Christian King though then become Catholick too Thu. l. 111. were exterminated out of all France and a Pyramid erected for their perpetual Infamy But from all these God still preserved her the Emissaries being discovered taken and Executed Nor did he only preserve her from their attempts but shortly after blessed her with happy successes in an Expedition against the Spaniards then preparing again to Invade England 1596. Bacon Observ wherein the King of Spains Navy of 50. tall Ships besides twenty Gallies to attend them were beaten and put to flight and in the end all but two which were taken by the English burned only the twenty Gallies by the benefit of the Shallows escaping the town of Cadiz manned with 4000. foot and 400. horse taken sack'd and burnt but great Clemency used toward the inhabitants and at last the English returning home with honour and great spoils besides the two Gallions Camd. an 1596. and about 100. great brass Guns and great store of ammunition and provisions of war taken in the town and with very small loss and but of one person of quality the Spaniards having lost in all first and last 13. of their best men of war and 44. other Ships of great burden and in Ships great guns and military provisions by the estimate of the most knowing persons above 3000000 ducates And when the King of Spain not long after that he might repair this loss in a heat had from all parts gathered together all the Ships he could and manned even the strangers Ships which were in the Ports of Spain and set out this Navy to Land upon the Coasts either of England or Ireland the Heavens fought for her and so favoured her that by a horrid tempest which arose most of those Ships were either sunk by the waves or broken against the rocks in so much that she sooner heard of the destruction of her enemies than of their setting out to Sea to assault her The year ensuing year 1597 great preparations were made on both sides but the Heavens not favoring any further proceedings of this kind both the Fleets were so dispersed by storms that neither came within sight of the other And now the King of Spain became well inclined to a peace with England which year 1598 though proposed by the French he lived not to see brought to effect for he died the 13. of Sept. after 36. But the death of the King of Spain did not dissolve the Combination no more than the deaths of so many several Popes before had done For it still survived in his son Phil. III. with Clement VIII Only so many former attempts having proved altogether unsuccessful against England there was now with the persons some change also of their Counsels and all their Consultations against England were afterward so directed as to depend for their execution upon the death of the Queen Yet in Ireland there seemed some hopes that something might be effected at present by assisting the Rebels there and therefore for their encouragement and assistance the King of Spain by his Agent Don Martin de la Cerda year 1599 sends them money and Ammunition and the Pope by Mathew de Oviedo whom he designed Archbishop of Dublin Promises of Indulgence with a Phoenix plume to Tir-Oen their General year 1600 and the year after he sends them his Indulgence it self to this effect That whereas of long time being led on by the Exhortations of his Predecessors and himself and of the Apostolick See for the recovery and defence of their Liberty against the Hereticks they had with Vnited minds and Forces given aid and assistance first to James Fitz-Girald and lastly to Hugh
his first business is to beget in the Protestants an opinion and hope Thu. l. 47. 50. that since he was now grown up to take the reins of Government into his own hands they might henceforth expect to find more reasonable and moderate usage under his Government than they had received from them who had abused his tender years to injure and oppress them and to raise in them a confidence and assurance of his favourable disposition towards them And therefore having granted them as fair conditions of Peace Thu. l. 50. 51. as without danger of suspition of his too great favour he could he speedily takes order for the effectual restraining and repressing of the injuries and oppressions which were presently after the peace concluded begun again against the Protestants and gives them leave to call and hold Synods by which means had he dealt sincerely and proceeded soberly and steadily therein he might certainly much better have secured the peace and happiness of his Kingdoms to himself and his successors than he did by those contrary crafty and violent courses which he followed with the chief of the Protestant Princes and Nobility he deals more particularly He had even at the treaty of Peace caused some speeches to be given out as if upon the conclusion of that Peace at home Thu. l 47 he intended a War in the Low-Countreys against the Spaniard which could not but have been for the benefit and advantage of the Protestants there And shortly after upon another occasion causes the like speeches to be repeated again Thu. l. 50. and a motion by the by to be made in secret of a Marriage between the Lady Margaret his Sister and Henry Prince of Navar. Of both which there is again a proposition made by some Protestant Gentlemen sent by the King to Navar and Colinius for that purpose and to assure them of the Kings extraordinary good will towards them and to invite them to come to Court which the King also by letters and other special messengers earnestly sollicited And to create a further confidence and assurance in them and the rest of the Protestant Nobility of his sincerity Thu. l. 50. 51. he causes an overture of a Marriage to be made to Queen Elizabeth of England between her and his brother the Duke of Anjou and moreover enters into a League with her and at the same time also with the Protestant Princes of Germany against the Spaniard And having by these arts at last prevailed with Navar and Colinius to come to Court with the Prince he proceeds in the treaty of Marriage and Colinius is received with all the expressions of favour and kindness imaginable he consults with him how to carry on the Belgick War gives him leave to raise what Forces he will in the frontiers in order to it and in so great favour is Colinius received at Court by the King his Mother and Brothers that the Guises forsooth are so offended at it as thereupon to leave the Court. In sum such were the arts and deep dissimulation which were used as effectually deceived this prudent person and a great part of the Nobility and such was the King's eare of secrecy and to whom his designs were imparted that as soon as he perceived that Ligneroles who yet was his brother the Duke of Anjou's confident was but acquainted with the design he presently caused him to be murthered The management of this first business having succeeded according to the King's mind the next thing to be considered is the manner how to accomplish the design Thu. l. 51. And of this he holds a consultation with the Queen his Mother his brother Henry Duke of Anjou who was afterward Henry 3. the Cardinal of Lorain Cloud his Brother Duke of Aumale Henry the young Duke of Guise and Ren. Birage Vice-Chancellor and som others Thu. l. 51. Da. p. 361. This done away goes the Cardinal to Rome to treat with the Pope about these secret Counsels and to manage the present affairs with more secrecy he goes seemingly as discontented at the Court of France At last the Marriage concluded and the Pope's dispensation obtained the time of solemnity is appointed whereunto besides the principal Nobility of the Protestant Religion in France Cambd. an 1572. from England is invited the Earl of Leicester and the Lord Burleigh and out of Germany the Prince Elector Palatine's Sons that if it were possible they might at once cut off all the heads of the Protestant Religion For now in conclusion is put in execution that horrible Massacre which for the matter was as long since as the enterview at Bayonne resolved on though for the manner and method of execution not till of late fully concluded Da. p. 363. Thu. l. 51. And first they begin with the Queen of Navar who being a woman and a Queen they thought fittest to take her away by poison and that so prepared and administred by the perfume of a pair of gloves as to work only upon her brain and put her into a fevor and therefore her body being dissected in open view but her head under colour of respect untouched it was divulged that by the testimony of skilful Physitians she died of a fevor as Davila relates the story The next to be made sure of in particular was that brave person Colinius a man who though through necessity ingaged in them yet detected out of an innate hatred of such broils the late Civil Wars even to his own ruine and destruction at last as Thuanus upon several occasions often notes and as real a well-wisher of his King and Countreys good as any Subject in France as appeared more fully in some instances discovered after his death But the King and Queen-mother by the arts of the Guisian Faction being pre-possessed of a contrary opinion of him after all their fraudulent expressions of favour to him caused him to be shot by a retainer of the Guisian Family Da p. 367. Thu. l. 52. to secure themselves from the imputation of so odious a fact but being thereby only maimed not killed out-right they presently according to their former dissimulations repair to his lodgings to visit him and with great shew of sorrow for the accident appoint him Physitians and Chirurgeons and a guard for his defence and order a strict search for the apprehension of the assasine This done upon the eve of St. Bartholomew being Sunday Da. p. 371 372. the Duke of Guise by order from the King having about twilight given direction to the Provost des Marchand the chief head of the people of Paris to provide 2000 armed men with every one a white sleeve on their left arm and white crosses in their hats to be ready upon notice instantly to execute the Kings commands and that the Sheriffs of the several Wards should also be ready and cause lights upon the ringing of the bell of the Palace-clock to be set up in every
confirmed But the King utterly averse from it though he would not plainly deny it yet put it off as well as he could but such was the obstinacy of the States that he was forced at last to answer that he agreed to the general vote and would think of causing the Decree to be framed Guise also with all his might urged the receiving of the Council of Trent whereunto though the King consented yet was it rejected with great contradiction not only by the Nobility but by a great many of the Clergy This was urged by him partly as a powerful engine against the Protestants partly further to oblige the Pope if it succeeded and to raise a prejudice in him against the King if it succeeded not by his default And to ingratiate himself the more with the people he moves for ease of grievances by impositions and taxes though a thing inconsistent with the prosecution of the War against the hereticks But the King finding now a convenient opportunity to execute his design acquaints some of his confidents with it and having ordered all things so as to avoid the suspition of Guise much after the manner heretofore used against Colinius he commands him to be slain which was accordingly * The manner of his death see in the notes upon the history of the Massacre Sect. 17. done and the Cardinal his Brother being with many Lords and adherents of that Faction at the same time committed to custody was about two daies after by the King's command in like manner slain Thus do those who had wickedly conspired the barbarous slaughter of so many innocent Protestants now by the just judgment and vengeance of God upon them mutually conspire one anothers destruction And that City which was then so forward in executing the wicked counsels and commands of savage and perfidious men is now as forward in executing the just judgments of the righteous God upon one of the chief Authors of them and they who before had been the instruments of his cruelty are now made the instruments of his punishment Thu. l. 93. Da. l. 10. 53. Upon the news of these things spread abroad the Leaguers are all in an on uproar and at Paris having held a Council where nothing almost was heard but reproaches against the King and cries for revenge the Duke of Aumale is called out of a Monastery to be their Governor the Preachers from their Pulpits thunder out the praises of the Duke of Guise his Martyrdom and detestations of that slaughter most cruelly committed by the King in such manner that not only the minds of the baser people but also of the most noted Citizens were won by their perswasions and inflamed with an infinite desire to take revenge Thu. l. 94 Da. p. 762. Fonl. c. 5. p. 530. and the Council of sixteen cause a writing to be presented to the famous Colledg of Divines called the Sorbon in the name of the Provost and Eschevins of the City containing these two Questions 1. Whether they should not be free from their Oath of Fidelity and Obedience to Henry the third And 2. Whether they might not with safe Conscience arm unite eollect and contribute money for the defence and conservation of the Roman Catholick Religion in this Kingdom against the wicked counsels and endeavours of the King aforesaid and all other his adherents whomsoever and against his breach of publick Faith at Blois c. Whereunto upon mature deliberation at an assembly of seventy Masters of that Faculty and solemn resolution it was answered nemine refragante 1. That the people of this Kingdom are free and at liberty from their Oath of Fidelity and Obedience to King Henry aforesaid 2. That the same people lawfully and with safe conscience * Dav. p. 763. that the King had forfeited his right to the Crown and that his Subjects not only might but ought to cast off their obedience c. may arm unite collect and contribute money for the defence and conservation of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Religion against the wicked counsels and endeavours of the aforesaid King and whomsoever adhering to him since he hath violated the publick Faith to the prejudice of the Catholick Religion and of the Edict of the holy Vnion and of the natural liberty of the assembly of the three Estates of this Kingdom Moreover they think fit that this Decree or conclusion be sent to the Pope that he may by the authority of the holy See approve and confirm it and afford his help and assistance Fonl. p. 533. And accordingly a Letter is drawn up and sent by the Parisians in the name of themselves and the rest of the Catholicks in France wherein they represent to him the zeal of the people all good men being ready to lay down their lives rather than suffer that Tyranny and more than 10000 of the Parisians filling the streets with cries to Heaven for vengeance against the Tyrant others whipping the statue of the Tyrant breaking it to pieces and throwing it into the fire Da. p. 763. And indeed after this Declaration to use Davila's words the people as it were loosened from the bonds of obedience and having broken the rein of modesty ran violently to the breaking down of the King's Arms and Statues where-ever they found them and began furiously to seek out all those whom they accounted dependants of his party by them called Navarrists and Politicks which forced many quiet men to leave their houses to save their lives which others were fain to compound for with money V. Thu. p. 397. and others unfortunately lost All Churches eccho'd with voices of the Preachers who aggravated the parricide committed by * Hence Charles Steward here Henry Valois no longer called King of France but the Heretick Tyrant and persecuter of the holy Church and all places were full of Libels both in verse and prose which contained and amplified the same things several ways And the Council of sixteen having prepared the Preachers to be ready in case any tumult should arise to appease the people cause all the Counsellors of Parliament and Officers who adhered to the King to be imprisoned in the Bastille as enemies to the publick good This done they assemble a kind of Rump Parliament which substituting others in the place of those they had secluded make a publick Declaration for the deposing of the King and a new Decree and Engagement of holy Vnion for defence of the Catholick Religion the safety of Paris and other united Cities to oppose those who having violated the publick Faith had taken away the lives of the Catholick Princes to take just revenge for their murther and to defend the liberty and dignity of the States of France against all persons whoever without exception c. And this was proposed to be sworn to by all whereupon there was presently a general engagement throughout the whole Kingdom and for a Head of the Vnion they make
injuriously repelled by the Guards that stood near the Castle then railed upon and reviled lastly they were beaten the first blow being given by a Gascoign and one of them having received a blow the rest fell upon them Which the * She lived to procure the extirpation of all her Posterity and to see the death of all her sons but Anjou who survived her but few months being after a furious rebellion against him by Guise and this faction murdered by a Fryer August 24th Queen understanding being impatient of all delay she thence took occasion to tell the King that the Souldiers could not now be restrained that he should command the sign from the Palace presently to be given for it was to be feared that if it were delayed any longer all would be in a confusion and things would fall out otherwise than he desired Therefore by his command the Bell of St. Germans Church is tolled before break of day ix Kal. VII br which day is the Feast of St. Bartholomew and fell upon a Sunday And presently Guise with Engolesme and †He was slain in March following before Rochel l 55. Aumale go to Coligny's house where Cosserius kept Guard Mean time Coligny being awakened he understood by the noise that they were risen into sedition yet being secure and even sure of the good will of the King whether through his own credulity or through the perswasion of his Son-in-law Teligny he thus thought with himself that the people were stirred up by the Guisians but as soon as they should see the King's Guards under the command of Cossenius for the defence of him and his as he supposed they would immediately fall off But the tumult growing on when he perceived a Gun discharged in the Court-yard of the house then at last but too late conjecturing what the thing indeed was he rose from his bed and putting on his night-gown he raised himself upon his feet to his Prayers leaning against the wall La Bonne kept the keys of the house who being commanded by Cossenius in the King's Name to open the Gate he suspecting nothing immediately opened it strait-way * He was slain 18 Apr. following before Rochel l. 56. Cossenius going in la Bonne meeting him is stabbed with daggers which when the Switzers who were in the Court-yard saw they fly into the house and shutting after them the next gate of the house they barracado it up with Chests and Tables and other houshold-stuff one only of the Switzers being slain in that first conflict by the Cossenians by a Musquet discharged At last the Gate being forced open the Conspirators strive to get up the stairs They were Cossenius Abinius Corboran Cardillac Sarlaboun chief officers of the Companies Achilles Petruccius of Siena all clad in Coats of Male and Besmes a German educated from a child in the Family of Guise for Guise himself with the rest of the Nobles and others remained in the Court-yard In that noise after Prayers ended by Merlin the Minister Coligny turning to those who stood about him who were for the most part Chirurgeons and a few of his retinue I see saith he with an undaunted countenance what is doing I am prepared patiently to undergo that death which I never feared and which I have now long since embraced in my mind Happy am I who shall perceive my self to die and who shall die in God by whose Grace I am raised to the hope of eternal life Now I need not humane helps any longer You my friends get ye hence with all the speed that may be lest you be involved in my calamity and your Wives hereafter wish evil to me being dead as though I were the cause of your deaths The presence of God unto whose goodness I commend this soul which shall shortly fly from my body is abundantly sufficient Which as soon as he had said they go into an upper room and thence through the roof every one his way Mean while the Conspirators breaking open the Chamber-dores rush in and when as * He was killed about two years after l. 60. Besmes with his sword drawn asked of Coligny who stood by the dore Art thou Coligny He with an undisturbed countenance answered I am he but young man reverence my gray hairs whatsoever thou doest thou canst not make my life much shorter Whiles he said so Besmes thrust his sword into his breast and drawing it forth struck him with a back-blow over the face whereby he quite disfigured him then with repeated blows he fell down dead Some write that these words shewing his indignation fell from Coligny as he was dying If at least I had died by the hand of a man not of a scullion But Atinius one of the Assasines repeated it so as I have written and adds that he never saw man in so present a danger bear death with such constancy Much otherwise did Guise bear the sense of his less apparent approaching death For when after his conspiracy and rebellion in the H League against the next King he was with such like arts as had been here used brought into the snare which the King had laid for him and having before neglected the warnings of his friends at last began to be suspitious of his danger though nothing visible appeared his vehement fear so prevailed over his dissimulation whereby be endeavoured to conceal it that his whole body though he sate by the fire shaked and trembled and to immind him of this present fact a stream of bloud flowing plentifully from his nostrils as he called for a napkin he was fain to call for some Cordials to comfort his spirits but yet nothing of danger visible when in the midst of this his fear and languishing he was by one of the Secretaries who knew nothing of the design called into the Kings Privy Chamber whereupon having saluted each of the company as if he took his last farewell of them going directly thither he was no sooner entred but the dore was boulted and one of those who were appointed for the business struck a dagger through his throat downward into his breast whereby his mouth was presently filled with bloud and stopped that he could not speak but only fetch so deep a groan as was heard with horror by those who stood by This stroke was seconded by many others upon his head breast belly and groyn And to this end he came not as Colinius from his Prayers but after all his other wickedness from his whore with whom he had indulged the night and therefore came later than the rest this morning into the Counsel Thu. l. 93. It was their different lives and actions which made this difference in their deaths for otherwise Guise was a man of great courage as well as Colinius Then Guise asking Besmes out of the Court-yard whether the thing were done when he answered it was done he could not perswade Angolesme unless he saw it Therefore Guise replying
ignorant of these last counsels of Coligni be comprehended in the same guilt To whom doth it not seem absurd and most ridiculous that Coligni should at so unseasonable a time conspire against Navar that professed the same Religion with him and whom he had in his power for four years together Thus many did discourse and so they judged that upon the account of this fact the French Name would for a long time labour under an odium and infamy and that posterity would never forget an act of so great unworthiness Typographical Errors to be Corrected as followeth in THe Hist of the Massacre Pag. 5. l. 1. Burleigh l. 7. Cosmus p. 7. l. 4. compact p. 8. l. 10. when he l. 36. Palace near the Louvre p. 12. l. 1. receive p. 13. l. 28. Antonius Marafinus Guerchius without commas so p. 14. l. 2. Rochus Sorbaeus Prunaeus l. 7. Armanus Claromontius Pilius l. 8. Moninius l. 26. racket p. 18. l. 7. your Kingdom p. 21. l. 9. as he did p. 28. l. 11. Cossenius l. 36. Atinius l. 37. Sarlaboux p. 29. l. 5. Merlin the Minister Coligny p. 32. l. 32. Claromontius Marquess of Renel p. 34. l. 19. Caumontius p. 35. l. 25. Montalbertus Roboreus Joach Vassorius Cunerius Rupius Columbarius Velavaurius Gervasius Barberius Francurius p. 36. l. 15. Armanus Claromontius Pilius l. 32. Bellovarius l. 36. Durfortius Duracius l. 37. Gomacius Buchavanius p. 40. l. 36. Perionius p. 41. l. 13. Languages who had private feuds and contentions with Carpentar l. 22. to those l. 30. Roliardus p. 43. l. 2. Sancomontius Sauromanius l. 3. Bricomotius p. 53. l. 33. Meletinus p. 57. l. 17. Arles where l. 36. suspition of poison given p. 58. l. 2. Momhrunius p. 62. l. 20. Helionorus Chabotius p. 63. l. 11. Chabotius THe Hist of the Powder-Plot Pag. 8. l. 27. Harrington p. 14. l. 30. detest p. 15. l. 21. for wikes r. de Vic p. 16. in marg So on the p. 22. l. 27. dele Book entituled l. 29. for Provincial 1. Father General A TRUE NARRATION Of that Horrible CONSPIRACY AGAINST King JAMES And the whole PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND Commonly called the Gun-Powder TREASON Written in Latine by Jacobus Augustus Thuanus Privy-Councillor to the King of France and President of the Supream Senate of that Kingdom Faithfully rendred into English LONDON Printed for John Leigh at the Sign of the Blew Bell by Flying-Horse Court in Fleet-street 1674. The History of the Powder-Plot Translated out of Thuanus lib. 135. MDCV. NOw shall we in a contiued Relation declare that Horrid and by all Parties justly * So detestable it seems it was to some of the Students of the English Colledge at Rome that being informed of the discovery of the Plot Sixteen of them abhorring such jugling and bloody Designs forsook the Colledge slipt into France some of them turning to the Church of England whither they came Foulis Hist of Popish Treasons li. 10. c. 2. p. 692. detested Conspiracy entred into a-against the King of Great Britain which being discovered about the end of this year 1605 was in the next year suppressed by the Death of the Conspirators To the Petition for Liberty of Conscience made by the Papists in the former Session of Parliament and rejected by the King there was a rumour there would be another preferred at the next Sessions which had been now often deferred which should be in no danger of being denyed as the former but should carry with it a necessity of being granted by the King whither he would or not Therefore those that managed the Affairs of the Kingdom under a generous and no wayes suspicious King fearing nothing worse did make it their business to avoid such Petitions and that necessity that did attend them But among the Conspirators it was consulted not how they might obtain the Kings favour which they now despaired of but how they might revenge that repulse though with the ruine of the Kingdom which the other never thought of The beginning of these Counsels are to be derived from the latter end of Q. Elizabeth For then as appeared afterwards by proofs and confessions Robert Winter to whom Oswald Tesmond alias Greenwell of the Society of the Jesuits joyned himself as his Companion was by the advice of Hen. Garnet Provincial or Superiour of the said Society in England Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham of the Gentry instigating privately sent into Spain in the name of the Catholicks with Letters Commendatory to Arthur Creswell of the same Society living in Spain Dec. 1601. Mandatis and with Commands to the King of which this was the summe That he should forthwith send an Army into England for which the Catholicks would be ready in Arms as soon as it came over In the mean while that he should assign yearly Pensions to some Catholick Gentlemen Furthermore that he should insinuate it to the King that there were some Gentlemen and Military persons that were aggrieved at the Present state of things whom he might easily draw to his Part by relieving their necessities And whereas the greatest difficulty after the Landing such an Army would be for supply of Horses they in England would take care to have Two thousand Horses ready provided upon all occasions This thing was secretly transacted by the Mediation of Creswell with Petrus Francesa Secretary to King Philip and Franciscus Sandovallius Duke of Lerma and he affirmed that the thing would be very acceptable to King Philip and that he had offered his utmost assistance that it was also agreed among them of the Place of Landing For if the forces were great then Kent and Essex would be most commodious for their Landing if less Milford in Wales and that King Philip had promised by Count Miranda toward that Expedition Ten hundred thousand Crowns Decies centena aureorum M. Stored with these promises Winter returns into England and acquaints Garnet Catesby and Tresham what he had done These things were transacted under Q Elizabeth who dying about this time Christopher Wright who was privy to these Matters is speedily sent into Spain Mar. 1603. who bringing the News of the Queens Death Sir Will. Stanly presseth the business of the Pensions and the Expedition With him was sent from Bruxells by William Stanly Hugh Owen and Balduinus one of the Society of the Jesuits Guido Fawkes 22 Jun. 1603. with Letters to Creswell that he should speed the business To him was given in Command that he should signifie to the King that the Condition of the Catholicks would be more hard under the new King then it had been under Q. Elizabeth and therefore that he should by no means desist from so laudable an Enterprize That Milford lay open for an easie Landing to Spinola But the state of things was changed by the death of the Queen and King Philip returned an Answer worthy of a King that he could no longer attend to their Petitions
Onel Earl of Tyron Captain General of the Catholick Army in Ireland who with their Souldiers had in process of time performed many brave atchievements fighting manfully against the enemy and for the future are ready to perform the like that they may all the more cheerfully do it and assist against the said Hereticks being willing after the example of his Predecessors to vouchsafe them some Spiritual Graces and Favours he favourably grants to all and every one who shall joyn with the said Hugh and his Army asserting and fighting for the Catholick Faith or any way aid or assist them if they be truly penitent and have confessed and if it may be received the Sacrament a Plenary Pardon and Remission of All their Sins the same which used to be granted by the Popes of Rome to those who go to war against the Turks 18. April 1600. Camd. p. 750. Foul. p. 651. And the next year again for their further encouragement year 1601 he sends a particular letter to Tyrone wherein he Commends their Devotion in engaging in a Holy League and their valour and atcheivements Exhorts them to continue unanimous in the same mind and Promises to write effectually to his Sons the Catholick Kings and Princes to give all manner of Assistance to them and their cause and tells him he thinks to send them a peculiar Nuncio who may be helpful to them in all things as occasion shall serve 20. Jan. 1601. Foul. p. 655. The King of Spain likewise sends his Assistance a great fleet who landed at King-Sale 20. Sept. under the conduct of Don John d'Aquila who sets out a Declaration shewing the King of Spain's pretense in the war which he saith is with the Apostolick Authority to be administred by him that they perswade not any to deny due Obedience according to the word of God to their Prince but that all know that for many years since Elizabeth was deprived of her Kingdom and All her Subjects Absolved from their Fidelity by the Pope unto whom he that reigneth in the Heavens the King of Kings hath committed All Power that he should Root up Destroy Plant and Build in such sort that he may punish temporal Kings if it should be good for the Spiritual Building even to their Deposing which thing hath been done in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland by many Popes viz. by Pope Pius v. Gregory XIII and now by Clement VIII as is well known whose Bulls are extant that the Pope and the King of Spain have resolved to send Souldiers Silver Gold and Arms with a most liberal hand that the Pope Christs Vicar on Earth doth command them the Papists in Ireland to take Arms for the defense of their Faith c. Camd. p. 829. Foul. 658. And not long after more Supplies were sent from Spain under Alonso de Ocampo Thu. l. 125. Cam. an 1601. 1602. But it pleased God to make the Queen still Victorious over All and part of them with the Irish Rebels being beaten and routed in the Field the rest are brought to articles upon which they Surrender All and are sent home when more forces were coming from Spain to their recruit The next year most of the other Rebels being defeated and subdued last of all Mac Eggan the Popes Vicar Apostolick 1602. with a party of the Rebels which he himself led with his Sword drawn in one hand and his Breviary and Beads in the other was slain by the Queens forces and the Rebels routed in January 1602 3. and so the whole Kingdom Tyrone also submitting to mercy totally subdued Camd. an 1603. Foul. p. 664. 37. And now this Blessed Queen having by an Admirable Providence of Almighty God been Preserved from All these both Secret Conspiracies and Open Invasions through a long Reign of four and forty years compleat and made victorious over All her Enemies as well abroad as at home Out-lived her great and bitter enemy Phil. 11. King of Spain who himself lived to be sensible of the Divine Judgment of the Iniquity of his Actions against her and to desire a Peace with her though he lived not to enjoy it Out-lived four Kings of France eight Popes and the greatest part of the ninth and maugre all the Powers of Hell the Malice and Wicked Machinations of Men of most turbulent and Anti-christian Spirits Defended that Purity of Religion which even at the very beginning of Her Reign she had with Mature Deliberation and a Generous and most Christian Courage and Resolution notwithstanding all Difficulties and Dangers which on every side threatened her undertakings established was by the same at last brought to her Grave in Peace 1603. in a Good Old Age. Her very Enemies admiring as well her Worth and Excellence as her Glory and Felicity see the one extolled by Sixtus v. Thu. l. 82. p. 48. and the other by An. Atestina l 129. and both more largly described by the Noble and Ingenuous Thuanus l. 129. and Sir Francis Bacon in his Collection of her Felicities while her Neighbours who wickedly and barbarously persecuted the Professors of that Reformed Religion for their Religion sake which she with great and Christian Moderation towards the adversaries of it happily established and defended either lived not out half their days or died violent deaths and were murthered by their own Subjects of the same Religion with themselves or were otherwise unhappy in their attempts in that Eminently Remarkable manner as is so far from being impertinent to our subject and design briefly to note that it would be a great fault and unworthy neglect not to do it Certainly who ever shall impartially and without prejudice consider the History of this blessed and happy Queen and with it compare the History of the Times both precedent and subsequent to her reign and especially of her neighbours in France dur ng her own times must needs acknowledge not only an Admirable Providence over Her in both Preserving and Blessing her in all her Affairs but a Special Distinguishing Providence thus favouring her and at the same time in a very remarkable manner dis-favouring Crossing Blasting and Severely Punishing and Revenging the different and contrary Courses and Practises of her Neighbours and others 38. We might here remember the Story of Don Sebastian King of Portugal who in the heat of his youth and devotion to the See of Rome had tendered his service to the Pope and engaged in an Expedition against England and Ireland but having raised a great Army and prepared a great Fleet was by the King of Fesse prevailed with to assist him in the recovery of his Kingdom in Mauritania Where with Stukely who commanded the Italian Forces raised by the Pope and King of Spain for the service against Ireland whom he perswaded to go with him first to the African war he was slain dyed without issue and left his Kingdom a prey to the Spaniard whereby not only the present storm which threatned the Queen was
so powerful as to have proceeded so far in the late tumult beyond his consent or privity or prevalent with him as to work his assent to so unjust and foul an action they had the more reason to secure themselves against their power and treachery till justice should be done upon them nor ought they to doubt but in so just a cause upon their serious repentance trust in God and humble supplications to him he would graciously pity their misery and provide some unexpected means for their relief And therefore seeing La Charite was surprized at the time of the massacre and the same was attempted against Montabon Da. p. 377. and being further warned by what was lately done at * Castrum in Albigensi agro Castres which after great promises of safety by the King was notwithstanding permitted to be plundered and layed waste by the slaughters and rapines of Creuseta Rochel having for some daies kept a solemn fast with divers other places prepare for their defence And at last when arts failed especially after the massacre at Burdeaux in the midst of their treaties the King's Forces were sent to assault them And these says Thuanus after a more particular relation of them were the beginnings of the Fourth Civil War in France the more memorable because from so small beginnings beyond the hope and expectation even of those who through necessity rather than upon counsel and design did manage it when so many Commanders being slain the Nobility who remained dispersed abroad and the people in all places astonished all was thought subdued within the compass of a year without the foreign aid of any Prince and money every where after so great plunders failing them it restored the affairs of the Protestants to good condition again And yet this was only a defensive War on their part and as he says of necessity wherein those poor people fought only for their lives and safety and not to neglect the King's commands were willing to keep their meetings at Sermons only secretly in the night and not openly in the day-time which yet could not be denied them without manifest injustice and breach of publick Faith But such were their apprehensions of the perfidiousness and cruelty of their enemies and resolutions thereupon that they chose rather to suffer all the miseries and necessities that humane nature is able to bear than again to trust to the mercy or promises of them whom they had so often found perfidious and moreover at last so barbarously inhumane and cruel And therefore at Samerre it is almost incredible what they suffered Thu. l. 55. Having spent their stores they killed and eat their Asses Mules Horses Dogs and all other living creatures they could meet with and when that also was spent they devised ways to make Hydes Skins Parchment Bridle-rains and what-ever was made of leather edible and Bran Straw Nutshels the Horns and Hoofs of Beasts even dugg out of the dunghils and the very dung of Horses and such things as scarce any other creatures will feed on insomuch that whereas in eight moneths siege they had not lost 100 slain in forty days above 500 died of hunger and 200 more were famished almost to death Rochel indeed was not driven to that extremity Thu. l. 56. partly having made better provisions for themselves partly by an extraordinary supply little less than miraculous for all the time of the siege the tides it being a Sea-Town left the poor people such plenty of a kind of shell-fish as very well supplied them with food which when the siege was ended presently vanished and were not seen in such plenty much longer Yet did they testify as great abhorrence of the perfidiousness and cruelty of their enemies by their incredible courage and activity even of their women in the repulse of several fierce assaults and also in sallies and in conclusion the assailants seeking rather occasions how to raise the siege with credit than having any hope to obtain the City by force Thu. l. 56. they came to this agreement for themselves Montabon and Nismes Da. p. 392. confirmed by an Edict That free profession of their Religion should be permitted them according to the Edicts made in behalf of the Protestants their priviledges confirmed no Garrison imposed on them only the King should appoint them a Governor and they should be governed by the Laws and Customs which they had used even since they became Subjects to the Crown of France c. Some time after Samere obtained by agreement to enjoy the benefit of the Pacification made with Rochel but paying 40000 l. for the saving of their Movables And this end says our Author had this fourth Civil War after the tumult at Paris when the Courtiers thought all subdued by that slaughter begun and finished in the assaulting of certain Cities and especially in the siege of that one City of Rochel which for so many months did most stifly beyond the opinion of all men sustain and at last break the strength and force of the whole Kingdom raised against it besides Aumale Tular Cossens Goa his Brother and other 40000 Souldiers the very number said by Davila to have been slain in the massacre being slain and dead of sickness and among these 60 chief * Ordinum Ductores Commanders and as some say most of the actors of that tragedy besides a vast deal of mony and military provisions spent and at last things being reduced to those streights that the King contrary to what had before been falsly perswaded him thought himself a greater gainer by that Peace than by the Parisian slaughter Such were the effects whether of the Italian Policy or the Romish Doctrine of not keeping Faith with Hereticks 50. He had no sooner ended this War Thu. l. 57. but he began to be grievously afflicted with that fatal disease which in few months after put an end to his life not without suspition of poison by his Mother and Brother Anjou and besides in the mean time by her arts and the influences of the Guises upon her was presently involved in a fit of Civil War And this not only against the Protestants whom having sufficient cause from former experience to beware of the perfidiousness and cruelty of their enemies after other new occasions of suspition she forced again to provide for their security and stand upon their defence by a perfidious attempt to surprize Rochel by her emissaries who had corrupted some in the City to betray it to the Forces which for that purpose they had drawn near it but also against a considerable party of the Catholicks as they call them whom while she thought it necessary for the continuance of her power and authority in the government to keep up and foment factions among the chief Nobility she by over-doing what she designed forced for their own safety and security to joyn their complaints and forces with the Protestants Whereby considering the division of
King no longer to treat with him as a suppliant Thu. p. 430. but to deal with him according to his own rough nature and presently to seize upon Avignon and the County of Veniessine Da. p. 811. But the King was not a little grieved at it and said That he thought it very hard that he who had ever fought and laboured for Religion should be rashly excommunicated because he would not suffer his own throat to be cut by the arms of his Rebel-subjects and that those who had * Charles V. anno 1527. sacked Rome and kept the Pope himself prisoner had never been excommunicated to which the King of Navar who was present answered but they were victorious Sir Let your Majesty endeavour to conquer and be assured the censures shall be revoked but if we be overcome we shall all die condemned hereticks Whereunto the King assented and all the by-standers did the like and upon that hope order was given that the Army should march and the Kings affairs began to proceed very prosperously against the Leaguers For having first by supplies coming in from the King of Navar put a stop to the D. of Mayenne's progress at Tours and about the same time given a great defeat to the D. of Aumale by the assistance of La Noue one of the chief Commanders of the Protestants taken Gergean Thu. l. 96. Piviers Chartres Estampes Poissy Montereau Pontoise and all such places and passages of the Rivers which were fit to strengthen the City of Paris or furnish it with victuals he forthwith with an Army of 42000 fighting men laies close siege to the City it self himself on the one side and the King of Navar on the other whereby the Parisians were so straitned and dejected Da. p. 814. though the Preachers used all their arts in their Pulpits to animate them and the Priests and Friers themselves took up arms putting themselves generally upon Military Duty that there was no man but thought that within a few days the King would be Master of it But in the midst of this success and height of his hopes a zealous young Frier †Da p. 816 819. Thu. l. 96. Jaques Clement stirred up by the Sermons which he heard daily against Henry Valois the Tyrant and Persecutor of the Faith resolved in conscience as hath been mentioned before exhorted thereunto by the Prior one of the chief Counsellors of the League and other Fathers of his Convent in all likelihood It being unlikely that the chief men of the Union and particularly the Prior a trusty Counsellor of the Grand-Council of it should not have confered about the fact with the Princes and with their privity exhorted and with effectual motives spurred on the simplicity of the Frier Da. p. 819. v. Thu. l. 96. Serres p. 879. not without the privity of the Catholick Princes affirming to him that if he lived he should be made a Cardinal and if he died for freeing the City and killing the Persecutor of the Faith he should without doubt be Canonized for Saint by an expected stab put an end to his hopes and his life together within * Duobus post mentibus aliquot diebus quam Pontifex hanc Sententiam excommunicationis tulerat Cicarel p. 446. few days after the aforesaid term of 60 days prefixed by the Pope who had foretold his unfortunate end was expired to the great joy of the Leaguers and the Pope as hath been related before Sect. 34. this account of the French Story not being then intended The †Da. p. 857. Thu. l. 98. Prior of the Convent was Father Edmond Bourgoin who being afterward taken at Paris and convicted by witness to have publickly in the Pulpit for several days together praised this murder in studied speeches and to have counselled and instigated the murderer comparing him also in his Sermons after the fact to Judith and the dead King to Holofernes and the City delivered to Bethulia he was by judgment of the Parliament of Tours sentenced to be drawn in pieces by four horses his quarters burned and his ashes scattered in the wind which sentence was afterward severely executed Not long after at Vendosme was taken and likewise condemned to death Da. p. 861. Thu. l. 97. Father Robert Chesse a Cordelier or Franciscan Frier who had there publickly praised the King's murderer and with his Sermons stirred up the common people 54. This end had Henry 3. when he had scarce lived out half his days and in him thus dying without issue after 14 years Marriage many visits to Saints and the use of hallowed shirts and smocks for obtaining of issue the whole life of Valois his Bastard brother also the Duke of Angolesme not escaping a violent death some years before by a stab Thu. l. 85. In this King besides the hereditary guilt of his Ancestors descended upon him there are two things especially observable in his own actions whereby he involved himself in the participation of the common guilt of his Family and aggravated the load of it upon his own head the one during the Reign of his Brother in the Massacre wherein he was both a Counsellor and an Actor the other after he came to the Crown himself in his breach of publick Faith with the Protestants Of both which we may observe a very correspondent and exemplary judgment and punishment His sickness of a * Da. p. 777. Thu. l. 94. Bloudy-flux for some time before he was stabbed his death without issue and ere he had lived out half his days may perhaps have respect to his Grand-fathers and Fathers sins seeking by bloudy courses to extirpate the Protestants because these were not peculiar to himself but common to him with his other Brothers But when we see that very City of Paris where the Protestants with the concurrence of his †Eorumque Lotaringorum in gratiam praecipuus author suasor Parisiensis lanienae fuisse creditur de qua gloriari saepius auditus est Thu. l. 96. counsel and assistance had been so furiously destroyed now no less furious against him that City which to others had given example of cruelty against the Protestants now gives them example of rebellion against him and him on the other side no less enraged against it saying but the day before that fatal stroke that he hoped within a few days there should be neither walls nor houses but only the very foot-steps of Paris when we see almost all those who had been the executors of that Massacre and were not cut off at the Siege of Rochel as most of them were of the common sort especially now engaged in Arms against him and those who had joyned with him to destroy the Protestants now conspiring his destruction when we see him excommunicated by the Pope whose pretended authority is the principal part of that Religion which with so much cruelty and perfidiousness was sought to be established by that
Massacre Lastly when we see after all imaginable injuries and indignities offered him his murder not only plotted and counselled by the chief of the Grand Council at Paris but also executed by an Emissary sent from thence by a religious Zealot of that Religion for which himself had been so barbarously cruel and in that * Thu. l. 51. Serres p. 789. very place at St. Cloud where some time the Council of the Massacre had been held This we may not without reason look upon as the just judgment of God upon him for his wicked dealings in that barbarous Massacre Again when we see his Popish Subjects every where break faith with him and all bonds and oaths of Obedience and Fidelity to him and teach and hold it to be their duty so to do when we see them through whose importunity he had violated the publick faith given to the Protestants to rage and storm and furiously exclaim upon his breach of faith with themselves when we see him brought to need and desire the assistance of the King of Navar and his Protestants with whom he had broken faith against those for whom to comply with their perfidious and rebellious humours he did it and by them notwithstanding thus brought to his end and murthered with whom he had so basely complied in that perfidious dealing this we may likewise with great reason look upon as a just judgment of God upon him for that his perfidious dealing with the Protestants And certainly if all the circumstances of the History from that barbarous Massacre of the Protestants at Merindol and Cabriers under Francis 2. to the death of this his Grand-son Henr. 3. the last of his race for almost 50 years be duly considered it will be hard to find in any History a more eminent example of Divine Vengeance prosecuting a Family to the utter extirpation of it than this an example wherein the judgment of God is more conspicuous and remarkable or the causes of that judgment more manifest and apparent wherein the sin and the punishment do more exactly agree or of a more remarkable distinguishing providence if with this the hapy reign and actions of their neighbour Prince Queen Elizabeth be impartially compared This was a judgment not upon one person alone nor upon a Family so as to involve all in one sudden destruction as is sometimes seen but a continued prosecution of vengeance against a whole Family for three generations without intermission V. Sect. 39. the Grand-father Fran. 1. not long enjoying himself or his life after he had authorized that fatal persecution His Son Henr. 2. having time to repent and reform and admonished so to do by his dying Father but persevering in his Fathers sin cut off by a violent death in the height and heat of his persecutions against the Protestants and upon his consummation of an agreement for a War against them His four Sons all living to be men but not to half the age of men three of them coming successively to the Crown but so as rather only to wear the Crown than by a just and peaceable exercise of their authority to sway the Scepter being at first over-ruled by the deceitful and pernicious counsels of their Mother and her Italians and the violent courses of the Guisian Faction to destroy their subjects and at last necessitated by the bold attempts of the Guisians and fury of the Leaguers to fight for Crown Liberty and Life against them whereby they and their Kingdom were continually embroiled in Civil Wars and miserable confusions each of them succeeding other as in their access to the Crown so in their unhappy reign if they might be said to reign while so obnoxious to the wills of others and continually imbroiled in such confusions and exit and catastophre of it the first Francis 2. cut off by a death remarkable though not for the kind yet for the time and season of it both in respect of his years and of those who were preserved by it V. Sect. 40. p. 63 64. the next Charles 9. living some years longer and thereby more capable by his own personal management of the affairs of the Kingdom to derive the guilt of his Ancestors miscarriages upon himself and increase it by his own which accordingly he did in no mean degree being likewise cut off by a death every way remarkable in respect both of the time and all other circumstances and lastly the third Brother Hen. 3. coming likewise to that unhappy end which hath been but now related all of them with their Brother Alancon dying without issue to succeed them Nor did this fate attend only the succession but light also upon those who were incapable to succeed in the Government their bastard Brother Angolesme who had been a forward actor in the Massacre being also as hath been said cut off by a violent death and of their Sisters Elizabeth the eldest * V. Sect. 39. p. 60. married to Phil. 2. of Spain a Marriage concluded with an agreement between him and her Father of a War against the Protestants but solemnized with the otherwise untimely death of her Father and by Philip her Husband first employed in the * V. Sect. 42. p. 74. Consultation at Bayonne and at last brought to that †V. Sect. 44. unhappy end when great with child and in the 23 th year of her age which hath been mentioned before and is more fully related in the late French History of Dom Carlos and Margaret the youngest first forced by her Mother and Brother Charles to a Marriage with the King of Navar that unhappy Marriage which was made the introduction to the Massacre afterwards for her * V. Busbeq ep Aug. 27. 1583. Da. p. 599. Thu. l. 80. lewdness and incontinency reproachfully turned from the Court by her next Brother Henr. 3. and at last divorced from her Husband when King of France without issue by him unless she had any by any other which was kept secret as her Brother objected to her If their other Sister Claud married to Charles Duke of Lorain was less unhappy in this respect she seems less to have merited the like misfortune for we meet with no mention of her in all the story of these confusions in France Thus were five Kings in a continued succession cut off besides three others of the same line the youngest son of Francis 1. in few months after the beginning of those persecutions at his age of 23. and the second and youngest of Hen. 2. who never came to the Crown and their whole line and posterity extirpated in France while they sought the extirpation of the Protestants there whereby the Crown at last notwithstanding all opposition and endeavours to hinder it descended to a Protestant Prince and all this by a constant course of Divine Vengeance upon that Family for about 44 years for so long it was from the execution of the Decree of the Parliament of Province Apr. 1545. and