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
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
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
mentioned his coming over from Flushing to Kent while K. Henry was at Calais but now I tell him plainly that I see by his Citation that neither before nor now does he know any thing of the Voyage into England of which I had made mention for this that he speaks of here was in the year 1520. and the Enterview was at Dover and was design'd to hinder the ill effects which the Emperour apprehended from the late enterview that had passed between Henry and Francis that had carried him over to Calais But that which I spake of was two years after this in the year 1522. which passed with more Magnificence for then the Emperour was Install'd Knight of the Garter and contracted to King Henry's Daughter XXXVII Concerning Card. Wolsey he tells me that if I have seen some Manuscripts that never were in his hands he has likewise seen those that have escaped me and he mentions a Letter of Lewis the twelfths in which Wolsey is so excessively commended that it is neither sutable to the dignity of him that writ it nor of him to whom it was writ therefore he supresses many particulars that are in it Mr. Varillas's boasting of the Manuscripts that he has seen is like the Chymists boasting of the Philosophers stone which no body believes a whit the more for that A Letter writ by so good a King as Lewis the twelfth would be better received by the world than all that ever Mr. Varillas can print yet since he pretends to be so good a Courtier he should have thought it enough to say that the strain of that Letter was below the Dignity of him who writ it without adding any thing else of the Dignity of him to whom it was written since unless it was to the K. of England there is scarce any other person whose Dignity ought to be named as in parallel with that Kings And since Wolsey was but just entring upon the ministry when that King died it is not probable that he fell into Raptures upon that subject but Mr. Varillas takes more care of Lewis the twelfths honour in not printing it than he does of his own The rest of this Article is in Citations drawn out of Florimond and out of another much worse Author who is Mr. Varillas himself XXXVIII I had printed some Original Letters to discover his mistake concerning Wolsey and he in opposition to that cites what his Florimond had said eighty years before him as if a Falshood by a prescription of 80. years could become true he adds that the proof that I had given to the contrary it not convincing The point in question is whether Cardinal Wolsey knew of the King's design to marry Anne Bullen now I had printed two of her Letters to the Cardinal in one of which there is a Postscript writ by King Henry's hand that speaks plainly of the thing they were both written while Card. Campege was on his Journey any man besides Mr. Varillas would think this is a convincing proof and whereas I had accused him for citing on the Margin Charles the fifth's Letter to Wolsey he justifies this out of Florimond if he had cited these as from him I confess this would have justified him but since he cited them without any such qualification he shews us how little credit is due to his Quotations I had called Charles the fifths coming to England in person The most important Circumstance in all this affair and this he according to his ordinary sincerity turns as if I had said that the secret of the Reformation consisted in that Voyage I was speaking of the Pretenders to King Henry's Daughter and had not so much as the Reformation in view so the affair upon which I was being the disposal of Queen Mary had reason to say that the most Important Circumstance of it was the Emperours coming in person and contracting himself to her The raillery that follows here is another proof that Mr. Varillas is equally happy both in Iest and Earnest If I were to make my Court to the Spaniards I must be as Ignorant as Mr. Varillas is if I think to do it effectually by representing Charles the fifth as having advanced the Reformation XXXIX He meets me here again with another long Citation of Florimond which always goes for nothing with me After which he says somewhat himself that is next to nothing I had told him That the new Treaty that King Francis had made with Henry for his Daughter in an alternative between Francis and his second Son was somewhat extraordinary and if he had known it it would have furnished him matter for his embelishments But to all this he says he could not imagin how Francis that was engaged by the Treaty of Madrid to marry Charles the fifths Sister could court the Princess of England for himself or his second Son Since he was a Prince that valued himself extreamly on the keeping of his word But the Treaty of Madrid was so ill executed by Francis that there is no part of his life to which his Exactness to his word ought to be less applied than to this yet in this he might have observed both Treatys for since the Match with England was agreed in an alternative between him and his Son it being left to himself to declare which of them should have her it was easy for him to observe both these Treatys by declaring that the Duke of Orleans should marry Henry's Daughter and here our Author shews his Judgment in setting such Conjectures as his are against matters so Authentically proved as this is XL. A new Justification from Florimond comes here again with this Preface that if he is deceived it is after Florimond but whose fault it is that he believed him and copied him notwithstanding all the noise he makes with his Manuscripts He adds two of my Expressions and fancies that there is a Contradiction in them That in this he differs from Sanders tho he copies him ordinarly for he says If he invents matters he does not copy him and if he copies him he does not invent But may he not Copy Sanders for the greatest part and yet now and then invent a little without any Contradiction There is a terrible charge against me in the Conclusion of this Article In my English by a fault of the Printer the year 1529. was put instead of the year 1524. and was marked in the Errata now the Translator went on with the error that he found in my Book and so the year 29. being wrong put he triumps but since he pretends to answer me he ought to have examined my English and to have compared the Errata So his accusing me of Impudence falls back on himself XLI All that he says to this Article is that he had writ it after Florimond and to prove this he gives me a Citation of fix Pages and a half long out of him And is not this an