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england_n	john_n	king_n	realm_n	4,777	5	8.4577	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54743	The minority of St. Lewis With the politick conduct of affairs by his mother Queen Blanch of Spain, during her regency. Being a relation of what happen'd most memorable under his reign during the year, 1226, 1227, 1228, and 1229.	Philipps, Edward, 1630-1696?.	1685 (1685)	Wing P2065; ESTC R220520	46,829	160

Bretaign became an arrier-fief to the Crown of France In this State it continued till the death of Covan Earl of Bretaign who left Issue only one daughter nam'd Constance This rich Heiress was courted by many but Henry the second King of England pretended as Duke of Normandy the Right of Marriage and partly by his Authority partly by his Addresses of Courtship obtain'd her and had four Sons by her Henry Richard Geoffry and John He design'd to leave to Henry the Crown of England to Richard the Provinces of Normandy Main Anjou and Tourain which fell to him by Succession from his Father and Mother and the Provinces of Guien and Poictou which he had in Marriage by his former Wife Eleanor Between these two young Princes and the two daughters of the most Christian King Lewis the 7th there was a solemn Treaty of Marriage and the King of England had Interest enough to bring both to effect John his 4th Son was design'd for Ecclesiastical Preferment so that a Match having been propos'd between the Heiress of Bretaign and the house of England she must now of necessity be married if to any to Geoffry King Henry's third Son In fine the was married to him upon considerations meerly Political for his person was no way taking with the young Lady but his death soon deliver'd her and left her to a second Marriage more to her content for she her self then made choice of Guy de Thouars a Knight the handsomest and bravest person of his Age by whom she had but one daughter her first Husband had left her big with Child of a Son nam'd Arthur whose death was the more unhappy for that he was depriv'd thereby of such an accumulation of Successions that of England and the French Provinces thereunto appendant fell to him by the death without Issue of his Fathers two Eldest Brothers and Bretaign being his at the same time in Right of his Mother he had doubtless in prospect had he liv'd the vastest Monarchy that had been known since the partage of the Imperial Dominion of Charles the Great but John sirnamed Lackland the only Uncle who surviv'd procur'd his death to get his Estate and by this means the daughter of Guy de Thouars became sole Heiress of the Earldom of Bretaign Philip the August who taking advantage of the villany of John Lackland had reunited the Dutchy of Normandy to the Crown of France pretended that since Henry these cond King of England had power as being Duke of Normandy to dispose of the Mother he both as Duke of Normandy and King of France together had so much the better Title to dispose of the daughter The branch of Dreux was at that time the most proper branch of the Royal Family his appennage was small he had neither Office nor Government his Alliances had not enrich'd him and it was to be fear'd he might lose his Rank for want of Estate as it hapned some time since to the branch of Cortenai supposing his publih'd Genealogy be altogether exact This made Philip the August the more willing to give the Heiress of Bretaign to Peter de Dreux with this Condition that Bretaign should henceforth be immediately held of the Crown of France that is to say that it should no more do homage to whoever should be Masters of Normandy in case that Province should ever be again dismembred from the Crown The Condition was advantagious to both the new married Parties since their Estates were now no longer held in arrier fiefs nor would depend for the time to come upon a single Duke of Normandy but only upon the first of Christian Kings Nor did any one receive prejudice by it in regard Normandy was reunited to the Crown No wonder then if Peter de Dreux and his Wife accepted gladly the Condition and observ'd it in all particulars But that soon befel the new Duke of Bretaign which is but too frequent with men of slender virtue that is to say he suffer'd himself to be drawn away and transported by this flowing Tide of good fortune The large Extent of this Country of Bretaign and its advantageous Situation gave it a very sufficient Title and Merit in this Princes opinion to an absolute and independent Sovereignty besides he was pleas'd to flatter himself with this conceit that his carrying on so high a design as the shaking of the French yoke would immortalize his Name to all Posterity which great undertaking the better to accomplish he was really perswaded that his siding with the Earl of Boulogne and his Party was as fair an opportunity as he could have wisht for taking it for granted that if the Earl succeeded he could do no less than remit his homage of Bretaign in recompense of his declaring for him In case he did not succeed the Regent in revenge that she might oblige those Princes of the blood who had taken part with him to desert him would be glad to condescend to what ever they should demand of her Thus the Duke of Bretaign turn'd Rebel upon false surmises with which he fed his fancy but the most cross and untoward occurrence in his Revolt was his drawing in upon a quite contrary principle his Brother Robert de Dreux This Person had a Soul so sensible of all benefits and so prone to grateful returns that he thought he could not better testifie the high obligation he had to the Duke of Bretaign for having left entire to him the Apennage of their branch than by serving him for or against whom soever he desir'd except the King Thus he put himself under the Banner of the Malecontents by a Motive the most excusable that ever was if any excuse can be admitted in matters of Treason The last Prince of the blood that the Earl of Boulogne drew in to his Party was Robert of Courtenay whom he found the more pliable to his Temptations by discontent because the branch of the Dreux had been preferr'd before his by the Match of Bretaign and to engage him the more deeply he had opportunity given him to make himself Master of certain summs of the Kings mony Raimond the 7th of that Name Earl of Tholouse sirnamed the young was before hand with the Malecontents to whom without staying for any Invitation from them he went and joyned of his own accord upon the first prospect he had of a civil war His main inducement to this proceeding for he had none of those pretences which the rest made use of was only to save himself by fishing in other mens troubled waters The Court of Rome whose Thunders ruin'd without Exception all those petty Princes upon whom they lighted was altogether inexorable toward this Prince and would not quit him of those Ecclesiastical Censures which had been pronounc'd against him though the refusal thereof was the greatest obstacle to the recovery of Languedoc This Interdiction had so powerful an ascendant upon his Subjects minds that they thought they might be very well

allow'd to the publication of their Decree The King in stead of taking this limited Time to consider of a Concession rather laid hold of an advantage thereby to make his Appeal from the Determination of the Councel and to revenge himself of the Bishops who acted thus as he pretended with a malicious design of opposing his proceedings he seis'd upon their Temporals and to prevent the Assistance they might receive from their Relations for at that time the richest Benefices in France were in the hands of persons of highest quality he possess'd himself of the third part of Gentlemens Estates In the next place Angelberge was remov'd from her present place of Solitude and confin'd to the Castle of Estampes where she was sequestred from all Society but only of such as were the Creatures of her Rival There were at that time in France scarce fewer Malecontents than Natives and though Prince Lewis could have no lawful cause for putting himself at the Head of them yet never could he have had a fairer and more plausible pretext He had yet neither Place of Trust nor Profit neither Government of Town nor Province all he had to subsist upon was an indifferent summe of Money which he receiv'd yearly out of Spain He could not hope to make his Condition better while he kept himself in the Limits of due Obedience whereas had he Headed the Malecontents he might have assur'd himself of obtaining by Articles of Accomodation whatsoever he could have desir'd for since those People would never have been reduc'd without him the King must have been forc'd to have given them an entire Satisfaction nor could he have avoided above all things the taking back of Angelberge But all this while Prince Lewis remain'd firm and unshaken in that Faith and Duty which he knew to be owing to his Father and his King and own'd himself bound in Honour and Conscience to adopt upon all accounts his Majesties Interests as his own and shewed a more than ordinary Submission at a time when all the rest of his Subjects meditated a general Revolt in short he gave an Example of Fidelity not to be parallel'd in the History of any Nation Nor was this unexampled Loyalty of his long without a Recompence for having so generously and virtuously refus'd an Illegal Power he was call'd to the Crown of England by the universal consent of the Estates of the Realm Three Years he there peaceably reign'd and when at the end thereof the Inconstancy of those that had call'd him in unworthily retracted that Allegeance which both their duty oblig'd them to and his Virtue Almighty God abundantly repair'd that detriment to him two several wayes the one was a perpetual Establishment of the Crown of France upon his Posterity from his Eldest Son the other an Accession of the Crowns of Naples and Sicily with the Earldom of Provence which fell contrary to all Expectation to the youngest of his Sons But of the worldly Blessings that attended Prince Lewis there was none he made greater account of or took higher Satisfaction in than the Wife which God in his most especial Providence bestow'd upon him viz. Blanch of Spain the Daughter of Alphonso King of Castile Sirnamed the Noble a Princess who in that rude heavy Age wherein she had the Misfortune to be born possess'd all those graces which were capable to draw admiration from the most accomplish'd Ladies of her time And as none durst dispute the Prerogative of beauty with her so it was absolutely taken for confess'd on all hands that she infinitely surpass'd them in a Noble and Gallant Meen The young Age wherein she was Espous'd to Lewis for she was then scarce ripe for Marriage render'd her so much the more pliant and flexible in conforming to the humours and manners of the French Nation wherein she made so perfect an Improvement that she could not possibly have been distinguish'd from a French Woman but for that grave Severity which was too Natural to be easily quitted by her though at a time when she most resign'd her self up to Complaisance and Familiarity Her Air as Majestick as it was had yet never any thing in it of disobliging being ever attended with words and actions full of Spirit and Vivacity and a Gaiety of humour that infinitely became her She enjoy'd so vigorous a health of body that till that sickness took her which ended her dayes she never was troubled with any other distemper than a short quotidian Ague which argued rather a strong Constitution then any Intemperature of humours Her beauty was not impair'd by Age nor did the bringing of ten Children into the World any thing diminish the freshness or delicacy of her Complexion But that which singularly recommends her above all that hath been said is the clear judgment and exalted wit which so qualified her for business that she came not short of the most eminent Ministers of Spain either for quick insight or prudent forecast in the weightiest Affairs without the least of that heavy slowness and irresolution which hath been the fault of many as she made appear by her management of those no less difficult Transactions that hapned during her Regency then have been known at any time and with that Ease and dispatch that she was not observ'd to have the least trouble or perplexity of Spirit Her Piety was neither superstitious nor a Cloak for the carrying on of any Interest and it was an excellent saying of hers to her Children when she had their Education under her Care That she had rather see them buried than to abandon that purity of Life to which their Baptism had call'd them Her Chastity was inviolable however that of all the rest of her Virtues was most disputed both during her Life and after her death The worst that hath been said of her in any of the most Satyrical Pieces that have toucht her in this tender point is that she gave too much pretence to Calumny She entertain'd indeed a Principle more dangerous than could well consist with a Ladies Honour that is to say that there are certain junctures which though rarely might at some time or other happen in which Ladies might lay aside the outward Formalities of Honour provided they took care to preserve it inviolable in the Main This I say Queen Blanch held for a Fundamental Maxim of her Politicks for Example that she might without scruple of Conscience endeavour to give Love to any Prince or Potentate that could not by any other means be gain'd to her Interest especially when it might prove a means to prevent or put an end to a War or any intestine broil to make an Experiment whereof too many occasions will offer themselves in the Sequel of this History But in the first place Forasmuch as the Sentiments of the Queen in this matter were no way prejudicial to the Education of St. Lewis it will he necessary before hand to shew how singular and scrupulously exact she was in