to forgive who by the way was not Duke but only Earl of Suffolk is a Dream better becoming so slight a brain as is that of Mr. Varillas than the consummated wisdome of the King and Queen of Spain But thus it falls out when a Library Keeper turns Statesman and when from being a teller of tales he will turn a Writer of Histories which he composes out of his own Imaginations he must needs fall into childish errours When do Kings fall under those weaknesses as to disinherit an only Son to cover them from a remote fear and a very remote one it was for the Archduke needed at that time the assistance of England against France too much to be in a condition to raise a Civil War in England and to support a competition to the Crown which could have no other effect as to him but to give France an opportunity during the distractions of England to come and destroy him In short here is a Vision of a poor-spirited Pedant which is too much considered when it named and laught at 7. He pretends to enter into the reasons that were alledged at Rome both for and against the granting of the Bull but at last he concludes that Pope Alexander the 6th would not consent to it that he might not give occasion to accuse him of having broken the Discipline of the Church But here is such a false representation of the Court of Rome at that time and in particular of P. Alexander the 6th that since Mr. Varillas will needs write Romances I must put him in mind of one Rule that as Painters shew their Judgment and Learning in that which is in one Word called le Costume observing the Air Manners and Habits of the Ages and Scenes to which their Pieces belong so Poets when they bring unknown Names into their Plays they may clothe them with what Characters they please but if they represent Men whose Histories are known they must not confound Characters nor represent a Nero as a grave Philosopher or as a good natured Prince nor a Marcus Aurelius as a wanton Stage-player or as a bloody Tyrant And therefore thô Mr. Varillas may shew his pretended discoveries concerning Men that are less known yet when he brings in an Alexander the 6th on the Stage it is too bold a violation of Poetry to lay a strictness of Conscience or a sense of Honour to his charge and thô there is one part of this Period true that there had never been any dispensation of this sort formerly granted to serve as a Precedent for it yet that exactness in which he represents the Enquiry that the Divines of Rome made concerning this matter agrees ill with the State of the Court of Rome at that time and a Painter may as justly represent the old Romans in Pantalaons and with Hats in their hands 8. He says K. Henry the 7th was preparing all things for the Mariage of his Son to the Princess when he died And a little before that he had said that her Parents sacrificed the Interest of their Family to the satisfaction of the King of England by consenting to it A Match with the Heir of the Crown of England was no very costly Sacrifice and for his vision concerning the design of marrying her to the Duke of Calabria and by that means of restoring the Kingdome of Naples it does so ill agree with the Character of the King of Arragon that since there is no proof brought of this I must look on it as one of those Imaginations with which Mr. Varillas loves to entertain his Readers But for K. Henry the 7th he was so far from making any preparations for the Mariage that one of the Writers of that Age assures us that at his Death he charged his Son to break it apprehending perhaps a return of a new civil War upon the issue of a doubtful Marriage 9. He gives us a new tast of his unskilfulness in ordering his Scenes He had found that when Henry the 8th's Divorce came to be started there was some discourse of a Match between him and Francis the first 's Sister afterwards the Queen of Navarre and therefore he thought a proposition for her might come in before the Mariage as a pretty ornament to his Fable But the silence of all the Papers of that Time which I have seen is a much better evidence against it than his pretended negotiation of Mr. de Piennes is for it to which no credit is due It is well known that in the Archives of Venice there are Recitals laid up of all the Negotiations of their Ambassadours and Mr. Varillas having perhaps heard of this he fancied it would have a good grace to cite such Recitals as to French Affairs thô all that know the State of France know that this has not been the practice of that Court But as there is no proof to shew that there was any such Proposition made at that Time so the State of K. Lewis the 12th's Court differs extreamly from it in which the Count of Angoulême afterwards Francis the first and his Sister were not so favourable as to give us reason to think that pains was taken to raise that Lady to the Throne of England 10. He tells us that King Henry the 8th calling a Parliament in the beginning of his Reign they thought themselves bound in point of Honour to oblige to execute his Father's Orders relating to his Mariage who had not only made it the chief Article of his Testament and charged his Son to do it upon his last Blessing but had laid the same charge on the Men of the greatest Credit in England as he spoke his last Words to them upon which the Parliament being careful to maintain this Authority to which they pretended over their Master did oblige him by repeated Remonstrances to marry the Princess Here he goes to show how implacably he is set against the Crown of England formerly he had debased their Birth but he thought that was not enough now he will degrade them of their Dignity and give the Parliament a Superiority over them But it is a fatal thing for an ignorant Man to write History for if Mr. Varillas could have so much as opened our Book of Statutes he would have found that the first Parliament that K. Henry the 8th held was assembled the 21. of Ianuary 1510. almost 8. Months after the Mariage which was celebrated six Weeks after he came to the Crown in which time if Mr. Varillas had understood any thing of our Constitutions he would have known that it was impossible for a Parliament to have met since there must be 40. Days between a Summonds and a Meeting of Parliament so that if the new King had summoned one the Day after his Father's Death it could not have met sooner than the day before the Mariage 11. He says the Queen bore five Children the first three Sons and the other two Girls
another But since for a round Periods sake he will needs split Charles the 5th in two and name both the Emperour and the K. of Spain as two Pretenders he might have as well subdivided him into the King of Arragon and Castile Sicily and Naples and the very Titular Kingdome of Ierusalem might have come in for its share 16 He tells us that thô the match of Scotland was the most for the Interest of the Nation yet King Henry was so angry with his Nephew the King of Scotland for taking part against him in his last war with France that he resolved never to give him his Daughter Here Mr. Varillas will see again the necessity of purchasing a Chronological Table for thô that will cost him some money which as I am told goes very near his heart yet it will preserve him from some scurvy errours they may spoil the sale of his books for any one of those Tables even the worst and cheepest would have shewed him that it was not his Nephew that took part with France against him but his Nephew's Father for King Iames the 4th that was King Henry's Brother-in-Law made war on that occasion and was killed in it leaving an Infant Son behind him but it is pleasant to see the Ignorance of this Scribler that makes in one place King Iames the 4th to court the Princess for his Son thô he died several years before she was born and then makes King Iames the 5th to be making war with his Uncle during his Father's life and while himself was an Infant 17. He says the Emperour came and pretended the second to the Princess and upon that he sets down a large negotiation that he had with Cardinal Wolsey But he shews here an ignorance of Charles the 5th's Life thô he pretends to have made more than ordinary discoveries concerning his Affairs that proves that he has studied all History alike ill He reckons up the series of the Propositions for the Princess quite wrong for she was first contracted to the Dolphin the 9 November 1518 by a Treaty yet extant then Charles the 5th came into England in Person and contracted a Mariage with her at Windsor the 22 of Iune 1522 after that there was a Proposition made for the King of Scotland that was soon let fall and last of all there was a Treaty set on foot for the King of France then a Widdower or for his second Son the Duke of Orleans it being left to Francis's option to determine that and so remarkable a passage as Charles the 5th's coming to England in person was unhappily unknown to Mr. Varillas otherwise he would have dressed up a mighty Scene of Politicks to adorn it 18 He gives us the character and the History of Card. Wolsey with his ordinary colours in which truth comes very seldome in for an ingredient he tells us how he was Bp. of Tournay or rather Oeconome of that See and how many journeys he made between Tournay and London and that he being enriched at Tournay he got the Bishoprick of Lincoln after that upon the Bp. of Winchester's death he had that See from that he was raised to be Archbishop of York then he was made Chancellour of England then Cardinal and Legat à Latere and last of all he was made Chief Minister of State and to shew our Author 's deep Judgment this last Article seemed so doubtful a point to him that he must needs bestow a proofe on it and he sends us to P. Leo the 10th's Register thô the advancements that he had already reckoned up may well make this pass without a more particular Proof nor is P. Leo's Register a place likely to find it in Here is a great deal to let his Reader see how entirely he was possessed with the History of that time since he could run out so far with the Character and History of that Minister but for the strain in which he sets out his Character one must see it is only Mr. Varillas's fancy for how came he to know Cardinal Wolsey's air and manner of deportment even in the smallest thing I that have seen much more of him in his Letters Dispatches and Instructions than Mr. Varillas can pretend to have done dare not goe so far because I have not arrived at Mr. Varillas his pitch of Religion but if his character is no truer than the History that he gives of Wolsey I know what name is due to it He was made Bishop of Tournay in October and Bp. or Lincoln in the March thereafter or rather in February for the Temporalty was given him the 4th of March which is always restored after the Consecration so that here was not time enough to make such journies between Tournay and London nor to enrich himself with the former he had not Winchester but 15 years after that but he was made Archbishop of York two year after he had Lincoln he was also made Cardinal and Legate before he was made Chancelour for Warham Archbishop of Canterbury was Chancelour while he was Legate and had some disputes with him touching his legative power upon which he obtained that Dignity for puting an end to all disputes and in stead of his being last of all Minister of State he was first of all Minister of State while he was only the Lord Almoner and all his other dignities came upon him as the natural effects of that Confidence and favour into which the King had received him 19. He cannot assent to some Historians that imagine he was the Confident of K. Henry's Pleasures since he thinks if that had been true he could not have been so cheated afterwards as he was Here is a Demonstration that he never read my History into which I have put besides other Evidences of his being on the secret of Anne Boleyn's matter two letters that she writ to him which are undeniable proofs of it But as for the long Story into with he runs out concerning Charles the 5th's Intrigues with him and his way of writing to him in the stile of Son and Cousin for which he cites on the Margent the Emperour's Letters to Wolsey that lie in his fancy that is the greatest Library in the World but the hardest to be come at all this is so loosely writ that it is plain Mr. Varillas had no light to direct him in it since he says not a word of the most important circumstance of it which was the Emperour's coming in person to England which was beleeved to have been done chiefly to gain Wolsey entirely and in which it is certain that he had all the success that he had wisht for 20. He says Wolsey being alienated from the Emperour engaged the King of France after he was set at liberty to treat for a Match between the Dauphin and the Princess of England upon which they were contracted with great Magnificency but that was not enough for the Cardinal's malice I have formerly
Grandfather of this Henry had matched with one that was very near the Crown and Cosen German to K. Iames the 4th's and Sister to Hamilton Earl of Aran this Lord Darly's Mother was also Uterine Sister to K. Iames the 5. being the Daughter to the Queen Dowager of Scotland that was K. Henry the 8th's Sister who by her second mariage with the Earl of Angus Dowglass had Lady Isabel Dowglass who was bred in the Court of England and whom K. Henry the 8. maried to the Earl of Lennox that had by her this Lord Darly who as he was the Queen of Scotland's Cosin German was also the next Heir to the Crown of England after her and might have been a dangerous Competitour to her in that Succession having been born and bred in England so that this mariage was so far from making her contemptible to her Subjects that it was considered as the wisest act of her life and Mr. Var. could not Imagine any thing more honourable to the Earl of Morny's memory than to make him the adviser of so wise a choice It is no wonder to see Mr. Var. make so bold with meaner persons when he takes so much liberty wiht the Royal Family of England as to stain their descent for which if the consideration of the Crowns they wear did not restrain him yet the particular regard to the King that now reigns ought to have taught him so much respect as not to have ventured to blot his Scutcheon so far as to call his Great Grandfather a single Gentleman and if he had payd the respect he owed to the Memory of that unfortunate Princess he had no◠enlarged so much on her Story but I know what is due to the Memory of a crowned Head even when it is laid in ashes and thô he makes an easy weakness to be her prevailing Character upon which he would discharge all her Misfortunes this Picture is so different from the Truth that she was certainly one of the wittiest and highest spirited Women that ever lived But it seems Mr. Varillas has pretended to some Pension from the Crown of England and in revenge for the disappointment he has resolved to debase the Race all he can Here he affords our Kings the honour to be descended at least from a Gentleman thô one of the ordin ariest sort but upon another occasion he is not so liberal for in his History he says that Henry the 8th had reasons to desire the mariage of his Bastard Son the Duke of Richmond with his Daughter Mary that were too well known for libels had been spread over all Europe reproaching him that his Great Grandfather was not a Gentleman but that by his credit at Court and by the vast riches that he had acquired he had obtained leave to marry a Daughter of the Family of the Plantaganets that was then 16. degrees distant from the Crown and yet by that means his Grand-child came to reign upon which he makes a long speculation concerning the King's Reflections on that matter and the reasons that restrained him from writing on that subject as if it were an ordinary thing for Princes to become their own Heralds He also tells us how he comforted himself by the remembrance of the meanness of Arbaces K. of Persia that was the Son of a Locksmith whose Posterity had reigned so long and with so much glory and therefore he says he designed to marry his Natural Son and his Daughter together Here is such a mixture of Impertinencies that it is not easy to know at what one is to begin and if there were but this one period it is enough to let the World see how incapable Mr. Varillas is of writing History I shall not in this place shew the falsehood of that Imputation on Henry the 8th that he designed this incestuous Match for that will come in more property upon another occasion only if his Birth was defective on his Great Grandfathers side it was an odd method for the correcting of it to think of adding a new blot and of bringing a Bastard into the 5th Succession so the reason is as foolish as the matter of fact is false and the Ignorance that Mr. Var. shews here is the more remarkable because this matter belongs to the most extraordinary transaction that is in the whole French History in which he pretends to be so conversant I need not say any more to prove the Tudors to be Gentlemen but to tell that they are Welshmen of the Race of the Ancient Britons who do all pretend to the highest Birth of any in the English Nation and do run up their Pedigrees to Iulius Cesar's time among whom is the Race of the the Ap Theodore's or the Sons of Theodore that by a corruption of some Ages were called Tudors but knows Mr. Varillas so little of the French History as to have forgot that the Daughter of France that was maried to Henry the 5th of England in whose right both Henry the 5th and her son Henry the sixth were crowned Kings of France in Paris did after King Henry the 5th's death marry Owen Tudor by whom she had 3. Sons the two eldest were made the Earls of Richmont and Pembroke being the Kings Uterine Brothers and the next heirs to that Title that he claimed to the Crown of France in the right of his Mother which I am far from thinking was a good one This being the case it was no extraordinary thing for a man of the Earl of Richmont's rank to marry a Lady that was then at such a distance from the Crown thô it was only in the 6th and not the 16th degree but I do not insist on this because it may be only the fault of the Printer and I will not descend to a doubtful fault when I have such material ones in my way I know there are a sort of men that are much more ashamed when their Ignorance is discovered than when their other vices are laid open since degenerate minds are more jealous of the reputation of their understanding than of their honour And as Mr. Varillas is very like to be of this temper so if a simpathy with Mr. Maimbourg has not wrought him up to the like pitch of assurance such discoveries as these ought to affect him a little and here a man is apt to lose his patience when he finds such a Scribler pretend to defame the Noblest blood in the world There is nothing else in the first Prophetick Rhapsody that relates to our matters so I was inclined to go from hence to a more particular enquiry into our English affairs only the Ignorance that he discovers in the next paragraph is so surprising that I will bestow a short remark on it He says that the Switzers were so prevailed on by this pretext that their separating themselves from the Roman Communion was the best expedient to preserve them from falling under the Dominion of the House of Austria
long enough in Paris to procure this Now what those Letters of Cardinal Bellays are upon which Mr. Varillas pretends to found his Relation I cannot imagine For as he came not to act in this matter till the last step of it so his Letters cannot carry any long Series of this affair in them and they must be far from giving those long excursions into which Mr. Varillas always delights to wonder And as I remember I was in particular told that those Letters were in the King's Library and so since all that was there agreed with my History this must pass among those hardy Citations of Authors that Mr. Varillas is apt to make to give credit to his Inventions He flourishes a little to shew some small reading but he is as unhappy in that as in other things He mentions Cambden as having writ the History of that Revolution with some more moderation than he is pleased to allow me but he says he does so constantly favour the Calvinists in prejudice of those that he calls Catholicks that one needs only read the first page that turns up to him in any part of his History to be convinced of it This is a very good proof that Mr. Varillas never opened any one page of Cambden Since he does not write of that Revolution For he begins his History with Q. Elisabeth's Reign and says no more of what went before her time than what amounts to a very short hint of her Birth and Education and a general Introduction into her Reign and that History is writ with so much judgment and impartiality that as it acquired the Author the friendship and esteem of that eminent Historian Mr. du Thou so he after Cambden's Death published the second Volume from the Manuscript that the Author had sent him If the discovery of a great many Rebellions and Conspiracies against the Person of that famous Queen is that which disgusts Mr. Varillas at that History it is because his Religion has so enslaved his Conscience that he is so little concerned in Truth or Falsehood as not to be able to endure one of the gravest Writers that this Age has produced because he could not avoid the Recital of those many Crimes that some of the Men of Mr. Varillas's principles as to Religion were not afraid to commit After this he mentions another of our Historians whom he calls Dr. Morton and to make his Reader know that he is acquainted with the History of his Life he tells us he was afterwards a Bishop but this is one of the Authors of his invention for thô we had a Doctor Morton that was Bishop of Durham and that died about 30 years ago yet he writ no History By the Character that Mr. Varillas gives this pretended Author that he was more moderate than Cambden I fancy he is mistaken in the Name and that he would say Dr. Heylin thô this Name and Morton have no affinity but Heylin was no Bishop it is true Dr. Heylin has writ so moderately that some have been severe upon him for it but I will make no other Reflections on this unless it be to shew the slightness of Mr. Varillas's way of writing who it is likely had heard one talk at the same time both concerning Dr. Morton and Dr. Heylin and he in his assuming way pretends upon this to give a Character of that History putting the Name Morton for Heylin but he never read a Word of Dr. Heylin thô in his daring way he pretends to give his Character and repents himself of the praise of Moderation that he had given in preference to Cambden and sets it out as an artifice since whereas Cambden blames always the pretended Catholicks without any mitigations Morton in blaming them counterfeits some pity for them that is to say he had some degrees of Mr. Varillas's Character of Religion But Dr. Heylin's History being writ only in English and it having never been translated either into Latin or French Mr. Varillas cannot give a Character of it from his own knowledg From our side he goes to the Writers of the Roman side and begins with another essay of his exactness to his principles of Religion For he says Sanders writ so violently that it vvas no vvonder if the Protestants caried their revenge so far as to force him to die of hunger in the Mountains of the North of England to vvhich he had retired Here are only three capital Errours for 1. Sanders's Book concerning the English Schisme vvas not published till after his Death so that this could give no occasion for so severe a revenge 2. Sanders did not die in the North of England but in Ireland 3. Sanders vvas sent over by the Pope to raise and conduct a Rebellion in Ireland for vvhich he had immediate povvers from the Pope He was so active that he brought an Army together which was defeated by the Queen's Forces and upon that he fled into a Wood where he was some days after found dead So that having received no Wounds it was believed he died of Hunger This being the state of that affair as it is related of all sides is not Mr. Varillas a very creditable Author who has the brow to report it as he does For the Character that he gives of Ribadeneira it is so embroiled that I do not think it worth the vvhile to examine it It is enough to say that Ribadeneira is a Jesuite that is to say a Man true to Mr. Varillas his Character of Religion and his History is nothing but Sanders drest up in another Method I speak of that which is in Latin for the Spanish I have never seen it For Lesley he is generally a grave and wise Writer but Mr. Varillas names him because some body had told him that one of such a name had writ of those matters otherwise he had never cited him with relation to English Affairs which he scarce ever mentions but as they happned to be intermixt with the Scotsh In conclusion Mr. Varillas pretends to depend upon Cardinal Bellay's Letters and so he thinks here is enough to settle in the spirit of his Reader a firm beleef of all that he intends to write but let him tell the World where they are to be found since the printed Volume contains nothing of the matters that he pretends to cite from him And since I have printed so many of the Original Letters of that Time and have told the Reader where they are to be found I will expect the like from him otherwise let him cite them as long as he will I will take the liberty to tell him that I do not believe him And I think that by this time I have given him sufficient reasons for excusing my Incredulity in matters that he gives us upon his own word Here is enough for a preliminary But I am affraid I grow heavy to my Reader and that by this time he is so fully satisfied concerning the principles both of