at Court Year of our Lord 1413 It was not without ground that they accused the Burgundian of bringing Fuel to maintain this scroching Fire of Sedition though in effect he could not govern their hot Heads as he would In the mean while all were forced to give way to this Torrent The King was forced to consent they should bring their Prisoners upon their Trail to go to Parliament in his white Hood and publish certain Ordinances for reforming some abuses touching his Revenue displace Arnaud de Corbie his Chancellor who surrendred the Seal to Eustace de Laitre his Son-in-Law and to deliver up to Execution an Esquire belonging to the Duke of Guyenne and Peter des Essards whose Heads were cut off James de la Riviere Chamberlain to the said Duke rather then undergo so great ignominy beat out his own Brains with a large drinking Bowle or else was kill'd in Prison by Helion Jaqueville a Captain of Paris but however it hapned they dragg'd him to the Gallows as one that had despair'd and Murther'd himself So violent a Government could not last long The Duke of Guyenne privately agreed with the Leagued Princes they made use of the Kings name and a pretence of confirming the Peace of Chartres which was not fully executed to enter upon a Conference with them at Vernevil Their Deputies being come to the King at Paris Year of our Lord 1413 the Seditious often broke up their Assembles where they were Treating about the Peace but yet could not by all their art or insolent rudeness prevent so good a work from going on To attain their ends an Enterview was propounded between the Duke of Berry and the Duke of Burgundy then a Conference concerning the other Princes at Pontoise by Deputies All that were foundest and Wisest the University the Parliament and the honest Citizens inclined to Peace the Burgundian had but little stomach to it as promising but slender advantage to him however it was concluded at Pontoise the first day of August and the King agreed the Princes should come and Year of our Lord 1413 Congratulate him in Paris This being so setled the Duke of Guyenne puts himself in Arms at the head of the honest Citizens and having gotten together above Thirty thousand Men well sitted marched through the Streets The Chiefs of the Factious who held the Bastille the Louvre the Palace and the Town-Hall left those places to him and withdrew Then he sets free all those they had imprisoned he changes the Sheriffs and putting out the Chancellor whom they had put in by force gave that Office to John Juvenal then restores the Seals to Arnaud de Corbie who gave them up to Henry de Marle the first President The Burgundian not thinking himself too safe resolved to be gone before the Orleannois were come Having therefore got the King one day forth a Hunting he takes his leave on a suddain and without bidding adicu to Paris hastens to Flanders by long days Journeys though very well attended Year of our Lord 1413 After his retreat there was an absolute Revolution The Duke of Orleance was so much in the Kings favour that he would have him Cloathed in the same Stuffs as himself wore The Coultable d'Abret returned to Paris with great splendour the Chiefs and Authors of the Sedition were sought for some executed some proscribed all the Burgundians Creatures were removed divers Gentlemen and Burghers Friends to him imprison'd They went farther yet the Declarations that had been made against the Princes were declared a surprize their Innocency owned and published and he on the contrary detested as an execrable Murtherer And for the greater affront Lewis of Anjou King of Sicilia sent him back his Daugher who had been put into his hands in order to be Married to his eldest Son and two months after he gave one of his own to Charles Earl of Pontieu the Kings third Son who was not fully Twelve years of age by this means making both himself and his son-in-Son-in-Law mortal Enemies to the House of Burgundy Year of our Lord 1413 The ill Treatment was hard to be digested the Burgundian complained to the King wrote of it to the Citizens of Paris the Parliament and the University but neither his Complaints nor Letters effected any thing Finding he did not succeed that that way he found means to renew some kind of Correspondence with the Duke of Guyenne his son-in-Son-in-Law who in effect was angry to be detain'd at Court and as it were a Prisoner in Louvre This was pretence enough for him to raise a great Army and take the Field to come and deliver him He was received at Noyon at Soissons and at Compiegne but Senlis shut her Gates against him He made himself Master of St. Denis by Intelligence and afterwards presented himself before Paris notwithstanding the King had forbid him to come near upon pain de Loesae Majestatis He thought to have received the former humour of the People and have made some rising that would have given him entrance Thereupon the King being recover'd of a Fit made a thundring Declaration against him When he found this he was afflicted and retreated in most horrible confusion Year of our Lord 1414 Every one bawl'd after him stop Traitor stop Murtherer The Bishop of Paris Brother of Montaigu and the Faculty of Theology having examined the Herangue of his Orator John Petit who was then dead drew seven Propositions out of it condemned them of Impiety and Heresie and caused them to be burnt in the Porch of Noster-Dame John Charlier named Jarson from his Native Village near Reims Chancellor of the University and a Doctor of great Reputation shewed himself mighty zealous in this Prosecution He had formerly some contest with Petit and the Burgundians had sold his Houshold Goods the year before for certain Taxes The following year the Burgundian removed this Business by Appeal to the Council of Constance where it was debated with much heat He maintain'd that those Propositions that had been condemned at Paris were not Petits but that they were forged and contrived by Jarson The Commissioners deputed to examine the thing having made their Report the Council without taking any notice of Petit or Jarson did in general condemn that pernicious Proposition that a Tyrant may be killed or put to death by his Subject in what manner soever At the same time the King proceeded against him as an Enemy to the State went to St. Denis to set up the Orislame and summoned the Ban and Arriere-Ban against him He takes the City of Compiegne upon Capitulation and Soissons by force This was miserably plundred and Bournonville who had defended it to the uttermost had his Head cut off Without doubt the Burgundian was in a great consternation at the taking of it and more yet when the Flemmings refused to serve him and sent Deputies to the King to offer him all Obedience The taking of Bapawne by the Duke of Bourbon
at one another the Burgundian breaks off the Treaty and thinks of nothing now but to accommodate Affairs with the Dauphin They conferred therefore in the open Field near Povilly le Fort within two Leagues of Melun between the two Armies each of them attended by half a score Horsemen and there they made a Treaty in which they sware to love and assist each other like Brothers submitting themselves in case of any failure to the Soveraign Judgment of the Holy See After which they agreed to meet upon the Bridge de Year of our Lord 1419 Montereau Faut-yonne the Eighteenth of August each accompanied with ten Men armed to determine all their disputes in a most amicable manner The Servants belonging to the deceased Lewis Duke of Orleans particularly Taneguy du Chastel and John Louvet President of Provence procured these Interviews for no other end but to find an opportunity to revenge the death of their late Master upon him that was the Author of it They durst not attempt it at Pouilly but they put things in better order at Montereau by the contrivance of certain Barriers which being made in appearance for the mutual safety of them both served as a snare or trap to that unfortunate Prince The day being come the Dauphin arrives at Montereau the Duke made him wait almost fifteen days His friends forewarning and advice his own pressentiment all humane prudence and reasonning forbid his going thither the power of his ill destiny dragg'd him along by the horrid treachery of a second Dalila I mean the Lady de Gyac his Mistress or perhaps it was the hand of Divine Justice for the Blood of his own Cousin and so many thousands of Men as had been spilt in that Quarrel To allure him the better they delivered up to him the Castle of Montereau but wholly unfurnish'd of Provisions or Artillery From thence he descended to the Bridge with his ten Men and placed a guard at the end While he was kneeling before the Dauphin Taneguy du Chastel and some others leaping over the Barriers Massacred him by several wounds his People making but a slight defence only Nouailles Brother of Captal de Buch who was kill'd with him We must believe this act was done without the Dauphins order for he was not above Seventeen years of age and Heaven would never have permitted a Prince designed to wear the Year of our Lord 1419 Crown of France should have perpetrated so horrible and base a piece of treachery However it were the event made it appear how much those wounds did blemish his Honour and not only proved hurtful to him but almost mortal to the whole Kingdom For Philip the only Son of the deceased although a very good Prince highly undertakes to revenge his Fathers death and wanted not for means to do it All that were friends to that House all those that were discontented came and tendred their service to him compassion and horror for this Murther renewed and heated the affections even of such as were grown coldest the Parisians sent to assure him of their Services and he to gain the love of the People obtained a Truce of the English to the exclusion of the Dauphins People who were come to Rouen to desire the same thing for which they made great profers From this time the French the English and the Burgundians began to mix and live together as if they had all been but one Nation but the difference of their humours and interests would suffer no long unity amongst them Year of our Lord 1419 On the other hand the Dauphin gathered up all his Friends in the Provinces of Poitou Orleannois Berry Auvergne Lyonnois Dauphine Provence and above all thought to secure himself of Languedoc He took away that Government from the Earl of Foix and gave it to Charles Count de Clermont eldest Son of the Duke of Bourbon From these Provinces it was that he drew his Succours that maintained him Besides the Kings of Castille and of Scotland with the Duke of Milan suppli'd him in his necessities with some of their Forces Year of our Lord 1420 According to what had been agreed upon the King of England and Philp Duke of Burgundy met at Troyes where the King and Queen were and there the Peace was Treated together with the Marriage of Catharine of France with King Henry Which was first sworn to by all the Lords there present and then by all the good Cities that were of their party The Marriage was compleated the Second day of June This Treaty amongst other things contained That King Charles named and owned Henry for his Heir to the Crown of France That however Henry should not take the Title of King of France during the life of Charles but that he should have the quality of Regent and the government of Affairs That the two Kingdoms of France and England should be united and held by the same hand viz. by Henry and his Heirs but that they should not depend upon one another and should be governed according to their Laws That all Priviledges and Rights should be preserved to all Estates and to every particular Person That no Treaty of Accommodation should be made with the Dauphin without the consent of both the Kings the Duke of Burgundy and the three Estates of both the Kingdoms The two Kings afterwards with the Burgundian having taken Sens and Montereau journyed towards Paris Melun made the King of England know how much all France might cost him he was four Months before it and not able to force it Famine only did what his Sword could not The Besieged surrendred upon composition but contrary to the faith given they were all detained Prisoners At their departure from thence the two Kings made their entrance into Paris the first Sunday of Advent and the next day the two Queens The Duke of Burgundy having tender'd his complaint before them and their Councils in the Hostel St. Pol the Dauphin was summon'd to the Table de Marbre with the usual formalities and afterwards as attainted and convict of Murther was declared unworthy of all Succession namely of that to the Crown of France and banished the Kingdom to perpetuity From this Sentence given by incompetent Judges against all Right and contrary to the Laws of the Kingdom he appealed to God and his Sword and transferr'd the Parliament and University to Poitiers at which place the most illustrious Members of those two Companies did not fail to appear Thus almost every thing was double in the Kingdom there were two Kings two Regents two Parliaments two Constables two Chancellors two Admirals and so of most of the great Officers not to mention the multitude of Mareschals of France whereof each Party made seven or eight Year of our Lord 1420 This year 1420. the Portugal Navigators defray'd and encouraged by Henry Duke of Visen Son of John King of Portugal sailing at large in the Ocean found in their midway between Lisbonne and
with the Queen Mother the Princes of Montpensier and de la Roche Sur-Yon the Guises and all the great ones of the Court went to Orleans after he had quartered his Gent-darmerie and other Soldiers in all the Cities Forty Miles about and disarmed the Citizens of Orleans for the most part tainted with the new opinions and suspected to have intended to deliver it up to the Prince of Condé as they did two years after He forthwith sent Messengers into several Provinces to lay hands upon all such as the Guises had a mind to involve in the Conspiracy an ill omen for the Prince of Condé And indeed as soon as he and his Brother were Arrived and had saluted the King Philip de Mailly Brezé and Francis le Roy Chavigny Captains of the Life Guards Seized him and Convey'd him to a House in the Market place called l'Estape at the Corner whereof they had raised a kind of Bastion of brick with a Platform defended by several Small Cannon The King of Navarre his Brother was not secured but perceived he was very narrowly observ'd and forsaken by all excepting the Admiral and the Cardinal de Chastillon his Brother who faithfully accompanied him Dandelot more apprehensive had retired himself to his Wifes Estate in Bretagne The Dame de Roye Mother in Law to the Prince of Condé was likewise Arrested some few dayes after in his own House and carried to the Castle of Saint Germains en Laye So was Hierosme Grollot Bailiff of Orleans accused of holding Correspondence with the Religionaries and Bouchard Chancellor to the Navarrois was brought from Saint Jean d'Angely as a material Witness that knew the most for the Conviction of the Prince The Order for seizing the Prince was proposed by the Mareschal de Brissac who boldly exposed himself to all for the Guises the King signed it and after him the Chancellor though with regret The Chancellor Christopher de Thou a President in Parliament and two Councellors with the Procuror or Solicitor General Bourdin and the Register Du Tillet went to interrogate him He refused to answer them and said he owned no other Judges then the whole Body of Parliament together with the Pairs and the King there presiding But this appeal and all such others he made afterwards were declared null by the Kings Council and upon the Sollicitor Generals Petition it was order'd that he should answer or that he should be held as fully Convict and that in the mean time the Witnesses should be re-examined whereupon he demanded Councel they assigned him two Advocates of Paris Peter Robert and Francis de Marillac He was afterwards confronted with Witnesses which were brought in from all Parts and then saw himself in most eminent danger But the Queen Mother found her Authority in no less hazard for the Guises who thought themselves already above all by the approaching ruine of their Enemy began to slight and despise her of whom they stood no longer in need Grollot being Condemned to die his Sentence was looked upon by all Men as a prejudication and fore-runner of the Princes Now upon the Seventeenth of November the King being ahunting that he might not be present at the Execution of this unhappy man was seized with a heaviness in his head which in some dayes turned to an imposthume voiding it self by his Ear. The first Five or Six dayes the Distemper did not appear so dangerous in the mean time they carried on the Process against the Prince with so much hast and precipitation that stepping over many formalities they Condemned him to loose his Head The Sentence was signed by the greatest part of the Councellors of State and Men of the Robe excepting the Chancellor and the President Guillard de Mortier who observing the encrease of the Kings malady were so crafty as to spin out the Year of our Lord 1560 time and deferr it Amongst all the Knights of the Order and the Lords so much were they devoted to the Guises there was not one but the Count de Sancerre who refused it notwithstanding three express Orders from the King At the same time this terrible Sentence was forging the Physitians who in the case of Persons of so eminent a quality never give their Judgment clearly till the extremity declared that the King was very near his end Then did the Guises do their utmost to oblige the Queen to have the King of Navarre secured likewise but she having taken advice of the Chancellor could not resolve to give her consent That prudent Minister made her very sensible how the detention of those two Princes would necessarily leave and confirm all the Authority in the hands of the Guises whereas she ought to get it all to her self and over-rule both Parties by keeping them in equal balance And indeed both of them dreading her became her suppliants the Princes for their Lives which she had at her disposal the Guises for their Grandeur which she could soon pull down with the assistance of the Princes and submitted themselves to such Conditions as she pleased Anthony promised under his hand to yield the Regency to her which belonged to him as first Prince of the Blood reserving only the Title of Lieutenant General and the Guises swore to serve her for and against all Things being in this posture the King gave up his last gasp of breath the Fifth day of December He was Aged Sixteen years ten Months and a half of which he had Reigned only one year and five Months wanting five dayes He had no Child by Mary Stuart his Wife who the year following returned into her Kingdom of Scotland His Servants because of the Innocency of his manners and disposition called him The King without Vice a Title much more glorious then any other can be bestowed when it hath for it's Foundation not the imbecillity of mind and understanding but Wisdom and Vertue His death hapning favourably for the Princes and for the Montmorancies gave an occasion to their Enemies to say it had been hastned by Ambrose Paré his Chyrurgeon who was a Creature of the Constables and had injected Poison into his Ear. Others but a long while afterwards observing the perverse ambition and the Conduct of Queen Catherine de Medicis suspected her as guilty of that Crime as well as of the death of the Daufin Francis his Brother in Law and of Charles IX his second Son Those that judged with more modesty found the cause to be in himself and said that having been generated of corrupt blood his Mother conceiving him after ten years sterility which proceeded from a suppression of ... he had ever been indisposed especially in his Head which did at no time discharge it self by the ordinary Channels so that the pituitous matter corrupting there caused that Imposthumation whereof he died All the Court Grandees were so busie about the contriving of their own Affairs that neither his Mother nor his Uncle took any care for his
arrival of a new Governour Don Juan of Austria In the mean time the Spanish Troops having mutined plundred the wealthy City of Antwerp where they got so much booty that some private Soldiers were seen to play for Ten thousand Franc's in one night The Catholique Provinces fearing they might be plundered in the same manner united by a Treaty made at Ghent with those of Holland and Zealand Now before they received or admitted Don Juan the Estates would have all the Spaniards sent out of the Countrey and the Treaty of Ghent to be confirmed Don Juan feigned to agree to those conditions and entred the Countrey in Sheeps cloathing but soon changed it for the Foxes skin seising upon Namur Charlemont and Mariemburgh Then the States armed against him drove him back into Luxemburg called in Matthias the Emperors Brother whom they chose for their Governor and the Prince of Orange for his Lieutenant But by the jealousy of the Catholique Lords thwarting the wise Councils of Orange Don Juan had time to receive the Forces brought him by Alexander Farness Duke of Parma with which he gained a signal Battle at Gemblours over the Army of the States and afterwards the Gueux having turned Year of our Lord 1577 the Priests and Monks out of Ghent broke and pull'd down all the Images in their Churches So that the happy success of Don Juan and the attempt of this insolent rabble gave occasion to some Lords already discontented to form a Third Party whereof Montigny was Head and to draw both Artois and Hainault to joyn with them The same Lords finding that the States had Treated with Queen Elizabeth who sent Casimir to them with some German Forces moved with apprehension of the great danger their Religion was in resolved to Treat with the Duke of Anjou to which the States did likewise incline being induced thereto by the practises of the Prince of Orange who had great suspition of Casimir Year of our Lord 1578 This business had been negotiating a year before by the tacite consent of the Queen-Mother but the King did not approve of his Brothers medling with the Low-Countreys Affairs he was too jealous of his advancement and besides too much netled at his Bussy's braving his Favorites every day Now these Picques and Controversies rising higher on either part he caused his Brother to be laid hold on in the Louvre and set Guards upon him but they did their Duty so negligently that he escaped out of their hands being let down by a cord into the Trench under the Louvre and went to the Abby St. Germain where Bussy waited for him and had made a hole in the Wall of the City From thence they got to Anger 's and after they had sojourned there some weeks advanced to Mons in Hainault to conclude the Treaty which was before prepared by one of his Secretaries He promised to assist the States with his Forces and Means to raise Six thousand Foot and Three thousand Horse to maintain them at his own charges for Three Months and to endeavour to bring the Queen of England the King of Navarre and Casimir into this Alliance Reciprocally they promised him that where-ever he should be personally he should Command in Chief with the General for the States That if they accepted of any Lord other then the King of Spain they would prefer him before all That forsecurity and a retreat for his Sick they would give him Quesnoy Landrecy and Bavais That if they could obtain a good Peace they would repay his disbursements and give him a reward worthy of his Grandeur month August Year of our Lord 1578 There never was a business so intangled nor a Countrey more divided and tormented then that same The Arch Duke Matthias had his party amongst the States and amongst the Nobless the Prince of Orange had all the power in the Provinces of Frise Holland Zealand and Vtrect Don Juan of Austria was Governor for the Spaniard but declared an enemy by the States Prince Casimir was there in the behalf of Queen Elizabeth the Duke of Anjou as their Ally and Protector Imbise had seized upon Ghent and Prince Casimir with his Forces was got into those parts as it were to cantonnize himself The Catholique Lords of Artois and Hainault floated between all parties desiring to preserve if it were possible their Liberty and their Religion So that there were Five Armies feeding upon and laying wast that unfortunate Countrey That belonging to the States was of Thirty eight thousand Foot and Eight thousand Horse That under the Duke of Anjou much inferiour for number to what had been promised him by Treaty He besieged Bins and batter'd it so furiously that it surrendred the Fourteenth day being the Sixth of September The civility he shewed month September to that Garrison open'd him the Gates of Maubeuge but the insolence of his Soldiers in the Field caused those of Quesnoy and Landrecy to be shut up against him For vexation of this inexecution and because Casimir kept still in Ghent he would not joyn with the States Army to whom however he had already sent Three thousand Men Commanded by la Noüe but retired into France having first sent to the Arch-Duke Matthias and the Council of the States to let them know the reasons for his departure and give them an assurance of his return The greatest part of his disbanded Troops went into the Service of the male-contented Lords Some Months after Don Juan of Austria hapned to die the King his Brothers jealousie made all his designs miscarry and perhaps hastned his end by some potion as he had the end of Escovado his Secretary and intimate Confident in Spain by cutting the thred of his Life with a keen ponyard His loss caused so great a consternation in his Army that if that of the States had fall'n upon them they might with ease either have forced or dispersed them but Year of our Lord 1578 besides that their disorders were likewise great in that great Body for want of pay the death of Maximilian Crook-Back who Commanded in Chief hapning within Six weeks after broke all that little Union there was between the Lords of the Countrey who fell from the common interest of the publique good to seek their own private advantages During this expedition of the Duke of Anjou into the Low-Countries the King languished still in unactive idleness wherein he was entertained by Villequier and Francis d'O his son-in-Son-in-law This last was Surintendant des Finances a Man wholly given up to Luxury who put the King daily upon making new Edicts called Bursaux and by carrying him to the Parliament forced them by his Presence to verify the same This was one of the chief causes of the ruine of this Prince the People observing so frequently that from his Court whence nothing but good and wholsome Laws should have proceeded there came nothing now but Edicts of Oppression and Severity did by little and little lose
contrary the Assurance which the Baron de Lux newly return'd from Court gave him that Laffin had discovered nothing the King 's profound Dissimulation who one day said before this Baron that he was very glad Laffin had cleared several doubts which some had made him conceive of Biron's innocency the shame the Mareschal had of shewing any fear and giving advantage to his Enemies the apprehension of being thrust out of his Government if he did not obey and withal his Pride and his ill Fate betray'd him to the resolution of going to the King Before he went he received a Ticket from a Lord his intimate Friend who advised him rather to go into the Franche Comté for there was now no farther Security for him in Burgundy the King's Agents having disposed all things there to invest him Upon his way many more of the same Tenor were deliver'd him At Montargis he met one so pressing that he was like to have turned back agen nevertheless he pursued his unhappiness and arrived at Fontainebleau the Fourteenth month June of June The Duke d'Espernon had sent before his coming to proffer him his Service believing those odd Reports that flew about were but the Slanders of his Enemies month June When he was at Court he did not meet with his accustomed Applause and might well read the disposition of the Prince in the countenance of his Courtiers Wherever he went his Presence cast a damp upon their looks few people approached him and none could speak but with a great deal of Constraint whil'st every thing pointed out the danger he was in and if he did not understand that Language a Note from the Countess de Roussy his Sister spake more plainly wishing him to get away before he was more strictly guarded This would perhaps have proved very difficult so carefully was he observed but he had no need to provide for his Safety by such shifts the King himself offer'd him a way both more certain and more honorable He had resolved and his Council applauded that resolution to extend his Clemency to him and forget all what was past provided he would faithfully discover and unriddle the whole Practice with all the instruments of this Conspiracy that so by certainly month June knowing from what quarter the Storm was to have fallen upon him he might be eased of his Fears and Jealousies that did so much disturb his rest Year of our Lord 1602 He therefore made three several attempts to persuade him to own the Truth freely and sincerely one the very same Morning he arrived at Court having drawn him aside in a private Walk of the Garden another after Dinner the very same day taking him into his Closet and the third the next Morning in another private Promenade He every time exhorted and conjured him not to conceal those things which could not by other means be made out without ruining him assured him of a full and real Pardon and told him that what he desired to be informed of from his own Mouth was not for want of other Evidence but purely because he desired to save his Reputation and keep the Knowledge from any but himself of such things as must if prosecuted be so disadvantageous to him All these endeavours were to no purpose for he believing Laffin had kept his Faith and thinking whatever the King hinted was but Conjecture was so far from owning any thing that he talked audaciously and without respect The first time he replied he was not come either to justifie himself or to accuse his Friends At the second he made loud Complaints was transported demanded Justice against his Accusers or Permission to carve his Satisfaction with his Sword At the third it was nothing but Bravado's Menaces execrable Oathes which convinced the King that he was much more susceptible to commit a Crime than to repent it He therefore resolved to abandon him to the severity of Justice since he refused to cast himself into the arms of Mercy and gave Order to Vitry and Prasbin Captains of the Guards du Corps to be in a readiness to apprehend him and also the Count d'Auvergne the most intimate of his Acquaintance and Accomplices Before it came to this he would needs Communicate the Proofs he had against them to his secret Council that he might not bring People of such great importance before his Tribunal unless there were enough to Convict them When they had satisfied him that there was more then needed he made yet another and last effort to draw the whole Truth of the Fact out of the mouth of the Mareschal At Night about Ten of the Clock having left off his Gaming with the Queen he called him into his Closet and conjured him once for all to confess that freely of himself which he was but too well informed of by others passing his word that a true and ample Confession should wipe off all his Crimes how many and enormous soever The least token of Humility and Repentance had saved him But he most arrogantly replied That this was to press an Honest man too far So that the King touched at the same time with Sorrow month June and Indignation left him saying Since you will reveal Nothing Adieu Baron Going forth from thence he was seized by Vitry as the Count d'Auvergne was by Praslin Both of them being kept that Night in the Castle were the next day convey'd to Paris by Water and lodged in the Bastille The same day the King arrived by the Gate Sainct Marceau the People following him with loud Acclamations which expressed the Joy they resented for his having discover'd so dangerous a Plot. Three days after Biron's Relations to the number of Seven of whom were Sainct Blancard his Brother Salignac of the same Surname and James Nompar Caumont la Force coming and casting themselves at the King's feet to implore his Mercy had for Answer That he would leave him to the Severity of the Law Immediately he sent a Commission to the Parliament of Paris to make his Process and another particular one to the first President to the President Potier and to Fleury and Turin the two eldest Councellors of the whole Company to Examine him His Friends presented a Petition in the Name of his Mother desiring he might have Council allowed him as is usual to such as are accused But the Court denied it grounding it upon this That they are not allowed any in case of Treason In this necessity whereas he should have collected all his strength of Reason and Prudence he shewed if ever he were Master of any that this present trouble of Spirit had utterly confounded them for from the moment he was Apprehended to the day of his Death all his Discourse and Behaviour seemed to tend only to the aggravating his Crime and loading him hourly with new Guilt When Vitry made him Prisoner he would needs have the King be a Persecutor and said to those that saw him led away Behold Sirs how
his full Liberty to continue his Correspondence with the Spaniards that he might discover all their Secrets and give him a true account thereof The King seemed to confide in his Promises soon discover'd that he neither kept Faith with him nor his Enemies but juggled with both Thereupon he Commands him to Court The Count excuses it till he had his full and authentick Pardon they sent it to him but with this Clause That he should come to the King He could not find in his heart to relye upon the word of a Prince whom he had so often deceived so that the King resolved he should be Apprehended month July in Auvergne The Count stood much upon his guard and thought there was no Man in the world able to surprize him being so well fore-warn'd Notwithstanding Nerestan and the Baron of Eurre having inticed him into the Field to be present at the Muster of a Company of Gens-d'armes belonging to the Duke of Vendosme surrounded and dismounted him and took him in such manner month Septemb. c. as is at length related by the Historians of those times At the same time Entragues and his Wife were seized in their House at Malesherbes and the Marchioness in her Hostel at Paris The Count was brought to the Bastille and Entragues to the Conciergerie or Common-Goal of Paris It was necessary that all the world might see and know the Spaniards still maintained Factions in France The King therefore commanded his Parliament to proceed against these Criminals The event we shall shew in the next years Transactions Another Faction also did much discompose the King's Thoughts He could not deny the Hugenots leave to Assemble at Chastelleâ—ant and it was to be feared the Intrigues of the Mareschal de Bouillon and Credit of the Duke de la Trimouille month May. and du Plessis Mornay should put them upon Resolutions contrary to his will and interest But Rhosny under colour of going to take Possession of his Government of Poiton broke their measures And la Trimouille falling into Convulsions and then languishing died some while after Aged not above Four and Thirty years He was a Noble-man of great Courage and of most eminent Qualities Year of our Lord 1604 but not of such as suited with a Monarchick state The King diverted himself amidst all these Intrigues with Buildings and other such like Occupations when his leisure would give him leave as tended to the improvement of his Kingdom King Henry III. had begun the Pont-Neuf having built two Arches and brought the Pyles for the rest above the Water mark Henry IV. finish'd it so that People began to pass over about the end of the preceding year He carried on the Works also of the Louver Galleries the Castles Sainct Germain en Laye Fontainebleau and Monceaux which last he had bestow'd upon his Wife After his Example all the Great and the Rich fell to Building the City of Paris was visibly enlarged and embellished The Hospital Sainct Lewis was Erected for such as were infected with the Plague Some private people undertook the Place or Square Royal and others offer'd to make a much finer one in the Marese du Temple They likewise offer'd at many Projects to make several Rivers Navigable which either had never yet been so of else were now choaked up and to open a Communication between the greatest by means of the lesser lying nearest together with some new Channels where it should be necessary to carry it from the month May. one to the other They proffer'd to joyn the Seine to the Loire the Loire to the Soane and the Garonne with the Aude which falls into the Mediterraneum neer Narbonne The Conjunction of these two last would have made that of the two Seas As for that of the Seine and the Loire Rhosny undertook it drawing a Channel from Briare which lies on the Seine to Chastillon above Montargis upon the River Loin and falls into the Seine at Moret In this Channel they Collected all the Waters of the adjacent Rivolets designing to make Two and thirty Sluces to retain and let them go by flashes when needful to convey their Boats He Expended above Three hundred thousand Crowns but the change of Government made this design to miscarry though very much advanc'd It was a long while after taken up again and compleated at last In the Month of October a new Phenomena was observed in the Heavens which appeared four Months together It was at first taken for the Planet Venus because although it exceeded all the other Stars in Magnitude and Splendour yet had it no Tail but Observation soon found it was different from that Planet for they both appeared at the same time John Kepler a very Learned Mathematician wrote a Treatise of its Motion according to the Rules of Astronomy without troubling himself or the World to no purpose like the Judicial Prognosticators who upon this Apparition and the Conjunctions and Oppositions of some other Planets hapning this year and such as were to happen the year following made as is usual divers strange and terrible Predictions month March c. There was for about two Months an extream Scarcity in Languedoc and which would have caused a horrible Famine had they not been furnished with Wheat from Champagne and Burgundy by the Rivers of Soane and the Rhône The Plague also raged in several Provinces of France the soregoing year it had afforded Death a most plentiful Harvest in England When the Plague was ceased in those Countries King James hold his first Parliament in London to whom having made a Gracious and Royal Speech concerning the happy Union of the two Kingdoms the Affection he had for his Subjects the Laws and Regulations they were to make he desired of his Parliament and they granted it That from thence forward the Kingdoms of England and Scotland should be joyned into one Body under the Denomination of GREAT BRITAIN otherwhile used by the Romans Whereupon was Coined that Medal bearing this Inscription HENRICUS ROSAS REGNA JACOBUS His Speech was full of excellent things amongst others That he did not believe as Flatterers would fain persuade their Princes that God bestowed Kingdoms upon Men to satisfie their unruly Lusts and Pleasures but to take care of the Peace and Welfare of the People That the Head was made for the Body not the Body for the Head The Prince for the People not the People for the Prince month March c. The Subtil Scholiasts have so great an itch to bring every thing into Dispute that some Jesuits moved this year three Questions at Rome which begot great Contentions in Year of our Lord 1604 that Court and greater Scandal thorow-out all Christendom The First That it was not an Article of Faith to believe that Clement VIII was Pope which so enraged the Holy Father as without the Intercession of the Spanish Ambassador the Society had been in great Danger The Second That Sacramental Confession might be made
succeed him the other headed by Ebroin Bishop of Poitiers referr'd it to the Emperor Ebroin comes to him to know his Intentions for which he was rewarded with the Abbey of Saint Germain des Prez At the very time when the Emperor would have followed him into Aquitain with an Army he was drawn towards the German side Year of our Lord 839 After the partition made with Lotaire Lewis was forbidden to take upon him the Title of King of East France any longer his interest and resentment made him take up Arms to preserve it Now before he could put himself into a posture of defence his Father passed the Rhine and stuck so close to him that he was either advised or compelled to come and ask his Pardon At his return from this Voyage the Emperor goes into Aquitain and being entred as far as Clermont in Auvergne he there met and gave reception to the Lords of the Country whom Ebroin had disposed to obedience and made them give their Oaths for his Son Charles But young Pepin with his Friends kept the Inheritance of his Father still by some corner or other and held so fast and tugged so strongly against him that he could not be dispossess'd in many years Louis the Debonnaire Emperour and King of France Lotaire Emperour and King of Italy aged 45. years Louis King of Bavaria aged 34 years Charles King of Rhetia Burgundy Neustria Aquitain aged 17. years Pepin disputing Aquitaine aged 14. years Year of our Lord 840 When the Emperor after the Parliament of Chaalon was returned to Aquitain being at Poitiers to take some course to secure that Kingdom to his Son Charles he had notice that Louis had debauched the Saxons and Turingians that he had Siezed all the Country without the Rhine and then being come to Francfort had taken the Oaths of several Eastern French Never any business troubled him so greatly as this same Though he were indisposed by a defluxion upon his Stomach and the Weather as yet very unseasonable he went from Aquitain with the resolution of putting an end to that affair He left his Wife and his Son Charles at Poitiers kept his Easter at Aix passed from thence into Turingia and held a Parliament at Vormes Then his Malady encreasing he went down the Meine to Ingelheim near Ments where lying in his Tents his Heart pierced with grief and his Stomach oppress'd with an Impostume he gave up the Ghost the 20 th of June having every Morning for forty days together received the Sacrament or Body of our Lord Jesus Christ He was in the beginning of the 64. Year of his Age and the end of the 27 th of his Empire and Monarchy before which time he had been King of Aquitain 32 years His Brother Dreux convey'd his Corps to Mets whereof he was Bishop and Intombed him in the Abbey of Saint Arnoul who was the Stock of the Carlovinian Family He was of a mild and sweet Nature but too easy and too credulous insomuch that sometimes his Counsellors could persuade him to unjust things From his youth he had plunged himself into a profound Devotion And if we may not say that he gave too much credit to the Church-men we may at least own that he could not discern the good from the bad or that employing them in his affairs and bestowing too much wealth upon them he spoiled them His Fathers method had been much better who never suffer'd one man to have more then one employment or more then one Benefice at the same time For the rest of his character he was Laborious Sober Vigilant Liberal very knowing and Learned both Speaking and writing Latine as well as any man in his Kingdom and who together with the perfect knowledge and understanding in the Laws had ever a great care to see them put in execution His first Marriage was with Hermengard Daughter to Duke Ingelram by whom he had three Sons Lotaire Pepin and Louis and three Daughters Adelais whose first Husband was Conrard Earl of Paris her second Robert le Fort Gisele who married Everard Duke of Friuli Father of that Berenger who was King of Italy Hildegarde married to Count Theodorus and Alpais Wife of Count Begon By his second marriage which was with Judith Daughter to Velpon or Guelfe Earl of Ravensperg he had Charles whom they surnamed the Bald. CHARLES II. Surnamed The Bald. King XXV Aged xvii Years POPES GREGORY IV. S. 3. Tears under this Reign SERGIUS II. Elected in Febr. 844. S. 3 years one Month. LEO IV. Elected in April 847. S. 8. Tears 3 Months BENNET III. Elected in August 855. S. 4. Years NICHOLAS I. Elect. in April 858. S. 9. Years 6 Months ADRIAN II. Elect. in Decemb. 867. S. 5. Years JOHN VIII Elect. in Decemb. 872. S. 10 years whereof 5. under this Reign Lotaire Emperour and King of Italy Louis King of Germany Charles King of Burgundy and Neustria Pepin Fighting for the Kingdome of Aquitaine Year of our Lord 840 SOme few days before his Death the Debonnaire had sent his Scepter his Crown and his Sword the tokens of Empire to Lotaire his eldest Son recommending to him the protection of Prince Charles and enjoyning him to preserve that share for him which had been allotted with his own consent But Lotaire or Lotharius was possessed in his mind that his Birth-right and his Quality of Emperor ought to make him Soveraign over his younger Brothers With this design he parts from Italy comes to the Kingdom of Burgundy where he designed to Rendezvous and bring his Forces together with his Friends dispatches his Commissaries into all parts to sollicite the Lords to give their Oathes to him passes from thence to Wormes and draws the Saxons to his party From thence Marches even to Francfort But Lowis coming to encamp close by him startled him and as he made more use of craft then strength he made Truce with him till the 12 th of November at what time they were to meet in the very same place to decide their differences in a Friendly manner if possibly they could if not by Dint of Sword Charles was then at Bourges where he waited for Pepin who failed at the Rendezvous promised From thence he dispatched one to Lotharius to intreat him to remember his Oathes which he had made in the presence of his Father and withal Year of our Lord 840 to render him all respect and submission as to his eldest Lotaire amuses him with fine words and in the mean time adjusts all his Engines to turn him out of his Estates After Charles had by his presence confirmed those People betwixt the Meuse and the Seine and had withal made a Journey into Neustria he returned with diligence into Aquitain to put a stop to Pepin's progress whose courage was much augmented upon the approaching of Lotharius He took off somewhat of the sharpness of his Mettle by gaining a Battel but in the mean while the Neustrian People joyned with
for the Militia as to do Justice which the Kings could bestow or take away So there was a Duke for Lorrain which was Bruno Arch-Bishop of Colen King Otho's Brother One for France one for Aquitain and one for Burgundy and Hugh was such in all those three Kingdoms by consequence he was as the Kings Lieutenant General and in that quality might be set aside if his great alliance and the Cities in his possession had not rendred him indestituable Year of our Lord 953 France was quiet enough three years together only Hugh An. 955 led the King into Poitou to make William Earl of that Country and Duke of Aquitain become obedient and laid Siege to Poitiers Scarcity of provisions and the terror of a Thunder-clap which tore his Tent in two forced him to raise it and yet the Count presuming to pursue the French upon their retreat they turned head and put him to the rout with great slaughter of his Nobility The following year Hugh who without a Scepter had Reigned more then 20 years being the Son of a King Father of a King Uncle to a King and Brother in Law to three Kings died in his City of Paris full of years glory and riches He was surnamed the White * from his skin the Great from his power or perhaps his bulk and the Abbot because he held the Abbeys of St. Denis St. Germain des Prez and St. Martin's of Tours At his death he intreated Richard Duke of Normandy his Son in Law to be the Protector of his Children and Vassals He had three wives Rotilda Sister of Lewis the Stammerer Ethild Daughter of Edward King of England whose two Sisters were married to Charles the Simple and Otho and Avida or Avoye Sister of the same Otho and Queen Gerberge There came no Children by the first two but by the third he had Hugues or Hugh surnamed Capet who was Earl of Paris and Orleance then also Duke of France Otho who was Duke of Burgundy after the Death of Gilbert his Father in Law Eudes or Odon who succeeded him and Henry who likewise enjoyed it after them Year of our Lord 956. 57. and 58. These four Sons not being yet in a capacity to make any noise the eldest not above 16 years of Age Gerberge governed peaceably enough excepting some petty quarrels about the Castles belonging to the Arch-Bishoprick of Reims and some private contests The worst of it was that it seemed most of the affairs were managed according to the pleasure and will of King Otho and Bruno his Brother Arch-Bishop of Colen and Duke or Governor of Lorrain so that they became as it were the Moderators and Arbitrators of France Year of our Lord 959 The Queen being at difference with the Children of Hugh and the Widdow Avoye her Sister for some Castles which King Lotaire had taken from them in Burgundy Bruno came into France and brought them to an agreement in a Parliament held at Compiegne After which the Queen and her Son Lataire went to keep Easter at Colen with Bruno who entertained them splendidly and sent them back furnished with very brave Presents A while after being called to their assistance against Robert Earl of Troyes and Count of Chaalons by his wife who had surprized Dijon he returned into France with his Lorrainers and regained that place At the same time he sent some Saxon Forces to Troyes to restore the Bishop whom that Robert had thrust out thence But Renard Earl of Sens and Rimbauld Arch-Bishop of the same City friends to Robert gave them Battel and defeated them The same year died Alain surnamed Barbe-torte Duke of Bretagne and Son of Earl Matueda who left two Bastards Hoel and Guerec and one Legitimate Child named Drogon then in his Cradle whom he declared Heir Thibauld Earl of Chartres Grand-Father by the Mother to this Child had the Tuition and the Mother the care of his person Now marrying again with Fulk Earl of Anjou this Year of our Lord 959 wicked woman unhappily killed him by causing scalding water to be thrown down upon the Infants head The Succession begot a bloody debate in Bretagne which lasted 34 years The two Bastards of Alain disputed it with one Conan who was descended by a Daughter from King Salomon he made them both perish Hoel by the hands of a Souldier who assassinated him and Guerec by a poysoned Lancet wherewith a Chyrurgeon let him Blood But himself perished at length in a Battel he lost An. 992. against Fulk Earl of Anjou a Capital Enemy of the Bretons Geofrey the eldest of the four Sons he left succeeded him The Children of the Defunct Hugh the White thorough the persuasion of Arch-Bishop Bruno tendred hommage for their Lands to King Lotaire who in retribution declared the Eldest Duke of France as his Father had been and bestowed Poitou upon him you must understand if he could conquer it for it was possessed by another very potent Earl This is a conjecture that the Kings had not yet given entirely away their power of bestowing Dutchy's and Earldoms and that if they were Hereditary it was only by Usurpation not as yet by Concession All the new Principalities and Seigniories or Lordships which were started up in the Kingdom did not trouble the King so much as that of the Normans who being strangers and the Issue of those Fathers that had plagued and plundred France 80 years together should yet enjoy so rich a Province Wherefore Bruno who governed the affairs of the Kingdom being excited by the persuasions of Arnold Earl of Flanders Baldwin his Son Thibauld Earl of Chartres and Geofrey Earl of Anjou combined to ruine Duke Richard For this purpose he sent for him to come to the Royal Parliament or General Assembly of Estates at Amiens putting him in hopes if he came thither they would give him the Administration of the Kingdom But it was with design to Sieze and send him Prisoner into Germany Richard who was on his journey being informed of this Combination by two unknown Cavaliers returned whence he came and stood more upon his Guard Year of our Lord 959 He avoided likewise another Snare the King had laid for him near the River of Epte to which place sending for him to come and do him hommage he meant to lay hold on him The Duke had already passed the Epte when the Scouts he had sent forth to discover what the King was doing brought him word that all his Enemies were about the King and were making ready to set upon him By this he understood the meaning of the French and withdrew in time Year of our Lord 957 Since Berenger and Adelbert had been restored to the Kingdom of Italy by Otho they never ceased to conspire against him and withal cruelly vexing their Subjects so that he had sent his Son Luitolf to chastise them This young Prince had almost hunted them quite out of the Kingdom when he was surprised by Death An.
he brought most of them to their Duty one after another Eudes being dead during these Transactions he Treated with Hugh de Puiset who was to inherit that Earldom and making him resign his Right provided he would give him his liberty put himself in possession of that place of great importance at that juncture Year of our Lord 1112 c. Some time after Hugh having re-fortisied le Puiset and committing a thousand Insolencies upon the Neighbouring Countries he besieged him in that place but the Champenois having the rest that were in League together for him failed not to come to relieve it Two great Battles were fought one to the Kings disadvantage the other to his advantage after that they talked of an Accommodation and Hugh obtained his Pardon Milon Vicount de Troyes whom the King had re-setled in Montlehery had withdrawn himself from the rest of the Leagued Party Crescy not being able to draw him in again surprized him by Treachery and after he had led him about to divers Castles bound and setter'd not knowing where to secure him so but the King would deliver him nor how to let him go but he would take his Revenge he caused him to be Strangled in the night and thrown out of a Window at the Castle of Gumet He would have had it believ'd that he had broken his Neck endeavouring to make his escape but the Crime was discover'd and the King with great diligence besieged the Castle of Gumet The wretched Murtherer being condemned to justifie himself by Duel in the Court of Amaulry de Montfort had not the courage to expose himself to that hazard and therefore finding himself Convicted he came and cast himself at the Kings Feet gave up his Lands to him and put on the Habit of a Monk as his Pennance Year of our Lord 1116 Hugh du Puiset being Revolted the third time the King again besieged that Castle razed it and then turned that Rebel out of all his Estate This unfortunate Man having in a Sally killed Anseau de Garlande Grand Seneschal and Favourite to the King and not daring to remain any longer in the Country went a while after to the Holy Land which in those times was the Refuge of Banish'd and Condemned People as it was likewise of true Penitents Year of our Lord 1116 Thomas de Marle Lord of Coucy had been Excommunicated and Degraded of his Nobility Anno 1114. by the Popes Legat in the Council of Beauvais for the Sacriledge and Robberies he committed upon the Churches and the People belonging to the Bishopricks of Reims Laon and Amiens That Sentence had inflamed his Rage to do yet worse even to the setting Fire to the City of Laon and the Noble Church of Nostre-Dame I believe it was that of Liesse to Massacre the Bishop Galderic and cut off that Finger whereon he wore the Episcopal Ring The King who flew about every where with incredible Celerity ran that way before this Robber had seized the Tower of Laon forced and razed his Castles of Crecy and Nogent and brought him to Reason Year of our Lord 1116 17. He quelled likewise another puny Tyrannet named Adam that ravaged all the Neighbourhood of Amiens He had gotten possession of the City Tower which was very strong and gave a great deal of trouble but the King having begirt it for two years gained it and razed it About Ten or Eleven years afterwards Thomas draws the King again upon him by the like Deportment so that he went and besieged his Castle of Coucy It hapned that making their approaches Rodolph Count de Vermandois met him wounded him and took him Prisoner He was carried to Laon where he died miserably of his Wounds Henry King of England was the Boute-feu and Support of all these Revolts Year of our Lord 1117 King Lewis in Retaliation had stirred up against him his Nephew William Son of the Deceased Duke Robert whom he admitted to do Hommage for the Dukedom of Year of our Lord 1117 Normandy and gave him the Castle and City of Gisors the first occasion of the Quarrel This Nephew being thus supported put his Uncle to so much trouble that he was fain to make a Peace with Lewis promising to leave all the Rebels to his Mercy Year of our Lord 1118 Archambaud Lord of Bourbon being dead Hemon his Brother surnamed Vaire-Vache under pretence of claiming his Share detained the whole Possession to the prejudice of the Son and Treated his Subjects especially the Clergy very Tyrannically The King assigns him to plead his Right before the Parliament Upon his refusal to appear he went in Person to compel him and besieged his Castle of Germigny Hemon dreading his Wroth came and craved his Pardon he received him to Mercy and took both him and his Nephew along with him to bring them to an agreement of all their Disputes The Quarrel between the Emperor and Pope concerning the right of Investitures being burst out anew with more heat then ever Pascal II. being Pope the Emperor Henry V. had seized both upon him and all his Cardinals and constrained him to allow him the priviledge of nominating two Bishopricks Afterwards that Pope being at liberty annull'd that Treaty in the Council of Latran and Excommunicated the Emperor Year of our Lord 1118 In this year 1118. Galasius was elected in the room of Pascal or Paschalis but he sought not the approbation of the Emperor who being displeased at that neglect or contempt caused one Maurice Burdin to be chosen a Limosin by Birth and Archbishop of Braga in Portugal to whom they gave the name of Gregory Year of our Lord 1119 Gelasius being then driven from Rome took his way into France to hold a Council there as he did in the City of Vienne but he died the same year in the Abby of Clugny Year of our Lord 1119 The Cardinals that had followed him elected Guy Archbishop of Vienne who took the name of Calixtus II. He was the Brother of Stephen Earl of Burgundy and Uncle of Adele or Alix Queen of France who was the Daughter of his Sister and of Humbert Earl of Morienne and this consideration did fortisie the Holy See with great Alliances against the Emperor Year of our Lord 1119 The whole Kingdom of France having taken his part he came from Vienne to Toulouze where he held a Council Thence he went to Reims where he called another in which divers Canons were made to take away Simony the Investiture of Benefices from Laicks Concubines from Priests and the selling of Sacraments The King was present the Emperor Henry would not be there and having refused to part with the right of Investitures was Excommunicated There was almost the same contest and difference betwixt the Popes and the Kings of France These pretending the Election and Provisions of the Popes were not sufficient without their consent So that it had begot great troubles in the Churches of Bourges Reims Beauvais and
A prodigious Comet appeared in the Heavens shortly after and whether it were the Sign or were the Cause or perhaps neither the one nor the other a Quartain Ague seized King Philip which continuing and wasting him near a years time did in the end bring him to his Grave Amaulry de Montfort had profer'd to give up all his Conquests in Languedoc to Prince Lewis But Philip knowing the Constitution of his Son was too delicate and tender could not give consent he should undertake so toylsom a War notwithstanding the Pope and the Clergy press'd mightily to have them make an utter destruction of those Hereticks who without any respect still aimed at their Persons Year of our Lord 1223 and Estates principally They had therefore at Paris called a grand Assembly of Prelats and Lords to compleat this business John King of Jerusalem and the Popes Legat were Assistants Philip sick as he was would needs be amongst them and went expressly from Chasteau de Pacy on the Epte where he had diverted himself When he arriv'd at Mantes the Distemper so encreased upon him that he was forc'd to stop there and some days after gave up the Ghost the Twenty fifth of July in the year 1223. The length of his days was Fifty eight years that of his Reign from his Coronation Forty four His Monument is at St. Denis whither his Corps was convey'd with great Ceremony By his Will made the year before he ordained and appointed that 50000 Livers or 25000 Mark of Silver at 40 Solz to the Mark should be put into the hands of his Executors to be restor'd and paid to those from whom it should appear he had detained or unjustly taken any thing He bequeathed likewise Ten thousand Franks to Queen Isemburge ..... to Lewis his Son to employ for the defence of the Kingdom and no other use 53500 Mark of Silver to the King of Jerusalem 2000 to the Templars and as much to the Hospitallers of St. Johns towards the Recovery of the Holy Land 21000 Livers Parisis to the Poor to Orphans to Widows and Leprous People and 20000 to Amaulry de Montfort to redeem his Wife and Children out of the hands of the Albigois He Married three Wives Isabella Daughter of Baldwin IV. Ears of Haynault Isemburge Daughter of Waldemar the Great King of Denmark and Agnes Daughter of Bertold Duke of Merania Of the first he had no Child remaining but Prince Lewis who Reign'd by the second he had none but he had two by Agnes these were Philip who had the Earldom of Boulogne by Marrying the Heiress which was Mahauld or Matilda Daughter of the unfortunate Regnauld de Dammartin and Mary who was first joyned in Marriage Anno 1206. with Philip Earl of Namur and afterwards Anno 1212. with Henry IV. Earl of Louvain and Duke of Brabant He had also a Natural Son named Peter Charlot who was Treasurer of Tours and afterwards Bishop of Noyon Of all the Kings of the Third Race he annexed most Lands to the Crown and most Power to those that succeeded him wresting Normandy the Counties of Anjou and Maine Touraine Berry and Poitou from John Without-Land he did not a little contribute on his part towards the lessening or pulling down the Earl of Toulouze and by ruining those two Princes took away the Counterpoise that balanced his own Power in the Kingdom After which he brought the Grandees more easily both to respect and fear him and the People to bear greater Burthens and Taxes then they had done under his Predecessors The French gave him the name of Conqueror which Paulus Emilius has rendred in Latin Augustus and this seemed so proper and sounded so well to all that have written since that they have follow'd and continued it and have almost forgotten the other He was well shap'd and without any Corporal defect excepting that one of his Eyes was half obscured by an Amblyopia for which some Italian Authors have called him One ey'd He was a brave Cavalier and excellent Captain laborious and active happy in his Enterprizes because he undertook with Deliberation and Counsel and executed with celerity and heat sometimes a little Cholerick and oversway'd with Passion but bating that a great Politician who knew where it was fit to use Caresses where to employ Threats whom to Reward and whom to Punish somewhat more enclined to Severity then Mercy Splendid and Magnificent highly Charitable to the Poor zealous in doing Justice to his Subjects and no less zealous in Religion taking as much care to preserve the purity of Faith by rooting out all Heresie and defend the Goods and Liberties of the Church against Usurpers as to maintain the Rights and Honour of the Kingdom and therefore he was respected by the Clergy and People as the Defender of the Church and Father of his Country It is to be observ'd that in his Reign and in his Fathers and Grandfathers there were five great Officers of the Crown that is the Grand-Seneschal in Latine Dapifer great Chamberer Butler Constable and Chancellor I believe they were in the Kings Gift who might both place and displace I do not know what the Formalities were he used or whether the Grandees and Parliament or General Assembly of Prelats and Lords had any part in the nomination but I know they were not perpetual and did in some measure resemble rather Commissions then Offices that nevertheless their Function was so necessary that whoever held those Places signed all Acts and Writings of importance so that if any one of these were vacant it was ever noted down at the bottom of such Writing or Act. The Author of the Lives of the Ministers of State hath very curiously observed that the Office of Constable was a Member taken from the Grand-Seneschal and that of Great Chamberlain from the Grand Chamberer That the Constable had no Power or Command in the Armies till about the year 1218. after Philip Augustus had long left the Office of Grand-Seneschal vacant on purpose to destroy it as I suppose because it had too great Power He likewise proves very plainly that the High-Chamberlain had the management of the Kings Treasury and that the Office of Chancellor was the lowest of the five great ones we have specified till Guerin Knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and afterwards Bishop of Senlis having that Place conferr'd on him by Lewis VIII after he had held the Seal Five and twenty years together raised it to a higher pitch of Honour and Degree then ever Towards the end of this Reign Families began to have fixed certain and hereditary Surnames The Lords and Gentlemen took them most commonly from the names of their Lands and Estates they had in possession Men of Learning from the places of their Nativity and Jews when they were Converted as likewise the Wealthy Merchants from the place of their abode As for what has given Surnames to the Plebeians some had it
Ambassadors thither before received tidings when he was got to Turin that the Pope and the Fathers had Excommunicated him with Candles extinguished and degraded him for divers things imposed upon him amongst others That he detained the Church-Lands That he had intelligence with the Saracens That he erred in divers Articles of Faith Year of our Lord 1245 After this deposition all his Affairs crumbled to nothing in an instant The Milaneses beat him the other Christian Princes took an aversion for him as an impious person even the Germans that they may not reproach the French for contributing to ruine the Empire rejected him and for King of the Romans elected Henry VII Landgrave of Hesse and Turingia when as the King in an enterview he had with the Pope at Clugny endeavour'd to make up the breach by an agreement betwixt this unfortunate Emperour and the Roman Church by virtue of a Procuration he had from him Year of our Lord 1245 This year 1245. died Raimond Berenguier Earl of Provence having by his Testament constituted Beatrix his fourth Daughter his Heiress James King of Arragon caused some Forcesto march into Provence to secure so good a party for his Son But the King of France did not intend to let a stranger run away with such a prize He therefore drove the Arragonians out of that Countrey and by consent of the Daughter as well as her Mother and her Uncles the Earl of Savoy and the Arch-Bishop of Lyons he so order'd it that she was promised to her Brother Charles who was Earl of Anjou The Marriage was not consummated till the year following Year of our Lord 1245 The same year on the First of December died also Jane Countess of Flanders without having had any Children by her Second Husband Thomas Earl of Savoy no more then by her First who was Ferrand of Portugal her Sister Margaret succeeded her This Margret had had Children by two Husbands John and Baldwin by Bouchard d'Avesue her first Husband and William John and Guy by William de Dampierre her Second These pretended that the Sons of Bouchard ought not to inherit because it had been discover'd that he was in Holy Orders when he married their Mother and for that reason the Marriage was declared null Year of our Lord 1246 Those of the first Bed observing the Mother favoured the others had recourse to the King He sent both parties to a Parliament at Peronne and therein it was ordained that those of the first Bed should have Hainault and the others should have Flanders Year of our Lord 1246 The pretended King of the Romans Henry Landgrave of Hesse being dead in Battle or of sickness the Germans who persisted obstinately under the pretence of Biety to ruine the dignity of the Empire elected the year following William Earl of Holland potent in Friends and Alliances whilst Frederic was strugling with his misfortunes and his enemies in Italy Year of our Lord 1247 and 48. The Duke of Burgundy and some French Lords were Leagued with him to defend the Liberties of their Countreys against the usurpations of the Court of Rome being supported by this League he leaves Lombardy to come to Lyons whether to invest the Pope or to molâ—ifie him by his Prayers but he was recalled by a blow the Milanese had given his bastard Son Entius whom he had left in Parma These Affairs and the great preparations for War detained the King till the month of May of this year from accomplishing the Vow he had made three years before It cannot be written in Characters â—o great as it deserves how this pious King being perswaded that Sovereigns are responsable by Laws both Divine and Humane for all the miscarriages of their Officers caused it to be published thorow ✚ all his Kingdom that whoever had suffer'd any wrong or damage by any belonging to him should make it known and he would give them satisfaction out of his own I state which was performed punctually That done and having taken leave of the Holy Martyr and given the Regency to the Queen his Mother he quitted Paris being conducted out of the City by all the Orders in Procession He took his two Brothers Robert and Charles with him the Queen his Wife theirs and an infinite number of Princes Lords Prelats and Gentlemen He received the Popes Benediction in his passage thorough Lyons thence Year of our Lord 1248 he descended by the Rhosue and going on board at Aigues-mortes in Languedoc the 25th of August set sail two days after and landed happily in Cyprus the 25th of September where he past the Winter to wait for the rest of his Forces and Ammunitions In this Island he received at the beginning of December Letters from Ercalthay one of the chief Chams of the Tartars and soon after arrived Ambassadors from the King of Armenia Ercalthay sent him word how the Great Cham and a good number of his Captains had embraced Christianity and that he had sent him with a great Army to destroy the Sultan of Balduc or Bagdet the most potent of all the Mahometan Princes The Armenian Ambassadors assured him that this news was true and that their King had vanquished with the assistance of the Tartars the Sultan of Iconia or Cogny to whom they were tributary and cast off the yoke of those Infidels Year of our Lord 1249 The Saturday after the Ascension the Holy King having drawn all his Men togther from their Winter Quarters in the Island of Cyprus and received a new reinforcement brought him by Robert Duke of Burgundy came the fourth of June into the Road before Damiata in Egypt The Saracens expected him in good order upon the Shore he landed in despite of them and made them give way They being well beaten so great a fear seized upon them that the next day they forsook the Town after they had set fire to it in several places and carried off in Boats beyond the River Nilus all their Families and the richest of their Goods The overflowing of the Nile which infallibly begins some days before the Summer Solstice hindred the Army from going on at the same time to take the City of Grand-Cairo and kept them almost till the midst of Autumn in so much idleness as brought them into all manner of debauchery and dissoluteness Year of our Lord 1249 In the Month of September Alphonso the Kings Brother arrived with new Adventurers of the Cross Raimond his Father-in-law who had accompanied him as far as Aigues-Mortes where he took Shipping with his Wife died upon his way home in the Town of Millau in Rouergne giving all the demonstrations of a hearty Repentance He was the last of the Earls of Toulouze who had Ruled over the greatest part of Languedoc above 350 years His Daughter Jane being deceased without any Child by her Husband Alphonso his Lordships were re-united to the Crown in pursuance of the Treaty made in the year One thousand two hundred twenty eight The 20th of
Archipelago and reduced Constantinople Year of our Lord 1262 to such streight that Manuel was upon the point to abandon it But the Genoese in hatred to the Venetians made a League with him and relieved him notwithstanding the intreaties of all the Christian Princes and the Popes Excommunications The Emperour Baldwin yet held for some time after the Island of Eubaea or Negropont The bastard Mainfroy not content to have usurp'd the Kingdom of Sicily without consent of the Holy See domineer'd over the Pope and the Countreys belonging to the Church most strangely Insomuch that Alexander IV. had offer'd that Kingdom to the King of Englands Son Edmund who had accepted it and to this end his Father had laid so many Imposts and Taxes upon the People that most of them made a League against him and were revolted Vrban IV. Successor to Alexander having caused the Crusado against Mainfroy to be Preached stirred up some French Lords to go into Italy who at the very first forced the passages of Lombardy and beat the Saracen Soldiers whom Mainfroy entertained in his Service but soon after their Pay falling short they came back into Year of our Lord 1262 France leaving the Pope more in the Briers then ever Year of our Lord 1262 The better to fortifie himself against his implacable wrath Mainfroy contracted Alliance with James III. King of Arragon giving his Daughter in Marriage to Peter his eldest Son who disdained not the Match because it gave him approaching hopes of having the Kingdom of Sicily Mainfroy having no Male-Children In effect it is by this means the Kings of Arragon have attained it and they must needs own they hold their Right from a Bastard an Usurper and Excommunicated person Year of our Lord 1263 The pious King Lewis did not understand this false policy which has quite other Maximes then are practised taught or allowed by Christianity and natural Justice And for this reason it was that he endeavour'd with all his power to decide the quarrels between his neighbours and not to foment them with this spirit of Charity he labour'd so happily to compose the business between the Barons of England of whom Simon Montford Earl of Leicester was Head with their King that they submitted to what he should ordain He calls his Parliament for this purpose at Amiens and pronounced the Sentence in presence of King Henry However the Barons found some difficulties and exceptions and would not abide by it Insomuch that the troubles continuing the Pope sent to revoke the gift of the Kingdom of Sicily which he had made to Edmund the King of Englands Brother since he could not pursue it and invested Charles Earl of Anjou Brother of St. Lewis His Wives vanity which made her greedily long to have the Title of Queen as well as her other Sisters inclined and perswaded him to accept of it Year of our Lord 1264 It hapned this year 1264. in a Village near Orviete that the Sacred Host cast forth Blood upon the Corporal or fine Linnen wherein the Sacrament is put to convince the incredulity of the Priest that celebrated the Mass Pope Vrban satisfied of the truth of this Miracle instituted the Feast and Procession of the Holy Sacrament to be solemnized the Thursay after the Octave of Whitsunday St. Thomas Aquinas who was then Professor in Theology at Orvieta composed the Office for it Vrban IV. being dead at Perusia the third of October the Cardinals after a vacancy of Four Months elected the Cardinal Guy the Gross a native of the Province of Languedoc who had been Married before he entred into Holy Orders He took the name of Clement IV. amongst his Virtues he is admir'd for his rare Modesty though very little imitated by his Successors He made a protestation at his first coming to the See that he would advance none of his kindred and so exactly did he keep his word that of three Prebendaries which his Brother had in possession he obliged him to quit two and far from Marrying his Daughters to great Lords ✚ as he might well have done he gave them such small portions that they chose rather to make themselves Nuns Towards the end of the Month of July about the beginning of the night a Comet was observed towards the West and some while after a little before break of day it appeared in the East pointing its tail Westward It was visible till the end of September lasting two Months and a half Year of our Lord 1405 Clement IV. upon his advancement to the Holy See ratified the Election his predecessor had made of Charles of France for the Kingdom of Sicily obtained of St. Lewis a Tenth of all the Clergy of his Kingdom for him and lent him all the Money he could scrape together having for that purpose engaged the Revenue of the Churches in Rome Year of our Lord 1265 Charles with this assistance with the Kings help and his Wives great care who sold all her Jewels to raise Soldiers which she cull'd and chose for the bravest got a good Army on foot to go into Italy by Land and in the mean time put to Sea with Thirty great Vessels and sailed to the Port of Ostia He was received at Rome with great Honour by the People declared Senator of that City which was as it were Governour and Sovereign Judge And the year following upon the 28th of June Crowned King of Sicily by the Pope in St. Peters Church upon condition to pay the Pope Eight thousand ounces of Gold and a white Palfrey every year never to be elected Emperour nor to unite that Kingdom to ☞ the Empire For the Popes would have no power left in Italy that was not lesser then their own Year of our Lord 1266 His Land-Army arrived not till about the years end which he compleated in Rome The following he marched to Naples the Guelphes flocking from all parts to List themselves under his Banner The Earl de Caserta quitted the passage du Gariglian most basely to him he afterwards gained the Post of St. Germain guarded by Six thousand Men and in fine the Twenty sixth day of February in the Campagne of Benevent he gained an entire but bloody victory against Mainfroys Army who was slain upon the place All submitted to the Conquerour both beyond and on this side the Fare except the City of Nocera where Frederic II. had placed a strong Garrison of Saracens which yet held out a long time It then appeared that Charles knew not how to Govern his good fortune with Humanity for he let Mainfroy's Wife and Children dye in prison with many Lords of that party and his Army committed horrid cruelties upon the taking of the City of Beneventum Year of our Lord 1267 Nevertheless as he shewed himself very obedient to the Popes Orders he declared him Vicar of the Empire in Italy with the Title of Keeper of the Peace and in this quality he by one of his Lieutenants subdued all the
to it daunted him so much that he came and threw himself at the Kings Feet He could not however obtain his Pardon till after he had been detained Prisoner a year in the Castle of Beaucaire At his return from the Holy Land Edward passed thorough France and did Homage to the King Being afterwards gone to visit his Countries of Guyenne Gaston de Moncado Lord of Bearn refused to render him Homage Edward seized upon his Person and kept him Prisoner in his Train for a while From whence making his escape the King of England made complaint to Philip Soveraign Lord of Guyenne This King having summon'd his Parliament and Debated the Case gave Judgment in favour of Edward and compelled Gaston to hold his Lands of him The Viscounty of Bearn was Originally a Member of the Earldom or County of Gascongny which held of the Dutchy but had been dismembred and held by Lords who were the Issue of those Dukes till it came to the House of Moncado by the Marriage of the Princess Mary Daughter of Vicount Peter and Sister of the Vicount Gaston deceased without Children This was about the year 1170. The Princess being yet a Minor having put her self I know not for what reason under the Power of Alphonso II. King of Arragon in whose Dominion she had also some Lands was obliged to do Homage for Bearn to that King and to Marry William de Moncado which Advantage Alphonso procured him as a Recompence for his having brought about the Marriage between Prince Raimond Berenger Earl of Barcelonna his Father and Petronella Daughter and Heiress of Ramir le Moyne king of Arragon The Family of Moncado is one of the Nine most illustrious of all Catalongne and are said to be Issue of a Dapifer or Grand Seneschal to Charlemain Year of our Lord 1273 The Electors displeased to see the German Empire so long in confusion met together at Francfort upon the earnest intreaties of the Pope and without any regard to the opposition King Alphonso made resolved never more to make any Emperor that was not of the German Nation So that at that very time they elected Rodolphus Surnamed Rufus who had been Master of the Palace to Othocare King of Bohemia He was Earl of Habspurg a Family which as well as that of Lorrain were the Issue of the Earls of Alsatia and the Mayre Erchinoald He was raised to the Imperial Dignity principally by the Suffrage of Vernher Archbishop Year of our Lord 1273 of Mentz the only Elector almost that knew him and whom he had otherwhile obliged in some Affair of Importance Now it was the more easie for this Elector to do him this good Office because the King of Bohemia and all the other German Princes refused this Title as being much more burthensom then gainful or honourable Year of our Lord 1273 Many and different Subjects required the Assembling of a Council The necessary Regulation for the future in the Election of Popes the Refermation of Abuses in the Church and of Morality amongst the Christians the Differences about the Grecian Empire between Michael and Baldwin and for that of Germany between Rodolph and Alphonso the hopes to unite the Greek Church to the Roman and the pressing necessity for assisting the Faithful that were remaining in the Holy Land to which the Pope had solemnly obliged himself at the time he received the news of his Election Year of our Lord 1273 For these Reasons he had Convoked a Council in the City of Lyons which lies as it were in the midst of the principal Estates of Christendom He came thither himself about the latter end of this year 1273. and was visited by the King who let him have several of his Gentlemen and Officers to serve him for a Guard Year of our Lord 1274 The Council was open'd the First day of May in the year 1274. there were present Five hundred Bishops seventy Abbots and a thousand others as well Doctors and Deputies as Chapters Gregory presided accompanied with Fifteen Cardinals The Ambassadors from the King the Emperor Rodolphus and from several other Western Princes were there Those from Michael the Emperor of Greece arrived there at the Fourth Session and prescuted some Letters from him by vertue of which they were admitted to an abjuration of their Schism and a profession to follow the Faith of the Roman Church especially about the Procession of the Holy Ghost After that the Pope owned Michael for rightful Emperor of the East and forbad Baldwin to bear that Title any longer This was the end for which Michael had feignedly desired the re-union The Election of Rodolph was likewise confirmed but not till after King Alphonso had submitted and referr'd his Right to the disposal of the Pope upon Condition he might have leave which was granted him to take the Tenths of all the Clergy in his Kingdom to make War against the Moors Thus all the Reparations whatever happens are ever laid upon the Peoples Shoulders to make satisfaction who pay for all at last There were several Constitutions concerning the Elections Provisions and the Residences of Benefices They Treated about the setling many Differences betwixt the Princes and Cities in Italy It was Ordained That the Cardinals should be hence-forward shut up in the Conclave for the Election of Popes and they made very severe Decrees against Usurers by vertue whereof the King put them all in Prison thoroughout the whole Kingdom but soon after he released them upon the payment of some certain Taxes which he imposed upon them Which was to tell the truth only the way to teach them for the future to take the greater Usury that so they might have enough both for themselves and for him They granted likewise a great many Indulgencies and Priviledges to such as listed themselves for the Holy Land or did contribute their Money towards that Expedition and they suppressed all the Orders Mendicants excepting only the Preachers and the Minors The Augustins and the Carmelites were tolerated only till a more ample deliberation Two great and Holy Scholastick Doctors died in these times St. Thomas Aquinas Year of our Lord 1274 near Terracina as he was coming to the Council and St. Bonaventure in Lyons after he had been assistant there The first was of the Order of the Preaching Friers the other of the Minors and had been made a Cardinal by Pope Gregory X. Year of our Lord 1274 Philip tired with being a Widower four years cast his Affection upon Mary Daughter of Henry and Sister of John Duke of Brabant Married her at the Bois de Vincennes in the Month of August and Crowned her the year following in the Holy Chappel of Paris on St. John Baptist's day He would needs have the Archbishop of Year of our Lord 1275 Reims perform â—he Ceremony without any regard to the right of him of Sens who was the Metropolitan The 21th of July Henry the Fat King of Navarre died at Pampeluna his
much that he died at Perpignan the 6th day of October He was in the beginning of the Five and fortieth year of his Life and the Sixteenth of his Reign His Flesh and Bowels were interred in the Cathedral of Narbonne and his Bones brought to St. Denis If we consider his Qualities he was Valiant Good Liberal Just and very Pious but too simple and too easie to be deceived If his Conduct it was not over-happy in those undertakings he made abroad but for his Enterprizes at home they could not succeed better for his Kingdom since it grew rich and flourishing by a Peace of Fifteen years continuance without any vexation of Imposts and the maintenance of a most exact and speedy Justice By Isabella Daughter of James I. King of Arragon he left two Sons those were Philip and Charles The first Reigned the second was Earl of Valois and Father of a Philip who came to the Crown By his second Wife Mary de Brabant he had one Son and two Daughters the Son was Lewis Earl of Euvreux From him sprang the Branch of Euvreux into which the Crown of Navarre was brought by Marriage The Daughters were Margaret and Blanch Margaret was Married in the year 1298. to Edwardâ— King of England Blanch having been twice Contracted once with John de Namur eldest Son of Guy Earl of Flanders the other time with John d'Avesnes Earl of Ostrevant eldest Son of John d'Avesnes Earl of Haynault Married at last in the year 1298. to Rodolph Duke of Austria eldest Son of Albertus the Emperor by whom she had a Son but both the Mother and the Child were Poysoned in the City of Vienna Anno 1305. Philip IV. King XLV POPES HONORIUS IV. Eighteen Months Vacancy Nine Months and an half NICHOLAS IV. Elected the 22th of February 1288. S. Four years one Month and an half Vacancy Two years three Months CELESTINE V. Institutor of the Celestines Elected the 5th of July 1294. S. Five Months and an half BONIFACE VIII Elected the 24th of Decemb. 1294. S. Eight years nine Months and an half BENNET XI Elected the 20th of October 1303. S. Eight Months seventeen days Vacancy Eleven Months CLEMENT V. Elected the 5th of June 1305. transfers the See into France S. Nine years wanting five weeks PHILIP IV. Surnamed the Fair King of France XLV and of Navarre also by his Wife Aged Seventeen years and some Months Year of our Lord 1286 After Philip had brought back into France the remainder of the Army and conveyed his Fathers Bones to St. Denis he went to be Crowned at Rheims by the hands of the Archbishop Peter Barbet the Sixth day of January with the Queen his Wife Year of our Lord 1286 Guy de Dampierre had succeeded in the Earldom of Flanders after the death of his Mother and had done Homage for it to Philip the Hardy but neither his Mother nor himself for want either of will or power had not as yet caused the Articles to be Sworn to and Ratified which were made in the year 1225. between Philip Augustus and Ferrand because in truth they were very destructive and ruinous to the Flemmings This year the King having threatned Guy if he did not perform it without delay to own him no longer for his Vassal but to declare a War the Cities and Commonalty of the Countrey were so alarmed and scared that they obey'd his Will and Pleasure Ever since the death of Philip III. Edward King of England had omitted no endeavour to confirm the Treaties with his Successor In the year 1286. being landed in France about Pontieu he was received at Amiens by several Lords whom the King sent to meet him from thence he came to Paris where he was Treated magnificently was present at the Parliament which was held after Easter and going from thence about Whitsontide went by Land to Burdeaux The apparent cause of his Voyage was the desire he had to Compose the business of the King of Arragon because Alphonso the eldest Son and Successor of Peter had Married his Daughter Alienor He forgot not likewise to press earnestly he might have some reparation for Normandy and those other Countries which both his Father and himself had renounced but could obtain nothing in either of these two points Being returned to Burdeaux he solemnly received the Ambassadors from the Kings of Castille of Arragon and of Sicilia all Enemies to France which gave no little jealousie to Philip. John de Launoy Vice-Roy for Philip in Navarre continued the War against the Arragonians But a Lord of the Country named John Corbaran whom he had entrusted with the Command of the Armies having been worsted by their Forces a Truce was agreed upon between the two Crowns The King of England laboured very seriously to Compose the Difference between the Kingdom of France and that of Arragon and Sicilia To this purpose he Conferr'd with Alphonso and Olâ—ron de Bearn and afterwards took the pains to make a Voyage into Sicily that he might Treat with James the Brother of Alphonso who as we have related had seized upon that Island The Negotiations of the King of England were somewhat retarded by the Progress some French Lords had made in that Island But the rest who were going thither to compleat that Conquest being beaten and taken at Sea by Lauria the Admiral they gave a more willing Ear to what was propounded Year of our Lord 1288 The Treaty was carried on so well that Charles the Lame was set at Liberty promising he would bring it so about with the Earl of Valois that he should renounce the Kingdom of Arragon and with the Pope that he should invest James of Arragon in that of Sicily which his Brother Alphonso should yield to him For security whereof Charles gave his Three Sons and Fifty Gentlemen of Quality as Hostages When he was deliver'd from his Imprisonment he did not hold himself obliged to make that good which he had been forced to promise on the contrary being in France he exhorted the Earl of Valois not to desist from his Right to the Kingdom of Arragon and going afterwards into Italy he got himself to be Crowned by the Pope who was then at Geronsa King of Sicilia both on this side and beyond the Fare So that James of Arragon perceiving the Treaty was broke fell upon Calabria where the City of Catensana had revolted in his favour Robert d'Artois laid Siege to it James and his Admiral Lauria hastned to its relief and being beaten went and blocked up Gaieta thinking to make a Diversion but Charles and Robert followed at the same time and besieged the Besiegers so straightly that they reduced them to Famine Then the Sicilian caused I know not how the Popes Legat to intervene who demanded a Truce for two years and Charles not well informed of the extremity wherein his Enemies were consented to it a little too easily at which Robert was so incensed that he retired into France and carried
Nations when the accidental Quarrel of an English Mariner with a Mariner of Normandy upon the Coast of Guyenne where they had landed to take in fresh Water set them against one another First Ship and Ship endeavour'd to plunder or take what they could singly on each side then they brought Fleet against Fleet. The English had the worst their King Edward demanded restitution of such Merchants Goods as had been made Prize in these Scuffles Philip on the contrary Summons him to appear in his Court of Parliament as his Vassal Edward sent his Brother Edmund but Philip not satisfied with that caused him to be declared Contumacious and ordered his Lands should be seized Year of our Lord 1292. 1293. In Execution of this Decree the year following the Constable Rodolph de Nesle seized several Cities in Guyenne and even that of Bourdeaux which was the Capital Thus a Riot between Private Men blew their little Sparks of Contention into a flame of War which one may say proved very fatal to France since it gave way to the overthrowing of her ancient Laws and Liberties and the introducing and establishment of divers Charges and Subsidies on the People The increase and burthen whereof is ordinarily followed with Revolutions and Seditions as it fell out this year by a great Commotion hapning at Rouen but which had the same end and event as all the like Enterprizes generally come to that is to say the Hanging of the most froward and hottest and the Banishment or Ruine of the rest Year of our Lord 1294 The King of England vexed at the loss of those places in Guyenne sollicited all Princes against France particularly the Emperor Adolph with great Sums of Money and Guy de Dampierre Earl of Flanders with the hopes oâ— the Marriage of his Son Prince of Wales with Philippetta that Earls Daughter Adolph sent to defie the King in haughty language but they gave him no other answer but a Sheet of white Paper For which he shewed no other Resentment but by Threats and so turned his Arms against some German Rebels Year of our Lord 1294 As for Guy having been allured to Paris with his Wife and Daughter by Letters from the King fraught with Expressions of Kindness he was much amazed to find himself made a Prisoner there It is true that about a Twelve month after himself and his Wife were set at liberty but his Daughter they kept still to break the Measures of that Match too pernicious to the French Year of our Lord 1294 In the year 1294 the Cardinal Benedict Cajetan by intrigues or by deceit and fourbery obliged Pope Celestin to resign the Popedom and by the same Methods got himself to be elected he was named Boniface VIII His Ancesters were Originally Catalonians and had taken the name of Cajetan because they first dwelt near Cajeta before they transplanted themselves to the City of Anagnia where he was born Year of our Lord 1294 At his advancement to that Dignity he endeavours to mediate a Peace between all Christian Princes He could not procure it between France and England but he setled that between Arragon and France King Alphonso was dead and James his Brother succeeded him It was agreed that Charles Earl of Valois should renounce the Kingdom of Arragon wherein he had been invested by Pope Martin V. upon which Condition the Arragonian repudiating Isabella de Castille for being too nigh of Kin should Marry his Laughter set the three Sons of Charles the Lame and other Hostages at liberty and surrender Sicily and what he had Conquer'd in Abruzza but Frederic his younger Brother to whom Alphonso had by his last Testament will'd that Kingdom got himself to be named King by the Sicilians Since then that which we call the Kingdom of Sicilia was dismembred in two that beyond the Fare which was the Island and that on this side which they called the Kingdom of Naples They were again re-joyned in Anno 1503. and are to this day in the same hands Year of our Lord 1295 The Sons of Charles the Lame being set at liberty the eldest named Charles entred into the Order of the Friers Minors The following year he was by the Pope promoted to the Archbishoprick of Thoulouze which he accepted not of till after he had made his Vows The King of Englands heart was much set upon two things the one to Subject the Kingdom of Scotland and the other to recover the Tows in Guyenne He thought the first was pretty well advanc'd having obliged Baliol to render him Homage and to compass the second he prepared a mighty Fleet and had strengthned himself with Friends and Alliances But Philip to prevent his designs induced the King of Scotland already threatned by his Subjects who scorned to subject themselves to the English to break the Treaty he had made with Edward and Allie himself with France and for security of this new Bond of Alliance he promised to give the eldest Daughter of the Earl of Valois to his eldest Son whose name was Edward At the same time he caused the People of Wales also to rise who out of a wild and untamed humour for Liberty were easily heated and drawn into the Field The great devastations and spoil they made this time in Pembrook-shire and thereabout broke all the King of England's Measures He was forced to go in Person that way to stop their progress and lay aside the business of Guyenne till he had quell'd those hot and stubborn old Enemies as he did having overmaster'd almost all of them in four Months time About this time the Principality of Milan and Neighbouring Cities was fixed and perpetuated in the Family of the Vicounts to which Otho Vicount Archbishop of Milan contributed not a little Matthew his Brothers Son was created the first Year of our Lord 1295 Duke this year 1295. and took the Investiture of the Emperor Adolph who likewise gave him the Vicarship or Vicegerency of the Empire in Lombardy Year of our Lord 1295 In Pistoya a City in Tuscany as then powerful enough it hapned that the rich and numerous Family of the Cancellary were divided in two Factions the one of the White the other of the Black The first joyned themselves with the Guelphes the second with the Ghibelins and that fury and madness spread over all Italy and caused insinite Seditions and Murthers Year of our Lord 1295 Pope Boniface was Proud Haughty Imperious and Undertaking he thought all the Princes of the Earth must bow to his Commands but he found a Philip of France at the head of them a young Prince of no very patient Humour more Potent then any one of his Predecessors and who had a Council consiting of People that were Year of our Lord 1295 stout and impetuous So that Boniface who ardently pursued the Design he aimed at to oblige all Kings to the Holy War having sent to tell both him and the King of England that they must make
a Truce upon pain of Excommunication he made Reply That he took no Rule or Law from any one in the Government of his Kingdom and that the Pope had in this case no right but to Exhort and Advise not to Command This was the first occasion of Enmity betwixt these two great Powers Year of our Lord 1296 There were two more almost at the same time The one that Boniface received the Complaints of the Earl of Flanders who implored his Justice because Philip denied to restore his Daughter to him The other for that he erected the Abby of St. Antonine de Pamiez to a Bishoprick and put the Abbot of St. Antonine into it Observe en passant that this City was other while called Fredalas King Philip was offended at this Erection and more yet with the choice of the Bishop his name was Bernard Saisset because he believed him a Factious Man and too much devoted to Boniface Nor would he suffer him to take possession and therefore Lewis Bishop of Toulouze administred in that Church for two whole years together Year of our Lord 1295 and 96. The War was still carried on in Guyenne by the Earl of Valois and the Constable de Nesle and then by Robert Earl of Artois The English had for Commanders there John Earl of Richmond and Edmond the Kings Brother To what purpose would it be to relate the taking of many petty places and the divers small Skirmishes The French say they won two Signal Victories one of them was gained by the Earl of Valois and the other by the Earl of Artois It is certain that Edmond being beaten by the first near Bayonne was forced to retire into that City where he died and the Earl of Lincoln who commanded that English Army afterwards having lost many of his Men before Daqs durst not stay for Robert d'Artois and retreated Year of our Lord 1296 In the mean while a most dangerous Storm was forming against France A League was made at Cambray by the Interest of the King of England whereinto he entred with the Duke of Brabant the Earls of Holland Juliers Luxemburgh Guelders and Bar Albert Duke of Austria the Emperor Adolphus and the Flemming himself all which sent their several Cartels of Defiance to King Philip but none of them vexed him so much as the Challenge from the Earl of Flanders because he was his Vassal The Earl of Bar began the Attaque by ravaging Champagne but he retir'd when he heard how Gaultier de Crecy Lieutenant of the Kings Army burnt and plundred his Country Soon after the Queen being advanced that way to defend her Country of Champagne he was so saint-hearted as to surrendet himself to her without making any desence They sent him Prisoner to Paris from whence he could get no Release but upon very hard Conditions For he did Homage to the King for his Earldom which he ever had pretended to hold in Franc Alleud or Free-Tenure and moreover he was condemned by a Decree of Parliament to go and bear Arms in the Holy Land till the King were pleased to recall him Year of our Lord 1297 As for Florent Earl of Holland he was kill'd by a Gentleman whose Wife he had Dishonour'd His Son John died soon after him by eating of some ill-Morsel John d' Avesnes Earl of Haynault their Cousin and nearest Relation inherited Holland and Frisland Year of our Lord 1297 The greatest burthen of the War fell upon Flanders King Philip marched into the Country with a vast Army to whom the Queen joyned her Forces after she had subdued the Earl of Bar. He took L'Isle by a three Months Siege and Courtray and Douay without much difficulty whilst on the other hand Robert Earl of Artois gained the Battle of Furnes where the Earl of Juliers was so ill handled that he died of his Wounds Year of our Lord 1297 Adolphus detained in Germany by the private Troubles the French started amongst them or the Sums of Money Philip gave him under-hand did not bring the Flemming that Relief which he expected Withall they found a way by the all-powerfulinfluence of Money to debauch Albertus Duke of Austria from the Party who brought over with him the Duke of Brabant and the Earls of Luxembourg Guelders and Beaumont As for the King of England who was there in Person and had his Navy at Damm and his Land Forces in the Country Towns he brought more inconvenience then assistance to the Flemming Besides we may add that the greatest Cities in Flanders as Ghent and Bruges had been against the making of this War and amongst them a Faction had declared for the French who called themselves the Portes-Lys or the Flower-de-Luce-Bearers Now the King being retired to Ghent with the Earl of Flanders could find no other way to Charm the Swords of the French in those Countries but by a Truce The intercession of the Earl of Savoy and Charles King of Sicilia obtained it with difficulty for them from the Tenth of October till Twelfth-day for Guyenne and to S. Andrews Holy-day for Flanders only Edward knew how to employ that time to good purpose Having passed the Sea he went against the Scots who had shaken off the Yoke and not only forced their King John and his Barons to do Homage to him a second time of which a Charter written in French was Signed and Sealed and to renounce the Alliance with France but likewise kept him Prisoner a while with some of those Lords confining them in the Tower of London resolving not to release him till he had made an end of his Disputes with the French Year of our Lord 1298 The Truce being expir'd he made ready to return into Guyenne by the Month of March in the year 1298. Nevertheless as either of these Kings had partly what they desired that is the King of France the Towns in Flanders and the King of England the Kingdom of Scotland it was not difficult for their Ambassadors who met about it at Monstreuil on the Sea Coast to prolong the Truce to the end of the year It was agreed That the Allies of both Kings should be Comprised by consequence John Balâ—ol ought to have been so but they could never obtain his liberty and that all the places Conquer'd in Flanders should be in the hands of Philip during that Truce The King of England had obliged himself by Oath to the Flemming not to make a Peace till they were restor'd but in the mean time he agreed his Marriage with Margaret the Sister to Philip and that of his Son Edward with Isabella the Daughter of that King Year of our Lord 1298 The Money that Adolphus had received on both hands from the Kings of France and England was the cause of his Ruine and on the contrary what Albertus had taken for the same end served to raise his Fortune For this last having made use of some of it to corrupt the Princes of Germany who were displeased
the rest were so overloaden It was perhaps for these reasons they were accused for having by a Compact made with the Jews these had been restored in the Reign of Lewis Hutin and Intelligence with the Turks cast some of their Ordures or some Bags of Poyson into the Wells and Fountains thereby to infect all those that were in Health with their fowl Leprosie or else to poyson them They were besides guilty of several Crimes against nature so that great numbers were condemned to the Fire the rest shut up very close within their Lazar-Hospitals As for the Jews the Populace did justice upon those themselves and burned a great many The King drove the whole Nation of them out of the Realm Year of our Lord 1321 His Council had resolved to settle over all France the same Weights the same Measures and the same Coyns but as under the pretence of some Expence and Charges they would be at they would likewise take the Fifth part of the Subjects Goods The Princes and Prelates who had a right of Coyning Money would not suffer the Kings Commissaries to go on in this Reformation they appealed to the Estates and Leagued themselves with the Cities so that the Impost being not raised the Reglement was let alone Year of our Lord 1322 During these Disturbances Philip loaden with the Curses of his People and hated of the Clergy because of his too frequent exaction of the Tenths fell sick of a Quartan Ague wherewith he langushed five whole Months and in the end died at Bois de Vincennes the Third day of January He lived One and thirty years and Reigned Five years and six weeks His Corps was conveyed with Ceremony to St. Denis his Heart to the Cordeliers at Paris his Bowels to the Jacobins Ever Year of our Lord 1322 since St. Lewis these good Fathers claim it as a special Right to have some part of the Entrails of our Kings which were not given them without Foundations He Married but one Wife to wit Jane who was Daughter of Othenine Earl of Burgundy and was also his only Heirese her Sister Blanch having been forced to Encloister her self to expiate her Crime By this Jane he had Three Daughters Jane Countess of Burgundy and Artois who Married Eudes IV. Duke of Burgundy and brought him these two Earldoms Margaret who had for Husband Lewis Earl of Flanders Nevers and Rhetel and Isabella who first Married Guignes Dauphin of Viennois and afterwards John Baron de Fanlcongmey in Franche-Comte Charles IV. King XLVIII POPE JOHN XXII During all this Reign CHARLES IV. Called the Fair King of France XLVIII and enjoying the Kingdom of Navarre Aged Twenty eight years Year of our Lord 1322 THe Succession of the Males being well setled Charles came to the Throne and was Crowned at Reims the Eleventh of February without any opposition all the Pairs assisting thereat excepting the King of England and the Earl of Flanders The named Gerard de la Guerre Native of Clermont in Auvergne and of mean Parentage had held the Soveraign management of the Treasury under Philip the Long and had been the grand Projector of the Imposts In the beginning of this Reign being sought for and taken for his Depredations he was put to the Wrack and Examined which they did so rudely that he died in the midst of those Torments This prevented not the dragging his Body thorough the Streets and hanging him on the Gallows at Paris There was afterwards a general search made for all the Farmers and such as were any ways concerned in the Revenues who were for the most part Lombards and Italians horrible Usurers and Exacters Their Goods were all Consiscate and they sent back into their own Country as beggerly as they came thence The King had been indulgent enough in not putting his Wife Blanch to Death who had been condemned for Adultery When he came to the Crown the desire of having Children prompted him to repudiate her under pretence of Parentage and after she had taken on the Vail at Maubuisson he Espoused Mary Daughter of the Emperor Henry of Luxembourg Who dying in the year 1324. in her first Child-bed and the Infant some few days after he Married for the thrid time Jane Daughter of Lewis Earl of Evreux his Uncle having to that end obtained a Dispensation from the Pope After the death of Lewis de Nevers Earl of Rhetel which hapned at Paris for he had retir'd himself into the Court of France and also the death of Robert de Bethune his Father Earl of Flanders which followed soon after the eldest Son of Lewis bearing his Fathers name enjoy'd all those three Earldoms But Robert de Cassel his Uncle pretending to be the nearest by one degree because he was the Son of Robert whereas Lewis was but Grandson presented himself to the King demanding the Investiture of that of Flanders In the mean while Lewis went immediately to take possession without rendring him that Devoir Which so irritated the King that although this young Prince were his Nephew he caused him to be summoned before the Parliament and kept him Prisoner The Parliament taking this weighty Affair into their Cognisance pronounced in favour of Lewis who being set at liberty did Homage to the King and gave Oath never to re-demand the Cities of Lisle Douay and Orchies The King confirmed the Appennage given by the Father to Robert de Cassel He likewise made an Agreement between William Earl of Haynault and Holland with Lewis who desisted from disputing with him for the Islands of Walcheren One Jordain Lord of the Island in Aquitain had committed many enormous Crimes and Murthered an Usher of the Kings with his own Mace as he was summoning him to appear in Parliament He was notwithstanding so much a fool as to come to Paris trusting to his great Alliances and upon his having Married the Neece of Pope John XXII But for all those Considerations he was committed Prisoner to the Chaâ—tellet and by Sentence dragg'd at a Horses Tail and hung up on the Gallows at Paris Year of our Lord 1323 and 24. The King had cause to compalin of Edward because he had not assisted at his Coronation and that his Seneschal of Bourdelois had placed a Garison in a Castle which the Lord de Montpesat had built in a place which was Land belonging to France Wherefore after some Negotiations in which the English seemed not to proceed fairly he sent Charles de Valois his Uncle into Guyenne who set so close upon the Skirts of Edmond Earl of Kent Brother to King Edward in the City de la Reoule that he obliged him to Capitulate and then pass immediately over into England to persuade his Brother to give the King satisfaction promising that if he could not obtain it to return as his Prisoner In the mean time the Earl of Valois made an end of the Conquest of Guyenne excepting only Bourdeaux St. Sever and Bayonne Year of our Lord 1324 and
and misused him so strangely that he durst not go into any of them but Ghent The King as his Lord and of near Parentage took his part and entred Flanders with an Army of Twenty five thousand Men. The Flemmings had posted Sixteen thousand upon a Hill near Cassel to guard their Frontier He coming to encamp in a Valley beneath them they had the confidence to go and attaque him and appointed three Bodies at the same instant to make their way to his Tent to the King of Bohemia's and to that of the Earl of Hainault thinking to surprize them all three unawares His Person was in great danger but whilst the bravest of his Men stood as a Rampart and put a stop to the Enemy the rest Armed themselves and charged the Flemmings so stoutly that the three Princes defeated those three Parties not one Man of them escaping All Flanders quell'd by this great shock submitted to his Mercy He caused several hundreds to be Hanged Banished and Confiscated and the year after dismantled five or six of their Towns which allay'd their heat for some time but did not extinguish it The severest punishment for those that are corrupt Officers of the Treasury and indeed the most beneficial to the Publick is not the hanging of them but to pare their Rapacious Talons so close that they may not be in a capacity to deserve it Peter Remy Sieur de Montigny had succeeded to Marigny and la Guette in the management of the Treasury their sad example had not so great influence upon him as the passion to enrich himself as they had done So that by Sentence of Parliament where there were Eighteen Knights Five and twenty Lords and Princes and the King himself present he was Condemned to be Drawn and Hanged as a Traytor at the Gallows of Montfaucon which he had caused to be rebuilt His Confiscation amounted to Twelve hundred thousand Livers a prodigious Sum for those times Of the Six great Pairries of the Laity the Kings had appropriated four to themselves to substitute others in their place and erected many new to wit Beaumont le Roger in Anno 1328. for Robert d'Artois and Anno 1329. the Barony of Bourbon this with the Title of Dutchy that with the Title of Earldom Then afterwards in several years Alenson Evreux Clermont in Beauvoisis all for Princes of his Blood and upon Lands truly of much lower Dignity and Consideration then those of the former six Pairries but as much above those of this Age as the Princes of the Blood are above Private Gentlemen Edward Earl of Savoy was come into France to demand assistance of the King against the Dauphin de Viennois and the Earl of Geneva his perpetual Enemies Year of our Lord 1329 Dying at Paris and leaving only a Daughter John III. Duke of Bretagne Husband to this Princess made earnest sute to have the Succession but the Estates of Savoy wherein presided Bertrand Archbishop of Tarentaise declared That the Salique Law took place there and called Aymon Brother of the deceased to that Crown Year of our Lord 1329 Upon the first Summons they sent to Edward by two Lords who had express Commission according to the custom of Fiefs he promised to come and do Homage to the King of France The seizure of his Fiefs of Guyenne and Ponthieu was therefore deferr'd and he came to Amiens in great Equipage After he had there in vain demanded the restoring of what had been taken in Guyenne from his Father he did Homage But it was with his Tongue and in general words only intending to Advise first with his Barons what was to be done When he was returned into England he sent Letters to King Philip under his great Seal in which he declared That that Homage was Liege and that he owed it for the Dutchy of Guyenne and the Earldoms of Ponthieu and Monstereuil Year of our Lord 1328 The Troubles that hapned in England had hindred him from performing that Devoir sooner His Mother with her Mortimer had made him believe that his Uncle Edmund Earl of Kent had plotted to take away his Life Indeed thaâ— Earl endeavour'd to get King Edward II. out of prison who was his Brother and as he thought yet living Upon this Information young Edward causes him to be seized and condemned to death somewhat too lightly but afterwards Mortimer and the Queen his Mistress were Treated in the same manner For the young King weary of their scandalous deportment caused the Gallant to be hanged upon pretence of several Crimes and his Mother to be shut up in a Castle where they hastned her end a very just act had it been done by any other hand but that of a Son The discord between Pope John XXII and the Emperour Lewis of Bavaria grew to that extremity that Lewis being in Italy after the example of the Emperour Otho degraded John of the Papal Dignity and in his place substituted Michael de Corbiere a Frier Minor under the name of Nicholas V. Michael de Cesenna General of that Order and divers of his Monks supported him mightily by their Preachings and Writings These Monks and others of the Imperial party having spread many reproachful and bloody Invectives thorough all Christendom against Pope John XXII an Assembly of the Clergy was held at Paris where the Bishop in his Pontifical Habit attended by many other Prelats and Clergy-men declared to the People in the Church-Porch of Nostre-Dame the Attempts and Mistakes of Corbiere and pronounced Excommunicate both the said Corbiere the Emperour Lewis and Michael de Cesenna with their Adherents Two things ruined this Party the Emperours ill Conduct which forced him to go out of Italy and the disagreement between the Friers Minors many of whom having forsaken their General it weakned his Interest so much that in the end he was disowned by all of that Order So that Corbiere after many Adventures being caught and brought to Avignon in the year 1330. begged pardon of John XXII with a Rope about his Neck but he could not get off so they put him in prison where he died some Months afterwards Year of our Lord 1329 We must not confound this Assembly above-mentioned with another which was held in the same City and the same year 1329. upon complaint the Kings Judges made by the Mouth of Peter Cugnieres Kt. Counsellor and Advocate-General of the Parliament touching the Usurpations and Attempts of the Clergy upon the Secular Jurisdiction The business was discussed in a Council held at Vincennes then again in the Assembly of Parliament Cugnieres spake earnestly and to the good liking of all the Nobility who applauded him Peter Roger elected Archbishop of Sens afterwards made Pope and Bertrand Bishop of Autun who was a Cardinal having undertaken the defence of their Body replied very eloquently The Clergy was in great danger not only of being lopt off in part but quite rooted out of their Jurisdiction The King at
people admitted left it to the Chevalier that Commanded the Watch and his Archers Though the Truce was not expir'd there was still some enterprize upon one another The English seized upon Guisnes having corrupted the Governour with Money Edward excused it pleasantly saying The Truces were Merchandise and that he did no more then follow the example of King Philip who would have bought Year of our Lord 1351 Calais The Traytor that had sold Guisnes was taken and drawn in pieces by four wild Horses Guy de Nesle Mareschal of France was defeated and taken with Arnold d'Endreghen and several people of note in a rencounter in Guyenne Year of our Lord 1350 and 51. In Bretagne the two parties of Blois and Montfort though they had only two Women in the head of them were perpetually engaging and fighting it out desperately In those days challenges between Cavaliers and the chief Commanders of parties that were enemies was very common but more frequent between a certain number appointed on each side then singly hand to hand and indeed they called them Battles The most remarkable in these years was that of Thirty Bretons against as many English Richard Brembo was the chief of these and the Lord de Beaumanoir of the others The victory fell to the Bretons and the greatest Honour to their Chief The following year 1351. Charles de Blois who had been four years a prisoner in England was released upon ransom giving two of his Sons for hostage till the payment of it and till he had discharged that debt he forbore to take up Arms. The Lords that had been taken prisoners in their attempt upon Calais having been discharged carried on the War with the Mareschal de Beaujeu about the Countrey of St. Omers having upon a time surprized the Lombard that had betraid them they Year of our Lord 1351 caused him to be quartered alive The Earl of Flanders had deny'd to assist at the Kings Coronation because they refused to restore his three Cities to him nevertheless he came to Paris to pay homage for his Lands and renew the Treaty of Confederation Year of our Lord 1352 The Sixth of December hapned the death of Pope Clement VI. Cardinal Stephen d'Albert a Limosin by birth and Bishop of Clermont succeeded him the Eighteenth of the same Month and took the name of Innocent VI. Year of our Lord 1353 King Charles of Navarre his return into the Kingdom brought with it a long train of war and calamities He had all the good qualities that a wicked Soul renders pernicious Wit Eloquence Craft Resolution and Liberality Though he had this year 1353. married Jane one of the Kings Daughters he gave not over from pursuing his pretensions to the Counties of Brie and Champagne and also Angoulesme Charles d'Espagne to whom the King had given this last disswaded him from proffering satisfaction The Navarrois discontented retires to his County of Evreux and understanding that the Constable was in his Castle de l'Aigle he undertakes a thing as base as it was bold He carries with him a hundred Horse men Year of our Lord 1354 scales the Castle it was on the Sixth of January and makes them stab him in his Bed That done he had the insolence to own the fact to justifie himself by Letters to the King and Council and all the good Cities of the Kingdom to raise Forces fortifie his Towns and sollicite all the neighbouring Princes to a League against France Year of our Lord 1354 The King dissembles him and flatters him to draw him to Paris but he will not come till they grant him conditions very advantagious of Lands for the value of Brie and Champagne the independance of his Earldom of Evreux from all others but the King full and free Absolution for those that had murthered the Constable and besides all this a very considerable sum of Money and the Kings Second Son in Hostage Year of our Lord 1354 Upon these Securities he appears in the Parliament of Paris the third day of March The King sitting on his Throne attended by the Pairs the Legat and divers Prelats The criminal having crav'd his pardon in a studied Speech intermixed with complaints and excuses the Constable had order to arrest him only for forms sake and lead him out to the next room while they debated then straightway he was released upon the request of the two Queens the Widdows of Charles the Fair and of Philip de Valois The Legat made him a grave Remonstrance and after all the King declared him Absolv'd Some few days after he retired into Normandy but went immediately without leave of the King and made a journey to Avignon He went ierreting up and down till the English should take the Field whereupon the King enters again into Normandy and seized his Lands but that Prince returning from Navarre by Sea having brought Forces that sacaged all the Countrey and besides it being Year of our Lord 1355 feared the English would soon Land it was thought sitter to make use of kindness Charles the Kings eldest Son soothed him so finely that he was pacified and least in appearance and came with him to Paris The Emperour Charles IV. goes to be Crowned at Rome or rather to be cover'd with shame having made that infamous Contract with the Pope that he would not sojourn so much as one whole day in that City which brought both Year of our Lord 1355 himself and the Empire into the most despicable condition The year following upon the Eleventh of January he made that famous Constitution called the Golden Bull of which the Politicians judge very variously Upon a Shrove-Tuesday night the English by Scalado took the Castle of Nantes and the very same night Guy de Rochefort took it again and hew'd them all in pieces as a reward for their having broken the Truce Gaston Phebus Count de Foix who Married the Sister of the King of Navarre was sent prisoner to the Chastellet at Paris because he refused to hold his Lands of the Year of our Lord 1355 King perhaps it might be those holden of the English But in a Month after he was set at liberty upon condition he should go into Guyenne and command the Kings Army against the Prince of Wales For the Truce was no sooner at an end but that young Prince invested in the Duchy of Guyenne by his Father began to make himself known by ravaging and burnings He made incursions even as far as Beziers and Narbonne without meeting any opposition from the French Commanders the Earl of Foix James de Bourbon Constable Year of our Lord 1355 and John de Clermont who were stronger then his party but too much divided by jealousies amongst themselves His Father at the same time landed at Calais and ran over all the Boulonois and Artois even to Hesdin where he broke through the Park yet could not force the Castle but having intelligence that King John was coming directly to
which was the selling his Daughter to John Viscount of Milan for Six hundred thousand Gold Crowns in Marriage with his Son Galeas Although the Crown of France and its Sovereignty came to the Eldest wholly and was not to be divided amongst the younger Brothers yet they assigned a share of Lands to them which was entirely theirs which descended to the Daughters as well as to the Sons and which they might dispose of as properly their own Now the King to keep the Body of his Kingdom in more strength and not suffer his great Provinces hereafter to be as it were dismembred by such partage or by any Treaty united inseparably to the Crown the Dutchy's of Normandy and Burgundy Year of our Lord 1361 and the Earldoms of Toulouze and Champagne by Writings made at the Castle of the Louvre in the Month of November in the year 1361. Year of our Lord 1361 In the foregoing Easter Holy-days Death had snatched away the young Philip Duke of Burgundy and in him extinguished the first Branch of those Dukes which had produced Twelve and lasted 330 years He left no Children Margaret of Flanders his Wife being as yet but Eleven years of age and he but Fifteen He was Grandson of Duke Eudes IV. and Son of that Philip who was slain at the Siege of Aiguillon and of Jane of Boulogne who for Second Husband married King John and died the last year Year of our Lord 1361 The Lands belonging to this Prince which came by his Mother returned to the Heirs of that Line which were the County of Artois and the Franche Comte to Margaret Daughter of Philip the Long and the Countess Mahaut and Wife of Robert Earl of Flanders by consequence Grandfather of the Wife this young Duke Poilip had Married Boulongne and Auvergne went to the House of Boulongne as for the Duthcy of Burgundy the Navarrois challeng'd it as being the Son of Jane Daughter of Queen Margaret who was the Wife of King Lewis Hutin and eldest Daughter of Duke Robert Father of Eudes IV. Duke of Burgundy but the King laid his hand upon it as being said he nearer of kindred by one degree being Son of the Second Daughter of Duke Robert whereas the King of Navarre was but Grandson of the eldest Some will say that he did not understand his Rights well and that he should have reaped this Dutchy as he was Sovereign and have maintain'd that Burgundy was a Masculine Fief which reverted to him for want of Heirs-Males Year of our Lord 1361 The Soldiers of all the parties did not evacuate the places without a great deal of trouble and committed the same depredations and Robberies as during the War The Gascons and the Bretons rambled all over Anjou Poitou and Tourain for pillage and plunder and those Bands that were named the Tard-Venus or Late-Comers led by some Gascons having in the same manner treated Champagne Burgundy Masconnis and Lyonnois in a Battle at Brignais near Lyons defeated James de Bourbon Count de la Marche whom the King had given Orders to chastise them for their Thefts after that they divided themselves into two parties whereof one was hired for Money to go into Italy by the Marquis de Montferrat who was in War with the Viscounts of Milan the others fastned on Masconnois and never let go their hold till they were fully gorged like blood-sucking Leeches Year of our Lord 1361. and 62. Those that levy'd the Taxes and Gabelles tormented the People no whit less then the other Robbers The burthen and grievance was so great that infinite numbers of Families quitted France and sought elsewhere for a more easie livelyhood and subjection Such as did know how to secure themselves from all these miseries did not know where to find an Asylum against the Pestilence which for seven or eight years growing worse and worse upon divers returns seized indifferently upon all sorts of People both in City and Countreys There fell by it this year nine Cardinals and Seventy Prelats in the Popes Court and above Thirty thousand People in Paris The Jews were recalled into France for the fifth time another plague added to the Imposts the Pestilence and Famine Year of our Lord 1362 It was the Right or to â—speak properly a practise suffer'd time out of mind amongst the French that they might make War one upon another for their particular quarrels the King forbid it among all his Subjects till all the enemies were quite out of the Kingdom He afterwards added to this Order a prohibition of all Duels Challenges c. as well during the Peace as in time of War Notwithstanding his defence he durst not take notice of the cruel War that was renew'd between the Earls de Foix and d'Armagnac because he feared it might offend the King of England to whom they were Vassals for those Lands in contest between them We had omitted to take notice before how the difference for the Succession of Gaston de Bearn had given birth to this bloody War between these two Houses That Gaston who died Anno 1289. had by Mate Countess of Bigorre four Daughters Constance who married William the Son of Richard of England King of Germany from whom there came no Children Margaret who was the Wife of Roger Bernard Earl of Foix Mate of Gerauld Count d'Armagnac and of Fezenzac and Guillemette of Don Pedro Son of Don Pedro King of Arragon and Brother to James II. That the first and the last left no Children behind them that Gaston their Father by his Testament made them all sharers of the Lands he had in France as well as those in Catalonia and that in case the first dyed without Children he then gave Bearn to the Second who was Countess of Foix. Neither had we observed how Mate Countess of Armagnac finding her self wronged by this Testament had refused to approve thereof That in Anno 1294. Bernard her Son for her Husband Geraud was dead accused the Count de Foix of having falsified it and called him to try it in Combat or Duel in the Court of King Philip the Fair. That by Decree of Parliament in the year 1295. the two parties were admitted to Combat in the City of Gisors but when they were come into the Field the King caused them to be put out again and annull'd the Duel by taking upon him to let them know That this private feud should surcease according to the Law or Rights of the Kingdom during the publique War between the French and the English That the same King in the journey he made to Languedoc Anno 1303. finding he could not bring the parties to an amicable composition made a Decree to settle and regulate their pretensions to which Margaret Countess de Foix her Husband being deceased would not obey That the death of Guillemete the youngest of the four Sisters occasioned new debates and that Philip King of Navarre endeavour'd to determine them Anno 12â—9 by a Sentence of Arbitration
other Captains As for him having fought very valiantly and not giving over till the very last extremity he then escaped into Arragon then came to France where he was received by Lewis Duke of Anjou Governor for the King in Languedoc Year of our Lord 1367 and 68. The Prince of Wales gained mighty reputation amongst the Sons of Mars for having Re-conquer'd Spain in one single Battle but little Honour amongst the better sort for having restor'd a Tyrant and yet much less satisfaction or profit For after the Tyrant had held him some Months in Castille upon the promise of quickly sending him wherewith to pay his Men a Sickness got into his Army and he was forc'd to return again very ill satissied and withall very much indisposed in his Body Year of our Lord 1368 After his departure the Tyrants rage redoubled by all sorts of terrible revenge The Castillians finding they were treated more inhumanely then ever recalled Henry The Duke of Anjou and the Earl of Foix did frankly give him all the assistance they could and du Gueselin and Bernard de Bearn newly set free upon Ransom raised Men for him In few words Henry besieged Toledo the Tyrant attended with Three thousand Horse came to relieve it When he was gotten near Montiel a Village situate upon the Hills which parts the Kingdom of Valentia from New Castille Henry meets him the Battle was fought the Fourteenth of March 1369. the Tyrants Forces ran away Year of our Lord 1369 and he saved himself in the Castle of Montiel There finding himself cooped up without any hopes of escaping he adventures to come to Guesclin in his Tent imagining by force of Presents to persuade him to let him slip away Henry comes just at the same time thither either by chance or otherwise they fell to words then laid hold upon each other and tumbled on the ground The Tyrant in the end was brought undermost and kill'd The manner is not well agreed upon nor whether it were done fairly this hapned the Three and twentieth of March 1369. Thus the Kingdom of Castille remained to Henry and those descended from him who hold it to this day The Widow of the Duke of Burgundy Daughter of the Earl of Flanders and the richest Heiress in Christendom was earnestly Courted both by France and England The Father designed her â—or Edmond one of the King of Englands Sons but the Grandmother Margaret French both by Birth and Inclination opposed that Match with all her power and had a design to fortifie the House of France She therefore pressed her Son with exceeding heat even to the threatning to cut off her Breasts which had given him suck This touched him to the heart he bestowed his Daughter upon Philip the Hardy Duke of Burgundy but the Nuptials were not compleated till a year afterwards The Prince of Wales had brought nothing out of Spain but great Melancholy a Mortal Indisposition and no Money to pay off his Army He therefore lays an unusual but very small Impost upon Guyenne The Lords his Vassals discontented with him particularly the Lord d'Albret advises the Tenants to make Complaint to them Having received their Complaint they carry it to the Prince and made him some Remonstrances thereon He rejects them in a very offensive manner Whereupon they had recourse to the King of France lately their lawful Soveraign The King entertains them five or six Months in the same disposition and humour waiting a proper juncture to declare his mind He was in the mean time putting every thing in order to that purpose making sure of the Gascon Lords and German Princes with his Money whereof either of them were very greedy drew the Soldiery to his service with the same Bait by the help of Guesclin in whom they reposed great Confidence and made up a Stock of Money by the imposition of Subsidies which the Estates assembled at Paris did freely grant him and which they raised with so much order and evenness that the People were not at all oppress'd Year of our Lord 1369 When he had warily taken all his Measures and knew withal that the Prince of Wales grew daily more Hydropick he granted his Letters of Appeal to the Gascons the five principal of them being the Sire d'Albert and the Earls of Armagnac Perigard Cominges and Carmaing This was signified to the Prince personally by a Knight and a Clerk but far from consenting to this Appeal he haughtily reply'd That he would make his appearance in the same manner as he had done at the Battle of Poitiers and caused them to be taken upon their way back and kept Prisoners charging them with the having rob'd their Host Year of our Lord 1369 At the same time Charles amused King Edward with some Complaints which he sent to him as if he would have brought things to a Negotiation The King of England returned words for words not thinking the effects were so near or that the French durst undertake any thing whilst the Duke of Berry and the other Hostages were in England He thought himself absolute Soveraign in Guyenne by the Treaty of Bretigny but as on his side he had not disbanded the Soldiers and moreover had committed divers Hostilities the King pretended that Treaty was nul and dissolved and that therefore that Prince remained still a Vassal to the Crown Upon this foot it was that he sent to declare a War against him and afterwards his Parliament being assembled upon the Ascension-Eve he sitting in his Seat of Justice made a Decree by which for Rebellion Contempt and Disobedience they declared forfeit and confiscated all those Lands the King of England held in France If Edwards astonishment were great to sind a Prince who was not a Man of his hands thus dare denounce War against him who had won so many Battles his displeasure was no less when he saw this Defiance brought him not by a Person of Quality as the custom was but by a simple Valet or Servant When he understood that the Lord de Chastillon and the Count de Saint Pol had seized upon Abbeville and the rest of the places in the County of Pontieu which were unprovided That the Barons of Gascongue even before the declaration of War had defeated his Seneschal of Rovergne That the Dukes of Berry and Anjou had attaqued Guyenne one towards Auvergne the other towards Toulouze That his Son the Prince of Wales being swoln every day more and more could not act but by his Council and that several Captains and Companies took Service under the French In the interim till he could raise greater Forces he sent him Five hundred Lances and One thousand Cross-bow-men under the Command of Edmond Earl of Cambridge afterwards Duke of York his fourth Son and the Earl of Pembrook his Son-in-Law who went on shoar at St. Malo's and cross'd over Bretagne on the other hand Hue de Caurelee brought him Two thousand Men of those he had in Spain and then
mean time were forced to dissemble till they could have fit opportunity to declare the Truth and to write Letters to all Princes that his Election was Canonical however they gave notice to the King of France that he should give no faith to their Letters till they were out of danger But when upon pretence of avoiding the extream heats in Rome they were retired to Anagnia being moreover offended at the proud deportment of Bartholomew they made the Truth of the matter of Fact known to all Princes admonished Bartholomew three several times to desist from pretending to the Papacy since he well knew they had no intention to elect him and afterwards they proceeded judicially against him and declared him an intruder That done they retired to Fundy under protection of the Earl of that place and there elected one of the six Cardinals Year of our Lord 1379 that had remained in France This was Robert Brother of Peter Earl of Geneva whose Courage was as high as his Birth He took the Name of Clement VII France after several Assemblies had been held of the most Learned of the Clergy and the most judicious Prelats and Nobility adhered to Clement the Kings of Castille and of Scotland who were his Allies did the same the Earl of Savoy and Jane Queen of Naples also although in the beginning she had protected his Competitor But all the rest of Christendom owned Vrban the Navarrois the English and the Flemmings out of spite to France the Italians to preserve the Papacy in their Year of our Lord 1378 and 79. Nation the Emperour in acknowledgment because that Pope before he was ever required had made haste to confirm the election of Wenceslaus his Son the King of Hungary that he might have a pretence to dispoliate the Queen of Naples and the rest for divers interests Peter King of Arragon remained Neutre At first Clement was well armed and in a condition to over-top his adversary having in his service one Sylvester Bude a Captain of Bretagne with Two thousand old Adventurers of that Nation who took the Castle St. Angelo defeated the Romans in Rome it self and made themselves Masters of the City But after another famous Captain who was an Englishman and was named Hacket otherwhile Head of the ✚ Bands of the Tard-Venus and now in the service of Vrban had vanquished and taken him prisoner Clements Affairs went on so ill that he was driven out of Italy and retiring himself to Avignon left his Rival sole Master of Rome This Schisme lasted Forty years either party having great Persons Saints Miracles and Revelations as they said and even such strong Arguments and Reasons on his side that the dispute could never be decided but by way of Cession that is by obliging the two Contenders to abdicate the Papacy so that it is great boldness to call those Anti-Popes who during this Schisme held the See at Avignon Year of our Lord 1379 The death of the Emperour Charles IV. fell out upon the Nine and twentieth of November in the year 1378. in the City of Prague the 63 year of his age Wenceslaus his Son who was elected King of the Romans in the year 1376. succeeded him in the Empire and the Kingdom of Bohemia a Prince deformed both in Body and Soul Year of our Lord 1379 It was a kind of Rebellion in the Earl of Flanders to own any other Pope then his King had done and indeed he shewed him ill will for it and more yet towards the Breton who encouraged him in his obstinacy Besides it had so fortuned that the Flemming by the Counsel of that Duke had caused one of his Envoyes to be staid who was passing thorow his Countrey on his way to Scotland to incite Robert Stewart to break the Truce with the English The King made complaint to the Flemming and Commanded him to drive the Breton out of his Countreys but the Flemming having taken advice of his People who assured him of Two hundred thousand Combatants in case he were attaqued refused to give him that satisfaction The Breton nevertheless went out of Flanders and took refuge in England The place of his retreat aggravated his crime the King orders him to be summoned to appear in Parliament to be judged by his Pairs Not presenting himself he was declar'd by Sentence of the Ninth of December attainted of the crime of Felony and all his Lands as well in Bretagne as all others he held in the Kingdom consiscated for having defied the King his Sovereign Lord and for having entred the Countrey in Arms with the enemies of the Kingdom That which in appearance seemed likeliest to ruine this Duke raised him The Bretons who for a thousand years past had so generously fought for the liberty of their Countrey having discover'd that the King designed more against the Dutchy it self then the Duke alone and that he would take it away from the guilty only to apply it to himself began to complain to withdraw from their affection to the French to re-unite amongst themselves and to make divers Leagues and Associations between the Cities and the Nobless Even the Widow of Charles de Blois by Counsel of the friends of her House sent to protest against that Decree and alledged that Bretagne was not subject or liable to consiscation because it was not a Fief and that if the Dukes had submitted their persons by obliging themselves to certain Service it was not their power to subject their Countrey This year a most cruel War was kindled in Flanders which lasted Seven years The interior cause of this inflammation was the Luxury of the Nobility and the dissolute and excessive expences of the Earl the occasion was a quarrel that rose between one called John Lyon and the Matthews who were six Brothers both the one and the other were very powerful amongst the Navigators or Mariners and between the Cities of Ghent and Bruges for a certain Canal or River which those of Bruges would needs make The Earl took part with these and was cause that John Year of our Lord 1379 Lyon formed against him a faction of White Hats in the City of Ghent He sets up the Matthews to oppose and countermine them John Lyon was found to be the stronger and pushed the contest on to the utmost extremity The Duke of Anjou was mighty greedy of Money and a great exactor his People by his Order or upon their own Authority having laid some new Imposts upon the City of Montpellier which was under his Government but of the Propriety of the King of Navarre the People mutined and killed Fourscore of them amongst which number were his Chancellour and the Governour The Duke hastned thither with some Forces and caused a most horrible Sentence to be given for punishment of that crime but it was moderated almost in every point by the intercession of his Holiness excepting against the Authors of that Sedition who paid down their Heads for it
After all the King coming to know of the capacity of that Duke took the Government of the Province from him and bestow'd it on the Earl of Foix. Whether the King were ignorant of the disposition of the Bretons or thought he could change them he sent for the Lords of that Countrey and screw'd a promise from them that they should assist the Duke of Bourbon and those other Chiefs he would send into Bretagne to execute the Decree against their Duke But the Lords on the contrary sent for him to come thither and stood by him so effectually with their Forces and such as he brought over with him from England that they restored him to most of his Towns This was the greatest and almost the only shock this wise King met with in all his Enterprises He was so transported and sensibly touched that he Commanded all Year of our Lord 1380 the Bretons who should refuse to serve against the Duke to go out of his Kingdom and shewed more severity towards some of them then was agreeable to his nature But this usage did only strengthen the party for the Duke and draw those over to his service that were at that time the ablest Men of the French Armies He durst not even upon this occasion make use of the valour of his Constable who would but unwillingly have drawn his Sword for the destruction of his native Countrey he chose rather to send him into Guyenne to cleer some places from whence the English and certain crews of vagabonds by their connivance foraged the Countrey of Auvergne After the taking of some Castles and beating some of those Bands whilst he was besieging one of them in Chasteau-neuf de Randan between Mendes and le Puy in Velay he was assaulted by a Fever whereof he died the Thirteenth of July his very Name compleated the Work the Besieged surrendred and brought and laid the Keys upon his Coffin The King upon the refusal of Enguerrand de Coucy gave the Constables Sword to Oliver de Clisson Compagnon and Countrey-man of the Deceased no less valiant then the other but very unlikein all things else Unjust Proud Covetous and Cruel Bretagne was then the Theater of War the King had resolved to throw in all his Armies there when he was constrain'd to quit the World and all his Designs Some years before Charles the Bad had caused some poyson to be given him the violence whereof a Physitian belonging to the Emperour Charles IV. had allayed by opening an issue in his Arm to discharge part of its venome that issue being stopt it took his Life away He died in the Castle of Beaute upon the Marne which is beyond the Bois de Vincennes the Sixteenth of September the Sixth Month of the Seventeenth year of his Reign and the Four and fortiethof his Life His Tomb is to be seen at St. Denis his Heart was carried to the great Church of Rouen because he had been Duke of Normandy and his Bowes to Maubuisson and laid by the Body of the Queen his Mother Upon his Death-bed this Wise King could not forget his care for the Kingdom he confirmed the Law concerning the Majority left the Government to Lewis Duke of Anjou his eldest Brother with a Council and the Guardianship and Education of his Son Charles to the Dukes of Burgundy and of Bourbon Commanding them most expresly to take off the Imposts to make some agreement with the Duke of Bretagne if it were possible and to Marry his Son into some potent Family of Germany In all his Conduct there appeared much solidity of Judgment and marvellous clearness of Wisdom and Understanding a great deal of Moderation and Goodness much Frugality and Aeconomy and yet Magnificence and liberality upon occasion He had been carefully bred in the Study of good Learning by Nicholas Oresme a Theologian of Paris and Dean of Rouen whom he made Bishop of Lisieux and indeed he had as much affection for the Sciences and for Learned Men as aversion for Comedians Juglers Buffoons and all those sorts of People who under the pretence of Divertisement corrupt the bravest Souls He delighted to hear the Truth from the Mouths of honest Men and although ☞ he merited the loftiest praises he could hardly endure any and despised them because in all times Courtiers have given the very same both to good and to bad Princes The expences of his Wars did not hinder his Magnificence from shewing it self in the Buildings of the Castle du Bois de Vincennes which subsists to this day and that of the Louvre the other parts whereof we have seen demolished to make room for tho proudest Structure that ever Architecture raised upon Earth but which how great soever it can be shall yet be much less then the King that undertakes it But above all his Virtues the fear of God and zeal to Justice did shine in him to a supream Decree the care of which being the noblest Function of a King he took pleasure in dispensing it himself and very often came to hear the Pleadings in his Parliament where he made them admire his Reasoning and Eloquence speaking so fully to the Subject in hand that there was nothing left for his Chancellour or Attorney-General to say He left considerable Treasures behind him in Lingots of Gold and rich Furniture It is a Problem in the Politiques whether he did well in heaping it up In point of Justice it is none if they may make Millions of People miserable to enrich one single Man And in truth his memory is not exempt from all blame on that side but they throw it upon the Cardinal of Amiens one of his principal Counsellors His Name was John de la Grange an obdurate Soul ambitious and covetous whose great possessions fully demonstrate that he caused the Subsidies to be doubled meerly out of design to enrich himself By Jane Daughter of Peter Duke of Bourbon and Isabella de Valois a Princess much accomplish'd both in Body and Mind he had two Sons Charles who Reigned Lewis who was Duke of Orleans and six Daughters who all dyed very young Charles VI King LII Called by some The Well-beloved King Aged near XII years POPES URBAN V. S. at Rome Nine years One Month during this Reign And CLEMENT VII in Avignon S. Fourteen years during this Reign BONIFACE IX at Rome Elected the Second of November 1389. S. Fourteen years Eleven Months BENNET XII Peter de Luna in Avignon Elected the Twenty eighth of September 1394. S. till his Deposition in Anno 1409. INNOCENT VII at Rome Elected the Seventeenth of Octob. 1404. S. Two years and Twenty two days GREGORY XII at Rome Elected the last of November 1406 till his Deposition by the Council of Pisa 1409. ALEXANDER V. in 1409. S. Ten Months JOHN XXIII Elected the Seventeenth of May 1410. S. Five years Deposed at Constance Ann. 1414. Vacancy from the year 1414. to the year 1417. MARTIN V. Elected the Tenth of November 1417.
S. Thirteen years Three Months and a half Year of our Lord 1380. in September THe Reign of Charles the Wise was happy enough but too short this very long and exteramly unfortunate A Minor King and then alienated in his Understanding Sick-Brain'd a Queen an ill Wife and unnatural Mother Princes of the Blood Ambitious Covetous Squanderers and Cruel the Grandees by their example giving themselves upto all manner of Licentiousness Subjects mutinous and seditious tumbled France into an Abysse of all kinds of Miseries and under the dominion of Strangers From the very first day some jealousies about the Government divided the Kings Uncles The Duke of Anjou being seized of the Regency disposed of Commands and changed the Officers The Dukes of Burgundy and of Bourbon could not suffer it and would have the King Crowned he maintained on the contrary that he ought not to be so till he were Fourteen years of age according to the Declaration of the late King About this difference an Assembly of Notables was held where John des Marais Advocate-General of the Parliament maintained the Duke of Anjou's Cause and Peter d'Orgement the contrary This conference having only heated them the more the friends of either partyarm'd themselves Paris beheld her self surrounded with Soldiers who lived at Discretion The Lords of the Kings Council mediated an agreement and prevailed so far that the parties referred it to Arbitrators who concluded That the King should be Crowned without delay That afterwards he should have the administration of the Kingdom that is to say he should receive the Homages and Oaths and all Acts should be expedite in his Name and for this purpose the Regent had aged him that is to say Emancipated That the Duke of Anjou should continue Regent that the other Two should have the Guard of the Kings Person with the Revenues of Normandy and three or four Bailywicks for his entertainment They likewise agreed to chuse a Council of Twelve Persons necessarily resident at Paris where by a plurality of Votes they were to ordain all things concerning the Revenue and Offices belonging thereto and without whose Authority no part of the Demeasnes pertaining to the Crown should be alienated either for Life or Perpetuity and who should make an Inventory of the Revenues Plate Jewels and Furniture that was the Kings which the Duke of Anjou seized upon and never gave a good account of The Imposts having been very excessive in the last years of the Reign of Charles V. caused some Emotions in the Cities particularly of Paris and Compiegne but without any miscievous consequence or accidents The Cardinal d'Amions who had been principal contriver of those Subsdies was now paid part of the reward he so well deserved for the young King remembred he had checkt him with sawcy Language in his Fathers life-time and exprest his resentment in discourse to the Chamberlain Peter de Savoisy in these terms God be thanked we are now delivered from the Tyranny of that Chaplain The Cardinal having notice of it makes up his pack and retires to Douay and from thence to Avignon carrying away an immense Treasure which he had scraped together to the poor Peoples cost and by picking the pockets of the whole Nation Clisson had been confirmed in the Office of Constable he had the Commission to conduct the King to Rbeims with that Pomp and Magnificence as was usual on those Ceremonies The Duke of Anjou staying some days behind seized upon the Treasures which Charles V. had concealed in the Walls of the Castle at Melun having forced Savoisy with whom the King had entrusted the secret and guard of it to shew him the where it lay which prompted the courage of that Prince to undertake the unfortunate War of Italy where himself perished with the choice Flower of the French Nobility So true it is that those vast sums of Money collected by Sovereign Princes does for the most part bring only trouble to their Kingdoms in the end and that their Treasures are no where so secure as in the affections of the Subjects who are ever affectionate and kind when they are ☞ kindly Treated The Duke of Anjou having overtaken the King upon his way to Rheims the Coronation was performed the Fourth of November Of the Lay-Paris were none present but the Duke of Burgundy who being the first of all it was by judgment of the Council ordained That he should take place before the Duke of Anjou his elder Brother and Regent and when this last not submitting to that judgment had seated himself at the Feast made on that Ceremony next to the King the Burgundian boldly came thrust himself between and took the place above him The Princes and their Council of Twelve had no other aim but their particular Interests The Duke of Anjou was the most powerful the Duke of Burgundy made Head against him Bourbon's Duke sloated betwixt both the Duke of Berry made no considerable Figure At the Coronation there was proclaimed the relaxation of the Imposts pursuant to the last Will of Charles V. but the Duke of Anjou having taken all the Money of the Treasury and refusing to employ any of it towards payment of the Soldiery or the Kings Family in one Month after they were fain to settle new ones especially upon the City of Paris The Populace mutined a Cobler makes himself Head of them and compell'd the Prevost des Marchands to go to the Palace attended with a multitude of Mutineers to demand the Revocation of them nevertheless the Chancellour it was William de Dormans Bishop of Beauvais appeased that Commotion by fair words and with a promise that was made to grant them what they did desire The very next day another Troop of the Rabble pull'd down their Courts or Offices tore their Accounts and Registers and going thence fell upon the Jews Houses there were Forty in one Street plundred them all and burnt their Writings took their Children and haled them to Church to Baptize them and would have beat out the Brains of their Fathers had they not taken Sanctuary in the Prison of the Chastelet The King restored them to their Houses again and caused Proclamation that every one should give them back what they had forced from them In the Month of July the Earl of Buckingham with a potent Army was landed at Calais not in Guyenne as is told us in the History of this Reign written by a Monk of St. Denis which is not very true in many places He crossed Picardy Champagne passed near Troyes where the Duke of Burgundy had made the general Rende-vouz of his Army then by Gastinois la Beause Vendosinois and Mayne to go into Bretagne to the assistance of that Duke Year of our Lord 1381 The same day he passed the Sartre King Charles V. passed into the other World The news of his death allayed that hatred the Breton had conceived against the French Insomuch as the English having laid Siege before Nantes
to be carried in Bennets Artifice and his Money had gained some of the Grandees who contrived this for him Year of our Lord 1398 The Earl of Perigord Archambauld Taleyrand tormenting the Countrey with the help of the English to whom he had ally'd himself and especially the City of Perigueux which belonged to the King was forced in his Castle of Montagnac brought to the Parliament and condemned to death The King gave him pardon for his life but bestowed his forfeited Estate upon the Duke of Orleans Archambauld de Grailly Captal de Buch having a Right to the Earldom of Foix as having married the Sister of Earl Matthew dead without Children got into possession of it by the Sword The King would not endure this because he was a Vassal Year of our Lord 1399 to the English and from Father to Son very affectionate to that party He therefore sent the Mareschal de Sancerre who pursued him so close that he was compell'd to desire a Cessation during which he came to the King and submitted himself to the judgment of the Parliament giving up in the mean time his two Sons in Hostage The Parliament declared in his favour conditionally he would relinquish the English and the King put him in possession This was in the year 1400. Year of our Lord 1399 Constantinople was invested by the Turks and in the greatest danger Pera which is as the Suburbs to it and from whence they fetched all their Provisions was very likely to be taken It belonged to the Seignory of Genoa the Mareschal de Boucicaut going thither with only Twelve hundred Men secured it and by consequence the City After he had disengaged all the parts round about and made the Turks retire whom he worsted in several Rencounters his Pay and Soldiers failing him he came into France to sollicite for a greater reinforcement bringing the Emperour along with him leaving the Lord de Chasteaumoran in Constantinople to defend it The discords in the Court of England caused by the ill Government of Richard and the ambition of his Uncles ended in a most Tragical Catastrophe Henry Earl of Derby became Duke of Lancaster by the death of his Father puts King Richard prisoner in the Tower of London Deposed him by the Authority and Consent of Parliament who degraded and condemned him to a perpetual imprisonment Then he took the Crown the Eighteenth day of October and was anointed with a Holy Oyl which some English say was brought by the Virgin Mary to St. Thomas of Canterbury whilst he took refuge in France This Ampoulle or Bottle that contains the Oyl is of Lapis and on the top stands a Golden Eagle enriched with Pearls and Diamonds Notwithstanding this Unction some while afterwards he gives way to the out-cries of the People who demanded that the unfortunate King might be strangled The London Citizens held Richard in execration because he had deliver'd up Brest and Cherbourg to the French The Duke of Bretagne who enjoy'd some repose after the many traverses which Year of our Lord 1399 had disturbed him from his Infancy died the First day of November in the Castle of Nantes He left his Children to the custody not of his Wife Jean of Navarre but of the Duke of Burgundy and Oliver de Clisson who alone were able to trouble them He had three John Arthur and Giles In the Month of November of this year 1399. a Comet was seen of an extraordinary brightness and darting its train towards the West It appeared only for one weeks time and was by Prognosticators held as a sign of those great Revolutions Year of our Lord 1399 that hapned all Chistendom over especially in the Kingdom of Naples and the Empire Lewis of Anjou had peaceably enough enjoy'd the better part of the Kingdom of Year of our Lord 1399 Sicilia when Thomas de Sanseverin Duke de Venousia offended for that he did not conclude upon the Marriage of his Brother Charles Earl of Mayne with his Daughter made him odious to the Neopolitans and introduced Lancelot and his Mother into the City where he was Crowned King and invested by the Pope of Rome So that Lewis having only some Castles left returned into France to crave assistance The Electors could no longer endure the Vices and brutish drunkenness of Year of our Lord 1400 Wenceslaus they degraded him and in his stead elected Henry Duke of Brunswic a generous Prince and great Captain and this Henry being basely assassinated upon his return from the Diet by the Count of Waldeck they substituted Robert Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine who was of the Electoral Colledge The Duke of Milan fearing left he might dispossess him shout up all the passages and hindred him from going to take the Imperial Crown at Rome and Sigismund King of Bohemia having procured himself to be chosen Guardian to Wenceslaus his Brother under this Title made many of the German Princes of his party who adhered to the House of Luxemburgh or rather made this a colourable pretence to avoid the owning any Sovereign Year of our Lord 1400 This year 1400. the Court of France received Emanuel II. Emperour of Greece who came to give the King thanks for his assistance and to crave more help of him He met with all manner of good Entertainment but nothing else unless it were an annual Pension for his subsistence He remained almost two years in France at the and whereof news being brought of the defeat and taking of Bajazeth by Themir-Lanc the King lent him the Lord of Chasteaumorand with two hundred Men at Arms and gave him a sum of Moneyto re-conduct him to Constantinople There was not any thing of advantage presented it self which the Duke of Orleans did not embrace with passion he undertook the quarrel of degraded Wenceslaus Year of our Lord 1401 and raised a good force to restore him but being informed of the ruine of his whole party he came back again The desire to Rule and ambition for Government grew hotter every day betwixt him and the Duke of Burgundy Twice had they displaced each other from that advantageous Post and besides the Burgundian resented it highly that the Duke of Orleans would have the Duke of Bretagne to be thrust out of all who was his Wives Cousin-german and his own surest friend The frequent punctillo's between their Wives exasperated them more than their own true interests the Duke of Burgundy's being the elder Heiress of a vast Estate and sprung from very Noble Blood despising the other who in truth had been much beneath her had she not been considered as Wife of the Kings only Brother Year of our Lord 1401. and 2. The Duke of Orleans had then the upper hand and was seized of the management of Affairs the Burgundian could not quit his part both the one and the other got their friends together and Paris was surrounded with Soldiers The Orleannois had called in the Duke of Guelders with Five hundred
War upon the English and a very beneficial diversion for France Observe we hear a great mark of the power of University of Paris as they were going in Procession to St. Catherine du Val near the Hostel of Charles de Savoisy Chamberlain to the King some of that Lords Domestique Servants quarrell'd with the Scholars and coming insolently into the Church with their Swords drawn committed great Outrage there The University prosecuted this business with so Year of our Lord 1404 much heat that by a Sentence in Parliament to whom the King referr'd it three of Savoisy's Servants were whipp'd and banished and his Hostel or House razed by sound of Trumpet excepting his Galleries where on the Gate we have seen an Inscription containing the Fact which was obliterated when they rebuilt the House It is now the Hostel de Lorrain Year of our Lord 1404 The Treasury being quite exhausted by the Duke of Orleans who was a gulph that nothing could fill up or supply fast enough he called the Council together to give Orders for some new Levies John Duke of Burgundy who had taken his Fathers place opposed it publickly and thereby gained the love of the Parisians However the plurality of Votes inducing him to a compliance with the rest they laid new Impositions upon pretence of raising great Forces The Princes had agreed to lock the Money up in one of the Towers belonging to the Palace and no one was to touch a Penny of it without the knowledge and consent of all the Duke of Orleans for all this Engagement scrupled not to come one night with a strong hand and take away the best part of it Year of our Lord 1405 The Thirtieth of April Lewis Dauphin of France and Duke of Guyenne espoused Marguerite Daughter of John Duke of Burgundy and John's eldest Son his name was Philip was betrothed to Michelle the King's Daughter Year of our Lord 1405 When Bennet was confirmed in the Papacy he vexed the Clergy as he had done before and would have Levied the Tenths but he found the University in his way who put a stop to his Undertakings In the mean time his Soldiers having consumed all his Silver even his very Plate the Duke of Orleans because he had nothing else to give him went to Avignon to press him in the behalf of the King to labour for a re-union in the Church as he had promised For this purpose he sent a Legation to Boniface where they set upon him with so many reasons to consent to the Abdication that having nothing to reply he fell sick and died upon it His Cardinals elected Cosmo Meliorat who was called Innocent VII He likewise appearing to be well enough inclined to some methods of accommodation Bennet resolved to confer with him promising himself to gain him by his skill or by the strength of his genius which was prevalent Thus he went to Nice and from thence passed in some Gallies to Genoa being accompanied by Lewis II. King of Sicilia They were scandaliz'd both at Court and in the City of Paris at the too close Year of our Lord 1405 union between the Duke of Orleans and the Queen especially since the death of Philip the Hardy whom she ever dreaded and also because they took the whole management of the Government to themselves and oppressed and loaded the Kingdom with redoubled and violent exactions The Queen they said sent one part of it into Germany and employ'd the other in all sorâ—â— of profusions whilst the Kings Children were in a pitiful equipage and himself was left to rot in his own ordure without any care of undressing him or exchanging his foul Linnen They were not only hated by the People but the other Princes the Dukes of Burgundy and Bretagne retired from Court The King having a lucid interval and understanding the reason of his Uncles absenting and heard the general complaints against the Queen and his Brother he thought it necessary to call a great Assembly and sent for the Duke of Burgundy thither This Duke thought it unfit to come without bringing a good force along with him as well for his own security as because he knew the Queen and her Duke had a design to seize upon the Kings Children and prevent that double Alliance he would contract between his and them Upon the noise of his arrival the Queen and Duke take Alarm and withdraw to Melun having left order with Lewis of Bavaria Brother to the Queen to bring away the Dauphin and even the Duke of Burgundy's Children to the Castle of Pouilly The Burgundian who was arrived at the Louver gets upon his nimblest Horse with a good guard of brave fellows gallops thorough Paris without stop or stay and made so much haste that he overtakes the Dauphin at Juvisy and brings him back to Paris with his own consent and in despite of the Bavarian Year of our Lord 1405 This Rupture was followed with justifications on the Burgundians part who gave his reasons for this action in presence of the Kings Council and the University as also for his reproaches and the drawing of Soldiers together on either side All Paris was in a perpetual Allarm the Dukes of Berry and of Burgundy fortify'd themselves in their own Houses the Duke of Orleans breathed Fire and Flames and the Burgundian omitted nothing to gain the favour of the People The Duke of Bourbon and the University labour'd in vain to make a reconciliation the King of Sicily had as ill sucess but at last the King of Navarre and the Duke of Bourbon after several goings and comings brought it about the two Princes embraced each other in Paris and swore mutual friendship with their Tongues but in their Hearts quite other things lay hid Year of our Lord 1406 England was in a bad condition by reason of the Famine that pinched her and the defeat they received by Henry Piercy Earl of Northumberland who would revenge the death of King Richard The Constable Albret and the Count d'Armagnac had taken or by Intelligence and Money got possession of above Threescore places in Guyenne The Dukes of Orleans and Burgundy undertook to drive them totally out of France the first by attaquing them in Guyenne the other about Calais to which he was to lay Siege The Duke of Orleans lost both his time and reputation before Blaye and before Bourgh the Second after very great expences durst not approach near Calais Thus neither reaped any thing but shame and the Burgundian increased his hatred against the other whom he accused of having spoiled his design by craftily hindring the Levies of those sums of Money had been allotted for the payment of his Forces Year of our Lord 1406 The valour of the Mareschal de Boucicaut encreased the power and reputation of the French not only in Italy but thorough all the Levant The City of Famagousta belonged to the Seignory of Genoa they having gained it from the King of Cyprus that King
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
for a farther tye toma ke this agreement sure they stipulated the Marriage of a Daughter of the Burgundians with Philip Count de Vertus the Second of the Three Brothers Year of our Lord 1409 The Peace concluded the King returned to Paris and the Burgundian to the Low-Countreys From whence coming again about the month of July he took the whole Government upon him and to give some satisfaction to the People whose affection he had gained in shewing his dislike against Taxes he caused the Council to call the Financiers to Examination and Account The most of them got off for Money but it cost John de Montaigu his Life who had been Sur Indtendant He was a man of mean birth Son of a Citizen of Paris whom the Kings favour without any great desert of his had raised to the Office of Grand Maistre of his House and his Brothers one to the Arch-Bishoprick of Sens the other to that of Paris His immense Riches which never are acquired without crime did blind this little fellow and drew the eyes of all great Men upon him insomuch as he bad married his Son to a Daughter of the Constable d'Albret and his Daughters to the greatest Lords of the Kingdom Though he had been very serviceable in negotiating the Treaty of Chartres nevertheless the Duke of Burgundy and the King of Navarre conspired his destruction because he had given the advice to carry the King to Tours They caused him to be accused of divers hainous crimes taking their opportunity when the King who loved him was in one of his Fits of Folly he was Arrested by Peter des Essards Provost of Paris examined by Commissioners of Parliament and cruelly tormented on the Rack His sufferings could not draw one word from him however his Head was chopt off at the Halles At his death he freely of his own accord confessed his depredation of the Kings Treasure which in it self contains all the greatest crimes The Trunk of his Body was hanged on a Gibbet his Head planted upon a high Pole Afterwards the Vicount de Lionnois had interest enough to re-abilitate his memory and having caused the Body to be taken from Montfaucon with an honourable convoy or attendance of Priests and Torches carried it to the Celestines Church at Marcoussy which he had founded Year of our Lord 1409 At this examination of the Officers it was ordered that all the Receivers should Account before the Earls de la Marche de Vendosme and de St. Pol and that till the had so done nothing should be allowed without Receipts and Vouchers The Treasurers were likewise all put out and the management thereof was given to some Citizens who were esteemed rich and less interessed Thus the Princes strove to gain the affection of that Queen of Cities For the same reason they renewed all their former Priviledges and the Provostship of Marchants of which they had till now only given them the keeping and they also granted them but to such only as were Natives the priviledge of holding Fiefs with the same Franchise as any Gentleman The Kings sorrow was very great when upon his recovery he heard of the death of Montaigu whom he had tenderly loved But there being no way to recall things past he would consider of what was to come Having therefore assembled the Grandees of the Kingdom he told them that he desired when he was at any time ill the Queen should take cognisance of Affairs and upon her default the Dauphin Duke of Guyenne whom he discharged from being under the conduct of his Mother but would that he should Govern with the Councils of the Dukes of Berry and of Burgundy This last usurped all the Authority Year of our Lord 1409 Whilst the Mareschal de Boucicaut was gone to Milan to receive that State under the Kings Protection and Government for John Galeazo chose this rather then that of the Marquis de Montferrat and Facin Can de l'Escale who had halfe subdued it the Marquiss to prevent him in it had caused the Genoese to rise up in Arms by means of the Gibbeline party They massacred all the French within their City forced the Cittadel and called him in to be their Lord but soon after they threw him out as they had done Boucicaut Year of our Lord 1409 Maugre the fulminations of the two Anti-Popes Maugre the Councils each of them had called Gregory in the Patriarchat of Aquilea and Benedict at Perpignan that Assembly which the Cardinals of both parties had summoned was open'd at Pisa the Five and twentieth of March. The Anti-Popes having been cited to appear there and all the Forms observed the Substraction was first order'd then they declared Schismatiques and Hereticks and Faculty given to the Cardinals to elect another Their Suffrages agreed in favour of Cardinal Peter Philargi called of Candia because a Native of that place He was named Alexander V. During the Schism Ladislaus King of Naples had seized upon Rome and the Lands of the Church which was the cause why the Council and the new Pope Alexander more willingly invested Lewis of Anjou with that Kingdom and gave him the Command Year of our Lord 1409 of Lieutenant-General of the Church In the beginning he had good success regained all the places that Ladislaus had usurped and drove him out of Rome but the end was not alike Year of our Lord 1410 The Eighteenth of May or according to others the First of June the Emperour Robert dyed at Oppenheim in Bavaria The Electors divided into two parties whereof one elected Sigismund de Luximbourgh King of Hungary the other his Cousin Josse Marquis of Moravia This last dying soon after all the Suffrages joyned for Sigismund Alexander V. had been a Cordelier Frier upon this consideration he granted a Year of our Lord 1410 new Priviledge to the Four Orders of Mendicants to Administer all the Sacraments in the Parishes and receive the Tythes iâ— they were bestow'd on them The University of Paris much offended at this Novelty retrenched all these Orders from their Body unless they would renounce this Bull. The Jacobins c ..... and Carmelites who found themselves feeble obey'd this Decree The Cordeliers and the Augustins remaining refractory were deprived of the Pulpit and Confessional of which the Jacobins made advantage as the Cordeliers had done upon their being in disgrace Pope John XXIII revoked all these Priviledges and reduced all things to the same condition they were in before We find amongst Historians that in these times there were many bloody Battles fought betwixt Birds of all sorts even amongst the smallest as Sparrows and amongst the domestique ones which proceeded from certain minute Bodies spread in the Air which pricked and irritated them in such measure as provoked and Year of our Lord 1410 pushed them on to discharge their anger upon one another This year 1410. in the Countrey of Hainault the Storks were observed to League with the Hernes and Pyes
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
united Year of our Lord 1415 When all his Forces were in readiness he made no scruple to declare his Pretensions and after he had written Letters full of Protestations and Threatnings to the King whom he stiled only his Cousin Charles of France he came and landed at Havre de Grace at the mouth of the River of Seine where he put on shoar six thousand Men at Arms thirty thousand Archers and all other Necessaries proportionably With these he laid Siege to Harfleur The place defended it self bravely by the courage of four hundred Men at Arms and seven or eight Lords of that Province that had thrown themselves in there In fine it was taken by assault and sacked perhaps not without some secret intelligence or at least the cowardize or baseness of the Chiefs of the French Army who took no great care to relieve them The blame fell on the Constable d'Albret In the mean time the King having set up the Oriflamme or Standard at St. Denis got his Soldiers together The English had lost a great many of their bravest Men upon their Attaques Diseases reigned in their Army and a scarcity of Provisions for they were forced to keep close together reduced them to great streights Insomuch as having held his Quarters for three weeks together along the Sea Coasts they were forced to remove and took their march towards Calais They crossed the Country of Caux the Earldom of Eu and the Lands of Vimeu with intention to pass the River Somme at Blanquetaque Year of our Lord 1415 The French Army which was as yet nothing but a multitude of Rascals pickt up in haste durst not attaque them in their march but when the King who was come in Person to Rouen had sent fourteen thousand Men at Arms and all the Princes to them excepting the Dukes of Guyenne Berry Bretagne and Burgundy it wa resolved they should go and fight them and instead of strongly guarding the passages over the Somme whereby to ruine them they went to way-lay them on the other side of the River and lodged themselves at Azincour in the County of St. Pol. The English being tired seeing the French to be four times stronger then themselves and believing they should be utterly lost if they came to an Engagement sent to profer them reparations for all damages done from the time of their landing in France But their Offers were rejected and Battle presented for the next day being the five and twentieth of October Year of our Lord 1415 The same causes that made them lose that of Crecy and that of Poitiers made them again lose this same I mean the necessity or desperate condition they reduced them unto either to vanquish or to dye their impetuous precipitation the confusion in which they fought all the Chiefs striving to be in the Head besides the ill order of their Van-guard drawn up so close that none but the first Ranks had room to stir themselves and the inconvenience of the Soil so fat and slippery with the Rain and withal so deep that they stood half way the Leg in Myre The Field was bestrewed with Six thousand of theirs and with Sixteen hundred of the English Amongst the slain were the Earl of Nevers and Anthony Duke of Brabant Brothers to the Duke of Burgundy the Duke of Alenson the Constable d'Abret the Duke of Bar the Mareschal de Boucicaut the Admiral Dampierre the Archbishop of Sens Brother of Montaigu and the Vicount de Lannois Son of the same Amongst the Prisoners the Dukes of Orleans and of Bourbou the Earls of Vendosme and Richemont and fourteen hundred Gentlemen The Army indeed Victorious but as much shatter'd as if they had been vanquish'd had much ado to crawl to Calais from whence their King Henry went over again into England Year of our Lord 1415 This great misfortune begot such Civil Discords as made the Wound much greater The Duke of Burgundy went on with his design of usurping the Government and he believed this Juncture very favourable towards it But when it came to be known that he was marched to Dijon with the Duke of Lorrain and ten thousand Horse to come again to Paris they brought the King back with speed and the Duke of Guyenne quartered Men in all the places thereabout The Burgundian being arrived at Lagny sent to the King to desire he might come to him and that the Duke of Guyenne might receive his Wife again whom he had pack'd away to entertain a Mistress He was promised satisfaction in this second thing he demanded but for the first he could never obtain it he was expressly forbidden to come near Paris but only with his own Servants There had been no security for him he found they had put all his Friends in Prison Hang'd up all his Soldiers they could light upon and sent for the Count of Armagnac his greatest Enemy to take the Constables Sword The mischief proceeded principally from the evil Counsels of certain Plagues in Court who for their private Interests promoted the differences between the Princes and plunged the young Duke of Guyenne into all Debauchery The University and Parliament made loud Complaints and moved that young Prince so much that he did promise to take some order but in few days afterwards he fell sick of a Loosness whereof he died the Five and twentieth of December not without visible marks Year of our Lord 1415 of Poyson The Count d'Armagnac being arrived at Paris the nine and twentieth of the same Month set aside the Propositions for Peace envenomed the Sore instead of healing it and made himself absolute Master of the Government having obtained the Soveraign Administration of the Treasury and the Command of Captain General of all the Fortresses with power to put in what Governors and what Garrisons he pleased After the death of the Duke of Guyenne the Succession to the Crown was to fall to his second Brother John Duke of Touraine The Earl of Hainault whose Daughter he had Married had carried him into his Country all honest Frenchmen wished he might return to inform himself in all Affairs In the mean time to gain the affection of the People and shew he was not engaged to any Party he Commanded both of them to lay down their Arms. The Burgundian who had stood gaping idly in Lagny was glad of so fair a pretence to retire He went back into the Low-Countries vexed to the very Soul that his Enemies should deride him and call him John de Lagny not much in haste The Emperor Sigismund desiring to procure the Churches Peace and also a Peace amongst Christian Princes made a Voyage into France and from thence Year of our Lord 1416 into England but without any success because the Constable refused the Truce for four years which he had propounded betwixt those two Crowns The King received him magnificently at Paris and was willing he should take his place in Parliament but it was not so well
Nicholas d'Outrecour was forced to retract from sixty Articles which he had framed upon divers Heads of Philosophy and Divinity owning them to be false and Heretical and the Books wherein they were contained were ordered to be torn and thrown into the Fire The year 1369. a Frier Minor named Denis Soulechat had taught some errors concerning the renouncing of Temporal Goods and about Charity and the perfection of Love which being condemned by the Faculty of Divinity he appealed to the Pope who confirmed their Judgment and sent him back to Paris to retract them in the presence of John de Dormans Cardinal Bishop of Beauvais The great Plague which reigned over the whole Earth about the middle of this Age begot a Spiritual one which was the Sect of Flagellants which taking birth in Hungary spread it self in short time over Poland Germany France and England They carried a Cross in their Hands and wore a Capouch on their Heads were naked to their Wast scourged themselves twice a day and once in the night with knotted Cords stuck with sharp pointed Rowels prostrating themselves upon the ground in form of a Cross crying out for Mercy Each Band had their Chief These Pious beginnings degenerated into Heresie by their own pride and their herding with the Begards Rascals and all sorts of idle People They affirmed that their Blood was united in such manner to the Blood of Christ that it had the same vertue and that after thirty days scourging all their Sins were remitted both as to the guilt and punishment so that they did not care for the Sacraments This phrensy lasted a great while in the subsequent Age and neither the Censures of the Church nor the Writings of Learned Doctors nor the Edicts of their Princes could purge the Brain of these melancholy Zealots There started up another sort of Hereticks that were more pleasant but more infamous withall in Dauphine and Savoy they were called Turlupins These lived without any shame like the Cynick Philosophers prayed not but with their hearts and believed that Men who were perfect ought to have a liberty of Spirit not subject to any Law That Opinion which Pope John XXII endeavoured to set up touching the state of the Soul till the day of Judgment had it seems been very common in the foregoing Ages but the World had examined and consider'd it better so that for a long while it had passed for an error The University therefore corrected the Holy Father in that point and he not only desisted from it himself but likewise gave a publick Act of his Retraction whether upon King Philip de Valois his threats who sent a Message to him in these very words That if he did not retract he would have him burnt or rather his being better satisfied in the Point The grand Assemblies being formidable to all such as govern by absolute Authority rather then by Law there were very few Councils in this Age. I have told you to what end that of Vienne was held Anno 1311. some will have it a General one because Pope Clement V. presided there and it consisted of a great number of Bishops and Prelats In the year 1318. Robert de Courtenay Archbishop of Reims convened one at Seulis where his eleven Suffragants were in Person or by their Proxies They there pronounced Excommunication against all those that were Usurpers or Detainers of the Churches Goods The Eighteenth of June of the year 1326. the Archbishops of Arles Aix and Embrun assembled the Prelats of their Provinces in the Abby of St. Ruf near Avignon to labour for the reformation of Manners the establishment of Discipline the preservation of Ecclesiastical Immunities and the Hierarchial Authority over the Regulars Anno 1337. there was another at the same place and from the same Provinces which treated about the same things Pope Bennet XII presided there That of Lavaur in the year 1368. composed of three Provinces Narbona Toulouze and Ausch and convened by the Authority of Pope Vrban V. had for their chief aim the reformation of Manners We must not omit that in the year 1377. King Charles V. used his intercession to Pope Gregory XI to order it so that the Bishoprick of Paris might be no longer subject to the Metropolis of Sens and that it might be honoured with the Pall like the other Bishopricks in France His Holiness excused himself as to the first point as a thing too prejudicial to the Church of Sens whereof Clement VI. his Uncle had been Archbishop and where himself had held one of the highest Dignities but for the second he willingly granted it However we do not find that the Bishops of Paris ever thought of making use of it Charles VII King LIII POPES MARTIN V. Eight years five Months under this Reign EUGENIUS IV. Elected the 15th of March 1431. S. sixteen years NICOLAUS V. Elected the 12th of March 1447. S. eight years wanting twelve days CALIXTUS III. Elected in April 1455. S. three years three Months PIUS II. Aeneas Silvius Elected the 19th of August 1458. S. six years whereof four under this Reign CHARLES VII Called the Vctorious King LIII Aged Twenty years eight Months Year of our Lord 1422 THE Dauphin was at the Castle of Espailly near du Puy in Auvergne when he received the news of the death of his Father The first day he put himself into Mourning the second he Cloathed himself in Scarlet and after he had heard Mass in the same Chappel made them set up the Banner of France upon sight whereof all those Lords that were then present with Pennons of their Arms cried out Vive le Roy The English and the Burgundian held the best Provinces of France they had Normandy entirely and all that is between the Scheld even to the Loire and the Saosne excepting some few places which Charles had yet here and there As for his part he had only all that lies beyond the Loire excepting Guyenne but then he had all the Princes of the Blood on his side the Burgundian excepted the best Captains and the bravest Adventurers or Volunteers as the Bastard of Orleans Taneguy du Chastel James and John de Harcour Lewis de Culan Lewis de Gaucour the Mareschals de la Fayete de Rieux de Severac de Boussac Poton de la Hire Stephen de Vignoles-Saintrailles Ambrose de Lore William de Barbasan called the Knight without reproach and a great many others and indeed he purchased them at a dear rate for he was constrained to engage his Castles and the best part of his Demeasnes in pawn for them Now because during his first years he commonly resided in Berry his Enemies nick-named him in raillery the King of Bourges Year of our Lord 1422 In the beginning of November he was Crowned at Poitiers whither he had transfer'd his Parliament The accident that hapned to him at Rochel some days before was a kind of presage that he should fall into extream dangers but yet
Salisbury having brought new Forces out of England began it upon the Twelfth of October of the year 1428. and made several Bastilles or Forts as well on the side towards la Beausse as that towards Soulogne having before cleared all the places in la Beauasse and all others for twelve or fifteen Leagues both above and beneath the Town along the River of Loire Year of our Lord 1428 All the year 1428. the Duke of Burgundy was busied in the Low-Countries in pursute of Jacqueline of Bavaria He followed her so close that having besieged her in the City of Ghent he compell'd her to declare him Heir to all her Lands so that to Flanders and Artois he joyned Hainault Holland Zealand and Frise and again the same year the Earldoms of Namur and Zutphen after the death of Count Theodoric who sold them to him only reserving the possession to himself during his life time Two years after in Anno 1430. there likewise fell to him the Dutchies of Lothier Brabant and Linbourgh the Marquissate of the Holy Empire and the Lordship of Antwerp by the decease of his Cousin Philip of Burgundy the second Son of Anthony who had succeeded to Duke John his elder Brother Husband of Jaqueline who died in the year 1426. In the beginning of this year he went to Paris to the Duke of Bedford whither came also some Ambassadors from King Charles and Deputies from Orleans to intreat him that he would suffer the said City to be sequestred into the hands of the Duke of Burgundy They remonstrated that the Princes of the House of Orleans who were Prisoners in England could have acted nothing for which they ought to be dispoiled of their Towns and that it would he sufficient to put them under Sequestration as a security for what they should do when they were set at liberty The English believing this important City was now as good as their own scoffed at the request they would not lose the time and Money they had expended in the Siege Besides Bedford granted but very little of those things which the Burgundian demanded However that he might not be exposed between two Enemies without any Party to support him he put on the masque of an apparent satisfaction upon the face of his discontent Their attaques at Orleans were very brave and the defence of the Besieged much braver yet the Earl of Salisbury lost his life by a Cannon shot but the French having been beaten near Rouvroy at their falling upon a Convoy of Herrings which was going to the Camp it was in Lent and the Constable being retired Malecontent into Bretagne the place was just going to fall and the courage of all the French with it The King was already diposing himself to retire into Dauphine When a most extraordinary thing pulled down the English pride and raised up the hopes of France About the end of February the Lord de Baudricourt Governor of Vaucouleurs in Champagne sent a Maiden to the King about the age of Eighteen or twenty years who affirmed that she had an express Commission from God to relieve Orleans and cause him to be Crowned at Reims being sollicited thereto by the frequent apparitions of Angels and Saints She was named Joan or Jane was Native of the Village of Damremy upon the Meuse Daughter of James of Ave and Isabella Gautier and bred to keep Sheep in the Country Her Vocation was confirmed by miraculous proofs for she knew the King though meanly habited amidst the throng from all his Courtiers The Doctors of Divinity and those that were of the Parliament who examined her declared that there was somewhat of Supernatural in her behaviour She sent for a Sword that lay in the Tomb of a Knight behind the high Altar in the Church of St. Catharine de Fierbois upon the Blade whereof were several Crosses and Flower-de-Luces graved and the King openly affirmed that she had devined a very great secret not known to any but himself They gave her therefore a suitable Equipage and some Forces yet did they not trust the conduct of this relief to her management but gave it to the Mareschal de Rieux and the Bastard of Orleans followed by many other brave Knights who understood the Trade When she had display'd her Banner whereon there were two Images one a Crucifix the other the Annunciation with the Sacred Names of Jesus-Maria she wrote to the English in the name of God That they should leave the Kingdom to the Lawful Heir if not then she would make them go perforce But they kept her Herauld Prisoner He was found in Fetters when the City was relieved and it was discover'd that they intended to have burnt him as a Confederate of hers whom they called a Witch Year of our Lord 1429 The success made good her threatnings From that very day all their Affairs declined When she had thrown Provisions into Orleans and soon after entred the City in Person the Besieged believing her to be sent from Heaven resumed courage made divers Salleys where she fought valiantly and in two or three days took their chief Bastilles and constrained them to decamp for good and all the Twelfth day of May. The French ran up and down every where with this Heroine as to a certain Victory the English fled before her as from a Thunder-Bolt and durst not stand her approach They were chaced from Jargeau from Beaugency beaten at Patay in Beausse upon a retreat and in fine dislodged from all the places in those Countries Year of our Lord 1429 Touching the second point of her Commission she over-ruled it in the Council that the King should go to Reims to be Crowned though that City and all Champagne were yet in the Enemies power In their passage Auxerre Troyes and Chaalons surrendred to the King then the City of Reims it self as soon as ever those Lords that held it for the Duke of Burgundy were gone forth to fetch some assistance from Burgundy he was Crowned upon a Sunday being the Seventh day of July by Renauld de Chartres Archbishop of that City and their Chancellor Year of our Lord 1429 In recompence of these so important Services the King Ennobled the Pucelle her Father and her three Brothers and all their Descendants even by the Females changed the name of their Race which was of Arc into that of de-Luce or Lily and for their Coat of Arms gave them a Field Azure with a Sword placed in Pal the Cross and Pumel Or accosted with two Flowers-de-Luce and sustaining a Crown of the same upon its point Year of our Lord 1429 Upon his return they gave him up Laon Soissons Beauvais Compiegne Crespy and all the Cities even to Paris The Duke of Bedford came and presented him Battle in the Plain of Montepilloy the Armies were in sight but parted after some Skirmishes From thence he went to assault St. Denis and made an attempt upon Paris his Men were repulsed with loss and
on all hands crying out a la queue Many had their Brains beaten out in the Streets the rest escaped to the Bastille where they made composition All the little Neighbouring Forts were an Accessory to this Reduction In the Month of August following the King recalled the Parliament the Chambre des Comptes and the University thither The English had declared themselves Enemies to the Duke of Burgundy by all Acts of Hostility upon his Countreys and by underhand-dealings to stir his Subjects up to Rebellion in those days very much knit to and concerned for England as well by Commerce and Trade as out of a real hatred they had towards the French He would therefore needs revenge himself by taking of Calais which he esteemed no great difficulty and laid Siege to it with a numerous Army In the midst of this Enterprize the Flemmings finding it spin out to a great length fell into an imagination that they were betray'd and herding together in several small parcels on a suddain made up all their packs in great confusion leaving their Provisions and Artillery behind for want of Waggons to carry them off All that their Duke could possibly do for them was to cover them with his Cavalry leâ—t the English should have charged them and after that to follow them The Duke of Gloucester who had sent word that he was coming to give him Battle not finding him there entred into Flanders where he increased their former jealousie by his burning all those places he came near Year of our Lord 1437 It was impossible for Rene of Anjou to obtain his liberty of the Duke of Burgundy without paying him an extraordinary Ransom yielding up several places and consenting to a Marriage between his eldest Daughter whose name was Yoland as then but nine years old and Ferry eldest Son of Anthony Earl of Vaudemont the means whereby Lorrain returned to the Males of that House Year of our Lord 1437 In the interim they carried the King into Lyonnois and Dauphine to make Moneys in those Countries and the following year he went even to Languedoc for the same end Upon his return he laid Siege to Montereau Faut-yonne which submitted not till after a long resistance From thence he came to make his entrance into his good City of Year of our Lord 1437 Paris the fourth of November and then he might truly call himself King of France having replanted his Throne in the capital City of his Kingdom Year of our Lord 1438 These long and tedious Wars did necessarily produce great licentiousness and daily Robberies The Soldiers not being paid lived at discretion and the extream scarcity of all things rendred them most inhumane There were divers Bands commanded even by the Kings best Officers who under colour of seeking for subsistence ran from Province to Province rifling all they could lay lands on Those called Escorcheurs and then the Redondeurs committed strange disorders By these ravages the flight of the Husbandmen and Peasants who neither ploughed nor sowed and the continual Rains during two years 1437 and 38. ensued a great Famine and then a horrible Mortality over all France especially at Paris and its Neighbourhood That City was so depopulated the Wolves came and devoured Children even in the midst of the Street St. Anthoine They were forced that they might rid themselves of those Beasts greedy of humane Flesh to make Proclamation that any one should have twenty Solz a piece for every head of a Wolfe they brought to the Magistrate Pope Eugenius and the Council of Basil were imbroiled to that height that Eugenius declared the Council dissolved and called another to Ferrara and on the other hand the Prelats that were at Basil having summon'd him divers times to come thither began to think of deposing him with the greater confidence for that the Most Christian King seemed then to favour them having forbid the Prelats of the Gallican Church from going to Ferrara Year of our Lord 1438 This Discord in the end turned to a Schism he that might have extinguisht it hapning to die I mean the Emperor Sigismond who ended his days in Moravia the Eighth of November 1437. Albertus Duke of Austria his Son in Law succeeded him in the Kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia and the year following in the Empire by the suffrages of the Electors The Clergy of France ever since the translation of the Holy See to Avignon had suffered infinite oppressions by the Court of Rome And therefore the King having assembled them at Bourges to find out some way to reconcile the Pope to the Council who had each sent their Legats they embraced the opportunity which they could never have since the Council of Constance and made their remonstrances touching those insupportable abuses The King desiring to provide against it order'd them to apply the most convenient remedies To this end by advice of his Council they framed that so celebrated Reglement called the Pragmatique which preventing any the like Enterprizes of the Court of Rome might well be termed the Bulwark of the Gallican Church Year of our Lord 1439 Eugenius transferr'd his Council of Ferrara to Florence where they treated concerning the uniting the Greek to the Latine Church their Emperor John VI. assisting with a good number of his most illustrious Prelats But in the mean while those who were assembled at Basil though reduced to a small number and not well agreed amongst themselves deposed Eugenius and elected Ame VIII Duke of Savoy who had retired himself as was before related to the solitude of Ripaille France Germany and most part of the West paid their obedience to him during the life of Eugenius but after his death all of them almost turned to Nicholas V. Two years after Rene was delivered from captivity he went into his Kingdom of Naples where according to the example of his Predecessors his entrance was very happy but his exit very different Year of our Lord 1439 The Siege of Meaux by the Constable although long and full of difficulty succeeded happily for the French but that of Auranches in the Lower Normandy being ill managed by the same Person and the Duke of Alenson brought them nothing but shame the English having made them raise it and taken part of their Bagage and their Ammunition At the Sollicitation of the Dutchess of Burgundy and the Popes Legats a great Conference was held between Graueline and Calais the Deputies of France England and those of Burgundy meeting to treat about a Peace The English not receding from that Condition that Normandy and their other Conquests should be left to them in full Soveraignty they parted without doing any thing in it Year of our Lord 1440 The King by inclination was well enough disposed for the good of his Country and we observe that from this very time even to the Reign of Henry II. the Kings did often and willingly make use of this term The Publick Concerns of Our
Orange and from thence into the Franche-Comte from whence he was conducted into Brabant The Duke of Burgundy received him as the Son of his Soveraign and assigned him twelve thousand Crowns for his use and the Castle of Gueneppe within four Leagues of Bruxels for his oridinary Residence Year of our Lord 1457 Whatever noble Reception and Entertainment he met with in that Country he had not been long there before he sowed division between the Father and the Son having gained the Lords of the House de Crouy who governed the Father and countenancing and abetting them against the Son who could not endure them The first year of his sojourning there they brought Charlotte of Savoy to him to Consummate his Marriage by whom a Son was born about three years afterwards who died Year of our Lord 1456 The Kings wrath discharged it self upon John Duke of Alenson the Dauphins God-father This Prince returning from Dauphine where he had been to brew some Intrigue with his God-son and having contrived I know not what League with the English to make some disturbance in favour of them was seized and imprisoned in the Castle de Loâ—hes Year of our Lord 1457 In the year 1457. as it is usual after a long War to squeeze the Finances of what they have sucked in during the publick Calamities the King called those to account who had managed the Treasury One John Xancoins Receiver General convicted of misdemeanour and of having detained sixty thousand Crowns was banish'd for ever his Goods consiscate and the fair Houses he had built bestowed upon the Count de Dunois Year of our Lord 1458 Two years after the imprisonment of the Duke of Alenson for it required all that time to find out proofs the King convened his parliament and his Pairs at Montargis to make his Process They laboured three Months in it he being at Baugency The business not going on with that expedition as he desired he removes the Assembly to Vendosme where he intended to be present At last by a Sentence of the Tenth of October they condemned the Duke to lose his Head and confiscated all his Estate The King gave him a pardon for his life but took the best of his Lands and sent him back Prisoner to Loches Year of our Lord 1458 The Twenty sixth of December of the same year was the last of brave Arthur's days Earl of Richmond Constable of France who had likewise been Duke of Bretagne a year and an half by the death of Peter the Simple second Son of his eldest Brother He had no child and so the Duthy went to Francis his Nephew Son of Richard Earl of Estampes his younger Brother Charles of Anjou Earl of Mayne had the Office of Constable The same year the Twenty seventh of June Alphonso King of Arragon and Sicilia pass'd into the other World At his death he left the Kingdom of Naples then called Sicilia on this side the Fare to Ferdinand his Natural Son Rene of Anjou finding this a fair opportunity to pursue his right against him before he could be well setled sent John Duke of Calabria his Son into those Countries This Prince guided by the destiny of his Predecessors had very prosperous beginnings and an unfortunate end Year of our Lord 1459 Since the taking of Constantinople the Duke of Burgundy had for two or three times made shew as if he would employ his Forces and Person against the Insidels We may fee in Oliver de la Marche the Vows which he and the Lords in the Assembly of Bruges made on the Peacock at a stately Banquet all this vanish'd into Air together with the Wine and Mirth of the Feast Year of our Lord 1459 As little did Pope Pius II. this was Aeneas Sylvius succeed in his Project which was to unite and engage all Christendom against the Turks In order to which he had convened a General Assembly at Mantoua where appeared Ambassadors from all Soveraign Princes and the War was resolved upon with great designs but without any effect The French Ambassadors returned but ill satisfied the Pope not condescending to favour Rene in his pretence to the Kingdom of Naples but threatning to Excommunicate the King upon the score of the Pragmatick whereupon John Dauvet Attorney General of the Parliament made Protestations and appealed to the future Council Year of our Lord 1458 and 59. The Duke of Tork had for the second time vanquish'd and taken King Henry Prisoner afterwards Queen Margaret with the aid of the Scots slew that Duke in Battle and deliver'd her Husband but Edward Son of that Duke having brought other Forces tried fortune once more and defeated the Queens Army under the Walls of York Then Henry being fled into Scotland and Queen Margaret into France he was Crowned King in the year 1461. This was the first Act of the Tragedy between the Houses of York and Lancaster that of York wore the White Rose and Lancaster the Red. Year of our Lord 1460 and 61 It was now thirteen years that the Dauphin had been absent from the Court his Father sent often for him which he cared not to obey he often called upon the Duke of Burgundy to send him back telling him he nursed and hugged a Serpent which when well warmed in his Bosom would one day make him feel his mortal Sting He sometimes proceeded even to threaten the Duke and stirred up divers of his own People against him who finding himself so harrass'd sent at last a smart Message desiring him to consider whether he would maintain the Peace of Arras or not For this time therefore the King left him quiet but two years after his Counsel or his own Resentment pressing him he was about to go and fetch him with an Army However he changed his mind again and thought it were better punish him by advancing Charles his second Son to the birth-rights of eldership according to the power the Kings of the first and second Race had had Which no doubt he would have put in execution had not the Pope strongly dissuaded him or perhaps if he could have had time enough to dispose the minds of the French Nation to admit of such a change Year of our Lord 1461 While he was at Meun on the Yeurre in Berry he had notice that his Domesticks had plotted to take away his life The poor Prince after that thought he saw nothing but poyniards and poyson His apprehensions were so great that not knowing from what hands he might take his food without danger he refrained from eating some days after which it was not in his power when he would have done it to swallow any thing So that he died of hunger the Two and twentieth of July about the midst of his Sixtieth year and near the end of the Nine and thirtieth of his Reign Never Prince had greater Traverses or more potent Enemies nor overcame them more gloriously After he had driven those out of France that
night and go towards Burgundy Fear is an evil Counsellor all were of that opinion the Lord of Contay only hindred that retreat which would have turned to a rout The next day they had certain intelligence that the King was decamped and gone to Corbeil and a few hours after they were assured the Breton was arrived at Estampes Thus the Field was left to the Charolois which filled his head with so much pride that it may well be said that day was the cause of all his misfortunes The next day the King fearing to be hemm'd in descended directly to Paris along the Seine The same night he supped in the company of the principal Ladies of that City to gain their hearts by the power of that insinuating Sex and to have a Party amongst the Beauties to oppose the intrigues of those that were for the interests of the Princes He also highly commended the Fidelity of the Citizens and to allure the People he caused to be proclaimed in all the Suburbs an abatement upon Wines from a fourth part to an eighth part and a general revocation of all Imposts the five great Farmes only excepted These favours being against his will did not last long no more then the establishment he made of a Council of eighteen persons six of the Parliament six of the Body of the University and six of the chiefest Citizens by whose Counsel and advice he promised to be governed according to the remonstrances of the Clergy the Parliament and the University The danger past he kept nothing of all this but a mortal hatred against those that had made the proposition and particularly against the Bishop who first mentioned it in the name of the rest This was William Brother of Allen Chartier a man of great vertue and hugely zealous of the publick good ✚ Being in want of money he made great borrowings amongst his Officers Which was the first occasion of making employments vendible for he set aside those that had refused to lend him what he demanded About fifteen days after having well provided for the security of the City he went into Normandy to raise men and Money In the mean time the Count de Charolois marching to meet the Breton took the House d'Estampes to refresh his Soldiers and dress the wounded which were to the number of almost two Thoúsand At the end of three days the Breton arrived having with him the Counts of Dunois and Dammartin the Mareschal de Loheack the Lords de Bevil de Gaucour and d'Amboise 800 Men at Armes and six Thousand Light-horse It hapned one day that Monsieur a young Prince who had but a faint heart seeing the wounded men who were carried thorough the Streets of Estampes and the sick that crawled up and down let fall some expressions which signified his repentance for that enterprize The Count de Charolois heard it and perhaps he heard likewise that the Bretons upon the rumour that had been spread how the King was slain in the Battel of Montlehery had consulted of a means to rid themselves of him that they might govern the new King alone upon which he imagined that he might be left betwixt the Hammer and the Anvil and in this apprehension he sent to Edward King of England to treat of an Alliance with him and desire to have his Sister Margret His design was but to entertain him with hopes that he might make no League with the King for he mortally hated the House of York and was for the interest of Lancaster nevertheless by over-acting the dissembler he engaged himself so far as to compleat the marriage and took the Order of the Garter Year of our Lord 1465 When the Princes had staid two Weeks at Estampes they resolved to return before Paris to try a second time whether they could move them to declare themselves for the publick good Having therefore foraged the Country of Gastinois they passed the Seine over a Bridge of Boats between Melun and Montereau At this passage John of Anjou Duke of Calabria and Lorrain the Son of good King Rene and a great Captain joyned them with the Forces of both Burgundy's He had but eight hundred Horse but of the very best and amongst his Foot which were but few five Hundred Swisse the first that were seen in France When all the other Lords were come with their Forces there were near a Hundred Thousand Horse in that Army The Burgundian had his Quarters at Charenton and was lodged in his Castle of Conflans the Dukes of Berry and Calabria at St. Maur and the rest at St. Denis and the places thereabouts In this multitude of principal Officers there was no Head considerable enough to command this vast Body they staid three days before Paris without doing any thing Perhaps they might have forced it by assaults had they undertaken it for there were but five hundred Lances and some Bands of Archers however they rather furnished themselves then starved the City to a Compliance It is true they narrowly missed the gaining of it by Treaties and Intreagues For some out of a desire to see the Blockade at an end and the rest for fear of some sad event gave Ear to certain Letters brought them by the Heralds from the Brother of their King They sent Deputies to him from the Chiefest of the Clergy the Parliament the University and the Citizens The Bishop was Speaker At their return notwithstanding the contrary orders of the Count d'Eu who was Governor it was concluded at their Town-Hall that they should desire the King to Assemble the Estates that the Princes might come into Paris in small companies and that they should be furnished with Provisions for their money The King being informed thereof returned to Paris the 28 th of August and broke off this project Had he staid two days longer he might perhaps have found the Princes in Paris and the Gates shut against him Had that hapned he had resolved to have retired to Lewis Sforza Duke of Milan his good Friend who had sent him a relief of seven or eight Thousand Men that mightily harrassed the Duke of Bourbons Country Year of our Lord 1465 After his Arrival no day passed without Skermishings unless upon some Truces which were renewed divers times for four and twenty hours only There had been a Conference agreed upon by Deputies the third of September which was held at Mercers Grange From that hour there was nothing but bargaining to debauch people the Confederates grew jealous of each other that Party disunited and the Kings grew strong and better fortified and Confirmed It was resolved the Council of Sforza Duke of Milan should be followed which was to dissolve the League at what price soever and for that purpose to grant to every one in particular almost whatever he demanded The King had very near made an agreement which each of them excepting only about the Appenage for his Brother they being obstinately bent to have Normandy allowed him
out of that Laudible zeal he hath transmitted to all his posterity to procure the publick good There were more Propositions made no doubt then they intended to practise and fine studied speeches This is what they call in France de Belles actions brave actions Year of our Lord 1466 The excessive heats of the Summer bred many contagious Maladies which in the City of Paris alone swept away above forty Thousand People and frighted away a much greater number In so much as the King desiring to re-people it by an Edict called in all sorts of Nations and People even such as were banished or Criminals to whom besides the Abolition he gave Priviledges and Franchises Year of our Lord 1467 The Pragmatique subsisted yet Pope Paul II. sent as Legat to the King John Joffridi Cardinal Bishop d'Alby to get the revocation verified who employed John Balue Cardinal Bishop of Angiers to carry the Letters from the King to the Chastelet and the Parliament They passed at the Chastelet without opposition but in the Parliament he found John de Sainct Romain Attorney General who opposed him to his face and the University went to the Legat to signify their Appeal to the next Council and after entred it into the Register at the Chasteler Paris being as it were the Kings Bulwark against the Grandees that loved him not he ordained that all the Inhabitants even the Ecclesiasticks should enroll themselves under the Banners of their Principals and Sub-Principals that is to say of Colonels and Captains and should provide themselves with good Arms. At one Muster which was made the 4 th of September there were found to be between 70 and 80000 men between the ages of 16 and 60 years In another which was made the following year they counted 84000. Year of our Lord 1467 The 15 th of July in the year 1467. Philip Duke of Burgundy called le Bon i. e. the Good ended his days at Brussels in the 72 th year of his Age and the 45 th of his Domination He yielded not in power or riches to any King but the French but had not his like in Goodness and Magnisicence And indeed he was adored by his people respected by all the Princes of Christendom and dreaded even by the Infidels The Count de Charolois Succeeded in his great Dominions not at all in his Goodness and Wisdom He was Rash Presumptuous Quarrelsome and Bloody But withal Valiant Undaunted and Indefatigable in War and who within himself observed exact justice and right towards his own Subjects Year of our Lord 1467 At his first coming to this Estate he was engaged against the Liegois whom the King had wrought to break the Truce and he assisted them yet notwithstanding he offered to forsake them if the Duke would forsake the Breton whom the King held already as it were by the Throat being entred into his Country with thirty Thousand Men. The Duke would do nothing of this but hastned to make an end of the War with Liege Now the Liegois having lost a Battel when they came to relieve the City of St. Tron did submit themselves to any conditions he would require excepting firing and plundring He caused the Heads of 20 or 30 of the most guilty to fly together with the Towers and Walls of the City of Liege changed the Magistrates and the Laws and drained them of great Sums of Money for his expences This was in the Month of November The people of Flanders especially the Gantois who had mutined after the Death of his Father humbled themselves likewise before their victorious Prince and sent him all their Banners to Bruges In the Month of October the King received advice that the Duke of Alenson who made one in every discontented Party was joyned in that of Monsieur and the Duke of Bretagne and had given them up all his places by means of which and of those that yet remained in their possession amongst others Auranches Bayeux and Caen they held almost all the lower Normandy The King willing to tread him down first in his way to the others did presently cause his Army to march into the Countreys of Perche and of Mayn and arrived at Mans himself Year of our Lord 1467 One of the causes which had most stirred up the Cities especially Paris against the King in the League for the publick good had been the mutation of Officers For this reason before his march against the Leagued Princes he made this celebrated Ordinance of the 21th of October which bears That considering that in his Officers consists under his Authority the direction whereby are Policed and managed the publick affairs of the Kingdom and that thereof they are Essential Ministers as members of that Body whereof of he is the Head he would therefore free them from all doubts they had of falling into the ineonveniences mutation and destitution and provide for their security And therefore he Ordained that thenceforward there should be no Office disposed of unless it were vacant by Death or by voluntary resignation or by forfeiture judged and declared Judicially by a competent Judge His Army lay all the rest of Autumn without doing much for as subtil as he was he suffer'd himself to be amused by the Breton with the hopes of an accommodation Nevertheless he did not wholly lose his time Towards the end of the year he Debauched Rene Count du Perche Son of John Duke of Alenson who betraying his own Father delivered the Castle of Alenson up to him which in those days was reckoned for a very good place The Breton forsook the Town And sinding Monsieur and the Duke of Bretagne astonished at so unexpected an accident he employ'd the Popes Legat to let them know that he would refer all his Deputies to the judgment of the General Estates And for that purpose summoned them together at Tours the first day of April Year of our Lord 1468 All the Deputies proved to be so much at his Devotion that they ordained nothing but what was conformable to his desires That Normandy being united to the Crown could not be dismembred to be given to his Brother That that young Prince should be exhorted to be satisfied with twelve thousand Livers yearly Rent in Lands for his Appenage and 60000 Livers Annual Pension but this not to be a President for the futureSons of France That the Breton should surrender the places in Normandy and if he would not obey this Ordinance they should make War upon him with all their Forces and to do this they proffered their Lives and Fortunes He caused this to be immediately made known to his Brother and to the Breton and at the same time his Army led by his Admiral entred Bretagne took Chantoce and Ancenis and penetrated a great way into the Country whilst himself after he had visited his good City of Paris was gone towards the Frontiers of Picardy to make use of some Engines to endeavour to disjoyn the Duke of Burgundy
the accustomed Ceremonies and Magnificence Being returned to Paris the Duke of Bretagne sent a complaint to him for having supported the Rebellion of his Subjects The Dame according to her Father's wonted Method in stead of returning him an answer Debauched his Ambassadors from his Service These were the Lord D'Vrfe whom she made Grand Escuyer and Poncet de la Riviere on whom she bestowed the Mayoralty of Bourdeaux Year of our Lord 1484 The Cardinal de Balue after his being set at Liberty went to Rome and as that Court is a Region of perpetual Intrigues he Succeeded so happily therein that in short time be got great Credit and some good Benefices He moreover prevailed with the Pope so far that after the Death of Lewis XI he sent him into France as Legat à Latere He made his entrance with so much arrogance that he made use of his faculties before ever he had the Kings consent or had presented them in Parliament to be examined whether they contained nothing contrary to the Rights of the Crown and the Liberties of the Gallican Church The Parliament offended at this bold undertaking forbid him to take upon him the Characters of his Legation or to exercise the power Notwithstanding the Kings Council after he had shewed his reasons and made his necessary Submissions gave order he should be received in that Quality with the usual Respect and Honour and that he should exercise his Functions Which he did for some days when hearing news of the Death of Sixtus he returned on his way to Rome with a Present only of a Thousand Crowns in Gold which the King gave him towards defraying the Expences of his Journey Year of our Lord 1484 The Council Establish'd by the Estates had neither Power nor Vertue the Dame de Beaujeu usurped all the Authority She turned out all those from the Kings Service as were not at her Dvotion and brought in d'Vrfe Riviere and Graville prime Chamberlain who watched and as it were beleaguer'd the young King These Folk wanting some brave daring Heroe to oppose the Duke of Orleans did likewise keep Rene the Duke of Lorrain at Court to whom they restored the Dutchy of Bar till such time as the King should be of Age to do him right for the County of Provence assigned him a Pension of 36 Thousand Livers per Annum and a company of an Hundred Lances During these disorders in France the Scene was wholly changed in England Henry Earl of Richmond after the Battel in the year 1471 where Henry VI. Lost his Crown and Liberty endeavouring to make his escape into France was by Tempest thrown upon the Coasts of Bretagne where the Duke Seized on him and detained him Prisoner in favour of Edward or rather to engage that King to protect him always against Lewis XI And indeed Edward never forsook him whatever advantage Lewis could propound to him and which was more paid him fifty Thousand Crowns yearly for his Pension When Edward Died he gave him his full Liberty and withal assisted him with Money and six Thousand Men wherewith he put to Sea having a Strong Faction in England whereof the Earl of Buckingham was Head Now it happened that a Storm having scattered his Ships the Confederacy was discover'd and Buckingham Beheaded with most of the great men who were concerned in it So that he returned and Landed in Normandy and from thence got back into Bretagne waiting for a better opportunity King Richard desiring to have him at what price soever profer'd Landays so much Money and such considerable assistance in time of need against the Breton Lords that this Perfidious and Mercinary Soul promised to deliver him up to his People The Earls Friends in England got a hint of this bargain and gave him Notice at the very nick of time when it was to be put in execution He immediately departs from Vannes under pretence of going to wait upon the Duke who was at Renes then striking into another Road made his escape with four more to Anger 's He was so closely pursued by Landays Men that he slipt thorough the passage but one hour before they came to the place The King was then at Langeais who received him very kindly And a great number of English Landing every Day in the Ports of France to joyn with him he gave him some broken Companies that were in Normandy with which he adventured over into England In fine having gained the Victory over Richard who was slain in the Field be ascended the Throne which he pretended did belong of Right to him as being the Eldest of the House of Lancaster He was indeed of that Family but at a remote distance as being but the Son of a Daughter of the Duke of Somerset's and of Edmond who was Son of Owen Tudor a Gentleman of Wales and Catherine of France who after the Death of King Henry V. her Husband was clandestinely Married to him Year of our Lord 1485 The Duke of Orleans the Duke of Bourbon likewise to whom the Constables Sword without any power was more an injury or burthen then an Honour made a new party against the Government The Duke of Bretagne Charles Earl of Angoulesme the Duke of Alenson and John de Chaalon Prince of Orenge who was Son of a Sister of the Duke of Bretagne entred into it Charles Earl of Dunois was the primum mobile The Duke of Orleans was the first that spoke and being retired to Beaugency demanded an Assembly of the Estates They immediately carried the King thither He besieged him in the place and forced him to an accomodation wherein it was agreed that the Earl of Dunois should retire to Ast in Piedmont After that they got the King to March against the Duke of Bourbon who finding him on a sudden in the midst of his Country accepted of such conditions as they would impose Year of our Lord 1485 The Soldiers they had Levied for these ends fell most of them into Bretagne The Duke of Orleans having sent all his thither for the Dukes Service the Dame sent the Kings thither also in behalf of the Lords Landays prompted as we may believe by his wicked Genius pursued the utter Destruction of the Lords with all his might and would not recede in the least from the Sentence he had obtained that they should lose both their Castles and their Heads He had raised a great Army for this purpose who had Ordersto Besiege Ancenis a place belonging to the Mareschal de Riux The Lords had taken the Field to prevent it The Armies being in sight of each other some good minded People made the Chief Commanders of the Dukes Army so Sensible how heighnous it would be in them to spill the Heart Blood of their own Friends and Kindred for the sake of the most profligate wretch in the whole World that they embraced each other mutually and agreed to joyn their Supplications to the Duke that he would be pleased
in one of his Houses The Bishops were set at Liberty at two years end by the intercession of the Legat. At the same time the Earl of Angoulesme and the Lord de Ponts made Guyenne to rise where Odet-Daydie Brother of Odet Earl of Cominges held Saintes Fronsac la Reoule Dags and Bayonne and the Duke of Orleans Levied Forces in Bretagne The Towns in Guyenne surrendred at the first sight and naming of the King the Lord d'Albret had got some Men together to assist them but he durst not appear The King having made his entrance into Bourdeaux the Seventh of March returned to Poitiers Partenay capitulated as soon as they were Summon'd That done he divided his Army into four who fell upon Bretagne in as many several Quarters and himself in the mean time remained at Laval to see what progress they could make Year of our Lord 1487 Upon the arrival of these Forces three times more numerous then was agreed to by the Treaty the Duke withdrew into the Center of his Country During this astonishment of the People and the division amongst the Nobility they took from him Ploetmel Vannes and Dinan and then it was that the Lords too late perceived the error they had committed in bringing them into their Country After this they laid Siege to Nantes The Duke was in the place with all the Soldiers he had left him and had dispatched the Count de Dunois to the King of England to crave assistance This Count being twice or thrice forced back by tempestuous weather Armed the common People of the Lower Bretagne the number of them amounting to above Sixty Thousand Men and was so fortunate that with this confused multitude he terrified the French and put a Relief into the Town which afterwards valued not the Siege about six Weeks after they were wholly delivered from them The Lord d'Albret had likewise raised three or four Thousand men to aid the Breton whose eldest Daughter they had promised him But the Lords of the Royal Party block'd him up so closely in his Castle of Nontron upon the confines of Limosin that he was fain to capitulate and Disband his Forces The King conceiving he had absolutely gained him to his Service gave him a Company of an hundred Lances Year of our Lord 1487 During these Transactions Desquerdes by correspondence surprized the Cities of St. Omer and Terouenne and defeated the Forces of Philip de Cleves Ravestein whom they had drawn thither by a pretended bargain for the City of Bethune the Duke of Cleves and the Count de Nassaw fighting on Foot were taken Prisoners In the foregoing Month of March the Lord de Montigny Brother of Count Horn the bravest of his Captains thinking to take Guise by assault was wounded with a Pike in the Suburbs of which he Died in a few days Year of our Lord 1487 The City of Ghent had declared themselves Capital Enemies to Maximilian because he had taken his Son from them and removed him to Malines By their example Bruges and most of the Towns in Flanders rose up against him because he burthened them too frequently with his exactions Year of our Lord 1487 In the Month of July of this year 1487. Charlota Queen of Cyprus Widdow of Lewis of Savoy who was Son of Lewis and Brother of Ame IX Dukes of Savoy ended her miseries with her Life at Rome where she had subsisted twelve years on the Bounty of the Popes She was Daughter and Heiress of John II. King of Cyprus after whose Death her Husband and her self enjoy'd that Kingdom three years but his Bastard James drove them out thence with the help of Melec-Ella Sultan of Egypt to whom this Crown was Tributary All the endeavours they could use to regain it proved vain and unsuccessful Lewis Died the first in the year 1482. Charlota retired to Rome After her Death the right to that Crown fell to Charles II. Duke of Savoy her Cousin and so passed to all his descendants not only because she Adopted him and made him a Donation of her Kingdom but because he also was her next of Kindred and Heir being the Son of Anne of Cyprus Daughter of King Janus or John I. But Catharine Cornaro a Venetian Widdow of the Bastard who Died in the year 1473. had given and resigned that Kingdom by what Tittle I do not know to the Seigneury of Venice The Great Turk wrested it out of their possession in the year 1557. Year of our Lord 1488 The disorders were so great in Flanders that on the second of February Maximilian being at Bruges the Inhabitants ran to their Arms made him Prisoner and put divers of his Creatures to Death The Pope Excommunicated the mutineers but the Kings Attorney General stood up against it maintaining that the Flemmings had no other Soveraign but the King who owned them in what they had done Neither the threats nor Forces of the Emperor Frederic did avail for the delivery of his Son they had resolved to give him up to the King of France when they were just upon the point to do it this poor Princes Tears and the Solemn Oaths himself made to them and which were confirmed by several Lords that he would forget all their injuries did at last subdue the fury of the Brugois so that they set him at Liberty When he was out of their hands he retired into Germany to his Father and left the Government of his Son Philip and his Lands to Albert Duke of Saxony The Emperor Frederic desiring to render him more fit to take in second marriage one of the Daughters of Ferdinand and Isabella who had interceeded for his Liberty at Bruges dignified Austria with the Title of Arch-Dutchy which till then was a Stranger and unknown in the Western parts Year of our Lord 1488 Besides the Force of Arms they proceeded by way of Justice against the Princes that were Leagued with the Breton In the Month of February the King sitting in Parliament ordered a Summons for the Duke of Bretagne and the Duke of Orleans to appear at the Table to Marbre Which was sent by the Provost of Paris accompany'd with a Counsellor of that Court and the Prime Usher and all advantages of defaults were taken against them The Mareschal de Rieux and some Barons of Bretagne finding he went much farther then the terms of the Treaty did allow Petitioned him not to go on and profer'd to send the Duke of Orleans out of the Country together with all the French belonging to him who in effect shewed themselves willing to lay down their Arms and retire to their own dwellings provided they might be left in Peace The Dame thinking she was now above all danger imprudently replied that the King would have no Rival or Equal that he would not stop there but proceed to the end of his enterprize This discourse laying his intentions clearly open they took another resolution and reconciled themselves with their Duke who gave them an
after all he detained him and sent him into Spain to Ferdinand who indeed treated him with much more humanity then he could expect after so much Treachery Year of our Lord 1501 This War ended Rauestein went with the Fleet against the Turks King Ferdinand though he were entred into the League refused to send his Ships The want of good intelligence between the French and the Venetians turned this expedition to their great shame The French having Attaqu'd Metelin's Capital City in the Island of the same name lost a great number of their Brave Men there at their return a Tempest horribly shatter'd them and such as were forced into the Islands belonging to the Venetians found them a more faithless and ruder Enemy than the Turks Year of our Lord 1501 Above all things the King desired the Alliance of Maximilian that he might have from him the Investiture of the Dutchy of Milan About the end of September the Cardinal George d'Amboise who was called the Legate the Pope having given him that Commission in France went upon that Errand to wait upon him in the City of Trent with a stately Equipage his Train consisting at least of Eighteen Hundred Horse The Emperor demanded with great instance the freedome and release of the Sforza's he agreed to that of the Cardinal Ascagnia and had his word reciprocally for a prolongation of the Truce and the Investiture but which should be only for the Kings Daughters not for the Sons Year of our Lord 1501 He made this exception because he ardently desired to have the Kings Eldest Daughter and that Dutchy in Dowry for Charles his Grand Son The Arch-Dukes Ambassadors being come to the King at Lyons that Marriage was agreed upon the Tenth of August it was again confirmed by the Arch-Duke and Jane of Castille his Wife in the Month of November in their passage thorough France into Spain They were magnificently received at Paris the Arch-Duke took his Seat in Parliament in quality of Pair of France The King and Queen entertained them at Blois Fifteen days together and caused them to be conducted to the Frontiers with all imaginable honour even with the power of granting Pardon in every City they passed thorough Year of our Lord 1502 The limits for the division of the Kingdom of Naples had not been well express'd there soon arose a Debate for the Country called Capitanata of very great importance because of the Toll for Cattle which were brought thither to Graze in Winter the French would have it to be a part of Abbruzo the Spaniards of Puglia From words they proceeded to blows the Spaniards more haughty although the weaker began the brawl in several places The two Generals the Duke of Nemours and Gongales conferring together concluded a Cessation to bring the controversie to an amicable composure but the Spaniards soon broke it again by divers Acts of Hostility In so much as the King who was then at Ast sent to the Duke of Nemours a command to make down-right War upon them since they had already violated the Peace two several times He was gotten into Italy to endeavour and take care for the preservation of his Dutchy of Milan and the Florentins his Allies and suppress the horrible Tyrannies of Coesar Borgia called the Duke of Valentinois For as to the former Maximilian had broke the Truce the Swiss threatned him with an irruption into the Milanois unless they might have Bellinzzone setled upon them which was already in their hands and the Venetians did openly enough show their hatred against him And for the latter there was a League made betwixt the Vitellozzi the Vrsini John Paul Baillon and Pandolphus Petrucci to restore Peter de Medicis to the Signory of Florence as for Coesar Borgia he brought all the Petty Princes of Italy into dispair not sparing the King of France's Allies Year of our Lord 1502 From all parts there came complaints to the King of the violent proceeding and enormous Treacheries of that Man nevertheless being as politique as wicked he knew how to appease his anger by constraining Vitellozzi with grievous Menaces to Surrender up the Towns to the Florentins and by this means gained so great Credit and Interest at Court that the King believing him a very necessary instrument for his Affairs renewed the Alliance with Alexander VI. which drew the hatred of all Italy upon him and perhaps the Curse of God with ✚ whom it is impossible to be well whilst we joyn in Society with the wicked Whilst he was in Lombardy the Genoese invited him to honour their City with his Presence He made his entrance in great Pomp the Six and Twentieth of August and after he had tarried there Ten days returned into France The War in Naples and settlement of that Conquest which seemed almost perfected required him not to have left Italy so soon but he relied on the Truce which he thought was certainly consented to by Maximilian though indeed it was not concluded In a short time the Spaniards were driven almost out of all the places of Capitanata Puglia and Calabria and Goncales found himself shut up in Barletta without Provisions or Ammunition The War had been at an end if the Venetians had not speedily furnished him or if d'Aubigny had been believed he would have brought the whole Army to have forced him there but the Duke of Nemours divided them most unluckily into several bodies to besiege the other Towns and in the mean while Gonsales wisely timing his Affairs recovered himself Year of our Lord 1503 The Arch Duke with his Wife repassed thorow France conferred with the King at Lyons and treated an accommodation touching the business of Naples by which it was agreed that Charles the Son of Philip but one year old should be Married to Claude the Kings eldest Daughter which Queen Anne very passionately desired that for her Dowry she should have the Kingdom of Naples that in the mean time the Kings should enjoy their Divisions and that the Country which was in Debate should be Sequestred in the hands of the Arch-Duke The Ambassadors from Ferdinand his Father in Law whom he brought with him and Year of our Lord 1503 who were fully impowred Signed this Treaty and swore to it submitting themselves to Excommunication in case it were violated the Heraulds proclaimed it and the two Princes sent notice of it to their Generals The Duke of Nemours obey'd but Gonsales refused to submit to it unless he had an express Order from Ferdinand A reinforcement of two Thousand Germans which he had newly received from Maximilian the assurance he had that the Pope and the Venetians declined the Kings interest and the Information given him that four thousand French which were set on Shore at Genoa had disbanded by the failure of the Treasurers who believing the Peace was concluded had kept back their Pay raised his courage and he assured himself of being owned provided his success deserved it Till then the
Salusses Gonsales being encamped on a Moorish ground called otherwhile Palus Minturniae within a League of their Bridge put them to a full stop and made them pass their Winter in very cold and untenentable Lodgings The inconveniencies of the Season almost ruined their Army and the sharkings of the Commissaries to whom the ruin of Armies is profitable compleated it The best of their Officers died of Sickness and on the contrary the Enemies encreased their numbers by the additions of the Vrsini The Marquiss understanding they had passed the Gariglian to come and attack him he retreated to Cajeta Year of our Lord 1504 Gonsales besieged him immediately the Marquiss finding a Horrible Famine would sooner be with him then any relief made his capitulation the first Day of the year 1504. It imported that the Soldiers might go free away either by Sea or Land and that all Prisoners should be deliver'd up without Ransom Gonsales interpreting this in his own Sence and Mode excluded such as belonged to the Kingdom of Naples Lewis d'Ars would not be comprehended in this Treaty but retreated with Trumpets sounding and Colours flying quite through all Italy The cause of these Misfortunes was laid at the Doors of the Financiers John Heroet Intendant of the Finances was condemned to Banishment with so much the greater Justice as being in the King's Favour he nevertheless had a greater Love for Money which is the real and only true Soveraign of those people then for the Honour of so good a Master The three Armies which Lewis had sent against Spain put him only to expences without any Progress The Naval one scowred the Coast of Castille and Valentia then retired to Marseille and for the two Land ones that which was commanded by Alain d'Albret and the Mareschal de Gie only saluted the Walls of Fontarabia then disbanded thorough the Contests of the two Chiefs and perhaps out of the little affection the Lord d'Albret had for the King's Service by reason of the Differences formerly between them in Bretagne when they courted the Dutchess Anne such as remained went to joyn the third which besieged Salses These having batter'd the Place forty Days together King Ferdinand arrives with thirty thousand Men which made them raise their Siege After this there was a Truce between the two Kings as to their Countries of France and Spain by the mediation of Frederic Ferdinand made him believe that he was ready to restore the Kingdom to him if Lewis would consent and propounded to bestow his Sister in Marriage upon Alphonso she was Widdow of Ferdinand the Young King of Naples Year of our Lord 1504 The Kings discontent and trouble for so much ill success for the loss of his reputation and for his not being able to detect and unravel all these Spanish Fourbes and Intrigues were so great as cast him into a fit of Sickness which brought him to extremity The Queen believing him dead thought of retiring her self into Bretagne and sent away her Equipage The Mareschal de Gie having stopt it incurr'd her indignation she could never forgive this in him who was born her Subject and prosecuted him Criminally with that heat that the King was forced to send his Process to the Parliament of Toulouze as the most severe in the Kingdom where notwithstanding they could find no Colour to condemn him to any other Punishment but to be banished from Court The Spaniard using still the same Artisices had sent his Ambassadors into France together with those of the Arch-Duke his Son to Treat of a Peace But as they offer'd nothing that was satisfactory they were dismissed and the King made an Alliance with the Emperor and with the Arch-Duke By this Treaty they confirmed the Marriage of his eldest Daughter or of the Second in case the Elder died with Prince Charles which he caused to be signed by Francis de Valois his presumptive Successor to the Crown and other Princes of the Blood and Grandees of the Kingdom The Emperor gave him the investiture of the Dutchy of Milan for him and for his Children as well Males if he had any as his two Daughters provided he paid 120000 Florins payable in two Six Months a pair of Gold Spurs every Christmas-day and an assistance of five hundred Lances when the Emperor should go to take the Imperial Crown at Rome Year of our Lord 1504 About this time hapned the death of Frederic King of Naples who was now fully undeceived of the fraudulent hopes given him by Ferdinand and shortly after towards the end of the Year hapned that of Isabella Wife of Ferdinand a great and generous Princess and indeed the Spaniards lift her above all other Heroines Year of our Lord 1505 Her death changed the Interests of all Princes The Power of the Arch-Duke being augmented by the Kingdom of Castille and the Alliance of Henry King of England whose eldest Son Arthur had married his Sister Catharine began to create some fears in Lewis some confidence in Maximilian and some kind of jealousy in Ferdinand himself who perceived that his Son-in-law would not leave the Administration of Castille to him as Isabella had ordained by her Testament By these motives the King and he made Peace which they fastned with some Ties Ferdinand married Germain Daughter of John de Foix Vicount of Narbonne and of Mary the King's Sister who gave him his share of the Kingdom of Naples in Dowry upon condition it should all fall to her Husband if she died the first but should return to the King if she survived and brought no Children Year of our Lord 1505 Those banished from Naples and the Gentlemen of the Angevin Faction were restored to their own the Queen Widdow of Frederic went out of France and retired to Alphonso Duke of Ferara her Relation Year of our Lord 1506 This hindred not Philip from passing into Spain with his Wife The Castillans soon flocked to this Young Prince Handsome Liberal and who had married their Soveraign Ferdinand was forced to give way to him and to go out of Castille never to return so long as Philip lived Very happy yet that he left him the Indies and the Kingdom of Naples whither he made haste because Gonsales would have put it into the Hands of Philip finding he could not usurp it for himself as he could heartily have desired Year of our Lord 1506 The Great Lords of France and other most notable Persons having considered the Inconveniencies that would flow from the Marriage of the King 's Eldest Daughter with Charles of Austria assembled of their own proper mouvement as they said in the City of Tours where the King was and intreated him to give her to Francis Duke of Valois his presumptive Heir which he granted them forthwith and they contracted the two Parties the eight and twentieth day of May. A fresh Affront which Maximilian might add in his Red-Book where he wrote down all those Injuries the French had done him Like
make a Peace with the King Ferdinand and the Venetians having brought him a little to heart again he fell to practise his wonted Artifice which was to amuse the King with Propositions of an Accommodation and to engage the Queen to act who by Motives of Conscience Caresses Intrigues and Importunities often disarm'd him and made him relent With this his trouble in Mind occasioned by the death of his Nephew the misunderstanding which arose between the Cardinal Sanseverin who was Legate and la Palice who had the Title of General the little obedience the other French Captains yielded to this last and the ill-timed good Husbandry or sparingness of the Treasurer Pay-Master to the Army did not only render that Victory fruitless but occasioned the loss of the Dutchy of Milan For the Treasurer disbanded a considerable part of the Forces and la Palice left Sanseverin but six thousand Foot and a thousand Horse and led the rest into Milan There being encamped at Pontevica a Place proper to relieve Milan Cremona Bress and Bergamo four thousand Lansquenets which made up two thirds of his Infantry and had been raised in the Territories of the House of Austria were recalled by the Emperor Maximilian at that instant when the Swiss were entring into that Country In few Words the French reduced to two or three thousand Men did wholly abandon all Milanois Maximilian Sforza was restored to that Dutchy by the Year of our Lord 1512 Swiss who declared themselves Protectors of it The City of Genoa revolted and created a Duke which was Janus Fregosa Almost at the same time the King of England sent a Herauld to declare a War against the King and the Emperor who had so often protested never to seperate from him forsook him and knit a new Alliance with Julius Amidst this rout amongst the French the Council of Pisa who were retired to Milan made their escape to Lyons During the time they had been at Milan they held four or five Sessions in which the Fathers had Summond Julius to name some free Place for the Council and to meet there in Person to justifie himself had declared him suspended of the Papal Administration and forbid to pay him Obedience The Council of Latran much more numerous and better authorized thundred with more force especially after the Emperor had owned them In their third Session which was upon a Friday the sixteenth of November a Bull was read which condemned the Council of Pisa their Abettors and Adherents and confirmed the Excommunications and Degradations which Julius had fulminated against the Cardinals and Bishops who composed it As also their Letters Monitorie of the fourteenth of August whereby he put the Kingdom of France under interdiction excepting the Dutchy of Burgundy and tranferr'd the Faires from Lyons to Geneva In the Fourth which was the eleventh of December there was read a Decree which adjourned the King and the Prelates Chapters and Parliaments to appear before him within sixty Days and to shew their Reasons why Year of our Lord 1512 they would not have the Pragmatick Sanction abrogated The Lure which King Ferdinand had made use of to engage the Young King of England his Son-in-Law in a War against France was the Promise he had made him to assist him with all his Forces to conquer Guyenne Upon this assurance the English by the end of May landed a great Army near Fontarabia but Ferdinand had of a long time formed the design of conquering Navarre so that in stead of joyning with him he falls upon that unhappy Kingdom nothing concerned in the Quarrel and took occasion upon the apprehensions of their Army to invade it the more securely and easily Year of our Lord 1512 King John d'Albret had not dar'd to arm himself for fear of giving him that Pretence he desired to oppress him So that as soon as he appeared on the Frontiers he coward-like retired into Bearn and abandon'd the whole Kingdom to him excepting only some Fortresses When Ferdinand had usurped Navarre he sought out some Title to it that he might still hold it He could find no other but the right of War and a Bull of the Popes which left it as a Prey to the first Occupier because John said he Year of our Lord 1512 was an Abettor of the Council of Pisa and an Ally of the King of France Enemy to the Holy See But as to the right of War unless they mean the Force ✚ or Power of the Sword which gives no right but amongst the Barbarians Ferdinand had none at all since John had no way wronged him and was so far from taking Arms against him that on the contrary he proffer'd him free Passage thorow his Kingdom And as to the other Point that Bull so much alledged is no where to be found but could it be produced it could give no right to a Crown which is held only from God and if it could give any it was published say the Spaniards in the Month of July and the Invasion was made in June Which is to chop off a Man's Head and then pronounce his Sentence The Succors which the King sent to John his Ally being ill conducted did him no Service The Duke of Longueville Governor of Guyenne and Charles Duke of Bourbon who commanded them could not agree The King sent Francis Duke of Valois thither His Authority stifled their Discord he entred into Navarre in dispite of the Duke of Alva who was encamped at Saint John's de Pied de Port and laid Siege to Pampelonna but the want of Provisions and Inconveniences of the Season constrained him to De-Camp at the end of six Weeks Ferdinand having reaped what Fruit he could hope for by this War did willingly make a Truce with the King About these Times began the Reign of the Cherifs in Affrica by one Mahomet Benhemet who saying he was descended of the Blood of his Great Prophet and having Sanctified himself in the Opinion of the People by a tedious and long Solitude animated them with a furious Zeal to Make War upon the Christians and those Moors that had made Alliance with them and by the help and means of his two Sons conquer'd the Kingdoms of Fez of Morocco and of â—remissen Year of our Lord 1513 The wrath of Julius had no bounds he had framed a Decree in the Name of the Council to transfer the Kingdom of France and the Title of Most Christian to the King of England When he was just on the Point of publishing it the Heavens taking pitty of him and of all Christendom called him cut of the World the three and twentieth of February He died of a lingring slow Feaver contracted as they said thorow Grief for that he could not persuade or incline the Venetians to make an Agreement with the Emperor So violent were his Passions much fitter for a Turkish Sultan then the common Father of all Christians Year of our Lord 1513 The Cabal of Young Cardinals having observed
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 Kingdom of Arragon the ancient Laws thereof not allowing the Daughters nor any descended from them to come to the Crown durst not hinder him in this Enterprize and would even be obliged to let him have the Kingdom of Naples But he did not know that though Charles himself should have consented the Politicks of Italy could never suffer it what Affection soever they might seem to shew him In effect the Pope under-hand procured the English the Swisse and the Medicis to break his Measures The Emperor on his side being entred into Milanois with twenty thousand Swisse of the five Cantons ten thousand Germans and four or five thousand Horse amongst whom were the Cardinal of Sion and the banished Milaneses after the having refreshed and relieved Bress and Verona which were straightned by the Venetians and the French joyned together passed the River Addo in the beginning of the Spring ravaged all the Country between that River and those of the Po and Olli and gave so much Terror to the French that they were ready to abandon Milan and likewise fired the very Suburbs by the malicious advice of the Venetians who ever hated the Milanese rather then out of any real Necessity Year of our Lord 1516 Had he gone on directly perhaps they would have given ground his slowness gave the Constable time to provide himself so well that they startled not upon his approach But himself being informed of twelve thousand Swisse who were come to the Constable knowing the brutish Avarice of that Nation and that he had no Money to pay his own he on the sudden decamped and repassed the River Addo He remained there some Weeks giving still much dread to the French because their Swisse refused to Fight the Swisse that were in his Army and at length even retired but at three Weeks end most of his Troops moulder'd to nothing for want of Pay his Swisse returned by the Valtoline and three thousand of the Germans and Spaniards went over to the Constable It was not doubted but the Pope had been of intelligence with the Emperor for this irruption since Marc Anthony Colomna appeared in his Army Notwithstanding the King could not believe it so well was he persuaded of his Affection and faithfully observing the Treaty permitted him 〈◊〉 dispossess Francis Maria of the Dutchy of Vrbin to bestow it on 〈…〉 Medicis his Nephew although he had put himself into his Protection If the Grandeur of King Francis Young War-like and Rich◠were formidable to the Italians they beheld another Springing up now who astonished them much more I speak of Charles Heir to Spain Naples Sicilia and the Low-Countries and who being in a fair Way of succeeding to the Empire after his Grand-father could not fail when once he had attained to it of desiring to re-unite Italy to the other as being indeed the Head Now they found that to drive out those two great Powers who held it at both ends there was no way to do it That to keep the Ballance steady between them was to undertake an impossibility and besides it were to expose themselves to be the Theater and Prey to Forreign Arms and to cast themselves all on one side were to bring in an Absolute Master and slavery beyond all redemption That it might not look as if the Concordat made between the King and the Pope were a simple convention between two particulars the Council of Lateran having caused it to be read in their last Session which was the fifteenth of December confirmed it by their Authority but the Clergy of France the Universities the Parliaments and all understanding and good Men opposed it by their Complaints Remonstrances Protestations and Appeals to future Councils However at two Years end they were fain to submit to absolute Authority and Register the Concordat in Parliament Thus under Colour of taking away the Inconveniences of Elections which might well have been remedied they authorised others which are insinitely greater and can never have any Redress The Councel of Charles of Austria found it was necessary for his Affairs that he should renew the Alliance with King Francis thereby to have free Passage into Spain This was done by the Treaty of Noyon the sixteenth of August between the Lords Arthur de Goussier Boisy and William de Crovy Chovres who had been Governors of two Kings and the first Grand Maistre of the Royal House It was agreed amongst other Articles That Charles should marry Louisa the Kings Eldest Daughter or upon her default the second if another were born or if no other were born Renee the Queens Sister who for her Dowry should have that part the King pretended to the Kingdom of Naples with reversion in his Favor in case of want of Issue That Charles should pay an hundred thousand Crowns yearly for the maintenance of this Daughter That he should give up Navarre within six Months to Henry d'Albret If not that after the expiration of that term the King should be permitted to assist him That the Emperor should be admitted into this Treaty if he would come in That if he rendred Verona to the Venetians they should pay him two hundred thousand Crowns and that the King should give him an Acquittance for the three hundred thousand which King Lewis XII had lent him to make War upon them Year of our Lord 1517 Though the Emperor had again made an Attempt with Success enough by General Rocandolf to revictual Verona which the French and Venetians blocked up he dispaired nevertheless to keep it any long time because all the Avenues were shut For this reason he rather chose according to his covetous Humour to surrender it to Lautree who restored it to the Venetians for the Summ mentioned by the Treaty After this he wholly laid aside the Fancy of further Conquests in Italy and he moreover permitted the five Cantons who had refused the Confederation with France to accept of it as well as the other eight By all ways and means the King desired to gain the Pope for his Designs in Italy And for this reason he assisted him with his Forces against Francis Maria de la Rovere who made War upon him to regain his Dutchy for this Lord upon the hopes of Booty had drawn into his Service the Troops of either Party that had been disbanded after the giving up of Verona Moreover his Wife being deliver'd of her first Son the last day of February he would needs have Laurence de Medicis who was come into France to marry Margaret Daughter of Year of our Lord 1517 John Earl of Auvergne Boulogne and Laraguez hold it at the Font in the Name of the Pope his Uncle This Couple died both within the Year and yet left a Daughter named Catharine who afterwards was Queen of France The War of Vrbin lasted some eight Months the Spanish Troops having been regained by force of all-powerful Money by the Medicis Francis Maria was apprehensive left they would deliver him
and put himself under his Protection At his departure thence he was so rash as to send a Challenge of Desiance to the Emperor in the Diet at Wormes and afterwards Florenges his Son with three thousand Men besieged Vireton in Luxembourgh Immediately the King of England undertaking to be Mediator sends to Francis whom he took to be the chief Promoter of this Challenge to intreat him not to commence a War Francis takes his Advice and commands Florenges away from Vireton but the Emperor did not take this for satisfaction he would not have it said that a Man whose Ancestors had been Domestick Servants to the House of Burgundy should have braved him impunitively He raised a great Army the command whereof he gave to Henry Count of Nassaw who took four or five little Places from Robert and caused some Soldiers of the Garrisons to be hanged on the Battlements After this the Emperor being in some measure satisfied granted him a Truce of forty Days At the same time the Lord de Liques a Hennuyer seized upon the City of Saint Amand in Tournesis under pretence of some Dispute he had with Lewis Cardinal of Bourbon who was the Abbot He afterwards besieged Mortain which he said belonged to him The Captain who was in it gave it up upon Condition to have his Life and Goods spared but the Emperors Men ransacked the Garrison Then the Governor of Flanders laid siege to Tourney The King could interpret these Undertakings for no other then a Declaration of War however the Emperor would not own them as yet having the like Design upon many other Frontier Places which he intended to execute without mentioning a Word and besides he dreaded the King of England who would needs be Mediator and therefore wished both the one and the other to send their Deputies to him at Calais there to make known their difference giving them plainly to understand that he would declare himself an open Enemy to him that should refuse They were therefore obliged either of them being affraid to have him their Enemy to send Ambassadors to him Those from the King were James de Chabanes la Palisse Mareschal of France the Chancellor du Prat and John de Selve first President of Parliament who went to attend Henry at Calais At first those on behalf of the Emperor demanded no less then the Dutchy of Burgundy and that the King should acquit him of all Homage as well for that Country as for the Counties of Flanders and Artois because the subjection as Vassal said they did injury to the Imperial Majesty Year of our Lord 1521 During this Conference of Calais the Count de Nassaw with the Emperors Army passed the Meuse and besieged Mouzon The Soldiers that were in it frighted to see themselves exposed and laid open to a Battery that was on the Hill compell'd their Commanders to demand composition There were two of them who were so imprudent as to go both together to Nassaw to make it and by this over-sight they had no Terms but what were very disadvantagious The Chevalier Bayard behaved himself much more generously against the Attacks of the same General for he not only defended himself like a brave Soldier but made such a Division by counterfeit Letters between Nassaw and Sickingben who commanded that part of the Imperial Army on this side the Meuse that he made them raise their Siege It appears to me if I have rightly observed that in this Siege the Enemies made use of that sort of Artifice or Engines since called Bombes which are great Granados long or round loaden with Gun-Powder and shot out of a Morter-piece that they may fall in some certain place where they work a double Mischief both by the weight of their fall and the great violence of the Powder which is set on fire by a Fusee so disposed that in a Moment it causes the Bombe to burst after it's fall and breaks and tears all that is either above it nor neer hand about it In this Retreat Nassaw having fired all in his way putting Men Women and Children to the Sword especially in the City of Aubenton gave the first beginning to Burnings and Massacrings of Innocents The King having drawn his Forces together had his revenge for this Affront of the Emperors he regained Mouzon burnt and dismantled Bapaume reduced Landrecy and Bouchain Then with his whole Army passed the Scheld over a Bridge made for the purpose to seek out the Emperor who with his own was come to Valenciennes but he staid not for him retiring from thence under the favor of a very thick Fogg Year of our Lord 1521 Upon this occasion the King to content his Mother began to discontent the Constable Charles de Bourbon for he gave the command of the Van-Guard to the Duke of Alenson first Prince of the Blood and who had married his Sister but a Man of shallow understanding and uncertain Courage Which is more he slighted the good Advice he gave him to fall upon the Emperor's Army in their Retreat when no doubt he might have put them into great disorder In his whole life he never met again with so fair an opportunity though he sought it every where it seemed as if Fortune displeased that he would not lay hold of her Favor then had sworn to avoid and fly from him and never make him the like happy proffer again The Grave Tacite and Haughty Humor of Charles de Bourbon did not sute well with the King 's which was Pleasant Free and Open And withal Madame mortally offended that he disdained the Love she had for him push'd on her Resentments all the ways imaginable till in the end she had her revenge upon him at the expence of her Son and the whole Kingdom of France An old Tradition but which hath more the countenance of Falshood then of Truth says that this Princess desiring to marry the Constable had perswaded the King this Match would be greatly to his advantage for since he could have no Children by her the rich Succession of that House of Bourbon would by consequence revert to him according to some agreement or pact made with Lewis XI That the King was allured by this advantage and having one day spoken of his Mother to the Constable that Prince who had an Aversion to her made some reply that reflected on her Honor at which the King was so offended that he gave him a Box on the Ear. The Admiral Bonnivet having feigned a March towards Pampelonna turned short by Saint John de Luz and besieged Fontarabia which surrendred after the first Assault the eighteenth of October The Deputies from the King and the Emperor were still at Calais with the King of England labouring to adjust their Differences and take away all such stumbling Blocks as might occasion the like hereafter They were agreed upon every thing having covenanted that the Emperor should raise the Siege of Tournay and recal his Troops out of
forth with Bag and Baggage and all their Galleys and Vessels that were in Port. He made his entrance upon Christmass-Day Year of our Lord 1523 The Grand Master Peter de Villiers-l'Isle-Adam to whose conduct and Heroick Vertue the greatest Honour of this Generous defence was due setting Sail with his Knights and four thousand of the Inhabitants as well of that as of the Islands depending on it retired to Candia where he Winter'd From thence he went to Sicilia and three months after to Rome the Pope giving those Knights his City of Viterbo for their Retreat Six Years after in Anno 1530. they placed themselves in the Island of Malta The Emperor bestowed it upon them to cover his Kingdom of Silicia and they accepted it with the consent of all other Christian Princes in whose Territories their Order had any Lands or Possessions Year of our Lord 1523 The loss of Rhodes being partly occasioned by Pope Adrian's Fault it concerned him in Honour to repair it Therefore upon that consideration and to make his name glorious he employ'd all his cares to procure a Peace or at least a Truce betwixt all Christian Princes that so they might make War upon the Insidels with their united Force Francis would yield to nothing but a Truce and that a very short one this did not sute with the Popes designs So that not being able to overcome him by his Exhortations nor by the threats of the English nor upon the consideration that he made himself odious to all Christendom he would needs bring him to it by Force and thus of a Common Father he became a Partial and open Enemy Prompted with this Spirit he acted so powerfully with the Venetians that he broke them off from his Alliance and made a League with them the Emperor and the King of England to thrust him out of Italy The King had therefore all the great powers of Christendom against him nevertheless his passion to recover Milan did so over-rule his mind that he was resolved to go thither in Person at the Head of his best Men had not the Conspiracy of the Duke of Bourbon which he happended to discover kept him back And though this did strangely embarass him yet he sent Bonnivet thither with an Army For divers years past Madame had sought all opportunities of doing some displeasure to Charles de Bourbon and the Chancellor and Admiral employed themselves most willingly to gratifie both her passion and their own For Bonnivet Year of our Lord 1523 imagin'd if he could ruin him he should have the Connestables Sword and the other had a secret grudge against him for having denied his Family some Favour in Auvergne It did not satisfie Madame that she had deprived him of the Chief Functions of his Office and hindred his Marriage with Renee the Kings Sister she had process against him likewise in Parliament to strip him of the Dutchy of Bourbon and the other great Estate of Susanna his Wife who Died without Children in the year 1521. The Succession whereof as she pretended did belong to her as the next Heiress Indeed she was Daughter of Margaret and Philip who was Lord of Bresse and afterwards Duke of Savoy and that Margaret who was Daughter of Charles I. Duke of Bourbon and Sister to Peter who had the same Dutchy after John II. his Brother and was Father of this Susanna above mentioned As for Charles de Bourbon he was Son of Gilbert Earl of Montpensier who was Son of Lewis Uncle of Duke Peter and by consequence he was farther removed than she But besides that he made it appear by very ancient Titles by Solemn Judgments and Decrees and by many Examples that the Lordship of Bourbon was a Feif Masculin he shewed likewise how in his Contract of Marriage with Susanna he was acknowledged the right Heir of that House and as for the other Estate there was a mutual donation between him and his Wife by vertue whereof he enjoy'd it 'T is true that Susanna was then in minority and not authorized by the Judge but she was authorized sufficiently by the presence of King Lewis XII the Cardinal d'Amboise and four or five and twenty Princes Bishops and Eminent Lords He believed his cause would have been very good in any other times and against any other Party But as soon as they Commenced this process he imagin'd it was before resolved and concluded and that he must Infallibly be cast before Judges who were all Creatures of Madame's or of the Chancellor And this last Affront which reduced him to extream inconveniences blinded him so with rage and revenge that without any consideration of what he was and what he might come to be he casts himself into the Emperor's Arms having Treated with him by the assistance of the Lord de Beaurien Son of Adrian de Crovy Count de Rieux The King of England came into this Treaty It imported That all three were to share France betwixt them That Bourbon should have the Ancient Kingdom of Arles with the Title of King and as a Seal to this Alliance the Emperor should give him his Sister Eleonor who was the Widdow of Emanuel King of Portugal Bourbon had a particular pretension of his own Head to Provence because Year of our Lord 1523 Rene Duke of Lorrain had yielded up the right he had to Anne of France the Mother of Susanna and Anne by her Will and Testament had given it to him Now while the King was at St. Peter le Monstier on the Confines of Nivernois and Bourbonnois two Normand Gentlemen Matignon and d'Argouges Houshold-Servants belonging to the Connestable discovered all their Masters correspondence to him He would needs be satisfied from his own Mouth saw him in the City of Moulins and told him his whole mind The Connestable owned that he had been Sollicited by the Count de Rieux but stiffly denied that he had given any ear to it They would perhaps have laid hands on him if they durst But indeed the attempt would have been dangerous in the midst of his own Country for he was mightily beloved by the People and the Nobility and the King had but four thousand Foot with him and five hundred Horse so he only commanded him to follow the Court. The Connestable taking his Litter under pretence of some indisposition went easy Journeys At la Palice he had news that a Decree was made the of August which put his Estate under Sequestration thereupon he dispatches Huraut Bishop of Autun his Confident to the King to beseech him to stopt he execution of it and to assure him that this favour would bind him for ever to his Service but he was informed they had stopp'd the Bishop six Leagues from that place Then flying from the King's indignation he retired to his Castle of Chantelle where all his richest Goods were And there having intelligence that four thousand men were coming to besiege him he went forth by Torch-light When he had Rode a
taken four Pieces of Canon Then believing they were half routed he imprudently went out of his Camp where they durst never have set upon him and goes on to charge them Year of our Lord 1525 He fell upon them with so much Impetuosity that at the very first he broke in amongst their Horse and with his own hand slew Fernand Castriot Marquess of Saint Angelo but the Arquebusiers they had mixed with their Horse put his to a Stop Then comes Bourbon and Lanoy who rallied their own and gave a furious charge The Duke of Alenson who cover'd the Swisse with four hundred men at Arms betook himself to flight and retired to Lyons where some days after he died with grief and shame The Swisse lying open made but a poor Fight and then withdrew the Lansquenets or German Foot who were but three or four thousand Fought to the last moment and were all cut in pieces All the Storm fell then upon the King His Horse being kill'd under him he defended himself on Foot some time without being known But meeting and knowing Pomperan he surrendred himself to him The Baggage and Cannon were taken eight thousand of his men killed upon the place amongst others Lewis de la Trimouille the Mareschal de la Palice Francis Earl of Lambesc Brother to the Duke of Lorrain Aubigny Sanseverin and Bonnivet this last too late as it was said for the good of France and divers other Lords of Note Together with the King were taken the Mareschal de Lescun René Bastard of Savoy these two died of their Wounds Henry d'Albret King of Navarre Francis de Bourbon Earl of Saint Pol the Mareschal de Montmorency Florenges Brion Lorges Rochepot Montejam Montpesat Langey Curton and a great number besides Upon the noise of this event the Garrison that was in Milan forsook it immediately and all the Dutchy fell to the Imperialists The next day after the battle Lanoy fearing the Souldiers might Seize upon the Kings Person to secure their Pay conveyed him to the Castle of Pisqueton and Committed the Guard of him to Captain Alarcon One cannot well conceive the divers effects the news of this great event produced all over Europe It caused infinite joy in the Court of Spain jealousie in that of England an universal affliction to France together with a marvellous consternation which was not much less amongst the Italians who with all their great wisdom and politiques saw themselves exposed as a prey to the Conquerour The French besides the particular sorrow every one resented for the loss of some Kindred or dear Friend did likewise participate in the common Calamity and apprehended lest France having none to defend her now they had lost their King the Flower of their Nobility and best Souldiers should be Invaded by the Emperours Forces Bourbons and the King of Englands The Venetians very wise in Adversity did endeavour their utmost with the Pope to form a League against this Torrent They were of opinion to raise ten thousand Swisse immediately to joyn a good body of Horse with them to exhort the King of England for his own interest to come into a League with them and to inform and instruct Madame in all these points who would not fail to contribute her utmost Cares The Pope consented to all and had given order for a Courier to go into England but the Spaniards having gotten the wind of it gave him such great assurance he should have whatever conditions he desired of the Emperour that as he was very irresolute and besides feared to be put to expences and never knew how to time his business he recalled his Courier changed his mind and made a League with the Emperour The Treaty made he obliged the Duke of Albany whom till then he had amused in Tuscany to Disband all the Italian Troops he had and Ship all the French at Cornet Port to send them back to their own Country lending him some Galleys for that very purpose those the Regent had sent not being sufficient to Transport them The Emperor having received the News of Pavia with great Moderation in so much as he would not suffer them to make Bonfires saying there was greater reason to Mourn for such Victories over Christian Princes then rejoyce it gave some reason to hope that he would make the same use of the advantage he had over his Prisoner in moderation towards him And indeed when he propounded to his Council after what manner he should Treate him His Confessor pleaded that he ought to release him generously and without conditions because it would be a most Christian-like Act worthy of a great Emperour famous to all Posterity which would make the King really his inferior and become ever obliged to him and would tye him more Strictly then any Treaty they could make with him But Fredric Duke d'Alva and after him all the rest of the Council being of opinion Year of our Lord 1525 he was not to be set free till they had so weakned him that he should be hereafter unable to give them any further trouble and that the abatement of his Power would be the re-establishment of the ancient Empire over Europe the Emperour declared that he was of their mind He therefore sent the Lord de Beaurien into Italy to propose to the King who was yet in the Castle of Pisqueton the conditions he desired for his release That he should renounce to the Kingdom of Naples and the Dutchy of Milan That he should surrender up to him the Dutchy of Burgundy which was the Patrimony of his Ancestors That he should give Provence Dauâ—iné and Lyounois to the Duke of Bourbon to be joyned with his other Lands and make them an independant Kingdom That he should Satisfie the King of Englands demands To which Francis replyed That a perpetual Imprisonment would be less severe to him then those conditions That they were not in his Power because they shock'd the Fundamental Laws of France to which he was Subjected but that he offer'd to take in Marriage Eleonora the Emperours Sister to hold Burgundy in Dower and Hereditary for the Children that should be Born of that Marriage to restore the Duke of Burbon to all his Lands and to give him his Sister Margaret Widow of the Duke of Alenson to satisfie the English in Money to pay a Ransom such as King John had paid and to lend him a Land Army and a Fleet whenever he would go into Italy to receive the Imperial Crown If the Regent mother to the King was troubled with grief she was much more so with Fear She apprehended to lose the Regency which Paris and the Parliament very ill satisfied with her conduct would have put into the hands of Charles de Bourbon Duke of Vendosme But that Prince either out of discretion or fear which in this circumstance made it vertue and merit seeing his Family already too hateful in the Kings Eyes refused to take it upon him He went
so stored them that they had plenty sufficient to furnish that vast multitude and above Thirty Thousand Soldiers ☞ for a whole Year together Which demonstrates that Paris if not surprized is not so easily famished as some might Imagine In retribution the Parisians proffer'd him a store of Brass Guns and to maintain Ten Thousand Soldiers as long as the Enemies remained upon the Frontiers Never was there a more Melancholly Spectacle then the retreat of the Emperors Army miserably shatter'd without being able to come to any Battle The Roads from Aix even to Frejus were all strewed with Armes Horses Baggage dead Corps and men dying Montmorency was mightily blamed for not pursuing them Those that excuse him say that at that very juncture the King received news of the extream danger Peronne was in which obliged him to draw out a great part of his Forces to go and Succour them However Four or Five days after he had Information that the Enemies were returning into Flanders and the thing being taken into deliberation the second time the Emperor making some days stay at Frejus it was concluded to be the safer and more prudent method not to force the Lyon that was running off to turn head and make them feel the effects of desperation His retreat over the Alpes was difficult and Bloody the Daufins Light Horse harcelling him perpetually in his March He at length Arrived at Genoa the second of October and his Army passed thence into Milanois commanded by the Marquess du Guast Governor of those Countries who en passant put Garrisons into the rest of the places belonging to the Duke of Savoy Thus that unfortunate Prince saw his Estates shared betwixt his Enemy and his Friend having scarce any thing left for himself but the City and Castle of Nice where he made his residence After the Emperor had remained at Genoa about Fifteen dayes he went on Board his Galleys the Eighteenth of November and sailed towards Spain He was no more fortunate at Sea then he had been on Land a furious Tempest overtook his Fleet and sunk Six of his Galleys and a couple of great Ships the one carrying his Plate the other his Horses after all which without doubt he was fitter for Consolations then Panegyricks The fear they had conceived in Italy left he should Conquer France had as soon as he was gone armed several petty Princes and Lords whom the great States that durst not openly declare maintained and encouraged underhand The King gave them Guy Count de Rangon to be their General their place of Rendezvous was Mirandola They set ten thousand men on Foot with whom they attempted Genoa a Supply of Eight Hundred Arriving during the time of their Assault made the business miscarry As they were marching towards Ast the Spaniards raised the Siege of Turin and suffer'd them to take Carignian Raconis Carmagnola and most of the Marquisate of Salusses Year of our Lord 1537 On the other hand the Count de Saint Pol with Six Thousand Lansquenets whom the King drew out of his Army ruined the Country of Tarentaise and regained Chamberry which the Inhabitants of that Valley had surprized but Burie whom the King had made Governor beyond the Mountains in place of Brion was hemm'd in and taken with Twelve Hundred men by the Marquess du Guast in Casal which he had just surprized Humieres was sent to Command in his stead with a Re-inforcement of ten thousand Lansquenets of whom Christopher Duke of Wirtemberg was General Upon the noise that the Emperor was going to swallow up all France James King of Scotland remembring the ancient Alliances of his Nation and Predecessors took Shiping with Sixteen Thousand men to come to his Assistance without the least Intreaty The Wind beat him back three several times to his own Coasts At length he got with some Vessels to Diepe from whence he rode post to the King but met him on this side Lyons upon his return In acknowledgment of this so kind and nobly free assistance the King could not refuse him Magdelin his Eldest Daughter though that Prince had before betroathed a Daughter of the Duke of Vendosmes The Nuptials were celebrated at Paris the first day of the Year 1537. but she Died of a Hectick Feaver within the same year and James Married Mary Daughter of Claude Duke of Guife and Widow of Lewis Duke of Longueville The King of England did not much like this double lincking himself to France by two such Matches which was one of the main causes that made him fall off from King Francis and close again with the Emperor the more easily for that Catherine of Arragon his repudiated Wife was dead and he had caused Anne Bullen to be Beheaded on the Green within the Tower for Adultery whether true or supposed Perhaps too he would have made him feel the Resentments of his Anger at that very time had he not been involved in troubles at home for some Nobles and some English Prelates prompted with Zeal to prevent a Schisme and withal apprehending some danger to their own Persons after the example of his Chancellour Sir Thomas Moor and John Fisher Bishop of Rochester whose Heads he had unjustly brought to the block had made a Holy League and taken up Arms against him And although he had dispersed their Forces or sent them home again by granting them conditions of advantage nevertheless he feared they might break out afresh and therefore was contriving underhand to surprise their Chiefs who had just cause to repent as it most frequently happens upon the like occasions to men who dare not rather resolve to die with their Sword in hand There was so little Rain and such great heats during the whole Spring and Summer of the Year 1536. that it begot a prodigious drowth most of the Wells and Springs were dried up the Marshes and Ponds quite parched and the waters of most great Rivers grown so shallow and weak as scarce able to drag along their Languishing Streams being generally foordable in all places and in many passable dry-foot The Kings Councel thought it necessary to do something that might pull down the Emperors Vanity and withal shew the Injustice and the Nullity of the Treaties of Madrid and Cambray To this purpose the King sitting in his Seat of Justice in Parliament the Nineteenth of January attended by the Princes and Pairs after his having heard James Capel Attorney-General who made it appear that the Provinces belonging to the Crown were Inalienable that he could not give away the Soveraignty of Flanders and Artois and that Charles of Austria they gave him only that Name being still a Vassal to the King for those Counties and for Charlois had committed the Crime of Felony It was Ordained That he should be Summoned by a single Edict peremptory and once for all at the nearest place of safe access to answer the Attorney General upon his Conclusions of the Forfeit Reversion and Re-union of those
three Counties and in the mean time the King declared all the Vassals in those Countries acquit and discharged from their Oathes to him from all Faith and Homage and enjoyned them to serve the King upon the Penalty of Forfeiture of their Fiefs and to be Proclaimed Rebels whereof publication to be made upon the Frontiers The Heraulds went therefore to Summon Charles by posting up Papers and making Proclamation He replied fuming with rage that since they recalled him into France he would return thither with such powerful Justifications as would Year of our Lord 1537 make the Treaties to be duely observed and in the mean while for Comparition Adrian de Crouy Count de Roeux having drawn together the Commons of the Low-Countries came and ransacked the Frontiers of Picardy This proceeding of the Kings was variously spoken of but none could approve of the Alliance he made with Solyman the Enemy of Christendom as well to defend himself against the Emperor as in hatred to the Venetians with whom he was extreamly offended for having despised his Amity and the offer he made to share Milanois with them One might nevertheless in some Measure excuse this League of a Christian King with an Infidel not only by the example of the Kings of Spain Grand-Fathers of this Emperor who had contracted the like with Mahometan Kings but even by that of the Emperor himself who had endeavour'd earnestly to do the same with Solyman so that he was no less guilty in that particular but less prevalent or skilful or less fortunate then Francis The Kings attempts did not answer this grand Arrest or Decree of his Parliament He took only Hesdin and Saint Paul and having spent his first Fire returned in the beginning of May to Paris leaving his Army with the Count de Saint Paul and order to Fortifie the City of the same name where they put three Thousand Men in Garrison So soon as he was retired the Enemies being Assembled forced that City and received that of Monstreuil upon Composition but they could gain nothing at Terouenne the Dauphin and Montmorency having got their Troops together timely enough to Relieve it as they did During this Siege a Conference was held at the Village of Bommy at the solicitation of the two Queens Eleonora of France and Mary of Hungary where the Deputies agreed upon a Cessation of all hostilities for three Months in the Low-Countries that they might endeavour to bring about a Peace Some believed the King accepted of it to Transport all his Forces into Italy pursuant to the Treaty made with the Turks who at the same time were to fall upon the Kingdom of Naples In effect the Emperor Solyman did himself lead an Army of One Hundred Thousand Men into Albania from whence he sent Lusti-Bacha and Barbarossa to Cruise upon those Coasts and discover the Country resolved to follow them as soon as they had gained any Port but when he found that the King was making War in Flanders he returned with great Indignation that he should break his word with him As for Barbarossa having no certain News of the King he was fallen upon the Island of Corfu belonging to the Venetians where finding the Places too well provided he ruined the open Country and carried Sixteen Thousand Souls into Captivity The same Summer King Ferdinand received two great Foiles by the Turks the one at Belgrade in Hungary the other before a City in Dalmatia where his two Armies besieging those two places were shamefully defeated In the Interim it hapned in Piedmont as well by the little esteem the Soldiers had of Humieres as the particular quarrels amongst the other Officers and the Mutinies of the Lansquenets the French Forces were dissipated Humieres was retired into Pignerol to wait for Supplies from France and had quitted the Field to Du Guast who had retaken several Towns and almost the whole Country of Salusses The Marquess whom we told you had so unworthily forsaken the French Party was kill'd with a Cannon Bullet at the Siege of Carmagnoles His death so enflamed the fury of the Soldiers that they forced the Place and Du Guast to revenge his death hanged the Captain The Love of Liberty could not be so soon effaced out of the hearts of the Florentines One that was of Kin to the new Duke Alexander named Laurence de Medicis slew him in his own Chamber whither he had allured him with the hopes of meeting a certain Lady for whom he had a great passion but flying as soon as the blow was given the Cardinal Innocent Cibo Son of a Sister to Leo X. who was then at Florence and Alexander Vitelli Captain of the City Guards set up a young man of the House of the Medicis in the place of Alexander where he maintain'd himself in spite of Strossy and other Zealots for their Liberties His name was Cosmo and descended of one Laurent Brother of the Grand Cosmo To gain the People he promised them at first that he would have from the City but Twelve Thousand Crowns for his Maintenance but when he was well establisht he raised it to Twelve Hundred Thousand As for Laurence de Medicis after he had wandred in divers places because Cosmo had Year of our Lord 1537 set a price upon his head he was at last stabbed at Venice by two Assasins Christierne III. King of Denmark introduced Lutheranisme into his Kingdom and turned out the Bishops but kept the Canons that he might have the bestowing of Prebends He did the same in Norway which he had Conquer'd Some years before King Gustavus Erecson had made a like change in Sweden The King being informed that his Affairs went on very ill in those Countries that du Guast besieged Humieres in Pignerol and that before the years end he would drive the French quite out of Piedmont resolved to prevent it and in some measure satisfie Solyman to go thither in Person At Lyons being fallen sick of a slight Feaver he gave order to the Daufin and to the Mareschal de Montmorency to march before-hand with the Army At first coming they forced the Pass of Sufa guarded by ten thousand men a famous exploit in War drove Du Guast to Quiers and got several advantages which drew the King himself thither with great hopes of recovering Milanois His Army was found to be above Forty Thousand Men the French were in good Heart the Enemy affrighted and their Places ill provided but it was the end of October he apprehended the inconveniences of the Season the length of some Siege the Irruption of the Flemmings and the uncertainty of accidents so fatally experimented before Pavia So that making a specious pretence of the having given his word to the Queen of Hungary that he would not do any thing that should obstruct the Peace he upon the mediation of the Pope and the Venetians granted a Truce of three Months for those Countries beyond the Mountains and prolonged that with the Low-Countries
for the like time This was Proclaimed at Carmagnoles he present the Eight and Twentieth of November Both Princes got by it to the loss of the unfortunate Duke of Savoy because either of them remained in Possession of what they were seized on The King made Montejan his Lieutenant-General in that Country and William du Bellay Governor at Turin Year of our Lord 1538 When he was come back into France he honoured Montmorency who was a Mareschal and Grand-Maistre with the Constables Sword the Tenth of February He also raised Annebaut and Montejan to the Offices of Mareschals of France which were vacant the one by the promotion of Montmorency to that of Constable the other by the death of the Mareschal de Florenges who ended his days soon after the Siege of Saint Quentin These Offices were limited to the number of four only which the Kingdom encreasing have likewise been encreased to three or four times as many The same year the Chancellor Anne du Bourg lost his life by a strange accident Being with the King who made his Entrance into Laon there was so great a croud of Horses that he was thrust off from his Mule and trod under foot whereof he died His Office was given to Charles Poyet Son of an Advocate of Angiers and then a President in Parliament There was a second Conference at Locate to Treat of a final Peace The Deputies could agree to nothing but a prolongation of the Truce for six Months but the Pope who ardently desired to reconcile the two Princes fearing left their Division should hinder the effects of a great League which he the Emperor and the Venetians had concluded at the beginning of the Year against the Turks dispatched two Legates to them and sollicited them so earnestly that both of them resolved to meet at Nice and to accept of those Offices of Mediation which he proferr'd He came the first thither about the end of May the Emperor almost at the same time to the Port of Villa-Franca and Francis with the Queen his Wife to Villa-Nuova some days after The Duke found himself mightily perplex'd the Pope desired to Lodge in the Castle and that the Garrison might be drawn out the Emperor would have had it so but the King advised the Duke underhand to beware of it for that he would else disoblige him He followed the Kings Counsel and went to visit him the third day of the Month the Emperor took some jealousie upon it and yet for fear of loosing him Treated him the better in all appearance The Pope therefore Lodged in the Town the Emperor held Conference with him in a Tent under the Castle the King saluted him apart but the Princes saw not each other Was it that the Pope desiring to treat under Hatches the Year of our Lord 1538 Marriage of his Nephew Octavian Farnese with Margaret the Emperors Bastard and that of his Niece Victoria with Anthony Eldest Son of Charles Duke of Vendosme kept them thus assunder fearing lest the one should discover what he was negotiating with the other or else perhaps it was that the Emperor apprehending if he saw the King he must be obliged to promise him in express words the Dutchy of Milan and the Pope knowing it might possibly let the King understand it was only to amuse him What ever it were this Conference produced nothing but a prolongation of the Truce for Nine years but the Emperor promised the King to see him at Aigues-Mortes in Languedoc before he returned to Spain It was Queen Eleonora who procured this Enter-view The Emperor came and Dined in the Kings-House the next day the King went to Visit the Emperor in his Galley where he was entertained in like manner The subject of their entertainment was not known but they were observed to embrace so closely and shew such Signes of Amity for two dayes they were together that the most sharp-sighted were deceived and imagined it was in good earnest Three Months after the King was grievously Tormented with a troublesome Ulcer which hapned in that part the Physicians name the Sutura or Seame between the Testicles This they said was the effect of some ill adventure he had with the beautiful Ferronniere one of his Mistresses This Womans Husband enrag'd at that abuse which the Courtiers reckon only a piece of Gallantry contrives to go to some leud place and Infect himself that he might spoil her and Convey his revenge thus to his Rival The unhappy Woman died the Husband recover'd by timely Remedies the King had all the bad Symptomes and his Physicians treating him rather according to his Quality then his Distemper he had some Relicks remaining upon him all his Life the Malignity whereof did much discompose the sweetness of his disposition and made him Melancholy suspicious and hard to be pleased but to say truth more exact sparing and sticking closer to his business Year of our Lord 1539 The remainder of this Year he made several excellent Edicts amongst others That the Curates should keep a Register of all Christnings and that hereafter all Decrees and other Acts of Justice should be no more drawn up in Latine but in French If the Emperor continued to heap his marks of Affection on the King it was but to hinder him from embracing the Protection of the Ghentois They were revolted because of some new Imposts which Queen Mary Governess of the Low-Countries had laid upon them particularly upon Wines and had Massacred some of her Officers after which expecting no pardon they went on to that Degree that this Year they sent Deputies to the King to Intreat he would receive them as their Soveraign Lord and they promised provided only that he would own them to hazard Fifty Thousand Men in Battle against the Emperor But this same King that had with so great formality newly confiscated Flanders and Artois not only accepted not of their submission for fear of violating the Truce but also by an excess of generosity gave the Emperor notice of it The Rebellion growing in strength day by day it was to be apprehended that all Flanders would follow the example of Ghent and that the King of England might accept what the French had refused Nothing but the presence of the Emperor was capable of allaying this furious heat but the danger was too eminent to pass thorough Germany where it would have been in the power of the Protestant Princes to have stopp'd him and it was no less to have gone by Sea He intreated the King therefore to allow him passage thorow France and to obtain it he began to Lure him with the Dutchy of Milan In the Council every one was for granting him passage but not without having a writing under his hand and good Securities The Constable de Montmorency by what motive it is not known was not of that opinion and argued that he ought not to be setter'd by any Conditions This Sentiment appearing full of generosity highly pleased the
King who was the most generous Prince in the World and it was followed The two Sons of France and the Constable went as far as Bayonne to meet the Emperor and offer'd to go into Spain as Hostages which he refused The King himself though indisposed went to Chastelleraud where they embraced caused him to be received in every City with the same honour and suffer'd him to exercise the same Authority as himself For he held the Chapter of his Order Year of our Lord 1539 upon Saint Andrews day at Bourdeaux he granted Pardons and emptied the Prisons in many places Year of our Lord 1540 He made his entrance into Paris the first day of January the Parliament went in a Body to compliment him the Sheriffs bare the Canopy of State over his head the two Sons of France being on either side the Constable marched before with his Sword drawn in his hand he released all Prisoners and the City presented him with a Silver Figure of Hercules as bigg as the Life At his leaving of Paris the King accompanied him to Saint Quintin and his two Sons to Valenciennes He promised to go and visit him in Flanders and moreover granted him free passage for a Thousand of his Italian Forces which he ordered to come into Flanders and furnish'd them with Provisions The City of Ghent unfortunately abandoned by the King their Soveraign Lord to the wrath of Charles was so severely Chastised that she had reason to repent the having given him birth His Army being entred as it had been by Assault he caused Five and Twenty or Thirty of the Principal Burghers to be Executed proscribed a far greater number Confiscated all their publick Buildings took away their Artillery their Arms and their Priviledges Condemned them to above Twelve Hundred Thousand Crowns Fine and that they might never rise again built a Citadel and left a strong Garrison to awe them which of the greatest City in Europe hath made a vast Solitude or Wilderness Hitherto the Emperor had amused the King so that out of the highest complaisance he remained upon the Frontiers of Picardy whil'st he oppressed the Ghentois but when he had nothing more to fear he began to faulter and apply Conditions and Restrictions to his promise The King finding he objected some difficulties on behalf of the Princes of Italy because in effect they desired a Duke of Milan of their own Nation consented he should keep that Dutchy provided he would give the Low-Countries and the Counties of Burgundy and Charolois in Dower to his Daughter who should Marry the Duke of Orleans The Emperor demanded that before any thing else were done he should restore the Duke of Savoy to all his Lands that he should declare himself a Friend to his Friends and Enemy to his Enemies Then the King finding himself deceived entred into so great suspicion of the sidelity of all those that governed him that he resolved to get out of their Nets and Snares and then some who observed him to be of this humour failed not to give him a secret account of and advice against their proceedings The first that Sufferd by it was the Admiral de Brion Three men had at that time engrossed all the Kings favour the Constable the Cardinal de Lorraine and Brion The first was so Powerful that all addressed themselves to him Governours Ambassadors Cities the Parliament it self who called him Monseigneur i. e. My Lord. The second was beloved by the King for his generosity and for the credit he had at Rome he was the only man in France who treated the Constable from high to low and as a great Prince treats a Gentleman The third had rendred himself very agreeable and moreover was favoured by the Ladies particularly by the Dutchess d'Estampes who put him in a way to have got the Start of both the other in a short time These though they hated one another yet both united to set him beside the Cushion and contrived a secret Accusation against him for having ill managed the Kings Affairs in Piedmont He instead of justifying himself by humble and submissive Language spake arrogantly to the King and said his Innocency feared no examinations or Scrutiny He therefore sent him Prisoner to the Bois de Vincennes and appointed four and twenty Commissaries chosen out of several Parliaments to make his process they set about it at Melan the Court being at Fountainbleau The Chancellour Poyet was pleas'd and hugg'd himself at it and would needs preside out of an interessed complaisance He chose rather to do mischief then not make himself a necessary instrument So that he behaved himself more like a party then his Judge every foot interposing Orders and even threats from the King to biass and bring the proceedings to what he aimed at So that Brion though he were not found guilty but of some small Exactions upon the Fishermens Boats was degraded of his Offices and declared unworthy to hold any for the future condemned to pay a fine of seventy thousand Crowns and shut up in the Bastille Year of our Lord 1540 Some months after the intercession of Anne de Pisselieu Dutchess d'Estampes his near Kinswoman obtained an Order from the King that his Process should be reviewed by the Parliament of Paris Who by a Decree of the fourteenth of March 1542. declared him absolv'd of the crimes de peculat or purloining the Kings Treasure and exaction by consequence quit of his Fine or Amercement But as his courage was haughty the affront received stung him so deep that he was never well afterward but dyed of grief in the year 1543. Annebaut had his Office of Admiral The following year Poyet had his turn John de Bary la Renaudie a Gentleman of Perigord had a great process against du Tillet a Clerk of the Parliament the Year of our Lord 1541 business had been before several Parliaments this time la Renaudie demanded an Order of Evocation to remove it to another Court the Dutchess d'Estampes pressed the Chancellour to Seal it and interposed the Kings Authority but whether he thought it not just or otherwise he refused it The King took it very ill he had not obey'd his Orders and the Dutchess Animated him so highly and raised so many complaints against him on all hands that he sent him Prisoner to the Bastille the second day of August and Ordered that they should make process against him For this purpose there were taken out of divers Parliaments a certain number of Judges whom himself approved of The proceedings very long and often Interrupted lasted till the year 1545. when by Sentence of the three and twentieth of April he was deprived of the Office of Chancellour declared disabled of holding any Office Royal condemned to pay a hundred thousand Livers Fine and to be confin'd five whole years in such place as it should please the King The Judgment was pronounced in the Audience of the Grand-Chamber the Doors being set
open he present and bare-headed This done he was shut up in the great Tower of Bourges from whence he could not get out till he had given up almost all he had for his Fine At last he dyed in the City of Paris oppressed with poverty Ignominy and old Age So unhappy that even in this his Lamentable condition he was not pittied When he was Imprisoned the King gave the Seals to Francis de Montolon President in parliament a Person of rare probity a vertue hereditary in his Family The Constables favour did not last long after the loss of Poyer the King forbid him the Court in the year 1542. and would never recal him so long as he lived In the time of this his retirement he built the castle of Esc ouan Common same attributes the cause of his disgrace to the Council he gave for the Emperours passing through France which proved not so much to the Kings advantage as was imagined Perhaps the Cardinal of Lorrain and the rest of his Enemies made use of that reproach to give his Master an ill opinion of him Or perhaps the King conceived some jealousie at his sticking so close to the Dausin who by embracing the interests of that young Prince opposed the raising of the Duke of Orleans and by secret Combinations hindred the Emperour from giving him his Daughter with the Dutchy of Milan which he could not do without holding Correspondence with Strangers and indeed it was said that he in Clandestine manner Suffered the Courtiers of that Prince to travel thorough France Whatever it were the King began to think it dangerous to have men of too great parts in the Administration of Affairs and therefore committed them to the Cardinal de Turnon and the Admiral Annebaut Persons of no Extraordinary Genius or Sagacity but of affections less Interested and wholly devoted to him Year of our Lord 1540. and 41. Whilst the Emperor was at Ghent Martin Duke of Cleve came to demand the investiture of the Dutchy of Guelders You must know that Charles last Duke of Guelders dyed Anno 1537. and William Duke of Cleve and Antony of Lorraine as kindred of the Defunct had pretensions to that Dutchy The Lorrainer was the nearest being the Son of a Daughter of that House notwithstanding the Estates of the Countries called in William to be their Mainburgh he survived but one year and Martin his Son took the Administration Now the Emperour who desired to joyn this piece to the Low-Countries having denyed him the investiture he came into France and put himself under the Kings protection who made him Marry Jane Daughter of Henry d'Albret King of Navarre Year of our Lord 1541 The Nuptials were celebrated the year following at Chastelleraud with such Profusion as cost the poor People dear by encreasing the Gabelle and therefore was called the Salted Nuptials But the Bride being but eleven years of Age the Marriage was not consummated and the Fathers and Mothers never having consented caused it to be dissolved The years 1540. and 1541. were spent almost in nothing but intrigues and Negociations After the truce of Nice the King of England bestirr'd himself mightily he feared lest by the mediation of the Pope the two Kings should agree together to fall upon him He might the Justlier apprehend it because his cruelty had drawn the hatred of most of his own Subjects upon him For he had Invaded and broken open the Monasteries even those of the Nuns which much incensed their Parents who were forced to maintain them he had taken away all Abbey-Lands Abolished the order of Malta and caused the Memory of St. Thomas of Canterbury to be Condemned and his Sacred Bones and Reliques to be Burnt Having therefore reason to fear he courted the Emperor and the King divers ways He offered the first to Marry his Niece Widow of Sforza Duke of Milan to the other he propounded to assist him in the recovery of that Dutchy and promised to declare whenever he should desire it Another while he proffered the Emperor to give his Eldest Daughter she was named Mary to the Brother of the King of Portugal but he would not Marry her as Legitimate for would he have bestowed her as such the King would willingly have taken her for his second Son As for the Emperor he employed all his intrigues to three ends the one was to recover the good Will of the Protestant Princes another to make the Turk believe there was a good and perfect Correspondence between him the King of France and the King of England and the third to amuse the King with new offers he made to give the Low-Countries under the Title of the Kingdom of Belgica to Charles Duke of Orleans whom he called his God-Son The King gave no Faith to this Proposition and replyed that he did not demand his Hereditary Countries but should be contented to have his own again But Solyman was so allarmed at this pretended Union of the three Kings that he flew out against Francis called him Ingrateful and Fickle-pated and had like to put Rincon his Ambassador to death If the Emperor had his hands full of business with the Protestants of Germany his Brother Ferdinand had yet a harder task with the Turks in Hungary John Earl of Sepus had agreed with Ferdinand Auno 1536. upon condition that the part he then was possessed of in the Kingdom should be his during Life with the Title of King and that after his death it should be re-united to the other but contrary to his word he Married with Jane Daughter of Sigismond King of Poland and had a Son by her when he died After his Decease which hap'ned in the year 1540. Ferdinand would Seize upon that part the Widow to maintain her Son had recourse to the Turk thus broke out that Flame of War again which compleated the ruin of Hungary For in the year 1541. Roquandolf General for Ferdinand lost a great Battle near Buda against the Bashaw Mahomet Then Solyman himself coming with a dreadful Army Seized Treacherously upon the Widow and the Orphan and the City of Buda which they held Year of our Lord 1541 It was believed that if the Emperor had immediately joyned his Forces with his Brothers he might have saved Hungary but he was labouring an Accommodation with the Protestants to whom after several Conferences he granted a second Interim and Reciprocally having given them very ill Impressions of King Francis he obtained all he desired from them For the Diet promised him great Supplies against the Turks declared the Duke of Cleve an Enemy to the Empire engaged to contribute to the Restauration of the Duke of Savoy and forbid all Subjects belonging to the Empire from Listing themselves in the Kings Service With all this instead of Marching towards Hungary to make head against Solyman he carries the War into Africa against the Pirat Barbarossa which many interpreted a flight rather then an attaque He Landed and laid Siege to
Duke of Savoy to all his Lands but that he should retain the Towns so long as the Emperor did hold Milan and Cremona That what had been taken Year of our Lord 1545 in those Countries since the truce of Nice the Emperor had taken but one place and the King above twenty should be resigned by either party as likewise all those which had been taken in France and in the Low-Countries This Place being more Advantageous to the Duke of Orleans then to France the Daufin who could not Suffer either the Aggraâ—dising of his Brother nor the damage of the Kingdom made Protestations against it in the Castle of Fontainebleau in presence of the Duke of Vandosme the Count d'Enghien his Brother and Francis Earl of Aumale the second day of December The Kings People of the Parliament of Toulouze did so likewise as to what concerned the Rights of the Crown and the Translation of the Subjects to another Prince That which hastned the King to conclude this Treaty was not alone the instigation of the Duke of Orleans but likewise the unwelcom news he received of Boulognes Capitulating and the extreme danger Monstreuil was in The Mareschal de Biez defended the last most Stoutly though it were nothing worth but his Son-in-Law James de Coucy Vervin a young Fellow easie to be scared as having no experience Surrendred Boulogne most unworthily before it was in danger and when the Daufin was within two days March of the Place to Relieve it Nor did he forgive him for it having ever a strong conceit that he had given it up to favour the Duke of Orleans Monstreuil was saved because the Peace being concluded at Crespy the Count de Bures and de Roeux who were joyned with the Duke of Norfolk had very express Orders to retire The Daufin who had used great diligence to come to the relief of Boulogne finding it Surrendred made an attempt in the Night upon the Basse Ville which was enclosed only with a Ditch without any Wall and yet nevertheless where the English had put their Cannon and Equipage He gained it very â—asily But for want of good Order his men falling upon the Baggage the English came down from the upper Town and though much inferior in Numbers beat and drove them out but not all for there were four or five hundred remained dead upon the place This project failing the Mareschal de Biâ—z had orders to raise a Fort upon the point of Land which lies right over against the Old Tower to hinder the entrance into the Harbour but they having no Water there and it being impossible the Souldiers could abide in it by reason it lay exposed to all Wind and Weather they built another that faced the Basse-Ville or lower Town in a place called Outreaâ— but made it so small that after three Months labour they were fain to fill up the Trenches to enlarge it Year of our Lord 1545 The Affairs of Scotland being Embroiled by the King of England who whatever it cost him would have the Heiress for his Son the King took a care to assist the young one and the Queen her Mother The Earl of Lenox in the year 1543. carried some Forces thither which he sent But that Spark having gamed away the Money which was for Payment of their first Muster went over to the King of England's Service who bestowed his Neece upon him In his room were sent the Lord de la Brosse a Gentleman of Bourbon then Lorges Earl of Montgomery Captain of the Scotch Guards with some Soldiers Some Vandoâ—s were still remaining in the Valleys of the Alpes between Daufiné and Savoy There were of them in the two Burroughs of Merindol and Cabrieres the first being part of the County of Venisse the other in the Territories belonging to the King Since Luther's starting up they began to Preach publickly About the year 1536. the Parliament of Provence whereof Anthony Chassane was then Premier President had made a Decree for the punishing them This had been put by several times but this year 1545. John Menier d'Oppede who succeeded Chassanâ— that dyed suddenly being moved either out of Zeal or because one of his Tenants went away to Cabrieres without paying his Rent undertook to Execute it He raised Forces and joyning them with such as the Vice-Legat of Avignon was pleased to furnish him withal went to Exterminate those miserable creatures and made a general Massacre of all of them without distinction of Age or Sex excepting only such as made their Escape to the Rocks The preceding year Anthony Duke of Lorraine had left this World this year Duke Francis his Son followed him leaving a Son named Charles aged but two years Anthony was fain to use great skill to preserve and poyse himself between the King and the Emperor He Married one of his Daughters to Rene de Chaalons Prince of Orange and Francis his eldest Son to Christina Daughter of Christierne II. King Year of our Lord 1545 of Denmark and Dorothy Sister to the Emperor The King had conceived great jealousies upon it Nevertheless his conduct was so prudent and his proceedings seemed so cordial in his Laborious undertakings to procure a Peace between him and the Emperor that at length he was fully satisfied in him The Council was earnestly demanded for by the Emperor and by the Germans but the Catholicks desired a general one and the Protestants a National where the Pope should not be Judge In the year 1542. Paul III. had indicted it at Trent And nevertheless for divers causes he delay'd the opening of it till the thirteenth day of December in this year which was the third Sunday in Advent The Orders for the Convocation were directed to the Emperor and the King by Name but to all other Princes only in general When the King found he could not recover Boulogne either by force or by way of Treaties he believed the best means to regain it would be to attaque the King of England in his own Island He therefore sent Orders to Captain Paulin to sit his Galleys at Marseilles and bring them to the Mouth of the River Seine got ten great Genoese Ships divers of which perished at the entrance into that River and joyned all the Good Vessels he had in any of his Harbours But intending to Treat the Ladies at Dinner in his great Carrack which was the stateliest Vessel belonging to the Sea the Cooks by their carelesness set it on Fire utterly consumed it and much damnified all those that lay about her by the discharging one hundred Guns she had on Board Which greatly disordered the Feast and gave an ill presage of that expedition The Admiral Annebaut had the Command of the Fleet. He went to seek out the English upon their own Coasts and Seized upon the Isle of Wight The English after some small Firings retired between that Island and Portsmouth in a place surrounded with Banks and Rocks where there was
necessity and many other things which the Prince buried in Oblivion before his Father was laid down in his Grave If he would have had these last things put in practice he should have made those that were to be his Sons Year of our Lord 1547 Ministers his Executors Magnificence and State Attended him to his very Tomb his Funeral was made with extraordinary Pomp Elven Cardinals were present which before had never hap'ned He was publickly by Proclamation in the Palace-Hall declared a Prince Clement in Peace Victorious in War the Father and Restorer of good Learning and the liberal Sciences He never had his Paralel in liberality in magnificence and in clemency very few to compare with him in Valour Eloquence and useful Learning He would have been a great Prince in all things had he not sometimes suffered himself to be prepossessed by the Evil Counsels of his Ministers and a passion towards women Those to render themselves all-powerful set up his Authority above the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom even to an Irregularity of Government the Women he loved being vain and prodigal changed his Noble desire of Fame to fastuosity and vanity and made him often consume in idle expences the Money he had designed for some great enterprize The Ten last Years of his Life the anxiety of his distemper made him so good a Husband that although he had made several stately Buildings in divers places had employed great Sums in purchasing rich Furniture many Jewels excellent Pictures and curious Books though he had bestowed Pensions upon all the brave Souldiers and truly learned men he could meet with and had maintained a War against all the powers of Europe for almost Thirty years yet at his death he left all his own Demeasnes clear of all Engagements Four Hundred Thousand Crowns of Gold in his Coffers and a quarter of a years Revenue ready to be paid in On the contrary his Son in the thirteen years he reigned though he sold a great many Offices newly created raised the Imposts a third part higher and gave nothing to his Favourites was yet indebted fifteen or sixteen Millions a great Sum in those days I had forgot to note that he had chosen for his Devise or Impress a Salamander in the fire with this Motto Nutrisco Extinguo I am nourished by it and I extinguish it and that he Erected into Dutchies and Pairries the County of Vendosm for Charles de Bourbon in 1514. that of Guise in favour of Claude de Lorrain in 1527. that of Montpensier for Lewis de Bourbon in 1538. The same year out of affection to Francis of Cleve he likewise gave the Title of Dutchy to that of Nevers which was before made a Pairrie by King Charles VIII Anno 1459. Till then no Erection of such great Dignities had been made but to supply the number of the Six ancient ones wherefore the Parliament made a grave and serious remonstrance to the King to hinder that of Guise but he desired to gratifie with that honour a Prince whose extraordinary vertues raised him almost equal to those of his Blood He Married two Wives Claude Daughter of Lewis XII and of Anne de Bretagne in the year 1514 and Eleonora of Austria Sister of Charles V. in the year 1530. By the first he had three Sons and three Daughters whereof none remained alive but Henry who Reigned and Margaret that was Married to Emanuel Philibert Duke of Savoy Queen Eleonora brought him no Children After his death she retired into the Low-Countries to the Emperor her Brother who in Anno 1555. carried her into Spain She died at Bajadox in the year 1558. Aged about Threescore Years HENRY II. King LVIII Aged about XIX Years POPES PAUL III. Two Years and above 7 Months under this Reign JULIUS III. Elected in February 1549. S. 5 Years 1 Month and a half MARCELLUS II. Elected in April 1555. S. 22 dayes PAUL IV. Elected in May 1555. S. 4 Years 2 Months and a half Year of our Lord 1547 HENRY came to the Crown upon the same day of the Year that he came into the World The Robes and other preparations for the Ceremony of his Coronation not being got ready before Mid July he received not the Sacred Unction till the Five and Twentieth of that Month by the hands of Charles de Lorraine who was Archbishop of Reims Claude Duke of Guise and Frances de Cleves Duke of Nevers preceded Lewis de Bourbon Duke of Montpensier though a Prince of the Blood because their Pairres being more Ancient by some years the first represented the Duke of Guyenne the second the Earl of Toulouze but Montpensier the Earl of Champagne only This King had been without defects as he was without disquiet had his Soul been framed as compleatly as his body His noble Stature his Serene and goodly Visage his pleasing aspect his dexterity in all brave exercises his agility and bodily strength were not attended with that firmness of Mind Application Prudence and the Sagacity requisite in one that is to command He was naturally good and had inclinations to do justice but he never possessed himself and because he would do nothing he was the cause of all those Evils they Committed who governed him The Constable de Montmorency whom he immediately called to Court Frances Earl of Aumale who was Duke of Guise after the death of his Father and James d'Albon Saint André whom he made Mareschal of France had the best share in his Favour He considered the first as his principal Minister the two others as Favorites but all even the Queen her self bowed before his Mistress This was Diana de Poitiers Widow of Lewis de Brezé and whom he had made Dutchess of Valentinois She meddled with all she could do all That it might be known she Reigned he would have it appear in all his Turnaments on his House-hold goods in his Devises or Impresses and even on the Frontispieces of his Royal Buildings by placing every where a Crescent with Bows and Arrows which were the Symbols of that unblushing Diana Year of our Lord 1547 One might think this love of a young King for a Woman of Forty Years and who had three or Four Children by her Husband must have been indeed an Inchantment without Charmes She was unjust violent and haughty towards such as displeased her but otherwise ready to do good and very liberal her wit mighty agreeable and pleasing but her hands more yet because she bestowed often and much and with a very bon-grace The King loved her because she was so sensible of Love and this temperament did sometimes lead her elsewhere to seek out the full measure of her delights as she found in him the fulness of Honour and Riches Under a new Government there is a new face of Court They left Frances Oliver in the Office of Chancellor whereof he was very worthy but they took away the Administration from the Cardinal de Tournon and Annebaut
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
with their Nails and bear him each having a Flambâ—au in his hand to St. Andrews Church About Five Thousand Burghers assisted at this Funeral Pomp carrying all Wax-Candles and making a stop before the Connestables door cryed out for mercy and confessed they had deserved a more heavy punishment Besides all this he put above an hundred to death most part being of the principal Citizens and Officers belonging to the place This great severity â—lienated the affection of the people from him as the tender humanity of the Duke of Aumale gained it so as from this very time that Lorrain Branch began to reign in their hearts Some while after the King who was benign and easie following the counsel of that Prince did in many particulars moderate the rigour of the Sentence preserved the Town-House gave Pardon to many that were Condemned and restored the Bells and Priviledges again to the Bourdelois Charles IX his Son gave them more ample ones After Bourdeaux had been humbled in this manner the Provost belonging to the Connestables going thorough all the Provinces laid hold on several of the most Seditious amongst others Three of their Chiefs viz. a Gentleman who had his Head cut off and two Chiefs of the Commons who were broken upon the Wheel with a Crown of red hot Iron clap'd upon their Heads Year of our Lord 1549 After all these Tragical Executions the Year 1549 was spent for the most part in rejoycings and in Carousels The Birth of the Kings Second Son of whom the Queen was deliver'd at Saint Germains was one occasion of these Feastings He was named Lewis The Figure-Flingers foretold wonders of him and yet he lived but two years The divertisements of the Carneval succeeded that of his Christ'ning then in the Month of July the King and Queen made their Magnificent Entrance into Paris after her being Crowned aâ— Saint Denis To this Ceremony they added Tiltings running at the Ring Balls great Entertainments and all the vain past-times that an ingenious and opulent idleness could invent to delight and glut the Eyes of the Women and multitudes of People When the Court was weary of these Sports the Scene of it was changed and a fit of Piety succeeded their Gallantry They made a general Procession to Nostre-Dame whereat the King was present This was to testifie by a publick Act the Zeal he had to maintain the Religion of his Ancestors and to punish all those that would disturb it Which he confirmed by the horrible Executions of great numbers of those miserable Protestants who were burned in the Greve They were haled up by a Pully and an Iron Chain then suffered to fall down in the midst of a great Fire which was repeated several times He would needs feed his own Eyes with this Tragical and Melancholly Spectacle and it is said that the horrible and mournful Shricks of one of those poor wretches left so lively an impression in his imagination that all his life long he had from time to time a very frightful and terrifying remembrance of those dreadful groans However that were it is certain the smell of those Carkasses thus roasted got into the Brains of a great many People who on the one hand beholding their false constancy and on the other the scandalous dissolute living at Court named this Justice a Persecution and their punishment a Martyrdom The 12 th of June the Alliance was renewed with the Swiss but not without much opposition of the Protestant Cantons exasperated for the burning those of their Religion Year of our Lord 1549 When the English were contriving better measures to invade Scotland there hap'ned some division between the Duke of Sommerset and the Earl of Warwick and between the Nobility and the People This Juncture being favourable to France the King would lay hold of it to recover Boulogne He armed powerfully by Sea and Land went before the place in person and gained four or five Forts the English had built round about it Then Autumn coming he Block'd up the Tower d'Ordre meaning to return in the following Spring Pope Paul having lost all hopes of recovering Piacenza from the hands of the Emperor or even to preserve Parma in his Family resolved to re-unite this to the Demeasnes of the Church and to give the Dutchy of Camerino to his Grand-Son Octavio Octavio positively denied to accept of this exchange and wrote to the Cardinal Farneze his Brother that rather then consent to it he would Surrender up Parma to Frederic de Gonsague The Cardinal shewed the Letter to the Pope who was so moved with wrath that his whole Body fell into a strange fit of trembling and afterwards into a violent Feavour whereof he died within three days The Cardinals after three Months practices and juggling Elected John Maria de Monte who assumed the name of Julius III. Year of our Lord 1550 The English not having Forces sufficient would not stand off too long but came to a Treaty of Peace which was concluded between the City of Boulogne and the Fort d'Outreau the 24 th of March They promised to resign Boulogne upon the payment of four hundred thousand Crowns of Gold to wit the one half when the French entered the Town the other moiety six Months after Scotland was comprized in this Treaty and those places the English had Invaded were to be restored to the Queen-Regent The House of Guise obtained great augmentations Duke Claude and John Cardinal of Lorrain his Brother being dead Francis Duke of Aumale took his Fathers Title and Charles who was called the Cardinal de Guise that of his Uncle and his Benefices This same raised his power mightily and that of his whole House not so much by his merit though he had a great deal as by his complaisance to the Kings Mistress He had so much power that he caused Peter Lizet the first President of the Parliament of Paris to be displaced He had dared to affront him by refusing to Treat him as a Prince but was forced Year of our Lord 1550 humbly to have recourse to his intercession to obtain some Benefice for his subsistance they gave him the Abbey of Saint Victor lez Paris John Bertrand second President was put in his place Soon after Diana caused the Seals to be taken from the Chancellor Olivier whose probity did not sute with her conduct and because he stood upon it not to lay down his Title of Chancellor which by the Laws of the Land cannot be taken away but with his Life She obliged the King to grant the Commission and Office of Keeper of the Seals and to give it to Bertrandi who by this means left that of first President to Giles le Maistre who had before succeeded him as second Though Faggots were lighted every where against the Protestants yet the Inhabitants of Merindol and Cabrieres presented their Petition to the King demanding Justice for the Violence done against them under pretence of a Decree of
the Parliament of Provence which they durst never have undertaken had it not been upon an assurance of the support of those that govern'd and even by their instigation particularly the Connestable who thought to involve the Cardinal de Tournon as principal Author of that Massacre he being his Capital Enemy The business was first brought before the Kings Great Council then the King took it upon himself and afterwards referr'd it to the Grand Chamber of the Parliament of Paris The Cause was Pleaded at Fifty Audiences or Hearings with great heats and vehement sollicitations After all this noise there was none but Guerin the Kings Advocate in the Parliament of Provence who paid for all those that had contributed to this Massacre He was Beheaded in the place called the Greve at Paris The Historian of Provence relates how on the day he lost his head his Picture or Effigies appeared in the palm of his wives hand traced in lines of blood and was seen by great numbers of people during several days Lewis Adhemar Earl of Grignan and Governour of Provence who had given Commission to d'Oppede to Levy Forces in his absence was like to have lost his Lands D'Oppede was sent away absolv'd having done nothing but by good order from the King but he survived not long after it and the Huguenots were revenged on him by giving out that he died of an inward fire which cruelly burnt up all his Bowels Year of our Lord 1550 and 51. The abuse of the Banquiers and of the Datary of the Court of Rome touching the resignation of Benefices were come to that pass that all the Clergy of France complained of it The King redressed this by an Edict and Charles du Moulin the most resolute of all the French Lawyers wrote a most Learned Book against the Petites Dates but which being very vehement raised so great a Storm against him amongst the Catholique Zealots for the interests of the Pope that for fear of being Treated as an Heretique he retired into Germany where he kept himself private till the rupture which hap'ned between the King and Pope Julius III. The Pic's Lords of Mirandola being at variance amongst themselves for the possession of that County Paul III. had endeavour'd to reconcile and agree them and not able to compass it had sequestred it in the hands of King Francis That King had restored it to Lewis Pic. Galeot Pic his Nephew assassinated his Uncle and Usurped it then fearing his other Relations would revenge this parricide retired to King Henry II. and had admitted a French Garrison into the place and also as it was reported had agreed upon an exchange for some other Lands in France However it were the King used it as a City properly his own and made it his place of Arms and his Assemblies in that part of the World The King wanted some occasion to interrupt the Progress of the Emperor he was over-joy'd to meet with this which follows D'Aramon his Ambassador made use of all industry with Solyman who was returned from the Persian War to break the Truce of Hungary and he wanted not considerations and motives to incite him to it for the Emperor had in Barbary taken the Cities of Mahadia and Monester from the Corsair Dragut one of the Grand Seignior's Captains and King Ferdinand held secret intelligence with Frier Georges Monk of the Order of Saint Poll a Hermit who by the testamentary institution of John Year of our Lord 1551 the pretended King of Hungary governed the Affairs and Country of Isabella and Stephen her young Son Solyman had given orders to take that Monk dead or alive the Monk having notice of it retired had cantonniz'd himself in some strong Castles he had purchased and provided from whence he began to make War upon the Queen He was reconciled and fell out again with her two or three several times and as he apprehended the power of the Turk he privately made an agreement with Ferdinand and perswaded the Widdow to restore Transilvania to him upon conditions very advantageous both for him and the Pupil if they had been observ'd But soon after Ferdinand fearing this mans inconstancy or rather that he would force him to make good what he had promised sent word to John Baptist Castalda General of his Forces to make him away which he Executed by the hands of some Assassines who went and Murthered him in a House of Pleasure to which he was retired Solyman could not suffer that Transilvania for which John had rendred him Homage should be possessed by Ferdinand He powred a very numerous Army in upon that side and almost totally Invaded it The Imperailists did not fail to publish that the King of France had drawn him thither but we find by the Memoirs of those times that he did his utmost to disswade him from making War in Hungary because the common danger re-united all the German Princes with the Emperor and it was his interest to divide them And therefore he could rather have wished that Solyman would have made use of his Sea Forces and landed in Puglia to facilitate an enterprize the French then had upon Sicily All these things make it evident that the King had firmly resolv'd to concern himself in the business of Parma by other ways and means then mediation or accommodation and that it was not the Dutchess of Valentinois that made him enter upon that War that there might be occasion to bestow some employment upon Brissac whom she loved infinitely It is true that at that Ladies request or perhaps to keep him at distance and absent from her he made him Governour of Piedmont in the place of John Caracciol Prince of Melsy whom he recalled to Court and to make up the Complement of good fortune for Brissac it hap'ned that the said Prince returning into France died at Suza and left a vacancy for a Mareschal which the King immediately conferr'd on him It sufficed the King to assist his Allies without directly breaking with the Emperour wherefore he sent to Brissac to make use of some indirect means to that end Brissac therefore disbanded a part of the Forces in Piedmont who had order to File away towards Parma over the Milanois under favour of the Truce two by two sometimes three without any weapons and by easie Journeys Gonzague mistrusting the Craft and Contrivance set Guards upon the ways who Massacred the greatest part of them so that there came not above four or five hundred to Miranda who went over by the Mountains at Genoa During this assay the Pope strove to perswade the King to abandon the Duke of Parma and the King endeavour'd to gain the Popes good Will that he might take him into his Protection But as the first had sharply replied to the Kings Remonstrances threatning him with his Ecclesiastical Thunder the French Ambassador raising the Tone of his Voice declared that the King would for no consideration whatever relinquish his
send a great Army into Germany in the Spring That he should pay certain Sums of Money to maintain that Army under Maurice and the other Confederates and that to re-imburse himself of these Charges he should as soon as possible seize upon Cambray or else Mets Toul and Verdun which he should keep in Quality of Vicar to the Empire Before the Year expired the Holy Father growing weary of the War was considering of an accommodation with the King and sent one Legate to him and another to the Emperor to conjure them to hearken to a Peace The Legate that came into France made several propositions They all tended to the resigning Parma into the hands of his Holiness who proffer'd to restore the Dutchy of Camerino to Octavio they were not favourably received because they were no ways advantageous to the interests of the King for he did not so much regard the satisfaction of Octavio as the having the City of Parma at his own devotion and by that means having footing again in Italy traverse all the Emperors projects About the end of this Year having no Money to defray the expenses of his War he made divers Edicts in order to engage part of his Demeasnes to create those Courts or Seats of Justice named Presidiaux to erect the Chambre des Monnoyes to a Soveraign Court He also got Silver Plate of all such as would lend him any to convert it into Testons which were Coyned in a certain new invented Mill made upon the Seine and he levied an Impost of twenty Livers upon every Steeple upon Jewels and Church Fabricks not excepting even the Mendicants The Dutchess of Valentinois as it was reported had a good share of this Collection However it were some of the Cordelier and Jacobin Preachers could not hold their Tongues and had made much more noise about it if they had not been chastised Year of our Lord 1552 At the same time the King and the Leagued Princes made both their Manifesto's and their Armes appear together Maurice using much Craft and entertaining the Emperor with propositions of Peace Marched with so much celerity that he wanted but little of surprizing him at Inspurk He was fain to escape by night very shamefully and much affrighted flying to Carinthia even as far as the Frontiers of the Venetians with so much dread that for several days he knew not what he did The King on his side likewise took the Field Before he went out of the Kingdom he went into his Parliament where by an excellent discourse he recommended to them to have a great care of the Kingdom in his absence and declared that he left the Regency to the Queen his Wife but She would not let them verisie the Commission because he had too much limited her Power and had made the Chancellor Bertrandi almost equal in authority a creature of the Dutchess of Valentinois The first thing he did was to seize upon Lorrain and the young Duke Charles Son of the Deceased Duke Francis and Christierne Sister to the Emperor He brought him into France to be bred with the Dausin and gave the Government of the Country to the Count de Vaudemont then he took the Cities of Mets Toul and Verdun who little suspected such a surprize It was noised that the Year of our Lord 1552 Emperor had the same Design and that the King had only prevented him Ever since this time those Cities have been under the French and they owe that obligation to the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal his Brother who did all that lay in their power to facilitate these Conquests not regarding the inconvenience it would be to the head of their House for the raising and setling their fortunes in this Kingdom made them have an interest quite different from his The Kings design was to have seized also upon Alsatia his Army entred upon it and refreshed themselves there but the Citizens of Strasburg more jealous then those of Mets stood upon their Guards and sent him Provisions to take away all pretence for his coming into their Town Haguenau and Visburg opened their Gates to him In the mean time Maurice who had restored almost all the Cities and Princes of Germany to their Liberties fearing for his Father in Laws Head which the Emperor threatned to send to him if he accepted not of the conditions offer'd him was obliged to hearken to a Peace It was concluded by the Treaty of Pashaw where besides the releasing of the Landgrave many other things were allowed and agreed in favour of the Protestants They may very justly call that Treaty the true Foundation of their Evangelick Liberty which they have fully enjoy'd ever since that time but shewed so little acknowledgment to the King that there was not the least mention made of him at which Albert of Brandenburg shewed himself very much concern'd and angry for some time that he might have the better pretence to plunder and pillage At first the King could not believe that Maurice had any thoughts of treating without him but he was soon confirmed by an Envoy from that Prince himself who came to make his excuses The Electors of Ments and Triers and some other Princes of Germany finding him penetrate so far sent to entreat him since he had no other design but to be the Protector of the German Liberty and that they had recover'd it not to undertake any thing against the Empire nor to advance any further He was a little surprized at this Compliment and yet dissembled his displeasure he answer'd them that he was very well content since they were so and that his Arms had the effect they desired Wherefore at the same instant that he might not distast them and also having information that Mary Queen of Hungary Governess of the Low-Countries ransack'd and burnt the Frontiers of Champagne he took his way towards France but first to have his revenge for the mischiefs that Queen had caused he Marched into Luxemburg where he took Rochemars Danvilliers Yvoy and Montmedy and the Mareschal de la Mark the Castle of Bouillon which the Emperor had taken from his Grandfather one and thirty years before After these exploits and towards the end of July he lodged his Men in Garrison on the Frontiers of Picardy to refresh them and put them in a condition to withstand the great Effort for which the Emperor prepar'd himself Whilst he was yet in Germany he had intelligence that his Agents had made a Truce for two years with the Pope which assured the possession of Parma to the House of Farneze The greatest affront the Emperor could receive was that in his time and when he appeared to be most potent the three Cities of Mets Toul and Verdun should be dismembred from the Empire It concerned his reputation to regain them within the very same year and to that end he went about to raise the greatest Forces that ever he yet had in all his life without considering so
it The Emperor remanded him to give him the Government of Milan which he took from Ferdinand de Gonzague The Duke had much ado to get lieve to keep this General with him till the Siege were over The Emperor therefore substituted Gomez de Figueroa in the stead of Gonzague who being Year of our Lord 1554 fitter for a States-Man then a Soldier suffer'd the Affairs of Piedmont to decline very much The first three Months the Duke of Florence had the disadvantage Ascanius de la Corne one of his Commanders thinking to surprize Clusio lost Twelve Hundred Men and was made Prisoner by a double dealing intelligence Strozzi defeated Medequin in a Ren-contre near Petia where he slew him Two Thousand Men Then having received a great re-inforcement brought him by Octavia Farnese and the Count de Miranda he regained one of the Bastions of Sienna which Malatesta had surprized by treachery and ransacked over all the Dukes Country to the very Gates of Florence But this fortune changed immediately Leo his Brother who was just Arrived with Twelve Galleys with which he lay at Port-Hercole expecting a re-inforcement that was to come from Provence was slain by a shot from behind a Hedge as he was viewing the ill favour'd Castle of Scarlin Then himself coming to releive Marcian besieged by Medequin lost a Battel near that City The sault was laid upon his presuming to make a retreat in the open day-light before an Enemy stronger then himself the cowardize of the Count de la Miranda who sled at the beginning with all the Cavalry whom he commanded as Collonel and the treachery of some Italian Companies of his Van-Guard who proved to be Turn-Coats He escaped to Montalien where he rallied up what he could of those shatter'd Forces and did yet give the Florentines a great deal of trouble He had intreated the King to let him have some good Officer to be his Second particularly to Govern the City of Sienna He sent him Blaise de Montlue whether of his own Choice or named by the Guises which was the ruine of that Republique for the Constable considering him as the Creature of his adversaries did not care he should Succeed and so sent no relief that way He came into that Country much about the time when Leo was slain before Scarlin During all this Reign there were divers changes made amongst the Officers of the Finance and Judicature and great number of Creations all to get Money the thirsty Ministers inclining the King to draw the purest Blood of the Nation to satisfie their greedy appetite The Parliament of Paris seemed to have too much power and sometimes opposed their injustice they made it Semestre that is one half to sit and attend Six Months and then the other alternately and almost doubled the number of the Judges who till then were not above one Hundred taking in the Six Masters of Requests and the Twelve Dukes and Pairs The Edict for this was not verified and yet it took place but within three years after when they had sold all those new Offices they suffer'd the two parts to be joyned again in one By another Edict they augmented the number of the Kings Secretaries who were Sixscore already that is to say more by half than was necessary and added Fourscore so that in all there were Two Hundred By another yet they set up a Parliament in Bretagne composed of four Presidents two and thirty Counsellors two Registers two Advocates and an Attorney for the King They divided it into two Semestres in one of which the Officers were necessarily to be Natives of that Province Necessity extorted from the Ministers for those of Guyenne what compassion towards those people had never been able to obtain Observing there was a great deal of danger and yet a much greater expence in settling the Gabelle in that Province they took it off but constrained the people to pay Twelve Hundred Thousand Crowns to redeem themselves from that vexation Year of our Lord 1554 After the rebuke received by Strozzi at Marcian the Marquiss de Marignan being Master of the Field took most of the places belonging to that little State and laid a formal Siege to Vienna which he had before invested Blaise de Montluc kept up the Spirits of the Siennois and withstood the Attaques of the Enemies near Eight Months as he particularly relates in his Memoires and Commentaries At length his provisions failing extreme Famine forced him to capitulate This was upon the One and Twentieth of April Year of our Lord 1555 The Treaty contained that they should enjoy their Goods Liberty and Republique in all security but the Emperor failed them in his promise and faith he soon subjugated and fetter'd that unfortunate City and gave it to his Year of our Lord 1555 Son Philip who in Anno 1558. yielded it to the Duke of Florence retaining only the maritime places And indeed the chief Citizens foreseeing or guessing the Imperialists would not make good the Treaty went out with the French Garrison to the number of Eight or Nine Hundred and retired to Montalcino In that City they chose them Magistrates and preserved the Form of their Republick till the time of the Peace betwixt France and Spain in the year 1559. Brissac Besieged Valfenieres in Piedmont and the Spaniards were in the Field to relieve it when the Battel of Marcian was fought The news thereof heightned the courage of the Enemies very much and it was to be fearâ—d it might cast a great damp upon the spirits of the French so that he found fit by the advice of his Councel of War to raise the Siege Some time afterwards having given the Enemy a repulse and thinking he had put all Piedmont in a condition of safety at least for some Months he formed a great design It was to have gone straight forward resolutely to Sienna with a Body of Eight Thousand Foot he had Fifteen or Sixteen Thousand of the best in the World to fall immediately upon the Besiegers and force one of their Quarters to put Provisions into the City But the jealousie his great reputation gave to those that Govern'd the Kings Mind would not permit him to execute so brave an exploit The Constable though related to him did not wish him well he having obtained the Government of Piedmont by the Craft of the Dutchess of Valentinois and without his knowledge nay even in despite of him who was then upon the point of endeavouring to have it for his Nephew Gaspard de Coligny Chastillon The Duke of Guise highly esteemed him and yet as the brave cannot well endure one another he very often took occasion to quarrel and thwart him Thus to ruine his reputation and fame they ruin'd the Kings Affairs in Piedmont And yet all these obstructions could not hinder him from taking this year Vercel and Ivree nor when he had fortified Saint la from compleating a design he had contrived upon Casal by the
provide for the security of the Frontier Towns The fright and terror was greater yet then the loss We know not what it might have produced if the Duke of Savoy had marched directly to Paris or if a design he had upon Lyons had been well managed but as to the first Philip would not suffer him to march in any further fearing lest under those advantageous circumstances a certain negotiation that he had set on foot the preceding Winter should end in an Accommodation with the King which would have restored him to his Country and by consequence have unhinged him from the Spanish Party And as for the enterprise upon Lyons the Baron de Polvilliers who was to have favour'd it with Fifteen Thousand Germans did but only enter into Bresse and marched out again immediately The Duke of Savoy was therefore much against his will forced to stick to the Siege of Saint Quintin King Philip came thither in Person fifteen days after which was upon the seven and twentieth of August and brought Ten Thousand English and as many Flemmings France had been lost if they had pursued their point and indeed Charles V. having received the news of this important Victory asked the Courier if his Son were in Paris The Admiral having staid too long by three or four days to Capitulate saw the Town stormed at five several breaches and was taken Prisoner with Dandelot his Brother who got away the following Night Philip's Army passed the remainder of the Campagne in taking the Catelet Han and Noyon and about the end of Autumn was wasted away about the one half the English being withdrawn their haughtiness not agreeing with that of the Spaniards and the Germans for want of pay A good part of these came over to the Kings Service During the Universal trouble which flowed from the loss of Saint Quintin the Religionaries had the Confidence to Assemble in the Night time at Paris in a House at the upper end of the Street Saint Jacques One named John Masson was the first that was Instituted Minister in this City in the year 1555. The People who observed them coming out thence fell upon them and took above a Hundred amongst whom were Persons of Quality nay even some Maidens belonging to the Queen They were charged with strange Crimes it was said they Year of our Lord 1557 rosted young Children and after they had made very good chear the Lights were all put out and so Men and Women mingled together A good number of them were burnt but the rest disputed their Lives so well by recusation of Judges and other delay 's and put-offs that they had time to get Letters from the Prince Palatine and the Swiss Protestants who interceeded for them The King standing in need of their Swords was obliged to relent somewhat of his severity Amidst the fear and dispiritedness all France lay under particularly Paris it is believed that if but only a Thousand Horse had appeared on this side the Oyse that great City would have remained a desart They laboured hard therefore to fortifie it the King gave Orders to raise Twelve Thousand Swiss and Eight Thousand Germans sent to all French Men Nobles or not who had formerly served in the War to come to Laon to the Duke of Nevers to Brissac and the Governor of Mets to send him part of their old Companies and to the Duke of Guise that quitting all other designes he should return with his Army He was likewise advised to have recourse to Solyman La Vigne his Ambassador made instant Suit to that Prince to lend him two Millions of Gold and send his Naval Force to him but with Order they should Winter in his Ports of France because they lost the best of their time in going and coming As to the Money Solyman excused himself by Pleading that they were forbidden by their Law to lend any to Christians for which reason he had already refused it to King Francis but for his Fleet he promised he would send a very powerful one very well Equip'd to act joyntly with the Kings or else separately as they would appoint or desire Whilst these things were negociating in the East the great Cities of France opened their Purses freely enough to the King Paris furnisht him with Three Hundred Thousand Livers and the rest in proportion Fifty Lords of note proffer'd him to keep and defend Fifty Places at their own expence It was then he really found that the French are the best People in the World and that it was both hard-heartedness and ill Polity to vex them by extraordinary Imposts since they would bleed so freely for the necessities of the State When the Duke of Guise had received the Kings orders to return he Councell'd the Pope to make his Accommodation The Holy Father made it honourably as he could wish in such a juncture For it was agreed they should surrender up all his Places to him that he should absolve the Duke of Alva and the Colonnas and that that Duke should ask his Pardon in the name of King Philip The King had foreseen that the Duke of Ferrara would also make his Accommodation wherefore that he might not do it without his participation and to his prejudice he sent him word he approved of it The Caraffas base and perfidious Friends did already Treat with the Spaniards to Invade the Ferrarois and to share it between them The Duke d'Alva made his entrance into Rome upon the very same Horse with the same honours and as great demonstrations of joy expressed by the Nephews as the Duke of Guise had done This Duke having sojourned ten or twelve days in a Castle of Strozzi's near Rome whilst the Pope was making his Treaty took Shipping at Civita-Vecchia with Two Thousand Select men and some of his best Officers and left the Conduct of the rest of the Army to the Duke d'Aumale his Brother who brought it back into France by Bolonnois Ferrarois the Country of the Grisons and Swisserland The return of the Duke of Guise seemed to have brought back with him the Courage of the Kings drooping Councel and of his flying Forces They proposed to give him the Title of Vice-Roy which being thought too ambitious they gave him that of Lieutenant-General of the Kings Armies within and without the Kingdom which was verified in all the Parliaments After he had saluted the King he had order to go to Compiegne and draw the Army together Thus did the ill-fortune of France prove to be his good fortune and the falling of the Constable his exaltation The King now wanted nothing but Money for this he Assembled the Estates at Paris the sixth of January in the year 1558. since King Johns time they have served for little else but to encrease the Subsidies It was this time thought fit to divi de them into four distinguishing the third Estate from the Officers of Justice Year of our Lord 1557 and the Treasury They altogether
when they could find a person of quality to head them such as was Dandelot or the Admiral his Brother This year that question was decided at Venice which the Spaniards had moved to the French concerning precedence or rank Doctor Francis Vargas had been there in the quality and with the Function of Ambassador for Charles V. Emperor and King of Spain After the abdication of the Emperor and about the end of the year 1556. Philip recalled him giving notice however to the Seigneory that he would send him again suddenly During his absence Loyola whom he had left in his stead pretended to hold the place of Ambassador for the Emperor the French Ambassador this was Dominique Bishop of Lodeve would have no such thing allowed and bestirred himself so that Loyola durst never appear at any Ceremonies In the year 1557. Vargas being return'd again pretended to keep the same station he had before saying he had never been revoked but he of France maintained he had since he had had his Audience of Congé and received the Present given to Ambassadors that moreover Charles V. had absolutely devested himself of the Empire without reserving to himself one inch of its Lands and that therefore he had now nothing to negociate or trouble his Brain withal but the looking after and managing his Clocks The business was off and on for almost a whole year then hap'ned the shock at Saint Quentin which much startled the minds and turned the thoughts and cares of the Ministers of France to things of a more important and pressing nature The Venetians grounded their doubts upon Charles V. being still Emperor but when that pretence came once to be remov'd by the Election of Ferdinand which was in the year 1558. they had no apparent reason to hesitate They knew well enough the King had most reason on his side but they durst not own it and would very fain have referr'd it to the decision of the Pope saying it belonged not to them to make themselves Judges between two such great Princes The pretensions of Philip was not as yet to gain the upper hand of France but only to hang up the dispute upon the hedge and stand on equal termes The Venetians had made a Decree in the Councel des Pregadi that the Ambassadors of both Kings should be present at none of their Ceremonies till the controversie were first judged at Rome so greatly did they apprehend to offend Philip Nevertheless when they observed the Kings Affairs began to look with a promising face again and Novailles Bishop of Dacqs the Ambassador from France pressed them without intermission and by strong Arguments and Reasons and threatnings to be gone they at length revoked the Decree and ordained that he of France should hold the first rank according to ancient custom and usage They sent for him therefore to assist at the Ceremony they made upon the day of the Visitation being the second of July This was eight dayes before the death of the King The Peace being made all relented and grew soft and slack in France the Constable was already more then Septuaginary besides ever unfortunate in War the Mareschal de Saint André brave in his Person but softned by luxury and voluptuousness the King if we may so say dared by the Hawk and baffled as who had beheld his Kingdom in extream danger the Guises loaden with Honour and glad there was no occasion to keep them at too great a distance from the Court where they were omnipotent especially since the Marriage of their Niece with the Daufin Some have reproached them perhaps without any reason that from that time they began to entertain secret Correspondencies with the Spaniard or at least to have a great deal of Complaisance for him that they might out-do the Constable in this very point too who seemed to have relinquished much of the Interests of France for his own Whatever it were the Government at this time changed their Maximes in two points whereof one was touching the Affaires of Italy the other the Alliance with the Turks For they resolved as to the first not to intermeddle with it any more And for the other to renounce it wholly likewise as a thing very prejudicial to Christendom of little benefit and very scandalous to France and which hindred the Princes of Germany from reposing an intimate confidence and joyning in a strickt tye with them Year of our Lord 1559 So that under pretence of gaining their Amity they obliged him to send Ambassadors to the Diet of Ausburg to assure them he never had any real Alliance with the Turks and that he was resolved to renounce it Totally The Agents of the House of Austria endeavour'd to make good advantage of this Compliment at the Port Solyman could believe nothing till he had received certain News of the Peace between the two Crowns Then he released Ferdinands Ambassador whom he held in Prison and immediately made a Peace with his Master and yet to make it appear he had still some concern for France he obliged that Prince to be a Friend to his Friends and Enemy to his Enemies The five and twentieth of January the Pope displeased with the ill-behaviour of the Caraffa's his Nephews and principally because they attempted to hold him in Captivity after he had declaimed against them with all his might in a Consistory stript them of all their Offices and Dignities and expell'd them from Rome which furnished Pius IV. his Successor with a pre-judgment to make Process against them though he were indebted to them for his Pope-dome which he gained by their contrivance The Cardinal Caraffa was strangled in the Castle Saint Angelo John Count de Montebel his Brother and the Count d'Alifan Brother of the Wife to that John had their Heads cut off A lesson ☜ written in Letters of Blood to teach their Fellows if they would reflect on it to use that power with more moderation which is so frail and tottering There was neither City nor Province nor Profession where the novel opinions had not got footing men of the Gown men of Learning and the Ecclesiasticks themselves against their own Interest suffer'd themselves to be charmed with them punishments did but make them scatter and encrease and enflame their Zeal the more So that several of the Parliament some out of a more tender and merciful nature others because they had embraced them were of the mind to moderate those to severe prosecutions The King knowing this sent for Giles le Maistre first President and two others with the Procureur or Solicitor General and commanded them to execute his Edict of Chasteau-Briand with the utmost severity Le Maistre makes report to the whole Company of the Kings Commands as they were arguing upon that Subject and most voices inclined towards a mitigation the business being in good forwardness behold the King having notice as it was presumed from Le Maistre comes into the Parliament this was on the
the one and then with the other In the midst of all these a young King as weak in mind as in body exposed to the first occupier and the prize contended for the Government of the Kingdom As for the Guises they were Five Brothers the Duke the Cardinal de Lorraine the Duke d'Aumale the Cardinal de Guise and the Marquess d'Elbeuf we are not to make any reck'ning of the three last because they acted nothing but by the inspiration and motion of the other two The Duke drew his Party to him by the Reputation of his Valour his Liberality and his Affability the Cardinal de Lorraine by his Eloquence and his Learning They were notwithstanding of very different humors the Duke moderate just undaunted in dangers the Cardinal hot undertaking and vain puffed up with good success but trembling and faint-hearted at the least frowns of Fortune Amongst the Princes of the Blood there was Anthony King of Navarre Lewis Prince of Condé the Duke of Montpensier and the Prince de la Roche-sur-yon Anthony was a voluptuous and fearful Prince and more considerable for his Quality then his Power Lewis was Valiant Hardy and one the greatness of whose Courage and meanness of whose slender Fortune made him fit to undertake every thing Anthony did not stand firm but abandoned his younger Brother to his Year of our Lord 1559 very death he fluctuated in doubts of Religion and was neither a good Catholick nor right Lutheran His Brother followed the Opinions of Calvin The Guises seized upon the Kings Person because he had Married their Niece Mary Steward Queen of Scotland and upon the favourable pretence of the Catholick Religion The others made sure of the Male-contents the disbanded Souldiers and the protection of the Religionaries whose dispair was yet much greater and stronger then their numbers The Mareschal de Saint André a Lord as brave as witty and polite but very Luxurious and over-head and ears in debt devoted himself wholly to them and promised the Duke to bestow his Daughter upon which of his Sons he pleased with all the Estate belonging both to him and his Wife reserving only the clear revenue during their term of Life This he did fearing to be devoured by his Creditors should he ever happen to be expell'd the Court. The Constable a great temporiser and who had wont to be prime Minister of State could not stoop now to be Inferior He admitted the flatteries and caresses of both Parties but at length adhered to the Guisians in hatred to the novel opinions being perswaded by his Wife and second Son that the Title he bare of the first Christian Baron would not allow him to linck himself with those who did impugne the Catholick Religion The Duke of Montpensier and the Prince de la Roche Sur-Yon though both of the House of Bourbon were led by the same motives and did not so much respect the proximity of Blood as the name of the Ancient Church and the King from whom they would not start aside for any other Consideration whatsoever A motive directly contrary to the Constables cast the Admiral de Coligny and his Brother Dandelot Colonel of the French Infantry on the side of those Princes who favour'd the new Religion of which they were thoroughly convinced and perswaded besides that they had the Honour to be Allied to the Prince of Condé For he had Married Elenora de Roye Daughter of one Magdelain de Mailly who was their Sister by the Mothers side she and they being Born of Louisa de Montmorency who was first Married to Frederic du Mailly Then to the Mareschal de Chastillon Father of these two Lords When King Henry II. received his hurt the Queen Mother was in suspence a day or two whether to joyn with the Constable or the Guises She looked upon both the one and the other as her Enemies being all Allied to the Dutchess of Valentinois whom she hated mortally though in her Husbands Life-time she feigned to love her even to the height of confidence But she thought her self much more affronted by the Constable then the Guises because it was he that had last adventur'd to contract an Alliance with that Woman Besides the Guises utterly abandoned her notwithstanding the repugnance of the Duke d'Aumale who was her Son in Law and withal they promised this Queen so much Service and so great Submission that she resolved to stand by them To which me may add that being Uncles to the young King as they were it might perhaps have been out of the reach of her power or interest to have set them aside When the Constable perceived his Game was near lost he sent in all post hast to the King of Navarre to press him to come and take that Place and Authority his Birth justly claimed under the young King but that Prince who was slow and irresolute and who withal did not much confide in him because he had once advised the deceased King to seize upon the remainder of his petit Kingdom did not make much hast This signal fault and after this his strange irresolutions and the weakness of his Conduct during all this and the following Reign may be accounted indirectly amongst the principal and main causes of all the Troubles and Misfortunes that befel the Kingdom of France Wherefore the Guises having gained the Mastery at Court the King declared to the Parliaments Deputies when they came to wait on him That he had committed the direction of his Affairs to them that is to say the Intendance or Over-sight of all the Affairs of War to the Duke and that of the Finances or Treasury to the Cardinal Being thus establish'd they consider'd of removing out of the way all those that might be obnoxious They left the Constable and Mareschals of France no more Commission but to Bury the late King and sent the Princes of Condé and de la Roche Sur-Yon into Spain the first to carry the Coller of the Order to King Philip the other to get the Treaty of Peace confirmed They likewise banished the Dutchess of Valentinois from the Court but first obliged her to restore and deliver up the Jewels and the rich Furniture and Year of our Lord 1559 Goods the late King had bestowed upon her and took away her fair House of Chenonceaux to accommodate the Queen-Mother in exchange for the Castle of Chaumont upon the Banks of the River Loire Desiring by embellishing the face of their new Government with a shew of Goodness and Justice towards the publick to condemn the Government past they took the Seals from Bertrandi Cardinal and Archbishop of Sens whose reputation was not of the best and restored them to the Chancellor Ol vier a person really of a much more then ordinary merit and of great probity but who soon perceived they had recalled him to servitude rather then to a freedom of function in the highest Office of the Kingdom The Queen-Mother in the mean time
young King believed that to execute his Fathers will was to extirpate all such as opposed the Catholick Belief to this end he Created in each Parliament a particular Chamber or Court that took Cognisance of no other matter They were named Chambres Ardentes because in effect they burned without Mercy all such as were convicted and there needed no other proof but the finding them at some Nocturnal or Clandestine Conventicle The President Saint André and the Inquisitor Demochares laboured with great diligence at Paris and sought them even in the bottom of Cellars upon the intelligence of their Spies amongst others a Taylor and two Goldsmiths who had been of that Religion Two young Men of these Mouchards or Informers deposed that in those midnight Assemblies they did eat of the Pascal Lamb and Roasted Pigg and afterwards put out the Lights and mingled in an unclean manner with those they first hapned to meet nay one of them affirmed that upon the like occasion it fell to his lot to encounter an Advocates Daughter of the Place Maubert at whose House they held such communion This calumny was spread abroad by the populace told in the Louvre and brought to the Ears of the King and Queen and though these Witnesses had been convict of falsehood by the Chancellor that did not Year of our Lord 1559 hinder it from making some impression on the Queen Thus the Religionaries being pursued and punished every where especially in the great Cities as Aix in Provence Toulouze Poitiers and Bourges began to think how to defend themselves They first made use of the Pen and scatter'd about several Libels which tended to make out that Kings ought not to be accounted Majors sooner then other Men That in the mean time it belonged to the Estates to assign them a Council and that the Princes of the Blood ought to have the first place and rank that the Laws of the Land did not admit either of Women or Strangers That the Guises were not natural French Men That besides they had pretensions upon Anjou and Provence and even to the whole Kingdom saying they were descended from Charlemain That therefore the trusting them with the Government was to hazard the whole State They added many reasons and examples to prove the administration of Cardinals had ever been very prejudicial to France That Francis I. though he made use of them yet never admitted them into the Council when it concerned the Affairs of Rome and that experience had fully enough demonstrated that the Venetian Polity which excluded all Ecclesiastiques from the management of Affairs was very wise and very prosperous These Books wanted not forr eplies Du Tillet one of the Registers in Parliament made one which at that time was torn to pieces and silenced by the multiplicity of smart answers but in another Season had the fortune to be revived and brought in credit by the Chancellor de l'Hospital and cry'd up as it had been a Law of the Land They then were labouring in good earnest for the Execution of the Articles of Peace The Mareschal de Brissac with much regret gave up the City of Valence and those in Piedmont Those that held Thionville and the places of Luxemburgh went out with curses in their Mouths against those Ministers that made that Treaty nor could any heart be so hardned as not to be touched at the lamentations and sad cryes wherewith the Corses and Siennois endeavoured to move Heaven and Earth to compassion when they had notice the French abandoned them to their severe Masters The Siennois made the last attempt their dispairing impotency could prompt them to for the defence of their liberty but in a short time they fell under the weight of the Spanish Forces who to compleat the measure of their misery delivered them over to the Duke of Florence reserving however the maritime Towns There were at Court great numbers of persons of every Province especially Martial Men who demanded either their pay or some reward The Cardinal de Lorrain who had the management of the Treasury was mightily importun'd and pester'd with them and moreover he apprehended some Conspiracy amidst the multitude Wherefore he caused an Edict to be published which commanded all such as followed the King and Court only to solicite and begg some thing of him they should forbear and withdraw upon pain of being truss'd up on a Gibbet which for that very purpose was set up in the publick place This rude treatment turned great numbers of those against him that had formerly served in the Armies A Quartan Ague tormented the King for some Months which made him uncapable of applying himself to business besides that he was naturally very weak When he came to be cured many pustules appeared on his livid Face which signified some internal indisposition He was therefore carried to Blois for change of Air whilst he staid there some in that Country by whomsover employed sought for young Infants that they might have their Blood as they gave out to make the King a Bath For which reason many will needs have it that he was infected with Naaman's Disease In the mean time they zealously prosecuted all such as were imprison'd for the matters of Religion They began with the Counsellors of the Parliament of Paris formerly mentioned Anne du Bourg having fenced a long time for his life by several Appeals to the Metropolitan of Sens then to the Primate of Lyons for he was an Ecclesiastick and a Priest in the end threw aside his Mask and boldly declared that he professed a Belief contrary to that of the Roman Church The Zealots of his opinion had push'd him on to this resolution They imagined that being a man of eminent condition of rare merit and great vertue at least as to his Morals his example would take a marvellous impression and for Year of our Lord 1559 those reasons the Parliament would never expose him to the infamy of Execution But they deceived themselves the heat of those that had taken this business in hand made them go thorough with it and there hapned an Accident besides which hastned his ruine He had excepted against the President Saint André and finding notwithstanding he still appeared he threatned him that God would restrain and compel him to keep away Now some days after it so fell out that this President going from the Palace was assassinated and shot with a Pistol and it was currently reported the first President was in danger of the like The Authors of this Murther could never be discovered tho Robert Stuart being vehemently suspected was put in Prison This incident exasperated those that Governed in such sort that Du Bourg was condemned to death and after he had been degraded of his holy Orders was burnt in the Greve they having first strangled him He went to his death with so much joy and so great shew of piety that his Execution was so far from striking any terrour it begot
it in France The time drawing near la Renaudie who forged a thousand fine imaginations upon the event of this project could not hold his tongue but opened the whole mystery to an Advocate of his own Religion named des Avenelles with whom he lodged at Paris The Advocate discover'd it to l'Allemand Vouzé a Master of Requests and l'Allemand carried him to Court to declare particularly all what he had learned of la Renaudie Upon this news the Guises first provided for the security of their own persons and without the least noise called all their trustiest friends about them gave order for the preservation of the great Cities caused the Prince and the Admiral to come to Court granted an abolition of all things past to the Religionaries excepting to those that had conspired and at the same time set Guards of Soldiers and Men belonging to the Provosts upon all the Roads leading to the Conspirators The Duke got the Title of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom confirmed to him as well whilst the King should be present as absent and established a Company of Musquetiers on Horse-back all select Men who were constantly to attend the Kings Sacred Person Year of our Lord 1560 The Court immediately dislodged from Blois and went to the Castle of Amboise as well because that place was stronger as to break the measures of the Plotters In the mean time the Duke of Guise sent the Kings Orders into all the Provinces with exhortations to the Nobility and Officers of War to arm themselves for the preservation of the State and to the Governors to seize upon all such as should be found in Arms whether on Foot or on Horseback upon the Road of Amboise The Prince of Conde who was going to Court met the Lord de Cipierre at Orleans by whom he was informed how the enterprize was discover'd but this hindred not his Journey forward nor la Renaudie a self-will'd fellow from pursuing his design But the Court having changed their station he was fain to change the Rendezvous appointed for his Gang and this was it that made them miscarry in the execution of the contrivance Castelno de Chalosses one of the chief Ring-leaders with Raunay and Mazeres were at Nozé James de Savoye Duke of Nemours took the two last as they were imprudently walking without the Castle but Castelno and the rest got in He besieged them there and being unable to take them by force drew them out by fair promises for he gave them his word he would carry them to the King and no hurt should be done to them neither should they be confin'd to Prison But as there is no security in the faith of that Man that is not able to warrant it as soon as they were come to Amboise they were cast into a Goal and Nemours thought it a sufficient excuse to say I cannot help it La Renaudie who was in Vendosmois made his Men advance with all speed to disengage Castelno whose surrender he knew not of but as they Marched in small parties and by ways thorow the Forrests the people set there by the Kings Order to watch them easily slew them or took them Prisoners and tied them to their Horse-Tails to lead them to Amboise whither they no sooner came but they hang'd them up immediately on the Battlements of the Walls Booted and Spurr'd The day after la Renaudie was kill'd in the Forrest of Chasteau-Renaud but he first slew Pardillan his Cousin to whom the King had given command to go a-hunting after the Conspirators with two hundred Horse His Body was for some hours hanged upon the Bridge at Amboise with this writing Captain of the Rebels then quarter'd and the quarters set up in divers places The Guises press'd the Chiefs might be dispatch'd the Chancellor was of opinion they should suspend that till they had found the bottom and main drift of the enterprize and to appease the fury of those exasperated spirits it would be fit to grant a Pardon to such whose blind zeal had misled them provided they would return to their own homes in small parcels of two or three in a Company But whilst they were contending for Mercy and Clemency against the rigour of Justice and Law a Captain of the Conspirators named la Motte made an attempt to surprize Amboise which stopt the Chancellors Mouth and let loose the raynes of persecution to the utmost severity A Command was given to take all such as had been in Armes either dead or alive though they should be returning to their own homes They pardon'd very few of those they had in Hold there were hanged drowned and beheaded near Twelve Hundred the Streets of Amboise were overflowed with Blood the River choaked up with dead Corps and the Market-places planted full of Gibbets The Chief were Executed the last the Queen-Mother her three Sons and all the Court Ladies gazing out of the Windows beholding this Tragical Spectacle as a divertisement Not one of them would own or confess that the Conspiracy aimed at the Kings Person but only against the Guises Raunay and Mazeres confessed upon the Rack that la Renaudie had told them that if it had succeeded the Prince of Condé would have declared Castelno stoutly denied it and upon their confrontation gave them very significant reproaches Some writings in Cyphers seized in the Custody of la Bigne Secretary of the Conspiracy and the Examinations of certain Captains that had Command amongst them gave them light enough to believe that the Prince of Condé and the Admiral were concerned but the proofs not being clear and the Evidence only upon hear-say and those that had orders to search the Princes House finding neither Men nor Arms there he demanded leave to purge himself in full Council before the King The Queen Mother being willing to admit him he made a discourse full of Reason and Eloquence to justifie himself concerning that attempt and afterwards gave the lye to all that durst say he was guilty of it and offer'd to Fight them himself renouncing his Quality only for that purpose Year of our Lord 1560 The Duke of Guise out of a most profound dissimulation applauded his generosity and told him he was also ready to maintain his Innocency but in private he notwithstanding was of opinion he ought to be seized on The Queen Mother did not judge it convenient whether she feared the Guises might make themselves too absolute if they could but pull down the only Prince that was able to make head against them or that she apprehended lest such a detension should produce some act of desperation which might prove more fatal then the fore-going Conspiracy The danger over they wrote Letters in the name of the King to all the Parliaments Governors and great Cities giving them an account of the eminent danger the King had escaped and the signal Service the Duke of Guise had rendred him The Parliament of Paris giving Credit to it bestowed upon him the glorious
Funeral Of so many Lords and so many Bishops as were then at Orleans there were none but Sansac and la Brosse who had been his Governors and Lewis Guillard Bishop of Senlis who was blind that conducted his Corps to Saint Denis His Heart was left to the Church named Saincte Croix at Orleans The Guises excused their not attending it upon the necessity there was for them to stay with their Niece to comfort her But they were not exempted from reproach such as had more sence of Honour then Ambition much blamed them for not paying that little devoir to him from whom they had received so much honour And indeed some body tack'd a Paper upon the Pall that cover'd his Coffin wherein were these words Taneguy du Chastel where art thou This Taneguy as was well known tho banished from Court during the Reign of Charles VII his Master came generously back again thither to make a Funeral for that King at his own charges shewing his gratitude thereby and making it appear to all the World that his thankfulness for the favours he had received were above his fear of the resentments of Lewis XI a mortal Enemy to the memory and Servants of his own Father The Constable who had been sent for several times but crept along slowly by little Journeys having heard the tydings of the Kings death doubled his pace and Arrived the Eight of the Month of December at Orleans Entring into Year of our Lord 1560 the City he made use of the power belonging to his Office and commanded away the Guards that were at the Gates threatning to send them to the Gallows if he found them any more besieging or investing the King in that manner in a time of Peace and in the very heart of his Kingdom As for the Prince though he had free liberty as soon as ever the King expir'd nevertheless he refused to go out of Prison till he knew who were the prosecutors against him and who his accusers There were none durst undertake to play so desperate a Game and the Guises replied that all had been done by express Command of the King but did not produce any Order by vertue whereof he had been so prosecuted So that Thirteen dayes afterwards he came forth and went to Ham in Picardy attended with Honour and respect by those very men that had served as Guards upon him in his Confinement CHARLES IX King LX. POPES PIUS IV. Five Years under this Reign PIUS V. Elected the 7 January 1566. S. 6 Years 3 Months and 24 dayes GREGORY XIII Elected the 13. of May 1572. S. 13. Years wanting one Month whereof two years under this Reign Year of our Lord 1560. in December THose hopes many had conceived that King Francis II. being near the time of his compleat Majority might possibly extinguish all the Factions were now by his death changed into a just fear of finding them rather more enflamed and heightned from a Sedition to a Bloody War wherefore the Tumults increasing every day they made hast to Assemble the Estates from whom the silly vulgar expect a redress of all their grievances and troubles The first Session was held the Thirteenth of December in a great Timber Hall expresly built in the place called l'Estape The Chancellor begun it with a Speech becoming his gravity He blamed the violent proceedings in matters of Religion told them the only means to reclaim such as went astray was a good exemplary Life and sound Doctrine exhorted them earnestly to lay aside the injurious names of Lutherans Huguenots Papists and desired every one to forbear all hatred and own no passion but for the publick good in which consists the benefit of all particular Persons There was nothing else done at this first meeting only the three Orders were sent to confer together about their Papers and Instructions Some who were inspired with a bolder zeal had a mind to confer the Regency upon the King of Navarre but withal to leave the Education of the young King to his Mother to set bounds to the Government and make choice of a good Council for the management of all Affairs of State The Queen Mother took the Allarm caused the Kings Council to make a Decree which forbad the Deputies to intermeddle with the Government and made use of so many intrigues that the Navarrois a Prince very inconstant and irresolute was perswaded to confirm what he had promised her during the Imprisonment of his Brother Year of our Lord 1561 The second of January was the second Sessions of the Estates The three Orders made their Harangues John de Lange Advocate of Bourdeaux spake for the Third Estate James de Silly Earl of Rochefort for the Nobility and John Quintin a Canon of Autun and Doctor en Decret for the Clergy The two first laid great stress and weight upon the Vices of the Ecclesiasticks the cause of all the disorders The last endeavour'd to defend them retorted all upon the new Sectaries and reflected particularly upon the Admiral who demanded reparation Year of our Lord 1561 Quintin was obliged to do it in a set Speech at the closing up of the Estates Whatever accord there could be between the Navarrois and the Regent yet there was danger that the Estates if they consider'd their power might put some Fetters upon this Woman who was a stranger and besides they began to perceive that the Princes were forming parties and tryed to foist in certain propositions for their own interests or concerning their private quarrels Amongst others the King of Navarre put them upon calling for an account of the Finances and a particular of all the Gifts bestowed in the Reign of Henry II. himself proffering to surrender all that were given him This touched the Constable and the Mareschal de Saint André more then the Guises as having expended more in the Kings Service then they had gained The Regent soon perceived where it pinched and joyning them to her self upon this consideration easily adjourned the Estates to the Month of May and the City of Pontoise and ordained that she might be at less Charge and trouble to bribe them that there should come but two Deputies from each Government In the Month of February the King being come to Fountainbleau the Prince of Condé appeared there with a slender attendance that he might give them no jealousie The next day being admitted to the Privy-Council and having spoken of his innocency he asked the Chancellor whether there were any proofs against him the Chancellor answered No and all the Princes and Lords having testified that they were satisfied of his innocency the King commanded him to take his Seat The Council did after make a Decree which declared him wholly innocent and sent him back to the Parliament of Paris to get a more Authentique one as he did in a few days afterwards The courage of the Guises did not sink upon the rise of their enemies they were supported by the Catholick Party and
the Catholicks by them It is most certain but for them the old Religion must have given place to the new Sect. The Regent favour'd them in show that they might not fly out to extremes In the mean time the Navarrois desiring to enlarge his power began a quarrel by demanding to have the Keys of the Kings House brought to him not to the Duke of Guise that honour being his due in respect of his Office of Grand-Maistre The pretence was but slight but the King of Navarre carried it on so high that he was upon leaving the Court with all the Princes of the Blood and the Constable to come to Paris and deliberate concerning the Government of the State What did the Queen She regains the Constable and that he might have a plausible excuse to break their intended project prevailed with the King to command him in presence of the Four Secretaries of State not to forsake or leave him So that the Navarrois apprehending they might perhaps do well enough now without him was advised to stay and came to an agreement with the Queen who augmented his power of Lieutenancy From that time the Constable began to fall off from the Princes of the Blood The same proposition concerning the repetition of gifts being renew'd in the particular Estates of Paris he was made believe it was chiefly aimed at him because he had in truth received an Hundred Thousand Crowns under Henry II. whereof he had given no account To the apprehension he was under of being obliged to repay this Sum were joyned the several exhortations of his Wife the Dutchess of Valentinois Honorat de Savoy Count de Villars his Brother in Law his Son Henry Lord of Danville all which under the specious pretence of preserving the Catholick Religion persuaded him to enter into a League with the Duke of Guise and the Mareschal de Saint André the remonstrances of the Prince the Coligny's his Nephews and his Son the Mareschal esteemed one of the wisest Lords in the Kingdom were not so prevalent as to hinder it The Huguenots named this Union the Triumvirat These Brouilleries had hitherto retarded the Kings Coronation When these three Lords were thus united they carried him to Reims where he received the Crown the fifteenth day of May from the hands of the Cardinal de Lorrain Arch-Bishop of that See The Duke of Guise pursuant to the ancient Order of the Kingdom which gives place according to the dignity of their Lands or antiquity of Peerage not according to their birth did there precede the Duke of Montpensier a Prince of the Blood the Queen-Regent having so adjudged it though on the other hand she would have Alexander Monsieur her second Son Year of our Lord 1561 precede the King of Navarre who had a more eminent Title which was not so practised at the Coronation of Francis II. It had been agreed by the Treaty of the general Peace that within three years the right of the Kings pretensions to the Territories of the Duke of Savoy should be Examined and settled by Commissioners on either part King Francis II. and the Duke had named Deputies for that end in the year 1560. Anthony Seguier President in Parliament and Anthony de Chandon Master of Requests who were for the King made Six Demands 1. The County of Nice which they said was a Member of the County of Provence 2. The Cities of Turin Cony Montdevis Albe Querasque and Savillan 3. The County of Ast which had been given in Dower to Valentine de Milan Wife of the Duke of Orleans 4. The Dependancies of the Marquiss de Salusses specified in an Arrest or Decree of Parliament in the year 1390. 5. Homage of that Duke for what he held in Daufiné on this side Guyer le Vif and elsewhere in Focygny and in Genevois and the inheritance of Louisa Mother of Francis I. They produced their Titles and their Pleas the Deputies for the Duke their exceptions and their answers but seeing on either side they acted rather as Advocates then Judges they could not agree upon any thing and made their reports severally and diversly The Duke could not therefore obtain any thing till the year following when he was so earnest with the King that by Letters Patents of the eight of August he commanded that they should restore to him Turin Chivas Quiers and Villa-Nuova d'Ast excepting only the Ammunitions and Artillery in exchange for Pignerol Savillan and Perouse with all the Lands within their Limits Imbert de la Platiere Bourdillon the Kings Lieutenant beyond the Alpes started many difficulties sent warm Remonstrances to the Council to prevent the Execution of that Order and would not obey till after three express Commands and upon the most solemn and authentick discharges that could be imagined Which yet would have availed but little if the Dukes had not paid all the Arrears that were due to the French Garrisons in the said places and had not moreover lent a Hundred Thousand Crowns to the King The Ambiguous conduct of the Regent fomented the Troubles On the one side she feigned to give a favourable ear to the Huguenots for she permitted John de Montluc Bishop of Valence and Peter du Vall Bishop of Sées to Preach even in the Kings Family such Doctrine as was very much like theirs She wrote a long Epistle to the Pope wherein she said that till there were a General Council they might safely be admitted to the Communion of the Roman Church since they held or taught nothing contrary to Holy Scripture or the seven first Oecumenical Councils She set forth an Edict which commanded all men to leave them in peace and released from Prison and call'd home from Banishment all such as had been prosecuted upon that single account This was the first they ever had in their favour and on the other side she incited the Constable to complain aloud and openly of these things thus done to the prejudice of the Roman Church Honour would not allow the Constable to joyn himself openly with the Duke of Guise whilst the Prince of Condé continued to be his Enemy wherefore he begg'd the Queen to make an accommodation between them Both of them being therefore commanded to come into the presence of the King the Princes Cardinals and great Officers the Duke of Guise Addressing his Speech to the Prince assured him he had no way contributed to his imprisonment the Prince replied he held him for a Rascal and a Traitor whoever were the Author of it the Duke answer'd he believed so to and that this did no way concern him This past the King Commanded them to embrace and promise each other a sincere and cordial amity An instrument hereof was drawn up in writing which was signed by the two Secretaries of State The Parliament was in such a heat against the Edict the Queen had obtained in favour of the Huguenots because they had sent it only to the Presidials and not to
called him Blasphemer in so much as Beze was asham'd of it and endeavour'd to excuse himself to the Queen and filed his rough and grating Proposition a little smoother It had been resolved to reduce all the dispute to two heads the one of the true Church the other about the Eucharist The Sixteenth of September the Cardinal de Lorrain made a discourse as learned as it was eloquent and full of solid reasonings both upon the one and other point which he concluded with this that there could be no re-union of the Sectaries with the Church if they did not believe the reallity of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist The other Prelates rising up applauded this proposition declared they would live and dye in that belief he had explained and besought the King and Queen to persevere and to defend it protesting they would break off the Colloquy if the Ministers refused to yield that point It was continued nevertheless for sometime longer The Four and Twentieth of September Beza strained hard to reply to the Cardinals discourse then entred into dispute with the Catholick Doctors as did his Companions afterwards each in his turn Father Jacques Laynes a Spaniard and Superiour General of the Jesuits whom the Cardinal de Ferrara the Popes Legat who arrived not till a good while after this Conference was begun had brought along with him would not confer with the Ministers but treated them with the epithets of Wolves Monkeys and Serpents and boldly told the Queen that it did not belong to her to hold Assemblies for matters concerning Religion especially since the Pope had convocated a Council The disputes were not discontinued for all that till in fine the alteration having so exasperated and heated their spirits that they were capable of nothing but downright quarrelling they broke up the Conference the five and twentieth day of November month November Some believed the Cardinal de Lorrain had chiefly promoted this who having some kind of correspondence with the Lutherans of Germany thought to make himself head and as it were Pope of that Party opposed to the Roman Church which however as to the exteriour differs not much and in this prospect had promised them to engage the Ministers of France by this Colloquy to subscribe to the Ausburg Confession And indeed towards the end of the Colloquy there came some Lutheran Ministers to Paris and the King of Navarre overpersuaded by the Lawyer Francis Baudouin Tutor to his Bastard-Son joyned with that Church but seeing those of France held at too great a distance and made the difference too wide the Cardinal de Lorrain dispairing to bring his ends to pass became equally an utter enemy both to the one and the other As in this Colloquy the Huguenots had for the first time the liberty allowed them to dispute the controverted Articles of Religion they thought they might have every where that of exercising it and began to open their Temples in every Year of our Lord 1561 Province The Queen-Mother in retribution of the services paid her by the Admiral lent him or feigned to lend him her helping hand in many occurrences and even sent orders to the Kings Ambassador at Rome to be instant with the Pope and Cardinals for obtaining the Communion in both Species and the allowance to pray to God in French which she could not obtain perhaps because as she demanded it openly she obstructed it underhand The Triumviri could not endure the great credit the Admiral was in and retired from Court making Religion the pretence of their discontent The King of Spain who affected the Title of Catholick express'd a great deal of Anger for that they favoured the Huguenots and particularly against the King of Navarre thereby to have a Salvo Conscientiae not to do him right concerning his Kingdom and a pretence to intermeddle with the Affairs of France to which he was invited by some of the most eminent in whom the passion to govern and to supplant their Enemies was more prevalent then love to their Native Country or the honour of this State A short while before a Priest was taken going into Spain with a Petition to King Philip in the name of the Catholicks together with certain very dangerous instructions He was carried to the common Goal The Parliament considering the quality of the persons involved in this business durst not search too deep but thought fit only to condemn him to make amende honorable in full Audience bare-head and his feet bare with a Torch lighted in his hand and to be shut up between four Walls in the Convent of the Chartreux Likewise a Batchellor of Sorbon named Tanquerel having maintained some Thesis wherein he asserted the Pope had an absolute power over all Kings as well in Temporals as in Spirituals and that therefore he might depose them if they deserved it the Parliament ordained that he should make amende honorable and because he absented himself it was said the Beadle of the Faculty should do it for him in the School of the Sorbon before a President two Counsellors and the Sollicitor General and in presence of the Dean and Doctors who were enjoyned to be there upon pain of forfeiting all the Priviledges to them granted by the Kings The Holy Fathers greatest fear was lest he should lose his Authority in France by a National Council the interest of the King of Spain was to gain some Authority by rendring himself necessary and that of the Regent to preserve her own and encrease it The King of Navarre shared in this with her and therefore they could never well accord but all the rest endeavoured to adjust themselves with that Prince The Constable served as mediator to reconcile him with the Duke of Guise and he to bring him to a correspondence with the Pope and the King of Spain His Sentiments concerning Religion were a great obstruction nevertheless they had the Art to manage him so well that they brought him to their bent They propounded to him first if he would repudiate Jane d'Albret his Wife as he might lawfully do said they because she was an Heretick that then he should be Married to Queen Mary Steward who would bring him the Kingdoms of Scotland and of England and when they found he could not resolve upon that Divorce they gave him verbal assurances that the King of Spain would give him up the Island of Sardinia which they described to him as a Country abounding in all things of delight and use in recompence of Navarre This charming illusion was the bait that drew him into their snare Year of our Lord 1562 January In the Month of January of the Year 1562. the Regent who desired to support her self by the Huguenots got an Edict in their favour containing amongst other things the revocation of that in July permission for them to Preach in all parts of the Kingdom excepting in Wall'd Cities namely in Paris An Assembly of the Notables authorized it the
Parliament of Paris verified it not without great difficulty and with this Clause in consideration of the present juncture of the times but not approving of the new Religion in any manner and till the King should otherwise ordain The other Parliaments prescribed several modifications When the Triumviri had absented themselves the Admiral appeared most powerful at Court and was effectually so for some days but he afterwards lost himself in the Queens good opinion by his own fault For too much prosperity having made him lay open his heart too much he would needs make it appear to her the strength of the Huguenots was much greater then in truth they were demanding Temples for Two Thousand One Hundred and Fifty Congregations Year of our Lord 1562. February He did it with intent to persuade her that she might find amongst them strength enough to maintain her self against all the World She pretended to believe it and charged him to take an account how many Men those Churches upon occasion of necessity could furnish her with fit to bear Arms but they prudently denied to discover their whole strength and in the mean time the Queen imagined he would have her depend solely upon his Credit so that she put her self upon her Guard towards him and resolved though she did make use of him yet not by subjecting her self Now he and the Prince of Condé observing withal a potent League was preparing to attack them believed it was lawful to joyn the German Princes to their party since their Adversaries had taken the Spaniards into them The Duke of Guise and the Cardinal his Brother having notice of it labour'd with great assiduity to prevent such assistance themselves went to Savern to discourse with the Duke of Virtemberg from whom the Prince hoped to get a considerable party They craftily feigned a great propensity to Luthers Doctrine and made him believe that if they had but some good correspondence with the German Princes who generally were of that Church they would bring both the Catholicks and Zuinglians to reason and by that means restore the Church to Unity The Duke of Wirtemberg was cajolled with this specious pretence and sell from the Huguenots the more readily for that in truth the Lutherans hate them but little less then the Roman Catholicks do themselves At his return from Saverne the Duke of Guise having sojourned some days at his Castle of Joinville was desired by his Confederates to come speedily to Paris because the Huguenots being countenanc'd by the Regent the Prince of Condé the Admiral and their Governor the Mareschal de Montmorency would needs be uppermost They were permitted to Preach in the Fauxbourg Saint Merceau and in that of Saint Antoine the Chevalier du Guet or Captain of the Watch had order to Guard them with his Archers and they had disarm'd the people of Paris for fear they should run open-Mouth upon them which had so raised their courage that the Priests could not carry the Holy Sacrament along the Streets without danger of an up-roar month March About the latter end of the foregoing year there hap'ned a great Tumult in the Fauxbourg Saint Marceau where they broke open the Church Doors of Saint Medard pull'd down the Images kill'd divers persons and dragged the Priests most shamefully to Prison because some Catholicks had abused a man whom they sent to bid them leave off jangling their Bells which hindred their hearing the Minister The Parliament having taken Information upon complaint of either party found the Huguenots guilty and punish't their insolency with the death of two or three of them Now the first day of March as the Duke of Guise was passing thorough the little Town of Vassy it hap'ned that some quarrel arose between some that were of his Train and the Huguenots who held their meeting in a Grange and he going thither to pacifie them was wounded on the Cheek with a stone His people seeing his face all bloody their rage grew to such a height that they slew near threescore of them and wounded above two hundred This is what the Huguenots have called the Massacre of Vassy and which in effect proved as it were the first signal to all those bloody Wars for Religion which afterwards afflicted this unhappy Reign though it were a pure accident without any design or fault in the Duke of Guise After he had taken with him the Cardinal his Brother in his passage by Reims he came to Mantueil his friends came to him in Crowds and the Constable sent to Complement him In the mean time the Prince of Condé was gone to Monceaux to make Complaint to the King about the Murthers at Vassy The Regent found her self mightily perplext She promised the Huguenots to do them justice wrote to the King of Navarre who was at Paris to provide for the safety of the King and Kingdom sent for the Duke of Guise to come to Court without any Company and enjoyned the Mareschal de Saint André to repair to his Government of Lyonnois But the Navarrois sharply reproved the Huguenot Deputies who carried him the complaints from those of Vassy the Duke of Guise replyed that he was busie and could not yet appear at Court and the Mareschal told the Queen to her face that in the posture things then stood he could not abandon the Kings Person Year of our Lord 1562. March Shortly after the Duke of Guise came to Paris attended by a Thousand or Twelve Hundred Horse His Enemies would have made it a Crime de Laesae Majestatis for having Marched in by the Gate Saint Denis thorough which the Kings make usually their Entry as likewise because the Prevost des Marchands and the Eschevins who went out to meet him made him a Speech and the People made loud Shouts and Acclamations as to the King It is not credible the Queen had any suspition that the Duke aimed at the Crown but she imagined that he and his Confederates intended to snatch the Government out of her hands This apprehension putting her into extream trouble she had recourse to the Prince of Condé who was retired to his House and wrote several Letters to recommend her Son to him as likewise the Kingdome and her self with expressions so affectionate and so full of Compassion hinting that the Confederates kept her in Captivity as gave him just cause to arm himself though he had not had the least inclination to it Their principal aim was to bring the King back to Paris that they might have him entirely at their devotion The Prevost des Marchands who was for them came to Melun to request it of the Queen and demand the Parisians might have their Armes again restored to defend themselves against the Huguenots The last particular was granted and the other was promised in time convenient mean while the Confederates so contrived it that the Commission for the Government of Paris was given to the Cardinal de Bourbon the Mareschal de
out the Prince and intreat him earnestly to come to Court assuring him that whatsoever had been done against the Protestants was much against her will and that with his Assistance she would endeavour to repair it The Prince began to listen to it and was inclined to condescend when news was brought him that the Huguenots coming out of Church at Sens were all Massacred and their Houses saccaged by the Soldiers the fault whereof was charged upon the Cardinal de Lorrain Archbishop of that City The Prince having heard the particulars said to his People that they must hope for nothing now but from God and their own Courage They then caused white Cassocks of Cloth to be made for all their Cavalry and endeavour'd to animate and keep up their Spirits by Printing several little Books some for their Justification others to bespatter the House of Guise and particularly the Cardinal de Lorrain Year of our Lord 1562 Yet there were many Envoyez and propositions sent from the one to the other The Prince demanded the Edict of January should be observed that there should be Justice done for such as were Massacred and that the Triumviri should quit the Court. They to repel these Attaques presented a Petition that there might be no other Religion in France but the Catholick That all Servants belonging to the King all Governors Officers Magistrates c. should make a publick Profession of it or be deprived of their Employments That all such as had laid violent hands on things Sacred should be punished for their Sacriledge That no man should bear Arms but such as were Commissioned by the King of Navarre upon which Conditions they offer'd to retire from Court month June These Messages having effected nothing towards a reconciliation the Queen would needs confer with the Prince her self the place was assigned at Toury where either came accompanied with about Fifty Horse and all the necessary precautions The King of Navarre was with the Queen The Gentlemen belonging to them who were kept at Eight Hundred paces distance left they should chance to quarrel could not be restrained from running to embrace each other weeping to express both the joy for their present meeting and the sorrow for that fate which threatned to change this friendship into a Scene of fury and these Salutations into the necessity of cutting suddenly one anothers Throats In sine the Queen could not gain her ends The King of Navarre and the Prince picqu'd each other with reproaches and the Conference broke off The Prince had a good part of the Nobles and Soldiery for him The Confederates had the Parisians the Name and Person of the King which are necessarily followed by the Great Officers and Parliament The Six and Twentieth of June the Parliament declared all such as had seized those Cities before mentioned Rebels and guilty of Treason However they excepted the Prince of Condé as if it must have been supposed that the Huguenots detained him by force The Armies on either part took the Field and these being the one in the Country of Orleannois the other in Dunois the Queen made one Essay more which was like to have succeeded to the destruction of both the Factions She proposed to the Prince by the advice of Valence to make the Guises and the Constable quit the Court if he would lay down his Arms and come and put himself into hers and the King of Navarres hands The Prince running inconsiderately into this toyl goes to the Queen at Talsy as soon as ever he heard the Triumviri were retired and by a second imprudence promised to leave the Kingdom if they returned not to Court The Admiral de Coligny and the other Chiefs of his Party mightily in pain and disquiet both for him and themselves came the next day and made him sensible he could not in honour engage his word to the prejudice of what he had promis'd them and was in Conscience bound to make good and thus they obliged him to recal it at the next Conference which was held the following day and brought him back again to his Army Every one admiring the Queen Mother had not taken the whole Covey as she might easily have done with one fair draught of her Net which she could not possibly have forborn had it been for her Interest so to do month June and July The number of Cities the Huguenots had seized were too many for their Forces and kept them scattered at too great a distance from each other they soon lost most of them again together with a great many of their Men Blois and Anger 's were forced with all the Cruelties attending the fury of a Civil War Mans and Tours were abandoned The Duke of Aumale who Commanded the Kings Armies in Normandy for the Duke of Bouillon was suspected of Huguenotisme recover'd all the places about Rouen and the Duke of Estampes Governour of Bretagne Valongne Vire Saint Lo and Bayeux At Vire were the greatest Cruelties committed because the Huguenots had been most cruel there During the Negotiations and the many difficulties there are in Cementing together the several Members of a new made Party where most times three break off whilst they are soddering one the heat of the Princes zealots began to grow cool Most part came to him full of resolution and with the hopes and expectation of being led on to Battle immediately expecting that a few moments either would give them Victory or a brave and glorious death but when they found things were drawn out in Length many desired lieve to return so that being unable to keep them longer together there with him he sent John de Partenay Soubize to Lyons John de Hangest-Yvoy to Bourges the Count de la Rochefoucaud Year of our Lord 1562 to Angoâ—lesme Dandelot into Germany and Briquemault to England the two last to hasten those Supplies which had been promised him in those Countries month July and August The Kings Army was encreased to Five and Twenty Thousand Foot and Five Thousand Horse they were divided in two bodies one of them with whom the King was in Person commanded by the King of Navarre and the Duke of Guise went to besiege Bourges the other commanded by the Mareschal de Saint André was sent to Poitiers This last place was taken by Battery in fewer dayes then the Soldiers had to pillage it it was gained on the first day of August The other was reduced by Composition the Nine and Twentieth of the same Month. They had sustained near upon a Five Weeks Siege and might have held it longer if Yvoy who defended it with Two Thousand Men had not suffer'd himself to be prevailed upon either by fear or the cajoleries and allurements of the Court. And indeed he soon after quitted the Party and retired to his own home month September Bourges being taken most part of the Chief Officers were for going directly to Orleans where they might have coop'd up the Prince and by
that means cut off the greatest head of the Faction The Queen would not have it so the Duke of Guise himself thought the enterprize too difficult and favouring the Parisians in what they most desired was of opinion they should lay Siege to Rouen The Army Arrived there about the Twentieth of September and just in a nick of time to hinder that Progress the Huguenots might have made with the help of the English For on the same day a Treaty of Confederation was signed between Queen Elizabeth and them at Hampton-Court specifying that she should furnish them with Six Thousand Men one half to be put into Havre de Grace which should be delivered to her and which she should keep for the King and was to serve for a place of retreat and refuge to the Huguenots which in a few days afterwards was Executed The Fort Saint Catherine was taken by Storm The City maintained their Attaques with all possible Resolution They proffer'd them such composition as was reasonable enough and for three several times the Queen Mother hindred the Duke of Guise from giving the Assault being perswaded by the prudent Coun sel of the Chancellor that nothing can be more prejudicial to a Soveraign then to make Conquests upon himself and pillage his own Cities But when they found the Besieged did continue to reject with Stubbornness those favours and that mercy they were importuned to accept the Kings Council gave the Duke lieve to let loose the Reynes to Victory He therefore gave a general Assault the Five and Twentieth of October Their resistance was not equal to their obstinacy they abandoning all at the first Shock The Soldiers pillaged them above eight dayes together which proved the more cruel because they were extreamly rich Montgomery who had a Galley lying there ready upon all occasions it was one of the Kings which hapned to put into Rouen when the Huguenots master'd the Town soon got aboard of it with his Friends together with the English The Slaves to whom he had promised their Liberty rowed with such force that it slid quite over the Chain they had laid cross the River at Caudebec They hanged up John du Bose d'Esmandreville President of the Court of Aydâ—s two Councellors belonging to the City Marlorat the Minister and Eight or Ten Captains amongst others du Cros who had been Governor of Havre de Grace and deliver'd the place up to the English By way of Reprizal or Retaliation the Prince caused the Heads of some Catholicks to be cut off that were in his Hands amongst others John Baptist Sapin Councellor of the Parliament of Paris and John de Troyes Abbot of Gastine who were taken in Vendosmois as they were on their way to Spain from the King Giles leu Maistre first President of the Parliament revenged the Death of Sapin who was his Nephew upon some unfortunate Huguenots that were Prisoners in Paris whom he sent to the common Place of Execution These retaliations had gone on to infinity if the Captains of the Catholick Party who apprehended the like Reprisals should they have fallen into the Enemies power had not engaged their Chiefs to desist from such kind of Process and to make good the usual Rules of War and Martial Customes and Laws The Five and Twentieth of October the King of Navarre had been wounded in the Trenches while he was making water by a Musquet shot in his left Shoulder The City being taken he would needs be carried in his Bed by his Year of our Lord 1562 Swiss Soldiers to make a Triumphant entrance thorough the breach His wound was not Mortal but his too assiduous entertainment of the Damoiselle du Rouet one of those Sirenes the Regent employ'd to enchant that poor Prince withal heated his blood too much after which his impatience to be Cured making him venture by Boat to Paris he was seized with a Trembling and afterwards fell into a cold Sweat the Symptomes of approaching death as indeed it proved for the Boat stopping at Andelis he there resigned his last breath the Seventeenth day of November shewing himself in this last Act as he had done in all the other Four wavering and irresolv'd between the Catholick Religion and the Confession of Ausbourg but discovering enough the bad opinion he had of the Government by an express order he gave to fore-warn his Wife from coming to the Court to stand well upon her Guard and Fortifie her places The trouble the Prince was in for the bloody Conquest of Rouen was yet augmented by the unwelcome News brought him from Guyenne Duras had raised Five Thousand Men for him in that Country this Army of Fellows pickt up at random and most Robbers living without order were charged by Montluc and cut in pieces near the Burrough de Vere between Perigueux and Sarlat Which brought the Prince two great dis-advantages the one that he lost this considerable Supply the other that Montluc's Forces having nothing else in those Parts to fear joyned with the Kings Army some dayes before the Battel of Dreux There have been many Volumes Printed of all the Minute passages in every Province particularly in Guyenne Languedoc and in Daufiné the surprising taking and retaking of Towns a World of little Fights and Skirmishes the Barbarities and Massacres committed on both sides the Insolencies and furious rage of the People which to say the truth they were but too much and too highly provoked unto by the Huguenots in divers places I shall therefore only observe in gross that Sommerine for the Catholick Party made a rude War in Provence against his Father the Count de Tendes who held with the Huguenots That in Daufiné the Baron des Adrets having taken up Armes for these and the Count de Suse for the other pursued each other by turnes very close and smartly and that the Baron made himself Terrible by his enormous Cruelties Precipitating Massacring and Drowning without Faith or Compassion such as resisted him in any place That Tavanes a zealous Catholiâ—k having retaken Chaalon and Mascon preserved for a time all Burgundy from being any further involved in the Civil War That Normandy was all laid waste and desolate the higher by reason of the Sieges of Rouen and Havre and the lower by the Count de Montgommery and the Breton Troops which the Duke d'Estampes had brought in thither to make head against him That Joyeuse preserved one part of Languedoc in the Ancient Religion That Montluc as we may find in his Commentaries rendred the King great Service in Guyenne but that he exceeded the bounds even of severity it self against the Huguenots I shall add that their Party had the disadvantage almost every where unless in Languedoc where they held all the best Cities excepting Toulouze which intending to seize upon in the Month of May they were drove thence after an obstinate Fight of many dayes and the loss of Three Thousand of their Men not reckoning about Two Hundred more who were
himself by publick Writing and made oath he detested that Act In vain he Petitioned the Queen by Letters not to hasten the Execution of that Assassin that he might be confronted with him the House of Guise believed he was Guilty and whether he were really so or not the Children of that Duke took the most bloody revenge that we read of in any History of the World The Admirals request to the Queen seemed reasonable enough nevertheless Poltrot being carried to Paris the sixteenth day of March was in few days judged the Parliament condemned him to the same punishment as those that attempt the Sacred Person of a King which was to have his Flesh torn off with red hot pincers and drawn to pieces by four Wild-Horses The same day the Duke of Guises Corps was brought to Paris deposited at the Chartreux from thence born to Nostre-Dame with great lamentation and the real mourning of the whole City and then inhumed in the Sepulchre of his Fathers at Joinville Charles Duke of Lorrain made a solemn service for him at Nancy and the Pope another in his Chappel at Rome with Funeral Orations which certainly might be very noble without any mixture of Flattery The justice and moderation of that heroick Soul appeared yet more eminently in the last moments of his Life for he justified himself of the Massacre of Vassy expressing a deep Sorrow that that accident should have given occasion for a Year of our Lord 1563 Civil War and advised the Queen to make a Peace telling her positively that whoever obstructed it were Enemies both to the Kingdom in general and to the King in particular And indeed while he was yet living she had begun to Treat about it first at Saint Mesnin with Eleonora de Roye Wife to the Prince of Condé whom she caress'd extraordinarily giving her even hopes that her Husband should have the Lieutenancy as the King of Navarre his Brother had before Then with the Prince and the Constable in the Isle aux Boeufs near Orleans to which place they both were brought under strong Guard And as the Constable stood stiff not to allow of the Edict of January and the Prince was as resolute on the contrary the Queen permitted the Prince to go into Orleance to communicate with the Heads of his Party The Ministers insisted that at what price soever he should maintain the Edict of January The Officers who were weary of the War and himself who already longed to enjoy the sweet Air of the Court and the softer pleasures of Women relaxed in many things and contented themselves with a more moderate Edict It allowed such as were Lords High Justices to have a place for publick Preaching in their Territories and to others that have mean or low Justice to have private ones in their own Houses only for themselves and Family provided withal they did not dwell in Burroughs or Parishes that held of any other Justice but the Kings Moreover it gave them Liberty to Preach within such jurisdiction whence appeals may be made to the Parliament without any other Medium as likewise in such Cities where they had enjoy'd that Liberty till the fifteenth day of March last and together with this it also contained a general Amnisty a discharge to the Prince for all the Royal Money he had taken or caused to be taken and an acknowledgment whereby the King owned that he was his faithful Kinsman and affectionate to the good of the Kingdom and that all those that had followed him had acted nothing but with honest intentions and for his service The Queen did so earnestly press the conclusion of this Treaty that it was Signed on either part the eighteenth of March before the Admiral was return'd from Normandy He made bitter complaint to the Prince for having so ill managed the interest of his Party in a juncture of time when he might have mightily improved it but the thing was done and those complaints served for no other purpose but to evaporate his Choller The Edict was published in Parliament about the latter end of March. That of Toulouze delay'd till they were commanded more then once and moreover constrain'd to revoke all the diffamatory Decrees they had made against the Counsellors belonging to that Body and against the Capitous The Soldiery that were at Orleans having first celebrated their Communion in the Church called Saint Croix Marched out of the City They did the same in many others which they held in divers places leaving them in a most desolate condition having ruined their fairest Churches Commissioners were sent into the Provinces by the King to restore the Huguenots to their own and put the Edict in Execution but the most part made all the difficulties in it they possibly could excepting such as they could gain by force of presents If this liberty of Conscience which was allowed them were a just cause for the Clergies complaint an Edict made in the Month of May at Saint Germain en laye for the Alienation of a Hundred Thousand Crowns Sol of their Revenue in fund which was executed with great severity made their complaints rise much higher and louder Year of our Lord 1563. April c. Some while after the Chancellor de l'Hospital to still their out-cries a little granted them power to buy the same again and caused another Edict to be published whereby it was ordained that the Tenths should be paid to them which without doubt proved very effectual towards the strengthning and fixing the Catholick Religion for had the Huguenots been exempt from those payments the ✚ greater part of those whose Estates lay in the Country would have gone over to them that they might at once have gained the tenths of all their Estates The Duke of Guise being dead and the Peace made the Queen lived somewhat more at her ease Nevertheless four grand Affairs did yet perplex her mind the Princes conduct Havre de Grace which was still in the hands of the English the dissatisfaction of the Parliament of Paris and the eager pursuit and sollicitation of the Dutchess of Guise and her Children to have justice done them for the death of their Father Year of our Lord 1563 Whatever Artifice she could make use of it it was impossible for her to separate the Prince from the Admiral nor to dazle him with the fine Visions of the Kingdom of Sardinia wherewith she had enchanted the King of Navarre his Brother but Eleonora de Roye his Wife hapning to die she endeavoured to chain him to the Court with the Charmes of a voluptuous life and the tempting beauty of one of her Maids of Honour who having refused nothing to serve her Mistress found her self incommoded for nine Months after and was for a time the discourse and entertainment of the Court where the like accidents affords matter for more sport and divertisement then scandal The Widdow of the Mareschal de Saint André upon another Motive which was the hopes
of Marrying him endeavour'd likewise to inspire him with love but entertain'd in her own Breast so great a passion for him as made her purchase her own satisfaction at the Price of her Lands at Valery which she bestowed upon him The Admiral observing that these Debaucheries in the head of the Party decryed even all the Party it self and fearing withal left there should some new beauty appear whose perswasive Eloquence might prove more powerful then his Preaching Ministers made him such earnest Remonstrances that he obliged him to break all those Bonds and Fetters of idle and pernicious wandring loves by tying a second time the sacred conjugal Knot taking to his lawful Bed Frances Sister of Leonor Duke of Longueville Every thing was in a readiness for the recovering of Havre by force for it was a plain case that Queen Elizabeth intended to keep it as a recompence for the loss of Calais After she had therefore refused to surrender it a War was declared against her by a Herauld and the King being at Gaillion Brisac began the Siege the Constable and his Son the Mareschal came thither fifteen days after The French went about it with much resolution the Huguenots with more forwardness yet then the Catholicks to take away that reproach laid at their doors of having introduced those Forraigners into the Kingdom Ambrose Earl of Warwick was Governor there with a Garrison of Four Thousand Men. The assailants press'd hard upon them from without and the Plague made so rude a War and such havock amongst them within as kill'd forty or fifty of them every day and had cast down above two thousand on the Bed of Sickness and of sorrow for being now useless but that which amazed Year of our Lord 1563. in July them more then all this was to find that even the Huguenots whom their Queen had so much assisted were become their roughest Enemies These considerations forced them to surrender the place the twenty seventh of July with all the Artillery and Ammunitions belonging to the King and all the Ships and Goods belonging to the French The next day there appeared a Supply of Eighteen Hundred Men within sight of the Port which in few days had been seconded with a Navy of Threescore great Ships Commanded by Admiral Clinton but finding the Capitulation concluded he returned again ☞ The English revenged themselves for this loss upon the Merchants Ships That was all they could do as being unable to commit further mischief upon France after the loss of Calais but only to turn Pirates They continued this War at Sea for some Months after which they consented to a Truce which was converted into a Treaty of Peace the ninth of April in the year 1564. wherein it was said that either of them should preserve their rights and pretensions This was to be understood with respect to the English as to the City of Calais which King Henry II. by a Treaty made in Anno 1559. was obliged to restore within eight years during which time nothing was to be attempted on either part Now the French pretended the English had violated this condition and had therefore forfeited their right as to the recovery of Calais During this Siege King Charles entred upon his fourteenth year The Declaration of King Charles the wise which perhaps was never well understood will that the King be declared in Majority at fourteen years and it was the Queens intent to do it at the soonest thereby to arrogate to her self the whole authority under the name of the King and exclude the Prince and the Constable Now by common right the age of majorities ought to be full and compleat The Chancellor de l'Hospital the Queens only Council in these matters perswaded her there was no necessity to wait the plenitude of fourteen years and said that in a favourable account the year commenced was reck'ned compleat but whether he suspected the Parliament of Paris would not be of that sentiment because they might justly doubt whether it would be favourable or prejudicial to Year of our Lord 1563 the Kingdom or apprehended that Senate would set up a Council for this King as they had done for Charles VI. he was of opinion they should carry him to the Parliament of Rouen to pass this Act. month September The King sitting therefore in his Seat of Justice was there declared Major the Fourteenth of the Month of August and at the same time he caused them to pass an Edict which was after verified in all the other Parliaments ordaining that the Edict he had made for Liberty of Conscience should be observed till such time as the Questions should be decided by a Council or else by him should otherwise be ordained That whosoever should violate the same should be Treated as a Rebel That all Persons should lay down their Arms and renounce all Leagues and Communication with Strangers The Edict of the Kings Majority was not Registred in the Parliament of Paris but with great difficulty They sent to make great Remonstrances to the King by their First President accompanied by two more of their Members He represented it was contrary to the Custome of the Kingdom to carry any Edict to another Parliament before it was passed in that of Paris which represented the Estates General which is the Court of Paris the most August Throne of their Kings the true Parliament of the Kingdom whereof the rest are all but little Sprouts The King whose countenance and voice they had composed to a studied Severity answer'd them that they were to obey that they should meddle no more with publick Affairs and that they should lay aside that old and vulgar Error That they were the Tutors or Guardians of their Kings defenders of the Kingdome and keepers of the City of Paris The Deputies having made their Report to the Court they were equally divided Peter Signier President in the Grand Chambre and Dormy President aux Enquestes carried their Division to the King who ordered that the Edict should be Published and Registred without delay and that all the Presidents and Councellours should be present upon pain of Interdiction The King would not return to Paris till the Parliament had obey'd The Mother the Widdow and the Children of the Duke of Guise with a great train of Mourners came to him at the same time to demand Justice upon the Authors of the cruel Murther of that Prince It was well enough known they pointed at the Admiral Some time before the Prince of Condé and the Mareschal de Montmorency had declared they would maintain his Innocency with and against all and because he had some suspition of the Parliament of Paris the King had taken the business upon himself and then referr'd it to the Grand Council whence he had withdrawn it again to bring it before the Parliament It was not possible to go thorough with it without raising a Civil War again and therefore they found it expedient to suspend the
prosecution for three years Before the Peace the People of Toulouze had Mutinied against the Parliament upon occasion of some wall which they were making to enclose the Palace Their thundring Decrees could not stop the Insolency of those whom themselves had nursed up in Blood and Licentiousness by letting loose their rage against the Huguenots Divers of their Members ran great hazard of their Lives in those furious Tumults which afforded a specious pretence to the Cardinals d'Armagnac and de Strossy to Teraide Negrepâ—lisse and Fourquevaux to make a League by which they were engaged amongst themselves after they had Communicated the thing to the Lord de Joyeuse to stand united for the defence of the Religion of their Ancestors against all Rebels Sectaries disturbers of the publick quiet and that in each Seneschaussâ—é or Jurisdiction of a Seneschal they should take an Account of what Arms there were and how many fit to bear them The Articles were drawn with consent of the Solicitor-General and by a Decree month December made the Chambers being Assembled entred into the Register of the Court but yet with this Clause according to the good pleasure of the King This was in my opinion the first League that was openly made amongst the Kings Subjects for the business of Religion By this example divers others were formed in several Provinces and out of all these at least from the disposition this Imprinted in the minds of the People that great League was framed which gave Henry III. his death and infinite troubles to his Successors During this apparent calm the Chancellor labour'd in contriving most excellent Reglements for Polity and Justice All Curates were declared exempt from Lodging and Providing or quartering of Soldiers There was an Edict that such as were Plaintiffs in Law should lay down a certain Sum before they were admitted to plead but the Parliament made great opposition and in fine Year of our Lord 1563 whether it were that this Tax hindred Law-Suits and Process or whether on the contrary they thought it scandalous and unjust in the King to turn the Obligation he had to do Justice freely into a toll this Edict was abolished by Non-usage though it were never repealed Another in the Month of December established a Court of Judicature for Merchants composed of one Judge and four Consuls who were chosen out of a Hundred Citizens called together by the Prevost des Marchands and the Eschevins to determine upon the place and without any formal and tedious proceedings all disputes or demands concerning Trade and Commerce to the value of Five Hundred Livers absolutely and Soveraignly and above the said Sum by way of Provision upon giving Security The Appeal to be made to the Parliament After this Example of Paris Ten or Twelve of the chiefest Cities in the Kingdom would needs have the like Jurisdiction and found it to be very good and useful In effect if there were one in every City and the Soveraignty of their Power extended to give Judgment as far as a Thousand Crowns it would prevent frauds dry up deceit at the Root and rid them of all those paltry Splitters of causes who long so much to have a finger in the rich Merchants purse and to taste of that fruit of Trade month December The Fourth of December the Council of Trent was closed where the Cardinal de Lorraine who Composed and Sung their Acclamations though according to ancient Custome it was rather the Office of a Deacon then of a great Archbishop seemed not to have regarded the Honour of France as he ought forasmuch as I know not upon what considerations he named only the Emperour in particular and in gross the Christian Kings and Princes although in the Address of the Bulls for convocation the King of France was by name express'd as well as the Emperor The one and Thirtieth of the same Month which was the last day of the Year was so likewise of the Mareschal de Brissac one of the greatest Warriours of his Age. Year of our Lord 1564 In another Edict given the year after at Paris amongst many Rules contained therein to prevent delayes in Suits of Law and reform their Decrees and Judgments it was ordained that the year which till that time in all Civil Affairs had still taken its beginning at Easter should from thenceforward be changed and begin upon the first day of January according to the usage in the Church This was observed the following year in the Kings Council and the Chambre des Comptes but the Parliament which is as it were Guardian of the Ancient Orders of the Kingdom opposed it and could not be perswaded to follow this Reformation till after the Assembly at Moulins to wit in the year 1567. By vertue of an Edict given at the Instance of the Queen at Saint Maur des Fossez bearing that the void places in the City of Paris namely that of the Palace des Tournelles should be sold for the benefit of the King She caused that Palace to be pulled down together with that of Angoulesme very near the other under colour of abolishing the very Memory of that fatal place where her Husband was wounded to death but in truth to avoid I do not know what sinister accident with which she seemed to be threatned there She gave part of it to the publick for a Horse-Market and sold the remainder to private Persons to build Houses and then began to Erect the Palace of Tuilleries Although the Factions seemed to lye asleep notwithstanding the Heads of both Parties turned every Stone under-hand to keep their Friends firm to them to maintain the Zeal and Courage of their Parties and to strengthen themselves with Forreign assistance The King of Spain was privately courted by several of the Catholick Chiefs who were very willing thereby to support themselves that he should have some hand in the management of the Affairs of France Upon their Solicitations he sent a Solemn Embassy to the King amongst whom were likewise Deputies from the Duke of Savoy and the Duke of Lorraine to perswade him to depute some in his behalf at Nancy where the Assembly of Christian Princes was assigned to consult about the most necessary means and wayes to make the Council of Trent to be received and owned and to extirpate all Heresies out of Christendom but the Queen Mother who foresaw the consequences of this demand illuded it by many delayes and sent the Ambassadors back again with an ambiguous and indeterminate answer Year of our Lord 1564. June c. Upon this occasion Master Charles du Moulin the most profound of all the French Lawyers put forth a Consultation wherein he undertook to prove that the said Council was Null and Vicious in all its parts contrary to the Ancient Decrees prejudicial to the dignity of the Crown and the Liberties of the Gallican Church The zealous Catholicks would not let this attempt of so profane a Fellow escape unpunished but having
accused him in Parliament of dangerous opinions and sentiments concerning matters of Faith got him confined to a Prison but the King by a Decree of Council set him at Liberty with an injunction to write no more without his express Order and Permission and forbid the Parliament to take any Cognisance of this matter The Five and Twentieth of July the Feast day of the Apostle Saint James the great the Emperor Ferdinand I. Brother of Charles V. died at Vienne of a lingring Feaver attended with a Dropsie He had lived Sixty one years and governed the Empire Seven yeaers Maximilian his Eldest Son who was already King of the Romans succeeded him month July The whole Kingdom was full of Factions and Tumults from all quarters complaints were brought to the King of the one and the other Party The Queen Mother desiring to know the Strength of the Huguenots and the different dispositions of Mens minds or having some more secret design under deck thought good to take a Progress with the whole Court to every City in the Kingdome taking along with her the King Alexander Monsieur the Elder of his Brothers and leaving Hercules the youngest at Bois de Vincennes The Prince of Condé had retired himself to his House de Valery Year of our Lord 1564. and 65. The Court began their promenade about the end of Winter visited Champagne Barrois Bourgongne Lyonnois Provence Languedoc Guyenne making solemn Entries in all the great Cities and arrived at Bayonne the Tenth day of June of the following year 1565. Year of our Lord 1565 During the Kings absence a controversie between the Cardinal de Lorraine and the Mareschal de Montmorency Governor of Paris and the Isle of France was very near breaking out into another War The King had forbid all his Subjects wearing of any Arms the Cardinal notwithstanding had a Licence under the Great Seal to have a Guard that might bear them The Mareschal knew it well enough but he expected the Cardinal should send to Compliment him upon it and the Cardinal pretended that it belonged to the Mareschal to pay him that Civility Now when upon his return from the Council of Trent the Cardinal would have passed thorough Paris with the Duke of Aumale his Brother and the Duke of Guise his Nephew the Mareschal de Montmorency knowing he drew near the City sent to Command him by a Prevost des Mareschaux to make his men give up their Arms the Cardinal went on the Mareschal well Accompanied goes to meet him charged him in the Street Saint Denis The Duke d'Aumale was gone by Saint Martins Gate The Cardinals People were scatter'd here and there and he escaped into a Shop with his Nephew At Night they went all to the Hostel de Clugny which was the Cardinals House The next day the Mareschal passed and repassed in a bravado before his Door The City of Paris being just on the point to rise the Prevost des Marchands on behalf of the Parliament endeavour'd to find out some means for an Accommodation between them He prevail'd with the Cardinal to go out of Town and with the Mareschal to permit that Princes Guard to wear their Arms according to the Kings Licence a Copy whereof he shewed The Duke d'Aumale nevertheless hovering about Paris with a numerous Train of Friends whom he had called to him the Admiral was likewise sent for by the Mareschal his Cousin and brought a Thousand or Twelve Hundred Gentlemen along with him and thus both Parties being in Armes it was feared every Moment they would charge each other but the King having heard the Complaints of both sides sent a Command they should lay down their Armes to which they obey'd The Queen Mother being so nigh the Frontiers of Spain desired to see her Daughter Isabella de la Paix Wife of King Philip II. The King sent his Brother the Duke of Anjou to meet her who being attended with the Flower of the French Court passed over the River Marquere which is beyond Saint John de Pied de Port and parts the two Kingdomes met the Queen at Arvanis and accompanied her to Saint Sebastians where Ferdinand Alvara de Toledo Duke d' Year of our Lord 1565 Alva came and waited on her with a great Attendance He brought the Order of the Golden Fleece for the King who went to receive his Sister at the Banks of the River Bidasso and there gave his hand to help her out of the Boat The Queen Mother had past over the River whether so agreed upon or impatient to embrace her Daughter whom they set upon a Palfrey Monsieur and the Cardinal de Bourbon walking on each side and so led her to Bayonne where she remained about Three weeks with her Mother During that time all what the Luxury and Pomp of the Court of France which surpasses all others in those profusions could invent and contrive for Balets Feastings Carousels and Bravery were employed to let them see theirs was as stately and proud and much more ingenious then that of Spain The Queen Mother would have had it thought this residence of the Court at Bayonne was only to divert her Daughter but her design was quite another thing For under pretence of going to visit her by means of a close Gallery purposely built from one House to the other she every Night held Communication with the Duke of Alva and the event did afterwards plainly discover that all those Conferences tended to make a secret Alliance between the two Kings to extirpate the Protestants month July c. The Huguenots who had piercing Eyes and quick Ears imagined the Duke of Alva had advised the Queen to draw them all together to some great Assembly and dispatch them without Mercy They said likewise that he let these words fall That the Head of one Salmon is worth more then all the Frogs in a Marsh and they believed that even at the Assembly of Moulins the Queen had then given the fatal blow if all things necessary thereto had concurred as she desired Now whether these things were true or imaginary it is certain they lost all that little Credit and Confidence there had been between them so that they could never afterwards take any measures with her and thus the Spaniard attained the end he aimed at and so greatly desired which was to maintain an irreconciliable Division in France The Court at their departure from Bayonne passed by Nerac where they restored the Exercise of the Catholick Religion which Queen Jane d'Albret had banisht thence visited afterwards Agenois Perigord Angoumois Poitou and Anjou and from thence going up the River of Loire came and concluded the year in the City of Blois and assigned an Assembly of the Grandees of the Kingdom and the first Presidents of the Parliaments in the City of Moulïns for the Month of January in the following year 1566. This was Memorable for the Famous Siege of Malta which was fiercely Attaqued by the Turks four
maintaining the ancient Religion they laboured to set up an absolute and unlimited power over those Provinces who owed no further obedience then according to their Laws and Priviledges The procedure of the Cardinal de Granvelle who treated the Grandees of the Country very imperiously exasperated them yet more Divers Conspiracies were contrived against him the fear of which forced him to retire to Besanson but his Spirit Reigned in Flanders still and perswaded the Council of Spain not to abate in the least but proceed and carry on the work with the utmost severity The Council of State of the Order of the Fleece and Governors of the Provinces wherein Margaret Dutchess of Parma Governess of the Low-Countries presided thought good to send Egmont into Spain to represent the ill Consequences that would attend the publication of their too severe Edicts He returned with fair words and great caresses but Philip sent Orders to the Governess to publish the Council of Trent and set up the Inquisition The States of Brabant opposed it the Religionaries heated the people the Governess apprehending a revolt was constrained to put forth a Declaration which revoked the Inquisition and would not suffer the Council to be published but with restrictions conformable to the Priviledges of the Country But the Populace for the most part pre-possest with the Doctrine of the Sectaries were not satisfied with that but threatned to fall foul upon the Nobility in so much as the Lords of the Country dreading their fury or pretending so assembled at Gertrudemberg and made a League amongst themselves for the preservation of their Liberties The Governess being much amazed at this Conspiracy the Count de Barlaimont who hated them mortally told her they were only a Company of Gueux The Conspirators hearing of it took that Epithet or word for the name of their Faction and began to wear upon their Coats the figure of a wooden Porringer or Dish with this Inscription Servants of the King even to the Budget Immediately as if that had been the Signal for their rising the Religionaries broke loose in every part of the Country They began to hold Assemblies to destroy and break in pieces all what the Catholicks esteem most sacred and to seize upon some Towns as the Huguenots of France did formerly with whom they had kept intimate correspondence for several years Year of our Lord 1566 and 67. Of two Opinions debated in the Council of Spain touching the Method to extinguish this Flame Philip chose that of the Duke d'Alva as most suitable to his mercyless humour and his desire of absolute authority which was to use the utmost severities to quell those Tumults and not to receive the people to any kind of Mercy till they had given up their Priviledges their Estates and even their Lives to his discretion Wherefore after he had pretended for three Months together that he would go personally thither to settle that people he sent the Duke of Alva with Orders to execute those sanguinary resolutions of which he was the Author He Marched by Savoy Bress the Franche-Comté and Lorrain with the Forces of Milanois and of the Kingdom of Naples Whilst he was yet in Italy he advised Queen Catherine to arm on her part to exterminate the Huguenots at the same time as he would destroy the Gueux In effect she raised six thousand Swiss and ordered the Governors of Provinces to send the Companies already on foot called d'Ordonnance and to levy new ones but it was under pretence of Coasting the Duke to observe and hinder him from undertaking any thing upon the Frontiers of the Kingdom Before he left Spain the Marquiss de Bergue and Floris de Montmorency Montigny were arrested having been sent on the behalf of the States of the Low-Countries to make their Remonstrances to King Philip. The first died either of grief or some morsel prepar'd for the purpose the second had his head cut off though both of them were very stanch Catholicks which made it apparent that the Council of Spain intended no less against the liberty of the Low-Countries then against the new Religion Year of our Lord 1567. June c. Now it is certain that the Duke of Alva's Army kindled the flame of Civil War again in France The Huguenots seeing them march imagin'd That the Pope and the House of Austria had conspired their ruine that this design was evident because they every day restrained them more and more of that liberty which had been granted them by Edicts so that it was almost reduced to nothing Year of our Lord 1567 that the people fell upon them in all places where they were the weaker and where they were able to defend themselves the Governors made use of the Kings Authority to oppress them that they dismantled those Cities that had favour'd them that they built Citadels there that they could not have justice done them either in Parliaments nor by the Kings Council that they Massacred them impunitively that they restored them not to their Estates and Employments These were in substance the complaints they carried twice or thrice to the Prince of Condé and Coligny who having met them two several times still answered them that they must endure any thing rather then take up Arms again That a second disturbance would make them become a horror to all France and the particular object of hatred to the King in whose mind it would make so deep an impression of prejudice against them in his blooming youth as nothing hereafter would be able to blot out But when one of the Chief Persons about the Court had given them certain notice that it was resolved on to seize upon the Prince and the Admiral the first to be detained a perpetual Prisoner the other to be brought to the Scaffold Dandelot the boldest of them made them resolve not only to defend themselves but to attack their Enemies by open force and to that purpose drive away the Cardinal de Lorrain from the King and cut the Swiss in pieces this was their first aim but no man alive nay not themselves could have told to what height their success might have carried them had it proved such as they desired The little City of Rosoy in Brie was Assigned for Rendezvous of the Nobility of the Party on the eighth and twentieth day of September The Prince with the Admiral Dandelot and the Count de la Rochefaucaut seized upon it without any difficulty there being Arrived several Gentlemen from divers parts one by one till they made up the number in all of Four Hundred Masters They had a mind to surprize the Court which was then at Monceaux on the Feast day of Saint Michael when the King was to have held the Chapter of his Order but the Queen having Information that they were upon their March immediately retired with the King to Meaux And to give her Swissers time who were quarter'd in the Neighbouring Villages to get into the
and that if he staid four or five dayes longer he would have no way left him to make his Retreat Coligny penetrating into the designes they were contriving against them came to the Castle of Tanlay belonging to Dandelot his Brother From thence going to the Prince both of them parted from Noyers with a Convoy of a Hundred and Fifty Horse only in the midst of whom a Melancholly Spectacle were their Wives and Children the most of them as yet in their Nurses Armes or not out of their hanging Sleeves The better to conceal their Retreat the Prince wrote a long Letter of Complaints and Remonstrances to the King declaring he would wait for an answer to it In the mean time he hastned forward and pass'd the River of Loire at a Ford right against Sancerre Scarce was he on the other Shoar when the Burgundian Troops who pursued him appeared on the hither side at Saint Godon The River was at that time Fordable but the next day it swell'd so high that it left them no passage to get over to follow him Which the Huguenots cry'd up for a Miracle Year of our Lord 1568. September c. Blaise de Montluc Governour of Guyenne and the King's Lieutenants of Limosin and Perigord were up in Armes to intercept his Passage and the Mareschal de Vielleville upon the rumour of his March came to Poitiers to know what business led him thither He out-stript them all by his diligence and Arrived at Rochel the Eighteenth of September The Queen of Navarre Jane d'Albret came there soon after with her two Children Henry Prince of Bearn and Catherine The Cardinal de Chastillon who was at his Castle of Brosle in Beauvoisis not being able to get to his Brother thorow so many of the Enemies Provinces made his escape by Sea into England There is reason enough to believe that the Prince or rather the Admiral who was the primum Mobile of the Party had taken his measures long before for the Huguenots Captains Flock'd to Rochel from all Parts as if appointed at that very time and Queen Jane brought him near Four Thousand Men. Dandelot who was in Bretagne had gotten about the like number together out of the Provinces of Normandy Mayne and Anjou who were joyned by Montgomery la Noüe and some others All these together after some Ren-counters they had with Sebastian de Luxemburg Martigues passed the River Montgomery having very luckily lighted on a Ford for them the Duke of Montpensier who Commanded the King's Forces in that Country nor Martigues ever offering to obstruct it Year of our Lord 1568 Together with their Swords both the one and the other made use of the fair pretence of Justice The Prince drew up the Form of an Oath whereby all those of his Party engaged upon their Faith to follow and obey his Commands for the Defence of their Religion and to pursue the Cardinal of Lorraine to the utmost whom they supposed to be the Author of the War and their sworn Enemy The Manifesto for his taking up Arms which he published at the same time expressed the very same thing It was necessary to set up some mark to Level at not daring in the least to pretend any Controversie with the King or the Queen his Mother On the other side an Edict was set forth by the King whereby he promised to take all the Huguenots of his Kingdom into his Protection as much as any other his Subjects and assured them they should have due Justice done for all the Injuries had been Committed against them provided they would quietly remain in their own present dwellings But afterwards when the Queen and the Cardinal de Lorraine perceived that this favour was interpreted by them as an Artifice which tended to oppress them separately one after another did but the more animate them to run after the Prince from all Parts they put forth another quite contrary which prohibited the exercise of any other Religion but the Catholick and commanded all Huguenot Ministers to leave the Kingdom within Fifteen dayes By a third all such of them as held any Offices or Employments were enjoyned to Surrender the same up to the King The Parliament added in the Verification That no Person from that time forward should be admitted into any Office that did not first make Oath to live and die in the Catholick Religion During the Month of October the Prince and his People got themselves into possession of most of the places in the Countries of Aulnis Saintongne Angoumois and Poitou excepting Poitiers They had proved happy in all their enterprises if their Forces to the number of twelve Thousand Men who came from Daufiné Languedoc and Guyenne Commanded in Chief by Dacier had not received a shrewd Check at their Marching out of Perigord Mouvens a valiant Soldier but too presumptuous had lodged himself alone with three Thousand Men upon some pick he had with Beaudiné Brother to Dacier the Duke of Montpensier who was gone into that Country to hinder their joyning with the Prince gave Brissac order to fall upon him whilst himself would Skirmish with Dacier that he might not relieve him Dacier knowing how things stood sent to Mouvens not to stir out of his Quarters that day for there he could not be forced but he did not observe those Orders for Brissac making as if he retired Mouvens would needs be going that day so that he fell into an Ambuscade laid ready for him in his March He was there slain with a Thousand of his Men the rest saved themselves in the Neighbouring Woods Dacier pickt up a Thousand of them the day following the remainder were scattered or knocked on the Head by the Peasants The Prince going as far as Aubeterre to meet Dacier it was then Montpensier's turn who before pursued him to retreat to Chastellerand When the Duke of Anjou Arrived at the Kings Army they were found to be four and twenty Thousand Foot and four Thousand Horse the Princes were less in number by a fourth part but all resolute men who having forsaken their Families and Estates had no other hopes but in the keeness of their Swords So that the Prince relying on their Valour sought all opportunities to give Battle The Duke of Anjou avoided it for the same reason but was in honour obliged to keep the Field The severities of the Winter Season could not perswade them to go into Quarters till at length their men overcome by the extremity of Cold refused to contend any longer with the Frosts and Snowes Above Eight Thousand on both sides died by the many inconveniencies they met withall The Prince wanted Money without which he could not long maintain his Forces to plunder was both very odious and casual what those Huguenots that staid at home could contribute to the Cause so the Party called it was inconsiderable In this great necessity they were mightily relieved by a Loan of Sixteen Thousand Crowns of Gold disbursed by 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
gained the Princes favour so entirely that he could not have liv'd a moment without him Seven or Eight dayes were past and the King of Poland went not though all his Equipage were ready and his Goods loaden The King attributes it to the month September Queen and told her with an Oath that one of the two must leave the Kingdom but the Duke of Guise with-held him still upon hopes of a sudden enjoyment and offer'd him Fifty Thousand men to defend him from the wrath of his Brother At Three dayes end the King verily believing the Queen his Mother was the cause of his delay and that it was to hatch some dangerous Conspiracy caused his Closet Door to be rudely shut against her and resolved to prevent their designes by some others which no doubt would have been very Tragical The Peril was Evident both for her and her Son yet notwithstanding she could hardly resolve to part with him The King would needs Conduct him to the Frontiers rather to hinder him from Cantonizing himself in any of the Provinces then out of any Affection He could not accompany him so far as he desired but was forced to stop at Vitry in Partois for in a few dayes after he had menaced his Mother he was seized with a lingring but Malignant Feaver which made him very giddy in his Head and sick at Heart almost every Minute The Queen Mother with the Duke of Alencon and the King of Navarre Conducted him as far as Blamont in Lorraine There the Mother and the Son took their Leaves of each other amidst their Embraces Sobbs Sighes and Tears she most imprudently let fall these words Farewel my Son you shall not stay there long which being over-heard by several and quickly divulged did much encrease the sinister suspicions they had of the Kings Malady though others attributed it to his constitution which was of adust Choller and to the violent exercises he used as Hunting Riding the great Horse playing at Tennis Five or Six hours together hammering and forging of Iron which had so over-heated his mass of Blood that he slept but little and had sometimes Fits like those that so much afflicted Charles VI. King Henry after his departure from Blamont having Travell'd cross all Germany Arrived at Miezrich the first City of Poland about the end of the Month of January He had in his Train the Dukes of Nevers and Mayne the Marquiss d'Elbcuf the Count de Rais lately made Mareschal of France Roger de Sainct Lary Bellegarde Ten or Twelve other Lords of Note and above Five Hundred of the bravest Gentlemen besides these several Men of the Gown amongst others Bellievre Ambassadour of France to him Vincent Lauré Apostolick Nuncio and Pibrac the Kings Attorney in the Parliament of Paris All the Princes thorow whose Territories he passed strove to pay him the honour due to his Birth and Dignity there was none but Frederic Count Palatine of the Rhine that Treated him otherwise That Prince one of the gravest of his time desiring to make the young King and his bloody Council know the Injustice of the Massacres received him after a manner not much obliging and took pleasure in putting him into some apprehension of a most terrible Revenge At first that Noble and Majestick Air which outwardly appeared in all his Actions and the Profusion he made with both hands got him the passionate Love of the Nobility and adoration of the People but soon after the discomposedness of his Mind proceeding from Vapours of the Spleen his Melancholly for not receiving so early as he wished the News he expected from France a disgust of the Manners and Conversations of those People rendred him un-easie to himself and to his Subjects He sought for solitude in his own Closet communicated himself to none but his Favourites was sad and silent but that which aggravated Year of our Lord 1573 his Sorrow the more was the Proposition made him by the Senate to Marry Anne Sister of the Deceased King ill-favour'd and old whose dis-agreeable aspect did but more encrease those Flames in his Breast first kindled at Paris by the bright Eyes of the charming Princess of Condé There was some likely-hood that his departure from France would contribute much towards the calming of the Affairs in the State That the fears of the Huguenots who dreaded him and his Favorites ceasing their emotions would cease likewise That the Queen Mother having none now to rely upon would be forced to obey in her turn and that her Italians who excited the publick hatred and perverted the Just and Ancient Laws of Government to Introduce a new and Tyrannical Power would loose their Credit and Interest But on the contrary the Huguenots believing themselves the Stronger had not laid down their Arms in Languedoc but being confirmed and encouraged in their Assembly of Millaud and afterwards in those of Montauban and Nismes they became more audacious in their demands than if they yet had their Admiral at the Head of Thirty thousand Men to fight their Battels And besides the Duke of Alencon and the Politiques believing they were now Masters of all by the absence of the Duke of Anjou would needs dispose of things as they pleased The Duke d'Alencon ready to embrace any Enterprize without consideration and to give it over as lightly without thinking forged several in his own head but chiefly two amongst the rest the one to undertake the Lieutenancy of the War in the Low-Countries against the Spaniards and the King would gladly have sent him thither to ridd his hands of such a turbulent and restless Spirit the other was to demand the General Lieutenancy as the Duke of Anjou had it The Mareschal de Montmorency was of opinion he should stick to the latter and earnestly desired it for him with such persuasive Arguments and Reasons that the King thought fit to grant it Year of our Lord 1574. January c. But the Queen Mother who did expect no more acknowledgment or respect from this Son than she had shewed affection towards him who besides feared he would wrest her Authority from her and if the King hap'ned to die might perchance shut her dear Son the Duke of Anjou out of the Kingdom studied to break his measures and desired the Lieutenancy for the Duke of Lorrain who had Married the Fondling of all her Daughters Now when she found the King had promis'd it to the Duke of Alencon she contrived the Matter so well that instead of a Patent he only made a Declaration by word of Mouth and gave Letters under the Privy-Seal to some Governours shewing thereby plainly enough he meant to recall his Word as he soon after did and confer'd that eminent Title upon the Duke of Lorrain In the mean time the Duke of Alencon had contracted a most particular tye with the Huguenots and had promised to take them into his Protection The King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé were entred into this
them The Duke of Nevers in the mean time besieged Issoire in Auvergne situate upon the torrent de la Couse A Gentleman whose name was Chavagnae Commanded within Matthew le Merle Son of a Wooll-comber of Vzez but advanc'd to be a Captain during these Troubles had surprized it three years before This Merle was gone to the Sevennes to pick up some Men to relieve it but he staid so long perhaps obstructed by some bags of the Kings Money thrown in his way that the place was forced to surrender at discretion That done the Duke of Anjou with the Duke of Guise returned back to Court which was then at Blois leaving the Command of his Army to the Duke of Nevers The Affairs of the Huguenots could not be in a worse condition the whole party was full of Divisions of Jealousies and of Cabals the Lords of the King of Navarres Court could neither agree amongst themselves nor with him because he gave too much credit and Faith to Lavardin who was known to be tied to the Queen-Mothers Interest insomuch as La Noüe forsook that King and Turenne and the rest served him not without much Anxiety and suspition There was also a mortal feud between the Prince and the Lord de Mirembeau about the business of Broüage a scurvy misunderstanding between the said Prince and the Rochellers for the nomination of a Maire and other points concerning the liberties of that City Eternal Picques between the Bourgeois and the Nobless and every moment some quarrel between the Commanders of their Forces withal most strange disorder and licentiousness amongst their Soldiers who were horribly ungovernable as well because of the want of Pay and the little authority of their Captains as by the mixture of their Politiques the most part Atheists and addicted to all manner of Vices Year of our Lord 1577 The confusion the Duke of Mayenne observed in that party gave him the prospect of subduing Rochel and also to that effect and purpose to hinder all Trade and Provisions from coming to them by Sea by taking the Islands and Broüage as by Land he had already got most of the Towns and Castles that furnish'd or stood them in any stead The Rochellers were jealous of the growing greatness of Broüage The Count of Montgomery who was Governour of it had by his debauches consumed the Soldiers pay and tormented the Inhabitants grievously Captain Lorges his Brother with his Regiment vexed and plundred the Islands so that both the one and the other desired a change that remedy of the unthinking vulgar who ever believe ☞ the present evils the most troublesome The King had equipped a Navy for this Siege the Prince and the Rochellers prepared one to hinder it Clermont Commanded it as Lansac did the Kings Both these met in the canal of Broüage that for the Huguenots was beaten by not keeping out at large Five Gallies brought thither by the young Montlue tearing them in pieces with their Guns during a calm In the mean while the Besiegers press'd upon them at Land and the King was come to Poitiers to encourage his Men. Their amazement was so great in Rochel that all the Suppliesthey endeavour'd to send thither were either taken or put to flight When the Besieged were almost at the greatest extremity the rumour was that the Duke of Anjou after the taking of Issâ—ire was coming to reinforce the Siege with that Army which breathed nothing but Blood and Slaughter the fear they were in that they should have no quarter made them hasten the capitulation and the Duke of Mayenne fearing that Prince would rob him of the Honour of his enterprize granted them Conditions favourable enough The King of Navarre who had taken the Field to succour them finding the business was decided desired to raise up the spirits of his party again by some famous exploit and if he could possibly give battle to that victorious Army but they were already gone to refresh themselves having no Orders to undertake any more Many were of that judgment that if they but push'd on their advantages against the Huguenots in the confusion they were then under they had been laid flat on the ground For it was not in their power then to set an Army on foot their Officers Year of our Lord 1577 were at daggers drawing the Council belonging to the Princes full of Traitors the People grieved at their ill Conduct and in despair for their being pillaged Besides Damville over-perswaded by his Wife and by his Secretaries whom they had bribed and withal picqued for that the Huguenots did not respect him enough had drawn his Sword against them in Languedoc and besieged Montpellier But was indeed upon the point of receiving an affront For Chastillon had bravely pierced thorow his Army and thrown Three thousand Men into the place and would have given him battle the next day if the news of the Peace had not prevented It could not be certainly known what the true Reasons were that induced the King to make it in a juncture that seemed so favourable unless it were his apprehensions of the Reisters coming again to ransack and waste his Kingdom and of the Rochellers giving themselves up to the English or else the intrigues of the Duke of Anjou who infinitely desired to go into Flanders and draw the Army after him or his own weak and uncertain temper not able to undergo the burthen and difficulties of any weighty Affair This Fifth Treaty of Pacification was concluded at Bergerac between the King of Navarre and the Duke of Montpensier The Edict was drawn up at Poitiers in the month of September and verified in Parliament in the beginning of October It was different from the last in that it restrained the exercise of their Religion to the limits of the preceding ones removed it Ten miles from Paris forbid it in the Marqulsate of Salusses and the County of Venaisin exchanged Montpellier for Beaucaire with them and did not restore them Issoire The Consistorians who had much more obstinacy then knowledge could hardly be brought to allow of this restriction but the Chiefs who better understood the state of their Affairs accepted it as very advantageous and the Prince caused it to be proclaimed by Torch-light at Rochel There must have been to make it firm and lasting a Will and Resolution in either party to keep and maintain it and to this end they should have renewed and restored a real confidence and true faith in each other but as the first being wanting the other became impossible they presently started up a thousand doubts and difficulties concerning the execution and it was the delight and interest of the Queen-Mother to be brangling and trucking with the one and the other to keep the Authority in her own hands and to shew her dexterity in disintangling those snarles and knots which she her self most commonly had tied The King her Son had learnt of her to make excessive expences and as he had
all possibility of discovery who the Authors were that had encourag'd him to commit the Crime but the young Prince of Orange causing him to be searched found Spanish Letters in his Pockets which plainly told them who he was While the Prince was under Cure the Duke made his Entrance at Bruges and at Ghent in this last City he received the Ornaments of Earl of Flanders Some days after he discover'd the horrible Conspiracy of Nicholas Salsede Son of another Salsede month April c. Originally a Spaniard and a fugitive from his Country for some Crime who had taken up his habitation in France It was he that had made War against the Cardinal de Lorrain in the Country of Messin for which he was Murther'd on the bloody St. Bartholomews The Son was also banish'd from France for having burnt a Gentleman of Normandy in his own House who had accused him about false Money This Fellow therefore pretends to devote himself to the service of the Duke of Anjou with a whole Regiment raised at his own expence but the Prince of Orange who had ever a watchful Eye discover'd that he held some Intelligence with the Duke of Parma Thereupon they seize him as likewise one certain Francis Basa an Italian also a Bâ—nquier named Baldwin and some others It was said they had plotted to seize upon divers places to deliver them up to the Prince of Parma and had formed some attempt upon the Persons of the Duke of Anjou and the Prince of Orange The bottom of this mistery could never be certainly known because Basa after his having for fear of the Rack or otherwise discover'd very strange things Murther'd himself in Prison and the wretched Salsede varied two or three times upon his Interrogatories and involved so many Persons in his Crime who were known to be Innocent that no certain Judgment could be drawn from his Confessions It was believed he did so on purpose to be carried to Paris in hopes the Duke of Parma Year of our Lord 1582 would rescue him on the way but Bellievre conducted him thither with so much precaution that he deluded the Dukes Spies and frustrated the expectation of the Criminal The King caused him to be examined divers times by his Parliament Men and placed himself in a Chamber near at hand to over-hear what he would say he sung the same note as he had done in Flanders which startled the King so much that he knew not whom to confide in any longer seeing no body about him but such as were accused The Parliament condemned him to be drawn by four wild Horses The Sentence being pronounced as they were leading him to the Chappel there was as some affirm a certain Frier on the Steps who whispering somewhat in his Ear made him retract all what he had confess'd thereby leaving the Judges and the King in greater perplexity then ever month June July c. The States had but little Money and a great many Garrisons to maintain so that the Duke of Anjou's Army could not be above four or five thousand Men this Campagne which he divided into three small Bodies to cover the out-skirts of the greater Cities That of the Duke of Parma though consisting of more then Thirty thousand could take but four or five small Castles which were of no great importance For besides that he was obliged to leave the one half of his Forces to Garrison his places when he would have invested Bruxels he was assaulted by famine Artois and Hainault being so eaten up that they could furnish him with no Provisions and then when he attempted to get into the Country of Waes the Duke of Anjou shut up the passage after which divers contagious Maladies the inundations of Waters by breaking of the Dykes and such like inconveniencies constrained him to go into Winter Quarters The passion the Queen Mother had for conquering new Kingdoms had prompted her to cast her Eyes upon Portugal But not succeeding in her pretended claim she fancied she might accumulate the Right and Title of Anthony with hers And for this reason she had drawn him into France where the King received him with much honour and gave a smart reply to the Spanish Ambassador who made great instance he might be turned out thence that France had ever been the refuge of the unfortunate and that he should never be persuaded to violate the sanctity of an Asylum so inviolably maintain'd by all his Predecessors He therefore permitted his Mother to raise Forces in his Kingdom to pursue her Rights and to Equip as many Vessels as she pleased which she laboured in with great application all the whole year 1581. Year of our Lord 1582 The same Religious Monks who had persuaded the Islands of the Azores to declare for Anthony were grown so insolent of their power that they disturbed all by their Tumults and did nothing but put the People into such rage and heats as produced no good The Governor whom Antony had sent thither it was Emanuel de Sylva his Favourite whom he created Count de Torres-Vedras was more frantick and much more wicked yet then they So that Landerean whom the Queen had sent with Eight hundred Men till the rest of the Army was in readiness endeavouring to give him moderate Council he set all his Engines at work to ruine him even to the suborning of Rascals to assassinate or poison him month June c. The French Navy parted from Belle-Isle in the Month of June Strossy was Admiral Brissac Vice-Admiral Saincte Soulene a Poitevin commanded a Squadron Don Antonio went in this Fleet together with the Count de Vimiosa the only Portuguese Lord that stuck to him in his misfortune They landed in the Island St. Michael the only one of all the nine which held for the Spaniard forced eight hundred Men that would have hindred their coming ashoar defeated Noguera a Spanish Captain who had drawn three thousand Soldiers together and marched directly into the City Elgade but Anthony instead of Storming the Castle which would have made him absolute Master of those Islands and would have given him the opportunity and advantage of intercepting their India Fleet wherewith he might have maintained the War two or three years amused himself in playing the King amidst the acclamations of the light-headed Populace and in the mean while the Spanish Navy arrived Commanded by the Marquiss de Santa Crux who cast Anchor under shelter of the Castle d'Elgrade to wait an opportunity of fighting them The French Forces out-numbred them both for Ships and Men but there was no less disorder and mis-understanding amongst them then jealousies and quarrels there being many Volunteers on board most of the Captains having set out their month July Ships at their own charges and the Generals though Valiant were so careless and negligent that their Commands carried no Authority nor did their examples give any vigour or encouragement to their Men. When they came to engage which was on
the Six and twentieth of July there were scarce twelve of their Men of War that did their duty the rest came not within Shot and Saincte Soulene stood quite away with eighteen Sail without the least fighting for which he was tried in France and for his base cowardize degraded of his Nobility The Battle notwithstanding was very bloody lasting two whole hours the Ships being grappled with each other Year of our Lord 1582 as if they had agreed to end the quarrel that very day by dint of Sword and Halbert In conclusion the Admiral of France was overcome and taken Strossy was in the same Ship wounded in his Knee the rest freed themselves and retired many of them towards France and some to the Terceres where Don Antonia was gone to secure himself before the Fight The Marquiss de Santa Crux stained the honour of this brave Victory by an unbecomming and barbarous cruelty when they presented Strossy to him on the Deck of his Ship he caused him in cold Blood to be killed by his Halberdiers and cast over-board and as for the Prisoners which were to the number of three hundred amongst whom were fourscore Gentlemen after he had led them in triumph into Villa-Franca which is the capital City of the Island St. Michael he doom'd them all to death as Enemies of the common Peace Favourers of Rebels and Pyrats The Gentlemen had their Throats cut the rest were hang'd within two soot of the ground and the French Priest that Confess'd them was dispatched after the others month August September and October With the remainders of Landereans Forces and seventeen French Ships Anthony continued at the Terceras till towards the end of Autumn when fearing to be block'd up in Winter by the Stormy Weather or in Summer by the return of the Spanish Fleet he sailed away for France This time being both poor and unfortunate he met with a more cold Reception then before when he was able to scatter his rich Jewels amongst the Grandees at Court and give large promises to all the World However he did not lay aside all hopes of recovering his Kingdom in Anno 1588. with the assistance of Queen Elizabeth he made another attempt which succeeding but ill he retired again into France and spent the rest of his life there under the protection of King Henry IV. Year of our Lord 1583. March c. The following year accounted 1583. the Queen sent the Commander de Chattes with eight hundred Men only to the Islands Asorez He had at the same time to deal with the malignity of Torres-Vedras and the Forces of the Spaniards The extravagant Torres-Vedras ruined all his generous designs and perished himself being taken in the Mountains and executed by the common Hangman but the Spaniards gave quarter to Chates and his Men. The barbarous and proud Islanders were handled as they deserved all their Estates confiscated and their Persons reduced to slavery The Ecclesiasticks and Monks who had been the most active were the most rudely punished This appears by the Brief of Absolution obtained by Philip of the Pope for having put two thousand of them to death as well in those Islands as in Portugal Year of our Lord 1582 Of a long time it had been observed that there was some error in the Julian Calender that is to say reformed by Julius Caesar for the Bissextile adding forty five minutes of an hour beyond the course the Sun makes in four years time these put together made a whole day in 133 years which at the long run would have perverted the Seasons and the Celebration of Easter for the Equinoctial in Spring which they had computed to be on the One and twentieth of March was already fallen to the Eleventh of the same Month so that at length Easter would have hapned to be in Winter and Christmas in the Summer time Several Popes had design'd to find some remedy Gregory XIII having set the most famous Astronomers at work for this purpose retrenched ten days of this year 1582. and Ordained from thenceforward that in every 400 years there should be three days of Bissextile cut off to wit one day of each of the first hundred to begin from the year 1700. The Protestant Princes rejected this method as being Ordained by a Power they would not own but the Kings Council approved it and the Parliament Decreed it should take place this very year and that the Tenth of November should be accounted the Twentieth This year died three very considerable Persons Lewis Duke of Montpensier surnamed the Good Arthur de Cosse Mareschal of France and Christopher de Thou first President This last had Achilles de Harlay for Successor in his Office Francis Prince Dauphin who was called Duke of Montpensier after the death of Lewis his Father and the Mareschal de Bison had brought to the Duke of Anjou in the Low-Countries a re-inforcement of seven thousand Foot and twelve hundred Horse and himself had raised some Companies of Reisters This was his last Stake and Hand all his Credit and Friends were now drained he had in this War consumed the whole Revenue of his Appenage which was above Fifty thousand Crowns and engaged himself for three hundred thousand more The four Millions which the States raised for their Expences in War went all out in fruitless Pensions so that they there was not forty thousand Francs left clear to him Besides this he was placed amidst two Religions which shock'd each other most furiously and both shock'd him amidst the hare-brain'd and suspicious Flemmings his own discontented Captains the murmurring common People devoured by the Soldiers the out-crying-Soldiers starving for want of Bread having worse Enemies amongst the surly Flemmings then the very Spaniards the contempt and disobedience of both the one and the other Nation and the secret Practises of the Prince of Orange Year of our Lord 1582 He might call long and lowd enough upon the King to send him more Supplies the jealousies which the Spanish Council and his own darlings had instill'd upon the least good success made him deaf to all he ask'd and hardned him to an utter denial The King of Navarre profer'd the King to carry the War into the very heart of Spain to employ of his own for that purpose five hundred thousand Crowns for which he would engage his Patrimonial Counties of Rovergne and L'Isle Moreover to prevent all jealousie he would make up his Army only of Swiss and such Reisters as were allied to France and of French both of the one and the other Religion Offer'd withall to leave the Command of it to some French Mareschal of the Kings own chusing and to send him Madam his only Sister and the Prince of Conde's Daughter for Hostage These Propositions did but give him more Umbrage both of the one and the other because it hinted some joynt interest and common concern between them as on the other hand the threats which sometimes broke loose from the
the frontiers of Lorrain to hinder the Germans from returning any more Espernon having had contest in the Council with Peter d'Espinac Arch-Bishop of Lyons and Villeroy Secretary of State even to the giving them outrageous Language made the King lose those two most important Servants who Declared when occasion offer'd The League was not a little strengthned by it as the Huguenots party was much weakned by the death of the Prince of Condé amongst whose Virtues one cannot tell whether it were Courage or Liberality Generosity or love to Justice or Courtesie month March and Affability that had the preheminence He died the Fifth of March at St. Jean d'Angeli his ordinary Residence being poysonn'd by his own Domestique Servants Year of our Lord 1588 The Judges of the place by an Act above their Power and against all forms of Law involved Charlota-Catherina de la Trimouille his Wife in this crime and made Process against her so far that she had lost her life had she not proved to be great with Child It was of a Son of whom she was happily deliver'd the First day of September six Months after the death of his Father She was afterwards still detained in the same place till King Henry IV. ordered her to appear before the Parliament of Paris who declared her innocent and caused all those proceedings to be burnt as being injurious and not to leave any footsteps for slander It was now above a year and half since the King resolved to make an exemplary punishment of the Heads of the League who had stirred up Seditions and contrived strange Designs even as he verily believed against his own Person They were called the Seize i. e. the Sixteen because they Abetted and Governed that Party month April in the Sixteen Divisions or Wards of the City of Paris The Duke of Guise had left Forty or Fifty Gentlemen with them in his behalf to give them Orders and take care for their defence and these had provided Arms and raised Money privately to be employ'd upon occasion These People informed of the Kings intentions sent to the Duke of Guise to implore he would come to their assistance He was then departed from Nancy and come into Picardy to justify his Cousin the Duke d'Aumale in that Government For having held it by provision in the life-time of the Prince of Condé he would not resign it after his death whilst the Duke of Espernon on whom the King had bestowed it endeavour'd to wrest it out of his hands While the Duke of Guise was at Soissons the King dispatched Believre to sound his intentions but some important Affair having called that Minister back to the King he went away without concluding any thing and promised he should hear news of him within three days and indeed he wrote twice but sent his Letters by the Post instead of an Express Courier so that the Duke might plausibly pretend he did not receive them During these transactions the Sixteen pressing the Duke earnestly to come to their aid because the danger was very nigh he parts from Soissons with only month May. Seven Gentlemen wisely avoids Philibert de la Guiche Grand Master of the Ordnance who went to seek him on behalf of the King and arrives at Paris on Monday the Ninth of May about Noon He alighted at the Filles Repenties where the Queen-Mother at that time was She leads him immediately to the Louvre amidst the croud and acclamations of the Year of our Lord 1588 People who flocked about him as their Protector The King informed of his coming deliberated whether he should put him to death and it was known he had resolved it but whether he had not time to give his positive Orders or whether the sight and presence of so formidable a Person who always kept his hand upon the hilt of his Sword and by his fiery and piercing looks did forewarn them that if they made the least attempt he would fall directly upon the Author of his death they offer'd not to touch his Person This visit was spent in accusations and reproaches on the Kings part and in justifications and most humble submissions on the Dukes part In the Afternoon they had again a long Conference in the Garden of the Tuilleries the Queen-Mother making the Third betwixt those two Paris was full of unknown Faces the Streets and Houses of knots of People buzzing and of confused murmurings and hollow whispers which betokened an approaching Tempest Things could not rest long in such a turbulent posture the Duke was not ignorant they bargained for his Head and the King was told the League designed no less then to make him a Monk and that the Dutchess of Montpensier shewed the very Cizers which were prepared to shave him This was because he had affronted that Widow by discovering some secret defects of hers in his Discourses An Outrage much more unpardonable in respect of Women then any thing beside that can be attempted or that can be done against their Honour The Tenth day of May the King therefore gave Command all strangers should depart the City of Paris and ordered the Houses should be searched against which the Parisians making some resistance he took occasion to send five or six thousand as well French as Swiss into the City by the Gate St. Honoré which was opened to them by two Eschevins The honest Bourgeois could have been glad the King might still be Master yet they did not approve that to seize upon Fifteen or Twenty guilty persons he should put the Capital of the Kingdom in danger of being plundered or turning Rebels and therefore they did not second this so well as they might else have done He posted City Companies and Companies of his Soldiers in divers places The first did him little service the others were beaten off or hemm'd in by the Leaguers who were well prepared for this Attaque The commotion began near the University thence got into the City where about three or fourscore Swiss were knock'd on the Head then Afternoon over all the whole Town the Barricado's being carried on from Street to Street till they had brought them as far as the Louvre and made the Sentinel retire Year of our Lord 1588 The King and Duke did yet dissemble their game though so apparent and felt each others Pulses by Envoyez who brought and carried several Propositions If the Duke of Guise had any other design but to defend himself and his friends it must be granted that he wanted either Courage or Conduct for after that part of Paris which is called the Ville had taken Wild-fire had he follow'd his blow he might have surrounded the Louvre and seized on the Kings Person But he did not press on that opportunity as he might On the contrary being picqued with generosity he went to disingage the Soldiery and sent them back disarmed to the Louvre then some hours afterwards returned their Arms again and entred upon Treaty with the Queen-Mother
But the next day he was much amazed to hear that whilst she flatter'd him with the fairest hopes the King following her Council or perhaps his own Fears had made his escape in great disorder by the new Gate to the Garden of the Tuilleries and from thence to the Monastery of the Feuillants where he took Horse That night he went and lay at Trapes near Versailles and the next day at Chartres his Officers followed in a great hurry The Queen-Mother staid at Paris not to pacify those disturbances but to keep things in such a tottering posture that they might ever stand in need of her Mediation and Interposition From Chartres the King wrote to all the Cities and Governours the Duke of Guise from Paris to his friends and partisans The Stile of the former was languishing and fearful on the contrary that of the Duke of Guise and the League Victorious and triumphant They said the day of the Barricadoes was a day resplending with the protection of the Lord of Hosts and conjured the other Cities to joyn with them as Members to their Head To make themselves most sure of Paris they set aside the antient Prevost des Marchands and the Eschevins seize upon the Bastille and the Arsenal as in the Provinces they seized on several Towns the Duke of Aumale upon all in Picardy excepting Boulogne which he attempted in vain three times the Cardinal de Guise on Reims and Chaalons as their friends would have made themselves Masters of the greater part of those in Normandy if the Duke of Montpensier who was gone to take possession of that Government had not prevented them The Queen-Mother ceased not to Treat with the Duke of Guise to which end she made use of the Dutchess of Montpensier whom she cajoled with the hopes of Marrying the old Cardinal de Bourbon These two joyning together perswaded the Duke of Guise to reconcile himself to the King and for this purpose obliged the Leaguers after they had made Processions to appease the wrath of God to go in the Habits of Penitents to Chartres to crave pardon of the King They were conducted Year of our Lord 1588 thither by Henry de Joyeuse who was called Father Angel representing our Lord at his going to Mount Calvary with all the Trinkets and Persons they employ'd in those days to act the History of the Passion Thus travested they went to seek the King who was then at Church and coming before him cast themselves upon their knees and with a loud voice cried out for Mercy For the same end the Parliament sent their Deputies some few days after to let him know they were most sensibly afflicted and concern'd to find he had forsaken his Louvre and to beseech him to return and avert his just vengeance from falling on the Heads of his Subjects He answered to the First that if he designed to ruine the Parisians as they would have made the People believe it was in his power to reduce them to ashes and to the Latter that he would Treat the Inhabitants of Paris as Children that had offended their Father not as Slaves After Dinner having sent again for the Latter he charged them to threaten the Parisians that he would take away their Sovereign Courts if they persisted in their Factious humour Then three days afterwards he sent a Master of Requests to the Parliament to assure them he was resolved to assemble the Estates-General before the expiration of the year that he would carefully endeavour the Reformation of his Kingdom and assure them of a Catholique Successor It is not certainly known what motive obliged him to engage so far but the Duke of Guise judg'd it fit to press him upon that point He therefore caused a Petition to be presented to him in the name of the Princes of the City of Paris and of all the good Catholiques who did beseech him to send for that purpose the Duke of Mayenne into Daufiné with one Army and to march himself into Guyenne with another leaving the Command of Paris to the Queen-Mother to forget the Barricadoes and other irregularities to confirm the Election of the Prevost des Marchands and the Eschevins and above all to put away the Duke of Espernon and la Valete his Brother who countenanced the Heretiques Those enemies Espernon had in the Kings Council greedily embraced this occasion to annoy him the Queen-Mother clubs with them and all together made such an impression on the King that he sent him word He must stay a while away and not come near him or the Court. The Duke did not take himself to be out of Favour for all this He came to wait upon him at his return out of Normandy the King would not admit him to the Council but Commanded him to retire to his Government of Angoumois Before he departed he surrendred up that of Normandy Year of our Lord 1588 and indeed he could not have held it the King bestow'd it upon the Duke of Montpensier One would have thought his absence might have calmed the Tempest In effect the King shewed himself more willing to come to an accommodation but this appeared to be only a design to get some places out of the hands of the League especially Havre and Orleans It was upon the score of Havre that he went to Roüen but Villars who held it a haughty Man and who had engaged his Word to the Duke of Guise soon cut off all his hopes of gaining it As for Orleans Entragues who was Governour thereof did not positively deny to give Obedience to the Orders brought him by Schomberg to render it to the King The Duke of Guise was then just on the point of concluding his Treaty with the King when he heard they were dealing with Entragues he made great instance that City should be one amongst the rest which he demanded for security The King resisted a long time upon this particular at last he was forced to condescend to it but afterwards by a subtilty more ingenious then becoming a great Prince he said they had mistaken in transcribing the Order from the Secretary and that it was there the City of Dourlans not Orleans and this contest was one of the main subjects which led him to the greatest extremities against the Duke of Guise month July However upon this foot was the Treaty made of the Month of July which besides that City granted to the Princes of the League Bourges Dourlens and Monstreüil withal left in their keeping for Four years those places that had been given them by the Treaty of Nemours permitted those others who had declared for them to remain in the same condition they were in Continued their Prevost and Eschevins des Marchands at Paris for two years more and allowed them many other things of good advantage At the same time appeared at Sea that formidable Armado of Philip of Spain which he set forth for the Conquest of England They had been seven years
about preparing and equipping it and every year he laid out above a Million of Gold for the expences The King apprehending that the Leaguers if he ran them into despair might get them to land upon the coasts of France durst no longer deny those things they ask'd of him He gave them that Edict which bare the specious name of Year of our Lord 1588 Re-Vnion By which renewing his Coronation Oath he swear to root out all Schisms and Heresies and never make any Peace or Edict in favour of the Huguenots ordained likewise all his Subjects of what quality soever to swear the same and that his death hapning they should acknowledge no Prince for their King who was an Heretique or abettor of Heresie Declared Rebels and Criminals de Lesae Majestatis those who refused to Sign this Edict and approved all that had been done the 12 th and 13 th of May and since as well at Paris as in other Cities as being done out of pure Zeal for the Catholique Religion He swear this Edict with an appearance of great joy all those that were of his Council and of his Court did the same thing excepting the Duke of Nevers who refused the Oath three or four times till the King enjoyned him to it upon pain of disobedience The Parliament did forthwith Register and make publication of it and all the great Cities received it This done the King returned to Chartres towards the end of the Month and the Queen brought thither the Duke of Guise and presented him to the King There appeared in their countenances and in their discourse and in either of their proceedings so many marks of Confidence and a cordial Affection that the whole Court was overjoy'd at this reconciliation and the most cautelous believed it might be unfeigned At this time the King of Navarre was returned from Bearn to Rochell and sought to gain the favour of that City where indeed he had no very great credit during the life of the Prince of Condé Lesdiguieres was buisy in Danfiné curbing the Cities of Gap and Grenoble with Ports he mated Grenoble so effectually that they demanded a Truce for six Months He and Montmorency had also besieged the Pont Sainct Esprit when the Edict of Re-Union was brought to him It made the Mareschal put up his Sword but hastned la Valete to make a League Offensive and Defensive with Lesdiguieres There was nothing in Daufiné that made head against the last but only Charles de Simiane d'Albigny nor did he spare any thing to gain his amity he offer'd to give him his Daughter in Marriage to share his Authority between them and to leave it solely to him at his death These advantageous proffers had less power and influence over the Spirit of Albigny then that zeal he was confirmed in for the Religion of his Ancestors he ever constantly resisted him but not with so much success as courage month September and October The Provenceaux in the mean time were risen up against Valete the Kings private Orders the Parliaments hatred to the Duke of Espernon and the ambition of Vins who pretended to that Government did but too much animate those Spirits whose Blood is soon heated and easily incited to a commotion The supplies which came to him from Daufiné did but little service when the Parliament had once set him beside the Government most of the Gentry and all the Cities abandon'd him excepting four or five petty places which he maintained till the death of the Duke of Year of our Lord 1588 Guise when the face of Affairs were changed by the Kings changing of his mind month August In the precedent Month of August the Duke of Espernon saw himself in most dreadful danger his kind fortune and great courage drew him out of it Having staid some days in the Castle of Loches after his leaving the Court before he resolved to go to Angoulesme the Mayor of the Town had order from the King to oppose his entrance and not able to do so because Espernon had prevented the Courier he undertook to seize him in the Castle or the Kings House where he lodged He entred therefore with Ten Men well armed under colour of bringing a Courier to him but running rashly into the Wardrobe instead of going directly to his Closet he mist his prey and perish'd with his Brother-in-law who crept in thorow a hole to come to his aid The other Conspirators and their friends who had taken Arms in the City apprehending to be over-born by the Soldiers who came thundring in to the Dukes assistance and the Duke to be starved to death having not eaten in Thirty hours this fear and that necessity made an accommodation between them and obliged them to stand to it Villeroy was taxed as having abused or contrived Letters under the Signet to destroy Espernon but the King clearly owned the business He was grown so peevish that towards the end of the same Month he dismiss'd the Chancellor de Chiverny Villeroy and Pinard Secretaries of State and Pompone de Bellievre Sur-Intendant des Finances At the same time he heaped Favours upon the Leaguers for he put the Seals into the hands of Francis de Montolon Advocate in Parliament whom they revered because of his servent zeal for the Catholique Religion He also declared the Cardinal de Bourbon the nearest of kin to his Blood In effect he was so but not the fittest to succeed and he permitted the Clergy to furnish Five hundred thousand Crowns towards the expences of the War Now that the said Body Ecclesiastical might raise it without alienating their Fund he consented to the erection of an alternate Receiver and two Comptrollers of the Tenths hereditary in each Diocess This Fund was ordained for the maintenance of two Armies which he had raised He gave the one to the Duke of Mayenne and the other to the Duke of Nevers but this was upon the refusal of the Duke of Guise who by advice of the Arch-Bishop of Lyons resolved to remain at Court and got a constant and certain Fund setled to keep his Table of Grand Maistre month July and August The event made it appear that this resolution was not prudent for the beams of his power shining perpetually so bright in the Kings Eyes awakened his resentments which perhaps might else by little and little have been extinguished and laid to sleep in the shades of oblivion He was offended that the Pope should in a Letter call the Duke and the Cardinal de Bourbon Machabéans and say they had saved the people of Israel Besides this the Duke of Nevers and Lognac Captain of Year of our Lord 1588 the Forty-five did perpetually stir up his indignation The Duke of Nevers because he irreconcileably hated the Duke of Guise and Lognac because having in some manner succeeded to the Kings favour after Espernon as Second with Bellegarde Cosin-Germain to that Duke well knew that the House of Guise always enemies
to the Favorites would not suffer him long in that post They labour'd on both sides to gain the Deputies for the Estates The over-confidence of the League was a little humbled by the defeat of Philips Armado which month August equally threatned both France and England That Invincible Fleet so they called it after it had been tossed beaten scatter'd every where by continual tempests and then by the English and Hollanders having lost near Ten thousand Men and above Threescore Ships had much ado torn and shatter'd as it was to recover the Ports of Spain The King was at Chartres when he received the news of it and it was this perhaps which emboldned him to go to Blois where his presence was necessary to see and take notice of the Deputies as they repaired thither month September The Fifteenth of September being come but very few of the Deputies the Assembly was put off till October and the first Session was open'd on a Sunday the Sixteenth month October of that Month. The Clergy had an hundred thirty four Deputies there amongst whom appeared Four Arch-Bishops Bishops One and twenty and Two Chiefs of Orders attired in their Rochets and Surplices The Nobility had an hundred and Fourscore in Velvet Gowns and Caps The Third Estate an hundred ninety one part of them Lawyers part of them Trading People the First with Gowns and square Caps the others with short Cloaks and round Bonnets Before the opening of this Assembly the King knew by the tenor of their Papers or Instructions that there was a party made to diminish his Authority and augment that of the Estates wherefore he gave notice in his Harangue otherwise very eloquent and very pathetique of his resentment against the Duke of Guise for which that Prince made such violent complaint to him by the mouth of the Arch-Bishop of Lyons that he was obliged when he gave it to be Printed to retrench and alter many things which were but the deeper imprinted in his Heart At the Second Session which was the following Tuesday he swore to the Edict of Re-Union and ordained that it should be observed for a Fundamental Law of the State and would have the Three Orders swear to it with one voice the Clergy laying their hands upon their Breasts as the others hold theirs aloft This done he protested he would forget all that was past and charged the Prevost des Marchands Year of our Lord 1588 to assure the City of Paris of it month October Who can resolve whether these words were a sincere Truth or a profound dissimulation month November if his Soul were then such as he professed it did not hold long so He look'd upon the Duke of Guise as a dangerous Rival all whose actions seemed by his interpretation to tend to the ruine of his Authority he was netled that they should force him to swear to the Edict that the League had constrained the Count de Soissons for he had quitted the King of Navarre to take Absolution of the Pope notwithstanding they made all their effort though in vain to hinder his Holiness from granting it and that when the said Count had brought his Letters of Pardon to the Parliament a Taylor with a Crew of the most hot-headed Leaguers went to the Palais and so frighted the Counsellors that they durst not proceed to verisie it He was yet more stung and offended for that the Estates made great Complaints against the Government demanded the suppression of new Offices an abatement of the Tailles and Imposts the punishment of Financiers and Favourites and used all manner of practises to moderate and clip the Soveraign Power and set up the Laws Which did not only proceed from the Factions of the League but also the unanimous desire of the People who imagining the King would ere long lose either his Life or Sences for Miron his chief Physician had imprudently said that the one or the other would come to pass within a twelvemonth thought it now necessary to make so strong and high a fence against him that should next succeed to the Crown that he might never be able to force the same nor bring such heavy Oppressions upon the Subjects as France had groaned under ever since the Reign of Francis I. The Huguenots prompted by the same Spirit endeavour'd likewise to restrain the Power of the King of Navarre in an Assembly he had Convocated at Rochel For apprehending he might change his Religion they demanded Protectors in each Province and Chambers or Courts of Justice to hear their Complaints and do them Right He had much ado to avoid the first and hinder them from making choice of Prince Casimir for their Protector General but as to the second he was forced to grant it and set up of those Chambers in five or six Cities However he revoked them two years after when he came to the Crown The Duke of Mayennes Army made little progress in Dausine because he staid at Lyons to decide some Controversies there were for the Government of the City between Mandelot and the Son of Villeroy they spent all their Fire against the Fort of Oysans which Lesdiguieres had built in their way this scurvy Redout resisted thirty days before they would capitulate In like manner that under the Duke of Nevers in Poiton was consumed in taking some small places of no importance They lay before la Ganache when they received the news of the Duke of Guises death Year of our Lord 1588 The King thought himself daily wounded by fresh and more hainous offences their vehement urging him to receive the Council of Trent did greatly distaste and perplex him the demand of the Estates that their Instructions or Memorials should be conclusive appeared yet ruder to him but he took the Deputation they made to oblige him expressly to declare the King of Navarre incapable of succeeding to the Crown to be altogether insupportable During these times the Duke of Savoy a Man of high courage and a genius much greater then his State did not forget to do his own business Believing the Kingdom of France was going to be dismembred he thought he had more right then any one else to get his share as being almost the only Male Prince though by the Female side that was then remaining of the Blood of the great King Francis and withall having some pretensions upon the Marquisate of Salusses and other Lands on this side the Alpes However he would not varnish his design with that pretence but rather chose the fair Masque of Religion In effect Lesdiguieres being very powerful having taken Chasteau-Daufin and being leagued with la Valete who had the Government of Salusses there was some danger lest Calvinisme might from thence step into his Countries and become the most prevalent under favour of so pernicious a Neighbourhood The Duke Armed therefore feigning he designed against Montferrat and la Valete being so embarrassed in Provence that he could do nothing on this
language reproaches and imprecations that a despairing fury and rage could possibly express the other was that having found the Popes Legat easily inclined to allow of his justificatio ntouching the death of the Duke he imagined it would be no hard task to obtain his remission for the Murther of the Cardinal Du Guast a Captain in the Regiment of Guards provided four Soldiers for this execution each of them being promised an hundred Year of our Lord 1588 Crowns The Cardinal therefore being called for by the King these Murtherers who waited his coming thorough a Gallery slew him with their Halberts Richelieu caused the Bodies of these two Brothers to be burnt and their Ashes to be scatter'd in the Air lest the People should make Reliques of them Pericard redcemed his life and liberty at the price of all his Masters secrets but neither threats nor caresses could extort the least sillable from the Archbishop that might stain the memory of his Friend and yet the King either because his fury was spent or because he had formerly loved him would not have them take away his Life Few People boasted of having a hand in this action either out of shame or for sear of a future revenge It will not be amiss to observe two things the one that such as had the greatest obligation to the House of Guise were the main Instruments of their destruction the other that these Princes were drawn into the snare under the publick faith and by the like most subtile and artificial dissimulations as they had joyned in to decoy those of the House of Bourbon and the Admiral de Coliguy at the Massacre in the year 1572. Such as were most clear-sighted did from that very time judge this must be attended with terrible Consequences the King himself began to perceive it when after the Murther of the Duke of Guise going to the Queen Mother to let her know what had past saying to her Madam now I am King indeed she asked him whether he had taken order to secure Paris and hinder the People from rising in all parts of the Kingdom and made him sensible as well by her countenance as her discourse that he was not yet in the condition he thought himself And then again when he found the Legat month December who though not much mov'd at the death of the Duke of Guise came now and declared he had incurr'd Excommunicatio Majorem for that of the Cardinal but much more yet when he came to know that not one of those Orders he had sent abroad had succeeded they not being able to seize upon any one of the Heads of the League For the Duke of Mercoeur who was at Nantes had diligent notice given him by the Queen Louisa his Sister and prevented their taking of him Likewise the Duke of Mayenne received a Courier at Lyons sent him by Roissieux a Gentleman belonging to his Brother and not finding the People of that Town in a disposition to protect him amongst them he went to Chaalon in Burgundy made himself Master of the Citadel and from thence hastned to secure Dijon The same Roissieux made them of Orleans take up Arms who besieged Entragues their Governor in his Redoubt at the Gate Baniere The Sixteen having kept the news private till they were secured of the Gates of Paris held an Assembly in the Town-Hall where they chose the Duke of Aumale to be their Governor For the first two or three days being yet uncertain of the events they put this colour upon their Revolt that it was to maintain themselves in perfect unity against all such attempts as might be made in prejudice to their liberties and the Catholick Religion but when they heard and found Orleans had declared and Year of our Lord 1588 the Duke of Mayenne in Burgundy they were no longer afraid to withdraw themselves from the Kings obedience whom they now called only Henry de Valois Year of our Lord 1589 With this beginning of new Troubles ended the year 1588. which the Prognosticators month January had predicted would be satal to all great Empires It would be prudence to bury in forgetfulness the furious heats of the Parisians against the King the declamations of the Pulpiteers the lewd Songs the infamous Discourses the bloody Satyrs wherewith they mangled his Reputation and I might omit were it not too great an injury and breach in History what the Faculty in Divinity esteemed the leading one of all Christendom asserted upon a Consultation held with them That the French were discharged of all Oaths of Fidelity and their Duty of Obedience towards Henry de Valois and that they might with a safe Conscience take up Arms against him which drew somewhat after it of a most terrible Consequence The first President Achilles de Harlay and many more of the Parliament directly opposed these Phrensies and endeavoured to moderate their overheated Spirits Bussy le Clere otherwhile a Fencer and then a Procureur in Parliament had the confidence to come into the Grand Chamber and cause a List to be read over of such as he said he had Order to Arrest When they had named the first President and ten or twelve others all the rest of the Company rose up and followed them most generously to the Bastille marching by two and two along the Streets to move the People to compassion In effect they were ready to run to their Arms but their Preachers hindred it by giving them to understand that all this was done for the maintenance of Religion and the publick safety Bussy kept those he had a mind to in the Bastille as the first President and some others The same day he seized upon many more in their Houses as well such as belonged to the same Company as to the Chambre des Comptes and the Cour des Aides but most of them got out again the same day or soon after having given their Oathsagainst the King Some realy changed Parties others dissembled till occasion presented to evade but many believed that they should be better able to serve their Country by returning to their places in the Parliament Of those was Barnabe Brisson who supplied the Office of first President and the next day held Audience with Doors wide open having made his protestation before a Notary that he did it by compulsion to save his own life and all his Families The League likewise changed the whole Bar as they pleased Molle was chosen Sollicitor General because the People earnestly demanded it for the reputation of his great Probity Year of our Lord 1589 When the League had thus reformed the Parliament the first Act they demanded month January of them was a Declaration to be sworn to by the Princes Cities and Commonalties of the Kingdom united with the three Estates for the preservation of Religion and publick security These three Estates were but the Seize and the Deputies of five or six Cities of that Party out of whom they had
chosen a Council of Forty Persons They afterwards obliged them to receive the Petition of Catharine de Cleves Widow of the Duke of Guise who desired leave to take information concerning the death of her Husband and Commissioners to make Process against such as should be Convicted The Parliaments the Chambers Assembled having heard the Sollicitor General 's motion admitted and granted her Petition and named two Counsellors to manage and carry on the said Process The King against all these attempts opposed nothing but a little Parchment and Wax multitudes of Letters which he sent every way and several Declarations at first very soft and gentle then somewhat more vigorous One amongst others which commanded the Duke of Aumale to go out of Paris interdicted the Parliament and all other the Kings Judges to exercise any Jurisdiction then another which declared the Dukes of Mayenne and Aumale and all the revolted Cities guilty of the Crime de Lesae Majestatis in the highest degree and deprived them of all Offices Honours and Priviledges In pursuance whereof he made an Edict which transferr'd the Parliament and the Chambre des Comptes to Tours as he afterwards did that of Rouen to Caen and the University and the Presidial of Orleans to Beaugency It was thought that if he had but mounted on Horseback and appeared at the Gates of Orleans or Paris who lead the dance to all other Tumults he had stifled them with ease but he was grown so effeminate thorough idleness that he could neither perform any thing with vigor nor keep himself any competent time steady to the same resolution He stirred not from Blois but continued the Estates there whom he persuaded himself would suddenly find out some remedy for all the grievances and troubles in the Kingdom In the mean while the Leaguers and Friends of the deceased Duke drew after them almost all the People of the whole Nation already too much prepossessed with ill-favour'd sentiments against him Even those very Persons who ever had abhorr'd Faction and Rebellion finding he had caused a Cardinal to be Massacred imagined he struck at the Catholick Religion it self the manner and circumstances of those Murthers gave a horror to all the World even the King of Navarre though Year of our Lord 1589 it were realy very advantageous to him could not find in his heart to rejoyce and month January le Plessis Mornay hindred the Rochellers from any publick Expressions of it for fear they might be reproached for approving that ambiguous act by any solemnity It could never be certainly known whether the Queen Mother had any hand in it there being only conjectures both for and against it but it is certain the King did never afterwards communicate any affairs to her So that thinking Life a burthen without any Authority or Power being overwhelmed with Age for she was Seventy and two years old but much more with trouble and sorrow to see that fate maugre all the obstructions she had contrived brought her greatest Enemy so near the Crown and withal being pierced to the heart that the Cardinal de Bourbon when she would needs visit him upon his Bed of Sickness and languishment cast that bloody reproach in her teeth Ah Madam is it thus you have brought us all to the Butchery she fell sick and died of it the Fifth of January Her death was esteemed a thing very indifferent causing neither joy nor sorrow and her memory would have vanisht with her breath after all the noise and stirs she had made for thirty years together had she not brought down too many curses upon France to be so soon forgotten A second time the King made the Estates swear to the Edict of Union to shew he was a Zealous Catholick After this they presented their Papers to him which he began to examine for some days The Fifteenth and Sixteenth of the Month he heard their Harangues which were full of fine words sound Reasons wise Expedients but their Tongues and Hearts were very far asunder so that it was nothing but a Scene where each one acted a part quite different from what he was indeed Now they sending him notice from all parts of new Commotions and finding most of the Deputies retired without taking leave he dismiss'd them all upon the Twentieth day of the Month and that they might carry with them into the Provinces some Marks of his Bounty to the Nobility he gave Brissac and Bois-Daufin their liberty and to the Third Estate that of three or four Deputies whom Richelieu had seized on But all of them made him an ill requital reserving only the injury in memory but not the favour and pardon Moreover he granted and caused several Articles of their Instructions or Memorials to be proclaimed amongst others an abatement of the fourth part of their Tailles of which in truth there was above a third part of non-value and never could be raised From Blois he caused all his Prisoners to be transfer'd to the Castle of Amboise but the Duke of Nemours of a bold and active Spirit found the invention to escape disguised like a Kitchin Scullion and got to Paris without stop or stay The last day of the Month he had news that the Citadel of Orleans had surrendred to the Bourgeois He had hoped that the Duke of Nevers whom he recalled from Poitou would have relieved it but after the taking of la Ganache his Forces being all Year of our Lord 1589 Leaguers either dispersed or went over to his Enemies month Januaay He heard almost at the same time that Paris had drawn in all the Towns and Passages round about them excepting Melun That Dreux Crespy in Valois Senlis Clermont in Beauvoisis Pont Saincte Maixence Amiens Abbeville Rouen and all those of Normandy excepting the Pont de L'Arche Diepe and Caen had set up the Colours of the League That Bois-Daufin had stirred up all the Country of Mans That the Duke of Mayenne was Master of all Burgundy excepting Semur and Flavigny That Lyons had cast their Rider and chose for Governor the Duke of Genevois so they called the Duke of Nemours As to Bretagne the Duke of Mercoeur did not make them move as yet because the King his Brother in Law amused him with the hopes of giving him that Dutchy after his death Stephen Duranti First President of Toulouze and James Dafis Attorney General contained that City near a Month but at last Vrban de Sainct Gelais Lansac Bishop of Cominges a Man equally ambitious and violent made it revolt and put the Populace into such a fury that they inhumanely massacred those two Magistrates dragg'd their dead Bodies thorough the Streets with the Kings Effigies and hanged them on the Gallows The Parisians and the Dutchess of Montpensier who could not well agree with the Duke of Aumale invited the Duke of Mayenne to Paris as soon as he had setled Burgundy in good order he begins his Journey thither to satisfie them All Champagne was of his
Party but only Chaalons for the Inhabitants having received information of the death of Guise before the Governor had any notice which was Rosne assembled together and turned him out From thence he went to Sens where his presence was requisite to fortisie his Friends then to Orleans where he found the Citadel surrendred to his Party afterwards to Chartres who received him with extraordinary month February joy and lastly to Paris where he arrived the Tenth day of February That vast number of People were yet so furiously enchanted with the memory of the Duke of Guise that they would needs bestow the Title of King upon this Brother but he did not find himself sufficiently bottom'd to accept of so high a Dignity He consider'd that besides the divisions it would necessarily have begot betwixt him and the other Chiefs who were content to be his Companions but not his Subjects the Spirits of the Authors of that grand Revolution tended rather to establish a Democracy then a Monarchy Wherefore he presently labour'd to diminish their Power encreased the Council of Forty with fourteen more wholly at his own devotion and admitted not only all the Princes of the League but likewise the Presidents the Kings Attorneys and Sollicitors in Parliament the Prevost des Merchands and Eschevins that he might carry things by Multitude upon occasion Then not able to endure this curb by any means breaks it quite the following year when he was going to give the Battle of Yury Year of our Lord 1589 Notwithstanding it was that Council had confer'd upon him the command of month March the Armies and the Quality of Lieutenant General of the State and Crown of France but he gave them little thanks for it because they limited his Power to the meeting of the General Estates which was to be upon the Fifteenth of July His Commission was verified in Parliament the Seventh of March and he took the Oath before the President de Brisson They caused new Seals to be made a great one for Council Affairs and a little one for the Chanceries and Parliaments either of them had on one side the Flower-de-Luce as was usual but on the other an Empty Throne with these words about it The Seal of the Kingdom of France Now to make a real Union of this Party as they had the name and to link all the Cities to them that had declar'd already and intended to declare he made an excellent Reglement which being sent into the Provinces brought others into him Especially Laon where John Bodin the Kings Attorney in that Court prevailed so by his Interest and Eloquence that it was accepted having made it clear that the joyning of so many Cities ought not to be called Rebellion but Revolution that this was a just one against an Hypocrite and Tyrant King that Heaven it self seemed to authorize it because States have their periods as well as Men and the Reign of Henry III. ought to be the Climacterical to France he being the LXI King since Pharaemond who according to the Vulgar Account was the first King of the French To this pretended Order succeeded a general Disorder an universal Robbery thorough the whole Kingdom seizures of Goods sales by outcry Imprisonments Ransoms and Reprizals The Offices Benesices and Governments were divided into two or three private Families were even divided within themselves the Father bandying against the Sons Brothers against Brothers Nephews against their Uncles Nothing was to be gained but by those that had nothing to lose those that had wherewithal were obliged to spend it but the Thieves gained on both hands They nestled themselves in old Castles or in small Towns from whence they bolted out to pillage the Neighbouring Countries took up the Kings Rents made private Persons compound for theirs enjoy'd the Churches Revenues and thus enriched themselves with great ease and little danger month March In the beginning of March the King not finding himself secure at Blois retired to Tours He first took out his Prisoners from the Castle of Amboise sent the Cardinal de Bourbon to Chinon whereof Chavigny an ancient Gentleman was Governor the Prince of Joinville who from henceforward was and called himself Duke of Guise to Tours and the Duke d'Elbaeuf to Loches The Duke of Mayennes Affairs as we may say did do of themselves For even in the Month of February the Cities of Aix Arles and Marseilles offended at the Kings restoring la Valete to that Government took the Oath for the League but he in the mean while passed his time at Year of our Lord 1589 Paris where he and his Officers consumed in fruitless Expences the Moneys assessed month March upon the Country with the Confiscations and Sequestrations of the Politicks and Huguenots Estates While that Duke was in the greatest hurry of his Affairs it hapned that four or five of his Friends and Intimates being in debauch with some Ladies of Pleasure in the Hostel de Carnavalet one of them seeing him pass by ran after him and haled him in almost by force he did not stay above half an hour with this Company yet made a shift to get and carry that away with him that forced him to keep his Chamber several weeks after but being in haste he had time to take only palliative Remedies So that the venom remaining still in his Blood rendred him more slow lumpish and melancholy and in his Person stupified the activity of his whole Party In the Month of March John Lewis de la Rochefoucaut Count de Randan debauched Rion and part of Auvergne whereof he was Governor he had drawn the whole Country after him if some Lords as Rostignac Saint-Herem Allegre Fleurat Canillac and Oradour amongst whom d'Effiat having the Kings particular Orders had acquired great credit had not opposed their courage and skill against his Interest and Faction The Duke of Mercoeur having balanced a while debauched likewise all Bretagne excepting only Vitre the Nobility of the Country were cantonized there against him and whilst he besieged it Renes escaped from him Gefroy de Saint Belin Bishop of Poitiers and the Mayor and some other Leaguers stirred up that Town which however did not yet declare for the League Limoges remained under obedience of the King Pichery retained the City of Anger 's in despite of Brissac who had put them upon rising and reduced them by means of the Castle where he commanded Matignons prudence defeated the Conspiracy of the Leaguers who were beginning to Barricade themselves at Bourdeaux but he durst not search it to the quick the Combination being too general and so thought it sufficient to hang two or three of the most Zealous Since the King of Navarres return to Rochel he had taken Maran and then Niort by Escalado Some few days after hapned the Murther at Blois but that made no alteration in the conduct of his Affairs neither did it oblige him to discontinue his War The Cities of Loudun Thouars Monstreuil L'Isle
and a half of Diepe between the two little Hillocks that shut up the Valley where runs the River of Betune of whose Mouth the Sea makes the Port of that City The Duke Lodged on the Hill at the right hand and attaqued the Suburb du Polet whence being repulsed he lay still three days together without attempting any thing The fourth he made a great effort to gain the Kings Retrenchment but having lost five hundred Men he retired and rested quiet two days more after which having decamped and taken a march of seven or eight Leagues he returns of a sudden to Polet and began to batter it but it was at Year of our Lord 1589. September a distance only and very coldly The tenth day he raised the Siege for good and all and retreated a great way into Picardy Besides his slowness and uncertainty there were other clogs no less heavy that hindred him from moving with that force and promptitude requisite in such great Enterprises his Germans and Swiss refused to fight unless he would first pay their Musters and they were hourly ready to fall together by the Ears with the French upon such picques as are ordinary betwixt different Nations Besides all the Commanders of his Army taking the Kings surrender or flight to be unavoidable â—ell already into disputes about the sharing of the Kingdom The Marquiss du Pont believed the Crown was his due the Duke of Nemours the Duke and the Chevalier d'Aumale scoffed at his Pretensions and being possessed against each other with the like jealousies as against him did narrowly watch each others motions This was ☜ it that upon this very first occasion betray'd the weakness of the Duke of Mayenne and the League and gave the Royal Party so mean an opinion of them and so good a one of themselves that after this very day they made no difficulty not only of standing their ground in any place but of following and seeking them with unequal Forces Before we enter any further into this confusion of Troubles it will be sit to note the disposition of France both within and without in respect of the two Parties Pope Sixtus had declared for the League because the first news he had after the death of Henry III. reported they were absolute Masters of the whole Kingdom and he believed that depending upon him they would let him make such a King as should entirely submit the Crown to the Crosier The King of Spain would not determine this grand Quarrel which he might very easily have done had he at first commanded the Duke of Parma to enter France and to joyn with the Duke of Mayenne but his interest was to ruine the Kingdom by their own Contentions and then snatch up some fragments for himself Upon this prospect he never sent but slender assistance to the Duke but with sair promises joyned to a great deal of ostentation And indeed the Duke never had any sincere amity for or strict tie with him but knowing as he thoroughly did his intentions the Forces they lent did often give him more fear and embarass then they did him service The Seigneury of Venice and the Duke of Florence had an interest that there should be a King in France to balance the overgrown power of the Spaniard who too much Year of our Lord 1589. September over-topp'd them Wherefore the Seigneury owned Henry IV. at first dash notwithstanding the oppositions of the Popes Nuncio and the Spanish Ambassador and the Florentine profer'd to lend him three hundred thousand Crowns provided he would make a Match for Mary de Medicis with one of the Princes of his Blood The Duke of Lorrain pretended to the Crown for his Son the Marquiss du Pont but in an Assembly of some Deputies of the Cities in Champagne at Chaumont in Bassigny where he made his demand of it not one gave him their Vote and his Son whom he sent into France with some Forces acquired so little reputation and had moreover such ill fortune amongst the Women that he carried back nothing as 't is said but the Crown of Venus The Duke of Savoy had no less pretensions then the said Marquiss he derived his Title from his Mother Daughter of the great King Francis and that supported with the Alliance of Spain However knowing himself too weak to carry the whole Kingdom he would only have laid his hands upon Provence and Daufine and to that effect sent to the Parliament of Grenoble whom he thought pretty well disposed to favour him by the care of Charles de Simiane d'Albigny to make out his right to them and incline them to own him But he met with no great satisfaction the Parliament replying that his demand concerned the whole Kingdom that therefore he ought to make it to the Estates General in whose determination they would absolutely acquiesce As for the Provinces the Duke of Mercoeur was Master of the better part of Bretagne Normandy Picardy and Champagne were almost all Leaguers Burgundy was kept quiet under the commands of the Duke of Mayenne excepting that in the following year the Count de Tavanes a Royalist took some Castles there from whence he made War upon the Vicount his Brother a passionate friend to the Duke of Mayenne The greater part of Guyenne obey'd the Kings commands there being none but the Cities of Agen Villeneure and Marmande as also some Castles in Agenois and in Quercy who were of the opposite Party The Duke of Mayenne had no doubt drawn all that Province after him had he bestowed the Government upon Biron and not on the Marquiss de Villars his Wives Son who by her importunities made him commit that gross mistake As to the rest the Mareschal de Matignon had retained Bourdeaux Anne de Levis Count de la Voute Limoges some others Perigord and Quercy and the Duke of Espernon Angoulmoâ—s Poitiers on the contrary remained scot-free The Country along the Loire was much embroil'd Berry and Orleannois as also Year of our Lord 1589. September Mayne Perche and Beausse held for the League Touraine and Blesois for the King Montmorency had secured for him that part of Languedoc whereof he was Master having sent him a promise of the Constables Sword but he would not break that Truce he had made with Joyeuse who held the Cities of Narbonne Carcassonne d'Alby Rodes and even that of Toulonze which is capital of the Province with some other lesser places In Provence the Parliament and la Valete made War against each other more out of private animosities then affection to either Party The Duke of Savoy concern'd himself for his own Interest but this year he was employ'd against the Swiss and in the pursute of a design he had conceived of taking the City of Geneva The Duke of Nemours held Lyons and Vienne and d'Albigny Grenoble and some petty Towns for the League Lesdiguieres Head of the Huguenots and Alfonso Dornano Head of the Catholick Royalists being allied
together master'd almost all the rest of Daufine In Auvergne the Count de Randan a zealous Catholick had made sure of Limagne but on the contrary most of the Lords of the Province as we have before hinted resisted him stoutly The Parisians who thought the taking of the Bearnois so they called him infallible were mightily surprized when they saw he after the having received a supply of four thousand English the evening before the day that the Duke of Mayenne decamped from Diepe having made a long march came on All-Saints day attaqu'd and forced their great Retrenchments of the Fauxbourgs Saint Jacques and Saint Germains then the Fauxbourgs themselves with so much vigour that he might have entred the month November City had his Cannon but come timely enough to beat open the Gates It 's said he got up into the Steeple of the Abby St. Germains and thence at leasure contemplated the tumults and hurry he caused in Paris Bourgeing Prior of the Jacobins was taken in the Trenches of the Fauxbourg Saint Jacques with his Armour on and fighting courageously they convey'd him to Tours where the Parliament condemned him to be drawn by four Horses upon the Depositions of some Witnesses whether true or false who gave Evidence that he had incited Jacques Clement to kill Henry III. which he ever constantly denied and died so The Duke of Mayenne knowing the King drew toward Paris sent the Duke of Nemours thither with all expedition who did not arrive till towards night the next day he came himself with the gross of his Army Upon the noise of his arrival Year of our Lord 1589. November the King withdrew his out of the Fauxbourgs into the Field and having stood there three hours in battalia went to Linas From thence he went and took Estampes and Janville then Vendosme Maille Benehard who was Governor not having the discretion either to surrender it in time or defend it bravely was there beheaded He marched afterwards to Tours where he staid but two days and went to attaque Mans. In it there were twenty Companies of Foot and one hundred Gentlemen Bois-Daufin commanded there They had caused all the Suburbs to be burnt down as if resolved to defend themselves to the utmost extremity and yet at the first Cannon Shot glancing upon their Wall they made Composition which the more honourable by so much was it the more shameful In fine in Anjou Mayne and Touraine the League could preserve only the Town de la Ferte Bernard The King left that it being of more importance to employ his Arms for the reduction of Normandy In the Month of September Pope Sixtus had chosen the Cardinal Caetan to go Legat into France His Orders were To take care they should provide France month September with a King that were Pious a Catholick and agreeable to the French To that effect to go directly to Paris where the Ambassadors of Spain and Savoy were to meet to hear all the Propositions should be made to him to shew himself wholly disinteressed to engage for no Pretender to hear even the King of Navarre if there were any hopes of reconciling him to the Church with honour and dignity to the Holy See After these Instructions given the Pope received Letters written to him by the Duke de Piney deputed to his Holiness on behalf of the Royalist Nobility assuring him he was upon his Journey towards Rome to give him a good Account of that Body this caused him to stop his Legat for some weeks but the League importuned him so much that he was at last obliged to let him go month November He arrived at Lyons the Ninth of November so fraught with an opinion of his great Power and Conduct that he thought to dispose of all France at to his own pleasure and unravel all the grand Affairs with those little Intrigues and trivial Subtilties they make use of in deciding those amongst themselves at Rome So having refused the offer the Duke of Nevers made him of his City which ever since the death of Henry III. he had kept neuter betwixt both Parties and without giving notice of his coming to the Catholick Lords who were with the King but only to the Duke of Mayenne he caused his Brief to be published containing the subject of his Legation and afterwards came to Paris Year of our Lord 1589. November Now because in the Brief no mention was made of the Cardinal de Bourbon the Duke was possest with some apprehensions lest the Pope and the Spaniard had agreed to make some other Person King and by consequence make him lose that Authority he would preserve under the name of that Cardinal and therefore to prevent that danger he made haste before the arrival of the Legat to have him solemnly declared King and in effect he was proclaimed so in all the Cities of that Party by vertue of a Decree of the Council for the Union verified in Parliament and from that time Justice and all other publick Acts began to be administred in the name of Charles X. the Title and the Power of Lieutenant General still reserved to the Duke There were then four different Factions in Paris besides that of the Royalists who durst not too openly discover themselves That is the Party called the Politicks because they considered the State much more then Religion for which the greater part being less concern'd then for their own proper interest believed the stronger side was ever the most just and wished the King might become so but in the mean while never declar'd for him The second was that of the Lorrain Princes consisting of their Friends and a Party of Zealous Catholicks The third were the Spanioliz'd if we may use this Phrase whom the luster of Peruvian Gold had fetter'd to King Philips Interest and the fourth a sort of People too amorous and fond of liberty who aimed to set up a Government whereby absolute Authority might be restrained within the bounds of Laws This latter did not long subsist the other three though Enemies amongst themselves conspiring to make them odious and to destroy them in so much as not knowing which way to turn they quickly joyned with the Spanish who received them with open Arms. In the beginning the Spaniards promised themselves their own hearts desires from the charming power of their Pistols they did not know they had to do with People that were ever craving and never satisfied Wherefore when Mendoza the Ambassador imagining he had made a Party sufficient propounded in Council that they should chuse the King his Master for Protector of the Holy Union The Duke was hugely surprised and after he had consulted with his ablest Heads made Answer that the Legat being so near it would be thought a Crime to resolve upon so weighty a business without first communicating of it to him This reply piqued the Spaniard much and they were quits with him for some days after when he demanded Money
they paid him with the very same evasion In this manner being all jealous of each Year of our Lord 1589. November other and employing their greatest care the one to usurp the other to defend themselves they in this mean while let slip the opportunity of destroying the common Enemy and continuing to act in the same manner still they labour'd only to the advancement of his Affairs and the destruction of their own The Duke sensibly touched with the reproaches of the Parisians for having kept his Army three weeks about the Town without doing any thing takes the Field the Two and twentieth of November He gains the Bois de Vincennes and some other Castles upon Composition laid Siege to Pontoise which defended it self but very poorly this was in the beginning of January then went to attaque Meulanc He promis'd himself after the taking of this last place to do the same by Pont de l'Arche and by that means keep the River of Seine open from Paris even to Rouen It was Year of our Lord 1590. January easie enough for him to gain the Town of Meulanc the difficulty was to take the Fort which is an Island joyned to the two Shoars by two Bridges As then the King was in Normondy where he had reduced almost all the places Alencon Argentan Domfront Lisieux Bayeux Falaise and Honfleur There were none but the two last that sustained a Siege the first was taken by assault from the Castle the Mote which was its chiefest strength being frozen up and was miserably sacked the other capitulated as soon as the King had block'd up their Harbour by which they daily received refreshment sent them by Villars from Rouen Now when he was informed the Duke was before Meulane he hastens thither with part of his Men puts relief into the Fort then some few days after comes again with his whole Army Now the Duke being well lodged in the Burrough and he much incommoded in the Field by the great Frosts resolved to draw him out thence by attaquing Poissy which lies a League above it He immediately gains the Town by Escalado and falls a battering the Bridge The Duke runs thither upon the noise of the Cannon and could no way stop their fury but by breaking down two Arches of the Bridge The King having done what he desired went and laid Siege to Dreux During this the Legat was arrived at Paris He there received the Compliments of the Magistrates and all the distinct Bodies Corporate of the City presented his Bull in Parliament who verified it without any modification and went afterwards thither himself in great pomp believing there remained nothing more for him to do but to take possession of the Soveraign Authority But as he would have placed himself in the Kings Seat which is in the corner under a Canopy the first President pull'd him gently by the hand as if to shew him respect and sat him on the Bench below him The Parliament of Tours having seen his Bull and observ'd it was directed to the Kings Enemies forbid he should be owned for Legat that of Paris Year of our Lord 1590. January on the contrary damn'd their Decree and thus these two Companies often fought with the points of their Pens The King making much ado with his demanding a Conference to be instructed writing however quite contrary to the Protestant Princes many of the Leaguers month February and March began to grow cool and even some Preachers were so bold as to speak in favour of him The Faculty of Theology made a Decree of the Tenth of February wherein they condemned these Propositions That it was lawful to agree with the Bearnois to own him upon condition he became a Catholick and to pay him Taxes and Subsidies The Legat at the same time wrote his Circular Letter the first of March to all the Bishops forbidding them to appear in any Assembly for that purpose and withal took a new Oath of the Prevost des Merchands Eschevins Quarteniers Diziniers and Captains of each Quarter or Ward to persevere in the Holy Union to the last moment of their lives This was done in the great Augustins after solemn Procession The Ambassador of Spain was not so discouraged upon their first denial to own the King his Master for their Protector but he would needs attempt it a second time which had no better success then the former He likewise offer'd the Duke a very great supply but he who would readily have accepted it in the beginning apprehending it might be to stifle his Authority by a greater told him he should be satisfied with five or six thousand Men and the remainder he would rather have in Money During the difficulties created by their Agents on this Subject he goes to the Duke of Parma and procured of him fifteen hundred Lances and five hundred Arquebusiers on Horseback Armed with Breast and Head-piece they were called Carabins all commanded by Philip Count of Egmont a young Man growing in Reputation but who as yet was more rash then valiant With this Re-inforcement having no less then four thousand Horse and ten thousand Foot he marches to the relief of Dreux and passed over the River Stine at Mantes The King having notice of it raised the Siege and came to post himself at Nonancour The same night he arrived there his Council resolved to give Battle though his Army were less in number by a third part then the Enemy It was not the Dukes design to engage him but only to put some Men into Dreux as he might with ease all the Avenues being left open but the King decamping from Nonaâ—cour to draw somewhat nearer the River Eure towards Yvry that so if the Enemies attempted to pass over he might fight them separately the Leaguers imagined he was flying Then Egmont presses the Duke to follow and fall upon him and while the Duke knew not what to resolve brags he would attaque him with his own Party Year of our Lord 1590. March alone and beat him These Huffings and the vain discourses of the Parisians who reproached his sloath constrained him to pass the River Eure and engaged him in Combat Those that call'd â—olowd for Battle fell into a sudden consternation when they saw the Kings Forces who far from running away came directly towards them but there was now no way left them to avoid it The next Morning being on Wednesday the Fourteenth of March the two Armies ranged themselves in Batalia right against Yvry in that great Plain which lies in the midst of a Peninsula between the Rivers Aure and Iton and the Eure which receives them both In less then half an hour the Army of the League was utterly defeated the great Squadrons of their Lancers broken with the others Swords and Pistol Shot their Lansquenets cut in pieces and most part of their Frenchmen kill'd upon the place The Swiss only stood their ground but when they saw they were about to break their Batalions with
upon the Besiegers the first charge was but with little success but at the second when they had gotten some Cannon and a Reinforcement of a thousand Men sent them by Rochepot Governor of Anger 's they broke thorough their Barricado's pierced even into the Bass-court of the Castle and followed them so close as they betook themselves to their Heels but not breaking down the Bridge the greatest part were kill'd or taken Prisoners In Languedoc Montmorency armed slowly thinking by such coldness to make them send him the Constables Sword which other considerations with-held Albigny and Lesdiguieres made War in Daufine by taking and re-taking several Forts from each other The latter being the stronger marched sometimes towards Lyons to assist Maugiron who held one of the Castles of Vienne for the King and had St. Chaumont for Antagonist He likewise went frequently towards Provence to help la Valete Montmorency also passed the Rhosne divers times but that was to endeavour to lay hands on some places to enlarge his Dominion Provence was miserably rent and distracted by three or four Factions not reckoning the Royalists The Duke of Savoy had his the Countess de Sault and the Count de Carees each theirs That of the Duke seem'd to be the most predominant and to draw the two others to his Interests but the the Countess it was Christierne d'Aguâ—rre Widow of Lewis d'Agout Count de Sault a Woman of great courage and of a high spirit would not introduce him into the Province but to make her Year of our Lord 1590 self the stronger and the Count de Carces likewise not being able to stand upon his own Legs gave that Duke footing only that he might be enabled to make head against la Valete For he imagined that being prime Lord of the Country and Lieutenant of the Forces by Authority of Parliament all the Authority there ought to devolve on him The Parliament was also mightily divided between these three Factions and moreover some of the Officers belonging to them had left them to follow the Kings Party and that of la Valete his Governor These had withdrawn themselves to Manosque where they affirm'd they were the true Parliament During the first heat of these Commotions the Dukes Money and Practises gave month January c. him the advantage the Magistrates of the chief Cities amongst others Marseilles and Aix being all for him A great Assembly of the Clergy and Nobility which was held at Aix in the Month of January resolved to put the Province under his Protection and deputed a Bishop and the eldest Consul of the City to him and after that the Parliament Ordained likewise that he should be called in to defend it To which they added that the Estates of the Bigarrats so they named the Royalists should be confiscate As to the rest it were folly to engage in a Relation of all the several Intrigues and Exploits of so many Parties who changing every moment both their Designs and the management of them did not well know themselves what they would have or do I shall therefore not mention them no more then those of several other Provinces Only of Bretagne let me say that the Prince de Dombes rudely repulsed the Duke de Mercoeur took Hennebon Montcontour and Lambale but could not engage him to a Battle I shall likewise take notice of the great change at St. Malo's because it was a place of great importance Honorat de Bueil des Fontaines Governor of the Town lodged in the Castle which month March lies upon the Harbour and had there stowed all the Riches he had scraped together in the time of his being in favour with King Charles IX The Malouins being persuaded that he had plotted to introduce a strong Garison into their City and set the wealthiest Merchants at Ransom conspired to rid their hands of him Having therefore corrupted a Valet de Chambre of his they scaled the Castle on the Fourteenth of March in the night and it so hapned that he was kill'd with a Carbine Shot at a Window whether by chance or designedly I know not After which they plundred his Goods then got the Duke of Mercoeur to justifie them and fell in with the League yet they warily refused to admit of any Soldiers but kept the Castle themselves The Affections of considering Men as well as fortune and success began to dispose their minds by little and little to favour the King Pope Sixtus better informed Year of our Lord 1590. July of the condition of both Parties and comparing the qualities and the manner of that Princes acting with the Duke of Mayennes did well foresee that he would have the better and indeed he received into Rome then to his Audience the Duke de Piney deputed from the Catholick Nobility notwithstanding the threats and protestarions of the Spanish Ambassador and had sent Order to his Legat in France that he should make no use of Excommunication but try all ways of prudence and gentleness to bring back the King The People began likewise to be made sensible of the real goodness of this Prince as he had already taught them to dread his courage And the Duke of Nevers who had hitherto remained as it were Neuter in his own Town after his having consider'd of all the methods likely to convert him judged none could be either more certain or more Conscious then wisely to thrust himself between the Huguenots and him to divide him from them and so draw him mildly towards the Catholick Church With this design he came about the beginning of July and brought in great numbers of the Gentry by his Interest and Example It was about the same time the King recalled the Chancellor de Chiverny and restored the Seals to him Montholon had discharg'd himself of them after the death of Henry III. fearing he might be engaged to Seal some thing in favour of the Huguenots though he still remained of the Kings Party in which he this year died honoured by good Men with the Surname of the French Aristides After his demission the Seals had been managed by the Cardinal de Vendosme then put into the custody of Ruse Secretary of State but without any power of using them save by Order of the Mareschal Biron who had a hand in every thing About the time of his return the City of St. Denis surrendred and a design the Leaguers had contrived upon Senlis miscarried St. Denis having consumed all their Stores wherewith it was as little provided for as Paris made their Composition which was advantageous enough because the King desired to lodge there As to Senlis Bouteville who was Lieutenant to his Cousin Tore there walking one night upon the Rampart overheard some People beneath in the Fosse who spake very low and perceived they planted a Ladder against the Wall he rouls down a huge Stone from the Parapet which beat the Ladder in pieces and broke the Thigh-bone of one of them this
War A Peace would have blasted all their ambitious pretensions and they could no longer carry on the War without a King nor maintain and support a King without the assistance of Spain To this effect they deputed the President Janin to that Prince who gave him favourable Audience twice and afterwards sent him to confer with one of his Ministers By whose discourse the President discover'd the intentions of Philip which were to Assemble the Estates General that they might bestow the Crown of France upon him that should Marry his Daughter Isabella as the nearest Princess of the Blood Royal upon which condition he promised to send such numerous Forces into France as should drive out the the King of Navarre and withal offer'd ten thousand Crowns per Month to maintain the Duke of Mayenne He founded his hopes upon the charms of his Gold the affections of the Seize and the Cabals of the Friers Mendicants and other Religious Orders very powerful and at that time devoted to Spain by whose means he hoped to gain the greater Cities The Pope aimed at the same thing and treated the Seize as Men of great importance He fancied the time was now come to suppress all Heresies and that his Popeship might not lose the glory of it he resolved to joyn his Spiritual with the Temporal Power to destroy them He put forth two Monitories the one month March directed to the Prelats and Ecclesiasticks the other to the Nobility Magistrates and People By the first he Excommunicated them if within fifteen days they did not withdraw from the Obedience Territories and their Attendance on Henry de Bourbon and within fifteen more deprived them of their Benefices By the second he exhorted them to do the same if not he would turn his Paternal goodness and love into the severity of a Judge In both of them he declared Henry of Bourbon Excommunicate Relapsed and as such fallen from all right to his Kingdoms and Seigneuries Marcellin Landriano the Popes Referendary was the Bearer of them and contrary to the sentiments of the Duke of Mayenne published them in all the Cities of the League about the end of the Month of April month April To the same end the Pope raised Eight thousand Foot and a thousand Horse of whom he made his Nephew Hercules Sfondrata General and to make him the more Year of our Lord 1591. May. worthy that Command he invested him with the Dutchy of Montemarcian with most solemn Ceremony in the Church of Sancta Maria Major About this time the Marquiss de Maignelay who had promised the King to return to his Obedience with la Fere upon Oyse whereof he was Governor was assassinated in the midst of the City by the Vice-Seneschal of Montelimar named Colas and the Lieutenant of the Duke of Mayennes Guards who left the Government of it to Colas The King going to Compeigne to favour this Reduction very angry it was prevented came back to Mantes From thence he put in execution an Enterprise he had upon the City of Louviers It was taken at noon day by the Mareschal Biron Raulet having greatly contributed to this Exploit had the Government of it Fontaine-Martel Governor of the place and Claude de Saintes Bishop of Evreux were taken Prisoners Martel redeem'd himself by paying a Ransom the Bishop for being too hot was detained in Prison and there died The Popes Bull had scarce any other effect but to excite the Huguenots to demand an Edict give an opportunity to those of the third Party to advance and strengthen their Cabal and provoke the Parliaments of the one and the other Party to make bloody Decrees The Chamber of Chaalons a Member of that which was sitting at Tours by a Decree of the Sixth of June cancell'd and revoked them as null abusive scandalous seditious full of Impostures contrary to the Holy Decrees Canons Councils and the Rights of the Gallican Church ordained they should month June be torn and burnt by the hands of the Hangman that Landriano should be apprehended ten thousand Livers Reward to whomsoever should deliver him to Justice forbidding all the Kings Subjects to lodge or harbour him as likewise to carry either Silver or Gold to Rome or to sollicite the Provisions or Expeditions of Benefices And an Act to be given to the Sollicitor General for the appeal he was to bring to the next Council legally Assembled The Kings Council were divided into two parts the one sat at Tours where the Cardinal de Vendosme presided the other at Chartres with the Chancellor de Chiverny the King assembles them together at Mantes to deliberate on so important an Affair After he had heard their opinions he puts forth a Declaration in the Month of July month July wherein he gives notice to his Parliaments that all other things laid aside they should proceed against Landriano as they should in justice see cause and exhorted the Prelats to meet and advise together according to Holy Decrees that the Ecclesiastical Discipline might not be lost nor the People destitute of their Pastors Year of our Lord 1591 On the other hand he thought convenient notwithstanding the vehement oppositions of the Cardinal de Bourbon to grant a Declaration in favour of the Huguenots which revoked all Edicts that had been put forth against them with the Judgments that had ensued thereupon and restored revived and confirmed all the Edicts of Pacification but then added these words by provision only and until such time as he should be able to re-unite all his Subjects by a happy Peace This clause served as a Vehicle to make it pass in the Parliament of Tours As to the business of the Bulls this Company thundred lowder yet then the Chamber at Chaalons and out-vying them declared Gregory an Enemy of the Churches Peace and Union Enemy to the King and State adhering to the Conspiracy of Spain favourer of Rebels and guilty of the Parricide of King Henry III. On the contrary that of Paris pronounced That this Decree was null and of no force made by People without power Schismaticks and Hereticks Enemies to God and destroyers of his Church ordered it should be torn in full Audience and the Fragments burnt on the Marble Table by the Executioner of the Haute Justice The Clergy also assembled at Mantes pursuant to the Kings Declaration They were to examine the Popes Bulls and to settle some Orders for the Provisions of Benesices As to the first point the Assembly made a Decree which declared the said Bulls to be null unjust suggested by the Enemies of the Kingdom protesting notwithstanding that they would not depart from their obedience to the Holy See month August To the second they propounded many Expedients The Archbishop of Bourges this was Renauld de Bealne made a motion of creating a Patriarch in France and he believed his Quality of Primat in the absence of the Archbishop of Lyons who was for the League would acquire him that Dignity
with quite contrary Sentiments Thus a private Interest often or twelve thousand ✚ Francs between particular Men defeated the King of an infinite advantage the ill success whereof brought him into a most troublesom Labyrinth month November On St. Martins day Birons Forces approached near Rouen He had besides his French three thousand Englishmen commanded by the Earl of Essex Favourite to Queen Elizabeth whom he had been to meet by Sea as far as Boulogue They would at first needs shew some little bravado and fired their small Guns but they were soon beaten off by a stout Salley and the Mareschal being as yet too weak went and took Gournay and Caudebec That done he comes again before Rouen and endeavoured to turn the little Rivers of Robec and Aubete another way on which the Town Mills were placed he succeeded as to the former but not the latter In the mean time the Citizens of Rouen intending to shew themselves more brave then those Year of our Lord 1591 of Paris made many great Sallies to let the Besiegers know it would be no easie month November task to approach their Walls and that they would rather chuse to fight then to fast The Duke of Mayenne found himself at this time in the greatest distress that ever he was in during his whole Life Having no Forces to oppose so powerful an Army as the Kings he saw the loss of Rouen before his Eyes afterwards that of all Normandy then of Paris and by consequence of all France Those that were to help him gave him most trouble the Duke of Nemours diverted one part of his Forces to erect a Soveraignty about Lyonnois the Duke of Guise labour'd to make himself Head of the Party as his Father had been and the young Nobless did already run after him as the Seize owned him for their Chief Above all this he dreaded the Spaniards who told him plainly they would let him perish if he employ'd not his Interest and Credit to make the Crown fall to the Infanta They bragg'd withall they had a way to attain their ends in despite of him which was to divide and share the Kingdom amongst the Grandees and the most renowned Captains and draw the chiefest Cities to them by giving them their liberty so that France had been reduced to the same condition as Germany a tempting bait both for the Lords and for the People But nothing lay so heavy upon him as the Seize he hated them to the utmost and was in the same measure hated by them Nor did they let slip any opportunity to decry his Conduct sent frequent Complaints Remonstrances and Deputations to him regarded not his Orders no more then he did their Memorials wrote of their own Heads to the King of Spain to offer him the Crown had engaged their Cabal to take a new Oath of Union which did exclude all the Princes of the Blood from the Throne and forced all those that would not take it amongst others the Cardinal de Gondy to depart the City Nothing was left to make them Masters but to rid their hands of a part of the Parliament who observed them night and day and cross'd their designs The Duke of Mayenne was no less afraid then they were foreseeing clearly enough that sooner or later that first Parliament of the Kingdom would return to the King and draw the People after them he was therefore well enough pleased the Seize diminished their Authority and hoped that by dashing so fiercely against each other they would both be destroy'd to his advantage The thing hapned as he wished but with a Consequence quite different from his intention The Parliament had absolv'd one named Brigard whom the Seize had accused of holding intelligence with the Royalists the most zealous of that Faction resolved upon revenge To this end they created a secret Council of ten amongst Year of our Lord 1591 themselves by whose advice all things of importance was to be dispatched This month November Council concluded they must make away the President Brisson Larcher Counsellor in Parliament and Tardif Counsellor at the Chastelet who broke their measures and who besides were particular Enemies to some of them They first attempted to do it by some Assassins but those Hirelings as it frequently happens having discover'd this Plot to the Parties themselves to gain a double Reward they resolved to act more openly They drew up therefore a Sentence of Death against those three and wrote it above the Names and Signatures of several eminent Citizens which they had got upon another pretence With and by vertue of this Warrant they seized on them in divers places carried them to the little Chasteles and Hanged them all three in that Prison The President Brisson was the first A Catastrophy unworthy so excellent and so learned a Man yet ordinary to such as float betwixt two Parties All the remaining portion of that day they scatter'd divers odious Reports about the Town to blast their Memories the following night they caused their Bodies to be carried to the Grewe where they hanged till the next night But observing the People gazed on the sad Spectacle rather with the Eyes of pity then indignation they began to consider the horror of the Fact and apprehend the Revenge Some of them were of opinion to seize the Dutchess of Nemours that she might be security for them against the Duke her Son Others to compleat the Tragedy would rid themselves of him if he came towards Paris and after that elect a Chief that depended wholly upon them The Spaniards did believe they would have gone thorough with this last Act and if so would have supported them but cared not to be the first should approve an attempt the justification whereof depended on the event ☞ Now as there are but few great Crimes carried on to the highest pitch no more then Heroick Vertues these People that had begun this first without necessity did not know how to act a second which was necessary to cover the former The Parliament the Princesses the Royalists themselves who pretended to be zealous Leaguers earnestly sollicited the Duke who was at Laon to hasten and deliver them from that Tyranny crying out the Knife was at their very Throats Divers Considerations kept him a while in suspence he feared lest despair should force the Seize to cast themselves upon the Spaniards lest the Duke of Guise should support them or lest their Cabal should be strong enough to shut up the Gates against him nevertheless perceiving their courage failed that they did not put themselves into a posture Year of our Lord 1591 to maintain their Roguery with vigor but forsaking themselves were openly month November protected by none he took three hundred Horse and fifteen hundred Foot and marched directly to Paris One Band went out to meet him having at their Head Boucher Curate of St. Benoist who was to deliver the Message but the Duke passed on and would not hear them
Another being more resolute determined to kill him and there was one that even profer'd to strike the first blow but the rest would not promise to second him After some days inquiry in Paris being well informed how matters stood he sent to Bussy to deliver up the Bastille This false Bravo had neither resolution enough to defend it nor wit to declare for the King of whom he might have had good Composition he basely capitulated yet would needs march forth with Drums beating and Colours flying but had provided no place for his retreat and therefore lodged with all his Booty in the Street St. Anthoine The Duke having let some days slip without undertaking any thing the Seize thought themselves secure being withall informed that the Parliament durst not make Process against them when on a sudden the Duke with his own hand draws month December up a Sentence of death against nine of the most guilty and sends People on the night between the third and fourth of December to apprehend them in their own Houses They could catch but only four of them who being carried to the Louvre were immediately hanged on a Gallows by the Executioner the other five made their escape and after they had lain concealed some time retired to the Low-Countries Bussy one of the number got off fairly Six Spanish Soldiers whom he kept at home to guard him did by the resistance they made give him time to evade but could not carry any of his rich Plunder with him He withdrew to Bruxels with his Wife where he died very old He was yet to be seen in the year 1634. having always a String of huge Beads about his Neck talking little but magnificently of the great Designs he had missed Afterwards the Duke whether he dreaded the despair of the remainder of the Seize or rather would seem to despise them sent a Pardon or Abolition to the Parliament for the rest that had any hand in the said Crime and because the mischief had been hatch'd in their private Assemblies he forbad the like upon pain of death and razing such Houses where they should meet Thus this potent Faction who had so much loved the Duke of Guise as they had almost raised him to the Throne was dishonour'd and ruin'd by his Brother One cannot deny but it was much for the advantage of the King with whom it was impossible they should ever comply or agree but indifferent People believed that by ruining them the Duke had as it were cut off his left Arm with his right He wrote to all the Governors of Provinces to justifie his Proceedings and to render that Faction odious and that he might unite them more closely to him he did oblige them to swear they would never forsake him That they would not favour the Election of a King without his consent That they would approve of all the Treaties he should make with any one and that they would hold no private intelligence Year of our Lord 1591 with the Spaniards At the same time the Parliament being wholly destitute month December of Presidents he created four most affectionate to his own Person but thereby ✚ labour'd his own destruction since it is contrary to the intrinsecal Principles of things to fortifie ones self against a King by means of the Nobility or Officers of the Robe who necessarily turn to him at last The City of Rouen was well provided well fortified and very well resolved to make a vigorous defence The Mareschal de Biron had but just invested it upon the Kings arrival the First day of December The Duke of Parma had sent to offer assistance to the Besieged in behalf of King Philip even before the Duke of Mayenne had demanded it yet was he not so forward to do it as he pretended he was loath to leave the Low-Countries remembring how during his absence the former year month December Prince Maurice had taken five or six Towns from him but he received such precise Orders from Spain that he parted from Bruxels towards the end of November with an Army of Ten thousand Foot three thousand Horse forty pieces of Cannon and two thousand Waggons of Bagage where he had all sorts of Tools and Ammunition for he would trust to nothing but his own prudence and foresight The Duke of Guise went to meet him as far as Landrecy and the Duke of Mayenne to Guise where all three had a long Conference together Before he proceeded any further the Duke of Parma made them give him the City of la Fere upon Oyse to put in his Artillery and there left four hundred Men in Garison This was not all Diego d'Ibarra Ambassador of Spain declared the intentions of his Master who demanded the Crown for the Infanta whom he profer'd to Marry to some French Prince There were several Conferences upon that Subject at la Fere between the Ministers of Spain and those of the Duke of Mayenne Janin who was chief of the Dukes endeavour'd to elude the said demand by objecting very considerable difficulties particularly the holding of the Estates then the immense Sums to carry on the War but the Spaniards without hesitation agreed to month December and January all his demands and withall offer'd him great advantages for the Duke In so much as that Prince having nothing to reply could only dissemble and make his best of the present time which was at last his ruine and the Kings happiness The Forces of these Dukes amounted together to more then Six thousand Horse and Fifteen thousand Foot The King knowing they were upon their march brought the first news of himself to them with Three thousand Horse and at his first coming beat up the Duke of Guises Quarters who had the Van-guard near Abbeville He Year of our Lord 1590 made Head against them three weeks together maintaining sometimes on Post month January sometimes another but he had like to have been caught and was wounded with a Pistol Shot at Aumale where he would needs defend a Defile or narrow Passage His presence of mind his courage and the night coming on brought him off from the greatest danger he had ever met with in his whole Life and if he were blamed for engaging himself as a Volunteer he was commended for extricating himself like Year of our Lord 1592 a Soldier month January While the Dukes were much in pain how to deliver Rouen it hapned that during the Kings absence who had taken the best of the Cavalry with him Villars and the Inhabitants of the City relieved themselves The Six and twentieth day of February month February at Eight a Clock in the Morning they make a Salley with above Twenty thousand Men on the side of the Fort St. Catharine beat back or kill all they meet with burn the Huts and Tents ruine their Works fill up the Trenches put Fire to the Powder carry away five great Pieces of Cannon and Nail up the rest They remained Masters of that
Circumvalation which retarded the Siege near three weeks The Mareschal de Biron was slain in the approaches by a Cannon Shot which took off his Head He had been Chief Commander in seven Battles or great Combats in each of which he had received some Wound A Man very considerable in the Cabinet Council as well as the Campagne who would be ignorant of nothing had a hand in every thing and fenced with the Quil as dexterously as with the Sword As soon as the Battery had made a breach the Besieged Capitulated Provins Year of our Lord 1592 did the same upon the third day Meaux being much stronger the King did not month May. attaque it but to cut off those Provisions the Parisians drew from thence by the Marne he built a Fort in the Island of Gournay which lies upon that River within four Leagues of Paris and gave the Government thereof to Odet de la Noue whose incorruptible fidelity answer'd his favour with most exactly guarding the said Passage Upon the Frontiers of Bretagne the Princes of Conty and of Dombes being joyned received a very Signal loss they had besieged the City of Craon situate upon the River of Oudon the Duke of Mercoeur came to its relief assisted by Bois-Dausin month May. who brought the Nobility of Mayne and by the Marquiss de Belle-Isle Son of the Mareschal de Rais. Now the Princes for want of good Intelligence had let the Duke pass the River and get into a very advantageous place for Battle whilst they chose a very bad one for themselves then not able to resolve to fight they made their retreat in the open day and committed many other oversights which occasioned their defeat This hapned the Five and twentieth of May. They lost twelve hundred Men all their Cannon which was left by the way for want of Harness and afterwards the Cities of Chasteau-Gontier Mayenne and Laval The Mareschal de Rais after the death of Henry III. not seeing clearly into the depth of Affairs nor knowing which Party to side with was retired to Florence and had advised his Son to joyn with the strongest which made him take part with the Duke of Mercoeur to secure the great Estate he had in Bretagne though others imagined it was a fancy he had for the Dutchess that engaged him to it month June The Fourth of June Henry Prince of Dombes lost his Father Francis Duke of Montpensier Aged Fifty years he inherited his Name his vast Estate and the Government of Normandy which the King bestow'd on him as he did that of Bretagne on the Mareschal d'Aumont This last regained the City of Mayenne after a fifteen days Siege but lay two Months before Rechefort with the loss of a great many Men and not able to take it the inconveniencies of the Winter and the Duke of Mercoeur coming to the relief of the place Rochefort was a Castle upon a Rock of Slat on the bank of the River Loire five Leagues beneath Anger 's right against the Rock de Gausie a place remarkable in former days and ruined during the War with the English Two Brothers Surnamed de Hurtaud who held it for the King put it and themselves into the Party for the League that they might be justified for making Sardiny a rich Partisan their Prisoner and screwing a Ransom of Ten thousand Crowns from him though he were a Royâ—â—â—st It was about the same time that Rene de Rieux Sourdeac being invested in Brest by the Nobility and Commonalty of the Country after a four or five Months blocade beat them so in several Sallies partly by stratagems partly by courage as forced them to dislodge and even to buy a Truce which he sold them at the rate of Eight Year of our Lord 1592 thousand Crowns per Annum Within a Month after he gained a Victory at Sea month June over seven Ships of Normandy which were come from Fescamp to seize upon the Harbour of Cameret from whence they would have annoyed that of Brest These advantages did hugely contribute to the keeping that Country under obedience of the King All Guyenne was so excepting that Emanuel Desprez Marquiss of Villars Son of the Duke of Mayenne's Wife and Henry Lord of Montpâ—sat Brother of Emanuel held some small places in Perigord in Limosin and in Agenois Agen Villeneuve and Marmande These Brothers the foregoing year had been beaten near the Abby de Roquemadour in Quercy by Anne de Levis Ventadour and Ponts de Losieres Temines this Governor of Quercy the other of Limosin who slew them seven hundred of the four and twenty hundred they had got together and took their Cannon and month June July c. Bagage The Mareschal de Matignon commanded in this Province when there hapned a dangerous division by means of Paul d'Esparbez Lussan This Gentleman had purchased Blaye of Guy de Sainct Gelais Lansac a great Waster of his Estate The Mareschal said it was with his Money and that Lussan was but his Agent therein but when he would have come in Lussan flatly denied him entrance and offer'd to repay him his Money The Mareschal not able to bring him to Reason renders him suspected of holding Correspondence with the League and retrenched his pay Lussan did not much value that but begins to raise Contribution upon the River with four great Vessels which he made Men of War Whereupon the Mareschal having excited the Complaints of the whole Province against him obtained an Order from the King to drive him thence by force and laid Siege to Blaye Lussan withstood it three Months after which finding himself hard beset he calls in the Spaniards to his aid and with their help defended himself so well that he kept possession of the place They missed but little of getting some footing in the Province by Bayon upon an Enterprize they had contrived against that City by means of a Merchant of the Franche-Compte named Chastean-Martin who inhabited there and a Physician named Rossius It was very near succeeding when la Hilliere who was Governor of the place discover'd it luckily surprizing an ill instructed Footman who brought Letters from Fontarabia The Merchant and the Doctor were Hanged Amidst the confusion of three or four Parties in Provence that for the King began to be predominant especially when the Duke of Savoy was defeated at Vinon After that la Valete pursued him roundly to the very Gates of Aix and destroy'd all the Farms round about it Then to draw him out into the Field he laid Siege to Roquebrune month February a filthy place and no way considerable unless for streightning the City of Frejus which lies within a League Now as he was ordering the repair of some Year of our Lord 1592 Buttress of a Battery he was kill'd by a random Shot in his Forehead the Eleventh day of February a great loss both for his singular Virtues and the Affairs of the King That part of the Parliament who were retired to
by Escalado But while thinking himself to be already absolute Master he treated the Provencial Subjects with haughtiness and the Conquer'd without mercy while he built Citadels in Briguoles and in Sainct Tropez whose Inhabitants were great Royalists the jealous and impatient Spirits of those Countries were extreamly alarmed the Kings Agents by their secret practises put more fuel to their fire and the Dukes revenge begot in their hearts the most cruel and furious hatred that has been heard of in these latter Ages The Spaniards incessantly demanded the Convocation of the Estates General the Pope had delegated in France by Commission in form of a Bull Philip de Sega Cardinal Bishop of Piacenza to be assisting at the Election of a Catholick King and such a one as they should judge to be most capable of opposing the Undertakings of the Navarrois King Philip had resolved to send an Army into France of Thirty thousand Foot and six thousand Horse to support him who should be elected as designing him to be a Husband for his Daughter Year of our Lord 1592 Amidst these Transactions the Third of December died in Arras the Duke of Parma as he was drawing his Forces together and the King had advanced as far as month December Corbie to hinder his entrance into the Kingdom This great Soldier had languished a whole year of Poison said the more suspicious given him by the Ministers of Spain either by order of King Philip or out of some private hatred We do not well know whether it affected the Duke of Mayenne with joy or grief but it is certain that after the being acquainted with this news he took as much care to assemble the Estates as he had formerly used to retard it and presently made four Mareschals of France who were la Chastre Rhosne Bois-Daufin and Sainct Pol and gave the Command of Admiral to the Marquiss de Villars Was it to add more Dignity to that Assembly or to impose the necessity on them to elect him King For these great Officers would not have suffer'd they should confer the Crown on any other but their Creator The Duke of Guise and the Duke of Nemours â—ormed each their Cabal in Paris and expected to have the like in the Estates The Politicks having found their own strength conâ—idently held their Assemblies where they made Propositions for an Accommodation with the King of Navarre and it had passed in an Assembly of their Town-Hall to send to him for a free Commerce if the Duke of Mayenne had not hastned thither to prevent it This was by advice of the Seize but he shewed never the more kindness to them for it on the contrary he rejected all the Petitions they presented to him for which reason they spit their Venom in divers biting and horribly defaming Libels which did in truth extreamly decry him but rendred the Authors yet more odious month November and December In the Kings Party his Parliament his Council and even his House it self were likewise much embroil'd The Indifferent and the Leaguers who were returned to the Parliament brought Sentiments very opposite to the Spirits of the former In the Council every one strove to be highest and possess that place the Mareschal de Biron had held and the King was equally afraid of disobliging all the Pretenders for the first that had forsaken him would have dissolved the whole knot His Domestick inquietudes did no less discompose him The Count de Soissons not able to suffer any longer those delays of his Marriage with the Princess Cathâ—rine went to Pau to compleat it but the Parliament of Bearn shut their Gates upon him and placed Guards about the Princess She took her self to be highly affronted by these proceedings and complained bitterly to her Brother of the insolence of those Men of the Gown so she express'd it The King desiring to compose her disordered mind wrote back to her in very affectionate terms and order'd her to come to him at Saumur where he was to be in the Month of February Year of our Lord 1593 We are now arrived at the year 1593. one of the most memorable of this Reign month January in which Affairs by being so very much confused began to assume some order The Fifth day of January was published a Declaration of the Duke of Mayenne verified in the Parliament of Paris which after an ingenious and eloquent Apology for all he had done invited the Princes Pairs Prelats Officers of the Crown Lords and Deputies to joyn with the Party for the Holy Vnion and to meet in the Assembly of the Estates on the Seventeenth of February there without passion or interest joyntly to make choice of some good Remedy to preserve both Church and State About ten days after appeared an Exhortation of the Legats to the same end which spake much plainer then the Dukes saying They must elect a King both by profession and in reality most Christian and most Catholick and who had the power to maintain both Church and State This pointed to the King of Spain clearly enough This Paper of the Dukes having been perused by those Lords who were about the King some amongst others the Duke of Nevers thought convenient since he invited them to come to Paris to return him some Answer which might engage him to a Conference This Expedient was seconded by all with so much eagerness that it would not have been in the power of the King if he had so desired to hinder it The Proposition was therefore drawn up the Seven and twentieth of the Month and deliver'd to a Herauld to carry it to the Duke The Deputies went to their Devotions the One and twentieth at Nâ—stre-Dame then heard a Sermon preached by Gilbert Genebrand Archbishop of Aix who shewed That the Salique Law was either positive or changeable at the pleasure of the Legislator which is the Body of the French People The Assembly was open'd the Six and twentieth in the Hall of the Louvre the Duke began it by a Harangue which the Archbishop of Lyons had composed for him the Cardinal de Pelleve spake for the Clergy Senescay for the Nobility and Honore du Laurent the Kings Advocat in the Parliament of Provence for the Third Estate The Clergy had a pretty good number of Prelats of note with them amongst the Nobility there were few Gentlemen considerable and the Third Estate was a compounded Rabble of all sorts of People hired by the Duke of Mayenne or by the Spaniards Of these three Bodies there being none but that of the Nobility for the Duke he assay'd to add two new ones contrary to the ancient Order of the Kingdom i. e. one of Lords and the other of Members of Parliament and Gown Men but the three Orders fiercely rejected this Novelty The second day of their sitting a Trumpeter brought the Proposition from the Catholick Lords attending the King which imported That if those of the Party for the Vnion would depute honest
and worthy Persons to such place as should be agreed upon between Paris and St. Denis to consult of the best means to put an end to all troubles they were on their parts ready to send likewise The Trumpeter desired to speak with the Duke who was then in Bed a little incommoded and failed not to make known Year of our Lord 1593 the Contents to all such as were inquisitive to hear the news The Duke therefore month January not being able to make it a secret by the Advice of his Council and notwithstanding the violent Reasonings of the Legat he sent it to the Estates Who having examined it refused to enter into Conference directly or indirectly with the King of Navarre or with any Heretick but were content to do it with the Catholicks of his Party and that for the good of Religion and the publick Peace month February This Answer being made the Duke parted from Paris with a Guard of Four hundred Horse and went to Soissons to discourse with the Duke of Feria John Baptista Tassis and Doctor Inigo de Mendozza Ambassador from Spain They propounded directly the Election of their Insanta and spake of it as a thing both easie just and honourable The Duke demanded a powerful and effective supply and they sed him with Chimeras in so much as they fell to reproaches and gross language but the Dukes extream necessity constrained him to suffer it and to conceal his Resentments no less then his Designs At his departure from Soissons he went and joyned their Army which was commanded by Charles Count Mansfeld With those he brought they did not make up above Ten thousand Men these Forces being too few to free Paris stuck to Noyon and took it at three weeks end That done Mansfeld marched his Men back to Flanders where Prince Maurice cut him out so much work that in all the whole year he had not so much spare time as to think once upon those of France again In the Month of February the King went to Tours Three grand designs led him thither the one to make up the Marriage of his Sister with the Duke of Montpensier another to Treat with the Duke of Mercoeur and the third to contrive it so with the Members of his Parliament that they should take off the modifications they had made in the Edict by him granted to the Huguenots He found so little disposition in Peoples minds that not one of those three things did succeed Moreover as misfortunes seldom come singly it hapned that at the very same time when the Enemies were ready to take Noyon the ill effect reached even to Selles in Berry which Biron besieged by his express Order and at the request of the Parliament of Tours For the King having need of all his Forces to cover Picardy sent to him to raise his Siege and to bring his Men away with all speed month March These disgraces dampt his best Friends and Servants made the hearts of the Leaguers swell beyond all belief and emboldned the Third Catholick Party and the Huguenots to fall into Conspiracies these only to Cantonize themselves the others to seize upon his Person They did now no longer scruple to make Assemblies and Cabals and the chief Lords of his Council told him without ceremony or disguise they would quit him if he did not quit his Religion The Cardinal de Bourbon was the Bell-weather that led the Flock and put him to most trouble by good fortune for the King it hapned that I know not what sharp humour made an Ulcer in his Lungs and bred a Ptisique in him which rendred him less capable of pushing on Year of our Lord 1593 his ambitious designs month March There were two ways might draw the King out of his Troubles the one to remain firm in his Religion and arm himself with patience and courage the other without doubt the better to embrace that of the Catholicks who were for numbers a hundred to every Huguenot The first was extreamly long and tedious full of difficulties and dangers almost insuperable the Catholicks threatned to go from him if he would not go to Mass he scarce had sufficient to set an Army on foot the Gentry grew weary of exhausting their Wealth and shedding their Blood for an Heretical Prince and if in this juncture they had elected another King certainly they would all have acknowledg'd him All these considerations and apprehensions made deep impressions on his Spirit it was believed the Providence of Heaven made use of these to dispose him to chuse the better way He began therefore to give hopes of his Conversion and so soon as he had open'd his mind on this point there were some Huguenots themselves who assured him whether they really believed so or did it out of Complaisance that one might obtain Salvation in any Religion that believed Jesus Christ Crucified the Creed of the Apostles and observed the Precepts contained in the Decalogue While the Duke of Mayenne was yet at Rheims whither he was gone to hold Conference with the Princes of his Party the Duke de Feria Ambassador extraordinary from Spain with his other two Collegues arrived at Paris accompanied with a great Guard of Horse and the principal Lords of the Party whom the Duke of Mayenne had sent to meet him The Estates complemented him by certain Deputies some days after he came into the Assembly where he Harangued in Latine and presented them some Letters from King Philip which were Superscribed thus To Our Reverend Illustrious Magnificent and Well-beloved the Deputies of the Estates General of France The Cardinal de Pelleve was ordered to Answer them There were three Chairs stood under the Canopy one in the midst cover'd over with a Carpet of Violet Velvet powdred with Flowers de Lys of Gold and raised higher then the rest but empty to shew it waited for the King in that on the right hand sat the Cardinal de Pelleve who besides his being President of the Clergy with the Archbishop of Lyons did likewise preside in the General Assemblies in the absence of the Duke of Mayenne the Duke of Feria sat upon that on the left hand In the mean time the Catholick Royalists press'd the Conference so heartily that no private obstructions of the Duke of Feria nor of the Sixteen could hinder but that some Deputies on either side agreed upon it Being therefore gone to take a view of some places about Paris they chose that of Surene as being less ruined then the rest They met there upon the Nine and twentieth of April and took Year of our Lord 1593 their Lodgings by Lot but the Royalists in the place for Conference seized upon month April the right hand They agreed together that the Pass-ports should be expedited in form of Letters Patents and took each other reciprocally under their protection The Deputies of the League returned every night to Paris the Royalists remained upon the place Those waiting the
each for himself the Duke of Mayenne for his eldest Son and sometimes when he found any difficulty he thought of proposing the Cardinal de Bourbon then after divers agitations of mind he found there could be no better Resolution taken then that which in effect was worst of all and that was to take none at all Whilst he floated amidst these Uncertainties the Parliament of Paris being Assembled upon the Rumour then on wing of the Election of the Infanta made it appear they are infallible when concerned for the Fundamental Laws of the Monarchy of which they have ever had a tender and useful care For they made a grand Decree Ordaining that Remonstrances should be made to the Duke of Mayenne that he would look to the maintaining of those Laws and hinder the Crown from being transferr'd to Strangers and declared null and illegal all Treaties that had already been or might hereafter be made for that purpose as being contrary to the Salique Law Conformably to this Decree John le Maistre who held the place of First President went and deliver'd the Message boldly and shewed him how the Government of Women in France even that of Regents had never produced any thing but ✚ Seditions and Civil Wars whereof he instanced in ten or twelve examples most remarkable amongst which he did not omit Blanche de Castille and that of Catharine de Medicis the principal and almost the only cause of these last Troubles During these Transactions the King causes Dreux to be besieged he took the Year of our Lord 1593 Town upon the first Assault and the Castle afterwards upon Composition but not month June and July without much trouble and time The Spaniards finding by the Decree of Parliament and the loss of this City that the Affairs of the League were beginning to decline did the more press them for the Election of a King and at last in a Council they held with the Duke of Mayenne named the Duke of Guise Never was any Mans astonishment like to that of the Duke of Mayennes the trouble of his Soul appeared thorough all the coverings of dissimulation His Wives indignation was greater yet then his she would have overturned all rather then obey that meer Boy as she called the Duke of Guise In this pressing occasion when he knew not what to reply Bassompierre found out an Expedient for him which putting the business off for a while did in the end dash it utterly in pieces and that was to demand eight days time to give notice of it to the Duke of Lorrain his Master During this delay the Duke of Mayenne set all his Engines at work sometimes with the Duke of Guise to dissuade him from accepting this nomination as a thing ruinous both to him and all the House of Lorrain sometimes with the Spaniards to let them know it was not yet the Season for it and in fine with the Estates to incline them to his Sentiments His attempts proved altogether ineffectual upon the two first especially the Spaniards of whom it was reported they had endeavour'd to persuade the Duke of Guise his Nephew to kill him as being the only Remora to his Advancement But as to the Estates he plaid his part so successfully amongst them that they consented to the drawing up an Answer the Twentieth day of July By which the Duke and the Lorrain Princes most humbly thanked the Catholick King for the honour he did their House protesting they would ever persevere in their acknowledgments and a willingness to serve him and declared they were ready to promise before the Legat to persuade the Estates of the Kingdom to approve the said Election when there should be Forces sufficient to maintain it and when they should have agreed to such Conditions as were reasonable to be secured to the Chiefs of the Party Hereupon great Contests arose between the Partisans of the Duke and those of Spain these requiring they should go on with the Election the others that it should be deferr'd The Spaniards heard all without once opening their Mouths in the end finding their Votaries were fewer by a third part then the other they let go their hold And which was more the Duke without any regard to their Requests concluded month July to Treat for a Truce with the King and named his Deputies for that purpose Many Prelats some Doctors and even three Curats of Paris of whom one was he of St. Eustache named Rene Benoist being sent for to St. Denis the Two and twentieth of July the King came thither the next day and entred into Conference with them to satisfie himself as it were of certain scruples yet remaining touching Year of our Lord 1593 month July some points of Religion He was soon convinced but the Cardinal de Bourbon was not so that any other Bishop besides the Pope had right to give him Absolution the contrary notwithstanding was allowed maugre his under-hand dealings and vehement Remonstrances The formulary of his Confession of Faith was drawn up and the day appointed to make it the following Sunday Some Prelats out of an ignorant Zeal had thrust in certain trifling things which were not very necessary the King whose judgment was solid could not relish such trash wherefore they pared away all that was not essential to Faith and yet they sent it as it was first drawn up to the Pope the better to persuade his Holiness of his entire Conversion The Ceremony was performed in St. Denis Church by the Archbishop of Bourges as may be seen in the Memoirs of those times seven or eight Bishops being present and all the Grandees of his Court even Gabriela d'Estree who had not a little contributed to the Conversion of the King having already conceived great hopes he would Marry her The same night all the Fields from Montmartre whither he went after Vespers to visit the Church of the Holy Martyrs to Pontoise were enlightned by great numbers of Bon-fires which was soon after imitated by the Cities of the Royal Party and accompanied with Feastings Dancings and all other Tokens and Expressions of publick Rejoycing From that very day the People of Paris shewed plainly it was purely their aversion to Huguenotisin had engaged them to reject this Prince for they ran forth in multitudes to this Ceremony notwithstanding the prohibition of the Duke of Mayenne and on a suddain changing that hatred they had for him into a real affection began to call him their King and not the Bearnois as they had hitherto done scoffing at all the declamations of their Preachers who strove to make them persevere in their former Sentiments The Duke of Mayenne rejoycing also or pretending to rejoyce at his Conversion Treated with him about a Truce for three Months and both of them agreed to send to the Pope to get his Absolution without which the Duke would by no means hearken to a Peace His intentions an◠interests as he protested being no other but to preserve the
Catholick Religion and Union with the Holy See Immediately the King named the Duke of Nevers and four or five other Persons of rare Merit as well Churchmen as some of the Robe for this Negociation and the Duke of Mayenne on his part chose the Cardinal de Joyeuse and the Baron de month August Senescay but he dispatched them not till three Months after and in the mean time suffer'd himself I know not how to be re-engaged with the Spaniards by a new Oath he took never to depart from the Holy Vnion not to Treat with the King of Navarre whatever Act of a Catholick he should perform and to proceed to the Election of a most Year of our Lord 1593 month August Christian King upon Condition they would furnish him with Twelve thousand Foot six thousand Horse by them maintained and some other Conditions But at the same time fearing lest they should contrive some new Projects with the Estates he sent part of the Deputies back into the Provinces under colour of informing the People of the present posture of Affairs As for the residue of this Assembly they remained in Paris till the Reduction of the City being maintained by the King of Spain who allowed them Eight thousand Crowns a Month. He could not so easily get off from the Leâ—a s instances who demanded the Council of Trent might be received entire by the Gallican Church Although the Parliament and the Chapters opposed it he was fain to give him this satisfaction by a Declaration which was deliver'd to the Estates but he eluded the Execution having first drawn this Assurance from him That if there were any thing relating to the Immuâ—ities and the Franchises of the Kingdom that ought to be maintain'd his Hâ—liness being required to allow the simâ— should make no denial or difficulty month August The Truce in the mean time put a stop to theiâ— proceedings in the Provinces It made the Duke of Aâ—ercoeur raise his Sieâ—e of Moâ—t o nour drew the Royalists from that of Poitiers which Bâ—issac most valiantly defendeâ— and â—reed the Ca tle of Cavours from the Duke of Savoy This Prince had been handled very ill by Lâ—sdiguieres and had likewise the misfortune some Months before to lose Roderick de Toledo General of the Milanese and Neapolitan Forces sent him by the King of Spain who was utterly defeated and slain at the descent of the Mountain which extends towards the Douere near the Village of Salbeltran Espernon had missed of surprizing Marseille but reduced Arles and from thence came the Five and twentieth of June to encamp before Aix where he built on the Hill St. Eutrope which commands the Town a great Fort or rather a Camp for the circumference was so vast that his whole Army lodged in it It seemed also as if he would make it a Counter-City having created two Consuls who wore Hoods and managed the Government of it He thinking to force Aix by this means did not punctually observe the Truce but doubled the Garison in his Fort and continued to stop all their Provisions The King who could ill suffer that a Man he did not love should establish himself by force in that Province made up a private Party to dispossess him He chose Lesâ—iguieres to be the Head and joyned six Gentlemen of Provence with him Oraison St. Cannat Valavoire Crotes and Buoux who were Governors of the places of Manosque Pertuis St. Maximin Digne and Forcalquier The absence of the Duke d'Espernon who was gone to Pezenas in Languedoc to confer with the Constable de Montmorency and the hatred the Provenceaux bare against him did marvellously favour their Enterprise As soon as Lesdiguieres had sent to Year of our Lord 1593 month August or shewed the Letters of Credence the King wrote to each of these five Gentlemen and had explained his intentions and meaning they all made a private League with the Count de Carces excepting Buoux who refused to open his Commission and remained in the Dukes Service The day appointed all by consent drove out the Gascons and the Espernouists from their places and the Count de Carces and those of Aix broke the Truce Escarrevaques and Souliers his Father in Law did likewise stir up the People of Toulon and besieged the Citadel which they took by the help of two hundred Slaves month October to whom they gave their liberty Signarc who commanded there fell by the Sword with all his Garison but Esgarrevaques his Enemy was first wounded by a Musquet Shot of which he died Upon the rumour of this Rising Tarascon and almost all the other Towns declared against Espernon nothing was wanting to compleat the Enterprize but to shut up his Passage by the Rhosne and the Durance so that he should not have been able to return into the Country but they not minding to give Orders for it in due time he got again into his Fort and became strong enough to make them feel the smart of their imprudence When the Truce above mentioned was concluded the greater part of the Prelats Counsellors of State and such as were of the Parliament nay even some of the Deputies of the Estates had secretly tendred their Respects to the King either Personally or by the mediation of some Friends While the King was hovering about Paris one day the Seven and twentieth of August he being at Melun they happily discover'd an Assassin Suborned by some Leaguers who had undertaken to kill him with a Knife His name was Peter Barriere a Native of Orleans Aged Twenty month August seven years a Waterman by profession first then a Soldier The Prevost de l'Hostel made his Process there was not sufficient proof against him and the Torture of the Rack could not force him to own any thing but the Confessor who stood by him at his death prevailed with him to discover all He was condemned to have his Hand cut off holding the Knife in it his Flesh to be torn with red hot Pincers then broken alive and after he was dead to be burnt and his Ashes scatter'd in the Air. The King had frequent notice of the like Conspiracies most part contrived by Monks or Church-men and therefore a Peace was the only Soveraign Remedy that could allay the madness of so many Frantick Spirits he most earnestly desired to compass it and offer'd the Duke of Mayenne quite ruined as he was greater advantages yet then he had done when his Affairs were most flourishing but that Duke would not Treat till the Pope had given the King Absolution and besides he had not Strength enough to break those Bonds the Spaniards had cast upon him he Treated therefore at the same Instant both with the King and with them Year of our Lord 1593 Mean while to provide against all Events he endeavour'd to seize upon Lyons month August and joyn it with Burgundy imagining perhaps that he of the two Kings with whom he should agree might leave him that Country
in Soveraignty His Brother the Duke of Nemours was become very absolute in that Government having begirt and over-aw'd that great City by five or six places he held about it but by the same means and by reason of certain new Imposts which he laid by Advice of a Ferrarese a Fellow of a seared Conscience he became most odious to the People In so much that the Archbishop of Lyons sent thither by the Duke of Mayenne having underhand heightned their Discontents and blown the Coals carried it on so far that the Citizens took up Arms and seized on the Person of the Duke of Nemours confining him to Pierre-Encise but he got nothing by it for they afterwards stood Neuters not submitting to any Orders but their own till their entire Reduction although for form-sake they owned him as Lieutenant to the Duke of Mayenne People of honest Principles judged Nemours worthy to be so used for his having followed the cursed Policy of Machiavel which makes Princes become Tyrants and the People Miserable but all the Heads of the League perceiving by this President what usage they were to expect from the Duke of Mayenne did now study nothing but the best methods to secure their own Places and to surprize others to make the better Accommodation with the King month November He was then gone into Normandy to receive Bose-Rose who commanded the Fort of Fescamp to his obedience While he was at Diepe the Wife of John de Montluc Balagny Governor of Cambray came to him by night to demand a prolongation of the Truce till the Agreement with her Husband should be declared He Treated upon these Conditions That he and his should have Cambray and Cambresis in full Soveraignty That the King should take him into his Protection and should allow him certain Pensions and for this Balagny should acknowledge him only by kissing his Hand The joy this brought him was soon disturbed by those bloody Reproaches the Queen of England made him for his change of Religion When from Diepe he went to Calais thinking to find some Agents from that Queen to begin a Treaty he met nothing but Letters from her full of bitterness and found she would recal her Forces out of Bretagne He had much ado to pacifie her but much more to endure the presence and over-free Discourses of the Deputies from the pretended Reformed Churches whom he had allowed to hold a General Assembly at Mantes whither he returned at his departure from Calais He looked kindly upon them received their Memorial named Commissioners to examine it and offer'd them satisfaction upon some Articles such or very near as they had already had under Henry III. But they could not be contented with so little a Reward for so great Services as they had rendred him they demanded much more so that not to exasperate them by an absolute denial Year of our Lord 1593 he only dismiss'd them and permitted them to hold Provincial Assemblies and afterwards to Convocate a National Synod and Politick Assembly month December His Conversion undermined the League to the very Foundation It was now look'd upon if we may so express it only as a Castle in the Air supported but by one single Stone viz. the Popes denial to give him Absolution In effect his Holiness would not suffer the Duke of Nevers to enter into Rome which was in November month November December and January but in Quality of a Prince of Italy not of Ambassador and upon condition he should remain there but two days that he should receive no Visits nor make any to the Cardinals This Prince however contrived it so that the Term was prolonged and he had Audience twice of the Pope the first time in December the other in January but brought thence no satisfaction for the King though as to his own Person they gave him as much and more then he desired The Duke of Mayenne failed not to talk high upon this refusal of his Holiness However this was not a reason strong enough to with-hold such as were already inclining towards the King and falling off from the League Lewis de L'Hospital Vitry was discontented for that the said Duke detained four and twenty thousand Crowns due upon Musters to his Company of Gentsdarmes This Man was the first who return'd to his obedience as he had been the first that left the King after the death of Henry III. When he forsook that Party formerly he was Governor of Dourlens which place he left to them and made a shew as if he would have done the like by Meaux now to the League telling the Inhabitants whom he expressly called together that he freely left them to their own liberty only his Advice was they should follow his Example This said he went forth with his Troop of Horse but had so well disposed of Affairs before-hand that they deputed some to him the same day to desire he would come back put on their White Scarfs and turned away Five hundred Men much amazed whom the Duke of Mayenne had sent thither Vitry had Twenty thousand Crowns Reward of the King the Office of Bayliff and Governor of the City with the Reversion of both for his Son and the Bourgeois the confirmation of their Priviledges and an exemption from Tailles for nine years All other Governors bargain'd for more or less according to the importance of their Places or the quality of their Persons Most of the Cities got likewise several Advantages accordingly as those that directed them were Politick or Affectionate Year of our Lord 1593 but every one almost would have it inserted in their Treaties That there should be month December no Exercise of the Pretended Reformed Religion allowed within such a certain distance of their Territories Year of our Lord 1594 The design was laid and a great Party made to receive the King into Paris and to this purpose he came to St. Denis The Duke of Mayenne having got some hint of month January it took the Government from the Count de Belin and gave it to Brissac whom he believed the most faithful of all his Partisans The Parliament finding by this their Measures broken and apprehending the Duke would make the Spaniards Masters of the City spake warmly to him that they might keep Belin the Duke urged some Reasons to the contrary but those satisfied not and they continued their Assemblies The business grew hot to such a degree that the Duke made his Soldiers and Friends take up Arms whence would have followed most grievous Slaughter in the Streets and perhaps the utter loss of Paris to the King had not the wisest of that great Body temporised and persuaded the rest to give way yet for a while The Third day of the Month of January hapned the Reduction of the City of Aix The Duke of Mayenne did not think there had been any place more assured to his Party then this same because the Count de Carces had Married a Daughter of his Wives
nevertheless this Lord failed him Being thereto disposed by the Gentlemen Provenceaux who had declared themselves Enemies to the Duke d'Espernon and withall fearing the event of a Siege he resolved to chuse a Master that should be sufficiently able to protect them and thereupon persuaded the General Council of the Province to acknowledge the King and to beseech him at the same time to give them another Governor then Espernon The Parliament therefore Ordained the same day that all Acts of Justice should be done in the Name of the King and by any another Decree made some days after declared Rebels and guilty of High-Treason whoever would not obey him The Archbishop Genebrard refused to submit and having kept himself concealed ten or twelve days retired to Marseilles with the Duke of Mayennes Agent After this Example Lyons which ever since the imprisonment of the Duke of Nemours had kept it self as Neutral declared also for the Kings Party The Eschevins and principal Citizens having made their Treaty with Alfonso d'Ornano and received an assurance of the confirmation of their Priviledges an entire Amnesty and that there should be no Exercise but of the Catholick Religion in their City and Suburbs The Five and twentieth of January d'Ornano being advanced with his Year of our Lord 1594 Forces to the Suburbs de la Guillotiere they set up Barricado's and cry'd out Let month January the French Liberty live Down with the Tyranny of the Italians The next day they all with one Voice shouted and cried Vive le Roy and all the Inhabitants Men Women and Children put on white Scarfs Now having found amongst the Dukes Papers no less then seventeen new Imposts of the Italian invention which he would have laid on them had they not surprized him as was before related they prudently Ordained in a General Assembly of their Town-Hall and made every Member Swear to it they would never admit any of them to publick Offices The Fifteenth of February Orleans follow'd the same dance la Chastre being month February brought over by a good round Sum of Money the assurance of a Mareschals Staff the Government of the said City and the Country of Berry from whence in favour to him all the Garisons were to be dismissed excepting those in the Tower of Bourges and the Castle of Meun upon Yeure There were two Factions in the City which wholly divided it the Fraternity of the small Cord otherwise called by the name of Jesus invented by a Cordelier a Zealous Leaguer and the Politicks who inclined to the King To execute his design he strengthned himself with the last secur'd the leading Men of the other Faction or turned those out of Town he could not gain after these Precautions he declared the Seventeenth of February in the Town-Hall the intention he had to submit to the King and exhorted the Inhabitants to follow his Example or suffer him to retire So soon as he had finished his Harangue the Bishop and principal Persons gave him most humble Thanks for procuring their Reconciliation with their Natural Soveraign and protested they would embrace his Resolution They then read the Articles granted by the King which were Ratified with all the Signs and Expressions of Joy Bourges did the same within few days after and upon the same Conditions The presence of the Duke of Mayenne retained Paris and till that vast Body were disposed for so great a Mutation the King employ'd his time in his Coronation as well to remove that Scruple the Ancient Customs of the French imprinted in the minds of many that this being wanting he could not assume the Title of King of France as to convince the People more and more that he was thoroughly persuaded of the Religion of his Ancestors Now because he had not yet the City of Reims in his possession nor the Saincte Ampoule the Holy Oyl which is there kept in the Abby of St. Remy he made choice of Nostre-Dame Church of Chartres most famous for her Devotion to the Virgin and from the Abby of Marmoustier caused a Viol to be brought said to be that which Severus Sulpicius and Fortunate Bishop of Poitiers in their Writings affirm to have been brought by an Angel to the great St. Martin to restore his Limbs batter'd by a fall from top to bottom of a pair of Stairs The Twenty seventh of February Nicholas de Thou Bishop of Chartres performed the Ceremony after the same manner as it had wont to be at Reims Year of our Lord 1594 The Duke of Mayenne saw his Party drop off hourly one after another without month February being able either to hinder this Revolution or make his Treaty with the King for he had Sworn not to obey him till he were absolved by his Holiness Notwithstanding because they saw all the Governors of those Places for the League whom he had sent for to Paris about the end of the last year and with whom he had held Council without calling in the Spaniards did surrender this present year to the month March King and that himself went out of Paris the Sixth of March and took his Wife and Children with him many suspected he had agreed with the King and that he only seemed to remain in that Party to prevent those that were of the Spanish Faction from giving up that City to Strangers in some fit of despair He could not be ignorant how Brissac Treated with the King and that he pretended cause of discontent for that he had not given him satisfaction upon the Duke of Elboeufs turning him out of Poitiers after he the last year so bravely defended it against the Royalists All was in readiness for above two Months past to receive the King at Paris but the Seize or Sixteen seconded by the Spanish Garison and four thousand of the Rabble to whom the Ambassador of Spain gave each a Rixdoller per week and a proportion of Wheat did so narrowly observe him that he could not put his design in execution It is said likewise that having discover'd it they were resolved to prevent him and to rid themselves of those that were most active in assisting him These were amongst others the President le Maistre l'Huillier Prevost des Merchands du Vair a Counsellor and l'Anglois an Eschevin or Sheriff These being Sagacious Men and having a desire to save their Country not to bring it under oppression forgot not before they proceeded farther to have a particular and express assurance from the King That no manner of Violence should be done to any one Inhabitant of the City neither in Body or Goods That he should give a general Indemnity without any exception That he should take them all into his Protection And as for the Strangers That he should let them go Scot-free with Bag and Bagage The Orders given for the night between the One and two and twentieth of March to seize upon the Ramparts and Gates the King who had drawn his Troops together at
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
Mareschals Staff to him The Duke who would needs get this prey to make his own Composition the better quarrel'd with him one day in the Streets of Rheims and ran his Sword into his Belly By his death he became Master of Rheims and having withall the Cities of Rocry St. Dizier and Ginville he procured a very advantageous Treaty For they gave him four hundred thousand Crowns in Silver the Government of those Places besides that of Provence The last not so much to gratisie him as to dispossess Espernon and perhaps that they might ruine one another thereby Burgundy which hitherto had remained almost entirely for the Duke of Mayenne began to give him the slip Auxerre Mascon and Avalon broke his Bonds Dijon and Beaulne were upon the point to do the same when he flew thither with his Light-Horse Now perceiving he could contain them no longer by fair he used foul means and severity caused in Dijon the Heads of James Vernes who was the Mayor to be â—ut off and Captain Gau's razed the Suburbs of Beaulnâ— doubled the Garison Year of our Lord 1594 and fill'd up all the Gates excepting one Moreover to preserve the rest of the month November Province he persuaded the Spaniards to make a sudden War on that side Meer necessity kept him yet in Confederacy with those dangerous Friends He knew the Duke of Feria and Diego d'Ibarra imputed all this decadency of Affairs to his treachery which could indeed be justly imputed to nothing but his slowness and irresolution He knew they hated him so mortally that when he went to the Arch-Duke Ernestus after the Siege of Laon they had deliberated to take off his Head as a Traytor and seeing the Arch-Dukes Council would not concur in that point they had essay'd to rid their hands of him by Poyson or by Poniard And indeed some imagin'd it was he who first to revenge himself for their unhandsom Treatments possess'd the Kings Council by such Friends as he had amongst them with the design of declaring War against them and that he had privately made his Treaty with the King However it were the Party was strong enough in Council to persuade him to a Rupture The Huguenots desired it out of that perfect hatred they still bear to the Spaniards The Catholicks to divert the Huguenots from their Contrivances by giving them this satisfaction and such Employments as would have been improper to entrust them withall upon any other Service The honest Frenchmen to unite all hearts together revive their affections for their Country and consound all the remainders of Factions and Cavils about Religion in the more zealous prosecution of this common Quarrel The Politicks in fine to make a strong Revulsion without of that Venom which caused so much mischief within and to employ the Enemies of the Kingdom in quenching a Fire at their own homes in stead of suffering them to blow the Coals continually in France It was therefore resolved in the Kings Council to carry the War into their Country and because Hainault and Artois were known to lie the most exposed to that ruine which must follow upon a Rupture between the two Crowns it was judg'd fit to write to the principal Cities of those Provinces that if they could not prevail with the King of Spain to withdraw his Forces out of the Territories of France and if they did not forbear to make War upon his Subjects and the Cambresians whom he had taken into his protection he was resolved quickly to make them feel the weight of his Arms. It is held that three Persons did more especially inspire the King with this design Gabrielle d'Estree his Mistress Balagny and the Mareschal de Bouillon Gabrielle that Year of our Lord 1594 he might Conquer the Franche-Compte for her Son Caesar Balagny that he might month November plunder Hainault and Artois the Mareschal for two ends the one to maintain himself in the Seigneury of Sedan the other to give an opportunity to Prince Maurice of Nassaw his Brother in Law to fix his Grandeur by securing the liberty of the United-Provinces For we must know that Charlote de le Mark the Mareschals Wife hapning to die some Months before without Children he retained that Principality by vertue said he of a Testamentary Donation she had made to him and the acquisition of the right of the Duke of Montpensier and had very lately betroathed Elizabeth the Sister of Prince Maurice He vaunted of having Correspondents ready to spring their Mines in the Country of Luxembourg Balagny promised to make a great breach in Artois and Sancy was positively confident of prevailing with the Swiss to Conquer the Franche-Compte The Duke of Lorrain too offer'd towards this Expedition four thousand Men commanded by Tremblecour and Aussonville In effect they did enter the Comte at the very beginning of the following year but it was against his interest and contrary to his intention Neither did they do any thing but make some incursions very ruinous to the poor People except it were their taking the little Towns of Vezou Luxeu and Jonville month December The King made his approaches to the Frontiers of Artois imagining to have had some good success there the severity of the Winter brought him back to Paris and almost to a tragical death For the same day he arrived which was the Seven and twentieth of December at six in the Evening while he was in his Mistresses Chamber at the Hostel du Bouchage and stepped forward to embrace Montigny he received a stroke with a Knife on the lower Lip which broke one of his Teeth Immediately they seized upon a young Fellow who was thrusting into the Crowd and by his scared Countenance they knew it must be he had made the attempt His name was John Chastel Son of a Woolen-Draper dwelling before the great Gate of the Palais aged about Nineteen years a melancholy Spirit who said in his Interrogatories That he was prompted to commit this Crime because finding himself laden with hainous and unpardonable Sins and imagining he could not avoid the Torments of Hell he had thought at least to diminish them by this attempt which he believed to be a Meritorious Act for that said he the King not being reconciled to the Church could be nought but a Tyrant He confessed likewise that he had made his Exercises in the Colledge of Clermont under the Jesuits and that Year of our Lord 1594 they had often led him into a Chamber of Meditations where Hell was represented month December with several most frightful Figures This disposition added to the injurious Libels against Henry III. and against the King now Reigning found in the Chamber of John Guignard one of the Fathers of the Society and whereof he was the Author and likewise the remembrance of the zeal which some amongst them had manifested for the interests of Spain and some Maxims their Preachers had published against Kings and against the ancient Laws of the
Kingdom and the opinions was held of them that by means of their Colledges and Auricular Confessions they perverted the minds of the Youthful and of the tender Conscienced which way best pleased them gave occasion to the Parliament to involve the whole Society in the same punishment due for the Crimes of particulars Thus by one and the same Decree which was pronounced the Nine and twentieth of the Month and executed by Torch-light they condemned John Chastel to suffer the pains accustomed for the like Parricides and Ordained that the Priests and Scholers of the Colledge of Clermont and others calling themselves of the Society of Jesus as being Corrupters of Youth Disturbers of the Common Peace and Enemies to the King and State should within three days leave their House and Colledge and in fifteen the whole Kingdom and that all what belonged to them should be employ'd to pious uses accordingly as the Parliament should dispose of it Some other Parliaments following the same Sentiments with this of Paris banish'd them by a like Decree but that of Bourdeaux and that of Thoulouze refused to conform to it so that they sheltred themselves in Guyenne and Languedoc till they were recalled By another Decree John Guignard having owned his Defamatory Writings was condemned to be Hanged not for the having made them but for having kept them By another also John Gueret under whom Chastel had gone thorough his Courses of Philosophy and the Father of this wretched Parricide were banished the Kingdom the first to perpetuity and the second for nine years and it was Ordained his House should be demolished and in its place a Pyramid of Carved Stone to be erected which should contain the cause of it Upon one of the four Faces was the Decree engraven and on the other three divers Latin Inscriptions in Verse and Prose in detestation of the Memory of that horrid Attempt and that Doctrine which was held to have been the occasion of it Year of our Lord 1594 month December Now the term the King had prefixed to the Hennuyers and Artesians being expir'd without their giving him any answer he caused a Declaration of War to be published against King Philip and his Subjects it hapned some weeks after that the Arch-Duke Ernest Governor of the Low-Countries died the One and twentieth of February King Philip committing the Administration to Peter Henriques Guisman Count de Fuentes till he had otherwise disposed of it The Duke of Nemours having made his escape from the Castle of Pierre-Encise disguised in the habit of a Valet and carrying the Pan of his Closs-stool got immediately on Horseback and with his Friends and three thousand Swiss lent him by the Duke of Savoy took several Forts round about Lyons whereby he thought to famish that great City but the Constable de Montmorency who brought a thousand Maistres and four thousand of the Kings Foot having received Order to remain in that Country Year of our Lord 1595 shut up the Duke himself in Vienne so close that his Swiss weary of the great month January want they endured retired into Savoy to the Marquiss de Trefort General of that Dukes month December in 1594. and January c. Army who far from being able to relieve him was forc'd to let the Constable Soldiers winter in Bress where they had taken Montluel Year of our Lord 1595 Whilst the Duke of Nemours was gone to the Constable of Castille with design of engaging him to come into Lyonnois Disimieu his most intimate Confident to whom month April he had committed the Guard of Pipet chief Castle of Vienne treated his Accommodation the Twelfth of April drew his Men into the Town and invited the Constable thither who took the Oaths of the Inhabitants Nemours who thought this bosom Friend had been proof against all Temptations was like to have lost his wits when he heard of this infidelity Such as were inclined to believe the worst and who judge of others actions by their own interpretation which is too often true said the motives that guided Lisimieu had more of self-interest then duty and chose rather to call him Traitor to his Friend then faithful to his King And even when Nemours fell sick whether for grief or some other cause they reported he had given him a Fig to prevent his Resentment month January Really this Prince was invaded by a strange malady and almost like that of Charles IX Blood flowed in great quantities from his Mouth His more then ordinary courage did for some time resist the violence of this Distemper but when he was so much attenuated that he could no longer stand upon his Feet he desired to be carried to his Castle of Anecy in Savoy and there having languished for some Months in such a dismal condition as drew tears from the Eyes of every one that beheld him he resigned up his Soul about mid July aged twenty eight years The Marquiss de Sainct Sorlin his Brother succeeded him in the Dutchy of Nemours and other Territories and soon after came to an agreement with the King month February The Duke of Mayenne had not so much love for him as to be grieved but the pejoration of his Affairs brought grief enough upon him from elsewhere In the Month of February the Inhabitants of Beaulne to whom the King the preceding year had granted a four Months Truce fell upon that Garison the Duke had re-inforced and called the Mareschal de Biron to their aid who then besieged the Castle Year of our Lord 1595 month February de Monstier-Sainct Jean hard by This Mareschal having forced three hundred Soldiers who yet defended themselves in the City to capitulate laid Siege to the Castle which surrendred within a Month having in vain expected the Duke of Mayenne month April would have joyned his Forces with the Duke of Nemours to deliver them The Cities of Autun and Aussonne finding his declining condition did also quit his Party the first by the advice and management of their Maire the second by a Treaty Senecay made with the King who left him the Government of it By the example of Beaulne the Inhabitants of Dijon took Arms in the beginning of May and finding themselves too weak to drive out the Garison had recourse to Biron who gained all the Quarters of the Town and at the same time besieged the month May. Castle and that of Talon which was within a quarter of a League whither the Count de Tavanes had retired The Constable of Castille named Ferdinand de Velasco was descended into the Franche-Comte in the Month of April with an Army of Fifteen thousand Foot and three thousand Horse This Mareschal apprehended lest he should fall upon his back with all his Forces the Constable de Montmorency had the same fear upon him and both these press'd the King extreamly to advance that way His Mistress by her Caresses made him resolve it She desired he might conquer the Franche-Comte for her
Son to whom he promised to give the Revenue in propriety but the Honorary Soveraignty to the Swiss thereby to oblige them to his protection month June He took but few Men along with him believing that of those under the two forenamed Generals and the Lorrainers commanded by d'Aussonville he might make up a very considerable Army and as for his Frontler of Picardy he relied upon the Forces of the Mareschal de Bouillon the Count de Sainct Pol and the Admiral de Villars recommending above all things to them a good Correspondence and a readiness when necessary to joyn their whole Strength together To whom when in one entire Body he gave the general Command to the Duke of Nevers And for the Affairs of the Kingdom in gross he establish'd a Council at Paris of whom he made the Prince of Conty Chief The event shewed the method he had taken both for the one and other was not good For the Count de Soissons jealous they had preferr'd the Prince of Conty before him fomented the Leaven of those Factious remains in Paris and so much did those of the said Council as also the Chief Commanders in the Armies countermine each other that they did his work but negligently It is fit we know that in the Month of March the Duke of Longueville was kill'd by a strange accident Taking a review of his Army at Dourlens a Piece discharged Year of our Lord 1595 by accident shot him in the Head whereof he died in a few days at Amiens The day month March before he expir'd his Wife was deliver'd of a Son whom France may justly account for one of the most generous and most accomplished Princes of his Age. The King was God-father and gave him his name and the Government of the Province and till he were of Age gave the Commission of it to the Count de Sainct Pol his Paternal Uncle The Constable of Castille having forced the Lorrainers to abandon all they had taken in the Franche-Comte and Tremblâ—cour who had put himself into Vesou to capitulate prepared to enter into the Dutchy of Burgundy and had made a Bridge at Gray upon the River Soane besides one belonging to the Town The King having notice of month June it resolved with the Mareschal Biron to go and meet him only with two hundred Maistres and five hundred Arquebusiers on Horseback to retard his March a day or two and during that time make a Retrenchment to part the Castle of Dijon from the City and then leaving therein a thousand Bourgeois go forth and fight the Enemy with his whole Army within a League or two of Dijon This undertaking would have been judged rashness had the event not justified it The last day of June being at Fontaine Francoise the mid-way between Dijon and Gray he discover'd the Enemies whole Army descending from Sainct Seyne and at the same time found himself charged by the Duke of Mayennes French Troops commanded by that Duke and by Villars Houdan He there stood in need of all his Vertues Biron being rudely repulsed the King maintain'd the shock with a hundred Horse only made several stout charges and drove back four or five Squadrons almost to the gross of the Duke of Mayennes Army But certainly had he advanced further he must have lost many of his Men his Honour and perhaps his Person The Duke of Mayenne sent three times and the fourth went himself to intreat the Constable to march on to certain Victory but he being as cold to action as hot in words and imagining the Duke pretended to teach him his trade he stirred not but replied with pride and senceless gravity he knew well enough what he had to do The same day he retired to Sainct Seyne and the next day to Gray where he denied entrance to the French nay even to the wounded The King on the contrary took care they should be dress'd and sent a safe-conduct to Villars to carry him to Chalons This day was much more famous for the Kings wonderful Exploits then either for the number of the Combatants or of the slain for there were not sixscore kill'd upon the place and acquired him greater advantage yet then honour for as much as the Castillians coldness his suspicions and inhumanity towards the French broke them quite off from the Spaniard whereas the King open'd his Arms so kindly and favourably to them that he drew a great part to his service Year of our Lord 1594 month July The Duke of Mayenne not knowing how to extricate himself from the Artifices of the Spaniards thought of returning to Sommeriue in Savoy and from thence send to demand security that he might go to Spain and give an account to King Philip of his Conduct and complain of the ill proceedings of his Agents The King perceiving him at the very brink of the Precipice gave him assurance he was ready to receive him into favour and to treat him much nobler then he could ever justly hope for from those Renegado's To which he added that till they had agreed upon the Conditions between them he might remain at Chalons where he should neither be besieged nor invested Before he accepted of these Offers the Duke made another great and last effort to persuade the Constable to relieve the Castle of Dijon The Constable having absolutely refused it he took leave of him as if he would have undertaken it himself with what Forces he had and retired to Chalon From thence he gave order for the surrender of the Castles of Dijon and Talon to the King in retribution of his kindness Whilst the King was yet at Dijon he advised the kindred of Charlote de la Trimouille Widow of Henry Prince of Conde to present him a Petition desiring the Process against that Princess might be removed to the Parliament of Paris That all proceedings made by the Judges of St. John d'Angely might be set aside That new information might be taken and that in the mean time she might be set at liberty upon their Bail upon condition to appear for her within four Months The King having allowed it sent John de Vivonne Marquiss of Pisani to Saintonge to be Governor month July and Aug. to the young Prince and to bring both him and his Mother to Court He had a double end herein one to secure himself of the Person of the Prince whom the Huguenots might possibly have made their Head the other to plant him betwixt himself and the Count de Soissons who seeing him without Children accounted himself presumptive Heir and trod upon his Heels After he had spent some weeks in quieting Burgundy restoring their Parliament which had been interdicted and calling back the Counsellors who had remov'd themselves to Semur he entred with his Army upon the Franche-Comte with design to fight the Castillian and if he obtain'd a Victory to conquer that Province He staid there near upon three weeks during which he oft-times harceled the Spaniard to
draw him out of his Intrenchments beat his straggling Troops in two or three Rencounters ransacked the whole Country and brought so panick a fear upon Besancon and all the other Cities that he had surely made them stoop to his power had not the intercession of the Swiss and a contagion that got amongst his Men wrested that Conquest out of his hands The Swiss moved in fine by the lowd cries of the Comtois who claimed their protection by vertue of some ancient Treaties they had made with the Cantons and Year of our Lord 1595 withall maturely considering maugre the practises of those the King had gained in month August their Assemblies what a bridle it would be to their liberty to have so potent a Neighbour upon their Frontiers intreated him to withdraw his Forces and to leave the Country in that neutrality they had hitherto enjoy'd To their intercession the Comtois added certain Sums of Money to defray the Charges of his Army which month September besides was so assaulted by Sickness as they were glad to retire with the rich Booty they had made From Burgundy the King made a Journey to Lyons with his Court Divers reasons led him thither Two amongst others the desire to Treat with the Duke of Savoy and the necessity there was to give Orders for the Affairs of Daufine and Provence where there were some bickerings between the Governors and the Captains As to the first point he offer'd the Savoyard a Truce and afterwards even to give him up the Marquisate of Salusses for his eldest Son There were several Conferences concerning this at Pont de Beauvaisis between the Agents for the two Soveraigns and the Duke seemed not to be averse to a Peace but the condition of Homage the King proposed for the Marquisate distasted him For the second point he sent the Duke of Guise to the Government of Provence gave the Lieutenancy to Lesdiguieres and that of Daufine whereof he had made the Prince of Conty Governor to Alfonso d'Ornano Thus opposing Espernon with a potent Enemy setting a careful watch over the Duke of Guise and taking away the too great power Lesdiguieres had in Daufine he thought he had sufficiently provided for the security of those Countries In the same place was the Treaty concluded for the reduction of Bois-Daufin also a particular Truce was granted the Duke of Mercoeur for Bretagne and a general one to the Duke of Mayenne for all the remaining Parties of the League Bois-Daufin held yet the Cities of Chasteau-Gontier in Anjou and of Sable in Mayne with some others which served as out-works for the Duke of Mercoeur and therefore the King consider'd him so as to allow him very advantageous Conditions and over and above the Baston de Mareschal The Voisinage of the King hastned likewise the more courageous of the Parliament men of Thoulouze to declare to the Duke of Joyeuse that the King being now a month September and October Catholick they were in Conscience and Duty obliged to acknowledge him And because he forcibly hindred them from taking any publick Resolution on this point they retired to Castel Sarrasin whence the King joyned them with those who in the beginning of the Troubles had transferr'd themselves to Besiers that so being altogether they might act the more effectually for his Service Year of our Lord 1595 The Cities of Carcassonne and Narbonne prompted with the same Spirit as those month September Officers gave the same notice to the Duke and turned out his Garisons as on the other hand the approaches of the Mareschal de Matignon and Anne de Levis regained the City of Rodez so that the Duke of Joyeuse had no other Places of importance left him but Thoulouze and Alby But whilst the King was thus employ'd at one extream part of his Kingdom the Spaniards made him bloody work towards Picardy by the death of Humieres the loss of Dourlens and that of Cambray The Duke of Aumale and Rosne were cause of it Both taking it in scorn the King should slight them by denying the Government of Picardy to the first and to the second the Title of Mareschal of France which he had granted to other Leaguers The City of Ham was the Duke of Aumales and he had placed a Governor there named N. de Mouy Gomeron who being dead his three Sons went to Bruxels to demand what was due to him The Spaniards detained them all Prisoners to force them to deliver up the Castle of Ham. Dorvilliers their half-Brother who had the command of it in their absence would give no ear to it but called in Humieres and the Nobless of Picardy and gave them passage by the Fosse of the Castle to attaque the Spaniards that were in the Town Humieres charging them bravely was slain his Men enraged at his death redouble their Assaults and at two days end force them and cut them all in pieces not allowing quarter to one of them The Count de Fuentes who at that time besieged month June the Catelet came running to relieve this Garison but could not do it early enough For spite whereof he before the Town of Ham caused the Head of Gomerons eldest Son to be cut off the Arch-Duke Albert did afterwards release the other two This done he again returns before the Chatelet which he gained upon Composition the Four and twentieth day of June The regret of the Nobility for the loss of the brave Humieres who alone was worth an Army and the cries of the Picards whose Frontiers were open gave an opportunity to the hottest Heads in Parliament who remembred the injuries they had received by the Duke of Aumale to make a thundring Decree against that Prince By which they declared him Criminel de laesae Majestatis in the highest degree and of the Parricide of Henry III. and for these Crimes condemned him to be drawn alive by four wild Horses his Quarters to be set up on the four chief Gates of the City if he could be apprehended if not in Effigie his House of Anet to be razed Year of our Lord 1595 and his Woods cut down Breast-high his Goods Confiscate and his Children degraded month June of their Nobility The Sentence given Achilles de Harlay first President caused the Execution to be suspended for some days during which they waited for Orders from the King but month July Counsellor Angenout made so much noise they were fain to go thorough with it They dragg'd his Phantosm to the Greve and quartered it the Four and twentieth of July The King was very sorry they had robb'd his Clemency of this Pardon and thereby engaged the said Prince and all those French that were yet obstinate and resolute to an irreconcilable hatred against France whom they afterwards most desperately wounded and perhaps might have utterly ruin'd had they found a King of Spain less aged and infirm then Philip hapned to be The Citizens of Cambray could no longer endure the proud and violent behaviour
Pope was earnest for annulling the Absolution given by the Archbishop of Bourges the other that he would have the Ceremony performed in presence of all the Cardinals and make use of the Baguette the third that giving Absolution he should use these words That he reabiliated or restored the King to his Royalty as if he had been suspended by the Excommunications of the Popes his Predecessors Year of our Lord 1595 month July and Aug They received every day Orders from the King expressly charging them not to consent to any thing to the prejudice of his Dignity and Reputation notwithstanding they agreed to the two first points thereby to gain said they the last which was the most important Du Perron was greatly blamed for it in France perhaps unjustly the Politicks reproached him that to merit the Popes favour he had submitted his King to be cudgel'd by Proxy with the Popes white Wand As to the remainder the intercessions of the Seigneury of Venice of the Duke of Lorrain and the Duke of Florence the sollicitations of the Cardinals de Joyeuse and Tolet and the good offices of Baronius then Confessor to the Pope did much forward the business Tolet was a Spaniard by birth nevertheless he acted herein against the interest of Spain that he might deserve and obtain of the King by his Services the recalling and restoration of the Jesuits of whose Society he had formerly been When they had agreed upon all the Articles his Holiness appointed the Sixteenth day of September to give this publick Absolution which he did upon a Scaffold at the Porch of St. Peters Church with the Ceremonies to be seen at length in the general History or in the more particular Relations of those times month September After this above a Month ran out before the expedition of the Bulls whether he would by this delay make them more esteem and desire the favour he granted or that he were willing to give the Duke of Mayenne and other Heads of the League a competent time to finish their Agreements But the King as soon as he had received the news of it ordered the should give thanks to God for it over all the Kingdom sent to the Parliament to take off the prohibition he had made against sending to Rome appointed that the Concordats with the Holy See should be exactly observed and sought all occasions to testifie his obedience to the See of Rome and acknowledgments to the Pope Fuentes was before Cambray the Mareschal de Balagny had made no great preparations to receive him having but seven hundred Men in Garison The Duke of Nevers informed of their want in that place sent the Duke de Retelois his eldest Son thither with four hundred Horse who happily pierced into the Town but the People of Artois and Hainault desiring to deliver themselves from the oppression of Balagny and the Archbishop of Cambray being pusht on with the zeal not so much of being restored to his Pastoral See as to the Goods and Revenues of the Church which Balagny had denied him the enjoyment of strengthned the Besiegers Army with above eight thousand Men contributed great Sums of Money and sent Guns Ammunitions and Provisions to them Year of our Lord 1595 For all this they did not much advance their Attaques and as the Autumnal Rains troubled them sorely and Nevers at Peronne was forming a considerable Body to month August harrass them they would no doubt have raised the Siege if Rosne who knew the Discords amongst the French Officers and the ill disposition of the Bourgeois towards Balagny had not assured the Chiefs there would quickly be something disclosed very favourable to them In effect the Cambresians in despair for that the King would not admit them into the number of his Subjects they having at the beginning of the Siege sent Deputies to request it of him and thereby considering they must ever lie groaning under the burthen of some such severe Master as Balagny resolved to shake it off at the first opportunity month September As soon therefore as they had made a breach though but a small one the Inhabitants having drawn two hundred Swiss that were in Garison to side with them did barricado themselves in all the Streets seized on the great Market place and ran to parley with the Besiegers Balagny durst not appear his Wife true Sister of the brave Bussy d'Amboise marches into the Market place with Pike in hand and used Exhortations Intreaties Promises and Oaths to stop this Resolution Vic shewed them that at least they ought to provide for their own security by some regular Treaty and take time to consult therein neither the one nor other prevailed in the least the Authors of this Revolution pressed things on so fast that the Inhabitants upon the bare word of the Spaniards went and open'd them their Gates and even offer'd Fuentes to charge the French who then stood at the breach but he could not consent to so much baseness so that they had time to retire into the Citadel The Citadel was very weak the courage of those that defended it extreamly depressed and that of the Citizens and Spaniards mightily raised by their good success Besides there were Provisions but for ten or twelve days for the Spaniards knowing the covetous humour of the Dame de Balagny Wheat being somewhat dear in June and July had contrived to drain the Granaries of all the Store was in them by giving her what price soever she asked for it and the Town was invested before the next Harvest could supply them So that it seems in selling her Corn she likewise sold her little Coronet or Soveraignty When Vic had searched and discover'd the small quantities were in the Magazines he was of opinion they should demand a Truce which was allowed them for four month October and twenty hours The Duke of Nevers in the mean while not able to agree with Bouillon and concerned for the danger his Son was in sent word to the Besieged they should make the best composition they could They did so the Seventh day of October to quit the place within two days after and made it indeed very advantageous Year of our Lord 1595 The Dame de Balagny believing that it was a more gentle fate to fall into the month October arms of death then into want and nothingness when she observed they began to Treat withdrew and shut her self up in a Chamber where sorrow and deep despair seizing her heart and spirits she expir'd some hours before her Soveraignty but her Husband suffer'd this fall with an extream insensibility and having now nothing else to do took a fair Maiden with him from Cambray to console and to divert himself from all melancholy thoughts A resistance of seven or eight days longer might have saved this place The King informed of the dangerous condition it was in came post from Lyons to take some order for it but he had news of its surrender at
During the Truces the Marquiss de Belle-Isle being gotten into Mount St. Michel intending to surprize it was kill'd by a Captain of his own Party whose name was Ker-Martin He thought that by carrying the Keys of that place to the King he should in recompence have at the least a Mareschals Staff After the Kings intentions were made so manifest to the Provenceaux that they had no room left for doubt the Provisions for the Duke of Guise being registred in Parliament and sortified by a thundring Decree against Espernon and all his Adherents those that had follow'd him only as their Governor forsook him and such others as Year of our Lord 1596 were closest riveted to his interest much shaken Being diffident of every one he month January changed some Governors amongst others Anchot de Mesplez whom he put out of St. Tropez one of his best places In effect Mesplez was the Man for the King who had Orders not only to dispossess him of the Province but also underhand to hinder Lesdiguieres from taking root there Which he shewed plainly enough when Lesdiguieres having besieged Cisteron and being on the point of forcing it he treated with the Governor Ramefort and got into the place with three hundred Men to defend it against him Now although Lesdiguieres did very well know this cross Game was dealt him by a higher hand he omitted not to continue his Services which every where succeeded prosperously and took five or six places more from the Espernonists but when he observed his progress redoubled the jealousies of the Duke of Guise and the Provenceaux and that he could now make no further advantage either as to his own Affairs nor the Kings he returned into Daufine upon some pretence the juncture of those times offer'd him When the Duke of Guise was become Master of all the Forces of the Province he month January and February did alone what he would not have done with a Companion and soon quieted the Province labouring at the same time to drive out the Savoyards and the Duke of Espernon and to reduce the City of Marseilles The Savoyards held yet two places there Grace and Berre he recover'd the first by means of two Captains who kill'd the Commander of it and block'd up the other with two Forts However a while after one Captain Alexander Governor of the last making a great Sally slew all the Men that were in those Redoubts and razed them so that he preserved the place for the Duke till the Treaty of Vervins The Reduction of Marseilles was the more important work several designs which they made trial of for this purpose had all miscarried Famine and Misery had mightily wrought upon and disposed the meaner People to a change but the Duumvirs Lewis d'Aix and Charles de Casaux stood but the more upon their guard and having offended so many People by their violence and severity that they could hope for no security amongst a generation so inclined to Resentment they rather chose to treat with the King of Spain who promised to give them two Dutchies in the Kingdom of Naples then with their natural King They had therefore to this end dispatched three of their Confidents to Madrid and in the mean time had obtained of John Andrea Doria Prince of Malfy a succour of twelve hundred Men brought to them in four Galleys by his Son with hopes of a much greater number in a few days Year of our Lord 1596 This Re-inforcement could not prevent their ruine which proceeded from that month February cause whence they could least expect it that is to say from a Bourgeois named Peter Libertat who was one of the most intimate Friends to Casaux in so much as he had intrusted him with the Guard of the Port Royal. This Man originally a Corsican Valiant daring and one that desired to raise himself by some brave Action having long before prepared his Party treated with the Duke of Guise to receive him into the City provided they would give him the Office of Viguier a Patent of Nobility for him and his the Government of Nostre-Dame de la Garde and fifty thousand Crowns in Silver When he had gotten his Securities they appointed the Seventeenth of February for execution That day the Duke of Guise approached the City within half a League and much nearer yet placed in Ambuscado some Troops commanded by Alamanon In the Morning Lewis d'Aix going out of the Royal Gate as his custom was with some Arquebusiers to search round the Walls Libertat who was there upon the Guard with his People pulls up the Draw-bridge and shuts him out Casaux was within the Town and not knowing they had put this trick upon Lewis d'Aix came with some belonging to him towards the same Gate as usually Libertat goes to meet him charges him and kills him Lewis d'Aix in the interim gets over the Walls being Craned up by a Rope and a Basket draws together a good number of his Friends amongst others the two Sons of Casaux and with these he comes and attaques Libertat and regains the Port. But the Advocate Bernard whom the Duke of Mayenne after his Treaty had sent to the Duumvirs to persuade them to return to their Obedience goes forth into the Street with his Pike in Hand and a white Handkerchief in his Hat followed by five or six noted Citizens crying out Vive le Roy In a quarter of an hour he got near a Thousand Men together and at the same time Alamanon advances from without with three hundred Soldiers upon whose appearance Lewis d'Aix loses courage falls back and gets into the Fort St. Victor the two Sons of Casaux threw themselves into the Fort de la Garde the Spaniards leap into the Water to recover their Galleys and stand off to Sea In fine the Duke of Guise is received into the City and his presence so astonishes those that had Cantonized themselves in their Towers and Forts that they immediately surrendred at discretion Year of our Lord 1596 Thus this great City was brought to its Obedience in less then two hours time without effusion of any other Blood but that of Casaux and three more As to Lewis month February d'Aix and the Sons of Casaux the first escaping by night from his Fort fearing to be deliver'd up by his Soldiers and the others having been turned out of theirs by one of their best Friends who desired to deserve his pardon to their cost they all retired to Genoa where they ended their miserable lives in want and contempt Marseilles reduced the Duke of Guise bent all his Strength against the Duke of Espernon As he was coming to the relief of the Citadel of St. Tropes which Mesplez had besieged de Guise charged him so impetuously that he forced him to repass the River of Argence which he did with so much precipitation that the greater part of his Troops were drowned or knock'd at Head month March As vain were
beginning of the year Francis de la Ramee a young Man so called being the name of a Gentleman with whom he had been bred in Poitou pretended to be lawful Heir to the Crown He said he was Son of Charles IX and Elizabeth of Austria and fancied that Catharine de Medicis stole him in his Cradle sent him out of his Country pretending he was dead that so her dear Son Henry III. might succeed Now being come I know not how out of Poiton into Vermandois he lodg'd himself in a Peasants House who assisted him in acting this Comedy and bare Witness of many Apparitions which this young Man pretended to have frequently seen There was great probability this Farce Year of our Lord 1596 was contrived and countenanced by some Grandees of the Kingdom and perhaps they would have carried it on a great way and perplexed the King a long time with it had not the thrid of it been cut in time A Counsellor of Parliament who hapned to be upon the place having caused this pretended Prince and his Paranymph to be apprehended they were both carried to Reims where they were condemned the first to the Gallows the other to be present at the Execution The Parliament of Paris upon his appeal confirmed the Sentence and added that the Body of la Ramee should be burnt and the Ashes cast into the Air. This was executed in the Greve the month March Eighth day of March The Parties condemned having been first obliged to own the Imposture openly Those things which pained the King most were how to content the Zealous Catholicks month September and October and the Court of Rome who were concerned how he would behave himself after his Absolution to find wherewith to defray the Expences of his Armies amidst the present distractions and miseries of his People and to redress and remedy the inconveniencies we have mentioned For satisfaction touching the first point he received the Popes Legat with all Affection and Reverence and took care the Prince of Conde might be instructed in the Catholick Religion The Mother of this Prince having been justified by the Parliament of Paris followed her Son in his Religion as she followed him in his Fortune and made her abjuration at Rouen at the feet of the Legat. This was Alexander de Medicis Cardinal and Archbishop of Florence a Prelat who coming into France with a Pacifique Spirit appeared as much an Enemy to all hot-headed Zealots as a true lover of Peace and the good of this Kingdom For the other two points the King could find no way more ready or effectual then to call a great Assembly of all the Kingdom but it was only of Notables chosen out of the Grandees Prelats and Officers of Justice and of the Finances or Treasury for that of the General Estates would have been too delatory and tedious and then as month November much as the wisest Politicians have otherwhile loved them so much the Princes of these latter times did dread them This meeting was held in the great Hall of the Abby St. Ouin at Rouen The King began the first Session on the Fourth of November with a Speech that was Pathetick Concise and Sententious in which they were over-joy'd to hear these Expressions truly worthy and becomming a good King whatever motive put them into his Mouth That he had not called them thither to follow him blindfold in what he ✚ should desire but to take their Councils to believe them to pursue them in short to put himself under their Tutelage The Chancellor set forth the urgent necessity of Affairs and demanded speedy assistance The Deputies made ready their Papers for the Reformation of the State and upon this occasion the Officers of the Robe and Finances made it appear by their demeanour that their power and interest was going to exceed all other Ranks and Orders as they have done even to these very times Year of our Lord 1596 Many excellent Reiglements were made and they named Commissioners to see them executed who were to undertake it till the meeting of another the like Assembly month December which was to be held at the end of three years All Orders made in such ☜ Assemblies for the publick good turn quickly into Air and nothingness while the Impositions and those Taxes as oppress the Subjects are sure to become permanent and therefore such as were of the Kings Council believing these Commissioners were but so many Spies and Controllers of their Actions did soon elude all their care and diligence herein but did not in the least forget most punctually to put those Orders in execution that were made for the raising of Money to wit the Postponing or to say better retrenching all Officers Wages for a year and the Imposition of a Sol per Liver upon all Merchandize entring into any enclosed Town excepting Wheat The first brought in a present Supply but the second produced much more trouble and difficulty then Money Year of our Lord 1597 Neither King Philips Body or his Mind had vigour enough to follow his swift-footed Fortune or carry the prosperity of his Arms so far as possibly they might have month January c. been in the present conjunctures As he began to languish and decay he desired the short remainder of his days might be free from all ponderous Cares and Troubles and besides he much longed to leave the Low-Countries at least to his dear Daughter Isabella Eugenia since not able after the expence of so many Millions to obtain the Crown of France for her He gave therefore greedy Ear to the Propositions of Accommodation made to him by his Holiness and had given long and favourable Audience to the General of the Cordeliers named Bonaventure de Calatagirone who was come to wait on him on behalf of the Pope He afterwards sent him to the Archduke Albert who made him go into France and from thence he returned again to Flanders So that the Treaty was much advanced when an accident of the greatest astonishment to France interrupted it and brought this Kingdom again into extremity of danger Hernand Teillo Governor of Dourlens who in the Body of a Dwarf had a more then Gigantine courage being well informed of the ill order observed by the Inhabitants of Amiens in the guarding of their Gates for they would admit of no Garison formed an Enterprize upon the Town and having communicated it to the Arch-Dukes Council obtained four thousand Men to put it in execution The Tenth of March a little before Nine in the Morning while all the People were at Church sixteen Soldiers disguised like Peasants and commanded by a Captain named d'Ognane enter the Gate de Montrescut some carrying Nuts others Aples and the Year of our Lord 1597 rest driving a Cart loaden with Straw One of the first lets fall a Bag of Nuts month March purposely untied to amuse the Guard and at the same time the Cart advances upon the Bridge of the second
Gate and there stops to hinder the Port-cullis from barring up their way Upon the Signal given which was agreed to be the firing off a Pistol these Soldiers fall upon the Court of Guard and charge them nimbly A gross of Two hundred Foot conceal'd within a Chappel about two hundred paces off then another of a thousand more and after these another Body of Horse who waited a quarter of a League from thence ran with all speed to second them There were not above seven or eight of the Guard that made resistance the rest betaking themselves to flight put all the City into fear and confusion well might the Allarm-Bell ring out few People put themselves into a posture of defence The Spaniards in the mean time seized upon the Church Gates the Markets and Ramparts The Count de Sainct Pol as much affrighted as the People in stead of intrenching himself at some Gate mounted on Horseback and escaped to Corbie crying out he was going to fetch some Troops quartred within half a League of that place Hernand Master of the Town gave it over to the Spoil the Inhabitants were stript to their very Shirts and set at Ransom excepting some that were of the Confederacy or such as had been of the most Zealous Leaguers The King was in his Bed when he received this so surprizing news he rose immediately and sent for several Friends that they might comfort him The most undaunted took France to be now in great danger when they saw Paris was become a Frontier at one end the Duke of Mercoeur at the other the Duke of Savoy in the midst the Reliques of the old Factions endeavouring to joyn again in a Body and the new Cabals shewing their Heads There was but one Remedy and that was to regain Amiens with expedition but the Enterprize appeared very difficult and this was certain that if it failed the affront would more then double the present disaster So that the most part of the chief Officers dissuaded it and there were even some would needs have their Protestations registred in Parliament The Duke of Mayenne was almost the only Man of a contrary opinion who so encouraged the King that he Year of our Lord 1597 gave a small Body of four thousand Men to the Mareschal de Biron to invest it towards month March Artois and to hold the Enemies still in play and then resolved to go himself and secure the Cities on the Frontier and give Order for all things to be prepared for the Siege The troublesom reliques of a Distemper which his Divertisements had brought upon him the precedent year sent him back from the Frontiers to Paris and kept him there almost three weeks in his Chamber We cannot forbear to mention that during this time the anguish of his Malady joyning with the misfortune of his Affairs did almost stagger and overcome his constancy and forced from his heart such Sighs and such Complaints as were rather conformable to the ill state of his Condition month April then any way becoming the grandeur of his Courage He went to his Parliament likewise and demanded Assistance in terms which were it seems beneath his Dignity However his Presence was not useless at Paris to hasten the Levies of Men and Money The Provinces on this side the Loire undertook to maintain six Regiments of Foot for him great numbers of the Nobility flocked thither after him and because there were some yet very loath to leave their own homes and many Malecontent the Parliament to oblige them to come forth made a Decree which set a Mark of Infamy upon all those that did not get on Horseback upon this urgent occasion For the Money Maximilian de Betune Rosny provided it he was become sole Sur-Intendant des Finances Sancy and Schomberg not being able to comply with him had quitted that and taken up the employment of the Sword again They raised a considerable Fund by voluntary Loans and the creation of divers Offices those in best condition at Paris Taxed themselves very liberally as well out of fear of falling into the miseries of War again as because the Re-imbursements were assigned upon the melioration of the Gabels which was a good Security There were four Counsellors created in each Parliament as many Maistres des Comptes in the Chamber of Paris two Treasurers of France in every Court of Audit two Esleus in all the Elections a Trienval aux Tresoriers de L'Espargne one at the Parties Casuelles and so of all the Accomptables This latter way being extreamly chargable to the Kings Finances by consequent to the People there were some Counsellors of Parliament more worthy of ancient Rome then of a Country where the love to publick good does ordinarily pass but for Year of our Lord 1597 a Whimsey who propounded that all the Officers of the Kingdom should contribute month April generously offering to Tax themselves that so the Country might be deliver'd at ☞ their Expences but the greater number were not the most generous and Interest had the Ascendant over Honour From the end of March Biron was scowring about the Country towards Dourlens with some Horse to prevent the Spaniards from conveying Ammunitions into Amiens And though he were fewer in numbers then those of Amiens he notwithstanding began the Circumvalation beyond the Somme It was forty thousand fathom in circumference flanked with seven strong Pentagones and with a Bridge upon the River month April and May. above the Village called Longpre All the Month of April was spent in marching of Men thither that of May in making their Lodgments in their Quarters so that the approaches began not till about the beginning of June month June It was near this time the King arrived there with his whole Court and even his Mistress He had lodged her near himself but was quickly forced to remove that scandal from the sight of his Soldiers not only by their mutterings which came even to his Ears but likewise upon the reproaches of the Mareschal de Biron who considered not that there is nothing more dangerous then to shock the Pleasures of ones Soveraign or to take any advantage to make him know his own weakness Upon the first rumour of the loss of Amiens the remainders of the Spanish Faction would have made some stir in Paris where King Philip still maintain'd a little private Council to encourage his Partisans The most Zealous therefore held some meetings to consider whether they might do him any Service in this juncture of Affairs but one of them having discover'd a Consult of theirs in a Cabaret there were some of them truss'd up in the Greve and the ignominious death of those quite broke off that dangerous Correspondence and untied the whole knot of them month May. In this juncture the greatest part of the Lords despairing of the settlement of France or glad of an opportunity to pretend so an Assembly was held in Bretagne of the Nobility in presence even of Brissac
his forward heat and brought him back to the Siege The Arch-Duke being returned into Artois employ'd his Forces for the taking Monthuliâ— which incommoded Ardres then dismissed them and retired to Arras He there fell sick of Grief as it was said for having no better succeeded in his Enterprize of Amiens and for the loss during his absence of seven or eight places taken by Prince Maurice along the River Rhine and in the Country of Over-Issel The same day he went off the Besieged being Summoned which was upon the Nineteenth of September did not think convenient to stand so obstinately on a defence which might have held long indeed but had been to no purpose and only dangerous to themselves They Capitulated therefore upon the best Conditions usually granted on the like occasions and promised to surrender in six days unless they were relieved within that time They were allowed to send notice of it to the Arch-Duke and gave Hostages for performance of the Agreement The said Term expired they rendred the Town in the Morning of the Five and twentieth of the Month The Constable received it in the Name of the King they going forth about Ten of the Clock the same day carrying off together with their Bagage three hundred wounded Men and a thousand Women whereof four hundred belonged to that City The King being on Horseback at the Head of his Army with great kindness permitted Montenegre and the other Captains to salute him by embracing his Knees At Evening he made his entrance into the City and gave the Government to Dominick de Vic who finding but Eight hundred Inhabitants there in all re-peopled it Year of our Lord 1597 with four thousand within two years after and obtain'd the re-establishment of all month September their Priviledges but could not prevent the raising a Citadel over their Heads which makes their Posterity sigh to this very day for the neglect of their great Grandfathers The King himself carried the news of the surrender of Amiens to the Arch-Duke month October and November who was in Arras went to visit him there with his whole Army and to salute him with some Volees of Cannon Then finding no body mov'd he returned to Dourlens and invested it But the Rains the Myre the scarcity of Provisions the too great Fatigues and the Maladies proceeding from all those inconveniencies constrained them to decamp before the end of the Month of October with great damage and some shame Towards the end of this year the Dutchy of Ferrara for want of Heirs Males reverted to the Holy See by the Death of Duke Alphonso II. the last Legitimate Prince of the House of Est and Son of Hercules II. and of Madam Renee of France Ferrara was of the number of those Territories which the Countess month October c. Matilda Daughter and Heiress to the eldest of the House of Est gave to the Holy See for the sake of Pope Gregory VII about the year 1077. Since that time the Male-off-spring of the other Brothers bearing the Title of Marquiss d'Est had ever enjoy'd it not as Proprietors but only Vicars of the Holy See till the year 1471. that Pope Paul erected it to a Dutchy and invested Borso therewith to whom the Emperor had also given Modena and Regio with the like Titles Now the Duke Alphonso II. seeing himself without Male Children had made divers Applications to the Pope and the Emperor to obtain the transport of his Dutchies to Cesar d'Est who was his Kinsman The Court of Rome did not think him fit to succeed because his Father who was an Alphonso was reputed but the Natural Son of Duke Alphonso I. of that name Thus on that side he could get no ground but he gave such vast Sums to the Emperor Rodolphus that he granted him the transport of the Dutchy Modena and Regio of the Principality of Carpy and some other Territories holding of the Empire He made account that with all these together with the great Wealth and the good Friends he should leave him he might be able to maintain himself by force in the Dutchy of Ferrara In effect when he died which hapned the Twenty seventh of October Cesar believing he should be supported by the Venetians and even the Spaniards too got into possession and at first stood firm against the Excommunications of Pope Clement and against his Army which was commanded by the Cardinal Aldobrandino Legat and Nephew of his Holiness but when he understood that the King of Year of our Lord 1597 France which he never did imagine took the affirmative for the Pope and found the dread of this great Power had cooled his Allies and affrighted the Ferrareses he threw down his Sword and made his Accommodation about the end of December By the Treaty he restored the Dutchy of Ferrara to the Pope Who left him all the free Lands or Estate which the House of Est had possessed there and granted that he and the Dukes his Descendants should have in Rome the same Rank and the same Prerogatives as the Dukes of Ferrara had there enjoy'd month November and December The City of Paris honour'd the Kings Victory with a Triumphant Entrance they made for him He pass'd the whole Winter in his Louvre hearkning to Propositions of Peace but making however preparations for War employing his Intelligences to disunite the Huguenots and above all to regulate and meliorate his Finances As to the Peace while he was yet before Dourlens Villeroy on his behalf and John Richardot on the Arch-Dukes conferr'd together upon the Frontiers of Picardy and Artois and had agreed together that both Kings should send their Deputies to Vervins where the Popes Legat was to be present in quality of Mediator Year of our Lord 1598 Both were equally inclined to it upon different Considerations Henry IV. after so many satigues and pains earnestly desired to enjoy his repose and apprehended lest month January by the continuation of a War Fortune should shew him such another slippery trick as the surpisal of Amiens that some new Faction should start up within his Kingdom amongst the Grandees or the Huguenots or even in his own House because he had no Children As for King Philip he found himself even dying and saw his Son both weak and unexperienc'd so that they were both resolved to proceed with more sincerity then is wont to be practised on such occasions The King for this purpose named Pompone de Bellievre and Bruslard de Sillery both Counsellors of State and the latter also a President in Parliament The Arch-Duke having powers from the King of Spain who had contrived it thus that so if his Deputies must give place the shame would be the less to him made choice of John Richardot President of the Catholick Kings Council in the Low-Countries John Baptist Tassis Knight of the Order of St. James and Louis Verreiken Audiencier Prime Secretary and Treasurer of the Council of State Year of our Lord 1598
during which time might bring forth some favourable occasion to change the Scene or turn the Tide another way But this Dame as crafty as themselves made no great haste to serve them but on the contrary would let them know her intercession only could save them When therefore the Dutchess of Mercoeur presented her self one Morning at the Gates of Anger 's she was rudely turned back and forced to retire to Pont de Ce but when her Pride thus humbled had taught her to refer her self wholly to the will of the fair Dame she was the very same day sent for and the King soon moved with the Tears of that obliging Sex and very ready to grant what his Mistress requested allowed the Duke an Edict almost as honourable as he could have expected when his power was greatest For having taken care in the Preface of it to excuse him though after his Reconciliation with the Pope nay even after the coming of the Legat into France he had not submitted to him supposing he acted in that manner for some reasons that respected the preservation of Bretagne which must have run the hazard of being invaded by Strangers whilst the Forces of France were employ'd upon the Frontiers of Picardy He declared That he held him and all those that had follow'd his Party for good and faithful Subjects restored them to their Estates and Commands Revoked all Judgments given against them Confirmed all such as had been made by the Members of Parliament and Presidial Courts of that Party Year of our Lord 1598 Moreover he gave the Duke Two hundred thirty six thousand Crowns Reparations month April for his Warlike Expences and Seventeen thousand Crowns Pension Besides this a permission to sell of the Corn that was in store to the value of Fifty thousand Crowns The keeping of the Castles of Guingamp Montemort and Lamballe Pass-ports for the Spaniards who lay in the River of Nantes to retire and power to keep the Places and Forces he then had till a Month after the Verification of this Edict Not to mention several other the like Conditions as those granted in the Edict for the Duke of Mayenne The Price of so honourable a Treaty was his Daughter whom the King in few days betrothed to his Son Caesar He had legitimated and enriched him with the Dutchy of Vendosine to be by him held with the same Rights and Advantages as the preceding Dukes had enjoy'd and with a promise to give him within four years wherewith to redeem all its Lands that had been alienated Which the Parliament verified without drawing any consequence for such other Lands as were of the Kings Patrimony which by the Laws of the Kingdom were re-united to the Crown from the moment he attained it The Treaty made the Duke of Mercoeur came to Anger 's to salute the King who received him as his Sons Father in Law The Contract for this future Marriage was sealed in the Castle belonging to the said Town and the Fiancailles or Betrothings were celebrated in the same place with as much Pomp as if he had been a Son of France The Cardinal de Joyeuse not disdaining to perform the Ceremony From Anger 's the King descended to Nantes and from thence went to Renes where the Estates of Bretagne were held He fojourned about two Months in those two Cities employing that time in putting every thing in good order for the quiet and security of the Province and collecting Twelve hundred thousand Crowns the greatest part whereof was given him by the Estates of that Country Whilst he was at Nantes he finished the business of the Huguenots Their Deputies being come to him at Blois he made them follow him thither and had put them off till after his Treaty with the Duke of Mercoeur That Treaty being perfected he would yet have made some further delay but they press'd it so home that he could scarce find any reasonable Excuse And besides he apprehended lest their despair should in the end put them upon some undertaking that might retard the Peace with Spain and give the Leaguers a plausible pretence to re-unite and take up Arms again This Consideration above any thing else obliged him to grant them the Edict which from the name of that Town is called the Edict of Nantes Year of our Lord 1598 It contains Ninety two Articles which are almost the same as those in the foregoing Edicts granted to them but it is more advantageous in that it opens them a Door to Offices of Judicature and Finance There were added fifty six other Articles which are called Secret the most important being that which left them several Places of Security besides all those they already held This Edict is that Safe-guard under which they have lived to this very hour in security and quiet and freely enjoy'd the Exercise of their Religion The King durst not send it to the Parliament to be verified till the Legat were out of the Kingdom so that it came not thither till the following year They labour'd incessantly at Vervins about the Peace the French did not insist so much now on Cambray although they had not yet passed by that Article The Arch-Duke impatient to consummate his Marriage with the Infanta Clara-Eugenia hastned as much as possible he could the grave pace of the Spaniard and obliged his Deputies to step over many trivial things Had it not been for the Allies of France the Treaty had been finished in less then three weeks The King demanded a two Months Cessation of Arms for them that they might send their Ambassadors the Spaniards refused it absolutely and upon this Contest the violent Spirits belonging to eithers Court the chief Commanders of their Armies and those that desired troubled Waters did not fail to press for a Rupture with all their might and interest but it availed nothing the two Princes were of a contrary disposition In the mean time the English Ambassadors arrived at Court which as then was at Nantes they did not shew themselves much averse to the Peace for the difficulties did not concern them but the States from whom they had Orders not to separate Now those would have none at all knowing too well the Peace could not be made without some prejudice to their liberty for which they had fought almost thirty years and without which they neither valued their Estates nor Lives chusing rather therefore to hazard all then to lose the Recompence of so much Labour Blood and Treasure One thing besides confirmed them yet more in this generous Resolution which was a Dispatch they intercepted coming from the King of Spain which gave his Deputies Order not to comprise them unless upon Condition to restore the Roman Religion over all their Country to reduce it to an absolute Obedience and fill up all Offices with Catholick Magistrates Year of our Lord 1598 Whereupon there were no Efforts no Offers but they made to the King to persuade month April him to continue
kindled in the Kings Breast This she did so well second on her part that in fine by her betwitching innocency and modesty and by her inviting denials she engaged him to give his promise he would Marry her if within that year she brought him a Son Upon this assurance and after a shower of Gold worth a hundred thousand Crowns he had his full liberty He soon after gratified her with the Lands of Verneuil and the Title of Marchioness We do not know whether for his honour we should believe he did intend to make good his word but Sillery and the Cardinal d'Ossat went so far on with their Treaty for Mary de Medicis that they put it beyond his power to recall it He therefore Year of our Lord 1599 month November sent Alincour Son of Villeroy to Rome under colour of returning thanks to the Pope for the justice he had done him concerning the business of his Marriage with Queen Margaret and to acquaint him with that he desired to Contract in the House of Medicis After this Complement he intreated his Holiness to vouchsafe that Sillery and he might go to Florence to see the Princess and Negotiate that Affair which was much more advanced then they discover'd to him It is incredible how much the Marchioness of Verneuil was vexed and afflicted to see her self fallen from the fairest hopes of a Crown yet she dissembled it and hid her trouble under the borrowed countenance of content but the Count d'Auvergne her half Brother as much out of the Malignity of his Nature as Resentment sought to revenge this injury and joyned with the Malecontents we have before mentioned These together conspir'd to coop the King up in a Prison to rob him of his Crown and give it to some other Prince of the Blood Many have been of opinion the Duke of Savoy had a hand in the contrivance or that at least having some hint of it he had undertaken to come into France to try what advantage he might be able to reap thereby What ever design he had he descended along the Rhosne by Boat to Lyons and then from Rouane to Orleance In this last place he was received by the Duke of Nemours upon his way betwixt that and Fontainebleau by the Mareschal de Biron and two Leagues nearer by the Duke of Montpensier At Pluviers he took Post a little month December after mid-night with seventy Horses in company and arrived at Fontainebleau the Fourteenth of December about eight in the Morning where he found the King just ready to mount his Horse to have gone and met him After he had entertain'd him there for six days together with the Divertisements of Hunting Gaming and Promenades he took him to Paris upon the One and twentieth of the Month. He offer'd him an Apartment in the Louvre but the Duke giving him thanks went and lodged at the Hostel de Nevers Year of our Lord 1600 There is no Art no Wyle of the ablest Politicks or experienc'd Courtiers but he made use of to succeed in his design and this may be affirm'd that if the end did not month January answer his desires yet his Conduct surpass'd his Reputation He made Court to the King with great Complaisance but without the least servility for he accompanied his Respects with a becoming liberty and the Submissions or Condescentions he tendred were of such a sort as did no way eclipse his Quality One might observe a more then ordinary grace and grandeur in all his actions He express'd a great esteem and kindness for all the Grandees of the Kingdom gave a civil and obliging Reception Year of our Lord 1600 to all the Kings Officers entertained the Ladies with much wit and gallantry and month January shewed every where a Royal liberality In his New-years-Gifts especially he made this Characteristique Vertue of a Prince most plainly appear he bestowed rich Presents on the whole Court who by the Kings permission accepted of them and after so wonderful a profusion which seemed to have exhausted all his Coffers they were amazed to see him at a Ball he made cover'd all over with Jewels valued at above Six hundred thousand Crowns With all this he gained nothing of the King Upon the very first Discourse he held with him he found what condition his hopes were in In the beginning he endeavour'd to lay open his Soul that he might gain some affiance and after he had with much eloquence made all imaginable protestations of service and adherence intreating him to receive both himself and Children into his protection he fell a complaining of the Spaniards then propounded the Conquest of Milan and of the Empire and to make discovery of the Friends the Intelligence and the Means he had for that purpose We may believe his Tongue was then guided by his Heart for he was much picqued with the little regard the Spaniards had for his Interest at Vervins and besides his Wife Sister to Philip III. which was the only Link had ty'd him to that Crown died the foregoing year However it were the King heard him attentively and gave him thanks for his good will but after all told him the restitution of the Marquisate ought to precede all those designs and that they would consider the other Affairs when once this point was over Each time the Duke renew'd the charge he was repulsed in the same manner This inflexibility so he called it put him into amazement and despair yet on his Face appeared no symptomes but of inward satisfaction as the King likewise on his part continuing the civilities he owed his Guest took care he should be diverted the most agreeably they possibly could All the Grandees had the Bouquet to treat him each in his turn and amongst the Singularities of France the King led him to his Parliament and to a hearing in the Grand Chambre where a Cause upon a most extraordinary Subject was pleaded which gave full scope to the Clients Advocates to exercise their Eloquence as also to the Kings his name being Lewis Servin After the Pleading was over the First President treated the two Princes most Magnificently at his own House Notwithstanding these demonstrations of a seeming amity their humours as different Year of our Lord 1600 as their Interests maintained the discord of their minds and so increased it month January that either of them sometimes let fall words mingled with discontent and bitterness One day the Ambassador of Spain came to the Duke and openly hit him in the teeth with a most bloody reproach saying the King had assured him he was come purposely into France to persuade him to make a War upon Spain The Duke was offended in the highest degree with the King but not daring to question him designed to revenge himself upon the Mareschal de Biron who as yet passed for his Favourite Being therefore one day a Hunting he takes the Mareschal aside and begins to complain of the King in very sharp
of the King as likewise many of the Princesses and greatest Ladies of the Court to keep her Company After the Consummation of the Marriage which was performed the very same day of his Arrival the City of Lyons honoured the Queen with the Pomp of a Magnificent Entrance Afterwards the Nuptial Ceremonies were celebrated the Seventeenth of December in the great Church there by the Cardinal month Decemb. Aldobrandin Whom which we mention en Passant the King permitted to exercise the Functions of Legate in his Kingdom though his Faculties were not verified in Parliament The Treaty of Peace which had been begun at Chambery was continued at Lyons between Sillery and Janin on the King's part and Arconnas and des Alymes on the Dukes The Legate contributing his Mediation and care to advance it obtained a Suspension of Arms from the King for a Months time while they were in Treaty The Pope and the Spaniards did above all things dread the French should have the Marquisat and the Duke had likewise a great deal of interest not to suffer it because by this means they would have had footing in the midst of his Estates and have held him as it were continually blocked up in Turin It was therefore not very difficult to make him offer Bresse in exchange The French withall demanding Eight hundred thousand Crowns for the Expences of Year of our Lord 1600 the War the Legate obliged the Deputies of Savoy to add for that consideration Bugey and Valromey and then also the Bailliwick of Geix that they might have Cental Demont and Rocque-Sparviere for the King affirmed that those places were not of the Marquisat of Salusses but of the County of Provence The Chancellor and Villeroy had positively promised the Legat that none of the places taken from the Duke should be demolished and he had sent such word to the Pope To the prejudice of this Promise Rosny had blown up the Fortress of Sainct Catherine by Mines and the Inhabitants of Geneva failed not to demolish it Hearing this News when they were ready to Sign he was so offended that he ceased intermedling any further with the Treaty and openly declared that he revoked all he had said Arconnas and des Alymes did not so hastily press him to undertake the Business anew as judging the Citadel of Bourg was yet in a condition to hold out a long time and in the mean while their Duke together with the Spanish Army would make some great Attempt to put in Relief The Besieged suffered very much already most of them having for at least a Month past fed upon nothing but Dogs and Horses During the Suspension the King had allowed they should be furnished with a Hundred Loaves a day and some Bottles of Wine But with these refreshments they convey'd in a Report that their Deputies abusing of their faithful Constancy did not hasten to conclude the Treaty but trusted more to what they could yet suffer then they did Commiserate them for what they had suffer'd already The Besieged thought this so great a Truth that they sent a Ticket to those Deputies Signed by Bouvens and all their Officers to declare they could not hold above two days more and that they should make their account accordingly The Necessity was not so pressing as they pretended However the Deputies took so hot an Alarm that they immediately besought the Legate to renew the Treaty He would do nothing in it till they had given him a Declaration in Writing Year of our Lord 1601 that it was upon their request and that they would Sign all he had agreed to month January They had received Letters indeed from the Duke of the Eight of January which enjoyned them to Sign when the Legate commanded it But when all was concluded they excused themselves by reason three days afterwards another Express was come which order'd them to defer it till the Duke had confer'd with the Count de Fuentes They ought no doubt to have follow'd the last Instructions and yet the Legate who found all the pains he had taken likely to be lost and himself like to receive a sensible Affront employ'd Arguments Intreaties and Artifice to persuade them that they were bound to follow the first The Spanish Ambassadour joyned his instances to the Legates and the Necessity of their Master's Affairs pressed them also for they believed the Citadel of Bourg to be lost Yet could they find no way to reconcile the breach of this last Order with their Duty the Patriarch found out one which was that the Legate should give them a Promise month January under his hand To make the Duke approve of the Treaty to free them from his Indignation and to warrant their Persons Declaring that what they had done was out of the respect due to his Authority and because of the rank he held in Christendom Upon the assurance of this Writing they Signed the Treaty the Seventeenth of January but to say the truth this was no reason to the Duke it was rather an offence to own the Commands of any but himself Therefore the Negociation being ended Arconnas was received by him with extream coldness Des Alymes fearing something worse durst not go to Court but set himself upon making his Apology and understanding it had but the more exasperated the Duke he changed his Soveraign and retired to the Country bearing his own Name called Bugey The Duke and the Count de Fuentes deferr'd for some time to ratifie the Treaty the Duke because he was willing that to oblige him to it King Philip his Brother in Law should have recompenced him for the inequality of an exchange which he pretended to be very disadvantageous to himself The second because he ardently desired a War hating the King's Person and vainly promising himself he should find the Fortune de la guerre as favourable in those Parts as formerly in Picardy The Legate who was then gone to Avignon took such an Alarm upon their refusal that he rode away Post to find the Count at Milan and e're he went dispatched a Gentleman to the King to desire he would harbour no distrust concerning his making good the Treaty and to prolong the Suspension of Arms for Year of our Lord 1600 Fifteen days more The Duke of Savoy made them wait yet Seven or Eight days e're he came to Milan and the Count being of intelligence with him refused to Sign before that Prince had done so But when King Philip had signified his Pleasure and the Legate by a wyle of an Italian Breed and Air had reproached him that he alone hindred the Duke from Signing had picqued him with Honor and obliged him to decipher the whole Secret between him and the Duke he could delay it no farther And besides the Duke having sent a Messenger expresly to Bourg with a Token which was the one half of a broken piece of Gold to know the condition of the place upon pretence of going there to Surrender it found
Prevost des Marchands and the Eschevins went a good way into the Fauxbourg to receive him and made him a Harangue the Governess replied to it In the Month of April a difference arose which was like to have embroiled all month April Provence between the Archbishop of Aix Paul Huraud de l'Hospital and the Parliament A Priest had forced a little Boy of Six or Seven years old the Parents giving information the Arch-bishops Official or Chancellor order'd that the Parties should proceed before him but upon the Parents appeal the Parliament ordained one of the King's Judges should have the hearing of it In fine month April the Priest by Sentence was Condemned to such Death as his Abomination deserved Before Execution the Parliament summon'd the Archbishop to degrade him but as in Provence the Ecclesiasticks were wont to enjoy the same Privileges and Franchises as those of Italy enjoy'd the Archbishop complaining they had infringed the Liberties of the Church excommunicated all such Councellors as had been assisting in this Prosecution forbid any within his Diocess to administer the Sacrament to them and sent a Brief to all the Churches containing their several Names This Scandal was the greater as hapning to be near the time of Easter The Parliament offended with this proceeding cited the Archbishop and upon default of Appearance declared his Brief calumnuous and his Excommunication null and abusive ordained he should take it off and enter the same in the Court Register or upon Record within three days in default whereof he should pay Ten thousand Crowns fine In the mean time the Archbishop was obstinate to persist and the Parliament to compel him the People were divided into two Parties and grew hot even to the danger of some great Commotion Nevertheless the Parliament having order'd a seizure of the Archbishop's Temporal Estate the only Bridle for the Clergy when they more value their Revenues than either their Duty or their Dignity he soon complied took off his Excommunication month May. purely and simply and sent to his Diocesans to receive those Judges to the Communion whom he had deprived Year of our Lord 1602 The following year in the Month of March almost the like Scandal hapned at month March Bourdeaux The Archbishop who was the Cardinal de Sourdis a hot-brained man had demolished an Altar in the Church Saint André his Cathedral without communicating it to the Chapter The Canons endeavouring to Rebuild it were drove away somewhat too rudely by his People The Parliament took the Cause in hand and upon their Complaint put the Mason in Prison who had pull'd down the Altar The Cardinal breaks the Prison doors and takes him thence Some days after the Parliament assisted by the Jurats who came with a strong hand caused the Altar to be Rebuilt The Cardinal was so enraged that the Sunday following being informed the first President by Name Godfrey Malloüin Sessac and the President Verdun were hearing Mass in the Church of Sainct Project he went thither with his Archiepiscopal Crosier and the Holy Sacrament and there Excommunicated them by Bell Book and Candle The Parliament in great wrath for the injury done to all their Body by this affront to their Head made a Decree which enjoyned him to revoke his Censures and to cause the same to be published in the same Church upon the Penalty of Four thousand Crowns Fine forbidding all Bishops to use the like for the future to any Judges for doing their Office upon Pain of Ten thousand Crowns The King having received the Complaints of either Parties brought the Business before himself and there kept it to allay the heats on either hand There were divers Reglements published this year necessary to discharge the King's Debts and make the Money circulate Amongst others the Suppression of the Triennals created upon necessity of the Siege of Amiens and their Reimbursement by the Ancient and Alternatives They did however reserve those of the Espargne Parties Casuelles Extraordinaries for War and some others The Prohibition against Transporting Gold or Silver out of the Kingdom or exposing any more Foreign Coin except Pistols and Reals of Spain Another forbidding the wearing of Gold or Silver upon their Cloaths or to squander away that precious Metal in guilding The King authorized this last by his own Example and look'd very sowrely upon a Prince who presumed to appear before him with that Gawdry This Reformation did much discountenance the Gossips and Year of our Lord 1601 Gallants and was reckoned one of the Publick Grievances by that sort of Cattle who have no other Perfections but what they borrow from the Lace-man ✚ and the Taylor The most Universal cause of all the Disorders and Corruptions sprang from Luxury the extraordinary Taxes first brought forth and Nursed this proud and dainty Monster tho'to say truth both of them were as yet but in the Cradle The Contractors and Exchequer-men having abundance of Money which for the most part cost them but the dash of a Pen did lay it out in all manner of Vanity And most of the Gentlemen who were picked to equal those foolish Expences did by over-swelling and strutting burst themselves like the Frog in the Fable Then when they were so ruined and had nothing left to sell but their Honour they Married with those Fellows Daughters to get great Portions which they could not have met with in Houses of Repute or Quality not considering that from such corrupted Blood nothing but a corrupt and vicious generation ☜ could proceed It was therefore become most necessary to repress the insolency of these Robbers and their Pillage or unlawful Gains that caused it The King for that purpose establish'd a Royal Chamber composed of Judges of known and approved integrity selected from amongst the Masters of Requests belonging to his Parliament and the Cour des Aides of Paris The People who are easily fed with vain hopes imagined that the Gallows would soon do them Justice upon those Robbers under the specious title of Officers and that their Spoil would be restored at least in part to such as had been fleeced by them but by vertue of great Presents and Intrigues they found out able Mediators for some of the greatest Lords many fair Ladies together with the Ministers of the King's Pleasures attaqu'd the Clemency of that good Prince with so many Engines and Importunities that he admitted those Rascals to Composition after the Chamber or Court had sat till the year 1604. and so punish'd them only in their Purses and that but very lightly Thus the Publick far from receiving that Satisfaction they so justly expected had the displeasure to find this Inspection served only to secure that booty to them who had so unmercifully rifled the Kingdom Nor could they distinguish the Innocent few as they were from the Guilty since not the most wicked but the more weak were the most roughly handled The Adventures of a Man who said he was Sebastian King of Portugal
in revoked and converted it into a moderate Subsidy For Imposts though they be Year of our Lord 1602 abolished like Wounds do ever leave some cicatrice and ill-favour'd Scar behind them Whil'st the King was in Poitou the Parliament the Chambers assembled after a Mercuriale and chiefly at the instance of the President Seguier seconded by the Examiners ordained that all Advocates or Attorneys pursuant to the 161 Article of the Estates at Blois should at the end of all their Briefs or Writings put down the particulars of all they had received for their Fees and give a Certificate of what they had gained from their Clients for their Pleadings He made this Decree the Thirteenth of May upon the desire the King had to reform the gross Abuses in Law-States and upon Complaint made to him by the Duke de Piney of an Advocate that had demanded Fifteen hundred Crowns of him to Plead one Cause The Advocates refusing to obey there was a second which enjoyned those that would not Plead to make such Declaration to the Register after which they were forbidden to exercise their Profession upon peine de faux i. e. Loss of Life and Estate month May. The Morrow after this had been pronounced in full Court they all went by two and two out of the Chamber of Consultations to the Number of 307. and going to the Registers laid down their Caps and declared that they obey'd The Palace or Court was dumb for Eight or Nine days Some of the Courtiers persuaded the King to leave them in that humor which they would have been weary of â—ooner than himself But having Business of much greater weight than this and the Brouillery beginning to look like a Commotion he would needs determine it and caused an Order to be dispatched which restored the Advocates to their Function and commanded them to return to the Bar and obey the first Article Which was only for the Formality For the Judges themselves who made it wink'd at it and let it fall to nothing It was with much reason suspected that the Commotions in Guyenne were a Train leading to those other Mynes contrived by the Mareschal de Biron and it looked as if at the same instant that he was to spring them the Spaniards were prepared to give the Assault and enter upon the Kingdom For they had raised a numerous Army by Land which was kept upon the Frontiers and were fitting another for Sea under the Command of Juan de Cardonna They gave out that the first was to be sent into Flanders and the second to execute some Enterprize upon Algiers by the assistance of the King of Fez But it was apprehended rather to be designed against Burgundy and to surprize some Sea-port Town in Provence The Spaniard shewed plainly enough by his Treatment of Alexander Caretta Marquiss de Final who was comprised in the Number of the King's Allies that he cared not over-much to observe the Treaty of Verwins for Fuentes seized upon Final having paid the Garrison of that place for Ten or twelve Musters that were due to them The very Old-Age of that poor Lord who was near upon Fourscore and his being destitute of Children gave him the Confidence to make this Vsurpation for which the good Man never had any other Satisfaction but only I know not what Pension allow'd him in the Kingdom of Naples The fear of some terrible Event keeping the King in perpetual alarms he came back from Poitou to Fontainebleau that he might search into the bottom of the Conspiracy believing that if once it were but laid open it would not be so month May. dangerous And therefore he would needs at what rate soever have Laffin be brought before him who was privy to the whole Secret We have told you what cause of discontent this man had against Biron It is conjectur'd he had given notice to the King of all his Practises for a long while before this time at least it is most certain he had thoughts of doing so and of providing himself with Evidence to verifie his Accusation And this they ground it upon Biron had with his own hand written a Project of the Conspiracy Laffin perswaded him it was dangerous to keep it by him and that he needed but to have a Copy Biron gives it him to Transcribe in his presence When he had done so he rowls up the Original between his hands like a ball and cast it into the Fire but Biron not minding it further the negligence of a great Lord he craftily draws it out agen and puts it into his Pocket So that some will needs believe this man over-whelm'd with Debts Year of our Lord 1602 Crimes and other Misfortunes soothed the passionate Mareschal in his Designs on purpose to make a fortune by betraying his Secrets and that if he would he might easily have prevailed with him to lay them all aside especially after the Queen was deliver'd of a Son For amongst the Letters the Mareschal had written to him there was one that said That since God had bestowed a Daufin upon the King he would think no more of his former Follies and pray'd him to return When Biron understood Laffin was press'd upon by the King to go to Court he sent a Gentleman to put him in mind of his Oathes to let him consider he had his Life and Honor in his hands to intreat him above all things to burn all his Letters and Papers and to rid himself of a certain Curate whom they had employ'd in some ill-favour'd Business Laffin being come to Fountainebleau revealed all to the King gave him all the Letters and Papers and named the Conspirators to him amongst whom he involved so many Persons of Quality even Rosny that the King amazed at the greatness of the Peril was for some time in much doubt whom to confide in His secret Council thought convenient to dissemble in respect of many of the accused and indeed there lay no other proof against them but the Depositions of Laffin It had been the ready way to have set all France on a flame should they have fallen upon so many great ones at once it was safer much to allow them time to repent than to have put them to the necessity of seeking their particular safety in a desperate general Rebellion And therefore 〈◊〉 all the Letters Laffin produc'd they publish'd none but those which made mention of Biron only month May. there were Five and twenty of them The King gave them into the Custody of the Chancellour who for fear they should be lost sowed them within the lining of his Doublet All this was done before the King went to Poitiers During his Voyage Peter Fougeu Descures and then the President Janin being sent into Burgundy labour'd to dispose Biron to come to Court His Conscience his Friends those Prognostications wherein he put much confidence divers ominous Presages the pressing haste of those that would have him go dissuaded him On the
they treat the good Catholicks After his Confinement unless at those times when he fell into perfect raving his mouth was ever full of Reproaches Imprecations and Rodomontado's Year of our Lord 1602 When they came to interrogate him he disown'd the Project then owned it without any necessity denied and then confessed divers Facts and upon this so ticklish an occasion whereas the wisest speak but by Monosyllables he launched into tedious Discourses and thereby often and very much entangled himself As to the Witnesses he reproached them not till after he had heard their Depositions though he had been fore-warn'd that if he had any thing to object it must be before-hand Thus he owned Laffin for an Honest man and his good month June Friend Then when they had read what he deposed he Curs'd him as the worst of all Mankind a Sorcerer a Traytor and a Sodomite Had he said this in due time it might in some measure have weakned his Evidence He said that if Renazé had been alive he could have testified the contrary and justified him he did not imagine he was so near at hand and was much amazed when they read his Deposition and brought him to confront him This fellow had made his escape from the Prison at Quiers with his Keepers so opportunely one would have guess'd the Duke of Savoy was of Intelligence with the King The Witnesses alone Convicted him for most of his Writings were dated month July before the Pardon the King had granted him at Lyons All things being ready they led him to the Parliament to give Judgment He was convey'd thither by Boat with a strong guard The Chambers were assembled the Chancellour presided not one of the Dukes or Pairs were there although they had been summon'd in due form He defended himself somewhat better there than he had done before his Commissioners They gave him full liberty and time to Plead and this time he did Plead as he had often Fought that is he did wonders All the strength of his defence consisted in an endeavour to make it out that the Will without any Effect or a Design without an Overt act was not punishable that his Services ought to over-poise and excuse some transports of passionate and indecent words and thoughts that had no farther consequence And above all he laid his main stress upon this that the King had Pardon'd him in the Cordeliers at Lyons To these Reasons and Arguments he added so lively a Representation of his brave deeds and so many Motives for Compassion that he drew Tears from the Eyes of some of his Judges and if they had at that instant given their Opinions perhaps he might have found some mercy but they having then not time enough to take all their Votes the Business was deferr'd till Monday in the mean while he was remanded to the Bastille On Monday while the Judges were in Consultation an Order was brought them under the Great Seal whereby he revoked the Pardon he had given him by word of mouth at Lyons Some of his Ministers finding the Prisoner stood so much upon that and apprehending his fury if he should escape prevailed with the King to make the said Revocation though it were a thing altogether unnecessary and somewhat contrary to his Natural Clemency The Judges as one Man gave all their Votes for his Death They declared him Convicted of High-Treason for Conspiracies against the Person of the King Designs upon the State and Treaties with the Enemies and Condemned him to have his Head cut off in the Greve his Estate confiscate to the King the Dutchy of Biron to be Extinguish't and those Lands and others if he had any which were held of the King reunited to the Crown The Sentence being brought to the King he put off the Execution till the next day and changed the place from the Greve to that of month July the Court in the Bastille Which to his Friends was interpreted as a Favour though it was purely an effect of the fear they had of some Commotion not so much amongst the common People as the Soldiery who loved him most entirely Upon Tuesday the last day of July about Noon the Chancellour with some Councellors of State and of the Parliament went to the Bastille to put the Sentence in Execution So soon as Biron saw him he cried out he was a Dead man and asked if there were no Pardon The extravagancies and the transports he shewed in this last Scene where his Courage ought to have shew'd its force if he had had any demonstrates enough that some who dare venture into dangers with Bravery because they have a prospect of overcoming have not the resolution to stare Death in the face when there 's no possibility of escaping The Year of our Lord 1602 Chancellour having given Order they should lead him to the Chappel he gave ☜ himself up to Cries to Complaints and to Reproaches protested his Innocency summon'd the Chancellour to appear at the Bar of Almighty God accused the King of Ingratitude and Injustice After he had thus spit all his fire and venom he fell into the other extreme his too great love of life flatt'ring him yet with a faint beam of Hope made him beseech his Judges to intercede once more for him and made him even beg the favour of Rosâ—y though he esteemed him his most mortal Enemy Then when he found they all were deaf and dumb to his requests he fell into more fury than before They had at first no little trouble to bring him to that condition a Criminal should be in to hear his Sentence pronounced yet he heard it patiently enough excepting those words which accused him of having Conspired against the Person of the King this he could not endure but cried out That was False and he persisted to his very death that he was innocent as to that point It was a mighty laborious task the Doctors had to prepare and dispose him to his Death he had scarce any settled intervals They thought fit not to tye him lest that should put him out of all his Senses When they led him to the Scaffold the sight of the Executioner put him into a new rage He would not let him touch him nor tye a Handkerchief over his Eyes he bound it on himself and then unbound it again two or three times At last the Executioner took his time and blow so dexterously as made his Head fly off at one stroke As it was full of Fire and Spirits it was observed to make two Rebounds and cast forth a much greater quantity of Blood than came from the whole trove of his Body His Corps month July was interred in the Church of Sainct Paul with a marvellous Confluence of People who flocked thither from all Parts and served for his Funeral train He was of a middle Stature and for Corpulence gross enough had black Hair beginning to turn grey his Physiognomy cloudy and ominous his Conversation rough
his Eyes sunk inwards his Head little and no doubt ill furnished with Brains his extravagant Designs his giddy Conduct and the foolish Passion he had for gaming losing in one year above Five hundred thousand Crowns were infallible marks of it The King bestowed the Government of Burgundy on the Daufin and the Lieutenancy on Bellegarde during his Minority The Death of Biron put out all the remaining Sparkles of the Conspiracy if any were yet alive his Friends and Relations bemoaned his Death but durst not murmur his Confederates knowing he had said nothing against them and being certain they had not written any thing for amongst his Papers they found no Letters but his own reassured themselves and that more especially because the King made as if he had no knowledge of their Practises the King of Spain nor Duke of Savoy dared not make any attempt now whose Ambassadors were not the last that Congratulated the King for his having detected this Conspiracy He let them understand he very well knew their evil Disposition towards him but yet assured them he would not break the Peace but he denied to grant Passage by this Bridge de Gresin to their Milan Forces before he had thorowly inform'd himself of all this grand Affair Their Design as they gave out was to pass into Flanders nevertheless he suspected they were brought thither only to favour the Enterprize of the Mareschal de Biron and apprehended when he was first taken lest they should have exasperated his Confederates by despair Upon this consideration and to keep Burgundy in obedience he had sent thither the Mareschal de Lavardin with some Forces So that those who held the Castles of Dijon and Aussonne after they had used threatnings four or five days talked no more but of submitting when they perceived him in a condition to force them The Fidelity no less than the Courage of this Lord was well known to the King upon many Trials therefore for some time past he had taken delight in bestowing the Noblest employments upon him to eclipse the glory of Biron month July Edme de Malain Baron de Lux Lieutenant in the Government of this Province acquainted with the utmost Practises of the Conspiracy was so wise and fortunate as not to lose himself He trusted to the Mercy of the King came to him and disclosed all Wherefore he Pardon'd him without any reservation passed his Oblivion in the Parliament of Paris and in the Parliament of Burgundy and left him in his Command Year of our Lord 1602 The Baron de Fontenelles of the House of Beaumanoir and René de Marcc-Monibarot month August and Septemb. Governor of Renes were apprehended as Confederates with Biron The Grand Council having a Commission to try the first condemned him to be Drawn on a Hurdle to the Greve and there to be Broken alive upon the Wheel and sent two or three of his People to the Gallows The Cruelties this Gentleman had committed in Bretagne during the Leagne and the obstinacy he had shewed for that Party did not a little help to aggravate his Punishment On the contrary the Services which Montbarot had done the King in that same Province did much contribute towards his justification The Count d'Auvergne remained but Two Months in the Bastille after the Death of Biron the King set him at Liberty and also received him into his Favour He had a Powerful Intercessor month October in his Sister the Marchioness of Verneüil and moreover he owned all he knew The Mareschal de Bouillon thought it more safe to be at large and to justifie himself at distance He consider'd that Rosny jealous of the too great credit he had amongst the Huguenots did him ill offices at Court and he had reason had he been never so innocent to apprehend the Indignation of the King because at Poitiers that Prince having told him of his Practices he retorted again too confidently and in such a manner as is justly accounted Criminal towards a Soveraign Thus far from coming upon the King's Commands he went and presented himself at the Cambre my-Partie of Castres offering to justifie himself there for he pretended they were his Natural Judges because his Vicounty of Turenne is within the Jurisdiction of the Parliament of Toulouze whereof the Chamber of Castres is a Member How-ever it were he drew from them an Act of Comparition for which the King was very angry with them Passing by Montpellier he engaged the Reformed Churches of Languedoc to write in favour of him to the King then finding no place of Security in France he went to Geneva and from thence into Germany where having perswaded the Protestant month October Princes of his Innocency and craved the intercession of Queen Elizabeth he gave his Enemies more cause to animate the King against him Towards the end of this year the King discover'd how the Prince of Joinwille month December had suffer'd himself to be circumvented by the Spaniards and negociated some Contract or Colligation with them by means of Philip d'Anglure Guyonvelle a Lord Franc-Comtois He caused him therefore to be apprehended but when he found there was more of Puerility and Wantonness than Malice in his Transactions he would not put the young Prince in Prison he only put him into the Custody of the Duke of Guise his eldest Brother that he might teach him more Wit Amidst so many Inquietudes and Alarms the Court tasted some little joy at the reception they made for the Swiss and Grison Ambassadors who came to Paris to Swear their renewed Alliance with the Crown They were in number Forty two Sagner Advoyé of Berne was their Orator They arrived at Paris the Fourteenth of October and stay'd there Thirteen days The manner of their Reception their Lodging the Feasts that were made for them the Ceremonies they used at their Swearing the Alliance in the Church of Nostre-Dame which was performed the Two and twentieth of October the Presents which the King bestow'd on each of them were just the very same things as we have seen these latter years upon the like occasion and are withal more proper to fill up a Ceremonial than a History But it is remarkable that at the Treat was given them in the Archbishoprick after they had taken the Oaths the King who had dined apart came into the Hall where they were sitting accompanied by the Cardinals de Joyeuse and de Gondy and some other Lords and presenting himself at the end of the Table without sitting nor yet suffering any of them to rise drank to the health of his Comperes or Gossips and obliged the two Cardinals to do the like The Ambassadours received this Honor bare-headed and Pledged him in the same manner About four or five days afterwards they took leave of him having obtained Three things which they earnestly desired The First for the whole Body of the Cantons viz. A Confirmation of the Privileges that had been granted to them in France Of
the other two the one was for the Protestant Cantons and imported That they should not be obliged to serve against those of their own Religion The other for the little Cantons allowing them to continue their Alliance with Milan and Savoy provided it were not Prejudicial to that which they had newly made with the King Year of our Lord 1602 An Edict which the Chancellour had minuted against Duels was not yet Published The King receiving every day Complaints how the most generous Blood of his Nobility idle and punctillious was shed in these Combats thought himself obliged to put that Curb upon so Tragical a Fury The Edict was Published in the Month of June It forbad all the King's Subjects from making any Duels or Challenges as well within as out of the Kingdom under pain of the Punishment inflicted for High-Treason viz. Death and Confiscation as well for the Seconds as for the principal Parties concerned Ordained that Process should be made to the memory of those that should happen to be Slain in those Combats Enjoyned the Connestable and Mareschals of France to cause such to be brought before them as had any month June quarrel and to order Reparations for the Injury to which the Parties were to acquiesce otherwise to incur the uttermost Displeasure of the King and to be Banished both from the Court and the Province Complaint was made that Strangers melted down the Gold and Silver and carried it out of France and that the manner of counting by Crowns encreased Luxury because it cost no more to say Crowns than Livers Upon this pretence some of the Council by Motives not well understood persuaded the King to raise the price of Moneys so that the Gold Grown which was at Sixty Sols was raised in value to Sixty and five the Franc's which were worth Twenty Sols to One and twenty and four Deniers the quart d'Escus of Fifteen Sols mounted to Sixteen and the Testons of Fourteen and a half to Fifteen and a half It was likewise ordained That from that time forward they should account by Livers as was used before the year 1578. when King Henry III ordained they should reckon by Crowns Those who had given this advice desiring to have it Authorized the King sent for the Chief of the Four Soveraign Companies of the Chambers des Monoyes and the principal Bourgeois and Merchants to come to the Louvre to have their Opinions All excepting those of the Monoyes found great inconveniencies in the said Change or Alteration Nevertheless those that had given that Council persuaded the King to pass by all those Reasons to the contrary and to force the Parliament by divers express Commands to verifie it without having any regard to the Remonstrances made by them whom they would not allow to speak but only to deliver what they did object in Writing The Preparation made by the Duke of Savoy was for an Attempt upon Geneva Albigny his Lieutenant General on this side the Alps and Governor of Savoy had the first Conceptions of it Bernoliere Governor of Bonne perfected the Design The first chose Twelve hundred Men to execute the same on the Night of the Two and twentieth of December led them to the foot of the Wall between month Decemb. the Porte-Neuve and that of la Monnoye made them plant their Ladders which were of a marvellous Structure and saw Three hundred Soldiers get up well Armed and provided with good Hatchets Pincers and Hammers this was about two hours after Midnight Bernoliere who managed the whole Design having surprized the Sentinel forced the Word from him then kill'd him and stood in his place he did the same to the next that came the Rounds but imprudently suffer'd a Boy that carried the Lauthorn to escape The Lad ran to give the Alarm to the Court of Guard and the whole Town who but for this had remained in a profound quiet resting upon the Faith of their first Syndic of the Guard named Blondel who was afterwards proved to be of intelligence with the Undertakers They had designed not to stir till just at break of day but now finding they were discover'd they resolved to begin the Execution They therefore divided themselves into two Parties went to gain the one the Porte-Neuve or New-Gate and the other that of the Tartaise and of these last part of them believing the Town was already their own broke into the Houses and fell a Plundring The first did Petard the inward Gate but it hapned that the Petard was not in a readiness to break open the second that soon after their Petardier or Gunner was Slain and a Burgher cut the Rope which held the Port-Cullis and made it slide down Then was the time they should have made use of their Hatchets But their Astonishment made them forget they had any such Instruments In the mean time the Inhabitants having taken up their Arms and gotten into a Body came to attaque them The Savoisiens who were gone to the Tartaise Gate rejoyn with those at the New-Gate This Gate is taken and retaken Year of our Lord 1602 three several times Bernoliere is laid dead upon the spot these that were without do not succour them as they ought to have done by giving hot and false Alarms at the other Gates In fine their great Numbers over-whelm the Savoisiens about some Fifty of them are cut off the rest run to their Ladders the Cannon from an opposite Bastion had batter'd them in pieces they leap from top to bottom of the Fossez where most of them are knock'd on the Head and even many of those that had not been within the City Attignac and the other Chiefs to the number of Thirteen defend themselves so valiantly they obtain a Capitulation with their Swords in hand But as you shall find their valour reserved them but to a more ignoble Fate The Duke of Savoy believed the Success so certain that he parted from Turin four dayes before and was come to Pont d'Estrambieres which is within a League of Geneva We may guess what his displeasure was when upon his Arrival he heard Albigny Sounding a Retreat Wherefore he returned the very next day over the Mountains in post-haste leaving his Forces in the Countries of Foucigny Chablais and Ternier and sent dispatches to the Neighbouring Princes especially to the Swiss to justifie his Action He had three colours for it The First That Geneva was not comprised in the Treaty of Vervins Neither was it indeed expressed by Name but the King maintain'd that it was included under the Name of the Allies of the Swiss The Second That the Inhabitants of Geneva refused to Pay him the Duties and Imposts for what they possessed in some Parts of the Countries subject to him and this was true The Third That Lesdeguieres had contrived a Design to seize upon their City and that he only endeavour'd to prevent him as being more equitable it should fall into the hands of their Natural
notwithstanding of the Duke D'Espernon who feigned to be very well satisfied though he fore-saw he should have no power in those parts so long as the King lived Ever since the Kings absolution at the Court of Rome the Jesuits had missed no opportunity of employing the Popes intercession with all their art and industry to sollicite their re-establishment pretending it was one of the secret conditions which had been opposed at his absolution But the imprudent conduct of some of their Society in England at Venice and in the lesser Cantons of Swizzerland having brought complaints against them to Rome the Pope grew somewhat cold in the pursuâ—e of it Now as the King was passing by Verdun the Year of our Lord 1603 Rector and Fathers of the Colledge in that City incouraged by la Varenne presented themselves to request of him that the Decree of the Parliament of Paris which forbid the French to send any of their Children to study in the Jesuits Colledges might not extend to theirs The King having returned them a very Gracious Answer they thought it a fit time to try a little further Their Provincial named Armand and three or four of his came to Mets and chusing the week of the Passion of our Lord most proper to stir up mercy and compassion in a Christian Soul got into the Kings Closset upon Holy-Thursday after noon and fell down at his feet The good Prince soon raized them agen and gave them a full Audience The Provincial who was Spokes-man insinuates himself by extolling of his Victories and his Clemency then endeavour'd to justifie his Society from the common reproaches of their Enemies and afterwards concluded by conjuring and imploring his Royal Clemency by the precious Blood of Jesus Christ to shew mercy towards them and to do it in such sort that this favour might depend on nothing but his own goodness that it might be wholly from him alone and that they might have no obligation but to himself They had put down their harangue in writing after he had heard it with all possible humanity he took it out of their hands as if to read it with more attention The Monday following having called them a second time into his Closet he gave them his positive word for their being restored commanded the Provincial to come to him at Paris and to bring Father Cotton then embraced him and all his Compagnons in token he freely forgave them for the time past and would make use of them for the time to come While he was at Mets he received some Letters the Prince Palatine had written in favour of the Duke of Bouillon his Brother in Law In the same place some German Princes came to Compliment him particularly Maurice Landgrave of Hesse N. de Bavaria Duke of Newburg the Duke of Deux-Ponts of the same House and John George of Brandenburg who disputed the Bishoprick of Strasburg with Charles Cardinal of Lorrain ever since the year 1592. the first having been Elected by the Protestants at Strasburgh and the second by the Catholicks at Saverne The Emperor had often endeavour'd to bring them to an agreement but could never effect it The King rather suspended then decided the controversy by sharing the Revenue between the two Contenders but the following year it was absolutely and finally determined by the mediation of Frederick Duke of Wirtemberg upon these conditions amongst many others That John George of Brandenburg should entirely yield up the Bishoprick to the Cardinal de Lorrain for an hundred and thirty thousand Crowns of Gold ready Money and that the City and Baillywike of Oberâ—agh should remain in the hands of Frederic redeemable at the end of thirty years by the Cardinal or his Successors for the sum of four hundred thousand Crowns From Mets the King went to Nancy to visit the Dutchess of Bar his Sister and to give her the satisfaction of seeing a Balet danced which was of her own invention for such things are not to be counted the least important Affairs of the Court It was likewise as some would have it further to convince the Duke of Bar of his scruples concerning that Marriage and to let him know that the devoir of Man towards his Wife being founded both on a natural and a divine right ought to be more regarded then humane prohibitions However it was within some few Months after the Dutchess believed she was with Child The King had designed a longer stay upon those Frontiers that he might draw the German Princes to him by making himself a friendly Mediator of their differences reconciling as much as possible the Protestants with the Catholicks re-uniting in one common League those that apprehended they might be oppressed month April by the grandeur of the House of Austria and scattering Money amongst the Captains and Officers But the News he received that Elizabeth Queen of England was at the Agony made him suddenly leave that place to return to Paris This Princess so much exalted by the Protestants and made so black by the zealous Catholicks was in truth worthy of immortal praise for the grandeur of her courage her marvellous prudence the rare qualities of her mind and above all that tender love ☞ wherewith she cherished her people a vertue which may well cover all the other Vices in a Soveraign but her reputation will be for ever stained with the Blood of a Queen her Cousin which she spilt upon a Scaffold and with that of a great number of Catholicks her Subjects whom she exposed to cruel deaths This severity notwithstanding proceeded Year of our Lord 1603 not so much from her own temper as the Instances of her Counsellors Who by reason of the frequent Conspiracies hatched by an indiscreet and unwarrantable zeal month April against her person had specious opportunities to involve the innocent with the guilty and to encrease her hatred to that Religion by the hainousness of those attempts She died the fourth of April about four in the morning Aged sixty nine years and six months of which She had Reigned forty five and more On her Death-Bed she gave Letters written with her own hands and sealed with her own Seal to Robert Cecil High Treasurer and Secretary with Command he should open them so soon as she expir'd Now whether by these writings she had declared James Steward King of Scotland her Successor or had left the liberty of Election to her Subjects as the last mark of her affection the Lords the Bishops those of the Privy-Council to the late Queen with a great number of the Nobility and the Major and Sheriffs of London being on the same day assembled early in the Morning at the Guild-Hall Elected that Prince for their King and so speedily that they Proclaimed him by eight of the Clock whereof sending him notice to Edinburg he came to London the seventeenth day of May. It concerned France to take care in time to secure the Alliance with this new King for that hitherto
of particulars without designing or indeed daring to fall upon the whole Body of them The Duke de la Trimouille was he who discovering himself with most Confidence rendred himself the most Criminal not so much by Actions as by his Discourses His Strength lay in Poitou where he had his Estate and Friends The King to destroy his Credit and his Intelligences thought fit to give the Government to Rosny And to this effect knowing that Malicorne and the Mareschal de Laverdin who had the Reversion the one after the other were content month Novemb. to part with it and that they even offer'd it him for some of his Children he gave them Twenty thousand Crowns reward that he might bestow it on his Super-Intendant A little while before about the beginning of October the Huguenots had held a month October Synod at Gap in Daufiné where they made several Reiglements for their Ecclesiastical Discipline Amongst others That the Word of God should be the sole foundation of their Theology and their Sermons That those Scholastick Disputes wont to be used in their Synods should be sent back to their Schools That they should have no Effigies upon their Tombs nor Coats of Arms or Escutions in their Temples They likewise ordained many things for the maintenance and good order of their Colleges and Academies and for the instituting of Seminaries and Libraries in each Province One of their main ends was to conciliate the Lutherans with the Zuinglians and Calvinists for the first were a more bitter Enemy to these than to the Catholicks themselves they invited therefore some Doctors of the Palatinat who were Calvinists and some others from divers Parts of Germany who were Lutherans month Novemb. to come thither After they had heard them all they thought there could be no better way to suppress and silence the Discords between them than by turning the Heat and Hatred of both Parties against the Pope whom they knew to be their common Foe With this Prospect the more Factious caused it to be decreed that from thenceforward it should be one Article of Faith amongst them That the Pope was the Anti-Christ and in that quality should be inserted in their Confession which should be sent and recommended to all the Protestant Churches in Christendom The Minister Ferrier possessed with an impious and turbulent Ambition was chief Promoter of it The more Prudent amongst them even the great Scaliger condemned this Decree as the monstrous Product of a violent Cabal and acknowledged that the Name of Anti-Christ could no way be suteable or appropriate to Clement VIII who was very moderate towards those of their Religion The Pope's Nuncio and the whole Clergy of France were moved and provoked at it as became them and carried their Complaints to the King who thought himself more concerned and affronted yet than they as by consequence reproaching him that he worshipped the Beast and which was more cut him out very dangerous work at Rome He therefore made use of all his Authority and all the interest he had in those of greatest Credit amongst the Huguenot Party to get them to abolish the said Decree But not being able to persuade them to annul it he did however so order things that it remained unexecuted and only in the Heads of those that forged it Four years after viz. in Anno 1607. the Factious brought it again above-board and got it confirmed in their Assembly at Rochell And for the second time also he hindred the effect of it After his Voyage of Mets the Jesuits earnestly sollicited to be recalled they had grand intrigues at Court they had very potent friends there who urged that none but they were capable to instruct youth and to convert the Huguenots Year of our Lord 1603 Father Cotton who never forsook the Court but preached there with great applause summon'd the King day by day to make good his promise the Nuncio press'd him on behalf of his Holiness Villeroy and Sillery joyned their good Offices but their most prevalent Sollicitor was William Fouquet la Varenne Comptroller General of the Post-Office who from the meanest imployments of the Kings House had raised himself to the Cabinet or Closet by those complaisances and Ministeries which are the most agreeable to the great ones This dextrous Courtier had a huge fancy to enrich and illustrate la Flesche the place of his Nativity and whereof the King had given him the Government he had already set up a Presidial an Election and a Salt-work all of a new Creation the Crown of his desires was now to see a Colledge of Jesuits Established there to this end the King had given him his Palace had assigned eleven thousand Crowns of Revenue and vast Sums of ready Money to build and to maintain it and gave order that his heart and that of his Queen and of all his Successors should be buried in their Church there When his intentions on this Subject were made known there was not one in all the Council that durst open his lips against it He therefore gave them an Edict for their re-establishment Which confirmed them in those Houses from whence they had not been expell'd restored them to those of Lyons and Dijon and to all that belonged to them yet not without several conditions very necessary but which time or favour have easily abolished month September October and November This Edict being not brought to the Parliament till some few dayes before the vacations which begin on the eighth of September the Company put off the business till after Sainct Martins day that it might be considered at more leisure The Chambers Assembled ordered to make most humble remonstrances to the King to let him know the justice and necessity of that Decree or Act by which they had banished the Society The Month of December being pass'd whilst they were drawing it up André Huraud de Maisse who had a Vote in Parliament month Decemb. went thither from the King to hasten them and to let them understand he would have them to do it by word of Mouth and not in Writing contrary to what he had desired of them in the Money-business Upon Christmas Eve the Deputies being admitted into the Kings Closet Achilles de Harlay first President spake for them The weight of his reasons supported by the dignity of so grave a Magistrate and with the force of his Eloquence were enough to have convinced the King had he not been absolutely fixed in his resolution but as he gave Audience to those Gentlemen only to make the Restoration of the Society the more authentique he was not at all moved After his giving thanks to the Members of Parliament with his accustomed benignity for the care they shewed of the common good and for the security of his person he replied that he had well foreseen and considered all those objections and inconveniencies which they laid before him but that they must trust him with the care of providing against those
Surrender till they had no more Earth left to cover themselves When the Spaniards were come in and found the Walls beaten quite down by the Cannon the Earth all torn up with their Mines and nothing remaining but Rubbish and Ruine they were but little satisfied for having bought so dear a little heap of Dust and Sand or rather a place of Burial which cost them above Ten Millions of Money Seventy thousand Men and Three hundred thousand Cannon-Shot not reck'ning the Cities of Rhimbergue Grave Sluce Ardembourg with the Forts of Issendre and Cadsant taken by Count Maurice whil'st they were pelting at this Siege In these times there hapned a not able Change in the Kingdom of Sweden The King Gustavus Eric-son had set up the Confession of Ausburg in the place of the Catholick Religion and bred his two Sons in that Profession namely John who succeeded him and Charles Duke of Sudermania John maintained the same yet notwithstanding whether he were not fully satisfied or were over-persuaded by his Wife Year of our Lord From the year 1602. until the year 1604. who was a Catholick he cansed Sigismond his Eldest Son to be bred up in that Religion Besides this Sigismond he had also another Son named John Sigismond was Elected King of Poland in the year 1587. during the Life of his Father and went into that Country the Second remained in Sweden Now when King John died in Anno 1592. he by Will either real or supposed left the Government of the Kingdom of Sweden to his Brother Charles this Prince making good use of the Assistance of the Lutherans to Exclude his Nephew and get into the Throne himself managed his Design so Prudently that he had the Government of the said Kingdom settled upon him by the Estates Anno 1595. and afterwards obliged them to take the Crown from the Sigismonds Anno 1599. And in fine after a War of some years to place it upon his Head Which was done this year 1604. Sigismond not being ever able to wrest it from him again so that after his Death it descended to the Great Gustavus his Son and to his Heirs Year of our Lord 1605 During the Balls and Mascarades which since the Peace ever began the year month January and February they went on with the Process against the Count d'Auvergne and his Complices with the more diligence because the Queen seemed to be a Party the King not to exasperate her shewed no less heat then she and the Parliament made all the dispatch they possibly could But the intentions of all three were very different for the Queens were to chastize a Mistress of the Kings that hereafter such as succeeded might dread her anger as for the Parliament such as minded Courtship more then to unriddle the hearts of Kings thought they did great service by proceeding with all severity and as for the King he had no mind to disgrace his Mistress for fear of distasting those by whom he expected to be obliged he only desired a thundring Arrest or Decree might pull down that haughty spirit and make her readily submit who of late treated him like a meer stranger and to his enjoyment opposed the fear of God and the prohibitions of her Confessor The Count d'Auvergne was Examined three times the King having given notice to the Parliament by his Attorney-General that they ought to have no regard to his pardon nor that Brevet he had granted him Entragues the Marchioness his Daughter and Morgan were likewise interrogated the Count laid all upon the Marchioness his Sister believing the King could never find in his heart to ruine her he cast all the reproaches on her he possibly could express and she upon him Entragues on the contrary did wholly acquit her and took all upon himself chusing rather to hazard three or four years of a languishing remainder of life for he was above seventy three years of age then to put his dear Daughter in danger of losing her head with ignominy The business was carried on with such heat that the first day of February there was an Arrest or Act which condemned the Count Entragues and month February Morgan to be beheaded in Greve and the Marchioness to be reclused in a Nunnery at Beaumont near Tours till more ample Information concerning her The Queen received much joy yet reaped not all the advantage she expected from this grand Arrest for the King acquainted the Court by his procurer or Sollicitor General that he desired the Sentence might be suspended till he had made a more narrow inspection When therefore he had humbled the haughty Marchioness by so terrible a Decree he began to show favour that he might obtain some from her and caused an instrument to be passed under the Great Seal which was verified in Parliament the three and twentieth of March giving her liberty to month March retire to her house of Vernueil After all this there were some people in Parliament so unacquainted with intrigues of this nature that they importun'd him for leave to pronounce Judgment but he eluded their pursuits by divers delays and at length by other instruments commuted the punishment of the Count and of Entragues to a perpetual imprisonment and then restored them to all their honours and estates though not to their month Septemb. Offices and Commands Soon after he allotted Entragues his house of Malesherbes for his Prison and as for Morgan he only banished him the Kingdom for ever Seven Months being pass'd and no new proofs coming in against the Marchioness for indeed who could have taken the pains to produce any the King gave her a Writing of the sixteenth of December which declared her perfectly innocent and imposed perpetual silence on his Sollicitor General touching that Fact The Count d'Auvergne being the most dangerous was therefore handled the worst they left him in the Bastille where he remained twelve years without any other consolation then what he received from good and ingenious Books the faithful compagnons for all Ages fortunes and places During these amorous intrigues which were managed as grand Affairs of State the King began to engage in affection with Jaquelina de Bueil whom he made Countess of Moret yet nevertheless he soon after recalled the Marchioness whose charming humour and conversation ever seasoned with pleasant railleries and picquant reflexions upon the other Court Ladies did most agreeably divert his mind from the too intense thoughts of his Affairs and vexations caused by the ill humors of his Wife but on the other hand it begot new Brouilleries every hour with her as also frequent punctillio's between the other Lords and Ladies of this Court a Subject much more worthy and fit for a Romance then such a Chronicle but which have occasion'd the most considerable Events in the Court of France since the Reign of Francis I. Year of our Lord 1605 As to the business of Ladies I must note that Queen Margaret having often earnestly desired permission to come
Parliament were Assembled and so blow up the King with all his Lords and Commons there attending One of the Conspirators could not forbear writing a Letter to a Gentleman his Friend but in a Counterfeit hand and without any Name conjuring him not to meet there in Parliament for some days This Gentleman Communicates his notice to a couple of the Lords belonging to the Privy Council who made their Report of it to the King thereby to discharge their Duty They took it to be a piece of Raillery on purpose to affright and scoff at them but the King was not of their Opinion and judged by the terms of the Letter which said That it should be a terrible Blow and the Danger past as soon as you can burn this Letter that this must be some Execution by Fire It was therefore thought necessary to search into all the Cellars and the neighbouring Houses the first time nothing was discover'd but the great quantity of Woods and Coals giving some suspition they returned agen the second time this was the Night preceding the Day the Parliament was to Assemble viz. the Fifth day of November They then perceived one of Percy 's Men at the Door named Faukes he had been observed there before and his Countenance was now Agast they seized him therefore and finding him provided with Match to give fire to the Train he boldly owned the Design The Conspirators who were retired into the Country till the Fougade had taken Effect hearing it was discover'd dispersed several ways to draw their Friends together and make the People rise but they were so roughly handled that some were slain others taken and the rest in great Numbers forced to quit the Kingdom Most of these last got over to Calais where the King had Year of our Lord 1606 commanded the Governor to give them shelter those that governed his Conscience month January having first persuaded him it was a meer Persecution contrived by the Ministers of State against those of the Catholick Religion The last day of January Eight of the Chief Conspirators suffer'd in London the Punishment inflicted on such as are found Guilty of High-Treason Not one of them accused the Priests or Friers being bound not to discover them by terrible Oaths yet King James caused diligent Search to be made for them especially the Jesuits Two of those Fathers had made their Escape viz. month January February c. Garnet and Hall with a Boy that served them to the Castle called Abington belonging to a Gentleman the People hid them in the Tunnel of a Chimney and fed them with Broath convey'd to them by a long Pipe But the Searchers having turned out all the Domesticks of the Family and left a strong Guard Year of our Lord 1606 there the poor wretches were fain to produce themselves They were brought to London the Boy whether in dispair or for fear he should by force oftortures discover his Masters Secrets ript open his own Belly with a Knife whereof he died before he could be examined King James was persuaded that Garnet knew every particular of the Plot as being an intimate Confident of Catesby's but would not put him to the month February c. Rack for he had rather his Confession should be free and voluntary than have the reproach of being extorted for Compulsion would have rendred it suspected He therefore made use of Moderation and Craft instead of Severities and the Rack They allowed him much liberty in Prison and suborn'd a Fellow who feigning himself a Catholick spake so much till he made him both speak and write They permitted him to converse even with his Compagnon Hall and from their Discourse which was over-heard by two Witnesses who lay conceal'd they got full proof for his Condemnation He died as a Martyr notwithstanding and passed for such in the opinion of the English Catholicks His Apologist writing also four years after affirm'd that a Gentleman who was present at his Death desiring to have of his Reliques having month May. gather'd up some few Straws which he saw stained with his Gore found Garnet's Picture traced in lines of Blood upon one of them which was at that time kept by a Lady as a most precious and wonderful Relique The Pope fully justified himself from the reproach of this horrible attempt and shewed by good literal Proofs that he had forbid the English to maâ—â— use of any such Bloody ways The Jesuits labour'd also on their part to make Father Garnet's innocency appear And King Henry IV. whose honor was much concerned in their Conduct since he had recalled them sent Father Coton to the English Ambassadour to assure him the Society had no hand in that Conspiracy and that if some particular Members of theirs were concerned they disowned and detested them There was however another Jesuit in England named Oldcorne who maintain'd that the said Enterprize was good and laudable and for so doing was Condemned and Executed as Garnet had been Year of our Lord 1605 In France about the end of the fore-going year was discover'd the Treason month December of John d'Alagon de Merargues a Gentleman of Provence but originally by his Ancestors of the Kingdom of Naples whence King René had brought his great great great Grandfather The resemblance of his Surname had infected him with the vanity to believe he was of the House of Arragon and upon that score it came into his head to make himself a Fortune by the Spaniards to deserve which by some Signal action he had undertaken to bring the Spaniards into Marseilles The Office of Procureur Syndic of that Country and his great Alliances by Marriage his Wife being related to the Duke of Montpensier and the House of Joyeuse rendred him very considerable the Command of two Galleys maintained for the King's Service seemed to facilitate the means to make him Master of the Harbour or Port and the Office of Viguier which he was assured of for the next year now at hand gave him great Power over the City He had notwithstanding so few Instruments for so great a Design that he communicated it to a Slave belonging to one of his Galleys whom he would needs employ in it the Slave discover'd it to the Duke of Guise and the Duke of Guise sent notice of it to the Court. Merargues going thither soon after about some Affairs of the Province la Varenne had order to observe him and acquitted himself so well that one evening slipping into his House with a Prevost he surprized him while he was entertaining Bâ—uneau Secretary to the Spanish Ambassadour with his Design They seized upon both and searching them found a Writing tied under Bruneau's Garter which decypher'd the whole Mystery Bruneau was Imprisoned in the Bastille Merargues in the Chastelet and from thence transfer'd to the Conciergerie The Spanish Ambassadour made great noise at the detention of his Secretary he spake of it as a high injury to the Dignity of his Master
an Affront to all Crowned Heads and a violation of the Security due to every Ambassadour month Decemb. Going to the King to redemand himb he was at first but ill received Sometimes he talked high as representing a great Monarch then chang'd his tone into a softer note as knowing his Secretary ran the hazard of being put upon the Rack The King without appearing overmuch concern'd shewed him what Crime his Secretary had committed and made him sensible that such who debauched and Year of our Lord 1606 corrupted his Subjects to commit Treason against his State were those that violated the Rights of People not he who only secur'd a man that had so visibly abused it The Ambassador having no reply to make to so just a reproach fell upon great Complaints and instanced that the King sent Men and Money to maintain the Hollanders and had attempted to stir up the Morisco's in Spain whereof there was proof said he in the Confessions of divers Criminals that had suffer'd Death in those Countries To the first point the King made the same answer he had formerly given upon the same Subject To the second he said it was an Artifice of the Council of Spain who by the extremity of Tortures had forced those Suppositions from the mouths of some unhappy wretches Executed for other Crimes or had thrust them into their forged Wills and Testaments thereby to have matter to recriminate with some appearance of Truth After divers Replications on either part the King assured the Ambassador that his Secretary should have no wrong done to him and that he would send him the whole result of the Process to see whether he would own it or not month Decemb. During all this Month the Entertainment of the Politicians in their Conversations and the subject of their Writings was to discuss to what Latitude this Security of Ambassadors and their Servants did extend and in what cases they ought to be subjected to the justice of that Country wherein they did reside In the mean while the two Prisoners were interrogated the Secretary confessed all and when they had clearly Convicted him and gotten sufficient proof from him to Convict Merargues the King forbad the Parliament to proceed any further with him and some few days after sent him back to the Ambassador with a Copy of the whole Process But as for Merargues they went thorow with him for an Arrest or Sentence of the Nineteenth of the Month made him lose his Head in Greve and Condemned his Body to be cut in four Quarters which they set up over the four principal Gates of Paris and sent his Head to Marseilles to be there planted upon one of their Gates month February Amidst the Divertisements of the Court to whom the Birth of a second Son of France administred new cause of Festivity the King was seriously minded to restore the Duke of Bouillon upon his entire and not conditioned submission It was nigh upon four years he had been out of the Kingdom and by his Apologies Negociations and the intercession of divers Princes of his Religion had contended with the King not as to his Duty which he said he was ever ready to pay but his Innocency and Honor which he was obliged to maintain In effect they could not Convict him of any Conspiracy not even of the last though there was some reason to suspect him guilty of all The King knew he had stopt his ears at the instant Sollicitations of the Spaniards He remembred the eminent Services he had rendred him in his most pressing Necessities and he desired he might do him more yet hereafter in the shock he intended to give the House of Austria On the other hand he well knew that this Mareschal so long as he was absent from Court would ever keep the Huguenot Party in suspition and it somewhat concerned his Honor to make all Europe see they being well informed of this Affair that it was not without good ground he had so used him Now the only way to satisfie together both his Reputation and his Clemency was to engage him to come and crave his Pardon and Surrender his City of Sedan into his hands which he would needs have in his Power at least for some days that the whole world might understand the Mareschal held both his Life and Fortune from his Bounty The Mareschal did at length resolve to acknowledge he had failed he named his faults however Imprudence and Precipitation rather than Infidelity And though he expressed an impatient desire to wait upon the King yet he excused his coming till all those Clouds and Foggs of Crimes wherewith he had been charged were utterly dispersed it being as shameful for a Master to make use of any Servant while under such ill-favour'd Circumstances as for the Servant to have been wanting in his Fidelity due to so great a Monarch He apprehended no hurt from the King but only from the Counsels of Sully for as he believed him his Capital Enemy he imagined he would persuade the King to keep Sedan and that the apparent Benefit of the State would excuse and cover the Venial Sin of breaking his word Year of our Lord 1606 Him whom we have hitherto named Rosny shall be henceforward called the month February Duke of Sully because at the beginning of this year the King honour'd him with the Title of Duke and Pair which he annexed to the Lands of Sully purchased by this Lord since his favour The Letters Patents were sealed the Nineteenth of February and verified the last day of the Month in Parliament whither the new Duke went to be received accompanied as one who had both the King's Treasury and favour to befriend him and invite them The Business was brought to that pass that the King finding himself in Honor absolutely engaged to have Sedan and the Mareschal obstinately bent not to be dis-seized nothing remained but force that could determine the Controversie In the Council Villeroy and Sully were of different Sentiments concerning this Enterprize Sully openly persuaded the King to go in Person to Sedan Villeroy endeavour'd to hinder it but by more private ways To this end he made the difficulties appear very great the Consequences worse the place impregnable the Mareschal's Correspondence both without and within the Kingdom very dangerous He represented how all the Huguenot Party was ready to rise all Germany ready to take up Arms all England to put to Sea to support it that he had numerous Levies in Swisserland and the Low-Countries who would begin their March upon the first beat of Drum But the King slighted all these Apparitions as vain and airy Fantosmes and if month April they had been real Bodies he ought to have hastned to prevent them When he was gotten to Donchery which is within a League of Sedan with his Forces and had himself taken a view of the place the Mareschal who had still kept his Negociation on foot demanded to confer with Villeroy before
Sully arrived It had never been his design to come to the Swords point with his King but only to make use of his Wits and retard his March by suggesting many Dangers and things he neither would or indeed could do On the other hand Villeroy had all the desire imaginable to conclude the Treaty that he might ravish the honour of this Expedition from Sully So that upon the second Conference he had with the Mareschal he brought him to agree To Surrender the Place to the King and to consent that he should keep a Governor and a Garrison there during the space of four years The King on his side fully Pardon'd him for all that he could ever have done or said to that day without any Reservation whereof he caused Letters of Abolition to be expedited and sent them to be verified in Parliament dispensing with his Personal Appearance and many other customary Forms The next day being the last of April the Mareschal relying on the credit of Villeroy and the Protection of the Queen who was willing to gain so knowing and so Potent a Lord came to wait on the King at Donchery in the Morning asked his Pardon and took a new Oath of Fidelity to him The following Thursday month April the Courrier having brought back the Letters of Abolition verified in Parliament the King made his entrance into Sedan and setled Netancourt his Governor there This done he returned to Paris where he would needs be received as Triumphant with the noise of all the Cannon in the Arsenal The Mareschal de Bouillon came soon after and the world much admired to see him the very first day as much in the King's favour and in his most familiar Conversations as he had been before his absenting At the same time the King went to Sedan the most furious Winds that ever yet were heard of agitated the Air and Sea not only in France but also in England the Low-Countries and Germany In the Campagne it forced back not only those that travell'd on foot but even Horses threw several often on the ground put Carts and Coaches to a full stop tore up the strongest Trees by the Roots beat down Towers and Steeples whose Coverings and Walls buried great numbers of People under their ruines At Paris so long as this Tempest lasted which was all Saturday Easter-Sunday and Monday the Tyles Stacks of Chimneys nay the very Rafters of the Houses flew about the Streets and killed or maimed above Seventy Persons This Storm did as it were threaten to tear up the very Foundations of the Earth and force the vast Element of Waters out of its Natural Bed to cause a second deluge after it had caused infinite Shipwracks in the securest Harbours In the Month of June the King coming from Saint Germains to Paris by Coach Year of our Lord 1606 wherein were the Queen his Wife the Princess of Coâ—ty the Duke of Montpensier month June and the Duke of Vendosme and designing to cross the Seine at Port Nully one of his Horses instead of going into the Ferry-boat for as then there was no Bridge stray'd into the Water and drew the Coach after him into a place very deep The Gentlemen that follow'd on Horseback threw themselves instantly into the River and happily saved the King and then all the rest of his Company The Queen was in the greatest Danger la Chasteigneraye drew her forth and for this good Service deserved to be Captain of her Guard some while after The Marchioness de Verneuil as she was wont play'd with her Wit maliciously upon this Adventure and told the King that if she had been there she would have cryed out The Queen Drinks * which re-inflamed the Queens resentments and caused new Picqueerings Queen Catherine de Medicis had given the Counties of Auvergne and of Laraguais to Charles Natural Son of her Son King Charles IX Queen Margaret pretended that she could not do it because that by the Contract of Marriage with Henry II. those Lands had been substituted to the Children that should proceed from it of whom none were remaining but her self month June So that taking advantage of the disgrace of Charles she had waged Law with him to retrieve it and even Six years before the Parliament of Toulouze had pronounced in her favour for the County of Lauraguais This favourable Prejudication and the Juncture of Affairs invited her to bring the like Action before the Parliament of Paris for the County of Auvergne and with the like success for by a Decree in March they adjudged it to her Immediately she made a Present of the said Lands to the Daufin by absolute Deed of Gift executed while living upon condition they should be united to the Crown for ever and not alienated month March but she reserved the Profits to her self which the King purchased by a large Pension The Court enjoying a perfect repose now celebrated the Ceremonial Baptism of the Daufin and the two Daughters of France for the Essential Baptism was administred immediately after their Birth They had made Magnificent Preparations at the Louvre for this Ceremony but the Plague beginning to Infect Paris about the end of June and spreading much in July and August obliged the King to transfer it to Fontainebleau It was there performed upon Holy-Cross Day in the Court de L'Ovale where they erected an Amphitheater as having no place spacious enough within Doors to contain all their Pomp. The Cardinal de Gondy month Septemb. was the Minister they began with the second Daughter who was the youngest of the three Children She was named Catherine and for God-father had the Duke of Lorrain the Dutchess of Tuscany for her Godmother represented by Don John de Medicis The Eldest Daughter had no Godfather only a Godmother who was the Arch-Dutchess Clara Isabella Eugenia Madam d'Angoulesme represented her and gave the Name of Elizabeth to the Child At the Baptism of the Daufin the Cardinal de Joyeuse stood Godfather for Pope Paul V. who for this purpose had declared him Legat in France during three Months The Dutchess of Mantoua Sister to the Queen was Godmother She being invited to come expresly into France the Queen prevailed she might take place of the Princesses of the Blood a Novelty not very pleasing to the French nor to the King himself On the day which preceded that of this Ceremony a light appeared towards the Western Quarter of the Heavens which expanding by little and little cast forth as it were long flashes towards the South and the East with most admirable swiftness After these Fusées which lasted near a quarter of an hour appeared divers Chariots of Fire which seemed to shock one the other and wherein they fancied to discern some appearances of Lances Pikes and Arms which darted them This Spectacle ended not till about Midnight and by a cleer Light which made the whole Hemisphear seem to sparkle then insensibly decay'd in half an hours time But two
days after about the same hour as at first all of a sudden a great Light appeared in the Air towards the West as if to light the Scene and give the Spectators the Pleasure of a Combat wherewith the Demons of the Air if we may believe so would entertain the Court and out-vie their Divertisements For they formed as it were Regiments of Horse and Foot charging with impetuosity some tumbled off their Horses and others trampled underfoot many Musquets and Pistols discharged at each other the Fire and Smoak Year of our Lord 1606 were visible nothing was wanting but the report others laid hands on and grappled together and did not quit their hold till one was overthrown This imaginary Battel lasted above an hour then vanish'd in a moment In the general Abolition or Pardon which the Financiers had been constrain'd to purchase to deliver themselves from the pursuit of the Chamber-Royal the Crime of Forgery had been excepted as it should ever be Some Informers People of no Credit nor Habitation and indeed owning themselves for Counterfeits imagined that this Exception would be of advantage to frighten the said Officers and make them befriend and stand by them in all their villanious Cheats They first felt their Pulses several times thinking to squeeze somewhat from them but they were hugely deceived those Harpies whose greatest pleasure ☞ is in flaying the rest of Mankind stand in less fear of Death and would sooner suffer it themselves than lose one single hair of their head When these Rascals perceived they slighted and scoffed at their menaces they insisted so far on it to the King and promis'd him such Mountains of Gold upon this inspection that he set up a Chamber or Court of Justice to proceed against such as should be accused of Forgery This Court to give the greater terror began with such severity as filled the Houses with Garrisons the Market-places with Gibbets and Effigies and Foreign Countries with Run-aways who went to voluntary Banishment but the most guilty having timely got their Necks out of the Collar and carried subsistence enough along with them to wait till the Torrent were past began to treat at that safe distance and employ'd part of their Spoil and Theft to gain Friends and Protectors who by divers methods allay'd the heat of their Prosecutions and spun things out to great length well knowing the King was soon weary and easily gave over when he once met with the like difficulties Just so did it fall out and when they heard him begin to complain of the great cry and little wool the Queen Mother implored his Mercy for these wretches and at the same time they offer'd to redeem themselves and bid up to Six hundred thousand Crowns The Richer sort advanced the whole Sum but re-imbursed themselves doubly by those Taxes the Court allowed them upon the little ones who had but pilfer'd ☞ In so much as Honest men were of Opinion these greater Sponges ought to have been squeezed again and the Taxers a second time Taxed Before the year ended the Marriage of Eleonora Sister of the young Prince of Conde was compleated with Philip Eldest Son of William Prince of Orange and Earl of Nassaw He was sent Prisoner into Spain by Duke d'Alva in the year 1568. and having remained there divers years recover'd his liberty by renouncing the Protestant Religion In the mean time Blacons a Huguenot Gentleman had got possession of the Government of Orange with design said he to keep it for him and in effect Anno 1599. knowing he was at Genoa with the Arch-Duke Albert and the new Queen of Spain he went thither to carry the Keys of the place to him and invite him to come and take possession as he did yet did he not leave it intirely at his disposal for fear said he lest the Prince being a Catholick should misuse the inhabitants who were not so Now the King in favour of the said Princes Marriage with Eleonora compelled Blacons to restore that Principallity to him and also confirmed its independance by very express Letters Patents Year of our Lord 1607 We have but few things to collect in this year 1607. unless some perhaps desire we should observe that the King pursued his wonted pleasures of Love Gaming and Hunting That he had at certain times his fits of the Gout and observed to dyet himself as he was wont to do every year That upon the Popes request he sent the Order of the Holy-Ghost to Alincourt his Ambassador at Rome to conferr it with all possible Solemnity on Duke Sforza and the Duke de Saint Gemini of the House of the Vrsins dispensing them from the obligation of making proof of their Nobility as the Pope had dispensed him from the Statute of that Order which prohibits the conferring it upon Strangers That he had a Second Son born the Sixteenth of April who bare the Title of Duke of Orleans and dyed four years after before the Ceremonies of Baptisme month May. That in the Month of May a Chiaux brought him a Compliment and Letters from the Grand Signior Mahomet That in the Month of July he re-united all his own particular demeasnes to the Crown of France Year of our Lord 1607 That on the twenty sixth of September a Comet appeared whose long and large Train did point directly to the Sun it being of the magnitude of Jupiter and the colour of Saturn It 's motion at first was so swift as in few days within its own Circle which was very great it ran nine degrees and more this velocity diminishing dayly together with its magnitude it disappeared at the end of October That the grand Master of Maltha sent a Bone of the Foot of Sainct Euphemia Virgin and Martyr to the Doctors of the Sorbonne who otherwhile had chosen her for their Patroness and that the University went in a Body to the Temple where the Ambassador of the Order lodged to receive that Sacred Treasure That as to the concerns of one named la Motthe who was accused of being an accessary in the Murther of Francis de Montmorency Halot committed by the Marquiss d'Allegre at Vernon in the year 1593. and who had obtained Letters of abolition from the King and for his greater Security had lifted up the Shrine of Sanict Romain at Rouen there was great dispute before the Kings Council about this Priviledge by some Advocates of Parliament who to speak truth were but little skill'd in the antiquities of France The Grand Council gave an Act to the Kings Ministers of this opposition that had been made as to the allowance of the said Priviledge and then by a Decree of the six and twentieth of March 1608. having regard to the Kings pardon banish'd the accused for nine years from Court as also from Normandy and Picardy and condemned him to some reparations and to some Amende or Fine The King made likewise this Modification or Proviso in the Priviledge of Sainct Romains for
up that Weed by the roots at its first springing they ought to have held a general one Those are the proper and sovereign Remedies God has left his Church wherewith to extinguish the like flames but often-times humane Policies does not suit with it And in those very days the mistaken interests of Princes and of the Pope himself opposed the common good of the whole Christian Church The Council of France put the Court of Rome into a Fit of Trembling at every mention they made of calling a National Council so greatly did they apprehend the Capacity of the French Divines and the Liberties of the Gallican Church Nor was this one of the least considerations and motives which obliged Pope Paul IV. to recontinue the Council of Trent The Memoires of this Great Council have been collected by several persons and its History written and published by divers Authors but somewhat variously and in many things rather according to their inclinations and their particular engagements then the naked truth Pope Clement VII had been obliged in 1533. to assure the Emperor Charles V. he would convocate one that same year but when he understood how the Protestant Princes very far for submitting to the conditions he desired maintain'd and urged that he ought not to be present at it since he was a party that the controversies were to be judged by the word of God only and that the Laity must have their suffrages as well as the Clergy he made no great haste to forward it and only promised the said Convocation not setting either the time or place Pope Paul III. his Successor indicted it effectually for the two and twentieth of May in the year 1536. at Mantoua from thence because the Duke feared for his City he would have it held at Vincenza in the Territories of the Seigneory of Venice and there to begin in the Month of May of the Year 1538. but the Germans complaining that the said place was too remote from them the Venetians being under some apprehensions of exasperating the Turk who dreaded this grand Assembly and withal but few Bishops appearing there he suspended it for as long time as he pleased Anno 1541 by consent of the Catholicks of Germany who had held a Dyet at Spire he appointed it by a Bull dated the two and twentieth of May to be held the first of November of the same year in the City of Trent and nevertheless all Europe being soon after put into a Confusion with the War between Charles V. and Francis I. he was forced to recall the Legates he had sent thither and to suspend it yet a second time till a more convenient Season which he would declare when he judged fit The Peace was made between the two Kings Anno 1544. In this Treaty some Propositions were hinted about reforming the abuses of the Church of Rome The Pope having notice of it judged it necessary to prevent them and a second time Summoned the Council of Trent for the fifteenth of March of the year 1545. with this precaution however that he gave his Legates order in case any thing were moved against his interest either to dissolve it or to transfer it The Assembly was found to be so thin that he Adjourned the opening of it till the thirteenth of December when the number being little encreased the French Bishops who were but three had thoughts of retiring however they did remain and the Council was open'd Year of our Lord 1546 and 1547. After some Sessions and divers Prorogations during the years 1546 and 47. it hapned that the Emperor gained great advantage over the Protestant Princes of the League of Smalcalde The Legates who knew the intentions of their Master perceived then that it was not for his interest to hold the Council any longer in that place Taking therefore an occasion upon some flying report of the Plagues being gotten into that Vicinage they transferr'd it to Bologna the eight and twentieth of February in the year 1547. not staying to be informed whether the Emperor and the King would approve of it the Spanish Bishops refused to follow them and remained at Trent The same year in the Month of April the Emperor gained a great and entire Year of our Lord 1547 1548. Victory over the same Protestants which contrary to all expectation instead of rejoycing his Holyness who could not have believed this put him into ☞ most terrible apprehensions He sancied already he saw the Emperor pursuing his advantage entring into Italy wresting from him Parma and Piacenza making himself Master of the City of Rome restoring the Imperial dignity there and that which he feared more yet then all this reforming the abuses of his Court according as the Bishops even of his own Territories when they were at the Council had highly declared for in many set Speeches Amidst these Alarms the Holy Father not knowing which way to turn himself did earnestly solicite the King of France to oppose this formidable progress to rally and support the scatter'd remnants of the Protestants and even to call in the assistance of the Turk Thereupon the tenth day of September hapned the death of the Duke of Piacenza his Son his grief for so Tragical an Accident joyned with the terror of the Emperors Victory together with those protestations his Ambassadors made against its Translation were the chief causes he made the said Council to cease Anno 1548. It was interrupted till in the year 1551. the vehement instances of the Emperor and the Catholicks of Germany obliged Pope Julius III. to re-intimate the same at Trent the first day of May of that year and to begin again where they had left off Some Protestant Princes and some certain Cities to comply with the Emperor sent thither their Deputies But soon after the War of Parma broke out and the King being offended that the Pope should League himself against him with the Emperor wrote to the Council by James Amiot Abbey of Bellosane a very disobliging Letter for the Pope and filled with these like protestations That there being no free access at Trent for his Bishops he could not send them thither That he did not hold it for a General Council called to reform Abuses and to restore the Discipline but looked upon them as an Assembly practised by subtil intrigues and for temporal interests That therefore he did not believe himself obliged or bound to their Decrees neither himself nor the Churches of his Kingdom but declared That when ever is were needful he should have recourse to the same means and remedies whereof his Predecessors had made use in the like cases The Pope being soon weary of the War dispatched Legates to the Emperor and to the King to Treat of a Peace The faculties of him that came into France being presented to the Parliament received the same restrictions as had been put to those of the preceeding ones Now the King being well again with the Pope the Council
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
Pope resumed the Purple and assisted cloathed in that manner at the Act of the Majority of the King in the Parliament of Rouen whereat the Pope was so incensed that he publickly pronounced the Sentence and caused it to be affixed in the Markets of Rome and afterwards dispersed all over Europe But as for the Queen of Navarre the Kings Council considering the consequences of suffering a Princess to be dispoyled who was related to the King and that her Husband died fighting in defence of the Catholick Religion that her Case would be a prejudgment against all Crowned Heads and that this Chastisement would turn less to the advantage of Religion then to the profit of the King of Spain who from thence would take an opportunity to invade her Countrey made such effectual Remonstrances to the Pope by the mout h of Henry Clutin-Doysel his Ambassador that the Citation given against this Queen was revoked As for the Bishops the Cardinal de Lorrain having likewise informed the Pope that it was against the Rights and usage of the Gallican Church to suffer their Process to be made at first instance at Rome it stop'd that business for th e present but five years after Pius V. taking advantage of the weakness of the Kingdom to extend his own Authority pronounced a like Sentence against them as that which had been thundred against the Cardinal de Chastillon and caused it to be published in France The Rebellion of the Huguenots produced the Faction of the League the example of their Confederations with Forreign Princes authorised also the measures these took with Spain The proceedings of both Parties were almost the same at first they affected a strict Discipline then after a little while they fell into all manner of Licentiousness Their Pulpiteers and their Libellers were equally insolent and Factious they employed the same Maxims and used the same Language and Arguments against Soveraign Authority which they attacked and for the Liberty of the Subjects and of Conscience to those whom they Debauched In like manner both the one and the other when they found they were in such extremities they could not possibly extricate themselves by ordinary means suborned Assassines to help them out but all who made use of those cursed means perished by a like fate For as Poltrot murther'd Francis Duke of Guise so the Son of that Duke kill'd the Admiral the Quarante-cinq Massacred this Prince at Blois and those whose hands were stained in his Blood did most of them come to a Bloody end the wrath of Heaven punishing the first by the second and these by a third who were so too by others Which had gone on to infinity if the Clemency of King Henry IV. had not put a stop to those Murthers which necessarily trod upon the heels of one another The first Lineaments of the League were traced in Guyenne and in Languedoc during the first Civil War when there was danger lest the Huguenots should make themselves absolute Masters of those two large Provinces In the year 1585. Humieres with the Nobless in his Government of Vermandois formed one at Peronne and Lewis de la Trimouille another in Poitoü The House of Guise labour'd hard to collect and joyn them all together especially after the Death of the Duke of Anjou Not perhaps that those Princes were then pushed on with the ambition of usurping the Crown as they have been accused but because they were so by the Natural desire of self-preservation For the Physicians assuring them that Henry III. could not live long they justly feared when he should be no more to be crushed either by his Favourites betwixt whom he had a mind to share his Kingdom or by the Huguenots whose hatred against their Family could not be satiated with less then the blood of all those Princes therefore it was they so provided and Fore-Arm'd themselves lest they should remain exposed to the Mercy both of the one and the other It is probable the Forces they afterwards got into their hands by the Confluence of such potent Party 's both from within and without the Kingdom might inspire them with thoughts that were both more high and more Criminal though it would be yet a much more easie task to find credible Conjectures then an certai n or convincing Proofs of it The Pope the Sorbonne the Jesuits and almost all the new Religious Orders contributed with all their might to form the League But yet their Credit would never have been sufficient to maintain it if the People had not been so very ill used as they then were and if the burthen of the Imposts the Insolence of the Favourites the Weaknesses and scandalous Manners of Henry III. had not given them both an aversion and contempt for the Government The Duke of Nevers began it out of zeal and then disowned it out of jealousie Father Claude Matthieu a Jesuite was the first Courier for them Gregory XIII fomented it Sixtus V. approved and protected it Some will needs have that the former contributed to the Conspiracy of Salcede as the latter excommunicated the King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé Anno 1585. After the Barricades he wrote to the Duke of Guise comparing him to the Machabees and gave him notice he had Created a Legat a Latere this was John Francis Morosini to whom the Cardinal de Bourbon and himself should communicate all their designs The Death of this Prince murther'd at Blois gave him much Year of our Lord 1588 grief that of the Cardinal de Guise and the detention of the Arch-Bishop of Lyons furnished him with a pretext of revenging it with the Anathemaes of the Church His Monitory against King Henry III. was published the four and twentieth of May affixed in the usual places at Rome the same Day and on the Gates of the Cathedral Churches of Meaux and Chartres the three and twentieth of June If the Relations we have of those times are true this Pope was even transported with joy upon the news he received of the Assassination of the said Prince and highly applauded the act of Jacques Clement in the Consistory comparing it to the most glorious Mysteries of Christianity and to the generosity of the most glorious and Illustrious Martyrs He thought after this change he was bound openly to take in hand the defence of Religion and to hinder Henry IV. from getting into the Throne so long as he remained out of the Church He therefore sent the Cardinal Caetan Legate a Latere to the Duke of Mayenne Upon this occasion the Members of Parliament who were remaining still at Paris and those that had withdrawn themselves to Tours being directly opposite acted after a quite different manner but with alike heat the one for the Pope the others for the King The Sorbon refused nothing to the intreaties of the League and the desires of his Holiness in an Affair that concerned Religion It is not unknown what Year of
had been adjudged to a Lady as being given her in Dower with an express Declaration that after her Decease the Heirs should enjoy it in equal proportions That many Bishopricks were without Bishops and their Goods usurped by prophane Persons that of neer eight hundred Abbeys to which the King named there were not an hundred Titulary or Commendatory Abbeys and that of those the greater part did but only lend their names to others who in effect enjoy'd the Revenue Thus were the Churches without Pastors the Monasteries without Religious Votaries the Votaries without Discipline the Temples and Sacred Places fallen to ruine and converted to Dens of Thieves When the Clergy perceived they were thus left a prey to all the World and that the Licentiousness of a Civil War exposed their Goods to the first occupier the Catholicks falling on them with no less greediness then the Huguenots they endeavour'd to re-unite themselves for their own security and the Bishops were forced to reside in their Bishopricks if not to feed their Flocks yet at least to preserve wherewith to feed themselves Before this necessity they ran from them as dismal Solitudes the divertisements of Paris and Servitude at Court were a more pleasing exercise History observes how Anno 1560. John de Montluc Bishop of Valence speaking his mind freely one day in the Kings Council complained how forty had been seen at once in Paris wallowing in all manner of Debaucheries and Idleness Therefore the Parliament enjoyned them by a Decree to return to their Bishopricks and to perform their Duties otherwise they should be constrained to it by Seizure of their Goods and Equipage But perhaps considering after what way they lived there for the most part their absence might be less scandal to their Flocks then their residence ☜ would have proved In this Age were not made any new Orders of Monks I shall however mention that of the Minimes which began in the precedent Saint Francis a Native of Paolo in Calabria was the Institutor of it and did plant it in France at the time he was called thither by King Lewis XI Pope Sixtus IV. approved it in 1473. And Julius II. Confirmed it in 1506. All those of the Mendicants renewing their Ancient Fervour and Discipline some sooner others later begot divers Reformations That of Saint Francis which hath ever been more abounding than any other in diversity of Habits and Observations of Rules produced three new Branches that of the Capucines that of the Recollects and that of the Piquepusses That of the Augustines did likewise produce one which is the Hermites of Saint Augustine as the Carmelites also produced the Congregation of those named Deschaux I pass by in silence that of the Dominicans or Jacobins Reformed and that of the Augustins deschaussez or Barefooted forasmuch as they belong to the Seventeenth Age. And to speak first of the Recollects we must know that there having been at divers times many different Congregations in the Order of Saint Francis who vaunted each the observing the Rule of their Patriarch in its greatest purity and simplicity Leo X. had ordained that they should all be comprised and reduced into one under the name of the Reformed That notwithstanding there were yet many more of them who affected to be more rigid then the rest and to observe the Rule litterally pursuant to the Declarations of Nicholas III. and Clement V. That in the year 1531. Clement VIII caused certain Convents to be assigned by the Superiors of the Order where they placed those that had the Spirit of Piety and Recollection for which cause they were named Recollects The Cities of Tulle in Limosin and of Murat in Awvergne were the first in France who allowed them any Convents some Religious Friers having brought this Reformation out of Italy about the year 1584. they had one at Paris at present they have in the several parts of the Kingdom neer an Hundred and fifty which are divided into seven Provinces The Original of the Capucins so named from the extraordinary form of their Capuchon or Hood was thus In the year 1525. a Frier Minor Observantin named Matthew de Basci of the Dutchy of Spoleta a Votary in the Convent de Montefalconi affirming that God had commanded him by a Vision to the exercise of a more severe Poverty and that he had shewed him the very manner how St. Francis was cloathed cut out a long pointed Hood or Capuche* and such a Habit as the Capucins now wear and retired himself into Solitude by permission of the Pope Some others prompted by the same Spirit joyned with him to the number of twelve The Duke of Florance gave them a Hermitage in his Territories and so by little and little his band increased to that number that in the year 1528. Pope Clement VII approved this Congregation under the name of Friers Minors Capucines Pope Paul III. confirmed it Anno 1536. with permission to settle in any place and gave them a Vicar General and Officers and Superiors Such as have believed that Bernardinus Ochius who Apostatized and went over into the Camp of the Philistins or Hereticks was the Institutor of so Holy a Congregation were very ill informed perhaps the advantage he had of being once their General and one of the first and most noted of those that embraced this Reformation hath caused the mistake In the Reign of Charles IX they were received into France and had first a Convent at Meudon which the Cardinal de Lorrain caused to be crected for them and another little one in the place called Piquepuz where now are the Religious Pentients of the Tiers or third Order of Saint Francis King Henry III. transferr'd them from that place into a Convent he caused to be Built for them in the Faux-burg Sanct Honoré They have nine Provinces in this Kingdom and above four hundred Convents The Tiers Order of St. Francis named the Penitents were in the beginning only a Congregation of Secular Persons both of the one and the other Sex but some while after they were made regular Now in the following Ages being extreamly relaxed one of the Society named Vincent Massart a Parisian undertook to Reform them about the year 1595. The first Convent of this Reformation was built in the Village of Franconville between Paris and Pontoise and the second in the place called Piquepuz at the end of the Faux-burg Saint Antoine whence the vulgar hath named them * Piquepusses This Order is divided in four Provinces and hath about three-score Convents Pope Eugenius IV. having thought fit to mitigate the Rule of the Carmelites the said mitigation having made them fall into a too great relaxation Saincte Theresia a Nun of this Order in the Convent of Auilla in Castille the place of her Birth brought them again to their former Austerity She began with the Sisters for whom she built a Monastery at Avile Afterwards she undertook to restore the Men likewise
of Luxembourg which was Philip Bishop of Mans one of the House of Longueville i. e. John Bishop of Orleans one of the House of Albret which was Amanjeu Bishop of Lascar one of the House of Gramont who was Bishop of Poitiers then Arch-Bishop of Toulouze named Gabriel one of the House of Strozzi he was called Lawrence Bishop of Beziers one of the House of Joyeuse this was Francis Arch-Bishop of Toulouze he lived in the Reigns of Henry III. and Henry IV. and Strozzi in the time of Charles IX Almost all the rest to the number of near twenty were likewise persons of Quality and attained to this eminent dignity some though but very few by their merit only as John du Bellay Bishop of Paris and George d'Armagnac Son of Peter Baron of Caussade Bastard of Charles last Earl of Armagnac the most part by knowing how to make their Court or because allied to those in favour as Philip de la Chambre Adrian de Goussier Boissy Brother of Arthur Grand Maistre of the Kings Houshold John le Veneur Bishop of Lisieux and Grand Almoner of France James d'Annebault Brother to the Admiral of that name Claude de Longvic Givry Bishop of Poitiers Anthony Sanguin whom they called the Cardinal de Meudon Odet de Chastillon Nephew of the Connestable de Montmorency and George de Amboise second of that name likewise Arch-Bishop of Rouen as his Uncle was As for Peter de Gondy Son of the Mareschal de Rais and Bishop of Paris he was Created Cardinal upon the recommendation of Queen Catherine as also René de Birague a Gentleman of Milan who together with this dignity he had the Office of Chancellor of France There were some others of meaner Birth who arrived at this dignity by means of their employments in the Finances or in the Law as Anthony Duprat John Bertrandi and Philip Babou la Bourdaisiere But it was neither Blood nor favour that cloathed Arnold Dossat and Jacques Davy du Perron with the sacred Purple it was the recompence of their services of their great capacity and of their rare erudition Dossat was but the Son of a Peasant in the Diocess of Auch and du Perron of a Huguenot Minister of the lower Normandy but a Gentleman We have known a Natural Son of the first who died Curate of Mesnil-Aubry within four Leagues of Paris There was likewise a great number of Illustrious Bishops concerning whose promotion one may say the same things as have been hinted of that of the Cardinals I observe at Sisteron Lawrence Bureau an excellent Preacher for those times he had been a Religious Carmelite and Confessor to King Charles VIII and Lewis XII At Treguier John du Calloüet a famous Doctor in the Civil and Canon-Law he died Anno 1504. At Lucon Peter de Sacierge whom Lewis XII made Chancellor and President of Milan At Marceilles Claude de Seissel a Savoyard by Birth whose Writings are very well worthy to be read being every ☜ where inter-spersed with those wholesome Maxims which only can procure immortal Fame to Princes and felicity to their Subjects he was afterwards Arch-Bishop of Turin At Renes Bernard Bochetel who served as Secretary to the Kings Lewis XII and Francis I. but in fine touched with some remorse of Conscience or by some other motive he quitted his Bishoprick whose functions in effect are ☞ not altogether compatible with the employments at Court. In the days of these said Kings I find at Paris then at Sens Stephen Poncher a Tourengeau by Birth who had been President in Parliament Chancellor of Milan and of the Kings Order and Keeper of the Seals of France Under Francis I. at Riez then at Vence and afterwards at Aurenches Robert Cenault at Mascon Peter Castellan Great Almoner of France And at Maguelone William Pelicier These three were raised upon the consideration of their Learning Castellan was he who with Budeus put the brave King Francis upon the design of instituting the Regis Professors at Paris and who chose the first whereof Pelicier was one In the time of Henry II. I find at Lavaur Peter Danez whom Francis I. had called from the University of Bourges where he professed the Greek Tongue to make him Tutor to his Daufin And at Vienne Charles de Marillac who died in the year 1560. for the great fear he had leâ—t the House of Guise against whom he had let his Tongue ramble too freely should draw him within the Noose and Guilt of Heresie or Accuse him of some Conspiracy In the time of Charles IX and Henry III. there was at Mans Charles de Angennes ☞ Ramboüillet in whose praise it is said that during his Nine and twenty years holding that See he never gave one Cure but upon the score of Merit and Integrity having for that purpose made a Register of all those whom he thought most deserving and capable At Nevers Arnold Sorbin who was Surnamed de Sainte Foy because he had been Curate of a Parish so named he passed for a great Divine and a very Eloquent Preacher At Orleans John de Morvillier Native of the City of Blois Queen Catherine made him one of the King's Council where he was ever opposed to the Chancellour de l'Hospital because he aspired to get the Seals as in effect he did At Auxerre James Amiot Native of Melun of very mean Extraction but a man of exquisite Literature Henry II. made him Preceptor to his Children and Abbot of Bellosane afterwards Charles IX one of his Disciples gave him the Bishoprick of Auxerre At Valence John de Montluc who was too wavering in the Faith though very Learned and withal a very dexterous Negociator At Tours Simon de Maille a profound Theologer and well read in the Fathers who was taken out of the Order of the Cistertians where he was Abbot to be promoted to an Archbishoprick At Air Francis de Foix Candale Uncle of the Duke d'Espernon's Wife thorowly versed in Humane Learning in the Philosophy of Trismegistus and of Plato and in Chymistry At Chaalons Pontus de Thiard both Poet and Mathematician a singular Talent who died Aged Fourscore and four years At Evreux Claude de Saintes a vehement Preacher and a Divine of great Reputation and at Senlis William Rose who had likewise made himself very famous by his Sermons These two were Passionate Leaguers Saintes was taken in Louviers with the City by the Royalists Anno 1591. and carried to Caen where he died in Prison having ran great hazard of making his Exit on a Scaffold for his Writing and Preaching against Henry III. Rose had many shocks to undergo likewise after the Decadence of the League but he at length did fortunately extricate himself and exchanged his Bishoprick with him of Auxerre At Clermont was Bishop Anthony de Saint Nectaire who employ'd himself much in the intrigues of Catherine de Medicis And at Sees Peter du Val in whose time the Chanons of his
out the French declaring himself the Soveraign 135 Is Crowned King of Bretagne 136 Over-runs and ransacks Anjou 137 Nera Foulges 204 Neustria and its extent 17 Nicephorous Emperor of the East 107 His death 110 Nicholas Moine or Monk of Soissons contradicted by a Modern Author Church of the Twelfth Age. Nicholas I. Pope Excommunicates a Council of Bishops in France who declare him Excommunicate 141 Annul the second Marriage of Lotaire King of Lorraine with Valdrade and confirm the first with Thietberge ib. Nicholas III. Pope conspires against Charles King of Sicilia 318 His death 319 Nogaret William seizes on the Person of Pope Boniface 332 c. St. Norbert Founder of the Order of Premonstre afterwards Archbishop of Magdeburg Church in the Twelfth Age. Normandy first erected to a Dutchy 163 Ravaged by a Civil War between the Heirs of Henry King of England after his death 170 c. All in Blood and Fire by the quarrels of the particular Lords of the Country 215 Normans course along the Coasts of France 123 Their descents and pillaging of Gascogne and Aquitania Secunda 134 Course along the Coasts of Spain and take Sevill 125 Course along the Coasts of Flanders 129 Land in Neustria and Bretagne 135 Enter upon Neustria again ib. Called Truands 146 Scowre pillage and ravage France 151 c. Besieges the City of Paris 155 Defeated and cut in pieces 157 Whence so great numbers of such barbarous People could come into France 158 Re-enter France by the Mouth of the River Seine 160 Become Masters of that Province called since Normandy and on Bretagne 163 Revolt against their Duke 178 Their name began to grow glorious and powerful in Italy 215 Nantes County Difference between Henry King of England and Conan Count of Renes or of the Lesser Bretagne 247 O. Odo Duke of Burgundy 237 Odo third Duke of Burgundy 248 Reduced to reason 254 Odo I. Abbot of St. Genevieve 278 Office of Constable 295 Officers Princes are responsable for the faults of their Officers 304 Ogine Queen of France 175 Onfroy Chief of the Normans in Italy and of his Conquests 216 Orders Sacred and of such as were admitted during the Eighth Century 115 Orders famous which took beginning during the Eleventh Age. 233 Orders Religious established during the Third Age. 339 Orders Sacred have each their Function 286 Order of Fontevraud and its confirmation 290 Organs when first brought and used in France 93 Oriflame born as a Standar in time of War 244 Ostrogoths over-run and ravage all Italy 217 Otho William chief of the Earls of Burgundy that is to say of the Franche-Comte 209 His death 212 Othelin Earl of Burgundy puts himself under protection of the King of France and gives him his Earldom 324 Othomans or Ottomans and the beginning of their dreadful Family or House 329 Otho King of Germany and Lorrain assists Lewis the Transmarine against his Subjects 179 Otho Duke of Burgundy 184 Otho King of Germany makes himself Master of Italy Is Crowned King of Lombardy afterwards Crowned Emperor 185 Remedies several Commotions in Italy by severe punishments ib. Causes his Son Otho to be Crowned and Associated in the Empire 186 His death 187 Otho II. Emperor and King of Germany 186 Gives Lorraine to his Brother Charles 188 Makes an irruption in France to his confusion ib. His death 189 Otho III. Emperor and King of Germany his death 209 Otho Emperor 263 Is Excommunicated by Pope Innocent 264 P. Paganis Hugh Institutor of the Order of the Templers 275 Pairs of France who were to assist at the Coronation of the Kings reduced to the number of Twelve 240 Paleologus Michael becomes Master of the City of Constantinople 309 Pamiez made a Bishoprick 326 Paris very much consider'd by the Kings of the first Race 31 Paving of its Streets 254 Surrounded with Walls 255 Parliament of Wormes 142 Of Attigny 265 Parliament of Poissy 142 Parliament of Compeigne 184 Parliament of Wormes 152 Parliament of Estampes 217 Parliament of Soissons 266 Parliament of Amiens 309 Pascal Pope Murther committed in his House in hatred of the French His death 124 Paschal II. Pope comes into France and holds a Council at Troyes in Champagne 227 Ill treated by the Emperor 236 Paschal III. Antipope 272 Pastorels Crossed 306 Patarins Hereticks 278 Peasants and Pastorels take up Arms for the recovery of the Holy Land 348 Peace with the Danes 110 With the Saracens of Spain ib. With the Greecks ib. Peace between King Lewis the Transmarine and his Rebellious Subjects 178 Peace between King Lewis the Transmarine and Hugh le Blanc 180 Peace between the two Empires Between the French and the Danes 123 With the Saracens of Spain 123 Peace between King Lothaire and the Emperor Otho II. 188 Peace with the English 236 Penitence publick 274 Penitents publick excluded from Functions Civil Military and from Marriage ib. Pepin Maire of the Palace of Austrasia his death 58 Pepin the Gross or d'Herstal Prince of Austrasia 69 Makes War upon Thierry King of Neustria seizes his Person and the Government of all France ib. Reduceth the Revolted Frisians ib. Assembles a Council 70 Expedition against the Almans 72 Makes an Alliance with Bathod Duke or King of the Frisons ib. His death his Children 78 Pepin the Brief Son of Charles Martel Duke and Prince of the French in Neustria 84 He with his Brother ranges the Dukes of Aquitain who were revolted to reason 86 Pepin called the Brief Elected Annointed and Crowned King of France 90 A generous action that made him more considerable amongst the French Lords of his Court ib. Makes the Saxons Tributaries to France 92 Becomes Protector of the Roman Church against the Lombards Marches into Italy with his Army and compels Astolphus to give up the Exarchat of Ravenna and the Justices of St. Peter 92 93 Receives the Oath of Fidelity of the Duke of Bavaria 94 Forces the Saxons to do the same and to pay him Tribute ib. Subdues all Aquitain in divers and several Expeditions 95 His death his Wives and Children ib. Pepin King of Italy his feats of Arms. 109 Unfortunate Enterprize against the Venetians 110 His death ib. Pepin Son of Lewis the Debonaire is made King of Aquitain 122 Espouses Engheltrude 123 Pepin Son of Bernard King of Italy chief of the first Branch of Vermandois 123 Pepin King of Aquitain 122 He embraces the Cause of the Emperor his Father against his Brother Lothaire then turns against him 126 His death his Wife and his Children 129 Pepin King of Aquitain shaved and confined in a Monastery and afterwards in the Castle of Senlis 137 Perfidiousness of the Emperor against the Christians of the second Croisade to the Holy Land 225 Phenomenas very extraordinary 109 Philip King of France 220 Concerns himself in the Quarrel of the Flemings unsuccessfully 222 Runs into disorders and vexations with his Subjects ib. Is threatned with Excommunication by the Pope ib. Repudiates Berthe his
Armies beyond the Alpes his noble Exploits and glorious Death 550 Francis I. King of France heretofore Duke of Valois 556 Seeks the Alliance and Amity of his Neighbour Princes 527 Passes the Mountains for recovering the Milanois his happy Progress 558 c. Renews the Alliance with Charles of Austria 562 Birth of a Daufin ib. Renews the Alliance also with the English 563 Aspires to the Empire after the Death of Maximilian ib. Is hurt with Jeasting and Sporting 566 Sends an Army into Italy 569 Spaniards enter upon Guienne the English into Picardy 572 575 Drives the Imperialists out of Provence pursues them into Italy and lays Siege to Pavia 578 Is made Prisoner of War before Pavia and transferr'd to Spain 579 Is set at Liberty 582 Unites Bretagne to the Crown 594 Makes an Alliance with Solyman against the Emperour and the Venetians 606 Gives passage thorow France to the Emperour Charles V. to go into Flanders and does him all the Honour imaginable 608 Demands reparation of him for the Murther of two of his Ambassadors declares War against him and does attaque him in five several places 612 Carries his greatest Forces towards the Low-Countries and makes a considerable Progress there 614 Attaques the English in his own Country 619 Joyns in league with the Protestant Princes of Germany 620 His Death his Elogie his Wives and his Children 620 621 G GAbelle taken off from Guienne 640 Galeas John his Death 518 Gaunt Revolt and rising the Gantois 465 Gaston Phebus Earl of Foix makes the King his Heir 373 His Death 413 Gaucourt Lewis Prisoner of War 448 Governor of Daufiné beats the Duke of Savoy and the Prince of Savoy 452 Gentdarmerie reduced all into Companies d'Ordonance 457 Genoa puts its self under the Obedience of the King of France 416 Falls under the Dominion of Fregosa 460 Revolts against the King of France who brings them to reason 543 Is surprized by the Italians 572 Brought again to obey the King 587 Restored to Liberty 590 Geneva Revolt drives out their Bishop and changes their Government and Religion 599 Besieged in vain by the Duke of Savoy ib. Genoese relieved by the French against the Barbarians of Tunis 412 Revolt against France 551 Restored to obedience of the King 552 Gentlemen Pensioners of the King 501 Gonsalvo Ferdinand Great Captain 523 Federic de Gonzague first Duke of Mantoua 580 Ferdinand de Gonzague Governor of Milan 623 Gravelle Chancellour of the Empire 600 Gregory XI Pope restored to the See of Rome 394 His Death 396 Gregory XII Pope of Rome 422 Grignan Governor of Provence 618 The M. du Guast Governor of the Milanese for the Emperour 604 Defeated in Battle makes his Escape to Milan 616 Causes two Ambassadors of France to be killed 612 Guerin Kings Attorney in the Parliament of Provence 629 Gueschin Bertrand defeats the Navarrois 384 Made Prisoner in the Battle of Auroy 385 Brings from Spain the Bastard Henry de Castille against King Peter the Cruel his Brother 387 After is vanquish'd and taken Prisoner ibid. Is recalled from Spain by K. Charles 390 Is made Connestable of France his happy Progress 391 Secures all Bretagne for the King of France 392 His Death 397 c. Guienne is all regained by the French from the English 463 Gueldres Adolf Chief of the Gantois Forces 500 501 Guise the Duke Commands the King's Army in Italy 643 c. Guise Claude Duke at the Battle of Marignan 558 The C. de Guise Governor of Champagne repels the Germans 575 The D. of Guise refreshes with Men and Ammunition the City of Peronne 604 de Gyac 437 Beheaded 450 H. HAbits and their Reformation 386 Hangest de Hugueville 427 Harcourt Geffrey calls the English into Normandy 374 Harcourt Lewis Count Beheaded ib. Harfleur taken by Assault and Sacked by the English 418 Henry of Castille rises against King Henry his Brother to his Confusion 386 Denies his Brother in his turn and seizes on the Crown 387 Defeated again in Battle retires into France ib. He returns into Spain and remains King of Castille by the Death of his Brother 388 Henry of Castille defeats the English in a Sea Fight 391 Henry IV. King of England his Death 431 Henry V. King of England he Besieges and takes Rouen and Masters all Normandy 435 c. Marries Catherine of France 439 His Entry and his Coronation in Paris 440. ib. His Death ib. Henry VI. is Proclaimed and Crowned King of France 454 Marries the Daughter of Renee of Anjou 459 Causes Humphrey Earl of Glocester to be put to Death 460 Is vanquish'd by the Duke of York saves himself in Scotland 467 Is set at Liberty 492 Henry VII King of England His Death 547 Henry VIII King of England sees King Francis I. and they make a League betwixt them 594 Causes his Marriage with Catherine of Arragon to be dissolved and Espouses Anne of Boulen 595 Withdraws himself wholly from the obedience of the Pope and declares himself Head of the Church of England 596 Sollicites the French in vain to break with the Pope 597 His Cruelties draw the hatred of his Subjects upon him 611 Henry II. King of France 622 Seeks the Preservation of the Alliance with the Turks 625 Visits the Provinces of his Kingdom 626 Rupture between his Majesty and Pope Julius III. 630 c. Sollicites Solyman to break the Truce in Hungary ib. Quarrels openly with the Emperor 631 Makes a League with the Princes of Germany 632 Makes divers Edicts to procure and raise Money even on the Churches 632 Seizes upon Lorrain and gets the Cities of Mets Toul and Verdun ib. Takes divers places in Luxemburgh 633 Design against Naples miscarries 634 Great arming to small purpose 636 Ravages Brabant Hainault Cambresis the Country of Namur and Artois 638 Makes Peace with the Spaniard 651 Pursues the Religionaries most curelly 653 His Death and his Children 654 Heresies which appeared during the Fourteenth Age. 445 And infected France in the Fifteenth 527 Hesdin forced demolished and razed by the Imperialists 637 Hesse Landgrave takes the quarrel of the Dukes of Wittemburgh Hungary attaqued and desolated by the Turks 597 Humbert Daufin of Viennois makes a Donation of his Seignory of Daufiné to the King of France 369 Humieres Governor for the King beyond the Mountains 606 John Huss burnt alive 435 I JAcqueline Countess of Hainault Holland Zealand and Frizeland is carried away by the English 440 La Jacquerie 378 La Jaille beaten in Artois 642 Jane Queen of Sicily causes her Husband to be Strangled 368 Jane of Burgundy Queen of France her Death 369 Jane or Joan Queen of Naples dethroned by Charles de Duraz. 404 Her Death ibid. Jane or Joan II. Queen of Naples 431 Jane or Joan the Pucelle Chaces the English from before Orleans 451 Carries the King to Reims to be Crowned 451 Her other Exploits 452 c. She is taken Prisoner of War at the Siege of Compiegne by the English her Death
of France Wife of Lewis XII 554 Takes the Duke of Suffolk for her second Husband 568 Mary Queen Widdow of Hungary Governess of the Low-Countries 601 Mary Princess of Scotland 613 Mary Queen of Scots great Troubles in Scotland for her concern 618 Brought into France 624 Mary Queen of England declares War against France 646 William de la Mark called the Wildboard of Ardenne Beheaded 504 Marseilles Besieged by the Imperialists without Success 577 Martin V. Pope transfers the Council of Siena to Basil 448 Prince Maurice 631 Maximilian Emperour Besieges Terouene 502 Maximilian is Elected and Crowned King of the Romans 510 His Death 563 Maximilian King of Bohemia in contest with Charles V. his Uncle 638 Meaux Besieged and taken by the English 440 Medicis Peter chaced and banished from Florence 520 Medicis Laurence invested in the Dutchy of Vrbin 561 The Medicis restablished in Florence 591 Laurence de Medicis Assassinates and kills the Duke of Florence his unhappy end 606 Cosmo de Medicis Duke of Florence ib. Declares himself against the French and against Siena 640 Melfe the Prince of Melfe or Malsy 616 Mercier Sieur de Novain Favorite of King Charles VI. 411 Milan conquer'd by King Lewis XII and by the Venetians 534 The investiture granted to Lewis XII by the Emperour 542 Abandoned by the French 550 c. Regained by the French and as soon lost for them 552 Falls under the Dominion of the Emperour 578 Mines the way to fill them with Powder to blow up a Wall 539 Pic Mirandulus his Death 520 Moncado Vice-roy of Sicilia slain in Fight 589 Moncins Governor of Guyenne Massacred by the Bourdelois 627 John de Montaigu Favorite of Charles VI. 411 Montargis surprized by the English 453 Montecuculi drawn by four Horses for Poisoning the Daufin 603 John de Montfort remains sole Duke of Bretagne by the death of Charles de Blois 385 Defeats in Battle Charles de Blois abandons Bretagne and retires to England 367 Returns into Bretagne 393 Montmorency a Town not inconsiderable burnt 379 Montpelliers Mutinies of the People because of the Imposts 397 John de Montaigue Surintendant punished with Death 425 Montpensier the Duke made a Prisoner of War 647 Moscovy 502 Muley-Assan King of Tunis dispoiled of his Kingdom by his Son who puts out his Eyes 456 Mutinies and Popular Commotions because of the Imposts and excessive Subsidies 402 403 c. N NAples Kingdom conquer'd by the French and soon after retaken from them 521 Strange Revolution against the French who are driven out of that Kingdom 538 C. of Nassau Prisoner of War 512 The C. of Nassau Ambassador in France 557 Enters into Champagne and Besieges Mouson 567 Makes an irruption upon Picardy Louis of Navarre 603 Navarre Usurped by Ferdinand of Arragon 551 Reconquer'd by the French but soon lost again 565 The D. of Nemours General of the Army for the King in the Kingdom of Naples 537 Slain in the Battle of Cerignoles 538 I. Earl of Nevers goes to the Assistance of the King of Hungary against the Turks 417 Nice Besieged in vain by Barbarossa 615 Nicholas I. Antipope 359 Nicholas the Pope is owned in France 461 The Duke of Normandy Commands a very Potent Army with small Success 365 Normandy over-run and ravaged by the English 374 United inseparably to the Crown 381 Falls under the Power of the English 437 Is wholly regained from the English 463 Is put under the Power of a new Duke 487 Brought to the Obedience of the King 488 O OBservance strickt of the Order of Saint Francis 443 Officers maintain'd in their Offices 489 The mutation of Officers a Cause of great trouble ib. Oliver de Blois attempts upon the Person of the Duke of Bretagne 436 He and his Brothers Condemned to Death 437 Oliver Francis Chancellour of France 623 Orange Prince 510 Orange Prince Prisoner of War 513 Is made Lieutenant for the King in Bretagne ib. General of an Army without Power 586 Order of the Star Instituted or rather renewed abandoned to the Chevalier du Guet 372 Order of the Garter Instituted 371 Order of the Collar its Institution 408 Order of Saint Maurice Instituted 526 Orleans Besieged by the English succour'd and deliver'd by the Pucelle Joane 450 Orleans Charles Duke set at Liberty 458 Orleans John Bastard Earl of Dunois and great Chamberlain his Death 492 Orleans Charles Duke his death 483 Orleans Louis Duke Espouses the Princess Jane of France 503 Orleans Louis Duke Chief of the Council 508 Makes a League and a new Party against the State with the Duke of Bourbon and others 510 Absents far from Court retires into Bretagne forms a new Party against the Government and raises Forces ib. Is made Prisoner of War 513 Commands the French Ships in Italy 519 c. Duke of Orleans second Son of France Commands an Army in Luxemburg his Exploits 612 c. His Death 619 Regal Ornaments 441 Ottranto taken by Assault by the Turks 503 Retaken by the Christians ib. P PAlavicini Manf. 569 De la Palisse Mareschal of France 567 His Death 579 Ambrose Paré Chyrurgeon 619 Paris enlarged and fortified 375 Is oppressed and suffers strangely during the Contest and War between the Houses of Orleans and of Burgundy 426 c. Reduced to obedience of King Charles VII 464 Blocked up by the Princes 486 In great Astonishment 604 Parisians Enterprize upon the City of Meaux to their Confusion 378 Stick to the King of Navarre ib. Divided into Factions Insolence insupportable 377 c. Mutiny because of Imposts take up Arms Arm themselves with Iron Mallets for that reason named Mallotins 403. c. Chastized severely 406 Arm and range themselves under Colonels and Captains 488 Parliaments of Bourdeaux and Burgundy their Institution 506 Parliament of Paris made Semestre 640 Parliament of Bretagne Established ib. Parma Subject of a War between the Pope and the King of France 629 630 c. Pavia Besieged by the King of France 577 c. Taken by Assault and Sacked by the French 585 Paul III. Pope 597 Mediator of a Peace between the Emperour and the King and confers with them 607 608 His Death 628 Paul IV. Pope 642 Makes a League offensive and defensive with the King against the Spaniard 644 Strips the Caraffes his Nephews of all their Offices and chaces them out of Rome 653 Paulin a brave Captain 618 Pembrook E. Lands in Bretagne over-runs Anjou and Poitou 388 Vanquish'd in a Naval Fight by the Spaniards and taken Prisoner 391 The C. de Perigord Archambauld Talegrand Condemned to Death 418 Perpignan surprized by the Spaniard or King of Arragon Philip de Valois King of France 357 Sends to the Navarrins their lawful King and Queen 358 The English declare War against him 361 His advantage over his Enemy 362 Makes a Truce with Edward ib. Becomes hated of the Nobility 365 Is Defeated 366 His Death 370 Philip King of Navarre his Death 365 Philip of Navarre calls the
their Progress in Europe 412 Make a great Progress 562 Ravage the Island of Corfu Raise the Siege of Belgrade 606 Turelupines Heretiques 445 V VAlentinois and Diois United to Daufiné 460 Valentine of Milan Marries the Duke of Orleans 412 Vaudemont Commands the Naval Force for the King at Naples 585 His Death 590 Vaudois in the Alps exterminated Venceslaus Emperour King of Bohemia comes into France 417 Is degraded of the Empire 418 Venetians jealous of the glorious Success of the French in Italy make a League against them 521 Conquer a part of the Dutchy of Milan 536 Their irregular Ambition draws the French Arms upon them as also the Emperour and the Pope and are roughly handled 545 Their Affairs re-settled 546 Shut up the Passage into Italy against the Emperour Maximilian 544 c. Agree with France 552 John de Vienne Admiral of France Lands in Scotland against the English 408 Goes into Hungary against the Turks 417 La Vigne Ambassador of France at Constantinople 644 Villeroy Secretary of State 623 De Villers-Adam Burgundian is by Night introduced into Paris and makes himself Master of it 435 436 P. de Villers L'Isle-Adam Great-Maistre of the Knights of Rhodes 573 University of Paris and its Priviledges 413 Endeavour to determine the Schisme that was in the Church 414 A mark of their Power 420 Their continual pursuits for the re-union of the Church 422 Hinder the Abolition of the Pragmatique 482 Its Reformation 506 Vrban V. Pope ransomed by the Forces that were going into Spain 389 His Death 391 Vrban VI. Pope 396 Baseness and meanness 402 To revenge himself of Jane Queen of Naples he causes Charles de Duras to go thither and take Possession of that Kingdom 404 Sounds a War on all hands against the Clementines 407 His Death 414 Francis Maria Duke of Vrbin 570 The D. of Vrbin General of the Venetian Army 584 Commands the Confederate Army in Italy 591 D'Vrfé Grand Escuyer 508 The Earl of Warwick chaces Edward of York King of England 492 His Death 493 Dukes of Wirtemberg restored to their Countrey 597 Wirtemberg Duke General of an Army 605 Wickliffe X JOhn Xancoins Receiver General convicted of Misdemeanour 466 Y The D. of York Slain in Battle 467 Z John de ZApols pretended King of Hungary calls in the Turks to his Assistance 562 Zizim Son of Mahomet Prisoner to the Knights of Rhodes 503 Is put into the hands of Pope Innocent VIII 515 Zuinglius begins to Vend his Opinions Doctrines and Errors 563 A TABLE OF THE KINGS OF FRANCE Contained in this THIRD PART FRANCIS II. King LIX Page 657 1559. In July CHARLES IX King LX. 673 1560. In December INTERREGNVM 731 1574. In June HENRY III. King LXI 737 1574. In September HENRY IV. King LXII 797 1589. In August A TABLE Of the Principal Matters contained in this THIRD PART A ABbey of Saint Peter sacked Pag. 817 Abbeville sets up the Ensigns of the League 788 Submits to the King 839 Azores faithful to the Prior of Crato 753 Aiguesmortes surprized by Montbrun 728 Aiguillon taken by the Huguenots 709 Aix for the League 744 John d'Alargon de Merargues his Treachery 920 Alba-Royal taken by the Christians 886 Arch-Duke Albert of Austria 854 Takes Calais 855 And Ardres ib. d'Albret Jane Queen of Navarre Aldobrandius makes a Faction 915 Alfonso II. Duke of Ferrara 861 Alenson Duke courts Queen Elizabeth of England 722 Favours the Hereticks 725 Demands the general Lieutenancy of the Army 's 727 The King refuses him ib. Is the only hopes of the Huguenots ib. Escapes and gets to Dreux 741 Makes his Peace 743 Comes to Court 744 Takes the Title of Duke of Anjou Subject of his Animosity against the Huguenots 744 Besieges and takes la Charité 748 The King not willing he should concern himself in the business of the Low-Countries causes him to be secur'd he escapes 751 Comes to Anger 's and from thence to Mons in Hainault where he takes the Low-Countries into his Protection ib. Takes places for his Security ib. Besieges Bins and beats it so furiously that he takes it ib. Maubeuge opens her Gates to him ib. Quesnoy and Landrecy refuse him entrance ib. Alenson resents not the fury of the Saint Bartholomew Pag. 721 l'Allemand Vouzé Master of Requests discovers the Conspiracy of Amboise 665 Alost surprized by the Duke of Anjou 762 Ambassadour of France goes before him of Spain 685 Ambassadours of Poland their arrival to Congratulate their new King 725 Amnistie general granted to the Huguenots 688 Amnistie granted to the Parisians by Henry IV. 834 Amurath III. Sultan 876 Angoulesme seized by the Huguenots 680 Anjou Duke made General of the Armies 698 Fights the Battle of Jarnac 704 Raises the Siege of Poitiers 712 Fights the Battle of Moncontour 721 Excites his Brother to Massacre the Huguenots 717 Is elected King of Poland 725 Is much beloved there at first but soon after hated 726 Anthony King of Navarre 657 Unworthily used 659 Commands an Army for the King 683 Wounded at the Siege of Rouen his Death ib. Anthony Prior of Crato declares himself King of Portugal Comes into France 753 Antwerp taken and sacked by the Spanish Soldiers 751 Missed by the Duke of Anjou 763 Ardemburgh taken by the Hollanders 913 Arras the place where the Duke of Parma died 827 Arrest or Decree of Parliament in favour of Henry IV. 831 Arrest annulling all the Arrests or Decrees made against Henry IV. 838 Arrest or Sentence against Biron 896 Articles of Pacification granted to Rochel by the Duke of Anjou 725 Articles of the Treaty between Henry IV. and the Duke of Savoy 887 Assemblies Nocturnal and Clandestin of the Religionaries forbidden 661 Assembly of the Grandees of the Kingdom at Fountaâ—nbleau to remedy the troubles caused by the differences in Religion 666 Assembly of the Huguenots at Millaud 732 Assembly of the Notables at Compeigne 726 Assembly of the Clergy of France Church 16 th Age. Ast rendred to the Duke of Savoy 675 Aumale Duke Commands the King's Armies in Normandy 682 Austria Don Juan going to the Low-Countries passes thorow France 744 Is Governor thereof 751 Approves of the Pacification of Ghent ib. Gains the Battle of Gemblours 752 His death ib. Suspected to have been Poisoned by his Brother the King of Spain 752 Auvergne redeems themselves from being Plundred by the Germans 742 Auvergne partly debauched from the Service of the King 791 Count d'Auvergne apprehended 914 His long Imprisonment 915 B BAligny natural Son of the Bishop of Valence disposes the Polanders to elect the Duke of Anjou for their King 724. Balagny advises the War against the Spaniard 842 Loses Cambray 849 Balsac Frances Entragues Married with a Natural Daughter of Charles IX 730 Baronius an ardent defender of his Holiness 926 Bellarmine a defender of his Holiness 926 Serves Henry IV. 849 Barry Georges la Renaudie Deputy for the Huguenots 665 Is made Lieutenant to the Prince of Condé ib.
His indiscretion 666 St. Bartholomew's a fatal Day to the Huguenots 721 Battle of Dreux 686 The two Generals are taken ib. Battle near Paris 697 Battle of Moncontour 711 Battle of Lepanto 714 Battle of Ivry 804 Bathory elected King of Poland 740 Bauais demanded of the Flemings by the Queen of England 751 Bavaria Duke enters into the League made by Hen. IV. 935 Bayeux seized by the Huguenots 681 Bayonne feels not the Sainct Bartholomew's bloody Effects 721 The Bearnois a Name given to Henry IV. 800 Beia Lewis Duke pretends to the Crown of Portugal 752 Belle-Isle erected to a Marquisate 724 Bertrand Peter Son of Blaise de Montluc passes into Affrick his death 701 Berghe rendred to the Spaniards 763 Besancon in a fright 846 Beza at the Colloquy of Poissy 677 Judgment on that famous Man ib. Bigarrats a Name given to the Royalists 808 La Bigny Secretary of the Conspiracy at Amboise 666 Bins Besieged and taken by the Duke of Alenson 751 Birague Chancellour his Speech to the Estates of Blois 745 Birague Keeper of the Seals 717 Birague the Cardinal René his Death 766 His Defects ib. Biron the Mareschal same 699 An ill Catholique 709 His Courage 763 In danger at the Saint Bartholomew's saves himself by his resolution 720 Sent Governor to Rochel 722 Invests that place 723 Pursues the Army of the Dukes of Mayenne and of Parma 822 His death 824 Biron swears Fidelity to Henry IV. 797 Hinders the King from going to Paris 705 Concerns himself in every thing 809 Sent before Rouen 812 The King takes away the Office of Admiral from him first cause of his Discontent 839 Treats with the Spaniards 881 Does well and talks ill 884 His anger proceeds to rage ib. Goes into England 889 Goes into Swisserland 892 Comes to Court 894 His obstinacy 895 896 Condemned to Death 897 Blois regained from the Huguenots 683 Bobigny Meziere kills the Mareschal de Saint André 686 Bodin his Liberty in the Assembly of Estates held at Blois 747 Bois de Vincennes the place where died Charles IX 729 Bonne de Lesdiguieres his Condition and Qualities 740 Receives the one half of a piece of Gold broken from Henry King of Navarre 755 Makes War in Daufiné 771. Quits Savoy to go and succour Aix 841 Is thwarted by the King's Order without diminishing any thing of his Fidelity 852 Resists the Duke of Savoy and carries the War into his own Country 859 Is astonished at the taking of Crequi 864 Takes Barraux and puts a stop to the Duke's Progress ib. Commands an Army in Savoy at the same time with Biron 882 Seizes upon all the Valley of Saint John de Maurienne 883 Bouchard Chancellour to the King of Navarre reveals the Secrets of the Prince of Condé 668 A Butcher Kills a Hundred and fifty Huguenots 719 Burbon the Cardinal persuades his Brothers to come to Court 669 Secur'd in Peronne 769 Seized in Blois 786 Concurrent with Henry 797 Proclaimed King 799 His death 807 Lewis of Bourbon Prince of Condé instructed in Calvinism 665 Declared Head of the Pretended Reformed 665 Is accused of being concerned in the Conspiracy of Amboise 666 Comes not to the Assembly at Melun 669 Comes to Court ib. Is Condemned to Death 670 Is declared Innocent 674 Reconciled to the Duke of Guise 675 Makes a League with the Germans 679 Made Prisoner at the Battle of Dreux 686 Recommences the War 696 Appears in Arms before the King's Army ib. Is almost surprized at Noyers 702 His death 710 Bourbon the young Cardinal makes a Party Du Bourg burnt 662 Bourges Besieged by the King's Army Commanded by the King of Navarre and the Duke of Guise 683 Surrenders to Henry IV. 836 Bragadin defends Famagusta Greatness of his Courage during that Siege and after the taking of the place 714 Is flayed alive ib. John of Braganza restored to his Kingdom and Crown of Portugal 753 Branch of the Valois ends in Henry III. 795 Brandenburgh Marquiss refuses Succour to the Huguenots 697 Breda taken by the Duke of Parma 758 Bretagne feels little of the fury of the Saint Bartholomew 721 Acquired to France by the Conduct of the Valois 795 Vexed by the French and by Strangers 817 Brissac Mareschal of France a great Partisan of the Guises 670 Bruxels invested by the D. of Parma 760 Bruges enters into the Union of the Vnited Provinces 757 Bucentauro a Vessel in which Henry III. was received at Venice 733 Bulls of the Pope without effect 815 Bouillon Duke suspected of Huguenotisme 682 Bouillon declares the Sentiments of Henry IV. to the Duke of Savoy 873 Bussy Favorite of the Duke of Anjou affronts those of Henry III. which causes the detention of his Master 751 Bussy comes to the Duke of Alenson at Dreux 741 Favorite of the Duke of Alenson 751 His Death 754 Bussy le Clerc his Impudence 788 C CAen seized by the Huguenots 681 Caesar Monsieur Natural Son of Henry IV. 865 Is Contracted with the Daughter of the Duke of Mercoeur ib. Calais redemanded by the English 689 Calvin becomes as Powerful as Luther Vide Church of the 16 th Age. Cambray Besieged by the Spaniards 849 La Capelle Besieged by Mansfeild 838 Captains possessing Benefices 16 th Age. Capucins their Founder Ch. 16 th Age. Carcistes Factionaries 754 Cardinals Inquisitors cite the Prelates suspected of Heresie Ch. 16 th Age. Casimir sent by Eliz. Queen of England into the Low-Countries is ill look'd upon by the Prince of Orange 751 Castres retained by the Huguenots 701 Catanea Albert drives the Vaudois out of their Valleys Ch. 16 th Age. The Catelet taken by the Spaniard 855 Rendred to the French 868 Catherine de Medicis her Maxime 667 Is declared Regent 673 She favours the Huguenots 675 Causes Charles IX to visit all the Kingdom 692 Demands the Kingdom of Tunis for the Duke of Alenson 722 Is declared Regent of the Kingdom after the Death of Charles IX 731 Her aim the day of the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew 717 Her Galantery 712 Comforts her Son the King of Poland promising him a quick return 726 Would have her Daughters Children reign in France 767 Her Death 789 Catherine Sister of Henry IV. Married to the Duke of Bar. 868 Is forsaken by her Husband 879 Catholicks persecuted in England under Queen Elizabeth 903 Cavagnes Master of Requests Chancellour of the Cause Condemned Drawn on a Sledge with the Effigies or Fantosme of the Admiral 721 Robert Cecil Enemy of the French 903 Chaalons retaken from the Huguenots 683 Chiverny Chancellour 870 His Death 874 End of that Family ib. Charbonieres taken by the Duke of Savoy 864 Charles IX King 673 Crowned by the Cardinal de Lorrain 674 Is declared Major in the Parliament of Rouen 690 Courts Elizabeth Queen of England 712 The said Queens Excuse ib. Marries Elizabeth the Emperour's Daughter 713 Forms the Design to Massacre the Huguenots 715 Authorizes that Cruelty 717 Makes his Brother depart for Poland 726 Becomes good
His Wives his Mistresses and his Children 943 944 His praise ibid. Henry Duke of Bar Successor of Charles Duke of Lorraine 940 Marries in his Fathers Life-time with Catherine Sister of Henry IV. 868 Henrietta Charlotta Daughter of the Connestable de Montmorency inspires Henry the IV. with the Love of her who marries her to the Prince of Condé and he carries her into Flanders 936 A Design is formed to steal her away and bring her back into France 937 Hercules II. Duke of Ferrara 862 Holland Leagues against Spain 756 Hospital of Saint Lewis to entertain such as are infected with the Plague 911 L' Hoste Nicholas discovers the Secrets of France 908 The Spaniards make him betray his King and his Master de Villeroy whose Servant he was ibid. Drowned in the Marne upon his Flight 909 L'Hostel de Ville or Town-Hall of Paris gives Fifty thousand Crowns to him that should kill the Admiral de Coligny 690 Huguenots Original of that Name 667 General Massacre of them at the Saint Bartholomew's 718 Acknowledg Henry IV. for King and maintain him in his Right 979 Their suspitions of him after his Conversion 855 860 Forsake him at the Siege of Amiens 860 Apprehend a Saint Bartholomews in the Camp ibid. Were formerly called Sacramentaries Church 16 th Age. Paul Huraud de l'Hospital Archbishop of Aix Excommunicates the Councellors of Parliament Church 16 th Age. I. THe Count de Jacob renders the City of Bourg 882 James King of Scotland is proclaimed King of England after the death of Queen Elizabeth 903 Holds his first Parliament at London 911 They conspire against his person and intend to blow up the House of Parliament at Westminster 919 Consequence of that Fougade 920 Jannizaries mutiny against Amurat III. retard his Enterprizes 887 888 Jarnac the place where was fought the Famous Battle of that Name 714 Jane Queen of Navarre is cited by the Pope to appear at Rome if not her Lands and Estates are proscribed Church 16 th Age. Brings her Son Henry of Navarre and Henry Prince of Condé to the Huguenots after the loss of the Battle of Jarnac and re-assures their Spirits by her Exhortations 705 Comes to Court by the perswasions of the Admiral and under the Pretence of the Marriage of her Son to the King's Sister 716 Telligny is sent to her for that purpose 715 Dies by over-heating her self or rather of poyson 716 Jesuites turned out of France with Infamy 843 Are restored maugre the oppositions of the Parliament and their Remonstrances by the first President 907 Are accused of the Conspiracy of the Powder-Plott against James King of England 920 Purge themselves of it ibid. Impost that hath ever increased since its first beginning 676 Impost upon Wines compared to the Crocodile for its growth ibid. Joyeuse loses the Battle of Coutras with his Life 778 Joyeuse Cardinal sent to Rome by the Duke of Mayenne to Treat concerning the Conversion of King Henry IV. 833 Serves the Republique of Venice most Wonderfully in their accommodation with the Pope Isabella of France marries the King of Spain 659 Isabella de la Paix espouses Philip II. King of Spain 692 Enterview between Catherine de Medicis her Mother and the said Princess 693 Is poysoned by her Husband though great with Child 700 Isabella Infanta of Spain marries the Arch-Duke Albertus her Father gives her the Low-Countries in favour of this Marriage 869 Conditions of the said Donation ib. Issoire given to the Huguenots for a place of Security 743 Judges ordained to inform about the Assassinate committed on the person of the Admiral de Coligny 718 K. JOhn Kepler a Learned Mathematician 911. Kermartin kills the Marquiss de Belle-Isle 852 The Widdow attempts upon his Life 870 Kervan-Saray Turkish Hospitals Koburg a Family issued of John Frederic Duke of Saxony 938 Korneburgh a Gate of Antwerp seized by the Duke of Anjou's Men. 762 L. LAffin Favorite of the Duke of Anjou 744 Debauches the Mareschal de Biron 878 Betrayes Biron 894 Reveals all to the King ibid. Landriane sent into France to support the League 845 His ill conduct ibid. Lansac Ambassadour of France at the Council of Trent yields somewhat to the Spaniard upon the Sollicitation of the Cardinal de Lorraine 685 Lerma Duke Minister of Spain hinders the War between France and Spain 889 Lieutenant General of the Kingdom a Title given by Francis II. to the Duke of Guise 665 The Parisians give it to the Duke of Mayenne under Henry III. 790 Is granted by Catherine de Medicis to the King of Navarre 671 Limoges holds their Obedience to Henry III. 791 Livron besieged 738 Defends it self bravely 739 Loire a design to joyn the River of Loire to the Saone 911 Longueville Duke undertakes to go and beseech Henry IV. to make himself Christian and then desists 798 His Death 845 Cardinal Lorraine Crowns Charles IX 674 Goes to Rome after the death of Pius V. 716 Is called the Pope on the other side the Alpes 684 His death 739 Louchali retires from the Battle of Lepanto with Two and thirty Galleys 714 Louis King of Sicilia first Founder of the Order of the Holy Ghost 753 Louis XI Institutor of the Order of Saint Michael 754 Louis XIV obliges Philip IV. to renounce the precedency under his hand-writing 685 Louis XII causes the Council of Pisa to assemble Church 16 th Age. Louisa Daughter of Nicholas de Vaudemont marries Henry III. 739 Louviers taken at Noon-day by Biron 815 Ludovic of Nassaw sent to the King by the Admiral 715 They render him the Castle of Orange ibid. Enters the Low-Countries and surprizes Mons. 716 Lusignan Castle reputed impregnable and famous by the Fables of Melusine taken by Teligny 706 Luther Martin an Augustine Monk Church 16th Age. His defects ibid. Casts away his Frock and marries ib. Dies at Islebe ibid. Luxemburgh Sebastian defends the Port of Leith against the English 662 Lyons taken by the Huguenots 680 Deliver'd from Eminent dangers of Ice are ungrateful 930 M. JOhn Mason first Huguenot Minister at Paris Church 16th Age. Maderes taken by the French 701 Maestricht taken by the Duke of Parma Mailly Brezé Philip Captain of the Guard du Corps Seizes the Prince of Condé at the Estates of Orleans 670 Malta besieged by the Turks 693 Mancicidor Secretary of King Philip for the affairs of War deputed for to make the Peace with the United Provinces 931 Margaret of Lorraine Mother of Mary Stuart Governeth Scotland 662 Margaret Dutchess of Savoy her Councels to Henry III. whose Aunt she was 733 Margaret Dutchess of Parma Governess of the Low-Countries her conduct 695 Margaret Daughter of France assists at the Assembly of Saint Germains under Charles IX 676 They propound to marry her to the King of Navarre 712 Her Marriage dissolved 876 Permitted to come to Paris an Accident that hapned to her at the Hostel de Sens her life 915 Margaret Queen of Navarre adheres to Calvinisme Church 16th Age.
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
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
Trenches to which we may add that the Inhabitants of the Islands offer'd to defend them in case of necessity He had hopes the Vicount de Turenne would in a few days bring four or five thousand Men more out of Limosin and that he would undertake the management of the said Siege in his absence Now being eleven days in giving his Orders and above fifteen in his march he found the Castle of Anger 's wherein there was but sixteen Men had capitulated two days before his arrival His want of diligence which made him lose so fair an opportunity had almost utterly ruined him too For having amused himself two days in attempting the Suburbs of Anger 's and two more in composing some quarrels between certain Gentlemen he found when he thought to repass the Loire six great Boats filled with Soldiers upon the River and five hundred Horse on the other shoar who were disposed to cut off his Men as fast as they should venture to get over He knew likewise that Brissac coasted him and that Joyeuse was at his Heels in so much that being beset on all sides he was forced to divide his Army into small Parties and let them get off as well as they could Most of them shifted away securely enough but all the Carriages and his Bagage was left in the Highways or in Woods and Hedges the Chiefs with very few in their company slipt happily by the Enemy some one way some another without the loss of so much as one As for the Prince going down by the Country of Mayne into the Lower-Normandy he took shipping between Auranches and St. Malo's passed over to Jersey Island and from thence into England The unfortunate event of this Enterprize made the Forces that were before Brouage disperse as soon as the Mareschal de Matignon approached and likewise those under the Vicount de Turenne who disbanded them for fear of being embarrass'd between the Duke of Mayenne's Army which entred Poitou and that of Matignon So that in those parts the Huguenots had no more left but two thousand Men commanded by Laval one of the Sons of Dandelot together with la Boulaye who after they saw the miscarriage of the design upon Anger 's were got over the Loire in Year of our Lord 1585 good time month October and November The Kings Edicts which seized the Goods and which gave Order to lay hold of the Bodies of all those that had taken up Arms for the service of the Prince of Conde and commanded them to leave the Kingdom did yet more increase their consternation There were many abjured according to a form prescribed and drawn up by the Bishops and many who repaired to the King of Navarre This Prince finding that all was like to fall upon his Shoulders laid aside all former jealousie against the Prince of Conde which some Flatterers had possess'd him withall and joyned more strictly to him then ever Some Months before a Thunderblot from the Coast of Rome was level'd at the Heads of both those Princes Sixtus V. succeeded Gregory XIII who died in the Month of April He was of a haughty Spirit and one that delighted to attaque those that were highest thereby to exalt his own name and power so that consenting to the Requests and instant desires of the League which his Predecessor had constantly month May. refused he sent forth a roaring Bull against the Princes in a stile conformable to his Humour and to the grandeur of the Subject He declared Henry heretosore King of Navarre and Henry Prince of Conde whom he stiled the Bastard and detestable Generation of the illustrious House of Bourbon Hereticks Relaps'd Heads Abettors and Protectors of Heresie and as such fell under the Censnres and Peins contained in the Holy Canons and therefore deprived of all Seigneuries Lands and Dignities and uncapable of succeeding to any Principality namely to the Crown of France disengaged their Subjects from their Oaths of Fidelity and Allegiance and forbid them to pay any Obedience upon pain of being involved in the same Excommunication This Thunder-clap which one would guess should have been fatal proved less hurtful to them then to the Holy See For it excited not only the Huguenots but even Catholicks zealous for the ancient Truths and Liberties of France to search to the very bottom what Authority this was that Popes had over Soveraigns who sound month July and Aug. it was not such in the Councils and in the Canons as Rome imagined and pretended Besides it gave the Excommunicated Princes an occasion to shew the bravery of their courage for they sound means to post up a Paper in the very Streets and Carefours Year of our Lord 1585 of Rome containing their oppositions and appeal from that Sentence viz. for the Temporal Concern to the Pairs of France and for the Crime of Heresie to the future Council Before whom they cited the Pope and declared him Anti-Christ if he did not appear This Bull did likewise awaken the King with some apprehension lest it should be an attempt to dethrone him he put a stop to it and would not suffer it to be published in the Kingdom It were to be wished he had so order'd things as to have obliged the Pope to revoke it absolutely as the Council of King Charles IX did oblige Pius IV. to revoke one he had sent out in the year 1563. against Queen Jane d'Abret month November and December The League had compell'd the King to let them have two Armies to fall upon the Princes The Duke of Guise commanded one towards the Frontiers of Champagne to prevent the coming in of any succours from the Protestants of Germany with the other the Duke of Mayenne entred Saintonge Matignon joyned him with those he had raised in Bourdelois but instead of strengthning him he clogged and thwarted him continually not only because he he had private instructions from the Court to do so but for spite another should have command in his Government All the places of Poitou and Saintonge were greatly dismayed at the Princes absence and the King of Navarre on his part extreamly perplexed for that his own Wife had revolted against him However she not acting in consort with the Court it was not difficult for him to drive her quickly away She retired into Auvergne with some Gentlemen There she ran divers Adventures and remained in that Country till her Husband recalled her to make her consent to the dissolving of their Marriage As to the Duke of Mayenne Matignon was so stiff in his opinion they ought not to undertake any thing during the Winter that they separated their Forces as soon almost as they were joyned The Duke went with his into Perigord to clear it of some paltry Retreats which sheltred a company of Robbers and the Mareschal led his own back again to Bourdeaux to defend that Town from any attempts of the King of Navarre or rather the Dukes Year of our Lord 1586. February and
March The following Month of February Matignon besieged the Castle de Castels upon the Garonne at the request of the Parliament of Bourdeaux and sent word to the Duke of Mayenne it was high time to advance towards those parts The Duke after he had taken some small Castles which are not so much as mentioned in the Maps passed the Dordogne at Souillac with a design of besieging Montauban but when he understood it was too well sortified he fell upon certain pitiful beggerly places without name and without defence In the mean while the King of Navarre made them raise the Siege of Castels and the Prince being return'd from England with ten good Ships and fifty thousand Crowns lent him by Queen Elizabeth disengaged Rochel which was in a manner block'd up and surprised Royan which yielded him two hundred thousand Crowns contribution yearly Year of our Lord 1586. March The Sixth of March though amidst the greatest hurry of his Affairs he Married Charlota Daughter of Lewis de la Trimouille and by that means brought into his Party the Duke Claude his Wives Brother and all the Friends of that potent House The Duke of Mayenne lost near two Months time in waiting to surprise the King of Navarre when he should come on this side the Garonne or go to visit the Contess of Guiche with whom he was desperatly in Love and to that purpose had distributed his Horse in several Posts all along his way During this the Prince undertook to ruine the Harbour of Brouage and in effect he sunk so many Hulls of old Ships that he choak'd it and made it as it is yet to this day very difficult and dangerous to enter Matignon does a second time lay Siege before Castels When he was just upon the point of taking it the Duke of Mayenne runs thither to rob him of that honour which increased their enmity and feud The Mareschal pretended Sickness that he might not see the Duke who in the mean time making his approaches to Montsegur which hindred all commerce and passage into Limosin Perigord and Quercy fell realy sick and was carried to Bourdeaux leaving to him the command of his Army During his absence Montsegur surrendred the Fifteenth of May upon composition which was month May. but ill observed month June All along the Month of June the Army lay idle because Matignon jealous the Duke should be in Bourdeaux returned immediately and dismissed the Companies d'Ordonnance When the Duke was well again they joyntly besieged Castillon the Siege was long toilsom and difficult the Soldiers being dissatisfied abandonned the Trenches the Generals were fain to lie themselves there twenty days successively In the end the place was taken they made good their capitulation with the Soldiery but a certain number of the Inhabitants were sent away to the Parliament of Bourdeaux who condemned them to the Gallows The same year the Vicount de Turenne regained it one fair night forcing his way with a Petard which gave the Huguenots occasion to brag that they with two pounds of Powder and in one quarter of an hour did what the League could not but in two Months time and with twenty pieces of Cannon This was all the greatest Captain of the League could perform in nine Months Perhaps it was no fault of his He had no Money for the Clergy within three Months time were grown quite weary of furnishing them and the Pope contributed nothing but his Benedictions He wanted Equipage Artillery and Provisions Ammunition Year of our Lord 1586 and had against him all things that usually ruine the great designs and reputation of Princes for his Troops did often mutiny his Captains quarrel'd with each other his Colleague was jealous and suspicious and the secret or Cabinet Council from whence if we may so speak all those Animal Spirits ought to slow which keep life in an Army mortally envenomed against him He knew this but too well and therefore even trembling with rage he demanded to be dismiss'd and press'd it so home that he obtain'd it The Duke of Guise did in vain urge him by all imaginable Arguments to prevent it he could have wished he would have remained in those Countries either for the reputation of his Party or for fear he should gain the affections of the People of Paris and deprive him of the voluntary Empire he had acquired over that spacious City Whilst he was in Guyenne the Duke of Guise made use of the Army he had on the Frontiers of Champagne to seize the Cities of Raucour and Douzy upon the Duke of Bouillon On the other side the Duke d'Aumale having armed the Picards passionate Leaguers seized on the City of Dourlens and of Pontdormy which is a passage upon the Soan below Pequigny The Favourites jealous to see the whole power of the Sword in the hands of the Guises their Enemies desired the King he would likewise give them such Command which he granted the more willingly as intending to raise them and turn the affections of the Soldiery that way who do more chearfully follow plentiful Tables and favour ☞ the Mother of Rewards then the bravest Captains He had raised an Army that was to purge Auvergne Vezelay Givaudan and from these Countries pass into Daufine this Employment was designed for the Mareschal d'Aumont Joyeuse courted it so eagerly that the King could not deny it him month June He must also give the like to the Duke d'Espernon and withall a Government as well as to Joyeuse who had already that of Normandy The Government of Provence becoming vacant by the death of the Grand Prior he instantly provided him with it This Grand Prior had harbour'd a mortal resentment against a Gentleman named Altovity One day spying him at a Window of an Inn it was at Aix he goes directly up into his Chamber and runs his Sword quite thorough his Body Altovity feeling himself mortally wounded lost all Respect with his Life and plunged his Sword into the Priors Belly Year of our Lord 1586 So many Forces could not be maintained without a prodigious Expence there was Money enough raised to defray it but the Kings luxury and the greediness of the Favourites were such gulfs as swallowed up all Paris had furnished two hundred thousand Crowns for this War this lasted but eight days the alienation of fifty thousand Crowns Revenue belonging to the Clergy very little longer no more then forty thousand Crowns Rent of the Demeasn They would have raised more upon a creation of new Offices and they sent twenty seven Edicts at once to the Parliament which were the Lees and Refuse of such as had been invented by the Italian Brokers for twenty years past But these were all rejected and this attempt served only to discover the weakness and the injustice of the Government The Swiss and the King of Denmark in the first place then the other Protestant Princes of Germany sent to the King a solemn Embassy to desire him to grant