steal a victory that ambuscadoes were not honest but onely during War and that it was necessary for his honour to take heeâ— that he did not in any manner contribute to that rupture the enemies had a design to make In fine the Spaniards having found that this wise Argus had too many eyes and too much vigilance to be surprized on any side resolved to employ their Arms in pious and honorable enterprizes A part of their Land-Army passed into Hungary which was at that present assaulted by the Turks The Duke of Merceur being gone to seek in that Country a juster glory then in the Civil-wars of France commanded the Emperours forces He made known to the Infidels by many gallant exploits particularly by the memorable retreat of Canise that the French valour was chosen by God to sustain the Christian Religion Nor was there any doubt made but that he would have quite chased them out of that Kingdom of which they had invaded more then one half if he had not died the year following of a burning Feavour which seized him at Nurembourg as he was about to go pay his devotions at the Shrine of the Lady of Loretto There arrived some time after an accident by which the King took occasion to let the Spaniards know that he could not suffer any thing against his honour nor against the dignity of his estate Rochepot was his Embassador in Spain Some Gentlemen of his train of which one was his Nephew washing in the River chanced to have a quarrel with some Spaniards and killing two saved themselves in the Ambassadors house The friends of the slain so much excited the people that they besieged the house and were ready to put fire to it The Magistrate to prevent the Tragick effects of this fury was constrained to do an injustice and to violate the freedom of the Ambassadors house for he seized by force and led the accused to prison The King of Spain being troubled that he had violated the right of Nations sent him to demand pardon of the Ambassador yet the French men still remained prisoners There were made many discourses and writings concerning the rights and priviledges of Ambassadors It is true said they that an Ambassador hath alone right of Soveraign Justice in his Palace but the people of his train are subject to the Justice of the estate in which they are for those faults they commit out of his Palace and so if they be taken out of it their Process may be made and though it be known that this rigour is not generally observed and that the respect born to the Ambassadors person extends to all those that follow him yet however this is a courtesie and not a right But notwithstanding it is not permitted to go seek the Criminal in the Palace of the Ambassador which is a sacred place and a certain Sanctuary for his people yet ought it not however to be abused or made a retreat for wicked persons nor give Sanctuary to the Subjects of a Prince against the Laws and Justice of his Realm for in such cases on complaint to his Master he is obliged to do reason Now the King being offended as he ought to be at the injury done to France in the person of his Ambassador and not judging the satisfaction the Magistrate had given him sufficient commands him immediately to return which he did without taking leave of the King of Spain He forbade likewise at the same time all Commerce with Spaniards and foreseeing that in these beginnings of the rupture they might enterprize somewhat on the Towns of Picardy he with great diligence departed from Paris to visit that Frontier and came to Calais The people who began to taste the sweetness of repose and to Till their lands with patience trembled for fear lest a new War should expose them once more to the License of the Souldiers But God had pity of these poor people The Pope becoming mediatour to remedy those mischiefs which threatned Christendom happily accommodated the difference The Spaniard remitted the Process and the Prisoners whom his Holiness consigned some days after into the hands of the Count of Bethune Ambassador for France at Rome and the King afterwards sent an Ambassador into Spain which was the Count of Barraut Whilst the King was at Calais whither as we have said he went the Arch-Duke who was before Ostend where he continued that Siege the most famous that ever was since that of Troy feared with some reason lest the Kings approach should retard the progress of his enterprize in which he had already lost so many men so much time spent so many Cannot shot so much money and such stores of Ammunition he sent therefore to complement him promising him on the part of Spain satisfaction for the violence done to the Lodgings of his Ambassador but intreating him that the besieged might not prevail themselves of this Conjuncture The King who never let himself be overcome by Courtesie no more then by Arms sent the Duke of Aiguillon eldest Son of the Duke of Mayenne to assure him that he desired to maintain the peace that he was not advanced on the Frontiers but to dissipate some designs which were contriving and that he hoped in the equity of the King of Spain which he doubted not would do him reason VVhilst he was at Calais Queen Elizabeth sent likewise to visit him by my Lord Edmonds her principal Confident For answer to which obliging civility he caused the Marshal of Byron to pass into England accompanied by the Count d' Auvergne and the choice of all the Nobility of the Court to represent to her the displeasure the King had finding himself so near her that he could not enjoy the sight of her This Queen endeavoured by all means possible to make known to the French her greatness and power One day holding Byron by the hand she shewed him a great number of heads planted on the Tower of London telling him that in that manner they punished Rebels in England and recounting to him the reasons she had to put to death the Earl of Essex whom she had once so tenderly loved Those who heard the discourse remembred it afterwards when they saw the Marshal Byron fallen into the same misfortune and lose his head after having lost the favour of his King VVe must not forget how that before the King made his voyage to Calais he had led the Queen with him to enjoy the Jubilee in the City of Orleans where the holy Father had ordained the Stations for France to begin His piety which was sincere and unfeigned gave a fair Example to his people who see him go to Processions with great devotion and pray to God with no less attention his heart agreeing with his lips He laid the first stone to the foundation of the Church of the holy Cross at Orleans which the Hugonots had miserably
Louvre and demanding his opinion of it The Escurial is much another thing said Don Pedro. I believe it replyed the King but has it a Paris about it like my Gallery One day Don Pedro seeing at the Louvre the Kings Sword in the hands of one of his followers advanced to it and putting one knee on the ground kissed it rendring this honour said he to the most glorious Sword in Christendom During the truce of eight months of which we have spoken the President Janin incessantly laboured for a Treaty There were two great difficulties one that the King of Spain would not treat with the United Provinces but as with Subjects and they would have him acknowledge them to be free and independent the other that the Prince of Orange whose power and authority would be extremely weakned by the Peace opposed it by a thousand Artifices being sustained in it by the Province of Zealand who ever desired War and by some Cities of its faction These two obstacles were in the end surmounted The Spaniard yeilded to the first and acknowledged that he owned the States for Free States Provinces and Countries and about the second the King spoke so high to the Prince of Orange that he durst not stop the course of the Treaty It ended no longer however in a Peace but onely in a Truce of twelve years which was free and assured Commerce on one part and on the other The renown of this accommodation carried the Kings glory throughout all Europe The Duke of Venice told our Ambassador in the Senate That that Signory entred into new admiration of the prudent conduct of our King who never deceived himself in his undertaking nor never gave blow in vain that he was the true upholder of the repose and felicity of Christendom and that it had nothing of happiness to desire but that he might reign for ever An Elogie so much the more worthy and glorious because we may say with truth that Venice hath still been the Seat of Politick wisdome and that the prayses which came from that Senate are as so many Oracles The Friendship and Protection of this great King was sought on all sides all was referred to his Arbitration and all implored his assistance And as he was equally powerful as wise feared as loved there was none who durst contradict his judgement or assault those whom he protected But he was so just that he would not enterprize any thing upon the Rights of another nor maintain the Rebellions of Subjects against their Soveraign A certain proof of which he gave to the Maurisques It is known how heretofore the Moores or Sarazins invaded all Spain towards the year 725. The Christians with the aid of the French had regained it from them by little and little so that there remained no more then the Kingdom of Granada which was little in Extent but very rich and extremely populous because all the remnants of that infidel Nation were retired into that little space Ferdinand King of Arragon and Isabella Queen of Castile finished the Conquest of that Kingdom in the year 1492. and so put an end to the Government of the Moores and to the Mahumetan Religion in Spain constraining the Infidels to take Baptism or to retire into Affrica Now as those who had thus professed the Christian Religion had done it perforce they for the most part remained Mahumetans in their hearts or Jews for there were many Jews amongst them and secretly brought up their children in their incredulity To which likewise the Spanish Rigor did much contribute putting great distinction between the new Christians and the old For they received not the new ones either to Charges or Sacred Orders they allied not themselves with them and which is worse made a thousand avanies upon them and oppressed them with excessive â—mposts So that these unfortunate people seeing themselves thus trampled on and being too weak of themselves to loosen themselves from their Yoak they resolved to address themselves to some strange power but which should be Christian because that of the King of Morrocco or the other Princes of Affrica would have appeared too odious To this effect they had secret recourse by Deputies to our Henry when he was then but King of Navarre Afterwards in the year 1595. when they saw that he had overcome the League and had got the upper hand in his affairs they again implored his Protection He hearkned favourably to their propositions sent disguised Agents into Spain to see the Estate of their affairs and made them hope that he would assist them And truly he might have done it since then he was in War with the King of Spain and it is lawful to make use of all sorts of Arms to defend our selves against our enemies But now being returned this year 1608. to sollicite him instantly to accept their propositions and offers and to hear the answer from his own mouth he plainly let them know that the quality of thrice-Christian King which he bore permitted him not to undertake their defence so long as the peace of Vervin lasted but that if the Spaniard should first openly infringe it he should have just cause to receive them into his Protection Their Deputies having lost all hopes on this side addressed themselves to the King of England whom they found yet less disposed then he to lend them assistance In the mean time their plots having taken wind in the Court of Spain caused both fear and astonishment for they were near a million of souls and were possessed of almost all the Traffick particularly that of Oiles which is very great in that Country King Philip the third found no other secure way to hinder the dangerous effects of their conspiracies but banishing them quite out of his Territories which he did by an Edict of the tenth of January in the year 1610. which was executed with much cruelty Inhumanity and Treachery For in Transporting these unfortunate people into Affrica as they had demanded part were drowned in the Sea others despoiled of all they had so that those who remained to depart perceiving the ill Treatment of their Companions fled towards France one part by land to St. John de Lus to the number of one hundred and fifty thousand others in French Vessels who brought them into divers ports of the Kingdom But to speak truth those who came by land were not much better treated by the French then the others had been by the Spaniards for in crossing the Countries they were almost all robbed and stript and their Wives and Daughters ravished so that finding so little safety in a Country wherein they believed they might find refuge they embarqued by the Kings permission in the Ports of Languedoc and crossed over into Affrica where they are become implacable and most cruel enemies to all Christians There remained some families in the Maritime Cities of the Kingdom
in the year 1607. by which appeared Acquittances for eighty seven Millions which established the reputation and credit of France among strangers by whom it was before much cried out upon That done he continually laboured to joyn in his great design all Christian Princes offering to give them all the fruit of his Enterprizes against the Infidels without reserving any thing for himself for he would not said he have other Estates then France He likewise proposed to himself the seeking of all occasions to extinguish disorders and to pacifie differences among the Christian Princes so soon as they should see them conceived and that without any other interest then that of the Reputation of a Prince Generous disinterested wise and just He began to make his Friends and Associates the Princes and Estates which seemed best disposed towards France and the least indisposed to its interests as the Estates of Holland or the United Provinces the Venetians the Swisses and the Grisons After having bound them to him by very strong ties he endeavoured to negotiate with the three puissant Kingdoms of the North England Denmark and Swedeland to discuss and decide their differences and likewise to endeavour to reconcile them to the Pope or at least to obtain a cessation of that hatred and enmity by some formulary in such manner as they might live together so that it had been advantagious to the Pope in that they had acknowledged him for the first Prince of Christendome as to Temporals and in that case rendred him all respect He endeavoured in fine to do the same thing among the Electors the Estates and Cities Imperial being obliged particularly said he to take care of an Empire had been founded by his Predecessours Afterwards he sounded the Lords of Bohemia Hungary Transylvania and Poland to know if they would concur with him in the designe of taking away and rooting up for ever all causes of trouble and division in Christendom He treated after that with the Pope who approved and praised his Enterprize and desired to contribute on his part all that should be possible These were the dispositions of his great designe of which I shall now shew you the platform and model He desired perfectly to unite all Christendom so that it should be one body which had been and should be called the Christian Common-wealth for which effect he had determined to part it into fifteen Dominions or Estates which was the most he could do to make them of equal power and strength and whose limits should be so well specified by the universal consent of the whole fifteen that none could pass beyond them These fifteen Dominations were the Pontificate or Papacy the Empire of Germany France Spain Great Britain Hungary Bohemia Poland Danemark Swedeland Savoy or the Kingdom of Lombardy the Signory of Venice the Italian Commonwealth or of the little Princes and Cities of Italy the Belgians or Low-Countries and the Swisses Of these Estates there had been five successive France Spain Great Britain Swedeland and Lumbardy six elective the Papacy the Empire Hungary Bohemia Poland and Danemark four Republicks two of which had been Democratical to wit the Belgians and the Swisses and two Aristocratical or Signories that of Venice and that of the little Princes and Cities of Italy The Pope had had besides those Lands he possesses the whole Kingdome of Naples and Homages as well of the Italian Common-wealth as for the Island of Sicily The Signory of Venice had had Sicily in faith and homage of the holy Seat without other rights then a simple kissing of feet and a Crucifix of gold from twenty years to twenty years The Italian Commonwealth had been composed of the Estates of Florence Genoua Lucca Mantoua Parma Modena Monacho and other little Princes and Lords and had likewise held of the holy Seat paying onely for all by advance of a Crucifix of gold worth ten thousand Franks The Duke of Savoy besides those Lands he possessed should likewise have Milain and all should be erected into a Kingdom by the Pope under the title of the Kingdom of Lombardy from which should have been taken Cremona in exchange of Moâ—tferrat which should be joyned There should have been incorporated with the Helvetian or Republick of the Swisses the French County Alsatia Tirol the Country of Trent and their dependences and it had done a simple homage to the Emperour of Germany from five and twenty to five and twenty years All the seventeen Provinces of the Low-Countries as well Protestants as Catholicks should have been established into a free and soveraign Republick save onely a like homage to the Empire and this Dominion should have been encreased by the Dutchy of Cleves of Juliers of Berghe de la Mark and Ravenstein and other little neighbouring Signories To the Kingdome of Hungary had been joyned the Estates of Transylvania Moldavia and Valachia The Emperour had for ever renounced aggrandizing himself or his by any confiscation disinheritance or reversion of Fiefs Masculine but had disposed vacant Fiefs in favour of persons out of his Kindred by the consent of the Electors and Princes of the Empire It should likewise have been held of accord that the Empire should never upon any occasion whatsoever be held successively by two Princes of one house for fear of its perpetuating as it hath for a long time in that of Austria The Kingdome of Hungary and of Bohemia had been likewise elective by the voice of seven Electors to wit 1. that of the Nobles Clergy and Cities of that Country 2. of the Pope 3. of the Emperour 4. of the King of France 5. of the King of Spain 6. of the King of England 7. of the Kings of Swedeland Denmark and Poland who all three had made but one voice Besides to regulate the differences which might arise between the Confederates and to decide them without sight of Fact there should have been established an Order and Form of Procedure by a general Council composed of sixty persons four on the part of every Dominion which should have been placed in some City in the midst of Europe as Mets Nancy Collen or others There should likewise have been established three others in three several places every one of twenty men which should all three make report to the grand Council Moreover by the consent of the general Council which should be called the Senate of the Christian Commonwealth there should be established an Order and Regulation between Soveraigns and Subjects to hinder on one side the Oppression and Tyranny of Princes and on the other side the Tumults and Rebellions of Subjects There should likewise be raised and assured a stock of money and men to which every Dominion should contribute according to the Assessment of the great Council for the assistance of the Dominions bordering upon Infidels from their
to them and giving to Anthony the Government of Guyenne which had been likewise held by Henry d' Albret his Father-in-law he retrenched him of Languedoc which he had a long time enjoyed About two years after they returned to the Court of France whither they brought their Son aged about four or five years who was the most jolly and best-composed Lad in the world but they stayed but few moneths and returned again to Bearn A little after King Henry the second was slain with a blow of a Lance by Montgomery Francis the second his eldest Son succeeded him and Messieurs de Guise Uncles to Mary Stuart his Queen seized themselves of the Government The Princes of the Blood could not suffer it and therefore Lewis Prince of Condé younger Brother to Anthony called that King into the Court to oppose it During these Divisions the Hugonots contrived the Conspiration d' Amboyse against the present Government and the two Brothers Anthony and Lewis being accused for the Chiefs of it were arrested Prisoners in the State of Orleance and processes made so hotly against the second that it was believed he would have been beheaded if the Death of King Francis the second had not happened Charles the ninth who succeeded him being under age Queen Katherine his Mother caused her self to be declared Regent of the Estates and the King of Navarre first Prince of the Blood was declared Lieutenant-General of the Realm to govern the Estate with her so that by this means he was stay'd in France whither he caused his Queen Jane and his young Son Prince Henry to come But he enjoyed not long this new Dignity for the Troubles dayly continuing by reason of the Surprizes which the new Reformers made of the best Cities of the Kingdome after having re-taken Bourges from them he came to besiege Rouen where visiting one day the Trenches as he was making water he received a Musket-shot in his left shoulder of which he in few days died at Andely on the Siene Had he lived longer the Hugonots had without doubt been but ill treated in France for he mortally hated them though his Brother the Prince of Condé were the principal Chief of their party The Queen his wife and the little Prince his son were at present in the Court of France The mother returned to Bearn where she publickly embraced Calvinism but she left her son with the King under the conduct of a wise Tutor named la Gaucherie who endeavoured to give him some tincture of Learning not by the Rules of Grammar but by Discourses and Entertainments To this effect he taught him by heart many fair Sentences like to these Ou vaincre avec Justice Ou Mourir avec Gloire Or justly gain the Victory Or learn with Glory how to die And that other Les Princes sur leur Peuple ont autorit◠grande Mais Dieu plus fortement dessus les Rois commande Kings rule their Subjects with a mighty hand But God with greater power doth Kings command In the year 1566. his mother took him from the Court of France and led him to Pau and in the place of la Gaucherie who was deceased she gave him Florentius Christian an ancient servant of the house of Vendosme a man of a very agreeable conversation and well versed in Learning but however a Hugonot and who according to the orders of the Queen instructed the Prince in that false Doctrine In the first troubles of the Religion Francis Duke of Guise had been assassinated by Poltrot at the Siege of Orleance leaving his children in minority this was in the year 1563. In the second the Constable of Montmorency received a wound at the battle of St. Dennis of which he died at Paris three days after the Eve of St. Martin in the year 1567. In the third and in the year 1569 Queen Jane rendred her self Protectoress of the Hugonot party being for this effect come to Rochel with her son whom she now devoted to the Defence of that new Religion In this quality he was declared Chief and his Uncle the Prince of Condé his Lieutenant in colleague with the Admiral of Coligny These were two great Chieftains but they committed notable errours and this young Prince though not exceeding thirteen years of age had the spirit to observe them For he judged well at the great skirmish of Loudun that if the Duke of Anjou b had had troops ready to assault them he had done it and that not doing it he was without doubt in an ill estate and therefore should the rather have been assaulted by them but they by not doing it gave time to all his troops to arrive At the battle of Jarnac he represented to them yet more judiciously that there was no means to fight because the forces of the Princes were dispersed and those of the Duke of Anjou firmly imbodied but they were engaged too far to be able to retreat The Prince of Condé was killed in this battle or rather assassinated in cold blood after the Combat in which he had had his Leg broken After that all the authority and belief of the Party remained in the Admiral Coligny who to speak truth was the greatest man of that time of the Religion he took part with but the most unfortunate This Admiral having gathered together new forces hazarded a second battle at Montcontour in Poictou he had caused to come to the Army our little Prince of Navarre and the young Prince of Condé who was likewise named Henry and gave them in charge to Prince Lodowick of Nassaw who guarded them on a Hill little distant with four thousand horse The young Prince burned with desire to engage in person but they permitted him not to run so great a hazard nevertheless when the Avant-Guard of the Duke of Alenzon was disordered by that of the Admiral there had been no danger to let him fall upon the Enemies who were much astonished However they hindred him and he now cryed out We shall loose our advantage and by consequence the battle It arrived as he had foreseen and it was at that hour judged by some that a young man of sixteen years of age had more understanding then the old Souldiers Thus he applyed himself entirely to what he did nor had he onely a Body but a Spirit and Judgement apt Being saved with the remnants of his Army he made almost a turn round the Kingdome fighting in retreat and rallying together the Hugonots troops here and there for five or six moneths during which he suffered so much travel that had he not been elevated in that manner he was he could not have been able to resist it This young Prince always accompanied with the Admiral led his troops into Guyenne and from thence through Languedoc where he took Nismes by stratagem forced several small places and
custome became mediatrix of an Accommodation but the King fearing to be inclosed in a fright retires to Chartres The League by this becoming Mistress of Paris take possession of the Bastille the Hostel de Ville and the Temple hang the Provost of the Merchants and the Civil Lieutenant And at the same time they assured themselves of Orleans Bourges Amiens Abbeville Montreuil Rouen Rheims Chaalons and more then twenty other Cities in several Provinces the people every where crying Long live Guise Long live the Protector of the Faith The King not without much reason was extreamly affrighted The Parisians deputed some to him to Chartres to ask pardon but withal they demand the extirpation of Heresie All the world encreased his fears none fortified his Courage In this distress he knew no securer way to shun that danger which threatned him then by essaying to disarm his subjects To this effect he sends one of his Masters of the Requests to the Parliament to let them understand that his absolute intention was to forget all that was past so that every one returned to his Duty and to labour diligently for the Reformation of the Kingdome for which end he found it convenient to assemble the General Estates at the end of the year where they might provide for the assuring a Catholick Successor of the Blood-Royal protesting that he would observe inviolably all the Resolutions of the Estates but that he would have them free and without Faction and that from that day all his Subjects should lay down Arms. It much troubled the Duke of Guise to consent to the laying down Arms fearing lest when he was left defenceless he should remain at the mercy of his enemies and particularly of the Duke d' Espernon He therefore stirred up the Parisians by a famous deputation to demand the continuation of the War against the Hugonots and the expulsion of that Duke The King after some resistance granted both the one and the other for he caused to be Ratified in Parliament an Edict most advantagiously favourable for the League and most bloody against the Hugonots and he bid Adieu to the Duke d' Espernon who retired into his Government of Angoumois After this the Duke of Guise came to attend the King at Chartres having the Queen-mothers word for his Security and both gave great assurances of his Fidelity and received all the testimonies he could wish of the affection of the King insomuch that he made him great Master of the Gens d' Arms of France In the mean time the League gained the upper hand throughout all the Provinces on this â—ide the Loire and caused Deputies for the Estates to be elected at its pleasure In the moneth of November the Estates assembled in the City of Blois It is not necessary here to recount all their intrigues In fine the King perswading that they had conspired to dethrone him caused the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal his Brother to be slain in the Castle and kept prisoner the Cardinal of Bourbon the Archbishop of Lyons the Prince of Joinville who after the Death of his Father was called Duke of Guise and the Duke of Nemours brother by the mother to the first Duke The Queen-mother under whose word the Guises thought to have been in security was so touched with the reproaches made her and with the â—lightings of the King her Son who after this believed he had no more need of her that she died with grief and envy few days after lamented by no person not so much as by her Son and generally hated by all parties In truth if ever there were an Action ambiguous or problematical it was this The servants of the King said that he was constrained to it by the extream audacity of the Guises and that if he had not prevented them they had shaved him and shut him up in a Monastery But the ill repute he had among all men the general esteem these Princes had acquisted and the odious circumstances of the murther made it appear horrible even to the eyes of the very Hugonots who said that this much resembled the bloody Massacre of St. Bartholomew Our Henry conserved a wise Mediocrity in this rencounter he deplored their death and gave praises to their Valour but he said That certainly the King had very puissant Motives to treat them in that manner and for the rest that the Judgements of God were great and his Grace thrice-special towards him having revenged him of his Enemies and neither engaged his Conscience nor his hand in it For certain Gentlemen having often offered themselves to him with a determinate resolution to go kill the Duke of Guise he had always let them know that he abhorred such a Proposition and that he would neither esteem them his friends nor honest men if they conserved it in their thoughts His Council being assembled upon this great News found that he ought not for it make any change in the conduct of his Affairs because the King though himself might be willing to it durst not for some moneths speak of a Peace with him for fear lest he should make it be believed that he had slain the Guises to favour the Hugonots so that he continued the War and kept several places In the mean time the progress of Affairs beat him out a path to lead him to the heart of the Kingdom and return him to the Court which was the post he ought most to wish for Henry the third amusing himself after the murther of the Guises to examine the Acts of the Estates at Blois in stead of mounting presently to horse and shewing himself in those places where his presence was most necessary the League which at first had been astonished at so great a blow regained its spirits The great Cities and principally Paris who were possessed with this madness having had leisure to dissipate their amazement passed from fear to pity and from pity to fury The Sixteen chose at Paris the Duke of Aumarle for their Governour The Preachers and Church-men declaimed horribly against the King the people snatched down his Arms where-ever they found them and dragged them through the dirt The Parliament who would have opposed this rage were imprisoned in the Bastille by Bussy le Clerk a simple Proctor but very much esteemed among the Sixteen and were forced to regain their Liberty to swear to the League At their coming forth of the Bastille there were many who continued to hold the Parliament at Paris the others stole away by little and little and went to the King who transported the Parliament to Tours where they kept their Session until the reducement of Paris in the year fifteen hundred ninety four These without doubt testified most fidelity to their King but those who remained at Paris rendred him afterwards much greater service as shall be observed in its place The Widow of the Duke
wilt punish me as my sins deserve I offer my head to thy Justice spare not the Culpable but Lord for thy holy mercies sake take pity of the poor Kingdom and smite not the flock for the offence of the shepherd It cannot be expressed of what efficacy these words were they were in a moment carried through the whole Army and it seemed as if some vertue from heaven had given courage to the French The Arch-Duke therefore finding them resolved and in good Countenance durst not pass farther Some other attempts he afterwards made which did not succeed and he retired by night into the Country of Artois where he dismissed his Army In fine Hernand Teillo being slain by a Musquet-shot the besieged capitulated and the King established Governour in the City the Seigneur de Vic a man of great order and exact discipline who by his command began to build a Citadel there At his departure from Amiens the King led his Army to the very Gates of Arras to visit the Arch-Duke he remained three days in battalia and saluted the City with some Volleys of Cannon Afterward seeing that nothing appeared he retired towards France ill satisfied said he gallantly with the courtesie of the Spaniards who would not advance so much as one pace to receive him but had with an ill grace refused the honour he did them The Marshal of Byron served him extraordinarily at this siege and the King when he was returned to Paris and that those of the City gave him a reception truly Royal he told them shewing them the Marshal Gentlemen see there the Marshal de Byron whom I do willingly present both to my friends and to my enemies There rested now no appearance of the League in France but onely the Duke of Merceur yet keeping a corner of Brittany The King had often granted him Truces and offered him great Conditions but he was so intoxicated with an ambition to make himself Duke of that Country that he found out daily new fancies to delay the concluding one imagining that time might afford him some favourable revolution and flattering himself with I know not what prophecies which assured him that the King should dye in two years In fine the King wearied with so many protractions turns his head that way resolving to chastise his obstinacy as it deserved He had been lost without remedy if he had not been advised to save himself by offering his only daughter to the eldest son of the Fair Gabriella Dutchess of Beaufort who is at this day Duke of Vendosme His Deputies could at first obtain nothing else but that he should immediately depart out of Brittany and deliver those places which he held which done his Majesty would grant him oblivion for all past and receive him into his favour But the King being of a tender heart and desiring to advance his natural son by so rich and noble a marriage granted him a very advantagious Edict which was verified in the Parliament as all those of the Chiefs of the League were This accommodation was made at Angiers the Contract of marriage passed at Chasteau and the affiances celebrated with the same Magnificence as if he had been a Legitimate son of France He was four years old and the Virgin six The King made gift to him of the Dutchy of Vendosme by the same right that other Dukes hold them which the Parliament verified not without great repugnancy and with this condition that it should be no president for the other goods of the Kings patrimony which by the Laws of the Realm were esteemed reunited to the Crown from the time of his coming to it From Angiers the King would pass into Brittany He stayed some time at Nantes from thence he went to Rennes where the Estates were held he passed about two months in this City in feasts joys and divertisements but yet ceasing not seriously to imploy himself to hasten the expedition of many affairs For it is to be observed that this great Prince employed himself all the mornings in serious things and dedicated the rest of the day to his divertisements yet not in such manner that he would not readily quit his greatest pleasures when there was any thing of importance to be acted and he still gave express order not to defer the advertizing him of such things He took away a great many superfluous Garisons in this Country suppressed many imposts which the Tyranny of many perticular persons had introduced during the War disbanded all those pilfering Troops which laid waste the plain Country sent forth the Provosts into the Campagne against the theeves which were in great number restored Justice to its authority which License had weakned and gathered four Millions of which the Estates of the Country of their own free will levyed eight hundred thousand crowns So he laboured profitably for these two ends which he ought most to intend to wit the ease of his people and the increase of his treasures Two things which are incompatible when a Prince is not Just and a good manager or lets his mony be managed by others without taking diligent care of his accounts Thus was a calme of Peace restored to France within it self after ten years Civil Wars by a particular grace of God on this Kingdom by the labour diligence goodness and valour of the best King that ever was And in the mean time a peace was seriously endeavoured between the two Crowns of France and Spain The two Kings equally wished it our Henry because he passionately desired to ease his people and to let them regain their forces after so many bloody and violent agitations and Philip because he found himself incline to the end of his days and that his Son Philip the third was not able to sustain the burthen of a War against so great a King The Deputies of one part and the other had been assembled for three months in the little City of Vervins with the Popes Nuntio Those of France were Pompone of Believre and Nicholas Bruslard both Counsellours of State and the last likewise President of the Parliament who acting agreeably and without jealousies determined on the most difficult Articles in very little time and according to the order they received from the King signed the peace on the second of May. The 12. of the same month it was published at Vervin It would be too long to insert here all the Articles of the Treaty I shall say only that it was agreed that the Spaniards should surrender all the places they had taken in Picardy and Blavet which they yet held in Brittany That the Duke of Savoy should be comprehended in this Treaty provided he delivered to the King the City of Berry which he held in Provence And for the Marquesate of Saluces which that Duke had taken from France towards the latter end of the Reign of Henry the third that it should be
took care before his death to treat of the marriage of his Son with Margaret Daughter to the Arch-Duke of Grats and that of his dear Daughter Isabella with the Cardinal-Arch-Duke Albert of the same blood with her and gave him for Dowry the Low-Countries and County of Bourgongne on Condition of its Reversion if she died without issue He had already signed the Articles of the peace but this mortal sickness permitted him not to give Oath to it with the same solemnities as the King and Arch-Duke had done Philip the third his Son and Successour acquitted himself of this Obligation on the one and twentieth of May in the year 1601. in the City of Vallidolid and presence of the Count of Rochepot Ambassodour of France The license of the War having for many years permitted mischiefs with impunity there were yet found a great number of Vagabonds who believed it still permitted them to take the Goods of others at pleasure and others there were who thought they had right to do themselves justice by their arms not acknowledging any Laws but force This obliged our wise King to begin the Reformation of the Estate by the Re-establishment of publick Security To this effect he forbad all carrying of Fire-arms to all persons of what quality soever upon pain of the Confiscation of their Arms and Horses and a Fine of two hundred Crowns for the first fault and of Life without remission for the second permitting all the world to arrest any who carried them except his light-horsemen his Gens d' Arms and the Guards of his body which might bear them onely when they were in service To the same purpose and to ease the Country of the multitudes of his Souldiers he dismissed not onely the greatest part of his new Troops but likewise reduced the one half of his old He reduced the Companies of the Ordinance to a very little number and took off the Guards of the Governours of the Provinces and Lieutenants of the King not willing to suffer any whatsoever besides himself to have that glorious mark of Soveraignty about their persons The Wars had spoiled all Commerce reduced Cities into Villages Villages to small Cots and Lands to Deserts nevertheless the Receivers constrained the poor Husband-men to pay Taxes for those Fruits they had never gathered The Cries of these miserable people who had nothing but their Tongues to lament with touched in such manner the very Entrails of so just and so good a King that he made an Edict by which he released them of all they owed him for the time past and gave them hopes to ease them more for the future Moreover having understood that during the Troubles there were made a great quantity of false Nobles who were exempted from the Tax he commanded that they should be sought forth nor did he confirm their Usurpation for a piece of mony as hath been sometimes done to the great prejudice of other taxed people but he would that the Tax should be re-imposed upon them to the end that by this means they might assist the poor people to bear a good part of the burthen as being the richer He desired with much affection to do good to his true Nobility and repay them those Expences they had been at in his service but his Coffers were empty and moreover all the Gold in Peru had not been sufficient to satisfie the Appetite and Luxury of so many people For King Henry the third had by his example and that of his Minions raised expences so high that Lords lived like Princes and Gentlemen like Lords for which purposes they were forced to alienate the Possessions of their Ancestors and change those old Castles the illustrious marks of their Nobility into Silver-lace Gilt-coaches train and horses Afterwards when they were indebted beyond their credit they fell either upon the Kings Coffers demanding Pensions or on the backs of the people oppressing them with a thousand Thieveries The King willing to remedy this disorder declared very resolvedly to his Nobility That he would they should accustom themselves to live every man on his Estate and to this effect he should be well content that to enjoy themselves of the peace they should go see their Country houses and give order for the improvement of their Lands Thus he eased them of the great expences of the Court and made them understand that the best treasure they could have was that of good management Moreover knowing that the French Nobility would strive to imitate the King in all things he shewed them by his own example how to abridge their superfluity in Cloathing For he ordinarily wore gray Cloath with a Doublet of Sattin or Taffata without slashing Lace or Embroydery He praised those who were clad in this sort and chid the others who carried said he their Mills and their Woods and Forests on their backs About the end of the year he was seized with a suddain and violent sickness at Monceaux of which it was thought he would die All France was affrighted and the rumours which ran of it seemed to re-kindle some factions but in ten or twelve days he was on foot again as if God had onely sent him this sickness to discover to him what ill wills there were yet in the Kingdome and to give him the satisfaction to feel by the sorrows of his people the pleasures of being loved In the strength of his Disease he spoke to his friends these excellent words I do not at all fear death I have affronted it in the greatest dangers but I avow that I should unwillingly leave this Life till I have put this Kingdome into that splendour I have proposed to my self and till I have testified to my people by governing them well and easing them of their many Taxes that I love them as if they were my Children After his recovery continuing in his praise-worthy designes of putting his Affairs in order he came to St. Germain in Laya to resolve the Estates of the expence as well of his House as for the Guard of Frontiers and Garisons entertainment of Forces Artillery Sea-Affairs and many other Charges He had then in his Council as we may say we have at present very great men and most experienced in all sorts of Matters but he still shewed himself more able and more understanding then they He examined and discussed all the particulars of his expence with a judgement and with a clearness of spirit truely admirable retrenched and cut off all that was possible allowing onely what was necessary Amongst other things he abridged the superfluous expences of the Tables in his house not so much that he might spare himself as to oblige his subjects to moderate their liquorish prodigality and hinder them from ruining their whole houses by keeping too great Kitchins In sum by the example of the King which hath always more force then Laws or then Correction Luxury was
but I with my Gray Jacket will give you good effects I am all Gray without but you shall find me Gold within I will see your desires and answer them the most favourably I can possible All his Prudence and all his Address were not too much to teach him to govern himself so that both the Catholicks and Pope might be content with his Conduct and the Hugonots have no cause to be alarmed or cantonize themselves His Duty and his Conscience carried him to the assistance of the first but Reason of State and the great Obligations he had to the last permitted him not to make them despair To keep therefore a necessary temperature he granted them an Edict more ample then the precedent It was called The Edict of Nantes because it was concluded the year before in that City whilst he was there by this he granted them all liberty for the exercise of their Religion and likewise license to be admitted to Charges to Hospitals to Colledges and to have Schools in certain places and preaching every where and many other things of which they are since deprived by reason of their Rebellions and divers Enterprizes The Parliament strongly opposed it for more then a year but in the end when they were made understand that not to accord that security to the Hugonots who were both powerful and quarrelsome were to rekindle new War in the Kingdom they confirmed it On the other side to sweeten the Pope who might be troubled at this Edict the King shewed him all possible manner of respect and strenuously embraced his interests as appeared in the action of Ferrara in the years 1597. and 1598. This Dutchy is a Fief Male of the holy Seat of which the Popes had formerly invested the Lords of the house of Est in charge of its reversion in default of legitimate Males Alphonso d' Est second of that name and last Duke died in the year 1597. without Children and had left great Treasures to Caesar d' Est Bastard to Alphonso the first his Kinsman He had done what possibly he could to obtain the Investiture of the Dutchy on this Bastard who not able to obtain it yet ceased not to take possession of it after the death of Alphonso the second resolving to maintain it by force of Arms. Clement the eighth was obliged to make War against him to dispossess him the Princes of Italy took part in the Quarrel and the Dukes of Guise and Nemours were upon the point to undertake the defence of Caesar whose near Kinsmen they were being the issues of Anne d' Est Daughter of Hercules the second Duke of Ferrara and of Madam Renee de France for that Anne in her first marriage had espoused Francis Duke of Guise and in her second James Duke of Nemours The King of Spain likewise favoured him underhand not desiring that the Pope should grow greater in Italy by the re-union of that Dutchy But Henry the great was not wanting to take this occasion to offer his Sword and his Forces to the holy Father The Allies knowing it were extreamly disheartned and he constrained to treat with the Pope to whom he surrendred all the Dutchy of Ferrara There remained to him onely the Cities of Modena and Regia which the Emperour maintained to be Fief of the Empire and of which he gave him the Investiture From whence came the present Dukes of Modena If the heat which the King testified in this occasion for the interests of the holy Seat sensibly obliged the Pope that care which he made dayly appear to bring back the Hugonots into the bosome of the Church was no less agreeable to him He acted to this purpose in such a manner that from day to day many of the most understanding and of the best quality were converted But that which was more important was his taking the young Prince of Conde from the hands of the Hugonots who had kept him diligently at St. John d' Angely ever since the death of his Father which happened in the year 1587. and brought him up in the false Religion with great hope to make him one day their Chief and Protector The King considering how it would be both prejudicial to the safety of the young Prince and to his own interests to leave him longer there knew so well how to gain the principal of the party that they suffered him to be brought to Court and he gave him for Governour John Marquess of Pisani a Lord of a rare merit and of a wisdome without reproach who forgot not to instruct him well in the Catholick Religion and in the truest sentiments of Honour and Vertue He was yet but seven or eight years old when he came to nine the King gave him the Government of Guyenne loving him tenderly and cherishing him as his presumptive Successour During this calm of the peace nothing was spoken of but rejoycings feasts and marriages That of the Infanta of Spain Isabella-Clara-Eugenia and of the Arch-Duke Albert was solemnized in the Low-Countries and that of Madam Katherine sister of the King with Henry Duke of Bar eldest son to Charles the second Duke of Lorrain at Paris Katherine was forty years of age more agreeable then fair having one Leg a little short She was very spiritual loved Learning and knew much for a woman but was an obstinate Hugonot The King feared lest she should marry some Protestant Prince who by this means might become Protector of the Hugonots and be like another King in France by reason of which he gave her to the Duke of Bar thinking moreover to gain more belief among the Catholicks by allying himself with the house of Lorrain Before this he had used all possible means to convert her even to the employing of threats but not being able to do it he said one day to the Duke of Bar My Brother it is you must vanquish her There was some difficulty about the place and the Ceremony of Celebration of this marriage the Duke would have it done at the Church and the Princess by a Hugonot-Minister The King found a mean he caused it to be done in his Closet whither he led his Sister by the hand and commanded his natural Brother who had for about two years been Archbishop of Rouen to marry them This new Archbishop at first made some refusal of it alledging the Canons but the King representing to him that his Closet was a consecrated place and that his presence supplyed the default of all solemnities the poor Archbishop had no longer power to resist him This Marriage being made for the good of the Catholick Religion it seemed that the Pope should have been content Nevertheless not willing to suffer an ill that a good might come of it he declared that the Duke of Bar had incurred Excommunication for having without the dispensation of the Church contracted with an Heretick nor ever could the Duke
little St. Anthonies being holy Thursday as she returned to her Lodging and being walking in the Garden she felt her self struck with an Apoplexy in the brain The first fury of it being passed she would no longer stay in that house but caused her self to be carried to that of Madam de Sourdis her Aunt near St. Germain of the Auxerrois And all the rest of that day and the morrow she was perplexed with Swoondings and Convulsions of which she died on the Saturday-morning The causes of her death were diversly spoken of but however it was a happiness to France since it deprived the King of an object for which he was about to loose both himself and his Estate His grief was as great as his love had been yet he not being of those feeble souls who please themselves in perpetuating their sorrows and in bathing themselves in their tears received not onely those comforts he sought but still conserved for the Children and particularly for the Duke of Vendosm that affection he had born the Mother All good French-men passionately desired that so good a King might leave legitimate Children They durst not press him to take a Wife capable to bring him forth such so long as Gabriella lived for fear lest he should espouse her and out of the same fear Queen Margaret would not give her consent to dissolve his marriage But when Gabriella was dead she willingly lent her hand to it and her self addressed a Request to the holy Father to demand the dissolution founding it principally on two causes of nullity The first was the want of consent for she alledged she had been forced to it by King Charles the ix her Brother The second the Proximity of Kindred found between them in the third degree for which she said there had never been any valuable Dispensation In like manner the Lords of the Kingdome and the Parliament besought his Majesty by solemn Deputations that he would think of taking a Wife representing to him the inconveniencies and the danger wherein France would be found if he should die without Children These Deputations will not seem strange to those who know our ancient History where it may be seen that neither the King nor his Children married but by the advice of his Barons and this passed in that time for almost a Fundamental Law of the Estate The King touched with these just supplications of his subjects addressed his request to the Pope containing the same reasons as that of Queen Margaret and charged the Cardinal d'Ossat and Sillery his extraordinal Ambassadour whom he had sent to Rome to pursue the judgement of the Pope concerning the restitution of the Marquisate of Saluces to sollicite instantly this Affair The cause reported to the Consistory the Pope gave Commission to the Prelates to judge it on the place according to the rights of that Crown which suffers not French-men to be transported for Affairs of the like nature beyond the Mountains whither it would be almost impossible to bring the necessary proofs and witnesses These Prelates were the Cardinal of Joyeuse the Popes Nuntio and the Archbishop of Arles who having examined both Parties seen the Proofs produced on one and the other and the Request of the three Estates of the Kingdom declared this marriage null and permitted them to marry whom they should think fit Queen Margaret who for many years had deserted the King and voluntarily shut her self up in the strong Castle of Usson in Auvergne had now permission to come to Paris money given her to pay her debts great Pensions the possession of the Dutchy of Valois with some other Lands and right to bear still the Title of Queen She lived yet fifteen years and built a Palace near du Pre-aux-Clercs which was after sold to pay his debts and demolished to build other houses She loved extreamly good Musitians having a delicate Ear and knowing and eloquent Men because she was of a spirit clear and very agreeable in her discourse For the rest she was liberal even to prodigality pompous and magnificent but she knew not what it was to pay her debts Which is without doubt the greatest of all a Princes fault because there is nothing so much against Justice of which he ought to be the Protector and Defender This marriage being dissolved Bellievre and Villeroy fearing lest the King should engage himself in new loves and be taken in some of those snares which the fairest of the Court stretched out for him perswaded him by many great Reasons of State to fix his thoughts on Maria de Medicis who was daughter to Francis and Neece to Ferdinand great Dukes of Toscany The Cardinal d' Ossat and Sillery made known his intention to the great Duke Ferdinand her Uncle and Alincour son to Villeroy whom he had sent to thank the holy Father for his good and brief Justice touching the aforesaid dissolution of his marriage had order to testifie to him that the King having cast his eyes on all the Daughters of the Soveraign Houses of Christendome had found no Princess more agreeable to him The business was managed with so much activeness and vigilancy by the diligence of those which had enterprized it that the King found himself absolutely engaged The contract of the marriage was signed at Florence by his Ambassadors the fourth of April in the year one thousand six hundred And Alincour in seven days brought him the news to Fountain-bleau He assisted at present at that famous Conference or Dispute between James David du Perron Bishop of Eureux afterwards Cardinal and Philip du Plessis Mornay where truth nobly triumphed over falsehood There are particular relations of the solemnities made at Florence the Magnificences of the great Duke the Ceremonies of the Affiancing and Marriage of this Queen of her Imbarking her being convoyed by the Gallies of Malta and Florence and her reception at Marseilles at Avignon and at Lions and therefore I shall speak nothing of it Whilst the Marriage of Florence was treating the King having a heart which could for no long time keep his liberty became enslaved to a new object It is to be understood that Mary Touchet who had been Mistress to Charles the ninth from whom came Issue the Count d' Auvergne had been Married to the Lord d' Entragues and had by him many children amongst the rest a very fair daughter named Henrietta who by consequent was sister by the mothers side to the Count of Auvergne This Count was about the age of thirty years and she about eighteen It is but too well known that Flatterers and wicked Sycophants ruine all in the Courts of great Men and corrupt likewise their persons These are they which sweeten the poyson which embolden the Prince to do ill which make him familiar with vice which seek and facilitate occasions for it and who act as we may say the mystery of
was very good and commodious thought it best to introduce the Manufacture into France to the end the French might gain what was now gained by the strangers To this purpose he gave order for the planting of a great number of white Mulberry-trees in those Countries where they would best thrive and particularly in Touraine to nourish Silk-worms and that people should be provided who understood how to prepare the Webs and put to work the labour of these pretioâ—â— Caterpillers If care had been taken â—â—ter his death to maintain this Order and to extend it to other Provinces it might have spared France more then five Millions which it every year sends out to provide silk Stuffs besides a Million of persons useless for other labours as are old people Maids and Children might have gained a living by it and the Employers more easily have afforded to pay the Imposts and Taxes out of the profit they had made of their industry There was yet a much greater mischief which as we may say dryed up the very Intrails of the Kingdom this was the excessive Usury The ill Husbands that is to say the greatest part of the Nobility borrowed money at ten or twelve in the hundred In which there was two great inconveniences The first That the Interests undermining by little and little in seven or eight years dug up the foundations of the richest and most ancient Houses which are as we may say the Props and Pillars that uphold the State The second That the Merchants finding this conveniency of laying out their money to so great profit and without any hazard absolutely abandoned all Commerce the streams of which once dryed up there must needs follow a famine of Gold and Silver in the Kingdome for France hath no other Mines then its Traffick and the distribution of its Merchandizes These Considerations obliged the King not onely to prohibit all Usuries but lay a penalty of the Confiscation of the sum lent and great Fines beside Afterwards the Parliament deputed some Counsellours in all Provinces to make inquisition after Usurers and to reduce all Interests or Hypothecated Rents to six and a half in the hundred They were before at ten or twelve as we have said The reason of which was because when they were constituted money was much more scarce now since it was extreamly multiplyed since the discovery of the Indies it was just to abate its interests And it was for this reason that it was afterwards put at six and may possibly one day be reduced lower Out of the same designe to enrich his people and to bring abundance and plenty into his Kingdome the King continually received all Proposals which might serve to enlarge Commerce to bring Commodity to his people and to till and make fruitful the most sterile places He endeavoured as much as was possible to make Rivers Navigable He caused to be repaired all Bridges and Causways and the great Roads to be paved knowing that whilst they are not well kept Carriages find but a difficult passage and Commerce is by that means interrupted From whence happen the same disorders in the oeconomy of an Estate as doth in that of a mans body when it findes Obstructions and when the passage of the blood and spirits are not free When he passed through the Countries he curiously regarded all things took notice of the necessities and disorders and immediately remedied all with a great diligence Under his favour and protection were established in many places of the Kingdom Manufactures of Linen and Woollen Cloths Laces Iron-ware and many other things After his example the Burgesses repaired their houses which the War had ruined The Gentlemen having laid by their Arms with onely a switch in their hand dedicated themselves to manage their Estates and augment their Revenues All the people were attentive to their work and it was a wonder to see this Kingdom which five or six years before had been as we may say a Den of Serpents and venemous Beasts being filled with Thieves Robbers Vagrants Rake-hells and Beggers changed by the diligence of the King into a Hive of innocent Bees who strove as it were with envy to each other to give proofs of their industry and to gather Wax and Honey Idleness was a shame and a kinde of Crime and indeed it is as the Proverb says the Mother of all Vices That spirit which takes no care to employ it self seriously in something is unprofitable to it self and pernitious to the publick And for these Reasons did the Provosts in that time make diligent search after Loyterers Vagabonds and idle persons and sent them to serve the King in his Gallies to oblige them perforce to work There is no happiness so stable and assured but it may be easily troubled there arrived this year two things which might have overturned all France had not the King in a good hour subverted them The Assembly of the Notables or Chiefs at Rouen which was held in the year 1596. to raise money for the King to continue the War and pay his debts had granted him as we have said the imposition of a Sol pour livre on all Merchandizes carried into walled Cities The Estate says Tacitus the greatest Polititian among Historians cannot be maintained without Forces nor the Forces without Payment nor they paid without Impositions by consequence therefore they are necessary and it is just that every one should contribute to the expences of an Estate of which he makes a part as well as partake of those Conveniences and that protection it enjoys But these impositions ought to be moderate proportionate to the power of every one and every one ought to bear his part Moreover it should be easie to perceive that the expence of raising them exceed not the principal that they be not laid so as to appear odious as on Merchandizes which nourish the poor and that in fine they be blood drawn gently from the veins and not marrow forced from the bones Now the imposition of a Sol pour livre was of this nature It was very oppressive for in every City they searched the Merchants Goods opened their Bales and saw what every one brought so that liberty was quite lost in the Kingdom Moreover it was excessive for any Merchandize being ten or twelve times sold it was found that it paid as much Impost as it was worth Moreover there was great expence in the sale of it for men were forced to employ as many Factors as would have composed an Army who desiring all to make themselves rich as well as their Masters were so vexatious to the Merchants that they became desperate And that was most strange was that there were in the Kings Council Pensioners to these Farmers who supported them in their violences and upheld them against all Complaints made of their misdemeanours The people are always subject to this Criminal Errour That when
Poictiers becoming vacant Rosny very instantly besought him to consider in this occasion one named Frenouillet reputed a knowing man and a great Preacher The King notwithstanding this Recommendation gives it to the Abbot of Rochepozay who besides his own particular good Qualities was Son to a Father who had served him well with his Sword in his Wars and with his knowledge and spirit in Embassies Some time after the Bishoprick of Montpellier became vacant the King out of his own proper motion sent to seek Frenouillet and told him that he would give it him but on this condition that he should acknowledge no Obligation but to himself By which it may be seen how he in some sort considered the Recommendation of Rosny but it may likewise be perceived that the power of that Favourite who caused so much jealousie in the world was bounded I call him Favourite by reason that he had the most splendent Employments though to speak truth he had no pre-eminence over others of the Council for Villeroy and Janin were more considered then he in Negotiations and Forraign Affairs Bellievre and Sillery for Justice and Policy within the Kingdome and it is not to be imagined that those people did in any manner depend on him There was onely one head in the Estate which was the King who alone made all his Members and from whom onely they received spirits and vigour About the end of this year the Duke of Savoy thinking to revenge himself and repair the loss of his County of Bresse on the City of Geneva attempted to take it by storm The Enterprize was formed by the Counsels of the Lord of Albigny and the Duke having passed the Mountains believed it infallible D' Albigny conducted two thousand men for this purpose within half a League of the City yet was not so rash as to engage himself but left the conduct to others More then two hundred men mounted the Ladders gained the Ramparts and ran through all the City without being perceived In the mean time the Burgesses were awakened by the cries of some that fled from a Guard which had discovered the Enterprizers and as soon beheld themselves charged by them The Gunner who was to have broken a Gate within to cause those without to enter was unhappily slain after which they were weakned on all sides The greatest part endeavoured to re-gain their Ladders but the Cannons on the Flankers having broken them in pieces they were almost all slain or broke their necks by leaping into the Ditch There was thirteen taken alive almost all Gentlemen amongst the others Attignac who had served as second to Don Phillipin bastard of Savoy They yeilded upon assurance given them that they should be treated as prisoners of War But the furious cries of the common people who represented the danger wherein their City was of Massacres Violation universal Destruction or perpetual Slavery forced the Council of this little Republick to condemn them to the infamous death of the Gibbet like to Thieves Their heads with fifty four others of those that were killed were stuck on Poles and their bodies cast into the Rhone The Duke of Savoy confused with such ill success and much more with the reproaches of all Christendome for having endeavoured such an Enterprize in time of absolute peace repassed the Mountains in haste leaving his Troops near to Geneva and endevoured to excuse himself to the Suisses under whose protection that City was as well as under that of France for having attempted to surprize it saying That he had not done it to trouble the repose of the Confederacy but to hinder Lesdiguieres from seizing it for the King The Dukes of Savoy have for a long time pretended that this City appertained to their Soveraignty and that the Bishops who bore the title of Earls and were for some time Lords of it held it from them which is however a thing that the Bishops never acknowledged always maintaining that they depended immediately on the Empire The City on their part sustained that it was a free City and not subject in temporal things neither to their Bishops whom they quite drave out in the year 1533. when they unhappily renounced the Roman Catholick Religion nor to the Duke of Savoy but onely to the Empire for which reason they always bore the Eagle planted on their Gates Both one and the other have very specious Titles to shew their rights but for the present the City of Geneva enjoyed full liberty and had for above sixty years being become an Allie of the Cantons of Switzerland Now the Suisses were comprehended in the Treaty of Vervin as Allies of France and by consequence so was the City of Geneva and the King had sufficiently declared it to the Duke of Savoy notwithstanding which he ceased not to attempt this Enterprize hoping that if it succeeded the King of Spain and the Pope would sustain him in it and that the King for so small a thing would not break the peace The Genevans furiously incensed against him began to make War couragiously entred his Country and took some little Towns They hoped that the King and the Suisses would second these motions of their resentment and that all the Princes of Germany would likewise come to their assistance But the King desired to keep the peace and was too wise to kindle a War in which he could not make Religion and Policy agree or unite the Honour and Interests of France obliged to protect its Allies with the good favour of the Pope moved by his duty to the ruine of the Hugonots He therefore sent de Vic to assure them of his protection but with order to let them know that Peace was necessary for them and War ruinous and that they ought to embrace the one and shun the other And they having little power for so much anger and not being able to do any thing without his assistance were constrained to consent and enter into a Treaty with the Savoyard by which it was said that they were comprized in the Treaty of Vervin and that the Duke could not build any Fortress within four Leagues of their City It happened almost in the same time that the City of Mets rose against the Governour of that Citadel He was called Sobole who having been made Lieutenant by the Duke of Espernon to whom Henry the third had given the Government in chief had deserted this Duke I know not for what consideration and had taken provision of the King He had a Brother who seconded him in the Charge of this Government During the last War against Spain these two Brothers had accused the principal inhabitants of Mets for having conspired to deliver the City to the Spaniards There were many imprisoned some put to the rack but none found culpable so that all the Burgesses believing with reason that this was a Calumny conceived a hatred against these Soboles and drew up
several Petitions of complaint against them accusing them of a great number of Exactions and Cruelties The Duke d' Espernon who without doubt sustained these Burgesses at the Court was sent by the King to accommodate this difference The Soboles who had offended him no longer trusted him they would not permit him to enter into the strongest Citadel nor let the Garison go out to meet him so that being justly incensed he envenomed the plague instead of healing it and animated the inhabitants in such a manner that they Barricadoed themselves against them The King who knew that the least sparkles were capable to kindle a great fire was not content to send La Varenne but went himself being moreover willing to visit that Frontier Sobole gave the place into his hands and he gave it to Arquien Lieutenant-Colonel of the Regiment of Guards with the Quality of Lieutenant of the King to command in the absence of the Duke d' Espernon Governour who had no great power so long as the King lived The King passed the Feast of Easter at Mets. Whilst he was there he hearkned to the request which the Jesuites made for their re-establishment He referred the doing them Justice till he should come to Paris and gave leave to Father Ignatius Armand and Father Coton to come to sollicite their cause They were not wanting to do it and Father Coton being of a sharp and witty discourse and a very famous Preacher gained so soon the favour of all the Court and pleased the King so well that he obtained from his Majesty the recalling of the Society into the Kingdom contrary to the opinion and advice of some of his Council He then re-established them by an Act which he caused to be confirmed in Parliament and caused to be thrown down that Pyramide which had been erected before the Palace in the place of the house of John Castel where there were many writings in Verse and Prose very bloody against these Fathers Thus was their banishment gloriously repaired and after all the King kept with him Father Coton as his Chaplain in Ordinary and Confessor and Director of his Conscience This was not accomplished till the year 1604. In these two years of 1602 and 1603. we have yet three or four important things to observe The first that the King at his departure from Mets went to Nancy to visit his Sister the Dutchess of Bar who died the year following without Children The second that he renewed the Alliance with the Suisses and some months after with the Grisons notwithstanding those Obstacles by which the Count of Fuentes endeavoured to oppose it The third was that in returning to Paris he received news of the Death of Elizabeth Queen of England one of the most Illustrious and most Heroick Princesses that ever Reigned and who Governed her Estate with more Prudence and Power then any of her Predecessors had ever done She was Daughter to King Henry the eighth and to that Anne of Bullen for whose love he had left Katherine of Arragon Aunt to Charles the fifth Emperour his first wife There was nothing wanting to the happiness of her Kingdom save the Catholick Religion which she banished out of England And we might give her the name of good as well as great if she had not dealt so inhumanely as she did with her Cousin-German Mary Stuart Queen of Scotland whom she kept eighteen years prisoner and after beheaded induced to it by some conspiracies which the Servants and Friends of that poor Princess had made against her person The Son of that Mary named James the sixth King of Scotland being the nearest of the blood-Royal of England as Grandchild to Margaret of England Daughter to King Henry the seventh and Sister to Henry the eighth married to James the fourth King of Scotland succeeded Elizbeth who had put his Mother to death He caused himself to be called King of Great Britain to unite under the same title the two Crowns of England and Scotland which indeed are but one Island formerly called by the Romans Magna Britania The Alliance of so powerful a King might make the balance incline to which side soever it were turned either of France or Spain For which reason both the one and the other immediately sent Magnificent Ambassadors to salute him each endeavouring to draw him to his side It was Rosny who went on the part of Henry the Great he obtained all the favourable Audience he desired and the confirmation of the ancient Treaties between France and England The Ambassador of Spain found not such facility in his Negotiation the English appeared resolute The Spaniards were forced to yeild that the place of the Treaty should be appointed in England and to grant the English free Taffick in all their Territories even in the Indies and give them liberty of Conscience in Spain so that they should not be subject to the Inquisition nor obliged to salute the holy Sacrament in the streets but onely turn from it France was in a profound peace as well without by the renewing of the Alliances with the Suisses and with England as within by the discovery of the Conspiracies which were quite dissipated the King enjoyed a repose worthy his labours and his past travail made his pleasure more sweet However he was not idle but was seen daily employed for he endeavoured with as much diligence to conserve peace that divine daughter of heaven as he had used courage and valour in making War He was often heard say That though he could make the house of France as powerful in Europe as that of the Ottomans was in Asia and conquer in a moment all the Estates of his neighbours yet he would not do so great a dishonour to his word by which he was obliged to the keeping of the Peace His most ordinary divertisements during this time were Hunting and Building He at the same time maintained workmen at the Church of the holy Cross at Orleans at St. Germain in Laye at the Louvre and at the Place Royal. The Nobility of France during this peace could not live out of action some passed their time in Hunting others with Ladies some in Studies of Learning and the Mathematicks others in travelling into Forraign Countries and others continued the Exercise of War under Prince Maurice in Holland But the greatest part whose hands as it were itched and who sought to signalize their valour without departing from their Countries became punctilious and for the least word or for a wry look put their hands to their swords Thus that madness of Duels entred into the hearts of the Gentlemen and these Combats were so frequent that the Nobility shed as much blood in the Meadows with their own hands as their enemies had made them lose in Battails The King therefore made a second and a most severe Edict which prohibited Duels confiscating the
pleasure it causes a thousand troubles and a thousand mischiefs even in this world it self The King being now but just fifty years of age began this year to have some small feelings of the Gout which possibly were the doleful effects of his excessive voluptuousness as well as of his labours To return to the Marchioness it happened one day that the Queen being very much offended at her discourse threatned her that she should know how to bridle her wicked tongue The Marchioness upon this seemed sad and grieved shunn'd the King and let him understand that she desired that he would no more demand any thing of her because she feared that the continuation of his favours would be too prejudicial both to her and her children Her design was to inflame more his passion by shewing her self more difficult But when she saw that her cunning had not all the effect she hoped and that the Queens anger was encreased to such a point that indeed there was some danger for her and hers she advised her self of another thing D' Entragues her Father demanded permission of the King to carry her out of the Kingdom to avoid the vengeance of the Queen The King granted her demand easier then she thought he would wherewith being excessively enraged her Father and the Count d' Auvergne her Brother by the Mothers side began to Treat secretly with the Ambassador of Spain to have some retreat in the Territories of his King casting themselves absolutely they and their children into his Arms. The Ambassador believed that this business would be very advantagious to his Master and that in time and place he might serve himself of that promise of marriage which the King had given to the Marchioness he therefore easily granted them all that they demanded and added all the fair promises with which weak and feeble spirits might be entoxicated The King had granted them permission to retire themselves out of France but yet without the Children out of a belief he had that they would go into England to the Duke of Lenox and the Earl of Aubigny of the house of the Stuarts who were their near kinsmen but when he understood that they consulted of a retreat into Spain he resolved to hinder them but to employ fair means to do it He sends therefore for the Count d' Auvergne who was then at Clermont so much beloved in the Province that he believed he might securely stay there He refused to come before he had his Pardon Sealed in good form for all that he might have done This was a kind of new crime to capitulate with his King however he sends it him but with this Clause That he should make his immediate appearance His distrust permitted him not to obey on this condition he stayed still in the Province where he kept himself on his Guard with all precautions imaginable Nevertheless he was not so cunning but the King could entrap him and by an Artifice very gross He being Colonel of the French Cavalry was desired to go see a Muster made of a Company of the Duke of Vendosmes He went well mounted keeping himself at a good distance that he might not be encompassed Nevertheless d' Eâ—â—â—re Lieutenant of that Company Nerestan approaching him to salute him mounted on little Hobbies for fear of giving him suspition but with three Souldiers disguised like Lacquies cast him from his horse and made him prisoner They led him presently to the Bastille where he was seized with a great fear when he saw himself lodged in the same Chamber where the Marshal of Byron his great friend had been Immediately after the King caused d' Entragues to be Arrested who was carried to the Conciergerie and the Marchioness who was left in her lodgings under the Guard of the Cavalier de Guet After desiring to make known by publick proofs the ill intention of the Spaniards who seduced his subjects and excited and fomented conspiracies in his Estate he remitted the prisoners into the hands of the Parliament who having convicted them of having complotted with the Spaniard declared by a sentence of the first of February the Count of Auvergne d' Entragues and an English man named Morgan who had been the Agent of this fair Negotiation guilty of Treason and as such condemned them to have their heads cut off The Marchioness to be conducted with a good Guard into the Abby of Nuns at Beaumont near to Tours to be there shut up and that in the mean time there should be more ample information made against her at the request of the Attorny-General The Queen spared no sollicitations for the giving of this sentence believing that the Execution would satisfie her resentment but the goodness of the King surpassed her passion The love which he had for the Marchioness was not so far extinct that he could resolve to Sacrifice what he had adored he would not permit them to pronounce the Sentence and two months and a half afterward to wit on the fifteenth of April he by Letters under his Great Seal changed the penalty of Death on the Count of Auvergne and the Lord d' Entragues into perpetual Imprisonment Some time after he had likewise changed the prison of Entragues into a Confinement to his house of Malles-herbes in Beausse He likewise permitted the Marchioness to retire to Verneuil and seven months being passed without the Attorney-Generals procuring any proof against her he caused her to be declared absolutely innocent of the crime whereof she was accused There rested onely the Count of Auvergne who being the most to be feared was the worst treated for the King not onely kept him prisoner at the Bastille where he lay for twelve whole years but likewise deprived him of his propriety in the County of Auvergne He had bore the title and enjoyed it by vertue of the Donation of King Henry the third Queen Margaret newly come to the Court sustained that this Donation could not be valuable because the contract of the Marriage of Katherine de Medicis her Mother to whom that County appertained allowing Substitution of her goods and that Substitution said she extending to Daughters in default of Males that County was to come to her after the death of Henry the third nor could he give it to her prejudice The Parliament having hearkned to her reasons and seen her proofs annulled the Donation made by Henry the third and adjudged her this County In recompence of which obligation and many others she had received from the King she made a Donation of all her Estates after death to the Daulphin reserving to her self onely the fruits of them during life The Count of Auvergne thus despoiled remained in the Bastille untill the year one thousand six hundred and sixteen when Queen Mary de Medicis having need of him during the troubles delivered him from thence and caused him to be justified She
Authority doth not always consist in prosecuting things to the utmost extremity That the time the persons and the cause ought to be regarded That having been ten years extinguishing the fire of civil War he feared even the least sparkles That Paris had cost him too much to hazard the least danger of loosing it which seemed to him insallible if he followed their counsel because he should be obliged to make terrible examples which would in few days deprive him of the glory of his Clemency and the love of his people which he prized as much as nay above his Crown That he had in an hundred other occasions made proof the fidelity and honesty of Miron who had no ill intention but without doubt he believed himself obliged by the duty of his Charge to do what he did That if some inconsiderate words had escaped him he might well pardon them for his past services That after all if this man affected to be the Martyr of the people he would not give him that glory nor attract to himself the name of Persecutor or Tyrant And that in fine he would not prosecute a man whom he would resolve to loose in so advantagious occasions Thus this wise King knew how prudently to dissemble a little fault nor would he understand what passed for fear of being obliged to some blow of Authority which might possibly have had dangerous Consequences He received therefore very favourably the excuses and humble submissions of Miron and after prohibited the farther pursuing the inquisitions of Rents which had caused so much trouble The second means of which he served himself to raise money and which was of very dangerous consequence was the Paulete or Annual Right To understand this business well we must make some recital of things farther off The Offices of Judicature of Policy and of the Revenues had formerly been exercised in France under the first and second Race of our Kings by Gentlemen for the Nobility was obliged to study and understand the Laws of the Kingdom They were chosen for the maturity of their Age and Judgement they were changed from time to time from one seat to another nor took they any Fees from Parties but onely a Salary very moderate which the Publick paid them rather for honour then recompence Afterwards in the end of the second Race and the beginning of the third the Nobility becoming ignorant and weak together the Plebeians and Burgesses having learnt the knowledge of the Laws raised themselves by little and little to these Charges and began to make them better worth because they drew all their Honour and all their Dignity thence not having any other by their birth as the Gentlemen had Yet they had not over-much employment for the Church-men possessed almost all the Jurisdiction and had their Officers which administred Justice In the mean time the Parliament which before was as the Council of Estate of the Kingdom and an Epitomy of the general Estates taking upon them to trouble themselves with the knowledge of differences between particular persons whereas before they onely treated of great Affairs of Policy Philip the fair or according to some others Lewis Hutin his son made it sedentary at Paris Now this Company of Judges being most illustrious because the King often took seat amongst them the Dukes Peers and Prelates of the Realm made a part of them and that the most able people for Law were chosen to fill places there they made depend upon them all the power of other Judges-Royal to wit the Bayliffs and Seneschals who though before Soveraign Judges became now Subalternate to them Long time after our other Kings created likewise at divers times many other Parliaments but out of a sole intention the better to distribute Justice without any pecuniary interest for by it they charged their Coffers with new Wages to be paid these new Officers At this time the number of the Officers of Justice was very small and the order which was observed to fill the vacancies in Parliament perfectly good The custome was to keep a Register of all the able Advocates and Lawyers and when any Office came to be vacant they chose three whose Names they carried to the King who preferred him he pleased But the Favourites and the Courtiers soon corrupted this Order they perswaded the Kings not to confine themselves to those presented but to name one of their proper motion which those people did to draw some present from him who should be named by their recommendation And the abuse was so great that oftentimes the Charges were filled with ignorant People and Porters by reason of which people of merit held the condition of an Advocate much more honourable then that of a Counsellour The mischief dayly encreasing and the rich people becoming extreamly liquorish of these Charges for lucre and their Wives out of vanity those who governed began to make a Merchandize of them and to draw money from them Thus under Lewis the xii his Coffers being exhausted by the long Wars of Italy the Offices of the Revenue began to become vendible However that good King having soon foreseen the dangerous consequence resolved to re-imburse those who had bought them but dying in that good designe Francis the first of whom he had well predicted that he would spoile all sold likewise those of Judicature afterwards new ones were at several times created onely of purpose to raise money Afterward Henry the second his Son created the Presidents and Charles the ninth and Henry the third heaping ill upon ill and ruine upon ruine made a great number of other Creations of all sorts to have these Wares to sell. And moreover they sold Offices when they were vacant either by death or forfeiture Hitherto the ill was great but not incurable a part of these Offices need onely have been suppressed when they became vacant and the rest when so filled with persons of capacity and merit Thus in twenty years this Ants-nest of Officers might have been reduced to a very little number and those as honest people But the business was not in this manner made known to Henry the Great they represented it to him in another sense They let him understand that since he drew no profit from vacant Offices being almost always obliged to give them he would do well to finde the means to discharge that way his Coffers of a part of the Wages he paid his Officers which he might do by granting them their Offices for their Heirs reserving a moderate sum of money which they should yearly pay yet without constraining any person so that it should be a favour and not an oppression This was named the Annual Right otherwise the Paulete from the name of the proposer named Paulete who gave the Counsel and was the first Farmer All the Officers were not wanting to pay this Right to assure their Offices to their heirs We need
not here tell the mischiefs and inconveniencies which this wicked invention hath caused and doth daily cause The most stupid may easily know them and see well that it is a disease whose remedy at present is difficult I will not charge this History with all the Ceremonies and Rejoycings made at the Birth and Baptism of all the Children of Henry the Great nor at divers Marriages of the Princes and Grandees of the Court amongst others of the Prince of Conde and the Duke of Vendosme which were made in the Month of July 1609. The Prince of Conde Espoused Câ—anlatta Margarita of Montmorency Daughter of the Constable who was wonderfully fair and had a presence absolutely noble which the King having considered was more lively struck with her then he had ever been with any other which caused a little after the retreat of the Prince of Conde who carried her into Flanders and thence retired to Milain Not without the Kings extreme displeasure to see the first Prince of his blood cast himself into his enemies hands The Duke of Vendosme Espoused Madamoiselle de Merceur to whom he had been affianced since the year one thousand six hundred ninety seven as we have said before however the Mother of the Lady standing upon high punctilio's of honour brought many troubles to the accomplishment of this Marriage so that it had never been made had not the King highly concerned himself in it This was none of the least difficulties of his life for he had a high and obstinate spirit to bend however he employed only ways of sweetness and perswasion acting in this business only as a Father who loved his Son and not as a King who would be obeyed Now will I speak of his ordinary divertisements Hunting Building Feasts Play and Walking I will adde only That in Feasts and Merriments he would appear as good a Companion and as Jovial as another That he was of a merry humour when he had the glass in his hand though very sober That his Mirth and good Discourses were the delicatest part of the good Chear That he witnessed no less Agility and Strength in Combats at the Barriers Courses at the Ring and all sorts of Gallantries then the youngest Lords That he took delight in Balls and Danced sometimes but to speak the truth with more affection then good grace Some carped that so great a Prince should abase himself to such follies and that a Grey-beard should please to act the young man It may be said for his excuse that the great toiles of his spirit had need of these divertisements But I know not what to answer to those who reproach him with too great a love to playing at Cards and Dice little befitting a great King and that withal he was no fair Gamester but greedy of Coin fearful at great Stakes and humorous upon a loss To this I must acknowledge that it was a fault in this great King who was no more exempt from Blots then the Sun from Beams It might be wished for the honour of his memory that he had been only guilty of this but that continual weakness he had for fair Ladiesâ— was another much more blamable in a Christian Prince in a of his age who was married to whom God had shewed so many graces and who had conceived such great designs in his spirit Sometimes he had desires which were passant and only fixt for a night but when he met with beauties which struck him to the heart he loved even to folly and in these transports appeared nothing less then Henry the Great The Fable saies that Hercules took the Spindle and Spun for the love of the fair Omphale Henry did something more mean for his Mistresses He once disguised himself like a Country-man with a Wallet of straw on his back to come to the fair Gabriella And it hath been reported that the Marchioness of Verneuil hath seen him more then once at her feet weeping his disdains and injuries Twenty Romances might be made of the intrigues of his several loves with the Countess of Guiche when he was yet but King of Navarre with Jacqueline of Bueil whom he made Countess of Moret and with Charlotta d' Essards without counting many other Ladies who held it a glory to have some Charm for so great a King The high esteem and affection which the French had for him hindred them from being offended at so scandalous a liberty but the Queen his wife was extremely perplexed at it which hourly caused controversies between them and carried her to disdains and troublesom humours The King who was in fault endured it very patiently and employed his greatest Confidents and sometimes his Confessor to appease his spirit So that he had continually a reconciliation to make And these contentions were so ordinary that the Court which at first were astonished at them in the end took no more notice Conjugal duty without doubt obliged the King not to violate his faith to his Legitimate Spouse at least not to keep his Mistresses in her sight but if he in this point ought to have been a good husband so he ought to be likewise in that of Authority and in accustoming his wife to obey him with more submission and not perplex him as she did with hourly complaints reproaches and sometimes threats The trouble and displeasure of these domestick broiles certainly retarded the Execution of that great design which he had formed for the good and perpetual repose of Christendom and in fine for the destruction of the Ottoman power Many have spoken diversely but see here what I find in the Memoires or Notes of the Duke of Sully who certainly must know something being as he was so great a Confident of this Kings which makes me report it from him The King said he desiring to put in Execution those projects he had conceived after the Peace of Vervin believed that he ought first to establish in his Kingdom an unshaken Peace by reconciling all spirits both to him and among themselves and taking away all causes of bitterness And that moreover it was necessary for him to choose people capable and faithful who might see in what his Revenue or Estate might be bettered and instruct him so well in all his Affairs that he might of himself take Counsels and discern the good from the ill feasible from impossible enterprizes and such as were proportionate to his Revenues For an expence made beyond them draws the peoples curses and those are ordinarily followed by Gods He granted an Edict to the Hugonots that the two Religions might live in Peace Afterwards he made a certain and fixed Order to pay his debts and those of the Kingdom contracted by the disorders of the times the profusions of his Ancestors and by the payments and purchases of men and places which he was forced to make during the League Sully shewed him an account
sends likewise to complement him and he answers it by Byron To whom she shews the Earl of Essex head The King Queen enjoy the Jubilee at Orleans The Queen brought to bed of a Daulphine who is named Lewis after surnamed The Just. The King gives him his blessing and puts his sword in his hand Birth of the Infanta of Spain named Anne who after espoused King Lewis xiii The King makes divers Orders for the good of the Estate He suppresses the Triennial Officers for Revenues He establisheth a Chamber of Justice to call Treasurers and Collectors to account The onely remedy against their thefts The King prohibites the transport of gold or silver out of his Kingdome and wearing gold and silver lace or gildings Introduces the manufacture of silk into France The usury excessive in France which caused the ruine of the best families and the Merchants to abandon all traffick The King reduces interests to six in the hundred His great care to enrich his Kingdom He favours the establishment of manufactures After his example all labour for their benefit Idleness punished 1602. The King remedies two things capable to overthrow France The tax of a Sol pour livre burthensome It causes commotions in the Provinces The King to appease them goes to Poictiers His wise and just remonstance to the Deputies of Guyenne * He had sold the Lands of his Patrimony He calms the seditions and revokes the Sol pour livre Conspiracy of the Marshal Byron Laffin discovers it to the King * Vidame is a Lord who holds his Lordship in Fief of a Bishop How he got the Notes written with Byron's own hand The Duke of Savoy keeps Renaze Laffins Secretary Propositions betwixt Byron the Duke of Savoy and the Count Fuentes Byron had demanded pardon of the King but after fell again He speaks ill of the King and boasts excessively of himself Two things compleat his loss Laffin comes to Court and reveals all to the King The King sends for Byron to Court who at first excuses himself In the end Byron comes The King conjures â—im the first time to confess the truth He insolently vindicates himself The King prayes the Count of Soissons to exhort him to confess his crime But he is more obstinate The King speaks to him the second time but in vain He is troubled what to resolve on He resolves to leave him to Justice Yet tries the third time to draw truth from him He finds it in vain leaves him By on and the Count of Auvergne Arrested prisoners His kindred intercede for him The Parliament make his Process He defends himself weakly Letters of the King revoking the pardon granted him at Lyons He reproacheth not Laffin Renaze appears before him at which he is much astonished He is conducted to the Parliament and heard Sentence of death voted against him The King removes the execution to the Bastille Sentence pronounced His head cut off He was very ignorant but a great lover of predictions A reflection very necessary for great men Laffin and Renaze pardoned * That is the Rack So is the Baron of Lux and confirmed in his Charges Montbarot imprisoned and soon released Fontanelles broke on the wheel Duke of Bouillon had a hand in the conspiracy The King sends for him to Court but he presents himself to the Chamber of Castres After he retires to Geneva thence to Heidelberg to the Prince Palatine his Kinsman The favour of Rosny a pretext to the discontents of the great ones Yet the King gave him not too much power but keeps it to himself An important truth A memorable example that a King ought not to yeild too much to his Ministers Enterprizes of the Duke of Savoy on Geneva Thirteen of the Enterprizers â—anged The Duke of Savoy excuses himself to the Suisses From whom the City of Geneva was held It was an Allie of the Suisses and under protection of France The Genevans make War on Savoy But the King obliges them to peace The inhabitants of Mets rise against Sobole their Governour The Duke d' Espernon kindles the fire more The King goes in person The Jesuites present their request to the King for their reestablishment He re-establisheth them gloriously 1602 1603. He visits his sister at Nancy Renews his alliance with the Suisses and Grisons Hears of the death of Queen Elizabeth of England She beheaded Mary Queen of Scots James 6. King of Scotland and Son of Mary succeeded to the Kindom of England He was James the first of that name among the Kings of England Ambassadors go from France and Spain to desire his friendship Piety yeilds to Interest The King labours to conserve peace Excellent speeches of a good King His divertisements Employs of the Nobility Duels too frequent The King makes an Edict against this madness He makes Acts for working the Gold Silver and Copper Mines An enterprize to joyn the Seine and Loire Another design to joyn the two Seas Navigation to Canada Establishment of Religious Orders at Paris The King gives Verneuil to Madamoiselle d' Entragues She despises and offends the Queen * Alluding I suppose to the Dukes of Florence who are all Merchants The Queen on her part troublesome to the King Leonora Conchini her husband foster the Queen in ill humors 1604. The Kings debaucheries cause the Gout The Queen threatens the Marchioness Who prays the King to see her no more And her Father demands leave to retire with her out of France They treat with the Ambassador of Spain The King resolves to hinder them To this end he sends for Auvergne who is at Clermont and refuses to come He is Arrested prisoner and carried to the Bastille D' Entragues and the Marchioness likewise Arrested * The Common Goal of Paris Sentence of Parliament against them The King pardons them and justifies the Marchioness But the Count of Auvergne remained at the Bastille and is despoiled of his County Which is adjudged to Queen Margaret who gives her Estates to the Daulphin The designes of the Duke of Bouillon discovered The King had done him many favours and he had as well served the King But after the Kings conversion he excites the Hugonots against him and would make himself chief of their party His Emissaries endeavour to form a party in Guyenne The King goes to prevent them All the Conspiracy dissipated The King returns to Paris He in vain endeavours to make the Duke of Bouillon humble himself He resolves to besiege Sedan Rosny makes all necessary preparations The King makes him Duke of Sully Inconveniences in the siege of Sedan The King chuses rather to receive the Duke into favour On what conditions The Duke demands pardon of of the King who enters Sedan and thence goes to Paris A great example of generosity in our Prince Notwithstanding which there are many conspiracies Treason of l' Oste. 1605. Treason of Merargues He is surprized talking with the Spanish Ambassadours