the earth its Mother or that it purposed by making it self away into the ground to save the Plow-man his next years labour Thick it groweth and so perfectly void of weeds that no garden can be imagined to be kept cleaner by art than these fields are by nature Pasture ground it hath little and less meadow yet sufficient to nourish those few Cattel they have in it In all the way between Diepe and Pontois I saw but two flocks of Sheep and then not above forty in a flock Kine they have in some measure but not fat nor large without these there were no living for them The Noblest eat the flesh whiles the Farmer feeds on Butter and Cheese and that but sparingly But the miserable states of the Norman paissant we wiil deferre till another opportunity Swine also they have in pretty number and some Pullen in their backsides but of neither an excess The principal Rivers of it is Seine of which more hereafter and besides this I saw two rivulets Robee and Renelâ—e In matter of civil Government this Country is directed by the Court of Parliament established at Roven for matters Military it hath an Officer like the Lieutenants of our Shires in England the Governour they call him The present Governour Mounsieur Duc de Longueville to whom the charge of this province was committed by the present King Lewis the thirteenth Anno 1629. The Laws by which they are governed are the Civil or Imperial augmented by some customes of the French and others more particular which are the Norman One of the principallest is in matters of inheritance the French custom giving to all the Sons an equality in their estate which we in England call Gavel-kind The Norman dividing the estate into three parts and thereof allotting two unto the eldest brother and a third to be divided among the others A Law which the French account not just the younger brothers of England would think the contrary To conclude this general discourse of the Normans I dare say it is as happy a Country as most in Europe were it subject to the same Kings and governed by the same Laws which it gave unto England CHAP. II. Diepeâ— the Town strength and importance of it The policy of Henry the fourth not seconded by his Son The custom of the English Kings in placing Governours in their Forts The breaden God there and strength of their Religion Our passage from Diepe to Roven The Norman Inns Women and Manners The importunity of Servants in hosteries The saucy familiarity of the attendants Ad pileum vocare What it was amongst the Romans and jus pilearum in the Universities of England IVne the 30th at six of the clock in the morning we landed at Diepe one of the Haven Towns of Normandy seated on an arm of the Sea between two hils which imbrace it in the nature of a bag this secureth the Haven from the violence of the weather and is a great strength to the Town against the attempts of any forces which should assault it by Sea the Town lying within these Mountains a quarter of a mile up the channel The Town it self is not uncomely the streets large and well paved the houses of an indifferent height and built upright without any juttings out of one part over the other The Fortifications as they say for we were not permitted to see them are very good and modern without stones within earth On the top of the hill a Castle finely seated both to defend the Town and on occasions to command it The Garrison consisteth of sixty men in pay no more but when need requireth the Captain hath authority to arm the Inhabitants The present Governour is the Duke of Longueville who also is the Governour of the Province intrusted with both those charges by Lewis the thirteenth 1619. An action wherein he swarved somewhat from the ensample of his Father who never committed the military command of a Country which is the Office of a Governour and the custody of a Town of war or a Fortress unto one man The Duke of Biron might have as great a courtesie from that King as the most deserving of his subjects he had stuck close to him in all his adversities received many an honourable fear in his service and indeed was Fabius and Scipio both the sword and buckler of the French Empire In a word he might have said to this Henry what Silius in Tacitus did to Tiberius Suum militem in obsequio mansâ—sse cum alii ad sedetiones prolaberentur neque daraturum Tiberii imperium si iis quoque Legionibus cupido novandi fuisset yet when he became petitioner to the King for the Cittadel of Bourg seated on the confines of his Government of Burgogne the King denied it The reason was because Governours of Provinces which commanded in chief ought not to have the command of places and fortresses within their Government there was also another reason and more enforcing which was that the petitioner was suspected to hold intelligence with the Duke of Savoy whose Town it was The same Henry though he loved the Duke Espernon even to the envy of the Court yet even to him also used he the same caution Therefore when he had made him Governour of Xanictoigne and Angoulmois he put also into his hands the Towns of Mets and Boullogne places so remote from his seat of Government and so distant one from the other that they did rather distract his power than encrease it The Kings of England have been well and for a long time versed in this Maxime of State Let Kent be one of our ensamples and Hampshire the other In Kent at this time the Lieutenant or as the French would call him the Governour is the Earl of Montgomery yet is Dover Castle in the hands of the Duke of Buckingham and yet Quinborough in the custody of Sir Edward Hobby Of which the one commandeth the Sea and the other the Thames and the Medway In Hampshire the Lieutenant is the Earl of Southampton but the Government of the Town and Garrison of Portsmouth is intrusted to the Earl of Pembroke Neither is there any of the best Sconces or Block-houses on the shore side of the Country which is commanded by the Lieutenant But King Lewis now raigning in France minded not his Fathers actions when at the same time also he made his Confident M. Luines Governour of Picardy and of the Town and Cittadel of Amiens The time ensuing gave him an insight of that state-breach for when the Dukes of Espernon Vendosme Longueville Magenne and Nemours the Count of Soisons and others sided with the Queen Mother against the King the Duke of Longueville strengthened this Dieppe and had not peace suddenly followed would have made good maugre the Kings forces A town it is of great importance King Henry the fourth using it as his Asylum or City of Refuge when that League was hottest against him For had he been further distressed from hence might he have made an escape into England and
French by that door making their entry into this Province out of which at last they thrust the English Anno 1450. So desperate a thing is a frighted Coward This Country had once before been in possession of the English and that by a firmer title than the Sword William the Conqueror had conveyed it once over the Seas into England it continued an appendix of that Crown from the year 1067. unto that of 1204. At that time John called Sáns terre third Son unto King Henry the second having usurped the States of England and the English possessions in France upon Arthur heir of Britain and Son unto Geofrey his elder brother was warred on by Phillip Augustus King of France who sided with the said Arthur In the end Arthur was taken and not long after found dead in the ditches of the Castle of Roven Whether this violent death happened unto him by the practises of his Uncle as the French say or that the young Prince came to that unfortunate end in an attempt to escape as the English report is not yet determined For my part considering the other carriages and virulencies of that King I dare be of that opinion that the death of Arthur was not without his contrivement Certainly he that rebelled against his Father and practised the eternal imprisonment and ruine of his Brother would not much stick this being so speedy a way to settle his affairs at the murther of a Nephew Upon the first bruit of this murther Constance Mother to the young Prince complained unto the King and Parliament of France not the Court which now is in force consisting of men only of the long Robe but the Court of Pairrie or twelve Peers whereof himself was one as Duke of Normandy I see not how in justice Philip could do less than summon him an Homager being â—lain and an Homager accused To this summons John refused to yeild himself A counsel rather magnanimous than wise and such as had more in it of an English King than a French Subject Edward the third a prince of a finer mettal than this John obeyed the like warrant and performed a personal homage to Philip of Valoys and it is not reckoned among his disparagements He committed yet a further error or solaecisme in State not so much as sending any of his people to supply his place or plead his cause Upon this none appearance the Peers proceed to sentence Il fur par Arrest la dire Cour saith Du' Chesne condemne pour attaint et convainuc du crime de parricide de felonnie Parricide for the killing of his own Nephew and felony for committing an act so execrable on the person of a French vassal and in France Jhon de Sienes addeth a third cause which was contempt in disobeying the Kings commandement Upon this verdict the Court awarded Que toutes les terres qu' il avoit par deca de mourerient acquises confisques a la corronne c. A proceeding so fair and orderly that I should sooner accuse King John of indiscretion than the French of injustice when my estate or life is in danger I wish it may have no more sinister a trial The English thus outed of Normandy by the weakness of John recovered it again by the puissance of Henry But being held onely by the sword it was after thirty years recovered again as I have told you And now being passed over the Oyse I have at once freed the English and my self of Normandy here ending this Book but not that dayes journey The Second Book or FRANCE CHAP. I. France in what sense so called the bounds of it All old Gallia not possessed by the French Countries follow the name of the most predominant Nation The condition of the present French not different from that of the old Gaules That the Heavens have a constant power upon the same Climate though the Inhabitants be changed The quality of the French in private at the Church and at the Table Their Language Complements Discourse c. IVly the third which was the day we set out of St. Claire having passed through Pontoise and crossed the River we were entred into France France as it is understood in his limitted sense and as a part onely of the whole For when Meroveus the Grandchild of Pharamond first King of the Francones had taken an opportunity to pass the Rhene having also during the warres between the Romans and the Gothes taken Paris he resolved there to set up his rest and to make that the head City of his Empire The Country round about it which was of no large extent he commanded to be called Francia or Terra Francorum after the name of his Francks whom he governed In this bounded and restrained sense we now take it being confined with Normandy on the North Campagne on the East and on the West and South with the little Province of la Beausse It is also called and that more properly to distinguish it from the whole continent the Isle of France and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Isle I know not any thing more like it then the Isle of Elie the Eure on the West the Velle on the East the Oyse on the Northward and a vein riveret of the Seine towards the South are the Rivers which encircle it But the principall environings are made by the Seine and the Marne a river of Champagne which within the main Island make divers Ilets the waters winding up and down as desirous to recreate the earth with the pleasures of its lovely and delicious embraces This Isle this portion of Gaule properly and limitedly stiled France was the seate of the Franks at their first coming hither and hath still continued so The rest of Gallia is in effect rather subdued by the French than inhabited their valour in time having taken in those Countries which they never planted So that if we look apprehensively into Gaule we shall find the other Nations of it to have just cause to take up the complaint of the King of Portugal against Ferdinand of Castile for assuming to himself the title of Catholique King of Spain eius tam non exiguâ parte penes reges alios as Mariana relateth it Certain it is that the least part of old Gallia is in the hands of the French the Normans Britons Biscaines or Gascoynes the Gothes of Languedoc and Provence Burgundians and the ancient Gaules of Poictou retaining in it such fair and ample Provinces But it is the custome shall I say or fate of lesser and weaker Nations to loose their names unto the stronger as Wives do to their Husbands and the smaller Rivers to the greater Thus we see the little Province of Poland to have mastered and given name to the Pruteni Marovy and other Nations of Sarmatia Europaea as that of Moseo hath unto all the Provinces of Asiatica Thus hath Sweden conquered and denominated almost all the great Peninsula of Scandia where it is but
neither the said Infanta nor the Children born by her to the King shall be capable to inherit any of the estates of the King of Spain and in the eighth article she is bound to make an act of renunciation under her own hand-writing as soon as she cometh to be twelve years old which was accordingly performed But this being not sufficient to secure their fears it is thought that she was some way or other disabled from conception before ever she came into the Kings embraces A great crime I confess if true yet I cannot say with Tully in his defence of Ligarius Novum crimen Caie Caesar hec tempus mauditum Jaqueline Countess of Holland was Cozen to Philip Duke of Burgundie Her being fruitful would have debarred him from those estates of Holland Zealand and West-Freezland therefore though she had three Husbands there was order taken she should never have Child with her two first Husbands the Duke would never suffer her to live and when she had stollen a wedding with Frane of Borselle one of her servants the Dukes Physitians gave him such a potion that she might as well have married an Eunuch upon this injury the poor Lady died and the Duke succeeded in those Countries which by his Grand-child Marie were conveyed over into the House of Austria together with the rest of his estate I dare not say that that Family hath inherited his practises with his lands and yet I have heard that the Infanta Isabella had the like or worse measure afforded her before she was bedded to the Arch-duke Albertus A diabolical trick which the prostitutes of the heathen used in the beginnings of the Gospel and before of whom Octavius complaineth quod originem futuri hominis extinguant paricidium faciunt antequam pariunt Better luck than the King hath his Sister beyond the mountains I mean his eldest Sister Madame Elizabeth married to the King of Spain now living as being or having been the Mother of two Children His second Sister Madame Christian is married to Amadeo Victor Principe Maior or heir apparent of the Duke of Savoy to whom as yet she hath born no issue The youngest Henrietta Mariae is newly married to his most Excellent Majesty of England to whom may she prove of a most happy and fruitful womb Et pulchra faciat te prole parentem Of these alliances the first were very profitable to both Princes could there be made a marriage between the Kingdoms as well as the Kings But it is well known that the affections of each people are divided more unconquerable mountains than their dominions The French extreamly hating the proud humour and ambition of the Spaniard We may therefore account each of them in these marriages to have rather intended the perpetuity of their particular houses than the strength of their Empires and that they more desired a noble stock whereon to graft posterity than power The alliance with Savoy is more advantagious though less powerful than that of Spain For if the King of France can keep this Prince on his party he need not fear the greatness of the other or any of his faction The continuall siding of this House with that of Austria having given many and great impediments to the fortune of the French It standeth so fitly to countenance the affairs of either King in Italy or Germany to which it shall incline that it is just of the same nature with the estate of Florence between Millain and Venice of which Guicciaraine saith that Mantennero le coseâ—d Italia bilanâ—iate On this reason King Henry the fourth earnestly desired to match one of his Children into this Countrey and left this desire as a Legacie with his Council But the alliance of most use to the State of France is that of England as being the nighest and most able of all his neighbours An alliance which will make his Estate invincible and incompassed about as it were with a wall of brass As for the Kings bastard Brethren they are four in number and born of three several beds The eldest is Mr. Alexander made Knight of the Order of St. John or of Malta in the life time of his Father He is now Grand Prior of France and it is much laboured and hoped by the French that he shall be the next Master of the Order a place of great command and credit The second and most loved of his Father whose lively image and character he is said to be is Mr Caesar made Duke of Vendosme by his Father and is at this time Governor of Brittain a man of a brave spirit and one who swayeth much in the affairs of State His Father took great care for his advancement before his death and therefore married him to the Daughter and Heir of the Duke of Mercuer a man of great possessions in Brittain It is thought that the inheritance of this Lady both by her Fathers side and also by her Mothers who was of the Family of Marsegues being a stock of the old Ducal tree is no less than 200000. Crowns yearly Both these were born unto the King by Madame Gabriele for her excellent beauty surnamed labelle Dutchess of Beauforte a Lady whom the King most entirely affected even to the last gasp and one who never abused her power with him so that we may truly say of her what Velleius flatteringly said of Livia the Wife of Augustus Ejus potentiam nemo senset nisi levatione periculi aut accessione dignitatis The third of the Kings natural Brethren is Mr. Henry now Bishop of Metz in Lorraine and Abbot of St. Germans in Paris As Abbot he is Lord of the goodly Fairbourg of St. Germans and hath the profits of the great Fair there holden which make a large revenue His Bishoprick yeildeth him the profits of 20000. Crowns and upwards which is the remainder of 60000. the rest being pawned to the Duke of Lorraine by the last Bishop who was of that family The Mother of this Mr. Henry is the Marchioness of Verneville who before the death of the King fell out of his favour into the prison and was not restored to her liberty till the beginning of the Queen Mothers Regency The fourth and youngest is Mr. Antonie born unto the King by the Countess of Morret who is Abbot of the Churches of Marseilles and Cave hath as yet not fully six thousand pound a year when his Mother dieth he Will be richer The Kings lawful Brother is named John Baptist Gaston born the 25th of April Anno 1608. A Prince of a brave and manlike aspect likely to inherit as large a part of his Fathers spirit as the King doth of his Crown He is entituled Duke of Aniou as being the third Son of France but his next elder Brother the Duke of Orleance being dead in his childhood he is vulgarly and properly called Monsieur This title is different from that of Daulphin in that that title is onely appropriated to the Heir
live happily if they can be content to live obediently that which is taken from them being matter of strength onely not priviledge Let us now look upon them in their Churches which we shall find as empty of magnificence as ceremony to talk amongst them of Common prayers were to fright them with a second coming of the Mass and to mention Prayers at the burial of the dead were to perswade them of a Purgatory Painted glass in a Church window is accounted for the flag and ensign of Antichrist and for Organs no question but they are deemed the Devils Bap pipes Shew them a Surplice and they cry out a rag of the Whore of Babylon yet a Sheet upon a Woman when she is in childâ—bed is a greater abomination than the other A strange people that could never think the Mass-book sufficiently reformed till they had taken away Prayers nor that their Churches could ever be handsome until they were ragged This foolish opposition of their first Reformers hath drawn the Protestants of these parts into a world of dislike and envy and been no small disadvantage to their side whereas the Church of England though it dissent as much from the Papists in point of doctrine is yet not uncharitably thought on by the moderatest Catholikes by reason it retained such an excellency of discipline When the Liturgie of our Church was translated into Latine by Doctor Mocket once Warden of All-Souls Colledge in Oxford it was with great approof and applause received here in France by those whom they call Catholikes Royal as marvelling to see such order and regular devotion in them whom they were taught to condemn for heretical An allowance which with some little help might have been raised higher from the practise of our Church to some points of our judgement And it is very worthy of our observation that which the Marquess of Rhosney spake of Canterbury when he came as extraordinary Embassadour from King Henry the fourth to welcome King James into England for upon the view of our solemn Service and Ceremonies he openly said unto his fellows that if the reformed Churches in France had kept the same orders amongst them which we have he was assured that there would have been many thousands more of Protestants than now there are But the Marquess of Rhosney was not the last that said so I have heard divers French Papists who were here at the Queens coming over and ventured so far upon an excommunication as to be present at our Church solemn Services extolling them and us for their sakes even almost unto Hyperboles So graciously is our temper entertained amongst them As are their Churches such is their discipline naked of all antiquity and almost as modern as the men which embraced it The power and calling of Bishops they abrogated with the Mass upon no other cause then that Geneva had done it As if that excellent man Mr. Calvin had been the Pythagoras of our age and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Ipse dixit had stood for Oracle The Hierarchi of Bishops thus cast out they have brought in their places Lay-Elders a kind of Monsters never heard of in the Scriptures or first times of the Gospel These men leap from the stall to the Bench and partly sleeping and partly stroaking their beard they enact Laws of government for the Church So that we may justly take up the complaint of the Satyrist saying Surgunt nobis e Sterquitineo magistratus nec dum tot is manibus publica tractant negotia yet to these very men composed equally of ignorance and a Trade are the most weighty matters of the Church committed In them is the power of ordaining Priests of conferring places of Charge and even of the severest censure of the Church Excommunication When any business which concerneth the good of the Congregation is befallen they must be called to counsel and you shall find them there as soon as ever they can put off their aprons Having blotted out there a little classical non-sense and passed their consents rather by nodding of their heads than any other sensible articulation they hasten to their Shops as Quinctius the Dictator in Florus did to his Plow Vt adopus relictum festinasse videatur Such a platform though it be as needeth no further confutation then to know it yet had it been the more tolerable if the Contrivers of it had not endeavoured to impose it on all the reformation by which meanes what troubles have been raised by the great Zealots here in England there is none so young but hath heard some tragical relations God be magnified and our late King praised by whom this weed hath been snatched up out of the garden of this our Israel As for their Ministery it is indeed very learned in their study and exceeding painful in their calling by the first they confute the ignorant of the Romish Clergy by the second their laziness And questionless it behoveth them so to be for living in a Country full of opposition they are forced to a necessity of book-learning to maintain the Cause and being continually as it were beset with spies did therefore frequent the Pulpits to hold up their credits The maintenance which is alotted them scarce amounteth to a competency though by that name they please to call it With receiving of tythes they never meddle and therefore in their Systematical Tractats of Divinity they do hardly allow of paying of them Some of them hold that they are Jewish and abrogated with the Law Others think them meerly to be Jure Humano and yet that they may be lawfully accepted where they are tendered It is well yet that there are some amongst theÌ„ which will commend grapes though they cannot reach them This Competency may come to forty or fifty pound yearly or a little more Beza that great and famous Preacher of Geneva had but eighty pound a year and about that rate was Peter du Moulins pension when he preached at Clarenton These stipends are partly paid by the King and partly raised by way of Collection So the Ministers of those Churches are much of the nature of the English Lecturers As for the Tythes they belong to the several Parish Priests in whose precincts they are due and those I warrant you according to the little learning which they have will hold them to be Jure Divino The Sermons of the French are very plain home-spun little in them of the Fathers and less of humane learning it being concluded in the Synode of Sappe that onely the Scriptures should be used in their Pulpits they consist much of exhortation and use and of nothing in a manner which concerneth knowledge A ready way to raise up and edifie the will and affections but withall to starve the understanding For the education of them being Children they have private Schools when they are better grown they may have free recourse unto any of the French Academies besides the new Vniversity of Saumus which
raise and enhaunce up their rents to tax his Subjects on occasion and to prohibite them such pleasures as they think fit to be reserved for themselves In Grettanl in Picardie I saw a post fastened in the ground like a race-post with us and thereon an inscription I made presently to it as hoping to have heard news of sōe memorable battel there fought but when I came at it I found it to be nothing but a declaration of the Prince of Condes pleasure that no man should hunt in those quarters Afterward I observed them to be very frequent But not to wander through all particulars I will in some few of them onely give instance of their power here The first is Droict de Balliage power to keep Assizes or to have under them a Baillie and an Imperial seat of justice for the definition of such causes as fall under the compass of ordinary jurisdiction In this Court there is notice taken of treason robberies murthers protections pardons fairs markets and other matters of priviledge Next they have a Court of ordinary jurisdiction and therein a Judge whom they call Le Guarde de Justice for the decision of smaller business as debts trespass breach of the Kings peace and the like In this the purse is onely emptied the other extendeth to the taking away of the life for which every one that hath Hante Justice annexed to his feife hath also his particular Gibbet Nay which is wonderful methodical by the Criticisme of the Gibbet you may judge at the quality of him that owneth it for the Gibbet of one of the Noblesse hath but two pillars that of the Chastellan three the Barons four the Earls six the Dukes eight and yet this difference is rather precise than general The last of their jura Regalia which I will here speak of is the Command they have upon the people to follow them unto the warrs a Command not so advantagious to the Lord as dangerous to the Kingdom Thus live the French Princes thus the Noblesse thus those Sheep which God and the Laws hath brought under them they do not shear but fleece them and which is worse than this having themselves taken away the wooll they give up the naked carcass to the King Tonderi oves meas volo non deglubi was accounted one of the golden sayings of Tiberius but it is not currant here in France Here the Lord and the King though otherwise at odds amongst themselves be sure to agree in this the undoing and oppressing of the Paisant Ephraim against Manasseh and Masnasseh against Ephraim but both against Juda saith the Scripture The reason why they thus desire the poverty of the Commons is as they pretend the safety of the State and their own particulars Were the people once warmed with the feeling of ease and their own riches they would be presently hearkening after the Warrs And if no employment were offered abroad they would make some at home Histories and experience hath taught us enough of this humour in this kind it being impossible for this hot-headed and hare-brain'd people not to be doing Si extraneus deest domi hostem quaerunt as Justin hath observed of the ancient Spaniards A pretty quality and for which they have often smarted CHAP. XIV The base and low estate of the French Paisant The misery of them under their Lords The bed of Procrustes The suppressing of the Subject prejudicial to a State The Wisdom of King Henry the seventh The French forces all in the Cavillery The cruel Impositions laid upon the people by the King No Demain in France Why the trial by twelve men can be used onely in England The gabel of Salt The Popes licence for wenching The gabel by whom refused and why the Gascoines impatient of taxes The Taille and Taylon The Pancarte or aids the vain resistance of those of Paris The Court of aids The manner of gathering the Kings moneys The Kings Revenue The corruption of the French Publicans King Lewis why called the Just The moneys currant in France The gold of Spain more Catholike than the King The happiness of English Subjects BY that which hath been spoken already of the Nobless we may partly guess at the low estate of the Paisant or Country man of whom we will not now speak as Subjects to their Lords and how farre they are under their commandment but how miserable and wretched they are in their apparel and their houses For their apparel it is well if they can allow themselves Canvas or an outside of that nature As for Cloath it is above their purse equally and their ambition if they can aspire unto Fustian they are as happy as their wishes and he that is so arrayed will not spare to aim at the best place in the Parish even unto that of Church-Warden When they go to Plow or to the Church they have shooes and stockings at other times they make bold with Nature and wear their skins Hats they will not want though their bellies pinch for it and that you may be sure they have them they will alwayes keep them on their heads The most impudent custom of a beggarly fortune that ever I met with and which already hath had my blessing As for the Women they know in what degree Nature hath created them and therefore dare not be so fine as their Husbands some of them never had above one pair of stockings in all their lives which they wear every day for indeed they are very durable the goodness of their faces tels us that they have no need of a band therefore they use none And as concerning petticoats so it is that all have such a garment but most of them so short that you would imagine them to be cut off at the placket When the parents have sufficiently worn these vestures and that commonly is till the rottenness of them will save the labour of undressing they are a new cut out and fittted to the Children Search into their houses and you shall find them very wretched and destitute as well of furniture as provision No butter salted up against Winter no poudering tub no pullein in the rick barten no flesh in the pot or at the spit and which is worse no money to buy them The description of the poor aged couple Philemon and Baucis in the eigth book of the Metamorphosis is a perfect character of the French Paisant in his house-keeping though I cannot affirm that if Jupiter and Mercury did come amongst them they should have so hearty an entertainment for thus Ovid marshelleth the dishes Ponitur hic bicolor sincerae bacca Minervae Intubaque radix lactis Massa coacti Ovaque non acri leviter versata favellâ Prunaque in patulis redolentia mala canistris Hic nux hic mixta est rugosis carica palmis Et de purpurers collectae vitibus uvae Omnia fictilibus nitede They on the Table set Minerva's fruit The double coulour'd Olive
lusty as the Horses of the Sun in Ovid neither could we say of them flammiferis implent hinnitibus aur as All the neighng we could hear from the proudest of them was onely an old dry cough which I le assure you did much comfort me for by that noise I first learned there was life in them Upon such Anatomies of Horses or to speak more properly upon such several heaps of bones were I and my company mounted and when we expected however they seemed outwardly to see somewhat of the post in them my beast began to move after an Aldermans pace or like Envie in Ovid Surgit humi pigre passuque incedet inerti Out of this gravity no perswasion could work them the dull jades being grown insensible of the spur and to hearten them with wands would in short time have distressed the Country Now was the Cart of Diepe thought a speedy conveyance and those that had the happiness of a Waggon were esteemed too blessed yea though it came with the hazard of the old woman and the wenches If good nature or a sight of their journeys ever did chance to put any of them into a pace like a gallop we were sure to have them tire in the middle way and so the remainder of the Stage was to be measured with our own feet being weary of this trade I made bold to dismount the Postilion and ascended the Trunk Horse where I sate in such magnificent posture that the best Carrier in Paris might have envied my felicity behind me I had a good large Trunk and a Portmantue before me a bundle of Cloaks and a parcel of Books Sure I was that if my stirrups could poize me equally on both sides that I could not likely fall backwards nor forwards Thus preferred I encouraged my Companions who cast many an envious eye upon my prosperity and certainly there was not any of them who might not more justly have said of me Tu as un meilleur temps que le pape then poor Lauarillo's Master dâ—d when he allowed him an Onion for four dayes This circumstance I confess might have well been omitted had I not great example for it Philip de Comminees in the midst of his grave and serious relation of the battel of Mont l' hierrie hath a note much about this nature which gave me encouragement which is that himself had an old Horse half tired and this was just my case who by chance thrust his head into a pail of Wine and drunk it off which made him lustier and friskier that day than ever before but in that his Horse had better luck than I had On the right hand of us and almost in the middle way betwixt Abbeville and Boulogne we left the Town of Monstreville which we had not leasure to see It seemed daintily seated for command and resistance as being built upon the top and declivity of an hill it is well strengthened with Bastions ramparts on the outside hath within a Garrison of five Companies of Souldiers their Governour as I learned of one of the Paisants being called Lenroy And indeed it concerneth the King of France to lâ—ck well to his Town of Monstreville as being a border Town within two miles of Artoys and especially coâ—siâ—ering that the taking of it would â—ut off all entercourse between the Countreys of Boulogne and Calais with the rest of France Of the like importance also are the Towns of Abbeville and Amiens and that the French Kings are not ignorant of Insomuch that those two onely together with that of St. Quintin being put into the hands of Philip Duke of Burgundy to draw him from the party of the English were redeemed again by Lewis the eleventh for 450000. Crowns an infinite sum of money according to the standard of those times and yet it seemeth the King of France had no bad bargain of it for upon an hope onely of regaining those Towns Charls Earl of Charoloys Son to Duke Philip undertook that warr against King Lewis by which at the last he lost his life and hazarded his estate CHAP. V. The Country of Boulonnois and Town of Boulogne by whom enfranchised The present of salt butter Boulogne divided into two Towns Procession in the low Town to divert the Plague The forms of it Processions of the Letany by whom brought into the Church The high Town garrisoned The old man of Boulogne The neglect of the English in leaving open the Havens The fraternity de la charite and inconvenience of it The costly journey of Henry the eigth to Boulogne Sir Waâ—ter Raleighs censure of that Prince condemned the discourtesie of Charls the fifth towards our Edward the sixth The defence of the House of Burgundy how chnrgeable to the Kings of England Boulogne re-yeilded WE are now come to the Country of Boulonnois which though a part of Picardy disdaineth yet to be so counted but will be reckoned a County of it self It comprehendeth in it the Towns of Boulogne Escapes and Neus-Chastel beside-divers Villages and consisteth much of hils and valleys much after the nature of England the soyl being indifferent fruitful of corn and yeilding more glass than any other part of France which we saw for the quantity Neither is it onely a County of it self but it is in a manner also a free County it being holden immediately of the Virgin Mary who is no question a very gracious Land Lady For when King Lewis the eleventh after the decease of Charles of Burgundy had taken in Boulogne Anno 1477. As new Lord of the Town thus John de Sierries relateth it he did homage without sword or spurs bare-headed and on his knee before the Virgin Mary offering unto her image an heart of Massie gold weighing two thousand Crowns he added also this that he and his successors after him being Kings should hold the County of Boulogne of the same Virgin and do homage unto her image in the great Church of the higher Town dedicated to her naâ—e giving 〈◊〉 every change of a Vassal an heart of pure gold of the same weight Since that time the Boulonnois being the Tennants of our Lady have enjoyed a perpetual exemption from many of those tributes and taxes under which the rest of France are miserably afflicted Amongst others they have been alwayes freed from the gabel of Salt by reason whereof and by the goodness of their pastures they have there the best Butter in all the Kingdom I say partly by reason of their Salt because having it at a low rate they do liberally season all their Butter with it whereas they which do buy their Salt at the Kings price cannot afford it any of that dear commodity Upon this ground it is the custom of these of Boulonnois to send unto their Freinds of France and Paris a barrel of Butter seasoned according to their fashion a present no less ordinary and acceptable than Turkeys Capons and the like are from our Country Gentlemen to those
Julius Caesar at the time of his second expedition into Brittaine this Haven being then Portus Gessorianus This Tower which we now see seemeth to be but the remainder of a greater work and by the height and scituation of it one would guesse it to have been the Key or watch Tower unto the rest it is built of rude and vulgar stone but strongly cemented together the figure of it is six square every square of it being nine paces in length A compass to little for a Fortress and therefore it is long since it was put to that use it now serving onely as a Sea mark by day and a Pharos by night Vbi accensae noctu faces navigantium cursum dirigunt The English men call it the Old man of Boulogue and not improperly for it hath all the signes of age upon it The Sea hath by undermining it taken from it all the earth about two squares of the bottom of it the stones begin to drop out from the top and upon the rising of the wind you would think it were troubled with the Palsie in a word two hard winters seconded with a violent tempest maketh it rubbish what therefore is wanting of present strength to the Haven in this ruine of a Tower the wisdom of this age hath made good in a Garrison And here me thinks I might justly acâ—use the impolitick thrift of our former Kings of England in not laying out some money upon the strength and safety of our Haven Townes not one of them Portsmouth onely excepted being Garrison'd true it is that Henry the eighth did eâ—ect Block-Houses in many of them but what bâ—bles they are and how unable to resist a Flees royally appointed is known to every one I know indeed we were sufficiently Garrison'd by out Naâ—e could it either keep a watch on all particular places or had it noâ— sometimes occasion to be absent I hope our Kings are not of Darius mind in the storie quâ— gloriosius raâ—us est hostem 〈◊〉 quam non admittere neither will I take 〈◊〉 to give counsell onely I could wish that we were not inferiour to our neighbours in the greatness of our care since we are equal to the best of them in the goodness of our Country This Town of Boulogne and the Country about it was taken by Henry the eighth of England Anno 1545. himself being in person at the siege a very costly and chargeable victory The whole list of his Forces did amount to 44000. foot and 3000. horse Field Pieces he drew after him above a hundred besides those of smaller making and for the conveyance of their Ordinance baggage and other provision there were transported into the Continent above 25000. Horses True it is that his designes had a further aim had not Charles the Emperour with whom he was to join left the field and made peace without him So that judging onely by the success of the expedition we cannot but say that the winning of Boulonnois was a dear purchase and indeed in this one particular Sr. Walter Raleigh in the preface to his most excellent History saith not amiss of him namely that in his vain and fruitless expeditions abroad he consumed more treasure than all the rest of our victorious Kings before him did in their several Conquests The other part of his censure of that Prince I know not well what to think of as meerly composed of gall and bitterness Onely I cannot but much marvail that a man of his wisdom being raised from almost nothing by the Daughter could be so severely invective against the Father certainly a most charitable judge cannot but condemn him of want of true affection and duty to his Queen seeing that it is as his late Majesty hath excellently noted in his ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΟΠΔΩΡΟΠa thing monstrous to see a man love the Child and hate the Parents And therefore he may earnestly enjoyn his Son Henry to repress the insolencie of such as under pretence to tax a vice in the person seek craftily to stain the Race Presently after this taking Boulogne the French again endeavoured the regaining of it even during the life of the Conquerour but he was strong enough to keep his gettings After his death the English being engaged in a warr against the Scots and Kit having raised a rebellion in Norfolk they began again the reconquest of it and that more violently than ever Upon news of their preparations an Ambassage was dispatched to Charles the fifth to desire succours of him and to lay before him the infancy and several necessity of the young King who was then about the age of ten years This desire when the Emperour had refused to hearken to they besought him that he would at the least be pleased to take into his hands and keeping the Town of Boulogne and that for no longer time than until King Edward could make an end of the troubles of his Subjects at home An easie request yet did he not onely deny to satisfie the King in this except he would restore the Catholike Religion but he also expresly commanded that neither any of his men or munition should go to the assistance of the English An ingratitude for which I cannot find a fitting Epithite considering what fast friends the Kings of England have alwayes been to the united Houses of Burgundy and Austria what moneys they have helped them with and what sundry warrs they have made for them both in Belgium to maintain their authority and in France to augment their potency from the marriage of Maximilian of the Family of Austria with the Lady Mary of Burgundie which happened in they ear 1478. unto the death of Henry the eighth which fell in the year 1548. are just seventy years in which time onely it is thought by men of knowledge and experience that it cost the Kings of England at the least six millions of pounds in the meer quarrels and defence of the Princes of those Houses An expense which might seem to have earned a greater requital than that now demanded Upon this denial of the unkindful Emperour a Treaty followed between England and France The effect of it was that Boulogne and all the Country of it should be restored to the French by paying to the English at two dayes of payment 800000. Crowns Other Articles there were but this the principal and so the fortune of young Edward was like that of Julius Caesar towards his end Dum clementiam quam praestiterant expectant incauti ab ingratis occupati sunt The CONCLUSION A Generall censure of France and the French A gratulation to England The end of our journey ON wednesday the third of August having stayed in Boulogne three dayes for wind and company and not daring to venture on Calice by reason of the sickness there raging we took ship for England the day fair and the wind fitly serving us we were quickly got out of the harbour into the main And so I take my leave of France
scarcity The place of their meeting is called l' hostelle de ville or the Guild Hall The present Provost Mr de Griâ—ux his habit as also that of the Eschevins and Counsellers half red half sky coloured the Citie Leveries with an Hood of the same This Provost is as much above the other in power as men which are loved commonly are above those which are feared This Provost the people willingly yea sometimes factiously obey as the Conservator of their Liberties the other they only dread as the Judges of their lives and the Tyrants of their estates To shew the power of this Provost both for and with the people against their Princes you may please to take notice of two instances for the people against Philip devalois Anno 1349. when the said King desiring an impost of one liure in five Crownes upon all wares sold in Paris for his better managing his warres against the English could obtain it but for one year onely and that not without especial Letters reservall that it should no way incommodate their priviledges which the people Anno 1357. when King John was prisoner in England and Charles the Daulphine afterwards the fifth of that name laboured his ransome among the Parisiens for then Steven Marcell attended by the vulgar Citizens not onely brake open the Daulphinâ—s Chamber but slew John de Confluns and Robert of Chermont two Marshalls of France before his face Nay to adde yet further insolencies to this he took his parti-coloured hood off his head putting it on the Daulphins and all that day wore the Daulphines hat being a brown black pour signal de sa Dictateur as the token of his Dictatorship And which is more than all this he sent the Daulphin cloath to make him a Cloak and Hood of the Cities Liverie and compelled him to avow the Massacre of his Servants above named as done by his command Horrible insolencies Quam miserum est eum haec impunè pacere potuisse as Tullie of Marc. Antonius The Arms of the Town as also of the Corporation of the Provost and Eschevins are Gules a Ship Argent a Cheife poudred with Flower de Luces Or. The seat or place of their Assemblies is called as we said Hostel de Ville or the Guild-hall It was built or rather finisht by Francis the first Anno 1533. and since beautified and repaired by Francis Miron once Provost des Merchands and afterwards privy Counsellor to the King It standeth on one side of the Greue which is the publike place of the Execution and is built quadrangular-wise all of free and polished stone evenly and orderly laid-together You ascend by thirty or forty steps fair and large before you come to the quadrate and thence by several stairs into the several rooms and chambers of it which are very neatly contrived and richly furnished The grand Chastelet is said to have been built by Julian the Apostata at such time as he was Governour of Gaul It was afterwards new built by Philip Augustus and since repaired by Lewis the twelfth In which time of repaitation the Provost of Paris kept his Court in the Palace of the Louure To sight it is not very graceful what it may be within I know not Certain it is that it looketh far more like a Prison for which use it also serveth than a Town Hall or seat of judgement In this part of Paris called la Ville or the Town is the Kings Arcenal or Magazin of War It carrieth not any great face of majesty on the outside neither indeed is it necessary Such places are most beautiful without when they are most terrible within It was begun by Henry the second finished by Charles the ninth and since augmented by Mr. Rhosme great Master of the Artillery It is said to contain an hundred field peices and their Carriage and also armour sufficient for ten thousand Horses and fifty thousand Foot In this part also of Paris is that excellent pile of building called the Place Royal built partly at the charges and partly at the encouragement of Henry the fourth It is built after the form of a Quadrangle every side of the square being in length seventy two fathoms the materials brick of divers colours which make it very pleasant though less durable It is cloystered round just after the fashion of the Royall Exchange in London the walks being paved under foot The houses of it are very fair and large every one having its garden and other out-lets In all they are thirty six nine on a side and seemed to be sufficiently capable of a great retinue The Ambassadour for the State of Venice lying in one of them It is scituate in that place whereas formerly the solemn tiltings were performed A place famous and fatal for the death of Henry the second who was here slain with the splinter of a Launce as he was running with the Earl of Mountgomery a Scottish man A sad and heavy accident To conclude this discourse of the Ville or Town of Paris I must wander a little out of it because the power and command of the provost saith that it must be so For his authority is not confined within the Town he hath seven Daughters on which he may exercise it Les sept filles de la Propaste de Paris as the French call them These seven Daughters are seven Bayliwicks comprehended within the Vicointe of Paris Viz. 1. Poissy 2. St. Germanenlay 3. Tornon 4. Teroiene Brie 5. Corbeil 6. Moutherrie and the 7. Gennesseen France Over these his jurisdiction is extended though not as Provost of Paris Here he commandeth and giveth judgement as Leiutenant Civil to the Duke of Mont-bâzon or the supreme Governour of Paris and the Isle of France for the time being yet this Leiutenancy being an Office perpetually annexed to the Provostship is the occasion that the Bayliwicks above named are called Les sept filles de la Provaste CHAP. VI. The Universitie of Paris and Founders of it Of the Colledges in general Marriage when permitted to the Rectors of them The small maintenance allowed to Schollars in the Universities of France The great Colledge at Tholoza Of the Colledge of the Sorbone in particular That and the House of Parliament the cheif bulwarks of the French liberty Of the policy nnd government of the Universtty The Rector and his precedency The disordered life of the Schollars there being An Apology for Oxford and Cambridge The priviledges of the Scholars Theer Degrees c. THis part of Paris which lieth beyond the furthermost branch of the Seine is called the University It is little inferior to the Town for bigness and less superior to it in sweetness or opulency whatsoever was said of the whole in general was intended to this part also as well as the others All the learning in it being not able to free it from those inconveniencies wherewith it is distressed It containeth in it onely six parish Churches the paucity whereof is