because he had it seems one of Mr. Varillas's Artifices of citing boldly Papers that never were and so cites those of Cardinal Campege Mr. Varillas upbraids me with my not having seen them but I believe both their Citations alike I have indeed printed a long Letter of that Cardinals writ to the Pope in conjunction with Cardinal Wolsey while he was in England in which he asserts the Justice of the Kings cause and presses him to give Sentence in his favour he assures the Pope that nothing but Conscience moved the King in the matter and in short says all that even Mr. Varillas would have said if he had been animated with the prospect of a good Pension XXXIII He says I contradict my self in denying that the K. of Scotland sought the Daughter of Henry the Eighth confessing it afterwards I denied only that the Father had ever sought it since he was dead before she was born and here Mr. Varillas has the confidence to deny all that long Scheme that he had given of the project that the King of Scotland had set on for his Son so that the Imposture of suppressing his Text with which he charges me lies on his side and he leaves out all that he had said of the Machines that the King of Scotland was managing for his Son the Prince who was no other than King Iames the Fifth so the King must be King Iames the Fourth his Father and for that which he says of King Iames the Fifths going with an Army to France it fell out many years after this so it could not be the Reason that made King Henry deny his Daughter to the King of Scotland it being long after even the year 1533. after which time he owns that he does not say that the King of Scotland pretended to her and whereas he pretends that he only said that the Scots had pressed the Marriage that is one of his common practices to which I will not give the name that it deserves for he had expresly named both the King and the Prince who he said asked her with all the Submissions that were compatible with the Dignity of Soveraigns whereas as the one was dead before she was born and the other was an Infant at that time His Discourse of the Design of Uniting the whole Island into one Monarchy and his taking a start over into Spain is one of his Impertinencies to which he fly's to cover his shame and the Contradiction with which he charges me before he ends this Article is worthy of him He says I own that King Henry was Master of his Parliament and yet I denied that his Government was Tyrannical I never denied this last on the contrary I have set it out as fully as was necessary but tho I had denied it the saying that he was the Master of his Parliaments is so far from being a Contradiction to that that it agrees exactly with it Queen Elisabeth was always the Mistress of her Parliaments tho guilty of no Tyranny and it was because she was not Tyrant but governed well that she was the Mistress both of her Peoples Hearts and Purses and likewise of her Parliaments so the Triumph that he makes upon this Contradiction which he says the most able Sophister of Europe will not be able to set to rights turns upon himself XXXIV He pretends to justify his Impertinence in reckoning the Emperour and the King of Spain as two of the Pretenders to Queen Mary by saying that Charles the fifth was for three years King of Spain before he was chosen Emperour and that during all that time he pretended to her but tho he cites his Florimond here yet he finds no such thing in him so that here the Eccho does not repeat but speaks of it self and as he cannot give the least shadow of proof for this confident Assertion of his so he himself contradicts it in his own words which he cites afterwards in which he had said that the Emperour was the second that pretended to this Princess so then he was not only King of Spain but already Emperour when he began that pretension All the digression that he makes concerning Charles the fifth is a continued Impertinence to hide his Shame the only thing he had to do was to prove that he began that pretension while he was no more than King of Spain 2. he trys how Raillery will do with him because I had only named Arragon and Castile instead of the many other Kingdoms that lie within Spain but he is equally sublime both in his Ridicule and his serious strains for since the conjunction of all these Titles rise out of the Marriage between Arragon and Castile I writ correctly in naming these two only instead of all the rest that lay in Spain XXXV Our Author will still justify what he had said concerning K. Henry's rejecting the match with Scotland because the King of Scotland had declared himself for France during the last War in which K. Henry had been engaged with Francis now it is to be considered that all the propositions for Queen Mary that our Author sets forth fell out before the year 1527 in which the sute of the Divorce was begun for after that time none courted her as he himself confesses therefore this War between England and France in which Scotland took part with the latter and for which the King lost his Unkles favour must be before that time since then there had been no war between France and England in which Scotland took part after that battel of Floddon in which K. Iames the Fourth was killed and after which during the interval between the year 1513. and the year 1527. which is the only time in debate nor indeed for many years after it all this is an ill-laid fiction which destroys it self so what K. Iames the fifth might do ten years after the year 1527. cannot be brought to excuse that which had been given for a reason of K. Henry's rejecting him before that year XXXVI He accuses me for denying in one place that the Emperour pretended next and yet afterwards confessing it but I only excepted to this because he says the Emperour pretended the second after the K. of Scotland whereas I shew that the Dolphin was the first that pretended and by the Contract for that Marriage which is yet extant it appears that his dream of Charles's pretending to her while he was yet King of Spain is not only without ground but is a downright falsehood for that contract bears date the ninth of November 1518. so that during this Interval in which Charles was only King of Spain she was promised to another 2. Whereas I had discovered his Ignorance of those Transactions by this that he knew nothing of Charles the fifth's coming to England in Person to contract this Marriage he tells me that he had writ of this in his History of Francis the first where he had
the better but Mr. Varillas did a greater kindness to his Stationer than to himself Nor do I believe that he intended it at first for there are some parts of my Reflections so falsly represented by him in his Answer that I cannot believe he would have done it if he had then intended to have printed my Reflections otherwise I must conclude that his judgment and his sincerity are both of a piece for Instance could a man that had intended to have printed what I had said concerning the Lord Darnley being the next Heir after Queen Mary to the Crown of England so that he might have been a dangerous competitor to her in that Succession he having been born and bred in England Could I say this man pretend that I had affirmed that the Lord Darnley was a dangerous Competitor to her for the Crown of Scotland and his putting that in the Citation he makes of my words instead of the Crown of England would appear strange in any other but in him such strains are so common that I am not surprised at this yet he has the Impudence to triumph upon it and to spend some Pages to shew that her Title was undisputed I find many more Instances of the like foul dealing which makes me conclude that Mr. Varillas did not design at first to print my Reflections and besides this he copies out sometimes half Pages of my Words which he would not have done if he had intended to have given them entire to the Reader for they are not so much to his advantage that he had reason to desire that they should be twice read He tells the world that if he had a mind to imitate my passionate way of writing and if he would write my life ever since I was Chaplain to My Lady Dutchess of Hamilton to this present time that I am by my fault become a Citizen of Holland he would write things so singular that they would make his Answer the most agreeable Book that had been printed of a great while For this I know there have been men at work both in Scotland and England to furnish Mr. Varillas with materials to defame me and because I will conceal nothing that I know that is to his honour I was informed that he writ back to England that he would not medle with those personal things and that he wisht that instead of these they would send him good Memorials relating to the matters in dispute between him and me This was to act like a fair Enemy I confess But I do not say this to bespeak his Favour that so he may not print all those Informations that were sent to him from a Society that having forged them had a mind to put another on publishing them Let him print them when he will for I am not affraid of all the hurt they can do me and indeed if one may judge of this Epocha of my life by the two Periods here mentioned the writing upon such Informations may very well agree with Mr. Varillas's other Histories for these may be Authors of as good credit for ought I know as his Florimond de Raymond was I was never Chaplain to the Dutchess of Hamilton I do not deny this as judging it any diminution to me if it had been true for I do honour both her Person and Family so much that I would rather value myself self upon it if I had been ever in her Family but I never was Caplain to any Subject I was Chaplain to the late King but to no other The last Period passes my apprehension Mr. Varillas reproaches me for the Meanness and Flatness of my Stile for he that penetrates into so many Secrets that never were can even judge of an English stile by a translation yet since that he is the first who has reproached me for so very bad a stile I ought to bear this the more patiently but since he fancies that he has attained the Sublime of stile I would gladly know to which of all Longins rules this expression belongs that by my fault I am become a Citizen of Holland By my fault seems so odly placed here and a Citizen of Holland is so strang a way of expressing my being naturalised by the States and would intimate as if Mr. Varillas's ignorance went so far as to fancy that Holland was a City that since there are two sorts of Sublimes the one of Nonsence and the other of Eloquence I will not take upon me to judge to which of these this belongs For it is too great a presumption in one whose stile is so low as mine to examin the flights of so elevated a Writer As for the rest of this Memoire I am very little concerned whether he print it or not I have behaved my self so of late as to shew that I am neither afraid of any discoveries that can be made nor disturbed at any Calumnies by which my Enemies may endeavour to blacken me and as I had much rather have Mr. Varillas print all that has been sent him concerning me than to publish it up and down Paris so whatever he thinks fit to say of me shall be either treated by me with the silent scorn that an ill made Lye deserves or shall be answered as the matter may happen to require it But before I enter into any more particular enquiries I will in general state the whole matter as it lies between Mr. Varillas and my self and then I will leave it even to the judgment of a Reader that may be partial of his side He had published two Volums of the Revolutions that have hapned in Europe in the matters of Religion and with Relation to English Affairs he had pretended in his Preface that he did found that part of his Work on Card. de Bellay's Letters besides several other Papers that he cited on the Margin of his ninth Book but he had given no intimations where any of these were to be found I had on the other hand writ the History of that time in which I not only cited many Original Papers but had likewise printed the most important of them and had also told where they were to be found as for those which I have cited from publick Records they are accessible to all the World for the greatest part and for those that are not to be come at but by a Warrant under the Kings hand that is so easily had and would be so readily granted at present that I may with some degrees of just assurances say that I ought to be believed till it can be made appear that I have been guilty of any Imposture in those Citations and the stir that has been made of late to supply Mr. Varillas with matter against me and the meanness of those Objections with which they have furnished him gives me reason to conclude that they know they cannot accuse me of Fraud or Forgery in any of my Citations as for the other Original Papers
of the Narration makes me believe that Mr. Varillas denies this with the same sincerity that he affirms other things why did he call him a Gentleman without adding any other Description of his Quality for let him say what he will of the Honour of that Title yet all the world knows that when a man is upon such an occasion qualified barely as a Gentleman that it is understood that he has no higher rank nor any particular distinction and that which comes after this that by this Marriage the Queen grew contemptible to all her Subjects shews that even tho Simple were not to be found in the Paris Editions yet it must be understood But because Mr. Varillas will pretend to know the Scottish Story he offers to recriminate In short those who sent him that Story of my life have also furnished him with some Errors for which he charges me in such heinous terms as to call them Faults of vast importance which the meanest of all the little Schollars at Edinburgh would have avoided I ought to fall a trembling here for I know there would be no quarter for me if I fell into Mr. Varillas's hands yet all these dreadful words come only to this that she whom I called the Lord Darnley's Grandmother proves to be his Great Grandmother and that she whom I call Isabel was Margaret And are not these justly to be aggravated with such severity as to say that these were Faults of the grossest sort against the first Elements of the History of my Countrey I forgive Mr. Varillas for magnifying those mistakes since he can meet with no other and I do not find my self a whit troubled if writing in Holland where I had not the requisites of Books or Papers I did not carry the race of the Family of Lennox so exactly in my memory but that I might mistake so far as to call a Great Grandmother a Grandmother and there having been a famous Lady Isabel Dowglas if I mistook Isabel for Margaret this is no great matter But he charges me with a third because I said that the Branch of the Lennox's came out of the Family of the Stewards before the Crown came into it by Marriage whereas he tells me I should have said at the same time since the first of the Family of Lennox was Brother to him that married the Heir of the Crown If I had said long before he might have challenged me for it but the younger Brother being born before that Marriage and not being descended from it I used all necessary caution in my words my design being only to shew that the House of Lennox by the Paternal descent had no relation to the Crown after this our Author to make some reparation to the Royal Family reckons up the Honours that some Branches of the House of Lennox had in France as that they were Marquisses Counts of Aubigny Viceroys of Naples Admirals of Sicily and Mareshals of France tho to make up this Catalogue of honour the same man runs Charles the fifths fate to be subdivided into two or three Dignities But Mr. Varillas ought to know that the Dignity of the K. of England's birth is too great a thing to receive any addition by the Imployments that those of the Family of Lennox might have merited in France So mean a man as Mr. Varillas who has nothing in his thoughts but the smiles of Versailles fancies he gives a lustre to one of the greatest Kings in Europe when he says that some of his Family served in France which rather lessens his Race than exalts it As for his Impudence in putting the Crown of Scotland instead of the Crown of England and his making me say that the Lord Darnley might have been a dangerous competitor to Mary Queen of Scots for that Crown when not only my words but the whole series of the Discourse shews that I meant only of the Crown of England was already observed It will indeed bear a repetition for it is a remarkable instance of Mr. Varillas's sincerity and shews how safely the world may rely on his word He shews his Ignorance again in saying That his Marriage of the Queen of Scotland was the first cause of the change of Religion in Scotland The change of Religion was made before the Queen came out of France and so was setled some years before this Marriage and this was rather a step towards the subverting of the Religion then established since the Lord Darnley lived and died a Roman Catholick IV. What he says to shew that the greatness of Queen Maries spirit does not contradict the character that He gives of her is so poor that I will not examin it the subject is too tender to admit of it as well as what he says is too dull to deserve it V. He gives a long Citation of his own words by which it does not appear that I supprest any thing that needed to be told by me if this Book had been printed two years sooner than it was I should have believed that Mr. Varillas was in Pension to some body else than the King of England by the pains he is at to justify the putting a Bastard into the Succession of the Crown for I do not believe that at this time any body thinks him considerable enough to be corrupted 2. His alledging that I had accused him as if he had said that the King had composed whole Volums on this subject is another mark of his sincerity for it is visible I had said no such thing 3. The Proofs he brings to justify what he had said of the baseness of the Race of the Tudors from some Strangers and Harpsfield one of the worst of our Writers are not to be put in the ballance either with Polider Virgil's Testimony or the more Authentick Evidences that I had given particularly in my Appendix to which he says not a word 4. There is a great difference between saying that the Tudors were not Gentlemen and the denying that he was a fit match for a Queen-Dowager And tho Mr. de Courteney is perhaps of a higher degree of Nobility than I pretend that the Tudors are yet I believe he would be thought an unequal match to a Queen Dowager of France so tho the Tudors might perhaps drive up their pedigree to Cadwaller yet they had been for some Ages reckoned only as one of the best Families of Wâ—les and this puts an end to all that trifling of his when he pretends to argue against his Birth by saying that if he was so descended he was an equal Match to the Queen Dowager 5. There might be very good reasons that might make the Queen conceal her Marriage all that was possible even tho Tudor had been ever so good a Gentleman for she being a Queen-mother and having a Son newly born which gave the prospect of a long share in the Government she had reason to hide her Marrying a Gentleman had he
unanswerable thing that deserves well to be set in Opposition to Original Papers XLII Here comes Florimond again but because I had mentioned the Pictures of Anne Bullen which shew that what was said of her person was false he tells me that Painters and Poets have always taken liberties and because his good Judgment made him fancy that this wanted a proof he gives me two storys to make it good But after all a Painter is as well to be believed as a Poet at any time So I may set Hans Holben that was a very good Painter against two such ill Poets as Florimond and Mr. Varillas the first saw her and the others only heard of her so they copied whereas he drew to the life XLIII Here again comes Florimond as his Garend for four Pages and he thought it was necessary to produce him since here as almost every where else I accuse him of a want of Sincerity but I will never give over this Accusation till he produce those Manuscripts out of which he pretends to have drawn his History XLIV After I had refuted Sanders he tells me this does not touch him who had not made use of him but if Florimond does in these Lines copy Sanders then by refuting him I refute all that Copy from him whether it be at first or second hand Mr. Varillas's saying that Cardinal Pool is the Writer of all the Catholicks that has blackned Henry the least shews how carelesly he has read him or how boldly he cites him Pool compares Henry to the wickedest Princes in History and makes a War against him to be more meritorious than against Infidels I had said that the Calumnies by which Anne Bullen was defamed not being objected to her upon her fall this shews that they were not thought on in that Age to this he answers That this shews the Moderation of the Catholicks but the not mentioning such things in History had been a vicious Moderation and indeed their Writers of that Age were as seldom guilty of any excess on that hand as he himself is in this He says also that it was needless to speak of the former Scandals of her Life after she was convicted to Adultery and Incest with her own Brother But when both she and her Brother died denying this and that it was generally thought she suffered injustly then former Scandals should have been alledged to make the Justice of her Sentence appear the more evidently therefore the silence of the Writers of that time and upon that occasion is still a good Negative Argument but he turns this matter upon me with some shew of Reason and says That since none writ a justification of Anne Bullen neither then nor afterwards this is a just prejudice against her But the Unfortunate have seldom pens imployed for their Honour and in Queen Elisabeth's time it was thought below the Dignity of the Daughter to examin too critically all the Reports that malicious Writers had set on foot against the Mother For if any impudent man would question the Birth and Descent of a Crowned Head severer tools than Refutations are thought the properest ways of answering them He then tells me why should I be believed more than the Catholick Writers But I ask not to be believed on my own word but I have shewed the Impossibility of the story that Sanders and our Author from him at second hand had contrived of Anne Bullen for what is impossible can never be true by my Logick but our Author shews how little he ought to be believed upon his Word for I having given for a proof of Anne Bullens good Reputation this that she served Claude Queen of France which he had set down truly in one page but in the very next page being to repeat and examin this he turns it as if I had made her serving Lewis the twelfths second Queen a proof of her vertue I knew the vertues of Queen Claude were as sublime as the others were questioned therefore I had made her serving the one as an evidence of the good esteem in which she was and this he would turn aside in a way very lime himself and wheras he had mentioned English Authors in the Plural and had set only Sanders on the Margin I had reason to ask if he could make a plural out of him as he had done out of Charles the fifth he tells me he had cited Florimond de Raimond but I do not yet find another to justify the plural of the English for whatever Title the King of England may have to Guienne so that Florimond may be reckoned in some sort among his Subjects yet all this does not put him among the English Authors so the Sanders is still all that we have for the plural and all the Histories that have appeared since his time by the Writers of that Communion are nothing but he over and over again in different languages and a little differently drest XLV He had cited a Petition to P. Clement the 7. for which I had accused him of forgery and had told him that he shewed his ignorance since tho the matter for which he invented it is mentioned by Card. Pool yet he was not so well Informed as to cite him now he alledges Florimond as his Garand for that citation whose authority is of so little credit and yet he has the confidence to think that was a more formal proof than if he had cited Cardinal Pool as if an Author that writ 80. years after those matters were to be put in competition with Cardinal Pool who lived and writ in that time he tells me he had Cardinaal Pools book before his eyes while he was writing but by this way of writing it seems he did not open him and his lying shut before him could not Inform him much when a Petition was cited and brought in question no body besides Mr. Varillas would have called the citing of an Author that lived about 80. year after the going to the source for it XLVI He gives me a notable proof of the credit due to Florimond in the matters relating to the Bishop of Tarbes because he had greatengagements with that Bishops heirs so that it is very probable that they communicated to him that Prelate's Papers And are not these very convincing Proofs Sometines a thing is to be believed because it is not Inconvenient at another time because it is probable but when he comes to answer the Reason I had given to demonstrate all this story to be false which was that it is not to be imagined that when that Bishop came to end the marriage of his Masters Son with the Heir of the Crowen of England that he I say could have been prevailed on to let that go and to set on a new Negotiation for Henry's marrying Francis's sister He sayes that Wolsey cheated the Bishop and made him believe that the other marriage was sure notwithstanding this new
Proposition This is to make him resolve to accept the Marriage of one that was to be declared a Bastard by the Divorce and yet he act knowledged before that the King of Scotland would never ask her after that But now he makes an Ambassadour of France lesse sensible of this point of Honour and content to have both these Marriages made at once But besides all this the great advantage of Marrying the Daughter of England was because she was the Heir of the Crown so then if the Bishop of Tarbes would have concurred to help the King to another Marriage by which that Succession might have been cut off from Mary we must conclude him to be as fit a man for Negotiations as Mr. Varillas is for Histories or Panegyricks but he must be pardoned if he cannot alwayes carry up his Fictions to a probability All that he adds of the General powers given to Ambassadours upon which they depart sometimes from all their Instructions and act contrary to them has nothing to do here in a matter of such vast consequence especially when a few dayes delay could have procured him positive Instructions upon any new propositions that might be made him XLVII I had cited his words concerning Cardinal Wolsey exactly and he repeats my quotation wrong that he might give himself a colour to reproach me Then he gives me a long Citation out of Florimond and sends his Reader back to another that is much longer and so he thinks all is well proved XLVIII He argues against a positive Instrument and thinks that some of the Probabilities that he offers and Florimond's Testimony ought to overthrow the plain Proof of a Matter of Fact XLIX He opposes to what I had said concerning Sr. Thomas Wiat his constant Voucher Florimond and then he runs out in his way to argue upon this Foundation of the Truth of that Testimony But instead of pursuing him in such trifling stuff I will here add a more importance Discovery of the Falsehood of all this matter by an Original Paper which fell into my hands since I writ my History but was not in my power when I writ my Reflections on Mr. Varillas yet it comes in here properly enough It is a long account that Sr. Thomas Wiats Son writ of that matter as soon as Sander's Book appeared He says it was never so much as spoken of before that time that his Father was Squire of the Body to King Henry all the while that that Marriage with Anne Bullen lasted and for many years after and yet neither did he in discretion retire out of the Court nor did the King seem jealous nor the Queen offended at him and he shews further the Improbability of the Fiction for upon her fall it was very probable that as Queen Catherine Howards ill life as well before as after her Marriage was examined when she was condemned so the like method would have been observed towards Anne Bullen if there had been any room for it and as to Anne Bullen he says that her Tryal was managed secretly in the Tower and that the Evidence upon which it was pretended that she was condemned was kept so secret among the Peers that tried her that it was never certainly known some of the Lords confessed afterwards that her Defence had cleared her entirely and to all this he adds one remarkable particular that there was none of all her Ladies brought to swear any thing against her now it is certain that no Queen especially in such a Court as that of England was then the Household being the greatest in Christendom could be guilty of so many disorders as were laid to her charge without taking some Woman into the Confidence and yet none were either accused of it or brought to Witness it He adds that his Father was afterwards Ambassadour for several years in Charles the Fifth's Court where he conceived that aversion to the Spaniards and to their Councils that this threw him into the Rebellion that he raised against Queen Mary when she was treating about the Spanish Match for I must here warn the Reader that Mr. Varillas transforms this Wiat into Haviet and makes a long story of him elsewhere In Conclusion a man must be as ignorant of our Affairs as Mr. Varillas is not to know that a Privy Councillor thinks an Ambassy no disgrace but on the contrary a preferment to him and those who know that by the forms of our Court no Officer has a more free and frequent Access to the King's person than the Squire of the Body tho he is but one of the second Rank in the Household will see how ridiculous a contrivance all this story is of Wiats having corrupted Anna Bullen and his revealing it to the Privy Council and their imploying the Duke of Suffolk to acquaint the King with it who was so far from believing it that he would not accept the conviction that Wiat offered to his own eye sight but on the contrary disgraced him for it L. Here is a new long citation of his Garand but at the end of it our Author seems not to comprehend how More could be for the Divorce without being for the Schism and thinks the distinction is a little too Metaphisical but the difficulty of apprehending this must lie in Mr. Varillas's dulness since there is nothing easier to be understood than that More thought there was just reason to move the Pope to annul a Marriage that had been made by vertue of a Papal Bull and yet tho More would have approved of the Divorce if it had been obtained in that manner he did not like K. Henry's doing it by the Authority of his own Clergy and his separating from the Court of Rome upon it More 's works make a huge thick Volum in Folio and were printed in Queen Mary's time by her positive Order nd so great a Book while Printing was yet so low as it was then in England could not be so easily carried thro the Press without some particular Assistance from the Court All that understand English will see that I have cited his Letters true and Mr. Varillas's Reasons against this is arguing against a plain Matter of Fact which can make no Impression upon any mans spirit unless it be to shew the Impertinence of him that undertakes it After this there comes another Impertinence of a Citation of five Pages out of Florimond LI. Before I examin what he says concerning Cajetan I will state the Matter in short He had given a long Abstract of Reasons which he had pretended to have drawn out of Cajetan's Consultation that had no appearance of truth in them such as that of the blocking up of Constantinople the avoiding to Mary in Houses suspect of Heresy with several other Follys I upon that concluded this must be as true as his other Quotations were so I searcht for Cajetans Works not having then by me those Extracts that I