Liberty of their Prince and Lawful Governour and against those who did aspire not to the Regency onely but to the Crown and Kingdom it self by a long train of policies and violent Cruelties But this War was rather sharp than long which besides the slaughter of eight thousand men in one battel at Dreux besides great bloodshed and mischief in many other places was in short time the destruction of two of the principal Authors of it Navarre and * He was shot returning from the Camp to his Quarters by Poltret who being taken upon his examination said he was imployed by Colinius and exhorted to it by Beza but being brought to the rack he utterly denyed it and concerning Beza persevered in his denyal to the last but concerning Colinius being brought to execution and with the terrour of his approaching execution being besides himself he one while affirmed and another while denyed it Colinius and Beza calling God to witness utterly denyed it and Colinius wrote to the Queen that before his execution the business might be further examined but he was in few days after executed Thuanus lib. 34. But was it really so Who employed and exhorted Parry not against a Commander of an Army but against his Prince who Lopez who so many more against Queen Elizabâ—th who James Clement to murther Henry the third of France who Jo. Chastel to murther Henry the fourth To mention no more Guise being both slain and the Constable the only surviving Triumvir being taken Prisoner thereupon an Accomodation followed without difficulty upon these Conditions among others That all free Lords not holding of any but the Crown might within their Jurisdictions freely exercise the Reformed Religion that the other Feudataries might do the same in their own houses for their own families provided they lived not in †So Davila but Thuanus lib. 35. modo ne in pagis aut municipiis habitent quae majori jurisdictioni regia excepta subsunt any City or Town where the Courts resided That in every Province certain Cities should be appointed in the Fauxburg whereof the Protestants might Assemble at their Devotion That in all other Cities and Towns every one should live free in his Conscience without trouble or molestation That all should have full Pardon for all Delinquences committed during or by occasion of the War declaring all to be done to a good end without any offence to the Royal Majesty and all be restored to their places c. And these and the rest were ratified in Counsel by an Edict of Pacification under the Kings own hand and Seal verified in Parliament and Proclaimed by sound of Trumpet in March 1562 3. which had they been honestly and justly observed might by Gods blessing have been a means of much peace and happiness to that Kingdom but we find the contrary as to the Observance and therefore no wonder if the contrary also to so hopeful and happy consequence and issue of it For no sooner was this War concluded upon this Edict of Pacification ratified with all the formalities and solemnities used for the establishing and confirming of Laws in France but the Edict began presently to be violated the Protestants in divers places bâ—th disturbed in their Religious Assemblies which this and other Laws allowed them to hold and injured in their Civil Rights and in divers manners frequently and grievously oppressed and that not onely by concourses and assaults of the vulgar and Rabble who having no pretence of Authority were many times with like force repulsed by the others Thu. l. 35 36 37 39. but even by the Presidents of the Provinces and other Magistrates whose duty it was to have seen the Laws justly observed but did the quite contrary and that not only by connivance at the exorbitances of the vulgar but also by their own actual iniquity Thu. l. 37. and that no part or kind of injustice might be wanting both by force and violence and also by fraud by breach of faith by subornation of witnesses Thu. l. 39. by false calumniations By which means and such like arts together with the mediation of their potent friends at Court the passionate young King being before prejudiced by the Arts of the Guisian faction especially the Cardinal of Lorain and further incensed by the Legate of Spain the Pope and Savoy who notwithstanding the late Edict urged him to banish and otherwise punish the Protestants and revoke the Liberty granted by it to them they easily obtained that the Complaints of the Protestants which were dayly brought to the King were anteverted and either totally rejected or cluded and the persons employed to exhibit the same ordinarily so discountenanced and discouraged that they were forced to return without any effect if not imprisoned and for the greatest violences and enormities even murther it self by which as some write not so few as three thousand had perished since the Edict of pacification could obtain no remedy or redress And of all this many plain and notable examples and proofs might be produced out of our Noble Excellent Historian Lib. 35 36 37 39. were it not too long to do it We might instance in that notable practice of the Bishop of Pamiers which gave the first occasion of that very tumult which that smooth Italian Davila mentions and while he exaggerates the actions of the Protestants in it with no little partiality conceals the first and true occasion of it but perhaps being a Courtier he relates it and other such passages as they were then by the Artifices and means above mentioned represented at the Court Nor was the Royal Authority abus'd to concur in this Iniquity and Injustice only by connivence and permission of these things thus done by the Kings Ministers and Officers in fraud and violation of the Agreement of Peace and the Edict made in Confirmation of it but also to give further occasion and countenance to it by divers fraudulent and elusory Interpretations of the Edict By which means whiles it seems it was thought too gross plainly and directly to revoke it they did notwithstanding indirectly elude its effect and the benefit expected by it in such sort that had the Protestants been of those pernitious principles that their adversaries indeed were and endeavoured to represent them to be the most subtile and malitious enemies of that Kingdom could not have devised and promoted a more effectual means and method of its confusion and ruine And the truth is this was it which the principal Authors and Fomenters of those courses the Guises at home and the Spaniards abroad aimed at and by these means in conclusion to make themselves Master of it Which though at that time not so visible to every one yet was afterwards very apparent The Pope also because France stood too much upon their Liberties and Priviledges being a well wisher to their designs especially of Guise though not so much of Spain as not desiring so potent a Neighbour But
also slain Antonius Claromonlius Marquess of Revel Brother by the Mother to Prince Porcian who had a contest with Ludovicus Claromonlius Bussius of Ambois concerning the Marquesat of Revel came to Paris in the company of Navar hoping there to put an end to his troublesome controversy But the matter had a quite other end than he expected for when in that tumult he fled into the house that was next to his at length he fell into the hands of his Cousin-German pursuing him who being his enemy upon no other account but the matter in controversy cruelly slew him But not long after the controversy being brought to an hearing sentence was given for Bussius but with no more happy success for by virtue of an Edict afterwards made in favour of the Protestants the sentence was repealed and Ludovicus himself was for a far different cause with the same cruelty beheaded Antonius Marafinus Guerchius a stout man who the day before had asked Coligny that he might lodge in his house when being in distress he had not time to hide himself taking his Cloak upon his arm and drawing his sword he for a long time defended himself against the Assasines yet he slew none of them being all in Coats of Male but at last was overpowred by the multitude The same calamity involved Baudineus the Brother of Acierius Pluvialius Bernius being cruelly slain by the King's Souldiers as also Carolus Quellevetus Pontius President of Armorica who had married Katharina Parthenaea daughter and heir of John Subizius but the Mother of Parthenaea complaining of the frigidity of her son-in-law a Suit had been commenced to dissolve the Marriage but was not yet determined Therefore when the bodies of the slain were thrown down as they were slain before the Palace and in the sight of the King and Queen and all the Court retinue many Court-Ladies not being affrighted at the horridness of such a spectacle did with curious eyes shamefully behold the naked bodies and especially fixing their eyes on Pontius did examine if they could by any means discover the signs of his frigidity Carolus Bellomanerius Lavardinus the Kinsman of Pontius and somâ—time Tutor to the King of Navar in his childhood felâ— into the hands of Petrus Lupus President of the Court a good man who when he would have saved him and was commanded by the Emissaries of the Court to dispatch his prisoner he as he was a man of a ready and pleasant wit asked so much time as till he could raise his passion by which speech he for some time eluded their cruelty but by and by a Messenger coming from the Palace as from the King he was forced to deliver him into the hands of the Guard who were to carry him before the King but they in the way first stabbed Lavardinus with daggers and then threw him over the Mill bridge into the River The same fortune and in the same place ran Claudius Gaudimelus an excellent Musitian in our Age who set the Psalms of David as they were put into verse in the Mother-tongue by Clemens Marot and Theodoret Beza to divers pleasant tunes as they are now sung in the publick and private meetings of the Protestants Briolius a Gentleman who was Tutor to Marquess Conte in his childhood venerable for his grey-head being now an old man was likewise slain in the embraces of his Pupil who stretched forth his arms and opposed his own body to the blows Truly lamentable was the spectacle of Franciscus Nompar Caumonlius who had lodged in that neighbourhood but which fortune sporting after her manner mingled with an event of unexpected joyfulness he with his two sons whom he loved with a paternal affection being taken in bed by the murderers who prosecuted him with his children not through an hatred of his Religion but through hope of gain was slain with one of his sons the other being all bloudy with the bloud that flowed upon him saving himself from their blows as he could at that tender age for he was hardly twelve years old by the interposition of the dead bodies dissembling himself dead he was at last left by them for dead a little after more ran flocking to the house for prey of whom some commended the fact as well done for not only wild beasts but their whelps are altogether to be destroyed others that had more humanity said this might be lawful to be done upon the Father as guilty but the innocent off spring which perhaps would never take the same courses ought to be spared Among those that came toward the evening of that day when as one did highly detest the fact and said God would be the avenger of such impiety the boy stretching his limbs and a little lifting up his head gave signs that he was alive and when he asked him who he was he answered not unadvisedly that he was the Son and Brother of the slain not telling his name concerning which when he was asked again he answered that he would tell his name if he would lead him where he desired and withal asked him that he would take care to conduct him to the King's Armory for he was near of kin to Biron Master of the Ordnance or Artillery nor should he lose his reward for so great a benefit which thing he carefully performed This James Nompar that is his name with great gratitude rewarded the man brought to him by the Divine Providence and afterwards married the Daughter of Biron and is now chief of a Noble Family in Aquitania Godfry Caumont his Unckle being dead and leaving only one Daughter Being raised by the King to great honours of which he carried himself worthy as Colonel of the King's Life-guard and Governour of Bearne he seems to be preserved from that danger by the singular Grace of God that he might by his numerous off spring which he had by his Wife propagate that Family that was reduced to a few and by his virtue add the highest ornament to the honours of his Ancestors The same day were slain these Protestants of great note Loverius thrown out of a window into the high-way Montamarius Montalbertus Roboreus Joachinus Vassorius Cunerius Rupius Cobombarius Velavaurius Gervasius Barberius Francurius Chancellor to the King of Navar Hieronimus Grolotius Governour of Aurleance and Calistus his base Brother who were both inhumanely dragged about the streets and at last cast into the River by the instigation of those who gaped after his office and goods Stephanus Cevalerius Pruneus the King's Treasurer in Poictou a man of great integrity and one that was very solicitous for the good of the Common-weal who had been the principal mover for the building the Stone-bridge of Vienne laid at Eraldi-castrum was by certain cut-throats sent by Stephanus Fergo Petauderius who sought after his Treasurer-ship after the payment of a great sum of mony cruelly murdered and thrown into the River and Patanderius is by the commendation of Monpenserius whose affairs he managed put into
much urged by the Pope and the King of Spain he sell off from his constancy and without the determination or instruction of any lawful General or National Council changed his Religion and at last also submitted himself to the Pope The report of this being brought to Queen Elizabeth who had been very liberal in her assistance to him upon the score of Religion Camden an◠1593. and was very solicitous for him she presently dispatched Th. Wilkes to know the truth of it and if not already done earnestly with reasons which she sent in writing to disswade him from it To whom the King excused himself from the necessity of his condition which he also did by Morlantius to the Queen her self with great offers of amity and kindness calling her his Sister as is usual whereat being much grieved and troubled she presently took her pen and wrote the ensuing Letter in what Language I know not but thus in English out of the Latine in Camden Alas how great grief what a floud of sorrow what sighs did I feel in my mind from those things which Morlantius hath told me O the faith of men is this the World Could it be that any earthly thing could drive the fear of God from you Can we expect an happy issue of this deed Or can you think that he who with his right hand had hitherto sustained and preserved you was now about to leave you It is a thing very dangerous to do evil that good may come of it Yet the good Spirit as I hope will inspire a better mind into you In the mean time I will not cease in the first place of my Prayers to commend you to the Divine Majesty and to beseech him that the hands of Esau may not spoil the blessing of Jacob. That you solemnly offer me your Amity I know that I have indeed well deserved it nor truly would it repent me had you not changed your * * This hath respect to his submission to the Pope and to some passages wherein he called her Sister or himself her Brother Father Certainly now can I not from thence be your Sister by the Father However I for my part will always more dearly love my own than our adseititious Father which God best knows whom I beseech reduce you to the right path of a more sound judgment Your Sister if it may be after the old mode With the new will I have nothing to do ELIZABETHA R. 56. Thus this good Queen but the King who had before loosened the ties of Conscience for the saving of his life and began now to break through the same for the satisfaction of his lust and the enjoyment of a †Gabrielle d'Estrees v. Perefix p. 194. woman it is no wonder if he did the same for the enjoyment of a Kingdom which perhaps he might have better secured otherwise and his life with it It is true he never went so far as to persecute the Protestants as his Predecessors in the Kingdom of France did and his Father began to do and perhaps had proceeded further had he escaped that fatal wound but while he took liberty to himself to change that profession gave them the liberty to retain and enjoy it and under better conditions than ever they enjoyed or were granted them before which was a principal cause which made his Reign so much more prosperous and happy than theirs Yet as in those two particulars for his lust and for his Kingdom he did forsake his Conscience and Religion so did God at last after several fair warnings forsake and leave him to the * V. Perefix p. 400 461 462. ruine of his health by the satisfaction of his lusts the disappointment of his counsels by the treachery of the Jesuits and the loss of his life by the hand of a zealot of that Religion which he had chosen whereas this blessed Queen who gave him this pious admonition and her self continued faithful to her God and constant in her pious resolutions to the last was to the last blessed and preserved notwithstanding all the Plots and Conspiracies Rebellions and Invasions and attempts of her enemies the Romanists against her By this act of his he broke indeed the faction of the Leaguers and so more easily quieted his possession of the Kingdom yet had he soon an occasion to immind him how uncertain and short his enjoyment of it was like to be unless still preserved in the midst of Peace by the same Providence by which he had been hitherto preserved in his Wars and advanced to it through so many dangers and difficulties Thu. l. 107. For within a month after his conversion to the Romish profession was apprehended an assasin Peter Barrier who from place to place had followed him to kill him This fellow had confered about it with a Carmelite and a Capuchin who both encouraged him to it and when he made some scruple by reason the King was turned Catholick as he said he was confirmed in it by Chr. Aubre Curate of St. Andrea who for his further confirmation led him to Varade Rector of the Jesuites Colledge who eased him of all scruples and further animated him to perform the undertaking and when he had been confessed and received the Sacrament in their Colledge dismissed him to that purpose Having provided him a knife for the purpose it was not long before he had an opportunity to have done it but was strangely restrained being pulled back as it were with cords tied about his heart as he afterward confessed The like opportunities he often had at other places whither he followed the King for that purpose but was by some little accident or other still prevented or had not the power to do it though otherwise a fearless man At last being discovered and apprehended and brought to his trial he confidently confessed the whole matter railing upon the Sectaries and his Judges Before his execution he was ordered to be racked to make him confess his complices but in the mean time it was thought fit to send some to him to admonish him of his error whereof he was so throughly convinced by Oliver Barengarius a Dominican who had all along been of the King's party that acknowledging his error he reckoned himself happy that he was prevented from committing so great a wickedness as he intended though by his own most miserable death detesting his purpose and those who had perswaded him to it and told him that if he died in the enterprize his soul should immediately be received by Angels into Heaven there to enjoy an eternal happiness with God and admonished him that if he should happen to be taken and tortured he should not name any of them who had perswaded him to it for then he must know he should incur the pains of eternal damnation and before his execution he gave notice of two Priests who at Lions had undertaken to kill the King and for the greater caution described their
the fact on the Puritans Fuller v. Foulis p. 690. did nothing less at first than profess themselves the Authors of the Fact or make any mention of Religion to the People but purposed to hold that in suspense for some time and by a Proclamation published in the Queens name to redress great grievances for the present and feed them with hopes of more for the future till the Faction growing strong either by favour or severity of new Edicts they might draw the People to their Parts and Obedience and the odiousness of their fact so by degrees discovering it self would in time and together with their good success grow off Nor came it in so long time into the minds of any of them how many Innocents all about them how many Infants how many that agreed with them in Religion how many who perhaps had deserved well of them that vast ruine would over-whelm Now all things are ready and the last Scene was going to be Acted when as by the unsearchable Judgment of God one who desired to save another brought destruction both to himself and his Associates There were ten dayes to the Parliament when upon Saturday in the Evening a Letter was brought as from a Friend to the Lord Monteagle but by whom written is uncertain and by whom brought unknown By it he was warned to forbear meeting at the Parliament for the two first dayes of the Session forasmuch as some great and sudden and unsuspected mischief did threaten that Meeting The hand of him that wrote it was unknown and the writing it self purposely so ordered that it could hardly be read No date to the Letter no subscription no inscription put to it and the whole composure of words ambiguous The Lord Monteagle was doubtful what he should do therefore late in the night he goeth to Robert Cecil Earl of Salisbury and chief Secretary to the King and giving him the Letter freely declared to him how he came by it and how little he valued it Cecil did not make much more account of it and yet thought it was not altogether to be neglected and Therefore shewed it to the chief Councellors Charles Howard Chief Admiral of the Seas the Earl of Nottingham to the Earls of Worcester and Northampton The thing being considered of amongst them although at first sight the Letter seemed of no great moment yet they thought that not the slightest discovery ought to be despised especially where the safety of the King was endangered nor such great care to be blamed in them to whom the preservation of His Majesty did both by Office and Duty belong The King was then gone to Royston to Hunt It seemed good to them to determine nothing before they had consulted the King For they said that they had oftentimes experienced the quick apprehension and happy conjecture of the King in unriddleing things that were liable to greatest doubtfulness Upon the Calends of November 1 Nov. the King returned to the City and forth with Cecil taking him aside unfolds the matter and shews him the Letter which it seems worth while to insert here for the perpetual remembrance of it forasmuch as not without cause it afforded such matter of dispute between him and his Councellors The love which I bear to some of your Friends makes me careful for your safety Wherefore I advise you as you love your life that you would invent some excuse for your absence from the Parliament For God and Men as it were by agreement do hasten to punish the wickedness of this Age. Do not make light of this warning but depart as soon as you can into your own Countrey where you may securely expect the event For although no signs of troubles do appear yet I admonish you that that meeting shall receive a terrible blow and shall not see who smiteth them Do not despise this discovery it may be profitable to you it cannot hurt you For the danger is over as soon as you have burnt this Letter I hope by the grace of God you will make good use of this Counsell to whose protection I commend you The King having read the Letter though through the generousness of his mind he was no way prone to suspicion did conjecture that some strange thing did lye hid under it and that the notice given was by no means to be neglected On the other side Cecil said it was certainly written by some Mad man For no man well in his wits would speak at this rate of a danger which he doth admonish so much to beware of The danger is over as soon as you shall burn the Letter How small a danger could that be which should vanish in so short a moment On the other side the King in whose breast the first suspition had now â—aken deep root urged the foregoing words That assembly shall receive a terrible blow and shall not see who smiteth them And whiles walking in the Gallery he deeply thought of these things from one particular to another it came into his mind that a sudden blow by Gun-powder was intended by those words For what more sudden then a blow by Gun-powder Thus the King and Salisbury so broke off their discourse that the King did strongly persevere in his conjecture Salisbury to free the Kings mind from fears and cares seemed in his presence to make light of this notice given but in the mean time admiring within himself the Kings uncouth and unusual interpretation and so presently suspecting it did conclude that it was not lightly to be regarded The next day the thing being again considered of by the King and His Counsellors it seemed good that the Palace with the places near adjoyning should be diligently searched and that business was assigned to the Lord Chamberlain who upon the Monday which preceded the Parliament about the Evening that he might give no occasion of Rumours goes with the Lord Monteagle to those places entring into the house that Percy had hired they found a great heap of Billets and Fagots and Coal in a Vault under ground Wardrobe and Wineard the Keeper of the Kings houses being there present he was asked for what use they were brought in thither they understood that the house was hired by Percy and that heap was brought in by him Moreover the Chamberlain spying Fawks standing in a corner of the Cellar asked who he was and what business he had there Who answered that he was the Domestick Servant of Percy and the Keeper of that house in Percy 's absence Having thus done they return to the Court reporting what they had seen and conjecturing worse things then formerly they had done For it came into Monteagles mind upon the mention of Percy that he was highly addicted to the Popish Religion that they had formerly been acquainted and lived as Friends and it might be that he was the Author of that Letter which gave ground to all this suspition The Lord Chamberlain among other suspicious matters