of Oran the Capital of a Kingdom to which it gave the name was afterwards attacked and taken by storm Bugy where the University of the Moors was and the only place known in Affrica where they went to learn the little of Arts and Sciences which they have was as easily conquered The occasion that Ximenes had of seizing it deserves to be known were it for no other reason but to convince us that if Christians took as much care to be informed of the affairs of Infidels as Infidels take to learn what news happen amongst Christians we should get more by it than they and find a a great many favourable occasions which are lost for want of that application The Uncle of the King of Bugy by the Father a few days before the Spaniards drew near that Kingdom thought it not enough to dethrone his Nephew but also put out his eye-sight with a hot Iron that thereby he might render him incapable of reigning and prevent according to the Custom of the Country the designs of those who pretended afterward to re-establish him upon the Throne during the life of the Usurper or immediately after his death Ximenes accidentally was informed of so barbarous an action and presently resolved to make his advantage of it He sent word to the friends of the dispossessed King that he would exemplarily revenge the injury that was done if they would act in concert with him and there needed no more to raise in the Kingdom of Bugy a second revolution as great as the former The Party that was worsted took courage again and quickly setled secret correspondences with the Spaniards who they thought had offered themselves to them out of a principle of generosity They took so just measures with them that they facilitated the taking of places that were capable to hinder them from approaching the Capital City and then brought them into Bugy by means that were kept so secret after the execution of them that the Spanish Historians disagree about the manner This is certain that an accident supervened which was so much the more favourable to the Spaniards for winning that other Crown of Barbary that not being so skilful in medicine as they had been in the time of Averroes and Avienne they took it for a miracle The red-hot Iron that had been made use of to blind the King by holding it near his eyes a quarter of an hour had indeed deprived him of sight but had not wholly dried up the humours whether it was that the Ministers of the Usurpers cruelty had taken it out of the fire before it was hot enough for the intended operation or that it was not put near enough his eyes and held there a sufficient time for drying entirely up the humidity which serves to the functions of sight The Spanish Chirurgions perceived it and undertook to cure the Moorish King. The cure was long and difficult but at length it succeeded and was look'd upon as well by him upon whom it was wrought as by his Subjects as an evident mark that it was the purpose of heaven that they should be Tributaries to the Spaniards The Corsairs of Algiers In the relation of that Conquest who till then had with impunity destroyed the Christian Fleets and spoil'd the Commerce of Europe in Africa followed the example of those of Bugy and submitted to the payment of the same tribute In a word the Spaniards by an excess of good fortune which they have not had since in their Wars against the Barbarians made themselves Masters of the Kingdom of Tripoli and Ximenes returned to his Church of Toledo with so much glory and booty that Ferdinand durst think no more of molesting him In this manner the Archduke Charles reaped so much advantage from the quarrel of that Prelate and his Maternal Grandfather that three illustrious Kingdoms and a more famous Republick were thereby subjected to him and shortly after in the year One thousand five hundred and twelve the same good fortune brought under his Dominion the Kingdom of Navarre when neither he himself nor his Governour Chievres had any hand in it That Monarchy had often fallen to Daughters and by consequent had successively passed into several Families By that way it was transferred from the ancient House of Navarre to that of Leon from the House of Leon to that of Castile from the House of Castile to that of Champagne from the House of Champagne to that of France from the House of France to that of Evreux from the House of Evreux to the House of Arragon and from the House of Arragon to that of Foix-Grailly Gaston de Foix married Eleanor Queen of Navarre second Sister to the Father of Ferdinand the Catholick King by whom he had twelve Children of both Sexes The eldest Son died at two and twenty years of age he left a Son and a Daughter whom he had of Magdalen the youngest Daughter of Charles the Seventh The Son named Francis Phoebus reigned not long in Navarre and died before he was married The Daughter named Catharine became thereby the richest Heiress of Europe She remained under the Guardianship of her Mother who would never hear of marrying again though she was a Widow at the age of seventeen years There were but few Princes in Europe that courted not the Alliance of the young Queen of Navarre and the most considerable Husband that was proposed to her was the Insanto of Spain John the Son of Ferdinand who was much of the same age with her That Prince was the only Son of Ferdinand and Isabella and if he had married Catharine all the Monarchies of Spain had been reunited except that of Portugal Ferdinand and Isabella designed that chiefly by the Match But Magdalen of France had not so great an aversion to the House she was come of as to contribute to the raising in Spain a Power almost equal to that of France She absolutely refused her Daughter to the Prince of Spain but for all that she had not so much kindness for the House of France as to marry her Daughter into it as she had not so much affection for her Daughter as to marry her into a Sovereign Family She gave her to John Son of Alan d' Albert a powerful Lord indeed in Gascony but who possessed not a foot of Land but what held of the Kings of France in quality of Dukes of Guyenne Irregularities in Politicks are of more dangerous consequence than others and it is rare to be found in History that Queens of themselves have married Husbands inferiour to them in quality without having great occasions of repenting it John d' Albert seemed born to verisie the old Proverb That the best men are not always the best Kings He had all the qualities that could accomplish a private man but he wanted those which distinguish Sovereigns from those that are not and were not cut out for being so He delighted only in study and minded nothing by his good
Authority devolved upon the high Nobility during the time of minority or infirmity of their Kings when they were of long continuance and if the Nobility condescended that the late King Ferdinand should retain the Government for life yet it followed not that they had given him leave to dispose of it after his death The Duke of Infantado answered that he had at least as much ground to complain of the Cardinal as any other Grandee of Castille and that his Ancestors having left him considerable Estates of that nature which was pretended to be Lands of the Crown by consequence he had occasion to be apprehensive that they would begin at him in retrieving them that others might think it the less strange when they were dispossessed next that no favour had been shown to the most considerable Lord of Spain But that notwithstanding he was not of the opinion that any thing should be attempted in prejudice of the last Will of the late King nor contrary to the orders of the Catholick King Reigning though it was known that they were only provisional in what concerned Ximenes That that Cardinal had more experience and more ready money than they and that there was no doubt to be made but that he would root them out altogether if they gave him occasion to put the people on his side by letting them know that the Lords of Castille struck at the memory of the late King who had chosen him for Regent and at the Authority of the new King who had confirmed the Regency unto him That it was then absolutely necessary to find out another expedient than that of violence for degrading of him and that when such an one were found the Duke of Infantado should willingly declare himself for the common cause against the Favourite That was not an expedient to be fallen upon at first In the Chronicle of the Mâ—ndosa's and the Lords of Castille after many days thinking of it found none other that could relish with the Duke of Infantado but a Petition to the new King Charles which all of them signed beseeching him to give them another Regent than Ximenes It was an easie matter to foresee that it would not be granted and that his Majesty would wave giving an answer to it untill his arrival in Spain whither he promised to go day after day The Cardinal was so sure of it that he did not give himself the trouble of writing about it neither to the King nor Chievres Nay his foresight went a little further and as he was exceeding watchful to make the best of occurrences that were capable to encrease his Power so the Conspiracy of the Nobles offered him two means for that which he did not let slip The first was to lay before Chievres in a long Letter the absolute necessity of his Catholick Majestie 's sending him anâ— unlimited power if it was expected that he should in a signal manner reduce so many malecontents to reason And secondly to put himself in a posture not only not to be surprised but also to stifle the Sedition so soon as it should begin to break out Seeing it had been chiefly by the valour of the Castillian Nobility that the Mores were driven out of Spain they â—ad for a long time enjoyed the priviledge of carrying Arms both for themselves and Attendants which Townsâ—eople and Peasants had not but when â—hey were employed by Gentlemen If â—hat custom had continued the Cardinal â—ad one time or other been opprest because he could not be able in all places â—hrough which he was to go to have Armed men enough in readiness to resist â—he frequent attempts of the Nobility upâ—n his person Whereas if he put Arms into the hands of the Plebeians he would â—repare for himself in all places a vast â—umber of Guards who would think themselves exceedingly obliged to him â—or that favour and would not be wanâ—ing to him in time of need He took â—he occasion from the descent that the â—amous Corsair Barbarossa had then made 〈◊〉 the Kingdom of Granada from whence he had carried away several â—housand Spaniards and thereupon he â—ublished an Edict in name of Queen â—ean and King Charles hearing that since â—he Nobility whose Lands were upon the Coasts of Spain and the Garrisons which â—he Catholick Kings were wont to mainâ—ain there were not sufficient to hinder â—he spoils of the Infidels it was necessaâ—y to remedy such surprises for the future by opposing so many men capable of resisting the Turkish Pirats that they should not dare to set foot on Shore in a Country which they should find so well guarded That their Catholick Majesties had not thought it fit to Arm the Peasants because that would take them off from labouring the Land nor all the Inhabitants of Towns neither by reason that Commerce might thereby be interrupted but that they had only chosen the honest Burghers who having much to lose would take the greater care to keep it That those who would list themselves in that Militia should be exempted from the harder offices of the State That they should afterwards have priviledges granted to them proportionable to the Services which they rendered That care should be taken to set Officers over them to instruct them and that all that was demanded of them at present was to perform exercise every Sunday The Nobility at first perceived the intention of Ximenes and with all their might opposed it The Towns where they had got greater credit than he would not suffer the Commissaries appointed for the Musters to put the Edict in execution and the others received them with open Arms for besides that they were acceptable to the Burghers for the novelty of the Order which they brought them they rendred them masters of the State and opened to them the fair way which was that of Arms of raising themselves above the condition wherein they were born and of meriting the most important charges in the Monarchy which in progress of time would have so debased the Nobility that scarcely would there have been any more talk of them Thus Castille was divided into two Factions and as there are Mountains that cut it almost into two equal parts so the other side of the Hills was almost wholly for the Nobility and this side for Ximenes The Cardinals party was not the least seeing he had the bravest and most expert Soldiers of his Country-men for him and the only circumspection he was to use was to hinder his Enemies from possessing the Court of Bruxelles with bad impressions of his design In prospect of that he wrote to Chievres praying him to represent to the Catholick King in full Council that there was no other expedient than what he had put in practice for preserving his two Monarchies entire for him and without a farthing charge until his arrival in Spain That it was no new thing in Castille to Arm the People and that the Kings his Predecessors had done it as often
he should lend their Forces against their Neighbours with an emptier Purse than that of their Enemies and that which of the two hapned the Netherlands were almost in an equal danger of changing their Master during the time of a long minority On the other hand the Testator was altogether dissatisfied with the Catholick King Ferdinand his Father-in-law and to say the truth not without cause since the affront he had received from him struck directly at his honour For when the same Ferdinand resolved to drive the French out of half the Kingdom of Naples which two years before he had divided with them he well foresaw that his Forces being inferiour to theirs he could not be able to overcome them but by joyning Stratagem to Force He proposed to himself to amuse and deceive them and that they might not mistrust the snare he laid for them he thought it best to cloak his treachery under the faith of a Treaty which is the most sacred and inviolable type of Civil Society and chose his Son-in-law in quality of Plenipotentiary for the Instrument of his foul play thinking that if the French did upon any ground conceive suspicion they would entertain less of a Prince such as Philip who was their feudatary than of any other whom his Catholick Majesty might send unto them Accordingly Ferdinand entreated Philip to go to the Court of Louis the Twelfth and make peace betwixt France and Spain having for that end given him an unliâ—nited Commission Philip found Louis at Blois and treated fairly and squarely with him The accommodation was signed on both hands on condition that the division of the Kingdom of Naples betwixt the two Nations should continue and that which of the two did invade any part beâ—nging to the other should forthwith make restitution Louis who out of a â—rinciple of Religion avoided needless exâ—ence as much as he could dismissed the Troops that he had raised for maintaining his share and Ferdinand on the contrary having reinforced his they beat the French and drove them entirely out Louis complained of this to all the World But Ferdinand having obtained what he desired put off the Vizor He disowned what his Son-in-law had done and laughed at the credulity of Louis He still retained what he had so unjustly usurped when Philip died who if he had left the disposition of his Son to him would have given ground of suspicion that there had been a collusion betwixt his Father in law and himself and that he was not altogether innocent of a cheat which he or his might one day have the benefit of His memory would have been too much blasted thereby and the stain was so foul that he did not think he could shun it but by trusting what was dearest to him to the Probity of Louis and making by that means some reparation for the injury which he had received by his Ministry Besides he foresaw that if he left the administration of the Low-Countries to the Catholick King that Prince would employ their Forces against France with so much the more danger to the Flemings that if they were worsted he was too far off to assist them whereas by referring himself to the most Christian King in the choice of a Governour for his Son they would remain united with France and thereby maintain themselves in profound peace However it be the Flemings approved the Testament of Philip and Louis had full liberty to provide for the Education of Charles the young Archduke He determined in favour of Chievres and what hereafter follows will make it but too evident that he could not have done better for the Pupil who was recommended â—o him nor worse for the Monarchy of France Chievres employed the first years of his Charge in studying the Genius of the young Archduke and by an unconceivable assiduity and attention 〈◊〉 finding out in him the little ways and â—umours that discovered what groundâ—ork Nature and Sin had laid there for â—ertue and for Vice. The fruit of so long labour was that Chievres discovered that Charles resembled Lands newly dried after they had been long overflowed with the waters of the Sea which at first produce vast numbers both of good and bad â—rbs That in reality the chief perfections of his most illustrious Ancestors were descended into him but that in exchange 〈◊〉 likewise inherited the most remarkable of their imperfections For as to the Father's side if he had the activity of â—hilip the hardy he had also his inclination of always pursuing the end which he proposed by fetches and by-ways if he had the undertaking humour of John without fear In the Lives of the last Dukes of Burgundy he had likewise his pertinaciousness in pushing on to the last the most unjust enterprises If like Philip the good he loved to be familiar yet he did not like no more than he that his familiarity should raise or enrich those who were honoured with it If he was indefatigable in labour as Charles the terrible so he exacted as rigidly as he the reward of his labours If he was sometimes merry even to excess as the Emperour Maximilian so was he no less insupportable than he in a pensive melancholy that seized him upon the smallest occasions And if as his Father he was complaisant to those who instructed him he had nevertheless also a secret contempt of their Persons notwithstanding the good office they rendered him On the Mothers side if like Henry of Transtamare he had the knack of engaging men of extraordinary merit into his Interests and to keep them so engaged so long as he had need of them he had also the weakness to forget them as absolutely as if he had never known them so soon as they were no more useful unto him If like John the Second of Castile he employed more willingly men of low extraction than persons of quality yet he pardoned no more than he the least escapes they were guilty of in the execution of his Orders If in imitation of Henry the Third of Castile he prevented as much as â—y in his power the troubles which â—reatened the State he set about it also in the same manner as he by fomenting â—…e divisions that he found kindled â—mongst the great men or by his Emissaâ—es cunningly sowing the seeds of them â—hen the too good correspondence amongst these great men began to create suspicions in him If he was as happy as â—…hn the Second of Castile in finding men that gloried to sacrifice themselves to 〈◊〉 service yet he rewarded them no more than he but by caresses and praise If as John of Arragon he entertained no more freiendship for his own than what decorum â—…uired without going farther he cared as little as he if the Publick was acquaintâ—… with his defect of tenderness In a word if in imitation of Ferdinand the â—tholick he exacted from others a punctual performance of their word and if he could not endure no more than he
after the signing of the Treaty be delivered into the hands of the Embassadours of France who should carry her to the Court of the most Christian King to be brought up with the Dauphin till both were in a condition to live together The Treaty was fully and faithfully executed and there are some Memoires which mention that not only the Archdutchess was brought up with the Dauphin but that besides the Ceremonies of their Marriage had been solemnized and that there was nothing wanting but the consummation when it was broken off by this accident Maximilian Father to the Princess in second marriage espoused the Heiress of Bretagne by Proxy and thereby rendered himself so much the more formidable to the French that his first marriage with the Heiress of Burgundy had brought the seventeen Provinces of the Low Countries and the Franche-County into his Family They found no other remedy than to oblige Charles the Eighth to prevent him by marrying the Heiress of Bretagne and the Archdutchess was sent home to her Father who married her as hath been already said with the Infanto of Spain The Ceremonies of the Marriage were performed at Ghent in February One thousand four hundred and ninety seven and the Princess embarked immediately after at Flushing on board the Admiral of the Fleet appointed to convoy her to Spain but she was no sooner out at Sea but that she had reason to prognosticate that her Second Marriage was not like to be more fortunate than the First She was tossed in a violent storm which still encreasing surpassed the skill of the Seamen and the experience of the Pilots all were persuaded that they could not avoid being cast away and intimated no less to the Passengers as much by their frighted and ghastly looks as by their discourse The Archdutchess alone seemed unconcerned at the dismal news and feared so much the less to lose her life as she had greater interest than the rest to preserve it Nay in so sad a Juncture she was capable of a gay thought which seemed not suitable to an imagination that ought to have been scared with frightful apprehensions She made a pleasant reflection upon the oddness of her adventures supposing that the like had never hapned in the world and their singularity in her opinion deserved it should be acquainted with them She thought that never any woman was twice married and yet died a Virgin and therefore to inform Posterity of it she took the following course She had the curiosity to make her own Epitaph and in two Verses to express therein what was most remarkable in her Life She had naturally a great disposition to Poetry and so composed a Distich upon the spot Manuscripts relate the words variously though they agree in the sense and it will not be amiss to transcribe them here as they have been found The Spanish Manuscripts thus have hem Cy gît Margot Noble Damoiselle Deux fois mariée morte pucelle And the Flemish Manuscripts Cy gît Margot la gente Damoiselle Qu' eat deux maris si mourat pucelle The sense in English is Here Maig a Noble Lady 's laid Twice married and yet dead a maid It was not enough for the Archdutchess to have composed her own Epitaph if she hindered not the Waters wherein she expected to perish from spoyling the Paper on which it was written and therefore she wrap'd it up in Cerecloath Besides it behoved her to oblige those on the shoar who might find her body and Epitaph where the Sea cast them out to give a burial to the one and cause the other to be engraven and therefore she took out of the Box where her Jewels were the richest Diamond she had and wrap'd it up in the Paper After all care must be taken that that Paper should not be separated from her Body and therefore the Archdutchess tied the Cerecloath wherein the Diamond and Verses were fast about her Arm. In that posture without fear or changing her countenance she expected when the Ship should sink to the bottom but her last hour was not as yet come and the Ship that carried her after it had been long beaten and tossed by the Winds and Sea run a shoar upon the Coast of St. Andrews in Galicia From thence she went by Land to Burgos where the Catholick Kings then had their residence Her marriage with the Infanto of Spain was there celebrated and her big belly which some time after began to appear renewed the joy of the Court but it continued but five or six months for the Infanto fell sick in the City of Salamanca of a distemper whereof he died the four and twentieth of October the same year One thousand four hundred and ninety seven The beginning and progress of his distemper was discreetly concealed from his Wife but the same circumspection was not used at last Instead of disposing her by degrees to receive so strange news and gradually acquainting her with the loss of her young Husband they told her plainly and point blanck that she was a Widow It is not exactly known who it was that was so imprudent as unseasonably to tell her the news because she would never discover it lest the party might have been too severely punished But it is certain that the unhappiness of her second Widowhood brought into her mind * In the Latine Panegyrick of that Princess the injury she received when Charles the Eighth rejected her and that the double grief she felt was so violent that she was brought to bed before her time of a dead Daughter Ferdinand the Catholick King supported the loss of an only Son come to the age of ninteen years three months and six days with a constancy of mind which gave occasion to those who loved him not to suspect him of insensibility He was convinced by long experience that his Queen Isabella had a mind as great as his own and yet he thought she could not without falling down dead hear of the death of their Son if the same fault were committed in acquainting her with it that had caused the untimely Labour of their Daughter-in-law and therefore he provided against it by a way that succeeded He had no other Philosophy but what he had from Nature and the violent grief wherewith he was then afflicted was the first of that kind that ever he had had Nevertheless he thought that though the Catholick Queen were told but by degrees and little and little of the death of the Infanto all the Lenitives that could be used in that case would not hinder the tenderness of a Mother so deeply wounded by so surprising an accident from producing in the body where it lodged an universal revolution which putting the soul out of condition of exerting its chief functions there would force it to be gone and forsake its habitation On the contrary the Catholick King considered that if the same Soul could receive two excessive passions that might succeed one another
to meet in the City of Compostella in Galicia there to hold a Chapter for receiving him in quality of Great Master conform to the Bulls sent him from the Pope The chief Commanders were his Kinsmen or Allies and besides it was so much their interest that the Great Mastery should be cut off from the Crown that they made no scruple to obey him seeing in that case there was none of them who might not hope to be raised to it either by merit or faction whereas they must all be frustrated if it continued united to the Crown However the Assembly could not be kept so secret but that the Cardinal had notice of it and since there was a necessity of carrying high to chastize the attempt of Porto Carero or not at all to meddle in it he sent the Alcaide Villafanno with Forces to put a stop to the Chapter by fair means or foul The Commanders who were not prepared to fight separated so soon as the Alcaide had signified to them the Orders of the Cardinal and pretended to submit willingly to the Authority which they would not have regarded if it had been unarmed The Cardinal having sent them back to their several Commanderies caused them to be so narrowly observed there that it was impossible for them afterwards to meet again till the new Catholick King had obtained from the Pope the three great Masteries as vacant by the death of his Grandfather But the counter-blows in Politicks are sometimes more dangerous than the blows The Nobility of Castille took it ill that the Cardinal had so imperiously dispersed the Assembly of Galicia and accused him for having in that particular usurped a power which was not given him neither by the Testament of the late King nor by the Laws of the Monarchy whereof he was the Regent The Grandees made it a point of honour not to suffer the continuance of a procedure so unsuitable to a Priest and Monk and took the first occasion that they found to shake off a yoke which they called Tyrannical The occasion was this It had come into Ximenes his mind at an unseasonable time to endeavour the reformation of three abuses which in all likelihood ought to have been born with in the absence of the Sovereign if the Maxims of common Politicks had been followed The first was of some Officers of Court who by favour had obtained an augmentation of their Salaries the second of Pensions granted to Courtiers of Castille and Arragon who were known not to be deserving or not to have merited them by honest courses and the third consisted in recovering Crown Lands that had been alienated upon occasion of the Conquests of Grenada Naples and Navarre Before Ximenes put his design in execution he had demanded the advice of Chievres who counselled him to stay till the Catholick King were come into Castille But whether it was that he thought himself strong enough to bring about so bold a project without the assistance of his Master or that he imagined Chievres envied him the glory which he might thereby obtain he went on still with his work He moderated at first with pretty good success the new augmentations of Salaries and the Grandees of Spain were very well pleased with the reduction of Wages to the Ancient standard because on the one hand the high Nobility had hardly any concern in that and on the other those who were prejudiced by the Cardinals regulation were satisfied to repine at it in secret The retrenching of Pensions caused him more trouble by reason that the murmuring was more universal and more publick But the recovery of the Crown Lands reached too high not to meet with terrible impediments at the very first step It was pretended that the Catholick King must not only enter again into the Lands sold at an under-rate or given in gratuities but also into those which the detainers could not make out to have been alienated by good Contracts and for lawful causes There were but few Lords of the high Nobility who possessed not some of this nature and if they had no favour shew'd them it was almost certain they would be excited to a Revolt Nevertheless they were summoned as well as others and a shortenough time assigned them for making good their Titles The indignation that this wrought in them gave occasion to Pedro Giron eldest Son to the Count of Vregna to think that the time was now come for recovering the Dutchy of Medina Sidonia which he had been turned out of For understanding this Affair which raised all Spain almost we must know that Don Juan de Gusman Duke of Medina Sidonia Espoused in first marriage the eldest Daughter of the Duke of Bejar by whom he had a Son called Henry and a Daughter named Mentia Henry was importent and Mentia married to the Count of Vregna had by him Pedro Giron The Duke of Medina Sidonia enjoyed not long his first Wife having lost her the third year after their Marriage He was still young and his first alliance had given him often occasion of seeing the second Daughter of the Duke of Bejar his Sister-in-Law He had been extreamly much taken with her and if the inclination that he had for her remained within the bounds of a bare respect so long as he was married to her Sister it degenerated into love so soon as he became a Widower He was without contradiction the richest Lord of Andalusia had lived very well with his former Wife offered to marry her Sister upon the same conditions that is to say without a portion The great men of Spain minded not much at that time the proximity of bloud in their Alliances and the Duke of Bejar had a numerous Family These five considerations moved Bejar to condescend to accept of Medina Sidonia for his Son-in-Law a second time and seeing all ways were taken for obtaining a dispensation from the Holy See in the most favourable Form that then was in fashion In the History of Medina Sidonia it was at length granted Of the second Marriage he had a Son famous in History by the name of Alvaro de Gusman and the Duke his Father bred him up as the next lawful Heir of his vast Estate so soon as the impotency of Henry de Gusman the only Son of his first Bed came to be known Alvaro grew to be so accomplished a Lord that the Catholick King Ferdinand pitched upon him for a Husband to Anne of Arragon lawful Daughter to Alphonso of Arragon his Majestie 's Natural Son But there are few signal Incests amongst Christians which wholly escape unpunished till the other World and God commonly begins in this by dreadful chastisements to shew his aversion to such promiscuous mixtures which he only suffered in the beginning of the World and for the multiplication of Mankind Pedro Giron eldest Son of Mentia Daughter by the first Marriage to the Duke of Medina Sidonia claimed to be sole and universal Heir to his
the promise of England The Emperor who run no risk in following the counsel of Chievres sent the Count of Raeux to London with instructions drawn according to the reasons which we have now abridged The Count who was never before employed in any Negotiation succeeded in this which was his first Essay but not altogether because of his ability though it was already very conspicuous The King of England made no such account of the word which as was signified unto him he had past as to think himself obliged to keep it but he set before himself other considerations which were not in the Counts instructions He examined which of the two France or Spain he had most reason to be afraid of as affairs then stood and he found it to be France for though the Emperor was raised to a prodigious power and that there was none in the world comparable to it in extent yet it was not suspicious to England seeing the Emperor could not attack it by Land before he had conquered all France which could never be in the opinion of the English and as to the Sea England would be always superior to Spain Whereas if the French Monarchy having re-established its Authority in Italy by the recovery of the Dutchy of Milan should enlarge it self beyond the Pyrenees by conquering there the Country of the best Soldiers which lay along the River of Ebre it would not only not own the King of England for Arbitrator of the differences which it had with the Emperor but also might very well take the advantage of the first favourable occasion that should present and confine the English to their own Island by taking from them what they still retained in France Henry the Eighth concluded from that principle that it was his interest by all means to hinder the Spaniards from taking footing upon the Banks of the Ebre and upon that sole consideration signed a League Defensive and Offensive with the Emperor against the most Christian King which he would not have done as he many times declared afterward if Asparaut had stopt in Navarre or that if he would have continued his Conquests he had only carried them on along the Pyrenees without advancing at first into the very heart of Spain Before a fortnight was over the King of England found that his fear was vain and repented that he had declared so soon but the Count of Raeux having obtained what he desired was already gone from his Court when the news was brought to England that the French were driven out of Castille The Spaniards having joyned the Rebellious Troops as they called them to those whom they named Obedient made an Army of forty thousand men and marched in good order to the relief of Logrogno at the time when the number of the Besiegers was so diminished that it was no longer sufficient for guarding all the Avenues to the place The Enemy perceived it and took such good measures that they put into it four thousand Foot. Having done so with the rest of their Forces they cut off the Besiegers Provisions and forced them to raise the siege after they had made many unsuccessful assaults Asparaut repassed the Ebre and retreated in all haste to put himself under the cover of the Guns of Pampelona there being no Town nearer where he could lie safely and the Spaniards had almost suffered him to do it There happened amongst them upon their coming into Logrogno a debate which would have hindred them from recovering Navarre had it not been almost as soon ended as begun Their chief Officers agreed easily in a Council of War that the French must be close pursued in the Rear but at first they could not agree about the choice of him who should be their head after that they had passed the Ebre The Count of Haro who till then had commanded them pretended still to the command and alledged for his reason that he being declared General against the French his Commission could not expire till he had defeated them or sent them beyond the Pyrenees He added that that Commission was indeed no more but an Accessory of that which Chievres had procured him to pursue the Rebels by Arms and to resettle Spain in its former tranquillity He maintained that the French had first entred Navarre and then Castille through intelligence with the Rebels and from thence concluded that his command could not be taken from him without injustice until Navarre should be recovered or that the Emperor had given other orders The Duke of Najara on the contrary said that he was actually Viceroy of Navarre and that the Letters Patents which he had for it from the Emperor were not recalled That it was expresly mentioned in them that he should be General of all the Forces that acted in that Kingdom for his Imperial Majesty for what cause and upon what occasion soever they should be brought together and that there was no limitation made in that particular That the revolution which had since happened in Navarre could do no prejudice to his power and that in true policy it ought not to be considered but in the sence that Lawyers look upon Torrents which though for some time they overflow the Lands of private men yet do not deprive them of their possession nor so much as interrupt it when once it hath been lawfully established The Count of Haro had no ground to question the Letters Patents of the Duke of Najara but he alledged that the power thereby conferred had expired by the Dukes fault That he had abandoned his Vice-royalty upon the approach of the Enemy and that he had so absolutely lost it that there was not so much as one Village in all Navarre where his Authority was owned That that Kingdom having wholly changed its Master the business was to conquer it of new and by consequence to take such measures as no more concerned the Duke than as he had never been Viceroy The reason and inclination of those who gave their Votes seemed to give the cause to the Count Nevertheless he lost it and the Duke was preferred before him by an effect of Spanish prudence which hath hardly ever failed in the signal occasions of sacrificing justice to interest when the good of the Monarchy was thought to be concerned The Army which had relieved Logrogno and earnestly desired to recover Navarre was so wholly made up of Voluntiers that there was not so much as one Company of Foot or Troop of Horse that had any pay from the Emperor The Duke of Najara was the Grandee of Spain who had brought most Soldiers to the Camp and it was to be feared that these Soldiers who only came upon his account would return back with him if he withdrew as he must be obliged to do in honour if he obtained not the General command His Son had gathered together five or six thousand men from the Provinces bordering upon the Mountains and Don Gaspar de Butron his