County of Melun that has been united to the Government of the Isle of France and Pagus Wastinensis or Gastinois properly so call'd that still depends on the Government of Orleanois Gastinois is a Franco-German name deriv'd from the Teutonish WASTE that is yet in use in English for we call Commons Heaths wild and desart Places Wastes and the French having no W do ordinarily change it into G as Guerre for War Thence it comes that they call so other Wildernesses as le Pais de la Gastiâ—e in Berry St. Laurent en Gastine a Village in Vendomois c. The Election of Dourdan is accounted by some in Hurepoix and by others in Gastinois It lies on the borders of the Isle of France in which some place it but it resorts to the Generality of Orleans confining the Election of that City on the South that of Pithiviers on the South-East the Isle of France on the North and North-East and the Country of Chartres on the West Dourdan Dordingum was the Patrimony of Hugh Capet belonging to his Grand-Father Hugh the great Duke of France Count of Paris c. who died here in 956. And therefore it was not separated from the Crown till the time of the French King Henry II. who pawn'd it to the Duke of Guise In 1596. it was sold to a Switzer Gentleman Imbert of Dutsbach a Native of Berne Then it was acquir'd by the House of Rosny and redeemed by Lewis XIII in 1610. Dourdan lies upon the River Orge fifteen Leagues North North-East of Orleans It was formerly a pretty good Town but has been almost ruin'd during the Civil Waâ—s under pretence of Religion in 1562 and 1567. Estampes Stampae seated on the River Juine Junna near its mixing with the Loe which takes afterwaâ—ds the name of Essonne from a Village it goes by and discharges it self into the Seine was formerly a considerable Town for it had a Royal Palace under the Reign of Robert King of France The Protestants took this Town by Scalado in 1567 and the Castle by composition This Castle founded by the said King Robert was since ruin'd in 1652 during the civil War of the Princes tho' their Army had the worst in a Battel fought near it Estampes has an Election resorting to the Generality of Paris yet is reck'ned in Beauce and part of the Government Orleanois It lies three Leagues South-East of Dourdan and thirteen North East of Orleans It was antiently a Viscounty and of the Demesne of the French Crown Charles IV. erected it into a County and Peerdom in 1327 for Charles of Evreux his Cousin Then having been re-united to the Crown Charles VII gave it to Richard Duke of Britany and Lewis XII to John of Foix in 1478. Francis I. rais'd it to a Dutchy in 1536 on behalf of Ann of Pisseleu one of his Mistresses whom he Marry'd to John of la Brosse and Henry IV. to his Natural Son Caesar Duke of Vendome There are other places of some note in the Election of Dâ—urdan as Rochefort on the borders of the Isle of France towards the North which has given name to Gui and William of Rochefort Chancellors of France under Lewis XI and Charles VIII St. Arnoul Monnerville c. Montargis Mons Argisus seems to have been built by Angegisus Archbishop of Sens and Vicar of the Roman See throughout Germany and France in 876. for Argisus may be derived from Angegisus by a Syncop and the change of N into R very familiar to the French as they have made Pampre from Pampinus Diacre from Diaconus c. In 1418. the Count of Warwick block'd up this Town seated upon the Loing fifteen Leagues North-East of Orleans but the Count of Dunois coming to its Relief forc'd the Trenches of the Besiegers and kill'd fifteen hundred of them In 1528. Montargis was burnt and since rebuilt and given by Francis I. to the Lady Renee Lewis XII's Daughter in part of her Portion together with the Dutchy of Chartres Montargis has an Election resorting to the Generality of Orleans For the Spiritual it depends on the Archbishop of Sens and for the Temporal on the Presidial of Orleans if we believe Du Chesne for Morery places a Bailywick and Provostship in it The Canal of Briare that joins the Seine and the Loire by means of the Loing was begun here by Henry IV. and is of twelve Leagues extent There has been since digg'd another from Montargis to Orleans of eighteen Leagues in length making together with the Loire an irregular Polygone Chastillon sur-Loing Castellio ad Lupam is a place of some consideration and antiquity It lies upon the River Loing and the Canal of Briare nine Miles South of Montargis and five South-West of Chateau-renard upon the Ouane In 1569 both these places were taken from the Admiral of Coligny to whom they belong'd Lorris Lauriacum and Lorriacum is the head of a small Country near the Forest of Orleans call'd Pagus Lauriacensis le pais de Lorris It 's known how the Goths Franks Vandals and other Noâ—thern Nations brought into the West and Southern Parts of Europe the custom of deciding their Quarrels by Duels or single Fights and that the Magistrates not being able to oveâ—rule entirely this inclination were foâ—c'd to turn it into a Law ordering that none should fight but before the Provost or an appointed Judge and in these publick and lawful Duels the vanquish'd lost his Suit as well as the Day and was forc'd to make reparation to the Victorious either in Mony or otherwise But there was a custom in the Country of Lorris which obtain'd throughout all Gastinois That if two Men came rashly to challenge one another and then to agree with the consent of the Provost they were fin'd 2 s. 6 d. but if they fought the Bayl 's of the Vanquish'd were fined 112 Shillings And therefore 't is still said in common Proverb of a man too severely dealt with by the Judges Qu'il est des gens de Lorris ou le battu paye l'amende That He is a Lorris man beaten and fin'd Lorris is ten Leagues distant from Orleans to the West and six from Montargis to the South-East In the XIII Century under the Reign of Lewis IX it gave name to a famous Poet and Lawyer William of Lorris who began the Romance of la Roze highly esteem'd in those days The other Towns or consideâ—able Burroughs depending on the Election of Montargis are Ferrieres Beaune Boiscommun Choisi-Bellegarde and Noyan Gien Giemum or Gemiacum thirteen Leagues South-East of Orleans and fourteen West of Auxerre on whose Bishop it depends for the Spiritual It 's a pretty good Town seated on the River Loire with an Election and the Title of a County for it has had time out of mind it 's own Lords till Mathilda or Maud Countess of Nevers and Tonnerre yielded it to the French King Philip August Since it 's fall'n again into the hands of particular Lords and
into Foreign Countries The French Monarchy strove many Ages before it came to that high Point of Grandeur to which it has attained of late The Weakness of Charlemaign's Successors and the Incursions of the Normans had reduced it to so narrow Limits that the French King was hardly Sovereign in Paris The Governors of the several Counties and Provinces taking hold of the occasion made their Charges Hereditary and soon after render'd themselves Lords of the Countries they Govern'd So that France at that time was rather an Aristocracy or a Confederacy of several Petty-Princes under the French King their Head as Germany now is under the Emperor then a Monarchy properly so call'd But the Victories which Charles VII got over the English in the Fifteenth Age during the Wars of the Houses of York and Lancaster gave him means to Unite to his Crown the large Provinces of Guyenne and Normandy together with Poictou le Maine and Tourain Lewis XI his Son and Successor after the Death of Charles the Râ—sh last Duke of Burgundy in 1477 usurp'd upon his Sole Heiress Mary Spouse of Maximilian of Austria the Dutchy of Burgundy and some part of Picardy Charles VIII and Lewis XII by their Marriage with Ann Daughter to Francis II. late Duke of Britany United that Dutchy to their Crown Anno 1514 Then it was that France began to look as a mighty Kingdom So that Francis I. King of France was a sit Match even for Charles V. Emperor and King of Spain Naples and Sicily Duke of Milan and Lord of all the Low Countries The extent of the French Kings Jurisdiction was yet increas'd by the Accession of Bearn or Lower Navarre of which Henry IV. was in Possession when he came to that Crown And by his Acquisition of the Province of Bresse with the Lands of Bugey Valromey and the Bailwick of Gex which he Exchanged with Charles Emanuel Duke of Savoy for some Pretensions on the Marquisate of Salusses in 1601. Lewis XIII his Son Divested the Duke of Lorrain of his Dutchy the Emperor and the King of Spain of a good part of Elzas and the Netherlands and this present King has not only Conquer'd the County of Burgundy and the rest of Elzas but push'd so far his Conquests in the Low Countries that what now remains in the Hands of the King of Spain is not able to withstand him any long time The Authority of the French Monarchs grew stronger and more absolute within their Kingdom as the Bounds of it were extended without at least in this latter Age. For in former times even that mighty Emperor Charlemaign would do nothing without the Advice of his Barons no not so much as establish and endow a Bishoprick and by their means it was that his Son Lewis the Pious was re-inthron'd The Power of the French Lords lasted not only under the Second Race but three or four Ages too under the Third And as these petty Princes were extinguished their Authority was transferr'd to the States of the several Provinces under whose hands it remained till the Civil Wars under the pretence of Religion gave a mighty check to it and the shrewd Policy of the Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarine made it altogether arbitrary Now the French Kings pretend that they are Emperors in France as Bodin and du Tillet have endeavoured to prove That their Authority is Absolute and Sovereign and that as to the Temporal they have no other Superior than God alone upon whom their Crown immediately depends it not being in the Power of the Prelates of their Kingdom either to excommunicate them or to publish them to be such By reason of their Consecration they are look'd upon to be of the Body of several Cathedral Churches in France where they hold the Prebends The nominating to Bishopricks Abbeys c. belongs to them even by the Pope's Consent and the Concordat made betwixt Francis I. and Leo X. They alone can make Laws in their Kingdom grant Favors and Pardons naturalize Strangers and legitimate Bastards They build Colleges Universities Courts and Companies of Justice create Offices and provide for the same The Males only by Salique Law which the French call the Fundamental of the State have Right to Succession and the Crown always is devolved to the next Heir that is to the eldest Son of the King and to the Issues of the eldest Infinitely This First-born during his Father's Life is commonly called the Dauphin by the Donative of Humbert last Dauphin of Viennois of his Lands of Dauphiné to Philip of Valois King of France upon condition that his eldest Son should be call'd Dauphin and bear quarterly the Arms of France with those of Viennois It was in the year 1343. Philip at the intreaty of John his Son who reigned after him gave the Land to his Grandson who reigned under the Name of Charles called the Wise and was the first Son of France who bore the Title of Dauphin The Arms of France are Three Flowers de Luce Or in a Field Azure King Charles VI. reduced them to Three his Predecessors having had them without number contrary to the Custom even of the first Kings The Consecration of the Kings is solemnly performed at Rheims where they are anointed with Oyl of the Holy Ampoule kept religiously in the Abbey-Church of St. Remigius whence it is carried under a Canopy by four Knights of the Holy Ampoule created by Clovis IV. The Royal Ornaments are kept at St. Denis from King St. Lewis's time The twelve Peers of France assist at the Consecration six whereof are Ecclesiastical to wit the Archbishop and Duke of Rheims who consecrates the King the Bishop and Duke of Laon the Bishop and Duke of Langres the Bishop and Earl of Bonâ—vais the Bishop and Earl of Chaalons the Bishop and Earl of Noyon The Six Lay Peers were formerly the Duke of Burgundy the Duke of Normandy the Duke of Guyonne the Earl of Tolouse the Earl of Flanders and the Earl of Champagne but these Peers subsisting no more they are represented by as many French Princes or Lords The King's Guards are composed of two strange Nations viz. Scots and Switzers and of his French Subjects The Scotch Guard is the first Company of the King's Guard du Corps However it ought to be observed that this Name is but a remainder of the ancient Alliance between the Scotch and the French for since the Reformation and the Union of England and Scotland there has hardly been a Scotch Man among these preâ—ended Scotch Guards However as this Company is the ancientest so it enjoys the greatest Privileges for their Captain precedes the three others and begins always to serâ—e the first Quarter of the Year and when the Guard du Corps are quartered they chuse the first Lodging This Company was at first composed of 100 Gentlemen or chosen Soldiers 24 of whom have yet a good Stipend are Privileged and have at their Head the first Man at Arms of France
who makes the 25th and these are the Archers of the Guard du Corps who wear Hoquetons or white Cassocks covered with gilt Silver-Shells whence they are commonly called Hoquetons The three French Companies have been instituted by three several Kings and wear upon their Arms and Cassocks the Livery Colours and Devices of the Reigning Kings Those that are called Exempts of the Guards precede the other Archers they wear neither Hoquetons nor Cassocks and command the Guards in the absence of their Officers They carry a Stick as a Mark of their Power and Employment The hundred Switzers wear the King's Livery with a Halbert and are cloathed after their own Country fashion These four Companies have their Captains who are all qualified Lords And besides these the King has a Regiment of Switzers and another Regiment of French Guards with all their Officers These make as 't were a small compleat Army kept ordinarily with a Company of Musqueteers or Horse-Guards whom King Lewis XIII had instituted and whose Head he was During the Minority of the Kings which ends so soon as they are 14 years old a Regent or Protector was provided by the General States of the Kingdom or by the Court of Parliament of Paris He was commonly the King 's nearest Kinsman or the Queen his Mother as Queen Catherine of Medicis was to King Charles IX Queen Mary of Medicis to King Lewis XIII But since the Monarchy is become Absolute the Will of the deceased King has only been regarded And Ann of Austria Mother to K. Lewis XIV now Reigning carried the Regency against the Princes of the Blood who disputed it with her though they had the Parliament of Paris on their side whence ensued a bloody War in which the Queen and Cardinal Mazarine got the better of the Princes Patents Edicts and Arrests are expedited under the Name of the King with this Title By the King and Queen-Regent The Queens of France have often been Crowned whereof History gives several Examples They were anointed with another Chrism than that of the Holy Ampoule Queen Mary of Medicis was Consecrated and Crowned at St. Denis in the year 1610. on the 13th of May by Cardinal de Joyeuse In their Widowhood they have been formerly called White Queens but that has not been used for some Ages There is no sharing in the Royal House and Succession since the Third Stock of the Kings of France so that second Brothers must be contented with a Patrimony in Land bearing the Title of Dutchy Peerdom and County They may have in their House such Officers as the King himself has viz. Chancellor Secretary and others with the Title of Grandees and they are stiled Your Highness as if they were Sovereign Princes The youngest Sons of the French King subscribe only with the proper Name as well as the King himself but their Posterity take their Title of the principal Country that makes up their Portions as being henceforward accounted a separate Branch of the Princes of the Blood The Daughters of the French Kings have not any other Portions than Sums of Money instead of Lands which they have had heretofore It is They alone who properly are called Dames or Ladies in France The Princes of the Blood who become Church-Men keep the Rank belonging to their Birth and not to the Ecclesiastical Order The King 's Natural Sons have no share in the Succession either of the Crown or of the Royal Patrimony but have an Entertainment at the King's Pleasure They do not bear the Surname of France but that of the Land given them or of the Branch which they come from as now the Duke of Longueville is called of Orleance He or his Predecessors being descended from Lewis Duke of Orleance Brother to King Charles VI. The Duke of Engoulême was called de Valois as being born of Charles IX of the Branch of Valois The Duke of Vendosme and his Issue bear the Name of Vendosme because of that Land which King Henry IV. gave to their Fore-father CHAP. V. Of the Chief Officers of the Crown and Kingdom THE greatest Office of the King's House is that of Grand Master of his House before whom all the Officers that serve therein take the Oaths and whom they are to obey There is a Chief Steward of the Household and a Steward of the Household in Ordinary and others that serve quarterly having a Stick in their Hands set in Silver gilt at both Ends. They precede the Serving Gentlemen when the Kings Meat goes by There is a Grand Provost of France or Provost of the Houshold which is a very ancient and authorized Office Justice is exercised under his Name by two Lieutenants the one in a long and the other in a short Gown by Serjeants and by fifty Archers cloathed in Hoquetons or Cassocks of Livery that follow him attend the Court and prosecute the Guilty six Leagues thereabouts He also makes the Procedures of criminal Causes betwixt the Officers of the King's Houshold and others that follow the Court and when the King is on his March he sets a Price upon Bread Wine Flesh Hay Oates and other Provisions The Place of great Chamberlain is also very ancient honourable and priviledged He is Superintendant of the King's Chamber of his Cloathings and Moveables He lyes at the King's Feet when he holds his Bed of Justice or at the General States of the Kingdom when the Kings used to call them There are four Chief Gentlemen of the King's Chamber that serve quarterly a Master of the Wardrobe a Master of the Ceremonies a Leader of Ambassadors who all take the Oaths in the King's Hands There was formerly a Grand Queux or a Great Master of the King's Kitchin but this Charge is now abolished there having been none since Lewis of Prie Lord of Buzancoâ—â— who died under Charles VIII An. 1490. There are yet four Masters Queux or Cooks who serve quarterly in the King's Kitchin The Great Master of the Pantry and the Grand Butler or Cup-bearer of France do discharge their Duty but in great Solemnities as at the King's Coronation and the like but there are Gentlemen of the King's Table and Cup-bearers in ordinary who make the Assay of the Meat and Drink that is presented to the King There is a great and little Stable of the King the Gentlemen of the Little pass upon the King when he is on Horseback The Great Master of the Horse is constituted upon them all and bears the Sword in a Velvet Scabbard marked with Flower-de-Luces on great Solemnities before his Prince The Marshals of France judge of all Military Causes and have their Lieutenants and Provosts to inform against and seize upon Vagabonds and Deserters They ordinarily wear a Stick as a Badge of their Dignity and when they receive it from the King they take the Oath of Allegiance to him in the High Court of Parliament at Paris The Seat of their Jurisdiction is at the Marble-Table in the Palace of
seen there Unless it were the Limonum whereof I just now spake For Poictiers it self has several other Monuments of Antiquity as an old demolish'd Castle thought to be the Palace of the Emperour Gullienas some remains of an Amphitheatre call'd les Arenes behind the Church of the Jesuits and without the Town the Ruins of divers Aquaeducts which the common People names les Arceaux de Parigne the Arches of Parigne I have mentioned the several Changes through which Poictiers passed speaking of POICTOV and likewise the Battel of Civaux but I must not so get that famous Victory obtained by our Black Prince that Martial Son of a Warlike Father Edward the III. over the French King John September 19. 1336. within two Leagues of Poictiers The King having an Army of above 30000 Men and the Prince hardly 12000 the latter profered to go back and to repay all the Damage he had done from Bourdeaux thitherto But the French meaning that a handful of Enemies ought to Surrender at discretion and could not avoid being cut into pieces would not hearken to any Proposals which so exasperated the English that they fought like Lions gave a total Overthrow to the French and took their King Prisoner The Church of Poictiers is said to have been founded by St. Martial a Kinsman to the first Christian Martyr St. Stephen and he from whom our Saviour took the five Loaves and the two Fishes which his Blessing so miraculously multiplied in the Wilderness St. Peter add the Roman Legendaries sent him into Aquitain where he converted a great many Heathens especially in POICTOV and even laid the Foundation of the Cathedral of St. Peter on that very Day that H. Apostle was Martyr'd What ever be of this for the Monks have so mixed with Fables the antient Accounts that it is a hard matter to distinguish Truth from Falshood This is more certain that about the Year 279 Nectarius or Victorius a learned Man mentioned by St. Jerome was Bishop of Poictiers He was succeeded by several other great Men amongst whom Hilarius that famous Defensor of the Orthodox Faith against the Arians was the tenth in Order under whose Name a Collegiate Church has been since built At the end of the 5th Century that See was fill'd with one of the best Poets of that Age. Venantius Fortunatus who had belong'd to the Houshold of Radegund Queen of France This Diocess has been bigger than it 's now and extended through the whole Province of POICTOV For Lusson and Maillezais have been separated from it and erected from Monasteries into Bishoppricks However it contains yet 22 Parishes 21 of which are included in the City besides 30 Abbies 25 Chapters of Canons and a vast number of Religious Houses the Parishes being under the Inspection of four Arch-Priests The Cathedral of St. Peter was begun by our King Henry the II. and finished 200 Years after It 's a sumptuous Building all of a hard Square-Stone In the Church of our Lady sirnam'd the Great the Mayor's Lady uses to offer every Year the day after Easter a Cloak of considerable value On the outside of the Wall that looks on the great Market is the Statue of the Emperour Constantine on Horse-back with a Sword in his Hand The Collegiate Church of St. Hilary immediately subject to the Pope lies on the upper end of the Town The French King is Abbot of it as Count of Poictiers There is shewn a Stone which consumes Dead Bodies within 24 Hours together with the Tomb of Godfrey the Great-Tooth pretended Son to the Famous Melusine of Luzignan and the hollow Stump of a Tree where Mad-men are put in in hopes that they shall recover their Senses whence comes a jearing Proverb amongst 'em to Send one to St. Hilary Cradle Poictiers is the biggest City in France next Paris as to the compass of its Walls though the not â—â—ear so thick Inhabited as Rouen Touâ—â—se or Lyons there being a great many Gardens and even Meadows Vines and Corn-fields withâ—n its inclosure for which reason Charles V. â—he Emperour call'd it a great Village It 's built partly in a Plain on the West-side and partly â—n a Hill shut up betwixt the River Clain and another that stagnates there into small Rivulets Marshes and Ponds so that it could hardly be taken were it not that the lower Town is commanded by high Rocks nam'd by the Inhabitants Dubes instea of Dunes or Downs The greatest inconveniency of Poictiers is its lack of Water for there are no Fountains and very few Cisterns and therefore the Citizens are forc'd to bâ—y Water that is carried into the Town from a Fountain springing near the Clain at a place call'd Platteforme All the inferior Seats of Justice in the Province of Poictou resort to the Presidial and Seâ—eschaship of Poictiers and in 1415 whil'st the English were Masters of Paris and Charles the VII Dauphin of France was disputing the Crown against 'em Poictiers had the Honour to be the Seat of a Parliament which when the English were expell'd that Kingdom was restored to Paris The Palace where the Judges â—â—eep their sitting was formerly a Castle that 〈◊〉 still a very fine Hall whose Wainscotted â—â—iking is not underpropt by Pillars Next to this Palace is the antient Tower of â—â—â—bergeron built by an Earl of POICTOV therein the seven Viscounties of this Province â—â—e represented Next to the Gate of St. Lazarus was another Castle built in a Triangular Form but therâ— are no Remains of it besides the place when it stood and some strong Towers against the Walls La Pierre Levée The Stone rais'd up is one of the Curiosities of Poictiers which Strangerâ— do not fail to see it being but a Mile from the City It 's a large Square-stone 25 Foot in length 17 in Breadth and 60 in Circuit having these two Verses ingraven upon it Hic Lapis ingentem superat gravitate Colossum Ponderis grandi sidera mole petit The University of Poictiers was founded by Charles the VII in 1431 and has been formerly more famous than it 's now especially foâ— the Civil Law The Auditory or the Haâ— wherein the Law is read is very large and sumptuous and was built in the French K. Henry the IV's Time by the Duke of Sully whil'sâ— he was Governour of POICTOV Poictiers has likewise a Mint where Mony iâ— Coyned at the Letter G. as also an Exchequeâ— and a Generality to which nine Elections arâ— resorting that is all those of POICTOV except Loudun and Mirebeau that depend oâ— the Generality of Tours As to the Government of the Town it is iâ— the Hands of a Mayor twelve Sheriffs or Eâ—chevins twelve sworn Counsellors besides seventy five Burgesses The Mayor is not 〈◊〉 Lord but even the first Baron of POICTOV and takes the Title of Captain and Governoâ— Poictiers during his Charge which is but â—eatly for a new one is elected every Year 〈◊〉 St. Cyprian's Day but afterwards both he â—â—d his