The English PRINCESS OR THE Dutchess-Queen A RELATION OF ENGLISH and FRENCH ADVENTURES A NOVEL In Two PARTS LONDON Printed for Will. Cademan and Simon Neale at the Popes-Head in the Lower-Walk of the New-Exchange and at the Three Pidgeons in Redford-street in Covent-Garden 1678. THE English Princess OR THE Dutchess QUEEN The First PART THE Monarchy of England having been long in dispute betwixt the two Roses the Red of the House of Lancaster and the White of that of York fell at length to the peaceable inheritance of the former and never appeared in greater splendour than in the time of Henry the Eighth This Prince being of a most sharp and piercing wit by study and learning advanced daily more and more in knowledg and was no sooner at the age of eighteen Crowned King but that he seemed already to hold in his hands the Fate of all Europe All that was to be blamed in him was his love of pleasures which in progress of time got the Dominion over him and some kind of sickleness the blemish of several of his Family he had a delicate and well-proportioned body a countenance of singular beauty and shewed always such an Air of Majesty and Greatness as inspired both love and reverence in all that beheld him At his Assumption to the Crown when his heart was not as yet subjected to the pleasures of sense it was but a meer scruple of conscience that made him unwilling to marry Catharine of Spain his Brothers Widow to whom the late King his Father had betrothed him three years before his Death no engagements in love with any other Mistresses at that time being any ways the cause of his aversion But two of his chief Ministers who had been formerly private Pensioners of Isabel of Castile having represented to him the losses that he was likely to sustain by a mis-understanding with Spain easily cleared all his doubts so that at length he made use of the dispensation which with much difficulty had been obtained at Rome for his marriage and the League which at the same time King Ferdinand his Brother-in-law proposed to him with Pope Julius the Second the Emperour Maximilian and the Swisses against Louis the Twelfth King of France filled him with so high an opinion of himself that there hath been nothing more lovely than the first years of his marriage and Reign And indeed he gave himself so wholly to jollity and mirth amidst the great designs which he contrived that his Example being a pattern to his Court it became so compleatly gallant that the Ladies themselves thought it no offence to decency publickly to own their Votaries The Princess Mary his younger Sister as she excelled in Quality so she exceeded the rest in Beauty Margaret the eldest married to the King of Scotland had only the advantage of her in Birth for in Beauty her share was so great that there was never any Princess who deserved more to be loved The qualities of her mind and Character of her Parts will sufficiently appear in the sequel of this discourse and as to her body nothing was wanting that might render it perfect her complexion was fair her soft skin enriched with that delicate whiteness which the Climate of England bestows commonly on the Ladies of that Countrey and the round of her face inclining near to a perfect Oval Though her eyes were not the greatest yet they possessed all that could be desired in the loveliest eyes in the World They were quick with mildness and so full of love that with a single glance they darted into the coldest breasts all the flames that sparkled in themselves Her mouth was not inferiour to her eyes for being very little and shut with lips of a perpetual Vermilion in its natural frame it presented an object not to be parallel'd for Beauty and when again it opened whether to laugh or speak it always afforded thousands of new Charms What has been said of her pretty mouth may be likewise said of her fair hands which by their nimbleness and dexterity in the smallest actions seemed to embellish themselves but more might be spoken of the Soveraign Beauty of her Neck which when age had brought it to perfection became the master-piece of Nature Her Stature was none of the tallest but such as Ladies ought to have to please and delight and her gate address and presence promised so much that it is no wonder that the Charms of Nature accompanied with a tender and passionate heart gained her before the age of fifteen the Conquest of most of her Fathers Subjects Before she was compleat twelve years of age she was promised in marriage to Prince Charles of Austria heir to the Kingdom of Castile and since named Charles the Fifth For Lowis the Twelfth of France having frustrated that young Prince of the hopes of marrying the Princess Claudia his daughter by designing her for the Duke of Valois his presumptive heir notwithstanding the natural aversion that Anne of Brittanie his Queen had against him Henry the Seventh no sooner understood that the alliance of the house of Austria with France was unlikely to succeed but he began to think on means of contracting it with England Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester was therefore sent to Calais to negotiate in his name that marriage with the Deputies of Flanders who thereupon concluded a Treaty to the satisfaction of all Parties But the alteration of the King changed all these measures Henry the Eighth having in a manner against his will married the Aunt of the young Arch-Duke found not in that second Union with Spain all the advantages which his Father seemed to foresee and whether it was already an effect of repentance as some termed it or that he had in it the particular design which men had ground to suspect since he many times in discourse approved the ancient custom of his Kingdom of not giving in marriage the Daughters or Sisters of the Kings out of the Island for which he was so applauded by all that even those of his Council who were the least complaisant made it by little and little as he did a reason of State to forget the proposals of Calais So that now the Princess Mary being free from the engagement of the late King her Father and the great Men of England eying her as a blessing to be enjoyed by the most happy she found her self amidst a croud of lovers who in the peace and quiet of the Kingdom made it their whole business to disquiet themselves Amongst the most sparkling and assiduous pretenders Edward Gray Son to the Marquess of Dorset and Henry Bourchier Son to Thomas Earl of Essex appeared the chief Charles Son to Sir Charles Sommerset Lord High Chamberlain came next and Thomas Howard Son to Thomas Earl of Surrey Lord High Treasurer with William Talbot Son to George Earl of Shrewsbury Steward of the Kings Houshold put in amongst the rest These five Rivals being already very considerable by
the Quality of their Fathers all chief Ministers of State immediately declared their pretensions with magnificence suitable to the Dignity of the fair Princess to whom they made love they were all alike well received and the courteous and obliging humour of the Lady Mary made every one of them easily believe in a short time to become her greatest favourite But love blinded their eyes for a sixth and more secret Rival gained the prize that all contended for and though his Quality did not seem to capacitate him to contest with them in any thing yet the Kings favour and his own worth largely supplied what otherways he wanted His name was Charles the pretended Son of Robert Brandon of a noble Family in Suffolk and an unblemished life Yet he had greater respect given him as being the Nephew of William Brandon and Edward Hastings the former of great Renown in the Battel of Bosworth where carrying the Standard of Henry the Seventh he was killed by Richard the Usurper himself as he endeavoured to stop his flight and the other still alive was no less famous in the Battel of Black-heath where the seditious Flammock with the Rebels of Kent and Cornhil were overthrown To this Uncle by the Mother it was that he owed the greatest part of his merit having had from him a most ingenious and liberal education for after the death of those that were believed to be his Parents who died in that fatal plague which made so great havock in England in the beginning of that Age he was always the sole object of his care His supposed Mother named Anne Hastings a woman of great Parts and sufficient Beauty to make her the subject of some slanderous and detracting Tongues had been pitched upon for Nurse to the King not only because of the noble blood of which she was descended but also of that to which she was allied but at first she made some difficulty of accepting the charge which was then only imputed to the haughtiness inspired into her either by the nobility of her extraction of which she seemed always a little vain or by the remains of some self-love which she still retained though she had other reasons for it Nor would she undertake that care till she had assurance that the child whom she called her Son should be bred with her at Court And Henry the Seventh having afterward entertained her at Court in consideration of the services that he had received of her Brother-in-law and did daily receive from her own Brother and finding the young Henry much more vigorous and healthy than Arthur Prince of Wales and the Princess Margaret his two first Children which gave him reason to congratulate his having so good a Nurse it happened luckily that six years after she having proved with child at the same time that the Queen was big of the Princess Mary he would have her employed again in the bringing up of that fourth child that was to be born to him notwithstanding that Robert Brandon her Husband being at that time troubled with some peevish fits of jealousie designed to carry her back into the Countrey By this means Charles having known the Princess Mary from the Cradle had always as being her Nurses Son freer access unto her than his Rivals with all their greatness could pretend to Besides this during the absence of Edward Hastings who alone remained alive to take the eare of him the Dutchess of Bedford chief Governess of the Children of the Royal Family having taken him into protection allowed him free liberty at all hours of the day to visit her appartment and the Lady Latimer Sub-governess who desired still to be thought young and fair and was not far beyond the bounds of either entertained for her part somewhat more than esteem for the lovely Brandon All put together gave him great Priviledges with the young Princess and Henry the Eighth by promoting daily the affairs of Old Hastings to whom he was to be sole heir seemed sufficiently to authorise all the ambition that the young Nephew was capable of He had already great intimacy with the Prince and was the Confident of his most secret Pleasures and as he daily heaped Favours and Honours upon him he was often heard say That he could not do too much for the handsomest Gentleman in his Kingdom besides he was beautiful like himself and of the same age and stature his Meen and Presence shewed even somewhat more accomplished and by the sweetness of his disposition and generosity in many rancounters he gained the very esteem of his envious competitours The too young age and immaturity of Princess Mary of England was the reason that during the Reign of the late King and until the project of her marriage with the Prince of Spain he had not discovered to her his love but by looks and sighs whereof in all probability she understood not as yet the secret language but in a conjuncture so troublesom to a lover as that was taking counsel only of his passion that he might bewail his destiny he spake to her in a more intelligible strain This happened at Windsor where Henry the Seventh drawing toward his end desired only to be attended with a small Train The satisfaction that the Princess might have to be one day Wife to a King of Spain served for pretext to Brandon who passionately told her That as it was most reasonable that she should rejoyce to marry a Prince who was to carry so many Crowns so it was no less that he should grieve to lose her for ever at length lifting his eyes and hands to Heaven he mournfully cryed That it was very terrible and cruel for such a wretch as he to love the Daughter of his King more than himself Neither the vehemency of this Action nor the boldness of the Discourse at least surprised the young Princess for being so little accustomed to keep her distances with Brandon she dreamt of no more but wonted familiarity and fancied as he might well wish that his expressions proceeded only from fear of being separated from her so that without diving farther into the mystery wherein as yet she was not very skilful and finding nothing in his discourse but what was obliging she had the goodness to answer him that it was possible the Propositions of Calais might not take effect and that he ought not to be afflicted before the time Some days after she started to him again the same discourse and soothed him by all the ways that her age could possibly imagine in so much as she vowed and protested against the marriage that he was in fear of and it must indeed be granted that she omitted nothing that might give content to his mind or fewel to his passion though it cannot be imagined that her innocent age at that time entertained any thoughts of love Henry the Seventh in the mean time returned to spend his Winter at London where dying in the spring he made place
that therefore he would not have him be troubled at the fopperies and idle talk of people That he should suffer his jealous Rivals to speak what their own jealousie would sufficiently hinder from being believed That it ought to suffice him that he knew the virtue of his Sister That he was willing he should love her and that he pretended that whatsoever was done with his approbation was above obloquy and censure In a word dear Brandon said he I will not that your virtue be the reason why you leave me My honour is concerned that I retain you and after all this what would be said of the King of England if it were known that a wise and discreet man could not live with him I shall not then comply with your desire your virtue has revenged you on my imprudence and my favours shall revenge me on your diffidence and though now you see some in my Court that create you trouble it is possible that shortly seeing none above you but my self you shall see nothing there but what may give you content At these words Brandon casting himself at his feet would have answered that he could never deserve the favours which he mentioned but the King embracing him no more of this said he we shall never make an end Delay your thanks for what I say until you have seen what I can do return to me with as sincere an heart as I desire you to do it and let nothing take up the cares of us both but my Sisters health I wish the time were come that I might give you her In this manner the illustrious Brandon escaped the shipwrack wherein most people thought him over-whelmed He grew greater after his disgrace than he had been before and the King to keep his word to him having repealed all the proceedings of the Mayor of London against him and given Woolsey a severe check for the violence he had used in that Rancounter condemned the Earl of Kildare in the charge of maintaining two Fregats in the Irish-Seas Of all the Rivals of Brandon there was none but the officious Gray exempted The generosity that he had shewed for an unfortunate enemy was of no small use to settle the good opinion which in the sequel he was held in But Bourchier Sommerset young Buckingham and the rest met with sharp Reprimands from the King and his Majesty having exprest himself with discontent against the scoffers and libellers which spared not so much as his own Palace men became more reserved and spake no more of the affairs of others In the mean while the Princess having been in great danger of her life gave shortly assured signs of a speedy cure Besides her young age and good constitution that which contributed much to it was the relation that Brandon gave her of the long discourse which he had had with the King the day that he was released Though he persisted in the design that the King had endeavoured to divert him from yet at that time he gave no signs of it On the contrary in the necessity of pleasing her he himself was willing to seem flattered with the things that he thought no more on but with grief and that complaisance working its effect the tranquillity of her mind recalled so effectually her bodily health that she recovered from her sickness more beautiful than before But as the King had only delayed his expedition to the War of France for her sake so he hastened his departure so soon as he knew her to be out of danger and used the more precipitancy because knowing better than any other the trouble that she and Brandon would have to bid adieu he would not have them have time to prepare for it nor to revive their passions Few arms have marched out with a more victorious air than that of England The King the Commanders Soldiers and every thing else seemed to go in triumph and there was no appearance as the affairs of Lowis the twelfth stood that he could be able to withstand them The League formed against him by the intrigues of Pope Julius the Second who had resolved at what rate soever to be revenged of him because that by his Ambassadours he had maintained the Council of Pisa where his life had been so severely examined raised him as many enemies as he had neighbours His allies had already felt the cruel effects of his misfortune And amongst others poor John D'albert lost the year before his Kingdom of Navar for Ferdinand of Arragon who desired nothing more than to joyn it to Spain failed not to lay hold on the specious pretext offered him by the Interdict of Rome and though that Pope a man of a froward and turbulent spirit upon his recovery from a great fit of sickness seemed to repent his bad designs yet he had engaged so many other potentates that he was now no more the Master of Peace All Italy was in arms The most part of the small Princes hoping to raise themselves to greatness in the disorder and running to the noise that had awakened them joyned themselves to the party of the League though they knew not why so that what secret attempts so ever Julius the Second made at that time to make an end of the War yet the loss of the Battel of Navar which drew after it all the Milanese that the French then sustained was nevertheless a chick of his hatching The sad news of this came to Paris at the same time that the English embarked for their passage and many cross accidents together befel the King of France during the joys that his Court could not refuse to the marriage of the Count of Guise with Anthonet of Bourbon Sister to the Count of Vendosme Not but that in the apprehension of the storm which he foresaw from England having already dealt with the King of Scotland to make a diversion and Pregent his Vice-admiral in the Mediterranean who had no more to do with the Genowese being ready to pass over the Channel with Primanget Commander of the British-Ships to ravage the Coasts of Ireland he had a great many good Troops on foot and Officers of extraordinary merit Lowis de Halewin Marquess of Pienne a man of consummated Valour who was their General had Rendezvouzed them at Hedin The Marquess de Potelin of a boyling hot Courage commanded the Cavalry and after him in several charges were the Count de la Plaisse a warlike man the Chevalier Bayard characterised without fear and without reproach The brave Aimard de prie Imbercourt Clairmont D'anjou Bussy D'amboise Bonnivet Bonne-val Fonterailles and a great many more all capable to command Armies not to reckon those who in respect of Birth were above them as the Counts of Guise and Vendosme and the Duke of Alencon whom the affairs of State obliged to remain with his Person But the loss of the Milanese put him in great Consternation and the King of England being Landed at Calais at the head
of thirty thousand foot and six thousand horse with the greatest Artillery that had been seen for a hundred years he promised himself no favourable success in his War-like preparations The Emperour followed by four thousand Peistres and between five and six thousand Burgundian Faintassins had already begun the Fight in Picardy so that it was not difficult to the English to perfect it Brandon and Talbot who led the Vanguard under the Conduct of Colonel Windham whom the King had given them to moderate a little the heat of their Courage acted at first all that two young men who sought nothing but honour were capable to perform and chiefly Brandon by his love animated to glory and rendering all things easiy to his guide made the prudence of that ancient Warriour so yield to his good fortune that having perswaded him to advance as far as the City of Therowenne they invested it Francis de Deligny Seneschal of Rowergue and Anthony de Crequy Pontdormy Commanded in that place with a Garrison of two thousand Lanskenets and five hundred Lancers and being both vigorous and stout Commanders they made several salleys upon their enemies It was only the wilfulness of Brandon that kept the Town blocked up whither the King of England immediately hastening with long marches and being as yet of no great experience ran great Riske in the plain of Tournehan where he had with him but ten thousand foot The Chevalier Bayard was already Master of one of the twelve Culverines which he carried with him and the English were put into great terrour but the too great prudence of the Marquess de Pienne marred all the advantage which the French might have made of that occasion Brandon who marched to meet the King his Master had time to joyn his Army and to change the face of affairs and that Prince well instructed by the engagement how useful that favorite was to him found hardly any other way to acknowledg his Valour but by praying him to husband it better The esteem that he conceived of him became equal to his former affection and during that War wherein all that belonged to him behaved themselves well he was almost never heard to speak but of Brandon It is no less true that he daily deserved new praises and that the siege of Therowenne being formed there was no corner where he did not show himself a terrour to the enemies It is not my design to give a particular account of all his actions nor to relate the secret sentiments of his heart no more than the Letters which he wrote to the English Princess and those he received from her Such particularities would lead me too far besides there is nothing more easie than to imagine that being separated from one another they failed not in the duties which a mutual tenderness prescribes to true lovers In effect absence served only to make them know one another they felt by experience the effects of all sorts of longings impatiences and fears and as the Princess Mary heard not without trembling of the dangers to which she knew he exposed himself only that he might merit her in the same manner he never ran any risk but that he had the Image of that beautiful Princess before his eyes It was to no purpose for his friends who saw him so resolute to tell him that he tempted his fortune too often to have it always favourable It was Brandon's design either to prevent by a glorious death all the evils that he thought himself threatned by or to raise himself to so great a reputation amongst men that he might have no more cause of fear from them and that thirst after glory which Henry the Eighth understood very well to be the effect of his love was oftener than once the subject of their entertainments But what moderation soever the King advised him to use that way though he told him every day that he did precipitate himself without any reason into dangers for a blessing which was already wholly his own yet he remitted nothing of that Warlike heat but endeavoured if it may be so said to make his King and the Kingdom of England obliged to him for every thing And in that he succeeded so well that having gained as many Victories as he fought Battels there was not so much as one even to his most jealous Rivals who acknowledged not that as they could not any more contend with him in any thing so nothing likewise ought to be denied him but the bravest of all his actions and which in the decision of that War cost him so dear in the sequel was the taking of the Marquess of Rotelin who began then to be called Duke of Longueville The design of the French was to re-victual Therowenne and though the Emperour and King of England streightly pressed the place yet Teligny and Crequy promised themselves in time to make them consume their Forces before it provided they could have Ammunition and Victuals whereof they began to be in want put into the place The King of France upon the word of these two Valiant men Commanded the Marquess de Pienne to omit nothing that could be done for that end and he wrote to him daily from Amiens where he lay a-bed of the Gout to that purpose In so much that what difficulty soever there might be in the enterprise Pienne resolved to undertake it The Orders were given to bold Fonterailles Captain of the Albanians who being loaded with Powder and Provisions slipt quietly by as far as the Town-ditch But as till then the design had been very well carried on so the imprudence of the Volunteers who would not joyn with the Troops which La Palisse commanded to make good Fonterailles's retreat was the cause that it took no effect Most part of them entered the Town to visit their friends Others scorched with heat alighted from their great horses and to refresh themselves mounted their ambling Nags and almost all of them having drunk and made merry came in disorder some in a huddle together and the rest in file one after another to view the English Camp Brandon being informed how matters went and withal vexed at the victualling of the Town which the King his Master thinking the occasion might prove too hot for him would not suffer him to oppose came to ask leave to charge those at least who had done it in their retreat He moved the King a little at first by representing to him how easie a matter it was to cut them all to pieces or at least to take them Prisoners by the foolish confidence they were in and speaking to that not only as an able Captain for Conduct but likewise as a resolute Soldier for execution there being no time to be lost the King at last consented to it So that whilst there were some detachments making against the parties of Fonterailles and la Palisse to beat back the one and break the other Brandon with Colonel Davers marching
for his Son who being Crowned by the name of Henry the Eighth began with many favours to testifie his esteem for Brandon The first instance of the confidence that he shewed him which he imparted to none but him alone during the Ceremonies of his marriage and which appeared the more satisfactory to this favorite that being then honoured with the office of chief Ranger of England he found himself in a condition of making his advantage of it was the design he had not to marry the Princess his Sister to any out of his Kingdom He told him that it was one of the ancientest maxims of State and possibly the best and to hint to him that he himself might have some interest in that design he added looking on him with a favourable air that he should endeavour to chuse a person whose Family was not so considerable as to become suspected so that the marriage projected between his young Sister and the young Arch-Duke should not take effect and that he having with much reluctancy married the Aunt of that Prince he desired him not for a Brother-in-law But the matter beginning to be divulged and the general applause wherewith it was received by all opening the eyes of the most part of the young Court-gallants BRANDON perceived not at length that facility in it which appeared to him at first Love is a great Master and there is no virtue wherein it instructs not true Lovers when it intends to render them acceptable to the person beloved He then so far from flattering himself with the pleasant thoughts that he had entertained and which so many others seemed to entertain as well as himself laying aside all consideration of self-love and not reflecting on his danger in speaking to the Princess contrary to the Sentiments of the KING told her that she should no more dream of the Crowns of CASTILE and ARRAGON and that the designs as to her were far different from that He immediately discovered all as a person really devoted to her Service he protested against that State-policy to which she was to be sacrificed told her that he had rather dye than see her a Subject in England when one of the greatest Princes of Europe desired her in marriage and with a Resentment equal to the favour received reflecting on the complaisance wherewith she was once pleased to conceal from him all her ambition he subjoyned that he was become ambitious for her and that desiring at what rate so ever to restore to her again what she had so liberally bestowed on him he disowned all that he had had the boldness to say at Windsor against her marriage with the Prince of Spain His sighs spake the rest with more passionateness than at that time he desired and although Mary of England was not full Twelve years old yet she so well understood the language of that passionate Lover and her heart was so disposed to admit a flame that having wiped away the Tears that trickled from her lovely eyes and done as much for BRANDON she prayed him not to torment himself for the future adding with glances that sparkled goodness that she had rather see him afflicted at Windsor for the project of her marriage than in London vexed at the rupture of it It may be thought strange that at such an age she was so sensible But it may be likewise said that she being of a soft and sweet disposition and inclined naturally to mirth it was but an agreeable surprize that triumphed only on her gentle and cheerful humour The pleasure of being beloved was the only thing that made her love her views went no farther and love which is in that manner communicated betwixt young persons makes the delusions of sense sometimes so powerful over them that by that means alone it betrays them before they know what it is It is not then to be wondered at that if the Princess Mary being by a first Lover drawn into some pleasant mistake the other pretenders who made love to her after that the intention of the KING became known appeared not in her eyes to be so deserving as they were who with great assiduity having served her for the space of two years with all the gallantry and pomp that the Tranquillity of the Kingdom enabled them to employ at length discovered the root and fountain of their misfortune and seeing love sometimes breaks off upon a slight and is sometimes converted into fury the wiser desisted from their suit and the others united against their common Enemy Of the first sort were Howard and Talbot but Gray Bourchier and Sommerset vowed the death of BRANDON They considered not that such an attempt would expose the lovely Princess to publick Calumny and themselves to inevitable disgrace or perhaps to something worse Jealousie that reigned in them suffered them not to make any such reflections and they had never escaped the risk they ran had not fortune by forsaking them in their enterprise taken greater care of their lives than they themselves were able to do The love that the King had for Cecile Blunt Daughter to the Lord Latimer which began before his marriage and grew greater daily by enjoyment possessed the chief place in his heart notwithstanding of the distractions occasioned him by the League into which after many delays he entred at last against the KING of FRANCE yet whether it was for the sake of the QUEEN whom he would not put out of humour whilst the troublesom inconveniencies of an imaginary conception renewed her grief for the loss of her first Child or because that young Lady lived in the retinue of the Princess his Sister he gave but very few marks of it On the contrary he seemed to make Courtship to the young Countess of Derby and some other Beauties at Court thereby to divert the observation of the more curious and although the Lady Latimer more ambitious than prudent was accessary to her Daughters slips yet that afforded him not all the possible advantages he desired It behoved him often to steal his opportunities by night and to pass in disguise through a great part of his Palace in London and House of pleasure at Greenwich where the apartment of the Princess his Sister happened always to be cross to his designs in which he never trusted any but one domestick Servant two of his Guards and the faithful BRANDON He made even commonly use of that favorite to conceal himself under his name and without considering the wrong he might do to the Princess these Night-rambles passed for the feats of BRANDON that went to visit the Princess Mary However he would not that any should say so much when his company were surprised and could not avoid the eyes of some watchful spie and as it behoved him to colour these proceedings with some intrigue of love because it would have been hard to have perswaded men that any thing else was in play orders were given to insinuate that it was the lovely
the dispute having taken upon him the part to attack by order of the King that he might the better represent the Siege of Milan which he had in his head the matter was referred to Lot amongst the other Competitours and it fell upon the Count of Guise and the Duke of Suffolk of whom the latter in the sequel amidst the troubles that oppressed him had some particular reasons to be better satisfied than another The new Conquests that the young Queen made so soon as she appeared in France occasioned him quickly new vexations and though in seeing him suffer And she suffering perhaps as much as he a part of his cares were suspended yet that admirable Beauty which had so soveraingly triumphed over the subjects of the King her Brother to his continual disquiet had no less efficacy on those of the King her husband It would be too great an enterprise to speak of all those who were smitten by her Many sighed and few durst complain so loud as they would willingly have done for besides that Kings cannot endure the declared Lovers of their Queens the Duke of Valois who was one of the first was not of an humour to suffer Rivals This young Prince of an heroical stature and of a constitution as amorous as his age and eyes testified him to be returned not from Boulogne in the same tranquillity that he went Mary of England at first sight made a powerful impression on his heart and after he had entertained her some time he was no sooner retired with the Seigneur de Chabot one of his favorites but that repenting his marriage with Claudia of France he told him that he came from the sight of one who would have been far more acceptable to his heart and that considering the age and infirmity of the King it was cruelty to give him so young and beautiful a wife Acquaintance and conversation smothered not these first Sentiments The tender and passionate air of the young Queen which promised that which she never bestowed daily quickened them and as she thereby diverted her self that she might have occasion by such a confidence to divert the pensive Suffolk so the Duke of Valois mistaken by an outside which deceived all people gave many times the reins to desires that led him farther than was fitting for his repose To this may be added that the Duke of Longueville provoked by the aversion which the Queen expressed to him after the treaty of her marriage instigated that young Prince by the pretended facility of the Conquest The foolish thoughts which he entertained at London turned into despight at Paris where by means of a ransom payable within a certain time he found himself at liberty and whilst his arm which he carried still in a scarf since his fall at Therowenne suffered him not to be of the Carrousel all his thoughts were how to create her trouble So that having procured to be admitted into the confidence of the Duke of Valois as a person who could instruct him better than any other in the ways of satisfying his passion he was the boutefeau that incessantly pushed him forward to the utmost enterprises In fine he inflamed the heart of that Prince who was naturally very susceptible of such flames to that pass that the young Queen could no longer doubt but that he was in love with her and as she was neither fierce nor ungentle so she appeared neither surprised nor offended thereat There was none possibly in all the Court but the King who perceived it not and Madam being already accustomed to palliate the youthful disorders of her husband never spake of it but to enjoyn silence to others But the Protonotary Du prat who governed all the house of Angoulesm was not so easie He was astonished at that which charmed the Duke of Valois his Master and judging as rashly of the virtie of Mary of England as the Duke of Longueville had done he sensibly represented to him that he having the greatest interest in the world not to solicite her to incontinence she had the like not to be chaste so that as if no body but he could have hazarded with the Queen what Du prat feared he himself began likewise to dread it Besides he would not have gone to Boulogne to espouse her for the King his Father-in-law but upon the word of Francieres his chief Physician who had assured him that he would have no Issue by that marriage so that the matter was of highest consequence The passion that LOWIS the Twelfth had always to have a Son would have hindered him from prying into any mystery It is possible he would have been glad to have been deceived as he smiling told the General of Normandy upon the first proposals that were made to him of marrying so young a Princess and besides he had a pretty good opinion of himself still to think that he could not be mistaken that way Moreover considering the zeal that the French have for the blood of their Kings and the joy that they would have to see a Dolphin there were none in France who could not take all that could be said on such an occasion for a meer Calumny Insomuch that these important considerations having slackned the pursuit of the Duke of Valois and being unwilling to lose a Crown for a Song he only retained the delightful notion of a good fortune which he thought very easie to be attained and which was perhaps in the highest degree of impossibility But though he left-off speaking of Love yet he ceased not to be amorous His flame encreased by the desire he had to quench it And he became even so much the more jealous of his desired bless that not daring himself to pretend to it it continually ran in his head that another who might not have the reasons that he had to refuse the same would upon the least attempt be sure to obtain the enjoyment thereof and in this manner the fear of losing a Kingdom fomenting his jealousie whilst during The Carrousel he carefully avoided the occasions which would have at length undeceived him as to his thoughts concerning the Queen he fell so strictly to examine all things that within a few days he discovered the inclinations that she had for the Duke of Suffolk He perceived the distinction that she put betwixt him the Marquess of Dorset and young Gray notwithstanding of the dexterity she had always to joyn these two last in the favours which she showed the other and the troublesom Duke of Longueville joyning to these things what he had heard though but confusedly at London failed not to confirm all his suspicions Thus then you see the Duke of Valois in great perplexity It is not now jealousie that torments him The fear of losing a Crown seems to have destroyed his love and his thoughts tending only to prevent the consequences wherewith Du prat had threatned him the Queen and Suffolk appeared to him every moment as two sprights coming to
of his But that was a day that produced strange adventures for the fury of the Earl of Kildare ceased of a sudden and that fiery man was so affected with Suffolks action that throwing his sword into the same place of the Wood as he had done he came running towards him with open arms crying with tears That he would never be any more his enemy After which there was no kind of friendship which they showed not to one another and this days adventure having interrupted the design which Suffolk had to wander over the world he yielded to go to Calais with the Earl of Kildare saying sometimes within himself by a tenderness of heart which makes true Lovers know the force of their love that he went only to London to endeavour the re-establishment of his defender And in effect the procedure of that generous enemy was the first thing he told the King his Master and that Prince who loved rare and singular adventures the more admired that action of the Irish Earl that he thought him not capable of such generosity So that he gave him a very favourable reception and restoring him again into favour by that means united these two Rivals into so strict a bond of friendship that nothing could afterward dissolve it In the mean while as the return of the Duke of Suffolk was in agitation and that upon the complaints which the Queen made by her Letters the King of England intended to stand on his points with the Court of France hardly had he projected the measures he was to take in that conjuncture when the Marquess of Dorset wrote an account of the Death of LOWIS the Twelfth It would be hard to give an exact relation of what the Duke of Suffolk conceived upon this great news It wrought a new change in him not to be expressed only after he had done all that could be done for Mary of England after that he had sacrificed her to her self by an excess of Virtue by sacrificing himself for her in an excess of Love nothing else can be said but that the reward which so high and extraordinary an action deserved began to shine in his eyes There was nothing able to moderate his joy but a false report that was spread abroad of the Queens being with Child For besides that this would have left him no hopes it being unlikely that the Mother of a Dolphin of France could leave her Sons Kingdom or enter into a second marriage with a person such as he was taken to be he dreaded likewise that the Duke of Valois whom she would thereby disappoint of a Crown might not revolt against her He likewise feared the Calumnies which the Favourites of that Prince would not fail to publish after that they had already slandered her and that fatal conception at length seemed to rob him of all that he thought was left him by the Death of LOWIS the Twelfth But it happened to be a mistake And the Queen having her self declared the contrary that the Proclamation of the Duke of Valois might not be held in suspense it was quickly perceived that she was the first who acknowledg'd him King of France by the name of FRANCIS the First and the Marquess de Sanferre who in the name of that Prince arrived shortly at London to renew the Treaty of Peace which the King his Father-in-law had concluded the year before put an end to the troubles of the Duke of Suffolk So that his heart being filled with joy HENRY the Eighth whose care it was also to render him happy would no longer delay his bliss He condescended to all that was proposed to him for the continuation of the Treaty and because with the interests of the two Crowns it behoved him likewise to regulate the concerns of the Queen his Sister in Quality of Dowager he took that pretext to send Suffolk into France with the title of Ambassadour Plenipotentiary which he discharged with so great splendour that Prince Henry Count of Nassaw who came to Paris at the same time in name of the Arch-Duke about the affairs of the Low-Countries was somewhat troubled to see a subject of England so highly out-do him But as there was nothing in France that could equal the Magnificence of the English and all the Court of FRANCIS the First were envious at it as well as the Flemings so there was nothing in the same Kingdom at that time comparable to the Beauty of the Queen The air wherewith she received the Duke of Suffolk at the Palace des Tournelles made the wits at Court say That she needed not too much virtue to comfort her for the death of a husband and it must be acknowledged that under her mourning Veil and Peak which by the light of a vast number of Torches set more advantageously off the delicate whiteness of her skin nothing was to be seen in her that day which might occasion melancholy or grief That raillery was carried as far as possibly it could be whilst the necessity of the affairs which they had to regulate with the King of France and his Ministers obliged them often to speak together and to be by themselves But whatever hath been said of them and whatsoever reports have been raised of their mutual complaisances or the joy that they had to meet again yet it is still true that they never gave any ground for Calumny and Reproach If they were so near to make a slip as men imagined yet they were cautious and in dangerous occasions when they might have done otherways they virtuously resisted temptation The new King of France was not of that temper for that Prince naturally very free with women would have made no Ceremony to have perswaded the Queen had she been in the least inclined to hear him He had many times much ado to leave her when the affairs of his Kingdom required it and for all the Grandure and Magnanimity which hath appeared in the course of his life yet being at that time too weak for his passion he appeared sometimes so peevish and out of humour that the same detracting tongues which have endeavoured to sully the reputation of Mary of England have given it out that his amorous fever made him so light-headed as to detest his marriage with the Daughter of LOWIS the Twelfth and to protest more than once that he had rather have enjoyed his Widow than his Kingdom Whether it was an effect of the Queens sweet disposition or that she was pleased to revenge her self for the troubles that he caused her before he was King she appeared not altogether inexorable Yet she was still the same at the heart and never what he took her to be So that one day when her beauty so surprised him that he forgot some of his measures thinking to take her on the right side he told her That since he himself could not expect to be happy it behoved him at least to endeavour to make her so that therefore he