would leave it to them two He failed not to take his advantage of these inconsiderate words He would not have his Brother be so near a Neighbour to the Burgundian his Interest was to place him at the other end of the Kingdom to break off their Communication That young Prince Weak Year of our Lord 1468. and 69. and Inconstant of mind was Governed by Oder-Daydie Lord of Lescun a Gascon and vain who would needs be a Prophet in his own Country by his means he was persuaded to renounce Champagne and accept of Guienne with the City of Rochel This change was the loss of that young Prince The Cardinal de la Ballue in whose hands the Treaty of Peronne had been Sworn with much regret suffered it to be altered whether out of love to Monsieur or that he would have had the King still in some perplexity This good Prelat and William de Hoeraucoux holding Intelligence with the Burgundian wrote to Monsieur to dissuade him and represented many things to him for his advantage but contrary to the Kings intentions Their Letters having been intercepted and they Seized they ingenuously confessed their practices The King sent the information to his Brother who suffering to be overcome by his Carasses accepted of Guyenne and came to meet him at Tours The Bishop was shut up in an Iron Cage a punishment he well deserved since he was the first inventor of it The Cardinal was convey'd to the Bastille where he remained twelve years the Pope demanding him as liable only to his Justice and the King pressing the Pope to let him have Judges assigned him within the Kingdom to hear his cause Year of our Lord 1469 The good correspondence between the two Brothers seemed to be perfected and the King to gain or wean Monsieurs Heart from the Countries on this side allured him with a great Match in Spain Henry King of Castille had a Daughter named Jeane but whom the Castillians held for a Bastard because he was esteemed impotent in so much as they had constrained him to declare the Infanta Isabella who was his Sister his Heiress The King sent the Cardinal of Arras to demand this Isabella for Monsieur But the Lords of the Country having stollen her away and married her to Ferdinand Infant of Arragon he seeks to have Jane which Henry agreed to A Matter for a long War if Charles had lived The first day of August the King being at his Castle of Amboise instituted an Order of Knighthood in honour of St. Michael and limited the number of Knights to 36 yet was it never filled up in all his Reign The French particularly Honoured St. Michael as the Tutelary Angel of that Monarchy And a better could not be pitched upon to tread down the Pride of the English who carr'd Dragons in their Ensigns then that Prince of they Celestial Militia who is painted with a Dragon under his feet And indeed it had been reported that he was seen at the head of our Army 's sighting against them for the French He imagined by means or vertue of this Collar that he should have drawn all the Grandees of the Kingdom within his clutclies when he held this Chapter And therefore the Duke of Bretagne refused it and the Duke of Burgundy doing yet worse received the Order of the Garter and wore it to his Death The Breton had in his service one Peter Landays his Treasurer a man of Low Birth but very knowing and able to countermine all the Artisices of Lewis XI It was he that led him to all these evasions and emboldned his Master to withstand all his devices and his threats Thus what ever endeavours he could use though he were on his Frontiers with an Army he could never disunite him from the Burgundian but only obliged him by a Treaty made at Saumur to renounce all offensive Leagues against the Kingdom Year of our Lord 1470 In the year 1470. John the Natural Son of Lewis Duke of Orleance left this world aged 70 years having divers years before left the Court because of his almost continual pain of the Gout which the hardships in the Wars had brought upon him This Prince valued in all things says Comines having made himself as able a Counsellor as he was a Captain was one of the principal instruments God made use of to drive the English out of France Therefore the Princes of his Family gave him the County of Dunois King Charles that of Longue-ville the Office of Great Chamberlain and the Lieutenancy General of his Army's and strong Forts A power of so great extent that it hath been communicated to none but himself in the third Race Year of our Lord 1470 The renunciation which the King caused the Breton to make had most respect to Edward of York King of England and Brother in Law to the Burgundian of whom it was hourly reported that he was coming to Land at Calais He was wholly prevented by the Earl of Warwick who in revenge of some injuries received from him set himself to carry on the interests of the House of Lancaster and had even Debauched the Duke of Clarence his Brother He had the foregoing year defeated his Army and afterwards took him Prisoner Then Edward having escaped beat him in his turn So that he was forced to save himself in France about the end of the Month of May this year From thence returning into England with the Succours the King leâ—t him he changed the Scene a second time For all slocked to him according to the Genius of that Country which loves change and Year of our Lord 1471 Edward wholly forfaken fled into Flanders to the Duke of Burgundy his Brother in Law Then King Henry who was in the Tower of London was set at Liberty and Warwick and Clarence took upon them the Government of the Kingdom Though the King still resented in his Heart the affront received at Peronne nevertheless being of a fearful Spirit and the length of any enterprize putting him out of patience if the success were not as swift as his desires he would have lived in peace if the Constable and those that were about him had not excited his resentment to draw him to a rupture They feared and the Constable most of all that a Peace making them appear useless the King might think of retrenching their great allowances and his stirring mind if it were not employ'd abroad might put him upon great alterations at home in his Court. Besides these motives there was also an Intrigue of the Bretons and the Constables in favour of Monsieur As they desired to strengthen him against the King they had inspired him with a desire of marrying the only Daughter of the Burgundian And because they knew the Father would not easily consent to it they believed they should sooner bring it about by force then by friendship and therefore they resolved to engage the King to make a War upon him The Bias they took
was in Campis Secalaunicis in Soulogne near Orleans Attila lost nigh 200000 Men. Theodoric King of the Visigoths was killed in the Fight and the next day his Son Thorismond elected King by the Visigoths Notwithstanding this infinite loss Attila had still Men enough left to Retreat to his own Countrey Aetius having discharged the Visigoths and the French lest he should be obliged to pursue and make an end of them The youngest of Clodions Sons had cast himself into the Arms of that Prince who adopted him for his Son and the other under the protection of Attila what their Fortune was we know not but for Attila upon his return from another irruption he made into Italy about the year 452. he died in his own Countrey while he was in Bed with a new Spouse Year of our Lord 452 This year 452. is commonly reckoned to be the time of the wonderful birth or beginning of the City of Venice in the Adriatick Gulph It is held that the terror of Attilas Forces after he had taken Aquilea making all the people of those Countreys flie from thence some numbers of them got into the Island Rialto and other Islands adjacent who fixed their Habitation there which was the first foundation of that noble State Year of our Lord 454 The Emperour Valentinian caused Aetius to be Massacred who alone upheld the Empire shaken and assaulted on all hands The following year he is slain himself by the Year of our Lord 455 friends of that great Captain and upon the solicitation of Petronius Maximus whose Wife he had violated Maximus seizes on the Empire and Eudoxia his Widdow whom he Married The peasure of his Revenge and his Reign lasted but three Months The People stoned him to death as soon as Genseric King of the Vandals whom Eudoxa had called over from Africa to revenge her was come to the Gates of Rome But that Barbarian sacked the City and took the Empress who was carried into Captivity with her two Daughters being at the same time both revenged and punished From thence followed the utter destruction of the Western Empire there being no one Head left powerful enough to repair or indeed prop the ruines of that vast Building but only divers petit Commanders who were but the sport of the Barbarians and who consumed the small Forces they had by pushing at one another So that Meroveus and afterwards Childeric his Son had the proper time to extend their limits Meroveus took on the one hand all the Germania Prima or territory of Mentz and on the other the Belgica Secunda which is named Picardy a good part of the Second Lyonnoise named Normandy and almost all the Isle of France He Reigned almost 11 years and dyed Anno 458. we know nothing either of Year of our Lord 458 his Age nor of his Wife nor his Children but only that Childeric his Successor was his Son Childeric King IV. Aged XX to XXV years POPES LEON I. Three years HILARY the 12th Nov. 461. S. Five years Ten Months SIMPLICUS the 20th Sept. 561. S. Twenty Five years Five Months Year of our Lord 458 THis Prince being yet Young much addicted to his Pleasures and having a Kingdom too peaceable gave himself the liberty to debauch Year of our Lord 459. Or 460. his Subjects Wives and Daughters The French who were not accustomed to such infamous dealings degraded him from his Throne either by Sedition only or by some kind of judicial proceedings and in his stead Elected Aegidius or Gillon Master of the Roman Militia who was a stranger but in high reputation for Wisdom and Probity Childerick knowing after this that they sought his Life also retired himself into Year of our Lord 460 Turingia to King Basin but left a faithful friend in France named Guyemans who promised to work his Restauration by turning the Hearts of the French against Gillon Guyemans being very subtil gained much upon the Good Will and Confidence of Gillon and encouraged him to charge them with Taxes or Imposts and when they made a great noise about it he counsel'd him to strike off the most stirring Heads who were the same that had degraded Childeric then do they come secretly to make complaints to Guyemans who perswades them to recall their natural King and when he observes them disposed so to do gives him notice of it and for a Year of our Lord 468 token sends him the half of a Gold Crown broken in two of which the King kept the other half The French go as far as Bar to meet him and re-establish him in his Royalty with formal Solemnity Year of our Lord From the year 468. To the year 481. After his return he made use of the heat of his Subjects against Gillon he pushed at him vigorously forced him to abandon Colen took Treves by Assault and Burnt it Conquer'd the Countrey now called Lorrain and afterwards crossing Champagnes which then remained firm to the Romans he made himself Master of Beauvais Paris and of many other Towns upon the Oise and the Seine the People giving themselves up to the French rather out of choice than by compulsion to free themselves from the horrible Tailles and cruel Concussions of the Roman Magistrates who had put them into so great dispair that they sought their own relief in the ruine of the State A little after Childeric came from Turingia Queen Basina charmed with his Virtues forsook her Husband to come to him he took her to Wife and within the year had a Son by her who was named Clovis Gillon as it should seem had called in some Auxiliaries of the Saxons Commanded by their King Odoacer which he employed to defend the Cities above the Loire as well against the Visigoths as the French When he was dead viz. in the year 464. the Count Pol took the Command and Odoacer on his side would secure the City of Angiers and fortified the Islands in the Loire to preserve his booty but Childeric vanquished the Count Pol near Orleans and after he had possess'd himself of that City pursued him to Angiers where he forced his way in and laid him dead on the Pavement This done he dislodged the Saxons from their Islands and after an agreement with them he set them at work to drive away the Germans who at that same time had made an irruption into Gaul Year of our Lord 476 Anno 476. Of the Christian Aera and the 1229. from the foundation of Rome the Roman Empire ended in the West there having been in the last Twenty years Nine or Ten Abortives of Emperours of which Romulus whom they called Augustulus was the last He was a young Child of about Ten or Twelve years old to whom the Patrician Orestes his Father had given the Title of Emperour to Govern in his Name Odoacer King of the Heruli having slain Orestes locked up this Child in a Castle and gave beginning to the First Kingdom in Italy Divers years
he gave Robert the Cities of Chaumont and Pontoise and the French Vexin Year of our Lord 1033 It was then likewise he yielded the Dukedom of Burgundy to his Brother Robert From whom issued the First Race of the Dukes of Burgundy of the Blood Royal. The Earl of Champagn did not hold himself vanquish'd by the defeat of the Party to make him lay down his Sword the King was forced to beat his Army twice and Year of our Lord 1033 and the following the third time put him to a rout and made him fly away half naked and hide himself before he could compel him to shake hands About the year 1032. or 33. Geofrey surnamed Martel made a cruel War upon William V. called the Gross Duke of Guyenne and Earl of Poitou whose Mother-in-Law or his own Fathers second Wife he had Married She was named Agnes Daughter of the Earl of Burgundy The Subject of the Quarrel was the Earldom of Saintonge and the Country of Aulnis which he disputed for The Authors do not tell us plainly by what Title he claimed but that he vanquish'd the Duke in a great Battle near Monstrenil-Bellay took him Prisoner and did not release him till three years end after he had yielded up Saintonge and paid a lusty Ransom Year of our Lord 1033 Rodolph or Rouel King of Burgundy beyond the Jour and of Arles dying in the year 1033. instituted his Heir Conrad the Emperor who had Married Gisâ—lle his youngest Sister and had by her a Son named Henry and made no account of Eudes Earl of Champagne the Husband of Berthe his eldest Sister because while he was living he would have forced him to acknowledge him for King and had bred Factions and Stirs in his Country By this Institution the Kingdom of Burgundy and Arles passing over to German Princes was by them as it were united and joyned to the Germanick Kingdom and the Empire who being at too great a distance have insensibly let it slip through their Fingers and after they had lost the Possession have likewise lost the very Title to it In these days lived Humbert Surnamed White-hands Earl of Maurienne and Savoy Stem of the Royal House of Savoy which at this day holds a great Rank amongst Christian Soveraigns the Off-spring of this Humbert having by Marriages Successions Conquests and other means assembled and joyned all the several pieces whereof that State is composed Some Historians make this Prince to be descended from Boson King of Provence others from Hugh King of Italy and some from the ancient Counts of Mascon but Tradition and which appears most probable makes him the Son of one Berald of Saxony who descended from Vitekind by the same Branch as the three Otho's Emperors or by some other Year of our Lord 1033 34 The Earl of Champagn not able to endure that Conrade should allow him no part of a Patrimony of which the best share ought to be his took his time when that Prince was employ'd in Hungary and with his own Forces and those of his Friends made himself Master of a great part of the Kingdom Year of our Lord 1035 But Conrad at his return having led his Army into those Countries drove Eudes Garrisons forth of all the Places he had taken put in his own and received Hommage Year of our Lord 1034 of all the Lords In fine he handled him so roughly that all help failing and perhaps an apprehension getting into his thoughts that the King of France who hated him might agree with the Emperor to strip him he went and surrendred upon Mercy and humbled himself before him Year of our Lord 1035 Robert Duke of Normandy by force of Arms constrains the Bretons to do him Hommage Year of our Lord 1036 He dies the year after at Nicea in Bithynia upon his return from a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem At his departure he had instituted an only Son of his but a Bastard named William to be his Heir begotten on a Citizens Daughter of Falaise leaving him at Paris in the guard and protection of King Henry who had very great Obligations to him and giving the Regency of the Country to Alain Duke of Bretagne Year of our Lord 1036 William had two Paternal Uncles Mauger Archbishop of Rouen who was Married and had Children and William Earl of Argues to whom the Nobility of the Country would much rather have obey'd then to a Bastard This was the occasion of great Troubles and would have ruined Normandy had the French King's Forces been but as great as his desire to regain it Year of our Lord 1003 and the following About this time the name of the Normands began to grow famous and potent in Italy especially in Puglia and Calabria In the year 1003. forty Adventurers of that Nation upon the quitting the Holy Land having acted some things there almost incredible against the Saracens in favour of Gaimar Duke of Salerna who was hugely tormented by them being returned into Normandy loaden with Honour and Presents had excited other brave Men of their Country to go seek their Fortunes beyond the Mountains The first that try'd was a Gentleman named Drengot-Osmond who being forced to quit the Country for killing one William Repostel in the presence of his Prince having vapoured that he had abused his Daughter went with four more Brothers and some others of his Kindred to offer his Service to Mello Duke of Bary and Pandolphus Prince of Capoua who were Revolted against the Greeks They received them with open Arms and gave them a City and some Lands to maintain themselves Then after these were setled not without many hazards Combats and Adventures six of the Sons of Tancrede d'Auterville a Gentleman of the Bishoprick of Constance who had twelve all of them brave and courageous arrived there and carried their same to a higher pitch then the former Year of our Lord 1036 Normandy was all in Fire and Blood by the particular Feuds of some Lords upheld by the Uncles of the young Duke Alain III. Duke of Bretagne his Guardian being come to appease them could not avoid a Mortal Poyson given him by the Factious Antagonists Conan II. his Son but then in his Cradle succeeded him Year of our Lord 1037 About these times William the Gross Duke of Aquitain was delivered out of Prison and died the same year Otho or Eudes his second Brother succeeded him Two years after he inherited the Dukedom of Gascongne taking possession thereof in the Church of St. Severin at Burdeaux according to the Custom He had this Lordship in Right of his Mother Brisce who was the Daughter of Duke Sance Thus the House of Gascongne resolved or dissolved into that of Poitiers or Aquitain Year of our Lord 1037 The Pretensions of Eudes Earl of Champagne to the Kingdom of Burgundy not being wholly stifled he fell with an Army into the Kingdom of Lorrain which belonged to the Emperor and took the City of Commercy but as he
with a great Fleet which carried Ten Thousand Men and at the same time Felix of Wirtembergh entred by Land upon Milanois with a like number The Potentates of Italy did all bow down to this Power and the Pope himself came to Bologna to receive him But the Emperor informed of Solyman's irruption in Hungary durst not use all his Power to oppress them but on the contrary yielding to their Intreaties he resettled Francis Sforza in the Dutchy of Milan and agreed with all the other from whom he drew vast Sums of Money Year of our Lord 1529. and 30. There were none but the poor Florentines who remained exposed to the resentments of the Pope because they refused to submit themselves to the Medicis who were but private Citizens no more then the rest The Emperor lent him his Forces to Besiege their City who having defended themselves for Eleven Months in vain imploring the help of France and their ancient Confederates Surrendred upon Composition the Fifth of August in the following Year and were reduced under the Dominion of the Medicis although by the Treaty it was said that the Pope should Establish no Government that should be contrary to their Liberty Year of our Lord 1529 During these troubles between the two greatest Powers of Christendom Solyman snatched away the best part of Hungary The pretended King John had called him to his aid making himself his Subject and his Tributary but the Tyrant instead of putting him into possession of the Kingdom took for himself the Cities of the five Churches Alba Royal where were the Sepulchers of their Kings Buda Strigonium and Altemburgh After these Conquests he laid Siege to Vienna but in a Months time the scarcity of Provisions and the approach of Winter made him dislodge He raised his Siege the Fourteenth of October after he had lost near Threescore Thousand men and took his March towards Constantinople threatning to return the next year with a much greater force Those that adher'd to the doctrine of Luther acquired this year the Surname of Protestants because there having been a Decree made by the Arch-duke Ferdinand and other Catholick Princes in the Diet of Spire in favour of the ancient Religion and to hinder the progress of theirs they protested against it and appealed to the Emperor and to a General or National Council Year of our Lord 1530 The following year appeared their Confession of Faith which is called the Ausburgh Confession because they presented it to the Emperor in the Assembly which was held in that City to endeavour to pacifie and allay the differences in Religion Luther had composed it in Seventeen Articles Melancton explained and enlarged them The Affairs of Hungary and Germany not permitting the Emperor to be long absent the Pope gave him the Imperial Crown at Bologna with the same Ceremonies as if he had been at Rome The Emperor affected to pitch upon the Twenty fourth day of February for this great Ceremony as being his Birth-day and the day likewise of the taking of King Francis at Pavia Having sojourned there till the Two and Twentieth of March he returned into Germany and before he left Italy erected the Marquisate of Mantoua to a Dutchy in favour of Frederic Gonzague who merited a greater Title if Year of our Lord 1530 his Territory could have born it They had much adoe in France to make up the Twelve Hundred Thousand Crowns promised by the Treaty of Cambray for the Release of the Kings Children The Mareschal de Montmorency carried them to Endaya and the first day of June exchanged them for the two Princes in the same place and in the same manner as they did the Father The King went to meet them as far as Verin which is a Nunnery in the Launds of Bourdeaux near the Mount de Marsan In the same place he Married Eleonora the Emperors Sister who had sent her to him with his Sons The year following in the Month of March she was Crowned at Saint Denis and the City of Paris graced her with a Magnificent Entry This Princess aged thirty Years and rather ill-favour'd then handsom never possessed the heart of her Husband but that she might be consider'd gained the respects of the Mareschal de Montmorency who at that time governed the King and the Kingdom The Catholicks and Protestants had agreed in the Assembly at Ausburgh to call a Council that might put an end to their differences and the Emperor had given his assent because he would make use of this Proposition to awe the Pope In effect he was so alarmed at it that he wrote to the Kings of France and England that he would do all they would desire provided they hindred the Council In the mean time the Catholicks of Germany finding their Religion endanger'd made a League amongst themselves in the Month of November Which gave occasion to the Protestants to frame one likewise at Smalcalde about the end of the following Month. Year of our Lord 1531 The first effect of the Catholicks League was that by their help the Emperor got his Brother Ferdinand to be Elected King of the Romans who was already so of Hungary and Bohemia it was upon the Fifth of January in the Diet of Colen without having any regard to the oppositions of John Duke of Saxony and the Remonstrances of other Protestant Princes who being yet more alarmed upon this Election sent to the Kings of France and England to implore their Assistance They willingly granted it and Entred with them into a League but only to defend their Lands and the Rights and Liberties of the Empire The English promised to furnish them with Fifty Thousand Crowns monthly if they were Assaulted and the French deposited an Hundred Thousand Crowns in the hands of the Bavarian Princes to Levy Men in case they found reason for it or were necessitated thereto During the calmes of Peace to the Love for Ladies he joyned the Love of Learning The good King Lewis XII had caused him to be bred in the Colledge of Navarre and although he had made but a very small progress in the Latine Tongue nevertheless the little smattering he had gave him a great Gusto for the Sciences especially Astronomy Physick Natural History and Law He kept near him the ablest men in all the Kingdom who studied to make handsome and Methodical discourses to him upon all those parts of Learning most commonly whilst he sat at Dinner sometimes in his Walks or in his Closet and he improved so well by those entertainments that he became as knowing as the greatest Masters In acknowledgement of those Inestimable benefits he raised many of them to Offices and showred Presents and Pensions upon the rest Nor did they advance his Affairs a little by their Services and render his Name Illustrious to the Eyes of all Nations by their Works so that in spite of Fortune he gained most Renown though his rival flourish'd with more Success He instituted the Royal or
and Pensions for his Nephews and Friends That the Duke of Ferrara and in his absence a Prince whom the King should name should have the General Command of the Armies This League was held secret for some time the Cardinal de Lorrain at his going to Rome had by his fair words drawn in Hercules de Ferrara to be an Allie but his eloquence had not the same power over the Venetians The Cardinal Nephew did likewise employ motives of interest and those of fear He propounded to give them Ravenna in pawn and Puglia when it was conquer'd threatning in case they did not make a League with him to call in the Turks which they dreaded above all things but all this could not move them On the other hand King Philip foreseeing the Pope would by his Sentence endeavour to deprive him of the Kingdom of Naples and Excommunicate him prepared to assemble all the Cardinals together at Pisa to declare the promotion of the Pope not Canonical and by that means invalidate all that he should do to his prejudice He had thirteen or fourteen very sure on his side without reckoning such others as he might gain besides In the mean time the Duke of Alva informed of those Treaties after he had taken order for the Affairs of Milanois and Piedmont passed by Sea into Tuscany where he conferr'd with the Duke of Florence and from thence went to the Kingdom of Naples At the same time the King who had resolved upon the rupture wrote to his Ambassador at Constantinople his name was la Vigne that he should speak of it to Solyman as if he did it for his sake and by that means endeavour to procure a considerable assistance Solyman much pleased to find that a new flame was breaking forth in Christendom promised wonders and made his Fleet put out to Sea But it served the French only to clear themselves in some sort For an Agent of the Kings named Codignac who was discontented going over to the Spaniards had given the Turks some jealousie upon the Kings designing to make himself Master of Italy as if he from thence intended to pass into Greece as Charles VIII would have done and to encrease their apprehensions he discover'd to them I know not what kind of ancient Prophesies which threaten that the Franc's shall overthrow the Empire of the Crescent Year of our Lord 1555 Though this League were concluded before the end of the year 1555. it did not hinder but by the mediation of Mary Queen of England and Cardinal Pool the King and the Emperor were inclined and at last brought to agree upon a general and trading Truce for five years It was treated at Vaucelles near Cambray the fifth of February in Anno 1556. The Emperor contributed much to it Year of our Lord 1556 very well satisfied that this calm consolidated the new begun Reign of his Son When the Cardinal Caraffa heard of this Truce he made a great complaint to the King that they had abandoned the interests of his House that they left it exposed to the vengeance of the Spaniards and the Florentines He demanded that for security the King would at least be pleased to put those places into the hands of the Pope which were yet left him in Sienna He imagined that by this means he should be sought to by those Princes and that they would be glad to buy his amity and when the King had refused them he importun'd his Uncle so much that he condescended he should go Legate into France to dispose the King to break the said Truce He came in a proud Equipage but concealing his Design and giving out it was to labour for a Peace between the two Crowns He saluted the King at Fontainbleau made him a Present of a Sword and an Hat which had been blessed by the Pope and entertain'd him in private with his grand Designs The King was very irresolute but in the end the Legates vast promises and the opinion he possess'd him with that nothing was able to resist his power and withal the artificial address of Valentinois who had already made Alliance with the Guises by giving one of her Daughters to the Duke of Aumale with the intrigues of the Queen who desired a War in Italy to employ her Kinsman the Mareschal de Strozzi there thrust him into the Precipice and made him resolve to declare a War against the Spaniard But before this the Council thought expedient to send to the Emperor and to King Philip to admonish them to recall the Duke of Alva and his Forces out of the Territories of the Holy-See They had already taken divers places there and even the City of Ostia which the Nephews had neglected to provide The Legate made his entrance into Paris with the Magnificence usual on such Ceremonies At Court and in the City he shewed himself a Cavalier to the Nobility a Gallant in the Ladies Company of a merry humour amongst the gay people made Courtship to the Dutchess of Valentinois and gave her extraordinary fine Presents both from his Holyness and from himself The Queen being brought to Bed of Twin-Girls he had the honour to be Godfather to one of them and gave her the name of Victoria as expressive of the great advantages the League between the Pope and the King would acquire in Italy but soon after this presage vanished with the life of that Princess In the mean time whilst the Army they were to send into Italy was making ready they gave Strozzi orders to assist the Pope to whom they sent Three Thousand Men under the Conduct of Montluc who made the Duke of Alva retire from the Neighbourhood of the City of Rome Then when they had fathom'd Philip's intentions by his haughty reply they judged it was high time the Duke of Guise should pass the Alpes At the beginning of March a Comet with a flaming Train was visible in the Eight Degree of Libra and lasted but twelve days only The Emperor fancied this Phaenomena called him to the other World so that not being able to gain his Brother to a consent of yielding the Empire to his Son he Commissioned some Ambassadors to carry his Renunciation to the Electoral Colledge However they went not till two years after because of the War new breaking out between the two Crowns and Three of the Electors were dead That done he Embarqu'd at Sudburg in Zealand about the beginning of September and went into Spain where he retired into the Covent of Saint Just of the Order of the Hieronymites which is in the midst of a delicious Valley surrounded with high Rocks in the Province of Estramadura eight Miles from Placentia near the Burrough of Scarandilla It is believed this was otherwhile the place of Sertorious his retirement He reserved no more to himself of all his great Train and his large-possessions but twelve Men a little Horse to ride out for Pleasure and Air and one Hundred Thousand
hundred Cities and Towns that were the Chief of the rest in which the Church did afterward place their Episcopal Sees Under these Cities there were yet a greater number of other Towns which they called Oppida they reckoned Twelve hundred which were Walled in when the Romans conquered Gaul but they broke down the Enclosures of most of them or let them run to ruine As for the Government of these Seventeen Provinces six of them were Consulary and Eleven were under Presidents sent by the Emperor Constantine the Great placed Counts in the Cities and Dukes in some of the Frontier Towns their Laws were according to the Roman Rights only withal as I believe some Municipal Customs they had preserved They were little vexed with the Soldiers because the Legions even to a great part of the Fourth Age lived in good order and besides there were hardly any but in the Frontier Provinces But the Countrey being Good and Rich and the People extreamly submissive they were loaden with all sorts of Exactions so that their plenty begot their misery and their Obedience aggravated their Oppression An. 330. When Constantine the Great divided the Office of Praefectus Praetorio into Four Gaul had one who had Three vicars under him one in Gaul it self one in Spain and one in Great Britain the First that held this Office was the Father of Saint Ambrose bearing the same Name as his Son This Praefect ordinarily resided in the City of Treves which for that reason was the Capital of Gaul till having been four times Sacked by the Barbarians the Emperor Honorius would needs transfer this Prerogative to the City of Arles which was afterwards dismembred and cut off from Vienne and became the Eighteenth Metropolis From Augustus to Galienus the Peace of these Provinces was not disturbed but only by two Revolts that of Sacrouir and Florus in the 23 year of JESVS CHRIST and that of Civilis Tutor and Classicus much more dangerous in An. 70. After the death of the Emperor Decius the Barbarians began to torment them by frequent Incursions The first hundred years there were none but the French and the Almans that made any on this side the Rhine but afterwards the mischief increased by the Devastations and horrible irruptions of the Vandals the Alains Burgundians Sueves Visigoths and Huns which never ended but by the ruine of the Western Empire As to the Original of the French the common opinion is that they are naturally Germans and that France is a Name which in their Language signifies Freâ— or as others say Wild and Vntameable Indeed the Authors of the Third and Fourth Age by the Name of Germans do almost ever understand or mean the French For the time wherein they first began to appear it was exactly two years after the great Year of our Lord 254 Defeat of the Emperor Decius in Mesia which hapned in the year 254. by the Goths and other People of Scythia the Goths had not begun to make themselves known till about Twelve years before when they came out of their own Countrey which was the Scythia Europâ—ea between Pontus Euxinus and the Tanais to ravage the Provinces of the Empire they were divided into Ostrogoths and Visigoths which is to say according to some Eastern-Goths and Western-Goths After that Defeat all the Enclosures of the Roman Empire being broken down and laid open on that side a Torrent of all sorts of Barbarians rouled in upon them of whom till then no mention had been made For this reason therefore amongst others and likewise because the French had much of the Manners and Customs of the Scythians as to use Bows and Arrows exercising themselves in Hawking and having many Dukes or Cans one may conjecture that they are originally Scythians But it is not possible and it 〈…〉 no purpose to tell certainly of what part because the Scythians were all Vagabonâ—s and would now be in one place and in a very short time after would be removed two or three hundred Leagues from their former Habitation Year of our Lord 256 The first time therefore that mention is made of them is in An. 256. under the Empire of Gallus and Volusian when they passed the Rhine near Mentz and that Aurelian who was then but Tribune of a Legion slew 700 of them in a rencounter and took 300 Prisoners who were sold by Out-cry After this first irruption nigh 180 years passed before they conquered or obtained by request from the Romans some Lands in Gaul viz. in the Countreys of Colen Tongres and some neighbouring Territory which hapned about the year 416 There had some Bands of them lodged themselves in a Toxandria in the days of Julian the Apostate towards the year 358 but it is not known whether they were suffered to take root there During those two Ages they continued their Incursions with various success always retiring into Germany with their Plunder they possessed the most part of the Lands which lye between the Mein and the Rhine the Weser and the Ocean sometimes more sometimes less extended according as they were stronger or weaker and were pressed upon by other Nations especially by the Almans from towards the Mein and the Saxons from the Sea-side These last coming from the Countrey named at this present Holstein seized upon Frisia and the Maritime Countreys on this side the Elbe then as the French inhabited Gaul more and more they in equal proportions got the most part of those Lands which they had held beyond the Rhine The French Nation was divided into several People the Frisii great and little Salii Bructeri Aâ—grivari Chamavi Sicambri and g Catti they had besides as I believe many more of their Alliance and several also under their Dominion Oftentimes the Romans went to attaque them in their Woods and in their Fens and thought two or three times to have destroyed them particularly Constantine the Great but they always sprung up again They had several Chiefs or Commanders Kings Princes Dukes or Generals who had no absolute Authority but in time of War Sometimes they became stipendaries to the Romans sometimes their Subjects but as soon as times changed and they found any opporunity to plunder they held themselves no longer obliged by former Treaties It is for this reason the Authors of those times accused them of Levity of Leasing and Treachery But on the other hand it is confest that they were the most warlike of all the Barbarians of great Humanity Hospitality and a People that had a great deal of Wit and Sense Very often they had some that served the Empire and others at the same time that made War against them We find many of them in all those times that were raised to the Dignities of Consul Patrician Master of the Militia Great Treasurer and the like insomuch as they Governed in the Courts of many Emperours Year of our Lord 406 c. as of the two
Theodosius's in that of Honorius and in Valentinian's the III. The last day of the year 406. the Alains and the Vandals bringing along with them the Burgundians the Sueves and divers other barbarous People passed the Rhine and made an irruption in Gaul the most terrible that had been ever known Some conjecture it was at this time that they Massacred St. Ursula and her Glorious Train which have been called the Eleven thousand Virgins though in the Tombs said to belong to those Martyrs were found the Bones of Men and Children there are three or four different opinions on this Matter but neither of them without such difficulties attending as are not to be solved Year of our Lord 407 Those Barbarians having ravaged all Germania Prima and Belgica Secunda fell upon Aquitain In the year 409. some numbers of the Vandals and Sueves marched from thence into Spain Two years after the rest being affrighted upon the coming of Ataulphus King of the Visigoths out of Italy took the same course and follow'd them However there were some Alains still remaining in Dauphine and about the River Loire who had Kings amongst them for above Threescore years but in the end they submitted to the Dominion of the Visigoths and the Burgundians Year of our Lord 408 The Vandals and the Sueeves possessed Galicia the Silingi and Betica and the Alani part of Lusitania of Provence and Carthagenia Sixteen years afterwards the Vandals passed over into Africa but in the mean while Vallia King of the Visigoths who fought for the Romans utterly rooted out the Silingi and weakened the Alani so much that being unable to subsist alone they put themselves under Gunderic King of the Vandals The Suevi maintained themselves almost two Ages in Spain In fine their Kingdom was likewise extinguished by Leuvilgildus King of the Visigoths in the year 588. All these Barbarians were divided in several Parties or Bands and had each their Chief running about and scowring the Countreys without intermission so that at the same instant there were several of the same People in Places far distant from one another and of contrary Interests Year of our Lord 409 Ann. 408. Stilicon who was accused for bringing them in is Massacred by order of Honorius Alaric King of the Visigoths his good friend to revenge his Death besieged the City of Rome three times and the last time he takes it by Treachery the 20th day of August in the year 410. About the end of the same year he dyes in Calabria near Cosentia while he was making himself ready to go into Africa Ataulphus his Cousin succeeded him and Married Placid ia Sister to the Emperor Honorius whom he had taken in Rome Year of our Lord 412 Ann. 412. Ataulphus goes into Gallia Narbonnensis and takes Narbonna he remained there but Three years The Count and Patrician Constantius who was since Emperour and Married his Widdow Placidia compelled him tâ— go into Spain where he Year of our Lord 415 was kill'd by his own People in Barcelonna about the Month of September Ann. 415. They elected Sigeric in his stead and served him after the same manner within Seven days Vallia his Successor was recalled into Gaul by Constantius who gave him Aquitania Secunda with some Cities of the neighbouring Provinces amongst others Thoulouse where Year of our Lord 419 he fixed his Royal Seat Ann. 419. But he dyed in a few Months afterwards and Theodoric succeeded him Vnder this King and under Evaric or Euric the Visigoths made themselves Masters of all the Three Aquitani and the Two Narbonnensis Hitherto very few of the French had received the Light of the Gospel they yet Year of our Lord From the year 300 to the year 400. Adored Trees Fountains Serpents and Birds but the Gauls were most of them Christians unless it were such as dwelt in places less accessible as the Mountainous Woody and Boggy Countreys or in the Germanick or Belgick Territories which were perpetually infested by the incursions of the Barbarians The Faith had been Preached to them by some Disciples of the Apostles and even from the Second Age or Century divers Churches established amongst the Gauls at least in the Narbonnensis and Lugdunnensis Prima Under the Emperour Decius about the year 250. there were divers Holy Preachers sent from Rome who planted other Churches in several parts as Saturninus at Thoulouse Gatian at Tours Denis at Paris Austremonius at Clermont and Martial at Limoges The persecutions of the Heathen Emperours had sorely shaken them Constantine re-assured them afterwards the incursions of the Barbarians again destroys them especially those in Germania and Belgica and the Arian Heresie much troubled those in Aquitania Clowis restores them and endowed them plentifully In the fourth Age the Gallican Church produced a great number of Holy Bishops above all Hilary Bishop of Poitiers an invincible Defender of the Holy Trinity Maximin and Paulin de Treves who maintained the same Cause and at the same time with him the Great St. Martin of Tours parallel to the Apostles Liboire du Mans Severinus of Colen Victricius of Rouen all four contemporaries Servais de Tongres elder by some years and Exuperius de Tholouse who lived yet in 405. About the middle of the same Age many of those that had Devoted themselves to God came from towards Italy to inhabit in the Islands of Provence and the Viennensian Mountains as likewise a while afterwards great numbers flocked out from Ireland and took up their stations in the Forrests of the Lyonnoises and the Belgicks Their example and a Zeal to that Holy Profession drew many People either to come into their Monasteries or dwell in Solitude but still under the Conduct of the Bishops and the Discipline of the Canons Of these there were principally Four sorts such as lived in Community those were called Cenobites such as having formerly lived so retired into Solitude aspiring to a greater perfection these were the Hermits or Anchorits such as associated in small companies of three or four in a knot without any Superior or any certain Rule and such as wandred all about the Countrey on pretence of visiting Holy Places and finding out such Persons as were most advanced in Piety There were some also that strictly confined themselves to a Cell either within some City or in the Desert they were called Incluses or Recluses all lived by the labour of their Hands and most of them gave what they got to the Poor though in the greatest strictness they were not obliged to renounce their Wealth nor were they excluded from enjoying it in case they returned again to the World but such a return was indeed looked upon as a kind of a desertion Councils being extream necessary to preserve the Purity of the Faith and Ecclesiastical Discipline there were several held in Gaul An. 314. The Emperour Constantine caused one to be Assembled at Arles where there were Deputies from all the Western Provinces to determine
before Gondiochus King of the Burgundians was dead and his Four Sons Gondebaud Godegesile Chilperic and Gondemar had shared his Kingdom amongst them Now Anno 477. Gondebaud the eldest and the most knowing of all had Year of our Lord 477 Leagued himself with the Second to dispoliate the two others at first he was defeated and kept himself hid for a time then when they thought him dead he comes forth on a suddain and surrounds them in Vienne Gondemar was burned in a Tower where he was defending himself Chilperic fell into the Victors hands who caused him to be Massacred with his two Sons and his Wife thrown into the River with a Stone tied to her Neck but spared the Lives of his two Daughters They were called Sedeleube and Clotilda both of them were of the Orthodox Faith though their Father and Vnkle were Arrians The First Consecrated her self to God the other Gondebaud kept and had her bred up in his own House King Childerick upon his return from an Expedition against the Almains is assaulted by a Fever and dyes aged at least 45 years of which he had Reigned 22 or 23. He left Four Children one Son whom they named Clouis and three Daughters Andeflede who espoused Theodorick King of the Orstogoths Alboflede and Lantilda Year of our Lord 481 These two received Baptism with their Brother Alboflede being Converted from Paganism and Lantilda from the Arrian Heresie These were not Married It is conjectured that he held his Royal Seat at Tournay because in our times in the year 1654. digging under some Houses there was a Tomb discovered and amongst other singular Curiosities was found a Ring whereon his Effigies and his Name are Engraved Clovis King V. Aged Fifteen years POPES FELIX III. The 8th of March S. Twelve years GELASIUS I. in March 492. S. Four years nine Months ANASTASIUS II. the 28 th Novemb. 496. S. Two years SYMMACHUS the 20th Novemb. 496. S. Fifteen years Eight Months whereof Three years in the following Reign CLovis or Louis for 't is the same Name handsome well shap'd and personally brave was not so soon at age to Command but he undertakes a War against Siagrius Son of that Gillon who had been set up in the place of his Father Childeric he Fights him and Defeats him near to Soissons the unfortunate Man flies to Aleric King of the Visigoths for refuge but Year of our Lord 481 Clovis by Threats forces him to send him back and when he hath him in his hands he puts him to death having first secured all his Towns to himself which were Soissons Rheims Provence Sens Troye Auxerre and some others and thus there remained nothing in the hands of the Romans amongst the Gauls Year of our Lord 484 It was a Law amongst the French that all the Plunder should be brought in common month Or 485. and shared amongst the Soldiers there had been taken a precious Vase or Vessel in a Church by his People he desired as a favour they would set it apart to restore it to the Bishop who had besought him for it an insolent Soldier opposed it and gave it a blow with an Ax saying he would have his share Clovis took no notice of it for the present but a year afterwards upon a general Review he quarrell'd with him because he did not keep his Arms in good Order and cleft his Head with his Battle-Axe a bold undertaking and which made him to be the more dreaded by the French From the year 489 Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths was entred into Italy after Year of our Lord 489 various events having overcome and put to death Odoacer King of the Heruli he setled a potent Monarchy there Anno 494. Year of our Lord 489 Clovis subdues a part of the Thuringians and imposes a Tribute upon them Year of our Lord 494 His Victories and his Conquests increase his Renown and his Dominion and lift him above other Princes his Power must have been great since Gondebaud King of the Burgundians was either his Vassal or his Officer perhaps Grand Master of his Militia Towards the end of the year 491 he Married Clotilda Daughter of King Childeric and Neece to that Gondebaud who consented not to that Match but out of fear Aurelian a French Lord was the Mediator and had the County of Melun for a recompence The Almains one of the most puissant people of Germany who then inhabited Suabia part of Retia on this side the Rhine Swisserland and perhaps the Countrey of Alsatia to Strasbourg were entred in hostile manner upon the Lands of Sigebert King of Colen or of the Ribarols Clovis his Kinsman went to his assistance Year of our Lord 496 and gave them Battle near Tolbiac it is guessed to be Zulg within Ten Leagues of Colen In the midst of the Engagement his Men gave ground and ran into disorder the greatness of the danger made him then think of Praying to the God of his Wife and to make a Vow that if he delivered him from that peril he would be Baptized Immediately the Scene of the day changed his Men returned to the Charge the Enemies were put to flight and left their King and a multitude of their Army slain upon the place He hotly pursued his Victory entred upon their Countrey and without Mercy exterminated all that were on this side of the Rhine the others saved themselves Year of our Lord 496 in Italy under the protection of Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths It is to be believed that at the intreaty of this great Prince who was his Brother-in-law he suffered such as desired it to return to their own Dwellings but he perfectly subdued them gave them some Counts and a Duke to Govern them and shared their Lands amongst his Captains After this check they had no more Kings and were but inconsiderable till the time of the Emperour Frederick the II. under whom in my opinion they gave the Name to all Germany As he returned from this Expedition his Wife took care to send some Holy Men to him to exhort him to keep his Word and to instruct him in the Orthodox Faith St. Vaast who was as then but a Priest and dwelt at Verdun Catechized him by the way St. Remy Arch-Bishop of Rheims powerful in Works and Eloquence confirmed him mightily in the belief of Christianity Having therefore brought the most part of his Captains to have a good opinion of this Conversion he received Holy Baptism with great Ceremony in the Church of Rheims on Christmass day Anno 496. The Bishops plunged him in the Consecrated Lavatory Three thousand of his French Subjects followed his example and this regenerated Flock with their Leader wore the White Robe eight days together according to the Ceremony then practised in the Church Year of our Lord 496 It is said that Heaven in favour of his Conversion Honoured him and the Kings of France his Successors with many miraculous and singular Favours
That the Saint Ampoulle i. e. Holy Oyl was conveyed at his Baptism by a Celestial Dove That the Shield Semé with Flower-de-Luces and the Standard Royal de l'Oriflamme were by an Angel deposited in the hands of a good Hermit living in the solitudes of Joyenval near St. Germans en Laye That he had the Gift of Healing the Evil and made proof of it upon Lanicet his Favourite But God made him a more extraordinary and more excellent Present than all those when he bestowed upon him the Heavenly Knowledge of the Orthodox Faith there being amongst all the Princes upon Earth none but himself that did not live either in Error or Idolatry This Conversion did him no little Service towards keeping the Gauls who were all Christians in Obedience and to allure others who were Subjects to the Gothick and the Burgundian Princes whose Government was odious to them because they would compel them to follow the Opinion of Arrius The zeal of Christianity did not allay his Warlike heats Gondesigilus having promised if he would assist him in suppressing his Brother Gondebaud to share the spoil with him he fell with his Army upon the Burgundians Countrey Gondesigilus Year of our Lord 500 pretending he was mightily scared sent to pray his Brother to come to his assistance Gondebaud failed not but when it came to the Battle which was fought on the borders of the River L'Ouche near Dijon Gondesigilus went over to the French and began to Assault him Gondebaud finding it was a thing designed betwixt them fled to Avignon Clovis pursues and besieges him there The Sage Aredius Principal Counsellor to Gondebaud cunningly contrives to do his Master Service upon this occasion the Siege spinning out to some length he pretends to desert him and renders himself to Clovis with whom he manages Affairs so wisely as that King agrees to a Composition and Gondebaud becomes his Tributary Year of our Lord 500 and 501. When Clovis was out of that Countrey and perhaps employ'd in other business Gondebaud scorning to pay him the Tribute assembles his Forces together and besieges Gondesigilus in Vienne One Fontenier whom they had thrust out amongst the useless People discovered to him the mouth of an Aqueduct by which way he sent in some Men who surprized the City his Brother having sheltred himself in a Church belonging to the Arrians was there slain together with a Bishop of the same Belief Thus Gondebaud remained sole King of all Burgundy Year of our Lord Towards 502 or 503. It is my opinion during these years that the French as Procopius tells us not having been able to subdue the Armoricae betwixt the Seinè and the Loire did incorporate with them by a mutual Confederacy which of two made them bat one People The Roman Garrisons not being strong enough either to Retreat or to Defend themselves restored their Towns to them but did not quit the Countrey where they for a long time afterwards retained their Laws their Discipline and Habits The Citizens of Verdun being Revolted it is not said for what reason Clovit being ready to force them the Prayers of Euspice Arch-Deacon of that City a Man of a very Holy Life allayed his Wrath and obtained their Pardon I cannot tell precisely in what year hapned that which Procopius relates how Clovis and Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths having made an agreement together to conquer Burgundy and divide it upon condition that if either of the two Armies did not meet at a certain time appointed they should pay a certain Sum to the other the Visigoths made no great haste but left the French to bear all the brunt then coming when the hottest work was over and the Countrey subdued took their share of the Conquest paying the Sum as had been stipulated Year of our Lord 503 or 504. Neither the one nor the other held those Countreys long but restored them entire to Gondebaud who afterwards made a strict Alliance with Clovis against the Visigoths There is great likelyhood that it was in these peaceable days that Clovis laboured to reform the Salique Law which having been made by the French when Pagans might contain many things contrary to the manners and Laws of Christianity This Law was only for the French in his own Kingdom for those of Colen had another which we find to this day by the name of the Law of the Ripuarians conformable notwithstanding in many particulars to the Salique Law Year of our Lord 506. And the following Two Kings powerful and young as were Clovis and Alaric could not be long Neighbours and good Friends Divers petty differences set them at variance by the secret practises of the Bishops of Aquitain who being troubled they should obey Alaric an Arrian Prince pushed on Clovis to a Rupture The Two Kings had an Enterview and discoursed each other in the Island D'Or nigh Amboise between the City of Tours which belonged to the Visigoths and that of Orleance appertaining to the French This Meeting salved up their quarrel for a time and Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths Father-in-law to Alaric and Brother-in-law to Clovis undertook to make them agree but as great a Polititian as he was he could not restrain the Ardour of Clovis This Conquerour knowing the Visigoths were softned or effeminated by a long Peace and having made sure of Gondebaud by a League contracted betwixt them resolved to Attaque Alaric under the specious pretence of Religion the French followed him with great cheerfulness those of Aquitain invited Year of our Lord 507. 507 and him Heaven conducted him by visible Signs and Miracles Immediately the City of Tours surrenders to him Alaric who was getting his Forces together at Poitiers le ts him pass along to Vienne then imprudently resolves to give him Battle it was in the Plains of Vouglay Ten miles from Poitiers Clovis having exhorted his Soldiers Armed them with the Sign of the Cross and for the Word gave them the Name of the Lord. Alaric's Army was defeated and he slain in the Fight by Clovis's his own hand The vanquisher divided his Army in two Bodies with the one his Son Thierry makes himself Master of Albigeois of Rouergne of Quercy and of Auvergue and himself with the other of Poitou of Saintonge all Bourdelois and Burdeaux it self where he passed the Winter then in the Spring of Thoulouse wherein was the Treasure Year of our Lord 508 of the Visigoths At his return he took the City of Angoulesme the Walls whereof sell down before him in fine of all the Three Aquitains the Catholicks casting themselves into his Arms to be freed from the yoak of the Arrians At the same time Gondebaud pursuant to the Treaty made with Clovis Conquered the two Narbonnoises and the City of Narbona from whence he drove Gesali◠Year of our Lord 508 so was called the Bastard Son of Alaric who had seized on the Kingdom of the Visigoths because Almaric the Legitimate Son born of
a right to concern themselves and to intermeddle about the Marriage of their Kings offended at so unnatural an act and besides touched with a just sence of pity for Wisgard whom Theodebert had contracted seven years before obliged the King to repudiate Deuteria and take Wisgarda This lived but two years and made room for a third Wife Year of our Lord 541 The following year Childebert's Uncle and he fell unawares upon Clotaire he had only time to retire with what people he could get together to the Forrest d'Arelaune neer the Banks of the Seine and to stop up the Avenues with great Trees cut down and laid across When they were ready to force him in this Post the Heavens moved by the Prayers of the Queen Clotilda excited a miraculous Tempest which not hurting the Camp of Clotaire and thundering upon theirs did so astonish them that they sent to him to desire a Peace and his Amity Theudis Reigned then over the Visigoths the French being ever their mortal enemies Year of our Lord 543 Childebert and Clotaire passed the Pireneans and ravaged all Arragon The City of Saragossa being besieged the Inhabitants bethought themselves of making a general Procession round their Walls in the habit of Penitents and Mourners carrying instead of a Banner the Vest of St. Vincent Martyr their Patron This extraordinary Spectacle amazed Childebert and mollisied him insomuch as he accepted of some Presents made him by the Bishop amongst which was the Robe of St. Vincent which he brought to Paris where he built a Church in Honour of that Martyr and put that precious Relique there in Depositum The Spanish Authors say that upon their return the French were beaten at their passage to the Mountains by one of the Generals of the Visigoths who was called Tediscle If this be so there is some likelyhood that they made two Expeditions into Year of our Lord 544. or 545. Spain at different times yet soon after one another In the year 548. Theudis King of the Visigoths was killed in his Palace and this Theudiscle set upon his Throne but within two years after be was Treated in the same Year of our Lord 548 manner and Agila put in his place Whilst the Imperialists and the Ostrogoths were engaged with each other Theodebert who was already master of Rhetia of Vindelicia and of Suevia would needs take his advantage of that War and by his Lieutenants Hamingue was the Principal made himself Master of the lesser Italy that is to say what they have since called Lombardy Year of our Lord 548 After which Justinians Forces having gained some advantage over his That Emperour had the vanity to thrust in amongst his other Titles that of Francica which is to say Conquerour of the French Theodebert not able to suffer it would cross over Panonia and Mesia and bring all his Power into Thrace to let him see the French were not vanquished As he was preparing for this Expedition a mournful accident took away his Life Being one day a Hunting an exercise fatal to many Princes a wild Bull pursued by his Huntsmen whom he waited for with a Javelin in his hand broke down a Branch which hit him so rudely upon the Head that a Fever seized him whereof he dyed in the 14th of his Reign and about the 43 of his Age. He had one Son and one Daughter Theodouval or Theodebaldus and Bertoaire Theodebaldus born of Deuteria succeeded in his Estates a Prince of a weak Mind and Body who became impotent and benummed from his Waste downwards Bertoaire kept her Virginity and served the Church with great Devotion About the time of the death of Theodebert hapned that also of Clotilda who piously ended her days at Tours She retired her self thither to pray to God on the Year of our Lord 548 Sepulchre of St. Martin where in those times were the greatest Devotions of the Gauls and French As Theodebert had been a Prince of vast Undertakings he had mightily burthened Year of our Lord 548 or 49. his Subjects with Imposts even the French Partenius had been the chief Author and Minister he was a terrible Glutton as most of those Men or Cattle generally are who took Aloes to digest his Meat wherewith he cramm'd himself and so emptied his Belly more Beast-like then he filled it The French Men being stirred up to do Justice upon him he besought two Bishops to convoy him to Tryers he was in no more safety there then at Mets the People seeking for him to murther him and having haled him out of a Church Chest where those Prelates had concealed him affronted him by a thousand Outrages and after tied him to a Post where they stoned him to death CHILDEBERT in Neustria at Paris CLOTAIRE in Neustria at Soissons THEODEBALDUS Aged 13 or 14 years in Australia Burgundy belonging to both these  Ambassadors from Justinian sollicited Theodebaldus to abandon the Defence of the Year of our Lord 551 Ostrogoths and to make a League with the Empire he refuses the one and the other and nevertheless sends his to Constantinople to Treat of some difference concerning the Cities he held in Italy They had full satisfaction from Justinian but could not prevail with him whatever instances they urged upon the requests of the Italian Bishops to restore to their Sees Pope Vigilius and Datius Bishop of Milan whom he detained and Treated very ill Year of our Lord 552 c. A Civil War being broke out amongst the Visigoths between King Agila and Athanagildes this last had recourse to the assistance of the Emperour Justinian who failed not to make use of so good an occasion The Patrician Liberius having conducted several Forces there on his behalf seized on several Towns and was going to regain all Spain as Belisarius had Africk if the Visigoths had not killed Agila and Elected Athanagildes which did not however prevent the Romans by the Alliances they made in the Countrey and with the assistance they received from time to time to maintain themselves there about 90 years till the Reign of Suintila who drove them quite out from thence Year of our Lord 552 Totila King of the Ostrogoths too proud of the Victories gained over the Romans is Defeated and slain in Battle by Narses the Eunuque Lieutenant to the Emperour Justinian Teia his Successor hath the same misfortune a short time after and Narses brought under the Imperial Laws the greatest portion of what that Nation possessed Thus the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths was extinguisht in Italy where it had subsisted but 58 years The remainder of the Ostrogoths having implored the assistance of the French two Alman Lords who were Brothers they were called Leutarius and Bucelinus by the permission rather then by Order of Theobaldus descend into Italy with 75000 Combatants partly Almans and partly French and ravage it both on the Right and Left even to the further end of the Countrey Year of our Lord 554 The Army of
did Erect one there whence it took the name of Noir-moustier The Exemplary Vertue and Christian Liberty of a few Prelats made the Tyrants Process he undertook to make theirs and dishonour them to justifie his own Conduct which they had condemned This could not be without the Sentence of their Brethren To this purpose he therefore calls an Assembly of some that were most devoted to him in one of the Kings Palaces in the Country They began thereby to gain a good opinion of their Justice and Impartiality with two Bishops who deserv'd it very well These were Didon and Vaimer who had offended the Tyrant it is not said wherein Both these were Degraded and afterwards delivered over to be put to Death Didon perished by the Sword and Vaimer by the Cord. That done they proceeded against Amat de Sens Lambert de Tougres and Leger d'Autun the two first retired into Monasteries but as for the other the Fathers of the Council or rather the Slaves to that Tyrant tore his Garment from top to bottom that was the manner of Degradation then he was put into the hands of Crodebert Count of the Palace who having with grief carried him into the Forest Year of our Lord 679 d'Iveline caused his Head to be cut off Year of our Lord 680 About this time died Dagobert King of one part of Austrasia I know there are some Authors that make him live many years longer and bestow a Son and many Daughters upon him but in my mind it is upon very doubtful proof and if he had any Son we cannot say that he outlived his Father unless some Modern Genealogist have need of it to make up his Account A little before or a little after him Wlfoad his Mayre ended his days having enjoy'd that Office near twenty five years The Austrasians having no Prince of the Blood and refusing to obey Thierry out of hatred to Ebroin put the whole Government of the Kingdom into the hands of Martin and Pepin They were Cousin-Germans issued from two Sons of St. Arnolds the first from Clodulph the second from Anchisa and Begga the Daughter to Pepin de Landen To distinguish these some of our Historians call this Pepin the Gross others Pepin de Herstal which is a Village upon the Meuse between Jupil and Liege where he had been brought up THIERRY in Neustria MARTIN and PEPIN Princes in Austrasia THe two Cousins foreseeing Ebroin would come upon them went out to attaque Year of our Lord 681 him first and gave him Battle near the Forest of Locafao at the entrance into Neustria The Tyrant gained the Victory and they escaped by flight Martin to the City of Laon and Pepin a great way in the Kingdom of Austrasia Ebroin with his Army approaches Laon and finding the place impregnable by force gives out Propositions of Accommodation Two Bishops Engilbert of Paris and Rieul of Rheims would needs be Instruments of the fraud They persuaded Martin to go and meet him in his Camp and for security gave him their Oaths upon the Shrines of some Saints which they carried about them but out of which they had taken the Relicks Martin having forgotten the Example of Leudesia relies on the Faith of these Prelates When he was come into the Camp Ebroins Soldiers surrounded and cut him off with all his Men. Thus all the Government of Austrasia remained in Pepin who made advantage of his Enemies Crime and the defeat of his Cousin Year of our Lord 682 This great success pushed the insolence of Ebroin to the highest degree But Treating the French more tyrannical then ever a Lord named Hermenfroy whom he had stripp'd of all his Estate and whom he threatned with Death delivered France from that Monster He watched him one Morning before break of day at his going from home to the Church and cleft his Head with a Sword afterwards he made his escape into Austrasia Year of our Lord 683 In his place the French made choice of Varaton a wise old Man who immediately Treated with Pepin and gave him Hostages He had joyned with him in that Administration a Son of his named Willimer able crafty and undertaking but rough cholerick and one that had nothing more in view then the honour of Commanding This unnatural Child grew weary of being his Fathers Companion he would be his Master and dispossess'd him of his Employment Presently after he breaks the Treaty with Pepin and having raised a great Army marched as far as Namur where he catches some of his Enemies with the lure of an Hipocritical Faith and caused them to be slain At his return from thence he was seized with a Distemper whereof he died not without Divine Punishment being Year of our Lord 684 but entred upon the second year of his Office The old Man was restored to the Place and Death dispossessed him again a year after Berthier who had Married a Daughter of his Wives succeeded him by Election This was a little fellow Ill-shaped Hair-brain'd Unjust Proud Covetous and in fine much the same as Willimer only he had neither Wit nor Judgment The greater part of the Neustrians finding themselves despised and controuled by so contemptible a Creature conceived so much scorn and hatred for him that they forsook Year of our Lord 685. 686. 687. 687. him the very next year to Ally themselves with Pepin This Lord both Generous and Politick took in hand the Cause of those that had been banished by Ebroin and whom Thierry treated still as Criminals that he might have some colour to detain their Estates He advised them to send to that King to implore an Amnesty and Pardon for what was past in the most submissive manner and after their Supplications had been rejected he brought them back into their own Country with an Army and spared not to assault Thierry and his Mayre He fought them at Tertry which is between St. Quentin and Peronne Heavens having favoured him with a compleat Victory he seized on the Royal Treasure then on the City of Paris and Thierry 's own Person who had sheltred himself there After which Berthier whose evil Counsels had occasioned all these mischiefs was knocked on the Head by Combination of almost all the Neustrians and the instigation even of his Wives own Mother Some not without reason do here put an end to the Reign of the Merovignians because in truth and in effect they never had after this but only the vain and empty Title of Kings their whole Kingdom and even their Persons being in the Power of Pepin and his Children He was owned Mayre of the Palace through all France and he took the Title of Duke or Commander of the French according to the ancient usage of the Germans that is to say they gave him all Authority in the Armies without dependance upon the King but under whose name notwithstanding all Acts were passed and that was the sole honour that remained still in him
the Emperor Constance nor the endeavours of Paul Bishop of Constantinople who had undertaken to obtain the Reception of that condemned Opinion and had joyned all those to his Party that adhered to the Doctrines of Severus of Eutyches and of Manes And indeed we find that in the year 649. he sent the Articles of the Council of Rome to Clovis II. and desired him and also King Childebert to depute some of their Bishops to Rome that they might accompany and countenance the Legation he intended to send to the Emperor upon that Subject Dagobert II. King XVIII POPES CONSTANTINE Three years in this Reign GREG. II. Elected March 714. S. sixteen years nine Months and an half of which one year in this Reign DAGOBERT II. Called the Young Aged Eleven or twelve years PEPIN Mayre in Neustria and Soveraign in Austrasia CHildebert being out of the World Pepin made choice of Dagobert his eldest Son to wear the Bauble and instaled him in the Royal Throne by the Counsel and Approbation of the Estates Where having caused him to preside after he had received the Gifts or Presents from the French after he had recommended the care of the Rights of the Church of Widdows and Pupils renewed the Decree against Rapine and give Command to the Army to Year of our Lord 711 hold themselves in readiness at a time appointed to March where Affairs required he sent him back to one of the Royal Houses to be Bred and Entertained with great Respect in outward appearance but without any Power or Function The first year of his Reign Pepin undertook a fourth Expedition against the Year of our Lord 712 Almans who were this time so battered that they could not stir again for many years After many Wars having not been able wholly to bring under him Ratbod Duke of the Frisons he not only came to an Agreement but likewise allied himself with him by Marrying his Son Grimoald to that Kings Daughter The Sarrazins who were Masters of Africa did not let slip the fair occasion that presented to invade Spain The Children of King Vitiza had been Excluded the Kingdom by Roderick whose Fathers Eyes Vitiza had caused to be put out and had retired themselves to Julian Governor of the Visigoths in the Province of Tingi who was himself likewise much offended for that this new King having Debauched his Daughter would own her but for his Concubine These three Lords having joyned their Resentments addressed themselves to Maza Lieutenant in Africa under Valit or Vlit Caliph or chief Soveraign of the Sarrazins He gave them some Forces over whom Roderick getting the better he again sent others commanded by Tarac this was he that gave the name to Gibal-Tar to the Mountain Calphe where he built a Fort whence likewise the Straights-mouth hath its denomination At length there hapned a great Battle betwixt him and Roderick where that King was overcome and slain with all the flower of the Visigoths Within two years all Spain was subjected to the Tyranny of the Sarrazins the remainders of the Visigoths fled part of them into the Mountains of Asturia and Galicia part into France from whence they by degrees came all to Prince Pelagus Son of Fafila and Grandson of King Chindasuint who yet preserved to himself a petty Principality amidst the Mountains of Asturia which in process of time and by assistance of the French increased so much that it consumed the Sarrazins in the end While Pepin was at Jupile he fell into a long and troublesome Distemper His Son Grimoald going to Visit him passing by Liege to make some Prayers for him on St. Lamberts Tomb this was in the Month of April he was Assassinated by a Rascal named Rangaire a Frison for which reason an Author hath pretended that it was Year of our Lord 713 714 April done by the command of Rotbod his Father-in-Law Pepin being Recovered severely revenged the Death of his Son upon all the Accomplices he could lay hold on This was the dearest to him of all his Sons he had likewise a great regard for his Bastard named Theodoald and obliged the Neustrian Lords to elect him for their Mayre Some months after he relapsed more grievously then before in so much as he died Year of our Lord 714. 714 in December of it the 16th of December having held the Government of all France from the Battle of Tertry which was in 687. even to his Death with great success and with much greater Vertue of which the most eminent and which gained him most the favour of Heaven was his Zeal for the propagation of the Faith not having spared any thing to plant it in Germania Secunda and beyond the Rhine where all the Inhabitants were at that time Idolaters Besides Drogon and Grimoald he had two more Sons Charles Martel and Childebrand It is unknown by what Woman he had the last but a very exact Historian hath proved that this Robert le Fort the Strong who was the Paternal Great great Grandfather of King Hugh Capet was descended from him by the Male Line Now be it that Pepin left the Mayrie of Austrasia to Arnold who was the Son of Drogon as that of Neustria to Theodoald or changing his mind a little before he died had bestowed it upon Charles for all the three Kingdoms or perhaps only the name of Prince of the French which seems to be above that of Mayre Plectrude his Widow seized upon the whole Government and got Charles by a wile into her hands keeping him Prisoner at Colen where she made her usual abode Year of our Lord 715 But the Neustrians already tired with the Domination of the Austrasians were yet more impatient of being ruled by a Woman They therefore Armed themselves and put their King Dagobert in the head of their Forces to prevent her from coming under the name of Theodoald a Child and a Bastard to usurp the Government of their Country The Army that brought Theodoald being near Compeigne the Neustrians went to meet them and put them to the rout All the Austrasians could do was to save Theodoald After this Victory they chose Ragenfroy or Rainfroy for their Mayre being one of the most considerable and most valiant Lords amongst them who to perplex the Austrasians the more made a League with Ratbod Duke of the Frisons and led King Dagobert to ransack Austrasia even to the Meuse Year of our Lord 715 It then hapned that the Austrasians being in a great consternation Charles happily made his escape out of Prison and having gotten his Friends together was received with incredible joy by all his People About the end of the same year died Dagobert King of Neustria after he had Year of our Lord 715 been a property to the Mayres for four or five years He left one Son named Thierry who was yet in his Cradle and who had afterwards the surname of Chelles because he was brought up there Immediately upon this
Marseilles From thence he turned upon the Saxons beyond the Rhine and brought them so low that they did not afterwards make any attempt for divers years As Martel was an Usurper every Governour thought he had reason enough to disobey Year of our Lord 737 and 38. him and acted like Soveraigns Maurontus Governour of Marseilles that he might make himself Independent craved the assistance of the Saracens and delivered the City of Avignon up to them whence they spread themselves over Dauphine Lyonnois and if credible even as far as Sens with a horrible desolation of all those Countreys The Barbarians did not hold Avignon long Charles sent thither his Brother Childebrand who having made them quit the Field besieged them in that City Soon after he came thither himself with the gross of his Army gave an Assault by Scalado and forced them part of the City was burnt and all the Infidels that were within it put to the Sword This done he crosses over Septimania and goes to besiege Narbonne resolved to have it what ever it cost thereby to shut up that passage into Gall. Athim Governour of the City and perhaps of all that Countrey for the Saracens was gotten into the Town Those in Spain informed of the danger the place was in made great Levies of Soldiers and put them aboard some Vessels to relieve it There is a Lake between Narbonne and Ville-Salse at whose Mouth the little River of Bere discharges it self into the Sea it is called the Lake Oliviere there it was their Boats came into Land those Forces they had brought Amoroz Governor of Terragonne was their General Martel leaving his Brother with part of the Army to maintain the Siege went thither to them and gave them Battle nigh Sigeac It was very obstinate but in the conclusion Amoroz was overthrown upon huge heaps of his slain Men and most of the rest that fled into their Boats Drowned or put to the Sword Athim's courage increased by this ill success and he defended himself so bravely that Charles left him there and turning his Forces towards more easy Conquests made himself master of Besiers Agde Maguelonna and of Nismes all which he dismantled Year of our Lord 738 About the year 738. hapned the death of Thierry of Chelles about the 23 year of his age and the 17th of his imaginary Reign Now Charles Martel having perhaps the design of taking up the Title of King as he had the Authority put no other in his stead nor his Sons neither till a year after his death so that there hapned an Interregnum of Five years Interregnum Charles Martel Maire and Duc of the French A Second time Maurontus calls the Saracens into Provence Jusep Governour Year of our Lord 739 of Narbonne Besieged and Took the Town of Arles and from thence ove-ran and ransacked all Provence Charles summons Luitprand King of the Lombards to joyn with him against this Enemy Luitprand who did not desire to have them so near Italy and who besides was a friend to Martel presently marches to joyn him the Infidels dare not stay for them but retreat to Narbonne without striking a blow Maurontus likewise forsakes Marseilles and retires amongst the Rocks so that Provence remained peaceably in the hands of the French Year of our Lord 738 The power of the Saracens which threatned to overwhelm all Christendom being as it were upon its ebb the Spanish Princes recovered themselves by little and little again especially with the assistance of the French and yet nevertheless they were above Seven hundred years in regaining what they lost in three years time This year Charles Martel sent them a considerable assistance which helped them more then a little towards the setling their affairs In Spain they called the Saracens Moors because indeed they were come from Mauritania which they had conquer'd and because most of their Forces were composed of Men from that Countrey The dispute about the worship of Images caused a pernicious and bloody Schisme in the Church The Emperour Leon upon the reproaches the Saracens and Mahometans had made him that it was Idolatry to adore Stone and Wood would needs pull chem out of the Churches the Popes at the same time contending to keep them there Gregory II. stood up stoutly in this Cause the Dispute went so far that An. 726. not looking upon Leon as his Sovereign he wrote him Letters that were very haughty and full of new Maxims stop'd the Moneys he was raising in Italy and turned the People from that Obedience they owed to him Gregory III. his Successor went yet farther and Excommunicated him On the other hand the Emperour turned every stone to revenge it but all his endeavours proved fruitless and a shame to himself in the end Whilst affairs were in such a condition that the Pope could hope for no assistance of the Emperour in his occasions it hapned that he offended Luitprand King of the Lombards by giving Retreat to Trasimond Duke of Spoleta and making League with Godescal who had invaded the Dutchy of Beneuent That King pressing upon him with his Army and having seized some Towns within the Dutchy of Rome he had recourse to the protection of Martel and wrote two or three very moving Letters to him in Year of our Lord 740 the Titles whereof he called him his most excellent Son and gave him the Title of Year of our Lord 741 Sub-King or Vice-Roy Charles was a little hard to be moved the Letters having operated no great matter Year of our Lord 741 he sent him a most remarkable Embassy which carried as a Present the Keys of the Sepulchre of St. Peter and the Bonds wherewith that Apostle had been tied and after that came another which bestowed and conferred upon him the Sovereignty of Rome and the Title of Patrician He was not now any more in a condition for great enterprizes a troublesome and lingring distemper which undermined him by little and little forwarned him to think of his Death and the settlement of his Family He had three Children Legitimate Carloman Pepin called the Breif and Griffon the two first by Cbrotrude and the other by Sonichilde and besides these three Bastards Remy or Remede Hierosme and Bernard Remy was Bishop of Rouen Hierosme and Bernard Married The First had a Son named Fulrad Abbot of St. Quintins which he built The Second had three Sons and two Daughters the two eldest Sons were Adelard and Vala both Counts at Court then successively Abbots of Corbie and the Third named Bernier was likewise a Monk The two Daughters Gondrade and Theodrade vowed themselves to God in a Religious Life the first in her Virgin State the other in her Widdow-hood Now Prince Charles dividing the Estate between his three Legitimate Children as if he had been the lawful Sovereign gave to Carloman who was the eldest Austrasia Souaube and Turingia Bavaria had its Dukes Frista and Saxony were Revolted to Pepin Neustria Burgundy Septimania
whereof 2 months in this Reign Year of our Lord 751 AFter the Estates of Soissons had Elected Pepin and as it is believed had lifted him on the Pavois and upon the Royal Throne he would needs add the Ceremonies of the Church to consecrate his Royalty and render it more august Boniface Archbishop of Ments Crowned him in the Cathedral of Soissons and anointed him with holy Oyl according to the Custome of the Kings of Israel that thereby the Word of God Touch not mine Anointed might become a Buckler to him and his Successors The Anointing and Crowning began from this time to be practised at the Inauguration of the Kings of France and hath been continued to this day Being of a very low stature the Lords had not all that respect for him which they should Having perceived it he would needs let them see by experience that he had more Courage and Vertue than those great bulks who very often have nothing but an outward appearance of bravery Those Kings took much delight in Combats of Wild Beasts and not only pleased themselves with the divertisement of such Spectacles in those Publique Entertainments they gave the People but many times in private in their own Palaces One day being at the Abbey of Ferrieres a furious Lion having grappled with a Bull whom he held fast by the Neck he said to some Lords that were about him That they must needs make him let go his hold Not one had the Courage to undertake it the very proposition affrighted them After he had observed them all and plainly perceived their astonishment he leaped down from the Scaffold his Back-Sword in his hand went directly to the Lion and at one stroak managed with as much skill as strength divided his head from his body his Sword entring even a good way into the Neck of the Bull. After this wonderful blow turning himself towards his Lords Do you not believe said he with a kind of Heroick Pride that I am worthy to Command you Year of our Lord 752 His first Warlike Expedition after his Coronation was in Saxony where he constrained the Saxons to pay every Year Three hundred Horses for a Tribute and to bring them to him into the Field of Mars or General Assembly of the French Year of our Lord 753 On his return from that Country he heard of the Death of Griffon his Younger Brother That unquiet Spirit being come out of Aquitain whither he had retired to Duke Gaifre was assassinated in the Valley of Morienne going into Italy either by some People of Pepins says our Author or by some of Gaifres who conceived some Jealousie for having been too familiar with his Wife To Childebrand Grandson of Luitprand King of the Lombards degraded by his Subjects Rachis Duke of Friul succeeded by Election who professing himself a Monk in the same Covent with Caroloman Brother of Pepin Astolphus his Brother had taken his place He finding the Emperour Constantine Copronimus full of Trouble had seized on the Exarchat of Ravenna and Pentapolis which till then had been held by the Exarchs or Vicars of the Emperour Besides he had got into his power even under the very Walls of Rome several Towns belonging to several private Lords who had made themselves as it were Soveraigns in the time of the distress and disorders of the Grecian Empire and finding all things submitted to him he had likewise a great desire to make himself Master of Rome pretending and maintaining That the Exarchat he had conquer'd gave him all the Right and Title the Emperours had enjoy'd in Italy and therefore Rome and the Popes being in subjection to the Empire were now under his Year of our Lord 753 By vertue of this pretence he marched with his Army towards Rome and sent to Summon the Romans to acknowledg him and to pay him a Crown in Gold for every head Pope Stephanus much amazed at this enterprize beseeches him to leave the Lands belonging to the Church in Peace hath recourse to the intercession of the Emperour Constantius and afterwards comes himself to Pavia to see the Lombard But finding his Intreaties nor the Emperour's Request had no influence upon him he implored the Assistance of Pepin and his Protection as Gregory III. had done that of Martel So that after he had prepared and disposed him by some Ambassadours sent before-hand he went from Lombardy into France to the great astonishment and vexation of Astolphus who however durst not detain him Year of our Lord 753 The King being unable to go so far as Morienne as he had made him hope sent to intreat him to come to Pontigon a Royal Castle near Langres Charles his Eldest Son went above fifty Leagues to meet him The Pope arrived at Pontigon the sixth day of January the King with his Wife and Children received him about a mile from the place and treated him with all manner of respect and honour But not to that degree as to walk on foot by his Horses side and hold the bridle as Anastasius hath written who in some places hath spoken of ancient times rather according to the Practice and Customs of the days he lived in then according to the naked truth After several Conferences both publique and private Pepin promised him all manner of assistance as soon as he had put his own affairs into some order and wished him in the mean time to go and repose himself in the Abbey of St. Denis in France Stephanus hath written That being fallen desperately ill and causing himself to be carried into the Church under the Bells to begg his recovery of God â—e beheld St. Denis in a Vision together with the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul who miraculously restored him Which could not but be very pleasing to the French who had a singular Veneration for that Saint and to Pepin himself whose Father either out of devotion or to do like other Kings had acknowledged he was greatly beholding to the intercession of those Holy Martyrs A little while after his being recovered from his Sickness which was in the Month of July he Crowned and Anointed Pepin and his two Sons with his own hands exhorting the French to keep their Faith and from that time Excommunicating Year of our Lord 754 them if they ever chose a King of any other Race Some say that this Ceremony was performed in the Church of St. Denis before the Altar of St. Peter and St. Paul which the Pope did on that day dedicate in remembrance of the recovery of his health Others believe it was in the Abbey-Church of Ferrieres Wherever it were the Ceremony being ended Stephanus declared him Advocate or Defender of the Roman Church Astolphus well foreseeing that the Pope would bring the French upon him had by Threats obliged the Abbot of Mount-Cassin to send the Monk Carloman into France to bring Pepin his Brother upon pretence of demanding the Corps of St. Bennet which had been stolne and
convey'd to the Abbey of Fleury upon the Loire which from thence was named St. Bennets but it was to oppose the endeavours of the Pope and countermine his Designs in those Undertakings In effect the Monk pleaded the Cause of Astolphus so stoutly in the Parliament of Crecy that it was agreed some Ambassadors should be dispatched to Astolphus to endeavour an accommodation The Lombard received and treated them as coming from a Great and Potent State He was willing to lay aside his pretences to the Soveraignty of the City of Rome and its dependences but would reserve the Exarchat he had conquered by the Sword The Pope on the contrary maintained that it belonged to him aâ— being the spoiles of an heretick and he sollicited Pepin so effectually that that King promised to assist him in the conquering of it Year of our Lord 754 Mean time Carloman for having espoused the Interest of the Lombard too far brought himself to an ill pass for the King and the Pope consulting and contriving together shut him up in a Monastery at Vienne where he dyed the same Year and his Sons were shaved for fear they should one day claim the Estate their Father had once possessed Year of our Lord 755 The great Preparations for War and a second Embassy being not sufficient to remove Astolphus from his firm resolution of detaining the Exarchat and the Pentapole Pepin caused his Army to march that way His Van-Guard having seized the Cluses or the Passages of the Alps and beaten off those Lombards that thought to defend them Astolphus retires into Pavia where presently afterwards he was shut up by Pepin The havock the ruine and firings the French made use of round about that City could not draw him into the Field The Pope in the mean while grew weary and melancholy at the desolation of Italy and he also feared lest Pepin should make himself absolute Master if he took that Place by force He therefore condescends to an Accommodation at the earnest intreaty of the Lombard and it was easily obtained for he then promised him to give up the Exarchat and the Justices of Saint Peter which in my apprehension were certain Lands within the Bishoprick of Rome Year of our Lord 756 So soon as the French-mens backs were turned the Lombard instead of performing those hard Conditions resolves to revenge himself upon the Pope and the following Year went and laid Siege to Rome where he made such spoil as declared his cruel resentment This infraction obliged Pepin to repass the Mountains Upon the noise of his March he decamps from before Rome which he had much straitned and retreats the second time to Pavia Pepin besieges him and presses on so close that having no other means to save his Life and Crown he is compell'd to take himself for Judge and Arbitrator of the differences between him and the Pope It was not possible but Pepin must judge in favour of the last And indeed he would grant no Peace to Astolphus but upon condition he should make good his former Years agreement and moreover give up Comachio This was treated and negotiated in the presence of the Emperour's Ambassadours who being come to that Siege to demand those Countries for their Master the Lombards had taken suffered the displeasure and shame of a refusal The Exarchat comprehended Ravenna Bologna Imola Faenza Forly Cesenna Bobia Ferrara and Adria The Pentapole held Rimini Pesaro Conca Fano Senigalia Anconna and some other lesser places Year of our Lord 756 A Chaplain of King Pepin's received all these Towns brought away Hostages and laid the Keys upon the Altar of St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome with the draught of the Treaty to signify that Pepin made a donative thereof to those Holy Apostles Some do imagine he did it in the Name of the Emperour Constantine Copronimus who indeed would not consent to it and they believe that it is upon the equivocation of this name that the Popes have founded their fabulous donation of Constantine the Great Astolphus dyed the Year following by a Fall from his Horse Didier his Constable had a Party strong enough to Elect him King But those for the Monk Rachis Brother to King Luitprand who had left his Cloister puzled him very much He betakes himself to Pope Stephanus promising him to make good the restitution Astolphus had agreed to Pepin's Ambassadours were of Opinion that he should assist him in it so that he constrained Rachis to return and betake himself agen to his Monastery Stephanus dyes some Months after Paul I. succeeded him Didier and he lived well enough with each other Year of our Lord 757 The Emperour Constantine had not yet lost all hopes of recovering the Exarchate by means of the French and he endeavoured to regain it by the force of Presents and fair Words Amongst other things he sent a pair of Organs to the King who was then at Compiegne These were the first that had been seen in France Tassillon Duke of Bavaria Son of Duke Vtilon or Odillon came to the same place to take his Oath of Fidelity to King Pepin rendring Homage to him his hands within the Kings and promising him such Service as a Vassal oweth to his Lord which he confirmed by Swearing on the Bodies of St. Denis Saint German of Paris and Saint Martin at Tours Year of our Lord 758 This Year they changed the time of the General Assembly which was held in March and was now put off till May. And so it was no longer called the Field of Mars but the Field of May. Pepin thought to take some rest this Year when Intelligence was brought him that the Saxons were revolted Though they were embodied in an Army and had made Retrenchments upon all the Passages into their Country he gained them all at the first attempt and forced them to give him their Oaths and to pay Tribute The Kings of this Second Race Celebrated the Festivals of Christmass and Easter with great Solemnity cloatbed in their Royal Ornaments the Crown upon their heads and keeping open Court and for this reason the Authors of those times never fail to put down every Year the place where they solemnized those holy Feasts Year of our Lord 759 The City of Narbonna was yet held by the Saracens This Year Pepin having besieged it the Citizens who were Visigoths and Christians slew the Infidel Garrison and delivered the place up to him upon condition that he should suffer them to live according to their own Laws that is to say the Roman Law which had ever been observed by the People of Septimania and is yet to this day Year of our Lord 760 There remained of all the Countries that had been subject to the Kingdom of France none but Aquitain that was not brought to their duty Their Duke Gaifre did not acknowledg Pepin and moreover he or the Lords of his Country retained what belonged to those Churches the French had in Aquitain
This was a plausible pretence for Pepin to quarrel by demanding restitution of the Poors Patrimony He expected that Gaifre would refuse to do right thereupon he gets his Militia together and marches into Aquitain to the place they call Theodad where was an Ancient Palace of their Kings Gaifre who was not prepared for so sudden an Expedition was so much astonished that he promised him full satisfaction and gave him up some Hostages It was to be feared that the Saracens in Spain would bring assistance to this Duke and that he might be persuaded to deliver some places into their hands for Security and Retreat which would have given them footing in France Pepin provides against this by pretending to desire the Alliance of their Caliph to whom he sent a splendid Embassy The Caliph looked on this proposition as very honorable coming from so great a Prince agreed to all what was desired and sent back the Embassadors loaden with rich Presents whose Voyage thither and home again took up three Years time Year of our Lord 761 Instead of performing his promise Gaifre sent out his Forces who ravaged all about Chaalons upon the Soane Pepin extraordinarily offended at this Infidelity resolves to make a perpetual War upon him till he were quite ruin'd This Year he conquered Bourbon Chantelle Clermont and divers Places in Auvergne and from thence descends into Limosin and took Limoges having defeated and slain in a great Battle Chilping Count d'Auvergne and Amingue Count de Poitiers who would have hindred him His Eldest Son Charles began his first Apprentiship of Warr in this Expedition Year of our Lord 762 The following Year after he had held the General Assembly at Carisy or Crecy upon the Oyse he entred for the third time into Aquitain and by force took the City of Bourges and the Castle of Tours Year of our Lord 763 At his Fourth Expedition which was after the Sitting of the Parliament of Neuers he pierced as far as Cahors But the Duke Tasillon his Nephew whom he carried along with him having made his Escape and got into Bavaria he feared that Young Prince might have some League with the Saxons and with Didier King of Lombardy whose Daughter he had married Year of our Lord 764 Therefore returning again into France he let slip one Year without taking the Field during which time nothing was done but sending and receiving Messengers from Bavaria and Lombardy concerning Treaties with Didier and Tassillon Year of our Lord 765 When he had made sure of them by some agreement he undertakes afresh his design of Warr upon Aquitain Gaifre had dismantled most of his Towns as not having Numbers sufficient to maintain them Pepin Repairs them and places good Garrisons then made himself Master of Angoulesme Saintes and Agen. Year of our Lord 766 The Year after he fortifies Argenton in Berry and according to some Chroniclers took the Town of Limoges which by this reckoning must have been taken twice Year of our Lord 767 Anno 767. After the General Assembly of Orleans was over he enters into Septimania and gained the Cities of Nismes Maguelonne Beziers Thoulouse Albi and the Country of Givaudan We cannot find by what Title these Cities could belong to Gaifre and if it be said They were in the hands of the Visigoths what reason had Pepin to take them from those People He must of necessity have made all this long March in the Winter time since he kept his Easter Festival at Vienne held the Field-meeting of May at Bourges and in the Month of August descended from thence as far as the Borders of the Garonne clearing all the Country of such of Gaifres Garrison Soldiers as skulked amongst the Rocks and in the Caves of Auvergne and Perigord After the Celebration of the Christmass Festival at Bourges he crossed Aquitain Year of our Lord 768 as far as Saintes In his way he took Remistang Brother or Uncle by the Mothers side to Gaifre whom he caused to be hanged for having broken his faith to him Three Years before and while he was at Saintes they presented to him the Mother a Sister and a Niece of the same Dukes This Unfortunate Man fled still before him sometimes into one Town then into another In fine the King after he had kept his Easter at Selles in Berry divided his Forces in two Bodies that he might be hemm'd in So that Gaifre being put to a full stop neer Perigueux was constrained to stake his last Fortune in a Battle but he lost it and his Life soon after being slain either by the French or even by his own men who were willing to put an end to their Troubles and the desolation of their Country Thus all Aquitain was entirely subdued saving only they permitted the Gascons to have a Duke Pepin had but life enough just to finish this Conquest for being come back to Saintes he fell sick of an Hydropisia As they were conveying him to Paris he paid his Devotions and made his Offerings on the Tomb of St. Martin de Tours and being brought to perform the same duty at St. Denis Year of our Lord 768 in France he resigned up his Soul the 24 th of September in the Year 768. Aged 52. or 54. Years of which he had reigned Seventeen and a half if we reckon from the day of his Election supposing that was made in the Field of Mars Anno 751. He married but one Wife who survived him which was Bertha whom the Historians have surnamed Great Foot Daughter of Caribert Count of Laon by whom he had four Sons Carloman Charles Pepin and Gilles and three Daughters Rotaide Adelaide and Giselle Of his Sons the Youngest was thrust very young into the Religious Monastery of Mount Soracte Pepin dyed when three years old The Kingdom was left to the other two who were Crowned in the Month of October following Carloman at Soissons and Charles at Noyon As for the Daughters the two Eldest Rotaida and Adelaida dyed young Griselle married to a Cloister and was an Abbess Some Genealogists bestow five or six Sons more upon him and as many Daughters of which say they Berte was married to Milon Count of Angiers and Father of the invulnerable Orlando and Chiltrude to René Count of Genoa who was the Father of Oger the Dane Year of our Lord 768 The two Brothers being in dispute about their partition the Lords interposed to bring them to an agreement and obliged them till all should be determined by way of provision to take Charles all Neustria and Carloman Austrasia In the Reign of Pepin God began to make Christendom feel the stroakes of the severest scourge that was ever laid upon them I mean the insulting Turks which to this day threatens to overwhelm us They were not unknown in Pliny's time who reckons them amongst those who inhabited along the Palus Meotides There may have been some likewise amongst the Messagetes and elsewhere as we have observed of
deal with the Saxons the Huns the Lombards and the Saracens The Saxons a most Warlike and as yet Idolatrous Nation compounded of several People and such as had been invincible had they acted by a mutual agreement and consent gave him work and exercise enough for above Thirty Years during which time he made divers Expeditions against them always with advantage He never denyed them Peace and they broke again as soon as he was out of their sight But his Piety constant as their Malice was never wearied in forgiving them not so much out of a desire to allure them to his obedience as to bring them under the Yoak of Christ Jesus The highest part of his Care having no other end but the propagation of Religion He entred into Saxony therefore this Year and would try to terrify those Rebels by Fire and Sword but they were not afraid to bid him Battle somewhat neer Osnabrug Their Confidence was punished by a huge Slaughter of their men those that remained made their escape beyond the Veser He pursuing his Victory took in the Castle of Eresburgh demolished the Famous Temple of the false God Irmensul and broke his Idol It is supposed to have been the God Mars whence Mers-purg took it's name He afterwards pass'd the Veser compelled the Saxons to give him some Hostages and having rebuilt Fresburgh put a French Garrison into it Year of our Lord From the Year 767 to 771. King Didier not able or willing to give over the Design his Predecessors had formed to abate the Power of the Popes to make himself thereby Master of all Italy sowed a Schisme in the Church of Rome whereby to discompose and weaken them Pope Paul being dead Anno 767. Toton Duke of Nepet at his instigation enters into Rome and forced the Clergy to Elect his Brother Constantine who was not in Orders The following Year another Cabal Enemies to this Violence of Constantine's sets a Priest in the holy Chair named Philip But Crestofle Primicera this was the highest Dignity in the City next to the Prefect constrained both the one and the other to renounce the Popeship and caused Stephanus to be duly elected a Priest of St. Cecil's who was the fourth of that name Didier bethinks him of another method in the Year 770. he goes to Rome upon pretence of Devotion and by force of Presents gained Paul Afiarte Duke or Soveraign Judge in Rome to cause this Crestofle to be put to death and to banish or imprison for colourable reasons all such Roman Citizens as he knew to be most able and disposed to thwart his attempts Afiarte did according to his desire but Adrian who was chosen after Stephen stopt those unjust proceedings and not only eluded all the vain essays of the Lombard but was likewise the cause of his utter destruction After all other Experiments Didier employs Force seizes on several Cities of the Exarchat ravaged the Neighbourhood of Rome and the Year after to turmoil the Pope advances towards him upon pretence of Visiting the Sepulchre of the holy Apostles carrying along with him the Sons of the late King Carloman to oblige him to Crown them The Holy Father flatly refuses him and failed not to make use of this Motive to exasperate Charlemaine the more against the Lombards Year of our Lord 773 Betwixt these two Kings there were already some other causes of Enmity For in the Year 771. Charles had repudiated Hildegard the Sister of Didier saying she was infirm A pretence that did not please a great many good people particularly Adelard the King's Cousin who for this reason retired from the Court into a Monastery And Didier on his side had given a reception to Carloman's Widow and promised her his assistance and support to restore her Sons to the Inheritance or Kingdom of their Father These offences having inclined Charles's Mind to hearken to the Pope's Intreaties he was the more easily induced to pass over the Mountains but with so great and numerous Forces that it was evident it was not meant so much to assist him as to conquer Lombardy Having therefore Rendevouz'd his Army at Geneva he divided it in two Bodies his Uncle Bernard with one took his way by the Mount Jou and himself led the other by Mount Cenis Didier had fortified the Passages and in case they should be worsted himself was advanced with all his Forces neer Turin and in Year of our Lord 773 the Valley of Aost to observe and oppose the French even to the hazard of a Battle but some of their Army having stollen by him very silently and charging them in the Rear he was so much afraid of being hemm'd in that he cast himself into Pavia and Adalgise his Son whom he had made Partner of his Crown into Verona Those of Spoletta and Rietta had already forsaken him to joyn with the Pope When his Retreat was known all the Marca Anconitana and many other Cities followed their Example Charles with a part of his Army encamped before Pavia and sent the remainder before Verona And to demonstrate he did not intend to go thence till he had them in his power he ordered his new Wife Hildegard Daughter of Childebrand Duke of Suevia to come to his Camp and passed the Winter there even till Christmass at which time he goes to Verona to press that Siege forwards Adalgise apprehending to fall into his hands abandoned that City and fled to the Emperour of Greece The Veronese soon after yielded Year of our Lord 774 and gave up Carloman's Children and Widow they were carried into France what afterwards became of them is not mentioned that I know of Nothing remained but Pavia The Siege spinning out in length Charles had a desire to go and pay his Devotions at Rome at the good time of Easter The Pope made him a magnificent Entrance such as was accustomed to be made for the Exarchs He in return confirms all the Grants made by his Father and besides say some added that of Soveraign Justice and absolute Power in all those Countries So that to speak properly the Popes before this time held what they had from the French Kings from whom it must be owned they derive the best portion of their temporal Grandeur In length of time Pavia became so straightned not by any Attaques but by Famine and the people so ill disposed Hunoud the Fire-brand of this War having been knock'd on the head by the Women that Didier surrenders himself with his Wife and Children to Charles He was conveyed into France Cloister'd and Shaved and died soon after Thus was the Kingdom of Lombardy in Italy Extinguished after it had lasted some 204 Years Before his return into France Charles made a second Voyage to Rome where the Pope with 150 Bishops whom he had summoned to honour his Reception and likewise the Roman People conferred upon him the Title of Patrician which was the Degree the nearest to the Empire It belonged to the Emperours only
Year 800 beginning the Year on the First day of January but Year of our Lord 800 801 if we account Christmass Day the first of the New Year as the French Authors of those Times are wont to do After the Ceremony the Pope adored the New Emperour that is to say Kneeled down before him and acknowledged him for his Soveraign and caused his Portraiture to be exposed in publique that so all the Romans might pay him the same respect If we give credit to some of the Annalists of those Times he did not seek for this honour and the Pope surprized him when he besought him to accept of this Title And indeed it was so far from bringing him any advantage that it made him now hold that only by the Election of the Romans which he before held by the power of his Sword By this means the West had an Emperour again but one that had no connexion now with that in the East as formerly it had Year of our Lord 801 As the New Emperour was returning into France being at Spoleta there was a furious Earth-quake accompanied with horrible Noise which shook the Country thereabouts Neither was France and Germany free from it But Italy felt it most a great number of Cities being thrown down and destroy'd and this Prodigy was followed with Furious Tempests and afterwards with divers Contagious Maladies This Year Charles made no Military Expedition but his Son Lewis made himself Famous by the taking of Barcelona Year of our Lord 801 When the petty Saracen Princes upon the Frontiers of Spain feared they should be oppressed by the King of Cordoüa who was Generalissimo of Spain they made an Alliance with the French but the danger once past they fell again to their wonted Treachery Zad Prince of Barcelona studying some Treason against the French was nevertheless so imprudent thinking the better to conceal his Design as to come to King Lewis at Narbonna who caused him to be seized The Saracens Elected one Hamar of his Kindred in his room resolved to defend themselves to the uttermost Whilst this hapned the Gascons revolted because Lewis had set up at Fesensac a Count they were not pleased with After he had severely chastiz'd them he undertakes the Siege of Barcelona The King of Cordoüa takes the Field to Relieve it but being informed there was a Body of an Army to hinder his passage he bends his Forces against the Asturians The besieged after a Twelve-months resistance surrendred themselves up to Lewis who came himself to hasten forwards the Attaques he settled a Count in it named Bera who is said to be the Stock of the Earls of Barcelonna All the Princes of the Earth either feared or loved Charlemaine Alphonso King of Galicia and the Asturia's writing or sending Ambassadours to him would be called no other but his Man his Vassal The Scottish Kings always stiled him their Lord and termed themselves his Subjects and his Servants The Chiefs of the Saracens of Spain and Africa reverenced him and besought his Alliance The Haughty Aaron King of Persia who despised all other Princes in the World desired no Friendship but his He this Year sent him Jewels and Silks and Spices and one of the largest Elephants Withal understanding that he had a great devotion for the Holy Land and the City of Jerusalem he gave him the Propriety of them reserving to himself only the Title of his Lieutenant in that Country And two Years after interposed so earnestly in his behalf with Nicephorus that he engaged that Emperour to conclude a Treaty of Peace with him very advantagious to France Year of our Lord 802 During this great Torrent of good Fortune it had been easy for Charlemaine to conquer all the remainder of Italy and their Islands the Grecians having only a very wicked Woman in their Imperial Throne it was Irene the Widow of Leo who had caused the Eyes of her own Son Constantine to be put out But to stop his progress had the policy to amuse him with the hopes of marrying her which would have put the Empire of the East into his hands This Negotiation was well advanced and Charle's Ambassadours were at Constantinople to conclude it when she was driven thence by Nicephorus who made himself Emperour Nicephorus having chaced away Irene proposed to the Ambassadours of France who were come to Treat with her to make an agreement with Charles about Year of our Lord 802 Sharing the Empire He agreed therefore that he should bear the Title of Emperour as well as himself and that all Italy should be his to the Rivers of Ofantus and the Vilturnia with Bavaria Hungary Austria Dalmatia and Sâ—lâ—vonia the Gauls and Spaines For as to Germany it had never been in subjection to the Romans But Great Brittain or England had been a Member and by consequence ought to hold of Charlemaine Year of our Lord 802. and 803. Grimoald Duke of Benevent had revolted under the favour and with the support of the Greeks The French gain'd from him the City of Nocera but soon after he retook it with Vinigisa Count of Spoleta who lay sick in the place But when the agreement was made betwixt the two Empires he sent him back again very civilly and made his peace with the French Year of our Lord 804 The Saxons now revolted for the last time especially those beyond the Elbe incited by Godfrey who was King of Denmark and very potent at Sea Charles being come thither with all his Forces aud having pitched his Camp near the River Elbe that King advanced as far as Sliestorp upon the Borders of his Kingdom and the Country of Saxony to confer with the Emperour but some kind of Jealousie made him on the sudden turn back again and so the Saxon Holsatians finding themselves abandoned redeemed themselves from utter destruction by turning all Christians But he transported one part of them into Flanders and another into the Helvetian Country whence it is said the Swisse are descended a People who are very free in their own Country and yet serve in all others He bestowed the Lands they inhabited beyond the Ebre upon the Abrodite Sclavonians and he established a Councel in Saxony in manner of an Inquisition who had power to punish Mutineers especially such as returned again to their Idolatry This sort of Inquisition lasted in Westphalia to the 15 th Age. Thus ended the long and obstinate Rebellion of the Saxons who partly by consent partly by force submitted to the Yoak of Jesus Christ and the Dominion of France Year of our Lord 804 In the Month of October of the same Year Pope Leo's Ambassadours came to him at Aix la Chapelle to let him know their Master desired to see and entertain him with some of the Miraculous Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was affirmed to have been found at Mantoüa The King sent his Eldest Son Charles as far as Saint Maurice in Chablais to
whereafter two years Persecution his Eyes were put out The two Brothers Louis and Charles after many persuasions used by the latter and by the mediation of the Bishops and Lords met in a place agreed upon on this side the Meuse each with a certain number of People and there divided the Kingdom of Lorrain in two without having any regard to their Nephew the Emperor Louis Whose cause the Pope still supporting sent a famous Legation to the two Brothers Louis sâ—nt them back to Charles and he taking time to delay advanced as far as Lyons as it were to confer with the Pope but it was in effect for a quite contrary design For very far from doing his Nephew justice he likewise seized on the Kingdom of Burgundy where he met with no opposition but from Berthe the Wife of Count Gerard who sustained a Siege in Vienne and surrendred it upon composition Charles the Bald gave this County in charge to Boson Brother to the Queen Richilda his Wife whom he also made Duke of Aquitain and grand-Grand-Master of the Porters and raised him in such sort that he was shortly after one of those that dismembred the Monarchy Year of our Lord 871 During this Voyage he had left the Lieutenancy of his Kingdom to the Arch-Bishop Hincmar who by his Genius no less powerful then daring had rendred himself very necessary He had no small ado to hinder the designs and enterprises of Carloman eldest Son of his King This Prince had some years before conspired against his Father who had made him a Deacon in despite of him and having rebelled another time he put him in Prison The Prayers of the Popes Legates who came the year before into France had got him out again but abusing this mercy he fell again to his old Practices Now being fallen the third time into his Fathers hands he caused him to be condemned to Death and then changed that Sentence to a deprivation of his sight that he might have time to repent Some time afterwards a couple of Monks craftily got him out of Prison and convey'd him to his Uncle the German King who gave him an Abbey for his maintenance But Death did not leave him long in the enjoyment of it This cursed Custome of putting out Eyes and other ways of dismembring was the invention of the Greek Princes and it hath been long practised in the West so that Vassals in their Oaths of Fidelity swore they would defend the persons of their Lords and never consent they should be maimed in any part of their Bodies About these times the Gascons desiring to collect their Forces under a Duke of their own Nation and of the Race of their ancient Dukes to secure themselves against the fury of the Normans and the revenge of Charles the Bald went into Spain to the Son of Loup Centulle whom the King of the Asturias had made an Earl in old Castille to desire and get one of his Sons The youngest after the refusal of all his Brothers accepted the Honour his name was Sanche his surname Mitarra the Saracens had bestowed it on him because he was their Ruin and their Scourge From him are proceeded the Hereditary Dukes of Gascogny who lasted near 200 years He had a Successor of the same name and surname as himself This Son was Father of Garcia Sanchez the Crooked who had three Garcia Sanchez Duke of Gascogny William Count of Fezenzac and Arnold Count of Astarack This last not Born the natural way but by an incision they made in his Mothers Flank was surnamed Non-nat Not Born The Princes of the Carlovinian Line were for the most part of weak Spirits Fools or Sottish Louis Emperor of Italy though Pious and Valiant was so Year of our Lord 872 slighted by his Subjects that they would part him from his Wife because he had no Male-Children And even Adelgise Duke of Benevent made him Prisoner and extorted from him very unjust things Year of our Lord 873 The Children of Louis the German gave their Father a great deal of trouble and seemed to punish him for the disquiet he had given to his The eldest named Charles and afterwards surnamed the Gross troubled without doubt with horror for the conspiracies he had made against him had violent fitts of Madness believing he had seen the Devil and was possessed by him He was cured of that Frenzy for some time after many Devotions and Vows over the Graves of Saints but his Brain having been once so disturbed he felt it all his life afterwards Year of our Lord 873 The Normans had seized on the City of Anger 's about four years since and setled themselves there with their Families from whence when they had a mind to it they ran about the Loire and all those other Rivers which fall into it loading their Barks with the Plunder and Pillage of all the Country Charles assisted by Salomon King of the Bretons besieged them in that City The Siege was long the Bretons by great labour bring it to an end they turned the stream of the Maine and by this means their Vessels lay all on dry ground and gave them opportunity to aproach to the foot of their Wall The Pyrats could no way have escaped if they would have forced them however the Bald so terrible had they made themselves fearing the revenge such other Parties they had abroad in divers parts of the Kingdom might take not only did them no hurt but likewise gave them the liberty to depart with all their plunder They only made a promise never to return any more into France but at their departure from thence they went and nestled themselves in an Island within the Loire from whence they continued their old Trade Towards the Month of August an unknown cause brought towards the Coast or Borders of Germany a prodigious quantity of Locusts which were about the bigness of an inch having six wings and teeth as hard as a stone In less than an hour they had eaten up all the Herbs and Greens growing in a Country of seven or eight Leagues in length and two in breadth to the very Branches and Rinds of young Trees After they had done incredible mischiefs a strong Wind hurried them into the Brittish Sea where they were drowned But dead they did no less hurt then when living the great heaps thrown by the Waves upon the Shoar infecting the Country with the Plague Year of our Lord 874 While King Salomon who was become a good Man and devout to the doing of Miracles was thinking to retire into a Monastery and leave his Crown to his Son Gueguon two of his Cousin Germans Pasteneten or Pasquitan Son of Neomene and Vrsand assisted by Wygon Son of Duke Rodolph and some French Inhabitants of Bretagne whom he had treated ill conspired against him and besieged him in his Castle of Plelan where surrendring himself and his Son upon some false promises the French put out his eyes
it sacked all Picardy Artois Champagne and the Country of Messin often frighted Paris covered the Seine the Marne and the Loire with the Ashes of those Cities they consumed by Fire near those Streams and beat the French every where excepting at Chartres from whence they were repulsed by the protection of the Holy Virgin and the courage of Bishop Gosseaume and at Tonnere where one of their Parties was defeated by Richard Duke of Burgundy The foregoing year Lambert was killed by treachery as he was taking his pleasure in hunting by Hugo Earl of Milan The Western Empire remained vacant till the year 915. When Berenger was again Crowned by Pope John X. We may here place the Birth of the Kingdom of Arragon because about this time Sancho Abacca I. having extended his Kingdom of Navarre or Territory of Pampeluna towards Huesca and conquered all the rest of the Province of Arragon besides the Earldom of the same name which held already of him took the Title of King of Pampelune and Arragon Year of our Lord 911 In An. 911. hapned the Death of two Kings Rodolph of Burgundy beyond the Jour and Louis King of Germany The first left Rodolph II. his Son for Successor The second being only 19 or 20 years of age had only two Daughters Placidia or Plesance and Matilda who for Husbands had Conrard Duke of Franconia and Henry the Bird-Catcher Duke of Saxony and Son of Duke Otho The Lords of Lewis's Kingdom intending to bestow the Crown upon this Otho he excused himself upon the Score of his great Age and generously advised them to Elect Conrad Duke of Franconia though he had been his Enemy Charles the Simple in France Conrad in Germany Louis in Provence Rodolph II. in Trans-jurane Berenger in Italy Year of our Lord 911 Rollo the great Captain did by little and little make himself familiar and friendly with Franco Arch-Bishop of Rouen Upon his intreaties he had twice or thrice granted a Truce The design of that vertuous Prelat was to convert him Rollo's was to attain the Soveraignty and of the head of those Pirats become a Legal Prince The French Lords had much ado to suffer such a Stranger to be setled thus in the best Country of the Kingdom But the People so long and often tormented by their plundrings and continued disturbance cried out to them to put a period to their miseries Besides Robert Earl of Paris who aspired to the Monarchy desired he might remain in that Station to have his assistance in time of need For these reasons Charles made a Truce with him during which he propounded to him to give him in propriety and with the Title of a Dutchy that part of Neustria between the Sea the River of Seine and the Epte which falls into the Seine with his Daughter Gisele in marriage if he would be converted and embrace Christianity Upon these conditions Rollo was Catechised and received holy Baptism upon Easter-Eve An. 912. Earl Robert was his God-Father and named him After this Year of our Lord 912 he went and did homage to the King for the Lands he gave him and then wedded the Princess his Daughter but she lived only a short time with him and brought him no Children Thus this Province which the Romans called Lugdunensis Secunda was dismembred from the propriety of the Kings of France But not from their Soveraignty and according to the name of it's new Inhabitants took that of Normandy As this was granted to them because they knew not how to drive them out so for the same reason they were released of the Homage and dependance of Bretagne because they were indeed Masters of it and pillag'd it when ever they pleased And withal by this means it was reduced to the Soveraignty of the Crown by subjecting it under a Duke that held it of the King Year of our Lord 913 The year following Rollo failed not to demand Homage of the Bretons with his Sword in hand Duke Alain Rebre ' or the Great had been dead six years and left his Children very young Those that govern'd them rather then let them derogate from their Soveraignty carried them out of the Country with some of the greatest Nobility And since that we find no meution of them in History Count Porhouet named Mathued who had married a Daughter of Alain's the Grand went into England with his Wife Berenger Earl of Rennes and Alain de Dol having defended themselves the best they could were at last constrained to bow the Knee before the Normans and shake hands with them There were besides in divers other parts of France especially in Bretagne Anjou and the Country of Maine and the Islands in the River Loire numbers of these people but in time following the example of Rollo they took Habitations and Naturalized themselves French but not without first doing a vast deal of mischief and for a long while after the settlement of these drew in fresh swarms from Denmark and Sweden who were no less ravenous and cruel though not so formidable as the first Year of our Lord 913. and 14. All the Grandees of Germany were not satisfied with the Election of Conrard Arnold Duke of Bavaria Proud for having vanquished the Hungarians in his Dutchy rose up against him with design to make himself King and not being able to compass it pretended to stickle that Charles might have it Year of our Lord 915 That King had it ever in his thoughts to Sieze again upon the Kingdom of Lorrian Now meeting this fit juncture and the assistance of Reiner Count of Ardennâ— who was very potent in those Countries he enters into Lorrain and makes himself Master of part of that Kingdom whereof he made him Governor with the Quality of a Duke Year of our Lord 916 Duke Rollo had repudiated Pope Daughter of the Earl of Bayeux to marry the Daughter of Charles the Bald that Princess being dead he takes his former wife again by whom he had two Children William and Gerlote or Gerloc Henry Duke of Saxony rebels against Conrad gains a Battel over Everard his Year of our Lord 916 Lieutenant and gives chase to Conrad himself whilst on the other side the Hungarians over-run even to Alsace burning the City of Basle and can have no stop put to them but by Sums of Money which Conrad is forced to give them Year of our Lord 917 An. 917. Died Rollo first Duke of Normandy for ever renowned for that severe justice and exact policy he establisht within his Dominions Where the very mention of his name is able to this day to stop the Progress of Villians and bring those that are such before the judgment Seat Some put off his death to the year 924. his Son William afterwards surnamed Long-Sword Succeeded him And because he was but yet a Minor Robert Earl of Paris God-Father to his Father undertook his Tuition Year of our Lord 918 The following year hapned the Death of
them to retire Then made himself Master of Reims and Soissons But suffering this heat of good success to grow cool few People declared for him and even the Archbishop of Reims whom he importuned to Crown him told him that he could not do it of his own head and that it was a publick Business that is to say it required the Consent of the Lords of the Kingdom Year of our Lord 989 It was greatly Hugh's interest to gain Arnold Bastard Brother of Duke Charles to his Party To this end he gives him the Archbishoprick of Reims which was vacant by the death of Aldaberon having first taken an Oath from him in Writing but six months after his being in that Town Charles his Brother was introduced there and made himself Master by means of a Priest named Aldager and in Confederacy as was thought with the Archbishop who notwithstanding ever denied it and remained Prisoner in the hands of Charles either really or at least pretended Year of our Lord 990 At the same time William III. Earl of Poictou and Duke of Aquitain refused to acknowledge the two Kings Capet and Robert though he were Uncle to Robert by the Mother openly accusing the French of Perfidiousness and their having abandoned the Line and Blood of Charlemaine Both the Kings marched that way to bring him to Obedience and besieged Poitiers He repulsed them smartly pursues them to the Loire and there happens a bloody Engagement but the conclusion was to the Advantage of the French Year of our Lord 991 The year ensuing this Duke made War upon the Count of Anjou for Mirebalais and Loudunois and did so roughly handle him that in the end he was constrained to acknowledge him and hold them in Fief of him Year of our Lord 991 Charles living in too great security at Laon and with too much confidence in Ancelin King Hugh gained that Traitor who like another Judas upon Holy-Thursday-night opened the Gates and delivered the poor Prince and his Wife up to him He sent them away Prisoners to Senlis and from thence to Orleance where they were shut up in a Tower Year of our Lord 992 The Archbishop Arnold his Brother was taken with him The Bishops of France Assembled in Council at Reims made his Process as one that was guilty of Perjury and who had broken his Faith to King Hugh and therefore degraded him of his Prelature after which the King sent him Prisoner to Orleance to keep his Brother company Gerbert a Benedictine Monk who had been Tutor to the Emperor Otho III. and to King Robert was chosen in his place He was so Learned for those times particularly in the Mathematicks that it gave him the Reputation of a Magician amongst the ignorant Year of our Lord 993 Anno 993. William III. Duke of Aquitain made Peace with the King and owned to hold his Lands of him But another William Duke of Gascongne kept himself still independent He it was who having gained a memorable Battle against a Fleet of Normands landed in Gascongny towards the end of this Century and believing he obtained that Advantage by the intercession of St. Sever who was said to have appeared that day on a white Horse with glittering Arms fighting against the Barbarians put his Dukedom under the protection of that glorious Martyr and Erected a Church and Abby over his Tomb round about which Edifice is built that City called St. Sever Cape of Gascongny Many believe but without any certain proofs that Hugh Capet confirmed the Inheritance of all the great Estates Dutchies and Earldoms to those Lords that had usurped them and it is probable that they themselves had first given such as depended upon them to their own Vassals thereby to engage them to maintain and justifie them in their Usurpations It is certain he annexed to the Crown which had scarce any thing left in Propriety the Earldom of Paris the Dukedom of France containing all that is between the Loire and Seine and the Earldom of Orleance Amongst a very great number of Lords who enjoy'd of the Regal Rights the Eight most considerable were the Dukes of Burgundy Normandy Aquitain and Gascongne Bretagne then held of Normandy the Earls of Flanders of Champagne and Thoulouze This last was likewise Duke of Septimania and Marquiss of Gothia the Earl of Barcelonna in the Marches of Spain and the Earl of Anjou on the Frontiers of Bretagne this held of the Dutchy of France All these Lords had a great many more besides who took upon them to be Soveraigns I do not speak of the Estates that were set up in the Kingdom of Lorrain amongst others the two Dutchy's that bare that name to wit the higher or Mosellanick which retains it to this day and the lower which is Brabant Nor of those that were framed out of the Ruines of the Kingdom of Arles and that of Transjurane as the Earldom of Burgundy those of Viennois Provence and Savoy Daufine the Dukedoms of Zeringhen and Alman and divers others because those Countries were not of France but held of the Emperors of Germany who were Titularies of those two Kingdoms The Grandees of the Kingdom thought that Capet ought to suffer all from them because they had set the Crown upon his Head His Patience and Courage which he exercised diversly according as occasion required kept them from running to extremity and maintained him in his Throne One Adelbert Count de la Marche and Perigord was one of the most unruly and concerned himself in all their Quarrels Fulk Nerra had some Pretensions to the City of Tours he besieged it in his behalf The King sent and commanded him to desist Adelbert would do nothing and asking him Who was it that made you a Count He insolently replied Those same that made you a King continued the Siege and took the Town Year of our Lord 993 This year was memorable for the death of Conrad King of Burgundy William III. Duke of Aquitain and Hebert Count of Meaux and Troyes Conrad left his Estate to his Son Roldolph called the Faineant or Do-nothing William left his likewise to his Son of his own name but surnamed Fierabras and the third dying without Children to Eudes his Brother Earl of Chartres and Tours who was the first that intitled himself Earl of Champagne William IV. of that name Earl of Toulouse and of Arles turned Monk and his Son William V. succeeded him After the death of the Count of Poitou his Son being yet but young found his Country in Combustion by the Rebellion of many of his Vassals especially Adelbert who besieged Poitiers and made divers other Enterprizes but in the end he met with that fate which attends the Factious being slain at the Siege of a small Castle Boson his Fathers Brother succeeded in his Dominions Year of our Lord 994 95. The Pope could not suffer their having Deposed the Archbishop Arnold without his Authority which the Bishops of France believed to
to St. Omers But as he was retreating towards Monstreuil Eustace Earl of Boulogne who had a great Body of Reserves took Robert and carried him to St Omers He that Commanded the place surrendred it to deliver Richilda for which the King was enraged that he sacked and burnt the City Year of our Lord 1071 The same year Richilda though still assisted by the French lost another Battle in which Eustace Earl of Boulogne being made prisoner his Brother Chancellor of France and Bishop of Paris to obtain his freedom obliged the King to intermedle no more in that dispute Nay which was more he made him Marry Bertha the Daughter of Florent I. Earl of Holland and Gertrude of Saxony who had taken Robert for her second Husband By this means he was engaged to maintain the Cause for his Father-in-law who by his assistance defeated Richilda's Army the Fourth time and so remained Master Year of our Lord 1071 of Flanders Roger Brother of Robert Guischard Duke of the Normans in Puglia was by his Brother sent into Sicilia which was possessed by the Saracens he conquerd d the City of Panormus and Messina which opened him a way to become Master of the whole Island Year of our Lord 1073. and 4. After the death of Baldwin the Regent King Philip being arrived to the age of Adolescency ran into many disorders and vexations with his Subjects Whereupon Pope Gregory VII who sought but the occasion to constitute himself the Judge and Reformer of Princes wrote to William Duke of Aquitain that together with the Lords he should make him some Remonstrances and Declare that if he did not amend he would Excommunicate both him and all the Subjects that obey'd him and would place the Excommunication upon St. Peters Altar to re-aggravate it every day Year of our Lord 1076 The death of Robert I. Duke of Burgundy his Son being deceased before him had left two Sons Hugh and Otho the first of these succeeded his Grandfather Year of our Lord 1077 After William the Conquerour had entirely subdued England suppressed the Rebellion of his Son Robert and quelled the Manceaux he went into Bretagne to reduce them to his Obedience and laid Siege to Dol. The Duke or Earl Hoel implored the Kings help who marching in person to his assistance made them raise their Siege A Peace immediately follow'd but was broken almost as soon again upon another Year of our Lord 1076 score which was for that the Conquerour in the Kings Presence having given the Dutchy of Normandy to his Son Robert before he went to invade England Robert would take possession of it the Father hindred him and the King justified the Son in his demands This was the subject of a new War The Father besieges his rebellious Son in the Castle of Gerbroy near Beauvais In a Sally the Son wounds him and turned him off from his Saddle with his Lance but Year of our Lord 1077. 78. and the following coming to know who it was by his voice he helped him up again with Tears in his eyes and the Father at length overcome by the sentiments of nature and the intreaty of his Wife and Barons gave him his pardon and quitted the Dutchy to him then returned into England Gozelon Duke of the Lower Lorrain who in favour of Baldwin Earl of Monts Year of our Lord 1077. and 78. the Son of Richilda had fought and defeated Robert the Frison being a while after this Victory assassinated in Antwerp the Emperour detained the Dutchy of the lower Lorrain and gave only the Marquisate of Antwerp to Godfrey Duke of Bouillon the Son of Adde Sister of Gozelon and Eustace Earl of Boulongne but Twelve years after for his great Services he gave him the said Lorrain Year of our Lord 1080 The Lords of Touraine and of Maine extreamly pressing Foulk Rechin by force of Arms to set Gefroy his Brother at liberty this barbarous Man rather then release him chose sooner to give the County of Gastinois to King Philp that he might maintain him in his unjustice Some time after his own Son named Gefroy likewise and surnamed Martel moved Year of our Lord 1080 with the miseries of his Uncle forced his Father to set him free but whether it were the Melancholy he had contracted or some Drink they had given him he could never relish the sweetness of his liberty The famous Robert Guischard Prince of the Normans in Puglia after he had gained Year of our Lord 1085 two Naval Victories one over the Venetians and the other over the Greeks died this year 1085. He had two Sons Boemond and Roger the eldest being then upon the coasts of Dalmatia with a Navy his younger Brother seized on the Dutchies of Pouille and Calabria for which the Brothers were contending till the time of the first Croisado or Holy War when the French Lords passing that way to the Holy Land brought them to an agreement Their Uncle Roger held Sicily with the Title only of Earl Year of our Lord 1085 Upon complaints about the vexations and ill Treatment Duke Robert shewed to his Norman Subjects his Father the Conquerour comes over out of England to chastise him but his paternal tenderness did easily admit of a reconciliation The death of Guy-Gefroy-William his Son William VIII aged but 25 years succeeded him Year of our Lord 1086 King Philip a very voluptuous Prince being disgusted with Berthe his Wise made use of the pretence of Parentage which was between them and having proved it according to the course then in use caused his Marriage to be dissolved by authority of the Church though he had a Son by her named Lewis about Five years old and a Daughter named Constance He banished his Divorced Wife to Monstreuil upon the Sea-side where she lived a long time poorly enough Year of our Lord 1087 This Divorce according to Rule and a judicial Sentence being made he demanded the Daughter of Roger Earl of Sicilia named Emma who was conducted as far as the coasts of Provence however he did not Marry her the reason is not given Year of our Lord 1088 William the Conquerour become crazy was under a strict regiment of Dyet at Rouen to pull down his over-grown fatness which did much incommode him The King rallied at him and asked when he would be up again after his Lying in the Duke sent him word that at his Uprising he would go and visit him with 10000 Lances instead of Candles and indeed as soon as he could he got on Horseback he destroy'd all the French Vexin and forced and burnt Mantes But he over-heated himself so much in the assaulting of that place that it set his own Blood and Body on fire and brought a fit of Sickness so that he returned to Rouen where he dyed in a few days By his Will he gave the Kingdom of England to William called Rufus who was bat his Second Son Normandy to Robert who was
others But the Popes durst not shock these Kings so rudely It was good Policy not to make so many Enemies at once to keep France in reserve as a Refuge against the Emperors and bring down the Germans first because they troubled them most The Peace between the two Kings Lewis and Henry was of no long duration The Friends of the late Duke Robert and William his Son declared for Lewis and the Earls of Anjou and of Flanders served him zealously as Thibald Earl of Champagne served Henry who was his Uncle Year of our Lord 1119 Baldwin Earl of Flanders being wounded upon an assault of the little Castle of Bures in Caux did so inflame his Wound with his Debauches that he died of it at Aumale Charles surnamed the Good Son of his Sister and Camut King of Denmark succeeded him in the Earldom of Flanders and maintain'd himself there courageously notwithstanding that Clemence of Burgundy Mother of Baldwin who was again Married to Godfrey Earl of Louvain endeavoured to make it fall into the hands of a Bastard of Flanders named William of Ypres who had Married her Neece After a world of Ravages Firings Sieges Surprizes and Plunderings of Places after two great Battles fought betwixt the two Kings one in the Plain of Bâ—eneville near Noyon on Andelle where the French had the worst the other near Breâ—euil where the success was doubtful Pope Calixtus as the common Father being come expressly Year of our Lord 1120 to Gisors brought them to agree by persuadin them to restore what places they had taken to each other Thus the Dutchy remained to Henry who gave it to his eldest Son William surnamed Adelin in wrong of William his Nephew This Peace did not put an end to his grief and troubles For a few weeks after he lost his three Sons and with them above Three hundred Gentlemen the flower of Year of our Lord 1120 his Nobility and his best Captains It was a strange misfortune They being Embarqued at Harfleur to go into England their Seamen who were drunk split the Ship as they were getting out of Harbor And at the same time his Nephew's Friends and Partisans stirred up new Disturbances in Normandy and re-engaged the King of France to uphold them Which renewed the Desolations of that Province In Anno 1119. died Alain surnamed Fergeant Duke of Bretagne Son of Hoel who departed this Life Anno 1084. His Son Conan surnamed the Gross or Ermengard succeeded him This Alain if we believe the Historian of Bretagne prescribed certain Forms and Rules for the doing Justice in his Country where before it was administred very confusedly For he Establisht a Seneschal at Renes to whom he would have all Persons to resort unless those of the County of Nantes who had one likewise and began to hold an Assembly or Parliament which judged of Appeals from the Seneschals of Rennes and Nantes for in Matters Criminal there lay no Appeal There were no certain and fixed Officers no more then any certain times for sitting They afterwards made a President in the absence of the Chancellor and a Master of Requests Year of our Lord 1123 The death of Hugh III. of that name Duke of Burgundy to whom succeeded Odon his eldest Son who Married Mary the Daughter of Thibauld Earl of Champagne Year of our Lord 1123 The War grew hotter in Normandy betwixt the French and King Henry and was ca ried on with various success But Henry found nothing more troublesome then his Domestick Officers and Servants who had framed a Conspiracy against his Life He could confide in no body he trembled at the approach of all that came near him he died a thousand times a day for fear they would Murther him and in the night shifted Beds five or six times and changed his Guards not thinking he was safe in any place believing there were none but Enemies about him Year of our Lord 1124 The Emperor reconciled himself with the Pope and laid down the Investitures But his Wrath still boiling in him would needs discharge it self upon France Year of our Lord 1124 He had Married Matilda Daughter of the English King for that reason as likewise for the Resentment he conceived because Lewis had protected Pope Calixtus he raised a very great Army to destroy and lay that City of Reims flat with the ground where Calixtus had held the Council against him Lewis on his side resolved to draw all the Forces of his whole Kingdom together even to the very Priests and Friers so that in a short time he had 200000 Men out of the Isle of France Champagne and Picardy only The Emperor having information of these prodigious Levics found it safer for him not to come into the Country of Messin but retire At his return Triumphant Lewis brings back the Martyrs Holy Standard called the Oriflamme and deposites it again in St. Denis whence he had taken it rendred Solemn Thanks to those Glorious Saints carried their Shrines upon his Shoulders which had been taken down and exposed on the high Altar during all the time of the War and made or confirmed several Grants to that Abby especially the Fair of Lendit out of the City for they had one already within Vpon this occasion we may observe the difference there was between the Forces of France and the Kings For when he made a War for himself he could have only the People of those Countries properly in his own possession and they served but unwillingly but when it was the Kingdoms Cause or Concern all the Forces of France were in action every Lord came in Person and brought all his Subjects along with him Year of our Lord 1125 The Emperor Henry being dead the Princes of Germany brought in Lotaire Duke of Saxony who likewise retaining the Kingdom of Burgundy as united to the Empire Renold Duke of Burgundy refused to acknowledge him For which he would have deprived him of his Earldom and have bestow'd it upon Bertold Duke of Zeringhen and this begot a bloody War between these two Houses who fought till the time of Frederick I. who Married Beatrix the Daughter of Renold This year 1126. the King received the Complaints made by the Bishop of Clermont Year of our Lord 1126 concerning the Usurpations and Tyrannies of Robert Earl d'Auvergne and going Year of our Lord 1126 thither in Person forced the Earl notwithstanding the Rocks and Castles of his High-Lands or Mountains to submit to Reason Five or six years after the repeated Violences of the same Earl engaged him to make a second Expedition and besiege Montferrand The Duke of Aquitain came to relieve his Vaslal but having from the height of a Mountain taken a view of the great Strength and Forces the King had with him he sent to offer him all Obedience and brought the Earl as far as Orleans to demand Pardon and submit to all that should be injoyned him Year of our Lord 1126 Death of
others who named themselves the Humbled The First made profession of an Evangelical poverty the Second undertook to Preach wherever they came To contradict or countermine these two Religious Orders were instituted viz. The Friers Mineurs or Cordeliers and the Preaching Friers or Jacobins The First Foundation of that was laid in Italy by St. Francis d'Assise of the other in Languedoc by St. Dominique of the Noble Family of the Guzmans in Spain and Cannon of Osma who came into this Province with a Bishop to Convert the Albigenses Year of our Lord 1208 King Philip would have been himself in this Expedition or would have sent his Son for these Sectaries had committed some Hostilities in his Territory acknowledging his Enemy King John had he not feared a Landing of the English in Bretagne under favour of the Fort du Garplie He went not therefore beyond the Loire but Commanded the Nobility that held of him to arm themselves and take that Fort as in truth they did this year The Bishops of Orleans and Auxerre who had been sent thither with their Vassals upon this Expedition being return'd again without leave pretending not to be oblig'd to march with the Army but when the King was there in Person the King commanded their Regalia to be seized that is to say what they held in Fief of him not their Tithes Offerings and other dues necessarily belonging to People of that Function They made complaint by their Envoys to Pope Innocent III. then went themselves The Pope having examined the matter found they had failed and transgressed against the Customs and Laws of the Kingdom so that they were fain to pay a Mulct to the King to re-enter upon their Temporals Year of our Lord 1209 The number of these New-Crossed Soldiers were not less then 500000 Men not all Combatans as I believe amongst whom there were five or six Bishops the Duke of Burgundy the Earls of Nevers St. Poll and de Montfort The general Rendezvous was at Lyons about the Feast of St. John Thence going into Languedoc they assault the City of Beziers one of the strongest held by the Albigenses forced it and put all to the edge of the Sword there being slain above threescore thousand Persons Those in Carcassonne terrified with this horrible Slaughter surrendred upon Discretion thinking themselves very happy to escape naked or only in their Shirts Year of our Lord 1209 The Lords in this Army having called a Council elected Simon Earl of Montfort chief Commander in this War and to govern the Conquests they had and should make upon those Hereticks That done the Earl of Nevers returned with a great Party of those Soldiers and soon after the Duke of Burgundy with another so that Simon was left ill attended yet he maintained himself by a more then Heroick Valour and Conquer'd Mire-pâ—ix Pamiers and Alby In so much as in a little time he made himself Master of the Albigois the Counties of Beziers and Carcassonne and above an hundred Castles Year of our Lord 1209 In these times the School at Paris flourish'd more then ever They gave it the name of University because all sorts of Sciences were universally taught there although in effect the desire to Study or Learn and the affluence of Scholars were much greater then their Doctrine A certain Priest of the Diocess of Chartres named Almaric beginning to Preach up some Novelties had been forced to recant for which he died of grief Several after his Death following his Opinions were discover'd and condemn'd to the Fire he Excommunicated by the Council of Paris his Body taken out of the Grave and his Ashes cast on the Dunghil And because they believ'd the Books of Aristotles Metaphysicks lately brought them from Constantinople had fill'd their heads with these Heretical Subtilties the same Council prohibited either the keeping or reading them upon pain of Excommunication Year of our Lord 1209 Guy Count d'Auvergne for the violence and injustice he committed against the Clergy particularly the Bishop of Clermont whom he had imprison'd was deprived of his County by King Philip and could never be restor'd again Year of our Lord 1210 The Emperor Otho grew stubborn in the defence of the Rights of the Empire and prepared to go into Italy wholly to subdue it with a mighty Army which he raised with the Money his Nephew King John had sent him upon condition that from thence he should fall upon France Thereupon he was thunder-struck with Excommunication by Pope Innocent and a little after a great part of the German Princes elected Roger-Frederick II. Son of the Emperor Henry VI. about the Age of Seventeen years and who in his Fathers Life-time had already been named King of the Romans The Pope consented to this Election and the following year Frederic who was then in his Kingdom of Sicily passed into Germany Every other while there came new Bands of Soldiers of the Cross to the Earl de Montfort even from Flanders and Germany but slipt away again within six weeks or two Months With these Recruits he carried all the Places and Castles not only of the Hereticks but likewise of other Lords The King of Arragon of whom divers in those Countries held their Lands in Under-Fiefs because of some Lordships he was possessed of wrote to the Pope about it and the Earl of Toulouze went even to Rome to make his Complaints where his Holiness receiv'd him well enough and promis'd him Justice Year of our Lord 1210 But at his return they propounded an Agreement with Montfort if he would let him have all he had already taken He could never consent to it and Milon the Popes Legat Excommunicated him in the Council of Avignon because he levied certain new Tolls upon his Lands The King of Arragon came in Person to another Council which was held at St. Gilles to endeavour to accommodate Affairs and restore the Earl of Foix and the Vicount de Bearn who were dispossess'd as favourers of Hereticks but he could not obtain any thing Year of our Lord 1211 The Toulouzain after so many mean and ruinous Submissions takes the Bit in his Teeth and puts himself in a posture to defend his own Then is he openly Excommunicated and his Lands exposed to any that could Conquer them Montfort besieges Toulouze but the grand Recruits that were come with him stealing away in a little time he is forced to raise the Siege The Earls of Toulouze and de Foix with their Confederates pursue him and besiege him in Chasteauneuf a thing incredible above 50000 Men could not overpower or force three hundred are beaten and shamefully retreat Year of our Lord 1211 The young Princes Frederick II. and Lewis eldest Son of King Philip delegated by his Father Confer at Vaucouleurs upon the Frontiers of Champagne to renew the Alliance between France and the Empire and to unite themselves more closely against Otho and against King John his Uncle two irreconcilable Enemies Renauld Earl of
cannot say how long she survived after the year 1180. but there is yet to be seen in the Parochial Church of that place her Monument and her Effigies also in Stone which over-head is crowned with Flowers The People of that Country assure us That God by divers Miracles hath approved the Devotion they have towards her Lewis VIII King XLII POPE HONORIUS III. All along this Reign and beyond it LEWIS VIII Surnamed the Lyon and the Father of St. LEWIS King XLII Aged Thirty six years compleat Year of our Lord 1223 PHilip Augustus had not caused his Son to be Crowned in his Life-time whether he had a jealousie of him or thought his Family so well Establish'd that he had no need of such precaution to secure the Crown to him He was therefore Crowned at Rheims with his Wife Blanch de Castille the Tenth day of the Month of August The King of England did not assist at his Coronation as he ought to have done in Quality of Pair of France but sent Ambassadors to summon him according to the Oath he had made at London to surrender Normandy to him with all those other Countries that had been taken from King John his Father They receiv'd for Answer That they had been Consiscated by Judgment of the Pairs and that they pretended to have the remainder likewise which he held so far were they from giving back what he demanded Year of our Lord 1022 and 1223. As the People of Languedoc did easily return again to their Natural Lord Raimond Earl of Toulouze Amaury finding himself too weak to stay in those Countries came and resigned and yielded up all the Right and Title he had into the hands of the King who for Recompence made him High Constable It was then but an Employment lasting no longer then the War So that we sometimes find such Lords on whom it hath been conferr'd two or three several times Year of our Lord 1224 Raimond Earl of Toulouze having made his Address to Pope Honorius with all imaginable submission the Holy Father sent to his Legat to call a Council at Montpellier to reconcile him with the Church After which Raimond before an Assembly of the Clergy in Languedoc promis'd and sware entire Obedience to the Roman Church sufficient security to the Clergy for restitution and the enjoyment of their Goods and Profits and the extirpation of Hereticks throughout all his Country Upon this satisfaction the Pope received him to Mercy and owned him for Earl of Toulouze Year of our Lord 1224 But as the resistance and opposition of his Subjects hindred him from making good his Promises the Pope sent a Legat to the King it was Romain a Cardinal that had the Title of St. Angelo to persuade him to undertake that Expedition which he did the more readily because it suited with his zeal and with his Interests Year of our Lord 1224 The two Kings Lewis of France and Henry of Germany eldest Son to the Emperor Frederic had a Conference at Vaucouleurs where they Treated about several Difference between the two Crowns and made divers Propositions but came to no conclusion At his return from thence pursuant to a Resolution had been taken to drive the English wholly out of France Lewis enters Poitou gains a Battle there over Savary de Mauleon General of the English in Guyenne makes himself Master of the Cities of Niort and of St. John d'Angely and generally over all the Places even to the Garonne and receives the Homage of all the Lords of those parts Year of our Lord 1224 There was nothing left but Rochelle where Savary de Mauleon defended himself for a long time expecting Relief from England In fine being basely disappointed and deceived by the King of England's Ministers who sent him Chests full of old Iron in stead of Silver to satisfie the Garison he was forced to surrender the Town the 28th day of July and afterwards pretending whether true or false that he had been Treated in England as a Person whose Faith they suspected he quitted his old Master and went to the King of France After the taking of that important City the Kings to secure it the better to themselves had as it were outvied each other in gratifying it with many great Priviledges by which means it was raised to a high pitch of Renown for its Wealth and Liberty but through their ill management of those Advantages she hath utterly lost them all in these latter times Year of our Lord 1225 The rest of Guyenne had been gained by the French if Richard Brother to King Henry had not landed at Bordeaux with a great Army which raised up the drooping Spirits He took St. Macaire near Bordeaux by Storm but la Reoule gave him a great Repulse and being inform'd that the French Army was at the River Garonne he Ship'd himself again and left order with Aimery Vicount de Touars to procure a Truce There wandred a certain Person about Flanders near this time who said he was that Baldwin Earl of Flanders and Emperor of Constantinople that had been taken Prisoner by the King of Bulgaria He related how he made his escape out of Prison and put them in mind of several Tokens and Circumstances to know him by The Flemings who mightily loved Baldwin gave Credit to this Man and put him in possession of all Flanders Year of our Lord 1225 The Countess Jane Daughter of Baldwin finding her self at a loss for her Husband Ferrand was still a Prisoner at Paris had recourse to the King who sent word to this pretended Baldwin that he should come to him at Peronne He came boldly thither but disdaining or not being able to answer the Questions put to him which he must needs have known if he were not a Cheat the King commanded him to depart his Territories within three days and gave him a safe Conduct Being afterwards forsaken by all the World he endeavour'd to escape away in a disguise but he was taken in Burgundy and carried to the Countess who after ✚ she had made him undergo divers Tortures sent him to the Gibbet as an Impostor His Execution did not hinder malicious People from believing that the Daughter had chosen rather to hang her Father then to restore him to his Soveraignty Year of our Lord 1225 This same year the King being in Touraine the Legat went to him and obliged him to prolong the Truce with Aymery Vicount de Touars the only Nobleman that opposed the King yet in Poictou This Vicount shortly after came to Paris to render Hommage to the King in presence of the King of England's Ambassadors Year of our Lord 1226 The City of Avignon having refused the Army passage was besieged the 14th of June It defended it self obstinately Guy Count de Saint Pol one of the bravest of the Besiegers was slain there the Plague got amongst the Soldiers and the Earl of Champagne Male-content went away without leave The King nevertheless swore he would not
Royal Robes over her Religious Habit of that Order which she had taken some time before her death being besides and long before that time of the third Order of St. Francis according to the Devotion of those times Some modern Historians are much in doubt whether she were elder or younger then Berenguelle who was Married to Alphonso King of Leon. This had the Guardianship of her Brother Henry and that Prince being dead succeeded to the Kingdom of Castille but some have believed that it was by Usurpation upon Blanch her Sister who was then a great way off from that Countrey and they go upon this ground that amongst the Records they find Letters from nine Castillian Lords to Lewis VIII in which they own and acknowledge his Son for their King and say that Alphonso IX King of Castille had declared by his Will that in case his Son Henry died without any Heirs the Children of Blanch were to succeed by right of Inheritance but to tell the truth it does not follow from thence that Blanch was the eldest it is more probable that these discontented Lords grounded it upon this that Alphonso and Berenguelle being of kin within the degrees prohibited Pope Innocent III. had declared their Marriage to be null and the Children that should proceed from that conjunction incestuous Bastards and incapable to succeed So that upon their exclusion those of Blanch came to the succession of Alphonso IX their Grand-father and this is it that gave a Right to the Kings of France which they held a long time to the Kingdom of Castille Year of our Lord 1252 Some Months before the death of Blanch there arose a sharp contest between the Secular Doctors of Theology at Paris whereof William de St. Amour was as it were the Head and on the other part the Orders Mendicants of Preaching Friers and Friers Minors because those Monks as the others reproached them were so far from submitting to the Statutes and Discipline of the University that they aimed to make themselves the Masters The thing was obstinately debated five or six years together St. Amour got the better at Paris but the Dispute being transferr'd to Rome he was worsted and his Book was condemned not as Heretical but as scandalizing those good Fathers They had great credit in that Court and obtained great Priviledges with so much the more facility as their trampling on the Laws increased the power of the Donor and diminished that of the Bishops to whose prejudice they were granted About the beginning of this quarrel Robert de Sorbonne Doctor in Divinity and very highly esteemed by St. Lewis built the Colledge of the Poor Masters of SORBONNE under which Name the Vulgar are wont to comprehend all the Faculty of Theology of Paris In effect it is the most renowned of all those Colledges Year of our Lord 1253 In the year 1253. died Thibauld who was the Fifth of that Name as Earl of Champagne but only the First as King of Navarre His Successor in all his Estates was Thibauld II. or VI. aged Fourteen years under the Guardianship of his Mother Year of our Lord 1254 Conrad the Son of Frederic did not find himself strong enough in Germany to cope against William Earl of Holland pretended King of the Romans he was gone into Italy in the year 1251. and some time after having unhappily caused his Nephew Frederic to be strangled had seized upon his Treasure and upon his Kingdom of Sicilia But this year 1254. was himself poysonn'd by Mainfroy to whom not knowing he was the Author of his death he lest the Regency of the Kingdom and the Guardianship of his Son Conrad the Young vulgarly named Conradin aged but Three years Year of our Lord 1254 It was neer Six years since St. Lewis the King went out of France and Three years and a half that he had been in the Holy Land visiting the Holy Places with an incredible Devotion sortifying the Towns and reviving the courage and affairs of the Christians in those Countreys as much as possibly he could France destitute of any Pilot by the death of his Mother most earnestly desired his return He therefore took Shipping at the Port of Acon or Ptolemais on St. Year of our Lord 1254 Marks Eve and landed at Marseilles the Eleventh day of July Year of our Lord 1254 The King of England who was this year come into Gascongne desiring to avoid the long voyage by Sea obtained leave of the good King to cross thorough France and take Shiping at Boulogne He met the King at Chartres who from thence took him along to Paris where he Treated him Four days together with all the magnificence imaginable The joy and splendor was the greater because the four Sisters Daughters of the Earl of Provence the eldest Married to the King of France the Second to the King of England the Third to Richard his Brother and the Fourth to Charles Earl of Anjou met all there together William Earl of Holland and King of the Romans making War against the Friezelanders who were Rebels to him had lately been knocked on the Head by certain Peasants hid amongst the Reeds when his Horse was sunk into the Snow and Ice The following year being 1256. the Electors basely selling the Honour of the German Nation and their Votes to Foreign Princes gave the Empire some of them to Richard Brother to the King of England others to Alphonso X. King of Castille Richard went into Germany and sojourn'd there above two years having been Crowned at Aix la Chapelle in the year 1247. Alphonso was no way known to them but by his Money and both of them disputed their Right and Title before the Pope for divers years without eve coming to any agreement The Son of Bouchard d'Avesnes cast out by Guy Earl of Flanders and their Brothers of the Second Bed by the same Mother took Sanctuary with William Earl of Year of our Lord 1255 Holland who had vanquish'd Guy and taken him prisoner with one of his Brothers The Mother to be reveng'd had called in Charles Earl of Anjou and given him the enjoyment of Hainault and Valenciennes during his life He regained those Countreys easily enough from the Hollander because he found him fully enough employ'd against the Frisons where he was kill'd as we have related His Son Florent who succeeded him set the two Brothers at liberty for a great Ransom and St. Lewis obliged his Brother Charles to restore Hainault for a sum of Money as likewise the parties concern'd to stand to the award he had made in Anno 1246. Year of our Lord 1256 There being an universal calme thorough all his Kingdom he set himself upon the regulating it by good and wholsome Laws the banishing from it all violence and oppression the instructing others by his good examples and by all manner of Just and Holy Works undertaking the protection of the Weak the Widdows and Orphans procuring with all his
would have guessed the business had been at an end but his Wife Margaret Daughter of Robert Earl of Flanders a wise and couragious Princess who made good use of her Head in Council and of her Sword upon occasion as well as the deepest Politician or the bravest Soldier of her time could have done upheld that ruined party and not only so but even raised it again by her heroick Virtue She retired to Brest fortify'd her places put her Son who was but four years old in a place of safety having sent him into England and pressed King Edward so earnestly for the assistance he had promised to her Husband that he sends it by Sea to her It came inde ed somewhat too late to preserve Rennes but early enough to save Hennebond whit her he was retired It was however too weak to maintain the cause the Enemies were Masters of the Field and took the Towns but Charles de Blois I cannot tell by what motive gave her some respite by a years Truce during which this Princess goes over into England to represent the state of her Affairs there Year of our Lord 1342 In the Month of April of this year 1342. hapned the death of Benedict XII This good Pope moreconcerned and affectionate for the exaltation of the Holy See then of his own Family left a vast Treasure to the Church and nothing at all to his kindred but good instructions for the saving of their Souls Peter Roger Native of the Village de Rose in Limosin and Arch-Bishop of Rouen succeeded him by the name of Clement VI. This Man behaved himself quite contrary he scrupled not at all to make use of his Wealth to enrich his Relations and restored the Nipotisine very prejudicial to to the Church Year of our Lord 1342 The Countess Margaret acted so successfully at the Court of England that she brought back a powerful supply commanded by Robert d'Artois The Naval Forces of the Genoese and Spaniards which were under the Command of Lewis of Spain Brother of Alphonso who was Constable set upon them smartly and might well have hindred their Landing if a sierce Wind had not obliged him at night to put out to Sea fearing his great Vessels should run aground their Ships being smaller got to Port near Vannes Robert d'Artois being landed besieged that City and carried it by Assault which he made upon them in the night presently after another very hot one which he had given them in the day time But after that the Captains of the contrary party knowing he had sent the greatest part of his Army to besiege Rennes and that himself staid in Vannes they came and besieged him and press'd so hard upon him by repeated Assaults that they regained the place Himself was hurt in the last attaque and with much ado saved himself by a postern and got to Hennebond from thence he went into England where he thought to find best Chyrurgeons he died of his wounds in London detested of all good and loyal Frenchmen and passionately regretted by Edward who promis'd him to revenge his death And in effect he landed soon afterwards in Bretagne where all at one time he besieged Vannes Rennes and Guincamp protesting he did not intend to break the Truce made with the French but only he would defend and protect the Lands of a Pupil he meant Montfort's Son to whom he had promised his Daughter in Marriage On the other hand the Duke of Normandy thought he did not infringe it if he assisted Charles de Blois his Cousin German Year of our Lord 1342 After divers exploits of War on either part the Duke hemm'd in Edward before Vannes both by Sea and Land Now as the English were reduced to hunger and the French extreamly incommoded with the Autumn Rains they were glad on both sides to get out of these straights by a Truce for two years which was concluded betwixt them only for Bretagne The Legats of the new Pope brought this about and withal got the promise of both Kings that they should send to Avignon to the Holy Father there to determine all their Disputes by a firm and lasting Peace Year of our Lord 1343 The Twenty eighth of January hapned the death of Robert the Wife King of Naples who left his Kingdom to Jane Daughter of his Son Charles and the Sixteenth of September that of Philip King of Navarre Charles his Son who since ws surnamed the Bad came to the Crown under the Guardianship of Queen Jane of France his Mother Year of our Lord 1343 The Duke of Normandy and the English Deputies met at Aviguon to Treat about a Peace and although they could not come to an agreement in any one thing yet nevertheless it was believed they would conclude a Peace at last because the Popes Mediation was pleasing to both Princes But here an unhappy accident falls in their way and not only stopt their proceedings towards a Peace but set them at farther distance then ever they were and overwhelmed France with a deluge of woes Year of our Lord 1344 Oliver de Clisson and Ten or Twelve Lords Bretons of the French party having accompanied Charles de Blois to a Turnament that was held at Paris the King caused them to be all made prisoners upon some suspition of their holding intelligence with the English and soon after beheaded without any Trial or Hearing of their Case to the great astenishment of all the World and indignation of the Nobility whose Blood till then had never been shed but in Battle and indeed this too severe King who revenged even his own mistrusts did so alienate the affection of his Grandees that they served him but very ill when he had need of them upon great occasions Year of our Lord 1344. and 45. The death of these Lords of Bretagne enraged the King of England he was almost like to have done the same to Henry Lord of Leon of Charles de Blois his party whom he held a prisoner but upon the humble intreaties of the Earl of Derby he gave him his Life and Liberty upon condition he should go and declare to King Philip that the Truce was infringed by this Murther and that he was now going to begin the War anew as he quickly did as well in Guyenne by the Earl of Derby assisted by the Gascon Lords under his obedience as in Bretagne by Montforts party till he could go himself and carry a War into the very heart of the Kingdom Year of our Lord 1344 The people of France had liberally granted to King Philip very notable Subsidies of Money for his Wars he raised them by much and which was worse he setled a new one upon Salt for which cause Edward by way of railery called him the Author of the Salique Law This impost which makes the Sun and Water to be sold so dear was the invention of the Jews mortal enemies to the name of Christians as the word or term Gabel denotes
was nothing of all this in the Letter but the Captain who could not read believed it and drew out the Garison The Mayor had laid an Ambuscade amongst some Ruinous Buildings which cut off his passage and hindred his return Ten or twelve Forelorn Wretches that were left in the Castle Capitulated After this the crafty Rochellers before they would open their Gates to the French made their Treaty with the King and obtained to have the Castle demolished or if we will believe their Memoirs an Amnesty for having demolish'd it before the Treaty Besides this they got so many Priviledges and great Advantages as tended as much towards the putting this City at liberty as for the exchanging their Master After the Constable who represented the King had taken their Oaths of Fidelity he pursued the Conquest of Poitou and Saintonge Most part of the Lords were retired to Touars he laid Siege to it and forc'd them to Capitulate That they should put themselves their Lands and that place under Obedience of the King unless the King of England or one of his Sons did come with an Army strong enough to sight the Besiegers by Michaelmass-day This sort of Composition was practised as long as there was the least faith left amongst Men. It ever included a Cessation of Arms during which the Besiegers taking Hostages of the Besieged raised their Camp and left them all manner of liberty excepting only the admitting more Soldiers into the Garison or to furnish or provide it with Stores Year of our Lord 1372 When King Edward heard of this Capitulation Honour and Necessity rowzing and bringing to his mind the remembrance of his Victories he puts to Sea himself with four hundred Vessels that he might not lose so fine a Country and so many brave Men. But the Winds refused to be serviceable to him upon this occasion they tossed him about for six weeks together and would not afford one favourable gale but what blew him towards his own Ports of England The time being expired the Lords performed the Capitulation after which the Cities of Saintes Angoulesme Saint John d'Angely and generally all the Country even to Bourg and Blaye returned to the Obedience of their Ancient and Natural Soveraign Year of our Lord 1372 John de Montfort Duke of Bretagne looked with fear upon the Prosperity of the French his ancient Enemies and with regret upon the decay of the King of England his Father-in-Law and his Protector but he was not Master in his Dutchy the People would have no more War the haughty humour of the English was not compatible with their Liberty and the Barons dazled with the lustre of de Guesclin and de Clissons Fortune had their Eyes turned upon the Employments and Pensions of the Court of France Thus the Duke was under great constraint If he admitted any English to land upon those Coasts the Common People fell upon them if he quarter'd them in his Garisons the Lords rose up Having placed some in Brest Conquet Kemperle and Henneband they besought the King to send them some Forces to drive them thence and put the Cities into his hands as they did Vennes Renes and divers others The Revenge he would have taken by laying Siege to St. Mahé did but hasten his loss and the Constables march with the Duke of Bourbon Some English Soldiers that he had sent for to strengthen himself withall had the whole Country against them and were all cut in pieces so that although he had some good places left he durst not shut himself in any of them but passed over to England to cry out for help Whilst he was gone the Constable secured them all excepting three Brest Becherel and Derval this last belonged to Knolles he laid Siege to all these at the same time as likewise to la Roche-sur-yon in Anjou This last being farthest off from all Assistance surrendred Brest Becherel and Derval promised to do as much if within a certain prefixed time there appeared not an Army sufficient and that would hold Battle to make the French raise their Siege As for Brest and Derval they saved themselves by this means The Earl of Salisbury was then at Sea to guard the English Coasts against the Spanish Navy Commanded by Evans of Wales whose Father King Edward had put to death to get that Principality Hearing what danger Brest was in he landed in Bretagne encamped and entrench'd himself near that place then sent his Heraulds to the Constable to proclaim that he was come to raise the Siege and expected him there The Constable did not think sit to attaque him in so well fortisied a Post Thus that place was deliver'd At their departure thence Knolles who had defended it threw himself into Derval not thinking himself obliged to stand to the Treaty made by that Garison which cost the Lives of their Hostages and by way of Reprizal the Lives of some Gentlemen whom Knolles had taken Prisoners As for Becherel it held out a whole year at the end whereof no Army appearing on the day prefixed to relieve it it fell into the hands of the French The King of England did not fail of his Guaranty to the Duke of Bretagne he raised an Army of above Thirty thousand Men whom he gave to the Duke of Lancaster to restore that Prince who had the confidence to send defiance to the King of France his Sovereign they landed at Calais the twentieth of July marched thorough and pillaged Artois Picardy Champagne Fores Beaujolois Auvergne and Limosin and descended into Guyenne instead of going into Bretagne as Montfort hoped and expected It was the constant resolution of this wise King not to hazard any great Battle against the English but he ordered his Forces should be lodged every night in some Town should follow the enemy by day and never cease from galling and disturbing them falling upon all straglers and sitting so near their skirts as to keep all Provisions and Forage from them by which means he defeated their great Armies by little and little and made them moulder away to nothing These having been observed and pursued by the Duke of Burgundy as far as Beaujolis and from thence to the Dordogne by the Constable were not only prevented from undertaking any thing considerable but were so much weakned and diminished that scarce six thousand of them got into Bourdeaux Year of our Lord 1373 During this irruption the Duke of Anjou Governour of Languedoc made another much more advantageous into the upper Guyenne He conquer'd several places of little or no name at present but in these days of great importance Two great Judgments a Famine and a * Plague tormented France Italy and England this year 1373. There likewise Reigned especially in the Low Countreys a phrantick passion or phrensie unknown in the foregoing ages Such as were tainted with it being for the most part the scum of the people stript themselves stark naked placed a Garland of
of the English where he had been detained ever since the time his Father Charles had left him there in hostage Year of our Lord 1387 The Duke not without cause imagined that this Alliance was making with design to disturb him in the possession of his Dutchy He sent for the Lords of the Countrey of Vennes under a pretence of holding a great Council Clisson goes thither with his Train after Dinner the Duke carrying him to see his Castle de l'Ermine which he was building by the Sea-side he caused him to be stopt in a Tower and Beaumanoir with him and commanded Bavalan who was Captain of the Castle to throw them by night into the Sea The faithful disobedience of this good Servant gave the Duke his Master time to repent his having given Command for the death of the Constable and the intercession of the Lord de Laval who at the peril of his Life would never forsake his Brother-in-law drew him out of prison upon condition of paying the sum of One hundred thousand Franks and the surrendring of three Castles But Clisson would not forgive as the Duke had forgiven and the King taking this affront done to his prime Officers much to heart sent for the Duke to give an account of his actions Year of our Lord 1388 The King went to Orleans expresly the Duke having made them wait for him a long time sent to be excused Clisson pleaded his own Cause accused him of Treason and threw down his gage of Battle which no body took up The Duke taking the advice of the Barons came at length to Paris and by the favour of the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy was kindly received by the King and in some measure made friends with the Constable by restoring him both his Money and his Castles Year of our Lord 1387. and 88. That question so much debated touching the conception of the Sacred Virgin Mother was begun in the last age amongst the Professors of Divinity The Jacobins according to the opinion of their St. Thomas and their Albertus the Great maintained that she had not been exempt of the original stain The Cordeliers their perpetual antagonists took occasion upon this point to fall foul upon them as if they did denigrate the Honour of the Mother of God The common People and such as were most zealous applauded these last and most part of the Prelates and the Universities adhered to them but the Jacobins standing up too stifly against the Torrent fell under the Peoples hatred and the reputation of being Heretiques One of their principal Doctors named John de Moncon for having Preached too freely on that point was condemned solemnly by the Bishop of Paris and then by the Pope himself before whom he had brought his Appeal Which was more the University forbid them the Pulpit and cut them off from their Body to which they were not rejoyned till the year 1403. And in the mean time they were to undergoe the indignation of the Court the shoutings of the common People and which was worst great necessity Year of our Lord 1388 William the Son of the Earl of Juliers and who was Duke of Guelders by his Mother Daughter of Duke Renauld the I. of that name had some contest or wrangle with the Duke of Burgundy who supported the Dutchess of Brabant whom he was to succeed in the detention of certain places of Guelders which Renauld had otherwise engaged Now because the Burgundian employed the Forces of France against him this petit Duke truly generous and magnanimous but rash in this point had the confidence to declare a War against the King who had twenty Lords in his Train more powerful and considerable then he His bold bragging did not last long the King fell on a suddain upon the Countrey of Juliers The Father much astonished disowns his Son to turn away the storm demands Peace by the Arch-Bishop of Colens means and offers his Homage The Army therefore quits his Territory and goes into that of Guelders the young Duke persists a month longer in his obstinacy In the end the Duke of Burgundy perswades him to crave pardon Being come to wait upon the King he disowned his Challenge though Sealed with his own Seal and submits and referrs the Disputes he had with the Dutchess of Brabant to him but did not renounce his Alliance with the English nevertheless he was presented with such noble Gifts as proved a temptation to the rest of the Germans to engage them to the service of France The King had attained to the age of Twenty years wherefore upon the Proposition which Peter Aisselin de Montaigu Bishop of Laon made in Council he declared that he would take the administration of the Government into his own hands and that he discharged his Uncles He kept the Duke of Orleans his Brother near him the Author of this Counsel and the Duke of Bourbon not suspected by this Duke and one whose sinceriry was likely to give a fair prospect of good success to the Government The other two withdrew in discontent The suddain death of the Cardinal de Laon which hapned soon after was held in the opinion of many for an effect of their resentment Year of our Lord 1388 When the King first began to apply himself to take cognizance of his Affairs the face of the whole Government looked with a better countenance for some little time The King made choice of a new Council wherein three Citizens Bureau de la Riviere John le Mercier Sieur de Novian and John de Montaign had the best part He afterwards took off all the new Imposts set aside the theeving Officers whom the Princes had put in gave the Provostship which he had newly restor'd to John Jouvenal the Advocate an honest Man Wise and Courageous that of First President to Ouchard des Moulins sent all the Prelats to reside on their Benefices and to have time to heal the Kingdom whose very Bowels were torn and mangled made a Truce for three years with the English Year of our Lord 1389 During this calme he diverted himself with actions of pomp and ceremony at St. Denis the Knighthood of Lewis II. King of Sicilia and Charles Earl of Mayne his Brother with Turnaments and Tiltings very stately after that the Funeral of Bertrand de Gueselin at Melun the Marriage of his Brother Lewis with Valentine Daughter of John Galeazo Duke of Milan and Earl de Vertus in Champagne and at Paris in the Holy Chappel the Coronation of the Queen his Wife The Marriage of Lewis his only Brother with Valentine was in Treaty Anno 1386. and consummate this year she brought him in Dower Four hundred thousand Florins of Gold the County of Ast to be enjoyed from that hour and that of Vertus in Champagne after the death of the Father with Rings and Jewels of an inestimable value These huge sums enabled the young Prince to make great Purchases These Acquisitions and the greediness of
had a design to recover it by force and to this end had besieged it the Mareschal having armed himself to relieve it the Grand Master of Rhodes undertook to make an acommodation Year of our Lord 1406 Whilst they were in Treaty the Mareschal employ'd his Arms against the Turks After he had conducted the Emperour Manuel from Modon to Constantinople he went and besieged the City of Scandeloro which he took by assault Then the Peace with Cyprus being made he turned his designs towards the coasts of Syria because he had War with the Sultan of Egypt for some Merchants Goods which that Barbarian had taken from the Genoese The Venetians jealous of their prosperity and watchful of the Mareschals actions gave speedy notice by a nimble vessel to all the Ports upon that coasts So that where ever he would have gon on shoar he found them armed and well provided to receive him Thus he missed Tripoly and Sayeta but he took Baruc which he carried by storm This good success encreased the Venetians rage so much that lying in wait for him upon his return having discharged the greatest part of his Men and Ships Charles Zeni who commanded their Gallies set upon him without any War declar'd How weak soever he was he defended himself so stoutly that they could not force him but they took three of his Gallies wherein was Chastean Morand and Thirty Kinghts of Note The mournful Letters these prisoners sent to the Court because they knew the Venetians never set any free whom they had taken till the Peace was made and their friends lamentations to the Princes and the Kings Council wrought so much that they sent to the Mareschal not to revenge himself for this Treachery but allow of those excuses the Venetians made The Mareschal knowing they were contrary both to the Truth and his own Honour published a Manifesto directed to the Duke and to Zeni relating the whole Fact in a quite different manner giving them the Lye and challenging them to a Combat either One to One or Ten against Ten all Knights or either of them in a single Galley to which no answer was made Year of our Lord 1406 The University of Paris did not desist from pursuing the re-union of the Church and had in order to it dispatched some Deputies to Rome to Innocent but Bennet endeavour'd to break these measures by his intrigues in the Court of France The Cardinal de Chalan his Envoye was but ill receiv'd yet he for a while hindred the Decree the Parliament were about to make against the University of Toulouze who had embraced the defence of that Pope and written Letters in his favour injurious both to the King and his Council but that of Paris addressing themselves to the King with as much zeal obliged the Parliament at last to give Sentence That the said Letters should be burnt at the Gates of Toulouze Lyons and Montpellier and those that wrote them should be proceeded against Notwithstanding theycould not obtain that substraction so many times demanded Year of our Lord 1406 During these Transactions Innocent the Pope of Rome dies and his Cardinals elected Angelo Coraro a Venetian called Gregory XII but obliged him both by Oath and Writing to abdicate the Papacy when Benedict would do the same and to give notice of this condition to all Princes He at first comply'd with his Promises and sent an Embassy to his Competitor for the Union They agreed upon the City of Savonna for their Conference all necessary Orders for their security and for their conveniencies were issued out and the King omitted nothing that might be helpful sending his Ambassadors to labour in it who were well received every where But the two Anti-Popes each on Year of our Lord 1407 his part sought difficulties and delays denying to meet personally and endeavouring to put things off by a thousand tricks Bennet shusfled a long time before he would give up his Abdication in Writing Gregory yet longer about his security and the way he should go Sometimes he pretended he must go by Sea another while it must be by Land finding out most incomprehensible difficulties in adventuring either way Year of our Lord 1407 The Duke of Burgundy notwithstanding his feigned reconciliation which he daily coloured over with new marks of confidence causes the Duke of Orleans to be assassinated The executioner of this so abhorred a Fact was a Norman Gentleman named Rodolph d'Oquetonville animated by a particular resentment for that the Prince had put him out of an Office he held under the King Upon the 23 or 24th of November in the night time as the Duke returned from visiting the Queen who was then in Child-bed mounted upon a Mule with only two or three Servants about him he who had Six hundred Gentlemen his Pensioners the Murtherer who waited for him in the Street called Barbette accompanied with Ten or a Dozen more like himself First gave him a blow with a Battle-axe which cut off one hand and then a Second that cleft his Head in two the rest likewise mangled him with divers wounds and left him lying in the Street This done they all saved themselves in the Duke of Burgundy's House having strowed the way with Calthrops and set fire to a House that they might not be pursued Upon the first noise of this Murther the Burgundian put a good face upon it and went to the Funeral of the deceased bemoaned him and wept for him but it being mentioned in Council that search should be made in all Princes Hostels for the murtherers the horror of this crime did so confound him that he took the Duke of Bourbou aside and confessed to him that he was the Author of it Afterwards being come to himself again he went from thence and the next day fled into Flanders with his Cut-throats His retreat with his threatnings gave some apprehension that he would put the Kingdom into a flame and every man feared the like treachery might fall upon his own Head And for this reason instead of prosecuting him they sought by all mean toa ppease him The Duke of Berry and the Duke of Anjou King of Sicilia took a journey to Amiens to confer with him he came to them well attended his ill act leaving him no security but force and promised to return to Paris and justify himself before the King provided they kept no Guards at the City Gates Year of our Lord 1407 In the interim the Dutchess of Orleans who was at Blois when her Husband was murthered came to Paris with her Sons she had three Charles Philip and John the eldest was not above Fourteen years old to make her complaints to the King He gave her the Guardianship of her Children but durst not promise to do her justice for fear of over-turning his Kingdom The disconsolate Widow knowing therefore that her Husbands murtherer was returning retired with her young ones to Blois Year of our Lord 1408 According to his
and give battle to the Ravens who in their Flocks had Rooks and Choughs the Storks gained the Victory In the Countrey of Liege in like manner some Crows or Ravens having insulted over a Faulcon breaking the Eggs in its Airy the next day were to be seen in that very place a vast quantity of Birds of both those kinds who fought most obstinately till the Crows betook themselves to flight after a very great slaughter of their Forces It was wisely Counsell'd whereby to lay asleep all discords to employ all the Forces of France in a War upon the English under that specious pretence of revenging the death of King Richard II. The Nobless went about it with much resolution but the envy which other Princes had against the greatness of the Burgundian who sate at the Helme broke off this design Year of our Lord 1410 At the end of August the Dukes of Berry and Bourbon having made a League at Gyen with the House of Orleans and with the Duke of Bretagne the Earls of Alenson Clermont and Armagnac who were all his friends or picqued against the Burgundian sent to make their demands of the King Every one armed himself the King might command them to lay down their Arms but it was in vain for they went on with their Levies The Burgundian having to little purpose proffer'd them Peace made use of the Kings Authority to summon the Arriere-ban puts Ten thousand Men into Paris The Duke of Berry and the Princes lodged themselves at the Castle of Wicestre and began to make the War The neighbouring parts round that City were eaten up by Two hundred thousand hungry Soldiers About the end of November when all the Provisions were consumed necessity compell'd both parties to come to an agreement It was Articled that the Duke of Burgundy should go out of Paris and that the Duke of Berry should not go in That those two Princes should name some Lords that should take care for them of the Government and the Dauphin's Person That the King sho u l d chu Council of Twelve Persons not suspected whose Names he should communicate to them That all the Princes should withdraw with their Forces and that none of them should return near the King unless he were commanded by Letters under the Great Seal and written in Council Year of our Lord 1411 The Burgundian obey'd with sincerity and retir'd forthwith but the Duke of Orleans with those of his party began immediately to make new Levies The Queen and the Duke of 〈◊〉 appeared as Neuters and offer'd to be Mediators The King spake 〈◊〉 Master and Commanded them to disarm the Burgundian lay quiet and remained in Obedience but the Orleannois with his Sword in hand demanded Justice for the death of his Father After many Letters and fruitless Negotiations he sent a very biting Cartel to the Burgundian who answered in the same stile Their Challenges were in the month of August Year of our Lord 1411 The King had ordained the Queen and the Duke of Berry who were at Melun to labour for a Peace and sent thither Persons that were Notables of the Clergy the Nobility the Parliament and the University the better to Authorize what they should conclude therein but their design was only to pillage Paris and deliver themselves to the Orleannois The Parisians having timely notice demanded the Count de St. Pol might be their Governour It was agreed to but instead of strengthening himself with good honest Citizens he furnishes himself with Rascals and raises a Company of Five hundred Butchers Commanded by the Goix the Kings Butchers who committing a thousand insolencies obliged a great many good Citizens to retire elsewhere France then divided her self in two Factions the one the Orleannois vulgarly named Armagnac's from the Count of Armagnac one of their principal Chiefs they carried a White Bend and a Cross with Right Angles and the other the Burgundians who bare the St. Andrew's Cross The best of the Citizens of Paris inclined towards the First the Populace towards the Second From thence proceeded so many Murthers plunderings and Proscriptions according as the success varied on either side Year of our Lord 1412 The Burgundian party was then the strongest having the King the Dauphin Duke of Guyenne and the City of Paris on that side so that they displaced the Prevost des Marchands and imprisoned and banished divers of the contrary party In the mean time the Forces under the Duke of Orleans plundered Picardy and he seized upon Montlehery Upon this they perswaded the Duke of Guyenne to oblige the King to recall the Burgundian to his assistance This Duke embraced the opportunity enters into Picardy with Sixty thousand Men besieged and forced Ham but he could go no further The contest about the plunder of that City begot a mortal dissention between the Picards and the Flemmings wherewith his Army was made up insomuch as the Duke of Orleans approaching with his the Picards forsook him the Flemmings withdrew and he though much against his Will with them The greediness with which the party Orleannois gaped for the plunder and spoil of Paris hindred them from pursuing and destroying the Burgundian They marched immediately to block up this great City made themselves Masters of St. Denis by a Siege of the Tower of St Cloud by the Treachery of him that Commanded it and fired the Houses of such Citizens as were not of their Faction In retribution the Company of Butchers went and burnt the Castle of Wicestre which belonged to the Duke of Berry Year of our Lord 1412 The Orleannois thought themselves so very sure of the taking of Paris that they had already agreed upon their shares in the spoil But now the Burgundian returns with a relief of English pierces thorough the midst of their Forces and the Thirtieth of October is received into the City as the deliverer of the Kingdom Then their party declines St. Cloud is forced out of their hands with the loss of above Nine hundred Gentlemen they raise their Blockade and having drawn all their Men together at St. Denis retreat in disorder over the Bridges they had laid upon the Seine Year of our Lord 1412 All the misfortunes that attend a routed party fell upon these The victorious Burgundian causes them to be excommunicate and proscribed gives them chace every where puts their Goods to sale by out-cry imprisons all their Friends and Servants displaces the Constable Albret John de Hangest Hugueville Grand Master of the Cross-Bow-Men and the Sire de Rieux Mareschal to give their places to the Count de St. Pol the Lord de Rambures and Lewis de Longny his partisans All the neighbouring Cities about Paris enter into the same interests Orleans alone remains of the side of her Princes The other places and of such as followed them are forced to abandon them even Guyenne and Languedoc submit and renounce the Government of the Duke of Berry Year of our
encreasing his astonishment he sent the Earl of Nevers his Brother to the King then the Countess of Hainault his Sister and afterwards the Duke of Brabant his other Brother who made several Journeys to Court to endeavour to put some stop to the Kings wroth but nothing less would serve then the Confiscation of all his Lands Year of our Lord 1414 Happily for him the King fell ill again In this interval taking breath a little he got a Garison into Aras the Princes brought the King thither and besieged the Town It made an obstinate defence perhaps encouraged by advice from some of the Besiegers So that their Army growing tir'd and weak by Sickness the Countess of Hainault took this opportunity and sollicited the Duke of Guyenne so earnestly who had all Authority in his hands that without consulting the rest of the Princes he granted a Peace to the Duke of Burgundy This was made about the end of September but the Agreement or Articles were not Signed till the sixteenth of October at Quesnoy The Conditions were very hard upon the Burgundian That five hundred of his Men should be excluded from the Indempnity That several Officers belonging to the King the Queen and the Dauphin who favoured him should be removed That he should not come near the Court without express Order from the King under the Great Seal and by Advice of the Council It was added That for the Kings Honour his Banner should be set upon the Walls of Arras the Governor displaced and the Burghers obliged to take an Oath of Fidelity to the King Year of our Lord 1414 We have not taken notice what the English did both by Sea and Land these two last years against the French as being of little importance nor how they Conquer'd several places in Guyenne the Earl of Armagnac and the Lord d'Abret siding with them because they had been banish'd from the Court The Animosity of that Nation would allow of no Peace with France but their King Henry V. the Son of Henry IV. who died of a Leprosie the twentieth of March in the year foregoing sought to make an Alliance with the French that he might be supported against the inconstant and factious humour of his own Subjects so that the Duke of York was come into France the preceding year for that very purpose In the Month of February of this same his Ambassadors came to make Overtures and demanded Catharine the Kings Daughter agreeing to a Truce for a year to commence from the Year of our Lord 1414 second day of the same Month. A strange Rheum called the Coqueluke tormented all sorts of People during the Months of February and March and made them so very hoarse that the Bar the Pulpits and Colledges became all dumb It caused the death of most of the old People that were aflected with it Ladislaus of whom we have made mention was become Master of the whole Kingdom of Naples but as he was too much addicted to Women and besides mightily hated for his Cruelties he was this year poisoned after a Villanous manner Year of our Lord 1414 He found his Death in the Fountain of Pleasure and Life Jane II. of that name his Sister Widow of William of Austria succeeded him she was then forty years old and nevertheless her many years were so far from quenching her Passions they rather inflamed them to the highest excess The Council of Pisa had ordained that another general one should be held within three years and in the mean time was continued by Deputies At the expiration of that time John XXIII had called one at Rome for the year 1412. which being not numerous by reason by reason of the troubles occasioned by Ladislaus was put off till another time Now the Emperor Sigismund being gone into Italy in the year 1412. about some Disputes he had with the Venetians the Pope sent some Legates to him to appoint the place and time for the Council They agreed upon the City of Constance on the Rhine and as to the time the Pope assigned it on All-Saints-day of the following year Year of our Lord 1414 Notwithstanding it was not opened till the sixteenth of the Month by the Pope himself The Emperor came thither upon Christmas-Eve and sung the Epistle at the Holy Fathers Midnight-Mass being in the Habit of a Subdean The second Session was not held till the second day of March following He was present at divers afterwards array'd in his Imperial Robes Year of our Lord 1415 In this Session the Pope sitting on his Throne being turned towards the Altar read a Schedule aloud wherein he promised and gave his Oath that he would renounce the Papacy in case the two others Gregory and Bennet did renounce or happen to dye Now whether this act were by compulsion or that he had done it without reflecting on the Consequences he immediately repented and fearing lest they should take him at his word he ran away by night to the City of Schaffhausen under the protection of the Duke of Austria Year of our Lord 1415 After he had wandred some Months from one City to another forsaken by that Duke and not able to find any that could afford him a secure retreat he was taken Prisoner brought back to Constance and deposed the eighteenth of May by the Council He then made a vertue of necessity and submitted to the Sentence very calmly Gregory did likewise submit to the Judgment of the Council and gave in his Cession by Proxy Bennet only remained obstinate and kept himself shut up in his Castle of Paniscole in Arragon till the year 1424. when he ended his days Even at his death he commanded a couple of Cardinals who had all along kept him company to elect him a Successor They put a Cannon of Barcelona in his place who took upon him the name of Clement VIII and King Alphonso caused this Idol to be adored for five years in hatred to Pope Martin with whom he had some quarrel then obliged him to lay down his pretended Tittle Anno 1429. Year of our Lord 1415 The Treaty concerning the Peace and Match between France and England was yet continued and three or four solemn Embassies were sent on either side They offer'd the King of England Eight hundred thousand Florins of Gold and to give up to him fifteen Cities in Guyenne and all Limosin as a Portion for the Lady Catharine He seemed to give ear to these Propositions yet demanded every day some new thing to hinder the concluding of it His design was to fall upon France his Subjects desired it with so much passion that the whole Kingdom would have risen against him if he had not satisfi'd their longing It was suspected likewise that he was encouraged to it by the instigation and correspondence of some Traytors at least he was assured he should have but half the French to deal with it being impossible for the two Houses of Orleans and Burgundy ever to be
tawny speaking in a particular Canting Language of their own and using a Slight of Hand in Picking Pockets while they pretended to tell Fortunes They were called Tartars and Zigens These were the same in my own opinion as those the French at present call Bohemians and the English Gypsy's Year of our Lord 1417 We find in the Acts of the Council of Constance how the memory of Wicklef was Anathematiz'd and John Huss who treading his steps had sowed new Doctrines in Bohemia was burnt alive Anno 1415. notwithstanding he had a safe Conduct of the Emperor and how Jerome of Pragne his Associate but more cautious then he chose rather to be condemned absent then present In the same Council Bennet having been declared Contumacious and intruded into the Papacy the Cardinals of all Parties joyning together elected Otho Colomna who took the name of Martin as being promoted on the Eve of that Saints day Year of our Lord 1418 He immediately employs his Care and Paternal Authority to endeavour the making a Peace in France To this end he sent two Cardinal Legats upon whose sollicitation an Assembly was held at Montereau Faut-yonne where the Deputies on either side agreed upon the Seventeenth of May that all hatred being laid aside the Dauphin and Duke of Burgundy should have the Government of the State during the Kings Life But the Constable the Chancellor and those that had the greatest share in the management of Affairs fearing they should be pack'd away or apprehending the Burgundian's Resentment formally opposed it and the Chancellor did absolutely refuse to Seal the Treaty he who was said to have Sealed so many Instruments to the Peoples ruine and for his own private Interest Paris being sick of the War this was an excellent Theme to be preached to the People and stir up their hatred against them and also to rowze the Burgundian Faction who had still remained quiet had not the Populace been drawn to side with them upon this ill management In fine those of his Party holding themselves assured of his Affection introduced into their City Philip de Villiers L'Isle Adauâ— Governor of Pontoise by St. Germains Gate He entred by night upon the Twenty eight of May with Eight hundred Horse crying out Peace and Burgundy The People did not stir till they were come into Year of our Lord 1418 the Streets of St. Denis and St. Honore then they came out on all hands and joyned with them Tanneguy du Chastel Provost of Paris hearing the noise ran and took the Dauphin out of his Bed and wrapping him up in his Night-Gown convey'd him to the Bastille and from thence to Melun The King who was in his Hostel remained in the power of the Burgundians From thence spreading themselves over the whole Town they fell upon the Houses of the Armagnac's and searched from the very tops of the Garrets to the bottoms of the Cellers Some plundered the Household Stuff and carried away the Money but were most eager to seize upon their Persons and those were least unhappy that were coop'd up in private places till they had paid their Ransoms Most of them were haled to Prisons whither a great many fled voluntarily to avoid other mischiefs The Chancellor was taken the very same day and imprisoned in the Palace The next day the Constable was dragged to the same place He had concealed himself in a Masons House but Proclamation being made to discover all the Armagnac's upon pain of death his Hoste produced him Year of our Lord 1418 The Banished being return'd from divers parts with indignation and revenge in their Hearts made the most cruel Mutiny that ever was heard of this was upon the Two and twentieth of June They began with the Palace whence they drew forth the Constable and Chancellor Murther'd them and exposed their Bodies upon the Table de Marbre From thence they went to the Prisons Massacred the Bishops of Senlis and de Coutances in the Petit Chastelet and made the rest leap from the tops of the Towers receiving them below upon the points of their Swords and Javelines There was no part of the City which was not stained with the Blood they spilt Near two thousand Men were killed whose Carcasses were drawn into the Fields with deep Incisions made upon their Backs in form of a Bend or Scarfe which was the Signal that Party had marked themselves withal for distinction Such as were found with them were held to be worse then Hereticks the Priests denied them Burial and Baptism to their Children Whether it were Policy or not the Duke of Burgundy would not come to Paris till a month after L'Isle Adam had made himself Master of it The Queen and he made their entrance the fourteenth day of July as Triumphantly as if they were returned Year of our Lord 1418 from the Conquest of some new Empire There was nothing heard in the Streets but the soft Musick of Voices and Instrumens and yet their presence did not stop the bloody hands of Murtherers Whoever had Money or an Enemy an Office or a Benefice was an Armagnac The vilest and the most wicked had made themselves the Chiefs of that Blood-thirsty Militia The very Hangman was one of them and he had so much impudence as to shake the Duke by the Hand who knew not what he was The One and twentieth of August they made another great Commotion that infamous Villain being their Captain in which they killed above two hundred Persons and amongst others even some of those that dwelt in the Dukes Hostel and perhaps they would have carried it home to himself had he not been provided against that Scum of the Rabble He bethought himself of a wyle which was to send six thousand of that common Herd to besiege Montleberry and when they were gone he ordered the Hangmans Head to be chopt off and several of the most deserving to be Hanged or cast into the River Year of our Lord 1418 It seemed that Heaven would revenge those horrible Murthers with its severest Rod About the Month of June Paris began to be infected with the Plague which raged extreamly to the end of October carried off above forty thousand most of them being the meanest of the People and such as had dipt their Hands in Blood After the Dauphin was gone from Paris his Partisans made War in his Name Those Frenchmen that were disinteressed and impartial found themselves much perplexed between the Kings Commands whom the Burgundian made to speak as pleased himself and the Commands of the Presumptive Heir to the Crown which side soever they could take they were sure to be treated as Rebels and Traitors Year of our Lord 1418 The Duke of Bretagne labour'd so much that he made up the breach a second time All the Articles were agreed upon at St. Maurdes Fossez but those that had influence over the Dauphin kept him from Ratifying them so that there was only a Truce for three weeks After he
of all these was Lonvet the President of Provence who had an ambition to govern in despite of all the Grandees He chose rather to be the ruine of his Master whom he had strangely fetter'd then to be thrust away from him so that Year of our Lord 1425 he found means by his contrivances to animate him against the Constable but the Constable made his Party so good that the King found himself abandoned of all the Grandees and all his places refused obedience to him excepting Selles and Vierzon Then he saw it was high time to discharge Louvet and all the rest Taneguy generously sacrificing his fortune to serve his King begged leave to be gone as his Reward Louvet upon his retreat as his Master-piece of Court-craft put the Lord de Gyac in his place The Constable had no little ado to reconcile himself to the King who fled before him that he might not see him At length he suffers him to approach that he might get assistance of the Breton Who being in the end satisfied by the expulsion of his Enemies came to him at Saumur rendred him Homage and gave him his Contract and the Contracts of all the Lords within his Dutchy under Hand and Seal commanding them to go upon his Service They did him but little good but they might Year of our Lord 1425 have done him a great deal of hurt The Seventh of September Charles the Noble King of Navarre ended his Life Blanch his only Daughter Married to John the Brother of Alphonso King of Arragon was his Heiress Year of our Lord 1424 and 25. As on the one hand these Broils prejudiced the Affairs of King Charles on the other hand the Quarrel which hapned between the Duke of Burgundy and the Duke of Gloucester about Jacqueline Countess of Hainault and the Duke of Brabant her lawful Husband did much retard nay set back those of the English forasmuch as it diverted the Forces of those two Princes who would undoubtedly have wholly subdued France had they joyned them to the Duke of Bedfords Jacqueline would not endure that the Duke of Brabant whom she affirmed was nothing to her should enjoy her Lands and the Duke of Gloucester who had Married her did serve and assist her in that Quarrel The Duke of Bedford desiring not to distaste the Duke of Burgundy endeavour'd to patch up some agreement between the Parties the Duke of Brabant submitted but Gloucester regarded it not but still pursued the right of his pretended Wife with Sword in hand Year of our Lord 1424 and 25. He and the Burgundian pickered by Letters and went on so far as to defie each other to a Personal Combat agreeing upon the time the place and the Weapons The Duke of Bedford having assembled the chiefest of the French and English Lords brought that Challenge to nothing and declared that there was no just or legal cause for Combat And to testifie to the Burgundian that he had no hand in the Enterprizes of his Brother he desired they might see one another at Dourlens as they did upon the Eve of St. Peters day This did not hinder them from making a brisk War in Holland where the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Burgundy tried their Forces but at two years end the Pope having declared that the Marriage of Jacqueline with the Duke of Gloucester was of no value that Prince desisted from his prosecution and Married a Damlet whom he entertain'd Year of our Lord 1425 The English had taken and fortified the City of Pontorson nigh Auranches from whence they perpetually molested Bretagne the Constable laid siege to it and regained it in a short time He was not so happy at Saincte James de Beuveron which they had repaired His Soldiers having forsaken him for want of their pay he made a shameful retreat and left all his Artillery and Equipage to the Enemy Pontorson was afterwards besieged by the English and having surrender'd the Duke of Bedford came to the Frontiers of Bretagne with a great Army upon which the Duke was so astonished that he renounced the Alliance he had made with France returned to that with England and promised to do Homage to King Henry The shocks great Captains meet with does often times proceed from the malice Year of our Lord 1426 and envy of those that are of the Kings Council whose care and province it is to provide for the subsistance and payment of the Armies The Constable knew that Gyac was the cause of his disaster because in stead of sending him Money he stop'd the current from running that way and diverted it to his own use and entertained his Prince in solitude and private pleasures that he alone might enjoy his Person and his Favours For this reason in the Month of January following he went with a strong hand to surprize him in his Bed at Issoudun and after some slight formalities of Justice caused his Head to be cut off or as others relate drowned him Year of our Lord 1426 Another Gentleman named le Camus de Beaulieu undertook to supply the place of Gyâ—c and tread in his footsteps some while after People were amazed to see the Constable rid himself of him as he had done of the other The Mareschal de Bouslac by his order slew him in the open Street and almost in the Kings sight in the City of Poitiers He remembred too well what the Favourites had contrived at Montereau and against the Duke his Brother wherefore he would suffer none to be near the King of whom he was not well assured he therefore places the Lord de la Trimouille at Court whom he judged to have sentiments contrary to the two former his House owing all their good fortunes and rise to the Dukes of Burgundy But this Man soon blinded with his new fortune as well as those whose post he now had taken he kept the Princes as much at distance as he possibly could so that even the Constable himself retired into Bretagne This proceeded to a kind of a War which divided the Court and retarded all the Kings Affairs for seven or eight Months Year of our Lord 1426 and 27. It would be endless to take notice of all the Sieges Fights and Enterprizes in these Wars both Foreign and Domestick There was not a City or Burrough but had Garrisons Forts and Castles were built in all convenient places upon Hills on Rivers in narrow ways and in the open Fields Every Lord had his Soldiers or to speak more properly his Bands of Robbers who maintained themselves by feeding on the poor Country People I shall therefore mention only the most remarkable Events in this place that the French raised the Siege of Montargis in the year 1426. and the year after recovered the City of Manse which had been taken by the English during the divisions of the Court. The Siege of Orleance was yet much more memorable and more important The Year of our Lord 1428 Earl of
who then had the Government and prevailed with him at last to put him to death without any form of Process Which excited the hatred of all the great ones against her and made them think of ruining her that they might preserve themselves Year of our Lord 1444 or 45. King Charles was then not much above the age of forty three and the Dauphin who was already two and twenty trod upon his Heels and would have plaid the Master in so much as one day at Chinon he gave a box on the Ear to the fair Agnes There hapned another incident worse yet then this He had bargained with Anthony de Chabanes Earl of Dammartin to assassinate some body that had displeased him James Brother of that Earl who was Grand Maistre of the Kings Houshold dissuaded him from it The King coming to the knowledge of this gave the Dauphin a sharp reprimand The young Prince to excuse himself charged the Earl as having suggested this base design first to him the Earl boldly denied it in the Kings presence and offer'd to justifie himself by Combat against any of the Dauphins Gentlemen that would undertake it The King then found the malignity of his Son abhorred it and commanded him not to see him in four Months time but to go into Dauphine He retir'd with menaces and being once gone thought no more of returning but to Cantonise and Reign alone without any dependance but on his malicious fancies The City of Genoa in a few years had changed their Lords and Governors four or five times The Fregoses and the Adornes who were of their principal Citizens disputed for the Siegnory amongst themselves Barnaby Adorne had usurped it Year of our Lord 1445 with the Title of Doge Janus Fregose pretending he would put it into the Kings hands having treated with him for that purpose made use of the Forces and Money of France to make himself Master then kept it in his own hands and Year of our Lord 1446 scoffed at the French Year of our Lord 1446 The King had for a while adhered to Pope Felix or at least stood Neuter but when informed that Nicholas was elected in the room of Eugenius he would let all Christendom understand he approved his Election He sent a famous Embassy to tender his obedience which perhaps brought in the custom of those stately and expensive Embassies of Obedience which Kings now send to every new Pope Year of our Lord 1447 The Government of the Viscounts at Milan after its having lasted One hundred and seventy years ended this year by the death of Duke Philip And that Estate was claimed by divers Pretenders as either having a right or thinking it would be of great convenience and necessary for them The Emperor Frederic the Duke of Savoy the Venetians Alphonso King of Naples and Charles Duke of Orleans Now as it truly appertained to this last according to the Conditions of the Contract of Valentine his Mother he went thither with some Forces but the Milanese intending their own liberty he could get no more then only his Earldom of Ast Afterwards those People having for many years undergone much trouble and affliction by the contending Parties that strugled for the Mastery fell as we use to say out of the Frying-pan into the Fire by accepting for their Duke Francis Sforza who had Married a Bastard of Duke Philips Year of our Lord 1448 There were but little Infantry in France The King that he might have some that were good and well maintain'd ordained that every Village throughout the Kingdom should furnish him with and pay one Foot-Archer who should be exempt from all Taxes and Subsidies For which they called them the Franc-Archers These made a Body of two or three and twenty thousand Men. Year of our Lord 1448 The Truce prolonged three or four several times was not to end till about a Twelvemonth after this time a Captain of the English Party this was Francis de Surienne extreamly greedy after Prey surprized the City of Fougers belonging to the Duke of Bretagne where he met with a Booty of above Sixteen hundred thousand Crowns and at the same time the English made irruption in Scotland which was also comprehended in the Truce as well as Bretagne but they were soundly beaten there England began likewise to be imbroil'd within its self by reason of some new Tax which King Henry would raise in London which hath most commonly been the occasion or at least the pretence for a Civil War Year of our Lord 1448 The Duke of Bretagne and the Scots likewise make their complaints to King Charles for this breach of the Truce The English are summon'd to repair the damage they disown'd Surienne indeed but for the rest gave no satisfaction but put off's and delays All this was suffer'd six Months they imagine the French are afraid At length the Duke of Bretagne flies out and with the Kings consent surprizes at the same time the Pont de Larche above Rouen Conches near Evreux Gerbroy not far from Beauvais and Cognac upon the River Charente Year of our Lord 1449 By force of many Intreaties Negotiations and Menaces the King overpersuaded Felix to set his hand to the re-union of the Church He renounced the Papacy more gloriously then he had accepted of it His Conventions with Nicholas V. were such that he seemed to quit it as a thing belonging to him which he conferr'd as a favour upon his Rival For he made his demission in the Council which he had purposely transferr'd from Basil to Lausanna and after he had deposited his Pontifical Ornaments the Fathers elected Nicholas who left him perpetual Legat in all the Countries of Savoy Montferrat Lyonnois Swisserland and Alsatia and received all those Cardinals he had created into the Sacred Colledge Year of our Lord 1449 The disturbances of England continuing King Charles found the opportunity so favourable that he resolved to chace the English out of his Kingdom He had made the Earl de Foix Lieutenant of his Armies from the Garonne to the Pyrenees and the Earl de Dunois in all the Kingdom in such sort nevertheless as he rendred respect and honour to the Constable when they both met in the same place The first had Order to take all places the English held at the foot of the Pereneans thereby to block up the passage against John of Arragon King of Navarre who had made a League with them and obliged himself for a certain Sum of Money to keep and guard Mauleon de Soule for them a place very strong in those times and situate upon a high Rock For this purpose he had taken it into his protection and had placed his Constable in it The Count de Foix was Son in Law to that Prince however he had more regard to the Kings Orders then his Father in Law and scruples not to besiege it The Navarrois knowing it wanted Provisions Arm'd himself to relieve it and came within two
Year of our Lord 1465 days after This was the 4 th of January In hatred towards that good Prince and in prejudice of the pretensions he had to Milan the King had a little while before acknowledged Francis Sforza for Duke of Milan and with that had not only given up to him all the right the French had to the Seigneury of Genoa But had also remitted and given him Savona which he yet held declaring to all the Princes of Italy that whosoever should assist the Genoese against Sforza should be his enemy So that Sforza by the support of his great name made himself master of Genoa and of all that Signeury Year of our Lord 1465 The Author of the Antiquities of Orleans says that the River of Loire was Frozen this year in the Month of June If this prodigie were true we must needs conclude it proceeded from a natural cause since Chronology demonstrates to us that the thing upon which he would have it to be a Miracle could not happen in that time as he hath put it The Breton having dispatched his Ambassadors to Tours to demand the Term of three Months carried his practises on so cunningly that his League was ready for their purpose before the King had discovered any steps of it The Dukes of Bourbon and Alenson all the other Princes of the Blood except the Counts d'Estampes de Vandosme and d'Eu almost all the Grandees and all the late Kings old Captains were in it amongst others the Duke of Nemours and the Counts of Armagnac of St. Pol of Dunois of Dammartin who made his escape from the Bastille through a hole the Mareschal de loheach the Lords D'Albret de Bueil de Gaucour and de Chaumont d'Amboise They called it a League For the Publick Good because the Princes gave it that fair pretence While the King was at Poitiers the Bastard d'Armagnack Siezed his only Brother Charles and carryed him into Bretagne All the zealous Servants of the Deceased Charles his Father flocked in to him and got him to write a Manifesto to all the Princes of France inviting them to unite with their Party for the easing of the People and the reformation of the Kingdom After the King had attempted in vain to reclaim them by fair promises and flattering words he went to strike the first blow at them who had the first declared themselves These were the Dukes of Bourbon and Dammartin who had begun the War in Berry Bourbonnois and Auvergne All Berry submitted except Bourges which was guarded by the Bastard of Bourbon Rion in Auvergne waited a Siege and sustained it John Duke of Nemours the Count d'Armagnac and Charles Sire d'Albret brought a considerable reinforcement to the Duke nevertheless he gave Ear to a Treaty with the King promising to summon his Confederates to a Peace and to abandon them if they would not accept of reasonable conditions Nemours gave his positive word to the King to side with his Party but he kept it not and the King kept the Oath he made to himself to be revenged in time and place convenient Year of our Lord 1465 In this Country the King had notice that the Count of Charolois had taken the Field with the Duke his Fathers leave who had assured him when they parted that if he fell into any danger he should not want an Hundred Thousand Men to bring him out again He knew likewise that this Count had fifteen Hundred men of Arms eight Thousand Archers and a great equipage of Artillery and Waggons that he had made his Rendevous before Paris and that the Duke of Bretagne and Monsieur were to joyn him Year of our Lord 1465 The Charolois sent the fairest pretence in the World before him the Abolition of Imposts and the publick good He burned the Seats of those Officers at all the places of Receipts and tore their Registers paid the expences of his Soldiers and kept them in good Discipline If this good order could have held all had been his own or if the Breton had come at the time appointed they had been Masters of Paris there being few Soldiers in it and many male-contented and lovers of Novelties The fear of losing Paris made the King leave his other game to get to Paris before the Charolois As soon as he had repassed the Loire the Duke of Bourbon Dammartin Nemours and Albret broke their words with him and having gotten together ten Thousand men marched to joyn with the other Confederates The Lords of the League were all to be at St. Denis towards the end of the month of June the Charolois waited for them ten or twelve days and in the interim attempted the Suburbs of Paris by several Skirmishes When he found none stirred in his favour and that he had no certain news of them nor of the Bretons march he was in great perplexity and thought to retire back again Nevertheless the Vice-Chancellor Romille a Normand and very subtil shewing him from time to time Letters from his Master which he wrote upon blanks Signed before wrought so far that he engaged him to pass the River Seine over the Bridge at St. Cloud to go and joyn the Breton towards Estampes where he thought to have met him He quartered that day at the Village of Lonjumeau his advanced Guard at Montlehery The King returning from Berry kept the same Road and came to Quarter at Chastres a League on this side of Montlehery Both Armies were mightily surprised to find themselves so near each other The Kings design was to slip aside and reach to Paris without hazarding a Battel but Peter de Breze Grand Seneschal of Normandy concerned that he should ask him whether he had not given his Hand and Seal to the Princes engaged them to fight where he was killed one of the very first Thus hapned it to be a rencounter rather then a Battel It was on Tuesday 16 th of July near Montlehery from whence it took Year of our Lord 1465 name Both Armies to speak properly had the worst and neither of them any advantage The Kings left Wing and the Burgundians right were broken and in the rout the fright was so great that there were run-aways both of the one and other Party that posted it for fifty Leagues together without baiting or looking behind them each of them declaring they had lost the Battel on their â—â—de The two Chiefs fought Valiantly in person the Burgundian was twice near being taken Prisoner or slain In the Evening the King tyred with being on Horse-back all the day was conducted by the Scotch-men of his Guards to the Castle of Montlehery His men seeing him no more believed him to be dead And the Count du Mayne and the Lord de Montauban withdrew themselves with Eight Hundred Lances The Burgundian Army being half broken all in a Consternation fearing a new Engagement the next day which they could not have sustained the Principal Officers were in deliberation to dislodge that
for that purpose He could not consent to the dismembring that fair Province but in the mean time having information that the Duke of Bourbon who made War in that Country having been by some intelligence introduced into the Castle of Rouen had made himself Master of that City and that all the Province inclined to the same resolution allured with the desire of having a Duke as Bretagne had who found themselves very well under him he was induced to grant them what they held already Year of our Lord 1465 The Treaty was concluded the 29 th of October The Count de Charolois had the Cities of the Somme redeemable only after his Decease for two hundred thousand Crowns and moreover the Counties of Guisnes of Boulogne and of Pontieu The Count de St. Pol who Governed him had the Constables Sword To the Count of Armagnac and to all the rest they restored their Lands and those Offices they were dispossessed of and withal they gave them Pensions and employments but in such a manner as sowed the Seeds of discord amongst them The Duke of Bretagne made them pay the charges of his Army and his Journey The Publick which served for a Stalking-Horse to this War and who had born all the expences gained no advantage save only that it was promised That there should be named Six and Thirty Notables or prime Men twelve of the Nobility twelve of the Clergy and twelve of the long Robe to consult of Methods to ease the People and redress the disorders of the State Year of our Lord 1465 The next day the King and the Confederate Princes met at the Castle de Vincennes which he had put into the hands of the Count and there Monsieur rendred Hommage for his Dukedom of Normandy Two days after the Count took his journey towards Flanders the King conducting him as far as Villers le Bel and at the same time the Duke of Bretagne went with Monsieur into Normandy to see him take the possession of it The good success of Francis Sforza's Counsel did soon appear the King gained the most valiant of their Commanders to be for him put some of them into jealousies and divisions sought occasions to strip others and in time lighted on fit opportunities which entangled them in great troubles and perplexities The Count de Charolois was gotten into one that was bad enough to wit a War with those of Liege he needed but to encourage them by blowing up the Flame and assisting those inveterate people in their furious hatred Year of our Lord 1465 Their Bishop was Brother to the Duke of Bourbon Nephew by his Mother to Duke Philip of Burgundy they had expelled him the Country because he did not live like a Prelate and the Burgundian had undertaken to restore him Those of Leige and those of Dinant sent to declare a War against the Charolois when he was on his March towards Paris For that time the Duke his Father with the assistance of the Dukes of Cleves and Guelders compelled them in a few days to buy a Peace But a while after upon the flying report that the Count was kill'd at Montlehery they reassumed their Arms with more fury relying upon the promise the King had made to give them assistance and that he would make no Peace without them Those of Diant a City Famous and enriched by their works in Copper burst out into a Thousand outrages against the Charolois even to the calling him Bastard and hanging him in Effigie Year of our Lord 1466 Their chastisement followed their outragious Insolence very close The Duke laid Siege to the Town his Son commanded the Army The place was taken by Storm and burnt eight Hundred of the Inhabitants drowned in the Meuse and the rest abandoned to extream misery The Liegois who came to their relief terrified with the smoak of this Fire desired a Truce for a year till the month of January the year following and gave up three hundred Hostages Year of our Lord 1465 The Duke of Bretagne would monopolize Monsieur to himself alone and enjoy all the favours he could confer in Normandy John Duke of Calabria and the old Servants of Charles the VII had their pretences too divisions grew amongst them one may guess whether Engines were then wanting to blow up the Sparks They made John Duke of Calabria believe that the Breton had plotted to convey away Monsieur into Bretagne Duke John gives notice hereof to the Normands the noise is spread all over the City the Foolish people take it for a truth run to the Mount St. Catharine where Monsieur was waiting till they had made all ready for his reception sets him upon a Horse and forces him to make his entrance Tumultously without Ceremony The Breton durst not appear and was constrained for his own safety and to avoid that fury to retire into the lower Normandy whose Cities were in his hands Year of our Lord 1465 Soon as the King knew this he took opportunity by the foretop He marched directly to him frighted him brought him to a Conference at Caen where the Duke consented that those places which he held should be put as in Sequestration into the hands of Oder Daydic-lescun since Count of Cominges Whilst the King was in this Country the same Duke of Bourbon who had put Normandy into the power of Monsieur laboured to get him out again and put it into the Kings possession In all his life the Duke of Burgundy felt not a more sensible displeasure then to find that Prince whom he had loved above all the Men in the World turn his back upon him so soon and ruine his own designs Year of our Lord 1466 Louviers and the Pont de Larche being surrendred to the King those of Rouen demanded composition the 10 th of January and their miserable Duke denuded of Friends Money Heart and Counsel escaped in pittiful equipage and thought himself happy in finding a shelter at the Bretons Thus Normandy kept her Duke but two Months The King could not pardon the passion they had shewn to have one It cost the lives of a great number of the most considerable in that Country The War with the Liegois detained Count de Charolois so that he could not prevent this revolution and old Age hindred Duke Philip his Father from stirring in it so early as he would have desired He held only a Correspondence with the Breton and strove to Animate King Edward whose Daughter he had demanded in marriage to make a descent in France During the noise which was spread every where of this irruption and the murmurings of infinite numbers of discontented persons the King amused the people with the hopes of easing them having Summoned an Assembly des Notables at Paris out of which were chosen 21 Commissaries who began to set themselves about it in the Palace the 16 th of July The Count de Dunois presided It was he alone who amongst so many Princes had followed it
for this was to assure him that they had Infallible Intelligence how to surprize the Dukes Towns and make his Subjects revolt in the very Heart of Flanders Upon the hopes of these great advantages he sent an Usher of the Parliament to Summon him even in the very City of Ghent to give satisfaction to the Count d'Eu from whom he detained some Lands belonging to the County of Pontieu In stead of appearing upon the Summons he levy'd Soldiers at half Pay but having been at this charge three Months seeing no Body moved he thought it was only a huffe and dismissed them The House of Burgundy spared their People so much that they kept up no Militia nor Garrisons in their Towns they thought that by Treating their Subjects well they were Guard good enough However when he had laid down all his Arms he received divers informations that all was ready to overwhelm him John de Chaalons Prince of Orange and some of his Domestick Servants for sook him Baldwin one of his Bastard Brothers he had eight Plotted to poyson him the Breton renounced his alliance and the Constable Seized upon the City of Saint Quentin Then he that had feared nothing began to apprehend every thing He got together with much ado three hundred Horse with which he advanced to cover his other Cities on the Somme But upon sight of him those of Amiens turned their backs and received the Kings Forces Abbeville would have done as much if Desquerdes had not hinderd it He retired therefore to Arras with more hast then he went forth and sent a private messenger to the Constable to pray him not to push things forward to extremity He received for answer that unless Monsieur would declare for him he could not be served in it But that he was ready to embrace his defence if he would give his Daughter in Mrrriage to him A Note from Monsieur conveyed to him in a piece of Wax assured him the same thing and the Breton gave him intelligence that all his Towns even Bruges and Ghent were upon the point of revolting and that the King was resolved to besiege him whithersoever he went But the more they will force him the more he stands out against them Not being followed so closely as he might have been by the King he resumes his Courage gathers up Men takes the Field and having gained Pequiny presents himself before Amiens and Fired his Guns at the Town to invite the Constable to give him Battel But finding the great numbers of men coming which the King got together at Beauvais he retreated back and wrote a very Submissive Letter to him which in gross discovered the Artifices of those that Animated the King against him The King who found he was as little secure as the Duke amongst such double dealing People agreed to a Truce for a year the 12 th Day of May. St. Quintin remained the Constables and was at last the cause of his ruine The Treaty Signed the King went into Touraine Monsieur to his Apennage of Guyenne and the Burgundian to Flanders During this War Edward of York with a Moderate assistance which the Burgundian and secretly furnished him withal for he apprehended to offend the Earl of Warwick had by the favour of the Duke of Clarence his Brother whom he had regained by the intrigues of a Woman re-enters England gained two Battels one against Warwick who was killed on the spot the other against young Edward Son of King Henry and the Queen his Mother in which that Prince was slain The Queen became a Prisoner to the Conqueror whom afterwards King Lewis redeemed by a ransom of 6000 Crowns Thus Edward re-establisht himself in his Throne and maintained it till his Death Year of our Lord 1471 Sigismond Duke of Austria having need of Money which that House hath ever been in great scarcity of till the time of the Emperor Charles V. engaged his County of Ferreie for a Notable Sum to the Duke of Burgundy The Duke puts ☜ in a very courteous Governor he was called Hagembach who laying great exactions was the first cause of the Germans hatred towards his Master Year of our Lord 1471 Pope Sixtus the IV. this was Francis de la Rovere Elected in the Room of Paul II. to follow the example of his Predecessors Sollicited the Christian Princes to unite themselves against the Turks For this purpose he sent the Cardinal Bessarion a Greek by Birth and a person of great merit to the King of France and the Duke of Burgundy The Cardinal having seen the Duke first the King was so much offended at it that he made him wait a long time before he would admit him to his presence and giving him Audience he rallied with him and treated him as a Grecian Beard The Truce displeased the Duke who had made it by compulsion neither was it to the good liking of Monsieur nor the Breton nor the Constable thus all four sought to re-unite themselves rogether The marriage of Monsieur was the only tye that could be secure the Burgundian promised it though he had no mind to it and upon this foot they renewed their League The Constables solliciting the other Princes to enter into it the Duke of Bourbon gave notice of his practices to the King who wisely dissembled it contriving to be quit with them by the same method For he every day pared away somewhat of his Brothers Apennage threw one rub one day and another the next Debauched his Friends from him corrupted his Servants and got them to reveal all their Masters secrets By the Treaty of Constans John Court of Armagnac had been restored to his Lands the King had caused them to be again Seized on in the year 1468. And had given them to Monsieur with the Government of Guyenne Monsieur being discontented had caused that Count to return put him into possession of his Estate and by his means and with the assistance of the Counts de Foix and the Lord de Albret he raised Men either that he might not be Surprized or to undertake something Year of our Lord 1471 Whatever his designs were they were blasted by a detestable and cruel remedy He loved a Lady Daughter of the Lord Monsereau and Widdow of Lewis d'Amboise and had for Confessor a certain Benedictine Monk Abbot of St. John d'Angely named John Favre Versois This wicked Monk poyson'd a very fair Peach and gave it to that Lady who at a Collation put it to steep in Wine presented one half of it to the Prince and eat the other her self She being tender died in a short time the Prince more robust sustained for some while the assaults of the Venome but how-ever could not Conquer it and in the end yielded his Life to it Year of our Lord 1471 Such as adjust all the Phenomena's of the Heavens to the accidents here below might have applied to this same a Comet of extraordinary Magnitude which was visible four score days
recover'd to his full Sences he obstinately continued against all reason to undertake afresh the Siege of that place though he had but 3000 Men only and it was in mid-Winter His great Confident was the Count Nichole de Campobasse a Neapolitan who was come into his Service after the Death of Prince Nicholas Grandson to King Rene. He it was that had the whole superintendance of the Siege This Traytor hindred him from advancing causing all things necessary to be wanting He had Sworn the destruction of his Master and even bargained openly enough for his Life with all his Enemies In the mean time the Duke of Lorrain arrives with 20000 Swisse and Germans and the Kings Army was in Barrois thus this unhappy Prince was environed with Enemies on every hand He had no more then Twelve Hundred men in a condition to fight he was resolv'd to it nevertheless to his utter misfortune In the beginning of the Battel Campobasse retires with 400 Horse which he commanded and left ten or twelve Men to Assassinate him upon his being Routed which he took for certain in effect the Burgundians held Year of our Lord 1477. In January out but a moment and the Duke was killed with three wounds He was in his 46 th year and had ruled Eight only They guessed they knew his Body by several marks and the Duke of Lorrain went in a Mourning Habit and with a Golden Beard after the manner of the Heroe's to besprinkle him with Holy water and then caused him to be Interr'd at Nancy Nevertheless being much beloved by his own Subjects the People imagined he had saved himself and for very shame had gone and hid himself in a Hermitage whence they said he would return again after seven years Pennance In so much that many lent money upon condition to be repaid when he appeared again His Atrabilary humour and a certain person that had been seen in Suabia who resembled him much in Shape Hair Voice and Countenance gave colour to this report Year of our Lord 1477 He had no Children but one Daughter named Mary aged almost Twenty years All the Forces of this Puissant Family had been cut off in these three great Battels his Captains and Noblemen almost all taken There were no Garrisons in their Towns no Money in their Coffers but a Tumultuous and amazed Council People astonished and disobedient and a Potent Enemy well Armed subtil and who spared nothing Thus every thing had soon passed under the Dominion of the King if he would have taken the method propounded for the Marrying that young Princess with his Son or to some other Prince of the Blood And truly if he had bestowed this wealthy Heiress upon Charles Duke of Orleance Count of Angoulesme whom she ardently desired all the Low-Country's would have been to this day united to France For that Prince had a Son that attained to the Crown which was Francis the I. But he so perfectly hated that House of Burgundy that he would anihilate it making account to take away all such Lands as appertained to the Crown and to make the rest fall into the hands of some German Princes his Allies As to the first he brought it to pass almost entirely and without much difficulty there being no Governors left that were Proof against his Bribes or the fears of loosing their Estates The Burghers of Abbeville surrender'd first to his Men whom he had sent before him When he appeared in Picardy William Bische a man of low condition raised by the Deceased Duke Charles gave him up Peronne Others delivered to him Han and Bouchain St. Quentin Roye and Montdidier were taken by themselves While he was at Peronne there came Ambassadors from the Princess Mary to desire Peace of him and offer all obedience to him and the Marriage of their Soveraign with the Dauphin He neither accepted nor refused the conditions but obliged them to facilitate the Peace to acquit Philip de Crevecoeur Desquerdes of the Oath he had made to the House of Burgundy and to order him to deliver the City of Arras to him This Desquerdes having already Treated secretly with him entred into his service and caused Hesdin Boulogne and Cambray likewise to be also surrendred up to him Hesdin staid till it was a little battered only for form sake and then conditioned The City of Boulogne resisted but little more Year of our Lord 1477 It belonged to Bertrand de la Tour d'Auvergne from whom the Burgundian detained it The King would keep it himself and in exchange gave him the County de Lauraguez The City of Arras had likewise taken an Oath But soon after they repented and would have called in some Forces that were at Doway remainders of the defeat at Nancy Those of Doway whose Pride had not yet been humbled having adventured to March by open day-light were cut off in the plain Field and the Lord de Vergy who conducted them was made Prisoner The King afterwards went to besiege Arras His wrath went no less then to raze it to the very Foundations Nevertheless the Supplications of Desquerdes obtained composition but it was not observed towards the rich Citizens To get their Fleeces they took away their Lives On the other hand the Prince of Orange having for the second time reconciled himself to the King persuaded the Estates of the Dukedom and the County of Burgundy partly by reason partly by force to submit themselves to his Obedience Which he did the more easily for that Vergy the most powerful and the most zealous Lord of those Countries was yet a Prisoner They had given that Prince hopes of his having the Government of both the Burgundy's and to restore some certain Lands to him which Duke Charles had made him lose by a Sentence given in favour of his Uncles the Lords of Montguyon and besides he had this for a Cover of his persidiousness and made use of it as a Lure to the Estates That the King did not Seize upon these Country 's to detain them but only to preserve them for the Princess against the Swiss and Germans They soon found how it was when he had gotten possession For he declared the Title he had to wit that of Reversion for want of Heirs Males to the Dutchy and that of Donation to the County which he pretended had been given to the Crown of France by Count Otho V. of that name when he married his Daughter with Philip le Long. The greatest disorder in the affairs of the Princess of Burgundy was caused by the Gauntois As soon as they were assured of the Death of Duke Charles they renewed their Commotions slew their Magistrates made themselves Masters of the Person of their Princess and as they were induced with great Pride and little understanding they would needs do every thing and did nothing but mischief She had in her Council the Dutchess Dower Philip of Cleves Lord of Ravenstein the Chancellor Hugonet and the Lord
troublesome Master diverted him from all these laudable Exercises and Employments before he had persevered in them one Year and made him plunge anew in the delights of Fopperies and Women Year of our Lord 1492 The Marriage being made with the Dutchess of Bretagne they were to consider of sending back Marguerite of Austria Maximilian cruelly affended at this double Affront cried out Treachery and accused Charles of having forfaken his own Wife to ravish the Wife of his Father in Law Henry King of England jealous of the growth of the French Manarchy and perceiving too late the Fault he had committed in suffering Bretagne to be lost leagned himself with him and both agreed to joyn their Forces that they might fall upon Picardy Year of our Lord 1492 The English failed not to land at Calais at the Time prefixt and laid siege to Boulogne but finding his endeavors signified little that Maximilian came not to joyn his Forces as was promised and withal heard the Rumors of a dangerous Faction in England he found it safest to retire again and took an hundred and fifty thousand Crowns for the Charges of his Army and for some Monies he had lent to Francis II. Duke of Bretagne Father of the new Queen Maximilian in the mean time not having sufficient Forces made use of Craft he Surprized the Cities of Arras and Saint Omers by intelligence and by Night entred into Amiens from whence he was vigorously repulsed His Anger being a little evaporated he consented they should get a Truce of the King for a Twelve-month in the Name of his Son Philip but he would neither be comprised nor named in it The Kingdom of Granada after a War of eight Years successively was entirely conquer'd by the taking of her Capital City Boabdila the last of their Kings having sustained a Siege of eight Months surrendred it to Ferdinand and Isabella the second Year of our Lord 1492 Day of January of this Year 1492. Thus ended the Dominion of the Moors in Spain where it had lasted neer eight hundred Years but not their Nation nor their Mahometan impiety which the Severities of their Inquisition and their repeated Proscriptions could not wholly extirpate but with much difficulty Now as if every thing had contributed to Fill and Crown the House of Spain with Honor and Riches that they might transfer it to the House of Austria it hapned almost at the same time when they finisht this War thae Christopher Colombus discover'd the new World or that Hemisphear opposite to ours That great Sea-Captain a Year of our Lord 1492. And 1493. Genoese by Nation having found by a Relation in Manuscript of a certain Marriner and by Arguments drawn from the disposition of the World and roundness of the Globe composed of the Sea and Land that there were habitable Countries in those Parts opposite to these which we inhabit after he had in vain apply'd himself to divers Princes obtained with much ado three Vessels of Ferdinand and Isabella to go and seek out that which he did imagine might be found He loosed from Cadix in the Month of August of the Year 1492. And sailed so far that he discovered the Islands of Florida from whence he returned into Spain in the following March bringing back with him convincing Marks and Tokens of his discovery and the infinite Riches of those Countries The Spaniards were pleased to name them the West-Indies An hundred Years before this two Venetian Captains named Zeni had found out the Northern Estotiland Year of our Lord 1493 Two Months after his return into Spain Pope Alexander VI. who was by birth an Arrogonian gave to Ferdinand and Isabella and to all their Successors Kings of Castille all the Lands discover'd and to be discover'd beyond a Line that was to be drawn from the Arctick to be Antarctick Pole distant from the Azores about a hundred Leagues towards the West and by South upon condition he should send some honest and learned Men thither to instruct those People in the Christian Religion Saint Bennet's Order had the Honor of the first Mission One named Dom N. Bueil a Catalon was sent thither with twelve Priests and sowed the first Seeds of Faith there Year of our Lord 1492 That nothing might be wanting to the Happiness of Spain the young King Charles VIII did of his own good Will surrender the Counties of Rousillon and Cerdagne to Ferdinand without requiring the three hundred thousand Crowns for which Sum they were engaged but only a Promise that he should be a friend to France The World was amazed and scandalized at this suddain and unexpected Generosity Common Fame laid the blame of it upon a Cordelier Frier by Name Oliver Maillard a famous Preacher in those days and Confessor to the young King It was reported that being suborned by Ferdinand who sent him Barrels of Silver in stead of Wine and having associated himself with John Mauleon another Monk of the same Order to help carry on this Intrigue this last being Confessor to the Dutchess of Bourbon they publickly affirmed that King Lewis XI being on his Death-Bed had given Order for the restitution of these Counties and that his Soul would have no rest till it were performed That with this Theme and by these Suggestions the two honest Fathers some add a third Man Saint Francis de Paulo cast so much terrour into the Soul of that Lady and of Lewis d'Amboise Bishop of Alby who had been Tutor to the King that they perswaded and engaged him to make this fine Restitution Year of our Lord 1493 The German Princes and the Swisse becoming Mediators concerning the differences between France and the House of Austria a Conference was agreed upon to be held at Senlis where the Deputies from the Emperor Frederic from Maximilian his Son and the Arch Duke Philip his Grandson concluded with the King's Deputies to put an end to all Disputes That the King should send Year of our Lord 1493 Marguerit back to the Arch Duke her Brother that together with her he should render up the Counties of Artois and Burgundy but that he should retain the Castles belonging to the four Cities in Artois till four Years were expired and that then Philip being in majority should come and swear and ratify the Peace Ever since the Year 1492. there had been some discourse set on foot of the Rights and Title the King had to the Kingdom of Naples and Arguments used to enflame that young Prince with the Love and Desire of so fair a Conquest Year of our Lord 1492. 1493. And 1494. The Earl of Salerno and those Gentlemen that were banished from Naples having taken Sanctuary in France made the first propositions Afterwards Ludovic Sforza was the principal Agent and brought the King to a determinate resolution for this Enterprize which cost Italy it's liberty and a vast deal of Money Blood and Trouble to France The whole thrid of this design which he spun
had promised the Emperor to set a Potent Army on Foot but when Intelligence came that he had Disbanded his they grew Cool on the suddain and refused to furnish the Soldiers they had promised Upon the Report of their great Preparations for War the King the Pope the Swisse though otherwise Enemies amongst themselves re-united to hinder the Emperor from coming into Italy And in effect when he would have passed Year of our Lord 1508 along the Valley of Trent with five or six thousand Men a very small Appareil for so much Noise as he had made the Venetians shut up the Passage against him He was very much disgusted and enraged but more yet when Bartholomew d'Alviane their General having defeated some of his Troops was received into their City in Triumph It was enough for them to have stopt his Army after that they agreed to a Truce with him for a Year The King was extreamly offended that they had done it without his participation and that they had excluded the Duke of Guelders and this Affront made up the measure of fifteen or twenty others he had received The Pope the Emperor and Ferdinand hated them no less for different Causes and particularly because they had encroached upon each of their Territories but it was very difficult to get all these Princes who had such different Interests to enter into the same League Truly there was neither Security nor Advantage for King Lewis to associate either with Ferdinand and Maximilian who had ever been and could not but always be his Enemies nor with the Pope who mortally hated the French Nation and who besides had the ambitious thoughts in his Head of over ruling all Italy There was no Amity nor Confederation that he could trust to but the Venctians And there were none but they that would suffer him to be in those Countries provided he attempted nothing against them and would let them enjoy their Usurpations Nevertheless when he proposed this in his Councel without whose Advice he never resolved on any thing all those that were there present shaping their Opinions so as to make them suit with the hatred he had declared against the Venetians rather then grounding them on the Reasons of sound and good Politicks were of a contrary Opinion There was none but Stephen Poncher Bishop of Paris who not able to make his Fidelity stoop to that unfaithful complaisance argued vehemently and rationally that France could not have better Confederates in Italy than they and that the Society of all the rest was ruinous and destructive The Advice of the Multitude and Passion of the King which would have been very just in a private Person made him commit that over-sight to joyn and clubb with his most Mortal Enemies for the ruin of the Venetians by the Treaty of Cambray Thither under Colour of accommodating the Differences between Charles the Emperors Grand-son and the Duke of Guelders came first Margaret Widdow Dutchess of Savoy and Sister of the defunct Arch-Duke and the Cardinal d'Amboise then the Spanish Ambassador arrived as Mediator to whom the other two did not communicate the main Secret till they had agreed upon all that was betwixt them because they suspected Ferdinand They concluded then to make War upon them inseparably to recover those Lands they detained from them That the Pope should admonish them upon pain of Excommunication to restore them and that the Emperor should give the King the Investiture of the Dutchy of Milan pure and simply for him for Francis Duke of Valois and for all their descendants The Spanish Ambassador would not Sign till he had a New Order from his Master nor the Pope neither till the Venetians should have refused so much their good Fortune had blinded them to give him up Facnza and Rimini for which he would have abandon'd all the rest Year of our Lord 1509 Nothing appeared of all the Treaty but the Confirmation of the Peace between the Princes and this League was held so secret that the Venetians came to the knowledg of it sooner by the Effects then by information or other discovery Those People before so insolent and daring were greatly astonish'd when they found at the same Time the King on the other side the Mountains with forty thousand Combatants beginning a War upon them and the Pope thundring them with his excommunications which makes mighty impressions upon Peoples Hearts when they are sharpned and seconded by the terror of an Enemies Sword The King having passed the River Addo pursued their Army so close that he fought them the fourteenth day of May and gained that memorable Battle de la Giera d'Adde neer the Village d'Aignadel within four Miles of Caravaz All their Infantry were cut off and their General Alviane having lost an Eye was made Prisoner In fifteen days time the Kings without scarce striking a Blow conquer'd all the Places they detained from him He might also have taken Vicenza Padoua Verona Treviso and all those that belonged to the Empire or to the House of Austria had he not had more Justice than Ambition lodg'd in his Heart He sent back the Deputies of all those Cities who brought him their Keys to the Emperor who took them into his Obedience and sent in some Garrisons The Pope had sent an Army of ten or twelve thousand Men into Romagnia it was commanded by the Cardinal de Pavia by Francis Maria de la Rovere Son of his Holinesses Brother and by the Duke of Ferrara this having the Title of Gonfalonnier of the Church and the other of Duke of Vrbin by the adoption of Guido-balde de Montfeltre Brother to his Mother King Ferdinand had only a Small Navy in the Golse and watched to make his Advantage as he did of the Labour and expence of the French Year of our Lord 1509 Now the Loss only of the Battle of Aignadel put the Signoria of Venice into such a consternation that dispairing of being able to keep any thing in the Terra Firma they resolved to shut themselves up close in the Islands of their Gulf and in this dispair commanded the Governers of all Places that belonged to the Pope or to Ferdinand to open the Gates to them and recalled their Magistrates from Verona Padua Vicenza and others upon which the Emperor had any Pretensions Thus those three Potentates by the Valor of the French rather then by their own Strength recover'd all that had been usurped by the Venetians and the Ambition of that Republick because they had not bounded it saw their Signory contracted in a Moment within the very Shoars of their Canal I have read likewise in the Memoires of those Times that the King drawing his Army neer caused some Vollies of Random Cannon-Shot to be made against the City of Venice However it were thinking he had done all he retired to Milan and sent the Cardinal d'Amboise to the Emperor who having made him wait a long while and having consumed all the Money
the prospect he had of what would be squander'd and wasted in Luxury and vain Prodigallity by Francis I. after his death he sighing said Ah! we labour in vain this great Boy will spoil all Two Male Children he had by Anne of Bretagne died in the Arms of their Nurses There were only two Daughters left Claude who was married to Francis I. and Renee who in Anno 1528. was by that King married to Hercules Duke of Ferrara a petty Prince whom he made choice of purposely that he might not be able to contend with him for the Dutchy of Bretagne FRANCIS I CALLED The Great KING AND THE Father of Learning King LVII Aged XX Years and about four Months POPES LEO X. near seven Years under this Reign ADRIAN VI. Elected the 4th of January in the Year 1522. S. 1 Year and above eight Months CLEMENT VII Elected the 29th of November 1525. S. 10 Years and above 10 Months PAUL III. Elected the 13th of October 1534. S. Years and one Month whereof 12 Years and a half under this Reign Year of our Lord 1515. in January THis is the third time in the Capetine Race that the Scepter for want of Male-Children in the direct Line passes in a collateral Line Lewis I. Duke of Orleans had two Sons Charles who was Duke of Orleans after him and John who was Earl of Angoulesme Lewis XII was the Son of Charles and from John came another Charles who was Father of Francis I. who succeeded to Lewis XII He was crowned at Reims the five and twentieth of January and took the Title of Duke of Milan with that of King of France When this Prince appeared on the Throne in the Flower of his Youth with the Meene and Stature of a Hero with wonderful dexterity and address in all the noble Exercises of a Cavalier Brave Liberal Magnificent Civil Debonnaire and well Spoken he attracted the Adoration of the People and the Love of the Nobility and indeed he had been the greatest of Kings if the too high Opinion of himself grounded upon so many fair Qualities had not inclined him to suffer himself to be entangled in the Snares of Women and the Flatteries of Courtiers who corrupted his Mind and made it spend its self most in outward vain Glory and superficial appearances His first Cares were to seek the Alliance and Amity of the Princes his Neighbours The King of England taking yet to Heart the Infidelity of Ferdinand his Father in Law continued the Peace with him on the same Conditions as he had made with his Predecessor and to last during both their Lives The King sent back Queen Mary to him who afterwards married the Duke of Suffolk The Arch-Duke likewise being thereto obliged by the Flemmings who in no wise would have a War with France and besides judging there might be danger to let things stand without any Colligation between France and England sent the Count of Nassaw Ambassador to him who after he had rendred the Homage due for the Counties of Artois and Flanders treated a perpetual confederation between the two Princes Year of our Lord 1515 The Band and Knot that was to tye this fast was the Marriage in future of his Master with Renee the Queens Sister It was stipulated under terrible Oaths and great pains of refusal on either Part for which Francis stak'd down the Faith of several great Lords and twelve of his best Cities for security The Conditions were six hundred thousand Crowns of Gold and the Dutchy of Berry for her and for her Children That she should renounce to the Succession of Father and Mother namely to the Dutchies of Milan and Bretagne and that the King should be engaged to assist the Arch-Duke with Men and Ships to go and take Possession of the Kingdoms of Spain upon the Death of Ferdinand his Grand-Father It would have been very easie also for the King to have confirmed the League made by his Predecessor with the Venetians but Ferdinand refused the continuation of the Truce unless upon the same Conditions as the last which was that he should not meddle with or touch the Dutchy of Milan Which the King not having accepted of the said Ferdinand the Emperor the Swisse and Sforza Duke of Milan made a League which imported That to compel the King to renounce that Dutchy the Swisse should attack France by the way of Burgundy That in order to it they should receive three thousand Ducats Monthly from the other Confederates and that King Ferdinand should fall with a powerful Army into Guyenne or Languedoc The Pope for whom they had left room in this League did not enter till the Month of July when he found that the King who had kept this design conceal'd all the Winter marched in good earnest to pass the Mountains Upon his access to the Crown he supplied the Offices of Constable and Chancellor with two Persons whereof one caused great mischiefs to France in this Reign only and the other was the occasion of such as were felt then and perhaps may last to all the following Ages He gave that of Constable to Charles de Bourbon who afterwards stirred up great Troubles against him and that of Chancellor to Antony Duprat at that Time first President of Paris who to furnish the Prodigal and conquering Humor of a young King with Money suggested to him the Sale of Justice by creating a new Chamber of twenty Counsellors in the Parliament of Paris and so proportionably in all the others to augment the Tailles and lay new Imposts without waiting the Consent or Grant of the Estates as was the ancient Order and Practice of the Kingdom Year of our Lord 1515 All the Apparel for War being ready the King went to the City of Lyons where he staid some time till Trivulcio and the Lord de Morete with the Mountainers whom the Duke of Savoy had sent to them could find a Passage over the Alpes for his Troops which were arrived in Dauphine For the Swisse who had posted themselves at Suza and those Parts hindred their way by Mount Cenis and the Mount of Genevra which begin both in that Place The Popes Army and that belonging to Ferdinand were encamped on the other side of the Po towards Piacenza and Parma and Prespera Columna had come and lodg'd himself with a thousand Horse in Villa Franca which is within seven Leagues of Saluzzes where he thought himself very secure When with incredible difficulty and by meer strength of Arms Trivulcio had made them sling and hoyst the Artillery over the tops of the Mountains and from thence with no less toyl let them down again in the Country of Saluzzes the King's Forces passed the Alpes at Dragonniera Roquepavier and other Passes which are nigh Provence La Palice who was passed one of the first having correspondence Year of our Lord 5115 with some Inhabitants of Villa-Franca used so much Skill and Celerity that he surprized Prospera as he was sitting down
the progress of those Opinions and to reform the Clergy whose dissolute behaviour had given rise to those Scandals The year after Lewis Berquin of Artois for Preching Luther's Errors was burnt in Paris the two and twentieth of March. This very year 1528. were forced the first Seeds Englands Schism The Cardinal Woolsey to be revenged of the Emperour who had deluded him and despised him as likewise to oblige King Francis who slattered his ambition and his avarice had perswaded his Master that his Marriage with Catherine of Arragon was not good it being against the Law of God that a Woman should marry the two Brothers for when Henry took her Year of our Lord 1528 she was then Widow of his eldest Brother Arthur that therefore the Pope must declare it null and that afterwards he might marry with Margaret the Kings Sister Widow of the Duke of Alenson In effect the Irons were put into the Fire and the Pope as things then stood betwixt him and the Emperour hearkned most willingly to it and commissioned two Cardinals Campejus and Woolsey to he judges of the matter upon the place He also sent a Bull to Campejus which dissolved the Marriage with order nevertheless not to deliver it nor to let it be seen but as a Secret But finding the Emperors Affairs succeeded better then his own and that he would make him repent it he sent to Campejus to Burn it and to wira-draw the business After which Catherine refusing to own those two Cardinals for Judges and appealing to the Holy See before whom the Ambassadors from the Emperor and the Arch-Duke Ferdinand protested likewise a Nullity of all that they could judge his Holiness removed and brought it before himself which enraged the King of England beyond expression Mean while Woolsey repented he had carried it on so far because he perceived now that Henry who so earnestly desired the Divorce had no inclination to marry Margaret of France but a Damoiselle of the Queens his Wife with whom he was Furiously in Love She was called Anne Bullen was Imbued with the opinions of Luther ☞ yet withal too gallent and one that could Sing and Dance too well to be wise or staid Henry observing therefore that he retarded the business instead of helping it forward with dispatch let him fall into disfavour and immediately every one turned their backs upon him This proud Cardinal who used ordinarily to say the King and I saw himself forsaken of all his Friends displaced from his Office of Chancellour then Banished to his Bishoprick afterwards made a Prisoner persecuted all manner of ways and reduced to the extremest misery In fine the following year as they were bringing him from York to London to answer to such Treasons as were laid to his Charge he dyed as it hath ever been desired those proud Ministers may die and fall who abuse the Authority of their Masters Year of our Lord 1529 After the ruine of the French Army in the Kingdom of Naples the Spaniards reduced all the Towns and Places at their ease In Milanois the Confederates Army commanded by the Duke of Vrbin regained Pavia which Dugast had taken but the Count de Saint Pol was surprized at Landriana by Antonio de Leva who marched out of Milan not above five Leagues from it In the midst of this danger his Lansquenets proved Turn-Coats his Italians abandoned him he was overcome and made prisoner All his Horse and his Van-guard made their escape to Pavia After this Defeat there was a kind of tacit Truce between the Princes All would have a Peace the King out of desire to get home his Children the Pope upon the consideration of his many former miseries and sufferings and the Emperor because he had obtained what he desired About the Month of June it was first concluded at Barcelona between the Pope and the Emperor very advantageous to the first because the other had a most eager desire to go and receive the Imperial Crown at Rome The principal Conditions were that the Emperor should give his Bastard Daughter to Alexander de Medicis That he should re-establish that Family in Florence with the same Power and Authority it had before they were driven from thence and that he should procure those Cities and Places to be restored which belonged to the Church On the other hand the Pope received him as Homager for the Kingdom of Naples upon the presenting him annually with a white Horse and gave him power of nomination to the four and twenty Cathedral Churches which were in controversie with this he also granted him a fourth part of the Fruits and Revenues of the Church as well in his own Lands as in those of the Arch-Duke Ferdinand to be employ'd in making a War against the Turks In the following Month of July Margaret Aunt to the Emperor and Louisa Mother of the King meeting at Cambray to Treat of a Peace between the two Crowns did conclude it likewise in presence of the Ambassadors from the Pope the King of England and the Venetians It was published the Fifth day of August The Articles were almost the same as those at Madrid excepting that the King retained the Dutchy of Burgundy to which the Emperor reserved his Rights and Actions to be pursued by fair and friendly methods and proceedings It was likewise agreed he should revoke the Sentence of Condemnation pronounced against Bourbon and that he should restore all his Goods moveable and immoveables Year of our Lord 1529 to his Heirs and as to his Ransome he should pay two Millions of Gold Crowns to the Emperor or for his Account to wit 1200000 Crowns ready Money upon the Release of his Children 400000 to the King of England as from him and for security of the remaining 400000. he should engage to him the Lands which Mary of Luxemburgh had formerly in Flanders Brabant and Haynault and which she brought to the House of Bourbon-Vendosme Moreover that he should redeem the Flower de Luce this was a Jewel of Price which Duke Philip the Good had pawned to the King of England whom he should likewise satissie in the Emperors behalf for the Sum of 500000 Crowns in Gold which he had promised to that King in case he did not Marry his Daughter As for the Venetians and Florentines the Allies of France they were comprized in this Treaty after such a manner that they were left to the discretion of the Emperor Although the King of England was discontented that it had been concluded without his knowledge nevertheless standing in need of the King for the vacating of his Marriage he forgave him the 500000 Crowns and gratified his Son Henry whose God-Father he was with the redemption of the Flower de Luce. In return the King so order'd it that the Doctors of his Universities and those of Italy held favourable Consultations touching the Divorce Whilst the Treaty was on Foot the Emperor leaving Spain Landed at Genoa the 12 th of August
Bayard one of the Secretaries was Imprisoned and Villeroy his Compagnon deprived of his Employment James du Tiers and Claude Clausse Marquemont were put in their Places as in that of John du val Tresorier de l'Espargne Blond de Bochecour whose Wages or Salary was augmented to thirty Thousand Livers a certain presage of the future wasting of the Finances They likewise took away the Office of Grand Master of the Artillery or Ordnance from Claude de Tais to give it to Charles de Cossé Brisac the Lord amongst all the Courtiers the most lovely and the most beloved by the Kings Mistress Longeval accused to be of Intelligence with the Emperor redeemed himself by selling his fair House de Marchez in Laonnois to Charles de Lorrain who soon after was made Cardinal Of Twelve Cardinals that were then in France the new Ministers to be the more at large and at their own ease sent Seven of them to Rome upon pretence of Fortifying the French Party for the Election of a Pope when Paul III. who was near Fourscore years old should come to die Annebaud to satisfie to an Edict which they had purposely made that one man could not hold two great Offices was forced to quit that of Mareschal wherewith Saint André was gratified Francis I. had encreased the number of Mareschals even to Four but finding that the multitude debased that great dignity he had resolved to reduce them to two so that at this time there were but three They added a fourth which was Robert de la Mark Sedan Son in Law of Diana They made process against Odard de Biez likewise Mareschal of France and against Vervin his Son in Law They were not Condemned till the year 1549. Vervin lost his head His Father in Law an Honourable old Man and by whose hands Henry being then but Dausin would needs be made a Knight was shamefully degraded of his Office and the Order of Saint Michael He died of Grief in the Fanxbourg Saint Victor whither he had permission to retire The Earldom of Aumale was erected to a Dutchy in favour of Frances Eldest Son of Claude Duke of Guise The Dutchess d'Estampes having no more support at Court and seeing her self despised by all the World even of her own Husband chose one of his Houses for her Retreat where she yet lived some years in the Exercise of the new Religion to which her Example and Liberalities drew a great many People All the Kings Revenues being too little to satisfie the Covetousness of the new Ministers they sought to have Advice what to demand of him but the Genius of the French nor their Parliaments being yet used to suffer Monopolies and Farmers they employ'd Accusers or Informers who brought the richest Delinquents to Justice that they might enjoy their Spoils by Confiscations or by Compositions As to Things without Doors the Pope desired to have a defensive League with the King and for that end had sent the Cardinal Saint George Legate into France to give the King thanks for having promised his Natural Daughter Diana but nine Years old to his Grand-Son Horace and to negociate a more strickt Alliance with him The King gave no Positive Answer to the last Proposition his Affairs not being as yet in good Order and they suspecting his great Age and the Fidelity of his Children And indeed he was at the same time treating with the Emperor to get the Dutchy of Milan for John Lewis Farneze his bastard Son The King and the Emperor laboured separately and distinctly with the Turk the one to have a Peace with him the other to incite him to fall upon Hungary Year of our Lord 1547 as he had promised King Francis Now as on the part of France they neglected a while to send any News to Constantinople or even give notice of the death of that King the Emperor meeting no Obstruction obtained a Truce of Solyman for five Years paying him thirty thousand Crowns Tribute Annually and making him believe he held a very good Correspondence with the French and that they would have no more to do with the Port. Nevertheless Solyman desiring still to preserve his Amity with France would needs without being required have the King to be comprized in the Truce of Hungary as if he had been absolutely a Party contracting It is to be observed that in the Writings or Instrument of this Truce Solyman stiles Charles V. only simply King of Spain and the King of France the most serene Emperor of France his most dear Friend and Allie The Sixteenth of July the King being returned out of Picardy where he had been to visit the Frontiers saw at Saint Germains en laye the famous Duel between Guy Chabot Jarnac and Francis Vivonne la Chasteigneraye they quarrell'd about some certain intrigues of the Womens Jarnac had given the Lie to Chasteigneraye upon some villanious reproach of his concerning his Fathers second Wife He challenges him to fight the King permitted it causeth the Lists to be made ready and would needs be a Spectator with the whole Court He fancied Chasteigneraye would have the better whom he cherished and yet it fell out that Jarnac though much weakned with a Feavour that tormented him brought him down with a back blow he gave him on his hams They parted the Combatants but the vanquished not able to undergo so much shame in the Kings Presence would never suffer the Chyrurgions to bind up his wound but dyed of rage within a few days The King was so concerned at it that he sware solemnly never to permit the like Combats In the Month of August the Grands Jours or extraordinary Court of Justice began to be held in the City of Tours The troubles continued in Scotland The English were obstinately bent to have the young Queen for their King Edward and had gained a furious Battel against the Scots and after it taken several places The King sent therefore an Army into Scotland Commanded by Dessé Epanvillers who was accompanied by Peter Strozzi and Dandelot Brother to Chastillon They settled the Authority of the Queen Dowager stopt the Progress of the English and the year following brought the young Queen into France she was but six years of Age. Two Months before the Kings Coronation news came into France that the Protestant Princes of the League of Smalcalde were vanquish't by the Emperor in the Battel of Mulberg the twenty fourth of April That John Frederic Duke of Saxony their chief head and a Prince of great worth was taken Prisoner in the rout that the Emperor had caused him to be Condemned to lose his Head and having with much ado given him his life he detained him in Prison and had deprived him of his Dutchy to invest his Consin Maurice with it who was of the same House of Saxony and of the same Religion that all the great free Cities excepting Magdenbourgh had submitted that the Landgrave of Hesse had been forced to
affected delayes did continue to defeat their hopes of the General one so often promised Moreover the Governors were enjoyned to watch there might be no factious Meetings and to su spend their pursuits for matters of Religion if no other Crime were complicated with it This was to begin a Toleration Things being thus regulated every one had order to retire home Great was the Alarm at Rome when they heard mention made of holding a National Council in France Pius IV. omitted nothing to disswade the King from it He represented to him as a great grievance that the Gallican Church would re-establish the Pragmatique and by consequence the Elections whereby the Royal dignity and prerogative would be much eclipsed and diminished He intreated the King of Spain to interpose his Interest and Credit with him to prevent a mischief he reckoned so prejudicial to his Pontifical Authority And all these Engines proving too weak to obtain a revocation of those resolutions taken in Council he could find no other expedient to avoid it but by a General Council He was a while in suspence whether to call one wholly new or whether he should continue the same his Predecessors Paul III. and Julius III. had Prorogued All considered the advice for continuation seemed best And he caused publication to be made that the Council should re-commence on Easter-day the following year Year of our Lord 1560 The two Brothers Anthony and Lewis de Bourbon did not appear at the Assembly of Melun for two Months before Anthony was retired to Gascogne and his Brother was gone to visit him Being there in much greater security they settled their Affairs and projected the means and methods to make themselves the stronger and set aside the Guises These having many faithful and trusty Servants Spies well paid and all rewards and punishments in their own hands quickly discover'd their Stratagems and blasted them before they could be ripe for Execution The Princes made use of one named la Sague an Imprudent man who Communicated his Secrets to a Camerade of his with whom he had born Arms in Piedmont This Fellow whispers it to the Mareschal de Brissac who tells it to the Duke of Guise So that as la Sague was returning into Gascogne he was Seized with a great many Letters Fear of the Rack or hopes of reward unty'd his Tongue Himself put them in the way how to read some of them by wetting the Paper where before there was no Footsteps of any Writing appear'd The most Criminal were those from Francis de Vendosme Vidame of Chartres an Enemy to the Duke of Guise so he was laid hold on and shut up in the Bastille Some time after he was transfer'd from thence but under a strong Guard to his own House where he Died of grief if not by the Debauchery of his Youth Bouchard who was Chancellor to Anthony without any other instigation but his own faint-heartedness did likewise reveal all the practises of the Prince of Condé and the means he made use of to engage his Brother He thought hereby to secure himself but they Seized upon him and put him in Prison at Saint John d'Angely where he was kept very close that they might have his Evidence when time Served There appeared in the mean time divers Commotions in the Provinces which shewed that the whole Body of the Religionaries were on the point of making a general rising for in Normandy whither the Admiral had been dispatched they met and Preached Publickly The two Brothers Anthony and Paul Richend Mouvans endeavoured to make themselves Masters of Valence of Montelimard of Romans in Dauphiné and of the Cities of Aix and Arles in Provence but the Lord de Maugeron made them fail in their enterprize Anthony was slain in a tumult at Draguignan Paul made his escape into Swisserland In like manner Charles du Puy Montbrun making use of the Religionaries in his dispute for the Government of Dauphiné at la Mothe Gondrin was routed by his Adversary and ran away stark naked yet got safe to the Swiss Country Maligny of the House de Ferriere who belonged to the King of Navarre attempted also to Seize upon Lyons causing his Soldiers to Ship in man by man and he had compleated his work if N. Dapchon Abbot de Savigny who was Governor in the absence of the Mareschal de Saint André his maternal Uncle had not discover'd his Plot and put the Bourgeois in Arms. Maligny was glad to make his escape and the Abbot apprehending some worse Event set open the Gates that he might be gone quietly The Mareschal de Saint André going thither to search into the bottom of the design caused above fifty of those rash undertakers to be executed The Princes promised themselves a much stronger Cabal in the Assembly of Estates then the Guises nevertheless their Friends were of Opinion they ought not to rely upon that but come so well Armed to Court as to be in a Condition either to drive them thence or make them perish there To this purpose they had given orders on all hands but their Letters and practises having taken Air the Guises made use of the Kings Name to fortify themselves sent for all the Established Company 's and put forth a Declaration to all Governors of Provinces commanding them to punish the disturbers of the publick Peace according to the utmost severity of the Edict with power to Suspend and displace such Officers as had conniv'd or shew'd any indulgence towards the Factious Besides all this they sent to command the Princes to come to Court only attended with their Houshold Servants to justify themselves of such matters wherewith they were charged so that to speak truly they left them but a very ill-boding passage to enter much more like a Prison Door then a Gate of the Louvre They resolved however to come The Cardinal de Bourbon their Brother being deceived first was an Instrument to deceive them withal the Dignity of their Birth seemed an inviolable safe-conduct to them So that the King of Navarre refused seven hundred Gentlemen of Poitou who offer'd to attend him and above Year of our Lord 1560 fifteen hundred Soldiers who were in a readiness in several Provinces telling them his innocency was his sufficient security and he would give them no cause to suspect he came with any design to offer violence to the King or to the Estates In his Journey he received notice from several hands that the Guises having scared the King and the Queen Mother with the pretended Conspiracy revealed by la Sague were more Masters at Court then ever and had put them upon the extreamest resolutions However he went forward not duely weighing the wise Councils of Marillac Archbishop of Vienne who having endeavour'd all that was possible to diswade him died with Grief and the fear he justly had conceived lest the Guises whom he had already highly offended should revenge themselves upon him The Sixteenth of October the King
long while with Charles de Gontaud Biron Mareschal de Camp and Henry de Mesme Master of Requests In so much as the English Ambassador and the Ambassador from Florence becomeing friendly Mediators it was agreed upon the second day of March The Edict was verified in Parliament the twenty sixth of the same Month. This confirmed Year of our Lord 1568. March c. and restored intirely that which had been made for them five years before revoking and annulling all Exceptions Declarations and Interpretations which had been made to the contrary The more quick-sighted amongst the Huguenots were not for making this Peace which scattered them so wide assunder and exposed them to the mercy of their Enemies without any other Security but the word of an Italian Woman and indeed they named it the Boiteuse i. e. Lame and the Mal-assise alluding to Biron who was Lame and Mesme who was Lord de Mal-assise But the Prince protested he was constrained to it because the greatest part of his Forces disbanded the Nobility were returning to their own Homes which were exposed to Pillage and the Germans might perhaps have sold them for want of pay The Parliament of Toulouze did not verifie it till after they had four express Commands nor before they did cut off the head of Rapin whom the Prince had sent thither to press the Verification having raked up some old Crime against him upon which they made his Process in great hast In consequence of this Treaty the Huguenots raised the Siege of Chartres and gave up several Cities they had taken amongst others Soissons Orleans Auxerre Blois and la Charité upon the Loire Rochel refused to obey and after their example many others Prince Casimir led back his Forces into Germany and went to Heidelberg to give an account of his expedition to his Father the Elector He there found William of Nassaw Prince of Orange who having made his escape from the Low Countries implored his Assistance for the maintenance of their Liberty and his Religion against the Duke of Alva The Cruclties of that Duke the Deaths of the Counts of Egmont and Horn the Troubles of the Low-Countries and the Foundation of the States of Holland by the Marvellous Conduct and un-shaken Courage of that Prince of Orange are the noblest Subjects for History that can be met with in all these latter Ages And indeed it hath been Treated on by several Authors and of so great Merit as they have almost equall'd the grandeur of the Theam and Matter We shall observe only as the most monstrous Year of our Lord 1568 adventure that can be Imagined How Philip King of Spain being inform'd the Infant Don Carlos his only Son and his presumptive Successor who indeed was of a roving Spirit untractable and very dangerous held Correspondence with the Confederate Lords of the Low-Countries who endeavour'd to draw him into Flanders clapt him in Prison and deprived him of Life either by Slow Poyson or by stifling him and in a short while after upon some kind of jealousie Poysoned Elizabeth de la Paix his Wife making her Perish with the fruit then in her Womb as Queen Catherine made it appear after the Secret Informations she had taken and by the Domestick Servants belonging to that Princess when they were come back into France In the time of Peace one of the Admirals principal Cares was to encrease the Navigation and the Trade of France chiefly in those Countries of the other Hemisphear as well for the Credit of his Office as to plant Colonies there of his own Religion He had sent the Chevalier de Villegagnon to Florida as believing him fixt in the new opinions but this man failed him in his promises and rudely handled those of that Profession Afterwards in the year 1562. he dispatched John Ribaud thither with two Ships who Sailing a quite different Course then the Spaniards had wont to do most happily Landed at Florida When he had made discovery of the Country Treated an Alliance with the petty Princes and given Names to several Capes Rivers and Gulphs he built at the end of the Streight at Saint Helens a Fort which in honour of the King was Named Fort Charles and leaving a Lieutenant there together with some Soldiers well arm'd return'd into France after he had promised to come again to them as soon as possible to bring a reinforcement and refreshments Not being able to make good his word by reason of the Civil War that hapned their Provisions failing they shipt themselves In the midst of the Voyage they were so pressed with hunger that they killed one of their own Crew who was Sick and fed upon him An English Vessel who fortunately met them supplied their wants and carried them into England The Admiral not knowing they had quitted the Fort fitted out three Ships at Haure de Grace to go and relieve them René Laudonniere Commanded this Fleet he landed at the Golfe to which Ribaud had given the name of May and made an Alliance with some Petty Kings of the Barbarians but it hapned that whilst he was Sick part of his men debauched by some that were Factious forced him to permit them to go to New Spain to seek for Provisions where having taken a huge Vessel fraught with Riches wherein was the Governor of the Havana they were afterwards surrounded and seized in that Island and all sold or carried into Spain This Piracy gave the Spaniards a fair pretence who were already grown very jealous that the French began to settle in those Countries to fall upon them and allow no quarter They pretended those Territories belonged to them affirming they were the first Discoverers But in truth a Venetian Named Stephen Gaboury prompted in Emulation of Christopher Columbus to seek out new Countries under the auspicious favour of Henry VII King of England had found out and landed upon those Coasts even in the year 1496. long before there Ponce de Leon who was indeed the Person that gave it the name of Florida because he went first on Shoar there upon Palm-Sunday When Laudonniere was ready to return he spied Seven Vessels at Sea this was John Ribaud a very good Sea-man but an ill Soldier and much worse Captain who was made choice of by the Admiral as very affectionate to the Interests of his Party The Spaniards had at the same time sent one Peter Melandez with some Ships to hinder the French from taking root there Ribaud quitting his Fort which he left but slightly furnished with Men went on Board his Ships to Fight them When he was out at Sea a Hurrican a strange kind of Storm very frequent about those Coasts forced and beat all his Fleet in pieces against the Rocks His men getting to Land with their Long-Boats fell into the Hands of the Spaniards who having taken the Fort slaughter'd them all with a more then Canibal Cruelty tearing them piece-meal and plucking out their Eyes They said
Seventeenth of August and Married the day following the Cardinal of Bourbon tyed the Nuptial knot on a Scaffold erected before the Church Door of Nostre-Dame according to a Form agreed upon betwixt them The said King having Conducted his Mistriss into the Quire by a Gallery made purposely thorow the body of the Church retired while they were saying Mass When that was ended he returned and having month August kiss'd his new Spouse led her into the Bishops Palace where Dinner was prepared for them Four dayes were spent in Feastings Turnaments and Balets or Dancing where the King and Queen appeared so busie that they had scarce time to sâ—eep But during all this loud noise of Voices and Violins they deliberated on what manner to execute their bloody Butchery What the first Project was in the Kings Council is not well known amongst whom were the Queen Mother the Duke of Anjou the Count de Rais and Birague Keeper of the Seals for Morvilliers to whom they were given in Custody when they dismissed the Chancellor de l'Hospital had discharged himself of them into his hands It is said the first Resolution for this Massacre chiefly upon the Instance of the Duke of Guise and his Partisans was taken at Blois in the very Chamber where that Duke himself was Massacred Fifteen years after and that some difficulties arising they held another Council in the House of Gondy at Saint Cloud whereat the Duke of Anjou presided who afterwards being King Henry III. was unhappily Murthered in the very same place and as some affirm upon the very same day The Queen Mothers aim was quite different from the Kings and from that of the Guises it was believed that Vindicative Woman with the Count de Rais her intimate Counsellor had a Prospect far beyond theirs For she thought that by causing the Admiral to be assassinated which the two other Councils had resolved the Montmorency's would stand up to revenge that Injury and fall fowl upon the Guises whom they would certainly Judge to be the Authors of it That these two Parties should be left to grapple with each other Then when good store of Blood had been drawn and either had half destroyed the other the King should Salley out of the Louvre with his Guards and exterminate them both as Seditious Traytors That after he had thus destroy'd them he would remain absolute Master Reign according to his own fancy and set himself above all Laws of the Kingdom Now whether this were true or no that Morevel who had before Assassinated the Lord de Moüy was employ'd to make away the Admiral On Friday the Two and Twentieth of August he posted himself for this purpose at the Cloister S. Germain de l'Auxerrois in a Chamber of the House belonging to Peter Pile oâ— Villemur a Canon of that Church and who had been Tutor to the Duke of Guise He takes his stand and fits his gears at a low Window that was barr'd with Iron and faced the Street called des Fossez S. Germain and as the Admiral came from the Louvre on Foot and was going to his own House in the Street de Betizy walking slowly because he was reading some Papers he made a Shot at him Year of our Lord 1572 with an Arquebuse one Bullet breaking a Finger of his Right Hand and another grievously wounding him in the left Arm. The execution done he flies by a Door from the Cloister upon a Horse lent him by one of the Duke of Guises men The King who was playing at Tenis with that Duke in the Louvre falls into a rage throws down his Racket and leaves off his play but the Project did not take as they imagined for the Admiral without shewing any great concern withdrew to his own House and neither the Huguenots nor the Montmorencies ran to their Arms. The King of Navarre and the Prince only went to beseech the King he would give them leave to go out of Paris for their own Security but both he and the Queen Mother plaid their Game so cunningly and cover'd the business so well with their deceitful pretences promising to bring the Assassin to exemplary punishment and naming Judges to take immediate Information that it calmed the just fears of those two young Princes and obliged them to stay Afternoon the Admiral having Informed the King that he had somewhat to tell him which was not to be trusted to the knowledge of any other but himself alone the King went to visit him at his House accompanied by the Queen Mother the Duke of Anjou Duke of Guise Count de Rais and some others After some general discourse he entertained him near an hour and seemed to take much delight in what he told him concerning the War of the Low-Countries In fine he carried his dissimulation on so far that the Queen had some jealousie of their great Intimacy and asked her Son what it was the Admiral had told him in private to which he replied with an Oath that he had advised him to reign by himself and make himself Master of all Affairs The same day as if he had indeed earnestly desired to have the Assassin apprehended he caused all the Gates of Paris to be shut up except two and under colour of securing the Admiral from all popular Commotions and Attempts of his Enemies Re-inforced his Life-Guards with Four Hundred Men quarter'd his Regiment within the City and gave charge to Cosseins who was their Mestre de Camp to set a Court of Guard of his best French Soldiers before the House of the Admiral and another of Swiss within it He had likewise wished all the Huguenot Gentlemen to Lodge thereabouts and made the King of Navarre believe that he apprehended some rising on the Guisian part for which reason he desired him and the Prince to come and remain in the Louvre with the bravest of their Men to strengthen and defend him in Case of necessity The Admirals friends held divers Councils in his House upon the accident of his hurt John de la Ferriere Vidame of Chartres had from the very first given his opinion that they should Convey him to Chastillon and that they were yet strong enough to beat their way thorow the common Rabble before they were in Arms but the Admirals repugnance and the contrary Remonstrances of Teligny his Son in Law who opposed every one that shewed the least suspition or gave Council tending to the securing themselves made them lay aside those Resolutions Now the Vidame plainly perceiving by the muttering of the People and divers other Indications that danger was very near at hand returned once more to the charge and insisted the more upon it because the Admiral found himself somewhat better and might endure a Horse-Litter This was apparently that which hastned their ruine for a Gentleman who was present at this Consult went immediately to the Palace des Tuilleries to make his Report to the King who had called his Council together in the
Party And the King spared the Lives of some who were so only out of Interest The Montmorencies Cossé and Biron were in the black List but Montmorency's absence he being at Chantilly secured the Lives of his Three Brothers the Prayers and Tears of the beautiful Chasteau-neuf Monsieurs Mistriss saved Cossé his Allie and Biron Great Master of the Ordnance having loaded and levell'd or appointed some Culverins at the Gate of the Arsenal stopt the impetuous Torrent of the Massacrers and let in some of his distressed Friends amongst others James second Son of the Lord de la Force who being then but Ten or Twelve years old had craftily hid himself between his Fathers and his Eldest Brothers Corps Murther'd in bed where they all three lay together When the Admiral was kill'd they threw his Body down into the Court the Duke of Guise who stood below wiped the Blood off which cover'd his Face to know if it were he After that an Italian cut off his Head and carried it to the Queen Mother who causing it to be Embalm'd sent it to the Pope as the Huguenots say The Populace fell upon the unhappy trunck of his Body They first cut off the Hands and Privities then left it on a Dunghil in the afternoon they return to it again dragg'd it three dayes about the Streets then to the River side yet did not throw it in and at last to Montfaucon where they hung it up by the Feet with an Iron Chain and made a Fire underneath which half consumed it This miserable Relick hung there till the Mareschal de Montmorency got some to steal it away in a very dark Night and laid it to rest in his Chappel at Chantilly About Noon on the Sunday the Massacre first began a white-thorn growing in the Church-Yard called Sainct Innocents half wither'd and stript of all its Leaves put forth great store of Blossomes This wonder much heightned the phrensie of the People the Fraternities Marched along with Drums beating and strove who should Massacre most Huguenots in a day the King himself would needs see that Prodigy Most People would have it to be a Miracle and those of either Religions interpreted it to their own advantage The less creduloâ—s attributed it to the nature of the Tree which does many times Blossom when ready to die We might say that the same cause which heated the Peoples Brains and excited them to so much violence and fury was that which heated this Tree likewise whether proceeding from Vapours out of the Earth or the Influence of the Stars and Planets from above It had been resolved in the King and Queens most private Council to charge the Guises with all the Malice and Odium of these Massacres and report that the Admirals Friends intending to revenge the hurt he had received it begot so furious a Sedition that the King could not allay or hinder it and to this effect they had agreed and appointed that they should retire to their own homes as soon as ever the Chiefs of the Huguenots were dispatched Upon this Foot the King had written to all the Governours of Provinces commanding them to assure the People he would not break thâ— Edict of Pacification and in one Letter he said expresly That he was joyned with the King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé to revenge the death of the Admiral his Cousin But the Guises apprehending as they had reason lest the Queen Mother should some time or other lay this Crime to their charge to ruine them insisted so resolutely upon it having the power in their own hands the Catholick Nobility the Duke of Montpensier and the Parisians to back them that they obliged him to change his Note and to send word every where That what had been done was by his Order to prevent the effects Year of our Lord 1572 of that detestable Conspiracy the Admiral and his Friends had plotted to destroy him and all the Royal Family as also the King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé Wherefore upon Tuesday the Third day of the Massacre after hearing of Mass to return solemn thanks to God for the precious Victory obtained over Heresie and commanded Medals should be Coyned to preserve the Memory thereof he went and sat on his Royal Seat of Justice in Parliament where he owned the whole Action Some dayes after he sent orders to that Assembly to employ all the Authority of the Law to justifie it and to that end to proceed immediately without delay to make Process against the Admiral and his accomplices month September and October For this a Chamber or Court was purposely set up during the Vacation by whose Sentence the Admiral was declared Attainted and Convict of the Crime de Lesae Majestatis Chief Head and principal Author of a Conspiracy against the King and his Kingdom ordained that his Body if it could be found if not his Effigies should be drawn upon a Hurdle and hanged upon a Gaâ—lows at the Greve from thence carried to the Gibbet at Mont-faucon all Pictures of him to be mangled and trampled under Foot by the Hang-man his Armes dragged at a Horses Tail about the Streets of Paris his Estate Confiscated his Children declared Plebean and Ignoble Intestable and unworthy to hold any Office Dignity or Estate in the Realm his House of Chastillon razed and an Inscription set up there graved on a Copper Plate containing this whole Sentence and Decree against him It was added that from thence forward upon the Four and Twentieth day of August should be yearly observed a general Procession to render thanks to God for the discovery of that Conspiracy Briquemaut an old Gentleman and Arnaud de Cavagnes a Master of Requests and Chancellour of the Cause being taken after the Butchery in a House where they a while concealed themselves were declared his accomplices and Condemned to the same punishment They were drawn upon a Sledge to the Greve and Executed together with his Fantosme made of Straw in the Mouth of which they did not forget to stick a Tooth-picker The King and Queen Mother stood at a Window in the Town-Hall and beheld the Execution through a Tiffany Vail Two dayes after the King had been in Parliament he put forth an Edict whereby he assured the Huguenots that what had been done was not in hatred to their Religion but to prevent the wicked designes of the Admiral and therefore that every one of them should keep quietly in his own abode and not make any publick Assemblies but at the same time he wrote to the Governors of the Provinces and Cities that they should take the very same Course and Treat them as they had been at Paris During two Months this horrible Tempest run over all France more or less Bloody according to the disposition of the Countries and their Governours It was not so violent in Burgundy and Bretagne because there were few Huguenots nor in Languedoc and Gascongne because they were strong
a Peace to the Huguenots pursuant to the Tenour of the Edicts of Pacification Knowing not what to reply he for some time avoided the sight of those Ambassadors and went to Dolinville having given Order that some Noblemen should go meet and conduct them to Paris Then from Dolinville under pretence of some indisposition he went to the Waters of Pougues and from thence even to Lyons But being pressed by their continual instances he was constrained to return and in fine he gave them an Answer but very crude and very disobliging whether to satifie his Honour or not to discontent the League I know not He endeavour'd during these delays on the one hand to appease the fervour of the League making them great profers and on the other to bring back the King of Navarre representing to him that his absence from the Court would keep him from the Crown and gave the Leagued too much confidence and advantage but he could gain nothing neither of him nor of the Leagued These having held a general Council of their Party at the Abby of Orcam near Noyon refused those places of security and other great advantages he offer'd them At their departure thence the Duke of Guise attaqu'd the Duke of Bouillon and invested the City of Sedan as being one of the principal Heads of the Huguenots and giving the Reisters passage through his Countries However the Queen Mother who Negociated eternally betwixt the two Parties procured a Truce between them imagining that by this obligation she might incline the Duke of Bouillon to serve the King towards the Protestant Princes and hinder their Army from entring into the Kingdom Year of our Lord 1586 As for Joyeuse he could reckon amongst his Exploits nothing but five or six paltry Places after which Winter coming on he put his Forces half diminished by Sickness month October into quarters Having made a pompous flourish before Thoulouze he left the conduct to Laverdin and came post to Court The Duke of Espernon was more fortunate then so The Parliament of Aix had taken the Government of â—â—ovence and Vins having got some Forces together offer'd him his service He had an opposite Party of Huguenots and Male-contents of whom Francis d'Oraison Vicount de Cadenet and the Baron d'Alemagne were the Heads Now it hapned that Vins pursuing them with too much heat and besieging the Castle of Alemagne was defeated by Lesdiguieres who came to their relief which did marvellously help Espernons business and gave him so much advantage over either Party that he became both the Arbitrator and Master at least for that present time Winter approaching he returned to the King leaving the Command to Bernard Lord de la Valete his eldest Brother who had it already in Daufine where he was no less active to ruine the Party of the League then that of the Huguenots by turning out such Governors as either of them had placed there month December In the Month of December the Queen Mother had a Conference with the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde at St. Bris which is within two Leagues of Cognac She had according to her custom carried in her Train a good number of the finest Women of her Court but this time the Princes avoided the Nets she thought to spread for them by those alluring Charms stood firm in maintenance of their Religion till they might have the judgment and determination of a National Council and demanded the rupture of the League the Qâ—een on the contrary declared that the Kings positive resolution was that there should be but one Religion in his Dominions The Guises perceived plainly that the Kings main Resolution was to ruine them and although he did not love the Huguenots nevertheless he would tolerate them as an indirect opposition to their progress wherefore they caused him to be decried by their Emissaries and by their Preachers as an Abettor of Hereticks and proclaimed every where because he had courted the King of Navarre for an Accommodation that he conspired with him to oppress all the good Catholicks The inferior People who the more ignorant they are the more they must be medling still with matters of Religion grew hot enough of themselves the Directors and Confessors animated the Citizens who were both foolish and credulous at their Confessions or by the Persuasions of their Wives and entertained them with Congregations Confraternities Paradices and Oratories which they adorned with Plate and Jewels Images and Agnus Dei and with Processions which they caused to come thither from Brie Champagne and Picardy These all made their entrance into Paris cloathed in white Linnen bearing Wax Candles in their hands from whence they called this year The year of white Processions Year of our Lord 1586 It was not so much woundred at to see the People led away thus with false and pretended Devotions as that the King authorised them by his example He went perpetually on Pilgrimage to divers parts of the Kingdom walked in Procession on foot in the Streets of Paris in the habit of a Penitent wore a String of huge Beads or Chaplet at his Girdle each Bead being carved like a Deaths Head shut himself up in certain Oratories with the Hieronimites whom he had sent for out of Spain or with the Feuillants who were Bernadines of a new cut begun in the Abby of that name within the Diocess of Rieux in Languedoc He built Cells for the first in the Bois de Vincennes and lodged the others in the Fauxbourgh Saint Honore upon one side of the Garden of the Tuilleries Amidst these pious Divertisements he amused himself likewise in carving of Images casing them and setting them up in some Closet He had another Pastime also which was to buy and breed up little Dogs such as are wont to be the vanity and delight of Ladies in which he expended above a hundred thousand Crowns a year and little less in Monkeys and Perroquets There were a world of People that followed the ☜ Court with all this dainty Equipage and himself during the last years of his life * carried a Panier or little round Basket on a Scarf full of little Spaniels and the like Creatures which he often cherished with his Voice and by stroaking them Espernon raised to the highest degree of favour from which Joyeuse began to decline was ever pushing on the King to destroy the Guises and they in retaliation having conspired his ruine framed divers Projects for it He had so much craft as to persuade the King they were all Contrivances against his Sacred Person and by that means prevailed he should ever keep above him that famous Band of Forty five whom he chose himself perhaps for that very end which the event will shew us They were all Gascons whom the desire of making their own fortunes had fitted for any undertaking Lognac being their Captain It is credible that the knowledge the Guises had of those intentions did the more
St. Denis came to Montmartre The only difficulty remaining with Brissac was to shake off those Spaniards the Duke of Feria had allotted to accompany him in going the Rounds with Order to kill him upon the first noise they should hear from without but they were not so crafty in contriving pretences not to leave him as he was in forging excuses to send them off When he had rid himself of them in less then half an hour the Kings Forces entred one part by the Porte-Neuve and the Port St. Denis another Party descended along the River and made themselves Masters of the Ramparts on that side as also of the Arsenal the Grand Chastellet the Palais and the Avenues to the Bridges Year of our Lord 1594 without meeting any opposition excepting one Court of Guard of Lansquenets who month March were cut in pieces upon the School-Key for not crying Vive le Roy. The Bourgeois likewise secured their Quarters and Pad-lock'd up the Doors of the most Zealous Leaguers lest they should come forth to disturb them placed Courts of Guards at the Quarrefours or Corners of meeting Streets and marched thorough all the Town with Vive le Roy in their Mouths and Bills of general Pardon in their Hands which they distributed to all they met The Populace followed the Soldiery and mixed familiarly with them the Spanish and Walloon Garisons did not stir out of Doors The King being within two hundred paces of the City Brissac brought and deliver'd up the Keys to him and in Recompence received the Mareschals Staff and a promise of being made an Honorary Counsellor in Parliament of considerable advantage in those days About Ten in the Morning being informed all was very quiet and that his Forces were in Battalia in all the Markets and spacious Streets he entred into the City by the New-Gate accompanied by great numbers of the Nobless and his Companies d'Ordonnance and went directly to Nostre-Dame to hear Mass and sing the Te Deum commanding Five hundred Men to march before him with their Pikes trailing as signifying this Victory was voluntary Some Mutineers having made a shew of resistance fled and hid themselvs at home Before it was Noon all the City was in admiration to find they were in as much quiet as ever they had been in the profoundest Peace and by that were fully confirmed in the esteem they had of the more then ordinary goodness and wise Conduct of their King He found his Dinner compleatly ready at the Louvre and his whole House in as good order as if he had resided there a long time He sent to offer Safe-conduct to the Duke of Feria and the Spaniards and Order'd a Party of Horse to Convoy them to the Arbre de Guise About three in the Afternoon they marched forth by the Gate St. Denis the King looking out of a Window to see them Their Colours were furl'd and their Drums cover'd carrying along with them some off-cast Prostitutes and about thirty passionate Leaguers The most Zealous was Boucher Curate of St. Benoist who died Dean of Tournay above Fifty years after but much changed in humour being as great a French Zealot amongst Strangers as he had been furiously Spanuolized in France When the King entred into Paris he sent St. Luc to assure the Cardinals de Piacenza and de Pelleve and the Dutchesses of Nemours and Montpensier that they should receive no injury in testimony whereof he allowed them some of his Guards but the Cardinal de Pelleve had no need of it for he resigned his Soul in the Hostel of Sens while they were singing the To Deum The King did not refuse the Cardinal de Piacenza a Safe-conduct though he had acted with so much passion against him he even suffer'd him to take along the Jesuit Verade and Aubry Curate of St. Andre dez Ars though guilty of the detestable attempt of Barriere Year of our Lord 1594 The third day after Captain du Bourg surrendred the Bastille and Beau-lieu the month March Castle of Bois de Vincennes and at the end of the eighth the King ordered a general Procession where he assisted in Person with his whole Court to render Thanks to God for his having restored to him the Capital City of his Kingdom It was not thought necessary to wait the return of the Parliament at Tours to verifie the Declaration which re-establish'd those who were remaining in Paris as also another granted in favour of Brissac and the City of Paris The Direction or Address was after an extraordinary manner To the Chancellor and other Officers of the Crown Dukes and Pairs Counsellors of State and Masters of Requests to Read Publish and Register them in the Registry of the Parliament and other the Soveraign Courts Those who had served the King in this important Reduction were not left without Rewards The Parliament being re-established the King made a new Presidentship for le Maistre he also created one in the Chambre des Comptes for l'Huillier and two of Masters of Requests for du Vair and l'Anglois Honest and dis-interessed People said that if their intentions were purely to serve the King and the Publick they had shewed themselves more generous in being contented with the glory of their Action then by desiring a Recompence which could not but be a charge upon the ☞ Purses both of the King and his People To obliterate as much as it was possible the sorrowful remembrances of what was past Peter Pithou Counsellor in Parliament had order to raze out of the Registers in Court all such Acts as had been forged during the Troubles against the Kings Authority John Seguier de Autry Lieutenant Civil caused all Libels to be burnt with severe Prohibition either to Print any more or keep any by them And the Parliament having changed their Style made a Decree the Thirtieth of this Month Which vacated and disannull'd all Decrees Judgments and Oaths made since the Ninth day of December 1588. which should be found any ways prejudicial to the Kings Authority and the Laws of the Kingdom as having been extorted by force Declared null all that had been done against the Honour of King Henry III. and Ordained Information should be made of the detestable Parricide committed on his Person Abolished all Feasts and Solemnities the League had instituted upon occasion of the late Troubles Revoked the Power and Authority given to the Duke of Mayenne Enjoyned him and all others to acknowledge the King And commanded a yearly general Procession to be made upon the Two and twentieth of March in remembrance of the Reduction of Paris whereat that Court to be present in their Scarlet Robes To the Authority of Parliament they joyned that of the University thoroughly month April to satisfie the Scruples of divers Ecclesiasticks as well Seculars as Religious who yet doubted whether they might obey the King before he were absolved by his Holiness To this purpose Renauld de Beaulne newly promoted to the
Archbishoprick Year of our Lord 1594 of Sens called first an Assembly of the Curates of Paris who unanimously month April acknowledge they were convinced by his Reasons Then another Body of the University in the Royal Colledge of Navarre the Two and twentieth of April where the Rector all his Deputies and a great number of Scholers and Religious Votaries of all Orders Sware to be faithful to the King even to the shedding of their Blood renounced all Leagues and retrenched the Refractory from their Bodies as spurious and rotten Members The same week returned the Members of Parliament and other Companies who were at Tours The Governor of Paris this was Francis d'O whom the King had restored to that Command a great number of the Nobility and the most noted Citizens went to meet them as far as Bourg-la-Reyne Thus all were re-united without trouble to any Man unless it were about some fifty Persons to whom the King sent Tickets to quit the Town These were most notorious People nevertheless many others took so hot an alarm upon it that it was like to have produced very ill effects Paris thus reduc'd the other Cities came in with so much haste as if striving to precede each other The Six and twentieth of April Villars brought in Rouen Havre Montivilliers and Pont-Audemer but of all the Chiefs of the League he set the highest price upon what he did and would abate nothing of Twelve hundred thousand Livers in Money sixty thousand Livers Pension the Government of all those Cities without owning for three years time the Duke of Montpensier who had that of the Province and the Office of Admiral Biron having this it could not be taken from him without wounding his very Heart and that the more deeply for that Villars was his Concurrent both in Valour and Reputation month April and May At the same time or soon after May-David returned to his Duty with the City of Verneuil As also the Magistrates and Bourgeois brought in Monstreuil and Abbeville in Picardy Troyes in Champagne after they had forced out the Prince of Joinville the Governonor Sens in Burgundy and Rion in Auvergne Montluc Governor for the League in Agenois brought in Agen Villeneuve and Marmanda During this Torrent of Prosperities the King had information that Count Mansfeld after a Conference which the Duke of Mayenne held with him had besieged la Capelle and going to relieve it found it at the last gasp He had his revenge upon the City of Laon. The Duke had left his second Son in it with the President Jeannin as his chief Council and Adviser The King besieged it about the end of May the Enterprize was hazardous for him he wanted Ammunitions and the discontent of the Mareschal de Biron who was the Soul of his Enterprizes were a Year of our Lord 1594 dangerous Remora Mansfeld approached to relieve it his Army was posted upon month May and June a rising ground not far from the Kings for seven or eight days Then wanting Provisions and having seen two Convoys of his bravest Men went to fetch some from la Fere defeated he retired into Artois where Sickness compleated the ruine of his Forces The Place defended it self yet a long time and very obstinately not capitulating till the Two and twentieth of July to surrender upon the First of August if they were not relieved by that day In the Attacks Givry was slain the most accomplish'd Cavalier of the whole Court both for his Heroick Valour his skill in all Polite Learning his ready wit and ingenious gallantry An Amorous despair occasioned month July and Aug. by the infidelity of a Princess made him so often court and seek a kinder fate in death that in the end he met his wishes During this Siege the Baron de Pesche Treated with the King for the Town of Chasteau-Thierry and the Inhabitants of Poitiers for theirs the Government of it and of the Provinces were left to the Duke d'Elboeuf After the Capitulation of Laon the Magistrates of Amiens Beaâ—vais and Peronne alarmed for that the Spanish Cabal would have engaged them to take a new Oath returned to their Duty those of Amiens having forced the Dukes of Mayenne and Aumale to quit their City Dourlens which in the Reign of Henry III. had been given as a place of security to the Duke of Aumale would needs be comprehended in the Edict of the Reduction of Amiens month September In the Month of September the King laid Siege to Noyon Descluseaux who commanded within gave it up the Eighteenth of October Thus he recover'd all Picardy excepting three places Soissons Ham and la Fere which were in the power the first of the Duke of Mayenne the second the Duke of Aumale and the third of the Spaniards For Colas Vice-seneschal of Montelimar who was Master of this last had given himself up entirely to them and in Recompence they gave him the Demaine with the Title of a County month June and July There were yet certain Contrivances hatching in Paris to re-imbroil the Kingdom The greatest part of the Royalist Lords were angry that the Leaguers carried away most of the Money and the best Rewards they repented likewise the having dispatched and advanced the Kings Affairs so soon that he was now almost in a Condition not to want their further help The Parisians were more alarmed at the fifty Persons he had banished the City then they could be assured by all his Declarations The Cardinal de Bourbon could not put the ambitious-pleasing imagination of a Crown out of his thoughts The Count de Soissons his Brother was wounded to the very Soul because the King refused to let him have his Sister after he had most solemnly promised it and Biron afflicted and discontented they had deprived him of Year of our Lord 1594 month June and July the Admiralty was come to divert his melancholy thoughts at Paris where he met with so kind a Reception that the King conceived some jealousie and ran thither from the Siege of Laon that by his presence he might dissipate those practises which possibly they would have carried on against his Interest As for the Cardinal of Bourbon death put an end to his aspiring hopes and the Kings fears soon after about the end of July He believed he was poyson'd by month October a Lady whom he had tenderly loved In the Month of October following Francis d'O Sur-Intendant des Finances ended his life in his Hostel at Paris his Soul and Body being equally corrupted by all sorts of Villany The King was easily consoled for his loss because he made prodigious devastations and yet held him as it were under Tutelage After this he for a time ordered his revenue to be managed by four or five in Commission but finding no satisfaction in a multitude still disagreeing and self-interessed he restored the Sur-Intendance and gave it to Sancy and Rosny While the Chiefs and the Cities of the League were pressing their
surrender to the King that they might be at ease the Peasants and Commons of the upper Guyenne rose and took up Arms to defend themselves from the plundrings of the Nobility and the cruel vexations of Tax-gatherers They gave them the nick-name of Tard-Advisez and they again retorted the appellation of Croquants because in effect they feed upon and devoured the poor Country People Their first Rendezvous was in Limosin Chambret who was Governor there for the King beat and dispersed them Those of Angoulmois who endeavour'd to do the same were likewise scatter'd by Massez the Kings Lieutenant in that Country But it was not so facile to appease those of Perigord A Country Notary first brought them together in the Forest of Absac within a League of Limiel and they afterwards had divers other Assemblies where they increased to the number of Forty thousand The Mareschal de Matignon enervated their whole Strength by inveigling from amongst them all such as had born Arms of whom he formed several Companies and sent them into Languedoc the King allay'd the rest of the Storm by remitting the remainder of their Tailles Bretagne and Burgundy were yet standing out not having submitted to the King We may say one part of Provence also for he thought it worse in the hands of Espernon then in those of the League The Inhabitants of Laval introduced the Mareschal d'Aumont into their City Lesonnot Governor of Concarneaux treated with him Talhouet soon after did the same for Redon and made himself Master of Morlaix by the assistance of the Bourgeois and of the Castle after a long Siege There were five thousand Year of our Lord 1594 Spaniards in the Province commanded by one Don Juan d'Aquila and the Duke of month October Mercoeur had three thousand very good Men so that if they could have agreed together they would have been stronger then the Royalists but the jealousie of those two Nations and the peeks between the two Chiefs rendred them incompatible Aquila refused to joyn with the Duke to relieve the Castle the Duke did the same when Aumont had besieged the Fort of Crodon which the Spaniards had built with great expence upon the point de la Langue which divides the Gulf of Conquet and commands it Before this Quinpercorentin being only invested had surrendred to the Mareschal and soon after the Town of St. Malo perfected their Treaty wherein her Merchants made it appear they were neither ignorant in their Interests nor in their Politicks As for Provence the King durst not overtly set aside the Duke of Espernon as well because of the Intelligence he might contract with Spain and Savoy as because of his Alliances with the Mareschal de Bouillon the Duke de la Trimouille and Ventadour who besides were very much discontented and even with the Constable de Montmorency I call him so for the Sword was given him the precedent year He therefore only sent for him to come to Court to do equal Justice upon his and the Countries Complaints But the said Duke having four thousand Men lent him by the Constable and five and twenty hundred which himself had raised he returns into his Fort and held the City of Aix by the throat as he did the Count de Carces and the Parliament exercising his revenge upon all those that fell into his hands Lesdiguieres moved by their re-iterated cries quitted the Affairs of Savoy to go and succour them He passed the River of Durance at Ourgon and intrenched himself month May c. at Senas Espernon came bravely forth to meet him and try'd him by great Skirmishes but could not stop his march for the Constable would not risque his Men but even withdrew them quite This Lord who after a long Series of Troubles and Crosses was become huge Circumspect found it much safer to make himself a Mediator then a Party in a Cause wherein it was to be feared the King would declare He therefore procured a Truce for three Months during which time the Fort was deposited in the hands of Lafin a perpetual Negociator Lafin had undertaken to put three hundred Men in Garison there to keep it in Sequestration Lesdiguieres found means to slip in a great many Soldiers that belonged to him amongst those others so that by his invention the Fort was in his disposition Being therefore one day the Eleventh of July gone month July out of Aix as if to fetch a walk he approaches insensibly to the Fort and when he was near enough commands the Captain in the name of the King to give it up that it might be razed He no sooner spake but the Garison set open the Gates to him in despite of the Captain and at the same time he abandons the said Fort to the Provencaux who in less then two days ruined that vast work which the Spanish Year of our Lord 1594 Army had been above a year in raising month July That done he returned into Daufine apprehending the great preparations for War the Duke of Savoy was making Lesdiguieres had taken several little places in his Country This Prince having regained them all during his absence did also take Briqueras even in his sight making good use in this Enterprize of the Milanese Forces month August who were going to wage War in Burgundy month November The King going after the taking of Noyon to visit his Frontiers of Champagne this was in the Month of November agreed to a Peace with the Duke of Lorrain who had endeavour'd to make it above a twelvemonth before by Bassompiere He promised this Duke to do right to him and his Children as to the Succession of Catharine de Medicis their Grandmother without prejudice to what the Duke pretended as well in his own behalf as theirs to the Dutchies of Bretagne and Anjou and the Counties of Provence Blois and Coucy He left the propriety of Marsal to him and to his Successors the Cities of Dun and Stenay in exchange of Jamets which the Duke rendred to France And moreover promised him the Government of Toul and Verdun for one of his Sons and to the Brother of that Son that should survive him Bassompiere had the Lands of Vaucouleurs engaged to him for an old Debt of Sixty eight thousand Crowns and for thirty six thousand more he lent in ready Money to the Treasury In the same Month of November was in like manner concluded the Treaty between the Duke of Guise and the King who by this means retrieved likewise the Cities in Champagne which were yet in the Leaguers hands Some Months before this young Prince having none that were considerable in his absolute disposal had secur'd himself of Rheims after this manner St. Pol a Creature of his Fathers and who saved his Life the day before the Barricado's master'd this Town by means of a Redoubt he had built at the Gate called Mars and pretended by this piece and some others which he held to make the King confirm his
hastned the death of the Wounded Besides month July and Aug. they were to defend themselves within against the Inhabitants amongst whom was discover'd a great Conspiracy to have open'd one of the Gates to the Besiegers in so much that Hernand Teillo durst make no Sallies without keeping great Guards of Horsemen in the Streets Having therefore no more Soldiers then what was necessary to withstand the Assaults he sent the Arch-Duke word of the Condition he was in conjuring him to make an Effort to save that place which cover'd his Low-Countries and gave him so fair a passage into France month August The Arch-Duke was ill seconded in this design by the King of Spain but being enough excited by his own Honour and not caring if he did hazard some Towns in his own Country to preserve so important a Forreign Conquest drew together with all diligence an Army of Eighteen thousand Foot and four thousand Horse and taking his march accompanied with the Duke of Aumale and the old Count Mansfeild who was carried in a Sedan sent Contreras before with Nine hundred Horse to observe the Enemy It was very dangerous to expose such a Party of Cavalry in the Field against an Army that had almost seven thousand Horse at their Command and indeed Contreras after his departure from Dourlens being advanced as far as Querieu within three Leagues of Amiens was smartly repulsed He thought in case of necessity to make his escape to Bapaume but was overtaken by the Light Horse near the Rivolet of Encre then by the King himself who took three Cornets from him and put the rest to the rout amongst the Woods where they were left to the mercy of the merciless Peasants This Essay was but an ill presage for the Arch-Dukes Enterprize and a worse yet was the death of Hernand Teillo who no doubt would have bravely seconded him month September The Third of September as he was standing upon a Ravelin ready to make a Sally he was slain by a Musquet Shot which hit him in the Side The Besieged by unanimous consent elected in his stead Hierome Caraffa Marquiss de Montenegro and owned him for their Governor Two days after Francis de l'Espinay Sainct Luc Governor of Brouage and Great Master of the Ordnance had the like fate He was a Lord that for his real worth had few his equals at Court not any for his Generosity and Wit and the soft charms of Conversation His Government passed to his Son but his Office of Grand Maistre to Anthony d'Estree by the favour of Gabriella his Daughter upon condition however that he should take some other Reward for it and exchange it again at the Kings pleasure The Fifteenth of the Month the Arch-Duke parted from Dourlens with his Army in a Body but he advancing not above two Leagues the three first days because the Duke of Montpensier was hovering about him with the Light-Horse the King imagined he had no design to attempt any thing by open force but only lie hovering Year of our Lord 1597 about his Camp to convey some Relief into the place by surprize so that upon month September the third day he went early in the Morning to a Hunting Match he had appointed Now the Arch-Duke whether he had notice of it or had before so resolved marched more Leagues in that one night and the next Morning then in the other two days so that towards Noon he appeared upon the side of a Hill about five hundred paces beyond Longpre His intention was to gain that Post and afterwards make himself Master of the Bridge upon the Somme to pass Two thousand five hundred Men into the City whom he had expressly cull'd out and put under the Conduct of Charles de Longueval Count de Buquoy At sight of this great Army the Sutlers and Camp-Boys belonging to the Kings ran away in a fright the out-Guards were abandoned the Foot fell first into confusion and then to a rout neither the Constable nor other chief Commanders could re-assure them the Dukes of Montpensier and Nevers appeared in vain on the out-lines to cover this disorder in the Camp the terror spread it self still more and more thorough all the Army The Spanish Horse already cry'd out Victory and the Soldiers said Come we must fall on but the Arch-Duke knew not how to improve so fair an opportunity he lost above three hours time in holding Council In the mean while the Duke of Mayenne who guess'd his design sent some old Soldiers and six Field-pieces towards Longpre and the King returning from his Sport put his Men into order and restored their courage again though not without much difficulty At last the Arch-Duke having deliberated a long time moved towards Longpre When his Men were about mid-way the six Guns began to play upon them and rak'd quite cross so effectually that they took off whole Ranks together nevertheless they had not above five hundred paces more to get quit of this Storm and be out of danger and then might easily have gained Longpre and the Bridge But this unexpected Slaughter discomposing him the more because his Spies had assured him there were no Cannon near that place he commanded them to gain the Hill that they might be secure which exposed them in truth much longer to the fury of the Cannon and cost them two hundred Men in stead of fifty His Council thought convenient that from thence he should go and Post himself at St. Sauveur which is a quarter of a League more to the left hand on the Rivers side The night was spent in perpetual allarms mean time the Duke of Mayenne for fear of falling the next day into the same peril as before caused the Avenues to Longpre speedily to be fortified This proved a necessary work for on the Morrow the Arch-Duke laid a Bridge over against St. Sauveur and immediately endeavour'd to pass his Forces to assault Longpre but found the French so well prepared to receive Year of our Lord 1597 them in every part that he durst engage no farther From that very time he month September began to consider of his retreat and at night went to lodge at Vignancour Neither did he remain there above four or five hours For finding the King follow'd him with all his Army excepting four thousand Men whom he left in the Trenches and that his Post was not tenable he dislodg'd a little after midnight If the King had been believed he could not have got off without a Battle There is some probability he might have gained it against an Army disordered by their hasty retreat and then no doubt but the Conquest of the Low-Countries would have been the consequence of that Victory However his Captains considering the chance of War is ever uncertain and that the Kingdom of France would have run too great a hazard in his Person because in the present Condition of things his Succession must have been very Disputable and Contentious they restrained
otherwhile their Head being ruin'd both in his Estate and Credit he lived meanly and affected to appear yet poorer then he was knowing his want of Power and Riches was now his only security But divers of those that had served the King taking themselves to be ill used absented yet more from him then he was alienated from them The most discontented were the Mareschal de Bouillon the Duke de la Trimouille the Constable de Year of our Lord 1599 month April Montmorency the Duke of Montpensier More then these yet the Duke d'Espernon and the Mareschal de Biron This last more bold and confident then the rest exhal'd his discontents by odious complaints and vauntings not to be endured He could speak well of no body but himself which was his Eternal Theme and Entertainment He exalted himself above the greatest Captains it was he alone that had done all there was no Place or Dignity he did not think beneath his Merit Nought but the Soveraignty could satisfie him and he would Crown himself with his own hands Too great applause had corrupted this brave Courage the King himself had praised him too much had raised him too high After the loss of Dourlens and Cambray the Nobless and the Soldiery all cast their Eyes upon him only as both the Sword and Buckler of the State At his return from the Siege of Amiens he was intoxicated by the fondness of the Parisians and when he went into Flanders to Witness the Archdukes Swearing to the Peace the Spaniards knowing his Vanity and ill disposition gave him such lofty Elogies as filled his Head with Air and Vanity and his Heart with wicked Thoughts and Sentiments From that time nay even before he sought and courted the favour of the Populace affected for the Catholick Religion a Zeal that proceeded even to Beads and month May and June Confrairies as if he would again set up that League his Sword had beaten down This year in the Month of May having made a Journey into Guyenne he there regaled the Nobility with Feasts Presents and Caresses held private Conference with such as had most Credit in the Province and behaved himself after such a manner that the King apprehending some Disturbance there descended to Blois month June c. and set a Report on Wing that he would pass on to Poitiers thereby to prevent many who might have engaged themselves in his Contrivances He was yet there when the news of the Duke of Savoy's Voyage obliged him to return to Fontainebleau During his abode in that Country Philip Hurat Chiverny Chancellor of France who had desired leave to go and see his House of Chiverny did there fall sick and died the Nine and twentieth day of June He stood much upon his Nobility and did as much affect the Quality of Earl and of Governor of Orleannois and Blesois as that of Chancellor which he had held twenty years His Posterity as almost all those that attain great Fortunes at Court sunk in a short time Pompone de Bellievre succeeded him in that great Office and at first began with two things which were most necessary viz. a severe Edict against Duels and a Rule that none should be admitted to the Office of Master of Requests till he had been ten years in the Soveraign Courts or twenty in some Court Subordinate Year of our Lord 1599 month June c. This new Chancellor Villeroy Secretary of State Sillery President in the Parliament of Paris Jannin in that of Burgundy and the Marquiss de Rosny Sur-Intendant of the Finances had the greatest share in the Administration of Affairs The last governing the Purse had great advantage over the others besides the King made himself more familiar with him and consider'd him as a Creature he had raised and one that had never held any Party but his own And indeed he was shaped every way to his humour and very fit to manage that Office as he intended it should be For besides that he was indefatigable thrifty and a Man of great order he was rough in denial impenetrable to Prayers and importunities and with both hands greedily scraping Money into the Kings Coffers To this purpose he received all manner of Proposals the easiest he made benefit of in his time and the refuse was left to glut the following Reign He made thorough inquisition after such Money as had been mis-employ'd and wherever that lighted he fell upon the great as boldly as the little ones took the hatred and blame of all denials or disappointments upon himself stopt his Ears at their Complaints or Reproaches not minding any other thing but where to raise new Fonds from day to day Hereby did he become most necessary to the King and got into his favour more and more He often shewed him a just state of Receipts and Payments in every Concern distinctly as likewise the Projects of such Expences as were to be made and the Inventories of all the Arms Ammunition and Cannon in his several Places all by Summary Abridgments to give the more gusto in perusal and inform him without tiring him For he knew very well that the King being of a ready and quick apprehension could not dwell long upon any one particular neither in Reading or Writing nor endure any tedious Discourse or Reasoning Those that had managed the Revenues or Finances had put things in a most horrible disorder and confusion and the Expences in the Civil War had drained them so low that it was almost impossible to remedy them by the ordinary ways The King was charged with Six Millions of yearly Rents and Pensions above five Millions Salary for his Officers of Justice and the Treasury with Petitions of an infinite number of brave Soldiers Officers Gentlemen and Lords who prayed some for Rewards others for some Benevolence and Charity that they might at least subsist It would therefore have been but reasonable if for a time they had exceeded the bounds of the common methods to repair these Disorders were it not that such Examples remain even after the necessity is over and that a Tax or Charge once imposed turns to a common Right or Claim ☜ Year of our Lord 1599 That they might bring the Revenues into the grand Channel of the Exchequer or Espargne he studied in the first place to open all the Springs from whence they were to slow and stop up all by-leaks which made them drop aside and lose themselves Most enormous abuses were committed upon the levying of such Moneys as were raised by extraordinary Commissions and it was the custom of some of the Council to procure very easie Adjudications that they might share in the profit As to the former he order'd the Receivers to make Receipts for these as for the other and as to the second having found out that the Sub-farms amounted to twice as much as the general Adjudication he tied up the hands of the Principal Farmers and caused the whole to be brought into the
Treasury As to the remainder he soon made himself so much Master of the Council for the Finances that he retrencht all the little Tricks and Projects and made it apparent to those grand Statesmen that to discharge his Office there was no need of so great Politiques and Craft but only to be diligent and laborious and both know how to add and to substract The Kings clearest Revenues were alienated or engaged to the greatest Lords he assigned their payments on the Espargne or Exchequer and restored all these Alienations to the Kings who made them treble the value He likewise abolish'd all those Levies they had setled for their own profit without any other Authority but the Licence of a Civil War He also caused all such Priviledges to be revoked as had been granted for above thirty years together with all Patents of Nobility from the said term King Henry III. had sold a thousand in Normandy alone and it was said that under colour of that profusion others had traded for above double that number Those Gentlemen of Parchment were allowed the Exemption they had enjoy'd during all that time for their re-imbursement Then was the famous Priviledge called The Franchise of Chalo Sainct Mars utterly abolished After these Revocations he sent Commissioners into the Provinces to regulate the Tailes And because the open Country was much destroy'd he was constrained to lessen them about Six hundred thousand Crowns and to remit all Arrears to the year 1597. which amounted to above twenty Millions As well it would have been impossible to have raised them and then it was not so much a loss to the King as to the Receivers who had advanced one part of it and those Captains and Lords who had Assignments on the other They cancell'd all the Obligations the Debtors had given to the former and revoked the Assignments of the latter His design was said he to take off all the Tailles to this purpose to dis-engage the Kings Demeasns in which he labour'd very much and so supply what more should Year of our Lord 1599 be wanting by an Augmentation of Imposts upon Wares These happy thoughts whether really intended or not were very sutable to the Kings great goodness who in effect cherish'd his People as his Children and was much more fearful of oppressing them then desirous to fill his own Coffers Any other way but that of Arbitration would have better pleased the Duke of Savoy He would willingly the Spaniards had undertaken his defence and although he had already experimented at the Treaty of Vervins they had not over-much zeal for his interests he omitted not to solicite them and to give them great Respect but when they had made him know they would not engage their young King in a War for love of him he thought it might do well to inform the Pope with the Reasons he had for detention of the Marquisate Francis d'Arconnas Count de Touzaine his Ambassador in the Court of Rome and Sillery who was there in the same Quality for the King gave in an Abstract of their Titles whilst those were under examination the King demanded as having been disseized he should be restored before all other Proceedings and the Duke replied that the said Maxim of Right had place between private Men not amongst Potent Princes as the King was to whom if they should once adjudge the possession he would never quit or surrender it again Upon this Sillery propounded an Expedient viz. that the enjoyment should rest in the Duke till a definitive Sentence provided he would hold it as a Feif Mouvant of Daufine Arconnas not yielding to that the Pope found out another which was that it should remain in Sequestration in his hands The Patriarch of Constantinople this was Calatagirone General of the Order of St. Francis whom he had honoured with that Title was enjoyned by him to propound it to the two Princes and if they approved it to demand a prolongation of the time agreed for Sentence which was ready to expire Both of them feigned to think well of it and yet neither of them were really contented for they feared lest the Pope if he had it in his hands should take a fancy to bestow it upon one of his Brothers Sons Thereupon Arconnas either with design to gain his friendship or to fore-stall his Judgment went and assured him on the behalf of his Duke that if the Marquisate fell to his Master he might dispose of it to such of his Nephews as he should think fit The Pope interpreted this Compliment a high injury to his Integrity and from that time waved the Arbitration Year of our Lord 1599 The Duke was not much troubled he was setting other Engines at work in France by means of his Ambassadors When he found they could not succeed to his wishes he resolved to come himself and because he knew his Council would not permit him to hazard thus his Person and Reputation he order'd Roncas to write to him that the King would be very glad to see him though on the contrary he had told his Agents plainly that unless he were disposed to render up the Marquisate he would find little satisfaction in his Voyage This Prince had so good an opinion of his own ability and his Talent of Wit which indeed were admirable that he doubted not to gain the heart of the King and his Ministers by his subtil ingenuity or over-persuade them by his Arguments and Reasons In the Month of June was fought that famous Duel betwixt Philipine his Bastard Brother and the Lord de Crequy Philipine was slain and that sinister accident for he relied much upon the like presages should have made him alter his Resolution but another Omen seemed to promise he should reap something of his labour which was that in the Month of September all the Fruit-Trees in Savoy put forth their Blossoms which turned to Fruit in less time then an hour So he parted from Chambery the first day of December with his Council a Train of twelve hundred Horse whereof he sent back the one half from Lyons and great Riches in Moneys Toys and Jewels The Marriage of Queen Margaret being dissolv'd the Kings Agents engaged him upon seeking for Mary de Medicis Daughter to Francis in his life time Duke of Florence month October and November and Niece of Ferdinand Brother and Successor to that Francis but in the interim his heart which was not wont to be long in freedom was taken by the attractive Charms of Henrietta de Balsac a pleasant airy witty and engaging Virgin Lady and indeed she came of a Race that inspired Love for her Mother was that Mary Touchet who had been Mistress to Charles IX and was after Married to the Lord d'Entragues from whose Embraces this young Venus sprung Her Parents desiring to make the best of such an opportunity were very watchful and kept her close lest enjoyment should extinguish that bright flame of Love her Eyes had
continued during the whole year 1551. and the following also Whilst they were thus going on the terror of the Arms of Maurice Duke of Saxony who was advanced as far as Inspruc where he thought to surprize the Emperor and the rumour of the Kings who entred into Germany did so much scare the Prelates that most of them ran quite away The Legates therefore suspended the Council for two years only but by the divers accidents and mutations of Affairs it was interrupted till the year 1561. when Pope Pius IV re-assembled them His Bull of Indiction met with great difficulties both from the Emperor and from the King their Councils desired it might be a Convocation of a Council wholly new not a continuation of the old and that they might re-examine those Decrees had been already made for they had hopes thereby to allure and bring in the Protestants Year of our Lord 1561 Withal the true French-men found fault that the Address was made only to the Emperor and that the name of King Charles was not express'd as those of Francis I. and of Henry II. had been in the foregoing ones In effect they had not comprised him but under the general terms of Kings and Christian Princes They did the same injustice in their acclamations upon the closing up of the Year of our Lord 1562 Council The Ambassadors of France who were Lewis de Saint Gelais Lansac Arnold de Ferrier President des Enquestes in the Parliament of Paris and Guy Faure Pibrac Chief Justice of Tolosa Arrived there the eighteenth of May. Queen Catherine and her Council had given them a Charge to press vigorously for the Reformation of Abuses and to behave themselves in such sort as the Protestants might have reason to believe they intended them all manner of reasonable satisfaction upon their complaints Pibrac harangued them to that purpose and Lansac did second him to this effect he demanded they should declare it to be a new Council and that they would stay for those Bishops who were coming thither from France as likewise the Ambassadors and Divines from the Queen of England and from the Protestant Princes Notwithstanding these instances the Legates declared it was a continuation and would have them proceed immediately without waiting for the Prelates of France Lansac and his Collegues joyned themselves also with the Emperors Ambassadors in the demand they made for the use of the Cup for the Laity of Bohemia to whom the Church had otherwhile most benignly allowed it On the other hand the French Bishops seconded the Spaniards with all their might and main to have them declare that Residence was of Divine Right but neither the Ambassadors nor they had any satisfaction upon either point and were divers times in deliberation to be gone Pibrac being recalled to the Court of France by Queen Catherine Ferrier was the manager who harangued upon all occasions with extreme vehemence During these transactions the Cardinal de Lorrain Arrived at Trent accompanied with a great number of Bishops and took such authority upon him that the Pope having conceived some jealousie called him amongst his familiars the Petty Pope on the other side the Mountains He knew that he was come to Act in concert with the Imperialists to engage them to give some satisfaction to the Lutherans whom he desired to unlink from the Huguentos having to that effect both he and his Brother conferred with the Duke of Wirtemberg and other Princes of that belief at Saverne and therefore he had taken care and provided to be fortify'd against him a great number of Italian Bishops whom from all parts he sent to the Council of Trent before the Cardinal should Arrive there Some Months after his coming they received two Messages of great News at the Council the one of the death of the King of Navarre the other some Year of our Lord 1562 and 1563. Months after that of the gaining of the Battle of Dreux Both of them gave the Cardinal great reason to believe his Brother might soon make himself Master of all France and that consideration encreased his credit and power very much in the Council and by consequence that of the Ambassadors with whom he was very well united in the beginning They propounded therefore according to the instructions they had four and thirty Articles of Reformation whereof the most Remarkable were That none should be ordained Priests unless they were ancient as the very word imported That they should restore the Functions separately to all the sacred Orders without allowing one Order to do what belonged to another That they should not confer them all at once but observe the interstitium That none should be admitted to the dignity of an Abbot or of a Prior conventual who had not read or taught Theology in some Famous Colledge That an Ecclesiastick should be capable to hold but one single Benefice That they should say the Prayers in French after the holy Sacrifice of the Mass That they should gives the Communion to the People under the two species or both kinds That they should render to the Bishops their entire Jurisdiction without allowing exemption to any Monasteries unless to the Heads of Orders That the Pastors should be capable and obliged to Preach and to Catechise That Simony and the sale of Benefices should be punished and that those abuses might be removed and taken away which had been introduced amongst the vulgar in the worship of Images The Cardinal de Lorrain would no doubt have assisted them to his utmost if the death of the Duke of Guise had not interven'd but as the good Fortune and Prosperity of that Brother had much elevated him so his loss depressed him most infinitely he now thought of nothing but an accommodation with the Pope and letting fall his grand designes obliged likewise all the Bishops of his Party to do the same So that the Legates and other Persons dependants of the Court of Rome remaining Masters in the Council procured many things to be passed there according to their own desires and intentions About this time began the contest for Precedency between the Ambassadors Year of our Lord 1563 of France and of Spain wherein it may be truely said the Pope did not preserve the right of France in its entire If we believe some he was willing to foment this dispute that he might have some colour to break up the Council which he had thoughts to do several times before because he could not govern them as he desired It had like to have fallen out now the Ambassadors of France pickqued ☞ at the Injustice done to their King were on the point to leave them and protest not against the Legates who depended on the will of the Pope nor against the Council which was not free nor against the King of Spain and his Ambassador who maintained their Pretension but against a particular man that acted as Pope and had intruded into Saint Peters Chair by
our Lord 1591 bloody decrees they made to draw the People from their obedience to Henry III. and Henry IV. but when the latter of these two Kings was converted and withal become Master of Paris they made one quite contrary in favour of him not waiting till he had received his absolution from Rome Gregory XIV not well informed of the State of the League engaged himself yet farther then his Predecessor he promised fifteen Thousand Crowns Year of our Lord 1591 of Gold per Month to maintain and defend the City of Paris and sent an Army into France but it perished almost before it's entrance and brought much more Scandal by the Vices of their Country then assistance to the Party The Prelates to preserve their Revenues which indeed was the main thing studied by most of them and their greatest obligation followed the Party that Year of our Lord 1591 was most prevalent in those Countries where they had their Benefices but in such parts as were Subject to the Incursions of both they did not know what measures to take for if they declared for the one the other immediately gave away their Benefices Gregory by a Bull of the year 1591. commanded all those that then followed the King to forsake him upon pain of Excommunication but the present evil touching them more sensibly then his remoter Menaces they would not obey his Commands This Pope held the See but six Months Innocent his Successor but two Clement VIII who was Elected afterwards did at first follow the Steps of Gregory and sent to Philip de Sega Bishop of Piacenza who was made Cardinal by the said Gregory to procure the Election of a Catholick King This was in the year Year of our Lord 1592 1592. The Prelates on their part finding that all Communication was broke off with Rome made a Proposition for the creating a Patriarch for France and such as were the most powerful at Court either upon the Score of favour or merit did second it with all their might out of the hopes they had to obtain the said high dignity But the Cardinal de Bourbon who had other thoughts for his own grandeur opposed it vigorously under pretence that it would be a means to Confirm the King in his Schism and exasperate his Holiness the more So it was ordained that the Kings nomination to Benefices should be Confirmed by the Bishops and that each of them should have the power of his Dispensation in his Diocess as the Pope If we should judge of the intent of the Heads of the League by the effect produced we might affirm it was good for the Traverse and Troubles they gave Henry IV. put him to such a plunge that fearing worse might follow he resumed and embraced the Religion of his Ancestors to secure himself of the Crown Clement did for some time after keep the Doors of the Church shut against him but at length finding the weakness of the League and the Ambition of the King of Spain open'd them wide to him with great demonstration of kindness But not however without making all his efforts for augmenting the Authority of the Year of our Lord 1595 Holy See upon so eminent and favourable an occasion From that time France was troubled no move with those violent fits occasioned by heats of Religion although some relicks still remained within her bowels of the inflamations of the Holy League as on the other side the Cabals and Contrivances of the Huguenots gave continual Alarms and Apprehensions to King Henry IV. We have told you he allowed them the exercise of their Religion and many other advantages by the Edict of Nantes Of the corruption of the two Parties a third was generated named The Politicks a People who seeming to profess the Religion of that Party they were engaged in yet having indeed none since they placed and made it wholly subservient in all things to Temporal Interests of State were for that reason more pernicious then all the Hereticks During the greatest Heats of War for Religion under the Reign of Charles IX and the beginning of that of Henry III. the Clergy had not the leasure to assemble any Provincial Councils although the Church stood in much need of them but after the year 1580. there were held five or six by the Arch-Bishops assisted by their Suffragants The Cardinal Charles de Bourbon Assembled one at Rouen Anno 1581. Anthony Prevost Sansac held one at Bourdeaux the following year Simon de Maillé one at Tours in 1583. Reinold de Beaune one at Bourges in 1584. Alexander Canigiani one at Aix Anno 1585. And Francis de Joyeuse Cardinal one at Toulouze Anno 1590. I do not reckon amongst these Assemblies neither the diverse Conferences between the Catholick Doctors and the Protestants of which the most Famous as also the most pernicious was the Colloquy of Poissy nor even what they call Assemblies of the Clergy of France because the Form and Methods of Proceedings and the reasons of their Convocation differ very much from those of Councils though upon occasion they do sometimes treat of Discipline and other Matters Ecclesiastical It is true that in all times the Prelates have held such Assemblies either by Order of the King or by his leave when it was requisite for them so to do but they were not held regularly as they began to be since that Sacred Order was obliged in a Contract of twelve Hundred Thousand Livers of Rent to the Hostel de Ville of Paris and upon that Score to pay their Tenths punctually We may in my Opinion put that of Melun Year of our Lord 1579 which was held in the year 1597. for the first of this kind The Remonstrances they made to the King by the Mouth first of Arnaud de Pontac Bishop of Basas then of Nicholas l'Anglier Bishop of Saint Brieuc's were very pressing for the discharging and taking of those Rents for reception of the Council of Trent and the re-establishment of Elections They could obtain nothing as to the first for the second they were promis'd it should be considered in due time and place but to the Third the King replied very roughly that he would do nothing in it and asked whether they did not hold their Bishopricks from him To which some answered generously enough that they were ready to surrender them into his hands again provided he would be pleased to surrender that right to the Church according to the Holy Canons As to the remainder we may know by their Remonstrances what the disorders of the Gallican Church then were we find how the Bishopricks the Abbeys and Collegiate Churches were in the hands of Captains That these words were often heard in their Mouthes my Bishoprick my Abbey my Priest my Chanons my Monks That by an Act the Grand Council Order'd the Moneys upon the Sale of a Bishoprick should be employ'd to pay the Debts of the Vendor that in the Kings Council an Abbey
the Christians in the Levant passes into Affrica besieges Tunis his death 312 313 Elogy ib. His Children ib. Louis Son of King Philip and the eldest of the first Bed his death 317 Louis Earl of Euvreux 321 Louis the Debonair deposed by the Bishops 127 Leonis Peter Antipope surnamed Anacletus his real Right enfeebled by his ill Conduct 274 Louis VI. courageously opposes the unjust pretentions of the Popes 306 Louis Hutin eldest Son of Philip the Fair is Crowned King of Navarre 334 His Wife accused of Adultery 336 Louis Hutin King of France ib. He finds the Kingdom in Combustion for the vexation of Imposts and alteration of Moneys 344 Inquisition after the Financiers ib. He takes up Arms against the Flemings 345 His death his Wives and Children ib. Louis eldest Son of the Earl of Flanders accused for designing to poyson his Father 348 Louis Count of Nevers and Rhetel his death 523 Lewis Count of Flanders of Nevers and of Rhetel 524 Louis de Bavierre passes the Mountains 352 Luitgarde Queen of France her death 106 Lutgarde Queen of France 209 Luzignan Hugh Count de la March 438 M. Of St. Magdelane and the finding of her Corps 341 Mahaut Countess of Flanders 345 Mahomet his death 47 Of his Successors 59 Mainfroy Prince of Tarentum Mainfroy the Bastard usurps the Kingdom of Sicilia and disturbs the Pope and Territories of the Church 309 Contracts an Alliance with the King of Arragon ib. His death 310 Manuel Emperor of Greece his perfidiousness and horrible Treason 244 Merchants of France 256 Marches of Spain fall under the Dominion of the French 101 Margaret of Provence Marries King Lewis IX 300 Margaret of Provence accompanies the King St. Lewis in his Voyage to the Holy Land 304 Margaret Countess of Flanders 304 Margaret of France betrothed to Henry Duke of Brabant and afterwards Married to Henry his Brother 313 Margaret of France Marries the King of England 321 Marriages of our first French 49 Marriage of the Degrees prohibited by the Canons 52 Marriage The French did repudiate their Wives when they pleased The Kings themselves had often times several 72 Marriages prohibited such as Marry within the degrees forbidden are most commonly unhappy 223 Marriages prohibited even to the seventh degree 232 Marriage of King Philip with Isemburge of Denmark 258 Marriage of Mary Agnes with King Philip. 260 Marriage of Isabella d'Angoulesme with King John without Land 261 Marriage of Jane de Toulouze with Alfonso Earl of Poitou Marriage of St. Lewis with Margaret of Provence 300 Marriage of Beatrix Countess of Provence with Charles Earl of Anjou 303 Marriage of Berenguelle de Castille with Alfonso King of Leon declared null 306 Marriage between the Princess of Arragon and the eldest Son of the Bastard Mainfroy 309 Marriage of Blanche of France with Ferdinand of Castille 312 Marriage of the Children of St. Lewis 313 Marriage of Philip the Hardy with Mary of Brabant 316 Marriage of Jane Queen of Navarre with the eldest Son of the King of France 320 Marriage of the two Daughters of the Earl of Burgundy with the two Sons of Philip the Fair. 324 Marriage of the Earl of Valois with the Daughter of the King of Sicily 324 Marriage of Lewis of France with Blanche of Castille and of Philip of France with the Daughter of the Earl of Boulogne 241 Marriage of Rodolfe Son of Albert with Blanche of France 328 Marriage of Jane of Burgundy with Philip d'Euvreux 345 Marriage of Margaret of France with the Earl of Nevers and Rhotel 348 Marriage of Jane Countess of Burgundy and Artois with the Duke of Burgundy Of Margaret of France with the Earl of Flanders and Isabella of France also with the Daufin of Viennois 349 Marriage of Mary Daughter of the Emperor Henry of Luxemburg with the King of France 350 Marriage sometimes permitted to the Subdeacons sacriledge in the Deacons 274 Mary of Brabant Queen of France 316 Mary of Luxemburg Queen of France her death 350 Marles Thomas revolts against Enguerand de Boves his Father 227 Excommunicated by the Popes Legat his unhappy end 235 236 Marseilles besieged and rendred at discretion 308 St. Martial revered as an Apostle 231 Martin Governor in part of Austrasia his unhappy end 69 70 Martin IV. Pope Excommunicates and degrades the Arragonian and causes a Croisade to be published against him 320 Martin Monk of the Cistertians a Cardinal his praise 293 Matthew de Montmorency goes to the Holy Land 261 c. Matthew Abbot of St. Denis in France Regent of the Kingdom in the absence of the King St. Lewis 312 Matthew first Duke of Milan 325 Matilda Daughter of Henry King of England declared Heiress of all his Estates 239 c. Maxime seizes on the Empire his death St. Mayeule 205 Malec-Sala Sultan utterly defeats the French Christian Army 305 Melun the subject of a War 208 Meroveus third King of France from whom the Kings of the first Race have taken the name of Merovingians 10 Joyns with the Romans against Attila ib. Continues his Conquests in Gaul his death 11 Meroveus Son of Chilperic Espouses Brunehaud 32 Shut up in the Monastery of St. Calais 33 Escapes from the Monastery his unhappy end ib. Metaphysick of Aristotle 265 Meteors representing Battles in the Air. 257 Metropolitans Their Authority lessened by the Popes 230 Milan Dutchy and their first Duke 325 Militia and Military Discipline in the days of the Carlovinians 117 Militia The first of the Kings of France who had any Forces in pay 259 Milon Vicount of Troyes 325 Milon the Popes Legat in France 264 Miracles supposed 188 Missionaries Apostolick sent into Gaul to declare and preach the Faith of Jesus Christ 4 Mogles People and Nations 302 Monks declaiming against the Temporal Goods of the Church and the Sacraments condemned 276 Monk John the Cardinal comes into France on behalf of the Pope 329 Monks and their first Establishment in Gall. 4 Seize upon Cures Church of the Eleventh Age quit them but retain the Revenues ib. Molay James great Master of the Templars burnt alive 333 Mommole Patrician 34 Monarchy French divided into five Dominions or Governments 156 Monasteries 53 Built and founded in great numbers in France 74 75 Filled with Hypocrites 285 Moncade Gaston Lord of Bearn 315 Money amongst the first French 49 The change and abasing of Money cause of an emotion and rising amongst the Populace of Paris 333 Monothelites France had no share in their disputes 76 Munderic pretends to be King his death 23 Mutiny of the Flemings against their Earl 351 N. Namur chief of the Counts of Namur 216 Nantilde repudiated by King Clotaire II. who afterwards takes her again 55 Narbona held by the Saracens rendred to King Pepin 93 Navarre falls under the Dominion of the French 101 Its beginning to be a Kingdom 125 In trouble and divisions after the death of King Henry the Fat 317 Neomenie makes himself Master of Bretagne and drives