Canons out of their Churches put the Curats from their Parishes and consiscated and plundred all their Goods Then against the Laity vexing and loading the Citizens with new Imposts and unheard of Exactions tiercing or thirding the Gentry that was taking away Thirds of their Revenues and of all their Goods which had never been heard of in France The Interdiction lasted Seven Months during this time Philip sollicited the Pope so earnestly that he gave order to his Legats to take it off upon condition he should take Isemburge again and in six Months six Weeks six Days and six Hours he would have the Case of her Divorce decided by his two Legats and the Prelats of the Year of our Lord 1200 Kingdom the Friends and Relations of that Princess being assigned to defend her The Assembly was held at Soissons by Isemburges choice King Canut sent the ablest people in his Kingdom to sollicite and plead her Cause After twelve days jugling and proceeding Philip had intimation that Judgment would be against him he goes one fair Morning to fetch Isemburge from her House and setting her up on Horse-back behind him carries her thence having order'd notice to be given to the Legat not to give himself so much trouble about examining whether the Divorce he had Decreed were good or not since he owned it and would have her for his Wife Nevertheless he used her but little better then before nor did shew any more kindness besides some little Civilities to her Year of our Lord 1200 Besore the years end Agnes her Rival died having been five years with the King She had two Children by him One Son and One Daughter whom Pope Innocent III. Legitimated Died likewise Thibauld Earl of Champagne who had then only One Daughter a Minor The King would have the Guardianship-Noble but soon after the death of Thibauld his Wife was brought to bed of a Post-humus Son who had his Fathers Name and the Surname of Great The Daughter lived not long after the birth of the Posthume In those times Usury and Uncleanness Reigned bare-faced in France God raised up two great and virtuous Men Fulk Curate of Neuilly in Brie and Peter de Roucy a Priest in the Diocess of Paris to Preach against these Vices with so much power and efficacy that they reclaimed a great many Souls from those Sins and Follies Now it hapned that a few Months before the death of Thibauld Fulk who had this gift of perswading People to what he approved by his earnest Exhortations knowing there was to be a great meeting of Princes Lords and Gentlemen at a Year of our Lord 1120 Turnament or Justs at the Castle d'Ecris between Braye and Corbie went thither and exhorted them so earnestly effectually to undertake the voyage to the Holy Land that the Earls Baldwin of Flanders Henry d'Anguien his Brother Thibauld de Champagne Lovis de Blois his Brother Simon de Montfort Gautier or Gualtier de Brienne Matthew de Montmorency Stephen du Perche and several other Lords Crossed themselves nevertheless they could not set forwards till two years afterwards The reconcilation between the two Kings seemed perfect and sincere This year they conferr'd at Andeley Nay Philip had the the King of England with him Year of our Lord 1201 to his City of Paris and Treated him with all the magnificence and all the demonstrations of friendship he could desire But John had begun to contrive his own unhappiness by casting off his Wife Avice or Avoise Daughter of the Earl of Glocestre to Marry Isabel only Daughter of Aymar Earl of Angoulesme and Alix of Courtenay whom he ravished from Hugh le Brun Earl de la Marche to whom she was affianced From that time the said Lord sought all manner of ways to revenge himself for that injury He began to hold private intelligence with Philip he endeavour'd to make an insurrection in Poitou and Rodolph his Brother Earl of Eu began to commit Hostilities on the skirts of Normandy John chastised them for their Rebellion bydepriving them of their Lands especially some Castles in the County d'Eu They make address to the King of France their Sovereign Lord and demand Justice of him Upon this difference the two Kings saw one another near Gaillon where Philip who had laid his design spake high and summon'd John to appear in his Court that right might be done not only upon the complaint of Hugh but likewise of Prince Arthur who demanded Maine Anjou and Touraine Year of our Lord 1201 The Earl of Flanders and the other Lords that had taken the Cross departed for the Holy Land and as in those times there were but few Vessels upon the coasts of Provence they had taken their way by Venice where they hop'd to find a great many well fitted and there Thomas I. Earl of Savoy and Boniface Marquis of Montferrat joyned them But the Venetians would not furnish them with Vessels till they had first employ'd their Arms to recover the Cities of Sclavonia especially that of Zara for the Republique from whom they had withdrawn themselves to own the King of Hungary which retarded them above a year in those parts Year of our Lord 1201 In the year 1195. Isaac Angelus Emperour of the East had been deprived of his Empire his Sight and his Liberty by his own Brother Alexis And the Son of that Isaac likewise named Alexis had made his escape into Germany flying to Philip of Snevia pretended Emperour who had Married his Sister This young Prince having notice that there was an Army of the Crossed at Venice went thither to implore their assistance Several difficulties hindred them from going into the Holy-Land besides the Venetians hoped to find it better for their purpose to make a War in Greece because the spoil and plunder promised more gain and seemed more certain to them and more-over all the Latine Christians were ravish'd to meet with this occasion and opportunity to revenge the Treachery and Outrages the Greeks had practised since the beginning of the Holy-War They concluded therefore to turn their Arms that way upon condition the young Alexis would defray the charges of their expedition allow them great rewards and submit the Greek Church to the Obedience of the Pope To provide for the expences of his War King Philip endeavour'd to accustom the Clergy to furnish him with Subsidies and they excused themselves upon their Liberties and for that it was not lawful to employ the Moneys belonging to the Poor in prosane uses they only promis'd to assist him with their Prayers to God Now it hapned that the Lords de Coucy de Retel de Rosey and several others went and pillag'd and invaded their Lands they fly to the King for protection who in their own coin assisted them with Prayers to those Lords but as they understood one another they proceeded to worse dealing Then the Prelats redoubled their intreaties and besought him to employ his Forces
greatest indignity even to the reducing him to much indigence of all things fit for him I find in the Life of this most Wife King an act of Clemency more then Royal. There having been discovery made of a grand Conspiracy against his Life and State and the Authors taken when the Lords were assembled together to Sentence them to Death he caused those Wretches to be splendidly entertained and the next day admitted to the Sacred Communion then would needs have them be set free saying They could not put those to Death whom Jesus Christ had newly received at his Table This year William IV. Duke of Aquitain and Earl of Poitiers died and his eldest Son William V. surnamed the Gross took the Goverment of his Country The Widow Dutchess second Wife of William IV. having Children to gain assistance against those of the first Bed Married Geofrey Martel a most valiant Prince the Son of Fulk Earl of Anjou Year of our Lord 1025 The year after Richard the Good Duke of Normandy ended his days and for Successor Year of our Lord 1026 had Richard III. his eldest Son Year of our Lord 1027 Othe-William Earl of Burgundy left this World likewise and his Son Renauld possessed his Estates An enraged Passion to govern Armed Baldwin then surnamed the Frison and afterwards the Debonnaire against Bearded Baldwin his own Father Earl of Flanders so that he drove him out of his Country This unnatural Son valuing himself highly on the Alliance of King Robert whose Daughter he had Married but who nevertheless did not countenance his impiety Richard III. Duke of Normandy others affirm it was Robert received the old banished Man and restored him to his Earldom but he could not totally supress the Partialities in those Countries where some still sided with the Son as others stood up for the Father Year of our Lord 1028 The 17th of September the young King Hugh died in the Flower of his Age bemoaned of all Europe for his rare and lovely Qualities which had acquired him so great Reputation that he could hardly have made it good if he had longer survived King Robert had three more Sons remaining Henry Robert and Eudes Some Year of our Lord 1028 29. say that Eudes was the eldest of them all However it were the King after the Death of Hugh would have Henry Crowned but Queen Constance by a depraved appetite had undertaken to put Robert in the Throne The Fathers Authority and Reason carried it for Henry amongst the French Lords and yet this Womans Obstinacy could not acquiesce but caused many Tumults her Husband not being able to prevent her even in his Life time from contriving a great Conspiracy to dethrone the eldest and place the younger in his stead ROBERT and HENRY his Son Aged some Eighteen years Year of our Lord 1029 RIchard III. Duke of Normandy having Reigned but two years died of Poyson by by his Brother named Robert who after his death enjoyed the Dukedom obtained Year of our Lord 1028 by Fratricide Year of our Lord 1029 30. In the year 1029. and 30. there began a great War between Eudes Earl of Champagne Chartres and Tours and Fulk Earl of Anjou because Fulk fortified the Castle of Montrichard which Eudes said did belong to the Country of Touraine After some Rencounters they came to a pitched Battle each being at the head of his Army the loss was great on either side but the Angevin obtained the Victory Year of our Lord 1030 31 and the following Though King Robert commonly permitted the liberty of Elections yet the Bishop of Langres being dead he by his absolute Authority substituted another as having need of one wholly at his Devotion in that place to help him in the bridling and containing of Burgundy The Canons having Poysoned this he put in a second there which excited so great trouble amongst the Clergy of that Diocess that he was forced to send his Son to install the last promoted and to secure him from their Attempts Year of our Lord 1033 Whilst Henry was in that Country hapned a great Eclipse of the Sun and Robert his Father was seized with a Distemper whereof he died the 20th of July in the year 1033. having lived Sixty one years of which he Reigned Forty five and an half that was Nine and an half with his Father and Thirty six since his death He had four Children living three Sons Henry who had the Crown Eudes who contended with him for it and Robert who was Duke of Burgundy and one Daughter named Adeleida who Married Baldwin Earl of Flanders It was no fault of his Government that France was not compleatly happy he gave his Subjects what depended upon him Justice and Peace but had the unhappiness to see a Famine three times and after that a Plague make great destruction in his Dominions the first in Anno 1007. the second Anno 1010. and the third from the year 1030 to 1033. The first was general over all Europe and the last so severe in France that many People were seen to dig up dead Carkasses for Food to go a hunting after little Children and lie in wait at the corners of Woods like Beasts of Prey to devour Passengers Nay there was a Man so possessed with the covetous desire of gain more cruel then the Famine it self that he exposed Human Flesh to sale in the City of Tournus but that detestable Prodigy was by them expiated in the Flames Henry I. King XXXVII POPES BENEDICT IX A young Boy intruded in December 1033. S. near Ten years Three Anti-Popes the same BENEDICT SYLVESTER and GREGORY VI. Elected after the Abdication of BENEDICT Anno 1044. S. Two years CLEMENT VII Named by the Emperor Anno 1046. S. Nine Months DAMASUS II. Elected in 1048. S. Twenty three days LEO IX After Five Months vacancy Elected in Feb. 1049. S. Five years two Months VICTOR II. Named by the Emperor Anno 1054. S. Three years STEPHANUS X. Elected in August 1057. S. Eight Months NICHOLAS II. Elected in 1058. S. Two years six Months Year of our Lord 1033 THe first and most capital Enemy against this King was his own Mother who continuing to the prejudice of his Fathers Declaration and the right of Nature to endeavour to set the Crown upon the Head of Robert her beloved Son raised a good Party of the Grandees against him particularly Baldwin Earl of Flanders and Eudes Earl of Champagne bestowing the City of Sens upon this last to engage him to her Party But Henry whose Resolution was above his Age went himself being the Twelfth to Robert Duke of Normandy to implore his Assistance The Duke by Motives of Fidelity or hatred against the Champenois aided him with all his Forces With which having in a short time defeated the Queen's in several Rencounters and taken the Rebels Holds he unlinked the whole Party and reduced her in despite of all her Projects to live quietly with him The War ended
Burgundy and the Earldom of Nevers on the one part and Bourbonnois Beaujolois Lyonnois and Forez on the other Then it proceeded a little further at Nevers in the interview of Charles Duke of Bourbon and the Burgundian whose Sister Charles had Married These two Princes having accommodated those Affairs that were between them concerning the Homage for some Lands which the Duke of Bourbon refused to render him and for which they had made a rude War for some time began to fall into discourse of the Affairs of the whole Kingdom and agreed together that there should be a Conference held at Arras to find out the best means for procuring Peace between the two Crowns and between the King and the Burgundian Year of our Lord 1435 According to this Resolution there was held at Arras the greatest and the most noble Assembly that ever this Age had heard of All the Princes of Christendom had their Ambassadors there the Pope and the Council each their Legats The Harbingers took up Stabling for ten thousand Horse This was opened the Sixth day of the Month of August Year of our Lord 1435 The Duke was obliged in honour not to Treat without the English provided they would be satisfied with reasonable Conditions They were profer'd Normandy and Guyenne if they would do Homage for them but when he found they would relinquish nothing of their Pretensions he disengaged himself from them and made a separate Treaty the Popes Legat having absolved him of that saith he had given them The Popes did often practise this believing it a part of the power which our Lord Jesus Christ had given to bind and unbind Here is the Summary of the chiefest Articles The King by his Ambassadors disown'd that he had consented to the Murther of Duke John wickedly perpetrated and by wicked Counsel for which he was sorry with all his heart Promised he would do justice and cause such as were guilty to be prosecuted whom the Duke should name to him That if they could not be taken he would banish them from the Kingdom for ever and never admit them upon any Treaty He obliged himself to build for the Soul of the deceased Duke the Lord de Novailles and of all those that died since in that quarrel a Chappelat Montereau on the place where the Body of that Duke lay interred to set up a Cross on the Bridge to found a Monastery or Chartreuse where should be twelve Friers and a high Mass that should be sung every year in the Church at Dijon To pay fifty thousand Gold Crowns at 24 Carats c. for the Goods and Equipage taken when the Duke was Murther'd Moreover he relinquished and acquitted him of all Homage due for any Lands he held of the Crown and his Service and Personal Assistance during his life Gave him to perpetuity for him and his Heirs Males and Females the Countries of Mascon and Auxerre the Lordship of St. Jengon the Bailliwick of St. Laurence the Castlewick or Chastelleny of Bar upon the Seine and as security for four hundred thousand Crowns payable at two certain terms the Chastellenies of Peronne Roye and Montdidier and the Cities of the Somme that is St. Quentin Corbie Amiens Abeville and others As also the County of Pontieu on either side the Somme and the enjoyment of the County of Boulogne for him and the Heirs Male of his Body with all the Rights of Tailles Gabelles and Imposts all profits of Courts of Justice of the Regalia and all others arising from all those Countries That the Burgundians should not be obliged to quit the St. Andrews Cross even when they were in the Kings Army That in case of any contravention of the Subjects both of the one and other of these Princes should be absolved from their Oaths of Fidelity and should take up Arms against the Infringer That the King should tender his submissions for the compleating of this Treaty into the hands of the Legats from the Pope and the Council upon pain of Excommunication Reagravation Interdiction of his Lands and all other to which the Censures of the Church can extend That to the same purpose he should give the Seals of the Princes of his Blood the Grandees of the State the most noted Prelats and the greatest and chiefest Cities Year of our Lord 1435 And to make this Reconciliation the more firm and durable there was added the promise to bestow Catharine the Kings Daughter upon Charles Earl of Charolois the Dukes Son both as yet very young Four years after they sent this Princess to the Duke of Burgundy to compleat the Marriage Year of our Lord 1435 Besides this weighty blow which amazed the English much they received another which was the death of the Duke of Bedford Regent in France after whom they never had any but Men that were very violent hare-brain'd without either prudence or conduct The French in the mean time time took Diepe by Escalado and the kind usage they shewed to the Inhabitants brought them all the places of the Country of Caux Year of our Lord 1435 At the same time which was about the last day of September died the Queen Mother Isabella de Baviere in the Hostel de Saint Pol at Paris where she lived in a mean condition since the time of her Husbands death justly hated by the French and ingratefully despised by the English Some have written that to save the expences of her Funeral they conveyed her Corps in a small Boat to St. Denis attended only by four People Her death is attributed to an inward grief occasioned by the outrageous railleries of such as delighted to tell her face that King Charles was not the Son of her Husband Year of our Lord 1435 and 36 One of the greatest faults they committed after they had refused the offers made them at Arras was their not treating the Duke of Burgundy well their giving him reproachful language and not suffering him to be Neuter as he desired but to fall on his People wherever they met them endeavouring to surprize his places and harrasing him so perpetually that at length they constrained him to become their utter Enemy The Parisians comparing the pride and wretchedness of these Strangers with the courtesie and magnificence of their Natural Kings could no longer endure them or if any thing did yet with-hold them it was some remainders of that affection they preserved for the Duke of Burgundy But this knot being broken they now sought nothing but the opportunity to free themselves from their Bondage Year of our Lord 1436 The English having therefore been beaten at St. Denis by the Constable the honest Citizens of Paris took that opportunity to treat about their surrender to him Having obtained an Act of Oblivion and the confirmation of their Priviledges in such form as they desired they introduced him by the Gate called St. James This was on the Friday after Easter When he was entred the People fell upon the English
the King took a turn into France and how Don Pedro de Toledo who was then going to Germany came at the same time with design as was believed to found month Septemb. the Kings intentions and to take him off from espousing the interests of the States We there find likewise the great jealousies the States conceived upon the Conferences he had with the King the Intrigues and Artifices of Prince Maurice to break this Treaty the different Factions that were formed in that Country for and against it Then the rupture of the said Treaty by the States upon the Spaniards persisting to have the free exercise of the Catholick Religion re-established in all their Territories and that they should lay down the whole Trade and Navigation to the Indies and in fine upon this rupture the retreat of the Ambassadors of Spain who took their leaves of the States the last day of September and returned to Bruxels Those of France and Great Britain particularly the first did not for all this leave off their Mediation but propounded to both parties to make a long Truce at least since they could not agree upon the Articles for a perpetual Peace Prince Maurice opposed it openly because his employment must be at an end with the War He had subject enough to declaim against the artifice of the Spaniard and to entertain the peoples fears and jealousies and talked the more confident and high as having all the Sons of War on his side and the Province of Zealand besides four or five good places in his disposition and the desires of the Protestant Princes who apprehended lest during such a Truce the power of the Austrian House should fall upon their Backs But the Kings honour was too much concerned after he had taken so much pains and his interest likewise to disarm Flanders which he designed to seize upon not to bring this business to a conclusion He pursued it therefore so Year of our Lord 1609 warmly by intreaties and menaces to the States that their Deputies met again month January February March and April at Antwerp on the five and twentieth of March with those of Spain and made a Truce for twelve years which was proclaimed in that City the fourteenth day of April Year of our Lord 1069 It imported amongst other things That the Arch-Dukes treated with them in quality and as holding them for free Provinces upon whom they had no manner of pretence That there should be a Cessation from all Acts of Hostility but that in Forraign Countries it should not commence till a year after That Traffick should be free both by Sea and Land which however the King of Spain limited to the Countries he held in Europe not meaning the States should Trade into those others without his express Licence That either should hold such places as were then in their possession That such whose Estates had been seized or confiscate by reason of the War or their Heirs should have the enjoyment of them during the Truce and should re-enter upon them without any other form of Justice That the Subjects belonging to the States should have in the Kings and Arch-Dukes Countries the same liberty in Religion as had been granted to the Subjects of the King of Great Britain by the last Treaty of Peace Reciprocally the States promised that there should be no alteration made in those Villages of Brabant which depended upon them where hitherto there had been no other exercise of Religion but the Catholick for which the Ambassadors gave their Guaranty in writing The President Janin being returned to the Hague after the Publication exhorted the States in behalf of the King to grant to their Catholick Subjects the free exercise of their Religion but all that he could obtain was that they should be no more prosecuted nor troubled if they did it in their own houses and for their private Families only If the power of Spain received a great shock by this Treaty that which they procured themselves by the expulsion of the Moors was no less After the eversion of the Kingdom of Granada great numbers of Mahometans and Jews were remaining in those Countries who had settled and spread themselves in the Kingdoms of Valencia Chastille and Andalouzia they were baptized and professed Christianity for which reason they were called new Christians but yet did secretly exercise the impieties of their fore-Fathers They were reck'ned to be above twelve hundred thousand of both sexes King Philip informed that for divers years they had sought for and courted the protection of the King of France the Vnited-Provinces the King of England nay even the Turks and the King of Morocco and suffering himself to be perswaded that upon a certain Good-Friday they intended to cut the Throats of all the old Christians in those Countries where they inhabited resolved to thrust them out of his Territories not permitting them to carry away any thing excepting some Merchandize of the Country seizing and detaining their Gold and Silver their Jewels and moveables only he allowed the fourth part to the Nobility in recompence of the damage they sustained by such their banishment for they improved and made the Lands yield more by one third to the Gentry then the Spanish Tenants could do Year of our Lord 1609 and 1610 till March. This Edict was Executed with the utmost severity even against those that were Priests Friers Officers of the Kings and Allied to the most ancient Christian Families they haled and tore them from the very Altars Cloysters Tribunals of Justice the Husbands from the Arms of their dearest Wives the Wives from the Bosoms of their Husbands the Fathers or Mothers from their tenderest Children These wretches part of them transported into Africa part getting into France and Italy did most of them perish after divers manners some were drowned by those very Marriners who pretended to transport them others Massacred by the Arabes many being first stript and then turned away by those from whom they expected shelter died of hunger being in execration to the Christians as Infidels and to the Infidels as Christians so that of this huge Multitude hardly could the fourth part make shift to save themselves Spain will for a long time feel the smart of this more then barbarous inhumanity for the cruel expulsion of so many Myriads of Men together with the continual recruits they are ever sending to the Indies and their natural lazy temper has made of that Country otherwhile the most peopled and the most cultivated in Europe a vast and barren solitude Some Christian Pirates were retired to Tunis and Algier and had there gotten so many of their own stamp together that they held the Streight of Gibraltar as it were shut up and dar'd even attaque whole Fleets The Maloüins not able to endure these Robberies fitted out some Vessels to set upon them Captain Beaulieu their Commander having consider'd of the means to destroy the Year of our Lord 1608 whole force