THE Illustrious Lovers OR PRINCELY ADVENTURES IN THE COURTS OF ENGLAND and FRANCE CONTAINING Sundry Transactions relating to Love-Intrigues Noble Enterprises and Gallantry being an Historical Account of the Famous Loves of Mary sometimes Queen of France Daughter to Henry the 7th and Charles Brandon the Renown'd Duke of Suffolk Discovering the Glory and Grandeur of both Nations Written Original in French and now Done into English LONDON Printed for William Whitwood next door to the Crown-Tavern in Duck-Lane near West-Smith-Field 1686. Advertisement of Books lately Printed 1. REflections upon Ancient and Modern Philosophy Moral and Natural together with the use that there is to be made thereof Treating of the Egyptians Arabians Grecians Romans c. Philosophers as Thales Zeno Socrates Plato Pythagoras Aristotle Epicurus c. Also the English German French Spanish c. As Bacon Boyle Des Cartes Hobbs Van-Helmont Gassendus Gallileus Harvey Paracelsus Marcennus Digby Translated from the French by A.L. 2. A Collection of Apothegmes or Sayings of the Ancients Collected out of Plutarch Diogines Laertius Elian Atheneus Stobaeus Macrobius Erasmus and others Wherein the Manners and Customs of the Greeks Romans and Lacedemonians are Represented To which is Added several pleasant Apothegmes from Modern Authors 3. A Rich Cabinet of Inventions being Receits and Conceits of several Natures containing more then 130. Natural and Artificial Conclusions all Profitable and Pleasant Collected out of Alexis Mizaldus Wecker and the Practice of John White Practitioner in the Mathematicks 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 〈◊〉 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 〈…〉 â—ppear in the sequel of this 〈◊〉 â—â—â—se 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 assorded 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
to say for his satisfaction But yet he stopped not there for finding in himself some secret joy which added somewhat to his natural debonairity and that it concerned the health of his Sister that Brandon should reassume his former jollities that with more success he might employ himself in her Service he thought it not sit to dismiss him before he had dissipated the smallest mists which great affairs how well soever concluded leave commonly behind them No forrain nor remote matters disturbed him at that time and he had just then received good news from the Emperour who to begin the War against France promised to act on the Frontiers of Picardy which the wary King of Spain deferred to do on the side of Guyenne So that finding his mind in great liberty he gave Brandon a review of the life they had led together and laying before him almost all the Testimonies of Friendship that he had shewed him he forgot not amongst the rest to take special notice of the merit of that obliging manner whereby he had countenanced his love With that desiring a suitable return of Justice he cryed that it was his part to render it him adding that he knew not how he could after so powerful obligations suspect that he would take the Earl of Kildare's part against him and far less how he could believe him to be in love with his own Sister and the Rival of a friend of whose passion he himself had laid the foundation and at length concluded that he well perceived that love was always accompanied with infirmities and that lovers could not guard against them when their friends had the art to foresee them At these last words which he could not pronounce without a smile Brandon was so fully convinced of his sincerity that he lost all the remains of distrust and trouble which he could possibly retain And to confirm him in the just perswasion that he was of the King gave him his hand as an evidence of a perfect good correspondence then thinking it needless to intreat him to take care of the Princess recovery knowing it to be his greatest concern he thought it enough to tell him in the most taking way imaginable that they ought both to contribute their utmost endeavours for that effect and that he himself being guilty of much imprudence in that conjuncture would grant her for her comfort without exception whatever she pleased to desire But Brandon who understood but too well the meaning of that discourse was so much the more affected with it that by an excess of love and virtue he began of himself so to be disposed as not to be flattered with any thing The hopes that had dazled him in his younger days dazled him now no more in the age that he had attained to Time and reason made him daily discover new impediments His true birth seemed likewise to object secret hinderances which appeared invincible and whatsoever affection the Princess was preingaged in in his favour and what goodness soever the King might evidence to him yet he saw no appearance to promise himself that he would one day give her to him in marriage nor did he find it even reasonable that he himself should desire it He very well knew that the Daughters and Sisters of Kings are always married for reasons of State and that it was to much purpose indeed for him to ballance the ancient custom of England and the design that the King had to establish 〈◊〉 with that universal maxim Neither 〈◊〉 ancient custom nor the re-establishment that the King gave out he intended to make of it appeared to him any thing but a vain phantasm raised against the treaty of Calais or at most but a specious reason to temporise for some years in expectation of some better alliance against the house of Austria To that it may be added that though it had been true that the lovely Princess had not been intended in marriage to any Forraign Prince there were yet many other great Lords in England Scotland and Ireland who might be chosen for that purpose and all those who pretended to her as he did be excluded So that finding himself at that time filled with these great and hard thoughts which sometimes had made him resolve to forsake the Kingdom and sometimes to withdraw out of it for a time he thought he could never find a more favourable occasion to open himself to the King And therefore he broke his mind to him as he had been desirous to do and reflecting on the zeal for the Princess which that Prince endeavoured to inspire in him he told him That as to that he had more need of a curb than a spur and that the sentiments of his heart were but too publickly known That he saw on all hands but too many who were envious of a blessing which he owed only to his Approbation and not to the goodness of her who was reproached therewith That after so much rumour it was very fit to raise no more That rather than his respects should cost the greatest Princess of the world so dear he would renounce the honour of her Presence and that seeing he was unable to do her any service he ought at least to be careful of her Glory And that to succeed in that design there was no other expedient but flight That though he made no difference betwixt dying and leaving of London yet he was fully resolved to do it if his Majesty would give him leave That in begging it of him he could assure his Majesty that he had never flattered himself with any foolish hope in reference to the Princess That what goodness soever she might have for him yet he never framed any disadvantageous notions of her and that if he durst ever make a wish when he saw her it was only that he might be able to serve her so long as he lived But that he was so far from that that it behoved him for the future to renounce the honour of seeing her and that the innocence of his intentions sufficed not to preserve him in the enjoyment of so precious a blessing That to conclude he beg'd his pardon for the disorders which he might have occasioned in his Court that he acknowledged himself altogether unworthy of the favours that he had conferred upon him but that nevertheless he did not think he deserved the character of ungrateful and that if he found him in the least guilty of that he prayed him to take from him that odious name by taking away his life This was the substance of what the passionate Brandon expressed in no less passionate terms and the King the more touched with his virtue that he was sensible enough that he had not used him kindly since the death of Cecile had no way to defend himself His heart was wholly again inflamed for a man of so sublime a soul and in a nice emulation which Kings seldom condescend to with their subjects he
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 care 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
answered Brandon that he perceived he was well informed of what he had written to his Sister and that he made great matters of it though it deserved no such construction for the truth was that he being willing to try the effects of love in a case of adversity had made use of the first word that appeared proper for his design That there was no more in that note and that in fine as to himself it was but a trifle as well as the rest but not so on his part seeing his memory was so good and he so touchy that he could not pardon some small inequalities which appeared in his humour since the death of Cecile That he had had some doubts that Woolsey might give him some Umbrage but that he never thought the impression could have been so deep and that the same appearances that had deceived him before deceived him still That notwithstanding he could not but excuse two errors into which he let himself only be led by an excess of affection That to undeceive him he would endeavour to proceed to an equal excess and that there was nothing in his Kingdom so great to which his heart and eyes might not aspire And 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 Lewis 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 easly 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 at the head of four thousand horse eight hundred foot and six pieces of Cannon passes the River Lis near to Derlet and lyes in wait for the Enemies at the passage of Hutin They retreated with great assurance marching in confusion as he had foreseen for being pursued by none after the false allarm which was purposely given them was over and missing none of their number but the young Count D'anton Son to the Seignior of Bouchage and some others that could not get out of Therowenne they dreamt not of any greater mischief when Brandon appearing of a sudden so sharply charged them that having no leisure to mount their great Horses again nor to put on their head-pieces they began to be in disorder The brave la Palisse notwithstanding of the stout resistance he made was already taken and the undaunted Chevalier Bayard having almost singlely defended the bridg of Hutin became companion in the bad fortune of Clairmont D'anjow and of Bussy D'amboise to whose assistance he came There remained none but the Duke of Longueville to head the subdued who being mounted on a stout charging-horse compleatly armed it seemed no easie matter for one man hand to hand to get the better of him and besides a considerable body of the French Army advanceing in order of Battel those that had been put to flight began to rally So that Brandon perceiving that the total rout of the Enemies depended on the overthrow of this Warriour and by the riches of his arms taking him for a French Prince he left la Palisse in the hands of some Gentlemen who kept him not long and with sword in hand set upon him whose resistance hindered his Victory The Duke of Longueville received him valiantly but at length after the interchanging of many blows Brandon with the danger of a wound which he received in the thigh dismounted the Duke who disjoynted his shoulder by the fall The French upon this turned back upon those that were coming to their aid and put their own men in as great disorder as the Enemy would have done and seeing in this Battel their horses heels had done them better service than the points of their swords it was called the Battel of Spurs But it had been far better for Brandon that the Duke of Longueville had escaped with the rest for the injury that he did him afterward was so great that all the Glory he obtained in overcoming him and all the praise that he gained thereby was not enough to make amends for it Time sensibly discovering to him that fortune by great evils can be repayed of her greatest favours After this there happened no more considerable action on either side Brandon's wound kept him a fortnight a-bed and the King of France though he had lost but very few men being unwilling to expose his Kingdom to the danger of a Battel thought it best to give Therowenne to the fortune of his Enemies Teligny after two months siege rendered it on composition Victuals and Ammunition failing him before his Courage and the King of England and the Emperour not agreeing betwixt themselves about the propriety of the place the one claiming it by right of Inheritance and the other by Conquest it was presently demolished In the mean time Lowis the Twelfth that he might put a stop to his bad success by employing a General in whose safety all his Subjects might be concerned caused the young Duke of Valois to advance to Blangy But neither the merit of that Prince nor the great Forces that daily joyned him hindered the progress of the King of England for whilst the Duke Longueville and the other Prisoners were on their way to London he lay down before the City of Tournay which having no hope of relief as lying in the midst of the Low-Countreys made no long resistance And having now reduced that place under his Obedience and beginning to have some jarring with the Emperour who in many things was chargeable to him and in others unfaithful he returned back into England Never was Prince better satisfied for besides his own Conquests of Therowenne and Tournay the Victory which the Earl of Surrey's Lieutenant had just then obtained over the Scots raised him to the highest pitch of fortune that he could almost pretend to and though his Fleet had received some rustle in the Bay of Brest yet the death of the King of Scotland killed in the Battel of Floudon which he fought only for the interest of France though he was his Brother-in-law revenged him fully of that and of the damage which Pregent and Primanguet had done him on his Wastes Insomuch that he entred London in triumph where to reward those who had fought so valiantly for his Glory he made Brandon Duke of Suffolk gave the Title of Duke of Norfolk to the Earl of Surrey and to his Son the Admiral that of Surrey and Talbot Gray and Sommerset who had behaved themselves stoutly on all occasions were created the one Earl of Shrewsbury in the place of his Father who desired it the other Marquess of Dorset his Father being lately dead and the last Earl of Worcester But these are matters wide of my Subject and I should not remark them by the by but for avoiding confusion in the names of those who may have some share in the sequel of this History My business should be to relate the joy that the English Princess conceived upon the return of Brandon to which the title of Duke of Suffolk as from henceforth he must be named added but little for a real virtue once known needs no other Ornaments And the affectionate rebukes she gave him for having so often exposed himself to dangers would without doubt require a more exact description than I make were it not that
the tenderness of these Lovers is sufficiently known and that their pains rather than pleasures are to be related since that amidst trouble and difficulties the greatness and power of Love appears more conspicuous After so fair beginnings they wanted not crosses and all that had befallen them before the War from the competition of Gray Bourchier and Sommerset from the Kings indifferency after the death of Cecile Blunt or from the aggression of the Earl of Kildare followed by an Imprisonment which the secret Quality of a Prince of York rendered the more dangerous All this I say bears no proportion with what they endured afterward Upon the return from the War of France all people imagining that Brandon who had acquired so much Glory there should espouse the Princess Mary when they saw him only made Duke of Suffolk and nothing else talked of they believed that his fortune was at a stand and that in that respect there had been more policy than friendship in the Conduct of the King There is but little certainty in the opinions of men all is but whimsey There was no more discourse therefore of his Intelligence with Mary of England nor of the services he rendered her On the contrary they began both to be pitied as two perfect Lovers cruelly and unjustly dealt with But whilst people thus favoured them with their good opinions a tranquil serenity gave jealousie time to rise to a head against them This new Quality of Duke of Suffolk which rendered him a suitable match to the chiefest Ladies at Court made in effect many of them cast their thoughts that way because it was believed that he had attained to the greatest height that he could expect So that the lovely Lucretia Tilney being of a Quality and Fortune answerable to his merit the Princess had no sooner taken notice of the civilities which Suffolk rendered her to please the King only who designed her for his Mistris but that she immediately imagined they were the effects of Love So that she became jealous to that extremity into which true Lovers commonly fall of a sudden She spake not a word of this to her faithful Judith Kiffen from whom she had never concealed any thing but the secret of Brandon's Birth who not knowing what to think of the alteration that he perceived in her essayed for some days to discover that in her eyes which was quite contrary to what was in her heart That extreme respect might have provoked any other besides Mary of England and there are but few Lovers who in the fury of jealousie would not have taken it for indifferency But as she only loved because she was beloved so she made the best use of the various Sentiments that attend love She always devised arguments to excuse the inconstancy that she complained of and by strongest reason drawn from the stock of most tender affection she sometimes perswaded her self that the effects which she had caused in the heart of Brandon whilst he was but nothing were not to be expected from the Duke of Suffolk He loved me said she as the Daughter and Sister of his King He hath used me as a pleasant apparation to entertain his idle thoughts whilst he had none that were serious and now that he is what he deserves to be he applies himself to that which he may obtain If thou wert not of the blood of Lancaster continued she and could he promise himself of thee what he thinks he may expect of another he would love thee still as he hath loved thee and over-love thee And thereupon giving way to the mild Sentiments by which the pretended infidelity of Suffolk might be justified Let us pardon then said she let us pardon him for an injury which respect and fear only makes him commit against our love Let us do justice to that tender affection whereof we have received so great Testimonies this is probably the perfectest instance that he could render us and it costs him doubtless too dear to be undervalued by unjust suspitions But jealousie usurping again the dominion over her heart such lofty reasonings did not at all satisfie her She had much a-do to conceive how a Lover could renounce the thing he loves and then concluding that love which always slights and gets above reason and decorum is not so tame she found her self much disposed to judg no more in favour of Suffolk Besides his true extraction more and more fortified her jealousie and thinking that the reasons which she allowed to Brandon or Duke of Suffolk did not so well suit with a Prince of York what appeared to her to be an excess of love or discretion in the one had not the same character in the other And the very Glory which he had acquired in France made his present Conduct a little suspicious to her She saw him so well supported by his own worth that she could not but sometimes think that he intended to build his Fortune thereon and as the King appeared so much the less favourable to their Union that he had seemed much inclined to it before and that he reflected on it very seriously so the services that the Duke of Suffolk rendered to the lovely Tilney which jealousie made appear far more assiduous than they were though all was but an effect of complaisance made her often enraged against her self and condemn all her own goodness At length after a long conflict within her self so great as to make her compare her own marvelous and rare perfections with the ordinary and indifferent Qualities of her pretended Rival as she loved to the utmost extent of love and that her jealousie was altogether gentle and sublime and had nothing ragged nor low she found her self reduced to a necessity of speaking But she did it with so expressive and sensible an air that she had hardly opened her mouth when Suffolk by her first word discovering the cause of that discontent which he could not guess at needed no more but a single sigh to allay her trouble Their Sentiments as well as looks were soon agreed and they expressed themselves so intelligibly in that manner and understood one another so well that being both fully satisfied and fixing their eyes on one another for some time they needed no other language to speak their thoughts Suffolk being ravished to see himself so dear to the Princess as to inspire into her jealousie seemed by silence and other signs of submission to thank her for such a new favour which he never believed himself able to deserve But at length he broke that so eloquent silence to complain of her too much reservedness and the Princess perceiving that his complaint was just and she in kindness obliged to suffer it made appear by a most engaging blush that she desired he should not persist therein So that love which lays hold on all occasions to make Lovers speak raising an officious contest betwixt them on that subject was the cause that the
Princess Mary came insensibly to discover all that she had concealed in her thoughts At this time it was that the Duke of Suffolk found himself raised to the top of felicity He confessed himself very far short of the discretion she allowed him and by transports of gratitude which could never with good grace be employed but on that occasion considering the state of his fortune showing himself as ambitious as she desired he should be he obliged her twice to tell him that if he were not it behoved him to become so The good thoughts of the King her Brother whereof he had given her an account in her sickness and the reflexions that since that time she had made thereon which very seasonably she called to mind were of great advantage to her modesty in an entertainment of that nature She easily thought that having the approbation of her Brother and King on whom she solely depended she had no distances to stand on She intreated him to make his advantage of that and Brandon made no difficulty to obey her But fortune allowed them only this calm of hope and joy that she might more cruelly expose them to the fury of the storm she prepared for them The End of the first Part. THE English Princess OR THE Dutchess QUEEN The Second PART THE DUKE of Longueville with some other French being at London Prisoner at large under no other Confinement but his word lived at Court in Princely Magnificence and having occasion daily to see the beautiful Princess Mary though his arm which he carried in a scarf since his hurt still pained him had nevertheless but too many easie minutes to consider all the charms of her Beauty For nine or ten Months time he had endeavoured by all probable arguments to resist the vanity of such thoughts the Quality of Daughter and Sister to a King promised already in marriage to the heir of the Crown of Spain and the open War betwixt France and England allowed him no great hopes But he became at length passionately in love by frequent representing to himself the reasons that should have hindered it He thought it no error to take pleasure in beholding the fairest Princess in the world He looked upon the frequent occasions that he sought of entertaining her to be but the amusement of a Prisoner and thinking to secure his heart from love by the many impossibilities of enjoyment he fancied there was no great danger in desiring to please her In the mean time it befel him as he would have foretold to any other in the like disposition He came even to forget that he was a Prisoner and as love delights in mystery and intrigues entering into confidence with Mary of England he gave her a full discovery of the secret of his King and Masters Court The aversion that the late Queen of France had against the Duke of Valois and the fear that she was in lest the Dutchy of Bretannie should be for ever united to the Crown of France afforded him ample subjects of discourse He told her all the attempts which that implacable Queen had made to hinder that Union from taking effect by the marriage of her eldest Daughter to a Prince whom she could not endure She added that though the matter was accomplished yet the Duke of Valois seemed not much satisfied therewith and that having no Children by Madam and most people doubting whether ever he should have any he was already perhaps projecting to do with her as the King his Father-in-law had done with Jane of France so that the Daughter was very like to undergo the same fortune and usage which her Mothers beauty had occasioned to the Sister of CHARLES the Eight that the King was very infirm and gave no hopes of long life and by the instance of the Princess her self to whom he was speaking who had been ineffectually engaged to the heir of Spain making no account of the marriage of Claudia of France with the presumptive heir of LOWIS the Twelfth he easily concluded that if she would accept of his service in that negotiation without any long expectation she might see it succesfully brought to a period And thereupon giving way to his own thoughts he cryed That his greatest happiness would be to see her Queen of France and though to say the truth his intentions were neither the most sincere nor discreet that might be imagined yet it was not so easie for the young Princess to penetrate into the folly of them What vivacity and briskness so ever she had mischief and disorder were far from her thoughts Her tender and passionate air was sometimes injurious to her virtue and as she was every way obliging so it was most commonly imagined by all that had the honour to see her that the Conquest of her was not very difficult In this then the Duke of Longueville as well as many others found himself deceived who in stead of a lawful hope feeding his love with the vain expectations which his desires and appearances shaped for him by making Mary of England Queen of France he entertained hardly any thought for her which he expressed not under so fair a pretext Though the Princess was not affected by his Discourses in the manner that he could have wished she was nevertheless well-pleased to hear them His truely French humour and gallantry had so great a resemblance to her own that she still entertained the Duke of Suffolk with all that he said to her and he who had received no disquiet from his former Rivals was but at first slightly moved with this last He imputed this new correspondence to the natural freedom of the Princess and did not condemn her jollity But jealousie that began to work in him began likewise to shake his confidence and the disquiet of mind by little and little following the emotions of his heart he took the allarm at last and grew so jealous that he became uneasie to himself The care and means that the Princess essayed to reassure and compose him wrought no great effects and his grief encreased so much that he having refused all the gentle remedies which with greatest sincerity she offered to him she resolved without speaking a word at length to employ the strongest For that end she denied the Duke of Longueville any more access to her and because he continued obstinate to the contrary she was about to have spoken to the King that he might send him back into France upon his word or confine him to some of his houses in the Countrey The noise of that would have been great without doubt and the King who could not prevail on the mind of Suffolk by other means would not have spared that way of curing him had she but in the least proposed it The repose of that favorite was now become as dear to the King as his own and if the Princess had not been promised to the young Arch-Duke by a solemn treaty the breach whereof had not
as yet been approved by the two Houses of Parliament it is certain that he would have bestowed her on him upon his return from France when he made him Duke of Suffolk But he had measures to observe in that affair by reason of the King of Spain who would not have failed to have complained of such a marriage to the contempt of his Grandson He had the like to observe with his Queen who was Aunt to that Prince and being divided betwixt so important considerations he found it one of those thorny affairs wherein Kings are in some manner afraid to make use of their absolute power And that was the reason that he spake no more of it which at first troubled all the Court and gave grounds of believing that he entertained other thoughts But the removal of the Duke of Longueville would have cost him nothing so that Suffolk no sooner understood that the Princess intended to propose it but he prevented her and resolving to over-come himself or to dye rather than to admit of such a remedy the interest of the person whom he loved wrought on his heart what he was unable to perform for his own repose Matters then reassumed almost their former face and the Duke of Longueville who knew nothing of the disorder which he caused nor of the evil wherewith he had been threatned continued his Gallantries but with this difference that the Princess concerned at the troubles of Suffolk seemed not to him to have the same freedom of humour as formerly He judged of that sometimes in her favour and sometimes to her prejudice according to the freakishness of Lovers who for one and the same thing are many times both glad and sorrowful and as he had a good conceit of himself so he enclined rather to the one side than the other But hardly was that disorder appeased when it broke out again more cruelly than before for some Letters by a strange fatality being come to London which gave advice that the King of France designed a new marriage with an Italian Princess that bad rumour which seemed not in the least to have any relation to the fortune of Suffolk was the utter overthrow of all his hopes The Duke of Longueville who found no fairer pretext to Colour his Love for the English Princess but that of seeing her Queen of France and considering that all that he had said in respect of the Duke of Valois heir of the Crown was but a dull notion wherewith he was not himself much flattered seeing that he knew several things of the marriage of that Prince with the Princess Claudia that were far different from what the pleasure of discourse and his passion had made him say on that subject so soon as he was informed of the news from Paris without examining whether it was false or true he conceived a more sensible and specious notion and the interest of the Kingdom joyned to that pretended desire of a new marriage which was published of his King perfected in his mind that Image The age of LOWIS the Twelfth afforded him new delights whensoever he reflected thereon and if it be free once to declare what he had always in his thoughts he imagined that the lovely Princess in the embraces of an old Husband oppressed with the Gout and many other infirmities might be very well allowed some liberty This idle fancy then made his flame sparkle so that having rendered her a visit upon occasion of the report that went of the King of France with eyes glanceing with the joy that he desired to raise in her having premised such circumstances as he judged proper for his design he expressed himself with so prepossessed and contented an air that he left her hardly the liberty to say any thing against his overture The Princess only seemed not at all surprised and as if she had thought on nothing less giving him a cold answer that he designed her for every body she allowed him no opportunity of insisting in his discourse The jealousie of Suffolk created her too much trouble to entertain him on such a subject and she was so far from giving the least check to the hopes which she desired him to continue in by so vain a consideration that for all the Crowns of the World she would not have disturbed the quiet of his heart So that the Duke of Longueville finding her not so easie to be perswaded in respect of LOWIS the Twelfth as he believed she might have been in favour of the Duke of Valois and imagining that the old age of the former caused in her that aversion and as he was not much concerned whether she was satisfied or not to be Queen of France provided she were so he thought it best in that conjuncture to make a matter of state of it But the King with whom he was to negotiate being prepossessed to the contrary as well as the Princess gave him no more satisfaction than she had done and when he was pressed to speak his mind he answered him That a proposition wherein all Europe was concerned sounded not well from the mouth of a Prisoner Yet for all this the Duke was not discouraged He wrote to the King his Master and with his Letter sent the Picture of Mary of England and being a more successful negotiator at distance than in presence the affairs of Italy being now somewhat composed by the death of Pope Julius to whom LEO the Tenth succeeded and the Ministers of France finding their advantages in an alliance with England he received an answer according to his desire Then it was that poor Suffolk perceived his ruin manifest The Duke of Longueville was the first that drew his blood at the Battel of Spurs he was the first that infected his mind with the sullen poyson of jealousie which troubled all his delights at London and as a fatal enemy was now to disquiet the rest of his days And indeed he strove no more to resist the matter nor did he so much as seek ease by complaining lest that by flattering so his grief it might break out against his will and that his virtue whereof he then stood so much in need should be weakened thereby It was to no purpose for the Princess to discourse him about that subject It was to no purpose for her to employ all her Charms with him and to upbraid him with the sharpest cuts of Love that she found he loved her no more since that he yielded her to another for he had not only the power to be silent before her but he maintained to the last that rigorous conflict wherein nothing but the love of her made him resist and the King his Master with all his dexterity and goodness produced but still less effects on him Never was there so much constancy in so tender and afflicted a soul He entertained the Princess Mary no more but with the Grandure and Beauties of France He urged to her by solid reasons that the
most glorious passion was the desire to reign over the most illustrious people of the Universe He went farther to encourage her by pretending that his own interest was therein concerned and as if he had been the most covetous of all men who was indeed the most liberal he seemed only then possessed with the hopes of the great riches that he expected from her Crown The soul must without doubt be great which can love in that strain and ordinary passions are unable to renounce themselves in that manner But the fair Princess to whom he rendered so rare an instance of a perfect love repayed it by another no less wonderful on her part The Crown of France seemed nothing to her in respect of Suffolks heart and being sensible to the utmost of the unspeakable pleasure that is found in being loved as one loves that was to her so Soveraign a blessing that no other earthly advantage could equal it She disputed therefore with him the possession of his heart which she desired still to enjoy as he contended for the loss of hers which he was willing she should deprive him of and her lovely eyes bore already the marks of the wrong which the tears she shed did them The King between whose arms she had cast her self to bewail and to overcome the virtue of Suffolk knew no more how to govern sometime the one sometime the other As she had been accustomed to conceal from him nothing of her passion and as it may be said that he was the sole confident of her Love so neither had he been wanting to her in any comfort or remedy He made her the Mistris of her self and being ready to repass into France at the head of an Army under divers pretexts to renew the War there he desired no better than to trouble all Europe that he might re-establish Tranquillity in her heart But it was not enough for these great Remedies to produce their effect that they were prepared by the hand of the King and accepted by the Princess Suffolk must likewise approve and make use of them If they were good for her they seemed of no value to him He condemned them already and found fault with them every way He designed to arm against them protesting at what rate soever to oppose them and the Amorous Princess had to do with a Lover that desired nothing more than to triumph over himself that he might Crown her This violent state of affairs lasted two full Months and no body understood the secret The melancholy of the Princess was imputed to a dispute that she had had with the Queen concerning the Dutchess of Salisbury The Court was divided betwixt them upon that account and the King fomented their division that he might the better conceal the Amorous mystery whereof he was the Guardian when that the proposals of the Duke of Longueville were again renewed with such formalities as suffered them not to be rejected The Pope wrote to that purpose The Venetians concerned themselves therein John Duke of Albany Regent of Scotland during the Minority of the King his Nephew interested himself in the affair with all the earnestness that the concerns of his Pupil required and these so distant Potentates in this manner formed an Union in opinions to make a most cruel War against the Resolutions of the Princess Mary but what deference soever the King of England was obliged to have for so considerable solicitations though besides that the alliance of LOWIS the Twelfth was of such moment that it could not be rejected by a sober Prince nevertheless the compassion that he had for his Sister the high esteem that he made of Suffolk and his natural propensity to all intrigues of Love would have made him find out ways enough to elude the suit of the one and the importunities of the rest if the continual perfidies of the King of Spain his Father-in-law had not in a manner forced him to comply That cunning Prince having drawn the late Pope Julius into the League whereof the English were at all the charge and the Spaniards reaped all the profit began to deceive him in the first Pyrenean War He seized on the Kingdom of Navar not minding the English Forces which he had perswaded to Land at Bayonne and who finding themselves disappointed of their hopes of being able to gain the places which he promised them in Guyenne were constrained to return Since that he had broken his word to him at the Sieges of Therowenne and Tournay where he neither assisted him with men nor money and had of late again made a truce with LOWIS the Twelfth without his advice So that to all these injuries joyning the aversion that he had to Queen Catherine the Daughter of that crafty Prince and projecting already the divorce which he made from her since he found that occasion so favourable that his proper interest prevailed with him more than the consideration of his Sister Some have said that it was only an effect of his inconstancy and it is certain that he was none of the firmest in his resolutions But it is no less true that the displeasure which he conceived against his Father-in-law and against his Queen had no small share in that change that broke the Ice at first and the alliance of France made his satisfaction appear afterwards more speedy and easie had it not been for these considerations he might have possibly persisted in his former design and a more steady mind than his by so many reasons could not but have too many temptations to change The proposals therefore of the King of France were accepted Suffolk was one of the first that assented to them and as at that time the Princess Mary abandoned her self wholly to grief so that generous Lover upon the refusal of the King who could not any longer comfort her but by false hopes undertook to do it That charge was without doubt the sum of his afflictions There is no violence like to that when a man inflamed with Love forces himself by an excess of affection to perswade the person whom he loves that she ought no more to love him But that same love which he strove to hide being the principle that set all the movements of his heart to work did hourly betray his design What garb soever he put on what shape soever he borrowed all was still love it would not be disguised and where it was most under constraint there it broke forth with greatest lustre So that the Princess who felt her self touched even with the hardest things that Suffolk durst tell her melting with compassion for the cruel tryals that he put himself to for her sake observed no measures on her part to make him lay aside that forced Mask But he having one day when they were by themselves urged her so far that she was at length pierced with that greatness of Soul that could not be made to stoop by the tenderness of hers and finding
her more tender passions giving the reins to the most violent that she was capable of the Duke of Longueville became the object of them She did nothing but detest the day of his Captivity and with so much the more violence that he revenged himself so cruelly on him that had taken him In a word she could not look on him but as a mortal enemy whose sight she protested she could never endure and it may be said of that French Prince that desiring by indirect ways to gain all he lost all and that as there was never any Lover whose notions were more foolish so likewise was there never any who took falser measures However his negotiation succeeded according to the orders which he had received and the General of Normandy extraordinary Ambassadour of France came to London to conclude the marriage and peace in the treaty of which the young King of Scotland was comprehended with excommunication against the breakers because it was authorised by the Pope After this the King of England and Duke of Suffolk made it all their care to recover the cheerful humour of the Princess which seemed to be banished from her soul for the rest of her days The Marquess of Dorset the Earls of Surrey Skrewsbury Worcester young Buckingham and all her former Lovers who now desisted from their pretensions employed themselves in that with all their might The Queen her self willing to contribute thereto made the first offers of being reconciled to her and the Dutchess of Salisbury the Countesses of Derby and Pembrock did in emulation of one another all that they could to please her But her distemper was of another nature than to yield to such weak remedies and there was none in the world but Suffolk able to mitigate it if he could have wholly concealed his own Whatever apparent satisfaction he made shew of she perceived but too well what an extreme love with extreme generosity made him suffer So that after he had kept himself on his legs beyond humane strength he fell sick which overwhelmed her with new troubles that brought her shortly into a condition not much different from his own There was much ado to conceal the real cause of it from the Duke of Longueville who began shrewdly to suspect the matter But in fine the secret was not discovered The preparatives for the marriage were thereby only a little retarded and Suffolk at three weeks end by the healthfulness of his constitution surmounting the bad humours which the vexations of mind had stirred in him at length re-established all matters by his recovery of health He was very desirous not to have accompanied the Princess unto France and he had but too many reasons to decline it But as she demanding of him that last complaisance could not forbear to tell him that her resolution was not as yet very firm and that even he had not prevailed with her but upon that condition he was obliged to condescend It is true also that having bound him to that hard necessity and well foreseeing what he might thereby suffer in the sequel she omitted to tell him nothing that might render it supportable to him The hopes wherewith he had flattered her were the same with which she flattered him She made seriously the same predictions to him which he had only made to her out of pity and to amuse her thoughts she grounded both the one and other on reasons to give them greater authority and representing to him always that he ought not to forsake her in the Precipice into which he did cast her and at that time especially when nothing but his Presence could help her to endure the sight of it it may be said that as she received from him so singular a proof of affection so though she gave her self to another yet she still retained the intire possession of her heart for him In the mean time the English Fleet was richly equipped for the passage of the Princess The King her Brother having brought her to Dover conducted her above two Leagues out at Sea he could not no more than she refrain tears at parting and notwithstanding of the advantage that he promised himself from the alliance of LOWIS the Twelfth yet he found that separation so grievous that he had sometimes a design to have renounced it Then did he repent that he had altogether preferred his own interests to the satisfaction of his dear Sister and he reproached himself rigorously with it as he comforted the unfortunate Suffolk who to compleat his afflictions had also the unprofitable grief of that Prince to listen to But though it was unprofitable and out of season yet it was sincere and he had remained long comfortless for the absence of Mary had he not by presaging the future grounded on his own wishes a strong hope of seeing her again shortly The Dutchess of Salisbury and Countess of Pembrock as being her Governesses passed the Sea with her with several other Ladies and Women for her service in France particularly her four Maids of honour Rene Winfield Susanna Dabenay Martha Sellinger and the young Ann of Wolen She was attended by a vast number of men but who were all again to return with the Dutchess of Salisbury and other Ladies after the Ceremonies of the marriage were over except the Duke of Suffolk the Marquess of Dorset and young Gray his Brother whose Presence the Queen had desired for six Months these last two that she might a little disguise the inclination that she had for the other They had a most favourable passage though it being about the end of October they could not have promised themselves so fair weather and that lovely Fleet having come to an Anchor before Boulogne with a salute from all the Guns of the City and Ships in the Harbour the Duke of Valois with the Dukes of Alencon and Bourbon the Counts of S. Poll and Guise and a great croud of Courtiers and Gentlemen in Magnificent pomp came to wait on her at her disembarking Next day the Duke of Valois in name of his Father-in-law espoused the Princess and the day following conducted her to Abbeville where the King in Person compleated the Ceremony and from thence passing by St. Dennis where she was Crowned the King arrived at Paris with the acclamations of all his People who spared nothing for the solemnization of his Nuptials and Return The Lists and Scaffolds for the Carrousel which he had appointed were already finished in the place Des Tournelles The structure and ornaments thereof represented the Conquest of the Milanois for the which he prepared himself under the Auspices of the Queen and the Cartels and Defies which in the name of the Defendants were two days after affixed to five Shields fastened on five Pillars which supported the triumphal Arch through which they entered the field received shortly after their answers in name of the Assailants It was free as it is always on such occasions to propose or
that adored her being unable to comfort her for the loss of a man who deserved so much to be loved did not sweeten the bitterness that was mingled with the affectionate compassion she had for him Suffolk on his part as much ashamed as afflicted at the disquiet which he occasioned to the Queen upbraided himself always with weakness for having followed her into France He wondered at himself how he could have remained there after her marriage and with indignation putting the question to himself every minute what it was that he could expect at her Court but dishonour by his Presence he would have willingly given his life for the reparation which he thought he owed her But whilst in this manner they afflicted each other without being able to speak together but by their eyes nor to complain but by some Billets which they entrusted to the faithful Kiffen their enemies not satisfied to hold them thus on the Rack thought to add terrour to it that they might oblige them to perform by fear what they perceived them not disposed to do by reason Besides the Duke of Longueville there were also the Seigneurs of Montmorency Chatillon and Chalbot who being jealous of the advantages that Suffolk had won at the Bariere from the bravest Champions of the Court conspired together to slander the Queen and him The Duke of Valois already prepossessed by some and incited by others could suspect none but him to have put that inscription on the Shield Azure which bore That the modest blush of the Roses of England was as inviolable as the Candour of the Lillies of France He perceived very well that that was a mysterious answer to what he had said to him and not daring to dispute that truth though he much doubted it he contented himself to write underneath That it belonged not to Defendants to maintain that and that none but the Conquerours of the Fortress deserved such honour In the mean while being checked by his own conscience he began to fear that the King might come to understand the reason why they disputed such a matter though the proposition being mingled with the interest of the Lillies seemed not to bear any private meaning in a Tournoy only designed to solemnize their Union with the Roses of England So that some of his Confidents having taken upon them to free him from his trouble bethought themselves of a stratagem which was that at the end of the Ball which was danced every evening after the Carrousel at the same time that the Queen did find on her Toylet a Paper containing these words If within three days the Duke of Suffolk depart not out of France he is a dead man Suffolk undressing himself found such another in his pocket but the same cause produced not in both of them the same effects for though the Queen terrified and ready to go and awaken the King who lay alone two nights before passed the night in mortal trances yet Suffolk exasperated to see matters driven to such an excess resolved before his departure to tell the Duke of Valois manfully that murtherers were not able to daunt him He was fully resolved on this when an English Monk brought him a Billet from the Queen wherein was inclosed that threatning Paper which she had received in the evening She adjured him to be upon his Guard and above all things to forbear the defence of the Forts and all other Combats But Suffolk unwilling to confirm her disquiet and suppressing the Billet which he had received to the same purpose made her answer in two words That it was a false allarm whereof he prayed her not to be affraid nor take any notice He was about a minutes time with the King to tell him the same and afterward continued his exercises in coursing and fighting that day as he was accustomed before and behaved himself no worse against Chatillon Bayard and Crequy than he had done the days before against Moüy Bonneval and several others In the mean time the disturbed Queen at what rate soever desired to speak with him The bad weather which had put a stop to the Tournoy seemed favourable enough for her design And the atacking of the Fort being by the King delayed for two days that the Defendants and Assailants might have no cause to alledg precipitation and haste if they failed in their duties invited her besides thereto as a time too precious to be lost and though all these reasons had been wanting yet the extremity of her own desire was one so prevalent that she could no longer resist it So that as she went to the Ball which was hastened because their other pleasures had ended too soon having met him again in the Kings Chamber who was not very well she bid him not dance so long as he was accustomed but that he should withdraw into a place which she showed him from whence the faithful Kiffen should guide him into a private Chamber where the young Ann of Bolen who for some days had been sick was lodged It was a nice enterprize what circumspection soever might be used and the Duke of Suffolk having imparted it to the Marquess of Dorset who of a Rival was become his intimate friend Dorset found it to be so Nevertheless they concluded together that the Queen who without doubt had given all necessary orders must not be refused and the rather that she had perhaps such important matters to speak of as she durst not commit to the uncertainty of a Billet So that notwithstanding of the reluctancy that Suffolk had against that Interview yet having taken his measures with the Marquess of Dorset who took upon him the charge of watching without he obeyed and the intrigueing Kiffen who stayed for him in the appointed place led him into the Chamber of Ann of Bolen without being observed by any Afterward the Queen wearied by so many shows but more by her own cares having left the company came to her appartment conducted by the Duke of Valois and Duke of Alencon She caused her head to be undressed before them as being very desirous of sleep which obliged them to withdraw and her Chamber-door being immediately shut Judith Kiffen who lay in her Wardrobe by a back-door dismissed the Maids that attended her Shortly after she went to bed more impatient than afraid to execute what she designed She kept her self close a-bed until an universal silence had assured her that all people had withdrawn and so soon as she heard no more noise she arose to go meet the Duke of Suffolk The passage was pretty long It behoved her first to enter a Closet pass a Gallery that adjoyned to a Chappel and from thence by an entry half ruined which heretofore served for a passage unto her appartment go to the private Chamber where the young Ann of Bolen was at that time attended only by one person in her sickness All things went at first as well as the Queen could desire She found Suffolk
and every Champion omitting nothing of the finest and most regular practices of War and as the Assailants made inconceivable efforts so the Defendants maintained it with so much vigour that the Queen who was always in fear for Suffolk representing to the King that Courage incited by emulation might sometimes be exasperated in a matter of pleasure and recreation he sent the Judges of the Field to put an end to the Combat by declaring that the Glory was equal on both sides The health of the Prince which was thought somewhat restored invited all the Gallants to begin some new feats afresh But seeing the Queen although she strove against her humour seemed not at all taken with such kind of Divertisements he was glad being desirous to oblige her more and more by resigning himself wholly to her pleasure to delay the proposed solemnities of rejoycing until the month of January This offered a reason to the Duke of Suffolk to speak to him of his departure and though that good King who loved to see him made some difficulty to let him go yet the matter went off exceeding well under the common pretext that every one took to withdraw from Court in a time when there was nothing to be done there He pretended some affairs that called him back into England He promised to be back before the Carnaval and two days after that his equipage was gone having taken his leave of the King and Duke of Valois to whom he thought it not convenient to express himself any more and having no occasion to take leave more particularly of the Queen he took horse accompanied with young Gray Brother to the Marquess of Dorset and six in train Not that he desired his company On the contrary it would have rejoyced him to have been alone and though he was abundantly satisfied that his fair Queen loved him with all her heart yet he looked upon himself but as a wretch who desired to be abandoned of all the world seeing he was forsaken by himself He never thought more of seeing Mary of Lancaster again He was already plodding into what Countrey remote from her he should go end the miserable remainder of his days and as the vehemency of his affliction prompted him to that design so the imperious idea of his secret extraction presenting it self to his imagination to encrease his pain began likewise to tempt him thereto All the little displeasures which he had effaced at the Court of England took place again in his memory He could not excuse himself for having carried the name of Brandon there so long when he had one so illustrious to bear The favours of HENRY the Eighth appeared to him but ignominious trifles In fine having no mind to return into England but that he might declare what he was and like a sick person who turns and tumbles every way to find a more easie posture which he meets with no-where giving way to I know not what piece of vanity that seemed to mitigate his grief because it was an effect thereof he imployed in thoughts as vain as ambitious that severe reprieve which he owed only to the Greatness of his misfortune O! Mary of England what kind of love is this that does in such a manner oppress your Empire over the Duke of Suffolk was never so great as when he durst think that you had none and the revolt of that lovely soul gave you greater proofs of its subjection than all the testimonies of love and respect which he had given you heretofore True it is also that that revolt lasted not long enough to be thought of any consequence Fortune that preserved to you so worthy a Conquest was upon the dawning to Crown its merit But as she never bestows any favours and chiefly such as may be called Soveraign and Supreme without the price of an extreme affliction which seems to compleat all her other crosses so she resolved to reduce the Duke of Suffolk to the utmost extremity before she put you in a condition of being his Having departed from Court in a disorder of mind that cannot be well expressed he continued by very easie journeys his way to Calais wherein a design of wandring over the world desiring to retain but two of his servants he was thinking with himself already of means to give young Gray the slip when at the Towns-end of Ardres entring into a little Cops which leads to Guines ten men well mounted broke forth upon him and his train At the first charge they gave his horse having received a Carbine-shot in the head after some bounds fell into a kind of Lake which the Winter-rains began to make on the side of the high-way and he was so engaged under his horse that that fall would have determined all his fortune if three other Gentlemen coming from Guines and joyning young Gray had not given Bokal his Valet de Chamber time to come to his assistance Seeing he was not at all hurt he got quickly out of the water and mounted another horse and despair or anger encreasing his natural strength though the match was then petty equal the engagement lasted not long Two of the most desperate who thought to overthrow him were themselves knocked down by the weight of his blows Young Gray and the three unknown Gentlemen whom fortune had guided into that place did as much to those that bore head against them and of the remaining four who bethought themselves only of flight one being fallen about a hundred paces off the faithful Bokal who suspected that the Duke of Longueville had suborned these Assassines against his Master thought best to make him Prisoner That wretch gave them sufficient information of the truth of the matter that they were some of the Emperours Reistres who came from their Garrison of Dunkerk as far as that Countrey to commit Pillage and Robberies Nevertheless the unjust supicion of Bokal produced very troublesom consequences for the Duke of Longueville who was in no way capable of a bad action It was the cause that he was very rigorously dealt with about the ransom which he owed still and as he thought to have payed it by the ransom of Peter de Navar taken Prisoner at the Battel of Ravenna which LOWIS the Twelfth had given him so these dispositions altering under the Reign of FRANCIS the First who received that Spaniard into his service the King of England pressed the Duke of Longueville the more that knowing him to be in a necessity of ransoming himself he would have him punished for that pretended Riot and for every thing else that he had done against the Duke of Suffolk But though this bad Rancounter had nothing extraordinary in appearance since it happens very frequently that Robbers set upon Passengers on the High-ways who are succoured by others yet in this their befel one of the oddest adventures that perhaps can be imagined when the Duke of Suffolk having discovered that the chief of the three that had
aided him was the Earl of Kildare that fierce enemy knowing him likewise told him That all his business in France was to sight him once more Without doubt no accident more surprising could have happened to either of them and as the one desperately mad with himself seemed by casting up his eyes to heaven to ask the stars what fatality had brought him to save the life of a man whom he only sought to kill so the other fixing his on the ground knew no more than he wherefore it was that he should be indebted to him In fine the Irish Earl complained and huffed as he was accustomed to do in any other occasion He demanded instantly satisfaction for the wounds he had received in Richmont Park and the disgrace he had fallen into after that unlucky duel and it was to no purpose for Suffolk who began to listen to him and excuse himself for all that had passed to protest that he would never fight against one that had defended his life for rage rendred Kildare either deaf or implacable So that the other to satisfie him drawing again the sword which he had just put up and throwing it into the wood approached thus disarmed to the point 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 fully 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 would marry her to the Duke of Suffolk whensoever she pleased that he feared no consequences of that marriage that he would be Guarrantee of it to all men and that he would take upon him to perswade the King her Brother to consent thereto To this proposition he added many marks of affection and dextrously insinuated how much it had cost him before he could bring himself to that resolution so that the fair Queen perceiving him in appearance exceedingly moved and suffering him to speak all that he pleased by gestures and looks affected several times not to be altogether insensible But having done so and judging that he thought her sufficiently touched she rose from the chair and looking on him with an air which might at first falsifie all the applause that she had given to his discourse she answered That he had never well known her and that he knew her not as yet That in France she was taken for a strange person but that the French themselves were a strange-humoured people and that she well perceived that amongst them a young Queen who would be thought virtuous and discreet though she were naturally affable and courteous must not show her self to be so That as to the Duke of Suffolk she saw very well that it was known that she had an esteem for so worthy a Gentleman and that she was willing he should be so far in her secrets as to tell him somewhat more particular that she had sometimes wished he had been born a King But that that being but a vain wish Suffolk must be satisfied with her esteem and for the rest that there were Soverains that demanded her and Kings who having demanded her from her Child-hood might still demand her This brisk answer not being understood did the more vex the King that he thought he had found a sure way to render the Queen pliable Yet for all that he gave not over He believed her to have been surprised or that she made it strange to be free with him and from time to time renewing the discourse of the marriage with the Duke of Suffolk though it was uneasie to him to speak good of a Rival yet as at that time he showed himself a most passionate Lover so he had at least the advantage of a favourable hearing In the mean while he got no ground upon her and the affairs of the Queen being now concluded she made it her business to prepare for her return into England Then was the time that the Love of FRANCIS the First which before was always but a gentle heat in his heart became a furious passion Many hours he restlesly spent a thousand violent thoughts he hatched and if he had not had as tractable and pliable a mind as he had a high and generous Courage probably he had run upon strange extremities But at length he took counsel of the wise in whom he confided and his love and despair changeing into pure Gallantry all his intentions were to give signal proofs of the command he had over himself But all the advances that he had already made in that laudable design and all the pomp and magnificence wherewith he had ordered the lovely Queen whom he was so loth to quit to be conducted out of his Territories were nothing so obliging to her nor so great for himself as the Letter which after the signing of all the Treaties that had been concluded by the Ministers on either side he wrote with his own hand to the King of England to this effect That there being few Kings who in personal worth excelled the Duke of Suffolk he ought to bestow on him so much of the Grandure of his Kingdom as might put him in a capacity to marry the Queen his Sister That if there were nothing on his part that might hinder such a lovely union for his own part he freely consented to it and that having besides proposed to the Arch-Duke the marriage of the Count of Nassaw with the Princess of Orange he should much rejoyce to hear that the two Ambassadours who had procured him the friendship of his illustrious neighbours had received in recompense the one the most beautiful Queen in the world and the other the richest Princess of the Low-Countries Thus did FRANCIS the First Crown his Love by a truely heroical action whereof another King slighted in his Love as he was would hardly have been capable It was the first action but not the least laudable of his Reign though that might afford matter for a continued Elogy There is nothing so great as for a man to conquer his own passions There are few that desire much less atchieve it And Kings especially when they are amorous and young are not accustomed to put their virtue to such a tryal The Queen found her self infinitely obliged to the sincere procedure which followed so generous an effort but durst not profess so much for fear of exposing her self to new troubles She thought it enough to correspond with it by all the civilities which might evidence her acknowledgment without reviving smothered flames and that Conduct of the most charming Princess of the world gaining intirely the esteem of a King who craved no more from her but friendship so fully re-placed her in the respect of all the Court notwithstanding of envy and detraction that there was not so much as one that belonged to it who seemed not troubled at her approaching departure The less polished Gallants lamented it and the others having understood the merit of the Duke of Suffolk during the time of his Embassie were almost all of opinion following the example of the King that the Queen had reason to love him All the discourse therefore at Court of their mutual affection was with respect and
even with some kind of admiration and in fine every one conforming their Sentiments to theirs their true joy became the greater by approbation The lovely Queen was conducted by all the Court as far as Compiegne from whence the King still transported with Love resolved in person to convey her to Boulogne where he had first received her The Duke of Suffolk who kept purposely by the Queens Consort all the way from Paris to Compiegne where she lived that he might give the King the greater liberty did the same from Compiegne till they arrived at Boulogne and was always in company with the Dukes of Alencon and Bourbon from whom he received all sorts of civility The Duke of Longueville frustrated of his idle thoughts and reflecting on the ransom which he owed in England used all his endeavours but in vain to procure his protection The Queen had often declared against him and Suffolk durst promise nothing without her Approbation Though there be great antipathy betwixt the two Nations yet in all appearance their Adieus were friendly and that of FRANCIS the First to the Queen was so tender and passionate that she could not forbear to condole the affliction that he lamented That unseasonable and fruitless sensibleness rendred him somewhat more afflicted than he was He regrated the loss of her the more that judging of her heart by some Sentiments which on that last occasion she scrupled not to discover to him he found her more and more worthy to be beloved But at length they must part and the grief that thereupon he conceived so deeply affected him that it would have lasted much longer than it did if he had not soon after met with great affairs that first suspended and by degrees removed it at length In the mean time the fair Queen arrived in England after a passage as fortunate as carried her from thence and the King her Brother received her at London with a countenance full of the kindness that he had always had for her resolving immediately to compleat Suffolks bliss but finding that the decorum of the Widow-hood of a Queen of France would not for some time allow it that he might of a sudden cut off that and all other difficulties which might be raised by his subjects he caused them to be privately married reserving the publication thereof until he thought it time to celebrate the Solemnity They were married by the old Cardinal of York and few were present there being none on the part of the Duke of Suffolk but the Marquess of Dorset and Earl of Kildare It would be now time to speak of their great and mutual satisfaction were it not very easie to be conceived that the possession of a desired happiness is so much the more pleasant that it hath cost dear in the purchase Never was Queen so satisfied to strip her self of Royalty nor man so pleased with a Queen To conclude they deserved as they enjoyed a Soveraign felicity on earth They were from their infancy the sole delight of one another They loved to the utmost extent of love and their humours and inclinations suited so perfectly in all things that notwithstanding the difference of their fortunes their souls had all the Qualities that might contract an indissoluble Union And therefore have they deserved the glorious name of true Lovers and in my judgment there are but few that can aspire to the Honour of such a Character FINIS Postscript THE design that I proposed to my self in Writing of the English Princess and Duke of Suffolk suffers me not to proceed any farther Yet if any desire to know the rest of their Lives I shall endeavour to satisfie them About the time that they were married HENRY the Eighth giving way to the bad counsels of Bishop Woolsey the most part of the Grandees of England conspired against that Minister The Duke of Suffolk was one of the first and Woolsey declared against him with the greater heat that looking on him as the most considerable of his Enemies he found occasion to charge him with the restitution of certain sums of money that had been furnished him out of the Treasury for his Embassy in France It was a Largess of the Kings but that Minister who then had all the power in his hands alledged it was but lent Insomuch that the young Queen Dowager having offered for Suffolk a part of her Jewels whereof Woolsey immediately made use to procure a Cardinalship their marriage came thereby to be declared in an unseasonable time which obliged them both to retire into the Countrey to the shame of the Soveraign that suffered it without taking notice thereof There for the space of three years they led a most happy life notwithstanding the little rubs which sometimes they met with from Court and with regret they lest their solitude when the King of England recalled them to accompany him at that famous Interview which he had with the King of France betwixt Ardres and Guines in the year One thousand five hundred and twenty The King of France had a great desire once more to see the lovely Queen with whom he had been so much in love and the King of England who in the inconstancy of mind wherewith he is charged repented that he had consented to her retirement omitted not that occasion to put an end to it Vpon this return they began at London to call her the Dutchess-Queen in opposition to the French who at Ardres and Guines called her always the Queen-Dutchess The King of France seeing her at that time in a Beauty to which nothing could be added though she had already had two Children felt his old flames revive again The action which one morning he did when he went almost alone to visit the King of England and which some Historians have taxed with imprudence was an effect of his love His design was not to see the Brother the Sister was his object though he had no ground to promise himself success and though he had not so much as any intelligence about her But so soon as he was known the Seigneur de Chalbot and another that waited on him advised him to come off as well as he could which he did and the matter past for a frolick of FRANCIS the First who intended to give the King of England a clean shirt and the King of England himself was thereby so deceived that two days after without any other design he rendred him the like frolick If I had continued the History so far it would have been pleasant to have enlarged upon that adventure and upon all the Gallantries that then passed between the two Nations where by prodigious expences they displayed all their Glories The King of France for love of the fair Queen made at that time the Duke of Suffolk a Knight of his Order and that illustrious Husband was so far from taking that for a subject of jealousie that being so well perswaded of the virtue of his Wife