Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	heart_n	love_v	see_v	14,118	5	3.5935	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54323	The history of Henry IV. surnamed the Great, King of France and Navarre Written originally in French, by the Bishop of Rodez, once tutor to his now most Christian Majesty; and made English by J. D.; Histoire du roy Henry le Grand. English.	Péréfixe de Beaumont, Hardouin de, b. 1605.; Davies, John, 1625-1693, attributed name.; Dauncey, John, fl. 1663, attributed name.	1663 (1663)	Wing P1465BA; ESTC R203134	231,946	417

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 C●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 Ladies● 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

bodies and goods of those who went thus into the field For the present this prohibition made the ardor of the most violent a little relent but because he often pardoned this crime not being able to refuse it to those who had faithfully served him in his need it happened that in a little time this mischief regained its course almost as strong as before His receiving from all persons all advices that might accommodate and in rich his Kingdom made him understand that there were in divers places of France very good Mines both of Gold and Silver Copper and Lead and that if they were wrought there would be no need to buy of strangers That likewise though there should accrue no great profit in digging them yet by them many idle persons might be employed and likewise those criminals who deserved not death might be condemned for so many years to work in them He made therefore an Act which renewed the ancient orders concerning the Officers Directors and Workers of Mines And they began to work in the Pyrenees where it is most certain that formerly there hath been Gold and that there still is In such manner that had they continued this labour they might in all appearance have gained notable advantages but either through the negligence of the Overseers or through the little intelligence or rather impatience of the French who cast by any thing that presently seconds not their desires this work was discontinued Another very great conveniency for Paris was enterprized which was the joyning of the River Loire to the Seine by the Chanel of Briare Rosny laboured in this with much expence employing in it near three hundred thousand crowns but the work was interrupted I know not wherefore It was renewed again in the Reign of Lewis the thirteenth and brought to perfection There was proposed likewise another which was to make a conjunction of the two Seas the Ocean and the Mediterranean by uniting together the Garonne which runs into the Ocean and the Aude which fals into the Mediterranean Sea below Narbonne by Channels which were to be drawn along little Rivers which run between these great ones The Country of Languedoc offered to contribute but there were difficulties found which hindred this enterprize Navigation was established by the good order which the King had taken to keep his Coasts in security and to punish Pirates severely when they catcht them Our ships were not content to Traffick to the ordinary places but enterprized likewise to go to the new world which they had almost forgot since the time of Admiral Coligny A Gentleman of Xaintonge named du Gas began with the Kings Commission the voyage of Canada where afterwards was established the Commerce of Castors or Beavers which are the skins of a certain amphibious creature much like the Otters of this Country Among all these establishments we must not forget a great quantity of new Religious Companies which were made in Paris There was first seen the Recollects which were a branch of the Order of St. Francis of a new Reformation Capuchins and Feuillantines Carmelites who were brought from Spain Barefooted Carmes who came likewise from that Country of the Brothers of Charity vulgarly called the ignorant brothers who came out of Italy and all had soon built them Convents out of the Almes and Charity of Devout persons In the midst of this fair Calme at which the King rejoyced and during all these fair occupations which were worthy of him he was not left without troubles and vexations which perplexed his Spirit He had none more piercing nor more continual then those which came on the part of his Wife and his Mistresses We have already said how Madamoiselle d' Entragues had engaged him He had given her the land of Verneuil near Senlis and for the love of her had made it a Marquisate After that he was married he ceased not to have the same passion for her and to carry her with him in his Progresses and lodge her at Fontain-bleau These scandalous disorders extremely offended the Queen and the Pride of the Marchioness more furiously incensed her for she spoke alwaies of her in terms either injurious or disdainful sometimes not forbearing to say that if she had Justice she should hold the place of that fat Banker The Queen likewise on her side was with reason transported against her and made her complaints to all the world But this was not the way to gain the spirit of the King she had done better had she wisely dissembled her displeasure and by her kindnesses made her self master of that heart which of right belonged to her The King loved to be flattered he loved sweet and compliant discourse and was to be gained by tenderness and affection The band of love is love it self this was that she ought to employ with him and not grumblings disdains and ill countenances which serve onely more and more to disgust a husband and make him find more pleasure in the allurements of a Mistress who takes care to be alwaies agreeable and alwaies complacent But in stead of holding this way she was alwaies in contention with the King she exasperated him continually by her complaints and by her reproaches and when he thought to find with her some sweetness to ease the great labours of his spirit he encountred nothing but Gall and Bitterness She had belonging to her Chamber a Florentine woman Daughter of her Nurse named Leonora Galigay a creature extreme ugly but very spiritual and who knew so perfectly how to insinuate into her heart that she had in such manner seised on it that she absolutely commanded her It hath been said that this woman fearing that the Queen her Mistress would love her less if she perfectly loved the King her husband kept her from it as much as she could that she might possess her with more ease Afterwards to the end she might have a second in her designs she Married and Espoused her self to a Florentine a domestick of the Queens named Conchini of a little better Extraction then her self being grand-child to Baptista Conchini who had been Secretary to Cosmo Duke of Florence The Common opinion was that these two persons conjoyntly laboured so long as the King lived to conserve a spleen in the spirit of the Queen and to make her always troublesome and humoursome towards him in such manner that for seven or eight years together if he had one day of peace and quiet with her he had ten of discontent and vexation In this truly the Kings fault was the greatest because he gave the occasion of these troubles and the husband being as St. Paul saith the head of the wife ought to give her example and keep a more strict union with her We have observed this once for all But we cannot too often make this Reflexion That sin is the cause of all disorder and that for a little

THE HISTORY OF HENRY IV. SURNAMED The Great King of France and Navarre Written Originally in French By the Bishop of Rodez once Tutor to his now most Christian Majesty And made English by J. D LONDON Printed by James Cottrel for Samuel Speed at the signe of the Rainbow near the Inner Temple-gate in Fleet-street 1663. To his Sacred Majesty CHARLES THE SECOND King of Great Britain France and Ireland Dread SIR WIth all that humble Reverence that becomes a Low but Loyal Subject and Servant to his Soveraign Lord and Master cast I at Your feet this present Address Those Stars that move in the Lowest Orb receive their light and lustre from the Sun as well as those that wander in a more exalted heaven and therefore may possibly be capable to return some grateful Influences though not in so great a quantity yet in a quality as pure and candid However all my courage could not have inspired me with a presumption to present any thing of mine to so glorious a Majesty had it not born in its Frontispice the name of HENRY THE GREAT Your Royal and Renowned Grandfather a Prince of so Sublime a Virtue of so Heroick a Courage of such Activity in War and such Prudence in Peace that he justly became both the love and terror of the age he lived in And Great Sir give me leave to tell you that never did the Life of any Prince since the Creation bear so equal a Parallel with Your Maiestie's as that of this Renowned King If your miseries and misfortunes have exceeded his God hath made it by evident Demonstrances appear that he intends to make your Glories and Happiness as far surpass those of your Royal Grandfather You both had Leaguers armed with Rebellion Obstinacy and Ambition under a Cloak of zeal to Religion to oppose you and you both assisted by a Miraculous Providence of Heaven overcame them You both by Arms long strugled for your Rights but as if God had intended you both for true Fathers of your Countries and the Foundations whereon he would settle an absolute happiness in your Kingdoms so long afflicted with Civil Wars and those terrours which attend them he brought you both to spotless Thrones unbesmeared with blood How soon was France redeemed from those plagues it so long had endured at the entrance of the Great Henry into the Chair of Royalty who as a Rising Sun darted forth those Salutiferous rayes which shone upon and enriched the remotest parts of his Territories How soon were all Factions dissipated and how soon did he by his Prudent Conduct reconcile the most obstinate Spirits In fine in how short time was France from a Den of Atheists Theeves and Robbers become the Nursery of Piety Arts and Industry England Dread Soveraign suffered under the same Fate her neighbouring Sister had long since been Subject to when Heaven was graciously pleased to restore you to your Crown And you have already made us not onely hope but see that you have designed to restore to us such happinesses that we cannot justly envy those which France enjoyed under her beloved HENRY How well have you setled both our Church and State How well have you reconciled our Dissentions with how much too great a mercy give me Sir leave to fear so have you pardoned the most obstinate of your enemies and how may we hope if the malice of those obstinate Spirits yet disturb not our Tranquillity to enjoy under your Government the most happy and flourishing daies that ever Great Britain beheld But Sir that I may conclude and not seem tedious to your Majesty may the God of heaven inspire into the hearts of your people a true sense of your goodness and paternal love to them may he correct the improbous malice of those who yet dare to be your enemies may he incline you still to prosecute such Maximes of good Government both in Church and State as may make both equally Flourish may he Augment your Glories and raise them above those of your Grand-father HENRY the Fourth may he bless us all by giving you a long and happy Reign and when that misery though late arrives us of losing you may we yet be made blessed in that Succession from your Loynes that may endure for ever Thus Prayes SIR The humblest and faithfullest though the meanest of your Majesties Subjects and Servants J. D. The Translator to the Reader BEhold here a History compiled by one of the most able and let me testifie thus much one of the most moderate and impartial Pens of Europe It was fitted for the hand of a King and is the Life of one whom his own Actions will declare to have better deserved the name of Great then that proud Macedonian who wept that he had no more Worlds to conquer For though he gained not such signal Victories nor over-ran so many Countries yet he was possessed of more Vertues then the other of Cities and Vertue is the fairest Mother of true Greatness But Reader I forestal thy delight in its Reading go on therefore but with Deliberation J. D. THE AUTHOR TO THE READER READER THis History of Henry the Great is onely a small part of the Summary or Epitomy of the general History of France which I have composed by the command of the King and for the instruction of his Majesty It having been my intention onely to gather together all that might serve to form a great Prince and render him capable of Reigning well I have not thought it convenient to enter into a particular Recital of things or to recount at length all Wars and Affairs as Historians do who are to write for all sorts of persons I have onely took the Sum and recounted those Circumstances I have judged the fairest and the most instructive leaving apart all the rest to shorten matter and to give in epitomy an account of all that passed which might inform the spirit of the King without surcharging his memory This hath been my designe if it hath not succeeded so well as could be wish'd I hope READER that my Endeavour will appear praise-worthy I doubt not but there are in this Work some Mistakes which I may not have perceived but which cannot escape Eyes more clear-sighted The History is accompanied with so many Circumstances that it is almost impossible not to be deceived in some Yet I believe I have written nothing for which I have not my Warrant And if you finde in any Author the contrary of what I have said I intreat you to consider that our Historians do in many things so differ among themselves that who takes the judgement of one must necessarily contradict the other In this diversity I have followed those whom I believed the best and most assured I acknowledge likewise that I could not refrain borrowing from them whole Paragraphs where they have pleased me and that I have thought I could better explain my self by their Expressions then my own However if this be a

both of the one and the other party into the Low-Countries made himself Mediator of the peace and obtained it by an Edict which was concluded after the Conference of Fleix This peace was the cause of almost as many evils to the Estate as all the former Wars had been The two Courts of the two Kings and the two Kings themselves plunged themselves in their pleasures with this difference however that our Henry was not so absolutely lull'd asleep with his delights but he thought sometimes of his affairs being awakened and lively reminded by the Remonstrances of the Ministers of his Religion and by the reproaches of the old Captains of the Hugonots who spoke to him with great liberty But Henry the third was wholly overwhelmed with softness and feebleness he seemed to have neither heart nor motion and his subjects could scarce know that he was in the world but because he dayly charged them with new Imposts all the money of which was disposed to the benefit of his Favorites He had always three or four at a time and at present he began to cast his graces on Joyeuse and the two Nogarets to wit Bernard and Jean-Lewis of whom the eldest died five or six years after and the youngest was Duke d' Espernon one of the most memorable and most wonderful Subjects that the Court had ever seen elevated in its favour and who certainly had qualities as eminent as his fortune In the mean time the excessive gifts which the King gave to all his favorites excited the cries of the people because they were trampled on and their monstrous greatness displeased the Princes because they believed themselves despised in such manner that they rendred themselves odious to all the world and the hate carried to them fell likewise upon the King whilst that violence which they obliged him to use towards his Parliaments to confirm his Edicts of Creation and Imposts augmented it yet more for if his Authority made his Wills pass as absolute he drew the peoples curses and if the vigour of the Soveraign companies as often happened stopt them he attracted their disdain The people who easily licentiate themselves to Rebellion against their Prince when they have lost for him all sentiments of esteem and veneration spoke strange things of him and his favorites The Guises whom the Minions for so the favorites were called opposed in all occasions endeavouring to deprive them of their Charges and Governments to re-invest themselves were not wanting to blow the fire and to increase the animosities of the people particularly of the great Cities whom favorites have always feared and who have always hated favorites These were the principal Dispositions to the aggrandizing the League and to the loss of Henry the third It is not to our purpose to recount here all the intrigues of the Court during five or six years nor the War of the Low-Countries from which Monsieur brought nothing but disgrace It is onely necessary to tell that in the year 1684. Monsieur died at Castle-Thierry without having been married that Henry the third had likewise no Children and that it was but too well known he was uncapable of ever having any by reason of an uncurable disease which he contracted at Venice in his return from Poland See here the reason why as soon as Monsieur was judged to death by the Physitians the Guises and Queen-Mother began to labour each on their side to assure themselves of the Crown as if the succession had been open to them for neither the one nor the other accounted for any thing our Henry so much the rather because he was beyond the seventh degree beyond which in ordinary successions is accounted no kindred and because he was not of that Religion of which all the Kings of France have been since Clouis and by consequence incapable to wear the Crown or bear the Title of Thrice-Christian Adde to this that he was two hundred Leagues distant from Paris and as it were shut up in a corner of Guyenne where it seem'd to them easie to ensuare him or oppress him The Queen-Mother had a design to give the Crown to the Children of her Daughter married to the Duke of Lorrain whom she would have treated as Princes of the bloud as if the Crown of France could fall under the command of the Spindle Nor was she carried to this onely out of the love she had for them but out of a secret hatred she had conceived against our Henry because she saw that contrary to all her wishes heaven opened him a way to come to the Throne Besides she was too much deceived for so able a woman to believe that the Duke of Guise would favour her in her design there was much appearance and after affaires sufficiently testified it that seeing himself persecuted by the Favorites and ill treated by the King himself for their sakes he had thoughts to assure the Crown for his own head For ill treatments work at least no other effect then to cast into extreme despaire Souls so Noble and Elevated as that of this Prince But he knowing well that of himself he could not arrive at so high a pitch and that specially because it would be difficult to divert the affection which the people of France naturally have for the Princes of the Bloud he advised himself to gain the old Cardinal de Bourbon who was Uncle of our Henry he promised him therefore that the death of Henry the third Arriving he would employ all his power and that of his Friends to make him King and that good man doting with age permitting himself to be flattered with these vain hopes made himself the Bauble of the Dukes Ambition who by this means drew to his party a great number of Catholiques who considered the house of Bourbon The Question was if the Uncle ought to precede the Son of the Elder Brother in the Succession and to speak truth the business was not without some difficulty because according to the Custome of Paris the Capital of the Realm and many other Customes collateral representation hath no place This point of right was diversly agitated by the Reverend Judges and many treats were had some in favour of the Uncle and others of the Nephew but these were but Combats of words the sword was to decide the difference It seemed to many great Polititians that the Duke of Guise acted contrary to his own interests and design by acknowledgeing that the Cardinal of Bourbon ought to Succeed to the Crown this being to avow that after his death which could suffer no long delay it would appertain to our Henry his Nephew Henry 3. knew well his design or rather was advertised of it by his Favorites who saw in it their certain ruine and therefore so much desired to bring back the King of Navarre to the Catholique Church to the end he might deprive the Leaguers of that specious Pretext they

commodious to his designes and thinking by it to change France into a Republick or make a King who should onely subsist by him considered no longer the Duke of Mayenne so much as he had done and assisted him but weakly and endeavoured to create factions among the great Cities and particularly that of the Sixteen at Paris not sparing any money so that many believed he expended such great sums in this way that had he laid them out in raising Armies he had conquered a good part of the Realm Now our Henry considering his designes laboured on his part to frustrate them And first as to the Duke of Mayenne he flattered him with Kindnesses and many good Treatments which he did for two ends to wit to essay to gain him and likewise to render him more suspected to the Spaniards To the same effect he endeavoured to augment in him the disgust he already had for that Nation and withal promised him great Advantages if he would accommodate with him By these means he daily a little restrained him cool'd his ardour and hindred him from carrying things to exreamities And as for the people knowing that it was the ill Government of his Predecessor which had altered their Affections and had furnished them with the pretext and occasion of the League to cause their emportments he omitted no diligence nor no goodness which might reduce them sweetly to their Duty This good King considered that to the recovery of a disease it is necessary that the causes be taken away and that to this purpose he was to correct and sweeten the ill humours which had put the Estate into this extremity His sight of it had likewise made him know that three things principally had rendred his Predecessor odious and contemptible The first was his softness and saint-heartedness which made him in stead of employing those fair Talents which God had given him to rule in his Estate and act in the functions of a King to neglect to apply himself and not take sufficiently to heart the conduct of his Affairs but addict himself wholly to his pleasures As if Royalty which is the greatest and most eminent of all things here below were onely a vain divertisement or as if God had made Kings onely for the love of themselves and not for his glory and the common good of men The second was his ill management and the wasting his Revenues which obliged him to seek extraordinary and oppressive ways to exact money Now he had not onely consumed his Revenues by his own extream profuseness and by the immense Gifts he made to his Favourites a thing which made the people desparate but much more by his negligence because he would not give himself the trouble to take knowledge of or watch over those to whom he trusted their Administration who forgetting that they were onely his dispensers became prodigal in a thousand foolish expences and distributed them to their Creatures as if they had been their proper Goods The third was the little belief they had in his Faith and his manner of acting with his subjects too subtil too fine and too clouded in such manner that he had always this misfortune they were in continual distrust of him insomuch that all his words and actions seemed falsities and they thought they did prudently in believing quite contrary to all he would have them believe Now our Henry having known that these ill ways had conducted his Predecessor to a Precipice resolved as well out of the inclination he had to good as out of good Policy to follow paths quite contrary First he would shew to the League who disputed the Scepter with him that he was worthy to carry it And for this effect he acted continually not onely in the Field and in matters of War but in his Cabinet by his deliberations of important Affairs by his Negotiations by the order and distribution of his Revenues by his dispensation of his Charges and Employments by his knowledge of the principal Laws the order and policy of his Realm and in fine in all his Actions like one who contents himself not with the name of a King but would be one in effect He would have faithful Ministers but would have no Companions He committed to them the care of his Affairs in such manner that he still remained the absolute Master and they the servants He loved them tenderly as it was just and used a great familiarity with them but yet permitted them not to be wanting either in submission or respect If he took their counsel it was by form of advice and he obliged them much oftner by reason to follow his then he followed theirs He honoured them with his Graces and with Benefits but in proportion and measure he gave them not all to one alone or to two or three but like a common Father distributed his recompenses to all those he judged worthy and he would that they should receive them from his hands and not from others for he knew that to give and do good is the most glorious Attribute of Soveraignty which ought not to be communicated to any person In the second place he took a most particular care to cause his Revenues to be well administred to which four motives obliged him The first because he was naturally though not covetous yet a good husband and one who hated profuseness The second because he loved his people and would spare them the most he could possibly for he made conscience of drawing money out of their purses except upon most necessary occasions and therefore he never kept near him any of those blood-suckers of the Court who draw all to their Coffers and who never care from whence it comes so that they have it The third because the necessity he had often been in had made him know the value and need of money and that it was good to manage it well because hard to recover it And the fourth because not having been bred up ignorant in affairs as too often Princes are he had been well informed that the greatest part of those ills which had afflicted France proceeded from the ill administration of publick monies And therefore among all the cares he took to govern well his Estates he had none greater nor more continual then that of ordering well his Revenues and to clear this matter The Superintendants had imbroyled and perplexed them with an hundred thousand knots so that they could neither be loosned nor distinguished and they had acted in such manner that this management as a Treasurer of that time said was a kind of Black Art where nothing could be seen so that thus the goods of the Prince and the blood of the poor people remained ever at their discretion He who at present had care of the Revenues was a Norman Gentleman named Francis d' O who had been Superintendant since the time of Henry the third This man to speak the

Assaults to wit Hungary and Poland against those of the Turks and Swedeland and Poland against the Muscovites and Tartars After when all these fifteen Dominions had been well established with their rights their Governours and Limits which he hoped might be done in less then three years they should together of their own accord have chosen three general Captains two by Land and one by Sea who should all at once have assaulted the Ottoman-house to which each Dominion should have contributed a certain quantity of Men Ships Artillery and Money according to the Tax imposed The sum in gross which they should furnish out should amount to two hundred sixty five thousand foot-men fifty thousand horse a train of two hundred and seventeen pieces of Cannon with Waggons Officers and Ammunition proportionable and one hundred and seventeen great Ships without counting Vessels of less force Fire-ships or Ships of burden This establishment would have been advantagious to all the Princes and Estates of Europe There was onely the house of Austria which would suffer any loss and which was to be despoiled to accommodate others But the project was laid to make them either willingly or by force consent in this manner First it is to be supposed that on the part of Italy the Pope the Venetians and the Duke of Savoy were well informed of the Kings designes and that they ought to assist with all their forces especially the Savoyard who was moreover extreamly animated because the King gave his Daughter in marriage to his son Victor Amadeo In Germany four Electors to wit the Palatine Brandebourg Colen and Ments were likewise to know it and favour it and the Duke of Bavaria had their word and that of the King to raise him to the Empire and many Imperial Cities had already addressed themselves to the King to beseech him to honour them with his protection and to maintain them in their Priviledges which had been abolished by the house of Austria In Bohemia and Hungaria there was intelligence held with the Lords and Nobility and that the people desperate with the weight of that yoak were ready to shake it off and to relieve themselves on the first proffered occasion All these dispositions being so favourable to him the business of Cleves happened of which we at present shall speak which furnished him with a fair occasion to begin the execution of his projects which he was to do in this manner Having raised an Army of forty thousand men as he did he was in his march to dispatch towards all the Princes of Christendome to give them the knowledge of his just and holy intentions After under the pretext of going to Cleves he was to seize all the passages of la Mense and all at once assault Charlemont Mastrich and Namur which were but ill fortified At the same time the Cities of the Low-Countries had cryed out for liberty and the Lords put themselves in the Field for the same purpose and had blazoned the Belgique Lyon with the Flowers de Lis. The Hollanders had infested the Coasts with their Ships in very great number to hinder the Traffick of the Flemins by Sea as it was shut up by the French by Land which should have been done of purpose to hasten the people to shake off the Spanish Rule and to address themselves to the King and to the Princes his Associates to pray the King of Spain to put them in liberty and out of his goodness to restore peace to them which they could never hope so long as they were under his Dominion In all probable appearance at the approach of so great an Army by reason of the intelligences of the principal Lords by the insurrection of the great Cities and of the love which these people have still had for liberty Flanders would all have risen especially when they had seen the wonderful order and exact discipline of his souldiers who should have lived like good Guests paying for all and not doing the least outrage upon pain of death and when it should be known that he laboured for the safety of the people not reserving any thing of all his Conquests but the glory and the satisfaction of having restored those Provinces to themselves without keeping so much as a Castle or Village to himself At the same time that he had put Flanders into a free state and accommodated the difference of the succession of Cleves all the Princes interested in this business the Electors we have named and the Deputies of many great Cities were to come and thank him and intreat him that he would joyn his Prayers and his Authority to the supplications they had to make to the Emperour to dispose him to restore the Estates and Cities of the Empire to their ancient Rights and Immunities above all in the free Election of a King of the Romans without using any practices constraints promises and threats And that for this effect it should be from that moment resolved that they should elect one of another house then that of Austria They had agreed among themselves that it should be the Duke of Bavaria The Pope had joyned with them in this request which had been made with such instance that it had been difficult for the Emperor being unarmed as he was to have refused it The like request had been made to the King and his Associates by the people of Bohemia Hungary Austria Stiria and Carinthia above all for the right they had themselves to make choice of their Prince and to put themselves under that form of Government they should think best by the advice of their friends and allies To which the King condescending had used all sorts of fair means prayers and supplications even below his dignity that it might be seen he intended not so much to serve himself of power as of equity and reason After this the Duke of Savoy by the same way had demanded of the King of Spain with all sorts of civility and in the name of his children that he would be pleased to give them a Dower for their Mother as good and advantagious as he had to their Aunt Isabella and in case of refusal the King was to permit Lesdiguieres to assist him with fifteen thousand Footmen and two thousand Horse for the Conquest of Milan or the Country of Lombardy in which he would have been favoured by the greatest part of the Princes of Italy This done he with his Associates were to beseech the Pope and the Venetians to become Arbitrators between him and the King of Spain to terminate friendly these differences which were ready to break forth between them by reason of Naples Sicily Navarre and Roussillon And then to shew that he had no thought to aggrandize himself nor other ambition then to settle the repose of Christendom he had shewed himself ready to yeild to the Spaniard Navarre and Roussillon so that