place hereafter Howbeit if so be that such of the race of Guise as do remaine might obteine so much fauour of God as that it would please him to turne their hearts so that they would suffer our realme to be in quiet and that contenting them selues with that which is past and so through courteous and faithful behauiours would blot out the remembrance of their former mischiefes I would be glad to breake promise and would endeuour to be the first that should cast the remembrance thereof into the pit of obliuion but in continuing the race which hitherto they haue runne they shal find both braines hands enough to resist thē And although that through crafts and treason they and their semblables haue hitherto rather then by force of armes so highly aduāced them selues yet wil the trueth in the end ouercome and haue his course so that they shal get nothing by following the steppes of their auncesters saue onely they shal become so much the more odious both vnto God men Yea they shal builde their pinacle so high that finally it shal fall vpon their owne heads and ensnare them selues If therefore they wil preuent this danger and assubiect them selues vnto their duetie it is the thing whereof I should be verie glad neither can I denie but that the house of Guise conteining them selues within their limites might haue done good seruice to the crowne of France but of seruants seeking to become masters they haue marred all and ouerthrowne both themselues and others Thus loth to be in this matter ouer tedious I beseech you friendly readers to shew a good countenance vnto this first booke vntill the comming forth of the rest which shortly shal be presented vnto your view This do I assuredly trust that you wil do in case you be natural French men that is to say affectionate vnto the seruice of God the commoditie of your countrie and the conseruation of your auncient and noble libertie Fare wel THE LEGENDE of Charles Cardinal of Lorraine and of his brethren of the house of Guise IN the yere of our Lord 1362 after the deceasse of Iohn Duke of Lorraine succeeded his eldest sonne Charles the firste who by Margaret daughter vnto Robert of Bauieres Countye Palatine had issue three sonnes as many daughters The sonnes named Charles Robert and Federic dyed without issue But of the daughters the eldest named Marie was maryed vnto Enguerand Earle of Coucy who also died without heyres The seconde called Katherine was giuen to Iames Marquise of Baden with the dowrye of three preuostshipps namely S. Dier Arches and Bruettes besides a good summe of money in consideration whereof the said Marquise renounced his whole title vnto the succession in the Duchye of Lorraine The third daughter Isabell was maried vnto Rene of Anjou the sonne of Lewes of Anjou the seconde sonne to Iohn King of France This Rene the first succeeded his father in lawe Charles in the Duchye of Lorraine seeking also the possession of the Duchye of Bar in the right of his mother Yoland of Arragon wherein Anthony Earle of Vaudemont sonne of Ferry Duke Charles brother withstood him and chalenged the sayd Duchye whereunto he was assisted by Philippe Duke of Burgundye who was offended with the mariage of the said Rene of Anjou vnto Isabell of Lorraine Hereupon in a conflicte neere vnto Bulainuille the said Rene was taken prisoner and thence conueyed vnto Dijon vnder the custodie of the Duke of Burgundye aforesaid where he was deteined fifteene yeres at the petition of the Englishmen and Burgundions vnder whom at the same time Ferry of Vaudemont sonne to this Earle Anthony did serue howbeit finally it was agreed that Duke Rene the prisoner should giue his eldest daughter Yoland in mariage vnto this Ferry of Vaudemont with the summe of two hundred thousande crownes in the name of a ransome In the meane time Lewes of Anjou Duke Rene his eldest brother intending the conquest of Naples whereof Pope Clemente had crowned him Kinge dyed without issue whereof so soone as Duke Rene was aduertised he purposed the possession of the same Realme but notwithstanding the ayde of most states of Italie as Genes Milan and other Potentates he was by the Spanierdes finally expelled Naples and forced to retire into France vnto his brother in lawe King Charles the seuenth whereas after some warre against the citie of Metz hauing knowledge of the death of his wife Isabell he resigned the whole gouernement of Lorraine vnto his eldest sonne Iohn in full intente to liue the reste of his time quietly and peaceably within his dominions of Prouence and Anjou Iohn surnamed of Calabre after he had gouerned Lorraine eighteene yeres dyed leauing a sonne named Iohn of Anjou who in the time of his grandfather Rene aforesaid fianced Anne the daughter of King Lewes the eleuenth albeit afterwarde breaking of with his said father in law through the persuasions of the Duke of Burgundye and entending by repudiating the daughter of France to conclude a mariage with Marie the said Duke of Burgundyes daughter being euen at the very point so to doe he dyed By meanes whereof Rene the seconde of that name sonne of Ferrye of Vaudemont brother vnto Duke Rene of Anjou and of Yoland sister vnto Duke Iohn succeeded in the said Duchyes of Lorraine and Bar in the yere 1473. for want of other heyres during the life of his grandfather on the mothers side Rene of Anjou of his mother Yoland whome the inhabitantes of the countrie would not accept for gouernour This Duke waged continuall warre against the Duke of Burgundye whome finally he ouerthrewe before Nancy in whose time liued his great grandfather Rene of Anjou termed King of Sicill who rested his old bones within his Duchyes of Prouence and Anjou him did Kinge Lewes the eleuenth greatly cherish and quietly entertaine fearing his association with the Duke of Burgundye and the English men who greatly thereunto sollicited him This King Rene sent worde to his nephew Rene that in case he intended to be his heyre he should wholy take vpon him the full armes of Anjou which proffer he refused well was he content to quarter togither the armes of Anjou Sicill Prouence and Lorraine howbeit vpon his other refusall his grandfather King Rene instituted Charles Earle of Maine his nephew by his brother Charles also Earle of Maine for his inheritor whereof Rene being certifyed he hasted toward his grandfather but all being done and past he returned backe againe in a great heat and King Rene died in the yere 1482. Shortly after also dyed Charles of Maine his competitor whereby Lewes the eleuenth King of France remained lord of the countries of Prouence Anjou and Maine by the gifte of the last will of the said Charles who also left vnto him the Duchye of Bar. After the death of King Lewes the eleuenth Rene of Lorraine who through the persuasion of Pope Sixtus was gone into Italie to seeke the
of Lorraine neuer found surer or more stedfast foundations then the same which their cousins of Guise had laid in intent to ouerthrowe them For King Henrie tooke charge of the childe and afterward made him his sonne in lawe committing his Duchie into the hands of his vncle the Earle of Vaudemont Hereunto adding their practises against the towne of Metz what farther testimonie shal we neede For what mischief is there which this poore towne hath not suffred within these fewe yeres both within and without being vnder colour of protection bereaued of her libertie dismembred from the Empire for the most part destroyed and as a fulnesse of al miseries reduced into the bondage of the Cardinal who vnder a borowed name hath yerely wrested therout at the least a hundred thousand francks leauing vnto our King nothing but the dishonour of surprising the same vnder pretence of defence the charge of keeping of it with inestimable expenses the losse of great numbers of Frenchmen and the hatred of the Empire which yerely reneweth the decree of the recouerie of the townes of Metz Thoul and Verdun expressing therein their desire at the first opportunitie to restore the same to their former liberties For soone after ensued the siege of Metz aforesaid whereas the Cardinal fearing his brothers skinne and seeking to exalte him aboue al men procured to be sent vnto him most part of the Princes and great Lords of France for his more assurance and at the price of their bloods to raise him as it were vnto the shoulders of Victorie it selfe But what neede we to purchase the triumphe with the offence both of God and man or at the charge of the Kings honour and treasure Also how sweetely haue we paied for this so valiant defence of a forreine towne which neuer offended vs vnlesse it be an offence to giue ouer hastie credence vnto the wordes of a Cardinal therein brought vp whome she accompteth as her bishop and pastor yea to speake truely the Frenchmen haue dearely bought the exchange thereof through the burning and spoyle of Picardie euen vnto Noyon when as vnder the conduct of the third brother of this race and sonne in lawe vnto the great Seneschal Duchesse of Valentinois the French nobilitie receiued the sorest wound that euer it had since the battaile of Pauie because that without anie reasonable cause they were trained thereunto as to a butcherie rather then a battaile For in the same conflict wherein the said harebrained Duke of Aumale the third brother was through his owne default taken prisoner there were slaine about two hundred French gentlemen among whome were sundrie great Lords as the Lords of Rohan S. Forgeu Nancay la Motte Dusseau the Baron of Couches of Castres beside diuers other Lords of name Had our whole realme susteined that only losse through the conduct of these men yet were this sufficient to procure al men to detest them Shortly after this ouerthrowe ensued the siege of Metz aforesaid from whence the Emperour being forced to depart the Duke of Guise attributed to him selfe the whole glorie which the Princes and great Lords of France whome the Cardinal had procured the King to send thither had dearely paide for whervpon it is wonderful to see how the Guisians triumphed Wel to proceede what did the next yeres following bring with them other then two double irrecuperable losses namely the vtter sacke and spoyle of Tirwin and Hesdin the two keies of Picardie by reason whereof the Cardinal sang out his triumphes scoffing at the French nobilitie who said he through default of his brothers assistance were ouerthrowen by the enemie persuading the King that he had no man but of that race who was sufficient to guide the affaires both of peace and warre Howbeit the imprisonment of the third brother whome the Marquise of Brandebourge held did somewhat restraine the course of his brags wherefore they sought with speede to withdrawe him home to the end the one might heaue forward the other and yet were them selues vnwilling to disbourse anie penie of al their briberies and theftes either to take anie compassion of the French nation which was deuoured to the hard bones They inuented therfore an other reasonable honest shift as they supposed which was to borowe the Kings name and authoritie whereby they might vnder pretence of heresie vexe and torment whome so euer they thought best to the end to meete with some confiscations For it seemed not sufficient for him through his temeritie and rashnes to be the cause of the death of so manie great Lords and gallant French gentlemen at his owne taking but now his ransome must be gathered out of the liues of such as remained not forbearing the wiues of such good and vertuous Captaines as in the meane season ventured their liues and goods in the Kings seruice Whereof the Lord of Teligny might haue bene a sufficient witnes had he not shortly after lost his life in King Henries seruice For during the imprisonment of the Duke of Aumale the vertuous Ladie of Teligny was vniustly accused of heresie at the instance of a Sorbonist one of the Cardinals stalions as are the rest of our masters his companions who be men ignorant of all goodnes and honour as fierce cruel and seditious as any aliue vsing religion as a cloke to couer their peruersitie in this respect altogether like vnto the Cardinal of Lorraine the setter of them on worke at the cost of the Kings honour who for that cause incurred the euil wil of many In this fetch they disclosed an other of their sleightes for what with their spunge which was laid close to King Henries ribbes namely the Duchesse of Valentinois this prisoners mother in lawe who by al meanes robbed him on the one side them selues who ruled the common purse they wholy spoyled the King both of the loue and of the goods of his subiectes araying them selues in the same persuading him that nothing was wel done but what them selues did Yea they waxed so impudent as to affirme that their brother had verie wel discharged his duetie also that they whom he had led to the slaughter had in maner betraied him insomuch that the whole fault was imputed vnto the dead and he the suruiuer who had disobeyed the Kings commandement who sent him word not to hazard any thing after his deliuerie returned to the court where by the meanes of his mother in law he was as much or rather more cherished and made of then any of the lustiest lieutenants that the King had Thus did they on the one side laugh King Henry to scorne whome in the meane time they had so artificially bewitched that he accompted him selfe to haue none more assured or faithful seruants then the said lords of Guise except the Constable whom therefore they hated to the death as they afterward declared in diuers wise These warres of Metz were nothing in respect of those of Picardie wherof the house of Guise
conquest of the realmes of Naples and Sicill and there had continued in wages with the Venitians a certayn space did now returne into France there to chalenge his right in the Countyes of Prouence Anjou with the Dutchye of Bar. This Dutchy was graunted vnto him conditionally that he and his successours should for the same doe hōmage vnto the King of France who thereby remained soueraine lord ouer the same but as for the Countyes of Prouence and Anjou it was answered that they being parcel of the demaynes of the crowne might not fall vnto the distaffe so that finally by consente of King Charles the eight and this Duke Rene the controuersie was referred vnto the arbitrement of three vmpiers whiles in the meane time the King committed vnto the Duke a regiment of an hundred men of armes with the enterteinment of sixe and thirtie thousand frankes of yerly pension Now in the yere of our Lord 1489 the Neopolitanes detesting the tyranny of yong Alphonsus required the ayde of this Duke Rene who thereunto prepared him selfe but duringe his preparation the three vmpiers aforesaid pronounced their arreste wherein it was found tha◠not onely Anjou and Prouence but also Sicill and Naples did apperteine vnto the King of France vpon which occasion Charles the eight vndertooke that voyage him selfe Howbeit notwithstanding this arrest Yoland mother vnto this Duke Rene euen after the deceasse of her father Rene the great did still reteine the title of Queene of Sicill yea this Rene the seconde chalenged the title of King of Sicill and Ierusalem in the name of the conquestes o◠his ancesters causinge his eldest sonne Anthony to be called Duke of Calabre still quarteringe the armes of Anjou with his owne for which his presumptiō togither with diuers other his practises Kinge Lewes the twelueth stomaking him expelled him out of France and tooke away all his pensions but he founde meanes to be reconciled and afterward dyed as he rode on huntinge hauing remained Duke fiue and thirtie yeres This man had by his second wife named Philippe the sister vnto the Duke of Guelderland twelue children of whom seuen dyed in their youth whereby he left only fiue who all were sonnes named Anthony Claude Iohn Lewes and Francis. Anthony succeeded his father in the Duchyes of Lorraine and Bar also in the Countye of Vaudemont and Marquisat of Ponte and by the death of this Charles Duke of Guelderlande his mothers brother in the said Duchye of Guelderlande and in the Countye of Zutphan leauing behind him three children Francis who succeeded in his dominions Anne maried vnto the prince of Orange and Nicolas first bishop of Verdun and afterwarde of Metz and finally as presently he is earle of Vaudemont and at this present father in law vnto Henrye the third King of Frāce Francis the successour of his father Anthony had by Christian the daughter vnto the King of Denmarck issue one sonne named Charles and two daughters Charles the seconde and sonne vnto Francis succeeded his father in the yere 1545. and presently liueth hauing to wife Claude the daughter of King Henrye the second by whom he hath diuers children now liuing Claude the second sonne of Rene Duke of Guise and Baron of Ginuille repayred vnto the French courte where in short space he obteined the gouernement of Champagne and Burgundye and marying Anthoynet of Bourbon aunt vnto the late King of Nauarre he had by her issue six sonnes namely Francis Charles Claude Lewes Rene and the great Prior of France of whom but especially of Francis who after his father was Duke of Guise and finally slayne by Poltrot at the siege of Orleans and of Charles afterward Cardinall of Lorraine we wil hereafter speake more largelye not omitting what so may be incident touching the other brethren of whom Claude obteined the Dutchye of Aumale and was slaine at the siege of Rochel Rene enioyed the Marquisat of Allebeufe Lewes was created Cardinall of Guise and the yongest was made great Prior of France Iohn the thirde sonne of Rene and bishop of Metz was through great sute vnto Leo the tenth electe Cardinall in the yere 1518 and afterward being ordinarily resident in the French courte obteyned great fauour with King Francis the first for he neuer medled with matters of estate but passed ouer his time in pleasure The other two sonnes namely Lewes and Francis dyed in the warres the one in the realme of Naples and the other at the battayle of Pauie Duke Anthony the first sonne was of a reasonable good disposition and voluntarily came vnto Dijon vnto King Francis and there did him hommage for the Duchye of Bar shewing him selfe very sorye for his offence which he had committed in seeking to defraude the same King Francis of the Duchye of Guelderlande which he pretended to fall to him by succession in the right of his mother For he had practised by one Iames Canis the Borowmaster of Nemegue to rayse the commons and keepe the said King out of his possession but then seing that the people would not accept him but had submitted them selues vnto the Duke of Cleuelande he fought all meanes possible to be reconciled to cure this skarre which through the helpe and fauour of his brother Iohn Cardinal of Lorraine he soone brought to passe and King Francis did cleerly pardon and forgiue him This Cardinal Iohn was the iollyest encrocher of benefices aliue as might plainly be perceiued by the estate wher into he brought the whole French Church but because he otherwise was of a reasonable courteous disposition a great spender and therewithall very liberall all was taken in meetly good parte The third brother who was Duke of Guise and father vnto this Duke of Guise and Cardinal of Lorraine with the rest was neuer put in any great credite neither had the charge of any waightie affayres committed vnto him For his leading of the Kinges power without his loue or leaue into Lorraine to the succour of his brother Duke Anthony who as the talke went was sore ouerlayed with Anabaptistes was taken in very euil parte and him selfe had not the Constable at that time great master and Marshal of France entreated for him would King Francis haue committed vnto prison and hardely dealt withal For King Francis was such an one as would not permit those who without his owne liberalitie were of them selues of no reputation so farre to encroche vpon his auctoritie as appeared at another time when the said Lord of Guise being gouernour of Burgundye sought to enter into the castle of Aussonne which at that time was a seueral charge and in the custodie of a french gentleman of the retinewe of the Marquise of Rotelin named the Lord of Rouueray who withstoode him forbade him the entrie therinto which the said de Rouueray durst not haue done in case the said Lord of Guise had bene a prince who for that cause complained vnto King Francis but he for that deede
greatly commended the sayd gentleman and laughed to scorne him who vndertooke the person of a prince of his blood This Duke pinched to the quicke and did extremely persecute diuers marchantes of the best townes of France but finally beginning with the marchants of Paris who hitherto were not accustomed vnto the rasor the whole citie tooke vpon them the matter and caused his commissions to be reuoked imprisoning some of his promoters whereat the rest vanished away like snow against the sunne for which cause he cōceiued so grieuous an hatred against the inhabitants therof that neither for dearth or plenty what abundance of corne wine or other victuals so euer there were within the coūtrey of Champagne or Bourgundy during his gouernement of either of them the said citie of Paris could euer come by any either for money or loue without plentie of letters of marte which were sweetely payed for and deerely bought howbeit by that meanes he neuer after durst deale with any whole estate or communalty not that he therefore quite quayled but still hauked after confiscations here and there and so lightely mette with one or other wherefore his whole rigourous force he executed ouer the inhabitants of his owne iurisdiction whom he euen flaied with al extremitie which was the cause that King Henry through his fathers aduice would neuer after commit vnto him any matter of weight although his two eldest sonnes the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine did beare great sway for he was at that staye that cōducting his children vnto the court gate he there left them and so returned backe againe whereof I doubt whether the father or children ought most to haue bene ashamed Finally this man dyed through poyson and as became a good Christian pardoned those persons who mistaking him for an other had hastened the course of his dayes His childrē did his brother Cardinal Iohn aduāce who seing him selfe furnished with many benefices chose Charles to be his successour whom a fewe yeres he maintained in the college of Nauarre from whence he was preferred to the gouernment of the Dauphine For although in France were no want of men farre more meet to vndertake such a charge and execute that function yet did the credit of his vncle Iohn procure this fauour at the handes of the great King Francis together with some tokens of his quick wit and capacitie herein al which notwithstāding during the reigne of the said great King Francis they were not of any estimatiō For this Charles was simplie named lord of Reims his brother Frācis Earle of Aumale their father being yet liuing the rest of the brethrē were forced to preferre thrust thē selues forward with might maine Again King Francis was not ignorant that these men might stirre vp coales and procure some broiles vnder pretence of the counties of Prouence and Anjou and so trouble the state vpon which causes he credited them no further then needes he must In deede he so highly honoured the beautie of their eldest sister as that he permitted her at the entrie of Queene Eleanor to be attired in Princesse araye although afterward perceiuing these strangers to preuaile as if they had alreadie bene Princes of France he denied the wife of the Marquise of Maine of the mantel royal It is not also vnknowen how the same King toward his end made but smal accompt of the Constable who therefore withdrew him self vnto his owne house the chiefe occasion of which displeasure arose of that that through the commendation of the said Constable his sonne the Dauphine Henry had reteined into his fauour the said Lords of Guise the consequence whereof he doubted Their alliāce also vnto the daughter of the great Seneschal of Normandie whom al that time the said Dauphin kept caused that the same King Francis who before had highly fauoured her did now also disdaine and mislike her This Ladie who was called the great Seneschal was daughter vnto the late lord of S. Valliers and with her owne maydenhead redeemed her fathers life but afterward to the great reproche and slander of our France after she was halfe spent was giuē to the Dauphine Henrie whose hearte she so stedfastly wonne as that finally she was created Duchesse of Valentinois and in effect became Queene of France Wherupon the house of Guise accompting her as a conuenient bridge by the which they might passe ouer into France did think it meete to take holde of so good an occasion although it were in effect but an homelie shift and therefore procured the marriage of their thirde brother afterward Duke of Aumale vnto the yongest daughter of this said Seneschal by whose meanes they the further insinuated them selues into King Henries fauour vpon whom in the meane time they practised two seueral drifts wherein we may as in a glasse behold the rest of their behauiours toward the estate of France First by meanes of this Seneschal they presumed so farre as to attempt to wrest from the Dauphine Henrie a promise of restauration vnto the counties of Prouence and Anjou as part of a dowrie toward this their brothers marriage Howbeit as God doeth for the most part euen by the simplest persons abate the pride and crueltie of the mightiest so likewise did he now cause the onely countenance of the Lord de la Chesnay to force thē most shamefully and euen as it were in despite of their hearts to release this grant being in this only respect to be accompted happie that through the throwing of the same into the fire they did also therewithal consume and reduce into ashes the assured proofe and manifest detection of their trayterous fellonie considering that in case King Francis had but once had anie inckling of the same it would haue bene the vtter extirpation and vndoing not onlie of them selues but of the great Seneschal also Let vs now therefore proceede vnto the second point which was this On the one side King Francis not long before his deceasse was much accompanied with two persons of whome he made great accompt The one was the Cardinal of Tournon chanceler of the order and Master of his chappel The other was the Lord Annebaut Marshal and Admiral of France and besides both these there was the Constable also who notwithstanding he came not to the court yet did he reteine the office of great Master of France On the other side the Dauphine was entangled with the Ladie great Seneschal vpon whom two of the brethren of Guise did continually attend namely Francis Earle of Aumale and Charles Lord of Reims because of the alliance aforesaid al which notwithstanding yet was he most addicted vnto the Lord of S. Andrews whose father had bene his gouernour Now then seing that the sicknes whereof the late King Francis the first died was long and in most of the phisitions opinions in maner incurable the Lords of Guise persuaded the aforesaid Dauphine that so sone as he had gotten possession
of the crowne he should set forth an edict the contents whereof were that no man should from thence forth retaine in his hands two offices by meanes of the which they promised vnto them selues the spoyle of the noble men aforesaide besides that vnder colour therof they might haue free accesse vnto the handling of the whole estate and so in time atteine vnto their aspiring drifts purposes and that the rather because they perceiued none of the Princes of the blood ouer hastie to intrude them selues thereinto Howbeit now before we go any further we haue to cōsider two other notable chāces which happened presently at the death of King Francis afore named This King lying on his death bed called for his sonne the Dauphine to the end familiarly to talke with him In which communication like as the soule approching vnto his departure is for the most part more free and deuoyde of worldly cares earthly burdens and al other transitorie affaires and so consequently lesse tied vnto the bodie also that in maner al men in that extremitie time and place do entreat vpon more mystical and heauenly matter then before time they are wont yea diuers through a certaine prescience of things to come which surpasseth mans natural vnderstanding and reason do prognosticate of that that is most likely to happen euen so now among diuers other aduertisements and notable instructions which this King gaue vnto his sonne one was that he desired yea and charged him not to deale with the Children of Guise neither to permit them to haue any rule in the affayres of the estate For saith he I haue manifestly perceiued and am wel assured that the whole stock of thē is naught also that in case you transgresse this my precept they are to strip you into your doublet your subiectes into their shirtes This admonition deserued both to be marked put in excution but the simplicitie of the Dauphine being bewitched by this Seneschal together with Gods heauy displeasure against Frāce would not permit the childe to followe his fathers counsaile which in this case proued but ouer true for his affirming the whole race of them to be naught did shortlye after proue it selfe certaine The same day that this great King Francis let his life at Rambouillet whereas the Dauphine for very sorowe and griefe seeing his father lie in such extremitie and therewithal being in a maner ouercome was layed downe vpon his wiues bed who the whiles sat vpon the floore shewing great tokens of anguish and heauines the great Seneschal the Duke of Guise who yet was but Earle of Aumale walked there also although contraryly affected for she was very pleasant and ioyful seeing the time of her triumph drawe on and he stil from time to time walked to the doore to hearken after newes vsing alwayes at his returne this phrase Now the yonker goeth his waies but had not that yonker seing it pleased him so to tearme him bene both he and the rest of his whole familie had bene but simple vnderlings in Lorraine still But now to our former matter let vs marke the execution of the forenamed edict concerning retaining of sundrie offices The same being concluded vpon King Frācis dead was put in practise before it was eyther sene or published For presētly the Lord of Reims displaced the Cardinal of Tournon of his office of Chanceler of the order who in displeasure resigned to thē his mastership of the chappel also The Admiral d' Annebaut loste his office of Marshalship likewise nowe therfore I wil procede to the Great Mastership for the obteining whereof the Guisians were importunate mouing King Henry to write vnto the Constable that before his cōming to the court he should by proxy resigne one of his offices either the Cōstableship or els the great mastership for they supposed that he would stil kepe the Constableship as being of greate auctority credite But were it that the King was at that time determined to exempt his gossippe from their ambition or els that he sought through the others voluntarie resignation to cōferre the said office vnto the Marshal of S. Andrewes to whome he had already broken his minde to the end by such ordinary meanes to suppresse some part of the furious attemptes of the Earle of Aumale and his brother or what other occasion soeuer there were yet certain it is that he wrote to the said Cōstable with al speed to repaire to him but not to resigne any of his estates referring that vnto their owne priuate communication at their next meeting After his cōming the King who before euen burned with earnest zeale desire to see the said Constable who so long had bene absent out of his sight was now so farre frō taking from him any of his estates that contrariwise at their first embrasings he professed him self to be ashamed that he had in his hands no office worthy his person therefore in respect of such default the more to honour his welcōming he yelded and presented vnto his said gossip his owne person Now the Lord of Reims had gotten the great seale and the Earle of Aumale had seased vpon the keies of the castle as a seasine fallen to him euen by succession But hearing the King call to the one to render the keyes and command the other to carry the seale vnto the great master whereby they should be driuen necessarily to slepe vnder the locke of the said great Master walke at the cōmandement of the Constable not in any wise to deale in matters of estate without the said gossips permission it may be easy for eche man to comprehende into what part the affections of these brethren were bent Seeing also at the same instant an other estate of Marshal of France erected to the behoofe of Iames of Albon lorde of S. Andrews which was euen the last office that remained in the Kinges hands vpon the which as vpon his last refuge the Earle of Aumale had fixed his whole hope and truste This therfore hath bene one of the foūdations rootes of their quarell against the Constable and his progenie wherein besides their manifest iniurie offered vnto their owne persons in this respecte they haue also shewed them selues verye vnthankful toward the said Constable For it is not vnknowen vnto all those who duringe the reigne of the great King Francis had anie dealings in matters of estate that as wel the father as also the vncles of the said Lords of Guise had neuer any more assured or faithful friend in France then the said Constable who long before their comming into that country was alreadie in great creditte and estimation with his Prince and afterward with incredible fauour did succeede two great masters of France the one the Lord of Boisy his cousin germaine the other the Duke of Sauoy his Father in Law and finally atteined vnto the hiest degree next vnder the Princes of the kings blood that
against the said princes notwithstāding that any other of what estate or calling so euer he be stranger or Frenchman ought to take heede of misusing the person of any French gētleman vnlesse he presently be minded to receiue at the handes of the partie misused as much or rather more then he hath done or said vnto him Now the more that the lordes of Guise haue sought to become as Princes of France the more resistance haue they founde especially duringe the reignes of Francis the second and Charles the ninthe neither being as yet quite free from the same as in place shall be shewed Let vs therefore consider some examples of the time of Henry The lord of Rochefort yongest sonne of the house of la Roche-guyon was on a time chalenged man to man in the Kings garden at Fountainbleau by Francis Duke of Guise whereas in their talke he shewed the said Duke that he accompted him not as a prince of France whereof he also afterward made him more plaine demonstration when as at the onlie countenance that the Duke of Guise made to set his hād vpon his dagger he the said lord of Rochefort who was no knight of the order as now he is set as sone his hande to his sworde and thereby made him to be quiet which deede both the King and Princes did wel allowe of This resistance caused that the same Duke of Guise who thought that the lorde of Montmorency against whom he had a quarell notwithstanding he were not as yet Marshall would doe no lesse then the other on a time suborned his great companion the Duke of Nemours and the prince of Ferrara at a place neere vnto the castle of saint Germain shortly after the Constables returne out of imprisonment and then went and plucked the said lord of Montmorency by the cape in the Queenes chamber the meaning whereof is not vnknowen vnto the gentlemen who presently without speaking vnto any man arose and followed him out of the castle to the place appointed where he made him an answere correspondent vnto his demande accompting him therein no otherwise for a Prince then before time which afterward he shewed him more euidently at Paris Kinge Charles the ninthe being there the same time that the meeting was about the edicte of Iulye in a controuersie concerning an ayrie of haukes of the forest of Compiegne which the said lord of Guise chalenged by prerogatiue but the said ayrie finally remained vnto the lord of Montmorency It is not vnknowen again how the Presidēt Liset in this point diuers times withstood them for once in the full audience at the Parliament of Paris he caused to correct the qualitie of the Prince which the Duke of Guise in a certain cause had taken vpon him An other time in the presence of King Henry he affirmed vnto the Cardinall of Lorraine that he was no Prince neither ought to take place among Princes Again at another iourney before the said King in a foolish brablinge which the Cardinall made the same President Liset vsed vnto him these wordes My sonne and friende you are yet to yong to vnderstand those matters which are no vsuall speches to be said to any Prince of France yea he added moreouer these wordes You are no Prince neither equall with Princes if therefore you be determined to take vpon you that title shew vs also the places of your Principalitie This yong sonne was aboue fiue and twentie yeres olde already both Peere and Cardinall The aforesaid court of Parliament did also an other time by sentence definitiue expulse the Duke of Guise these mens father from his fore sitting which by reason of his Peereshippe he chalenged aboue a prince of France All which notwithstanding their hautinesse in this point brake out openlie in diuers wise during sixteene or seuenteene moneths whilest King Francis the seconde reigned whereof we must necessarily here note also some particularities Immediatly after that King Henry was deceased the Duke of Guise and the Cardinall of Lorraine conueyed King Francis the second his brethren the two Queenes into the Louure leauing the Princes of the blood and the rest of the great lordes of the Realme which were not of their faction behinde to keepe the dead corps whiles in the meane time them selues permitted no man to come neere the said Francis or to speake vnto him vnlesse at the least one of them were still in presence and that so diligently that they neuer let him goe out their sightes Then did they also driue away the Constable and displaced all such as they liked not of causing the King to say whatsoeuer them selues listed They found honest pretences to dispatch away the Princes of the blood by sending one into Flanders another into Spayne and so of the rest hauing continually secret seruants and priuy spies about them They changed the estates and officers of the Kings householde orderinge them selues with such violence that a man might as it were at hie noone perceiue their intentes We will now therefore orderly shew you what people withstood them and in what maner For such particular resistance was to small purpose in respect of that which followed We must now therefore consider to what estate their ambition haue brought the affaires of France being accompanied with couetousnes crueltie vngodlines and manifest villanye I say therefore that since the time that they were exalted by meanes of the Seneschall considering also that their children be of a troublesome and peruerse disposition euen to the ende they neuer desisted from persecuting all sortes of people high and low in this Kingdome whereby to satisfie their aforenamed passions yea for want of meanes and opportunitie to persecute them whom they doe hate they haue bent their whole rage against them selues in so much as it is doubtfull to whom they haue done most displeasure whether to their friēds or enemies We will therefore beginne with such mischiefes as they haue practised first against our Kinges then against the Princes of the blood afterward against the great lordes of the Realme and so consequently we will proceede to the estates namely the Nobilitie the officers of Iustice the people the Clergie their fauorites and friends and finally vnto their owne iniuries among them selues setting forth the whole in as briefe maner as possibly we maye desiring the readers to quote downe in their bookes whatsoeuer they perceiue that we haue omitted to the ende to participate the same vnto the posteritie which thereby shall be occasioned for to abhorre the miserie of France which hath suffered and borne so much with ouer great respect many times of such dangerous monsters After the same maner also according as shall be incident in the continuation of our discours we will somewhat touch their vertues to the ende eche one may know by what tokens to remember them Notwithstanding that at the first they were not ouer busie neither kept to great a stirre yet afterward perswading them selues that
were the kindlers which also so long as the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal had the dealings about King Henry waxed stil more and more yet were they not content to hazarde that part of the Kings estate who thereby lost Tirwine and Hesdine together with many great lordes and gentlemen besides prisoners of name but they also procured to him an other great blowe in Italie It is not therefore requisite that we should here rehearse al our damages and losse of battailes wherein were slaine foure or fiue thousand Frenchmen together with the Captaines and gentlemen of Name neither the losse of the citie of Siene which hath cost this realme so much money buried so manie frenchmen and beautified Florence with our shame neither the bringing of the poore inhabitants thereof into perpetual bondage and in a maner vtter destruction for to whome is al this more iustly to be imputed then vnto the ielousie of the said Lordes of Guise who then gouerned al things This happened in the yeres 1554. and 1555. when they desired rather to deferre the promised aide and so to put the whole armye in despaire then to suffer it to be reported that without them the King had gotten Tuscane or at the leastwise compelled the inhabitants to come to such composition as him selfe woulde haue graunted them These Lords of Guise did in the meane time frame sundry conspiracies in Italie whereby somewhat the more to increase their owne honour and al with the treasure of the realme and vnto the Kings confusion It is not vnknowen how they quareled for the crowne of Naples Sicil neither how the Cardinal al his life time gaped after the Papaltie perswading him selfe to procure wonderfull and strange alterations in case he might once atteine to be God vpon earth And so soone as the olde Pope was deceased the Cardinal prouoked through his wonted ambition went not reasonably but ranne so fast as possibly he coulde to catche vp the triple crown which imaginatiuely with a vaine hope he did already deuoure At that time did experience teach the French nation that this man where euer he became drew al mischief after him For immediatly after his departure the Emperour Charles the fifth King Henry were sone inclined to yelde vnto the better coūsels of such as spake of quietnes to be granted vnto the pore people in so much that notwithstāding the peace might be cōcluded yet through the graue aduice of the Constable and the Admiral there was the fifth day of February in the yere 1556 an abstinence and truce agreed vpon for fiue yeres This Cardinal according to his wonted maner minded not to goe his iourney to Rome at his charge and therefore had assured King Henry that in Italie he would practise such leagues against the Emperour Charls that then he might easely be ouercome which the King liking of it stood the Cardinal in steade as a couer to hide his ambition and couetousnes who with many circumstances stil at the realmes charges made Hercules the secōd Duke of Ferrara the Kings lieutenant general in Italie But his chiefe drift was to make friends and entertaine seruants through whose aide together with the power treasure of France he might conquere the Papaltye for him selfe and the realmes of Naples and Sicil for his brother So soone therfore as he was aduertised of the aforesaid truce he was with the same greatly displeased for that it was the assured death of all his driftes in that respect in so much that he could not restraine his speach before diuers but said openly as he passed through Neuers that this was not it that the King had promised him also that he knew a meane to breake this truce fully perswading him selfe so to doe immediatly vpon his comming to the Court which then lay at Bloys whereas so soone as he was arriued and had spoken with the King he finally obteined through the meanes of his clients and especially of Cardinal Carasfa whom the Pope had sent to present the King with a rich sword a graunt to breake the truce notwithstanding whatsoeuer reasons the Constable Admiral and other great Lords could alleage The Guisians principal instrument was the Duchesse of Valentinois who was to them a bridge both in body and minde wherouer to passe vnto the Royal throne for she commaunded King Henry and they commaunded her Hereby did they intangle the King in open periury the realme in new troubles procuring the ouerthrow on S. Laurence day the taking of S. Quintins the spoile of Picardie and the peace vnprofitably concluded for the French nation None but the Guisians hoped for any commoditie of this newes for the eldest of them aspiring vnto the Crowne of Naples and Sicill procured for him selfe a commission to goe and breake the truce in Italie accompanied with six thousand Swithers foure thousand Frēch men fiue hundred men of armes and fiue hundred light horses It is not vnknowen to al men that he transported with him al the best souldiers that he could get leauing according to King Francis prophecie his sonne Henry in his doublet and his subiects in their shirts For besides so many men whom he led away the Cardinal who had the ouersight of the treasury had so soked the same that finally the King was brought to that stay that through persons whō the Cardinals couetousnes had brought forth interposed the King was driuen to borowe the money which proceeded from his owne treasury Moreouer the rowles and records of that time and of the next yere following wil declare what excessiue rewardes the said Cardinal his brother did wrest forth of the Kings lenitie while in the meane time the commons were vncōscionably pilled the treasury as is aforesaid wasted the demaines receits and cities morgaged the warre reuiued and the coast of Picardy come into the King of Spaines hands For the enterprises of Henry who then followed the onely aduice of the Cardinal were so wide from prosperous successe that within short space after he lost the lamentable battel vpon S. Laurence day wherein were slaine Iohn of Bourbon Duke of Anghien the Vicounte of Turaine besides many other French lordes and gentlemen the footmen for the most part hewen in pieces and the Constable taken prisoner besides a great number of other valiant lordes and gentlemen Againe within twelue or fiftene dayes after was the towne of S. Quintins taken by assault whereby the King there also susteined a shrewd foyle We must not here ouerslippe a testimonie of the Cardinals good wil toward King Henry and his estate as this After the ouerthrowe of S. Laurence daie the King being destitute of men money and counsaile for as the mischief was the Cardinal only was left about him this reuerend father in stead of helping the King with his goods or of relieuing his necessitie with such coyne as he had fished out of the said Kings reuenues euen the next day after this mischance enforced the
treasurer of the purse to pay him the most part of a summe of fiftene thousand francks which he pretended to be due vnto him Throughout the whole realme there remained not so meane an artificer or so poore a citizen who was not contributorie vnto the Kings reliefe and for the same cause was not most extreemely delt with al whilest in the meane time the Cardinal becomming a sergeant executed King Henry in the chiefest time of his miserie and when his affaires were in greatest danger dalying with the spoyled King with such impatiēcie that he would not forbeare vntil the said treasurer of the purse had gathered vp so much money but draue him to borowe the same summe wherwith to satisfie his request Also at the same time the king obteined in the name of a gift of the citie of Paris the summe of three hundred thousand franckes whereof the Cardinal had the disposing which how or whereabout they were employed God knoweth Let this therefore be sufficiently spoken for a simple proofe of infinite such like practises wherby it is to be doubted in which of these two the Cardinal did most exceede either in vnreasonably hoarding together or in excessiue appetite to wast al France which he had chosen as a pray conuenient for his ambition But how was the Duke of Guise occupied in Italie while the French nobilitie was in the King of Spaines prisons in laying the foundation of the greatnes though inuisible of these our Lords and masters The Duke had led with him a reasonable number of noble men and had dried vp al the Kings reuenues endeuoring in the meane time nothing in Italie sauing that for the augmentation of his brothers credite and the practising of conspiracies vnder colour of simplicitie he went with his famous principalitie to prostitute the dignitie of one of the king of France his lieutenants general in Rome to dallie among priests to make vp a lower messe and last seruice at the table of Cardinals of whome the chiefe part are but the Popes Marmosets and Apes Whereupon sundrie haue commended the free stomacke of one of the masters of requests that accompanied him in the said voyage who misliking of the said Duke of Guises behauiour without anie leaue of the Cardinalitie sate downe gallantly by the Dukes side least it should haue bene reproched vnto the Frenchmen that the Kings lieutenant general had serued as a cloke bearer vnto such lickorous griediguttes of the Popes cauldron who vpon their owne dunghil do so lightly accompt of Christian Kings and Princes But what of this It was necessarie that France with the cost and losse of men should put vp yet two iniuries more in Italie The one by the said Lord of Guise who left his campe idle and his masters busines vndone to the end to loyter and daūce after the Popes court there to create as the Cardinals hope was he would some and so manie new Cardinals after his brothers minde that in case the Papaltie should be voyd he might be as certaine to succeede in the said roume as a Cardinals faith could extend The other through the follie of the said Duke of Guise in that in his owne person being a lieutenant general he permitted his Kings honour and reputation so shamefully to decay The enemies of the crowne laughed hartily at such his folishe ambition the wisest Frenchmen supposed that the King the Constable had suffred thē selues to be intangled in such enterprises to the end to be released of an intolerable burden hanging cōtinually vpon their armes through such continual alarmes as the inconstancie couetousnes vaine glorie of the Guisians did daily minister vnto the Kings affaires exceeding the cost of two such conquests Now the Cardinals drift was so sone as he were Pope to transport the warres into Naples Sicil which conquest was the way to haue ouerthrowen their whole race or els in achiuing their enterprise wherein France should haue wonne more then by keeping them vpon her hands as she hath done to haue bound them selues for their life time about their neckes a bonde of the maintenance and keeping of their new conquered dominions Howbeit vnder this pretence the Cardinal pinched at al assaies insomuch that for this cause and others he iested with them in good earnest who so cunningly turned the letters of the name of Charles of Lorraine that thereby he found this which truely we might reproch vnto him to be most true RACLE AS L'OR DE HENRIE signifying Thou hast scraped away al Henries golde But hereof we wil speake some what more particularly Proceding therefore in our matter after the losse of so manie men at S. Laurence battaile together with the taking of the Constable and other contrarie chances the Cardinal finding as he supposed the best occasion possible offered for the aduancement of his familie displaied at that present his whole witte toward the execution of his purposes The first was by making his brother in effect during the reigne of King Henrie a King The other so wel to wrappe his yuie about the pinakle that finally the one might ouerthrow the other which was by motioning a double alliance the one of his niece Marie Stuard Queene of Scots vnto Francis King Henries eldest sonne the other was of his cousin Charles Duke of Lorraine vnto the Ladie Claude of France Againe the Constables absence of whome the Cardinal stoode in great awe and feare whom also marueilously he hated did altogether hearten him on As for the first point the affayres being troubled in Picardie and the realme voyde of forces the Cardinal thought it best to cal home those that before were sent into Italie the whiles to watch least any other shuld haue vndertaken the superintendence ruling of the affaires hoping seing the Constable detained to cōmit the same into the hands of his brother the Duke of Guise presently vpon his returne who about the same time had bene repulsed from before Ciuitella so that this commandement came fitly to him The esquire Scipio also was sent to hasten him away and to wil him to bring his power with him being come the Cardinal caused him presently to be sent to Compiegne there to muster the armie whither as the King shortly after followed him publishing in the presence of his knights of the order and Captaines of his armie that the Duke of Guise was come in fit time to preserue his realme and minded to haue made him Viceroy or vnder King of France but forasmuch as that title seemed strange he commanded to dispatch him a warrant for the Kings lieutenant generalshippe throughout al the said Kings dominions the which du Thyer secretarie of commandements soone made in such maner as it pleased the Cardinal to deuise being also afterward receiued and verified by the court of Parliament of Paris and sundrie other Parliaments of the Realme whereby the Princes of the blood were contemptuously put backe as also after the taking of Calais
they procured the preferring of the Duke of Neuers before the Prince of Conde concerning the charge of the light horsemen Yea within a yere after the Marshal Brissac was also preferred before the said Prince of Conde in the gouernment of Picardie The Duke of Guise hauing gotten this commission and men ouer whom to commande swelled manifestly in pride whiles in the meane time the Cardinal playing vpon his harpe in the middest of all these broyles lulled King Henry on slepe in the bosome of the villainouse Seneschall Neuertheles Henry who on the one parte vehemently loued his gossip the Constable and on the other parte had not his eyes so ouercome with slepe but that sometimes he opened them and so perceiued the Guisians taking ouer highly vpon them whereat he finally begun somewhat to be displeased with him not refrayning from discharging presently part of that which afterward he considered more largely of for he excused him self toward his gossip secretly certifying him that he had bene compelled to make the Duke of Guise his Lieutenant general also to agree to the mariage of the Dauphine with many other things against his will but that the time should doe him right This mariage of the Dauphine was in this wise The Cardinal perceiuing no man at the court able to controlle him his brother vpon his returne out of Italy the Constable prisoner began to motion the mariage of his niece the Queene of Scots for the compassing whereof he propounded that the King might during his owne natural life behold as well his sonne a crowned Kinge as the Emperour Charles had in his time seene his sonne Philippe crowned King of Englande He procured also the estates of Scotland to hasten this matter solliciting them thereunto by the lord of Oisell who had the superintendence of the Queene dowagers affaires in that countrie Also to the ende to cause the Queene of France to condescend vnto this mariage who still alleaged that he neede not be so hastie seing both the parties were in the Kings hands besides that her sonne the Dauphin was yet to yong and not all the best at ease he began to shew him selfe enemie vnto the great Seneschall Duchesse of Valentinois and her to blame so much as in him lay as disdayning the remembrance of her allyance no longer remembring or at the least counterfeiting forgetfulnes that she had bene the only ladder whereby both he and all his brethren had gotten vp so high This did he thinking it the readiest way to winne the Queenes hearte who mortally hated the said Duchesse and not without cause as all the world knoweth To be briefe this practise so well serued his tourne in the aduancement of his businesse that within seuen moneths after the taking of the Constable this mariage was accomplished thence forth Francis was called King Dauphin and so consequently the lords of Guise the Kings vncles The taking of Calais the enterprise whereof the Constable the Admirall and the lord of Senarpont had long before deuised and forecaste augmented the hatred conceiued in King Henry his heart against the Duke of Guise For hauing often heard of the easinesse of the same he had many times purposed him selfe to haue taken it in hande but the Cardinall seeking the winning of the Frenchmens hearts vnto his owne family procured the Kings minde to be altered and the charge thereof to be committed to the Duke of Guise who neuertheles made the matter very dangerous esteeming it vnpossible to bring to passe yea he stood so much thereupon such was his valiantnes that he protested that his proceeding therein was only to obey the Kings expresse commandement who incessantly motioned the contrarie affirming no difficulty at all to be therein Wherefore seing now how the commendations of the said Duke of Guise were therefore sung and published ouer his whole Realme he could not but openly affirme that the said Duke had defrauded him of an honour to him selfe only appertaining Moreouer vnder matters of goodliest shew outwardly the Cardinall still concealed strange driftes tending to the exalting of his race through the ouerthrow of France He nourrished the warres of Picardie and Italie he brake the truce he with his brother gouerned all for the satisfying of his ambition and preparing of his path to proceede further and yet was not all this sufficient He must therefore trye some other meanes The Duchesse of Lorraine motioned some peace with King Philippe whereof the Cardinal taking his aduantage as shortly we shall perceiue procured to him selfe the commission to goe to her to the end there to finde out some other meanes which was this The bishop of Arras now called Cardinall Granuelle being come as the King of Spaynes deputie to this enteruiew alleaged among other things that France was infected with Lutherans among whom some were euen of the chiefest lordes naming the lord d'Andelot adding also that some of the Princes were of the same profession who by meanes thereof lay in wayte for the crowne whereunto they might easely attaine through the ayde and supporte of the Protestātes as lately he had perceiued These words were not spoken in wast for the Cardinal thereby desirous to frame some practise disclosed to Granuelle all that he knew touching certaine offers which the Protestante Princes had made to King Henry togither with the meetings thereupon betwene the King of Nauarre and them This spake he now to the ende to heare the others opinion knowing that vnlesse he found some occasion to stirre vp housholds in France his owne driftes would be in vaine his family come to decaye Grāuelle on the other side considering of what importance in his masters affaires the breaking of these practises with the Protestantes might be togither with the Cardinall of Lorraine layed this foundation of peace namely that their masters were either of them of such force that in case the one should ouerthrowe the other a third person might easely ouercome the cōquerer and therefore that it was necessary to agree them in such maner that with their whole power they might together set vpon these gospellers thereby to get the recompence for their owne losses first putting to death all such as were within the iurisdictions of both princes not sparing any For the Cardinall of Lorraine hoped that the Princes and great lordes of France which were thought to be Lutherans being dead the King and Realme should thereby be so weakened that his family might with lesse trauaile and coste enioye the same Also that their confiscations might be employed to the winning of seruants and friendes But that which most of all encouraged him to vndertake this matter was that Granuelle shewed him that he knew no knight or captaine liuing more honoured and regarded then the Duke of Guise who therefore was most worthy of such a commission For presently he began in a foolish kinde of vaine hope to swallow vp whole countries and kingdomes perswading
but what they lusted because the Cardinal had so enured him to his signes that at the least motion of his countenance the King spake walked or helde his peace c. In so much that he was also termed the Kings life or soule for to say the truth he caused the King to moue or stand still yea to counterfaite what coūtenance so euer he thought good Hauing scatered the princes and lordes whom they suspected let vs behold how they dealt with the rest As touching the priuy council after they had once assured them selues of the Chanceler Oliuer whom they reuoked who also so farre forgot God and him selfe that he gaue them his conscience they brought thereinto whomsoeuer them selues reposed any confidence in After the time of Henry the Parliaments consisted of such men as had brought in most money and the chiefest fauour of mighty men The Guisians considering that they stood in need of such men had brought in by litle and litle the children of the greatest vsurers and extortioners with such other maner of people who haue corrupted all diuine humane equitie and retailed such offices as they bought by great or had in recōpence of some bribes reueiled contrary to their othe the secretes of the Courte and finally violated iustice in all sortes so that it was an easie matter for the Guisians to order these courtes at their owne deuotions brideling some and replenishing other some with vaine hope That which touching these matters they had practised in the time of Henry they did now vnder Francis the seconde more hotely proceede in in so much that since they haue had great supporte on that side They began also to order the estates of the Kings houshold vsurping therein the office of the Constable as then great Master still To the ende to bring in their owne seruantes and men of their owne conditions they displaced parte of the late Kings officers who before had still continued from the father to the sonne whom they least vnder pretence of good husbandrie others they dismissed giuing them halfe paye in the name of pensions notwithstanding the new estate of houshold officers did farre surmount the other The prouinces of the Realme and frontier townes were furnished with their supposts and such as liked them not were sente home to their dwelling places All gouernours heades and captaines of warres and townes were commaunded to obey the Duke of Guise as the Kinges owne person The reuenues were put into the handes of such as the Cardinal most fauoured and all the courtes of Parliament were admonished that he had the superintendence ouer all matters of estate To the ende them selues only may remaine armed they forbid the wearing of all armes especially of dagges and fyer woods also of long clokes and great hosen For the Cardinal being of a cowardly nature was warned by a Necromantian at Rome that he should be slaine with some fyer staffe through the enuy of such enemies as he should procure in France when he were at his highest degree of honour Their first tyrannous practise was in persecuting the Protestantes in the persons of certaine counsaylers of the Parliament of Paris especially Anna du Bourg whose proces is amply described in sundry treatises and discourses especially in the history of Francis the second lately set forth which reueileth sundry villainous iniustices and wickednesse committed by certain iudges whom the Cardinal had apposed and suborned An other practise was in raising the commons against the Nobility in maner following For to suppresse such as might contrary them also to obteine the goodwill of the commons and to make their gouernement agreable vnto them they published letters of reuocation of all alienations as wel for life as yeres whether they were in recompence for seruice or otherwise except sales the coyne whereof had bene bestowed vpon the Kinges great and weighty affaires without any collusion togither with the appanage of the daughters of France and the dowry of the late Queene Eleonor which the infante of Portugal did possesse all the rest were thereby reunited vnto the Kings demaines and ordinary receyts This was the way to bring the mighty into their handes and procure them selues more seruants then before by obteining for them such declaratory letters as them selues listed The third practise was by driuing away the King of Nauarre the first prince of the blood through the most vnworthy meanes that might be which also shall be mentioned in the treatise of their dealings against the princes of the bloud By the fourth they wrested from the Cōstable the office of great Master for the Duke of Guise bought the Marshall Brissac with the gouernment of Picardie which they plucked out of the handes of the Admiral of Chastillon In the fifth to the ende to fortifie them selues against the preparatiues framed for the repressing of their tyranny they made eighteene knights of the order at one clap making of a marke of knighthood throughly tryed and vnblameable a collar vnto all kinde of beastes For the sixt cōsidering that al this was not sufficient but that with the time it was to be feared lest the estats would chalēge their aunciēt priuiledges liberty by meanes wherof their licentiousnes would lye on long first they caused the King wōderfully to mislike of the voice that wente that the people was determined in the Kings minority to demande the estates this brought they very subtilly to passe through diuers sleights the principall wherof was to bring the mightiest into feare through some notable meanes so to winne the Queene mother that she might be the instrument to strike this stroke They therfore propounded vnto this woman who otherwise was sufficiently pinched with the burning yrons of her owne ambition that if the estates should take place as the enemies of her auctority wished she shold be sent to dresse trimme her gardēs or els cōueyed ouer the mountes therefore that as her faithfull seruāts they counsayled her to loke to it Now they regarded not her so much for in case King Francis had ouerliued the King of Nauarre Prince of Conde whom they were determined to put to death a litle before that the estates were houlden at Orleans they would sone haue made her to haue scudded for they marueilously suspected her minde nature it was therfore their owne commodity wherat they leueled But this woman feining not to perceiue their subtilties told them that she beleued their words stil the more more to establish her self play them some fine prācke she writ to her sonne in law the King of Spayne complaining vpon the King of Nauarre the princes as if they had sought by meanes of the estates to reduce her vnto the estate of a handmayd Sone after returned the pacquet out of Spaine wherein King Philippe writ how he was certified that certaine seditious persons rebels endeuored to moue some troubles seeking to alter the regiment of the kingdome
sought vtterly to root out him and his Thus may you see how they enuenimed the King against his blood and people naming to him Valois in steade of Guise openly playing at King put of thy coate yet could not their cruelties stop men from casting these things in their teeth both in worde and writing being accused of weakening deuouring and wasting both the King and his Realme But al this shal more particularly be described The Cardinal was then so malepart as in the Kings presence to sweare by Gods blood that the Baron of Castelnaul should die for it and that no man should saue him In the meane time the Kings edicts posted euery way and the Duke of Guise the more to floute the King and doubting lest the executiō of so many might procure him more hatred among al men fearing also least this worde estates which already began to tingle in their eares should tickle the peoples hearts thought it best to saue the liues after the maner of a thiefe which holdeth a man in his mercy at the corner of a wood of the most part of the poore souldiers who were come on foote which was done giuing euery man closely a testorne I wil not here say that they counseled the King to slaye the Prince of Conde neither speake of the meanes which they vsed in washing and clensing them selues in innocent blood neither of the slanders which they layed vpon the dead persons or of their faire promises for time to come and al in the Kings name and yet obserued nothing for we shal haue time enough to speake thereof more largely hereafter But I wil set before the readers an other wonderful iniury which their ambition wrought against the King and his estate Their niece who was married to Francis the second was Queene of Scots Now chalenged she some title to England because she was the daughter of the sonne of one of the sisters of King Henry the eight of England pretending that Queene Elizabeth at this present reigning might easely be displaced especially because that Marie Queene before her being married to King Philippe had declared her vnlawful They caused therfore their niece to take vpon her the title armes both of Englād Scotlād determining finally to appropriat to themselues the realm of England at the cost of France and in the name of their said niece whether it were by subtiltie or force Also the religion which Queene Elizabeth professed semed to them a meete pretence to winne some power in England where it is not vnknowen that there are suffred ouer many of the popes affectionate seruants Again the mightines of the King of France together with the inuincible alliāce of both kngdomes was vnto them an other couer or cloke vnder the which they gathered together many secret seruants pensioners who sould their wicked consciences by golde weite and in scoffing at the Guisians perswaded them that for the attaining of England it was requsite first to came the Scots who for the most part were become protestants For by this goodly exploit the English Catholikes should haue a sufficient gage of their rest for time to come also that it was necessary that one of the six brethren shoulde remaine stil in Scotland During these practises there arose some trouble in Scotland about religion King Henry the second died and they seeing themselues on horsback determined to pursue this pray with horne and crye They sent therefore the Bishop of Amiens a very nimble person in the court of the Church who in one moneth should reduce said he al the strayed Scots with him la Brosse a hairebrained and furious person who should murder al in that realme These two good commissioners being arriued in Scotland began in their owne fancies to make partition of the gentlemens lands and selling the beares skinne which yet they had not taken they writte vnto the Guisians that there were waies how to draw yerely two hundred thousād crownes out of this kingdō by puttīg to death the nobilitie and bringing the commons into subiection also that there they might wel lodge a thousand French gentle mē who should be to do the lords of Guise seruice God knoweth whither this council clawed them where they itched and whither they maligned the Queene dowager their sister and her minion the lord of Oysel who thought it not best to ouerrunne the said Scotts who had blood in their nayles as they shewed wel making the Bishop to feele that they had nought to doe with his instructions and compelling la Brosse to returne the same way he came and to goe and bragge it in some other place driuing away the priests the Cardinalty and the Papalty al which had it not bene for the foolish ambition of the Guisians might well haue remained Also besides this blowe they susteined an other onset on the coaste of England for Queene Elizabeth made a large protestation expressely against them therein setting before al mens sight the causes of these broyles to the Kings confusion and the destruction of his realme And whatsoeuer countenances or practises that they made afterward fastening according to their custome the foxes skinne vnto the lyons yet gained they nought els on that side sauing shame to themselues and losse and hinderance vnto the King and his realme Whiles they extended their wings so farre of in France one the one side the protestants multiplied and on the otherside such as misliked the gouernement of the Guisians began againe to take heart notwithstanding the successe of the enterprise of Amboyse had in the beginninge greatly quailed the greatest part Hereupon the Duke of Guise marueilously chafed that in his gouernement of Dauphine the protestants had first lifted vp their heades brought in sixtene ensignes of the olde bands of Piedmōt together with diuers cōpanies of other French souldiers vnder the conduct of Tauannes Maugiron and others who made marueilous hauocke in those countreis Sone after also they brought the King to Tours where they did what they could to haue had the towne destroyed for they supposed that the inhabitants thereof had fauoured the enterprise of Amboyse and therefore a great while bare them a milke tooth Thus walking the King vp and downe causing him to taste of the baite of al pleasures they abused his youth and simplicitie dayly planting other pillers of their greatnesse for time to come the more they se they were contrariried the sorer were they enuenimed bent vnto new practises brīging the King into the hatred both of his subiects and strangers more endamaging the realme in one moneth then then before it had bene in a whole yeres warre against the Spaniard for it was incredible what exactions and debtes they procured also what goods them selues hoarded vp during the raigne of their said nephue Frācis the second These behauiours together with extreeme violence vsed brought most part of the commons in maner into despaire of euer seeing France againe in
good counsaile how he might herein behaue him selfe affirming and that euen with teares that whatsoeuer might happen he could neuer giue his consent thereunto The Lord of Chastillon seeking to comfort him endeuoured to appease him and after diuers debating of the matter betwene them their resolute determination was that better were an inche of authoritie with honour then a whole fathome with shame Howbeit after this resolution the Earle of Aumale did so farre stray from following the aduice wherein before he had so obstinately persisted that now to the end to displace the said Lord of Chastillō out of al fauour with the Dauphine he shewed the Marshal of Vieille ville their cōmon friēd how that he could hardly haue beleued that the Lord of Chastillon had so enuied his honour and aduancement as thus to haue encouraged him to withstand the aforesaid marriage This therfore was one occasion of their displeasure of the rest we wil speake more in place conuenient Through this mariage one of the brethren is now prouided for let vs therefore procede to the preferment of the rest Duke Rene their grādfather maried Margaret the daughter and onely heire of William Duke of Tancaruille of the house of Harcourt in Normandie by whome they doe enioye the Countie d' Aumale the Marquisate d' Albeufe al other their possessions in France except Ginuille But because this ladie was crouchbacked and found barren he forsooke her and as is aforesaid married the Duke of Guelderlands sister by whome he had issue the Duke Anthony the Duke of Guise their father and the Cardinal Iohn their vncle Duke Anthonie as they pretend was borne during the life of his first wife and left a sonne named Francis who was father to Charles at this present Duke of Lorraine whom at his decease he left very yong as hauing scarce atteined the third yere of his age Then as for the most part it stil chanceth that widowes orphanes are commonly entangled in the snares of the wicked and couetous the Earle of Aumale began to bestirre him seeking to haue founde a dore open into the Duchy by publishing Duke Anthony to be a bastard But seing that he could not wel bring his purpose to passe before he had gotten at the least one foote into the said Duchy he sought by al meanes possible the marriage of Christian the widowe of the late Duke Francis. Howbeit she being both wise and of good capacitie according to the nature of a good mother entending the preseruation and maintenace both of the country and orphane aspired vnto the custodie of the one through the wardship of the other and therfore kept this hastie wooer in breath who through her marriage assured him selfe of the same wardship which afterward might yeld vnto him a fauourable and honest entrye vnto the possession of this desired Duchie And therefore presently vpon the marriage of their brother the Marquise of Maine al these Lords of Guise in triumphant wise hasted into Lorraine there to put the widowe in ful possession of the wardship of her sonne But so sone as she had gotten her desired pray she gaue them a rosemarie wipe dismissing them sending them away with fleas in their eares vtterly disapointed of their purpose Hauing therefore thus missed of their intent against their cousin germaine for the Duke of Lorraines father and they were brothers children they cast forth their nettes to entrappe their other kinsefolke on the mother side for likewise the King of Nauarre and they were brothers and sisters children They therefore endeuored to stoppe the mariage betwene Iane d' Albret princesse of Nauarre Anthony of Bourbon Duke of Vendosme afterwarde king of Nauarre But as a widowe standing in some neede of their helpe coulde closely despise them euen so could a Kings daughter who regarded not their aid openly disdaine them For said she to King Henry who motioned the matter vnto her would you my Lord wishe that of her who by duetie ought euen to cary vp my trayne I should make my sister in Law either that the daughter of the Duchesse of Valentinois should go cheeke by ioule with me with which answere the King found him selfe satisfied and therefore neuer communed any further with her in that respect which caused the Guisians from that time forwarde to bende their whole driftes against him selfe making him finally to pay for their mariage in maner and forme following Hercules d'Este Duke of Ferrara had a daughter whom he loued better then his owne wife For it is not vnknowen to all the worlde after what maner in her life time he entreated the noble Lady Rene the daughter of King Lewes the twelfth cōmonly called the father of the people neither is any mā who had to deale in those daies in matters of estate ignorāt vpon what consideratiōs she was denied vnto so many noble persons who sued for her mariage then finally placed in so base estate as was Ferrara This Duke had I wot not what share in certaine poulders boulets and munition with such other like trash which he had bestowed to his owne behoofe yet now sought to make our King to pay for the same which in the time of King Francis he coulde not doe for he knew ouer wel what iugling had therin bene practised against him To be briefe his right herein did this Duke giue in mariage with his daughter and King Henry payed for it whose lenitie made them to waye downe to much on that side and boldly to vndertake greater matters whereunto they added yet an other drifte which was that accōmodating themselues vnto al kinde of pleasures or delightes correspondent vnto the age of the King they vsed him as a foundered horse or stale ouer whome they might the farther cast their sight I neede not here rehearse their infamous dealings for the very walles beds and candlestickes of their house of Reims and other their Manours can beare more then sufficient record thereof in that they haue as we may say euen blushed at such whoredomes fornications and baudries as the Guisians haue bene ministers and assistants of Thence haue they proceeded forwarde For they were so maleperte as to counsaile King Henry to send his wife Katherine de Medicis home into Italie wherupon had not the Constable and Cardinal of Chastillon withstoode their determinatiōs she had assuredly repassed the Alpes howbeit afterwarde trusting that she should haue remained barren which was their whole desire they yet liued in hope of recouering the Counties of Prouence and Anjou yea and peraduenture of the crowne of France it selfe which was one cause of their alliāce vnto the daughter of that great Seneschal and manifest harlot through whose meanes they sought to drinke vp as with a sponge all the substance of this poore kingdome for the atteining wherunto they first procured to her the custome commonly called Tilletage which is as much to say as an incredible summe of money rising
of the renewing of the offices of the whole realme which summe if all at once it should be disboursed would surpasse the prodigalitie of al Princes that euer were hoping after her to enioye the same them selues During these matters the Lord of Reims gaping after more promotions whereby he might the better order his intents through the meanes of the aforesaid Seneschall obteyned fauourable letters from King Henry to Pope Paul the thirde who in that time curryed fauour with all Christian princes to the end through their ayde to be reuenged of the Emperour Charles the fifth for the death of his abominable sonne Peter Lewes whereby also the Lord of Reims whome the Seneschal called but master Charles filled his own bagges with the sale of his masters fauour By meanes therefore of these letters about the end of Iulie in the yeare 1547 he was created Cardinal vpon occasion whereof vnder pretence as wel of the Council of Boulogne as also of many other affaires which him selfe deuised he vndertooke a voiage into Italie through other two principal motions The first was for the concluding of the mariage aforesaid of his brother vnto the Duke of Ferara his daughter The other to the end to shew his persō and so be knowen in Rome whereby he might in time to come the better order his driftes and deuises Being there he tooke vpon him the title of Cardinal of Anjou but into what peril through that presumptuous folly he brought him selfe most men do knowe For had not the great Seneschal stood his friend he neuer durst haue shewed his face in France any more albeit howsoeuer it came to passe he was compelled to leaue his title of Anjou beyond the Alpes and at his returne to accept the surname of his ancestours and country whereupon we shal hereafter cal him as him selfe hath especially after his vncles deceasse done the Cardinal of Lorraine At his cōming home to the court he so laboured king Henry that the Earledome of Aumale was erected into a Duchie therby to hasten the marriage of his brother Francis vnto the aforenamed Duke of Ferraras daughter which shortly after was consummate After this time began they to procure their owne aduancements and to lay the foundation of their tyrannie ouer al men both riche and poore in France We wil therefore begin with their vncle Cardinal Iohn who was the instrument to translate master Charles from the College of Nauarre vnto the Courte Not forbearing vntil that through his decease he might enriche them with his benefices they neuer left especially master Charles to pluck frō vnder his elbow al that possibly they could through a kinde of importunatenes not farre different frō meere violence This good nephue found meanes to make his vncle desirous to forsake the courte procuring vnto him such seruants as pleased him and frustrating him of those which were the most faithful vnder whatsoeuer colour he thought best and delt with him in such maner as that to his power he stripped him euen into his shirt in so much that shortly a soden death for he liued ouer long for his nephues commoditie caried him away at his returne from the election of Pope Iulius the third in the yere 1550. At that time did his nephue become famous in Rome procuring a Cardinals hat for his brother the Cardinal of Guise the ouerliuer of al the six brethren at which time also was ended consummate the aforesaid marriage of the eldest brother vnto the daughter of Ferrara Hauing thus vnclothed their vncle before he were ready to goe to bed let vs consider how they handled him after his death This man dyed indetted vnto many marchants but especially of Paris leauing such welth in moueable goods as was great yea and more then sufficient to haue discharged al. After his deceasse his creditors drew toward his nephue the Cardinal of Lorrain who together with the Cardinal of Guise had raked vp al his liuings but himselfe alone had seased vpon al the moueables to whom he answered that he was not his heire For such men doe neuer accompt him heire who seaseth vpon the goods as the practitioners do tearme it do medle with the inheritance but him onely who saith I am he But now no man spake that word for the Cardinal of Lorraine ment to haue the goods of free cost and as for his brethren they would not pay because they had not the goods Againe it is not vnknowen that benefices by a certain rigour of Law are not chargeable with the dettes If therefore the said Cardinal of Lorraine had at the first willed most of them to looke for nothing yet in losing of their dettes they should haue bene good gainers for then should they haue saued both their time and cost which they wasted in wayting almost two whole yeres to know the end of this fetch which he caused one of his men to playe to whome he gaue cōmission to peruse the dettes of the party deceased and the same to verifie and set in order as he tearmed it with other such like tearmes of practise which stil were in this commissioners mouth In the meane time they do make an inuentory saith one a description saith an other a remembrance sayth another but whatsoeuer it were among al the dead mans mouables was to be found in the end nothing by the report and conscience of his nephue saue a few olde stooles and settles with a litle rotten tapestrye good to make sport with al which to be briefe was the whole inuētory of al that that the Cardinal would not haue But the sport was to heare his talke hereupon Whensoeuer the merchants of Paris came in his presence Me thinketh would he say these fleas do bite me an other time Tush they be Englishmen Saluters or giuers of good morowes Againe comming to the particulars To one he is an vserer of Paris to an other he hath not yet deliuered his wares to an other he sould it for six times more then it was worth to another he hath receiued some money in part of payment to another Nothing is dewe signifying you get nothing which title comprehended the greatest nomber But vnto those to whome he shewed greatest fauour he vsed to say Help to paye your selues not meaning Hold forth your hands and take but giue and acquite For when a man had forgiuen halfe or two third partes yea three quarters and more yet looking vpon his booke he should finde no more receiued then that which he had acquitted and forgiuen And for the rest Aske would he say some composition some right or priuiledge or some other thing of the King and I wil healpe you vnto it which was as good as if he should haue sayd to the merchāts Go euery one of you kil one or two and I wil procure your pardons for the sale of the settels stooles and tapestry was put of vntil the day after domes day Wherevpon two notable
marchants among other beholding this shamefull dealing did after diuers motions finally offer to acquite the party deceased of al his dettes for one quarter or at the most a third part of the yerely reuenue of al his benefices and yet could come to no end part of them neuertheles did finally obteine some a quarter others a fifth part others a tenth part some more some lesse but the greatest number coulde get nothing at al. And yet for so much as ech one did acquitte al or at the least the most part were driuen to giue acquittance as for money receiued to what end ech one may sone perceiue namely to defraud the creditors of their honour the Cardinal of the remembrance and thinking vpon their liberalitie Thus by litle and litle he dispatched away the Marchants of Paris and such others to the end the more easily to fight against the mightiest and generally against al the estates of the realme whome he and his brethren must necessarilie subdue before they can attaine to touch the white whereat they do leuel their shot They had wrested a promise from King Henrie whiles he was Dauphine whereby when he were King the Countie of Prouence and Duchie of Anjou should returne into their hāds But because the General de la Chesnay had therfore clawed them to the quicke that matter lay stil vntil the Kings entrie into Anger 's for then they begun afresh to quarel this Duchie desiring the only title thereof for one of them Howbeit one only frowning looke of the Constable did quite so ouerthrowe them that from that time they neuer durst once open their mouthes any more for that matter In the meane time therefore they went another way to worke which was by seeking openly to become princes both openly secretly to suppresse the princes To which effect their practises haue bene of long continuance and as strange as possibly might be as by the onely historye of the late Prince of Conde is most euident and our selues wil heere and there shew by diuers particularities worthy to be remembred First in as much as neither the worthines of their blood neither their family could preferre them before diuers french gentlemen but only the prerogatiue of their lands therfore to couer the default of their race they haue caused to erect their simple baronages into Duchies prīcipalities Marquisates and Counties which is the thing that hitherto hath blinded the eyes of the commons who are vtterly ignorant of matters of estate Secondly they haue endeuoured to make the estate of the Peeres for the Cardinal was one equal vnto the Princes yea euen to preferre the said Peeres before the Princes whereupon happened in the yere 1551 a notable matter as thus The court of Parliamēt of Paris had sent six of the chiefest members of their body vnto King Henry to vnderstand his wil and pleasure concerning certaine articles whereof one was The second point is to enquire of the King whether it be his pleasure that my Lordes the princes of the blood with other great Lords entring into the said Courte may weare their swordes For time out of mind that hath bene lawful for the King onely as an especiall prerogatiue of his Royal dignity who hath the hād of iustice as being iustice himself mainteyning in assured safety the ministers of the same And notwithstanding sundry times some princes or lordes haue entred with their swordes that hath bene only when comming sodenly they haue founde the dore open or els by entring at vnwares either haue so done by the Kings expresse commandement at such time as he hath bene displeased or prouoked to wrath against his said Court vpon some other occasions whereof neuertheles no rule or custome ought to take place For contrariwise the late King Francis when he was Dauphin together with the Lord Charles of Bourbon comming in left their swordes at the dore which order King Lewes the twelfth caused stil to be obserued This iudgement of that courte which according vnto right and equitie preferreth the princes before al lords whomsoeuer togither with the sitting to this day obserued in the same and the arrest pronounced against their father did so grieuously moue the Lords of Guise that to the end to breede some debate contrarietie betweene the iudgement of the King of his said Court of Parliament also to augment their owne credit and so by litle and litle to exalt them selues aboue the Prīces they closely practised that wheras the secretary accōmodating himselfe vnto the request of the court the order in the same obserued had in his rowl as hīself hath since testified named the princes first they were neuertheles in the Kings answere placed after the Peeres in maner folowing The Kings pleasure is that when soeuer in his absence the Peeres of France the princes of the blood the Constables and Marshals of France shal come enter into his Court of Parliament into the chamber of Audience whether the dores be open or shut they shal neuertheles stil weare their swordes the which the said King meaneth not that any other of what estate or calling soeuer he be shal doe Giuen at Fountainebleau the last day of August in the yere 1551. signed Henry and contresigned Du Thier. Thirdly they practised a wonderful subtiltie whereby with the time to yelde a kinde of prescription vnto such principalitie as they sought to vsurpe which was in seeking to allye themselues on al sides in the most high and riche maner that possibly they could and so to slyde in among the princes and beare the like port as they As also at the entry of King Henry into the towne of Suse Francis Duke of Guise presumed to marche cheeke by ioule with the King of Nauarre the first prince of the crowne Also at king Francis the second his first comming forth of his chamber in his mourning weed the said Lord of Guise intruded him selfe betweene two princes of the blood to the ende with them to beare vp his traine Againe during the reignes of Henry the second Francis the second and Charles the ninth and euen at this present also euery man both hath seene and plainely may beholde with what presumption the house of Guise both haue and stil do encroche aboue the said princes of the blood whom they haue oppressed and troden vnder foot as we will more plainely declare after that we haue yet touched a few matters more tending vnto the discouery of their raging ambition in this respect Fourthly the house of Guise being thus aduanced grew very suspicious and ielouse of their honour stoutly opposing thē selues against al such as withstode their attēpts as is manifest in this The Frēchmen doe so highly reuerence their princes that as they are not to be accōpted wronged or in their honours diffamed for any thing that their said princes either doe or say vnto them so doe they also neuer set hand to their sword
they had some right vnto the Crowne they endeuoured to make thereunto by all meanes possible whereof one was by assubiecting al the worlde vnder their feet whereby although they were no Kings in name yet tarying the time they were so many times in effect In the time of Francis the first who was sufficiently acquainted with their humours they profited not greatly Afterward in the time of Henry the second their hornes beganne to shoote out for he was of a milde disposition but of small forecaste and very easie to be led about by the nose and so was he afterwarde rewarded For the ambitious couetousnes of the house of Guise replenished Germanie Italie France and Flanders with blood it set to sale to the most giuer the lawes of iustice and with infinite exactions it soked the purses both of rich poore With their insolencies and cursed conspiracies they haue also defiled the Kings house wherein they haue erected the scaffolde whereupon they haue brought in the horrible tragedies of the destruction of France and there haue heaped vp the stacke of wood which them selues did afterward so sore kindle that the flames and coles thereof doe yet remaine But this we must by litle and litle ouerlooke wherein we are to recite worde for worde the lamentations that haue bene made and published long since The great King Francis had lefte France in reasonable good estate but the house of Guise smelling out a thousand commodities arising vnto them selues by the warres could not suffer the Realme to continue quyet It was vnto them a gate to aduancement as was euident by the heate and violence of the eldest and third brother whom the Cardinall neuer doubted to hazarde knowing that howsoeuer things chanced his enterprise would counteruayle them again in case they were more happy then wise it were an assured meanes to exalte him selfe euen to the hiest place that might be but if they chanced to be slaine their death should serue as a bridge for the rest to passe ouer further so him selfe moreouer hauing the chiefe superintendence ouer the treasures of the Realme it was more easy for to fish in pudle then in cleare water Besides all this the Cardinall perceiued that by one kinde of meanes he might both obteine the fauour of those of whose quarell he entended the commoditie of his owne race at the coste of the poore commons and also shoulde diminishe the Kings forces whose crowne he wished to behold vpon his brothers heade with the triple Papall crowne vpon his owne Finally this was also the assured meane whereby he might hazarde the King the Princes of the blood and all other of whose destruction depended the increasing of his honour and power These were therefore the goodly occasions of this long and cursed warre which hath bene dispersed ouer the whole Realme whereunto it was no mastery for them to frame the Kings minde being of him selfe but of small experience and at his atteining to the crowne desirous of newe honour and conquest ouer the sworne enemie of France who at that time hauing as it was thought subdued Germanie seemed terrible to this Realme vnlesse such his driftes as he might haue practised there against were speedily cut of to which end there were three especiall occasions offered which greatly might hinder him The first was the breaking of of the Council of Tridente whose auctoritie the Emperour vsed in the vniting of all Germany vnto his deuotion whereby he might afterward both in Italie and other where doe what him selfe thought beste The seconde was the vndertaking of the restauration of the house of Farneses whom the Emperour had expulsed out of Plaisance The third was the practising of the Elector Maurice and the Marquise of Brādebourges armie who lying at the siege of Maydenbourg were greatly moued against the said Emperour for the detaining of the Landgraue of Hesse witn whom there was some likelyhood that the sonne of the said Landgraue and other Germane Princes would easely ioyne And notwithstanding that all these three deuises were vtterly repugnant to the Cardinals former profession which was to be accompted as an assured pillar of the Catholike faith seing that by the first he hazarded the King and whole Realme into danger of the Popes curse and excommunication and so manifestly did withstand the magnificence of the Apostolike seate whereof he counterfeited so earnest a defender by the seconde he troubled the quiet of all Europe and by the third did openly ioyne the King in league with the Lutherans who by that meanes should haue better opportunity to multiply and strengthen them selues then euer before all which notwithstanding this fatall enemy both of God and man would not therefore quayle or giue ouer his purpose in any of them all but motioned King Henry ouer whom he in effect reigned to practise them all one after an other This was the originall roote of the protestation against the Councill and of the warre of Parma vndertaken against the Pope for the appetite of this proppe of the Papaltie and at the excessiue charges of our poore Realme all for the commoditie of a bastarde childe who since hath giuen vs a rewarde correspondent to the expectation of all wise men Hereof proceeded the first causes of all the most wofull and lamentable calamities that euer our poore Realme of France did endure for it was finally expedient that this impostume should haue an issue and that these furies should raise a ciuill warre in Germany by the which notwithstanding that God hath chastised the iniquities of manye yet haue there thereof proceeded so many mischiefes and murders that it is to be marueiled that the Turke hath not yet taken holde of this occasion and so passed ouer the bridge which the house of Guise haue builded and so come euen into our bosoms From this roote proceeded their voyage into Germanye whereas they missed of their purpose for God would not permit that countrey to come in their clawes howbeit such was their cruelty that their owne country of Lorraine was the first that felt the force of their rage receiuing therein a meete reward for bringing forth such children into the worlde Their first enterprise there was so to be reuenged vpon the Dutchesse the widow of Francis and mother vnto Charles now Duke who had disdayned them that thereby they hoped to haue intrapped the whole Duchye To which ende they dispersed abroad a thousand slanders against the said widow bringing her finally into displeasure with King Henry neuer ceasing vntil that vnder pretence of protection for the most notable mischiefes doe still beare the fayrest shew the said King had taken the yong Duke into his hands in ful hope that hauing the King fauourable vnto them the Duke Duchye as it were in their owne hands they might in time hit the marcke whereat on that side they leueled But as God in al his works is wonderful so hath he brought to passe that the Duke and Duchie
him selfe to strike his stroke vnder the goodliest pretence possible namely the zeale of Religion all which was but the destruction of Henry his estate and succession For the Cardinall hauing once rooted this principall proposition in our Kings hearts namely that they ought to strayne their consciences also that vnto Heretikes they were not to obserue any faith thereby he strooke two wonderfull blowes first he drew to him most of the Catholike great lordes especially the Constable others very affectionate protectours of France whom he made his executioners in cutting of their owne armes and legges by persecuting their fellow citizens Secondly he should thereby make away the Princes many noble lords sundry gentlemen infinite true Frēchmen who togither yelded the crowne impregnable and terrible in the eyes of their enemies But vnder these two fetches are hidden so many slights and practises as that it is vnpossible to name them all wherefore we will heare rehearse some to the ende the readers may the better call the rest to minde not forgetting how that since that the Cardinall had found this doore open neither the King neither his successours had euer any rest because they haue giuen ouer them selues vnto such pernicious counsayle as hath bene also the destruction of the Cardinall him selfe and of most parte of his abettours and supporters and vndoubtedly will in time intrappe his whole family and progenie in as much as it is the will of God the iust iudge that into the pitte which the wicked haue digged them selues shall first fall and so be ensnared in the net that they haue pitched for others and finally be strangled with the same coarde that they haue twisted for their neighbours To conclude the peace was granted to the great preiudice of France but the Cardinall forced not of the price so that it might in any wise serue his purpose The first article imported that both the Kings should procure a generall council wherewith to represse all heresies which was as much to say as after that the Pope and his adherents had concluded thereupon they should on all sides assayle the Lutherans wherein the Duke of Guise should be one of the first that should be set on worcke As for the rest of the articles they were such as that by the report of most men the Cardinall in them shewed him selfe so faithfull vnto the King of Spayne that most of them proceeded in his fauour without any or at the least with very simple controuersie And notwistanding both the Constable and Marshall of S. Andrewes were ioyned in commission with him yet did both he and Granuelle extremely prosecute the King of Spaynes cōmoditie As for the Constable notwithstanding he plainly beheld the open wrong offered to his master did somewhat smell out the Cardinals intent yet through an earnest desire which he had to returne into France there to represse through his credite with King Henry the ambition of the said Guisians who in his opinion tooke their flight ouer high the effects whereof were partly discouered in the practise of the mariage of their niece for he began to feare least this fire should take such hould as that in time it could hardly be quenched did therefore easely permit him selfe to be drawen away after the Cardinals lure in these affaires And the Marshall of S. Andrewes was no such man as durst withstand the Cardinall for hauing obteined his honour through such meanes as al men wot it was no newes though his mind were seruile and his hearte of smal force or courage Also although the Cardinall mistrusted that the Kings earnest affectiō vnto the Constable would procure that presently vpon his returne he should becom especiall principall counsaylour vnto him yet accounting the peace as the briefest and most ready way to hasten the course of his thoughts he earnestly pursued the publication thereof About the same time the Protestants through the fauour of sundry great lordes and iudges of the realme began to looke abroade and lift vp their heades but the Cardinal presently caught hould of this occasion thereby to further his intents His determination therefore was to quayle the vpright iudges hereby to discouer the best affected to the end to triumph either in suppressing their constancie or els in rooting them out to plant men of his owne begetting in their roomes whome afterwarde he might gouerne as he liste and through whome he also might vndermine al other proceding on stil he knoweth that the protestantes must either forsake their religion or els mainteine the same The forsaking of it is the meanes at better leisure to bring them into bondage and fleze them The mainteining of it must consist in the support of the mightie and men of authoritie who thereby shal consequently be excluded the court and al affaires of estate whereby he his supporters shal beare such sway as finally no man shal be so bolde as to withstand him he moreouer assured him selfe in such wise to prouoke King Henry against the mightiest that the place should remaine empty for him and his brethren of Guise He thought this also a very honest opportunitie to trippe the Constable by reason that his nephewes of Chastillon together with the King of Nauarre and the prince of Conde being wrested from him vnder pretence of religion he should lose the principal stay of his force Herevpon he striketh one of his greatest strokes against the Courte of Parliament of Paris beginning first with the President Seguier who was gone to the court there to sue for the pay of certaine pension due vnto him and his companions For when he had pronounced his oration before the King the Cardinal stepping forth said vnto him I suppose not that any man seeketh to stoppe your wages prouided that your selues do faithfully execute your vocations and then hauing sharpely rebuked in the whole body of the Parliament their wincking at the forming of proces against the said protestants caused the King bitterly to reproue thē and to command them to cal the Mercurial which was the very net wherwith to entrap the hardiest And hauing in the parliament many assured seruants through their reporte he so enflamed the King that he determined personally there to assist wheras hauing by course heard the definition of euery man he emprisoned Anna du Bourg and other coūsellers This was the Cardinals proceeding against the fairest pearle in King Henries crowne procuring vnder the beautiful pretence of Religion the notablest company that was in any place to be found by litle and litle for the most part to be conuerted into a troup of slaues deuoid of al other honour sauing the robe and outward countenance so that among al the mischiefes which euer the Cardinal wrought in France this hath bene one of the principal Also God iustly moued against such confused abuses as then began to take roote especially Atheisme Magick vniustice whoredomes with other infamous dealings began to execute
his iudgements whereof the Guisians toke occasion the more to trouble the estate For King Henry dyed sodenly being one of the chalengers at the tilt with the Duke of Guise who followed him at the stripe wherof he receiued his deathes wound We haue already plainely perceiued how by the warres of Picardie and Italie the Guisians emfeblished the estate of King Henry Now let vs therefore marke their dealings toward this princes person as wel in his life time as also at his death This Prince naturally was milde courteous as al men do knowe but in briefe they marueilously altered his nature so that had he liued any longer the peace with the King of Spaine would haue hatched terrible tragedies in this kingdom Before his comming to the crowne he was committed to the gouernmēt of the Cardinal who sought only to corrupt and spoyle him becomming his baude and minister of amorous behauiours The very stones cabbins and hangings of the house of Reims wherein infinite whooredomes haue bene committed doe yet speake of the same yea not content to entertaine about his person the Duchesse of Valentinois to the Queenes great griefe and spite they did through other inferiour seruants entise other ladies gentlewomē on al sides to the end through such accursed meanes to winne the fauour of this prince through the losse of his soule We wil not here speake of the filthie and foule adultery which they procured him to commit at his returne out of Piedmont while he was yet Dauphine neither of that that they haue brought vnto him such as belonged very neere vnto them selues to the end he might take his pleasure with them that is pollute him selfe in sundry and strange wise How oft hath the Cardinal fretting at his brother the Duke of Guise said vnto him that neuer uckold sung faire song Let others weye with them selues whom he touched Peraduenture Henry had companions but he was the first lost in these filthinesses through the dealing of these men Hereof it came that for the destruction both of his body and soule soone after his comming to the crowne they inuented a thousand meanes to entertaine him in wantonnes and turning his minde from God in succession of time to set al in trouble whereby themselues might fish the better We must therefore view some particularities Queene Katherine de Medicis remained barrein sundry yeres wherof King Henry being yet Dauphine was very sorowful These our lords hereupon hauing brought in the Seneschal endeuoured to procure Henry to send home his wife into Italie Yea once at Rossillon vpon Rosne they helde a great parliament in ful determination to send home this Queene who afterward was wel assisted by the Cardinal of Chastillon in the same matter Then seemed she an earnest Christian on the one side the Bible was stil vpon the table wherein sometime her selfe read sometime she caused others to reade On the other side it chanced that vpon the commandement of the great King Francis Clement Marot had translated thirtie psalmes into French which were set in musicke by sundry good musitions for both the King and the Emperour Charles the fifth had allowed of this translation as appeared both in their wordes and rewards But whosoeuer loued or feruently embraced them ordinarily either singing or causing them to be soung this yong Prince Henry then Dauphine was nothing behind wherupon the Godly praised God and his minions yea the Seneschal her selfe counterfeited a loue of them would say to him My lord Shal not I haue this you shal giue me that if it please you Wherby sometimes he had enough to do to satisfie both his own fancy and theirs also Howbeit he especially kept for him selfe the hundred eight and twentieth Psalme beginning thus Blessed art thou that fearest God c. Whereto himselfe set a tune both verie pleasant and correspondent vnto the wordes The same did he so often sing and cause to be sung that euery man might thereby perceiue howe desirous he was to be blessed in stocke as that psalme doeth importe Shortly hereafter the Dauphine multiplied in children but her husband Henrie in steade of acknowledging such a benefite began to followe the abominations of this villanous Seneschal doing worse then before so that I may as I suppose say this blessing was turned into a curse wherevnto the Cardinal of Lorraine was a fit instrument For he perceiuing that Henrie delited in these holie songs which are the bulworkes of chastitie and capital enemies vnto al filthines fearing lest thereby with the time he might be wonne the better to loue his wife and to send away his harlot and so consequently the credite of my Lords of Guise being builded vpon so filthie a foundation shoulde fall downe began first to reproue the translation and then the Psalmes them selues substituting in their steades the lasciuious verses of Horace together with other foolishe songs and abominable loue matters of our French Poets whome he brought into credit Then began Ronsarde Iodelle Baife and other vile Poets to come into estimation And God no longer permitted his Name to be so prophaned but plucked away his praises to the end to commit them to the mouthes of infants and babes The Psalmes and Marot him selfe were together banished Al kinde of vile songs and lasciuious musike tooke place through the especial fauour of the Cardinal the Mecenas to al these villanous inuenters And the better to end al their labour they through the Seneschal tooke from the King al godly musike and depriued the Queene of her chaplaine Boteyler who in those daies preached the word syncerely giuing vnto King Henrie a Sorbonical doctor of their owne a man both ignorant and wicked euen to the end and so plucked out of his heart that litle sparke of godlines which peraduenture was entred therinto Afterward they became King Henries companions especially after he was King yea in more wise then honestie could endure Here therefore to rehearse and stirre vp such villanies it were but to much to trouble the readers Let such therefore as can call to minde all the time passed since the yere 1550. euen vnto death with me reduce before their eies the wicked practises which the Guisians haue practised vpon this poore Prince First in the destructiō of his soule maintaining a harlot in his bosome and behauing them selues so vnworthilie in his seruice as that willingly I wold to God I had neuer heard speaking thereof The verie tablets made and presented vnto the Cardinal him selfe together with his countenances and maners of behauiour haue sufficiently shewed it Againe what goodnes haue they done to the Queene Nay what euil haue they not committed against her Henrie left foure sonnes aliue First how they dealt with Francis we shal presently perceiue What confusions haue we through their meanes bene tossed withal during the raigne of Charles Or if the Cardinal liued how would he handle Henry the third through the meanes of Queene Louyse
of Lorraine Loued he the Duke of Alenson Nay but contrariwise at the Kings departure into Poland he defrauded the said Duke of the lieutenantshippe conferring the same to his nephue the Duke of Lorraine and vnder colour thereof gouerned more malepartly then euer before But al these iniuries do require a more exact discourse which hereafter we will looke vpon Thus therefore hauing scorned Henrie and al his they haue replenished his house with abominations and his realme with troubles they haue destroyed the mightie entrapped the meane sort and brought al things into such confusion that in mans iudgement the kingdome is past al hope of restauration or being reduced to anie smal forme of the pristinate and auncient glorie In this Prince Henrie the seconds life time also they began to note out such of his seruants as displeased them dispersing some of them abroad bringing others into displeasure remouing frō the King his faithful counsailers bringing in their own minions bondmē through whose meanes this Prince was persuaded that the Lords of Guise were his most trustie and faithful seruants who sowed dissension among the other Princes and great Lords to the end that drawing the one partie vnto their side they might with the lesse labour destroy the other All these particularities shal better be seene hereafter in their order whereby these iniuries shal plainely be perceiued At this present thus much we wil say which also al true Frenchmen wil stand vnto that considering the breuitie of King Henries life he did them in so short time more good then anie King his predecessor did euer vnto al his whole houshold together he suffred more he bare more with them indured more sorowe grief vnduetiful behauiours losses and hinderances by them then euer master friend or father susteined at the hands of their seruants companions or children For besides that while he liued they infinit waies and times turned away from him seking the destruction of both his bodie and soule to their powers they haue also contaminated his house marred his children and consumed his people euen at his death they haue shewed what regard in his life time they had vnto him We heard before how the eldest brother perceiuing the death of the great King Francis at hand scorned him calling him yoncker They al now haue bene nothing behind but haue vttered many more signes of disobedience and of their trecherous hearts toward King Henrie at his death who was their especial friend natural Lord and mightie benefactor What a sight was it to the French nation bewayling the so vntimely and vnlooked for death of their Prince to beholde at the same instant of his deceasse the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine with ioyful countenances taking their yong King and nephue and transporting him from the Tournelles vnto the Louure Yea there was one who semed to name that day and that not impertinently the Euen of the feast of three Kings For there was no man so ignorant but that viewing these Lordes on horsebacke might wel iudge that France should now haue the King inheritour King in name only and the two Lords of Lorraine Kings in effect or at the least two craftie and cruel tyrants a since they haue manifested them selues Moreouer it is the duetie of the great chamberlaine to take the charge ouer the dead Kings corpes vntil it be buried Now the Duke of Guise was great chamberlaine for he had euen in maner forcibly taken the same office from the house of Longueuille Who then letted the Duke of Guise and Cardinal of Lorraine hauing a King at their deuotion yea if we may so say at their commandement from doing their dueties but that needes they must presently forsake the corpes as some filthie carrion What may be said of them that so shamefully abandoned the corpes of their King and Lord nothing caring or thinking vpon the garde and burial of the same for the which cause both the Constable and al other the Kings trustie faithful seruants remained stil behind Yea if they had but stayed vntil the bodie had bene colde and assuredly dead or at the least if they had but shewed some countenance of sorow Howbeit peraduenture this inhumanitie proceded of that they had gotten some inckling that King Henrie was minded to driue them away presently after the triumphes and feastes were ended or rather their owne ambition permitted them not long to deferre the discouerie of that which their hearts conspired which was vnder the name of their nephue Francis to raigne ouer vs waiting better occasion to proceede Well peraduenture they dealt better with Francis the second and so behaued them selues that now they deserued to haue their former offences concealed Let vs therefore see whether it be so or not This yong Prince being sixteene yeres old at the most reigned scarce seuenteene moneths fully but we may say and lye not that neuer Realme in seuenteene moneths space was so shaken as our poore France all through these mens ambition yea I dare affirme that in case God for the iust punishment of our sinnes had prolonged the said Francis reigne other seuenteene moneths the house of Valois had vtterly lost the crowne and the whole nobilitie might well haue prepared them selues vnto death or other strange bondage and violences The people the officers of iustice and euen the Clergie them selues could haue assured them selues of no other then most horrible tyrannie To the end therefore that all this may the more euidently be perceiued let vs marcke the ordering of the Realme in the said seuenteene moneths space First they rauished the King out of the handes of the Estates of the Realme and officers of the crowne conueying him euen at the houre of his fathers death into the Louure with his brethren mother and wife There they so warely watched him and diligently kept him that no man might come neere him vnlesse some of the Guisiās were at hād At the same time also began they to be called the Kings kepers They driue away the Constable and others they send away the Princes of the blood one to carie the order into Spayne an other to conduct the lady Elizabeth another to confirme the peace in Flanders and finally vsed them as we shal see comming to speake of their dealings toward sundry Princes of the blood They take or rather wreste from them the dealings in the affaires of estate for when the Parliaments had sent their deputes to the King he gaue them to vnderstand that his two vncles the Cardinall of Lorraine and the Duke of Guise had the whole dealinges commanding that thence forth all men should resorte vnto them in all matters touching the estate of him and his Realmes and dominions charging all men to obey them as him selfe Here you see them by their owne instrument declared Kings for this yong Prince being of no experience and miserable in that he was lincked in to such companie said and did nothing
condemned to be beheaded confessed maintained and affirmed euen vntil his last gaspe that the Cardinal had caused to giue this commission both to him and manie others Al which notwithstanding they bent against the Protestants and although that a moneth or fiue weekes before they had published a sufficient rigorous Edict against the said Protestants yet did the Cardinal now set on a fresh onset of three Edictes in Nouember 1559. In one of the which these wordes were expressed That in the assemblies both by day and night of the Protestants not only the vse of the Romish church was villanously prophaned but also that ther were sundrie vile wordes both infamous and reprochful against the King and such as in deede tended only to the encouraging of the commons to sedition were there also dispersed and spred abroade But al this serued onely to prouoke sundrie persons yea such as were indeede enemies to the religion and to moue them to suspect that there was other matter then religion which in this point as also in manie others serued but for a shadow In the meane time the Guisians raised such a blotte vpon their nephue that although he were no leper yet after those reportes he lost most part of his reputation Hereupon also arose two new accidents which brought the Cardinal againe out of temper the one was because the president Minard one of his slaues of the Parliament of Paris was slaine with a dagge by vnknowen persons another was that one of his good seruants named Iulian Ferme was also killed neere vnto Chambourg where the King was This Ferme was departed to carie manie remembrances to Paris concerning the making of the processes of diuers of the greatest Princes and Lords of the realme togither with manie notable persons fauourers of the religion The Cardinal therefore taking his aduantage of these occasions gaue a new onset with this slaunder aforesaid vpon the Protestants and by letters patents forbiddeth the bearing of armes more straightly then before through such reportes bringing the King into the hatred of the people which neuer was wonte so to be suspected During these affaires namely the three and twentieth day of December the Counsailer du Bourg was put to death togither with sundrie other Protestants in diuers places to the great displeasure and griefe not onlie of sundrie Frenchmen but also of manie forraine Princes Howbeit al this is nothing in respect of such confusions and mishappes as the Guisians did afterward entangle the King and his dominions in For their dealings openly importing tyrannie their vsual threates against the mightiest in the realme their setting backe of the Princes and great Lords their despising of the estates of the realme their corrupting of the chiefest of the iustices who were reduced to the deuotion of these new gouernours the reuenues of the kingdome at their commandement deuided and giuen where they pleased as likewise were al offices and benefices and to be briefe their violent regiment being of it selfe vnlawful had altogether prouoked moued such hatred against thē both of great and smal that thereof proceeded the enterprise wherof la Renaudier was captain in the name vnder the aduow of the second Prince of the blood the handling breaking whereof we wil more largely declare in the title of their behauiours to the nobilitie At this present let vs marke how at that time they mocked the king and his estate A certaine aduocate of Paris named des Auenelles had warned them that there were certaine practises in hand against them wherevpon they vsed the helpe of the Queene mother in calling the lords of Chastillon to the court where by their aduice they framed a new edict in the Kings name in the which they qualified the rigours of such as before stoode in force against the protestants This did they only to the end to breake of the said enterprise minding incontinently after to reuoke the same as by particular letters they certified their bond slaues of tne Parliament of Paris whereas this edict was immediatly published and the qualifications inregistred in the secret register in such wise neuertheles that some counselers so farre forgat themselues as to say that it was but a false trap to catch the protestants in This was their dalying with the Kings faith bringing vpon our Kinges an infamous blot blemish namely to be periurers and vnfaithful In the meane time hauing fresh aduertisements instead of thinking vpon their regimēt or effectually declaring that they ment not to be such mē as hitherto they had bene reported either that they sought to treade downe the Kings authority they now gathered power on al sides gaue money out of the Kings coffers to Auenelles and other spies sent men of warre euery way and kept the king in the middest of them selues procuring during these broyles certaine letters whereby the Duke of Guise was made lieutenant general for the King with al absolute authoritie then was there no talke but of putting al to fire and sworde and slaying of infinite noble men and gentlemen and so blemishing the name honour sight reigne of this yong King with the most horrible cruelties that euer were knowē for the firmament earth sea shal be witnesses of the barbarousnes of these monsters who haue replenished al France with blood the heauēs with witnesses and iudges and the earth with complaintes Their trechery appeared in that they would neuer permit the King to heare as he ought to haue done the iust complaints of his subiects whom they so villanously entreated before his eies He oft demanded euen with teares what he had done against his people why they should be so moued against him for these Lords stil blew in his eares that they sought to slaye him and vnder pretence thereof had enuironed him with troupes of armed men gathered from among the worste members of the whole realme whome since they haue continewed to the end to keepe themselues about our Kings whose dignitie they haue thereby conuerted in to I wot not what kinde of Persian pompe or Turkish terrour and said that he would gladly here their complaintes reasons yea sometimes he would say to his good vncles I wot not what these commotions meane I heare say that you be they whō the people is offended withal I would to God you would for a while depart to the end we might be the better certified whether this people be grieued at you or me But as the murderer that helde his enemies father in his armes did by that meanes saue his owne life so the Guisians ioyning them selues as the yuie about the pyramide close to the yong Kings sides did conningly warde these blowes wherewith vndoubtedly they should haue bene pearced through They did therefore reiect al these the Kings wordes assuring him that neither he nor my Lords his brethren should remaine one houre after their departure because say they the house of Burbon through the support of the heretikes
hauing wrested this confession out of the Kings mouth whom herein they caused villanously to lye they did afterwarde stiffe and stoutly denie whatsoeuer might be obiected against them laying all vpon the dead mans backe offering the combate to any that woulde saye that euer they of their owne heades had enterprised any thing at all Besides all the aforesayde practises with straungers at the ende of the Estates in the Kinges name all the power of France shoulde haue bene deuided into foure partes and led by the Marshalles of Saint Andrewes of Brissac and of Thermes and by the Lorde of Aumale to make such hauocke as all the worlde may well thinke For beside the vtter subuersion of all Estates and destruction of al the mightiest and most auncient houses which should haue bene assaulted were it for their religion eyther for hauing taken the Princes parte either for hauing spoken amisse of the King with infinite suche other meanes France should haue bene reduced to the Turkes order of liuing to the ende afterwarde no man might haue had power to resist or withstande the tyrannie of the Guisians Also if through importunitie they chaunced to forgiue any it should haue bene with the condition of perpetuall ignominie Moreouer the Cardinall had vsed such diligence that there was no corner in all the Realme where he had not the names and surnames of all the inhabitants who eyther were Protestantes or of any dealing or enterprise to be able to hurt him or that had not ranged them selues after his deuotion and this had he gotten by the meanes of certayne Apostataes and secret seruantes who ordinarily went ploding about here and there to the end to sounde the heartes and willes of men insomuch that such truandes were made iudges and ordered the sentences of lyfe and death vnto all the worlde Now were they determined so to haue prouoked the people agaynst the Protestantes especially that they shoulde neede no other hangman herein it was to no purpose to say I am none for the Monkes other preachers hyred to the same purpose in going about should pronoūce the condemnations The graunting of this libertie to the common people was commonly called as a watch word The letting loose of the great Greyhound and there was no part of France which coulde haue bene exempt from this calamitie Also the King of Spaine was on his parte so forwarde according to his tyme and promise made to the Guisians that sixe thousand Spanierdes had already taken the way toward Bearn entending sodeinly to surprise the Queene of Nauarre and both her and her childrē to put to death committing like murther of her subiects as of the King of Frāces and in so doing to stay and breake the forces which were in Guyen But so soone as the Spanierd had aduertisement of the Kings death also that the Queene of Nauarre had discouered him and so fortified her selfe in her strong holdes that he should hardly without long siedge come by her not knowing what fould the affaires woulde take doubting also to haue those on his backe who had caused his troupes to come into the coūtrey among whō Monluc was one of the first vpon promise of the Countie of Arminack wherefore he retired without dooing any thing cōsidering also that such of the Kings letters wherby he had graunted thē passage through Bayonne which is one of the principall forteresses keyes of the realme whether they were many or few and his commandement to ayde them with as much victuals artillery and munition as they would require would not nowe be of any force or vertue after the said Lordes death how plaine full of threates so euer the same were If the Guisians during the yong King their nephues life behaued them selues outrageously they did not assuredly at his death recouer their honour In his lyfe time they kept him so diligently that no man without their fauour might come at him I will not here speake how they ordered him priuatly For besides that they glutted him with all fleshly pleasures before he was of age they did also replenish his houshold with corruptions and infamous dealings Also through their earnest desire that their Niece might haue issue and yet knowing King Frauncis but simply disposed thereunto in that his generatiue partes were altogither dulled and hindred they permitted many courtiers to haue her companie who did their endeuours to make her very fruitfull yet am I ashamed to know that in a certayne table which an Italian of Laques found meanes to get conueyed into the Cardinall of Lorraines chamber with certeyne letters from the Pope in steade of our Ladie of Grace wherein were the sayde Cardinall of Lorraine the Queene his Niece the Queene mother and the Duchesse of Guise most liuely set out their bodyes naked their armes one about an others necke and all their legges enterlaced togither Willingly would I haue forgotten the execrable filthinesse which I haue hearde reported of him and his brethren by such as in Francis the seconds time followed the Courte and were witnesses of such things as appeared almost manifestly in all mens eyes Francis had despised all the world to the end to honour them he had displeased all his Realme to satisfie them and to set them alofte he prepared to thrust the knife into his owne blood a man may saye into his owne bodie thereby to saue them to be briefe he had hated him selfe to loue them and abased his owne person for their exaltation and yet was there euer person dead of the pestilence whose bodie men did more abandon then them selues did this Thus it was The Custome at all tymes in France obserued after the deceasse of the Kings is such as that they whom in their liues they haue most fauoured and who especially haue had the ordering and dealing in their affayres ought to accompanie them to their graues and during the fourtie dayes that they be kept and solemnely serued wayte vpon their funeralles This ceremonie did the Guisians cause to be most straightly obserued after the death of Henrie and hereunto the Duke of Guise was in double maner holden and bounde for enioying togither with the soueraigne authoritie the great Mastership of France which doe namely binde those that doe enioye such a dignitie yet all this notwithstanding so it was that none of the house of Guise did this honour to their King and Master the husbande of their Niece who in his life time was so deare to them but by their counsaile and aduice he was both by day and night sent to be throwen into his Fathers tombe without any kinde of pompe or funerall solēnitie whereof arose a prety quippe namely that the King who was mortall enemie to the Huguenots could him selfe neuerthelesse not choose but be buried after the Huguenots maner That which brought the Guisians and their partakers to this point was the assembly of the estates where they would nedes assist for feare lest any thing should
be decreed against thē also lest their absence should bewray to all the world the difference betwene their furious and vnlawful gouernement that of the Princes of the blood of the Constable of his eldest sonne Montmorency of the brethren of Chastillon also lest by meanes hereof the cause and roote of the cōtagion which infected the cōmon wealth should be cut of which was the thing that they feared more then the plague for they saw that vnlesse they tooke some order it would be knowen that them selues were the very causes originals of disorder But which most troubled them they had a womā to gouerne whose stedfastnes they did greatly suspect by reason the Admiral was nere to the yong king her sonne to whom she seemed to yealde as much as she could passe withal for the mollifying of the Princes and Estates They douted also lest so soone as their backs were turned to the Courtward that they had giuen ouer the dealings in the affaires there would come in infinite complaints the verifying wherof neither the Quene mother neither other their friends could denie seing that the crime of treason walked to fast abroad These occasions therefore caused the Guisians to forsake ouerthrow al good lawes and vsual orders put in practise as funerals The Cardinall sought to excuse him self by the King of Nauarre and the Chastillons saying that they had so cōcluded in the counsail chamber because there was not money ynough to bestow vpon so charitable a deed although the foure score thousand frankes which he his brethren had gotten out of the money that came out of Poictou had ben more then sufficient and in deed they were openly taxed therefore For whē Sansac la Brosse had brought the body vnto S. Dionice there buried it without any solemnitie or royal ceremonies two dayes after the buriall there was founde pinned vpō the veluet hearsecloth which couered his body a litle paper with this writing Ou est messire Tāneguy du Chastel mais il estoit Frācois signifying VVhere is master Tāneguy du Chastel but he was a French man. Hereat euery mā at the first did but laugh but afterward thinking better vpon the matter they found it to be other then it was taken for This Tāneguy was charles the seuēths chief chamberlein bestowed 8000. franks vpon his masters funerals which he was not paied again vntil three yeres after he layd out this money whē he saw that al mē had abandoned his masters corps by reason al the Lords had drawen to his sonne Lewis the eleuenth who was newly entred into his kingdome being as then in the low countreis whither before through his fathers displeasure he was gone This writing therfore was interpreted as a lamētatiō made in the name of King Francis seeing him self forsaken destitute of such a chamberleyn as Tanneguy was and then saying as if he reuoked that Tāneguyes good nature dutie was not so wonderfull because he was a French man no straunger wherein the Authour seemed to note the Duke of Guise because he had wrested the office of Great Chamberleyn from the house of Longueuille Now haue we seene the euill entrie of the Guisians during the reigne of Francis the first also howe in the time of Henrie the second their ambition replenished al Germanie and Italie with blood howe their couetousnes set to sale as it were to the most giuer the lawes all iustice howe through infinite exactions it emptied the purses both of rich and poore whereof folowed innumerable calamities Then howe in the time of Francis the seconde it was to be doubted whether bare greater sway in them either rapine or crueltie True it is that the crueltie made the greater shew as we haue alreadie shewed and will agayne hereafter But in the tyme of Charles the ninth the aforesayde vices togyther with many more also all their shadowes of vertue did then as by day appeare In this place cōmeth into sight so many to true discourses that I am euē in a perplexitie not knowing which to take the number of those which presently do appeare is so infinite Of one thing I am sure and that is this that at this day there is no French man hauing any knowledge in worldly affayres but that he is able to make an other Legende of the particular actes of these Guisians in case he will take so much leysure as to gather togither all that he knoweth wherefore I hope to be excused although I doe onely set in hande this worke which requireth both more hands and wittes King Francis being dead as is aforesaid and the Cardinal when he was euen readie to giue vp the Ghost hauing procured him to vtter these words Lorde forgiue me my sins impute not vnto me whatsoeuer my officers in my name and authoritie haue done The Guisians minded to followe a new counsayle which was to put of their lyons skinne that they could no longer keepe without manifest daunger of being drawen to flaying and to put on the foxes cace Nowe therefore they determined to folowe their hunte through the Queene mothers meanes They promised her that if she will fauour them they will set to their handes to keepe her in the chiefest degree Also the more to put this hammer into her head they doe alleadge vnto her that the Princes through her wincking at matters being so euill dealt withall can do no lesse then wishe her harme seeking all meanes to bring her downe to the ende to set vp the Constable and the house of Chastillon whereby afterward to make more alterations That the estates will disgrade her vnlesse she goeth out at the back doore to meete them also although then the Guisians were excluded yet haue they so many seruants friends that for a long whyle they could withstand the Princes In the meane time that she should retayne her authoritie that when her children should come to age the gouernment of the Princes their partakers should vanish away The Queen being as crafty as they knew how to take hold of this proffer and so to get in betwene both parties that bending sometimes one way sometimes an other to this present she hath kept the place to the confusion of those who had thither lifted her Hauing thus found so good an attourney who at once reconciled them to the King of Nauarre and gaue forth speaches that she would mainteine the Guisians against all their enemies and misreporters they beganne somewhat to assure them selues Now therefore remained no more to doe but to beate downe first the Prince of Conde who would not be handled as his brother the King of Nauarre then Montmorency and then the Chastillons Hereupon came to sight the goodlyest determination for their purpose in the worlde They perceiued the number of Protestantes still to increase in all partes of France also that the Prince of Conde and the Chastillons were openly of that profession for
the Prince had made manifest declaration thereof hauing caused Genly and others to certifie King Francis that he was so in deede Yea euen in the hardest time of his affliction he draue out of his chamber a priest whom the Guisians had sent thither to singe Masse As for the Admiral he had in the full assembly at Fountainbleau presented their supplication to the King tending to the ende to obteine some Churches and publik exercise thereof He had also declared to the Queene mother that he would neuer abiure his Religion but offred to dispute against the Cardinal The lorde d'Andelot had of long time bene of the same profession and it is knowen that at the accusation of the Duke of Guise and by the solliciting of the Cardinal the late King Henry had almost slaine him when on a time he asked him if the Masse were good and that he answered that it was a prophane and wicked thing The Cardinal of Chastillon also began by litle and litle to forsake the Papaltye This then in their eyes seemed a fit occasion to bende the Constable against both the Prince and his owne nephues of Chastillon the which they artificially afterward did as shall be shewed in place conuenient They concluded therefore a while not to medle with the Religion for said the Cardinal of Lorraine as yet there were none but rascales of that profession and therefore it were best to let some great and welthy men also enter into it to the ende by their destruction to get some thing Now in making warre against the Protestantes they shotte sundry wayes with owne selfe arrowe for first they obteined the fauour of the Pope the King of Spayne and others of whom they looked for some helpe Secondly they were assured that sundry of the best townes in the Realme were so deepely rooted in Poperie that it would be harde to plucke away their olde skinne without good store of stripes also that with the least staye in the worlde they would vse all resistance possible Thirdly they knew the Queene mothers disease who woulde hardly permit her children to be brought vp in Religion for her selfe was of none at all also that such countenance as for a while she might shewe shoulde be only to the ende to winne the Protestantes and to set them against the Catholickes that whiles they were the one sorte bent against the other her selfe might rule all and so that they should haue no leysure to consider of or examine her actions They had also a number of secret seruantes who to the ende to robbe and make hauocke of the Protestantes goods woulde become most Catholicke The courtes of Parliament also were so compounded that vnlesse iustice were reformed from the crowne of the head vnto the sole of the foote the Protestantes should neuer prosper Againe hauing through the Queene mothers helpe the King and his brethren in their handes they might easely vnder that shield fight against all their enemies and in time order them as they listed yea through their ouerthrowe become mightier then euer before But yet there was one thing which troubled them namely the prolonging of time and the inconstancie of the Queene mother which the Duke of Guise more feared then any other thing togither with the Prince of Condes liuelinesse To remedye therefore all this they procured as is afore said their atonement with the King of Nauarre which was so brought about that by the same meanes he resigned to the Queene mother in presence of the Duke of Guise and of the Cardinal of Lorraine all such right as he might pretende vnto the regencye of the King and the Realme neuer to quarell demaunde or accept the same againe and thereof gaue them an acquittance sealed with his owne hande Hauing thus gotten this poinct they concluded that if the Prince seemed to deale with them he should haue to doe with so strong a match as that soone they should ouercome him also that this might be the meanes to bend his brother against him and so they should draw the one party to the Catholickes As for the Queene they determined a while to let her paunch some times one way and some times another curiously watching to what ende her behauiours would come Againe they were well assured that hauing this aduantage ouer the King of Nauarre she would so practise the estates that her auctority should be allowed of also that them selues had such parte in her that her inconstancie would turne to their commoditie also that before the yere were passed they should see some stirringes whereby to helpe them selues vp againe One parte of that whereof they perceiued some likelyhoode came to passe but in the rest they were shrewdly deceiued For whiles they sufficiently tormented the Protestantes with foure ciuill warres a horrible murder vnder Charles the ninthe fiue of them came short home and the most doulte of all remained behinde as for the most apparent of their discent who at this present is Duke of Guise he is in such estate as according to the prouerbe which runneth of such as are vpon the sea A man can not well say whether he be aliue or dead for God hath giuen him such a blow on the face that he shall remaine blasted for euer We must therefore consider what hurte they haue done to the King his Realme and them selues in all these ciuill warres and as the thunderclappes alwayes before their comming doe shew by some tokens which goe before their following to be at hande euen so the Guisians before that they shotte their thunderboults into France gaue forth certaine deafe noyses practising here and there whereby to become more furious after that they were once fortified Being deliuered of that which they most feared which was the researche for the Princes imprisonment through such assurance as the Queene mother had rooted in their heartes also being reconciled to the King of Nauarre hauing as is afore said procured the King lately deceased to declare that he of his owne absolute auctoritie had caused the Prince of Condye to be emprisoned they determined to goe to the estates there to heare what would be said and so helpe their matters as much as might be possible But before they goe any further they enter league with the Cardinals of Tournon and of Armignac the Duke of Nemours the Marshals of S. Andrewes and of Brissac the lordes of Rendan Martigues Sipierre Monluc la Motte Gondrin la Suze Sanssac Sauigny and many other lordes and captaines who hoped to become mighty riche and welthy through the ciuill warres which said the Guisians the Princes would bring in togither with the alteration of the Principalitie The voice hereof caused they to be sounded in the King of Nauarres eares who in stead of prouiding according to his duety there against began to faint and to resigne all his auctoritie as anon we will more amplye declare Therof ensued the order the one and twentieth day of December 1560.
to remit the estates vnto the moneth of May next ensuing which was the thing that the Guises especially sought for neither was the Constable anie whit sorie notwithstanding he had often protested that he was readie to giue vp his accomptes The King of Nauarre being yet somewhat affected vnto the Religion his brother the Prince of Conde and the Chastillons sought to aduance the said Religion and that they might the better do in case for a while they deferred dealing in the other point which shortly after they might neuerthelesse easely enough take in hand againe But they were deceiued through the ambition of the Queene mother the dastardlinesse of the King of Nauarre the practises of the Guisians without the Realme and the driftes of the Constable within the kingdome whom vnder colour of Religion they had separated from his nephues In this meane time the yong King and his brethren were in the Queene mothers handes who onely marked which side would be strongest to the end to the same to commit both her selfe and her children and because she had suffred much at the Guisians hands in the time of Francis the second she could nowe haue wished that the Protestants might haue bene masters being assured that she could more easily haue delt with them for she had alreadie in her hands the Chastillons The King of Nauarre suffred him self to be led euerie way and as for the Prince of Conde in case she withstoode not the amends for such iniuries as he pretended through his imprisonment to haue bene done vnto him she accompted him as hers yea she looked to finde in him a new staffe wherewith to suppresse the Guisians The Cardinal of Lorraine vnderstanding the Prince to be readie to come to the court departed from the same vnder pretence of residence in his Archbishoppricke of Reims leauing behind him his brother as a spie and others to the end to practise according as matters might fall out After that the King had wel receiued the Prince of Condie and that in ful counsel he had iustified him selfe he was permitted to sue out more ample declarations for the same purpose went to Paris Soone after this fell an other controuersie which much molested the Duke of Guise and his partakers yea without the policie of the Queene mother who at this time stoode them in good stead and sought in time to come to aide her selfe they had at the same instant bene quite vnhorsed for the King of Nauarre through the solliciting of some who sawe meetly cleare did complaine to the Queene of the too great authoritie which the Duke of Guise tooke vpon him who at al times had bene her aduersarie also that the said Duke of Guise continuing about the King he could not remaine and therefoâ—â— that it was expedient that either the one or the other departed from the Court after that the Queene had alleaged some excuses tending to the ouerthrowe of this matter the saide controuersie proceeded so farre as that the next morning the King of Nauarre put on his bootes and was readie to depart accompanied with the Princes of the blood the Constable the Lords of Chastillon and manie other great Lords Now the Queene seing that remaining among the Guisians onely the world was at an end both of her selfe and of them also for her owne conseruation fained to procure their coÌ„moditie to the end in case they yet once againe got the masterie they should not harme her She sent therefore to fetch the Constable causing the King to command him not to depart by the compassing whereof al this matter was broken of and the King of Nauarre sent to fetch backe his mulets which alreadie were gone as farre as Melun This controuersie being dispersed raised a voyce that the Queene maintained the Guisians against the Princes of the blood insomuch that the particular estates of Paris proceded and began to touch the chiefe points of the estate not forgetting the article of yelding vp the accompts The Guisians were expressely named with ful determination to seeke al meanes possible to forbid them anie entry into the priuie council before they had giuen vp their aforesaid accompts The Queene mother of the one side greatly reioyced in seeing the Guisians her chiefest enemies by this meanes in danger Againe on the other side she was in some care as concerning her regencie To prouide therefore against al inconueniences she through the aide of the Constable made a new agreement with the King of Nauarre in such wise as the said King was pleased and moued the Duke of Guise to counterfeit humilitie which he now more then vsually did put in practise She sent also for the Prince of Conde to come and seale to this accorde vsed the helpe of the Marshal of Montmorencie in amending and correcting al that had bene concluded in the particular estates of Paris touching the gouernement of the Realme The Cardinal dealt with the Queen mother in al these matters to whom he writ often and notwithstanding eche of them mistrusted other yet had they so long kept householde together that the taking of this path seemed most necessary for both their conseruations And in deede we may wel say that al the policies of the Guisians did neuer stand them in so good stead as did the only wit of the Queen mother who neuerthelesse did mortally hate theÌ„ but this shal be shewed in place more coÌ„uenient Here may we behold our poore king kingdome swimming waiting for present shipwrack for the coÌ„passing wherof the Guisians finding theÌ„selues to weake vnder preteÌ„ce of ReligioÌ„ do ioine to their faction the Constable prouoking him against his nephue the Admiral who openly professed the Gospel so do aide theÌ„selues with al conuenient policies The Marshal of S. Andrewes also herein stood theÌ„ in good stead for he did beat into the Constables head that whatsoeuer the estates had propounded concerning the reuoking of excessiue rewards the Admiral had procured to the end to bridle his vncle the said Constable and so to compel him necessarily to coÌ„sent to the alteration of Religion The Earle of Villars being moued against the Admiral for that he had reproued his euil demeanures in LaÌ„guedoc did also thrust at the same wheele so that notwithstanding whatsoeuer declaratioÌ„s or persuasioÌ„s the Marshal of Montmorency could alleage yet did the Constable ioyne to the Guisians who made their leagues to the inteÌ„t by robbing the King his realme of their faithful seruants to bring al into confusion The Catholikes finding theÌ„ selues through such leagues fortified began to rise therupon through the policies of the Guisians there was a noise raised that the Admiral had endeuoured to expel the Masse to plant the Religion in France without anie adoe The Catholikes therefore of Beauuais a bishoppricke pertaining to the Cardinal of Chastillon began being folowed by the Catholikes of Amiens PoÌ„thoise other places At Paris also were MuÌ„kes such
other trompets of seditiō who greatly aduanced the Guisians practises In deed vpon the first noise of these broyles the Kings letters patents were sent forth to al iudges royal in the Realme with straite defence that no man should molest other by the name either of Papist or Huguenot wherby to prouide for the suretie libertie of either sort The court of Parliament of Paris which consisteth most of the seruants of the house of Guise sent earnest declarations vnto the priuie council as touching this Edict but al was but a new practise whereby to shuffle the cardes as we say and so to heape one discord vpon another vnder the goodliest title in the worlde namely of Religion In the meane time the Cardinal wayted for the yong King at Reims who was brought thither to be anointed wheras the Duke of Guise was so presumptuous as to steppe in betwene the King of Nauarre and the Duke of Montpensier so to march after the King and by such sleyghtes to become equal vnto the princes of the blood There the Cardinal finding his strength sufficient hauing wonne this point to propound Religion as a cloke to his ambition did then grieuously complayne of the protestantes declaring that during the parly concluded vpō concerning the determination of these controuersies the King ought not to permit any kinde of innouation and that for the more assured prouision thereagainst it was requisite to make an inuiolable law also to the same end to assemble in the Parliament of Paris the Princes Lords others of the Kings priuie counsaile there to frame an arrest which euer after should solemnely be obserued But al this was no other sauing a newe policie whereby to hasten the practises of the house of Guise Now the Cardinal knew wel that in this assēbly of the Prelates for the determination of matters of Religion there would be nothing dispatched also that while things hung thus in suspense the King should be called vpon to permit the excercise of the Religion openly which being once granted the prince of Condye and the Chastillōs would step in afterward to withstād him for the withstanding wherof he supposed that in preuenting this parly through an other assemblie at Paris where he had men enough at commandement he might get somewhat or at the least so bend the one sort against the other that him selfe should lose nothing This was the cause of the assignation of that assemblye whereunto the Queene mother agreed almost for the same considerations and the contrary parties in hope it would redound to the commoditie of the whole realme Here may the readers consider what iourneys to and fro the Guisians practised as well within the realme as without also how they for their owne maintenance remoued both heauen and earth The Spaniarde and diuers Italian Princes were daily aduertised of the estate of the affaires and then did the Queene mother stand the Guisians in steade of a secretarie to the end to make out goodly dispatches in the Kings name against the Princes of the blood whome in the meane time they seemed greatly to fauour For at that time namely the 13 of Iune 1561. did the Parliament of Paris al the chambers being assembled in their red gownes in the great chamber of pleas in the presence of the Duke of Guise the Cardinals of Lorraine and Guise with others pronounce their sentence concerning the innocencie of the Prince of Conde also about the end of August following was the atonement made betwene the said Prince and the Duke of Guise During these matters the Edict of Iuly was published in this assemblie of the Princes and Lords of the Parliament of Paris wherby the Protestants enioyed more freedome and libertie then euer before they had had There was it againe concluded that the prelates should be called and the ministers of the Religion should haue safe conduictes to the end to seeke some meanes of agreement Then began the Cardinal to hope wel of his owne matters for he was sure to finde a readie way how to bende the Churches of the Confession of Ausbourg against the reformed Churches of France by reason of the Supper This being brought to passe besides that he should bring the ministers into derision he should also hinder the Prince of Conde and the Chastillons who openly fauoured them from all prouision to withstand such driftes and preparatiues as the Duke of Guise and his adherents began to frame wherby to giue vp their accoūts vpon the speares pointe for so they might haue no succour of the Germanes who would easilie be persuaded that al these troubles in the Realme proceeded only of Religion The Guisians would faine haue found some meanes so to bring the Prince of Condie on sleepe that he might haue bene drawen from the Chastillons But their consciences did so reproue them because of so manie displeasures as they had done vnto him that they left him being sufficiently contented with setting the Constable and others against him Howbeit before they came to handle blowes they deemed it necessarie yet to strike one stroke more They perceiued the King of Nauarre and his brother the Prince of Conde to agree wel enough and supposed as it was most true that so long as these two Princes should continue in vnitie together al the French nobilitie and communaltie notwithstanding Religion would bend to them to the end to expel the Guisians or els to bring them to accompts so consequently restore the Realme to her pristinate brightnes dignitie They also persuaded the Queene mother how dangerous the vnion of these Princes might be vnto her she therfore requested thē to prouide so much as in thē lay and promised of her owne part not to be slacke in the matter as in deede she was not but vsed such dishonest meanes as in the discourse of her gouernment are at large set downe Now the Guisians during the raigne of Francis the second had gottē to their seruice the Lord of Escars the King of Nauarres chamberlaine through the same espie had discouered al his masters secrets who finally hauing manifestly detected the said d'Escars through certaine letters which he had written did for the same turne him away Then did he halfe bend him self vnto the Guisians factiō who sent him word to endeuour to come again into fauour with his old master there to do thē such seruice as before time namely to entertaine his said master in al his pleasures doing his messages vnto the Ladies of the court so cōsequently withdrawing him frō al Religion which required an vtter abandoning vnto al wantonnes abominations therupon so many men were set on worke that finally the King of Nauarre reuoked the said Descars wherat many begā to foresee great mischiefs likely to follow and assuredly it is said that the Cardinal of Lorrain hearing of this his calling againe began to laugh as his custome was clapping one hand within the other said
vnto diuers that he had not of long time heard anie newes that more contented him Ye haue heard already how the estates holden at Orleās were proroged vnto May and afterward through diuers disturbances of such as intended to giue no account but on horseback in armour they were adiourned vnto the end of August at Pontoise where they had bene appointed There among other things which touched the Guisians but especially the Duke of Guise there present the propositiō of the lord Bretagne in his oratiō in the name of the third estate cōcerning the euil dealings of the said Guisiās did chiefly pinch them the wordes because they be notable haue we here set downe Your subiects said he speaking to the King haue bene molested with infinite subsidies both ordinary extraordinary wherupon haue ensued also the augmēting of impost the wages of fiftie thousand footmē the collations the twentie franckes vpon euery steeple in the Realme the leuie of eight crownes vpon the officers royal sixe vpō the aduocates of the Parliament foure vpō the Burgeses widowes artificers two vpon the rest of the aduocates practitioners notaries and sergeants borowed not borowed free holdes new gaines money leuied after the battaile of S. Laurence alienation of the demaines helpes gables fines taken vpō offices both olde new the suppressiō of certain of the same money for cōfirmations coyne raised vpon houses towne houses pay leuied vpon consignatiōs vessels of gold siluer billeted warlike munitions victuals for campes and armies leuied within these thirty yeres horse and furniture of artillarie erecting of sales of wine furniture apparrel and food for souldiers wages and pay for souldiers in diuers particular townes saultpeter and poulder which the people must furnish officers wages men of armes and footmen vnpayd conduct money into Bretagne with other infinite sūmes vnder sundry names and titles and al tending to the getting of your subiects money so that by reason of the said in supportable charges your pore subiects are so weakened enfeebled impouerished that at this present Sir they haue nothing left to offer or present vnto your maiesty other thē their good faithful willes They oftē haue examined them selues tryed their whole abilities in your maiesties affaires but to their great griefe they haue foūd themselues destitute of al meanes of helping or succoring you and therefore doe most desire that it may please you to deferre put of the succour which you at this time do attend at their hāds vntil some other time whē through as wel their own diligēce labour trauail sparing sobriety as also through such good entreaty as they hope for at your hands they shal haue recouered part of their former abilitie power Neither can they be perswaded considering the great subsidies of them leuyed during the reigns of the Kings your late father and brother that you can be so greatly endebted Calling also to minde whatsoeuer all auncient histories or recordes as wel holy as prophane haue left of al antiquitie as testimonies of valiant deedes they do finde that neuer any monarch King or soueraigne Prince hath died indebted in such excessiue summes as did the late King Henry your Honorable father how long or continual warres the said Monarches haue susteined or enterprised for the augmenting of the boundes and limites of their realmes and empires And to say the trueth so great and wonderful are the debts that quite emptying al the treasuries of your dominions and particularly researching euery subiect yet shal you hardely finde goulde or siluer in their possessions equiualēt vnto the said sūmes Which notwithstanding it seemeth very hard and incredible yet is the knowledge thereof more grieuous vnto your subiectes because their power is not equal to their desires This therefore hath moued them to coniecture that such great summes of money leuied among your people neuer came wholy into your coffers neither was euer conuerted to the cōmoditie of your predecessors but through vnreasonable giftes and such other meanes haue in part remained in the hands of some particular persons whose houses do now triumph and florish through the harmes of your said subiects For the reparation therefore of such former gouernment also to preuent that in time to come you fall not into any such bottomles pit of debts they do most humblye besech you to ordeine that the treasurers ouer seers of your treasury who hitherto haue had the hādling disposing of the same during the reignes aforesaid may come bring in an accōpt of their administration before such delegates as your selfe shal chuse or through the assistance of the estates euery prouince and gouernment shal name by this meanes may such be quailed and reuoked to their dueties as in time to come might cōmit the like trespas Again one of the first articles conteined in the roules which the third estate presented were these wordes That such might bring in their accompts as were accomptable had had the ordering of the treasurye for that the said thirde estate could not beleeue but that thereby sundrye great abuses might be found out also that in the meane time aswell such as were accomptable as also al other who had bene dealers in the treasurie euen being of the priuie counsaile might neuerthelesse be forbidden entrie into the said council together with the execution of their said offices vntil the said accomptes were made other where then in the chamber of accompts and in the presence of the delegates of the estates and that al restes and debtes were payed also that especial reuiew might be made of the accompts of those who had receiued the particular loanes of the sommes of eight six foure and two crownes the twenty frankes of eche steple the munitions and victuals the furnitures of the sales of wines and other necessary things for the warres the money leuied vpon the walled townes after the battaile of S. Laurence and al other extraordinary payes leuied vpon the people Also that al excessiue pensions vnreasonable giftes whatsoeuer might be reuoked without exception of any person sauing the Queene mother who had sollicited the estates to pursue these matters for the causes rehearsed in the discourse of her gouernement for that it was euident that this money had neuer bene employed vnto such vse as it had bene destined vnto namely the relieuing of the kings affaires now may we wel thinke whether these motions clawed the Guisians The Cardinal more staied thē his brother the Duke made no shew of ought as if he had sought to make ready his accompts but in the others forhead a man might reade a thousand threats against the estate of the realme the effects whereof appeared within fiue or six moneths after For their better prouiding therefore for their own affairs they determined as touching the giuing vp of their accompts that they would practise al meanes possible rather then be brought into any such necessitie also that in case
Ianuary was published by the aduise consent of the chiefest most notable persons in the Realme was the most cōuenient way to appease the tumultes and to reduce the estate vnto his pristinate beautie and renowme But the Guisians could not tolerate the same because that if all things had quietly succeeded in France they should haue bene called to their accomptes whereof none was readye except in leauying of souldiers and foreine power as well as of the Realme wherein they trauayled as followeth We haue here before seene how vnder pretence of Religion there was a barre layd betwene the Constable and his nephues of Chastillon whereby the Guisians might the more fortifie them selues and the sooner ouerthrowe the said lordes of Chastillon whom they hated and mightily feared The Constable thereby beganne by litle and litle to be offended with his said nephues but especially after he was certified that they togither with the Queene mother had bene the chiefe motioners of the estates to call for accomptes for in them should him selfe be examined notwithstanding he were not by twenty partes so deepe as the said Guisians Hauing thus wonne the principal officer of the crown they associated to them the Marshal of S. Andrewes who was as all men doe know one of the most accomptable Then tooke they counsayl among them selues wherein the Cardinal alwayes vsed this policie namely to propound Religion the better to cloke his intents made this resolution First that the superintendence of al affaires should be committed vnto the Catholike King who should in the beginning accuse the king of Nauarre as a fauorer of a new Religion should sollicite him through fayre promises to forsake all and to take the Catholickes parte In case the King of Nauarre remaine obstinate then should the Spaniard in continewing his glosing promises sometimes accompanied with threates in winter time rayse souldiers and then on a suddein set vpon him Also if there they should finde any resistance then should the Duke of Guise declare him selfe captaine of the Catholicke Confession and so goe and assayle the said King of Nauarre on another side who by that meanes should soone be ouerthrowne The Emperour and Catholicke Germaine Princes should be requested to hinder the Nauarrians of all succour The Catholickes should reteine the Protestant Switzers The Duke of Sauoye should assayle and vtterly roote out the Geneuians to the terrour of all others Thus much touching the first poinct of their league Now as for France they determined not to pardon any one who had bene knowen once to haue bene a protestante The commission for the murder was allotted to the Duke of Guise who also had the charge of rooting out the whole race of the Bourbons for feare lest in time to come any one of their progenie should haue reuenged the same murders and restored the Gospel Then should they haue raysed warre against the Protestant Princes and haue lent the Emperour and the Catholicke Princes all the money arising of the confiscations of so many Protestantes as should be murdered in France and the Cardinals Bishops and other holy fathers should be cottized to furnish the expenses of this holy warre These goodly articles did the Cardinall deuise And the Constable minding nothing but his religion was then so daseled that he could not perceiue that notwithstanding his family were not named yet the houses of Chastillon and Bourbon being ouerthrowne his race could not continue As for the Marshall of saint Andrewes he was gladde to see the accoumptes in this wise rendered for that in steade of restoring the most because he had most receiued he now hoped vpon a newe receipt and of neuer being coumptable for any thing and besides that the Guisians tended to the same ende they did moreouer perswade them selues at that blow to be bathed in all their enemies blood For the bringing therefore of these things to effect the Guisians departed from the Court about the end of Nouember manifesting their discontentation which sone after did more augment by reason of certaine proceedings houlden against the Duke of Nemours whom they had procured to steale away cōuey the lorde of Orleans into Lorraine where hauing him at their deuotion they purposed to make him captaine of their enterprise For at all assayes they sought to haue sundry strings vpō one bow because they yet knewe not which way the Queene mother would take Howbeit thinking that in case the King of Nauarre would take their parte she durst not ioyne with the Prince of Cōde for feare of being displaced they sought to bring their first purpose to passe by the ayde of Destars others through bringing him into a vaine hope of being restored to his dominions Wherunto the Pope as said his Legate who was one of the chief solliciters of the matter would assiste him prouided alwayes that the said King of Nauarre would defend the Romish Churche the effect whereof did sone appeare when the said King draue away the Ministers and reuolted from the Religion by reason whereof there fell out many doubtes about the publication and verifying of the said Edict of Ianuarye Not long before the Guisiās had written to the Duke of Wirtēberg a protestant Prince requesting him to conferre with them about the confession of Ausbourg wherein they shewed some hope of a desire to be instructed Vpon this cause they came to Sauerne not farre from Strasbourg where they had such conferēce with the said Prince about the fiftenth of February 1561 that al of them hauing protested to follow the doctrine of the said cōfessiō of Ausbourg the Cardinal hauing for the same purpose cōferred with Brentius the Duke of Wirtēberges principal Minister the Duke of Guise did finally entreat this Prince that in fauour of their Religion he would so labour the rest of the Protestāt Princes that in as much as in auncient time the house of Lorraine stil appertained vnto the Empire now in the same respect he his brethren might be aduowed for Princes of the same bearing voice in the Imperiall diets wherby they might withdraw and exempt them selues out of the king of Frāces iurisdictiō hinder such succour as the Protestant Princes might sende to them of the Religion and with the same to strengthen them selues and finally in steade of recompence afterward destroy the same Protestant Princes As this Prince was at the point according to their request to procure them to be receyued newes came into Germanie of the murder of Vassye which the Duke of Guise had executed in his returne into France from the aforesayde towne of Sauerne The Protestant Princes greatly wondered hereat and that not without cause seeing it was in maner scarce three dayes betweene the time that the Cardinal gaue with the one hand siluer and gilt cuppes to Brentius other Germaine ministers and that nowe with the other he sacked the Protestantes But they had before determined to come strongly and armed
into the citie of Paris and thence to the Court to the ende to be sure both of the towne and of the King and Queene mothers persons and so the more easely to compasse their conspiracies And to the ende to finde some honest couer for the Duke of Guises returne into France he caused the King of Nauarre to call him home howbeit he could not temper his rage vntil he came to the Court but did discharge the same vpon the inhabitants of Vassye as is afore sayde beeing garded with men of armes according to a determinatiō concluded vpon aboue three monethes before namely that euery man should entise as many Gentlemen and men of armes as was possible warning them to meete in their furniture nere vnto Paris about the beginning of March whereof the Queene mother and the King of Nauarre had bene sufficiently aduertised and yet in stede of prouiding thereagainst they deferred their matters from day to day so that eche played his parte after a strange maner and al in one tragedie The Duke of Guise met at the time appoynted at Nantueil where other his fautors did soone meete with him whose purpose a man may easely coniecture in that most of them comming thither there receyued their Easter rights put them selues in such estate as like men do vse to doe when they thinke them selues nere vnto any daungerous enterprise In the meane time the Queene mother was counsailed that for the eschewing of these troubles it were meete to keepe the Duke of Guise being armed contrary to the Kings ordinances frō passing through Paris where the Prouost of Marchants and other of the principall did wayte for him whereupon she diuers times sent for him to come to her vnto her house at Monceaux where he shold be welcome expressely forbidding him all entrie into Paris in such array for the auoyding of such inconueniences as she foresawe likely to ensue considering also the execution and slaughter lately by him committed at Vassy for the which all men earnestly cryed vpon the King and her for iustice and in respect of the same al the realme was replenished with complaintes and lamentations Hereunto the Duke of Guise aunswered that he could not come to her for that he had enough to doe to feast and to welcome such his friends as were come to visite him Then after that the Queene had the second time written to him to come he made no answere but hauing receiued his friends did according to the resolution afore taken touching their enterprise take his iourney on the one side accompanied with his adherentes came into Paris by S. Dionice gate making his entrie in open armour in which order he had still marched euen from the murder at Vassy The Prouost of Marchants and three of the Counseylours of the citie assisted him in this entrie with great companies of people and exclamations of men thereunto hyred euen as if the Kings owne person had bene there crying alowd Liue Lord of Guise whereat neyther he neyther any of his company shewed any token of discontentation The Guisians hauing strook this first stroke against the Kinges authoritie and the estate of the Realme proceeded on and in Paris beganne to holde priuate councils Hereupon the Queene mother lying at Monceaux and hauing dayly aduertisementes that the Guisians intended to sease vpon the Kinges person and her determined hastily to departe and retire into some place of assurance Shee came therefore to Melune minding to get to Orleans there to wayte in broader day light to see howe matters wente which nowe began to come to great confusion But the Guisians sent the Prouost of Marchantes to crye after her that vnlesse she returned Paris and all was lost because the Prince of Cōde was in armes the Parisians naked and he so laboured that the rebels had their weapons deliuered them whereby to fortifie the Duke of Guise and his faction agaynst their enemies and so to haue the redier opportunitie to sease vpon the Kings person Also the more to hasten their woorke they got the King of Nauarre vnto Paris for this Prouost of Marchants incessantly cryed out at the Court that the King of Nauarres presence was most necessary in Paris to represse the troubles but through the Guisians driftes al was contrarie For so soone as he was come they helde councils more narrowly then before wherein among other things they determined thorowly to assure them selues of Paris and thence to driue away the Prince of Cōde as the only hinderer of their enterprise touching the seasing vpō the King and Quene mother and their bringing to Paris to the end there hauing thē at cōmandemēt to prosecute vnder their name and authoritie their whole determinations Finally they did so much that they got the place toke the King Queene mother brought them to the Louure This done notwithstāding whatsoeuer the chācelers others declaratiōs it was fully concluded to arreare open warre against the Prince of Cōde and his adherents During these matters the Prince of Conde sent to the King his protestation and declaration conteining the causes that had moued him to take weapō namely to the end to restore the King and his mother to their ful liberties to mainteine the Edictes but especially the last which touched Religion offring to go home to his owne house in case the Duke of Guise would do the like Now the Cardinal of Lorraine his brethren and their adherents considering that nowe there were two especiall pointes which they must needes craftily cloke namely the Kings captiuitie and the breaking of the Edict of Ianuarie did diligently procure the dispatch of a declaration bearing date the eight of Aprill wherein they cause the King to cōfesse that the report of his captiuitie is a false and slaunderous lye which the Prince of Conde and his partakers haue inuented to excuse his owne dealings and that he and the Queene were in as free libertie as euer before also that of their own accorde they came to Paris there to prouide agaynst these troubles These letters were soone allowed in the Parliament of Paris where were many of the Guisians creatures The playnlier also to scorne the King and al the realme they inuented in their opinions an other crafty deuise for within eight or ten dayes after these letters they procured others wherein it was declared that the Prince of Conde vnder a false and fayned pretence of Religion was personally seased vpon by certaine seditious persons who had him now in their possession Also to the ende to haue one full blowe at the Edict of Ianuarie they in the same moneth dispatched other letters wherin in the Kinges name they gaue out that he had bene aduertised how that diuers numbers of people were retired to Orleans and other places vnder colour of a certayn pretended feare of being searched in their consciences and restrained from the benefite of the Edict of Ianuarie He therefore declareth that he
intendeth not to reuoke this Edict except within Paris the suburbs bayliwicke of the same where he will permit no other exercise then of the Romish religion These letters being repugnant to the Edict of Ianuarie were presently receiued and allowed in the Parliament This done the Guisians hauing first vsed the Cōstables ayde to strike a stroke in Paris thē the king of Nauarres helpe to driue away the Protestantes did nowe sende out the Marshal of S. Andrewes on the one side who executed cruelties sufficient and them selues on the other side gathered power euery where tooke the fieldes and vsed terrible deedes of hostilitie agaynst the Protestantes We will therefore in this place onely briefly runne ouer matters for it is enough to touche them onely by the way referring the ample discourse vnto the historie of our time First therefore they vsed the helpe of the Quene mother of the King of Nauarre of the Parliament of Paris and of their owne secret seruants in the quayling of the Prince of Condies constancie and separating him from the Lords of Chastillon whom they minded first to ouerthrowe But getting nought that way for he had discouered their embushments and had both in the Realme and abroad fortified him selfe agaynst the same they now proceeded vnto violence murdering the protestants in diuers townes of the Realme and with incredible violēce assaulting certayn places whither the sayd Protestantes had for their owne safeties withdrawen them selues And although the King of Nauarre were in name Lieutenant generall and that the Constable remayned in his estate yet did all thinges passe through the Guisians handes who in smal time raysed all the realme into armes Then the Constable the Marshal of S. Andrewes the Duke of Guise presented a request to the King Queene mother therin requiring the vtter abolishing of religion the exercise wherof had fower moneths before bin graunted That all officers of France the housholde seruants of the King his brethren sister all officers of iustice warre accompts excheker treasurie and others bearing office hauing charge administration or cōmission from the King should professe the same religion and thereof make open declaration and that al such as refused delayed or withstood the same should be depriued of their estates charges offices wages administrations and commissions That all Ecclesiasticall persons should doe the like vnder payne of depriuation of their benefices That all temples which had ben razed should nowe be newe built and satisfaction made for all damages and the pullers downe of them punished That all weapons taken without the King of Nauarres expresse commaundement should be layde downe agayne and that all men persisting in the bearing of them against the will of the sayde King of Nauarre the Lieutenant generall representing the Kings person in all his Dominions should be declared rebelles and enemies to the King and his Realme That it may appertayne to the King of Nauarre onely to keepe and assemble power in France and the same to reteine certayne monethes for appeasing of the troubles This done they promised euery man to go home to their houses yea sayde they euen to the end of the world into perpetuall exile if nede so required This did they the fourth day of May 1562. The same day they procured the King to commaund them not to depart from the Court therefore presented an other request to the Queene mother therein offering to goe home to their houses to the ende sayde they to obey the King of Nauarre Vnto these requestes did the Prince of Conde sufficiently aunswere who largely discouered the sleights of the Guisians and did dayly fortifie him selfe as well by his authoritie in this point as also by certayne letters which the Queen mother wrote vnto him cōmitting to his safegarde the mother and the children and openly enough condemning the tyrannie of the Guisians It is hard to say whether the policies or violences of the Guisians did most harme and as for the cruelties which their souldiers exercised in sundry partes of France especially the men of warre togither with some murderers in diuers townes the posteritie wil wonder more in reading the historie of the yere 1562 then we who were the beholders of such horrible tragedies as the Cardinal his brethren played to the confusion of King Charles his kingdome For in their behauiours they vsed some sleightes needefull to be marked The Prince of Condies troupes were wel armed and resolued to fight being compounded of the most valiaunt French Lordes Captaines and souldiers The Guisians therefore doubting the trial hoped by their iourneys to and fro to disperse his armie wherin the Queene mother and the King of Nauarre were emploied In the meane time they daily surprised some places which the Protestants helde gathered vp money called strangers out of all countreyes to the spoyle and seeing themselues at the point to be beaten about the ende of Iune through the ayde of the King of Nauarre they obteyned truce and within two dayes after the Duke of Guise departed from the campe at Baugencie with diuers others whereupon they immediatly sent the Prince of Conde worde that according to his request the Duke of Guise his partakers were returned to their owne houses Nowe was the Queene mother instructed what communication she should vse toward the Prince of Conde and the rest of the protestāts as did manifestly appeare in a letter which the Duke of Guise wrote to his brother the Cardinall of Lorraine dated the 25. day of Iune which being surprised to the ende the playnlier to set forth these good peoples wittes I haue here inserted as foloweth I doe sende vnto you writeth he this bringer with all speede to let you vnderstande that yesterday al things were agreed and I may say vnto you that some are farre wide of their accomptes Our mother the Queene and his brother the King of Nauarre sweare no other but by the faith that they owe vs also that they will take no counsaile but of those whom you wot To conclude the reformed Religion in well gouerning our selues and standing stifly vnto the ende as we wil do wil come to nought and the Admirals partie be as euil handled as it possible Al our power remaineth whole theirs is broken and their townes yelded without any speach of either edictes or preachings or administration of Sacraments after their maner The next day after the Duke of Guises and his partakers departure the Prince of Cōde went to submit him self in the hands of his brother the King of Nauarre and of the Queene mother at Baugency passing through the midst of the Guisians armie to the great daūger of his own person The Quene mother being come to Talsy a village hard by did there sufficiently giue to vnderstand to the Prince of Conde the Admirall and other Lords whom she had sent for thither that her self was the Guisians assured instrumēt wherby to mainteyn
support troubles and partialities in the realme For she told them flatly that they must not loke to haue the edict of Ianuarie obserued neither that in France should be any other religion vsed then the Romish also that the Catholiks were so strong therwith so chafed especially at Paris that without further tumults the said edict could not be kept wherfore they ought to be content in being tolerated to liue quietly in their owne houses without any slaunder or being searched in their consciences prouided alwayes that they practised no preachings administratiō of the Sacraments or other exercises of their religion The Guisians also remēbring how diuers times before the said Prince of Cōde his adherents had declared which lāguage they now also vsed vnto the Queene that rather then for their partes to agree to the forcing of their cōsciences or to tolerate any thing contrary to Gods honour or his worde they would depart the realme incurre perpetual exile did now expressely aduertise the Quene that at this parly she should reduce thē againe to the same cōmunication then take thē at their word which she both promised and diligently brought to passe For hauing declared to the Prince his partakers that their protestations touching the maintenance of the edicts religion were not receyueable she did very liberally yelde to the other point namely that their best was to withdrawe them selues out of France promising to procure vnto thē as well generally as particularly al such letters of assurance as thē selues would deuise then accōpting her self assured of their departure she began to discourse with thē vpō the time whē the king should come out of his nonage shewing them that there were some who threatned to cōtinue it vnto the twentieth yere of his age notwithstāding she were determined at the four tenth yere to proclayme his maioritie alleadging that she assured her selfe that in case any man sought therein to contrary her the said Prince the rest would not faile but come to her ayde and assistance Yet was she not content so accursedly to mainteine both the Guisians her owne ambition but that she must needes the same night after she came from Talsye dispatch Ramboillet to the ende in the morning to be at the said Princes vprising to hastē the departure of him his to bring her worde of the assured houre time of their said departure out of the Realm writing vnto the said prince that she would send him ten thousand crownes to what part soeuer he wēt therin manifestly declaring her self the instrumēt of the said Guisians wherwith to banish him so that hereby euery man may perceiue what way poore France was like to goe through such accursed gouernement The Prince hereupon returned with such lords as acompanied him into his owne cāpe hauing first reueiled to the Queene mother certain of the Guisians practises whereby they endeuored to haue apprehended him in his returne from the said parlye which he had discouered But all this notwithstanding they were so wide from quayling his constancie that contrariwise being fully resolued to mainteine the liberty and lawes of his countrie and to doe his duety vnto God the Church against the enemies he twise offered them battayle But the Duke of Guise and his friends who so greatly before trusted in their power knowledge and experience as to presume to say euen before the Kings face that with three hūdred men of armes they would not fayle but so beate the Huguenots that for their safety they should haue enough to doe quickly to get into the corners of the Realme then with all the power that they could get in seuen or eight dayes togither with such forces as they gathered vnder the Kings name and auctoritie could not now otherwise shifte but by stealing away and in the night departing vnto Bloys a towne of no strength where they found the poore inhabitants vtterly disarmed of whom some they murdered some they drowned violating women and maydens and committing wonderfull hauocke and thence hauing that passage open they went and sacked sundry other townes and forraged a great parte of the Realme The Cardinal also togither with the Popes Legat followed the army to the armye whereby to preuent all meanes of agreement to mainteine the troubles wherof we neede no more assured proofe then of a certeine remēbrance which at the same time was met withall which the said Cardinal sent to his brother the Duke of Guise and his companions to the campe at Bloys by Seure the controuler of his said brothers houshoold This remembrance among other did conteine these wordes As for breaking of or hindering whatsoeuer is newly propounded touching agreement it is that that is the hardest and conteineth most labour and neuer beleeue that any man taketh any heede thereto or hearken vnto them either that they shal come to any poinct vnlesse they submit them selues to such offers as the Queene saith she hath made vnto them Afterward he addeth saying As for cōtinuing about the Queene that is done all diligence is employed according to the instructions without omitting any houre or occasions and so shal be continued Concerning the Pope those be so long delayes that we can come to no ende neither is there any defaulte of calling vpon yea euen of angring outright Touching the succours of Flanders we perceiue nothing redy without long attent yesterday the Embassadour was spoken vnto who saith he hath done his endeuour in writing to the Lady of Parma For Meaux we haue not power sufficient to doe any thing and therefore we seeke to get them to yelde In any wise forget not Mans and Bourges see that after your departure from where ye are you be not new to beginne The declaration of rebellion was yesterdaye red in the council and well liked of all men The Kings men penned it and it should this day haue bene published But they say they haue promised to doe nothing without you and therefore doe send it to you to adde or diminish Time wasteth send it therefore backe againe speedily This declaration of rebellion had the Cardinal practised thereby to breake the Prince of Condes power and so with more ease to attaine to his purposes The arrest thereof was published in the Parliament of Paris the 27 day of Iuly 1562. But the Prince and his partakers did first refuse the Guisians slaues who prepared them selues to make this declaration and then vttereth the vniustice of the same whereby the Cardinal gotte not much that way sauing that he detected his owne practises and rebellions as the said Prince and his confederates published in their declaration to the Queene wherein were these notable wordes among other Considering with a single eye the parties in this cause ye shall finde that the said lorde Prince and his confederates haue bene wrongfully declared rebelles by those who are so in deede The procurers of all the troubles happened
in this Realme since the death of the late King Henry are the declarers of the said Prince and his fautours to be seditious They who doe oppresse the Kings maiestie abolish his decrees and abuse his name and auctority to the ende with his ouerthrowe to establish their owne mightinesse are the same who haue declared vs guilty of treason Those those are guilty of treason against God whose workes haue alweys shewed that ambition is their God couetousnes their religion and worldly pleasures their paradise and last felicitie who haue sworne warre against the Sonne of God his worde and the defenders of the same who shew the deedes of Anabaptistes in rebaptising children baptised according to the ordinaunce of IESVS CHRIST whose houses are replenished with thefte and their handes bloody in all crueltye Those men also are guilty of humaine treason who haue violated the Kinges edictes armed them selues contrary to his commaundement and seased vpon his royall person who are inwarde friendes and to the same ende doe vse the helpe of those who in seeking to steale away the second person of the Realme endeuored to oppresse the King to bring his estate into ruine confusion And seing we must needes proceed I say that those men are guilty of treason who lately made a conspiracy in Prouence through the ayde of Lauris a president in the Parliament of Aix togither with Fabritius Cerbelone the Popes gouernour of Auignon tēding to the raising of fiftenth thousand men who as they sware marched at the commādement of the Duke of Guise of whom the said Fabritius furnished a thousand footemen and two hundred horse which conspiracy being detected and in the court of Parliament of Prouence verified Entrages and Laydet the two chiefe captaines of this faction were beheaded by sentence of the said courte If this be not sufficient I wil say yet more namely that the Guisians made the like match in Dauphine by meanes of captaine Mantil hoping to arme the said two prouinces then to cause them togither to march where they thought best So that these conspiracies made for the abolishing of the preaching of the Gospel these leauyings of men and this othe to marche at the Duke of Guises commandement doe crye out that he and his confederates are rebels seditious persons and guilty of treason against both God man Also that contrariwise those are the Kings true and faithfull seruantes who both haue and still doe valiantly withstand their rebellions seditions and attemps against the Kings maiesty and the estate of this Realme Also hereof aboue all that is yet spoken the ouerthrowe of the policy and subuersion of the iustice of this Realme togither with the peruerting of the court of Parliament of Paris may be a sufficient testimonye The ayde of which court they haue vsed in this false and pernicious iudgement of rebellion because they could not light vpon any other cōpany so corrupted depraued either so much bound to their willes and appetites as is the same for so many as now be members thereof either do keepe their rowmes through the said Guisians and their adherents fauour or els do liue in hope hereafter through their helpe to clime higher yea most of them are by name comprehended in the said conspiracie and league which the said Guisians and their adherents haue made Thus you see what was then published against the Guisians But vnto this policie of causing the Prince of Condies adherents to be proclaimed rebels the Cardinal yet added other sleights First he got the King and the Queen mother to be brought into his brothers campe by the King of Nauarre whom he sent to fetch them so caused both the Child and mother to march as it were in triumph the better to cloke the end of this warre Secondly he wonne to their parte al strangers euē the Protestant Germains whome hee caused to enter into the Realme and in the meane season scoffed at the said Protestants religion because said they that with money they brought them to roote out the gospel in France which them selues had plāted in Germany which also they stil professed yea the better to scorne the said Germaines the Guisians gaue them to vnderstande that of long time they had bene minded to establish the confession of Ausbourg in France which the Cardinal had openly detested in the assembly of Poissy notwithstanding that afterwarde at Sauerne he protested that he did allow of the same already had so done in case they had not bene letted by the Prince of Condye his adherents whom they charged to be rebels to seke to vsurpe the crowne to be Anabaptistes Atheistes and men deuoyd of al faith and religion Al this time in France there was no news but of tēpests and horrible confusions throughout al the Coūtry as more largely is and shal be discoursed vpon in certaine treatises tending to the same end but the Cardinal endeuouring to assure his matters as wel as he might determined to leaue his brethren at worke in France whiles him selfe went to practise with the Pope the Spanierd and others assembled vnto the Councill of Trent and all vnder colour of religion which he did openly scoffe at for at Gyen and Bloys among other the articles whereunto he caused the King his council to subscribe to the end they might said he passe in the Coūcil though in effect to bring the Pope and his adherentes to that whereat he shot were these fiue wherin his practises may plainely be perceiued First that the Canon of the Masse might be cut of and the rest corrected according to the forme of al auncient liturgies brought into Frenche Secondly that the Psalmes might be soūg in Churches after the maner of that Frēch translation which the doctors of Sorbone had corrected who in deede are as rude Poets although they loue their drinke well as euill diuines Thirdly that indifferently al men might participate in the Lordes Supper vnder both kinds Fourthly that al flat paintings tending to the storie only should be permitted in Churches al Images taken away or at the least wise the people shuld be exhorted not to worship any of thē either simplie or by relation Fifthly and finally that all curates and priors shoulde either by them selues or by others interpret the epistle and gospel for the day vnto the people Thus did this troublesome member handle France who was against al men and al men against him yea euen in Rome the Cardinal Vitelly did sharpely rebuke him calling him a busie fellowe and molester of al things who only by his driftes cut out more worke in a day then the whole consistory of Cardinals could sowe in a yere The better to frame his ginnes he got forth with him nine bishops foure Abbots and certaine Sorbonistes and arriued at Trent in Nouember 1562. wherevpon the twentye thirde daye of the same moneth he made an oration conteining some matters worth the noting First
he confessed that Gods wrath ouer France proceded of the corruption of maners in al estates and the vtter despising of all Churche discipline About the middest speaking of the King of Frances request this good orator said He requireth vs so much as we may to auoid al new quarels to omit al new and vnfruiteful questions to our power to procure all Princes countryes to absteyne from warres that we eschue al desire of mouing debate for doubt least such as haue strayed from vs should accompt this council to be holden rather to the end to stirre vp princes to take weapon also to make complots alliances of warres notwithstanding it were holy then to prouide for the vniuersal reconciliation of mindes Afterward he maketh mention of the reformation of the church and doth conclude with his own submission to the Romish Church Now let the reader consider the purpose of this speach And from that time forward he stil practised against the estate of the realme from whence he dayly receiued letters neither was there any thing in France done without him as hereafter we shal perceiue But being now in hand with the council we wil also touch some leagues Immediatly after he heard of the death of his brother the Duke of Guise vpon whose auctority his whole hope was grounded he sodenly thought neuer to returne into France but with his vsual inconstancie turned his minde towarde the affaires of Italie gratifying so farre forth as he could the Pope and al forreyn princes especially the Catholike King of Spaine Before the newes of this death he had with the Spanish Bishops stoode stifly in defence of residences vpon benefices against the Popes dispensations alleaging them to proceede of the Lawe of God but then he sone changed his copie mainteining with his adherents that they belonged to the positiue Lawe and so through the pluralitie of voyces bare it away in so much that the Archbishop of Granado cryed out that the Cardinal of Lorraine had betrayed them Also when the County de Luna the Kinge of Spaines embassador slacked his cōming to the Council because he disdained to sit vnder the Frēch embassador the Cardinal procured him to come to the end to curry fauour with the King of Spaine caused his ambassadour to inioye the more honorable place thereby causing the King of France to lose the preeminence which neuer before was called into question Now let vs marke whether his brethren whom he had left in France were anie truer seruants to the crowne The Duke of Guise kept the King and Queene mother in his hands making them to trot vp and downe also to be present in the taking of townes and so hiding him selfe vnder their authoritie stroke his blowes For the King of Nauarre he did strangely scorne and floute Wel in August he besieged Bourges and in September they yelded then did he cause the King and Queene to enter and vsed marueilous threates and outragious wordes against them that were yeelded Al the Protestants in those quarters did he worse entreat then either Turkes or Iewes The Duke of Aumale and Marquise d'Ellebeufe lay in Normandie the one before Rouen and the other before Caen and yet notwithstanding they wanted neither greace nor growing yet could they not greatly profit that way The Lord of Moruilliers was at Rouen and in S. Katherines fort was so good a garnison that the Duke of Aumale al sommer time did nought but lose men and munitions Yea the parties besieged the more to laugh at him erected certaine rampiers and bulworkes against the which he wastfully spent his pouder and pellets as if he woulde haue scared sparrowes To be briefe euerie man was a master in his campe insomuch as when a certaine boye was gotten out of Rouen to beholde and espie the demeanours of him his seeing euerie royster intrude him selfe to counsel him and to commande in his presence at his returne said that there were verie manie captaines but fewe souldiers wherefore said he you are in no danger except when the Lord of Aumale sleepeth In the meane time the Duke of Guise called in al strangers as Italians Spanierds and other the more to trouble al things But hearing that the Queene of England prepared to aide the Protestants and knowing her landing to be in Normandie he led thither his armie drawing with him the King and Queene mother together with the King of Nauarre who at the siege of Rouen receiued a wound whereof he shortly after died being therin rewarded for ioyning with the enemies both of the crowne and of his familie Rouen was taken and al extremitie therein exercised That done the Duke of Guise returned to Paris in great perplexitie for that the Prince hauing receiued succour out of Germanie was cōming to seeke him Howbeit in the meane time he receiued new supplies of Gascoynes and Spanierds and therewith intended to keepe the Englishmen from ioyning with the Prince Hereof followed the battayle of Dreux fought in December the effect whereof al men do knowe But as the Duke of Guises refusing to giue the onset when the Constable sent him word which caused the said Constables taking procured men to iudge that willingly he sought this chance so did others who supposed better to knowe his nature attribute it to his cowardlines and thereof did men take their argument to assure them selues of al that which since that battayle this braue warrier hath compassed For al men wil confesse that after this battaile of Dreux al the Protestants power consisted in the band which the Admiral kept in the fieldes and not in the citie of Orleans which was impregnable for the said Admiral remained safe And therefore it had bene reason that the Duke of Guise had assailed him who beeing ouercome Orleans would haue stretched forth her hands and not in such wise to haue wasted his men money munition forces about the taking of a towne which being wonne razed should but haue made the Admiral more strong warie and diligent about new and dangerous enterprises Thereof did men conclude that the Duke of Guise wanted both wit and courage in that he neither coulde ne durst followe the Admiral at his retire out of Normandie but did suffer him so to fortifie him self with townes holds fortresses men money and al other munitions Yea the most valiant expert captaines of France do thinke certainly that in case the warre had a litle while lōger cōtinued the Admiral had giuen the Duke of Guise an immortal reproch who at Dreux durst not looke in his face neither at his comming out of Orleans to go into Normandie followe at his backe notwithstanding the said Admiral was but slenderly accompanied at his comming out of the said besieged citie and yet passed part of France and euen before the said Duke of Guises face forced certaine townes as Touque Caen Falaize Argenten Vire and other places in Normandie tooke sundrie fortresses and castles
of in the middest of his course Sometimes he woulde thrust his finger into the wounde as if he were extremely chafed against the surgeons and Physitions who coulde not prolonge Francis the second his life also as if he coulde not giue them one good looke because he sawe himselfe ensnared Finally after he had forgiuen his wife and lefte his children to the Cardinals tuition not without straight charge to reuendge his death and bring his driftes to their perfection which so often had bene frustrated he was as ye would say by death tyed to the suburbes and gate of Orleans This was the end of the fiercest of all the Guisians who fretted said manye in that he shoulde die in the towne where a King had dyed either that nowe aliue he shoulde come into the Citie which he and his partakers had destined for the death of a Prince of the blood and many good officers of the crowne The Catholikes especially of Paris who neuerthelesse had smal cause as afterward appeared did greatly bewayl his death Whē the King of Nauarre was slaine at Rouen the Duke of Neuers and the Marshal of S. Andrews at Dreux and diuers others in other places there was no token of sorow But for the Duke of Guise who had abandoned his captain who fought because he would not be accomptable to the estates of France who had violated the Kings edictes and sought to suppresse the house of Valois did they make hearses and vsed al other funeral solemnities as if he had bene a king Now therefore like as after the decease of Francis the second al the whole courte which enuironed the Guisians vanished away and al their multitudes at the same instant conuerted into solitarinesse yea that manye who before had followed them were now ready not onlye to hold the basen to whōsoeuer would cut their throats but euē thēselues to paunch thē so after the death of their eldest brother they remained as a body without members being forsaken of most men and through the vnreasonable authority which they had vsurped become odious vnto such as to them were most vprignt The Cardinal now being at Trente sought new meanes how to begin at an other end and first dealt with the Spaniard as himselfe did since disclose to one of the chiefe counselers of a certaine noble french Lorde for hauing declaimed against and reproued the estate of matters of France he toulde him that the Spaynishe gouernement was excellent and goode where the Great Lords of the country doe so bridle their King that they permit him scarsely to sport him self handling him after the maner of counters of which a man maketh that which somtime is worth but one somtime worth tenne sometimes worth a hundred sometimes worth ten thousand and immediatly reducing it againe to nothing at his pleasure neither were it said he a very harde matter to reduce France to the same poincte In the meane time he counterfaited the mourner writing such consolatory letters vnto his mother as a man would hardly reade without laughīg especially where he writeth these words Madame I say vnto you that God neuer so greatly honoured any mother neither at any time did so much for any his creature excepting alwayes his owne glorious mother then he hath done for you But this good childe of the most blessed mother in the world next to the virgine Marie inuented other new practises against the estate of his King and country as we now shal perceiue The Duke of Guise his mouthe beyng stopped peace presently ensued but in such maner as did easelie shewe that such remembraunces as the Cardinal lefte at his goynge to the Councille were of greate force For the edicte made in the moneth of Ianuarye was in maner extinguished the Prince of Condye displaced from the rowme which to him apperteined as to the first Prince of the blood the Admiral and other great Lordes expulsed the Courte but principally the sayde Admirall who was charged with procuring the shotte at the Duke of Guise which neuerthelesse was but a policie which the Cardinal and his fautours practised to the ende still to keepe the water troubled and them selues out of accomptes in whiche poincte the Queene mother somewhat fauoured the Guisians in that she was glad to put from her sonne al honourable persons to the ende to bring him vp and frame him according to her own humors the effects wherof haue since manifestly appeared Many things chanced in France betwene the first and second troubles wherein the Guisians sleightes diuersly appeared to the destruction of the realme wherof we wil touch some the most notable particularities not staying ouermuch vpon the circumstance of Dayes in that that entreating of their iniuries offred to the Princes of the blood to the nobilitie to the estates and to other priuate parties in the Realme we may beholde such matters as nowe we wil passe ouer First the Cardinal laboured the Queene mother to grant the estate of great master vnto his nephue Henrie sonne to the late Duke of Guise So that notwithstanding this childe was not capable thereof yet to the great dishonour of the King and the Realme and in despite of the Constable and the Protestants whome the Queene began to hate he was chosen great Master standing in deede in greater neede of a Scholemaster and roddes After the King of Nauarre was dead the Queen mother became a Catholike for she douted lest the Prince of Conde then first Prince of the blood would holde his estate knowing her humours through the assistāce of the Chastillōs the Cōstable himself whose heate began now to coole reduce her to order take the gouernemēt from her The Cardinal foreseing also that if this were brought to passe both he and al his should be plucked away determined to take some order At the assemblie at Orleans the estates with one common consent had made great complaintes of the vnreasonable giftes which both King Henrie and King Francis the second had giuen to sundrie persons of whome some were vnworthie others had had too much seeking to cal to accounts those who had the charge and gouernement of the treasure The first part of these complaintes touching the vnworthinesse of persons concerned especially and from the bottome of their hearts the Duchesse of Valentinois and al her abomination The second of excesse did pinche to the quicke the Guisians the Marshal of S. Andrewes and some others An other point of this complaint tended wholy against the Guisians as hauing relation only to the time of Francis the second whom they had ordered at their pleasures in whose time much money was spent and consumed On the other side the reformation of the ecclesiastical estate wherupon the nobilitie and third estate did earnestly call killed the Cardinals heart outright Wherefore to the end to procure this pursuite to vanish away he and his brethren could inuent no better shift then by kindeling the ciuil warre aforesaide
The same now being pacified he propoundeth vnto the Queene mother that to keepe the Prince of Conde from chalenging his degree and abolishing her gouernement it were most expedient to proclaime the Kings Maioritie as also she was minded to haue done before the King of Nauarres deceasse For the Cardinal knew that so long as the Queene mother was Mistresse the accomptes should neuer be taken because that in permitting the estates to searche so narrowly the behauiours of gouernours it was to be feared least in time they would examine her selfe As for the reformation of the Clergie he propoundeth to her how profitable that would be for the aduancement of the Protestants which necessarily must ensue for she should rayse against her the Spanierd the Pope and the Catholikes and so shoulde lose her credite and peraduenture her authoritie also According therefore to this counsayle shortly after the peace the Kings Maioritie was proclaymed wherin the Queene mother and the Cardinal made him playe a terrible part in procuring him to speake as bigge as if he were fourtie yeres olde when in deede it was they that spake with his lippes To this counsayle the Cardinal yet added an other touching the instruction of the King and of his brethren For he shewed the Queene that if she suffred the Princes and Lords of the Religion to come neere her children either els so timely trained them vp in the affaires they might be wonne and in time do her selfe some displeasure or at the least wise put her from the gouernement and then choose other counsaylers as the Bourbons Montmorencies and Chastillons For remedie whereof he causeth the King to wast his time with a toppe and scourge sticke at cockefights at putting dogges together by the eares or setting them vpon this bodie or that bodie in hearing of playes seeing of daunces talking with harlots finally in swearing and whorehunting and al in the Queenes presence and knowledge through the dealings of diuers of the Guisians seruants Also because the King of him selfe was wilde enough somewhat to coole these heates he was sent on hunting whiles a priest and a woman gouerned the Realme To keepe the Protestants also stil in breath so to stop the King that with the time he might not so fauour both the parties at once that finally the Guisians policies should be detected the Cardinal caught holde of an occasion which the Queene mother had practised a litle before the Edict of pacification There was a certaine I wot not what deposition attributed to Poltrot wherein he confessed that the Admiral had procured him to slaye the Duke of Guise and although the Admiral hearing the bruite hereof which la Pallet seruant to the Guisians had caused to be noysed among the Protestant Reistres who were come to the Protestantes aide and therewithall considering the consequence thereof had by expresse letters intreated the Queene mother to cause the saide Poltrot to bee repriued to the ende to bee brought face to face yet had she by sentence of the Parliament of Paris caused him to be drawen asunder with foure horses Wherein was to be seene the cloking and wonderfull policies of the Queene mother and the Cardinal But as touching the Queenes practises they require an other Legende And in respect of the Cardinal he was the gladdest man aliue of this aduantage whereby at his pleasure to bring the Realme againe into troubles to ridde his handes of his enemies of Bourbon of Montmorencie and of Chastillon and indeede this iustice which he procured the Duke of Guises widowe and children to prosecute was a verie proper meanes to helpe him selfe with all For soone after he yet proceeded giuing the Queene to vnderstand that neither her regiment neither the Kinges estate woulde euer be assured so long as the Bourbons Montmorencies and Chastillons were on horsebacke that it was meete to humble them and to set so manie men against them that the King and his assistantes might continue masters Also that in case she woulde accept of his brethren and nephues also of such as were affectionate to that race she shoulde finde them prest with all meanes possible Againe that so long as she woulde mislike of the Protestants most townes in the Realme would bestowe their whole power to the maintenance of her and her authoritie Moreouer because it had bene too much so to disquiet all thinges at once and a litle to hazarde them selues rather then to deale with the three houses aforesaide together hauing consulted with his brethren the said Cardinal propounded to the Queene mother that it were best first to dispatch the Chastillons whereunto the iustice which the Guisians demaunded might serue for a colour also for that it woulde be harde comming by them by force it were best in shewing them a good countenance to intrappe them at once Now notwithstanding the Queene were not ignorant of the vnrighteousnesse of this counsayle also of such confusions as might insue yet preferring her owne ambition before the quietnes of her children and Realme she tooke that waye For although she did not greatly loue the Guisians yet beeing assured that she should the better compasse her matters also that they were alreadie so deepe in these affaires that they woulde with her hazarde all meanes for their preseruation and therefore nowe there was no more to doe but to finde opportunitie to bee ridde of the Chastillons But when they were at the poynte to practise their matters the Prince of Conde in the Kinges open counsayle tooke the Admirals matter in hande and plainelye declared that who so euer dealt with the Admirall otherwise then by Lawe and equitie he the sayde Prince woulde not suffer it This therefore together with other considerations procured the counterfayt atonement betweene the Admiral and the Guisians which was made at Moulins as the King was in his iourney to Bayonne This iourney was vndertaken through the aduice of the Queene and the Cardinal vnder pretence of visiting the realme but in effect to conferre with the Spaniard to renewe a league which might reduce the realme into newe troubles as indede it came to passe after this race was runne And the whiles the Cardinal and his brethren framed other practises as followeth The Cardinal at his being at Trent had procured an after session thereby to publish the King of France to be an heretike a schismatike and an excommunicate person in case he persisted in selling the demaines of the Church although the same sale was of his owne inuentions and that he together with his brother had graunted thereto before his departure for to the obteining of their greatnes and accomplishing of their purposes nothing was so holy but it might be alienated In the same practise he determined to open and giue in spoyle to the first conquerour the realme of Nauarre because of the religion which the Queen and her sonne the Prince did professe Wherof the King being aduertised he sent word to the Embassadors and
Bishops of his realm spedily to come their waies from the Council publishing moreouer vehement protestations against the auctours of the said counsel But herein consisted an other of the Cardinals policies who secretly alleaged that he had inuented these meanes somewhat to gratifie the Pope and the Spaniard to whom he presented a new praye and on the other side he writte to the Queene mother that the King must needes counterfait a discontentation hereat whereby to allure the Queene of Nauarre and so to separate her from the Prince and the Chastillons the readilier to dispatch ech after other Here vpon he returned into France and there set his matters in such order as shortlie you shall perceiue and then made a new voyage vnto Rome there personally to sollicite this curse against the Queen of Nauarre And then to the end to cleare him selfe of such mischief he departed two daies before iudgement should be giuen from whence being arriued at Venice he there sharpely accused the Pope and consistorie of Rome for transgressing the Kings pleasure whereby to perswade men that he was not of that conspiracie or faction At his returne for the accomplishment of his promise he was so impudent as to present the Councilles articles vnto the King not so much for the establishing of the same at the first dashe as to the ende by litle and litle to adnichilate the Edict of pacification And to the ende it might haue the fayrer shewe at his solliciting the Embassadoures of Spayne Sauoy and the Pope came to the Court and presented certayne Articles deuised at the instance of the Cardinall and his adherentes which here we haue set downe because they doe reueale the foundation of the rest of the troubles which since haue ensued in France In the first point they called vpon the King to keepe and cause to be kept within his owne Realme the Countries Territories and Lordshippes in his obedience the articles of the holy council lately holden at Trente which now they had brought with them to the same ende And for the reading of the same and to sweare thereunto before the Delegates of the sayde councill they assigned the sayd King to be at Nancy in Lorrayne vpon our Ladie day in Marche there to meete with their sayde Lordes who togyther with all other Christian Kinges and Princes were determined to make a generall constitution correspondent to the same which was made at Trente for the rooting out of all heresies and new doctrines repugnant to the sayd holy councill In the second point they requested the sayde Lorde to ceasse alienating the temporalities of the Church certifying him on the behalfe of the King of Spayne and of the Duke of Sauoy that they neyther doe nor euer dyd meane to be payde their mariage money which the late King Henrie had promised them out of the church goods and therefore that he ought to be content with some voluntarie gifte which the Ecclesiasticall persons shoulde giue him hauing regarde vnto such sackes and spoyles as lately haue bene committed in his Realme vnder his name and by his Edict whereof they doe neuerthelesse according as they haue bene desired holde him excused through his youth In the thirde point that at the least wise he should bannishe vnlesse he had rather otherwise punishe them the chiefe seditious persones and schismatikes of his Realme by whose meanes the aforesayd spoyles of Churches haue bene committed and who haue brought the enemies of his Crowne into the Realme and giuen straungers free entrie thereinto In the fourth that he shoulde reuoke the remission and absolution which in his Edict of pacification he had graunted especially agaynst such persons as had committed treason agaynst GOD shewing him that it was neyther in him nor in any other Christian King or Prince to remitte or forgiue the offence committed agaynst the Diuine Maiestie for that all such remission appertayneth vnto God onely In the fifth that he as King for his parte woulde assiste Iustice and the same authorize as his predecessours haue done because that thereof dependeth the authoritie of all Christian Kinges and Princes also that in so dooing he should punishe the trayterous murder committed in the person of the late Duke of Guise by such as manifestly are knowen and that in such cases hee ought not to vse any dissimulation considering what person he was who so accursedly was murdered Also that he should procure him selfe to be obeyed as a King so that Iustice might florishe in his Realme And that the Lordes whose Embassadours they are doe offer vnto him all ayde and helpe so soone as he the sayd King shall demaunde the same Euer since that the Guisians vsurped this authoritie ouer the Crowne by making our Kinges theyr slaues we haue alwayes had two kinde of Councilles of the Kinges Letters and of his wordes the one open the other secrete The priuie Councill doe entreate of such matters as they woulde that all the worlde should knowe The letters patentes and open speaches do serue for confirmations of the same But nowe the Guisians haue induced a secret Councill which also sometymes is deuided into three partes For the Queene mother hath one the Guisians an other and sometyme the King hath the thirde which doe consiste of certayne who doe gouerne him In these Councils haue all the matters of our tyme bene determined of from whence these bloody executions haue ensued The letters of the Seale are ordinarily contrary to the letters patentes and open speaches vnto those which are whispered in the eare as it came to passe at the comming of these Embassadoures for publikely in the viewe of all the worlde the King aunswered them that the Edicte of pacification was made for the expelling of the enemies out of his Realme and for other matters generally but particularly their demaundes were handled in the secret Councill in such wyse as the effectes haue since declared The sixe and twentieth day of Februarie in the yere 1563. the King opened one parte of this declaration vnto the aforesayd Embassadoures and to the ende the better to colour all matters the Cardinal and the Queene mother had taught it him by hearte togyther with the maner howe to pronounce it with his mouth for at that time he was as well seene in that he spake as in that that he spake not for he was yet but a chylde especially in such matters Nowe must we note that one day before the Cardinall had obteyned of the Queene a licence in the maner of a brief signed by Secretarie Bourdin wherein he was permitted to beare weapons both by Edictes and letters patentes forbiddē But if any man aske why he got this brief rather of the Queene then of the King seeing that the onely Lawmaker my dispense with the law which him selfe hath made eyther wherefore he demaunded not letters patentes rather then a simple briefe I will leaue the iudgement therof to such as be free from all affection For that
which immediatly ensued doeth sufficiently detect the purposes both of the Cardinall and his adherents But to be able here to specifie those purposes aswell in the outridings which they procured the King to make vnder pretēce of the iourney to Bayonne where their holy league was confirmed order taken with the Duke of Alba for the ouerrunning of the Protestantes eyther of certayne other leagues made in sundrie partes of the realme through the driftes of the Guisians frō the which proceded the horrible murders especially in the Counties of Maine Tourayne Vandosme Also in Guyen where the Marshal of Bourdillō in other places other officers were to much at the becke of the Queene and the Guisians Neyther will I here particularly rehearse these murders whereafter folowed extorsions and wonderfull iniustices in sundrie cities of the realme neyther the sleights which the Cardinall vsed to winne the Prince of Conde vnder pretence of an imaginatiue kingdome mariage whereby to weaken the Admirall Neyther will I speake of the Citadels erected in sundrie places in the Realme of the razing of townes which the Protestantes held in the first troubles of the false accusations layde to their charges of the declaration or Edict of Roussillon which manifestly abolished the Edict of pacification of the scorning of the declarations which the Prince of Conde made against the same edict togither with the flouting of those who sought for quietnesse and iustice Of the murders at Tours and at the castle of Loyre of the presumptiō of Chauigny who was slaue to the Queene and the Guisians of the banishment of certaine Protestantes in the towne of Rochelle I will not here make any larger mention of the forbidding of the Protestants to keepe any scholes which was done at the Cardinals pursuite who therin did imitate the Edict of Iulian the Apostate against the Christians either of the said Cardinals endeuour to destroy the soules togither with the bodies in that he procured that the ministers should not visite the sicke or abide in any other place then where the exercises of the Religion should for the Bailiwickes be houlden On the one side the Cardinal of Guise practised with the bishop of Mans whereof ensued infinite mischiefes On an other side the Duke of Aumale was in Champagne where he did litle better He tooke from them of Troye the exercise of their Religion which by the Kings declaration was permitted in their suburbes and assigned them an other very discommodious village He by his owne auctority changed the place of the Bailiwick of Chaumont vnto Bassigny against the Kings expresse decree And to the declaration which the Lieutenant of the Bailiwick a manifest enemy to the Gospel concerning the commandement which he had to accommodate the Protestantes in case the gouernour should refuse he answered that he had contrary Edicts from the King in his sleeue and therefore forbad the said lieutenant from proceeding any further He imprisoned an Aduocate at Troye because he had presented to the King a poore widowes supplication whose armes and legges they had after the peace cut of He caused to pill and sacke the receauer of Mascons house He in all maner of wise fauored the seditious and open murderers of Creuant On an other side the Cardinal of Lorraine was in armes accompanied with certaine knightes of the Order and the rebels of Paris and other places who seing the Protestantes on all sides ouerrunne sought nothing but some mighty man to set them to the like worke considering also that the King was farre of in whose absence they were very desirous to be doyng and to make a terrible broyle But the Marshal of Montmorency foreseing the same and vnderstanding that not only at Paris but also in most townes of the Realme the seditious persons lay in waite and watched for the Cardinals comming certified the King of whatsoeuer he vnderstood whereupon he receiued a precept that he should not permit the Cardinal or any of the Guisians to enter in warlike araye into Paris Again after that the Marshall was aduertised of the brief which the Cardinal had obteined of the Queene mother he diuers times aduertised the King especially at Chaalons Bar Mascon and Lions that if the Cardinal and his garde came armed to Paris he would indeuour to vnarme him Also fiue or sixe moneths before the rumour was spred in Paris of the Cardinals comming garded with harquebuziers the said Marshal made the like declaration both openly and particularly vnto the Cardinals especiall seruantes And to the ende no man might pretende any cause of ignorance the thirtenth of December 1564 he made proclamation with sound of trumpet and then printed that vpon payne of death no souldiers ordeined for the garde of any gouernours or gouernement should enter within his precinct declaring in expresse wordes to the ende the Cardinal might vnderstand that this defence touched himself that it was not lawfull for any lorde whatsoeuer vnlesse he were a Prince of the house of France to enter into the gouernement of the yle of France with any garde All this notwitstanding the Cardinal tooke his way to Paris and departing from Reims noysed that he went vnto Ginuille And although he were tender yet did he in the sharpest of winter take the fields making exceeding iourneys and such as him selfe was neuer wonte to doe in any time whatsoeuer or vpon any kinde of occasion After his comming to S. Dionice there were many goings to and fro In the meane time the Marshal went to the Parliament house where he knew the Cardinal had alwayes endeuored to procure most benefactours and friendes there to complayne of the said Cardinal in that he came to throwe himselfe headlong and as the prouerbe is to burne in the flame Moreouer he sent a Prouost to keepe the way who endeuored to apprehende the formost of the Cardinals garde and harquebuziers that he met who notwithstanding all these warninges vnderstanding that his brother d'Aumale who before with his troupes had kept the fieldes should now enter into Paris at one gate came thither also with his men toward euening the streetes being replenished with people attending his comming But the Marshall of Montmorency accompanied with certaine lordes and gentlemen of name came in his way and so sone as he perceiued the weapons of those who accompanied the said Cardinal called alowde to them to lay the same awaye whereupon some fledde and a few strokes were giuen wherewith one of the said Marshal of Montmorencyes gentlemen was slaine And the Cardinal and his nephue the Duke of Guise were worse afeard then hurte so that sodeinly alighting they saued them selues in a house at hande where it was said that the Cardinal was in such plight that his hosen serued him in stead of a basen and his doublet for a close stoole hereupon the said Cardinal more coward then a hare seeyng himselfe thus disapointed togither with his companie departed without any sound of trumpet
ready preste to deale and for my parte wil spare no cost thinking that the soner would be the better which maketh me desire you well to see vnto it and diligently thereof to consider togither with the said Lorde of Montpensier and to send me worde of your determinations to the end that according to the same I may take order with such of the Lordes and noble men as remaine hereabout and dwell within my gouernement who wil doe whatsoeuer I shal request Now must I not forget to certifie you that writing this letter I had the sight of the copye of another letter which the lorde of Montpensier wrote to the Marshal of Montmorency as an aunswere to that which the said Marshal had written to him concerning his goodly deede I pray you thanke him in our behalfes but chiefly in mine notwithstanding I doe it in the letter which I doe write vnto him we all are greatly behoulding to him Moreouer if you see the Bishop of Mans it were not amisse to moue him also in the same association for both he and his friendes would be gladde to hearken thereunto and we haue already conferred thereof You might doe well also to write vnto the Lorde of Martigues or if you can see him it were better to commune thereof togither I know his good will toward vs is nothing diminished and likewise he may be sure of ours as you may better giue him to vnderstande and I wil seale vnto whatsoeuer you and the said lordes shall agree vpon I send this messenger purposedly to the ende that by him I may the better be certified of your newes He may tary with you so long as you think good and then come to me into Champagne Written the foure and twentieth of February 1565. Seuen moneths before the said Guisians had practised an other league in Guyēne through the meanes of the lorde of Candales the Marquise of Trans and others whereof the Queene mother being aduertised she sent them word to passe on no further therein which notwithstanding afterward when they perceyued them selues strengthened through the aduow of the principal in the Realme they sought to bring to effect On the other side the Marquise d'Ellebeufe through the solliciting of the Duke of Aumale did practise his league in his gouernement of Touraine gathering togither from all partes all the thieues and common murderers of the countrie who vnder his protection dayly committed infinite robberies and slaughters so that neither any honest man might escape without trauaile nor quietnesse rest without troubles The Cardinal of Lorraine also for his parte practised sundry matters about the same time and endeuored to bring the Baronages of the Bishopricke of Metz vnder the Emperours protection if the lorde of Salcede the Kings lieutenant at Marsault had not through force stopped the publication of the said protection Vpon which occasion the Cardinall skirmished with him and arreared the warre called the Cardinals warre wherein he had as good successe as in his entry into Paris But albeit herein he became a laughing stocke and execrable altogither yet did he still beare a grudge vnto the said Salcede and razed him out at saint Bartlemewes murder procuring him to be slaine at Paris and his house vtterly to be sacked But the chiefe occasion of suspicion ministred touching this matter was that this drifte was not executed without the counsayl of the Baron of Poluiller the gouernour of Haguenau who for that cause came to the Cardinal to Rembeuiller in Lorraine who hath also bene a solliciter of the most parte of such enterprises as haue bene practised against the estate of France both during the warres of Picardie and after that they were ended This was he also who endeuored to surprise the towne of Lions and to procure the countries of Bresse and Sauoy to reuolte through the counsail of the Cardinal of Arras about the ende of the sayde warres This was the same Poluiller who practised the King of Nauarre to reuolt promising him in recompence the realme of Nauarre This is that Poluiller who being the Cardinall of Lorrains broker durst practise the Prince of Conde vnder pretence vayne hope of helping him to the landes of the Bishoprick of Metz in case he would haue professed the Romish religion wherefore the readers may well consider what coūsail is to be hoped for at such a counsaylours handes being also cōioyned vnto the Cardinall of Lorraine who during his aboade at Rembeuiller and in Lorraine did many goodly deedes for he pilled his subiectes of the Bishopricke of Metz vnder pretence of withdrawing the landes engaged vnto the Countie Iohn of Nassaw He perswaded the Duke of Lorraine to murder all his subiectes that were of the Religion which he had done in case the Lords of Castelet and Bassompierre had not with their counsaill restrayned him He procured him also to bannishe a great number of the inhabitauntes of Pont-amosson for hatred to the Gospell Moreouer he suborned some say he defiled and forcibly tooke the daughter of the Baylie of Rembeuillers wiues chamber mayde The originall of the Duke d'Aumales letters to his brother the Marquise whereof we haue seene parte of an abstract was presented vnto the King who thereupon hauing heard the depositiō of one of his Knights of the order who confessed that he had subscribed to the association aforementioned in the said letters caused in his priuie councill this acte folowing to be made which here we haue set downe to the ende thereby hereafter to consider certayn notable craftes of Italian Cardinallike policies This day being the 18. day of May 1565 the King being at Mont de Marsan assisted by the Queene his mother and his brother my lord the Duke of Orleans hath called and assembled the Princes of his blood his priuie councill and other his Lordes and Knightes of the order who were about his person to whom he hath giuen to vnderstande how he hath bene aduertised that in diuers places of his Realme there be made associations collections of coyne enroulings of men gatherings of armour and horses that some haue so farre strayed from their dueties as to sende men out of his Realme to haue intelligence and communication with forrein Princes without his knowledge contrary to his Edictes of Pacification of maioritie and other ordinances declarations and prohibitions against such like matters which he neither can ne yet will beleue by reason of such accompt as he maketh of the affection and syncere good wil of al his subiects to the obeying of his cōmandements the cōmoditie of his seruice and the quiet of his realme Neuerthelesse to the end better to be instructed in the trueth he admonished charged them to tel him the trueth of al that they haue heard Which they haue done moreouer do most humbly beseeche his maiestie to beleue that they are so farre wide of these so pernicious practises that rather they be ready prest to spend their liues
and goods as alwayes they haue done in procuring him to be obeyed and his edictes and ordinances to be obserued for the rest and tranquillitie of his sayd realme And we declare vpon their liues and honours that they be in no wise participāt in any such intelligences or haue any cōmunications with such as are desirous to make any such enterprises Also as for them selues they know not the meanings of any associations leagues othes promises or seales giuen to any such intent and the same doe vtterly renoūce not minding in any wise to participate in them as in things cōtrary to the obedience due vnto his maiestie and to the quiet of the realme which to their powers they wil defend and mainteyne therin folow or know no other meaning then his Maiesties not intending for any priuate quarel or occasion whatsoeuer to take or cause to take weapons in the behalfe of any man liuing without his expresse commandemēt Also although his Maiestie doe sufficiently knowe their loyaltie and fidelitie and be of the same so well assured that in their opinions he can desire no other more assured profe thē the effectes yet were they content for the satisfying of his Maiesties request to signe this acte with their seales Also to the ende that vnder a false pretence no man may cloke his wicked intent vnder their names because the Princes of the blood other Princes Gouernours Knights of the order captaines being absent might know vnderstand the cōtents aforesaid his Maiestie willeth that this presēt acte be sent vnto thē that by their seales they may yeeld a like testimonie of their intents good meanings in the same respect no lesse as he assureth him self faithful thē those who be about his person therefore will not beleeue that they wil sticke any thing at al thereat For he can not accompt such as by their seales do refuse to make declaratiō other then guiltie of such enterprises factions and intelligences and so consequently worthie his euil wil as contēners of the authoritie of him his edictes perturbers of the cōmon peace therin guilty of treason And in that case for such doth he accompt them frō henceforth declare thē And so likewise of all other who know any thing of the said associations factions cōspiracies vnlesse thei presētly come reueale what they are assured of vnto his Maiestie as is the duetie of good lawful subiectes whom also he intendeth wil preserue and defende to the vttermost of his power taking them into his protection against al such as shal endeuour to offend them In witnesse wherof he hath the day and yere aforesaid signed with his own hande to this present acte This Acte nowe serued as a pouder to throw in the protestants eyes thereby to blinde the sight of such things as were practised against thē Also the Queene mother according to the Cardinals instructions remembrances fained her self offended with the Guisians thereby to procure the chiefest Protestantes by litle litle to come of them selues to fal into the pit prepared for thē The Cardinal also and his brethren made as if this acte had touched thē but secretly knowing what they had to do they folowed their point And thē did letters of the signet flie into al places so that therof proceeded what soeuer was afterward executed in the coūtries of Tourayn and Maine and other prouinces to the preiudice of the Edicts and vnderhand authorised against the Protestants notwithstanding whatsoeuer the Prince of Condies and others declarations When then the Catholicks remoued both heauen and earth and brought al things into confusion a paper decree stuffed ful of fayre pretences quieted and appeased al but if the Protestants stirred neuer so litle to the end vnder so violent a tyranny to take breath then was no speech but of fire and blood as witnessed the more then barbarouse and turkish cruelties executed vpon the inhabitants of Pamiers who falsly were accused of sedition for that they would not suffer their throates to be cut and yet at the first summons of the Lord of Rābouillet because he came in the Kings name and promised that they should haue nothing done to them without order of lawe they submitted them selues The King in the meane time arriued at Bayonne where the holy league was renewed which conteyned a full determination to root out al the Protestantes without exceptiō of degree kinde age or place They should haue begun in France but the preparatiues were somewhat long for the Cardinal of Lorraine had not yet accōplished his practises in diuers places with straūgers neither were the associations within the realme very wel assured The Prince of Conde also and the Admiral being aduertised of al that had passed at Bayon as well through the late Prince of la Roche sur-yon as otherwise stood vpō their garde which caused all for a while to be deferred About the same time began the warres of Flanders by meanes wherof they determined with the aduise of the Cardinal who daily was sūmoned to performe his promise as wel by the Cardinal Granuel as by the Pope for Granuel dayly aduertised him of al things that without farther delay they should vse the Duke d' Albaes passage to bring their conspiracies to effect and diuers messages were sent to the Duke d' Alba thereupon About the same time also namely in the yere 1567 in the moneths of Iuly August and September sundry councils were holden at Marchais and Monceaux whereby to determine according to the Cardinals remembrances of the most assured and finall meanes which were to be obserued for the execution of their enterprises and in the last council holden at Marchais through the Guisians aduice it was decreed that the King should goe to Bois de Vincennes and thither vnder some honest pretence should send for the Prince of Condy and the Admiral to the which commandement if they both or any one of thē did obey he should immediatly be apprehended but in case they refused then the six thousand Switzers who had bene leuied vnder pretence of defending Calais against the Queene of England and also to keepe the borders vntil the Duke d' Alba were past lest he should enterprise any thing against the Kings dominions should be employed Also that they had ready twenty two companies of men of warre already chosen and enrouled to muster in armes who were alreadye charged through whose helpe togither with the said Switzers they might easely surprise and assure them selues of the Prince and Admiral And in the meane time that with al rigour they should research the Protestants touching their behauiours contrary to the edict of Roussillon namely the gentlemen that had receiued into their houses to the sermons any other then their own subiectes Whereupon at the instance and solliciting of the Cardinal of Lorrayn it was decreed not long before his comming to the Courte that the great dayes should be
holden at Poictiers especially to tend vnto the processe of those who should be foūd culpable in the said pretended misbehauiours and them to declare guiltie of treason and inasmuch as those presidentes and counselours of the court of Parliament of Paris as were appointed to goe thither seemed insufficient partial and factious in the Cardinals sight he caused to cut of seuen from the liste which was first made and in their steades did surrogate others of his owne creation and conditions For the country of Normandy he sent the master of requestes named S. Martin to whom he procured a cōmission to the same end with letters directed to the court of Parliament of Rouen tending that with the said de S. Martin they should tend to the performance of his commission and not breake vp the courte notwithstanding it were almost vacation time On an other side the Cardinal endeuoured through the Constables meanes to bring the Admiral and his brethrē on sleepe who had already written certaine letters which detected the traines layed for them The sixe thousande Switzers who were leuied for the execution hereof about this time came to the King to Meaux who was enuironed with the Guisians so that the Prince and the Admiral plainely perceiuing that it was against them and the Protestants that these preparatiues were made determined before things were at a worse poynct to come to the King and for that he was in both his and their enemies hands they thought it best to take into their company certaine gentlemen of name of their kinsfolkes and friends to the number of a hundred or six score also to take some weapons for their assurance which the Cardinal and his adherents failed not to cause the King to take in very euill parte and the more to prouoke him against the Protestants they perswaded him that his death was at hand vnlesse with al speed he got to Paris seeing that the Prince of Condye and the Admiral came with fifteene hundred or two thousand horses entending to force his maiesty the Queene his mother and my Lordes his brethren and to enterprise somewhat against the estate and therefore the 28 of September about four of clocke in the morning they caused the King to departe and put him among the Switzers supposing that if the Prince were so wel accompanied as they reported which was false for when he came to speake to the King betwene Meaux and Paris he had not at the most aboue thre hundred horse things might grow to such passe that stil some of their enemies of one side or other might go to wrack The Duke d' Aumale certaine others followed the King who about foure of clocke after noone arriued at Paris where the Guisians did exhort him neuer more to trust the Huguenots as himselfe made ample Protestation The Cardinal according to his custome would not follow the King but fained to take the way to Reyms howbeit being met by certaine of his enemies fled vpon a iennet of Spaine to Chasteauthierry Thus was the second warre kindled in France and notwithstanding any the Prince of Condye or his adherents requestes for the reducing of al things into quiet yet the Guisians and the Queene mother to the end to be dispatched of one or other caused a battel to be fought betwene Paris and S. Dionice wherein the Constable was wounded to death This day brought the Cardinal and his a great contentation in that they sawe themselues ridde of the Constable and thereby the way open vnto the accomplishment of their desires For on the one side they endeuoured to make the King a sworn enemie vnto the Protestants who so much had stopped the course of the Guisian preferrement and so through him to ouerthrow their aduersaries It was also requisite to haue some other mightie man more at commandement then the King vnder whose authoritie they might shield themselues in the execution of their passions So sone therfore as the Cōstable was dead the Guisians counseled the Queene mother to make the Duke of Anjou the King his brothers lieutenant general and she perceiuing what commoditie thereby she might reape did soone follow this counsel Whereupon the army marched the Guisians wholy gouerned the Duke of Aniou vnder his shadow both then euer since procured diuers fetches for the ouerthrow of the Protestants chiefly But hereafter we wil shew what iniuries they haue done to the said Duke in vsing him as an instrument to subuert al France Now forasmuch as the Protestants had presently succours out of Germanie the Cardinal perceiued that by going backward he might iumpe the farther and therfore when the Prince of Condes campe was before Chartres in the yere 1568 he procured the King to send some men to the Prince to conclude a peace that is to say to vnarme the Protestants whereby the more readily afterward to murder them For he could not denie but that the Protestants were at that time the strongest and yet not being compelled through want either of strength or good successe did separate and vnarme them selues opening their townes to such as the Queene and the Cardinal sent in the Kings name vnder whose onely faith and worde they put away from them al assurance of liues and goods yelding their naked brestes vnto their aduersaries swords and kniues Al the Protestant Lords gentlemen departed to their owne houses whither when some could not find any sure accesse and others were so euil intreated as that diuers were most cruelly slaine murdered manie of them were constrained to assemble themselues together which was it that the Cardinal and his fautors desired as wel to finde occasion to slaunder them as infringers of the Edictes as also to the end the more easily by ouerrunning of them to destroy them and not knowing what to do or whither to go to take the way into Flanders verie vndiscretely in that the King had forbidden them the same although they were through meere necessitie which as the prouerbe is hath no lawe compelled thereunto Howbeit the punishment was so readie and extreeme that the Cardinal and his partakers ought to haue bene content They vsed in the execution thereof the Marshal de Cosse his aide to the end to charge their rage vpon as wel one as other Then sent they a gentleman vnto the Prince of Conde to know whether he allowed of the said leuie of men wherein is to be seene a right Cardinals fetch for the maintaining of the King in his rage expelling the Prince out of the Court causing to ouerrunne him or his troupes if he aduowed them and so by litle and litle consume his enemies As for the strangers come to the Protestants aide they were presently sent home and the Prince and other Protestants compelled to borowe great summes of money wherewith to pay them and yet through the Guisians commandements the garrison of Auxerre stole part of that money slaying some of the guydes and ransomming
meane time the Cardinal boasted that he would kil more betwene two trestles thē the King could with al his power sent word ordinarily to Rome other places that they had dispatched more Huguenots in one day during the peace then in one moneth whiles the warres continewed Besides al this the Cardinal doubting lest the Catholiks woulde not sufficiently rebel procured them to make brotherhoodes leagues and associations wherein sundry of the Parliaments and nobilitie assisted them gathering together of money giuing their othes enrowling of souldiers together with such other matters concerning the entertainement of their brotherhoodes which they called of the holy Ghost As in the towne of Dijon through the driftes of the Lord of Tauannes and one named Begad a counselour of the parliament the like league was made and when certaine standers by demanded whether it were by the Kings authoritie the said Begad answered that he had his maiesties letters for that purpose which Tauannes had deliuered to one of his secretaries who thē could not be found Also that though the King liked not thereof yet they nede not to feare for he knew wel enough whither els to repaire Morouer that they were not to regard such letters as the King ordinarily writte to the said Tauannes or vnto the court of Parliament tēding to the obseruatiō of the edict for they cōteined another mistery which al the world vnderstood not The like was also done in Bourgundy other places In the meane time the exercise of religion was forbidden in the hie and low countreis of Auuergne and in al other parts pertaining to the kings brethren and to certain Princes of the blood In other prouinces were dayly preparations for the apprehending of the principal yet by letters directed vnto such gouerners as had the wachword they were charged to let the gentlemen of the Religion vnderstand that the Kings minde was wel to intreat them and to maintaine them in the exercise of their Religion therby giuing them to wit that he accounted them as his faithful and good subiects and seruants and that such broyles as they heard of tended only to the assuring of his estate against sundrie townes men insolent and seditious persons and so afterward to the restoring of al things into quiet estate and to the fauouring of the nobilitie as wel of the one as other Religion for that they are his principal strength causing them to liue in agreement vnder the authoritie of his Edictes These now were faire wordes but least certaine Catholikes not being sufficiently trained in the Cardinal and his adherents affayres hearing such letters might quaile there were also other secret letters sent with commandement to communicate the same vnto such as were accompted meete to be called to like accomptes This enterprise did the Cardinal also communicate vnto the Cardinal of Crequies agent at the Castle of Madrit in August 1568 whereof the saide agent did at large write vnto his master the verie wordes of his letter which was surprised and brought to the Prince of Conde haue we here set downe They haue saide the Cardinal to this agente taken good order euerie where that the King may remaine master that the chiefe maye be caught and all opportunitie of gathering together taken from them to the ende that hauing brought them to that point as by the order alreadie taken it wil be easie to doe we may then vtterly roote out this vermine for so did the Cardinal call the Protestantes beeing enemies vnto God the King and the estate and not leaue one infected person in the Realme because it is such a seede as still will budde out newe mischiefe vnlesse we shoulde take this waye whereof our neighbours doe set before vs so goodly examples Attending which time that can not be past this moneth it is thought best in all the prouinces to speake fayre to the principal of them and to such of the Nobilitie as seeme least affected to the saide Religion thereby onely to content them in dalying and as much as may be lulling them on sleepe as already diuers haue hearkened therto and doe beginne to assure them selues yea some come of their owne accorde doe burne their winges in the candle yet doe we hope wel that more will doe the like who we know are already shaken This way vndoubtedly we shal sone winne our processe and obteine assured victorie without any great labour or resistance against the enemies of our faith These were the Cardinals fetches which togither with diuers other practises whereof we wil in more conuenient place make mention did kindle the fire of the third ciuil warres being of longer continuance and more tedious then the rest The Prince of Conde toward the ende of the same moneth in great haste saued him selfe by departing from Noyers in Bourgundie where he should haue bene enclosed within two dayes after gat to Rochell against which place the Cardinal had already practised many things but he troubled his head in vayne Then was the warre open and whyle they prepared to cause the Catholicke army to march vnder the conduct of the Duke of Anjou the Cardinal deuised two Edictes published both in one day in the Parliament of Paris namely the 28. of September to wit the third day after that they had bene framed in the councill In the first the King making a long discourse of things happened in his Realme through the Religion declareth among other things that the Edict of Ianuary wherein he granted the Protestantes leaue to exercise their Religion was but prouisionall attending his maiority also that now he was no lenger minded to permit the edictes touching Religion to stand any longer in force Also that now being come to his maioritye he forbiddeth all excercise of the same within his dominions willing perpetually that there be no other exercise of Religion sauing the Romaine in all his iurisdictions vnder payne of confiscation of body and goods Also vnder like penalty he chargeth al ministers of the said Religion to auoyde his Realme within fifteene dayes forbidding neuertheles that any of the said Religion be researched in their consciences so long as peaceably they wil liue in their houses In the other he declared that from that time forward he did not intende to vse the seruice of any of the said Religion and thereby did suspend them from their offices and functions commanding them to come and giue vp the same into his handes within fifteene dayes or else him selfe woulde otherwise prouide These two Edictes had long bene vpon the file and the Cardinall a farre of shewed the same to the Catholickes to moue them to come to the offring and to bring in coyne for the armyes paye wherein he the Queene mother and their mynions vsed their wonted sportes But these Edictes were more preiudicial to the Catholickes then they supposed for most of the Protestantes who otherwise were not determined to haue gone out at the
doores behoulding this so manifest periurye wherewith the Cardinal diffamed the house of Valois tooke the fieldes presently Also the Protestante Lordes sent these Edictes into England and Germany as assured testimonies that they were not pursued as seditious persons or aspirers vnto the crowne as before it had bene noysed but as defenders of the Gospel which the Catholickes endeuored to roote out of France This was all that the Cardinall or his adherents gate thereby About this time were many writings published against the presumptuous and ambitious cruelty of the Guisians but chiefly against the Cardinall whose nature was amply described by a certaine learned French Poete in a certaine Sonnet comprehending a curse in the ende And for that the said Sonnet is prety neuer yet to my knowledge was put in print I haue here presented the same to the Reader Sonnet De fer de feu de sang Mars Vulcan Tisyphone Bastit forgea remplit l'ame le cueur la main Du meurtrier embraseur du tyran inhumain Qui tue brusle perd la Francoise Couronne D'vn Scythe d'vn Cyclope d'vn fier Lestrygone La cruaute l'ardeur la sanglante faim Qui l'anime l'eschauffe conduit son dessein Rien que fer rien que feu rien que sang ne resonne Puisse-il par le fer cruellement mourir Ou par le feu du ciel horriblement perir Et voir du sang des siens la terre estre arrouset Et soit rouille estaint seche par la paix Le fer le feu le sang cruel ardant espais Qui tue ard rougit la France dissipee This third ciuil warre beginning in October 1568 continewed to the beginning of August 1570 the historye whereof hath bene at large written and published wherin is to be seene how the Catholickes and Protestantes haue one destroyed the other by viewing what battailles haue bene fought what places besieged and taken or what captaines and souldiers haue bene slayne so that the Frenchmen haue committed against them selues that which peraduenture all other nations in Europe together could not haue accomplished Whiles in the meane time the Cardinal behelde this bloody tragedie and practised all meanes to make the one parte to destroy the other And for that it would be an infinite labour to describe all his driftes it shall now suffice to consider parte of his subtilties vsed during this third ciuill warre First he assured him selfe of the Kings person whom he ledde hither and thither according as things fell out and so prouided that nothing might be done without his aduice He serued also in stead of a firebrand to kindle the King more more against the Protestants chiefly against the chief of them in whose respect he practised all kinde of violences and treasons for the compassing of his purposes Some being taken prisoners were notwithstanding all vowed faith slaine others were poisoned against others were murderers hiered vnto whom the Cardinal gaue great rewardes Then gatte he many seruantes about the Duke of Anjou the Kings lieutenant generall by whom he might incense the said Duke against the Protestants This was of so dangerous consequence vnto the Prince of Conde that finally it cost him his life For Montesquiou the said Dukes Captaine of his garde slew the Prince whom the lordes of Argence and of S. Iohn had taken prisoner Vnder the same policie the said Duke would grant no safe conduite vnto the lorde de l'Estrange the deputie in the behalfe of the Protestant Lordes Princes in Iune 1569 who should haue gone to present their supplication to the King as touching such meanes and remedies as he knew most conuenient and profitable for appeasing of the warre and establishing of a perfect peace The same policye did the Cardinall vse in hindering the concluding of the peace For being certified that the Admirall had sent the said supplication to his cousin the Marshal of Montmorency that he might offer the same to the King he preuented the said Marshal alleaging vnto the King that it was no reason that such rebellious subiects should speake to the King afarre of also that vnlesse they came and yelded them selues to his mercie they were not to be heard but with weapons to be subdued According to which counsayle the King shewed the said Marshall of Montmorēcy that he would neither looke vpon or heare any thing that came from the Protestants but chiefly from the Admiral before he had taken them to fauour which he would doe in case they would yelde to doe their dueties as if afore the said Admiral and his men had not most earnestly entreated the King like as now againe in this supplication they did for these wordes were therein conteined They doe most humbly desire your Maiestye to graunt and generally permit to all your subiectes of what estate or condition so euer they be free exercise of their religion in al townes villages and boroughes and in al other partes places of your realme and countries in your obedience and protection without exception moderatiō or restraint of persons time or place with all requisite and necessarie assurance And moreouer to ordeyne inioine al men openly to professe eyther the one or the other religion thereby to cut of diuers who abusing this benefite and fauour are fallen into Atheisme and all carnall libertie hauing freed them selues frō the exercise and profession of al religions being desirous to see nothing but confusion in this realme togither with the ouerthrowe and suppression of all order policie and ecclesiasticall discipline which is a most pernicious and daungerous matter vtterly intolerable Also deare Lorde for as much as the sayde Princes Lordes Knights Gentlemen and other in their companies doubt not but they who hitherto haue planted the foundations of their practises vpon such slaunders as impudently they doe publishe to the ende to procure the sayd Princes to be brought into the hatred and displeasure euen of such as through the grace of God are freed from all bondage and tyrannie of Antichrist wil not fayle but affirme that they will rather stifly without reason defend whatsoeuer they once haue determined to beleue touching the Articles of Christian religion then correct and withdrawe them selues therefore the aforesaid Princes Lordes Knights Gentlemen and other their companie doe declare and protest as alwayes they haue done that if in any one point of the confession of fayth heretofore presented to your Maiestie by the reformed churches of your realme they may be instructed that by Gods word comprehended in the Canonical bookes of the holy scripture they haue strayed from the doctrine of the Apostles or Prophetes they will readily yeeld and willingly graunt to such as by Gods word may better instruct them then in the beginning they haue bene if they doe erre in any article And for this cause doe desire nothing so much as a conuocation of a free general and lawful councill wherin euery man may