greatest cheat in the World He highly merited his Preferments of the King by his taking of Rochel which caused such an obliging confident affection in the King towards him that he left the total direction of Affairs to him but that Interest in the King was very ungratefully managed against the Queen Mother who raised Him and all her Party or Dependants the Queen he forced into a dishonourable and wandring Exile and to rid himself of Her and the Intrigues against Him He cut off the Marshall Marillacis head her great Favourite and ruined all such of whom he had any jealousie He was beloved by the most zealous Protestants and hated by the most zealous Catholiques and never pardoned such as had offended against him He gained the Dutchy of â—â—â—urain by sine policy and sudden force intending to â—â—ine the Housâ— of 〈◊〉 the successors or Charâ—â—â—â—n in order to the saâ—e destructive Design unâ—â— the House of Austria designing to have seized also the Lâ—w Countries upon which bottome the War with Spain in 16â—â— was begun and continued till his death He assisted the Duke of Never in his succession to the Dutchy of Mantuua and made an alliance with the Swedes and the Protestant Princes and yet notwithstanding ruined the Hugonites in France He was an enemy likewise to the Princes of the Blood especially the Count of Soissons who deserted the Kingdome and joyned with the Spaniard His Party with him published a Manifesto against the Cardinals male administration yet he continued in the Kings favour and firm assurance thereof and for attempts and underminings thereof by the perswasions of the King to a peace he caused Monsieur le Grand and De Thou two Eminent Noblemen to be beheaded at Lions which last sanguinous Action loosned him from his former fixedness in his Masters breast whose coldness towards him raised Damps in his own which with other distempers fomented and fed by this extinguished his life on the 4th of December 1642. He was accused of having Embroyled England to the end that it might be in no condition to hinder his seizing of the Low Countries and this by most unjust and Maligne practises though varnished over with its like intermedling in the businesse of Rochel and of setting all Europe in general by the ears though he cannot be deprived of the glory and praise of having done the Kingdom of France Superlative services though it were with the huge oppression of the poore people he lived in great anxiety and sear having perpetual apprehensions of the mischiefs he had done His death was not overmuch lamented and such as had either feared him or fled his persecution returned into France and by the Kings Grace repossest themselves of their Charges and Estates He died wealthy and rich seized of severall Governments and Offices and Titulado'd with Dignities and Secular Honours leaving a Peerage and Dutchy to his Nephew Duke Richleiu now surviving and was buried with a publique sumptuous Funeral a little before the death of Lewis the 1â—â—â— which happened in the beginning of the year 1643. after he had declared the Qâ—een Regent and recommended Cardinal Mazarini to her who suffered no Eclipse or Diminution of Lustre in the clouded close setting of his Patron Richleiu And we shall now perceive this Apotype and Copy of this great Exemplar Cardinal Mazarini who was as hath been objected to and reported of him frequently a Sicilian by birth and so a Native Subject of the King of Spain but took his Priesthood at Rome as did Richleiu and by his good Fortune conducted to France into which Court he cunningly insinuated himself and gained the favour and knowledge of the Cardinal who employed him in transacting his Affairs at Rome and as his Envoy or Minister for that peculiar Negotiation while he found it convenient to dispose of him for his better service and prefer him to the Queen as her Secretary by which means he might fasten a sure Intelligencer of whatever should be contrived against Him and continue and cherish those good correspondencies between her Majesty and Himself And so true and faithful a Servant did he carry himself in that preferment and so prudently and wisely for himself that he preserved the entire favour of their Majesties and the Cardinal without any suspicion of a partial study in things of a nice and dubious adherence For as he had by his Birth the disadvantage of Alliance and Interest so had be the unobserved unbusied and serence way of beneficing and engaging the means to his Grandeur which he saw designed for him by so Potent and concerned Inductions to the secrets of the Government so that there was little odds between the Locality of their Extractions but what ambitious Envy against the one and contemptuous Hatred against the other ineffectually signified By the aforesaid direction of the King at his decease he now managed the State and in prosecution of Richleius Design Sacrated to him by the Merit of his Advancement resumed the next Summers Expedition of 1643. with more violent Effects the tediousness of the former having wearied Lewis the 14th of his life The first signal Action of his Administration was the reliefe of Rocroy which Don Francisco de Mello a Portuguese then Governour after the death of the Cardinal Infanta of the Low Countries under the Spanish obedience went to besiege with a gallant Army but having declared the Duke of Albuquerque a Portuguese likenese General of the Horse who was a very young man and raw Souldier the Officers took so much offence thereat that they quarrelled themselves into a discomfiture so that all their Foot were presently worsted and defeated by the Duke of Anguien now Prince of Conde a person that could not would not be debarred from Military employment and was suffered to run his venturous fate in this service for other guesse effects then a braving Experience which after wards threatned the Fortunes of this Great Cardinal This Victory was very great and most opportune to ingratiate His Administration with the people which voyced up likewise his favourite General or Marshall Gassion a Protestant besides who after took in Theonville Of whom further This successe was also the more officious to him for that it removed the said Francisco de Mello from the government of the low Countries the Marquess Casiel-Rodrigo being substituted thereto till the arrival of the Arch-Duke Leopold from Germany as if Fortune intimated that other Ministers of State were inferiour to his Eminence and could not consist nor stand with his insuperable Policy and felicity of Government His aims were no less upon Germany pursuing the old League with the Swedes then on Flanders though with different successe For the remainders of the Duke of Saxon Weymars Army being recruited and reinforced by the French marched towards Bavaria intending to swallow that Dutchy but here fortune faltered for the Duke of Ioram and John de Wert accompanied by the Baron of Mercy the Bavarian General so
under the several Commands of Marshal de Motte The Prince de Harcourt de Conde and Marshal de Schomberg to the continuance of the Catalonians in their revolt He retained likewise what he gained in Flanders with a resolution to improve the French Flower de Lyzes in that Country where they had formerly flonrished looking with an evil eye upon the Dutch for abandoning their League and evil-intreating of their Subjects in their Trade and Navigation which showed how much he was displeased with this peace which he foresee would breed ill humors in the State and some envious designes against his Person and Authority therein The said year 1648. on the 29th of August he was fortunated with another Victory at Lens in Artoys against the Arch-Duke Leopold gained by the valour but allayed by the death of the gallant Marshal Gassion slain with a bullet as most men thought treacherously by some great person near him who shall be nameless This noble Captain was a Confident of the Cardinals and proved a greater losse to him then was at present imagined but his sagacity and prudence seasonably provided himself with another Martialist Hitherto the Cardinal had carried all things evenly without any intestine Commotions or open disturbances to his great Reputation and Honour but the influence of the late general peace which stilled and dulled the minds of most men like a comprest heavy vapour broke out into a violent Earthquake at home and gave the Spaniard leave to respire after a war on both sides of his Provinces for thirteen years together but belaid this great Agent of Christendom with very importunate s llicitudes Some Cabal now on foot against him cherisht by the Princes of the blood and managed chiefly by the Prince of Conde had obliged him by the Queen Regents Order in September 1648. to commit the Messeiurs de Brussels de Charton and de Blanckmesnel Presidents of the Parliament whom the people much respected and look't upon as Patriots to the Bastilt of Paris whereupon they began to cry Alarum and ran in Herds down to the Palace Royal in the nature and to the Event of our unhappy Tumults in 1640 requiring the Liberty of the said Gentlemen the Shops were shut up the Chains made fast and all the approaches barricado'd so that Paris seemed to be in more disorder now and the danger greater then that which happened in the Reign of Henry the 2d nor did the uproar cease till the Queen was constrained to release them And so the discontent was for a while husht up being a forerunner to greater mischiefs and a seeming calm cast upon the surface of the Kingdom while it violently laboured for a free Vent through the turbulent blood of the Princes Which happened on the 28 of December in their Christmas time 1649. when in the Evening the Queen the King and Duke of Anjou with the Cardinal departed from Paris which secret Retreat gave the Parisians another Alarum for imagining that the Queen would revenge her self of the former commotion they took up Arms again with as much Heat as they had done before and raised their respective Militia's and Forces under the Command of the Dukes de Elbeuf Beaufort Bouillon and the Marshal de la Motte their chief General being the Prince of Conty The Queen Regent and King raised Forces also there flâ—cking to him many from all parts to reduce the Parisians to reason he had alread seized upâ—n the Approaches and some hot Skirmishes were made in one whereof the Duke of Rohan was slain he pretended to be the Son and Heir of that most Famous Souldier and Scholar the Duke of Rohan the Head of the Protestant League By this means the King possessed himself of St. Dennis Meredon Corbett and Lagny near the City who fearing the due punishment of their disloyalty and the revenges of the Cardinal and animated by their Leaders the Nobility invited the Archduke Leopold to their assiâ—â—ance declaring their intolerable burdens under the pressures of a tâ—dious War and the oppressions of the said Cardinal Upon this invitation the Archduke advanced and to facilitate his Design caressed the Country as he passed suffering not the least spoil to be committed upon their Goods or Cattel but by the advice of the Duke of Lorain he prudently retired and prevented the stops of his return remembring that of Curtius Gratiarum actiones apud hostes supervacaneas esse aut prorsus nullas That the thanks of an Enemy are altogether vain and unprofitable or not to be expected or relyed on For the wise Cardinal to divert this storm which would shiver Him if he met and withstood it singly vailed the Kings and Queens Authority to this Exigence Counselling the Queen to conclude with the Princes without any delay which advice was suddenly executed and thereby the Arch-Duke having lost 2000. Horse for want of forrage and by the celerity of his expedition was yet fain to make more hast out of the Kingdome then he did into it although he had saved Paris from a very forward Ruine By this Agreement the Citizens of Paris were pardoned and restored to all their Priviledges and Franchises and the Army of the King and his mutineers dispacht under the Prince de Harcourt to make an in-road into Flanders who coming before Cambray were content to dislodge at the approach of the Arch Duke whose Leivtenant General the Marquess S'sondrate took in Ypres after a gallant defence made by the French while Harcourt took Conde and laid wast the Country of Hâ—nault and part of Fraâ—ant to the fright of the City of Brussels it self This was one of the finest extricating fineries he manifested in so sudden Schazardous an emergence which else would have sunk him immediatly and the Kingdome together no small advantage of this occurrence that it complicated the Monarchy of France with his particular Fate and showed that its glory and safety were redevable to his single Concern The Cardinal well knew where those Arrows were forged and therefore having so triumphantly and nimbly surmounted this shock encounter he used the like diligence to be before hand with his Enemies for the future and hereupon the Princes of Câ—nde and Câ—ntâ— next Princes of the bloud Royal after the Duke of Orleans together with the Duke of Longueville their brother in law and the Duke of Beaufort were upon a sudden made prisoners in the Castle of â—incennes with several of their servants secured and removed from them this happened in 1650. The Princesse of Conde retired her self to Bourdeaux where the Duke of Bouillon many Lords came to her who for the hatred they bore the Cardinal and the Duke of Espernon who stuck fast to the King were welcomed by her and the Town as well as the Viscount Marshal Turenne upon the same account at Brussels The Dutchesse of Longueville got aboard in a Vessel which lay off before the Haven of Deip and thence passed to Holland and so to Luxenburgh
to communicate intelligence and make a streight Allyance with the Arch Duke This was a potent Combination wherein most of the great men of the Kingdome with the generality of the people were engaged against the Cardinal and which would have ruined the greatest Minister Europe ever had were it not that his wisdom and policy were paramount and above the reach of Fortune which had little to do with his Felicities First therefore the King published a Manifest concerning the detention of the Princes to give Satisfaction to the world of the justice and necessity thereof the cheif points of which declaration were the Prince of Conde's too great power and exorbitant Ambition that had proceeded so far as to invade the royal Prerogative In answer to this the Marshal of Turenne being in Stenay and having agreed with the Arch-Duke for the manage of the war beat his drums and listed forces declaring with the said Arch Duke that neither Party would lay down their Arms till the Princes were released the Duke of Lorain restored to his Estate the Cardinal banished a firm peace concluded between both Crowns but the Cardinals Dexterity and diligence bafled all these designments and turned their Resolutions into prayers and intreaties for most of the same things at his own hands The Parliament of Bourdeaux also renewed the Order and Arrest given against the Marquess de Ancre the Favourite of the former Queen Mother whereby it was declared that no Stranger by reason of his Enormous Administration should ever have thereafter the great Ministry and Intendency of the Kingdom The Marshal Turenne with the Arch-Duke attaqued Guise and notwithstanding terms and propositions of Peace publique and private resolved to prosecute the war while the King seizeth upon the Princes Governments and places of strength in Normandy and finally by the Artifices of the Cardinal and the power of the Duke of Espernon possesseth himself of Bourdeaux which dangerously threatned his Crown where he entred with triumph and with the same returned to his City of Paris And now the second time had he quieted and laid the envious Rage of his Enemies against Him when the Duke of Orleans the Kings brother undertook the Princes Intercession and Vindication which he procured to be decreed by the Parliament of Paris who in a body came and presented their Arrest in favour of the said Princes to the Queen which Authoritative Reversement of those proceedings and severe restraint the Princes had suffered with universal outcryes against the Cardinal as the Authour and Contriver of those injuries and other mischiefs to the Publique by his continuance of the War and oppression of the people now at last forced this able Pilot to abandon the Steerage of the State and to consult for his security which the liberty of the Princes dangerously threatned The Princes were set at liberty by Marshal Gramment who was Commanded to see it done and made their entrance into Paris the sixth of February when the streets rung again with the noise of Live the King Live the Princes no Mazarine every one accusing him of Exhausting the Revenue c. and of the mischiefs which embroiled the State but he had plaid his Cards so that they ceased not with his departure Nevertheless to Honest his Retreat and take off the dishonour of it he got the King and Queen to give him their Conge or leave for this his retirement giving his Enemies full swinge to act their Exorbitancies without any Treasure to mitigate that acuteness the people must suffer under those necessities of mis-rule while he had wherewithall to loosen their combination and divide their interests into Atomes and so make his return infinitely more glorious then his Exit was disgraceful His passage out of France was by Peronne Sedan and Dinant where he staid some dayes and thence to Leige or Luyck and so to Bruel to the Elector of Colen who received him according to his quality he having refused the like offers of civility from the Spaniards Yet such was the present hatred of him in France that even those who shewed him any respect in his way to this Exile were informed against as Enemies to the King and their Country most of the Parliaments of France Decreeing against Him And now returned the Marshall of Turenne the Count of Grand Pre and the Dutchess of Longueville being welcomed with their Troops while the Cardinal secretly listed men in Luyckland for the Kings Service which now went very backward in Flanders for the Marquess Sfondrate re-took Fuerues and Wynoxberg and the Impositions and clamours of the people were as great as ever To raise these discontents to another Sedition and Rebellion the Prince of Conde gave out a Rumour of another Design to seize him and his Brother and so all things were put in the same hazard as before at the Cardinals departure for though the Queen protested there was no such Design by an Express sent after him which brought him back to Paris upon condition that Monsieur Servient and le Tellier should be discarded as being the Cardinals Creatures yet he returned to the same suspicious humour and hasted to St. Maur and thence to Burdeaux which again received and readily declared for Him The King to prevent his â—Lavies and increase there having been newly declared Major the 27th of August 1651 by the Chancellour of France in Parliament as being fourteen years of age followed after him to Poyctiers and seeing no remedy but in the prudent Counsels of the Cardinal against this ambitious dissatisfaction of the Princes sent for Him to come to them thither which he obeyed and the Prince of Conde dealt with the Archduke in like manner Mazarin being now declared Traytor his Goods to be Confiscate his fine Library sold and fifteen thousand pound Sterling offered to any body should bring him either alive or dead and at the same time the Duke of Nemours with Spanish Forces entred Picardy This Restitution of the Cardinal was then one of the wonderfullest Changes and Affairs of Christendome though it were but an ordinary Effect of his prudence which plainly foresee this glorious Event of his secess and departure France that had leaned so long upon his Shoulders could not chuse but misse her supporter and unaccustomed to new Props was in danger of an irrecoverable fall Yet when he had Sampsons opportunity of pulling the stately Frame of Government upon the Head of his Enemies who triumphed at his disgrace the kindnesse of his Revenge rather strengthened the Fabrick and raised it higher Necessity that injures and insolently crosseth other men officiously served His Fortune France could not be safe without Him the Engine of the Government was discomposed and in pieces and none but his skilful Hand could set it right and in order which he did suddenly and invisibly by securing the Kings Interest and Soveraignty dividing and perplexing the Princes particularly by moderating and in some sort neutralizing the Duke of Orleans
as Executor of his Testament He giveth and bequeathes unto Monsieur the Archbishop of Arniuzi a great Watch in a Case of Gold My Lord the Cardinal refers himself to his Heirs and Legatees to give presents to his principal friends He gives to Monsieur de Massat Advocate in Parliament a Diamond of fifteen hundred liures He gives and bequeathes to Sr. Poisson his Apothecary four thousand liures To the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome a Lamp of three thousand Crowns He gives another Lamp of the same price to the miraculous Crucifix of St. Briget at Rome He giveth and bequeatheth to the Church of St. Roch in St. Honory's street a Chalice of the sum of eighteen thousand liures He willeth and ordaineth that after the sharing of the Palace of his Eminence together with the Statues and Figures which shall be therein and that the said Lord Duke Mazarini hath chosen the part which best likes him that then it shall be lawfull to the said Marquess Mancini to take the sum of three hundred thousand liures for his part of the said Statues and Figures which sum in the said Case the said Lord Mazarini shall be bound to pay him for which payment all the said Statues and Figures shall be comprized in the said Substitution of the Legacy general without comprizing neverthelesse the Palace and Appurtenances which shall remain in his disposition If the said Lord Marquesse Mancini receive the said sum of three hundred thousand liures my Lord the Cardinal willeth and intendeth that it shall be imployed in the purchase of a House fit to receive him the which purchase shall not be made without the advice of Monsieur Colbert My Lord Cardinal giveth unto Madam the Princess Colonna besides that which he hath assigned her as abovesaid by his Testament the sum of 15 thousand liures as well for the buying her Horses Caroach and Equipage as for the expences of her voyage into Italy All which was so spoke and said to the said Notaries and by one of them the other being present read and repeated Monday the seventh day of March about nine a clock in the morning the same year 1661. TO day the seventh day of March 1661. the King being at Vincennes after the reading to his Majesty by Francis le Foin Notary c. of the Testament and Codicils made by my Lord Cardinal Duke Mazarini His said Majesty divers times renounced and renounceth that made to his advantage of the third of March instant and Willeth and Ordaineth that the said Testament and Codicils be executed according to the Form and Tenour at which said reading were present my Lord the Prince of Conde by and at the request of Madam the Princesse of Conti Monsieur the Duke of Mercoeur Monsieur the Count of Soissons the Sieurs Duke and Dutchesse Mazarini the Sieurs Premier President Fouquet the Bishop of Freins and Colbert Executors of the Testament of my Lord the Cardinal His Majesty commanding me for the the testifying his pleasure to dispatch the present breviat which he hath signed with his own hand and caused to be Countersigned by me his Secretary of State and of his Commands and Finances Signed Le TELLIER SOME HISTORICAL REMARQVES OF THE LIFE Of the Famous CARDINAL MAZARINI London Printed by Peter Lillicrap for William Gilbertson at the Bible in Guilt-Spur-Street 166â— Some Historical REMARQUES OF THE LIFE of the Famous Cardinal MAZARINI IT might pass for no great misadventure in imitation of Philosophers and those Mathematicians who to describe the Globes and the Government of the Universe have assigned Termes and Names to the great and Principal Parts thereof if in the Elements of Humane Policy which hath ordered and disposed the Affairs of Christendome in its Modern Administration we give to its chief Motion the Name of MAZARINI whose Designes and Actions were the Supreme Intelligences the Poles and Hinges by which so many wonderful changes and vicissitudes have been Rolled upon the World And he may properly be also called that Altern Luminary which upon the setting of the Glorious Richelieu arose in the French Horizon and with Vniversal Splendor pierced into the most Recondite and Abstruse Mysteries and Cabals of State and influenced and Governed their Transactions Like the Moons Opacous Body his Gleamings and Glitterings and uncertain lights dazled the Eyes of the World while his dark Intrigues were reserved and concealed in himself He was Fate it's self in a Humane shape which dispensed Events and favoured or crossed all Counsels and Designes according to his Pleasure nothing succeeded without his Concurring advice and assent and nothing failed with his auspicious Encouragement To so near a resemblance herein that he was able to clue glorious and most wonderful Effects through dark Labyrinths of Time and Adversity and appoint the hour and minute of their Termination He was a dark Lanthorn whose Lucidations discovered all before him and concealed his own Mysterious Practises the Oracle of State which no Sword or Wisdome could resolve He could turn the Edges of the sharpest Steel and blunt the Points of the acutest Wits neither Mars nor Mercury could prevail against Him In vain therefore it is to think to give any competent Character of Him who surmounted the capacity of the ablest Personages Christendome e're enjoyed and who may be reckoned for one of the Wonders of the World As he may in some sort also be said to have been a Monarch himself having governed France absolutely in the Regency and Minority of the Present King and Queen Mother in very difficult and perplexed Times and yet he was but a stranger and a new commer to that Court and Country in a very private condition which His Fortune and Mâ—â—it equalled after to the highest Advancements any Publique Minister ever attained It 's true he had an Excellent Master and Pattern the aforesaid Richlieu who doubled his Faculties upon him at his death commending him to the King as he had done before to the Queen as the only fit and able person to undertake His Affairs The main Scope whereof was the Ruine of the House of Austria and the Advancement of the French Greatness upon it to an Universal Soveraignty And it will not be ungrateful I suppose to the Reader to shew the Parallel and Differences between these Eminent Statesmen the latter exactly treading in the steps of the Former without any ambitious Hope or design of expressing them in their due proportions but only to serve an ordinary Curiosity Cardinal Richlieu was born at Paris and so a Native of that Kingdom and of Noble Extraction which rendred him to the observation of the Queen Mother who took him into her service and preferred him to the Bishoprick of I uzon where at her command he wrote a Book of Conâ—roversies and Therafter to the King who procured him a Cardinals Cap from the Pope Paul the fifth is reported upon viewring him to have said that he would one day would prove the